24 — MAKE XIGMA HIGH GREAT AGAIN, THE THRILLING SEQUEL

quiet down, kang has something to say.

—

"cha junho, i'm afraid that i must disagree with you."

junho irks an eyebrow. "excuse me?"

"i always knew that you were somehow narrowminded, but if this is really the best that you could do.. i don't think i'm that nervous anymore."

"interruption! moderator, please remind my opponent here that he's requested to ask me a question," junho raises his hand, intolerant of such mistreatment. "not to give me one-sided criticism?"

"yes, please proceed with your question, candidate number one." hangyul says, gesturing at a very enthralled minhee.

"trust me, i'm getting there." he glances at the anticipating jaemin, gaining confidence from such reaction from the latter. he clasps his fists. "i'm quite curious of your long term program, which consists of.. the erasure of olympiad qualifications and the addition of extra classes following the case."

"that's correct."

"extra classes for let's say, the whole school, because you said that you want everyone to get the same opportunity." minhee sums it all up. "you want every student to get the treatment based on their current ability. the less intelligent kids — for example, me — will be offered more extra hours just so that we could catch up, is that correct?"

"you just repeated everything that i just said earlier, but thanks for the recap."

"extra classes mean extra hours, which means extra teachers, which also means extra funds." minhee exhales sharply. "now tell me, mr. cha. where in the, 'redacted', will you be getting all that money?"

ah, so we're gonna do it that way. dongpyo glances at yohan, amazed by what had just happened. yohan almost felt the same, but a small part in him just knows that minhee's going to snap out of it and do something like this either way, even though if it sounds almost impossible.

junho licks his lips in reflex. "i'm talking about a plan, you know. its content can be slightly revised but the main idea stays the same otherwise."

"yeah? but i'm talking about reality." minhee blurts out. "this isn't something that we could simply ignore. how are you going to take care of the funds supporting a group of hundreds when even the school still hesitates on funding the current olympiad team that only consists of a dozen people or so? that's impossible."

"an impossible target requires an almost impossible plan," junho replies confidently. "i'm sure reallocating some of the school emergency funds for this particular project wouldn't cause that huge of a damage."

minhee scoffs. "you sure that's worth the risk?"

"with the results that we could get? yes, i think it is worth it."

"you really put that immense trust to our classmates that they'd win?" minhee chuckles. "you even believe that i can effortlessly win an olympiad by the help of that questionable program of yours?"

"though i consider you to be below average, mr. kang, if you were to quit lazying around like an idle individual i suppose there's a slight chance."

is that supposed to be offensive? i don't mind living as an idle individual! minhee sneers.

jaemin slightly raises his hand.

hangyul immediately calls him out. "yes! an interruption from our current leader,"

"i'm not sure if it's literally written in textbooks, mr cha, but i'm afraid that students have no rights on meddling the school's emergency funds." jaemin coolly points out. "actually, i don't even think teachers even have the capability of doing so. setting it up as a probable solution feels.. very unlikely. would you consider a better alternative to strengthen your proposition?"

"yes, thank you." junho nods at him. "forgive me for my lack of explanation. hence, this program assures parents that they have placed their children into a considerate school that cares about their children's achievements. we shall receive obligatory funds from their respective families as a return of their overwhelming appreciation."

minhee stares at him in disbelief before suddenly cracking a satisfied laugh. "HAHHAHAHAHAH!"

"is there something the matter with my statement, mr. kang?"

"capitalism. it's all just pure capitalism." minhee's voice is airy after a good laugh. "i'm sorry to pop your bubble, but some of us are just extremely grateful that we could even afford a spot at xigma. some of us still have to leave our school fee on pending! some of us are just glad that we aren't caught up in immense debt by now and you're talking about grating more money from their poor parents? wow, talk about a 'transparent' education workforce."

the audience cheer out loud listening to minhee's little rambling, to the point hangyul had to quiet them down.

"but this will work if we do it correctly. think about the results!" junho was getting quite frustrated. "imagine if we all win! imagine our school's rapid increase of achievements, the excellence! we're not milking up anyone's back account, kang minhee, we're making the absolute use of it. they will be extremely grateful to see the names of their children confirmed as olympiad winners, new residents of seoul national university!"

