Chasing First Place.

Alternative song for filos:

“Don’t tell me you’re ranked second again?” 

The girl next to you goes completely still. Her tight expression poses a sharp contrast to the smug grin she wore just moments ago, right before you pointed it out on the bulletin board. You beat her, yet again. Knowing that the results are out there for everyone to see only widens the smirk on your face, and you want nothing more than to rub it in for good measure.

“Tch, professor’s pet.” She turns toward you, staring daggers as you continue teasing her. You swear you could feel her killing intent from a mile away, but you don’t yield. You never do.

“Woah, running out of excuses already? Don’t blame the professors for your shortcomings, darling.” You tease, leaning in close to challenge her. She rolls her eyes at what you said before pulling you by your necktie.

“Yuck, don’t call me darling, you freak. I swear to god, next semester, I’ll be the number one student and the top “Lee” in this school.” She releases your tie and flings her hair over her shoulder like she’s inside a Cream Silk commercial, composing herself on the spot. 

“Alright, bet. If you’re so confident, darling, how about we spice things up? Maybe we could settle this with a little challenge, hm?” you say, already knowing that this would be an easy win for you. After all, you’ve done this several times before, nothing new now.

“Deal. If I win, you have to acknowledge me as your superior every single day, and you’ll wear a banana suit to our graduation ball.” She sets down her conditions, fully confident that she’ll beat you this time. “Now, how about you? What do you want?”

You lean in to whisper your conditions, leaving her visibly flustered. “Seriously? Is that all that you want? Fine. I’ll give it to you if you win.” She turns her back on you and walks off, head held high as if she just didn’t lose her cool. 

As you watch her retreat down the hallway, you can’t help but think about how similar you two actually are, despite all the bickering. Just like you, she’s driven by this undying urge to prove that she’s second to none, and you are the only person standing in her way to the top spot. Unfortunately for her though, you aren’t about to give it up so easily. Especially when seeing her all flustered like this is a high you can’t get anywhere else.

You stood by the bulletin board with a triumphant smirk on your face. Clearly whatever you’re planning is working, as her ears are bright red even while she desperately tries to play it off. She really is terrible at hiding things, you thought.

That girl? Her name’s Lee Hyun-seo, or Leeseo as her friends call her. But to you, she’s your godforsaken academic rival, waiting for any mistake you might make so she can snatch the school’s top spot. It certainly doesn’t help that both of you are in the same department. Or that, as fate may have it, she’s both your blockmate and a fellow student council executive.

You were about to leave when you heard someone call your name. “Pres! I’ve been looking for you for a while now, where have you been?” Yujin, your Student Council Secretary, comes swooping in from around the corner with an Iced Americano, walking toward you with a radiant smile.

She raises up your Iced Americano. “Your usual, like always.”, she says as she hands you the coffee in her hand. “So... did Leeseo try to fight you again? I ran into her on my way over here. I swear, every time she sees you, it's like she wants to argue with you on sight. 

You take a sip of the coffee she handed you, before answering. “It’s okay, Yujin. You know how she is by now. Thanks for the drink, by the way.” 

“No worries, Pres! Honestly if you want, I can get you breakfast everyday as wel-” 

“It’s okay, Yujin. You don’t have to.” You interrupt her, fixing your collar and tie that Leeseo messed up earlier. “I should head off anyway, I have to study for an upcoming quiz.”

“Oh. Okay! See you around, Pres?” Yujin says, her fingers fidgeting around.

“See you, Yujin.” You walk past your secretary, and once you were sure you were out of her sight, you toss away the coffee that she gave you straight into the garbage bin.

You’ve always preferred tea anyways. Especially Earl Grey.

Stepping into the library the next day, you look for your usual spot to study for your upcoming quiz. I mean, you aren’t just going to sit back and watch Leeseo take the top spot now, will you? So it’s a genuine surprise when you see someone already sitting at your usual spot near the window. Someone you know quite well. 

“Excuse me, miss, but I believe this is my spot,” you say as you approach the familiar figure sitting at the table, with nothing but your laptop in hand. Of all the tables in this entire building, she just had to occupy mine huh?

