What Happened During the Group Project (2)
The seniors who openly scrutinized my looks.
Honestly, I didn't even want to run into them again.
But what could I do?
I couldn't torpedo the group project over personal feelings. Even if it stung, I just had to tough it out.
The absurdity, though—that was something else entirely.
Because why were they the ones who couldn't tough it out? Where did they get that kind of nerve?
"Honestly, you don't want to do this with us, right?"
"Yeah, we've got no intention of working with you either."
"Take our names off the list and just do the project yourselves."
I was so stunned I couldn't even find words.
The one who got angry on my behalf was Soyeon noona.
"What kind of bullshit is that?! You're going to drag personal drama into your academics? You want two people to do a five-person project?"
She was making a perfectly valid point.
"That's your own personal problem."
"You really have no shame. You tore into us like that and now you're asking for help?"
What came back was a parade of horseshit.
"You crazy bitches! It's something we obviously have to do together—what the hell do you mean 'help'?!"
"Whatever."
The three nuisances spat that out shamelessly and walked right out of the lecture hall.
Less than five minutes after we'd gathered for a meeting, it had already collapsed.
"Heh......."
All I could do was let out an empty laugh. It was so absurd I couldn't even get angry.
"Do they have no concept of basic decency? They barely seem human."
Surprisingly, those words came from my own mouth, not Soyeon noona's. Soyeon noona, who'd been fuming just seconds ago, looked at me with a startled expression.
"...You're really pissed, huh?"
"Huh? I'm not angry. What's the point of getting mad at morons who can't even communicate?"
If you're going to get angry, you do it at actual people. Wasting emotions on characters like them is just pointless. I was simply flabbergasted.
But for some reason, Soyeon noona kept checking my mood. Was she still uncomfortable over what happened at the MT?
I shrugged and said,
"They're basically declaring they're dropping the project, right?"
"...Yeah."
"Are they even allowed to do that? Feels like they're flipping off not just us, but the professor too."
"If they were the type to consider things like that, they wouldn't have pulled that stunt at the MT either. I'm amazed they even got into this school."
That was also true. Outside of the SKY universities, this was a pretty top-tier school—and yet here were three borderline subhuman individuals, all in a single department.
"Hmm. They wouldn't let us switch groups even if we asked, would they?"
"I'm planning to bring it up... but probably not. I saw a similar case last semester and they shot it down."
Still, there was one slightly hopeful angle to all this.
"As long as the project quality is solid, they won't deduct points just because two people did the work. That's just how this professor rolls."
"No choice then. Let's handle it ourselves."
"You're okay with that?"
"You're not planning to drop it either, right, noona?"
"Well, no......."
"Then we gotta do it."
What's done is done. The last thing I wanted was to grovel and beg those people to cooperate. I resolved to push through, just the two of us, even if it got tough.
Soyeon noona soon nodded, her face set with determination.
"I'm glad you're saying that. Makes me feel like I can count on you."
"Haha... I'm saying it because I trust you, noona. Work me to the bone. I'm good at following orders."
"Got it. First, I'll ask some people who took this class last year. There'll definitely be a few who did a similar project."
Professors don't come up with brand-new projects every year, after all. They probably have a handful of go-to templates they keep simmering and reuse like a perpetual stew.
Soyeon noona started setting our direction by tapping into her network.
*
Soyeon noona explained the situation to the teaching assistant and even filed a formal suggestion, but—
"They said no because all the other groups are already locked in. Something about violating the principle of fairness, whatever."
Sure enough, reorganizing the group turned out to be impossible.
"It's just a headache for them, basically. What professor wants to play referee for student drama?"
Honestly, it was an obvious outcome.
I could even understand the professor's position. What professor is going to play babysitter and micromanage every student's personal life? They'd just hand out low marks to anyone who didn't pull their weight.
"Let's just knock it out of the park on our own."
Pushing any further here would turn a suggestion into a protest. And if we protested, it was obvious we'd fall out of favor too.
"I got some past projects from last year—some friends shared theirs."
This was Soyeon noona, after all—juggling class rep, student council, and club vice-president all at once. Naturally, she knew a ton of people and had no shortage of contacts willing to help. Thanks to that, our reference materials alone were leagues ahead of what other groups had.
"First, we have to pick one topic under the Korean Wave umbrella. The most common ones are probably going to be K-pop or dramas."
"We'd better steer clear of that then."
"Yeah. We're already in a rough spot with just two people, so if our topic overlaps, it might come off like we're phoning it in."
But then again, when I actually tried to think of something completely original, nothing came to mind. When you think "Korean Wave," everything I could come up with fell into the same buckets.
"Let's go with Korean Food. There'll be some overlap, but way less than K-pop or dramas."
"I'm good with that. Foreigners are crazy interested in Korean food these days anyway. They're even doing challenges with stuff like buldak bibimyeon and all that."
It was a mess—a task designed for five people being handled by just two.
And yet, we were making progress on the project more smoothly than expected. Honestly, probably faster than most of the other groups.
Seventy percent of the credit went to Soyeon noona.
After gathering intel from her contacts, she quickly locked down the topic and direction, then immediately distributed the relevant parts to me. Probably because she was a second-year who'd navigated group projects multiple times, there were zero bottlenecks in the workflow.
