Freshmen Welcome Party (3)

A headache was gnawing at my skull when I woke up.

It felt quite different from the headache you get with a cold or body aches.

How should I describe it?

When you're sick, the headache pounds like someone's hitting a drum, but a hangover headache feels like being struck with a hammer.

Did I drink way too much yesterday?

As far as I could remember, I didn't think I'd had that many glasses.

And I had no memory of coming home.

Could A-ra have come looking for me and carried me home?

A husband who gets so drunk his wife has to come pick him up—wasn't that the absolute worst kind of husband?

First, I should wash up.

If I'd come home yesterday and fallen straight asleep, the smell of alcohol would be no joke.

Maybe I was so used to it that I couldn't smell it myself, but the master bedroom was probably filled with the stench of booze.

First, I had to open the door.

With that thought, I got up from the bed.

"What the? Why do I feel so... bare?"

Only then did I glance down at my body.

I was completely naked, without a stitch on, and a faint scent of body wash drifted up.

I had no memory of washing...

"Don't tell me—I washed up and went to sleep even though I don't remember?"

From a trash human of this era, I had leveled up into a gentleman of this era.

As expected.

Even if I caused trouble for A-ra, I still had some basic human decency.

I must not have been a nuisance right up until I got into bed.

"Anyway, A-ra Noona isn't here? A-ra Noona~"

"You're up? Wait just a minute~"

When I called out loudly for A-ra, her voice came from the direction of the kitchen.

I could hear the clattering sound of pots.

What was she doing?

Keung-keung..

A nice smell seemed to be coming too...

First of all, being naked was something that was more than enough for nighttime in bed, so I went to the dress room and took out some clothes and put them on.

I'd woken up early, but since I had to go to school soon, I changed into outdoor clothes.

Then I went to the bathroom, tidied up my hair a little, washed just my face with foam cleanser, passed through the master bedroom, and moved my steps to the kitchen.

A-ra stopped what she was doing in the kitchen, came over to me, and stroked my cheek.

I had the illusion that her soft touch might make me drunk all over again.

"You okay? Does your head hurt a lot?"

"No, I'm fine. But what is all this?"

"This? Hehe... Noona made it."

In one glance, I took in the spread laid out before me.

Dried pollack soup, white rice, rolled omelet, and braised beef.

Anyone could see this was a hangover spread for the head of the household who'd come home after a company dinner the night before.

"No... Noona, you made all this?"

"Yeah! I went to the mart in the morning, bought dried pollack, looked it up on Qtube, and followed along. Here, here, sit down quick."

She smiled a little bashfully, then came over to me, grabbed one of my arms, and sat me down at the kitchen table.

It was an island-style table, which I knew was one of the high-end interior design features, but the layout was pretty enough not to be outshone by its beauty.

After seating me in the chair, A-ra went to the opposite side, propped her chin on both hands, and gazed at me.

Was she telling me to hurry up and eat?

I lifted my spoon, scooped up some of the dried pollack soup, and put it in my mouth.

The scent and taste of sesame oil whetted my appetite, and the refreshing flavor of the broth punched right through my chest, which had been hurting like a clogged toilet.

"Oh.... oh oh...?"

"It's good, right?"

"Why is this so good?"

I was genuinely surprised.

Was A-ra always good at cooking?

The dried pollack had dissolved well into the broth, making it soft, the soup was neither too thick nor too thin and was properly seasoned, and a slight spiciness came through, which was the icing on the cake.

This was good enough to sell!

"Noona may look like this, but I lived alone before I married you, you know?"

At my praise, A-ra's face brightened.

Before I'd started eating, she'd definitely had a slightly tense expression.

A-ra seemed to think I was an exceptionally good cook, but looking at it objectively, I wasn't that good.

Right in front of A-ra, I emptied both the rice bowl and the soup bowl completely, and polished off every piece of the rolled omelet one by one.

As expected, food someone else makes for you really does taste good.

Seeing me heartily devour the food, A-ra gave a bright smile.

Afterward, A-ra said she would do the dishes, but I absolutely insisted she stop.

If I made her do the dishes here on top of everything else, I would have absolutely no shame whatsoever.

I was already more than grateful that she'd come to pick up her drunk husband, and now she was presenting hangover soup—and I was going to make her do dishes too? That might be grounds for divorce.

