Chapter 3

Time flew by, soon came September. A new semester started and a terrible thing happened to Yoon-woo.

She came to the economics class which he will be attending.

It was the woman he hated to run into at the gym.

To keep seeing her in the classroom during a whole semester, had I known, I would have cancelled my course registration.

Apparently, she started attending right after the corrections for course registration was done.

Economics students were required to take the basics of economics, but Yoon-woo did not want to hang out with his classmates.

The economics class was divided into several groups, and Yoon-woo applied for a lecture held in a science and engineering campus lecture room far away from the College of Economics, where the same major classmates had no reason to apply for.

This economics theory class, which Yoon-woo applied for, is taught in English by a blonde female professor of Bolivian nationality.

According to the reviews of the course, it was very easy to take and it was famous for good grades and credits given easily.

The English pronunciation was a little difficult to understand, but it was the only issue, and the test is based on the contents of the ppt anyway.

(ppt= Powerpoint presentation)

As a requirement for graduation from college, there was a requirement that students had to take at least a few English lectures, so this course was a perfect course to meet the graduation requirements and earn credits.

However, there was no mention on the course review site that Professor Lee will make students introduce themselves in English at the beginning of the semester.

Because the only person who cared about such things would have been Yoon-woo.

After the professor declared that she would have a self-introduction, for a brief moment, Yoon-woo thought a lot about it.

No matter how much you train in English for the SAT and get used to reading or listening to English, your English conversation skills are a different matter.

Also, Yoon-woo had a hard time speaking in front of people.

So, it was difficult for Yoon-woo since not only would he have  to speak in front of so many people but he would also have to do that in English and without any prior notice.

Like many people unfamiliar with conversing in English, he tried to say it by memorizing Korean sentences in his head, translating them into English, and then saying them.

However, the only sentences that came to his mind were ‘I’m trash’ and ‘I’m going to die soon.’

‘I have a disgusting voice.’

In my opinion, it was the most appropriate sentence to introduce myself, but I can’t say that.

In fact, since this economics class was mainly taken by students of the Department of Food and Resources Economics, about 70% of the class was filled with people who seemed friendly to each other, and they were chatting with each other.

So, Yoon-woo was going to be buried in a corner as inconspicuous as possible.

However, if you introduce yourself with such a catchy self-introduction, it is sure to become a topic of discussion for other students during lunchtime.

Even a mistake that ends in a moment of laughter within the group becomes a subject of ridicule or prejudice for a long time when it is made by someone who is alienated from the group.

That’s why loners are so vulnerable in college life.

However, contrary to Yoon-woo’s worries, the self-introduction time went smoothly.

Because the self-introduction started from the very front seat, Yoon-woo sat in the back seat which was far away from it.

People’s interest in the content of the self-introduction decreased as time went by, and the number of people who finished their self-introduction quickly by borrowing a few sentences from the previous person increased.

Of course, Yoon-woo did the same.

Contrary to the expectations of students from the first hour after the self-introduction, the class progressed with a full 75-minute lecture .

Like other professors, she said, ‘You know this, right? I don’t need to explain, right? If you don’t know, it’s your fault, so if you do, find the answer yourself.’

It wasn’t honey for nothing. It didn’t matter what that professor thought of the level of education in Korea.

Isn’t it enough to just give a good grade? Yoon-woo thought that the self-introduction time earlier would be the first and last hardship in this class.

But that was a hasty conclusion.

Just a week later, after his registration correction period was over, the girl from the gym showed up in his classroom again.

It was the first time Yoon-woo had experienced a lecture where he had to introduce himself at the beginning of the semester. This usually did not happen unless the lecture was mainly focused on conversation or discussion from the beginning.

That alone made this lecture an unusual one, but I didn’t know newcomers would be nominated and rescheduled again after the correction period.

A self-introduction that virtually nobody wants and nobody cares about.

If Yoon-woo had to do that, he would’ve got sullen.

But she was the chosen one.

She was only wearing jeans and a T-shirt, yet she was more gorgeous than anyone in the classroom.

The sports tank top she wore all the time at her gym revealed her hidden power that she was holding back.

Perhaps that’s why, compared to the off-the-shoulder top worn by a Bolivian professor, her white tee with a strange character on her chest looked far more sensational.

When it was her turn to introduce, the classroom went quiet and everyone focused on her.

Everyone wanted to remember her name, and everyone wondered about her voice.

Yoon-woo might have vomited right away after receiving such attention. But her lips curled up forming a smile.

