4
# Chapter 4. The Gift Given by God (4)
When Yoon Taehyeok glared fiercely and insisted, Yoon Hyunseong smacked his lips.
What are you doing?
I mean, I only sing when there are at least 50,000 people in the audience!
But they wouldn't be my family if I could get away with refusing.
When Yoon Hyunseong looked flustered by his father's sudden request, every member of the family chimed in, pressuring
him to hurry up.
Can't be helped. No matter who else it was, I couldn't ignore such enthusiastic support from my family.
“Then shall I sing a song?”
“That's right. That's what a good son should do.”
“Since we're drinking wine, we'd better have a song that goes well with it. All right, here we go.”
After clearing his throat, he held a spoon to his mouth and began to sing.
Trot is definitely the way to go with wine.
“Oh my, oh my. Please don't do this. A man's heart is like a reed...”
When he began singing in a sweet, playful voice, Mom, who had been watching him expectantly, started clapping.
“That's it! Our son is so good!”
“No, don't do this. Why are you asking me? Don't ask me...”
Seeing Mom clapping her hands, his younger sisters jumped in halfway through and joined her, turning it into a chorus.
The lively rhythm and lyrics instantly got all the women in the family excited.
It was understandable that Mom was getting carried away after drinking wine, but he couldn't understand why even his
younger sisters were making such a fuss. Still, Yoon Hyunseong put even more energy into it and raised his voice.
Then Dad stared at Hyunseong with an incredulous expression before slowly tapping his chopsticks against the table.
Then, in the loudest voice of all, he enthusiastically joined in the singing.
---
Although I had returned to university, the campus didn't feel awkward.
My closest friends, who had left for the military at the same time as me, had all returned to university as well.
“Hyunseong, you're going to the MT, right?”
“Do I really have to go?”
“Let's go. If you want to get all the military habits out of your system, it's good to spend some time with fresh young
sprouts.”
“You absolutely have to go. The club president practically begged me to bring you.”
“Jongtaek did?”
“Yeah. The girls kept insisting.”
Jang Gukyoung and Kim Se-hyeong, who had been hanging around with me since our freshman year, chattered away on either
side of me.
The matter itself was simple, but the expressions of my friends, who were clinging to me and practically threatening me,
were anything but ordinary.
Hmm, these guys definitely have some other ulterior motive.
“When are we going?”
“Next Friday. One night and two days in Daebudo.”
“Fine. But back off a little. You stink, you idiots!”
When Yoon Hyunseong pushed them away, Jang Gukyoung and Kim Se-hyeong laughed and threw their arms into the air in
celebration.
Perhaps because the guy who had stubbornly refused to go no matter how much they tried to tempt him before his military
service had agreed so easily, his friends were extremely happy.
Watching them, Yoon Hyunseong smiled back.
I don't think I have to live like that anymore.
Through my military service, I had learned that true freedom wasn't about avoiding people, but about living alongside
them and getting along with others.
“We're going to be late for class. Let's go.”
“Okay.”
Yoon Hyunseong walked toward the lecture hall first, while his friends followed behind, still unable to hide their joy
as they danced along.
He still pulled his cap down deeply and sat in the very front row.
I wasn't greedy for money, but considering my family's financial situation, I absolutely needed to receive a
scholarship.
The professor entered, and the lecture began.
The subject this time was Principles of Marketing, taught by Professor Kim Ildo, a highly respected scholar in the
academic world.
Professor Kim Ildo was fifty-seven years old and had earned his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, one of
the world's most prestigious universities.
According to rumors, S University had made every effort to recruit him, but they couldn't persuade him to abandon his
decision to serve his alma mater.
“The foundation of Keynesian economic theory is that the government must actively intervene in order to prevent economic
stagnation and excessive economic bubbles. Macroeconomic trends can overwhelm the micro-level behavior of individuals
and... Hey, you there. Do you have to keep wearing that cap? I let it go during the last lecture, but it's distracting
me. Yes, you.”
“Professor, I can't concentrate on the lecture if I take off my cap. If it's distracting you, I'll move to another
seat.”
“Oh dear. Does a student really have to argue back like that when the professor is speaking?”
“That's right, Professor. Please make him take off his cap. The cap is bothering us too, so we can't concentrate on the
class!”
