A week after their disastrous first meeting, Isabella made one decision: she would never again let Christian look superior in front of the class. Not out of spite, she assured herself, but because she refused to get used to being in second place.
The opportunity came sooner than she expected. Professor Wirawan announced that every student would have to present a brief case-study analysis the following week. Students would be chosen at random from the attendance list, and the presentation would count as extra credit before the final exam.
Isabella was assigned Monday, two days before Christian's turn on Wednesday. She spent the entire weekend preparing her material, reading more supplemental journal articles than usual, and even asking an upperclassman who had already graduated with honors to review her analysis outline.
On Monday, she stood in front of the class with polished slides, comprehensive data, and an argument organized logically from beginning to end. Her voice was firm, without the slightest trace of hesitation—exactly the way she always practiced whenever she had to speak in public.
"A solid analysis," Professor Wirawan said when she finished, nodding with satisfaction. "The data is comprehensive, and the structure is clear. Eighty-eight."
Isabella smiled in relief as she returned to her seat. An eighty-eight was a good grade, one of the highest in the class so far. She glanced toward Christian, who was sitting in the front, curious about his reaction, but he only gave her a slow nod and a faint smile, as usual, offering no clue what he was thinking.
Wednesday arrived sooner than Isabella hoped. She sat in her usual seat, slightly nervous despite refusing to admit it, waiting for Christian's name to be called.
Unlike Isabella, who had brought polished slides and detailed notes, Christian carried only a small sheet of paper covered in key points. He stood at the front of the class with his hands in his pockets, as if he'd just been asked to tell a story instead of present an academic analysis.
"My case study is about pricing strategies in the retail industry," Christian began, his voice relaxed but clear. "But I don't want to just explain the theory. I want to show you why that theory so often fails in the real world."
The class immediately looked more interested than usual. Even Professor Wirawan, who normally kept a neutral expression throughout student presentations, leaned slightly forward.
Christian continued, explaining the case study in a storytelling style and weaving in real examples from his internship at his previous campus. Every so often, he tossed a rhetorical question to the class, making the atmosphere feel more lively than it did during most other students' presentations—including Isabella's.
"So," Christian concluded, "theory is important. But if we don't understand the real-world context, we'll just keep repeating the same mistakes as the companies I discussed earlier."
The class applauded, something that rarely happened during an ordinary presentation. Isabella joined in, though with a confusing mix of emotions she couldn't quite explain.
"Excellent," Professor Wirawan said, smiling more broadly than usual. "It's a bold approach, and you managed to make the class truly listen instead of merely take notes. Ninety-two."
Isabella held her breath for a moment. Ninety-two. Four points higher than hers, even though Christian's preparation had clearly been much simpler than her own.
After class ended, Isabella deliberately slowed her pace, waiting until most of the other students had left the room before approaching Christian, who was organizing his bag.
"You only brought one sheet of paper," she said, trying to sound casual even though the curiosity in her voice was obvious.
Christian turned, slightly surprised to see Isabella still in the room. "Yeah. I don't like reading from slides. It feels like I'm reading a fairy tale to little kids."
"But you got a higher grade than I did."
"That doesn't mean your way was wrong," Christian replied, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Your preparation was obviously more organized than mine. But I think people remember stories more easily than data."
Isabella fell silent for a moment, processing his words. She had always believed that thorough preparation and comprehensive data were the keys to a successful presentation. But watching Christian get the entire class genuinely engaged, she began to realize that something had escaped her notice all this time.
"Are you always this confident about the way you speak in front of people?" she asked, half curious and half still unwilling to admit she was impressed.
"Not always," Christian answered with a small smile. This time, it looked more honest than the teasing smile he usually wore. "I get nervous every time I go up there too. I just learned how not to let it show."
His answer surprised Isabella. She had always thought of Christian as completely self-assured, as if nothing could ever make him doubt himself. Hearing that simple confession made her see him from a different angle—slightly more human, not merely a rival who always appeared perfect.
"In that case," Isabella said quietly, "you do a good job hiding it."
"So do you," Christian replied, looking at her for a moment before finally walking toward the door. "I can always tell when you're nervous before a presentation, even though you try so hard to look calm."
Isabella stood motionless, watching Christian's back disappear down the school hallway and thinking about how she had never realized there was someone who had been paying such close attention to her all this time.
All the way home, she kept thinking about Christian's last words. Not because she felt cornered, but because, for the first time, she felt that someone saw her as more than the perfect No. 1 student on paper—as a person who, just like him, had nerves and doubts she had kept tightly hidden from everyone around her.
That night, while writing her own presentation evaluation as she always did after speaking in front of the class, Isabella stopped halfway through. Normally, she would write down technical points: which sections had been less smooth, which data needed to be added, and how she could make sure her next grade was even higher.
This time, she wrote something different.
Christian makes people believe in his story, not just his data.
She stared at the sentence for a long time, trying to understand why she had felt the need to write it down when it was not something she would normally record. Slowly, she closed her notebook, realizing that this rivalry was beginning to take her somewhere she had never expected—not merely toward determining who got the higher grade, but toward seeing herself differently, all because of one person who had shown up in her class uninvited three weeks ago.