Orientation
The novel's setting is Earth in a parallel universe.
“Ian, the chapel’s held here.”
A-jeong whispers from where she sits on my left.
“Ah...”
What with one incident after another, we first exchanged brief greetings with the seniors for the OT that started at eleven. Then we entered the main auditorium and sat gathered by college. For the College of Commerce and Economics, that meant the front rows of the first floor, Class A onward in order.
“Eh... for the Department of Economics, the newly appointed professor this year...”
Apparently professor introductions are part of OT as well. The president’s endless remarks introducing the social-science faculty drone on without end. Unexpectedly, there are quite a few new faces. The only snag is that not every professor showed up; the seats are filled mostly by the younger ones, and among them roughly four had a blue light flash and vanish.
What the hell...
“Honey, that professor over there is Jang Hye-jin.”
Jumi points to the woman seated beside the newly arrived male psychology professor. No blue light had shone on her.
She’s pretty, I’ll give her that. She even looks a lot like Jang Ye-jin...
Still, set aside the forbidden thrill of her being a professor and my own women are far prettier. A sister sandwich with Jang Hye-jin is tempting, but it isn’t urgent right now.
“So are there talent shows or anything today?”
Jumi had been class rep last year; she ought to know the drill, so I asked. She shakes her head.
“Day one is official events in the morning. Afternoon we gather by class, grab lunch, then head up to the business-school building, meet in the classrooms for the school intro, senior intros, and the overall OT rundown. After that we go eat dinner. The real talent shows start on day two.”
“Course registration?”
“That’s day three. Day three is registration, and in the afternoon there’s cheer orientation in the gym.”
“Cheer orientation?”
An unfamiliar term. Come to think of it, almost every spring—and every other fall—students in red and blue tees sometimes throng the Independence Gate area.
“Yeah, learning the Akaraka chants, the cheer-song dances, that kind of thing.”
Tsk... useless.
Akaraka and Ipsilreptic are already burned into memory from the way university kids form circles outside the bars around Independence Gate and bellow them. Why they bother coming all the way out here when they drink in Sinchon is still a mystery.
“Don’t worry. I know it all, so even if you skip I’ll teach you.”
“And for day three, try to lock in a twice-a-week schedule. Even if you don’t take one or two classes with the others.”
“Twice a week?”
“Yeah. Commuting’s a pain. Tuesday-Thursday, or three days max—Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday like that.”
“Got it.”
Jumi snorts a soft laugh and pats my shoulder. Knowing what happens two years from now keeps making me question the point of university at all. Then again, if not now, when am I supposed to enjoy it? Only after every college dean has finished greeting us does the ceremony finally end.
“The College of Commerce and Economics will eat at the Engineering Building today. Please exit the main auditorium in order by class. Commerce Class A, leave now.”
“So you’re from Daegu?”
Lee Dong-min, a slightly skinny guy in the late 170s who said he came from Incheon, is talking to the fellow standing on my right—Yoon Jun-gi.
“Yeah. But Seoul speech still tickles my ears; hard to get used to.”
About 180, solid build, hair a touch longer than a sports cut, and a face that looks almost innocent. He scratches his head. Sporting a sports bag, he mutters beside me; the talkative type, clearly.
“Ian, you’ve lived around Independence Gate the whole time?”
Hearing I graduated from Independence Gate High, the Daegu transplant Jun-gi asks.
“No. I lived in Goesan when I was little.”
“Not a pure Seoul native, then?”
No sarcasm in the tone, so I simply nod. Realizing how that might have sounded, he quickly adds,
“I was born in Mungyeong myself. Goesan’s right nearby, yeah?”
Up ahead A-jeong and Jumi have pulled Ji-eun and the other girls into a chattering cluster. They stepped aside on purpose so I could make friends. The two guys beside me seem decent enough. In high school friends just appear; in university, A-jeong warned, you become an outcast if you don’t actively try. So I don’t brush off the ones who approach.
“You a pure Incheon native?”