"Anyway, when did you come to get me?"

"Hmm.. Was it around 10 o'clock?"

By the time A-ra had arrived, the welcome party was already over, and it seemed like only a few seniors and classmates were left.

"I got a call on your phone, and when I answered, someone named Jeong Hwan-ssi had called?"

"Jeong Hwan-ssi? Ah, you mean Jeong Hwan-yi."

"Yeah. He greeted me really politely, and then said that Seong-hwan was too drunk to get home on his own."

Ah, now that she mentioned it, I could almost remember.

Jeong Hwan-yi had asked where my phone was, fished it out of my bag, and called A-ra.

Mm-hmm, I definitely remembered now.

I told you I wasn't drunk.

"So, was it Happy Pig Slaughterhouse? When I got there, you were fast asleep, so I carried you out on my back."

"That... I'm sorry."

Feeling pathetic, I hung my head.

A man getting so drunk his wife had to carry him home on her back.

A-ra said it was fine and stroked my head.

"Men can do that kind of thing too. Don't blame yourself too much."

"Noona...."

"Anyway, after I carried you home like that, you smelled a lot like alcohol."

I remembered spilling a drink on my clothes during the party...

At the time, it had just been a little cold and that was it, but as it dried, the alcohol smell must have really spread.

"I moved you to the bathroom, washed you thoroughly... played around a little, then laid you down in bed."

"Aha, so that's why..... wait a minute? What do you mean 'washed'?"

A radish? A cabbage?

What did she mean she washed me?

For a moment, I couldn't quite understand.

There was absolutely no way she washed something like that in the bathroom.

And surely A-ra wouldn't use the expression 'washed' to describe taking a shower herself.

"Seong-hwan. I stripped you all the way down and washed you thoroughly."

"Uh....... uh...?"

A-ra looked me over from head to toe with a suggestive gaze.

I felt that the way her finger lingered on her lips was giving some kind of silent hint.

Now that I thought about it, my body had felt refreshed this morning, and I'd felt a little less sexual desire, so I'd just assumed...

Wait, so it wasn't that I washed up and went to sleep, but that A-ra had washed my whole body?

And I had been passed out drunk, grinning like an idiot?

Gentleman of this era, my ass.

I was confirmed a nuisance parasite.

When I went into the bathroom to wash up before school and took off my clothes, there were bruise-like marks below my neck, on my groin, and on my pubic bone.

They weren't blue bruises, but light pink ones.

Looking closely, they were in the shape of lips...

"Kiss marks..."

It seemed A-ra had enjoyed herself plenty even while I was drunk asleep.

Tonight, I would get my revenge.

I would make it so she could barely get up in the morning.

***

I packed my bag and set off for school.

A-ra said she would give me a ride before going to work, but I resolutely declined.

A-ra's beloved car was way too conspicuous, wasn't it.

When I returned to the lecture hall after just one day, it was even noisier than yesterday.

I guess drinking together made everyone get close fast.

I greeted the classmates I had drunk with too, and then sat down in the very back row.

In the desk in front of me, Lee Min-ho was slumped over with his head on the desk, a face that looked like he might die at any moment.

I couldn't remember because I'd blacked out, but he'd been going hard from the start, so his hangover was probably worse than mine.

"Lee Min-ho, you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay. I feel like I'm going to die."

"Did you get home okay yesterday?"

"I couldn't... I slept at Jeong Hwan-yi's place again yesterday."

He then took a bottle of water out of his bag, popped the cap off with force, and poured the whole thing into his mouth.

Downing 500ml in one shot.

As expected of a real man in the gender-reversed world...

"What about you, Seong-hwan? Did you get home okay?"

"Well, I got home, but... I don't know if you could call it okay..."

"Oh right. I heard your wife came personally to pick you up? I'm so jealous."

"Jealous, my ass..."

I was dying of embarrassment, and he didn't even know how I felt.

We went on piecing together memories of the drinking party when a few of our male classmates who had been listening to our conversation turned around.

"Oh right. In the end, we didn't get to hear a single thing about you, Seong-hwan-ssi?"

"We were all looking forward to it!"

With their lips slightly pouted, they pressed me for details.

