The Cult Leader in the Clergy Academy

Chapter 247

"A-are you okay?!"

The exam supervisor rushed towards In-Ah. The students taking the exam looked at her in surprise. The supervisor shook In-Ah's body. She didn't respond for a while. Then she suddenly opened her eyes and jolted up from her seat.

She looked around and hastily sat back down upon realizing that she was still in the middle of an exam. She stared intently at the watch on her wrist.

"Are you okay? Um, let's go to the nurse's office—"

In-Ah cut the supervisor’s words short. "Please change my answer sheet."

She handed the blood-stained answer sheet to the director. "Please change my answer sheet. Quickly. It's stained with blood."

The supervisor stared at In-Ah with a dazed expression. Judging by the look in her eyes, In-Ah didn’t seem fully present, and blood was still flowing from her nose. She was not in a good condition to take the exam.

However, they couldn't just forcibly stop her from taking the exam. The supervisor brought a new answer sheet and tissue and gave them to In-Ah.

"If it's too difficult for you, let me—"

"I’m fine." In-Ah accepted the answer sheet.

"Really, I'm okay," she continued.

She placed the answer sheet on the desk and looked at the watch. There were four minutes left. She would be cutting it close, but it wasn't impossible.

In-Ah held her pen and alternated between looking at the test paper and the answer sheet to write down the answers. She felt dizzy and nauseous every time she turned her head. The letters danced around, making it hard to see the answers she had written on the test paper.

Every time that happened, In-Ah shook her head to try to force herself to focus and tried to read the letters calmly. However, the letters kept dancing. Sometimes, she couldn’t make out what the answers were due to the blood she had spilled on the test paper. In those cases, In-Ah either re-solved the problems on the spot or tried to recall how she had solved them to deduce the answers.

Right when she was writing down the answer to the last question—

"Time’s up. Please put your hands down under the desk."

That marked the end of the exams. Some students cheered as soon as the exam was over. Others were already planning where to go on vacation. Some students were still in shock at the horrendous difficulty of the exam, and some students stared blankly at the test paper as if they had lost their minds.

In-Ah was still staring at the spinning letters. The letters were not just dancing on the paper. Sometimes they crawled out of the paper and flapped around, even dancing in her vision when she closed her eyes. In-Ah blinked, as the letters made it hard for her to see. But every time she blinked, the number of letters increased.

"Ah."

Thud.

In-Ah's body leaned to the side. Her chair fell over, along with her body, and she slumped to the floor. She wanted to get up, but she was so exhausted that she couldn't move a single finger. Her skin tingled and itched. The letters that came out of the paper seemed to be dancing on her body.

"Are you okay?! Hey, stay with—!"

"Should we call an ambulance? No, for now..."

The overlapping letters blocked her view, and she couldn't see anything. Instead, she heard the voices of the proctor and some students. She wanted to say something in response. She wanted to say she was fine, that she was truly fine, and that there was no need to worry. Then she would casually get up and run home as if nothing had happened.

But she couldn't even say she was okay. She didn't even have the strength to raise her voice. Then, suddenly, her body felt lighter. In-Ah forced her eyes open.

"What is this?"

In that split second when she opened her eyes, In-Ah saw the face of the person who was holding her. It was a face that was so familiar and friendly, yet also a face she detested.

However, he had a strange expression that she had never seen before, making his face seem unfamiliar. In-Ah closed her eyes. In the darkness, she could barely hear the sound of his heart beating.

***

"Woah!" In-Ah exclaimed as soon as she opened her eyes and sprang up from her seat.

She had to lay back down soon after, as the dizziness from getting up so fast rushed over her.

In-Ah furrowed her brow and pressed her temples firmly to try and push away the headache. She took a deep breath and exhaled. The distinct smell of disinfectant in the nurse's office filled her nose.

Her pitch-black vision gradually brightened, and she began to see in front of her. The wind seeped in through the open window, causing the curtains to flutter. The curtains were tinged with an orange hue from the sunset. Even after rubbing her eyes and looking again, the sun was still setting in the distance.

In-Ah tried to gauge the time. Since she took the exam around ten o'clock... She had been unconscious for almost eight hours.

"You're awake."

