Start of Semester (6)
Start of Semester (6)
3rd period ended. I packed my bag and stood up, suffering from internal conflict.
'Is this... really the right way to go?'
Should I keep up this mystery concept? Did I build too much of a wall against someone who approached me with goodwill? I could have just kept my distance while being polite, but maybe I'm too immersed.
But the die has already been cast.
"Adun Toridas......."
I muttered softly inside my mask and fled through the back door faster than anyone. I thought I heard Shin Ga-young calling out, "Hey, Jin-hyuk-ah!" but I didn't look back.
'Sorry. I've been consumed by the concept.'
Class rep... Shin Ga-young. Is she the same age as me? It felt like she was hinting at getting a cup of coffee. I don't know. For now, escaping this suffocating classroom is the priority.
The next class is a major. There's some time left before moving classrooms. I headed to the place where I agreed to meet Hyun-woo.
The destination was a hidden place written in the [Male Student Association Tips]. Engineering Building B1, the bench in the vending machine corner.
It was a safe zone found by sunbaenim-deul who scouted it out, a place where sunlight didn't reach well and was so tucked away that female students rarely came.
"...Thank you, sunbaenim-deul."
My heart swells with emotion. I vowed that when I become an upperclassman, I would pass this tip down to hoebae-deul who are like lost lambs. Isn't this what downward love is all about?
I saw a familiar pair of horn-rimmed glasses at the corner bench.
"Yo!"
When I raised my hand, Hyun-woo, who was looking at his phone, looked up.
"Oh? Jin-hyuk-ah. You finished early? But why are you wearing a mask? Did you catch a cold?"
"It's not a cold, I just felt like wearing it. And the professor just did the OT and ended it right away. A cool professor."
I plopped down next to him. A sigh escaped naturally as I leaned back.
This is heaven. This perfect silence where no one looks at me. Attention is only fun in moderation; I refuse the feeling of my every breath being broadcast live.
To an introvert like me, such excessive attention is no different from violence.
I asked as I opened a can of coffee from the vending machine.
"What about you? Didn't you have a liberal arts class for 3rd period too? How was it?"
But Hyun-woo's reaction was unexpected. He blinked and replied nonchalantly.
"Me? I didn't have a class."
"...Huh?"
I paused just as I was about to bring the can to my mouth.
"You didn't take a liberal arts class? I thought you said your schedule was full."
"Ah, I switched all my liberal arts to Cyber Lectures."
"......"
"It's hard to come to school, right? I succeeded by clicking like crazy when I registered at home. The competition was fierce."
He smiled brightly.
"Ah......"
A stupid groan escaped my mouth.
Cyber Lectures. Those dream lectures where you don't need to come to school and can listen in your underwear at home. I had completely forgotten their existence.
Come to think of it, during course registration, I only looked at the titles. I had mindlessly added them without even checking if the teaching method was face-to-face or non-face-to-face.
'...Am I an idiot?'
While others were filling their attendance with clicks from the comfort of home, I had crawled all the way to school on my own two feet to take all those burdensome gazes with my whole body.
"Ah..."
I was speechless from the surging sense of betrayal, envy, and self-loathing for my own stupidity.
"...Hyun-woo-ya."
"Yeah?"
"Is it... too late for the course correction period?"
"I don't know. Cyber Lectures are popular, so they're probably all full by now. It'll be hard to pick one up."
My last hope crumbled under Hyun-woo's fact-bombing. The true winner was right here. Why did I mindlessly click based only on the titles during registration? I want to beat up my past self.
"Sigh... That's just how my life goes."
I resigned myself and drained the last drop of the canned coffee. The milk is already spilled. I'll just have to tough it out this semester.
"By the way, are you going to join a club?"
I changed the subject to shift the mood. Clubs, often called the flower of college life. Of course, in this world, that flower might be a carnivorous plant.
"A club? Hmm... I don't have any concrete thoughts yet."
Hyun-woo replied after thinking for a moment.
"But I'm going to look into what's out there. It would be nice if there's something like a game development club."
He certainly has a firm dream.
"Is that so? I should ask the sunbaenim-deul in the group chat later too. If there's any place they'd recommend."
Those guys surely have something like an 'Absolute Safe Club List' in their pockets. I have to go to a verified place; if I enter the wrong one, I might end up being dragged to drinking parties for four years, shaking a tambourine.
"......"
I pondered while crushing the coffee can.
'What kind of club should I join...'
To be honest, I have no passion. I just want a place where I can get less attention. Or should I not join at all?
I wonder if there's a club that only recruits ghost members. A practical place where I can just keep my name on the roster and sleep in the corner of the club room.
