Chapter 37 Chapter 37
On the first day of school, Lia woke up before daybreak. Wearing her school uniform and carrying her schoolbag, she stood in front of the mirror, looking at herself in the mirror. She hadn't gained back the weight she'd lost for the show.
Her figure, which seemed perfectly proportioned in the camera, seemed a little wobbly in her oversized school uniform. She took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked towards school in the slightly cool morning breeze.
As usual, the school gates were bustling with activity. Students gathered in groups of three or four, chatting about their summer vacation experiences. She lowered her head, silently making her way through the crowd and into the teaching building. The moment she pushed open the classroom door, the clamor seemed to pause.
Then, everything returned to normal. Only occasionally someone would glance over, then quickly look away. There was no expected pointing or snickering. Only Xia Qing...
He jumped up from his seat like a firecracker and rushed in front of her, almost knocking her over. "Ah ...
Xia Qing held her hand with a touched look on his face: "It's okay, it's okay. The whole class knows that you are super awesome! You looked so handsome on the show!" She patted Xia Qing's shoulder, feeling both amused and helpless, "Stop, stop." She looked up and glanced around.
Immediately, she looked away again, pretending to be indifferent. A classmate she had spent every day with took a leave of absence to film a show, became a huge star overnight, then got involved in a scandal with a popular male idol, and finally announced her retirement from the entertainment industry unexpectedly. After all this,
Anyone would be curious. Seeing how hard everyone was trying to hold back, Lia found it a little amusing. Xia Qing took her hand, and they walked to their seats together. There was another commotion behind them.
Lia turned around and saw Yu Chenghao lazily walking in with his schoolbag slung over one shoulder.
He appeared in class so seldom that every time he showed up after a while, everyone would have a sense of unreality: "Ah, so we are classmates with him?"
While Yu Seungho and Lia were away, the class had quietly discussed how lucky they were to have two artists at once. Lia curled her eyes at him and said hello, and he nodded slightly in response.
As class approached, the students gradually took their seats. The first period was a class meeting. After not seeing Mr. Zhao for a semester, he seemed to have not changed at all.
Seeing Yu Seung-ho and Lia in the classroom at the same time, he was a little surprised and joked, "Today is a good day." The students burst into laughter. Lia scratched her head in embarrassment.
When he called her name, he specifically instructed her, "Welcome back. Find time to go to the Academic Affairs Office today. There are some paperwork that needs to be completed." "Okay, thank you, teacher," Lia replied obediently. The class meeting focused on the division of subjects.
During the first week of the second year of high school, students need to submit their subject preferences, which will determine their future college entrance exam choices. "Starting this semester, some courses will be divided into groups based on your subject preferences, but the classes will remain the same."
As Mr. Zhao, the senior student, spoke, he distributed the application forms in his hand. "Before school ends today, everyone please leave your completed application forms and the class committee will take them to my office." "I will find time to talk to everyone one by one before the division."
"Please continue to work hard together." Lia listened attentively, writing down the details quickly in her notebook. With Xia Qing's prior knowledge of the subject division, she had already taken some time to make the decision, so it didn't seem sudden at the moment.
She glanced at Xia Qing. He waved the application form at her and winked. Lia laughed. This guy really hasn't changed at all. ... In the afternoon, during the break, she went to the academic affairs office.
The receptionist was a young, friendly teacher. "I heard from your homeroom teacher that you took a long vacation to film a TV program?" the teacher said, flipping through the registration form. "Your grades are fine, except for some missed classes from last semester."
Lia nodded, "I want to make up for it, is that okay?"
"Of course. The school has started after-school tutoring this semester, focusing on math, Chinese, and social sciences. It's voluntary, and there aren't many people. It's basically for students who want to catch up." "Can I sign up?"
The teacher smiled and said, "Of course. I'll write it down for you." "But, you are an overseas citizen, right?" The other party thought for a moment and asked again. "Yes, that's right."
"Those with overseas identities can go through special admission channels and don't necessarily have to take the college entrance examination." The teacher kindly suggested.