"Oh, yes... Huh? Huh?" In-Ah initially responded politely, thinking it was the school nurse, but then realized who it was and made a strange noise.

Sun-Woo was sitting on the bed, looking at the surprised In-Ah. She tried to get up from the bed, but Sun-Woo stopped her.

"Just stay lying down."

"..."

She didn't have the strength to get up, and lying down was more comfortable, so she decided to listen to Sun-Woo. In-Ah weakly returned to lying in bed.

Sun-Woo silently watched her. A brief silence hung in the air. In-Ah wanted to say something and looked at Sun-Woo, but she avoided his eyes out of embarrassment once they made eye contact.

"W-why are you staring at me?"

"I was worried."

"As if."

"I'm the one who carried you here."

"I know," In-Ah replied curtly.

She had nothing else to say. She had been in Sun-Woo’s arms when she briefly opened her eyes before losing consciousness. At that moment, Sun-Woo looked very anxious, and a worried expression had decorated his face. It was a face that In-Ah had never seen before.

But perhaps she thought she had seen him worried because that was what she had wanted to see. Sun-Woo was always calm and composed. ‘He wouldn't make such a face just because I collapsed,’ she thought.

Yet, on the other hand, she hoped it hadn’t been a misunderstanding. She wished that Sun-Woo had been genuinely worried about her.

"Wow, I didn't even know you came to school. You haven’t talked to me at all." In-Ah tried to change the subject.

Sun-Woo looked at In-Ah in silence before speaking. "We were in the same exam room. Throughout the exam."

"Oh, then you should have said hello!" In-Ah exclaimed unnecessarily loudly.

She didn't know that she had taken the exam in the same room as Sun-Woo. She had been studying nonstop, paying no attention to anything other than the exam. She didn’t have the piece of mind to focus on anything else.

Sun-Woo just smiled and looked at In-Ah.

"Stop looking at me. I look ugly lying down." In-Ah joked.

Sun-Woo let out a laugh. "I don’t think you look that different when you’re standing up."

"You, I would have hit you just now if I was fine. I would have hit you really hard."

"Is that so?" Sun-Woo asked, staring at In-Ah. "Well then, you better recover quickly if you want to hit me."

"Ha, alright. Just you wait." In-Ah replied with a smirk.

But her smile quickly disappeared as a deep shadow fell over her face upon remembering the exam. She had collapsed, then regained her composure, hastily replaced the answer sheet, and filled in the answers. She wasn't sure if she had filled in the answers correctly. She might have gotten a question wrong, which she should have gotten right, or in the worst case, she might have written down the answers in the wrong order.

Time had been running out, and she had been so flustered that she hadn’t been able to review the answer sheet. She was anxious. One mistake could bring her from a single-digit to a double-digit ranking, and she couldn't even gauge how many mistakes she had made.

There was a possibility that she might not even make it into the top ten to receive a scholarship, let alone first place.

"Did you do well on the exam?" In-Ah asked, trying to hide her anxiousness with a forced smile.

Sun-Woo neither smiled nor hardened his expression. He just nodded his head. "Yeah, something like that."

"How am I supposed to know how well you did with just the word fine?"

"The results aren't out yet..." Sun-Woo trailed off in his response.

In-Ah decided not to ask further. Sun-Woo had not been coming to school for a few weeks due to personal reasons, and even on the days he did come to school, he hadn’t studied. If anything, he probably did worse on this round of exams than his last one. Prying would only make him more uncomfortable.

"Well, if you did well, that's great! And if not, so what? You're the gangster of practicals anyway, right?"

"What's the use of that? There were no practicals this midterm."

"If there's none during this midterm, you just need to do well on the practicals during the finals!" In-Ah said with a grin.

She didn't say those words just to comfort Sun-Woo. In reality, Sun-Woo had earned the nickname ‘gangster of practicals’ after his overwhelming performance on the practical exams rather than written exams.

On the other hand, In-Ah had earned the nickname ‘gangster of the written exam.’ People might have called Yu-Hyun a gangster, but he hadn’t been given the title of ‘gangster of the written exam’ due to his poor behavior.

