Sangwoo waited for Jang Jaeyoung with three bullets loaded1. He didnât expect the day would come when heâd want to see him. Now, Sangwoo couldnât wait to see Jang Jaeyoungâs flustered expression. He sat in the fourth row, at the second seat on the right, and waited. His textbook was open, but, these days it was just a habitual setup that didnât mean anything.
Even if he was the TA, Jaeyoung hadnât even arrived after the professor did. Sangwoo had turned his body to look at the back entrance, but there was no red padding among the students who were rushing in.
âWhere are you looking? Iâm right here,â said the man with his hand in his pocket in Jaeyoungâs voice.
Sangwoo stiffened. The reason why he was surprised was because he was wearing a dark green coat. Moreover, he wasnât even wearing glasses.
When the man who had occupied the most perfect seat in the classroom in advance sat down, Sangwoo felt seriously confused. The mere fact that he didnât wear red padding made him feel like his data model was broken. Anyway, whatever it was he was wearing on the outside, it was clear that he was Jang Jaeyoung. So, Sangwoo took out the first bullet he had prepared, the divider, and placed it on his right side. He heard laughter coming from behind the yellow cardboard.
âYou probably know that the skits start next Thursday. Iâd like to start preparing during this class.â
He was aware of this, as it was written in the syllabus. The task of two people presenting a three-minute short play in Chinese was an important assignment that accounted for 20% of the total evaluation. The professor handed out the assignment to the first row of students (it wasnât done by the TA) and used the projector to display the pairing list.
âItâs a list of the skit pairs and the order of the presentations. It would be disadvantageous to have an early presentation date, but it will be considered in the evaluation.â
While looking through the list, Sangwoo found his name. The problem was the name next to it.
Choo Sangwoo (Computer Engineering), Jang Jaeyoung (Visual Design)
3/14 (Thursday) Presentation
ââŚâŚ.â
Out of the over 30 students, not only did he have to be paired with him, but they also had to present first, which was on Thursday the following week. When Sangwoo raised his hand, the professor looked at him.
âDo you have any questions?â
âIf I canât proceed with the team because I donât like the team member, would I be able to change it, professor?â
She replied with a frown.
âNo, some students are better and some are lacking. You have to use teamwork to overcome that. I was afraid people would ask this, so I asked the TA to choose at random. So you donât have to worry about it being unfair. Do you have any other questions besides changing groups or presentation dates?â
âThat bastardâs got a problem with fairness, professorâŚ.â
She cut him off so firmly that Sangwoo lost the courage to ask more. As he had already been branded by Professor Choi of the âEmbedded Systemsâ class, he kept quiet because of the anxiety that heâd stand out here as well. At that moment, the divider collapsed like a scarecrow and fell to the floor. Jang Jaeyoung, with his chin supported in his hands, had a strange smile.
âJust trust your hyung. Iâll carry you.â
âShut up, please!â
Sangwoo stuffed the useless divider into his backpack.
He waited a little while before he got his handout. Sangwoo kept the paper before Jaeyoung left, and wrote down his student number and name on the top left.
âThere are some expressions that you learned in âBeginnerâs Chinese,â and some that are more advanced. You can use these 100 sentences to form a skit. Now, meet your partners and discuss with them.â
Sangwoo read the handout diligently. About 30% of the sentences were stuff he had memorized in the past, so he could already understand their meaning.
Sangwoo got an A in his âBeginnerâs Chineseâ class during his freshman year. He had perfect attendance and got a full score on his exams, but many points had been deducted from the skit and the oral exams. Therefore, in order to get an A+ this time, all he had to do was to get as many points as possible on the skit.
Since he wasnât taking that many classes, he had plenty of time to practice, but if he had a problem, it was that he had a partner who would do anything to hold him back. However, Sangwoo did not worry too much. In the worst case, he was planning on just playing both roles during the performance. Either way, the syllabus stated that they would be scored individually.