"yah, hear me out. we're talking about hundreds people in our batch here," minhee purses his lips. "you think that they're all gonna.. win?"

"i know that they're all gonna win."

"how many science olympiads do you even think this country holds?? i'll let you do the maths!" minhee looks at him, staring right through his stupidity. "hundreds of winners, you gotta be kidding right now. your plan is not only remotely impossible, it's an utter disgrace to common sense."

the people watching burst laughing at minhee's way of expressing his exasperation.

"like seriously though, i appreciate your effort," minhee as he tries to hide his laugh. "but.. but it's just, straight-up stupid. how can you even say those things while keeping that straight face of yours?"

junho tries to shoot back, but his inner conflict has stopped him from doing so. he only glares minhee in anger as he waits for his moment to strike.

"alright, alright, i really think that is enough to answer minhee's previous question, don't you think?" hangyul awkwardly laughs it off. "now it's time for the second part of our debate. candidate number two, you may now ask a question to candidate number one."

junho is definitely ready to spit fire. he clears his throat as he gets closer to the microphone. "i would like to ask my fellow candidate a simple question. rather than criticizing and downgrading my concrete ideas, why don't you start explaining your long term ideas instead, so that we can catch a glimpse of your, supposedly, flawless preparation?"

"i'm glad you asked." minhee let's out a light chuckle. "to respond to your previous statement, i want to point out first that i do not believe our school lacks of achievement. we are instead, lack of appreciation."

he glances at jaemin, then back to the crowd. "bold of you to dismiss the amazing potential of our fellow classmates, cha junho. if i were them, i would probably be offended by now. you said something about setting up an appreciation mural for all of the students' achievements — that, which i agree on — but what i want to point out is the appreciation given to those who excels on something other than pure academics."

"you say that we lack of achievements— in which part could you say that? a lot of us have done our parts. our lives don't just revolve around those olympiads you're so in love with. we're not obsessed by the need to be accepted to a prestigious university."

"we all have our own dreams, our own path to success. you keep saying about seeing everyone as equals, have you ever tried doing that? have you ever tried including non-academic matters into your list of 'achievements'? have you ever thought for just a second that those achievements are also worth the praise?" minhee snaps. "no, because i myself know how shortsighted you are for these things. most of us don't even care about snu, most of us just want to live."

"and those achievements that i'm referring to, the ones that are clearly overshadowed and under appreciated, like, like—" he turns around. "like yohan-ssi! professional taekwondo athlete who has a huge chance of joining the national team next year, does the school care? no! they only care about stuck-up math geniuses who thinks their good at everything— i'm not shading anyone by the way, i'm just trying to make a point here."

"and, and, and yeri-ssi!" he points at the girl next to yohan, leaving her startled. "god knows how she could get that much money from dedicated fanboys, her pictures alone are enough to buy an expensive birthday present for sa—"

yeri screams as a way to shut him up.

"i— i mean," minhee adjusts himself. "as i was saying, she makes a lot of money from taking pictures. and let's not forget our fellow friends who are doing their best to break through the idol industry, trainees! mukbangers! webtoon authors! trending tiktokers— i don't know whatever's hip at the moment but you get my point —don't you think they also deserve the same appreciation as those people who excels academically?"

"you don't need to waste more money to seek potential, cha junho. the potential's been here all the time, what you have the change is the way you see it." minhee points out. "and maybe that way, you could finally appreciate everyone as a whole. as a colleague. as an equal."

just like that, kang minhee effortlessly gets the last word. he steps back, ending his answer with a heartfelt ending statement. the crowd goes wild.

"kang minhee! kang minhee! kang minhee!"

yohan and hangyul exchange glances, can't hide the excitement in their faces. dongpyo covers his face with his hands, still loss in words. yujin stares at minhee in admiration and yeri gives the latter a respectful clap.

for if kang minhee really wants to snap,
he'll snap.

—

lolllllllll hope you enjoyed this very amusing chapter ~

150 votes for the next chap ~~

- yuehwa