The Weight of Responsibility

I was at a loss for words.

Why on earth would I care?

Or maybe I did. In a positive way, at least.

Every time he pulled some idiotic stunt, it chipped away at his conduct points. And those points mattered when it came to selecting the top honor students.

“No, I don’t care. So please, just treasure that precious honesty of yours, okay?”

Evey flashed a bright smile. Cyrus studied her reaction in silence for a moment before turning and walking away.

Vrrr.

Evey’s phone alarm buzzed.

A short while later, Evey sat ramrod straight on a waiting chair outside the counseling office, ready to file an appeal about her grades.

Several upperclassmen were lined up beside her, making the whole scene look exactly like patients waiting at a hospital. Even the gloomy expressions on everyone’s faces matched.

Soon the counseling room door opened.

All eyes in the waiting area snapped toward it.

A third-year senior burst out with a face streaked in tears. The atmosphere in the waiting area grew even heavier.

Ms. Bennett followed her out, rubbing her forehead with a sigh before calling the next “patient” in a weary voice.

“Evey Underwood.”

Evey stood, clutching her bag to her chest.

“You’ve been waiting a long time, haven’t you?”

As soon as Evey stepped inside, the teacher offered the usual polite greeting. Evey shook her head.

“Not at all. I know this isn’t easy work. It must be hard on you too, ma’am.”

“Thank you for understanding, Evey.”

Ms. Bennett gestured for her to sit, then took the seat across from her. Moments later, Evey’s report card loaded onto the tablet.

“Outstanding grades. You did exceptionally well.”

The teacher started with praise right away.

Of course Evey agreed. Perfect scores across every subject was something she was proud of too.

“You’re here about the conduct points, I assume?”

“Yes.”

The tip of the teacher’s stylus tapped the score repeatedly.

A glaring red minus.

No matter how she looked at it, the number made no sense.

“Evey. As you know, this category is normally capped at ten points.”

“Yes, I’m aware. Only dormitory prefects are allowed a maximum of twenty.”

That was exactly why Evey had taken on the role of dorm prefect. She refused to let anyone else steal those points.

“But negative twenty? There has to be some kind of error, right, ma’am? I’ve never once had my name written in the dorm supervisor’s notebook!”

What began as a calm protest gradually rose in pitch as emotion crept into her voice.

“I’m sorry. I just want you to double-check. There must be some misunderstanding.”

Evey quickly adjusted her tone.

“Evey, this is no misunderstanding. And certainly not an error.”

“Pardon?”

“I believe I explained this clearly when you volunteered to be prefect.”

She had heard it.

That she must behave appropriately as a prefect.

“I have never done anything shameful while acting as prefect.”

Evey lifted her chin with dignity.

“Really? Then how do you explain the unusually high number of penalty points coming out of Dormitory 3?”

“Well…!”

She thought it was because she’d ended up living in the same building as a bunch of extreme weirdos.

Still, differences should be respected. And they weren’t the type to change just because someone interfered anyway.

“They’re simply students who enjoy school life in their own unique ways.”

“Have you ever taken a proper look at what those ‘unique ways’ actually are?”

“Oh my god, ma’am! Are you seriously saying my conduct points were deducted because I didn’t babysit them?”

“I’m glad you understand so quickly.”

Evey stared blankly at Ms. Bennett’s face. She turned the absurd conversation over in her mind again and again.

That didn’t mean she was about to nod in agreement, though.

“This is unfair!”

“The chance to earn more points than others comes with greater responsibility.”

“You never said being a prefect meant playing nanny!”

“Let’s phrase it as helping troubled students adjust to school life. That is the duty of a dormitory prefect.”

“That’s ridiculous. So what you’re saying is…”

If Evey hadn’t become prefect, she would have taken first place.

Because honest-to-a-fault Cyrus had already lost conduct points multiple times for breaking lights-out.

Evey could only keep spitting out exclamations, unable to form a proper response.

Ha, what is this? How can something this stupid even happen?

What kind of school burdens a student with this much responsibility?

“I was never properly informed about any of this.”

“According to the dorm supervisor’s notes, she gave you several warnings.”

Ms. Bennett tapped the tablet a few times with her stylus, and the screen switched to excerpts from the report. She had clearly prepared it in advance to show Evey.

“……”

After reading it, Evey had nothing to say.

The teacher’s point was accurate.

The supervisor had suggested multiple times that Evey remember her position.

But Evey had…

She had flatly refused every time.

She hadn’t thought she was saying anything wrong.

But there had been a blind spot. Evey, too, had a responsibility for the path she had chosen—the path of becoming dormitory prefect.

“Don’t blame yourself. Remember what the principal said at the entrance ceremony? The school wants you all to experience as many mistakes as possible.”

“……”

“There’s nothing more valuable than the experience of fixing something. Don’t you agree?”

But ma’am, that only applies to normal kids! If I make a mistake here, my entire future is over!

Evey swallowed the words hovering on the tip of her tongue.

“Yes, I understand.”

With a hollow expression, Evey rose from her seat.

“Evey. If the prefect duties feel too overwhelming…”

“…I won’t resign.”

Honestly, she wanted to. But that would be irresponsible. It also wasn’t something a princess should do.

Even if she wasn’t a princess while she was here.

“No, but you can appoint a vice-prefect to share the responsibility. The maximum points would then be split between the two of you at fifteen each.”

“I’ll consider it.”

“Good. It’s not a bad idea. Especially for Dormitory 3. That place is rather special, after all.”

“You don’t have to sugarcoat it. No one would argue that Dormitory 3 has a bad reputation. Anyway, thank you.”

Evey offered a polite bow and left the counseling room.

She was grateful for the information about the vice-prefect position, but it wasn’t something she was actually considering. The more troublesome a task, the better it was to handle it alone.

Group projects were a disaster no matter what.

After classes ended, Evey returned to the dormitory and immediately got to work. First, she needed to remind everyone of the dorm rules again.

Evey had written down the most frequently broken rules by Dormitory 3 students and plastered the page with every meme she could find online.

All to catch the attention of students whose brains were pickled in dopamine and whose frontal lobes had stopped functioning.

It was the result of devoting every class period, break, and even lunch hour that day.

After printing out a huge stack at the print room, she carried the bundle to the dormitory lounge.

Once she had posted the rules on the bulletin board, she began handing out copies to every student she saw.

“Hi, could you read this for me?”

The reactions were… well, lukewarm. Everyone looked at her like she’d lost her mind.

But for the sake of her scores, it was a mountain she had to climb. Evey stubbornly continued distributing the rule guides she had made herself.

“If anything seems unclear, just DM me anytime. You can see my personal account there, right?”

She kept handing out papers to every student who passed by until she suddenly found herself face-to-face with a giant wall-like figure.

An ominous feeling hit her instantly.

When she looked up, sure enough…

“Quinton.”

Evey quickly smoothed out her frown. She didn’t need to deepen the emotional rift right now.

In fact, what she needed was a truce.

“Take this.”

She held out one of the house rule sheets to him.

“And I want to apologize for what happened this morning. I was wrong.”

“…What?”

“I do care about you.”