He opened his notebook and wrote down his ideas. He was going to do it alone, but Jaeyoung dragged the desks that were side by side and moved so he sat back to front with Sangwooâs desk. Without looking at him, Sangwoo said:
âThere are many expressions to ask and answer about locations, so letâs use a set-up where we help Chinese exchange students who came to Hanguk University with directions. Iâll play the Korean, so sunbae should be Chinese.â
Even though he wasnât waiting for a response, Jaeyoung muttered as if he had been waiting.
âThatâs hella fucking cheesy. I would have been in big trouble if I made a game with you.â
ââŚâŚ.â
Come to think of it, he always criticized Sangwoo for his lack of creativity. While he said that âYachae Manâ wasnât fun, he also told him that he lacked imagination on two separate occasions. He had even given him zero points in the originality category in the acrostic poem evaluation.
âThen come up with an idea.â
Sangwoo threw his sharpener onto the notebook and leaned back on the chair as Jaeyoung always did. Then he felt like he was doing something with his arms crossed. After looking through the handout of Chinese sentences, Jaeyoung said:
âLetâs talk about voice phishing during the Qing Dynasty.â
âWhat?â
âAt first, weâll sell things at the market. How much is it? Itâs 100,000 won for two clusters of grapes.2 Itâs too expensive. Please stop. Violence is an illegal act. Please exit through that door. Letâs use all kinds of buy and sell expressionsâŚâ
Sangwoo, who was getting ready to snort, gradually fell into the story.
âTodayâs income is 0 won. I am very poor. I have no money. Use these expressions⌠Iâve sold all my stuff. I bought a phone with the remaining money. The remaining money is 0 won. Iâll write thisâŚOh, hereâs a good one. Iâm a swindler.â Jaeyoung continued.
Sangwoo began to organize the plot in his notebook by checking the sentences he mentioned in the handout.
âIâm calling with a cell phone, ring ring. Wei3? I am with your son. Give me 10 billion won please. He can go back home. Then the person answering the phone says this. I am unmarried. Youâre a swindler.â
âAnd so? What about the ending?â
âNot sure, what would you prefer?â
Sangwoo thought hard about it, but he couldnât think of what the peddler, who failed to voice phishing in the Qing Dynasty, would do. At bestâŚ
âYou starved to death because there was no rice?â
ââŚyeah, thatâs very you. Thereâs a good expression here. Iâm hungry. Please give me food. Expressions about dying are not on the list, but itâs fine if we use that. Iâll bequeath the phone to my younger brother through my will.â
Sangwoo organized the contents and read through it once. Although the material looked a little strange, it contained an appropriate amount of both easy and advanced expressions. Then he had a question.
âWhy the Qing Dynasty in particular?â
âThat professor is a history buff on the Qing Dynasty. If we show up wearing outfits from the Qing Dynasty and Chinese queues, weâll probably get a perfect score.4â
He had been wondering why those items were included. In addition, the allocation was extremely high, considering that 50% accounted for âIntonation/Pronunciation/Fluency,â and 30% for âLevel of difficulty/Relevance of lines/Grammar.â When Sangwoo made a face indicating that he couldnât understand, Jaeyoung said:
âSheâs a professor in our club, so I know her well.â
âWhat club is it?â
âThe theater department.â
Sangwooâs mechanical pencil lead snapped and broke. It was unintended, but it hit Jaeyoungâs face, so he frowned and rubbed his cheek with his hand. Sangwooâs walk had inevitably been stopped because of the theater departmentâs schedule. Even that was a hoax.
Sangwoo turned away from Jaeyoung and began to make lines as if pretending that he wasnât sitting in front of him. He only wrote down the Korean meaning of the sentences he didnât know, and copied the sentences he knew or that were on the list. Jaeyoung was quiet for some reason.
ââŚâŚ.â
Except he was too quiet to the point where it bothered him. It was normal for him to slap the desk, mock him, noisily hand over the book, or do something, but he didnât do anything. Sangwoo looked up because things felt out of place. Then, he met Jaeyoungâs eyes, which were very close to him. He was staring at Sangwooâs face, with his chin resting on the back of his hands.
âThatâs amazing.â
He said that and kept staring. Sangwoo immediately lowered his head and moved his pencil.
