Advisor Assignment (1)
The administrative office and faculty department had been fully occupied for some time with dividing the new students into classes. They were splitting the freshmen based on the results of their basic evaluations. After all, it was impossible to teach everyone with the same uniform approach without considering their individual levels. The goal was to help the talented students shine even brighter while giving those who struggled the chance to improve.
Han Min-ha had been placed in the lower class. Since she hadn't held high expectations to begin with, she wasn't particularly disappointed. Once the classes were finalized, advisory teaching assistants were assigned. In simple terms, these assistants acted like homeroom teachers, overseeing every aspect of their assigned students' academy life. Though called assistants, they weren't heroes lacking talent—they were accomplished scholars who had made names for themselves outside the academy. In the first place, one needed a fairly impressive career to even qualify for a position on the academy staff.
Just then, the faculty department head entered the room and took the seat at the head of the conference table, greeting everyone with forced cheer.
The greeting was absurd coming so early in the morning, and the professors glanced at one another, unsure how to respond. In that instant, I understood the situation. The department head had probably pulled an all-nighter handling tasks like class assignments. Since he hadn't slept, today still felt like evening to him. It was a ridiculous joke playing on that fact. Of course, claiming he had stayed up all night was likely an exaggeration. What a hopelessly lame joke.
Among the professors, Heo Tae-hyeon—the veteran Information Acquisition and Operations instructor who had served under the department head for quite some time—spoke up.
"As expected, only Professor Heo here gets my humor."
Professor Heo Tae-hyeon explained the head's joke to the other professors. Only then did they force out awkward laughter and offer the usual perfunctory responses: "Good evening, sir," and "Thank you for your hard work."
Professor Heo caught my eye and winked, his expression clearly saying, You already understood everything, didn't you? As expected of someone specialized in information acquisition and operations—his ability to read the room was annoyingly sharp.
Professor Heo was popular among the staff. He was friendly, quick-witted, good at telling jokes, thoughtful toward others, and had no obvious flaws. He was also the only one who could deliver blunt criticism to the department head with a smile on his face. For some reason, he remained a regular professor despite having enough seniority to have been promoted to associate professor long ago.
I had worried the meeting would be ruined by that unforgivably bad joke, but thanks to Professor Heo, we avoided the worst outcome. Believing his joke had landed well, the department head was in an excellent mood, and the meeting proceeded without too many issues.
Today's agenda covered the newly assigned classes, the advisory teaching assistants, and the upcoming advisor professor assignments. There wasn't much substance to it—just reminders that now that the classes had been formed, we should teach more systematically according to each group's level, and that we should observe the students in advance to prepare for the advisor assignments.
When the meeting ended, the department head clapped his hands energetically and announced, "Let's keep up the fighting spirit today, everyone. Ready the chant!"
"Yup...!"
"Yah..."
At his words, the professors half-heartedly raised their fists. Only Professor Heo Tae-hyeon shouted "Hiyah!" with genuine enthusiasm.
"Begin the chant!"
"Wonderful...! Powerful...! Successful...!"
"All together!"
"Full full full!"
As I raised my fist three times, then three more times in quick succession for a total of six, I thought to myself: This is truly insane.
A meeting attended by renowned current and former hero professors. The general public probably imagined we engaged in deep, profound discussions every morning about how to efficiently educate the hero aspirants who would shoulder the future. But in reality, it was "full full full."
"Thank you for your hard work! Everyone, please rise!"
As soon as the chant ended, Professor Heo Tae-hyeon shouted loudly. He always wrapped up meetings this way, tying everything off neatly. If he didn't, the department head would linger and keep chatting endlessly.
"Thank you for your hard work!"
Taking Professor Heo's cue, the professors shot up from their seats as if fleeing and quickly left the faculty room. In truth, the real chant of our department was "Thank you for your hard work. Everyone, please rise."
I was just getting up from my seat when the department head called out to me.
"Yes, sir."
When I sat back down, the department head pointed to the seat diagonally across from him.
"No, sir. I'll move over."
After I changed seats, the department head waited until the other professors had left before speaking.
"It's been manageable. Thanks to all the care you've shown me, sir."
"I'm not sure yet."
In truth, I had already set my sights on Han Min-ha, but I couldn't speak carelessly without knowing the department head's intentions.
