Chapter 12
First Meeting
No matter the department, freshman welcome parties were all more or less the same.
Cheap bars in Daehangno.
Even if the walls were covered in graffiti and the tables were sticky, as long as the free side dishes were generous and the soju was cheap, it was perfect.
Those bars were usually packed close together, so when the new semester began, every bar in Daehangno was overflowing with freshman welcome parties.
Hyunoh hated group activities to death, but for some reason, he was sitting there that day.
It was all because of Kim Junsang, the class president.
A few days earlier, Junsang had suddenly said to him—
“Hey. You have to come to the freshman welcome party. You have to!”
“Ah. It’s annoying.”
“I already told the group chat there’s a handsome senior coming.”
“Hey, Junsang. You’re the really handsome one.”
“Whatever. Are you really not coming? Lee Dohan said he’s coming if you are.”
“Eh? Really?”
Dohan was the type who would faithfully attend required department events, but had zero interest in anything that required voluntary participation.
Just as Hyunoh was thinking it was unexpected—
“Yeah, of course it’s true! If there’s thread, there has to be a needle, right? So you’re coming too?”
And that was how it happened.
But the Lee Dohan who said he would come didn’t show up at all.
You ㅇㄷ?
Home
You bastard, Junsang. It was a scam.
Hyunoh looked toward Junsang, but Junsang avoided his gaze and pretended not to notice.
Ah. Should I just leave?
But the timing was awkward.
He had already come, and on top of that, he was sitting right in the center. Both girls and boys kept asking for his contact nonstop.
Junsang, who had been walking around checking the mood, tapped Hyunoh and whispered,
“Oh, you’re popular.”
“…You’re dead.”
“Hyunoh. You’re the most popular guy here right now. Enjoy it.”
“I don’t need it.”
After a few drinks, everyone was busy showing themselves off like peacocks.
Only Hyunoh looked like someone who had just woken up. A cap pulled low. A random T-shirt. Gray sweatpants.
In fact, he had been sleeping all day and only came out after reading Junsang’s second message—You’re coming, right? He had simply washed his face and left.
And whenever there was a gathering of men and women like this, there were always people who treated it like a dating village, no matter the actual purpose.
Especially at freshman welcome parties, there were always upperclassmen targeting freshman girls.
These guys, who were completely out of favor with their female classmates, attended the party faithfully every year, eyes burning as they tried to catch an innocent freshman girl.
It wasn’t just the College of Business where Hyunoh belonged. Coincidentally, the Korean Literature Department had booked the same bar around the same time.
“Ah, damn!”
A male student suddenly jumped up from his seat, shouting. He held his face with both hands like someone who had just been stung by a bee.
Across from him sat a pale, thin girl with very thick, long straight hair, looking flustered.
A classmate who had gone over to the Korean Literature table to see what was happening walked past Hyunoh.
Hyunoh grabbed him by the back of the neck.
“What happened?”
Normally, he wouldn’t have cared at all.
But that day, for some reason, he was unusually curious.
The story was this:
A returning student had been hitting on a freshman girl sitting next to him. He had even pressured her to drink.
Each time, whether by accident or on purpose, the freshman spilled her soju.
At first, he laughed it off. But after three or four times, he realized she was doing it on purpose.
And she was aiming exactly at the center of his pants.
“But seriously, what kind of girl is that bold? There are tons of guys like that in college. She could’ve just rejected him politely. A girl acting like—”
“Hey. What is this, the old Joseon era? Stop talking nonsense and get lost.”
Hyunoh cut him off sharply.
Then he watched the scene with interest.
The man was wiping his pants nervously. Unfortunately, he was wearing light-colored cotton pants, so the more he wiped, the more the wet stain spread.
At a glance, it looked like he had peed himself.
The furious man finally shouted threateningly at the freshman.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Are you crazy?!”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
The girl bowed her head repeatedly, looking so flustered it was hard to believe she had done it on purpose.
Hyunoh tilted his head slightly to see her better.
Through her long hair, he caught a glimpse of her face.
And he was briefly surprised.
Despite her apologies, her expression looked… bored.
She’s really funny.
Hyunoh, who had been yawning all day with a blank face, smiled for the first time that day.
The aftermath of the “soju glass incident” at the Korean Literature freshman party moved from offline to online and dominated the popular posts on the anonymous campus forum for almost a week.
There was even a petition condemning the bad drinking culture at universities.
For a while, the girl was called the “crazy one” of the Korean Literature Department.
But whenever someone called her crazy, someone else would jump in and correct them—she wasn’t crazy, she was Joan of Arc.
Crazy girl or Joan of Arc.
Joan of Arc was also hunted as a witch, wasn’t she?
Hyunoh thought randomly.
Most gossip burns like it will last forever, then suddenly cools down like nothing ever happened.
The “soju glass incident” was the same. It was quickly replaced by a new issue and forgotten.
Hyunoh forgot too.
Since it hadn’t even happened in his own college, he forgot even faster than others.
He saw the girl again a few months later at a café near campus.
She was wearing an apron with the café’s logo.
Hyunoh wasn’t good at remembering faces, so he didn’t recognize her right away.
She was also wearing glasses now, which she hadn’t worn at the welcome party.
Back then, her eyes had seemed as big as marbles. But her lenses were so thick that now her eyes looked half their size.
So at first, he only thought, She looks kind of familiar.
“One large double chocolate chip caramel shake, please.”
“Yes. Would you like whipped cream?”
“Yes. A lot, please.”
“For here?”
“To go.”
“How would you like to pay?”
“Card.”
Hyunoh inserted his card into the terminal.
“Your payment is complete. We’ll call you with the buzzer when it’s ready.”
He moved to the pickup counter and casually looked around the café.
I’ve definitely seen that face somewhere.
The moment he picked up his drink and turned away, the memory suddenly clicked.
Ah. I remember.
That crazy (positive) girl.
Coincidentally, it seemed her shift had ended. She went into the changing room and came out after changing.
Hyunoh glanced at her once and went on his way.
But strangely, their paths kept overlapping.
Well. We go to the same school.
Until Hyunoh was almost at his destination, she kept walking in the same direction.
Unlike Hyunoh, who kept glancing at her, she seemed completely uninterested in her surroundings. She didn’t seem to notice that the customer from the café had been walking the same way as her the entire time.
Hyunoh realized she was heading toward the Liberal Arts Building, where he also had class.
Half of general education classes were usually held there, so he stopped paying attention.
But when he realized her final destination was Room 602—the same as his—his interest returned.
“Student Shin Yeonjae.”
“Yes.”
He learned her name for the first time from the professor calling attendance.
Hmm. So that’s her name.
Shin Yeonjae took a seat in a corner.
Her eyes shone brightly as she carefully wrote down everything the professor said.
Of course, Hyunoh was taking notes too.
On top of his uselessly thick and heavy major textbook—which he always tore apart and carried only in pieces—he scribbled messily with some random pen he had gotten somewhere.
Ahem.
Now that he wasn’t even writing, Hyunoh felt a little embarrassed by his clean major textbook (or what used to be one), especially compared to Yeonjae’s busy hands.
He quickly changed his thoughts.
So she usually wears glasses.
She kept pushing up her slipping glasses while writing.
She looks much prettier without glasses.
