PA 3

“Don’t feel burdened and just take it. We’re not such pathetic hyungs that we can’t even buy our youngest a university gift.”

Unable to refuse his members’ urging, Yejun tore open the gift box.

“Wow! It’s a laptop. Thank you so much.”

It was something he desperately needed. In fact, for the past few days, he had been searching for laptops on the internet, but the latest models were quite expensive. Yejun hugged the laptop tightly to his chest and beamed.

“Our Yejun! Studied so hard! Not through special admissions for celebrities! But got into the best university in our country, Korea University, through regular admissions! Is there anything we wouldn’t do for you?”

Taeyi shouted loudly, emphasizing each and every word. As a moved Yejun’s eyes welled up with tears, the members fussed over him, helping him up and showering him with words.

“Yeah, even if you can’t go to all of them, go to the MT and make some friends. And attend your classes diligently.”

“That’s right, starting from the second week, you absolutely can’t miss class. Do you know how much attendance affects your grade?”

“Right, right. It’s about time. You have to get to school quickly. Where’s the time to be crying right now?”

Wooju helped Yejun to his feet and gave him a broad smile.

☂︎

Yejun arrived at the classroom about thirty minutes before the lecture was scheduled to begin. The last row by the window was thankfully empty. Yejun walked over with a light step and sat down. Then he took out the textbook for his liberal arts class and his new laptop.

“Hey.”

It was then. Junhyuk, who was sitting next to Yejun, smiled and greeted him.

“Class is at nine, you’re early.”

Junhyuk, who had initiated the greeting, glanced back and forth between Yejun’s face and the laptop on the desk. Having a laptop for the first time, Yejun was in a state of slight bewilderment at the screen he was seeing for the first time.

“Looks like your laptop is new.”

“Y-Yeah.”

“It only takes a moment to set it up. Should I help you?”

“Could you do that for me?”

“Well, it’s no big deal… Give it here.”

“Thanks.”

Junhyuk took the laptop and skillfully performed the initial setup. Then he tilted his head and continued.

“There are a lot of programs to install, too. I have genuine copies of most of the common ones, so I’ll install them for you next time.”

“Ah… thank you.”

“What for, between friends.”

Junhyuk placed the laptop back in front of Yejun and chuckled. Then he held out his phone and said.

“We’ll be taking the same class for a whole semester, so I think we should have each other’s numbers. Put your number in.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah!”

Yejun took Junhyuk’s phone and entered his phone number. Junhyuk took the phone back from Yejun and pressed the call button, and Yejun’s phone screen lit up.

“That’s my number. You can call anytime.”

“Thanks. Junhyuk, you should call me often too.”

Yejun started his trainee life at fifteen and debuted at seventeen. His opportunities to make friends were limited to within the entertainment industry. The fact that he had made a friend at school after a long time made Yejun a little excited. As such, Yejun meticulously saved Junhyuk’s number and answered very earnestly.

After saving Junhyuk’s number, Yejun placed his phone on the desk and saw the professor entering the classroom.

“The professor’s here.”

Yejun whispered quietly in Junhyuk’s ear. Only then did Junhyuk shift his gaze to the lectern, and the sight of the classroom, now filled with students and buzzing with conversation, came into view. Junhyuk felt as if the quiet space he shared with Yejun had been transformed into a noisy lecture hall in an instant.

“This isn’t a time warp or anything…”

Junhyuk muttered in a small voice, as if in disbelief.

“Alright! I will now take attendance.”

The professor began to call out the names on the attendance sheet loudly to draw the students’ focus. Fearing he might miss his own name being called by the professor, Yejun leaned his upper body far forward. Junhyuk found this Yejun to be endlessly fascinating.

“Alright! I plan to replace the midterm exam with a group project. There will only be one exam for the final.”

“Ah! Can’t we just have exams for both?”

“You cannot.”

“Ah!”

The students hated group projects. They form groups of four, someone researches materials according to the topic, another person creates the presentation materials. Finally, they just need to decide on a presenter. The problem, however, is that the probability of all group members actively participating is close to zero.

The moment you remove a person who had low participation from the first page of the presentation materials, getting a good evaluation was already a lost cause. This is because the ultimate goal of a group project is for all four members to cooperate somehow and produce a good result. From the perspective of a student who voluntarily and actively participates in a group project, it was incredibly unfair to be evaluated on areas beyond their own control.

“Is it okay to remove people who run away from the group project from the list?”

“That is your choice. If the presentation and the materials receive the same score, it is true that the side with more people participating will have an advantage.”

“Ah…?”

The professor looked at the students complaining in a lamenting tone as if he were watching a classic movie that always aired during the holidays.

“Let’s take a ten-minute break.”

The students, who had half given up in the face of the professor’s firm stance, began to form groups during the break. The once-quiet classroom suddenly became boisterous.

“Yejun.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re in the same group.”

