3. Red Tag?

"Do we know each other?"

Miyazaki Nana's question made the cold and mysterious guy stifle a laugh while still trying to compose himself.

"You amuse me," the guy said, ignoring her question that annoyed Nana.

Of course, there's no way for them to meet! Nana would definitely be not hanging out with this obnoxious guy who tries to be cool or whatever.

But what's more surprising here is that somehow, Nana couldn't read his thoughts, unlike others. It was like, this guy's mind was tight shut for others to have a peek around it.

Not that Nana is happy with this newly-discovered power that she possessed. After all, she was still wondering why on Earth is this happening to her.

"See 'ya around, red tag"

Before Nana could even react to what he said just now, the mysterious guy just waved his hand off and went on his merry way.

O...kay? What just happened?

And what does he mean by that? It's not like they will continue seeing each other right? This school is big enough for students not to repeatedly see the same person every day.

As Miyazaki Nana continued walking towards her next class, she keeps thinking about that one particular word that guy called her earlier.

Red-tagged huh? What does that even mean?

In the end, Nana chose to ignore all of that crap and continued heading to the hallways that will soon lead her to her classroom.

Soon enough, different voices suddenly swarmed inside her head like bees buzzing in their beehive.

"If I will go to the restroom now, will I be able to make it in time for my next class?"

"Oh my gosh, Lance likes me!"

"What would I cook for dinner later?"

"I wish to go home really soon."

Seriously, all the hidden thoughts of all the students that are now filling Nana's poor mind start to overwhelm her somehow that might cause her a sudden migraine attack later on.

Nana wished to know what causes this and what is really happening to her right now. But as much as she liked that to happen, Nana doesn't know where to seek help from.

It's like, she is now trapped and can't do something about it. Nana figured out that she has no choice now but to bear with this weird power for the rest of her life.

Finally, after arriving at her next class and shutting the door with her, the noises she could hear from the hallways have totally quieted down and was replaced with the voices from her classmates' head inside this room.

Still, this was better than literally bearing for the loud swarming voices from the hallways. The fewer voices inside her head, the better.

Nana saw her group of friends, or at least she believed them to be, waving at her while she goes in her seat.

"Where have you been after ditching us during lunch break?" Watanabe Rin asked, as if she was concerned for her well-being.

But Nana knows far better than anyone else regarding her true intentions just by merely reading her thoughts now.

"Yeah, I've heard you went to the losers' area?" Ito Yui echoed, another fake friend that she has right now.

"Omg, you stepped foot in that place? Totally gross!" Miyamura Kai mockingly said like he was far superior to anyone else on the entire campus.

Among all her friends right now, the only one that doesn't have ill thoughts about her was Endo Hiroshi, her childhood friend, who's only been thinking about what games he should play after he goes home.

Before Nana could answer them all, their Math teacher, Mrs. Nakamoto, enters their room and suddenly announces that they will be going to have a pop quiz first that will serve as their knowledge check for their previous lesson yesterday.

Nana could literally hear her classmates groan in frustration which the teacher only ignored and told them to prepare a pen and paper for the quiz.

She finally sat down in her chair and also went picking up her pen and paper along with others.

Like them. Nana hasn't reviewed her notes and is now panicking about what score might she get out of this.

Suddenly remembering her newly-discovered power, what if she could use it to read her best friend's mind to fish out some answers from him?

After all, Endo Hiroshi was known to be the student who aced the exams last semester and who is now the rank 1 in the overall ranking. Even Nana is not that smart compared to him.

As much as it is considered cheating, Nana couldn't also afford to flunk the pop quiz now!

"Okay, first question..."  Their teacher already began shooting the questions at them, leaving Nana with no choice but to desperately use her powers for the pop quiz.

***

In the end, Nana got the second-highest mark in the pop quiz next to Hiroshi while purposely leaving two mistakes on her paper to avoid getting any attention.

Nana continued to use her powers on the following surprise quizzes that their teachers love to throw at their students and got the same results.

If this goes on, maybe Miyazaki Nana might end up being in the rankings by the end of this semester.