When Professor Kim Ildo looked displeased at Yoon Hyunseong's response, the female students sitting behind him all
shouted at once.
These days, the Department of Business Administration had quite a large number of female students.
Before the year 2000, female students had tended to avoid the rigid atmosphere of the business administration
department, but now almost half of the students were women.
When the sudden requests from the female students came pouring in, Professor Kim Ildo looked puzzled.
In truth, forcing a student to remove his cap was an abuse of authority.
Since infringing on a student's freedom was never desirable, even after saying what he had said, Professor Kim Ildo had
been prepared to let it go when Hyunseong said he would simply move seats.
But when the female students all shouted and protested at once, the situation became strange.
What's going on?
“This student says he'll move seats.”
“Even so, please make him take it off. The fact that he's wearing a cap is so distracting that we can't concentrate on
the lecture!”
There was definitely something going on.
So Professor Kim Ildo fixed his gaze on Hyunseong and spoke.
“Have you done something to the female students?”
“No.”
“Then why do they hate you so much?”
“I don't know.”
“I know this is an unreasonable request, but take off your cap just once. Forget the lecture for a moment. I couldn't
even see your eyes, and it has been frustrating me since earlier.”
With the professor going this far, there was no way to keep resisting.
Reluctantly, he took off his cap.
If the professor couldn't see his eyes, then he should show them.
Professor Kim Ildo inhaled sharply when Hyunseong slowly removed his cap, raised his eyes, and looked at him.
He understood the entire situation in an instant.
Once he realized why the student had pulled his cap down so deeply that even his face was barely visible, Professor Kim
Ildo felt sorry.
“All right. You clearly have a reason for wearing your cap. You may put it back on now.”
“How can you say that? We didn't get to see him!”
The female students rose like a swarm of bees and protested, and Professor Kim Ildo found the situation so absurd that
he burst out laughing.
Yes, he could understand why they felt that way.
But just as women had their privacy, men had their privacy too.
Professor Kim Ildo ignored the girls' passionate protests and continued his lecture.
It was purely for the sake of conducting the class smoothly.
If the lecture had continued with Hyunseong's cap off, it would have been impossible to hold the class without it
turning into something resembling a chaotic marketplace.
---
“Did you see him?”
“No.”
“But you sat in the front because you said you were definitely going to see him?”
“So what? Since Hyunseong sunbae sat right in the very front, I only got a quick glimpse of his side profile.”
“You saw his side profile? Did you see his eyes too?”
“Stop it. My stomach hurts enough already.”
Han So-yeon let out a deep sigh after answering.
It would have been better if she hadn't seen him at all.
If she hadn't seen him even once, she wouldn't have this sense of disappointment.
She had deliberately sat in the very front today.
Since Hyunseong's friends had taken the seats on either side of him, she had no choice but to sit one seat away.
Ever since she entered as a freshman, she had heard countless stories about Hyunseong from the female seniors in her
department.
But when she entered the university, Hyunseong had already left for the military.
How nice it would have been if things had simply ended there.
But as time passed and she became a third-year university student, the torture she had forgotten about began again.
Since the end of last year, the seniors had been in a state of extreme anticipation because Yoon Hyunseong was returning
to university that semester.
Naturally, even though she had never seen his face once, she eagerly waited for the new semester to begin.
She wanted to see with her own two eyes what kind of person he was to have become a legend spoken about throughout the
university.
Her friends, juniors, and even the fourth-year seniors had all been counting down the days until the start of the
semester.
But when Yoon Hyunseong finally appeared, he shattered her dreams completely.
The pandemic had ended ages ago, so why was he still coming to school wearing a mask? She could have understood that by
itself.
But if he pulled his cap down that far, could he even see what was in front of him?
Fortunately, after about a month, he stopped wearing a mask, but because he always pulled his cap down so deeply, she
still couldn't get a proper look at his face.
Suddenly feeling wronged, she resolved that today, of all days, she would absolutely sit beside Hyunseong and see his
face.
But that was nothing more than a dream.
Was he doing it on purpose?
Why was he sitting there with his hand against his cheek during class? The professor was giving such an intense lecture
in front of him, yet he had the nerve to sit like that.