"It wasn't exactly an exchange of names, but yes, we did have a short conversation."
"She asked if I was a professor, and I said yes. That was the end of it."
The department head frowned and scratched his chin, clearly not believing me.
"Then what was it?"
I could roughly guess what had happened. It seemed Yoo Hee-won had told her father about me. Had she already marked me as her choice?
"I'm not sure. I don't recall any such conversation."
"Are you telling me to take Yoo Hee-won?"
"Wasn't that what you were implying?"
Even as he said that, the department head continued in a suggestive tone.
"I'm aware."
"Then why don't you take her on as your own advisory student, sir?"
The department head stammered in confusion.
"Rather than an unpopular subject professor like myself, wouldn't it look better if you personally took charge of her full management? Given Yoo Hee-won's abilities and background, a department head would suit her far better than a regular professor."
"Yes. The Advisory Chairman is so deeply interested in his daughter's education. If he were to find out that her advisor is nothing more than a consumptive basic defense professor who can't stop coughing..."
I deliberately let my words trail off. The department head's eyes began darting around anxiously.
"There are no regulations against it, so please take her on yourself. I'm sure both the Advisory Chairman and the dean would be very pleased. They could say that even a busy department head has rolled up his sleeves for the sake of a student's education."
"Hmm..."
"I get to avoid taking on such an important responsibility and feel relieved, you get to teach an outstanding student right before retirement, Yoo Hee-won gets to learn from someone far more capable than me, the dean gets to save face with the Advisory Chairman, and the Chairman gets to have a department head teaching his daughter. Everyone wins."
The department head pressed his lips tightly together and fell into thought. It must have been difficult to suppress the greed slowly rising within him. What was originally supposed to end with him simply receiving praise for assigning me as advisor had suddenly transformed into an opportunity to earn the interest and trust of powerful figures with his entire being. On top of that, his favor toward me would likely increase as well.
Being Yoo Hee-won's advisor was a position everyone coveted. She would naturally graduate at the top without any effort, connections with the Advisory Chairman would form naturally, and if one could handle her personality, there was no better position. Not only was I refusing such a role, I was even recommending it to my superior. Of course, this was only possible because our department head was both a stubborn old-timer and a greedy man. A smarter, more perceptive department head would have seen through my intentions immediately.
After a long pause, the head finally spoke.
"Please do so. I'm sure the dean will find it quite admirable."
Instead of answering, I offered a faint smile.
I had just stepped out of the research building for my lecture when someone called out to me.
When I turned around, I saw Professor Heo Tae-hyeon waving from the smoking area, cigarette in hand. I shook my head and mimed smoking with my fingers. He laughed, stubbed out his cigarette on the ground, and waved his hand to disperse the smoke.
"Yes."
I hesitated for a moment, wondering whether I should speak. Professor Heo Tae-hyeon was the Information Acquisition and Operations specialist. If he wanted to, finding out what the department head and I had discussed wouldn't be difficult at all. It was fortunate he was friendly toward me. If he had been an enemy, he would have been an incredibly troublesome person. It was probably better to just tell him.
"It was about the advisor assignments."
"You already knew."
As expected of someone who had worked in intelligence for a long time—he could infer the whole situation from the smallest clue.
"No. It felt too burdensome, so I suggested that it might be better if you took on the role of advisor yourself, sir..."
"Hahahahahahaha!"
Before I could even finish, Professor Heo burst into loud laughter. It wasn't particularly funny, yet he was laughing so hard he wiped away tears, slapping my shoulder repeatedly.
"Is it that amusing?"
"Not exactly. I genuinely didn't want to take Yoo Hee-won."
"That may be true, but I really don't want to take her."
Professor Heo cackled at his own joke and waved me off.
"I'll be on my way, Professor Heo."
"Yeah."
The spring morning breeze was still chilly, and staying outside too long might trigger another coughing fit. I hurried across to the lecture building and headed up to the classroom.
Unfortunately, today's first class happened to be with the upper class that Yoo Hee-won belonged to. As I arrived at the lecture hall and prepared for class, students began trickling in one by one.
"Good morning, Professor."
"Good morning."
"Professor Kyo. Hello?"
Yoo Hee-won entered with a smile on her face.