As I walk closer, I notice her appearance. She is one of the prettiest girls I have ever met in my life. She has a pair of dark red eyes. She has long, straight, silky-smooth, dark, blood red hair that reaches her back. She also has flat bangs, and her hair seems like it was combed daily, as it looked so tidy. She was a little bit shorter than me, standing at the height of 164cm. She probably weighs around 48kg, given how thin and slender she is. Her bust size is also quite meaty at a C-cup.

  "I'm Fukibayashi Neo. So, what do you want?"

  "You? You're Fukibayashi Neo?"

  "Uuh, yes?"

  The girl walked towards me and planted her face so close to my own that I got a bit flushed. But then the girl suddenly grabbed and pulled the collar of my school uniform.

  "Listen here, Fuki-san!"

  "Fuki-san?!"

  "I was always the princess of the school who stood on top of everyone else. And now you came out of nowhere and snatched away my throne from me!? Unacceptable!"

  "Excuse me?"

  "YOU HAVE THE HIGHEST SCORE IN THE ENTIRE SCHOOL AND I TAKE OFFENSE TO THAT!!"

  I was pissed by her tone, so I grabbed her hand and made her let go of my collar by pushing it away gently. Everyone who gathered by the door, outside our classroom, gasped at my action.

  "Oh, I am sorry, dear princess of Halluci-Nation, it just seems like in reality, I AM SIMPLY BETTER THAN YOU!! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!"

  *!!!*

  All of my classmates were kinda surprised seeing my evil laughter. They deemed it a bit out of character coming from me.

  "Grrrrrrr!! DON'T BE SO COCKY NOW!! YOU GOT 999 POINTS TOTAL, I GOT 998!! YOU ARE ONLY 1 POINT HIGHER THAN ME!! ONE POINT!! REMEMBER THAT!!"

  "Oh, dear princess, that doesn't matter. I still won in the end. HAHAHAHAHAA!"

  All of my classmates in the back held back their laughter, seeing my antics. Everyone outside the door also laughed a bit, but they also held back their laughter so as not to offend the girl.

  "Grrrrrrrrr. . .!!!"

  The girl grumbles in anger. She took a deep breath and let it all out to calm down.

  "My name is Karin! Tsukiyama Karin! I will never forget this Fukibayashi Neo!! I WILL CRUSH YOU ON FINAL EXAM!!"

  "Pleasure to meet you, my name is Fukibayashi Neo, as you've already known. Forget about crushing you at the final exam, I will crush you on every single test outside of our final terms. MARK MY WORDS, TSUKIYA-SAN!!"

  "GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! BRING IT ON FUKI-SAN!!"

  The girl left in anger. All of her followers outside the door quickly followed her lead. And then my classmates all gathered around me.

  "Neo, are you sure you can keep beating her? One-point difference was not a dominating victory. She might beat you next time."

  "HAHAHAH! I am not afraid of some spoiled rich brat who calls herself a princess. I WILL BEAT HER ON EVERY SUBJECT! YOU HEAR ME? WOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!" I hyped myself up.

  "Well, we can't really criticize him or anything. He is the smartest guy in the school now. And he earns it."

  "THAT'S RIGHT!!! I AM!! WAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

  And then my classmates cheered with me until our homeroom teacher walked in. We settled down and sat on our seats, but he also congratulated us because the entire class is in the top 50. We all cheered once again, celebrating the results of our efforts.

  In the next few weeks, we have an upcoming math test in our class. We also did study sessions in small groups to help each other. After the test, as always, I got the highest score in class, being 98. Now there are like 10 other students whose scores are all so close to mine, being 96. Even the students who used to be the lowest in class all got above 80 this time. Our homeroom teacher was so pleased by our achievements that he jokingly said he's gonna treat us to a sukiyaki restaurant. All of us agreed to the idea, but our teacher regretted it immediately because it was a simple spur-of-the-moment mishap. But our teacher did promise to treat us sometimes during the long holiday, so we all will make sure to keep that promise at the front of all of our minds.

