Final Exams
Final Exams
It was almost final exam season.
Quite a lot of things had happened during midterms,
but I'd managed to get a decent score.
If I could just maintain things, I'd probably be able to manage around a B+.
Though that score was assuming I worked hard for the remaining time, of course.
"I seriously love university exams..."
Lee Min-ho, who'd had his face planted on his desk until just a moment ago,
turned around and spoke to us.
Jeong Hwan-yi and I looked at Lee Min-ho, wondering what he was going to say this time.
"What do you like about them?"
"You only have to show up for the designated exam days, whether it's your major or an elective.
Plus, on days with back-to-back classes, if you finish the exam fast you can leave early..."
So, he liked exam periods because there were no classes and he could go home quickly.
How on earth did this guy get into university?
This school's cutoff is pretty high, though.
When I tilted my head with a questioning look,
Jeong Hwan-yi spoke up as if he understood what I wanted to say.
"Lee Min-ho might look dumb, but he's good at studying.
He probably has A+ locked in for all his major and elective courses."
"Wow..."
"When you praise me like that I get embarrassed..."
"It's not praise, you idiot."
Jeong Hwan-yi chuckled, making a kik-kik sound.
But come to think of it, wasn't Jeong Hwan-yi pretty good at studying too?
I knew he'd done really well during midterms.
"Me? Well, I always work hard."
Jeong Hwan-yi smirked at Lee Min-ho as if mocking him.
It seemed Jeong Hwan-yi had done a bit better on his studies.
Looking at that dismissive attitude, it was definitely the case...
"Hey, who half-asses their studying?"
"You do."
Lee Min-ho cut him off very firmly, as if stating a fact.
Lee Min-ho was apparently smarter than I'd thought.
He'd told me during class before that if he'd studied properly, he could have gotten into a much better university.
"You two male students over there, please quiet down a bit."
"S...sorry.."
Maybe our voices had gotten a little loud,
because we ended up getting scolded by the professor.
Maybe it was because of exam season, but the professor was giving off a slightly sharp atmosphere.
***
"Seong-hwan-a, what are you doing?"
"Ugh... I'm studying for exams."
No matter how much it was exam period, I couldn't give up on dating,
so even though the first exam was tomorrow, I'd been out playing all day.
But I still had to study for exams,
so I pulled away from A-ra, who had been caressing my chest and lower body with her hands,
and sat down at my desk.
A-ra puffed out her cheeks at my actions and came to sit beside me.
When I told her it was to study for exams, though,
her expression turned a bit apologetic.
"It was exams...? I'm sorry..."
"What does Noona have to be sorry about? I'm the one who went out to play because I wanted to."
"Ugh... as a wife, I couldn't even pay attention to something like that..."
I gave a bitter smile as I watched A-ra clutching her head.
Is this what women from that other world felt when they looked at men?
A person who's usually confident and cool
can't pull themselves together when it comes to anything involving me,
gets excited easily, and looks flustered—
somehow, seeing that made me feel loved.
"Noona, I'm sorry but for today..."
"Ah... no, could I just sit next to you and watch you study?"
She clearly wanted to be with me.
I also thought it would be nicer to have A-ra beside me,
so I nodded and agreed.
A-ra, looking very happy,
ran out of the room
and came back carrying two cold drinks.
"Drink this while you work."
A-ra handed me a cold bottle of tomato juice.
I took it with both hands
and downed it in one shot, like drinking whiskey from a straight glass.
The coldness stopped just short of evolving into a headache.
My head, which had been dulled from fatigue, cleared in an instant,
and I felt like I could absorb anything.
After that, I tried to study until late into the night,
but I guess burnout hit me.
I still had memories up until about 2 AM,
but after that, I didn't remember a single thing.
"Ugh... I'm in trouble..."
When I woke up in the morning,
A-ra was sleeping soundly in bed, right in front of me.
It seemed like after I'd passed out,
A-ra had moved me and laid me down on the bed.
