The Rude Senior
“—In that sense, the words that guiding the country is the great canon of statecraft are spot on, without a single flaw. Even if smartphones have spread and the romance of analog is gone, there was no need to toss out the elements of local gazetteers that capture a region's nature and culture.”
“Exactly! Exactly!”
Thwack!
Kim Yun-ju slammed the desk and leaned her upper body forward sharply.
“It's not just about slapping roads and public transit schedules on there with a ding! Maps need soul in them! What's the point of advanced tech if it's just plastered with ads instead of useful info for the people living there!”
Fuck, that startled me.
The smart glasses my senior was wearing had a distinctive design that was already pretty obnoxious, and her face closing in like that was more than enough to freak anyone out. She'd seemed normal enough just a minute ago, but the second maps came up, her true colors showed—no different from the game version.
“Uh, Senior... calm down.”
Her glasses had slipped down her nose from the shock, so I carefully pinched the frame between my thumb and forefinger and pushed them back up.
“Ahem!”
Kim Yun-ju cleared her throat awkwardly and leaned back against her chair.
Even the first time I saw this map nerd in the game, I'd been itching to skip her scene.
“Anyway! Thanks for coming today. At the gym orientation earlier, I was so nervous I kept bowing non-stop—I thought we wouldn't get a single new member.”
Kim Yun-ju extended her tiny hand for a shake—it was barely half the size of my palm.
“Sniff. The exploration club and martial arts club were bursting from day one... but no one even passes by our clubroom. Sob.”
Her teary eyes and the way she stacked both her hands on mine, shaking vigorously up and down, radiated relief that her unpopular club on the brink of dissolution had finally snagged a member. Though the massive monitor on the wall showing surveillance footage from around school over her shoulder gave the vibe a weird twist.
“Uh, I have plans today, so I'll head out. See you tomorrow after classes—”
“Wait a sec.”
I was about to bolt before my memorized stock of Kim Jeong-ho biography trivia ran dry, but Kim Yun-ju grabbed my wrist.
“Here. Your sign-up gift.”
What she handed me was an oval plastic case. Popping it open revealed contact lenses inside.
She's giving these out already?
“What're you waiting for? Put 'em in already.”
Her eyes sparkled with anticipation, her long hair swaying side to side.
“......”
I knew what they were for, but I played it reluctant as I popped in the lenses.
“Blink three times, quick.”
Following her instructions, a map of Park Myeong-gwan's second floor appeared in the corner of my vision.
“Ooh.”
“My Spirit Lord Transformation ability, Daedongyeojido, lets me share info with others using artificial relics.”
“You can do that?!”
I faked surprise, and Kim Yun-ju launched into another ramble.
“There's even a downgraded version linked to the server. I asked the office if we could release a map app, but they said to accumulate real usage data first.”
Cute looks, but acts like a 30-year-old who's gone through middle school boys, high school boys, engineering college, and military tech route. What kind of hybrid is this?
“So I'm basically your lab rat.”
“Don't say it like that. First-years get lost a lot, right? This'll make it easier for them. Plus...”
“Plus?”
Kim Yun-ju glanced sideways down, lowering her voice like she was spilling shady dirt.
“This is just between club members, but these lenses actually have spirit-powered comms and recording functions too. So for exams, if you hit a question you don't know, you can sneak the answer from the server database—”
“Senior.”
This girl must really hate the idea of her club folding.
“Eek! Sorry!”
Seeing my face harden, Kim Yun-ju flailed her hands in panic.
“Please don't snitch to the teachers! I know it's wrong, I'll reflect on it! Please! Huh?!”
“You're the best. I'll bring more people so the club doesn't fold.”
“...Huh? Uh, yeah?”
“Relax. I'll pick ones with tight lips.”
I patted her small shoulder and slipped out of the clubroom before she could dump more TMI on me.
“Phew. Thought I was gonna melt in there.”
It was still spring, but the map-making clubroom was hotter than other classrooms, with intermittent noise too. She thought she was hiding it well, but knowing her secret, I couldn't help wondering how she'd avoided getting caught all this time. Was it the half-assed club management keeping people away, or was Senior Yun-ju's acting not half-bad?
"Gemmy, club activities with the glasses nerd?! For real?"
The second I stepped into the hallway, Gemma, who'd been hiding her pissy expression, piped up.
"I saw it in dramas. Hang with a weeb nerd like that, and you're instant social suicide."
“I'm the one joining the club—why're you more pissed? And if we're calling her a nerd, Mun Hee-jeong's the same.”
"Why drag our Hee-jeong into this? Strip off that hoodie and dress her sleek—you and that bird-brain kid couldn't stand straight next to her."
“...I have more self-control than that, me.”
