English was worth 150 points. Ian Song’s best ever? Seventy-five. Even at his peak, he was still fifteen points short of passing.
The test paper smelled faintly of fresh ink. Ian wrote his name, didn’t rush, just skimmed the questions—most looked pretty easy.
He took a deep breath and got started.
He breezed through two pages, felt great, stretched, rolled his neck, and kept going.
He had no idea someone was watching him.
Hannah Han remembered Ian always frowning and chewing his pen during tests. She’d never seen him work this smoothly before.
Is he just guessing all the answers?
She felt a little let down, but curiosity won out—she walked to the back row and stopped.
Only twenty minutes in, and Ian had finished two pages. He was starting the third.
She glanced at Ian’s answers. Her eyes widened—he was getting over ninety percent right.
No way!
She wondered if Ian had seen the test before, but dismissed it. She’d made up the questions last night and printed them this morning—no way it was leaked. And it was just a regular quiz, nobody would bother stealing it.
To get to the bottom of it, Hannah Han planted herself right by Ian’s desk.
When Hannah got close, Ian noticed right away—she always had this light, elegant scent. He liked it.
He was nervous at first, but soon got lost in the thrill of answering questions and forgot Hannah was even there.
Hannah kept getting more shocked—Ian had finished everything but the essay. She did a quick estimate: he was already over 90 points, and if the essay went well, he could break 100 easily.
As far as she knew, Ian had never passed English before.
Most teachers didn’t like Ian Song, the problem student. Even homeroom teacher William Yan called him a rat dropping—just there to drag down the class average.
But Hannah didn’t agree. In her eyes, there were no dumb students, only those who didn’t want to learn. She was always patient and tried to spark their interests.
When Ian finished his essay, Hannah quietly left. His composition wasn’t anything special, but the grammar and vocab were solid. Even a strict teacher would give him 15 points; if they were lenient, maybe 20!