Students with overseas identities usually do not compete with domestic candidates for the college entrance examination unless they have extremely high requirements for their future university majors.
Firstly, there are fewer competitors for special admissions, and secondly, you only need to submit high school grades and letters of recommendation and pass an interview to have a relatively high chance of being admitted to a good school.
"I know, thank you." Lia nodded. "But the special enrollment majors are limited. If I want to have a wider range of options, it's best to prepare for both situations." The teacher was a little surprised. Kids nowadays think very long-term.
"Indeed, a small number of people do choose this," he nodded approvingly, "but it actually takes them longer than the average candidate."
The mechanisms of overseas admission channels and the national college entrance examination are completely different. If you prepare for both, you may end up losing sight of one while focusing on the other. Therefore, except for a small number of academically excellent overseas students, most people will not choose this option.
Seeing that Lia seemed to have taken him in, he kindly added, "In a few weeks, we'll invite outside experts to give consultations on the college entrance exam. Although most of the attendees will be seniors, you can also go and listen. You might find something useful."
"Okay, thank you, teacher." Lia listened, lost in thought. This was exactly what she needed right now. Her family wasn't familiar with the college entrance exam system in China, and with the ocean between them, there was little they could do to help her.
She needed to pay more attention to these inquiries. She quickly filled in her name on the registration form and thanked the person respectfully, feeling relieved. By the time she left the Academic Affairs Office, it was already getting dark.
The setting sun cast a long shadow over the teaching building. Cicadas chirped continuously. In the distance, people were playing ball on the playground, and the sounds of laughter could be heard intermittently. Lia stood in the corridor and took a deep breath of the evening breeze, which smelled of grass and trees.
Her life finally slowly entered a new rhythm. * "So... you really want to go to after-school tutoring?" Xia Qing leaned over the table next to Lia and poked her with her hand.
"Yes, I've signed up. Want to join us?" Lia nodded. "I already have a separate cram school on weekends," Xia Qing frowned. "If I go after class, the study time will be too long."
Lia stopped writing and looked at her sideways: "I go to after-school tutoring classes just to fill in the gaps. Although I have studied the content of the first year of high school by myself, I always feel that it is not solid enough and I am not very confident." Xia Qing stuck out her tongue.
She said, "I'm not sure," but that was really modest. I thought Lia would be struggling after not attending classes for a semester, but the reality was that after attending classes diligently for a whole semester, I still had to ask her questions.
"You have to go to classes, take tutoring classes, and go to the recording studio now. Can you manage the time?" Xia Qing said this before realizing that Lia's schedule was already astonishingly full.
"It's okay. The cram school is only three days a week. I can just be at the recording studio from afternoon to evening on weekends. I can also spare a day or two during the week to go there and sort out the documents before school—" Lia recalled the arrangements and concluded:
"It's much easier than before." "..." Xia Qing was speechless for a moment. This trip would drive her crazy after just one day, and she couldn't imagine someone commenting on it in such a nonchalant tone, "It's okay."
But Lia wasn't exaggerating. Her life is much easier now than when she was juggling her trainee duties, and she feels fulfilled and at peace.
"There will be a college entrance examination consultation meeting next month. Come with me then." After looking at the schedule in her notes, she suggested to Xia Qing.
Compared to his laziness in the first year of high school, Xia Qing is now much more self-conscious about studying, and occasionally even goes to the library with Lia to study.
"Okay, okay, please take me to Ascension, Master Academic God." She made a gesture of kowtow, which caused the classmates beside her to laugh. Lia laughed and shook her head helplessly.
Xia Qing sat up straight and her eyes drifted towards the back row of the classroom: "However, the situation in the class now is really amazing. Not to mention you coming back, even the one behind you is actually attending classes every day." As she spoke, she secretly glanced at the back row again.
Lia turned around. Xia Qing was talking about Yu Chenghao. She hadn't expected that he would actually show up in the classroom on time every day since the start of school.
Although the school now has a division between arts and science, subjects like Chinese, English, and basic mathematics still retain the original administrative class structure, so I see him more often than in my freshman year of high school. For some reason, he seems a bit aloof at school.
