The Spoon (3)
At that moment, Yoon-gi and the people following him all widened their eyes like startled rabbits. And a moment later.
Everyone burst into laughter. It was only natural. Yoon-gi had never once been stumped by a question in his law school lectures. Furthermore, he had never once gotten a wrong answer on the pop quizzes given during every class. Top-tier universities frequently held these "pop quizzes," and their difficulty level was far higher than the midterms or finals at most provincial colleges. And that was only if the quiz was in Korean; for engineering or humanities courses involving mathematics, they were sometimes administered in English, making the difficulty level murderous. Given that Yoon-gi was handling such quizzes with absolute ease, the fact that someone would accuse him of "illegal admission" right to his face made the laughter inevitable.
"Who is this moron, talking about illegal admission in front of Yoon-gi? Yoon-gi, do you know him?" asked Im Seon-ho, a junior who had become close with Yoon-gi during the freshman orientation. Because he had lost his mind and partied too hard during his freshman year, his GPA had tanked, forcing him to retake first-year courses, which was how he ended up walking out of the same lecture hall as Yoon-gi.
"Oh, him? He’s a freshman who tried to argue with me during one of my lectures and got completely schooled," Yoon-gi replied.
"Oh, a freshman? Wait, hey. Did you repeat a year?" Im Seon-ho asked. Kim Son-hwan replied with a sullen expression, "No, I didn't."
"You idiot, Yoon-gi is a voluntary repeater. He’s older than you, so where do you get off using informal speech? Are you not Korean?"
"Oh, damn it! If we’re in the same class year, we’re peers, so why should I use honorifics!"
At that absurd response, Im Seon-ho let out a dry laugh and asked Yoon-gi, "Yoon-gi, is his family that big of a deal?"
"His father is the president of Gyeongwan Construction."
"Is that the name of some hole-in-the-wall shop?"
Im Seon-ho genuinely didn't know the name Gyeongwan Construction. Because of that, Kim Son-hwan’s face turned beet red. But Im Seon-ho wasn't finished.
"Hey, you should be grateful the world has changed. Just a year ago, you would’ve been dragged off to Namyeong-dong by the ANSP agents standing nearby."
It was a slight exaggeration, but it was a clear fact. However, because democracy had begun, everyone nearby could burst into laughter once more.
"By the way, Yoon-gi, why is the topic of illegal admission coming up all of a sudden?"
Yoon-gi hadn't told his university acquaintances that he was investigating Kim Son-hwan for illegal admission. Thus, the others were puzzled by the term. Thinking it might be quite useful, Yoon-gi dropped the truth.
"I’m actually in the middle of investigating this guy for illegal admission. His uncle is the Dean of the Business School."
"Wait? His uncle is the Dean of the Business School?"
If they had only heard "his father is the Dean," no one would have jumped to the conclusion of illegal admission. But the term "illegal admission" that Kim Son-hwan had used himself, combined with Yoon-gi’s mention of an investigation, led everyone to one conclusion, which they accepted as fact.
"What the hell? This guy committed illegal admission himself, and he’s accusing you of it?" Im Seon-ho’s words mirrored everyone else’s thoughts.
"Who are you saying committed illegal admission! I got in on my own merit! I got in with my own skills!"
But in this situation, there wasn't a single person who would believe him. Besides, the illegal admission was a fact to begin with.
"Bullshit. He’s just trying to drag Yoon-gi down with him because he’s backed into a corner. Sigh, how pathetic, truly pathetic."
Yoon-gi felt that Im Seon-ho had a different flavor compared to Won-hee or Jin-su. *Should I suggest to my aunt’s husband that we bring him on board?* Giving Jo Cheong-woo work was fun, but wouldn't it be just as fun to give some to Im Seon-ho? Of course, if Im Seon-ho found out the full context, his face would turn deathly pale.
"You son of a...!"
Kim Son-hwan had taken a taxi to meet Yoon-gi in a fit of rage, but never in his wildest dreams had he imagined things would turn out like this. He looked around urgently. But there were no followers of Kim Son-hwan anywhere. This was the Law School building. There was no way his Business School lackeys would be here. Furthermore, Kim Son-hwan was currently wearing a white short-sleeved t-shirt, gray sweatpants, and sneakers without socks. Not a single luxury item that usually made Kim Son-hwan look "valuable" was on his body. He was truly isolated. Desperate not to lose, he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.
"Hey! Then let’s see who really got in illegally!"
Even though Im Seon-ho had pointed out the issue with his lack of honorifics, Kim Son-hwan pushed his "peer theory" to the end and kept using informal speech.
"Hmm? What? How?"
Yoon-gi, who had no intention of receiving honorifics from Kim Son-hwan anyway, replied, and Kim Son-hwan spat out the last thing he had left.
"Let’s take a public exam! Then we’ll know who got in illegally!"
Yoon-gi smiled brightly at the unexpected gift. "That sounds good!"
Yoon-gi could imagine a mouse diving into a mousetrap that didn't even have any cheese.