"Anyway! Don't ruin my vicarious thrill! You're not solo anymore!"
“That's not how you use that word.”
"Giggling over some lens bribe. Go lure in Shin Sua or the others already. Haven't watched dramas lately—I'm dying for some sweet romance."
Homeschooled and learning the world through TV, she apparently harbored weird school-life fantasies. I'd thought hanging out at Argo together had improved it some.
“Senior Yun-ju's key to the plan.”
Her smart glasses screamed nerd at first sight, but aside from the bad impression... nah, maybe not.
“Anyway, we need to recruit for the club before Yeom Jin-gwan moves. Let's hustle.”
"You got a ton on your plate."
“Obviously. You know better than anyone snatching someone else's stuff ain't easy.”
"Who's the thief bitch?"
“Delinquent and thief bitch—sounds like a solid combo to me.”
"...You got a mouth on you, seriously."
As Gemma said, plenty left to do. In the game, the Bastards successfully smuggled all the stuff Yeom Jin-gwan ordered because Argo anchored off Busan for resupply on March 20th. Until then, I had to cram at least three key characters into the map-making club for emergency mobilization. But first—
Whirr
Clunk
Pretending to buy a drink from the hallway vending machine, I checked the surveillance camera tailing me.
Figured she spilled that secret too easily.
That girl doesn't trust me one bit.
“Gemma. Come closer for a sec.”
"Huh? Why all sudden."
“Hurry.”
She's gonna be my partner in crime—can't have her acting like this.
“Listen up to what I say from now on.”
If a senior's got bad habits, it's only right the junior fixes 'em with full effort. Gotta establish who's in charge for a proper relationship.
* * *
Clunk
As Kim Taeyang closed the clubroom door and left, Kim Yun-ju quickly locked it.
The dopey, innocent expression she'd worn vanished, replaced by a cold, sharp one.
Texture Mapping Release
She took off her glasses and muttered. The textured graphics blanketing the entire clubroom peeled away, dissolving into motes of light in the air.
What Kim Yun-ju used was an application of Kim Jeong-ho's map-making Spirit Lord Transformation: overlaying objects with tangible graphics on their surfaces.
With the curtain of deception lifted, the real clubroom emerged.
The cramped space visible until moments ago had been an illusion. The walls blocking the way vanished, connecting to what had been disguised as an unused storage room for supplies. Combining the cabinets and dressers masquerading as furniture with the space hidden behind graphic walls, there were a total of 30 high-performance servers stashed here.
The noise was muffled using upgraded water-cooling pumps, but cooling and concealing the server heat required massive air conditioners and exhaust fans.
“Hoo.”
Kim Yun-ju snapped her fingers, and the mapping over her uniform dissolved, revealing her bare skin in just underwear.
It wasn't exhibitionism. This space belonged solely to her, and the AC alone couldn't handle the server heat.
“Student life is such a hassle.”
Kim Yun-ju flopped onto the waterbed in the corner. Her gaze stayed fixed on the monitor linked to Park Myeong-gwan's surveillance cameras.
The screen showed a male student buying a drink from the vending machine and rounding the hallway corner.
“Kim Taeyang, huh...”
She'd leaked that disposable secret to test him. If he bit and ran to the teachers for points or blabbed to friends like a loudmouth idiot, she'd cut him loose immediately. If he tried blackmailing her instead, she'd give him a proper lesson.
Not by beating him up—that wasn't her style.
Her weapon was information. Just release material to socially assassinate him.
“Boxbay. Start.”
Beep
The AI recognized her voice and began hacking and scraping everything from student records to CCTV backups from his hometown and SNS data.
That delinquent look screamed someone up to no good. If he wasn't a useful slave, she'd just discard him.
“Just needs to be dumb enough and tight-lipped enough.”
There'd been virtually no sign-ups so far, let alone anyone meeting both criteria, putting her cozy hideout at risk.
If she lost the clubroom, she'd have to relocate her treasure trove of data and secretly dispose of all the servers—impossible alone.
Her only other option: sneak off Argo. But the world outside this aircraft carrier swarmed with wolves hunting her.
Even if student wasn't her real job, she didn't want to abandon her cherished hideout—that was Kim Yun-ju's true feeling.
“Please be useful this time.”
As she muttered at the screen's Kim Taeyang—
Clank
The locked, curtained window slid open, and someone slipped inside.
“Disappointing, Senior. Can't trust people like that?”
Kim Yun-ju glanced between the monitor and window. Two identical tanned blond delinquents stared at her—one waving cheerfully from the camera feed.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“I get it's hot, but put something on. Hard to know where to look for business talk.”
The other awkwardly turned his head and scratched his scalp.
The Rude Senior End