Online Lecture
Online Lecture
"Seong-hwan-a, I'm heading out."
"Take care."
I stood at the front door to see off A-ra, who was leaving the house early in the morning for a music program shoot.
Mom's heading off to work — is Lil' One still asleep?
When I began glancing around in search of Lil' One, A-ra let out a soft laugh.
Apparently, she was still sleeping.
She always woke up before we did and licked our cheeks on the bed,
so what was going on today?
"Was today a school day?"
"No, both my elective and major classes are all online today."
For electives, they were ordinary online courses, but the major was normally an in-person lecture.
However, the professor had to go abroad for a month due to personal circumstances, so they had no choice but to run the class via pre-recorded videos.
They couldn't just cancel classes for a whole month, so the school apparently told them to handle it that way...
I was lucky that the major lecture fell on a day when I had an online elective, but other students ended up stuck in a ridiculous situation where they had to rush home after their elective to get ready for the major lecture.
"You're not secretly skipping class behind your noona's back, are you?"
"Would you scold me if I did?"
"No? I'd skip my broadcast and come mess around with you."
"That's not what's happening, so go do a good job filming and come back."
"Okay, lock up properly."
"Got it. Anyway, the only way anyone could break in here is by scaling the walls."
Invading a penthouse on the 50th floor surrounded by ironclad security?
That person would just be insane.
If someone had that level of guts, I'd even be willing to brew them a cup of tea the moment they got inside.
Of course, they'd be in a police car five minutes later.
I opened the front door, saw A-ra off as she waved her hand my way, then came back into the living room and stretched.
Maybe she'd sensed signs of life while she was sleeping,
because Lil' One came running over here with the soft patter of tiny footsteps.
"Woof!"
The sight of her circling around my legs asking to be picked up was, quite simply, a direct hit to the heart.
Tomorrow was a day off from classes, so just thinking about being home again tomorrow lifted my mood in an instant.
"Little wriggler~ Want to watch TV with Daddy?"
"Woof!"
"Before that, shall we eat breakfast..."
I had gotten A-ra's breakfast ready and prepped my own,
but eating felt like a bit of a hassle.
But when I went into the kitchen to get Lil' One's breakfast ready, the thought of having breakfast myself while I was at it crossed my mind,
and somehow, recently, I'd ended up eating breakfast quite regularly.
Could Lil' One be a devoted daughter...?
"Guess I'm in the mood. Today, Caesar... ah, never mind..."
Lately, I'd been giving her Caesar far too often, so today I'd just stick with kibble.
If you only keep giving them tasty things because they're cute, they say they stop eating their regular food later...
Huh...?
Did that apply to A-ra too...?
No, A-ra ate a well-rounded diet without complaint, so she'd be fine.
She liked vegetables and wild greens just as much as she liked meat, after all.
*
After getting Lil' One's meal ready, I served myself some rice.
I'd thought about only giving her kibble and skipping the Caesar, but our Lil' One ate everything without being picky,
so I mixed it in moderately and set the bowl down.
This morning's breakfast was grilled mackerel, kimchi stew, and mak kimchi.
Honestly, it felt more like lunch than breakfast.
A-ra needed to eat a heavy meal in the morning to last until lunch,
so she ate a fairly hefty breakfast even at the crack of dawn.
That was the reason I ate breakfast late.
If I ate breakfast together with A-ra, I'd get an upset stomach and suffer all day long.
"Thank you for the meal."
Hot kimchi stew loaded with pork, and mackerel wafting up wisps of steam.
Lately, my appetite had been small, so it was just a shame I couldn't eat much rice.
Even at my heaviest meals, I barely managed six spoonfuls of rice, so I never gained any weight...
so my stamina never built up either...
It was a vicious cycle, no doubt about it.
"Our Lil' One eats well, though."
Lil' One was devouring her meal like it was a military operation.
It was amazing that a baby barely four months old could eat like that.
Was it because she was female?
"Atta girl, atta girl. Was it yummy?"
"Woof."
I picked up her empty bowl and stroked Lil' One's head diligently.
I'd heard that you should praise a young child no matter what they do.
Maybe that didn't apply to puppies?
"The dishes can wait... I should get ready for class."
Looking at the clock, the hour hand was already racing toward eleven.
Had I been too leisurely just because I didn't have to commute to campus?
"Let's see... the laptop..."
The laptop sat on a small desk placed in the corner of the main bedroom.
It was the one A-ra had bought me as a college entrance present.
