Lookism:Legends

The cold air of early spring swept through the courtyard of J High as students returned from vacation, groaning about the one thing no one missed:

Midterms.

Jalen Creed stepped out of the Rolls-Royce, dressed in a sharp black school jacket with the sleeves casually rolled up. His frame had filled out cut and defined. He was still lean, but now there was unmistakable power behind the elegance.

Girls swooned. Boys whispered. But Jalen barely noticed.

He had one thing on his mind.

Midterms already…?

He wasn't worried. Not even a little.

Flashback – One Week Into Winter Vacation

Jalen was mid-workout, sweat pouring down as he held a plank with one arm and shadowboxed with the other, when his butler.

Mr. Hayashi stepped in with a deadpan look.

"You will now study."

Jalen, mid-rep, blinked. "What."

"You're the heir of the Creed family. Not a caveman. Your father said 'muscles without intellect are cheap muscle.'"

Jalen scoffed until he saw the stack of textbooks.

The next few weeks became a brutal routine: morning training, noon combat, evening studying, and late-night Samdak breakdowns.

But something strange started happening.

He started retaining everything. Like flipping through a book and having the pages tattooed onto his brain.

This body… it learns just as fast as it fights.

Present Day – Midterm Exams

Students filled the classroom with tension as the test sheets were handed out. Jalen sat in the middle, casually flipping his pen through his fingers.

The teacher gave the signal.

"Begin."

Across the room:

Daniel Park, eyes red from splitting time between two bodies, cracked his knuckles and leaned into the test, slightly late but still confident.

Jay, the stylish enigma, moved quietly and efficiently.

Jiho, ever the try-hard, chewed on his pencil with a mixture of stress and obsession.

Meanwhile, Jalen finished the first section in ten minutes.

His memory was a vault. Every page, every diagram, every formula downloaded and executed.

When the final bell rang and the papers were handed in, the results were clear:

First to finish: Jalen Creed.

Second: Daniel Park.

Third: Jay.

Fourth: Jiho.

Daniel turned to him after class, half-joking, "Don't tell me you studied during vacation?"

Jalen smirked. "I don't really forget things."

Daniel blinked, then chuckled. "Of course you don't."

As Jalen walked down the hall, he thought to himself:

I used to fight with instinct.

Now I fight with intelligence too.

This body… it might really be perfect.

And somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear Gun's voice

"Let's see how far you go, copycat."

Next stop: The real threats.