Chapter 5
Chapter 5
“I’m twenty-seven.”
“You’re still in your twenties, so you can still go to university.”
Sigh…
“And the positions of CEO at JW Foundation, JW Holdings, and JW Global are currently vacant. I’ll manage them for now, but eventually you’ll have to take over.”
“Th-How am I supposed to…?”
“For now, focus on transferring to university. That’s something I can arrange.”
The world seemed to collapse around him.
He hadn’t studied because he didn’t want to.
And now he was being told to study again for a transfer?
Sure, he’d won awards in middle school math competitions, but wasn’t that just arithmetic?
He did want to go to college.
He wanted to walk across a sunlit campus.
To stroll with bright, laughing girls, sipping coffee, chatting.
“This is your father’s last wish.”
Ko Yoon-seok’s words hit like a nail. There was no escaping now. Cho Min-gi, now Jung Jin-woo, felt a strange mix of reluctance and resolve.
“Alright, I understand.”
“There’s a building owned by your father nearby. You can use its study room.”
A study room too? Thoroughness to the extreme.
“Um, Attorney Ko!”
“Yes, go ahead.”
He had a question for Ko.
“Why are you taking such care of me? You don’t treat others like this.”
“Can you compare them?”
“So… what then—?”
Ko snorted, amused, and continued.
“My life, and my family’s, were saved by your father. I’ve sworn to live the rest of my life following his wishes.”
“What… happened?”
“That’s enough for now. Rest. You must be tired.”
Come to think of it, Ko, in his fifties, looked even more exhausted than Jung Jin-woo. He’d handled meals, the funeral, everything.
“I’ve only thought about myself. Thank you for seeing my father’s funeral through safely. Please rest.”
“No. I’ll return later. For now, rest.”
Ko left, and Jung Jin-woo was left alone in the absurdly huge house.
Curious, he explored and found a liquor room. A collection of the world’s finest spirits.
“So he liked his drinks.”
He picked up a bottle of high-end whiskey he’d always wanted to try and collapsed onto the sofa. Nothing felt real yet.
Jung Jin-woo buried himself in the study room, focusing solely on his studies.
Although he’d avoided studying before, he was reasonably intelligent, so it was possible.
He wanted to prove he could succeed if only he hadn’t been discriminated against, if he’d had proper support.
He wanted to repay the father who had prepared all of this just for him.
In reality, nothing changed; he just studied relentlessly.
The only difference was his mindset. He could feel his father’s will. He wasn’t supposed to live lazily despite all the money; he had to live his own life.
And so he studied hard—and passed the transfer exam.
To the third year of the Business Administration department at Seyeon University.
“Congratulations. I expected it to take at least another year… impressive.”
Ko Yoon-seok smiled proudly.
“Another year? I would have given up if I had failed this time.”
“Give up? Your father never gave up in his life.”
It was easy to imagine the life Jung In-seok had lived. His amassed fortune, the businesses he built—all told his story.
Fighting rebels, battling the infamous Russian cartel… not jokes. Otherwise, no African diamond mines, no way.
“But I follow my father’s will… I’m not my father.”
He had to make that clear. He respected him, but he wouldn’t live entirely by his father’s rules.
“You’re right. Jung Jin-woo, you have your own path.”
After registration, he and Ko walked across the Seyeon University campus like father and son.
Despite the cold, the warm sunlight fell on laughing female students.
“Now, let’s enjoy… and have fun.”
“Ha ha… joking, right?”
“What?”
Jung Jin-woo blinked at Ko.
“Have you seen the third-year Business curriculum?”
“No….”
“If you did, you’d understand why companies want Seyeon Business grads.”
“Ha… ha… surely not…”
“You want to have fun? Woah! The coursework alone is tough, plus now you have to manage companies you haven’t looked after… and still want to play… you’d need three bodies. Hahaha.”
Jung Jin-woo immediately searched the third-year first-semester curriculum on his phone.
“W-what…”
[Accounting:
Management Accounting
Tax Accounting and Decision Making
Financial Statement Analysis
Operations:
Supply Chain and Service Analytics
Managing Service Operations
Management Science:
Basic Queueing Theory
Experimental Design and Analysis
Introduction to Combinatorial Optimization
Introduction to Optimization Theory 1
Information Systems:
Business Analytics 1
Web and Text Analytics]
All in Korean—but it looked like a foreign language to him.
