System Mission: Seduce the Final Boss [BL]

Was it harder than he expected?

The final exam paper sat on his desk, filled from beginning to end.

Blake read through the last answer one more time, checking the calculations to the point every word began to blur together.

Then, he placed his pen down.

For a few seconds, he just stared at the paper.

The classroom was almost completely silent. Everyone was in that strange final stretch where nobody wanted to be the first person to hand anything in.

Blake looked at the clock.

Three minutes left.

’Well, whatever then...!’

He stood, took his paper to the front, and placed it on the teacher’s desk.

And that was it.

He walked back to his seat with a long breath leaving his lungs.

Exams were officially over.

A few weeks earlier, Blake had been considerably less confident about surviving specific subjects properly.

He had asked Myles for help with several subjects, taking advantage of the fact that Myles had been staying over at his house for quite a few days.

Technically, he often got home late because of his own obligations. Still, whenever they happened to be home at the same time, Blake would pull out his notes and ask for help with whatever lesson he had missed.

It had started with physics.

Blake had been staring at one particularly horrible exercise for several minutes.

"The first part makes sense," he said, tapping the page. "I got this far."

Myles leaned over the table.

The exercise involved a suspended magnetic carriage moving through a segmented field.

The problem gave them the field variation, the carriage’s mass, its initial velocity, and the resistance coefficient of the track.

The difficult part was the final transition.

"You calculated the instantaneous force correctly," Myles said, pointing at Blake’s work. "But you’re treating the field contribution as constant here."

"It’s changing every segment."

"Exactly."

"So I need to integrate it?"

"Not over the entire distance."

Blake frowned.

Myles drew another small diagram beside the exercise.

"Separate the path into the three field intervals. The force changes at each boundary, so calculate the work contributed by each interval individually. Then add them."

Blake followed the diagram with his eyes.

"And then use the total work to find the final velocity?"

"Yes."

Blake wrote it down, but then immediately paused.

"So the resistance is applied over the entire path, but the magnetic contribution is calculated separately?"

"Yeah."

Blake stared at the page.

"Oh."

He started writing again.

Myles watched quietly.

After a minute, Blake stopped.

"I think I see it."

"You do."

"I was trying to make it one equation."

"That makes it harder."

Blake nodded, then finished the exercise.

He wasn’t suddenly brilliant at physics, even if not bad, he couldn’t exactly define himself as perfectly average at it. But the moment the structure of the problem became clear, the rest followed.

And that was how it went with most of the other subjects.

Myles never simply gave him answers. He showed him where the missing piece was, explained the logic behind it, and let Blake finish it himself.

History became manageable once Blake understood the relationships between events instead of memorizing isolated dates.

Again, it was almost familiar!

By the final week, he wasn’t studying because he was desperately trying to catch up with what he lost anymore, he was actually pretty confident and calm.

So when the last exam finally ended, the relief was almost physical.

Ring!

Students immediately began gathering their things.

Blake shoved his pens into his bag and stood.

He found Myles outside the classroom, already waiting.

"How did everything go?"

"It was alright."

"I am so jealous."

Blake sighed dramatically, then laughed.

"Well, I’m glad it’s over."

He took a deep breath.

"Truly."

Myles nodded.

They started walking down the corridor together.

Outside, the atmosphere was completely different from the tense silence of the examination rooms.

Students were pouring out of the building, talking loudly now that they no longer had to whisper. Some were already comparing answers.

Others had their phones out, calling parents or friends.

Then Blake spotted two familiar figures approaching.

"Asher. Anthony."

They joined them.

"How was it?" Asher asked.

"Over?"

Anthony chuckled. "That’s not what he asked."

"That’s all I have the energy to say..."

Asher smiled.

Things between the three of them had gradually settled after that conversation they’d had.

Normal wasn’t quite the right word.

There were still moments when the atmosphere became slightly awkward. Certain topics were avoided.

But most of the time, they got along surprisingly well, all things considered.

They could talk, joke and complain about school together (although the two overly studious guys were just entertaining Blake).

And today, at least, nobody seemed particularly interested in reopening old conversations.

"So," Anthony said, "what are you two doing next?"

"University, who do you take me for."

"I meant where, of course...!"

Blake glanced at Myles.

"We both applied to the same university."