Just then, the clock on my phone changed.
"It's time."
The sweet break was over. It was time to head to the classroom.
"Let's go. We'll be late for the major class."
"Yeah. Let's go."
We brushed off our butts and stood up from the bench. We had one goal.
Securing the very back seat of the classroom. That was our only sanctuary and a strategic point from which we could bolt out the back door at any time.
We headed to the Engineering Building with grim determination. Since class hadn't started yet, the hallway was deserted. This was the perfect timing to snag a prime spot.
Deureureuk.
I carefully opened the back door. I poked my head in, expecting the silence of an empty classroom.
"......?"
There was an early bird.
The problem was the location of that early bird. The very back row of the classroom. Specifically, the golden seat closest to the back door that we had staked a claim on.
'...We're screwed.'
The most perfect spot was taken. This is a bust. But there's still plenty of time before class starts. Just as I was looking around, wondering if I should find another corner.
The early bird, sensing someone, whipped her head around.
"Oh? You're here?"
A familiar face. Gorgeous features and a confident smile. It was the Computer Science class rep, Shin Ga-young.
As soon as she saw us, she gestured as if she had been waiting, clearing away the bags she had placed next to her.
"Hurry up. Sit here. I saved your seats."
"......"
I froze for a moment. That relaxed attitude as she patted the seat next to her with a grin.
'What... is she?'
It hasn't been long since we met. At most, we brushed past each other during OT, and she sat next to me for a bit during the liberal arts class earlier. We haven't even exchanged many words that could be called a conversation.
So why is she being so friendly? That attitude of naturally saving seats and calling us over as if we were best friends of ten years was too much of a burden for me, whose speed of building internal intimacy is slower than 3G.
I glanced around the classroom. It was still empty. There were corners in the front, and plenty of seats by the window. There was no need to sit here.
However.
"What are you doing? Come on."
Ga-young called again.
With sparkling eyes. To coldly go somewhere else saying, "No thanks? We're sitting over there," would... humanly speaking, make me look like a total asshole.
It's not like the other person is attacking with ill intent; they're showing kindness, and kicking that away to their face is something only a social misfit would do.
'I have no excuse to refuse, and sitting elsewhere would make me look petty...'
I glanced at Hyun-woo. He seemed flustered too, his eyes darting around. In the end, there was only one choice.
"...Uh. Thanks."
We awkwardly sat in the seats she had cleared.
Hyun-woo was at the innermost wall, I was in the middle next to him, and Shin Ga-young was on the aisle side. It was a structure where the escape route was perfectly blocked.
Once seated, a question arose.
'Why is she alone?'
She's the class rep. Just yesterday, she was surrounded by friends like a folding screen, but today she's all alone. Does she have no friends? Or did she come alone on purpose to bait us? Either way, it's equally burdensome.
While I was just rolling my eyes, Ga-young rested her chin on her hand and spoke to me.
"I was going to talk to you after class earlier, but you left really fast. I thought you were using Shukuchihou."
"Ah... I had a prior engagement."
It wasn't a lie. I had agreed to meet Hyun-woo in front of the vending machine. Of course, it wasn't an appointment urgent enough to use Shukuchihou.
"Really? You were busy."
Ga-young nodded, then suddenly her eyes sparkled as if she remembered something.
"Ah, right. By the way, what was that thing you said when you left?"
"...Huh?"
"You know. That thing you muttered while wearing the mask."
In a clear voice, she accurately pronounced my dark history.
"Adun Toridas? What does that mean?"
"......"
Fuck.
You heard that? You heard that? No matter how softly I said it, since she was right in the next seat, there's no way she wouldn't hear it.
My face instantly flushed. If I had cursed, I could have made an excuse like "I was in a bad mood." But for a grown college student to shout 'Adun Toridas' while leaving a classroom.
I tried to act cool and set up a mysterious concept, and it ended in a catastrophe.
'How am I supposed to explain this?'
That it's a line from a Dark Knight of an alien race in a space strategy game? The moment I explain that, I fall from 'Mysterious Concept Guy' to 'Hardcore Otaku.' I'd rather bite my tongue.
"...Just."
I avoided her gaze, breaking into a cold sweat. My brain screamed and spat out whatever words it could find.
"...A foreign language. It's... Indian for 'I'll be going first.'"
"Ah, really? That's interesting. You know foreign languages too?"
Ga-young nodded, her eyes wide with wonder. I couldn't tell if she really believed it or if she was just pretending to fall for such obvious bullshit.
Either way, I just hoped she wouldn't ask any more.
Because the Dark Knight inside me wanted to return to the Void out of sheer embarrassment.