The study group had been going on for about a week.
Defying all predictions.
Breaking all rules.
Going against the very nature of common sense.
It was finally paying off.
Yui was actually sleeping.
Pretty often.
She was drinking coffee occasionally.
Almost.
She started teasing people.
Totally.
Although everyone found it very disturbing.
Including Akari.
"This is discrimination."
She declared.
"You deserve it."
Yui retorted
"So, as you can see."
Akari showed her a finger.
"She recovered perfectly."
Nobody argued.
The today’s studying took place in one of the empty classrooms after school.
No sooner did Yui arrive than she noticed the change.
Desks were arranged differently.
Papers were neatly put on the tables.
The pens were sorted out.
Bottles of water were waiting.
Everything seed too professional.
Yui stopped walking.
"... What’s happening here?"
Aoi raised her head.
"I arranged this to have a mock exam."
Silence.
The atmosphere imdiately changed.
"A mock exam."
Yui repeated.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I want to check your level of readiness."
Yui desperately searched for help.
But nobody gave it to her.
Backstabbers.
All of them.
"Wait a minute."
Rika raised a hand.
"I contributed, too."
"How?"
"I drew motivational dragons."
"It doesn’t."
"It does."
It most definitely didn’t.
anwhile, Mina was sorting so colorful piles of papers.
Again.
There were more colors now.
Nobody knew how.
Beside the whiteboard Akari positioned herself.
"As an assistant coach, I approve of this project."
"You weren’t even elected for such a position."
Kuro reminded her.
"But leadership chooses its representatives on its own."
"There’s no such thing as a self-proclaid leader."
Akari ignored the reality.
Just like usual.
"Let explain."
Aoi approached Yui.
"This mock exam is supposed to simulate actual testing conditions."
Yui instinctively hated this phrase.
Very much so.
"And its aim is to detect your weak spots."
She hated it even more.
The papers were handed out.
It beca deadly quiet.
Really quiet.
Nobody cracked a joke.
Nobody interrupted.
Nobody distracted from studying.
Not even Akari.
Which made the situation sohow scary.
Yui opened the first page.
dical ethics.
Diagnosis process.
First aid procedures.
Patient treatnt.
Clinical approach.
These were all the questions which Yui could recognize.
They were familiar and repeatedly studied by her.
So she started answering.
The first answer.
Second.
Third.
The ti went by.
The atmosphere stayed unchanged.
Complete silence.
The only noise coming from flipping of pages.
Yui’s face started to relax.
She stopped worrying.
She beca confident.
---
In her answers.
---
The questions disappeared rapidly.
One by one.
One after another.
From the back of the class.
Kuro was observing.
And even he knew.
She was not struggling.
She was performing at a completely new level.
More than two hours later.
The exam was over.
Aoi gathered the papers.
Everyone waited.
Akari paced around.
Mina seed worried.
And Rika already had an outline for the story nad:
The Struggle Against The Exam Demon
The character looked remarkably like Aoi.
Nobody brought it up.
Finally.
After a long wait.
Aoi stopped looking through the papers.
The room beca absolutely silent.
Yui tried to swallow.
Despite everything.
Despite the confidence.
Despite all the studying.
Results always scared her.
Aoi looked down at the paper.
And nodded.
"Excellent."
Yui couldn’t hear it at first.
"Excuse ?"
"Excellent."
Imdiately Akari appeared.
"HOW EXCELLENT?"
Aoi handed the paper.
Close to perfection.
Silence.
Chaos followed.
"YES! YOU DID IT!"
Akari scread.
The librarian from the next three rooms must have heard her.
Mina genuinely smiled.
And Rika drew the exploding fireworks inside her notebook.
Even Kuro looked impressed.
Yui looked at the result.
98%.
For a second.
She couldn’t believe her eyes.
And then smiled sincerely.
The true smile she hadn’t used for a long ti.
Maybe she could do it.
Maybe everyone was right.
Maybe this year would be different.
---
The room was buzzing with excitent.
---
Till Aoi said sothing.
