Campus Couple
Drake, clutching his side as he sank to the ground, suddenly burst into tears.
"Hwaaaaah... hwaaah..."
"?"
I was taken aback. This broad-shouldered, square-jawed bald brute was crying over getting hit just once? Especially after trying to hit me first?
"You all right?"
"Hwaaaaaah. It hurts. It hurts so much. It feels like I got stabbed. You didn't use a weapon, did you?"
"I didn't..."
I helped Drake to his feet.
He rose with his face smeared in tears and snot, then blew his nose into the handkerchief I handed him.
"We'll go again next time, you."
"Sure. Sure. Rest up for now. You don't seem to be in great shape today."
"Yeah, that's right. My stomach's been off since this morning, and I barely slept yesterday too..."
Drake kept sniffing and making excuses, and I patted his back in a half-hearted way.
He felt a little different from the image I had kept in my head before my regression.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Classes were over.
On the way out of Soldiers Field and back toward the dormitory, the cold early autumn wind swept the sweat from my T-shirt.
A few female students whose route happened to overlap mine greeted me as they passed.
Beside me, Victor went on and on without pausing for breath.
"Sanha, what are you, really? Just be honest with me. Are you some kind of Eastern ninja? Do you ride around on a flying carpet and swing a guandao or something?"
How many things did he have to mash together in one sentence? This was a shameless bastard who could be rude as easily as he breathed.
Victor, however, remained blissfully cheerful.
"Seriously, though. You beat the professor in investment theory with your brain, then you outclassed the athletes with your body! Just tell me the truth! Are you some alien who escaped from Area 51 in Nevada? Or maybe a super soldier built in a secret lab during the Cold War?"
Victor hesitated for a moment, then added, "This might sound a little racist, but... can I ask you something?"
"Everything you've said so far has been racist. Go on."
"Are all East Asians naturally good at everything like you? The guys I know are only good at studying. But you look like a triathlete."
"I just worked out a bit since I was a kid. I went to Queens public high school, and there weren't many East Asian kids there."
That was only part of it. After my regression, I had kept up intense training all the way until entering college.
It was a promise I had made to myself: I would not waste a single day of this young body I had been given again.
Victor and I were chatting idly on the way to the dorm when someone called out from behind me.
"Sanha."
I turned around.
A blonde girl with blue eyes was looking at me.
Grace Fairfax stood leaning against the dorm wall with her arms folded.
In a calm, self-assured voice, she said, "You know who I am, right?"
How could I not?
She was from the family that owned GreenHell, the largest mineral and energy conglomerate in the American Midwest, and she was also this year's top economics admit.
Victor practically shouted at my side. "How could anyone not know you! You're the superstar of our class, Grace Fairfax! If someone here doesn't know you, are they a spy from another university?"
"Good. If you already know me, this will be easier."
"Weren't you the one who memorized over a thousand digits and won the pi memorization contest after Sanha? I remember you came in second with over three hundred digits! And in the mock investment battle with Professor Warren Cromwell, wasn't your return 7.4%!? Right behind Sanha's 35.8%, you took second place! No, wait, Cromwell Professor got 10.1%, so if you count carefully, that makes you third!"
"......"
Rude in through the inhale, insulting in through the exhale.
Victor truly was a master of casual disrespect.
As Grace's gaze sharpened, Victor shrank back a little.
"Sanha... did I mess something up?"
"No. You did fine."
I soothed Victor and stepped forward.
"I've heard your name. This is just the first time we've talked."
"Right. Actually, I've been keeping an eye on you all this time. So, I want to make you an offer."
Grace held out a sheet of paper.
It was a club founding plan.
"I'm going to start an investment club before the end of freshman winter term. The name is Blood & Guts. But it's not going to be some waste of time for desk-bound fools who just buy and sell mock stocks. It's going to be an aggressive club that hunts down anything that actually makes money and tears into it."
Blood and guts.
There really had been hedge funds in 1990s Wall Street with that kind of feel.
Names with a heavy dose of macho bravado, coined by alpha males trying to show off their animal instinct in an environment of brutal competition.
Grace's eyes glinted.
"We'll connect angel investment to campus startup teams or alumni who have founded companies and take a fee, or research small real-estate deals in Cambridge and Boston, or manage listed stocks in sector-based portfolios like a real fund. Not a club, but a real company."
