Five in the morning. There was still a full hour before the alarm was set to go off, but Sayori's eyes were already locked onto the dark ceiling. It felt as if a heavy stone was sitting in her stomach. Today was the day. The day that had caused her months of sleepless nights, reduced her social life to zero, and forced her to wrestle with those thick test prep books. The scholarship exam.
She sat up silently in bed. Taking a deep breath, she listened to the room. There was only the faint hum of the refrigerator and the steady sound of Kunon's breathing from across the room. Careful to remain quiet, Sayori pressed her feet onto the cold parquet floor. She went to the sink and splashed cold water on her face repeatedly. She looked at her reflection in the mirror; the slight dark circles under her eyes were like medals of the effort she had put in. "You're going to do this," she whispered to herself. "You have no other choice."
When she returned to the room, she saw Kunon sitting on his bed, running a hand through his hair. He was awake. He looked up when he heard Sayori's footsteps. In the dim light of the room, their eyes met.
Kunon yawned and stood up. Heading toward his cupboard, he spoke in a perfectly casual tone. "Waking up this early is a mistake. You should keep your brain idling before an exam. You're overheating the chassis."
Sayori smiled faintly as she pulled her uniform from her wardrobe. "My engine always runs at high RPMs, Kunon. You know that."
Kunon opened a drawer on his desk and took out a small, red-wrapped square of chocolate. He walked over to Sayori's desk and dropped it right in the middle of her test books. Sayori looked at him in surprise.
"Sugar clears the mind," Kunon said, shoving his hands into his pockets as usual. "In one of the stories I wrote, my character always ate dark chocolate before entering a lethal exam. It worked. Though, he ended up being betrayed in the end, but that's not the point. Just eat it. And don't panic. Just pour onto the paper what you've been working on at that desk for weeks. No one knows the questions better than you."
Looking at the small chocolate on her desk, Sayori felt a fraction of her tension dissipate. Kunon's distant but strangely reassuring style was exactly what she needed at this hour of the morning. "Thank you," she said sincerely. She slipped the chocolate into her pocket. "I hope I don't end up betrayed like your character."
Kunon shrugged. "You never know. Life is crueler than novels. Good luck, Sayori."
The moment she stepped through the school's main gate, she felt a hurricane rushing toward her. Sakura hugged Sayori's neck so fast that they both nearly toppled over.
"The future school topper has arrived!" Sakura shouted, grabbing Sayori by the arms and shaking her. "I see that fire in your eyes, Sayori! You're going to tear those optical forms apart! You're going to make the questions cry!"
"Sakura, please," Sayori groaned, trying to escape her friend's grip. "I'm already nauseous, don't shake me on top of it."
Kyoko approached with calm steps behind Sakura. She handed a bottle of cold water to Sayori. "Sakura has been acting like she swallowed a caffeine pill since this morning, just ignore her. Here, drink some water. You're as pale as chalk."
Sayori took the water and took a sip. Kyoko's logical and calm nature always balanced her out. Kyoko placed a hand on Sayori's shoulder and looked directly into her eyes. "The odds are in your favor, Sayori. You worked hard enough to wear out the covers of those books. We trust your intelligence and your discipline. Just take a deep breath and do what you need to do. After the exam, the whole weekend is ours, got it?"
A warm smile spread across Sayori's face as she looked at her two friends. "I promise," she said. "I'm going to finish this and get it over with."
The exam halls were in the quiet corridor on the top floor of the school. As Sayori parted from the girls and climbed the stairs alone, she tried to clear her mind. Her footsteps echoed. Just as she turned the corner toward her classroom door, she saw that familiar, perfect silhouette standing by the windows. Akane.
There wasn't a single crease in her uniform. The sunlight was hitting her from behind, making her look like an almost unreachable figure. Seeing Sayori arrive, she turned slowly and placed that usual professional smile on her face.
"Good morning, Sayori," Akane said, her voice ringing in the hall like a soft melody. "You're early. Your usual discipline."
"Good morning, Akane. Yes, I wanted to find my seat and calm down a bit."
Akane took a few steps toward Sayori. Her eyes scanned every expression on Sayori's face. "Scholarship exams are always the most ruthless elimination method of this school. But I'm not worried about you. That last night we worked together... it proved your potential once again."
Sayori swallowed slightly. She remembered the moment Kunon told her that paper was just a novel draft. She was relaxed now. Akane's mysterious behavior didn't scare her as much as it used to. "Thank you again for your help, Akane. I'll do my best."
Akane's smile widened by a millimeter. "I know you will. Variables can't always be kept under control, Sayori. But you are learning to adapt to those variables very well. Just like those around you. Keep your mind open. I wish you success."
As Sayori walked through the classroom door, she tried not to think about the meaning underlying Akane's use of the word "variables." She just found her desk, sat down, and lined up her pens.
When the exam began, the only sound in the hall was the mechanical rustling of hundreds of pens rubbing against paper. Handa-sensei walked slowly between the rows with his hands behind his back.
