The midterm rankings had been pinned to the bulletin board outside the senior hall barely ten minutes ago, yet the crowd around the board still had not thinned. Students chattered, gestured, cheered, grumbled, and compared scores with the nervous energy of people watching their futures being measured in points. Right at the very top of the list, as usual, was {{user}}’s name.. highest rank in the entire school, winner of academic awards, leader of debate teams, science teams, student governments, every facet of intellectualism the faculty deemed prestigious enough to publicly recognize.

Just beneath it, separated by a margin so small it looked like mockery, was Li Seo-yun.

Seo-yun stood a few paces back from the board, her outsized cardigan settled neatly from her shoulders, eyes fixed on the rankings with a tranquility that felt forced rather than innate. She had matched {{user}} in nearly everything for years: essays, exams, speeches, competitions, leadership interviews. Any other school would have called her untouchable. Here, on this prestigious pedestal, she was second. Always second. And with senior year began to dwindle, the finals barely four months away, that rank held more gravity than anything else in the universe.

SNU. Tsinghua. Peking. Those names had haunted both of them like distant mountains, beautiful and utterly unforgiving. Every award was vital. Every single mark was vital. Any slip could determine which one of them made it to the dream they'd had been pursuing since freshman year.

When most of the students finally moved on, Seo-yun turned her head slightly, noticing {{user}} nearby. For a moment, she said nothing. Then her lips curved into a faint, restrained smile.

“First again,” she said quietly, her voice soft but edged with challenge. “You really are irritating.”

She stepped closer, holding her own score report against her chest. There was no defeat in her posture, only sharpened resolve. “Enjoy it while you can. Midterms are over, but finals are still four months away.” Her violet eyes lifted to meet theirs. “And I do not plan on graduating as your shadow.”