After that meeting at the convenience store, Lia thought they were already familiar classmates. But apart from a greeting on the first day of school, the two never spoke again.
"So handsome... We've been classmates for so long, but I'm still not used to seeing such a handsome face in the back row." Xia Qing sighed softly. There's a barrier between idols and ordinary people, not to mention actors.
A face that's been screen-tested always seems like a different world from the people around it. He has deep eyebrows and clear bones, and even in his ordinary school uniform, he stands out in the crowd. Hearing Xia Qing's sentimental words, Lia suddenly remembered something.
"There's something wrong with you." She leaned closer to Xia Qing and looked at him carefully. "Eh—what...what's wrong???" Xia Qing was interrupted, looking a little flustered.
"Hmm..." Lia thought, "It seems like you haven't talked about chasing stars for a long time." Especially since Bigbang just released a new album not long ago, this guy should have promoted it all over the world a long time ago.
Xia Qing looked around, at the sky and then at the ground. "So, what happened?" Lia raised an eyebrow. "Just - have you heard of 2PM?" "?"
"Sure enough, you haven't been to the Internet cafe recently, and you don't go out except for going to school." Xia Qing couldn't help but complain, "It's JYP's new boy group!" "So you like it again?" Lia laughed.
"Not really, just a little bit interested—" she said, making a "little bit" gesture with her hand. After a pause, she added, "GD Oppa is so popular right now, I can't even get a single offline event scheduled. I'm really tired."
With the surge in the number of fans on the official fan club, the chances of winning the offline lottery have dropped significantly, and tickets for the year-end concert will probably be hard to come by. Being a fan is always accompanied by this delicate emotion.
At first, I always hoped he would become more famous, even more famous. Only the biggest fame would be worthy of his efforts. But when he really became famous, I felt a little disappointed - even though I was the first to discover it.
It sounds a bit pretentious to say it, but there is always a sense of loss that "my treasure has also been discovered by others."
"Anyway, I'm still rooting for them," Xia Qing concluded. "But now I have to find other fun things to balance it out." For example, following new groups. Lia nodded, thoughtfully.
After the release of "Day by Day", Bigbang's popularity can no longer be described as hot. At first, she didn't feel it, but even the school's recess radio played their songs on repeat.
Inversely proportional to his popularity is Kwon Ji-yong's frequency of online activity on MSN. He's practically nowhere to be found in the [Slave Producer] group.
Kush had complained more than once that he and Lia should just create a separate group, since the other two were either quiet or missing. "How can we create a group with just two people?" Lia asked, amused. Kush was speechless.
After school, Lia, backpack on her back, walked into the tutoring room. She reviewed the schedule: today was a self-study session, but math and English teachers would be making the rounds to provide guidance.
The classroom was sparsely populated, with only a few people sitting around, and the occasional rustle of pages. She looked around carefully, but surprisingly, there wasn't a single person she knew. As Xia Qing had said, most people had chosen to attend tutoring classes outside of school.
Although this kind of public setting tutoring does include teacher guidance, it relies more on the students' initiative, which may not be very effective for some people. She found a corner by the window and sat down, pulling out her math textbook.
She knew that overseas enrollment was easier than taking the Gaokao, but the range of majors available was also more limited. There were always trade-offs, and she didn't intend to neglect her current studies until she had decided on her future.
At six o'clock, the students attending the cram school gradually arrived. Lia was sensitive to the curious eyes on her. She had gradually become accustomed to this situation.
At first, everyone was curious, but as time went on, it became commonplace. She pretended not to notice and continued calculating on her scratch paper. After a while, there was a small commotion in the classroom, and many students turned their heads.
Lia turned around—Yu Seung-ho walked in from the back door. The back row corners were already occupied. Lia glanced at the empty seat next to her and waved at him. "Here," she mouthed. Yu Seung-ho nodded and walked over.
While he was pulling out the chair, Lia asked curiously, "How come you have time to come to the tutoring class?" In fact, she wanted to ask him why he suddenly became interested in studying.