"Noona, you're built to be a leader, you know that?"
"I hear that a lot. I tend to step up because I get fed up otherwise."
"I'm putting my full faith in you, team leader. Order me around however you see fit."
"I love a group member who listens. And you're good at the research side too."
The two of us gathered to work on the project whenever we had a spare moment. With only two people, syncing our schedules was a breeze, and we both had the kind of temperament that wanted to get things done fast—so progress was swift.
As we spent more time together like that, our rapport naturally grew. At some point, the awkwardness from the MT had completely melted away, and we'd settled into a comfortable older-sister-younger-brother dynamic.
One day, Soyeon noona stared at me for a moment, her expression blank, before speaking.
"Cheol-jin, have you lost weight?"
"Oh, you can tell? I've been running every day trying to slim down. Planning to hit the gym soon too."
"You really did drop some, huh? It's rare to see people lose weight after starting university. Most just bloat up like crazy from all the drinking."
"I've been turning down every drinking party to stick to my diet."
Most of the first-years were holding booze fests practically every day. Same went for my usual crew—Seongju hyung, Ahn Seong-hyeon, the lot.
Soyeon noona clicked her tongue.
"Hardcore. Seriously hardcore. I think I was way too busy drinking my first year."
"I skip all the drinking parties and I'm starting to look like a total loner."
"...Who knows? From what I can see, it's probably the opposite. Give it a little more time and the others are going to drag you along by force if they have to."
"Yeah, they won't let me keep bailing forever, right? The group bond's pretty tight."
"That's not exactly what I meant... Well, whatever. Let's just get back to the project."
"?"
It was around that time—we'd already knocked out more than half the project.
Soyeon noona, who'd arrived at the study lounge ahead of me, was glaring at her monitor with a deeply worried expression.
"Noona, is something wrong?"
"Huh? Oh, Cheol-jin, you're here?"
"Here, take this coffee."
"Thanks."
Noona took a sip of her coffee, hesitated for a beat, then spoke.
"I was thinking—at this rate, there's no way we're getting an A+."
"Really? I thought it was turning out pretty well."
"It is decent, but the thing is, there's only two of us. They might say there won't be a penalty, but do you honestly think human psychology works that way? They're going to grade us way more harshly."
"...Honestly, that's probably exactly what'll happen."
"Right? And I caught wind of what some of the other teams are doing. Apparently a few are going out to conduct in-person interviews."
"Ah, interviews....... Now that you mention it, the professor did say we'd get extra credit if we brought in interview material."
Our topic was 'The Korean Wave from a Foreigner's Perspective.' If we could land direct interviews with foreigners, the reception was bound to be favorable.
I'd wondered if anyone would actually go that far—but it turned out the GPA bloodbath was fiercer than I'd thought.
Soyeon noona studied my face before speaking.
"To be honest, I wasn't planning on going as far as doing interviews either. Since there are only two of us, we've already got more work on our plate than other teams. But we're getting through the project way faster than I expected."
I caught on to what she was driving at.
I nodded back.
"Let's do it. The interview."
"You're okay with that?"
"We've got to if we want the grade. Why do you keep tiptoeing around my mood like that?"
For some reason, Soyeon noona kept glancing at my expression. Was it still awkward because of what happened at that MT?
Soyeon noona gave a bashful smile and said,
"I just feel bad about it. You're catching collateral damage because of me, aren't you?"
"Huh? How am I taking damage because of you, noona?"
"Well, because I fought with those bitches......."
"What are you talking about?"
She'd been carrying that around in her head this whole time? I'd had absolutely no idea.
I let out a baffled laugh—the good kind of baffled.
"By that logic, some of the blame's on me too. The whole reason you fought with those noonas in the first place was because of me."
"That was me stepping up because I couldn't stand them, myself."
"That's exactly my point. Those people were the problem—so why would it be your fault, noona? I told you during the MT too. That I was grateful you stood up for me."
If anything, I was nothing but thankful. I'd never once thought I'd been harmed because of Soyeon noona. She'd stood up for my sake, and on top of that, she was even carrying this group project. What complaint could I possibly have?
Honestly, I was just thinking how lucky I was to be on the same team as her.
"Let's set a date and go do the interview. How about we make something like a voting panel board and bring it along—wouldn't that work well?"
"...Yeah. That sounds good. Having a visual panel will make people way more willing to participate than just asking questions out loud."
"We'll need to record video, so we'll need a camcorder. I'll borrow one from my dad. A good one—expensive."
My dad's hobby was photography and videography, so he owned quality gear. If I told him it was for a school project, he'd lend it to me in a heartbeat.
Just then, Soyeon noona placed both hands on my shoulders. Then, with a visibly moved expression, she said,
"Seriously, I'm so lucky to be in the same group as you......."
"Looks like we're on the same page."
Ah, so this was camaraderie. Maybe it was because this friendship had bloomed with trashy group members as its fertilizer—the bond with Soyeon noona felt that much tighter for it.
That very day, we put together the panel board and locked in a date.
The go-to spot for the interviews: Itaewon, where you could always find plenty of foreigners.