She began to tell everyone with her fluent pronunciation what her major was and what she wanted to learn, but none of the contents reached Yoon-woo’s ears.

Because he heard the first words of her self-introduction and his face turned pale. The problem was her name.

Her name was Hye-rim Cho.

At 11:45, his class was over, and Yoon-woo escaped from the crowd of students waiting for their meal partner and returned to his own room.

He came back and he thought. Her name, Cho Hye-rim, was a trigger that made him aware of the painful feelings from his childhood.

It’s a name I don’t want to recall as much as possible, but the name that caught everyone’s attention was similar to that girl, Cho Hye-rim, the 4th grader, whose name was the same.

Could it be the same person? I couldn’t tell since I didn’t remember what Hye-rim Cho, a 4th grader, looked like.

It wasn’t very likely, but how likely could it be?

The name Hye-rim wasn’t as common as old names like Cheol-su Young-hee, but it wasn’t unusual either.

The more I thought about it, the more bitter I felt.

He had no appetite, and he lay on his stomach with his face buried in the pillow for about an hour.

After he lay there for a while, his heart calmed a little.

If you think about it calmly, the only problem I face is that I feel bad when I see her.

He thought that whether or not she was the same person as 4th grader Cho Hye-rim, there was no way Yoon-woo would ever meet her.

Even if it were the same person as Cho Hye-rim, a fourth grader in elementary school, how many  problems would have arisen due to people’s love and interest in her life?

Regardless of her gender, she must have met and contacted countless people who could not be imagined… … Perhaps even now, seniors who are willing to buy food for her are waiting in line for her to call.

There is no way that she, who lives such a life, can remember Lee Yoon-woo who talked nonsense to her without knowing the subject when she was in elementary school.

Even if she remembers, there is no way she can remember Yoon-woo from now.

Yoon-woo can’t even remember the young Hye-rim’s face. So, if it were Hye-rim, she would have forgotten the face of a buggy person like Yoon-woo by the time she was in 5th grade.

And, at least, as far as Yoon-woo knows, the only other economics students taking this class were the senior students who Yoon-woo did not know.

Therefore, Hye-rim is not that big of a problem in the economics department.

Except for the two mandatory freshman classes, economics, and modern business administration, all of the classes Yoon-woo took were major classes, so there was a very little chance of meeting Hye-rim in another class.

It didn’t matter if she remembered Lee Yoon-woo’s name miraculously.

Because Yoon-woo wouldn’t even tell her his name. And, although the Bolivian female professor of economics class called the names of the people who attended before class, she had said that she couldn’t pronounce the Korean names properly, so after half-way through the names, students couldn’t help but laugh.

Only the person who was called could know who she was calling.

That’s why, whenever she attends, she could not recognize Yoon-Woo Lee through the name the professor called him.

To summarize, the most frightening situation for Yoon-woo is that Hye-rim Cho in the economics class is his elementary school classmate, who might remember Yoon-woo, and could bring up his childhood.

But even if Hye-rim remembers Yoon-woo and even recognizes his face after going through a series of miraculous odds, Yoon-woo Lee is just a worm quietly wriggling in the corner.

There is no gain for her to talk about me.

Therefore, in the end, as long as Yoon-woo does not pay attention to Hye-rim, there will be no problem.

After thinking for a long time like this, Yoon-woo, who was suddenly hungry, took out a can of mild tuna and poured the oil.

He was planning to eat it quickly with a salad and go to the next class.

After lying down in his bedroom and pondering, Yoon-woo concluded that he only had to be careful not to come in Hye-rim Cho’s sight, only for 150 minutes a week, during the economics class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30 to 11:45 in the morning.

However, Yoon-woo found out that there was an error in this conclusion at 2 pm, when the 5th period began.

He found out that she was also joining the Modern Business Administration class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:00 to 3:15 pm.

Since it is a lecture with a large number of listeners, and attendance is not called until the course registration is corrected, he did not know whether she was there before the correction period or was a newcomer after that.

This class was a liberal arts class for students from other departments, and it was a class that business administration students had to take. Attendance will be called in order of class number, so I learned that she was also a freshman like me.

However, unlike the economics class with 60 students, it was difficult to figure out who sat where because about 450 students attended this lecture in a large classroom.

Above all, you can’t even see the person in front of you because of the chair with a long backrest that supports the back of your neck.

In fact, one of the reasons Yoon-woo, who was not interested in business administration, took the course was because of the chair in this very classroom, which is known to be the most comfortable on the liberal arts campus.