Management accounting? Queueing theory? Optimization? Analytics?
A month passed, yet he barely understood a word in class.
“Are you a transfer student?”
A girl popped her face out as he packed his bag.
“Yes?”
“What’s with this?”
“I know all the faces in Business.”
“Oh… I see.”
“I’m Oh Se-eun.”
She held out her hand. A handshake? He grabbed it reflexively.
“I’m Jung Jin-woo.”
“I’ve noticed you study hard, so I paid attention.”
“I’m not smart, so I have to study to keep up.”
“Oh? Haha…”
Blue jeans, sneakers, shirt over a tee, baseball cap—ordinary, yet very cute.
“Want to have lunch together?”
“Yes?”
“Why, don’t you want to?”
“No… it’s not that…”
A tall, slim, glamorous college girl inviting him—why?
“I always eat alone. So let’s eat together. I’ll pay. How about pork cutlet at Donggeun?”
Ah! The dream of campus life was becoming real.
“I’ll go if you’re paying… together then.”
“Next time, you pay.”
“Cheh!”
He stood, glaring at her.
“Stop calling me ‘mister,’ okay?”
“What should I call you then?”
“Oppa! Oppa! How lovely…”
“Oppa’s too embarrassing… we’re the same third year… just Jin-woo…”
She looked him up and down.
“People might gossip… let’s say Senior Jung instead. Don’t like that either?”
Not that he’d mind. Oppa would be fine.
“Then should I call you Junior Oh?”
“Ugh… what kind of name is that?”
She walked ahead, then turned.
“Coming?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
A cute girl acting friendly—it was a rare experience for a twenty-eight-year-old man. He ran after her.
“Twenty-one years old? That’s possible for a third-year?”
“If not for studying abroad, yes.”
“How…?”
“He entered elementary early and joined college in his second year of high school.”
“Second year of high school?”
Ah, that explained it. Specialized high schools sometimes let students enter college early.
“Senior Jung, how old are you?”
“Me?”
Oh Se-eun had been born when he was in first grade. So when he entered college, she was in sixth grade. A literal child.
“Twenty-eight…”
“Wow… that’s a lot. He really is an adult.”
“Stop calling me ‘mister’ every other sentence.”
She twinkled with mischief, clearly enjoying it.
“Seven years apart… and you want me to call you oppa? Your conscience is missing!”
“Cheh!”
“Heehee.”
It was teasing, but not unpleasant. Jung Jin-woo had never had a younger sister—this was refreshing.
“Now, where to?”
“Where? Are you some cult or MLM?”
Her mouth curved up, laughing.
“Cult? MLM? Hahaha!”
“Why would I think that? You just looked cool… oh… cutie… hahaha, MLM…”
“Well… do you know the Way? Yours?”
“Always so cynical?”
“If I admired you, I wouldn’t call you mister.”
“Oh… I see.”
Her eyes sparkled.
“I eat alone too.”
“Huh?”
“I’m alone too. Don’t want to eat alone, so I pretend to be friendly and eat with you.”
“Alone?”
Unbelievable. Beautiful, slim, cute—and alone? But it made sense if she didn’t want to eat alone.
“My family’s wealthy, smart, pretty… people are scared to approach me. And if I approach anyone, they might misunderstand. So better alone.”
“Then be friends with other girls!”
She rolled her eyes.
“Impossible. Guys are easier. Girls… once a clique forms in first year, you can’t get in. They’ll find faults, get jealous… girls are exhausting.”
‘Aren’t you a girl?’
He didn’t say it.
“Seriously, you hit the jackpot. How many guys want to be friends with you in Business?”
“Forget it… I don’t care. And that kind of talk annoys me.”
“Annoyed?”
As he stood:
“Hey, leaving after eating? If I buy, you buy coffee…”
He pulled out a ten-thousand won bill.
“You called me mister… I’ll pay for the meal. I want to make friends, not be friends with narcissists or sociopaths—especially a self-absorbed girl like you.”
“Ehh~ Mister!”
“You’re exhausting! I won’t spoil you. It was fun.”
He’d learned something over time: putting effort into selfish people is meaningless. No matter how pretty, smart, or capable—they’re still not living with you.
He grabbed his bag and stepped outside.