Expected Meetings and Unexpected Meetings (1)

Buksan University.

A name that sounded vaguely familiar, only with "University" tacked onto the end — and this was the school I'd retaken the CSAT just to get into. For the record, I wasn't particularly good at basketball.

It wasn't one of the top three elite universities, but it ranked solidly among the top ten. Most people would clap if you told them you'd gotten in.

"Though the kids from my high school wouldn't exactly brag about it."

To them, Buksan was roughly the cutoff line. The kind of school you wouldn't bother retaking the exam for. The kind of school you'd never end up at if you had retaken it.

And yet I'd gotten in — and I felt zero shame about it. After everything, it was the result of grinding through a brutal stretch of military service.

"Luckily Eve's stream is off today. Maybe I'll stick around for the whole freshman welcome party. Gotta live a little of the real world, after all."

Eve came first, no question — but I wasn't about to abandon real life entirely. I wanted to make new friends. And if the opportunity came up, I wouldn't mind dating either.

Of course, if someone couldn't accept that Eve came first for me, there was nothing I could do about it.

I'd just have to let that person go.

From the moment Eve had saved me, my life had orbited around her. That was simply how it was.

I left my studio apartment, fired off a text to a certain someone, and headed for the auditorium where the entrance ceremony was being held.

Buksan was a fairly large campus, but the auditorium sat near the main gate, and my place was only a ten-minute walk from there — so my pace was more leisurely than I'd expected.

Honestly, I'd figured I might run a few minutes late. But old military habits die hard. I'd still woken ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up early, finished getting ready with time to spare, and made it to the ceremony without a hitch.

"Haaah."

Well. It was a place where I only knew one person, after all.

On days without an Eve stream, I was the kind of guy who barely had any motivation to begin with. I half-dozed my way through the entire entrance ceremony.

"…That concludes today's entrance ceremony. Going forward, I hope that all of you and this university will strive to contribute to one another's growth and development."

Was every school in the country the same when it came to saying difficult things in the most difficult way possible?

I was pretty sure my high school principal had talked like that too.

Still, the dean's tedious speech was finally over. Next up was the freshman welcome party. Might as well check it out.

"Let's see… the meeting point was…"

I looked around, searching for the spot that had already been posted in the group chat — and then my eyes landed on it.

More than thirty people were already clustered around it, and the person holding the sign was explaining something to the group.

For the record, my major was chemistry.

And the freshman welcome party I was looking for was not the chemistry department's.

I turned away from that crowd immediately and started scanning again for the department I was actually after.

At last, a sign reading Computer Science came into view.

I started walking toward it at an easy pace.

"Go Gachi!"

Someone called my name, and I turned toward the voice. Standing there was the person I'd been texting with that morning.

Su-yeon hyung.

"Hey, over here!"

"I can see you. Oh — congrats on getting discharged."

"You sure don't waste time, you little shit. Didn't even come visit me once."

"I already told you we got into the same school. We were gonna see each other anyway — why would I go out of my way?"

"What's the real reason?"

"Eve hasn't taken a single day off streaming this whole time."

"You might as well consider your entire college social life over."

Choi Su-yeon — who'd been my batch-junior in the military, climbing from private second class to private first class to corporal to sergeant — threw an arm around my shoulders as he talked.

Even with all the ribbing, neither of us could stop grinning.

We'd lived through more than a year of the same hell together. Of course we were glad to see each other.

Not that I'd ever say that out loud. Too gross.

"So you're not going to your own department's welcome party?"

"It's not that I didn't want to. I just figured it'd be awkward — me showing up two years older than everyone else."

"Dude. If you start worrying about stuff like that, you're never making a single friend in your major. Go. Right now. See that 'Chemistry Department — Gather Here!' sign? Right over there."

"Ah… yeah, but. We already said we'd grab drinks tonight, didn't we?"

"That was the plan. But looking at you right now, I think we'd better save that for later. Get over there. And try talking to people, even a little."

He'd been like this in the military too.

Back in high school I'd done nothing but study, so I could barely hold a conversation and was terrible at managing the juniors under me. I'd dumped every last senior responsibility onto Su-yeon hyung.

One day, that same hyung had said to me:

Translation: If you keep going like this, your juniors are going to walk all over you. I can't handle them alone, so please, for the love of god, act like a senior.

That was Su-yeon hyung, dressing it up as kindly as he could. Thanks to him, I gradually started modeling myself after him and learning how to be a proper senior — and at the same time, I started understanding how seniors felt, which made me a better junior ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠too.