The professor of Modern Business Administration invited famous experts from various fields to give lectures, saying that freshmen should have a wide perspective, and the experts would share with them their experiences of when they worked at government agencies.

There is a designated textbook, and the midterm and final exams are all written there, but they are not used in class.

In short, it means that students who are not interested in anything other than grades can come to this class, fill their attendance scores, and sleep leaning on comfortable chairs.

When I checked attendance for the first class since the class correction period, I felt bad for a moment because I heard the name Cho Hye-rim being called, but I was able to shake it off quickly.

Whatever Cho Hye-rim does, Yoon-woo didn’t want to take this class with his eyes open.

Hye-rim won’t be seen if he just dozes off or lean on the chair with his eyes closed.

But there was something that Yoon-woo didn’t think of.

“Oh, finally, everyone, this class is a fixed seating system. I can’t call the attendance of all these people every hour, can I? In the future, if you sit in a reserved seat, the assistant will walk around to check attendance. The seats are randomly placed and printed by me on the back door, so make sure to check and sit there from next time. I’m going to check attendance before class ends, so you know you can’t leave, right? If you don’t like the seat, please discuss it with the person in the seat you want to change and tell me.”

Students rushed to the back door after class.

Yoon-woo muttered to himself several times.

‘I hope not. Don’t tell me…No way, is it?’

It’s funny.

Another person wouldn’t think of him even as a daughter-in-law passing by, but it was nevertheless so terrifying that she might be sitting near him.

(T/N: As most daughter in laws’ faces weren’t rememberable to mother in laws, so here it means he would be unnoticed)

Even if Yoon-woo is a daughter-in-law, he can forget that he is a daughter-in-law without someone like her.

Life is good if you live and die alone in a shady place where there’s no sunlight, whether you lived like a corpse or dust, that’s a good life.

I didn’t want to feel the sun’s light.

I didn’t want to know that there was a life where I had fun playing outside in the sun, not in the cramped cracks in the walls.

I didn’t want to see it even if I knew.

The scenery only makes him more distressed, who can’t escape the gap of the wall for the rest of his life.

But if there is a God, and he is the kind of person who intentionally manages all odds, he probably wants him to swim in hot oil and burn to death.

When I checked the posted seating chart, Yoon-woo was in the middle row, the left-most seat, and the name of the person sitting next to him was…It was Cho Hye-rim.

‘If you don’t like the seat, please talk to the person you want to change seats with and tell me.’

The professor said so, but Yoon-woo didn’t know anyone in this class, so there was no one to ask for a change of seats. And, there was no excuse to ask for a change.

I briefly thought that there would be someone to take the seat if I yelled about Cho Hye-rim, a freshman in business administration, and the right to sit next to her for a semester, but Yoon-woo can’t do that, and college students can’t express their secret desires in public.

‘How can this be? How does my life keep getting twisted? I just wanted to hang in here for three years.’

Yoon-woo, who returned to his room, lamented alone for a long time and sent a kakaotalk to Bunny.

It was not until 9:30 p.m. that Bunny replied to me using a voice chat application.

[Tofu, hi!]

“What, why are you already drunk?”

[I woke up a little early today and started drinking! I didn’t see the message because I was drinking!]

“What did you drink with today?”

[Chicken! Tofu, what did you have for dinner?]

“I…….”

So, Yoon-woo continued to talk about trivial things with Bunny.

Yoon-woo, who normally would have stopped talking to Bunny and went to sleep, didn’t even think about quitting the app and just stayed quiet, so Bunny quickly realized that Yoon-woo was not in a good mood as usual.

[Tofu, did something bad happen today?]

“It’s just, it’s not a big deal, but I’m feeling down.”

It won’t be a big deal for anyone other than Yoon-woo.

It’s probably nothing. Some might say it’s a good thing.

To someone who lives in the sun.

[Do you want to sleep with this on?]

“This? You want me to leave the app on. Then the phone bill……. Oh, this isn’t a phone call.”

[Yeah! We don’t have to say much to each other, but if you hear people moving around, you can calm down! I’m alone in this small room, what do you think?]

“Well……it’s good…….”

Bunny’s suggestion was better than I thought.

I was lying still, and I heard the sound of the shower next to me, and I heard the sound of typing, and the noises of living gave me a strange sense of relief.

Come to think of it, Bunny was very considerate that she was stuck in the room.

A kid like that would be able to hang out with people somehow, unlike me, but what kind of story am I gonna tell her when she’s going to die? Yoon-woo fell asleep thinking about that.

And Bunny put her earphones in her ears and listened to the sound of Yoon-woo’s breathing