When Professor Kim Ildo suggested that he take off his cap, she and her friends immediately raised both hands and
shouted that he absolutely should.
This was a sign from heaven.
The professor must have sensed their feelings in a dream and decided to grant their wish today.
It was the perfect opportunity to finally satisfy their long-held anticipation and curiosity.
But there was a saying that a crayfish sides with a crab.
No!
The moment the professor saw Yoon Hyunseong's face and told him to put his cap back on, she couldn't help shouting in
protest.
The female students in the back all stood up and protested as well, but it was useless.
It was infuriating. Having to retreat after seeing nothing but his side profile was unbearably frustrating.
“Oh, there goes Hyunseong sunbae.”
“Where?”
“He's going over there.”
“Hmph, pervert. A pervert who even hides his face!”
“Is he going to eat?”
“Probably.”
“Let's follow him.”
“You've finally gone crazy. What are you planning to do by following him?”
“I can't live like this. Let's face him fair and square.”
Her friend Jeon Se-hee grabbed Han So-yeon while steeling herself for battle.
She too felt that if she simply let today's events pass, she wouldn't be able to sleep when she got home.
But Han So-yeon firmly shook off her hand.
“I can't go.”
“Why?”
“What are you going to do if we go there and get completely humiliated? How are we supposed to continue going to school
afterward?”
“If we succeed, we'll become heroes. Think about it. Only those who overcome hardship and adversity and seize victory
can become heroes.”
“I don't want to.”
“Idiot.”
“Hey, are you really going?”
“Once I draw my sword, I'm the kind of woman who has to cut even a radish before I'm satisfied.”
Wow. Did she really have a side like that?
Han So-yeon stood there with a bewildered expression as Jeon Se-hee strode away, then quietly followed behind her with
small sideways steps.
Thinking about it carefully, she realized there was no way she could lose anything by going.
If her friend was willing to bravely serve as the sacrificial front line, what reason did she have not to go?
Jeon Se-hee started running.
It really was true that men's strides were faster than women's.
“Sunbae!”
Jeon Se-hee called out to Yoon Hyunseong without slowing down, and Han So-yeon, who had instinctively run along with
her, stopped after drawing a sharp breath.
She wasn't the only one who stopped.
At Jeon Se-hee's shout, Yoon Hyunseong's group, who had been walking together in a cluster, also turned around and
stopped.
“Sunbae, please wait a moment.”
“Me?”
Jang Gukyoung, who had turned around, shamelessly pointed at his own chest.
Jeon Se-hee smiled brightly and nodded her head repeatedly.
As expected, she was a master of social maneuvering.
Han So-yeon acknowledged that her friend was quick-witted, but she had never imagined she would know how to approach the
people around the target first.
“I greeted you last time. Do you remember me?”
“Of course I remember. You're Jeon Se-hee, the prettiest girl in our department.”
“Oh my, thank you.”
The two of them were getting along remarkably well.
At Jang Gukyoung's compliment, Jeon Se-hee twisted her body shyly, not knowing what to do with herself.
But her eyes were still fixed on Yoon Hyunseong.
She was definitely a woman who never forgot the goal she had set for herself.
“Are you going to have lunch now?”
“It is lunchtime, so I suppose we have to fill our stomachs.”
“Then we'll come with you.”
“Why?”
“It would be nice to get closer to our seniors.”
“That might not work. Se-hee, could I treat you later?”
“Why not?”
“Hyunseong is allergic to the smell of perfume. So if he eats with you, he won't be able to eat.”
A man who had ulterior motives but was willing to boldly give them up for the sake of his friend. Jang Gukyoung.
There was a famous Hong Kong actor named Leslie Cheung, whose Korean name was Jang Gukyoung.
A loyal man who had faced injustice with a pistol and protected his friend even in the face of death.
Jang Gukyoung had been shouting about wanting to get a girlfriend ever since the moment he was discharged from the
military, so seeing him boldly give up Jeon Se-hee's proposal was beautiful in its own way.
Just then, Yoon Hyunseong, who had been standing quietly, slowly opened his mouth.
“We have to eat anyway. So let's go together.”
“Really?”
“I'll eat separately, so you pay for them. It's an ironclad rule that seniors have to treat their juniors to a meal.”