* * *
Illegal admission by a chaebol. It was a story that always stirred up social issues. By 2010, illegal admission would become even easier. As the number of ways to enter university without the CSAT increased, so did the loopholes. A prime example was the "foreigner admission" track. The most common method was to grant children dual citizenship and then have them apply through the foreigner track to get into top-tier universities. The practice of sending kids to obscure foreign colleges and acting high and mighty about being "an overseas returnee" had largely disappeared with the expansion of the foreigner track. Next was bribing the interviewers. During university entrance interviews, they would promise the interviewer specific questions and answers. If those answers were given, the interviewer would award the applicant the highest score, facilitating an easy admission. Beyond this, there were cases where teachers were bribed to manipulate exam scores for early admissions. Of course, it was difficult to do this at Seoul National University. In public schools, bribery was treated as a crime of bribery rather than a breach of trust. But Kim Son-hwan was the very person who had committed illegal admission despite this. The problem was that he didn't even know it was a fact.
Furthermore, Kim Son-hwan was genuinely confident. *That bastard, who is he calling an illegal admittee?* Since Kim Son-hwan had ranked second in his entire school for most of his high school exams, he was determined to crush Yoon-gi’s pride this time. *That bastard’s grades are obvious. He got them by spending money and using military connections. It’s certain.* This logic could have applied perfectly to himself, but Kim Son-hwan failed to realize that fact at all. The selfish thoughts of a selfish being.
Of course, it wasn't as if others weren't worried about Yoon-gi’s own illegal admission. "You... are you really going to be okay?" The university president looked at Yoon-gi in the president’s office with a deeply worried expression.
"Are you worried I might have gotten in illegally?"
"Oh? Ah, no. I, I couldn't possibly think such a thing!"
He had thought it. Of course he had. Since YK had stood at the pinnacle of connections with the military regime, how could he not think that? The president hoped Yoon-gi had entered based on his own merit, but he couldn't help but entertain the one-in-a-million chance of illegal admission. *If Yoon-gi got in illegally, it would be a huge disaster...* The president, recalling Yoon-gi’s promise to build a massive statue of him, wore a truly desperate expression.
"Don't worry. I got in on my own merit. You just need to make sure the exam questions are properly prepared, Mr. President."
Before the academic achievement test, universities held their own separate entrance exams. Therefore, Seoul National University had more than enough excellent personnel to create exam questions, and there were no issues there.
"That, don't you worry about. By the way, how should I set the difficulty?"
"Either way is fine. It’s fine if it’s harder than last year, or similar." Yoon-gi continued as if he had just remembered something. "Ah, it would be best if we stop meeting here until the exam. Those who can't accept the results are always ugly to the end."
In fact, Kim Son-hwan was behaving very uglily.
* * *
*This feels like I’m taking a huge loss, doesn't it?* Kim Son-hwan had insisted that Yoon-gi shouldn't have contact with anyone until the exam.
"No, he was so close to the military, he’ll obviously use every trick in the book. He shouldn't have contact with anyone until the exam!"
Yoon-gi had listened to Kim Son-hwan’s demands. No, he had gone beyond just listening. Because they had decided to live in a single lecture hall for a week. A lecture hall with a bathroom attached. Since it was an exam that could become quite a big issue, the student council had agreed to the exclusive use of the hall, and the university had no reason to refuse since the president was on Yoon-gi’s side. They had even brought in a week’s worth of food. Kim Son-hwan had argued that books shouldn't be allowed either, but he was blocked by strong opposition. However, he showed a "useless thoroughness" by only allowing books after he personally checked their contents, which was meaningless since there was no way there would be any devices hidden in them. Therefore, during the week needed to prepare the exam questions, Yoon-gi spent his time reading books and living leisurely.
*That guy has no idea how expensive my week is, does he?*
The amount of work Yoon-gi handled in a week was truly astronomical. But Kim Son-hwan had no thoughts about such things. No, he had no time to think. He had been studying like a madman for the entire week. While Yoon-gi had cut out all books related to studying, Kim Son-hwan himself had been studying like crazy for the whole week. Of course, on the opposite side of Yoon-gi. He had implemented this because he thought that if he were near Yoon-gi, he would never be able to slack off. Of course, because of this, Kim Chang-yoon and Kim Chang-sun also lost their way to meet Kim Son-hwan. And so, the day of the exam arrived, with Kim Son-hwan having no idea what was happening at Gyeongwan Construction.
"Hey, aren't you excited?"
At Kim Son-hwan’s words, Yoon-gi looked at him with a listless expression.
"I’m really looking forward to seeing you fail the exam and having it revealed that you got in illegally. A spot will open up in the Law Department, and the person who got rejected because of you will be really sad."
Kim Son-hwan was being heavily sarcastic, but Yoon-gi just yawned and took his seat. The exam location was, naturally, this lecture hall. An interesting fact was that the exam proctor was Kim Chang-yoon. It was the first time Kim Chang-yoon could finally meet his nephew and Yoon-gi, but he couldn't do anything other than proctor the exam. Because the moment he spoke to Yoon-gi during the exam, he would be met with severe reprimand. The break time was the same. Kim Chang-yoon was sighing deeply inside, but there was someone else sighing deeply in reality. It was none other than Kim Son-hwan.
Kim Son-hwan was currently horrified by the "insane level" of the exam questions. Of course, they didn't stray from the curriculum. But the level was so murderous that Kim Son-hwan, though holding a pencil, couldn't move it easily.
*No, how am I supposed to solve this?*
It wasn't that he couldn't solve any of the problems. But he was constantly hitting walls due to the questions mixed in between, and even the ones he could solve required a lot of time. So, Kim Son-hwan stole a glance at Yoon-gi. *If it’s this hard for me, it must be even harder for that bastard.*
But. Surprisingly, Yoon-gi was solving the problems with ease.