Return to Campus (2)
Oh Sujeong and Han Gyeoul served as the second-year class representative and vice-representative, respectively.
What had started as a half-forced outing with the two of them kept going even after we left the cafeteria. Now we were sitting in the campus café, nursing light drinks.
"Hmm... so in the second year, Changi and Jiwon are dating, and Gyuyeong has a boyfriend at another school? And Hanbin—wait, who was it earlier? He's been all over that first-year girl A-in since orientation, right?"
It was turning out to be a surprisingly useful stretch of time. As the backbone of the department, the second-years knew every scrap of gossip circulating through the major.
"What's with this oppa? Why are you so obsessed with everyone's relationship status?"
"Huh? Was I?"
"You've been talking about nothing else! Don't tell me you're filtering out the ones who already have someone so you can pick a girlfriend candidate from whoever's left? Even for a returning student, that's pretty blatant, don't you think?"
Sujeong shuddered like she couldn't believe what she was dealing with. Yeah, I get it—to you two I look like a dog in heat, completely unhinged over women.
But she'd misread my interest. I wasn't focusing on the single ones. I was zeroing in on the ones already in relationships.
After everything that happened today, cutting myself off from people entirely looked impossible. I was human too; loneliness wore me down sometimes.
Still, if there was one group I absolutely had to avoid, it was the active "relationship practitioners" who took a direct hit from the pheromone I gave off.
Especially in a small department like ours—I couldn't even look at the couples within the major.
Slurp... slurp...
But Sujeong was right about one thing: I'd been far too obvious with my questioning. Even the careful Gyeoul was silently nursing her straw while watching my face for cues.
"Haa... honestly, I was just trying not to mess up. You know how it is at our age—people break up and get back together like it's nothing."
"I don't do it like it's nothing. I dated my last boyfriend for almost ten months before we split."
"Just because you prefer long-term relationships doesn't mean everyone else does. I made a huge mistake once. I didn't realize a campus couple had already broken up, invited them both to the same table, and the atmosphere turned ice-cold. Total disaster."
"You always rush off to your part-time job the second class ends and never hang out with anyone—what are you even talking about? Why don't you just be honest? You think I didn't notice how your eyes completely changed the second you heard Gyeoul was a total virgin?"
"S-Sujeong? What have you been saying this whole time?"
Gyeoul nearly choked on her straw under the weight of that pure-malice teasing. Not that Sujeong was inventing things out of thin air.
"Oppa, we're going to the bathroom real quick, so don't eat all the tiramisu by yourself. Got it?"
Unable to watch Gyeoul squirm any longer, Sujeong played the bathroom card. Once the two of them left, I found myself turning over what she'd said.
The truth was, my eyes had changed. Gyeoul really was a solid one.
Quiet, refined looks. Diligent, kind-seeming personality. And the way she'd tried to rein in Sujeong when the girl started whining for free meals? That alone had earned her a massive bonus.
On top of everything, she claimed she'd never dated anyone either—just like me. If I ever made a girlfriend for the first time in my life, I couldn't help thinking I'd want her to be someone exactly like that.
Of course, that was never going to happen...
"What the hell? Kang Taekgu, you actually came back?"
"...?"
A familiar voice snapped me out of my little daydream. If my memory was right, that voice belonged to...
"Yu Jiyeon?"
Her name slipped out before I could stop it as I turned. The scene in front of me looked like someone had rewound the clock by two years.
It was Yu Jiyeon. The department goddess who'd claimed the title the moment she enrolled, the one who'd made half the guys in our year look forward to showing up to class.
On a more personal note, she was my enlistment trigger. And the first person I had ever truly, seriously fallen for.
"Wow, this is actually ridiculous. How do you come back to school and not even text me once?"
Even the way she pressed her lips into a tight line and tilted her head in pure disbelief hadn't changed. Not that she was completely the same as before.
The baby fat was gone, sharpening an already sophisticated face into something even more angular. Skilled makeup sat over what used to be soft skin, giving her the polished sheen of glazed porcelain.
And yet it was still unmistakably Yu Jiyeon. She looked arrogant enough to freeze a room, but she still wore the same casual combo of a department jacket and jeans.
I knew this wasn't the time, but the full, solid curves of her chest still pushing out from under that jacket were as unyielding as ever. I locked my neck muscles tight just to keep my eyes from drifting that way.
"Sorry... but we hadn't talked in forever, right? That weird feeling of not knowing how to reach out first after that long... you get it, don't you?"
"Not even a little. Weren't we basically best friends? Though I guess since you ran off to the army without warning, maybe I was the only one who thought that. Come to think of it, we've got a ton to talk about, don't we?"
The brief rush of happiness faded. The second she settled in, the old resentment seemed to surface for Jiyeon as well.
But she really had been the only one who thought that. To her I might have been a friend she clicked with, but from the day we met I had never once seen her as anything other than a woman.
"I... wanted a clean start, I guess. Figured I'd get used to campus again first, then look you up."
"Yeah, looks like the clean start is going great. You don't even acknowledge your own classmates, but you're out here buying coffee for the junior girls with your whole heart."