At the time, it'd felt like she'd paid quite a lot for it, but now that I thought about it, it didn't seem that expensive after all.
Was this the relaxed mindset of someone who earned money?
"More importantly, why won't it turn on..."
The day before yesterday, it had been working fine until I got tired playing an RPG game and shut it off.
But for some reason, the laptop wouldn't power on now.
"The power cable is connected and everything... Hmm... What's the problem?"
Our school's online lectures weren't website-based but program-based, so you couldn't watch them on a smartphone.
That was why the school had a dedicated online lecture room set up for students without computers.
"If I'd known this would happen, I would've gone to campus..."
"Woof!"
"Little wriggler... Daddy might have to go out for a bit."
Sigh... I'd been planning to laze around in bed and watch the online lecture with Lil' One...
I gave Lil' One — who kept trying to get me to hold her — just a little head pat, then went into the dressing room.
Of course, Lil' One followed me into the dressing room too.
Daddy really is the best, isn't he? Right?
***
I arrived on the second floor of a building located right in front of the apartment.
This place had cheap prices and its computers weren't all that great, so it was an unpopular PC bang — that was exactly why I chose it.
I was only going to watch an online lecture anyway, so there was no need for a good computer, and I didn't much like crowded places.
But, unusually, the owner wasn't using a machine and was sitting at the front desk handing out membership cards manually.
You might say it was a PC bang that felt like stepping ten years into the past.
"Two hours, please."
"That'll be 2,000 won."
And there was something else I'd meant to ask for.
My brain suddenly seized up, and I couldn't remember.
If you've ever felt frustrated by being unable to recall just one specific word, I think you'll understand.
Ah, right.
Now I remembered.
"Please give me a pair of headphones too."
"Sure, here you go."
Apparently, in the old days, hardly anyone wore headphones while gaming.
From what I heard, people even played with music blaring out loud.
Compared to those days, PC bangs nowadays really weren't so bad.
Aside from the sound of keyboards and mice, there were no loud noises.
It was my first time coming to a PC bang alone, but it wasn't my first time ever, so I found a seat without much trouble.
Around me, I was the only guy — everyone else was women playing games.
They were pretty good at those difficult-looking games.
What was it called again?
Was it Roll? League?
It was the game that had held the number one spot in PC bang game share for years.
It seemed like it'd been popular for a while, but I'd never tried it even once.
Part of it was that I never had the time, but the biggest reason was probably that it just wasn't my taste.
If it had looked fun, I would've come to a PC bang and tried it at least once.
"Wait, this isn't the time to be watching other people play games."
Class was about to start.
I'd been marked absent once before for dawdling and ending up late, so I needed to be careful this time.
I connected to the school homepage, installed the program, and logged in.
"ID is tjdghks12..."
People said it was better to have different IDs and passwords for each site, but I found that too bothersome.
So for most sites, my ID and password were all exactly the same.
I logged in and clicked on the course list.
But... a problem arose.
"Huh? Why isn't the lecture there?"
The major course was supposed to appear in the lecture list, but it wasn't there.
The only thing there was the elective I always took.
There were barely four minutes left until class started, and I couldn't find the lecture.
"Sigh... This is a real problem..."
Was I the only one?
If so, I'd have to contact the administration office and ask them to fix it...
Trrrrrrr....
Just then, my mobile phone began to ring.
I pulled it out of my pocket; the screen showed Jeong Hwan-yi's name, and at the same time, chat messages from Lee Min-ho kept flying in.
"Hello?"
- Seong-hwan-a. Don't tell me — is the lecture missing from your course list too?
"Huh? Guess I'm not the only one."
- I asked the class rep noona, and apparently it's like that for everyone.
"My laptop wouldn't turn on, so I even came all the way out to a PC bang..."
I let out a sigh and showed a hint of how tired I was, and Jeong Hwan-yi burst out laughing.
Clearly, my friend found my suffering deeply entertaining.
"So what did they say to do?"
- For now, they can't get in touch with the professor, so it's a canceled lecture.
"Ugh... Okay, thanks. Guess I'll pick up a cheap laptop on the way."
- Must be nice having all that money...
"What can I do? I need to go watch an online lecture right away."
- Ah, was today the day you had an online lecture?
I talked with Jeong Hwan-yi for a good while before suddenly remembering I was in a PC bang and hastily hung up.
I should give him another call later.
Anyway, a laptop, huh.
Laptops were one of those things whose price range varied dramatically depending on what you used them for.
What would be best to buy...