“I don’t think this table has your name anywhere on it, no? Besides, there are a lot of vacant tables and seats around. Why don’t you just go sit there instead?” Leeseo looks up at you, annoyed. 

You pull out the chair and sit down anyway, carelessly sliding away her elaborate set-up of highlighters, tote bags, and study notes to the side. “I like this spot. The view is nice, it’s helpful when I’m thinking, and the AC hits just right. Besides, using your own logic against you, I don’t see your name carved into the table either, Ms. Lee Hyun-seo.”

“You’re doing this on purpose just to sabotage me.” Leeseo scoffs, rolling her eyes as she tries to drag her notes back over. “Are you really that petty? Disrupting my study session over a stupid challenge?”

“Why so defensive? Is the exhaustion finally catching up to you?” You rest your chin in your hand, watching her with an amused look. “I’d offer to buy you a coffee, but judging by those dark circles under your eyes, your heart would probably explode by then.” You jest. “You should be kinder to yourself, Leeseo. Burning yourself out just to watch me stay in first place doesn’t seem worth it.” 

“Do you just never shut up? I’m trying to study here and you just keep on bothering me. Go find another place to sit.” She snaps, looking up to give you the most intense glare you’ve ever received. 

“Alright alright I’ll stop, you can keep studying.” But you don’t stop. You keep stealing glances at her while you study, purely to annoy her further.

“Quit staring. It’s creeping me the hell out.” She says.

“What do you mean? I tend to stare mindlessly when I’m thinking, sorry.” You try to reason.

“Whatever.” Leeseo then proceeds to build a literal wall out of her thick reference books right in the middle of the table so she doesn't have to look at your face. That doesn’t stop you either, though, as you spend the next hour intentionally peeking over the wall of books just to annoy her even more.

The entire block is gathered around the hallway, traumatized by whatever monstrosity that quiz was. You managed to finish on time but there were some problems and terms that you weren’t quite sure you'd gotten right. As you scan the crowd, you see Leeseo checking her textbook frantically, clearly shaken up as well. 

You wander over, planning to cross-check with her answers, but she spots you first.  “What did you answer for question number fourteen? It was letter C, right?”

“What was question no. 14 again?” You play dumb, though you remember the question clearly.

“It was the situational analysis one, it was really tricky.” She responds.

For whatever reason, you decide to mess with her. “Oh, it was Letter D.” You say with confidence, trying to make yourself sound as convincing as possible.

“Letter D?!” She falls for the bait instantly, turning pale at your answer. “Wasn’t Letter D ‘None of the Above’? How could it be letter D?” 

“You’ve said it yourself, the question was a trick question. The key term there was the word “except”, didn’t you read the question properly?” You tease her further, and you swear you could see her soul leave her body.

“There was an 'except'?! I don’t remember an 'except' in the question!” She exclaims.

“Yup. You must’ve skimmed right past it,” you lie. “The question was a differential leveling route across a 1.5 kilometer distance, and the instrument person considers the atmospheric refraction and earth’s curvature. And based on surveying error analysis, all of the following principles regarding leveling adjustments are true, except which letter. But hey, don’t beat yourself up too much, Leeseo. Silver is still a podium finish. Maybe you’ll snag the gold on the final exam?”

Bingo. The mere mention of her rank makes her blood boil, and she storms off, utterly furious with you. While watching her retreat, a tiny pang of guilt hits you. Did I go a little too far this time?

The test papers were returned the following week, and you both waited patiently for you to receive each of your respective quiz results. As professor JYPapi hands both of your papers face-down at the same time, you start to feel a bit nervous about the result.

“Hey, what score did you get?” she whispers as you both return to your seats.

“You say yours first, if I reveal mine first it might demotivate you to reveal yours.” you whisper back.

“As if! And besides, how can I trust that you’ll reveal yours? How about this, we both reveal our scores at the same time. Deal?” She puts her paper in front of her, ready to flip it anytime.

“Deal. On the count of three we flip it, okay?”

“One–”

“Two–”

“Three-”

She flips hers immediately, but you pause for a split second to look at her score first before turning yours over. Leeseo beat you. By half a point. She got a 98 to your 97.5, and her face immediately brightens up once she sees the scores.