"By the way, why are you still here?"

An annoyed voice sounded from the young girl who held on to a small brush, working on the contour of another's face.

​​

"Didn't you say that the last time you went to go meet your old man that you wouldn't be able to come around as much anymore? Why do I seem to see you here more and more you lying bastard?"

This was Grace with no filter.

The recipient of her annoyance, the young man seated at the couch playing a game on his phone didn't move his gaze from the ongoing game while responding.

"That was true, now it's not," he said casually.

But before he could be scolded 6 feet under by the graceful young lady's poisonous tongue, he elaborated in his explanation, which distracted him from the game.

"I made a deal with him that I would rank at least in the top 20 of my class in the midterms in exchange for my freedom."

Noah's brows furrowed, and his hand speed increased as he was playing, but in the end, he still frustratedly put his phone down to look away from the screen that showed his failure.

"When did this happen?" Grace asked, not remembering such an event.

"After going to the old house that time around 2 weeks ago and agreeing to go to school more (aka. Skipping fewer classes), I came back a few more times, remember? It was only later on that I made such a promise. I mean, if you can land in the top 25 every time with the amount of studying you do, surely the top 20 in another few months won't be too hard right?"

Noah said nonchalantly.

But still, it wasn't as easy as he made it sound.

Not at all…

Their high school was an extremely competitive one where many of the rich put their children in an attempt for their kin to out-compete those of other conglomerates.

The gloating of the parents with high-ranking students knew no end as their children basically represented the future of their company or companies.

Then again, there were also scholarship students there to light up the competitive spirits of the other students, so it wasn't really just a school for the rich and lazy.

Though of course, the students there weren't all the same.

While those ranked at the bottom generally stayed at the bottom with no intention of working hard for grades, those at the top would very likely not budge in rank, no matter how under the weather they may be on testing day.

This was a source of pride for many parents… which wasn't always very healthy for the students.

Though of course, seeing as many of the top universities had taken the initiative to make a change, some of these high schools were slowly changing their ranking system as well, realizing that some things that were harder to measure, also had their own value.

Up until now though, the rather rigid education system still found it rather hard to change the whole way they graded, and thus only some schools had implemented extra points for the children who excelled at prespecified extracurriculars.

A list that was constantly changing with the addition of more and more skills.

In had to be known that it was no easy task to change the education system, and the big moves from the top universities had greatly shaken the high schools below.

Especially with the large high schools with great boards of education and directors with shares and interests other than the betterment of their student's education and futures who found change hard to accept for fear of losing their income.

Still, if they didn't make a change, the elite high schools who prided themselves for having students that could enter top universities would slowly fall behind, thus changes were still made.

Though many of them still had the main subjects, other things were also put into consideration.

That was one of the greatest reasons why Grace and Noah could still keep up with the rankings at their school.

Though in the end, the weight of your grade in math, English, and the sciences as well as your electives still could not be forgotten as it was by no means negligible.

To rise by even one rank in such a competitive school was already hard, yet Noah had promised his father he would do his best to rise in nearly 30 ranks.

It was unknown what he had to put on the line for such a bet.

Even so, he had some degree of confidence, most of which stemmed from the fact that Emilin, this studying god, was here.

"So you made a deal with the devil himself? I recall you being stuck around the bottom of the top 50."

Grace laughed joyously in schadenfreude.

Noah was unhappy.

First, because he lost the game, and secondly because he was being laughed at.

The worse part was that he couldn't even retort because Grace, who was in the same school and grade as her had a higher ranking than himself.

"Don't worry, I'll help you."

This time it was the girl who sat in front of Grace who spoke.

Noah's face softened two degrees as he ignored Grace to thank the other person.

"Thanks, WEIWEI, I'll be counting on you for this one. If you don't help me, I might really be doomed this time," Noah laughed.

"Can you stop teasing me already, I get it, I get it, I was being really dumb okay? I was young and naive and will you just stop already," Emilin pouted in dissatisfaction, which only made her look cuter from Grace's perspective as the person currently doing her makeup.