“Okay.”

It was then. A female student who had been sitting in the back row and continuously stealing glances at Yejun cautiously approached the two of them.

“I’m Oh Nayoung, a sophomore in the Sociology department. Would you like to be in the same group?”

“M-Me too.”

Following her, a male student who seemed to have trailed after the female student stood there awkwardly, as if not entirely willing, and looked at them. For Junhyuk, as long as he was in the same group as Yejun, anyone else didn’t matter.

“Yejun, what do you think?”

“We need more group members anyway, so wouldn’t it be okay?”

As Yejun agreed, a bright smile bloomed on Nayoung’s face. The surrounding students, who had been on edge about who Junhyuk and Yejun would form a group with, all looked at them at once. Among them, female students who appeared to be Nayoung’s friends gave her a thumbs-up and a playful wink.

The deadline to submit all the group members’ names was next week. Therefore, the topic for the group presentation had not yet been decided, which meant they could spend their free periods leisurely until this week.

“Junhyuk, this is your only class today, right?”

“That’s right.”

Junhyuk nodded, recalling his Monday schedule.

“I have a three-hour break. Hmm… my schedule this semester seems like a bit of a failure.”

“I messed up my course registration this time too, so my schedule is a complete mess.”

“They say course registration is a war…”

Yejun clenched his two fists, thinking he needed to be more combative with course registration next semester. Junhyuk subtly wrapped an arm around Yejun’s shoulder and spoke to him.

“Let’s go to our department room and order something to eat.”

“The Economics department room?”

“Yeah.”

Without even waiting for Yejun’s answer, Junhyuk led him to the Department of Economics building.

“Is this your department room?”

Having gone up to the second floor of the Department of Economics building and standing in front of the department room, Yejun looked around and asked Junhyuk. Junhyuk nodded and opened the door for Yejun, and at the same time, someone’s loud voice echoed from inside the room.

“Sunbae, really?”

“What’s with this kid? Have you lived your whole life being deceived?”

Perhaps because it was lunchtime, the Economics department room was bustling with students. Yejun, who entered the room with Junhyuk, had his eyes drawn to the two people with particularly loud voices, and one of them looked vaguely familiar.

“Oh… uh.”

Spotting a familiar face in the Economics department room, Yejun pointed at him and stuttered.

“Oh! It’s Yejun.”

The person with the exceptionally loud voice was familiar to Yejun, and the reason was that he was the class representative for the first-year Theater and Film department students.

“Wonyoung, what are you doing here?”

“Yejun, what about you?”

Wonyoung ran towards Yejun with a happy face. Then he wrapped his arm around Yejun’s neck and put him in a light headlock. Junhyuk’s brow furrowed sharply as he watched, and Minhwan looked back and forth between Junhyuk and Yejun with a meaningful smile.

“You came at the right time.”

“Why, why?”

Wonyoung was a friend he had met for the first time last week. Yejun, who had not participated in the freshman orientation, was only able to get acquainted with his department peers after the semester started. Even so, Wonyoung treated Yejun as casually as an old friend. Yejun didn’t dislike Wonyoung for that.

“The third-year sunbaes from the Economics department here suggested we have a joint MT with us first-years from the Theater and Film department. The Economics department will cover all the expenses. So about that… you should come too.”

“Ah…”

“Why? You can’t?”

Yejun was already not comfortable with his department peers as it was. It was then. Minhwan, who had been watching the two of them from behind Wonyoung, linked his arm with Junhyuk’s and subtly inserted himself between them.

“If you’re a first-year, this is the prime time to be going to MTs. If you don’t have time, you can come later as part of the late crew.”

Yejun remembered what his members had said that morning.

“Yeah, even if you can’t go to all of them, go to the MT and make some friends. And attend your classes diligently.”

His recent schedule was pretty much just practice, practice, practice. However, the songs to be included in the album were not yet fully prepared.

“I’ll have to ask my agency’s CEO and the members, but the schedule will probably work out.”

“Alright! Got one.”

Wonyoung’s characteristic cheerful laugh was so loud it seemed to echo throughout the entire Department of Economics building. Just then, the phones in Junhyuk’s and Yejun’s hands began to vibrate respectively.

☂︎

CEO Song was the type to frequent smoking areas. Especially when visiting a company for the first time to meet a new advertiser, he always arrived about three hours early. Then he would spend an hour or two popping in and out of that company’s smoking area.

CEO Song stood in a corner of the smoking area, pretending to smoke, and glanced around. He carefully eavesdropped on the conversations of people gathered in small groups, excitedly chattering about back-alley gossip.

“Oh, really?”

“I’m telling you, Chairman Cha was mingling among young men and women. Even though young, pretty girls were openly hitting on Chairman Cha right there, he didn’t bat an eye.”

“He really must see women as stones.”

“I know, right… Could he still be unable to forget his dead wife?”