"Same major?"

"Nope."

Myles answered calmly, "I chose systems engineering."

"And I’m doing business! It’s Alria, you know, it’s not too far from here."

"Oh, yeah, that one is pretty average!"

"That’s one way to put it."

Asher immediately blushed, stuttering. "I didn’t mean to sound like that! It’s just that you could’ve aimed way higher...!"

"Hahaha, I know, I know. What did you two choose at the end? I remember your first choice being the National Institute.

Anthony nodded. "We did apply there, it has the best bioengineering program."

"That’s pretty far away, though."

"Yeah, it’s two hours."

"By train?"

"More or less."

Blake looked thoughtful.

"That’s a good university."

"It is."

"What about you?" Asher asked. "You didn’t apply to anything else?"

Blake shook his head.

"No chance."

Myles glanced at him.

"Our grades aren’t exactly impressive enough for that."

Blake laughed.

"Exactly. We’re not top students or anything. We’re painfully average."

"It’s a shame you two didn’t apply to our university."

"With our grades?" Blake asked. "That would’ve been impossible."

"You could’ve tried..."

"And gotten rejected."

"You don’t know that."

"We know that."

Anthony smiled.

"Well, we’ll still meet."

"Exactly," Blake said. "So what’s the issue?"

The two groups would only be separated by two hours of travel, after all. It wasn’t as though they were moving to opposite ends of the country.

The conversation drifted toward their exam results, which subjects had been difficult, and what they expected their final grades to look like.

Eventually, the school began clearing out.

It was technically the end of their exams, but the school had also arranged a small closing ceremony for the graduating students. Nothing elaborate—just a short gathering, some speeches, certificates, and photographs.

Outside the gates, parents were already waiting.

Blake noticed them immediately.

Families were hugging their children, taking pictures, fixing collars, adjusting hair, laughing about how quickly the years had gone.

He looked away.

Myles stood beside him.

Neither of them had anyone waiting.

For a moment, Blake wondered if that should hurt more than it did.

Then Myles glanced at him.

"Picture?"

Blake looked at him.

"You want one?"

"Yes."

So they stood together.

No parents.

No elaborate congratulations.

Just the two of them in their uniforms, standing side by side after years of school.

The camera flashed.

Blake smiled.

It wasn’t the kind of picture people usually took at graduation.

But he liked it.

Eventually, Asher and Anthony approached them.

"Take care," Anthony said.

Asher hugged Blake.

Blake hugged him back.

Then Anthony did the same.

While well... Myles stayed there, not touching any of them.

They stepped apart.

"Good luck," Asher said.

"You too."

Anthony waved.

Blake smiled at them.

"Hey."

They turned back.

Blake put his hands in his pockets.

"Look at the path you’re taking."

Asher paused.

Blake smiled.

It sounded almost proud, almost like encouragement, but there was something else underneath it.

A reminder.

Look at where you’re going.

Look at what you’re following.

And question it.

Asher seemed to understand at least part of what Blake meant, and frowned.

Then Blake and Myles started walking.

Neither said much on the way home.

The afternoon felt strangely empty now that there was nothing left to prepare for.

When they reached Myles’ house, Blake kicked off his shoes the moment they entered.

Myles barely had time to close the door before Blake walked straight into his room.

He threw himself onto Myles’ bed face-first.

The mattress bounced beneath him.

For several seconds, he didn’t move.

Then his voice came muffled through the sheets.

"Woah."

Myles stood in the doorway.

Blake rolled onto his back.

"School is over."

Myles nodded.

"Yes."

"No more exams."

"Yes."

"No more studying until two in the morning."

"That was mostly you."

Blake pointed accusingly at him.

"Don’t ruin this moment."

Myles sat down beside him.

Blake closed his eyes.

For the first time in months, there was nothing waiting for him tomorrow, that would be an obstacle to everything he absolutely needed to do!

He smiled.

"School is really over."

Myles looked at him.

"Yes."

Blake laughed softly.

"Best word I’ve heard all year. Also a relief that my father is paying for my university... was almost worried he wouldn’t! What about you?"

"I took out student loans."

"Oh, well, not that you will ever have to worry about debt."

"Yeah."

Blake rolled to his side, hugging him.

Now, everything would have to go into motion.

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