6
752 Words
Chapter Six
Dayo POV
The screen outside was already surrounded before anything even appeared.
People acted like they could will the rankings into changing just by staring hard enough. Phones were up, voices layered over each other,I stayed back.
Seo-yun stood beside me like she didn’t need the screen at all. Hands relaxed, expression unreadable, Then the board refreshed.
The reaction came instantly.
“She’s still Rank 1.”
“Obviously.”
“No one’s touching that.”
I looked up.
Kang Seo-yun — Rank 1.
Like it had never been in question Just the same result everyone seemed to accept without thinking twice.
My eyes moved down after that.
Rank 2.
Park Min-ji.
Still there.
He wasn’t celebrating, even though people around him were. He just stood there watching the screen like he was checking something he already knew.
Then I saw it.
Dayo Adeyemi — Rank 87.
I just stared at my name like it didn’t belong there.
Like if I looked away, it might disappear and make more sense.
A few voices picked it up almost immediately.
“That’s the scholarship guy.”
“He’s on the board already?”
“On day one?”
Seo-yun spoke without looking at me.
“You’re acting like it’s strange.”
I exhaled slowly. “It is strange.”
She finally glanced at me then.
“Not here.” That was it.
Just a line that sounded like it had already been true long before I arrived.
And somehow, that bothered me more than the ranking itself.
The noise didn’t settle after that.
I could still feel my name sitting on that board in my head.
Rank 87.
Like it meant something more than it should.
“Relax,” someone said nearby, but it wasn’t directed at me.
“Come,” she said
I followed.
We walked away from the screen, and slowly the sound behind us started thinning out, After a while, I spoke.
“Is it always like that?”
Seo-yun didn’t look at me when she answered.
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t feel normal.”
“It isn’t.”
That made me glance at her.
We turned down a quieter corridor Fewer people here, Seo-yun slowed slightly.
I noticed immediately.
“What now?” I asked.
She didn’t answer right away.
“You’re going to hear a lot of things now,” she said.
“Like what?”
“Rumors, Questions, Assumptions.”
I let out a short breath. “Already started.”
“That was just the beginning.”
We stopped near a long window overlooking part of the campus. Students moved below in neat patterns, like even walking had structure here.
Seo-yun rested a hand lightly against the glass.
“You drew attention,” she said again, quieter this time.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“That’s not how it works here.”
I looked at her properly now. “Then how does it work?”
For a moment, she didn’t answer.
“Everything that happens gets assigned meaning.”
I frowned slightly. “Even this?”
Her eyes flicked to me briefly.
“Especially this.”
We didn’t move right away after that.
Seo-yun kept her hand against the glass for a moment longer before finally letting it drop.
“Let’s go,” she said.
This time, I didn’t ask where.
After a while, I broke the silence.
“You keep saying things like this is normal,” I said. “But nothing about it is.”
Seo-yun didn’t respond immediately.
Then, without looking at me, she said, “You’ll get used to it.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“It’s not meant to be.”
That made me glance at her.
We stopped again near a side entrance that led to a smaller corridor, almost empty compared to the rest of the school.
Seo-yun finally turned her head slightly.
“You should be careful,” she said.
“With what?”
“With being seen.”
I let out a quiet laugh, but it didn’t feel funny.
“Too late for that.”
She didn’t argue.
A faint vibration came from somewhere in the distance Probably another update orAnother shift.
Seo-yun noticed it too.
“Rank review is coming,” she said.
I frowned. “Is that what this is building toward?”
“Yes.”
“And what happens in it?”
“People lose their places.”
“And sometimes,” she added, “they don’t get them back.”
- Writer
