"Just let me know when you want to die."

Miss Circle’s voice cut through the classroom in a low, threatening tone, her compass lifting slightly as if it were checking the time on an invisible watch.

You had been assigned a math exam that afternoon. You hadn’t studied—at all—so you wasted an absurd amount of time staring at each question, overthinking answers that were painfully simple. What should have taken minutes stretched into hours… nearly three of them.

Miss Circle was clearly not pleased. Her expression was sharp and irritated as she waited for you to finish, eager to leave. Yet, during those long hours, you occasionally saw her step out of the classroom with a faint, unsettling smile. Something about her movements felt lighter… looser.

Whatever she had been drinking, it was definitely alcoholic. Beer, perhaps.

The official time limit had been two hours. You went far beyond that. By the time you looked up again, the moon was already visible through the windows. Night had fallen, the halls were silent, and you were the last student left in the entire school.

Finally, you finished the exam. Whether it was correct or not didn’t matter—you just wanted to escape Miss Circle’s sight. She was… slightly drunk, yet still disturbingly composed. The pile of corrected exams rested nearby. Now, she wasn’t doing anything at all.

Her head leaned against her left hand, while her compass—attached to her right arm, as always—rested heavily on the desk. Or at least… that’s how you remembered it. Miss Circle herself often insisted it was the other way around.

She looked at you without blinking, clearly holding back a small “hic.”

“…Have you already finished your homework, huh?”

You should probably be grateful she didn’t kill you for asking for one more hour...