---
"One more exam."
---
Total silence.
---
Nobody liked the sound of those words.
---
Especially Yui.
"What kind of test?"
Aoi adjusted her glasses.
"Pressure simulation."
Everything changed imdiately.
---
Yui’s smile faded just a little bit.
But noticeably.
She was continuing talking.
"The previous exam checked your level of preparation."
Nobody had any objections.
---
It clearly showed in the score.
---
"And now I created the second evaluation."
---
Yui suddenly had a bad feeling.
---
Very bad.
---
Twenty minutes later.
The second test began.
---
The arrangent looked quite familiar.
---
Almost.
---
Because now.
There was a tir.
Very strict one.
It was strictly monitored by Aoi.
---
Akari was playing the examiner’s role.
Badly.
---
Rika acted as a very impatient patient.
Even worse.
---
Mina read the questions aloud.
---
Kuro was just silently watching.
---
The pressure rose.
---
Slightly.
---
But effectively.
---
The first question.
Yui knew the answer.
Absolutely.
Imdiately.
But she hesitated.
For a second.
Another second.
One more.
---
Aoi wrote sothing.
---
The second question.
Yui knew it, too.
Absolutely.
But hesitated.
Again.
Her breathing changed.
The classroom felt sohow narrower.
The ticking of tir seed louder.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Impossibly loud.
---
The questions kept coming.
---
The mistakes started to appear.
---
At first.
---
They were minor.
---
Then beca bigger.
---
The answers she knew perfectly turned out unclear.
---
Details beca vague.
---
The score started dropping.
---
Nobody noticed.
---
Because they already realized.
---
This wasn’t about the lack of knowledge.
---
This wasn’t about preparation.
---
This wasn’t about intelligence.
It was about the fear.
---
Of failing.
---
Of disappointing everybody.
---
Of proving two past tries to be right.
---
By the end of the simulation.
It beca pretty clear.
---
The results were horrible.
---
Not because of the lack of ability.
---
But because of pressure.
---
Nobody was cheering anymore.
---
Nobody joked.
---
Nobody distracted.
---
Even Akari seed concerned.
---
Yui looked at the papers.
---
The difference in scores looked unbelievable.
---
On the one hand.
She perford near perfection.
---
On the other hand.
---
It seed rather bad.
---
Silence.
---
For a while.
---
Then Aoi quietly put the two papers side by side.
"Do you see?"
Yui looked down.
---
One score was near perfect.
---
The second one.
Much lower.
---
The sa knowledge.
---
The sa person.
---
The sa questions.
---
But completely different mindset.
---
Suddenly.
Everything seed clearer.
---
Not in the exams.
---
Not in the scores.
---
Inside her.
---
All those years.
She was blaming herself.
---
For her intelligence.
---
For her preparation.
---
For her efforts.
---
Each failure motivated her to study more.
---
To work harder.
---
To sleep less.
Because she thought the problem was ability.
But it wasn’t.
---
It was all there.
---
The evidence.
---
Two papers.
---
One truth.
---
The enemy wasn’t the test.
---
It wasn’t the dicine.
---
Nor the failure.
It was the fear.
---
Fear of the failure.
---
Fear of disappointing everyone.
---
Fear of confirming the two previous attempts right.
---
Yui looked down.
---
Not ashad.
---
But understanding.
---
For all these years.
She was fighting the wrong battle.
---
Aoi watched calmly.
"So?"
Yui looked at the papers.
Then took a breath.
---
It was long.
---
And sohow relieved.
The breath people take having discovered a truth they didn’t expect to discover.
"... I get it."
Silence.
---
Then she quietly laughed.
---
Not happy.
---
Not sad.
---
Just genuine laughter.
---
Because she finally understood.
---
During all those years.
The only obstacle in her path was herself.
---
Now.
---
She could finally see it.
---
Outside the classroom.
The sun started setting.
---
And inside.
Yui looked at the two papers.
---
And finally understood that passing the exam wasn’t about learning more dicine.