In-Ah secretly liked that childish nickname. It was nice that both of them had secured top positions on the written and practical tests. Although she outwardly showed dislike for the nickname being too childish, she secretly felt equal to Sun-Woo.

"Come to think of it, they said you had a fight with Yu-Hyun," In-Ah said, suddenly remembering Yu-Hyun while thinking about the nickname.

Sun-Woo chuckled bitterly. "Fight? What fight? I just got beaten up."

"Why did you just stand there? You aren’t the type to get beaten up, right?"

"Sometimes it's advantageous to get beaten up."

"Still, don't just stand there. I’m the only one who can hit you."

Sun-Woo nodded and chuckled. "Sure, whatever."

In-Ah smiled awkwardly. Although she wanted to ask about the rumor that Yu-Hyun had hit Sun-Woo because of Jin-Seo, she kept it to herself. Asking unnecessary questions could lead to misunderstandings or awkwardness between them.

It was better to leave it as it was for now. Comfortably talking and exchanging jokes occasionally was enough for her. She was afraid that trying to get closer might push them further apart.

***

The classroom was bustling in the morning. Today was the day that grades would be announced.

A friend who had recently started talking to In-Ah more often approached her as usual. "Hey, In-Ah! Did you hear the news?"

In-Ah had not slept well the night before, and she raised her head to look at her friend. "What news? What is it?"

"Yu-Hyun! Apparently, he left in the middle of solving Romanican Sacred Science without submitting the answer sheet."

"So?" Still half-asleep, In-Ah failed to grasp the essence of what her friend was saying.

Her friend seemed very pleased and had a bright smile on her face. "What do you mean, what? If Yu-Hyun is out, then of course you would be in first place, right?"

"Oh." In-Ah let out a gasp.

If Yu-Hyun had completely given up on the Romanican Sacred Science exam, there was no way he could have secured first place. Therefore, in this exam, the possibility of In-Ah placing first was very high. No one else would come close to her other than Yu-Hyun.

However, she couldn't become too happy prematurely. In-Ah herself couldn't guarantee her score in sacred material science. She lowered her head with a slightly bitter expression on her face.

"What? First place? No. The results haven't even come out yet..."

"Do you need to see the results? Without Yu-Hyun, you're first."

"I hope so too." In-Ah smiled with a hint of resignation.

Soon, Jung-Hak entered the classroom. He had become the temporary homeroom teacher of the Class of Charity after Ye-Jin declared her resignation. He casually placed a stack of report cards on the teacher's desk.

"Come up in order of your student number. Any objections must be submitted by this Thursday. That's all," Jung-Hak said, then simply left.

Nevertheless, the students went out in order of their student numbers to receive their report cards. Sun-Woo received his report card and casually placed it on the desk without looking at it properly. His expression seemed neither pleased nor disappointed. When it was In-Ah's turn, she went forward to receive her report card. She immediately checked her rank.

"..."

She was in second place.

Again.

She thought she would naturally be in the first place because Yu-Hyun had given up on one subject, but she wasn’t. At first, she was disappointed. However, later on, she felt better. She got second place because she had made a mistake after collapsing during the sacred material science exam. She could have fallen below tenth place, but being in second place was a satisfactory achievement.

"Sun-Woo! Did you do well? Well, you probably didn't do better than me─" In-Ah was about to ask Sun-Woo about his grades, but she closed her mouth when she saw the report card on his desk. "Oh, first place..."

‘First place’ was written boldly on Sun-Woo's report card. Even after rubbing her eyes and looking again, the writing remained unchanged.

However, Sun-Woo didn't seem happy at all. Sun-Woo had taken the title of 'top student' that In-Ah wanted so desperately with ease as if it were nothing.

"Wow, you've improved a lot since last time! First place, wow."

Sun-Woo didn't respond. He just looked at her face silently.

In-Ah, feeling uneasy, started to ramble on.

"I thought you didn't study at all. Did you work hard in secret? Impressive,” she said, trying to justify herself. "I thought you looked upset, so I thought you didn't do well, but you were deceiving me. I was worried for nothing. Anyway, I'm relieved. I’m glad it turned out well..."

"Why are you crying?"

Drip, drip.

Tears dropped down In-Ah’s face.

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