Come to think of it, she'd said today was a day with no schedule, hadn't she?
I shouldn't wake her up. I'd just leave out some food
and head to school to take my exam.
"Seong-hwan-a...."
Just then, A-ra, eyes so narrow I couldn't tell if they were open or closed,
grabbed my wrist.
I was so startled I thought my heart was going to drop.
"Ah... A-ra Noona?"
"Seong-hwan-a... do well on your exam and come back... Noona is going to sleep... more."
She must have forced her eyes open
to wish me well on my exam.
Forget the exam—I was so moved by A-ra
that I almost felt tears prick at my eyes.
The A-ra who, once asleep, never wakes until she's fully rested—
I laid A-ra down properly after she'd collapsed as if fainting
and covered her with the blanket.
And I gave her a light kiss on the cheek.
"I'll be back."
Once these exams were over, we'd have three months of vacation.
With a renewed mindset, I was going to crush these exams.
***
I was screwed.
It wasn't the exam that was screwed—
I hadn't even entered the lecture hall yet.
But the wallet that I'd had in my hand just moments ago—
I couldn't remember where I'd put it.
Seeing bad luck pile up like this before an exam,
what on earth was in store for me?
Was I going to fill out my OMR card shifted by one row or something?
Was the computer going to fail to recognize the specific marking pen I'd bought and give me a zero?
"Haah..."
Inside were a little cash,
one debit card, one of A-ra's credit cards,
my ID, and my student ID.
I could get my debit card reissued,
but having to tell her I'd lost the credit card A-ra gave me...
My head was starting to hurt.
I'd definitely had it until I got off the bus.
If so, that meant it wasn't that I'd left it somewhere due to my forgetfulness when I got off—
it had either fallen out along the way, or I'd been pickpocketed...
Ah, right...
I'd put it in my pocket.
That was probably why I hadn't noticed.
My clothes were thick, so I hadn't felt any sense of
wrongness about my wallet disappearing.
First, I should call A-ra and tell her to freeze the card.
There were benches you could sit on wherever you went on campus,
so I sat down at a spot where the sunlight came in nicely
and took out my phone to call A-ra.
Just then, someone blocked the warm sunlight like a shade.
An idiot like me should just live like a plant doing photosynthesis, though.
I put my phone away and stared
blankly at the person standing in front of me.
Someone I'd never seen before...
Who was it...
"Excuse me, are you... Yoo Seong-hwan-ssi?"
"Yes... I am..."
Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I could see the face of the person standing in front of me. He looked a bit older, so he didn't seem to be a freshman. He was a man.
He also looked a bit like a woman...
It seemed he was a man with a strongly androgynous feel, like me.
Judging by the fact that he'd approached me, he must be a fan.
I'm always grateful when people recognize me,
but right now, maybe because I'd lost my wallet, my mood was so down that it was hard to react in any way.
"This is yours, right?"
What he held out wasn't a notebook and pen,
but a black wallet that looked very familiar.
No, it wasn't just very familiar—
it was mine.
The expensive wallet A-ra had bought me.
"Huh?"
"You dropped it earlier and just kept walking, so I picked it up and was going to leave it at the convenience store and post about it on Everytime.
But then I saw a post on Everytime saying that Seong-hwan-ssi was resting here, so I came straight over."
It seemed he wasn't a fan but an angel.
An angel sent by God to watch over me.
I'd been so distressed I thought I was going to die, but to encounter luck like this.
Maybe things were going to go well from now on.
I sprang to my feet, accepted the wallet with both hands,
and bowed my head, showering him with gratitude.
"Thank you! Thank you! I seriously thought I was in huge trouble!"
"It's nothing. Oh, and I've been enjoying your Qtube videos."
To the guy who raised his hand coolly and gave a greeting,
I bowed my head and offered my thanks.
Wow... so among the men in this world,
there are guys like that, too.
Even as a man myself, should I say he was a cool person?
I wanted to get to know him...