The first thirty minutes felt like a dream to Sayori. The questions were exactly as she expected. Paragraphs, history dates, grammar rules... it was flowing like water. However, toward the middle of the exam, when she reached the famous physics and advanced math section, her pen hung suspended in the air.
In front of her sat a terrifying equation that took up half the page and contained three different variables. Sayori tried to solve the question using the normal method. First line, second line... the numbers were getting tangled, and the result looked nothing like any of the options. Her breathing quickened. Her hands began to sweat. That classic wave of panic was rising from her stomach to her chest.
She closed her eyes. Suddenly, the faint scent of coffee and old paper reached her nose. Her mind took her back a few days, to the dorm room at midnight. Kunon was right beside her. She remembered him taking the pen from her hand and saying, "Step back to see the big picture. Try decomposing the function. Use the shortcuts."
Sayori opened her eyes. She felt the presence of that small chocolate in her pocket. She took a deep breath and went back to the equation she had erased. She used that strange but effective simplification method Kunon had shown her. She grouped the variables, removed the parentheses. Within seconds, that massive problem turned into simple arithmetic. The result was glowing in option "C."
Sayori smiled. From that moment on, the rest of the exam was child's play. Her mind was so clear that she was the first person to hand in her optical form, fifteen minutes before the time was up.
In the afternoon, as the sun left a sweet warmth over the city, Sayori, Sakura, and Kyoko were sitting in a small waffle shop near the school. In front of Sayori was a massive plate smothered in strawberries and chocolate.
"I can't believe it," Sayori said, leaning back in her chair and spreading her arms wide. "It's actually over. I feel like someone took a sledgehammer to those concrete blocks I've been carrying on my shoulders for months. I'm so light I could fly."
Sakura jumped in, barely swallowing her mouthful. "I told you! Your face when you walked out of the hall said it all. Even Kunon's cold aura couldn't extinguish your fire!"
Kyoko took a sip of her coffee. "How was the math section? I heard Handa-sensei was ruthless."
Sayori laughed. "I really got stuck on one question. But to be honest... Kunon showed me a method that night. It looked ridiculous, but it worked perfectly on that exact question. If I hadn't known that method, I probably would have had a panic attack right there."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "So you owe the Ice King a thank you. I can't believe that guy actually has a useful side."
"He's just a novelist, Sakura," Sayori said comfortably. Knowing this fact made her feel incredibly relieved. "Someone who lives in his own world, observing. I'm not afraid of him anymore."
After saying goodbye to the girls, Sayori stopped at a restaurant on her way back. She ordered two portions of hot ramen to go. Tonight's dinner at the dorm would be on her. Kunon deserved that thank you.
When she opened the door to the dorm room, that familiar, slightly dark atmosphere was inside. Kunon was leaning over his laptop at his desk, typing something on the keyboard with incredible speed. The sound of his fingers created a rhythm in the room.
Sayori dropped the bag on the desk. The sudden scent of soy sauce and spices spreading through the room stopped Kunon's fingers.
"Unless you're planning to poison your roommate, I hope this smelling thing is our dinner," Kunon said, half-closing his laptop lid and turning in his chair.
Sayori giggled. "Let's call it a celebration dinner. I wasn't full from the waffles. My exam went great, Kunon. I mean... really great."
They opened the ramen boxes. They both pulled up their chairs and began eating at the desk. Sayori didn't stop talking throughout the meal. She excitedly told him about her tension at the start of the exam, how she got stuck on that math question, and how she was saved by the method he taught her. Kunon just nodded, taking large bites of his ramen occasionally while listening to her.
"So the formula worked," Kunon said, wiping his lips with a napkin. "I'm not surprised. Math never lies. People do, but numbers are always constant."
"It wasn't just math," Sayori said, stirring her noodles with her chopsticks. "The general aptitude part was very good too. Like the logic questions. There was one that I almost laughed at while reading it."
The chopsticks in Kunon's hand paused for a millisecond in mid-air. His eyes focused on Sayori. "A logic question?"
"Yes," Sayori said casually. The fatigue of the exam was beginning to set in. "The question at the bottom of the last page. It was incredibly long. It was about variables, adaptation processes to an environment, and... trust factors." Sayori stopped suddenly. The moment the words left her mouth, a bolt of lightning struck her brain.
She dropped her noodles. She blinked rapidly. Her mind brought up the question on that last page of the exam paper with photographic clarity.
"Wait," Sayori murmured. Her voice came out as a whisper. "The question... the question was identical."
Kunon straightened his shoulders. The air in the room suddenly stripped away the scent of warm ramen and turned to ice. "Identical to what, Sayori?"
Sayori slowly raised her head and looked into Kunon's eyes. "That paragraph at the end of the test Akane gave me... the one you said was a draft of your novel. The word 'Subject 4' had been removed, but every other sentence was identical to the final logic question of the official state scholarship exam."
Sayori's heart began to race again. "Kunon... why would a draft of your unpublished internet novel appear as a question on an official scholarship exam?"
Kunon didn't answer. He just looked at her with his dark eyes. And in that moment, Sayori realized with horror that the writer story was also just a tiny piece of a massive lie. Akane was right. She was just a trust factor. And the system collapse had already begun.