Thanks to that, I managed to come back from the military as something resembling an actual person.

On top of everything else, he kept being friendly to a guy like me — someone who, the second work hours ended, did nothing but study or watch Eve's streams and had zero social skills. I was always grateful for that.

Honestly, the way he talked to his seniors sometimes wasn't exactly regulation either.

That was partly my fault — and partly just part of his charm.

Most importantly, he never once crossed a real line.

"Alright. Then… I'll try to work up the courage."

"Good. Let's meet up tomorrow."

"Yeah. I'll head over."

"Go on. Oh, wait — where's my ninety-degree salute?"

"Eat this."

I snapped him a salute with my wrist bent at a perfect ninety degrees.

He returned the greeting by extending his middle finger to a full one-eighty.

Rejected from the meeting I'd actually planned on, I ended up heading to my own department's freshman welcome gathering — a place that had no business being in my destiny.

A large crowd had already assembled, and from the look of things, enough time had passed that they were about to move somewhere else.

"Um… is this the chemistry department?"

"Sorry?"

I approached them carefully and asked. God, talking to people I'd never met was still so awkward.

Su-yeon hyung had even told me a big guy like me shouldn't let that kind of thing show.

"Ah — could I get your name?"

"It's Go Gachi."

I'd slipped into full formal speech without even realizing it. What if they already figured I'd done my military service and treated me like some old fossil?

Well. I kind of was a fossil. Two years older than the other freshmen.

"Ah, you're on the list. Yeah, this is us. You were so late we thought you weren't coming."

"Sorry about… that. Took me a while to find the place."

"It happens. Hey, freshmen! We've got one more joining us!"

"Huh? What?"

The woman — a senior, I assumed — introduced me at full volume, and I visibly flinched. A whole crowd of freshmen turned to stare.

"Whoa, look at the size of him."

"He's gotta be over six feet."

"Is he an oppa? He looks kind of mature."

A few of them were eyeing me with open interest, and I had no idea what to say. Still — for what it was worth, I was a fully discharged sergeant who'd served his full term.

"…Looking forward to working with you all."

That much, at least, I could manage.

Yeah. Even I had to admit I'd grown a lot.

"Ooooh, military talk. Hyung, did you already do your service?"

"Ah, yes. I took the CSAT after getting out of the military."

Damn it. There went the formal speech again the second I got flustered.

"Whoa, so how old are you?"

"Well… twenty-two."

Technically twenty-one by international age, but better to go by birth year.

"So you're two years older than us, oppa."

"Haha, I guess so."

Phew. Nailed the casual polite ending that time.

Still — everyone was taking it surprisingly well. The reaction felt genuinely fresh to me.

No one asked about my grades. They just looked at me as a person and came over friendly.

I'd forgotten what that felt like the moment I set foot in high school.

"Alright, freshman welcome party is starting!"

One of the seniors running the orientation waved us forward and started walking. As we followed, people gradually struck up conversations with whoever was next to them.

Among them, a guy who introduced himself as Park Hae-an was the first to approach me with real warmth.

"So hyung, you bombed the CSAT, went to the military, studied there, and then got into Buksan?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"Dude. That's actually badass."

For some reason, a past I'd never considered anything to brag about landed on him like some kind of legend. The girls listening nearby nodded carefully, as if they agreed.

"So, Hae-an-ssi — you're twenty?"

"Whoa… Hae-an-ssi… that's so formal…"

"Huh?"

"N-no, I've just never been called that before. And yeah, I'm twenty, so talk to me casually. Gachi hyung."

Right — high school kids didn't go around using "ssi."

In the military, anyone who wasn't a junior or a senior got a "ssi" attached to their name. Plus I'd mostly talked that way at my part-time job. Old habits, I guess.

"Ahem. Got it. Then you call me casually too, Hae-an. We're the same year — keeping too much distance just feels weird, right?"

"Oh, is that really okay?"

He actually asked.

He'd come up to me so easily that I'd half-expected him to be a little rough around the edges, but he turned out to be surprisingly considerate of other people.

"Yeah. I don't make friends easily, so I figure even if it's just the way we talk, getting a little closer would be better."

"Hmm… alright, hyung. Looking forward to it."

"Yeah. Feels a little soon to say it, but — same."

I now had something to tell Su-yeon hyung tomorrow.

Hyung. I think I made a friend.