It was fairly common at Harvard for a campus club to go out into the world and grow into a proper company.
Even PayPal mafia guys like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel had started out that way.
Grace went on, "My plan is simple. Before I graduate early, I'll turn this club into an actual company, something like a limited liability corporation, and bring in investment from the Harvard alumni network. Then, around the time I graduate, I'll list it on Nasdaq."
I understood what she was after immediately.
The CEO of GreenHell did not hand the company over to a successor for free.
The heirs of GreenHell had to rise from the bottom and prove their worth, elevating themselves to the point where they could independently take charge of one of the conglomerate's affiliates.
Anyone knew how enormous it was to be trusted with the presidency of a transnational corporation's subsidiary.
Grace was trying to prove her value to the shareholders so she could inherit her father's company immediately after graduation.
She wasn't saying it out loud yet, but she intended to turn the investment club she had just described into a proper company, list it on Nasdaq, sell it to GreenHell, and exit.
Then she'd stride in and become GreenHell's CEO.
...But I knew very well that her plan would fail.
I didn't know the details, but in the end she would lose out to another sibling on returns and be beaten.
Grace had no idea what I was thinking as she said with confidence, "I was impressed watching you. Memorizing pi and things like that are just child's play. But I liked the nerve you showed talking money so openly in front of Cromwell Professor. And of course, you proved your ability with your returns too."
She took another step toward me.
"If you can keep the same pace in the next mock investment, I'll officially recruit you into the club. I'll even give you equity. We can go public and exit together. What do you think?"
Grace asked it with a voice that made it obvious she wasn't considering the possibility that I'd refuse her offer.
I thought, Not bad. Building a connection with a transnational corporation here wouldn't hurt.
If I could make good use of the club Grace was planning, I could secure three weapons at once: connections, information, and credibility.
Still, I needed to approach this a little more carefully.
"The plan sounds interesting. But we hardly know anything about each other yet."
"......?"
"I think we need some time to get to know each other."
"......!"
At that, Grace flinched.
I held my ground in silence.
To begin with, the slogan "anything that makes money" was too abstract.
I needed to see the actual club operating plan she had in mind first.
Projected revenue structure, required capital, risk factors... there were a lot of things to examine carefully that a normal club would never need to consider.
Because holding membership and equity in this club could become an enormous asset later on.
And I had my own business plans as well, so this was a question of whether it would be better to do it alone or whether I should seek Grace's cooperation, split the equity, and enlarge the whole pie.
To decide that, we had to show each other our cards, so to speak.
Before long, Grace spoke in a voice that trembled just a little.
"Time to... get to know each other?"
"Yeah."
"So you mean... you want us to get to know each other right now? Me and you?"
"Right?"
When I nodded, Grace touched her chin with a hand.
Trying her best to sound composed, though with unmistakable agitation beneath it, she replied, "So you're saying... you and I... get to know each other... to that kind of extent? I don't mean anything bad by it. I'm asking because I'm sincerely curious."
"What does status have to do with two people getting to know each other?"
"It isn't... irrelevant. Even if we don't care about it ourselves... society has its eyes on us."
There was a trace of bitterness and hesitation in Grace's voice.
But I answered without much concern.
"I don't care about society's gaze. What's important is knowing exactly what I want, and then efficiently getting the things I need to achieve it."
"!"
At my words, Grace's pupils widened slightly.
For some reason, Victor's pupils widened too.
After a beat, Grace said, "I hadn't expected that answer... Do I have to answer you right this second?"
"Hm? Well, that would be nice. There's no need to drag this out, is there?"
"......"
At my words, Grace creaked as if she'd broken down.
"It's a little sudden. And surprising. I could feel it earlier during the exercise class too... You have a more savage side than I expected. That must be why you invest so aggressively, too."
"......?"
"Fine. Since I'm at Harvard anyway, it wouldn't be a bad idea to experience all the different kinds of campus content a freshman can try. I've never done anything like this before, so I suppose there's that."
"......?"
"My answer to your proposal is... yes. Let's do that. Let's get to know each other."
"......?"
Before I could even think of a reply, Grace nodded as if she had finished thinking it through.
After a moment's hesitation, she took my hand and gave it a small, gentle shake up and down.
"Then I'll write."
And just like that, she turned and walked away.
Victor, who had been watching the whole exchange from the side, said carefully, "Uh... I think you just got a girlfriend."