Even though she was supposed to scold Emilin for talking at this moment, she couldn't get herself to do it at this critical instance.

As for Noah, he laughed again but he still conceded to coax the other party.

"Fine, fine, that was the last time, I promise."

And though that promise wasn't very sincere, it was still enough to placate Emilin a little.

In front of her first two companions who she could really consider friends of around her age, of course, she would be a lot more lenient and accepting.

She was just messing around, not actually angry that the other teased her.

Somehow, Emilin actually felt like this kind of teasing was much more intimate and friendly than hearing those words that were always kind and respectful.

A special atmosphere that she hadn't experienced before was created, similar to when their whole family would tease her Big Brother Theo together.

That familiarity made Emilin particularly fond of these two people who could speak so casually around her.

"Emilin, don't bother with that bastard, all men are trash, you should just ignore them," Grace glared at Noah before moving her gaze back at Emilin to do the finishing touches on her piece of art that was Emilin's face.

Noah's eye twitched a little.

Meanwhile, Emilin found those words eerily familiar as a sense of deja vu flooded her.

Wasn't that the exact same words that her brothers used to tell her?

[Well the truth was, if Emilin were to ask them now, they would still be saying the same words, so those thoughts really shouldn't be in the past tense.]

And yes, she had just called her Emilin out loud.

That was because two weeks back after Noah discovered that 'Weiwei' was in fact Emilin from back then, he had come back a few times, even after his father had given him an ultimatum to go to school.

Then, after a few days of observation, he had determined that it would be better to simply tell Emilin that he had already known the truth because he could tell that something was weighing on Emilin's mind.

I mean... at the beginning (before she fully got into character) she was flinching when called that nickname.

Well, back then it was more like an alias, but ever since the two of them came clean, Noah just considered it like a nickname just between the three of them.

One that he would use every once in a while to tease the seemingly cold, yet incredibly warm girl.

Since then, he had already promised to stop calling her that around a dozen odd times, but as you can tell, well, all those promises weren't kept.

At this time, Noah still didn't fully understand or incorporate the moral learned from the story of the boy who cried wolf.

He didn't realize that his word may decrease in value and credibility at this rate and he would sourly regret it in the future.

But that would be a matter of the future, for now, all he had to concentrate on was the issue in front of him right now.

He couldn't be defamed and have the tag of a trashy bastard put on him so easily.

"Hey! I'm not a man yet, just a handsome and mature boy so could you not trash my reputation? I can sue you, you know?" Noah said full of vigor as if his life were on the line with no shame.

In front of someone who had no shame, one had to be equally, no, even more shameless.

It was just that Noah still underestimated Grace's true shamelessness.

It was a shamelessness that knew no end.

In a split second, Grace, who had been facing Noah with a violent expression turned around to Emilin.

Her face changed in less than a millisecond to that of a pitiful, bullied young lady.

She even rubbed her head on Emilin's shoulder like a cat and pulled on Emilin's arm coquettishly.

"Emilin, he's bullying me! Do you hear his tone? He's clearly threatening me! You have to uphold justice for me," Grace spoke like a weak, frail, white lotus.

Noah's eye twitched once again.

How could he not know what was happening here?

He was clearly being plotted against!

This was just like the scene of the consort favored by the emperor trying to get rid of a pretty little flower that had been a thorn to her side with her years of experience.

Completely trying to uproot the new beauty from the emperor's harem.

[Okay, I admit, that analogy was a little screwed up, but either way, the idea is still there.]

It was unknown who was most pitiful out of the three.

The one who was plotting.

Grace acted oh so pitifully.

The one who was being plotted against.

Noah simply didn't have the acting chops to deal with someone like Grace, who had been acting her whole life.

Or the one who knew of all the plots but still could do nothing about it as she just wanted them to get along.

Emilin wished she wouldn't be constantly put in this position, but this was the fate of an emperor with one too many consorts...

In the end, she could only pat the head of the girl who rubbed her shoulder due to the habit Emilin had gained after going to the cat cafe every day and sigh.