Dong-min nods. He seems pretty shy; words are scarce. I glance at the guy who’s been walking next to him for a while and ask,
“What’s your name?”
“Me? Hong Jin-woo. From Boeun.”
Goesan, Mungyeong, Boeun—somehow the nearby-region kids have clustered together. Incheon’s a bit farther, but still. Come to think of it, he was walking alone until I mentioned Goesan, then latched on.
“I figured Seoul guys would all be towering, but everyone’s kinda short.”
“People are the same wherever you live...”
Surprisingly, once you hit university you see plenty of guys in the 160s.
“You guys joining clubs?”
Head shakes all around.
“Nah. Just the class small-group for now. Do we really need clubs on top of that?”
As I told A-jeong, I have no desire to let clubs eat my time.
“Why? Leisure clubs and stuff can be fun.”
“If I add clubs I won’t have any time left for myself.”
The conversation stays between the two of us; Dong-min and Jin-woo just listen. Both are quiet types. We circle the outdoor theater, cut toward Cheongsongdae, and climb toward the business-school building. The campus feels pretty big. If Yeonseo is this size, I can’t even guess how large Hanguk University must be.
“Any of you planning to retake the exam next year?”
Dong-min and Jin-woo shake their heads.
“No. Gotta graduate fast.”
Jin-woo’s low voice. I nod too.
“No retake thoughts here either. You?”
“Nope. The second I stepped off at Sinchon Station I decided I’d bury my bones at Yeonseo. Damn... the girls are so pretty...”
“I thought Daegu was full of beauties?”
“Those beauties all come up to Seoul—that’s the problem.”
I snort. Today every nearby women’s college, starting with Ewha, will be holding its own OT.
He nods, then drops his voice so only we can hear and glances around. The behavior doesn’t match the bulk.
“But are you really dating those noonas up ahead?”
“Yeah.”
The guys who went all-boys middle and high school turn red and can’t even speak properly the moment a girl approaches. Both of them. Jin-woo I just met, so harder to tell, but still.
“I keep thinking maybe we walked into the wrong class.”
Dong-min finally speaks up.
“Why? Because of those guys?”
Jun-gi points to a cluster of about ten kids—boys and girls mixed—who came from Daewoong Foreign Language High and stick together like glue.
Well, out of sixty-eight freshmen, nearly fifteen counting Ji-eun’s group are Daewoong alums...
Some didn’t show, but already the retakers and current-year kids have split, plus that Daewoong pack and the early-admission cluster. The class atmosphere is easy to predict without looking.
“That, and the early-admission kids already seem tight. But you’re early-admission too—why aren’t you with them?”
“I skipped the whole thing. Was busy with this and that.”
Busy raking in money, more like.
Before long we reach the Commerce Annex. The seniors head inside and climb the stairs. From the Engineering Building near the main gate all the way to the business school at the far edge of campus is a solid hike.
“They say there’s a business-school cafeteria, but eating here is gonna be a pain. The central library’s right in front of the student center too.”
“Business-school food’s probably good though, right?”
The Engineering Building meal had been surprisingly decent. The seniors paid and ordered soft-tofu stew for everyone; it tasted a bit like ramen seasoning, but edible enough.
“Skip it. Business-school cafeteria.”
I pass on what Jumi told me. The guys look disappointed. Oddly, I feel a warm fondness for them.
In your previous life the four of you hung around together just like this. Of course Kim Ian spent more time playing with the girls. Yoon Jun-gi was also an Awakened—and a fairly high-ranking one at that.
Not exactly a shock. Looking at that athletic build, if anyone among the eighty-odd seniors and freshmen is going to Awaken, it would be a guy like him.
Hmm... we can’t live only among ourselves forever...
They were close in the future, and he Awakens too, so even if the chatter gets on my nerves I’ll just listen for now.
We enter an empty third-floor classroom. Having walked at the rear, we claim the back row side by side. The seniors line up in front and start explaining the class small-group, the OT schedule, and so on.