I had told them a few things yesterday, hadn't I?

I couldn't remember well.

"That thing on your left ring finger, is it a couple ring?"

"I meant to ask yesterday but forgot."

For a moment, I debated whether to tell them or not.

I was worried it might drag me into annoying business.

Hmm... but there was no particular reason to hide it either.

Unlike in high school, I was an adult, and if an adult got married, did it really matter what other people thought?

Ah, I'll just tell them.

Hiding things was the most bothersome thing of all.

"No, it's a wedding ring."

"What?! Seong-hwan-ssi, you're married?"

"Wow... as expected, someone like Seong-hwan-ssi would be sold out already."

My classmates nodded in unison.

Sold out, huh..

It was true that apart from A-ra, there was probably no one else who could have me, so it might be good to call me sold out / not for sale.

Or maybe custom-made?

"I've never even dated once, so having a married classmate feels kind of fascinating."

"What? Really? That sounds like a lie..."

"Most of the guys here are probably like that?"

When I thought about it, unless they were repeat applicants, most of these people were wearing school uniforms not long ago.

So it made sense that some hadn't dated yet.

Oh?

Now that I thought about it, I also had no memory of dating A-ra, so in a way, was I also mo-ssol?

A married mo-ssol. That was kind of weird.

Was this how women felt in that other world?

Once we got going, we jumped from topic to topic—things everyone was at least a little interested in—and it was so much fun to talk that I lost track of time.

We kept talking about fashion, food, IT, and more until the professor came into the lecture hall.

***

Later, Jeong Hwan-yi joined us and we were chattering for a while when a professor who looked a bit chic walked into the lecture hall.

Was it because of her presence?

The noisy lecture hall went quiet in an instant.

Even Lee Min-ho, who'd been turned around talking, straightened up and sat properly.

The professor trudged in, turned on the computer, powered on the beam projector, and placed a board marker and textbook on the lectern.

"I did hear there was a freshman welcome party yesterday, and indeed the attendance numbers are low."

The professor scanned the inside of the lecture hall with sharp eyes.

When I looked around too, even though it was a required major class, a third of the number of students who were sitting here yesterday were missing.

Were they passed out from hangovers and couldn't make it to school?

Then, after checking something on a piece of paper, the professor took out her smartphone.

For some reason, her face had a slight smile on it.

"In that sense, even though this is orientation time, I will proceed with taking attendance."

Oh...

Normally, you don't take attendance during orientation time.

So there had been talk circulating in online communities about how you could skip the first day, but it was highly likely to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be false. Since I thought missing the first day's orientation would make future lectures difficult, I had attended consistently.

Had my obvious diligence now proven to be wise?

It seemed the professor was taking attendance to teach a lesson to the classmates who had skipped the lecture because it was orientation.

Actually, taking attendance is a professor's obvious right, so saying 'teaching a lesson' wasn't entirely accurate, but still.

For your information, our school uses a combined electronic attendance system, so it was one of the schools putting considerable effort into preventing tricks like proxy attendance and the thing commonly called 'class and dash.'

When the professor took out her smartphone and pressed the batch attendance button, the app installed on the students' smartphones would use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to process the attendance check.

Apparently, you had to be within a 20-meter radius for the attendance check to process properly.

The text 'Attendance complete' appeared on my phone, and I put it back in my bag.

Some classmates seemed to be sending ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠text messages to those who were absent.

"Eight people are absent. For reference, in my class, if you miss a quarter of the total attendance days, you automatically receive an F."

The 15-week lecture plan was 3 credits, so that was 45 hours.

By simple calculation, if you were absent for all 3 hours for more than 3 weeks, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you automatically got an F.

Though considering the lectures were sometimes split into 2-hour and 1-hour blocks, variables could arise.

"Quite a few people are absent, but we still have to do ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the orientation, don't we?"

Those who were absent were absent, but having the students who were present suffer a loss for it went against the purpose of a university.

Unless, of course, a large number of students were absent due to something beyond their control like a natural disaster.

The professor handed a stack of papers to the students in the front row.

It was the distribution method where everyone took one sheet and passed the rest backward.

Judging by the similar format to the syllabus we saw yesterday, it seemed they used a standardized form.

"Then I will begin the 'Understanding Social Psychology' orientation."