  The school bell rings, signalling recess time. We all salute our homeroom teacher as he leaves the class. And then all of us divided into smaller groups and had lunch together. Some of my classmates went out of class to eat at the school cafeteria while the rest of us ate a bento prepared by our parents. As we enjoyed our lunch, we heard loud and fast footsteps approaching our classroom.

  "FUKI-SAN!! HOW'S YOUR MATH TEST?"

  *!!!*

  I looked towards the door to my class and saw Tsukiyama Karin coming here for the second time. I immediately got up from my chair in surprise.

  "Tsukiya-san?! Why are you here?"

  "Be quiet! Show me your math test score!!"

  Karin walked into my class and approached me. I searched my school bag and pulled out my recent math test. I showed my score to her.

  "Geez, how did you even know that we had a math test? Are you a stalker, Tsukiya-san?"

  "Shut up! Let me see!"

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  She looked carefully through my math test sheet and started sweating.

  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! NOT AGAIN!!!!"

  She screamed loudly as she lifted up her own math test sheet. I caught a glimpse of her score, and it was 97, yet again, she's 1 point below me.

  "HUAHAHAHAHAHAH!! Looks like I won again, Tsukiya-san!!"

  "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

  As she kept screaming in frustration, I kept laughing at her defeat. All of my classmates were also laughing heartily seeing our antics. And then all of a sudden, my math test sheet was torn in two.

  *!!!*

  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT HAPPENED?"

  Without her realizing it, Karin tore apart my math test paper. When she realized what she had done, she started sweating.

  "Uuuumm. . ."

  "TSUKIYA-SAN!! WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?"

  "UUUMMMM. . ."

  "NOOOOOOOO MY ACHIEVEMENT IS IN SHAMBLES!!!"

  "I-I-I-I-I. . ."

  In frustration, I grabbed Karin's arm.

  "YOU! COME WITH ME!!"

  "Um, okay. . ."

  I asked Karin to collect my torn math test sheets, and then I dragged her along towards the teacher's room on the third floor. I explained the situation to my homeroom teacher. Karin was so scared and kept apologizing. My homeroom teacher understood and forgave me; he already recorded my score beforehand, so this won't affect my performance whatsoever. And then we leave the teacher's room.

  We walked through the school halls, and I walked in front of her, so I started to scold her.

  "*Sigh* I'm so glad everything works out. Please don't do that again, Tsukiya-san! I understand your passion, but that was out of line. You're trying to sabotage me?"

  . . . .

  I was confused by her lack of response, so I turned my head towards her and was surprised to see how genuinely sad she was.

  "(Wow, now I feel guilty even though I am 100% in the right here.)"

  Karin bows her head all of a sudden with the sincerest gesture that I've seen of her.

  "I genuinely apologize for my action! That was so unbefitting of a princess like me. Please excuse me, Fuki-san!!"

  ". . .um okay! Please don't ever do that again!"

  "Of course!"

  And then Karin walks past me. After only a few seconds, she turned around towards me again.

  "Fuki-san, remember this! This will be the last time I'll ever lose to you! I promise!"

  She was suddenly motivated, and that got me motivated too.

  "And I won't ever lose to you even until graduation!!"

  And so from then on, for every test we got, we always compared our scores to each other. And thankfully, I have always been winning. Although I have to say it was so scary seeing how even though she always lost, she ALWAYS had 1 point difference from me. It felt like she could get the better of me each time, and it kinda stressed me out.

  At first, she was the only one who kept coming to my class, but eventually, I also came to her class first by my own. This keeps happening to the point that our name got big and our rivalry became a fact known by everyone in school, regardless of their age and position. We became known as the two exam monsters. Our test scores are so far beyond everybody else that there was no room for everyone else at the top spot except the two of us.

  And then the final exam comes. It's time to settle our scores once and for all. To prepare myself, I excuse myself from the study group sessions with my classmates to study on my own. Thankfully, I have the best of classmates. They all understood my intention and respected it. Not to mention that compared to the first few weeks when school began, all of my classmates have become capable on their own regarding their test scores. Now, all of them struggled to get below 85 points.