Orientation wrapped up after a full lap of the campus. Along the way, we played a bunch of mini-games.

"Whoa, active-duty military really hits different."

"Oppa totally hard-carried us."

"Ahaha, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just kind of happened."

Aside from a few exceptions, most of the games involved push-ups, lifting heavy things, or anything else that demanded stamina.

The guys mostly handled those, and of course the majority of them were exam students who'd done nothing but study — so their fitness was lacking.

I'd been a soldier who'd rolled around in the dirt for a living, so I outperformed students from other departments without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even trying.

Because of that, more of my classmates started approaching me pretty warmly.

"Maybe I should start going to the gym."

"If you do, tell me. I'll come with you and show you the ropes."

"For real? Okay — then I'm signing up on Gachi hyung's word."

"Haha, deal."

Of course, Hae-an — the first one to come up to me — still felt the most familiar. And it wasn't just because he'd approached first.

How to put it. Just a gut feeling.

This kid was a good one.

"Oh, hyung — you're coming to the after-party once OT's done, right? They said it runs straight through starting at six."

"Starting at six? How many hours is that even supposed to last? But yeah, I'm going."

"Whoa, oppa's going too? Then I definitely have to go."

One of the girls nearby said it, and a few people around us started snickering.

What was that about?

"Someone's already making a move."

"Aw, she got there first."

I caught a few of the girls muttering, but there were too many people talking for me to catch it clearly. Still — she was going because of me?

Well. I had gotten pretty friendly with her too.

"Then let's go together."

"Yes, going together with Gachi oppa~ Hahaha."

"Hey, cut the ancient comedy bits. Gachi hyung's not that old."

"Hae-an, you're making me look even older."

This kid had a mischievous streak of his own, apparently.

Well — he needled me just enough to be fun without being annoying. He read the distance well.

Clink!

The after-party kicked off the moment the long daytime orientation ended.

Not many people turned down a chance to fill their stomachs with free food and free drinks paid for by the department.

Each table seated four. I was already sitting with Hae-an. The girl who'd said she was coming with me took the seat beside mine, and another girl sat next to Hae-an.

What were their names again?

I'd been introduced to too many people. Nothing was sticking.

"So, Gachi oppa — you must've been popular in high school, right? Decent face, tall… I bet you were."

"Ah, popular… I wasn't unpopular. But that disappeared the second I bombed the CSAT."

"What? Over something that small?"

"That small, huh… Yeah. I guess those were the kinds of connections that leave over something that small."

Now, I could agree with calling it "that small."

Back then, though, it had felt like everything.

Those guys had probably thought so too. And… so had she.

"…Gulp."

A bitter taste rose in my throat for no good reason, so I downed my beer in one shot.

"Ahh. Yeah — beer's more my speed than soju."

"Oh, I know what you mean. I don't get soju either."

"Haha. That might change once you're a little older, though."

"Hehe. Hey, oppa."

"Hm?"

Why was this girl being so friendly with me?

Honestly, it was a little uncomfortable.

But she was clearly trying to get closer, so I couldn't just shut her down cold.

"What's your hobby?"

"What, so you can start doing whatever Gachi hyung does?"

"Whoa, Hye-jin's going for it. Straight to the point."

"Come on~ No way~ I'm just asking."

Right — Hye-jin. Now I remembered.

Hobbies, though.

In that moment, a memory from my part-time job days surfaced. Advice my senior at work had given me, for my own good.

"…I watch VTubers."

"Sorry? What was that?"

"VTubers. There's this group that's pretty big right now called Utopia. Eve from that group is my favorite."

"Ah… VTubers? Utopia?"

Hye-jin clearly didn't know the terminology. Better to just show her.

"It's like this. Here — look."

"Oh, okay."

Hye-jin leaned in looking almost pleased. I opened the Diy app and pulled up Eve's channel, the one I was following.

"This… is a VTuber? Ah… this is…"

"Yeah. I've been watching her since before she even debuted."

"Ah. I see."

The temperature in her voice dropped, unmistakable. Her face had already turned a little away from me.

And around us, something started to whisper.

"That hyung's an otaku?"

"Man, what a waste of the face and the height."

Hearing the reactions around me, I thought once more of the advice my part-time senior had given me.

Hey. Don't go telling people at other places that you watch that stuff. They're definitely gonna look at you weird.

Senior — you went out of your way to warn me, and I'm sorry.

But I still didn't want to hide the fact that I love Eve.