âWhatâs amazing isâŚ.â
Jaeyoung whispered very quietly: âWe found something in common.â
There couldnât have been such a thing. Sangwooâs face creased at the unpleasant words.
Jaeyoung laughed quietly: âLook at your expression. I meant the handwriting.â
Sangwoo was shocked in a different way. He had never considered himself good at writing, but he didnât think that his writing was that messy:
âDonât disturb me.â
âSangwoo.â
He called his name in a low and friendly voice. After two days of crazy harassment, it was funny that he pretended to be nice now.
âYouâre so cool, arenât you?â
Ignore.
âI donât think there are any grudges. Youâre sitting face-to-face with a scum, thug, sadist, and weâre even doing assignments together.â
Ignore.
âSangwoo.â
Ignore.
âWhat do you think of the word ârevengeâ?â
Ignore.
âThere has to be some degree of emotions involved with that too, right? It seems like I am like a fly to you, so you wish I would just get out of your way. Donât you?â
Ignore.
âDoes it taste good when you chew on hyungâs words?â
âWe donât have a bastard bully in our family.5â
âYouâre starting to go too far, you cunt.â
âIâm working on this. Please be quiet.â
âIf you do me a favor.â
âI donât want to.â
âTake off your hat.â
It was a rather absurd suggestion. Sangwoo raised his eyes and saw Jaeyoung with his chin still resting on the back of his hands. He thought the way he was looking at him was a new kind of mockery, but his face just looked brazen. Sangwoo decided to ignore him.
As soon as he finished writing the last line, Jaeyoung took away his notes. He reviewed his lines in a condescending manner, saying, âI see,â or âbetter than expected.â Then he wrote something down with Sangwooâs pencil.
There was no space in the notes that Jaeyoung handed back. He filled in the lines with Chinese characters in parts that Sangwoo had left blank.
âWhy is he like this?â
Sangwoo felt flustered. Come to think of it, he had written down the contents of the skit, and today he was only cooperating, not even interrupting. Did he decide to stop harassing him?
âWhatâs up?â
âWhat?â
âYouâve been chasing me all the way to the end of the world to harass me, and it seems that youâve settled your grudge in two days.â
Jaeyoung had been doing this and that. He had been a worthless bully and an immaculately-dressed restaurant part-timer. Then, after heâd gotten angry while cursing, heâd been all smiles, then chased after him like he wanted to kill him. Then, heâd made him do acrostic poems and then after following him around and harassing him, heâd helped with the team assignment. Jang Jaeyoung was the strangest person Sangwoo had ever come across in his life.
âHowâs the story going?â
At that moment, he heard the professorâs voice, who had been walking around and surveying the studentsâ progress. She approached them and raised her eyebrows appraisingly.
âOh, paired with Jaeyoung, huh? There wonât be any problems here.â
âNo, professor. Sangwoo here did everything.â
Why is he like that?
Sangwoo felt flustered by the unexpected response. The professor looked at Sangwoo with fond eyes.
âOkay. Letâs see what kind of lines Sangwoo wrote.â
Normally, he would have responded with the truth, âNo, Jaeyoung did the entire outline, and I only wrote it down,â but no words of praise were able to come out of his mouth. Sangwoo politely handed his notes to the professor. She burst into laughter shortly after.
âA Qing Dynasty merchant! That sounds like a lot of fun. Hahaha! Nice content. Aha! But the lines are a bitâŚ.â
Then her face, which had only been bright, gradually grew darker.
âThatâs too vulgar. Where did you learn to swear like this? Jaeyoung! You wrote it, right?
The professor stared at Jaeyoung and saw that he was empty-handed. It was Sangwoo who held the mechanical pencil. The professorâs scornful gaze shifted from Jaeyoung to Sangwoo.
âCorrect the lines. If you present it like this, youâll get 0 points. Do you understand?
ââŚyes.â
Sangwoo was forced to respond that way as the professor was glaring at them. Jaeyoung grinned after the professor handed Sangwoo back the notes and left. Sangwoo clenched his teeth and erased Jaeyoungâs writings.
âI have some grudges, unlike you.â
Afraid that there would be light traces left, Sangwoo meticulously erased his writings.