His grades were always just around the passing line, and he'd missed classes frequently during his freshman year to film a movie. He didn't seem like someone who would attend cram school. But since they weren't close, asking this question was rude.
"There's still about a month until my next assignment," he replied simply. Perhaps sensing the surprise in her eyes, he looked away, his ears slightly reddening. Lia nodded.
He took out his textbook and sat down, ignoring the gazes that fell on him. Soon, the teacher on patrol came in, and the classroom became quiet, with the rustling sound of turning pages.
During the holidays, Lia reviewed the math knowledge she had learned during her leave of absence on her own.
Mathematics in the second year of high school mainly covers basic algebra, basic geometry and simple probability statistics. She has already mastered most of the content by doing exercises on her own.
However, she was surprisingly weak in geometry problems involving spatial relationships. She could draw diagrams to help her solve problems involving two-dimensional planes, but three-dimensional space required a certain amount of imagination and intuition.
She sorted out the knowledge points she had constructed, marked the parts she didn't understand, and planned to ask the teacher for help. Knowledge points are often interconnected.
When learning independently, if a certain link gets stuck, it is difficult to move on to the following content; but once it is unblocked, it is easy to follow the thread and understand everything. The inspecting teacher was also somewhat surprised by this.
It's a small after-school cram school, and it's okay to have two celebrities at once, but they are actually studying seriously. Lia's logic is clear and her questions are targeted.
Isn't there a saying that goes, "The worst thing is a student who doesn't even know what they're lacking." A smart student is, first and foremost, a good questioner. Once they've identified their weaknesses, addressing them can be much more effective.
By the time Lia finished asking her question, the clock had unknowingly reached 8:30. She checked her to-do list and was almost done with her studies for the day. Taking a deep breath, she closed her textbook and rubbed her neck.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the person next to me. A notebook was neatly spread out in front of him, and on it was—Huh? ??? That's... a turtle? ?
Several little turtles were lying vividly on the blank pages of the notebook, some lying on their backs, some crawling forward slowly... and the English book underneath looked as if it had hardly been turned over.
Lia thought for a moment, tore off a small piece of notepaper, quickly wrote a line of words, and threw it aside. Pah - the paper ball landed precisely on one of the turtles. Yu Chenghao looked up at her and slowly unfolded the note -
"Do you need help?" Lia speculated that although she wasn't sure what the other person's current situation was, since he came to the cram school, he must want to learn something.
Because he had saved her, Yu Chenghao wasn't just an ordinary classmate to her. If there was anything she could do to help him, that would be great. He looked at the note for a moment, then picked up his pen and wrote a few words before gently putting it back.
His movements were small, but he was so close that several students turned to look. Lia hurriedly covered the note with a book, feeling a little panicked. A soft laugh came from the next room.
Lia glared at him, then couldn't help but laugh the next moment. She opened the note and saw the neatly written reply beneath her question: "Yes, thank you." The handwriting was unexpectedly beautiful, as if it had been practiced.
Lia nodded. Less than half an hour remained in the tutorial, so she figured she'd take this time to get to know the other person's weaknesses. She thought for a moment, then wrote on the note: "What do you think you're least knowledgeable about?"
A few seconds later, the slip of paper was pushed back. It simply listed two items: "Math, English." Then, a small note added: "Chinese and social studies are OK." Lia glanced at it and understood.
Chinese and social studies rely on reading volume and comprehension ability. When he was filming, he was often exposed to various scripts and historical backgrounds, and naturally he would not be too bad at it.
However, subjects like math and English require long-term, systematic training, so relying on last-minute cramming is still a bit of a struggle. This problem cannot be solved in the short term; the only way is to take the time to understand the other person's level and then prescribe the right solution.
She thought for a moment and wrote on the paper: "If you are free, you can take some time to organize the learning content together." "- If you have any questions, you can also contact me through MSN." Finally, she attached her account number.
Yu Chenghao glanced down, his lips twitching slightly as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just nodded. Texting really wasn't convenient enough, he thought. He hadn't realized that the other person might not have his phone number.
After all, in the class contact book, their names were less than ten lines apart. "Okay, thank you." He said softly.
----------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