Boring... if I’d known I’d have shown up late...
Honestly, arriving around two—right now—wouldn’t have hurt a thing.
Two girls sitting ahead turn around. There were six of them earlier; now only these two sit in front. From the chatter I overheard on the way, they’re also from the provinces and both retakers.
“Hey, I heard earlier you’re from Goesan? I’m from Cheongju, she’s from Gwangju.”
“Not from Goesan exactly... I moved to Seoul when I was little.”
Having even one shared background makes it easier to talk and get close.
Looks like I’m completely destined to buddy up with the provincial kids... not a bad thing, though.
Retakers, but the girl whose head had flashed blue earlier, so I just smile and answer.
“Is it okay if we drop the formal speech?”
Jun-gi asks; she nods.
“Sure, go ahead. Same year and still using honorifics just creates distance. I’m Ahn Ji-su. This is Lee Hyeon-jeong. Both ’83. You guys all ’84?”
Jin-woo shakes his head.
“I’m early ’85.”
Blunt delivery. His face has gone bright red, though—clearly low resistance to girls. Hyeon-jeong and Ji-su watch him with fond little smiles. Once the ice is broken they start chatting as if they plan to toy with the three of us.
Not all of them, then. Same level, but she touched Ji-su and left Hyeon-jeong alone—looks like she drew a clear line.
When the levels are similar she only seems to go for the ones who look pure—i.e., probable virgins.
“Our FC Brazil, as a class small-group, beat even the university soccer clubs last year and took the championship. We also defeated the club selected by Korea University before the Yonsei-Korea soccer match. If you’re interested...”
Everyone nearby glances at the sophomore promoting FC Brazil up front, clearly interested.
“Ian, you play soccer at all?”
“About as well as anyone...”
“Then maybe I’ll try for manager? They said they’re recruiting managers earlier. Should we do manager, Hyeon-jeong?”
Ji-su looks at her; Hyeon-jeong nods. Objectively they don’t match pre-change Jumi, but they’re still quite pretty. Weirdly, out of the sixty-odd in this class—forty of them girls—aside from Ji-eun’s trio these two look the best to my eye.
Only up to Ji-su, though...
I already scanned every kid whose blue light had flashed while sitting in the back. Same for the seniors. None of the looks pulled me, and with the seniors I got a strong sense they weren’t virgins. Not celebrity-level either, so why bother—that’s all I keep thinking.
“Should we go sign up now?”
Jun-gi starts to rise; I catch his arm.
“Do it after school starts. Earlier they said the other small-groups will meet after opening day in the basement of the main business building, the spot marked Commerce Class G.”
“Ah, that so?”
“But I half-heard earlier—you’re not coming from tomorrow, Ian? Not even the MT?”
Ji-su asks, curious.
Come to think of it, even without the Constellations’ help I probably would have lived without any shortage of women. Becoming a villain in the future, though—that part’s less appealing.
“Yeah. Got business in the States... back around March first.”
“Why America?”
Dong-min asks. He seems to speak only when necessary. Jun-gi turns toward me too, clearly wondering the same. No ready answer comes to mind, so I recall the text that arrived earlier.
“My father’s in America. Figured since I got into college I should go see him once.”
“Ah...”
They don’t dig further, treating it as private. Apparently satisfied, they shift back to trading personal details.
A-jeong stands and catches my eye. I excuse myself and step out into the hallway.
“Leaving already?”
“Yeah. Gonna borrow your car. Need to drop clothes off at Jeong-mi’s place, and you’re drinking tonight, right? Taking Jumi too.”
Come to think of it, Jumi had followed her out for some reason; I’d been wondering. I nod, dig the car key from my pocket, and hand it over.
“Drive careful. Once you’re done, text me—and add Jeong-mi and Emily too. Jumi as well.”
“Okay, honey.”
The two of them head down the stairs. My interest in school keeps sinking.
Do I even need to attend? I’ll have to think it over while I’m in America.