The Nursing Department Hates Hazing - Part 1
Monday, 4 p.m. The campus was strangely crowded at that hour.
I sat alone in the club room, waiting for a girl with no promise of when—or if—she would arrive.
Sunlight slanted across the desk from the window while the old fan hummed in the corner.
My 2 p.m. Fluid Mechanics lecture had been canceled. A notice on the classroom door explained that the professor had been called away to an urgent conference in Frankfurt for ACHEMA, the world’s largest chemical engineering expo. He would be skipping every class this week.
ACHEMA only happened once every three years, so the professor couldn’t refuse. For the students, though, the news was bittersweet. Relief at dodging another headache-inducing lecture battled the dread of the professor cramming the missed material into the remaining weeks.
Fluid Mechanics was infamous in the Chemical Engineering department. Seniors whispered that getting a C in it could delay graduation by a year, and the re-take list was always overflowing. Navier-Stokes equations, Bernoulli’s principle—everyone said the formulas scrambled your brain. We were only in week one, but the anxiety had already set in.
So here I was, holed up in the club room since 2 p.m. Normally I would have gone to the central library to binge-stream or headed home to game, but after last Friday I couldn’t leave this room.
All because of one sentence from Jang Eunbi.
“If I come here next week and you’re not around, I’ll just upload the video, okay?”
Those words had become invisible shackles around my ankles. I had no idea when she would show up, or even if she would come today, but the thought of what might happen if I wasn’t here kept me frozen in place. She could call my dad. She could post the photos from Friday anywhere.
Just imagining it made it impossible to take even one step outside.
Should I just shut the club down? I seriously considered it. The only member was me, there were no activity records, and the school barely noticed this ghost club anyway. One application form and it would all be over. Then Jang Eunbi would have no reason to come here, and these nightmare scenarios would finally end.
…No. If she got angry, she might upload everything anyway.
A chill ran down my spine. The photos and videos of me in women’s clothing—if those spread online, my life was finished. There was nowhere left to run.
While I was stewing in my own misery, the door burst open without a knock.
Bang!
“Hey~ Did you rest well over the weekend, sunbae?”
Jang Eunbi strolled in with her usual bright smile, long black hair swaying over her shoulders as if she were greeting an old friend.
“Uh… yeah…”
Rest well, my ass. I hadn’t slept a wink because of you.
I kept the thought to myself. I still hadn’t decided whether to use formal or casual speech with her, but even with my weakness in her hands, I refused to speak politely to someone seven years younger. So I stuck with casual.
Her outfit today was even more distracting than last time. A white crop top that left her midriff completely exposed hugged her chest tightly, drawing the eye whether I wanted it to or not. The blue miniskirt barely reached mid-thigh, and her long legs made the proportions look even more striking. It was already mid-September, yet she was still dressed for summer—or maybe she just liked showing skin. Either way, it was obvious she dressed provocatively.
With nowhere safe to look, I turned toward the window and the ginkgo tree outside. The ugliest landmark on the engineering campus had never been more useful. I’d used it last time too, and I had a feeling I’d be relying on it a lot more.
Jang Eunbi dropped into the chair across from me and reached under the desk. Before I could react, she yanked my chair straight toward her.
“Whoa!”
Inertia pitched me forward. When I steadied myself, her face was right in front of mine—close enough that our noses almost touched. Her dark eyes stared straight into mine.
“What are you doing, suddenly pulling my chair like that?!”
I tried to lean back, but the chair was jammed against the desk. There was nowhere to go.
“You kept avoiding my eyes, sunbae, so I helped you look properly.”
She said it so calmly, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
“I’ve noticed since last week—you never look at me directly, do you?”
“That’s…”
Words failed me. Up close, she was genuinely beautiful—easily one of the prettiest girls I’d ever seen. Sharp eyes, a straight nose, full lips. Especially the way her eyes curved like crescent moons when she smiled. The revealing clothes only made it worse, and on top of everything… her chest was huge. At this distance, one downward glance would give me a clear view down her top. I forced my gaze upward.
Truthfully, I’d never been good at looking pretty girls in the eye. Twenty-seven years old and still a virgin, I’d never even held a girl’s hand. Whenever I faced an attractive woman, my body betrayed me—heart racing, face burning, speech slurring, hands shaking. So I’d learned to look away entirely. It was less embarrassing that way.
