Grace Bennett was lying on the desk, already asleep.

He had originally fallen asleep face down, hugging his jacket, but as he slept deeper, he felt stuffy and twisted his head, exposing half his face.

The boy’s eyes were closed, his nose bridge high and straight, and the two small moles at the corner of his eye and on his right cheek maintained a subtle balance, making him look much less aggressive than when he was awake.

So moles don’t grow with age after all.

“Sit down,” the physics teacher repeated. He pushed his glasses up and looked at the person still standing in the back row. “Brian Brooks?”

Brian Brooks withdrew his gaze and sat back down.

……

Grace Bennett was woken up by the sound of someone slapping the desk.

As soon as he looked up, he met a cold glare from Sarah Grant.

Seeing he was awake, Sarah Grant stopped slapping the lectern with the lesson plan, raised the test papers in her hand, and said, “Put everything on your desks away. We’ll use these two self-study periods for a test. After such a long break, I want to see how much knowledge you’ve forgotten. I’ll be grading this test myself, so take it seriously. The first student in each row, come up and get the test papers and pass them back.”

Grace Bennett twitched his fingers and buried his face back in his arms, only sitting up with difficulty when the test paper was passed to him.

Sarah Grant was a strict proctor, her gaze wandering everywhere, but she rarely looked in Grace Bennett’s direction.

Because all the teachers knew very well that Grace Bennett was extremely honest when it came to tests—he always got exactly the score he deserved, never bothering to cheat.

Grace Bennett took out his pen and wrote his name, planning to sneak another nap when Sarah Grant wasn’t looking.

Because he was so sleepy, his handwriting was crooked, like a caterpillar cut into several pieces.

A few seconds later, Grace Bennett suddenly remembered something and slowly lifted his head to recall—

What did Sarah say today?

If he scored over 90 on the math test, he could sit wherever he wanted from then on.

Grace Bennett propped his chin up, and the more he thought about it, the clearer his mind became.

He rubbed his face and sat up straight, lowered his head, and for once seriously flipped through the math test in his hands—

Great.

He couldn’t understand a single question.

Grace Bennett gripped his pen and, for the first time since changing seats, observed the classmates around him.

The two at the desk to his right were only a bit better than him academically; to his left were Anna Walker and the discipline committee member; in front were Emily Clark and a short-haired girl who had only spoken to him three times in three semesters and looked introverted and quiet.

Either he couldn’t copy from them, or he wouldn’t get over 90 anyway.

Grace Bennett propped his eyelids up and sat there doing nothing for a while.

It wasn’t until Sarah Grant on the podium shifted her sitting position that he reluctantly moved his eyes and secretly glanced at the person next to him.

Everyone else was still on the first page of multiple-choice questions, but Brian Brooks was already at the end of the second page.

Grace Bennett didn’t struggle much internally; right now, he just wanted to grab his desk and go sit under the bulletin board.

Two minutes later, after making sure Sarah Grant wasn’t looking this way, he propped up one hand to block his face and peeked at the test paper under Brian Brooks’s hand.

Thanks to not being studious, Grace Bennett had excellent eyesight. He was just about to make out the first multiple-choice question—

Brian Brooks picked up a piece of scratch paper and gently covered the part of the test he’d already answered.

Grace Bennett: “?”

He instinctively looked at the owner of the test paper.

Brian Brooks kept his head down, working on the questions, not even sparing him a glance.

Brian Brooks: “Do your own test.”

-

With Sarah Grant proctoring, he couldn’t play on his phone or sleep.

Grace Bennett resignedly leaned back, put his hands in his pockets, and started looking out the window.

“Some students, get your mind back here. Even if you really want to go pick up trash outside, you’ll have to wait until graduation,” Sarah Grant’s cool voice drifted down from the podium.

The “some students” in question turned his head back in boredom.

The test paper was full of lines and numbers, making his head spin.

So his gaze wandered, and he started surveying the classroom.

Everyone else in the class was diligently working on their tests, except for two people who, like him, were distracted.

Emily Clark had finished guessing the multiple-choice questions and was now tidying her split hair ends.

Anna Walker… had his palm blocking his face from Sarah Grant’s view and was secretly peeking at the discipline committee member’s test.

Anna Walker’s head stayed still, but his eyes twisted at a weird angle. If Grace Bennett hadn’t looked closely, he wouldn’t have noticed he was cheating.

Of course, the discipline committee member hadn’t noticed either.

So how did Brian Brooks notice? He was being so careful.

Besides, wasn’t he supposed to like him?

And yet he wouldn’t even let him copy his test?

What’s the point of these top students’ so-called affection anyway.

Thinking this, Grace Bennett glanced over again.

Brian Brooks’s hand was still pressing down on the scratch paper, seriously working on the questions. Most people’s scratch paper was such a mess that even they couldn’t understand it, but Brian Brooks’s was neat and tidy—if you didn’t know better, you’d think he was writing the answers directly on the test.

At this moment, Brian Brooks’s gaze was fixed on the last question of the test, his lips pressed tight. He raised his right hand to his temple, as if deep in thought.

Just two seconds later, his brow relaxed, his fingers deftly spun the pen, and he pulled over the scratch paper to start writing.

“One minute left. When time’s up, put your pens down—don’t write even a single extra stroke. No one will give you extra time in the college entrance exam.”

As soon as Sarah Grant spoke, Grace Bennett snapped back to attention and looked away.

So what if you’re a top student? Aren’t you still solving problems until the very last minute?