---
But about not being afraid of it anymore.
The lesson concluded in relative peace.
Far more quiet than the lessons usually did.
Jokes were not in order.
Teasing anyone was out of the question.
Even Akari seed oddly pensive.
This was a matter of concern for totally different reasons.
---
One by one, they started gathering their stuff.
Mina sorted her massive pile of color-coded notes.
Rika packed her notebooks and drawings.
Akari gave up possession of the whistle she carried everywhere.
Aoi stacked up the practice exam papers.
---
Finally, the classroom emptied out.
---
"I’ll see you tomorrow,"
said Mina.
---
"Rember to get so sleep,"
added Aoi.
---
"And in case you do not,"
declared Akari,
"I will personally confiscate all your energy drinks."
---
"You have no authority,"
countered Yui.
---
"We’ll skip the details,"
replied Akari.
---
As the group left.
Two people remained.
---
Yui and Minami.
---
The classroom atmosphere changed.
It was filled with rays of setting sun.
The shadows stretched across the room.
The silence was not unpleasant.
It just felt weighty.
---
Yui just sat there staring at two practice exams.
At the near-perfect score.
And at the disaster called the simulation.
---
The difference irked her.
---
Finally, Minami approached.
Without asking any permissions.
And sat right next to her.
---
They sat there in silence for several monts.
Then Minami quietly said,
"You’ve finally seen it."
---
Yui understood perfectly.
---
"...Yeah,"
---
She sounded subdued.
---
"I kept thinking I was not studying enough."
---
Minami nodded.
---
"I know that."
"You thought if you worked harder, it would disappear."
---
"It does not work this way,"
Minami remarked.
---
Yui smiled weakly.
---
"Obviously,"
said she.
---
Silence ensued.
Outside, other students left school.
Distant conversations could be heard from an open window.
---
Then Yui asked a question she never asked anyone before.
---
"What if it happens again?"
she whispered.
---
"What if it all disappears again during the actual test?"
---
The question hung in the air.
After considering for a while, Minami answered truthfully.
---
"It probably will,"
said she.
---
Yui looked surprised.
It definitely was not the answer she was expecting.
---
"It is possible for you to panic,"
continued Minami.
"You might get scared."
"You might even start making mistakes."
---
Yui lowered her gaze.
Then Minami reached over and gently tapped the pile of papers.
---
"But now you understand why,"
remarked Minami.
Silence.
---
"You have been spending years trying to prove yourself"
because your intelligence was your curse.
"While it never was,"
minuted Minami.
The near-perfect score confird that beyond any doubts.
---
"The fact is, you are smart enough already,"
said Minami.
"You do not have to beco even smarter."
---
The words ca as a surprise.
Over the years, many people called her gifted, talented.
Called her brilliant.
A genius.
And sohow, she had learned to dismiss those words.
---
Until now.
They sounded strangely honest.
Painful.
Honest to the point where Yui wanted nothing more than to accept them.
---
Minami stood up and grabbed her bag.
Before going out, she hesitated at the door and glancing back.
---
"Yui,"
she called out.
Yui looked up at her teacher.
This ti Minami looked nothing like the person she usually was.
For a few precious seconds, Minami was a childhood friend.
Soone who has always believed in her.
---
And who smiled.
A small smile.
But sincere nonetheless.
---
"Don’t prove yourself to be a genius this ti around,"
said Minami.
Yui blinked.
---
"And what should I prove?"
---
Minami stepped closer to the door.
But before leaving, she answered quickly.
---
"This ti around, prove that you don’t have to."
---
Then Minami left the classroom.
The door closed behind her, and Yui was left alone.
For a long ti, she just sat staring at the exam papers.
---
The near-perfect score.
The disaster of simulation.
And the ssage that lay between.
Then slowly.
Very slowly.
Yui’s face lit up with a smile.
---
For the first ti in years, she did not think of becoming the genius everyone expected of her.
For the first ti, she considered becoming the doctor she wanted to be.
---
And this idea felt much less terrifying now.
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