"Huh? What are you talking abou—"
Had she seen everything? Even if we'd been close, recognizing me after two years and walking right up to say hello wasn't easy.
This girl hadn't spotted me first. She'd spotted the juniors. Then she realized who was with them and came over to confirm.
"Oh? Unnie Jiyeon, you were here?"
Before I could launch any excuse, Oh Sujeong and Han Gyeoul returned. Jiyeon smoothed the heavy stiffness out of her face and greeted them brightly.
"Just grabbing a coffee before class. Did you two eat with Taekgu?"
"Yes!"
Twitch... If I said an invisible vein popped on Jiyeon's forehead, would that make me too sensitive? But Sujeong, you really shouldn't have answered like that.
Now Jiyeon was going to think I'd footed the bill for both their meals and their drinks.
"We ran into each other by chance. Right, Sujeong?"
"Chance? It felt more like destiny, don't you think? Right, Gyeoul?"
"Sujeong, please..."
Oh Sujeong, who got itchy if she went even a second without teasing someone, and Han Gyeoul, flustered and trying to rein her in.
That little disharmony only poured more fuel on Jiyeon's suspicion. The warmth of the reunion was gone; she was looking at me with something close to disgust, front teeth half-bared.
"Be careful. He'll act all friendly with you until the day he suddenly ghosts you again."
"What? What do you mean, unnie?"
"Taekgu will explain. I'm out."
And with that—whoosh—Yu Jiyeon dumped another massive debt on my head and vanished. Shit... now I was going to get grilled with a million questions about it.
"What was that supposed to mean, oppa?"
"Jiyeon's always liked messing with people. She's the type who puts you in an awkward spot and then giggles about it behind your back—kind of a hidden final boss..."
"What are you even saying right now? Unnie does like to tease, but I've never seen her look that serious! Oh, you're so busted, oppa. What the hell happened between you two?"
Sujeong dragged Gyeoul back into a seat by the arm. Did she seriously think I was going to spill the story of my first love that had ended in complete disaster?
"Nothing happened. Classmates mess with each other. That's normal."
"That was not the vibe... Just now was pure peak drama. Like the single most intense climax scene from the most chaotic soap opera ever made! Right, Gyeoul?"
"S-Sujeong? Sunbae already said no, so why do you keep pushing? Haa... I'm sorry, sunbae."
Sujeong was the one running her mouth—why was Gyeoul the one apologizing for her? The more she did that, the prettier she looked, but letting myself get sucked in too deep would only spell trouble.
In the end I'd just repeat the same mistake.
I kept throwing up a wall of "nothing like that" against Sujeong's relentless digging. We had classes next, so we each headed for our own lecture halls.
"..."
I managed to peel away from Sujeong somehow, but Gyeoul was still with me. We had the same class.
With the talkative Sujeong gone, conversation between us died completely. Still, we'd already shared a meal and drinks by accident, so it felt natural to end up sitting next to each other in lecture.
"Sujeong can be a little too much with her teasing, sunbae."
Gyeoul was the one who spoke first. She seemed to feel she had to say something, apologizing for Sujeong's rather rude behavior.
"It happens. If anything, it was so over-the-top I didn't take it seriously."
"Over-the-top... is it?"
"Of course it is. The only thing I could ever fight with Yu Jiyeon about is money. And if I'd actually stiffed her, she would've grabbed me by the collar right then and there, don't you think?"
"There could be... other things too, couldn't there?"
"...?"
I suddenly realized Gyeoul was talking a lot more than usual. Before, she'd stuck faithfully to the role of maid trying to stop Sujeong's rampages. Now she was initiating conversation with surprisingly serious eyes.
"So you agree with Sujeong too?"
"Ah—no, I just thought the meaning might be a little different from what she said..."
"I'll just be honest. I used to like Yu Jiyeon. And I've got a pretty solid excuse for that—nine out of ten guys in our department were into her at the time."
It was ancient history. Might as well own it. And like I said, Jiyeon was the public goddess, the communal crush. Nothing to be embarrassed about.
Gyeoul answered with the most serious eyes in the world, like she'd known all along.
"I knew it... so you two dated and then broke up?"
"What kind of—how the hell would I ever date Yu Jiyeon? I don't love ranking people, but anyone can see she and I are on completely different levels."
I'd wondered what she was about to say, but what came out was even more absurd. At least with Sujeong you could tell she was joking out loud. Gyeoul was so dead serious it actually gave me chills.
"Huh? But I..."
Han Gyeoul cut herself short. Because the comment she'd almost made was a pretty big landmine.
If she agreed with me, she'd be ranking people herself. Worse, she'd be openly admitting I was far below Jiyeon's level.
Disagreeing had its own problems. To ignore the objective metrics, she'd need some subjective opinion to back it up.
In the end, the only way to stop without anyone getting hurt was to shut her mouth. She stared blankly at her empty notebook, chewing on the words she couldn't finish, lips working silently.
"..."
Still, I felt good. Not because I'd finally aired out my embarrassing past, but because Gyeoul had looked like she genuinely meant to say something else.
What's wrong with sunbae...?