I should've asked for his number at least.
I calmed my heart, which had felt like it was plummeting,
and opened my wallet to check the contents.
Nothing was missing; everything was in its place,
so I let out a sigh of relief that I didn't have to call A-ra
and tell her I'd lost my wallet.
"Hoo..."
"What are you doing here?"
A voice called out to me once again.
This time it was a voice I knew well,
so I turned my head toward the direction the voice had come from.
Dressed for the increasingly hot weather
in short sleeves and shorts, one hand holding coffee,
were Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho, arriving at school.
They looked cool and comfortable.
Should I start wearing short sleeves and shorts starting tomorrow?
Jeong Hwan-yi's eyes widened as if he'd just remembered something,
and he held out the packaged coffee he'd been carrying in his other hand to me.
I quietly accepted the coffee and stood up from my seat.
"I just saw a cool guy."
"A guy?"
The two of them looked at me with faces that said, 'Did this guy eat something weird?'
Why were they reacting like that?
When I tilted my head, the two of them suddenly
burst out laughing.
Did I say something wrong?
Scratching my head, I watched the two of them
laughing their heads off with an awkward expression.
***
"Oh right, A-ra, I saw your husband at school earlier?"
"Sip... Huh? How come?"
The place where the two were having their conversation
was a cafe on the second floor of a famous agency.
On one side, sipping her coffee, was an idol who had
reached #1 on the Billboard chart—
the world star, Song A-ra.
Though it was originally her day off,
she'd suddenly been called in by her CEO to the agency,
and now that her business was done, she was enjoying coffee with a close senior colleague.
And on the other side, her close senior colleague, was a boyish woman. She was an idol with a boyish concept who had once enjoyed popularity,
and was now retired from being an idol and working as a composer—
the songwriter, Song Ye-hee.
Seong-hwan was under the mistaken impression that she was an androgynous man.
But to the people of this world,
no matter how you looked at her, she was a woman.
Only Yoo Seong-hwan, who was from another world,
was confused about her gender.
That was because she was originally from an idol group
that hadn't existed in the world Yoo Seong-hwan came from.
"I was following him to try and say hello, and he dropped his wallet as he went."
"Ahem... did you pick it up for him?"
"Of course."
The woman who had just blown wide open the incident that Seong-hwan had wanted to keep secret to the very end let out a little k-k-k laugh.
A-ra gave a bittersweet smile, imagining Ye-hee laughing
and Seong-hwan looking distressed after dropping his wallet.
"Anyway, he really didn't seem to recognize me at all, you know?"
Ye-hee showed a slightly shocked expression.
She might not look it now, but she had once been a hotshot idol,
and the fact that there was someone who didn't recognize her
made her let out a sigh.
"Seong-hwan isn't interested in idols."
"Come on, he still watches TV, doesn't he?"
"He doesn't really watch it."
A-ra thought of Seong-hwan, who every night, instead of watching TV,
read novels on his phone beside her.
"It might be a little shocking, but he really has no interest at all."
"...And he's a guy?"
Letting out an exclamation, Ye-hee leaned back
against her chair, her face full of surprise.
In Ye-hee's mind, men were people who were crazy about female idols,
waiting for 24 hours in front of concert halls, broadcasting stations,
agencies, or dorms, saying they had gifts to give to their noonas.
Of course, that was only the most extreme part of the toxic fandom.
They were called 'ppa-dol-i,' people that even fans frowned upon,
but because Ye-hee had been burned many times by such 'ppa-dol-i,'
it was very difficult for her to bring herself to say 'don't generalize.'
"Does marrying a world star mean you have to have that kind of nerve?"
"What nerve... my husband is a gentle sweetheart."
"Hmm... Is that so? I'll find out when I see him at the next party."
"...Don't do anything weird. I'll seriously get mad."
"I don't play pranks that are bad enough for you to hate."
"I wonder..."
A-ra, not believing her,
looked at Ye-hee drinking her coffee and pouted her lips.