Come to think of it, I probably couldn’t look my own little sister in the face either. Jiheon was objectively cute, but even as her brother I avoided direct eye contact.
“Sunbae?”
Jang Eunbi waved her hand in front of my face.
“What are you thinking about? Is there something on my face?”
“N-no…”
I tried to turn away, but she cupped my cheeks with both hands and held me still. The soft warmth of her palms made my whole body go rigid.
“Look right here. From now on, when we talk, you’re not allowed to look away. Got it?”
“That’s impossible… Fine, I got it.”
I had no choice but to answer. My ears were burning.
“Here, sign the club application form.”
She slid the paper toward me. The “Club President Confirmation” line at the bottom was still blank.
“Wait, I never said I’d approve—”
Before I could finish, she grabbed my right hand. Her grip was surprisingly strong for how soft her hand felt. I couldn’t pull free.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“Stay still.”
She pressed a pen into my fingers and dragged my hand across the paper. My signature—messy and crooked—appeared against my will.
“Hey, this is—”
“There. Signed.”
She lifted the form with a satisfied smile. My protest had been completely ignored.
“I’ll go submit this to the department office. Wait here a moment~”
She was out the door before I could reply. I stared blankly at the closed door.
The department office was on the first floor of the same building, so it only took a few minutes. When she returned, she was empty-handed and beaming.
“Submitted!”
Now the club had two members instead of one. The tiny room I’d once thought of as my private refuge now officially belonged to her too.
…I’d basically invited a tiger into my house.
“Hehe, perfect.”
She clapped her hands, eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
“I love giving advice, so I’m great at listening. From now on, let’s solve every problem Seohan University students have! Love troubles, grades, relationships—anything!”
She looked genuinely excited, like a kid who’d just gotten a new toy.
“I think you’ve got the wrong idea…” I sighed. “This is the Career Counseling Club. We’re supposed to help with job-related stuff—résumé reviews, interview prep, career advice. Not relationship counseling.”
“Oh, really?”
She tilted her head.
“All the seniors already graduated anyway…”
The truth was, the club had always been a ghost organization whose only purpose was to let members write pretty lines on their résumés about “demonstrating leadership by advising juniors.” In reality, we just ate chicken, shared old exam files, and lounged around during free periods.
“That’s even better!”
Her eyes lit up again.
“If there are no seniors, we can do whatever we want. We’ll keep the name but turn it into a club that helps with any kind of problem. Nobody cares about this club anyway, right?”
…She was sharper than I expected.
“We can’t just erase the tradition the seniors built…”
Even I knew how weak that sounded.
“What tradition?”
She snorted.
“A club that was one member away from being shut down has no right to talk about tradition. You’re lucky it didn’t get dissolved while you were the only member.”
…She’d hit the sorest spot. I had nothing to say.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone was at the door. Who? Kim Minwoo said he was busy, and the only other member was Jang Eunbi. I frowned in confusion.
She leaned in close, her lips brushing my ear as she deliberately blew a soft puff of air inside.
“Ugh…!”
A shiver ran through me. My ears burned.
“I figured most students didn’t know about this club, so I posted a little advertisement on Everytime this morning.”
She showed me her phone screen. There was the post she’d uploaded without asking.
[Advertisement] Worry Counseling Club! We’ll solve anything!
Love troubles? Grade worries? Career concerns? Relationship problems?
We’ll listen to anything!
A typical T-type engineering club president and an F-type humanities member with max empathy
will solve all your worries!
Location: Career Counseling Club Room, end of the hallway on the 5th floor of Rich Science Hall
Hours: Weekday afternoons, open all the time
Feel free to drop by~ Confidentiality guaranteed!
The view count had barely passed 200, and there were no comments yet.
“When did you—?!”
“This morning. Pretty good response, right?”
This was barely any reaction at all. She looked pleased with herself.
“T-type engineering president”? That was supposed to be me. I’d never given anyone advice in my life, and now she was claiming I’d solve people’s problems. How did she even know I was a T-type?
Knock, knock, knock.
Another knock, this one more hesitant than the first.