  There were two weeks’ time until the final exam, and I spent my days, day and night, purely just to study. My parents happily accommodated my passion in my studies. They don't bother knocking on my door unless it's time to have dinner or lunch. I am grateful to have such understanding parents.

  2 weeks have passed, and it's time to give it my all. I did all I could during the exam. After an entire week, the finals are done. I was exhausted, but for good reasons. The final scores will be announced 3 days later. For the time being, we have 3 entire days to rest. My classmates, however, take no time to rest; they immediately invited me and the entire class to go karaoke. I accepted, of course, how could I reject my lovely friends to go have fun? We went to karaoke for 2 hours and sang our lungs out to celebrate all of our efforts for the finals.

  3 days later, the results are in. As I stepped foot on the school gate, I was filled with extreme caution and extreme excitement. I ran up to the school board, and everyone was already bundled together in front of it. I squeezed through multiple students until I could find where my name was.

  *!*

  I was shocked. I was ranked 1 again, but at the same time, Karin was also ranked 1. I checked our total scores, and we both stand at 998, the same exact score. I immediately tried to run to my class to tell my classmates. But when I was about to run up the stairs, Karin was running down the stairs. We almost crashed into each other, but luckily, we didn't.

  "Have you seen your scores, Tsukiya-san?"

  "I did! Have you seen yours, Fuki-san?

  "I just did! Looks like we both stand at the top equally now!"

  "Don't be slacking off now, Fuki-san! I promise I will beat you before graduation!!"

  "Of course! And I promise I will stay on top right until graduation."

  We did a fist bump, and then we went our own way. I went to my class and celebrated with my classmates.

  And then when I reached the 2nd year in high school, not much significant happened. My classmates and I became as close as ever, teachers have started to favour either me or Karin as their favourite students, and my rivalry with Karin also continues. I also haven't lost even once to Karin on my test scores; however, she's been getting the same score as me more often, so she's been tied with me for a long time. Even right at the final exam in my 2nd year, Karin and I had the same exact rank and total scores again. It felt like deja vu seeing the same thing happen this year.

  And then, when I reached the 3rd year in high school, one of the most important things in my life happened during this year.

  "Ah, I'm finally in my third year here! The famous Neo is now officially a big senpai as well! This will raise my reputation even higher than before!!"

  I participated in the beginning-of-semester ceremony this year. Me and Karin were tasked to give motivational speeches as both of us have been dubbed the two role model students at school. I gave my speech flawlessly, and so did Karin. The entire auditorium clapped and cheered at our performance. And then the headmaster gave a few words before officially starting this year's semester and dismissed everyone.

  There was a crowd outside the auditorium waiting for me and Karin. It was all the girls and some boys students from the newest underclassmen. Me and Karin immediately became famous amongst them. They said we looked so perfect together that we were what they called the perfect couple. To be honest, that made me feel conscious towards Karin, though I didn't know what Karin was feeling back then.

  We tried to greet every single student from the crowd, but there were so many of them. We also tried to run away by making up excuses, but we didn't because we felt so guilty when they all looked at us with such respect, sincerity, and admiration in their eyes. But then the school bell conveniently rang, signalling the start of the school day, so we got to say goodbye to them. We immediately dismissed to go to our classrooms quickly.

  When Karin and I were about to walk up the stairs to our class on the third floor, I realized I didn't have my phone, so I asked her to go ahead of me. She told me to be quick and left. I ran back to the auditorium, thinking maybe I left the phone there either during the preparation for the speech in the backroom, or my phone got pushed out of my pockets during the crowds from earlier.

  But before I reached the auditorium, I met someone in the school halls on the first floor. It was a female student. She turned her head around and offered me a familiar item belonging to me.

  "Senpai, is this yours?"

  That girl has blue hair that was tied in a ponytail. Her hair length was just above her shoulders. The girl has a pair of clear blue ocean eyes. She was 150cm and weighed 42kg. Her bang splits in the center of her forehead. She wore our school uniform, so she must be a new underclassman as well. The girl had a very lively expression on her face. The girl's name was Miage Yuki.