To Live Again, For the First Time!

It was his little sister who had insisted he learned that material after all.

How could he possibly find the face to not know the material that his younger sister already knew?

Where would his pride as an elder brother go?

Even if he didn't want to learn it, he had to want to learn it!

There was no second nor third option.

He either had to learn it or he had to learn it or he had to learn it.

Well, those were his second and third options.

Anyways, now that things had already developed to this point, there was only one more thing for Theo to do.

In this case, learning was just like bitter medicine.

Now that he had already drunk it, as an unscrupulous person, of course, he would want others to drink it as well.

If they didn't drink it, then he could just force it down their throats.

This feeling of schadenfreude was great!

[What, you thought that he was going to say something about bitter medicine being good for you? Ha! Ha! How funny. *Insert fake smile :)*]

Join in the suffering, he thought as he tutored his compatriots.

Companions for life, am I right?

He didn't want these people to give in mid-way!

"Anyways, let's leave that at that."

Thankfully, after that summer, there weren't many more like it.

He dove into swimming afterward, and Emilin could only admit that exercising was really good for the body, and one couldn't just sit in front of books all day.

Not to mention, that would solve half of Theodore's near-sightedness problem that Emilin had been wanting to help with.

Theo had inadvertently learned that trick from his big brother Nathen.

That was also one of the reasons why the two of them ended up becoming so fit.

6 and 8 packs were nothing when stacks of textbooks were on the other side of the scale.

Did these people really think that these abs came from out of nowhere?

Dream on!

They came from the fear of becoming a bookworm with a Ph.D. education by 10th grade!

Theodore said those words as those distant memories of him cramming in information in the blazing summer started to fade into oblivion.

It was a good skill, to be able to stop thinking about the things one wanted to stop thinking about.

A skill that most ordinary people didn't have.

Meanwhile, Jenna was still stuck at the revelation that Theo too had a day when he had to study hard to learn information.

Even if those days were much earlier for him than they were for her.

Ah, how refreshing a thought.

So he too had this day!

Instantly, her impression of Theodore's little sister, whom she hadn't even met, rose by a degree or two.

After all, Emilin had been the only one that could confront Theodore without even trying, at least from Jenna's perspective.

But then she froze.

Sh*t.

It couldn't be that this guy didn't learn shit for the other four years in which he was in high school right?

Then does that mean that he had 4 more years than I did learning college courses?

CRAP!

Jenna's whole body suddenly deflated.

How could he even catch up anymore?

Can you not leave some room for other people's livelihoods?

And though Jenna abhorred the thought of what kind of answer would end up coming out of Theo's mouth, she still had to ask.

"Then that means your current studies are around...?"

She asked meekly as if the answer would take away her last breath while the soft winds could possibly blow her ashes away.

Theodore thought about it for a bit.

He was about to open his mouth to voice his answer, but when he saw Jenna's defeated appearance, he closed his mouth again and decided to hold back.

He knew well what a studious and determined person Jenna was, it was as if there were a fire raging in her eyes and in her heart.

How could he have the heart to smear her efforts?

No matter how much he enjoyed other's sufferings, he still knew of limits.

"It should only be around our 4th-year courses."

Theodore said with some uncertainty after some contemplation.

That was low enough, right?

Meanwhile, Jenna was about to pull out her hair while Kayden's eyes were also twitching.

Brother.

Do you even know how to use the term ONLY?

What do you mean ONLY??

What more do you f***ing want?

We're over here working our asses off to barely get the grades we want for our 1st-year courses while you're over here... having ONLY mastered your 4th-year courses.

Kayden almost wanted to turn around and leave for a second right then and there as he pondered on the fact that he was even slightly older than this son of a nice person.

But what could he do?

It wasn't as if he was in the dark beforehand.

At some point, before this point in time, he had already come to terms with such thoughts.

It wasn't particularly hard as even in his own family friends, he was surrounded by abnormal people.

Jenna also finally gave up.

There was no point in comparing with this person.

Wouldn't she just tire herself out?

Now she finally understood why there was a documentary about people who committed suicide when going to these top universities in the past because of the pressure.

It must be because of these types of students that you simply couldn't compare to.

But since she had already found out that she couldn't compare, Jenna could just spare herself the effort and trouble.

She didn't want to die young after all.

A weight was immediately lifted from Jenna's shoulders as she decided that she would no longer bother always comparing herself to others.

There were some things that you just couldn't do no matter how much hair and sleep you lost.

It was a matter of talent.

And she had no such talent. There was nothing she could do about it, and so she wouldn't mull over the matter any further.

If she had a chance to catch up, then she would do her absolute best, but since that light had been extinguished, she would just have to follow her original plans.

There was no need for her to feel inferior just because she was different.

There were bound to be people who were better than you in certain matters and there was nothing you could do but accept it and continue by following your own path.

Jenna, who had been pulling all-nighters felt like she was given a new lease on life.

Her eyes shone with a new light, a new amber as if she had finally left the vicious cycle that had been entrapping her.

It was an attractive look on her.

Or so Theodore, who sat across from her, thought.

Kayden, who sat next to her, making it easier for Theodore to tutor them both at the same time, missed the scene.

But neither of them would be able to miss how Jenna had changed in the following days as the whole air around her became more relaxed and carefree.

Not to mention, with her whole body and mind at a much less tense state, not only did her complexion improve but so did the results of her studying sessions with Kayden and Theo.

Theodore, as the person who corrected half of their practice mock tests, could not possibly fail to notice such a detail.

And this was a good thing for him too as he would have to grade less of these tests in the future.

But that was a matter of the future.

After that episode, Theodore, Kayden, and Jenna continued studying at this bench outside.

This was the very same one in which Kayden and Theodore first met Gen together, and now, it was their regular studying spot other than the library and one of the private studying halls.

It was inconvenient for them to study in their rooms as they were still in the school dorms, and it didn't matter if it was outdoors since they didn't have to worry about the wind in a place like Basilian.

Of course, the only problem was that under the blazing sun, the computers couldn't be seen properly, so this place was only ideal when it was cloudy, like today.

While Kayden and Jenna kept reviewing the higher-level maths class's content, Theodore was also studying his own material.

His performing arts and communication major was not there just for show.

He still had quite a bit to learn from those classes, the improv class with the ruthless Professor Thiago in particular.

Though Theodore quite liked his style, it was still hard on his students.

In the end, neither of them questioned why Theodore was still in their grade despite being able to graduate at this very moment.

Since he was staying, he must also have his reason right?

Their thoughts didn't really go much deeper than that.

But one thought that did in fact pass through Jenna's mind was somewhat unrelated.

She thought back to all those times in which their classmates would talk behind Theo's back.

While he was quite popular, in the end, there would still be jealous people, so that was completely normal.

If any of the people that thought Theodore was being way too high profile and showing off too much when sleeping in half of his classes, they would probably receive a hard slap in the face when they found out why those classes were so sleep-inducing to this man, right?

If such a day came, she too wanted to witness the scene.

After all, schadenfreude was not a feeling limited to Theodore.

Jenna smiled at the thought.