Chapter 4

On Monday, the seating arrangement for Modern Business Administration class came out, and Yoon-woo felt uneasy for the next few days.

But when the class started on Wednesday, he realized that, contrary to his worries, there was no need to worry too much about Hye-rim Cho sitting next to him.

Isn’t it common in life when you can’t sleep at night because you are worried about something and can’t do anything all day since you are anxious about something to happen but when it happens it is not that big of a deal.

Hye-rim Cho, who was sitting next to him, fell asleep in less than 5 minutes just after the class started.

What the hell was I worried about? Hye-rim Cho, I think she doesn’t even remember what the Professor looks like, let alone me.

There were not many glances at Hye-rim like in the economics class.

In the spacious lecture hall, the long seminar chairs blocked the view, and basically most of the students were dozing.

Only the female student sitting next to Hye-rim’s right looked at Hye-rim, who had fallen asleep at the speed of light, with an absurd expression.

Only a few enthusiastic students and unlucky students who had been assigned a seat right in front of the Professor had their eyes opened and they were attending the class properly. No matter how bright Cho Hye-rim was, even if she was like the sun, it was of no use in front of the Professor’s lullaby.

After all, the sun naturally goes down when the night comes.

Yoon-woo felt relieved and tired. For a second, he thought about taking the class like some passionate students, but…….

“Management is everywhere. For example, in the Palaeolithic, humans made fires and knocked stones… … and business administration can be applied there too.”

I couldn’t really afford to listen to the Professor’s talk about business administration from the Palaeolithic era.

The title of the lecture is Modern Business Administration. How long will I have to wait for the time to make the transition from the Palaeolithic era to the modern era?

Besides, the time is 2 PM, when humans feel sleepy the most… … .

Yoon-woo, who had fallen asleep like that, did not notice that Hye-rim, who woke up, was staring at him.

***

Next Monday, economics class took an unexpected turn of events which came as a big shock to Yoon-woo.

Just like what you were worried about can turn out to be not a big deal, what you were relieved about can instead turn out to be a big deal.

Until now, Yoon-woo thought that economics was a perfect major for him.

This is because there was little chance for group projects to come out in economics classes.

Most of the assignments were to solve problems in textbooks or practice questions given by Professors, and outsiders like Yoon-woo, who did not study or do club activities, had no problem doing the assignments by themselves because they had a lot of time to review.

Major classes with team projects are very rare in the Department of Economics, so you can check the review sites and avoid most of them.

But I didn’t expect this Bolivian Professor to give us a team project.

The content of the project was to share and solve the four exercises that the Professor gives each week with the team.

It is said that the Professor will review the process of the solution whether it is correct or not, and give extra points to the group which has particularly good answers.

But the most important thing is……. Make a group of at least two people on your own and submit the project to the Professor.

Why? No matter how difficult the principle level exercises were, it wouldn’t take long to solve them alone if you were to solve them while referring to the theory books in the library.

I thought it was not required for the team to do this task. Maybe this was why there was no mention of team projects on the course review site?

Does the Professor perceive Korea as a developing country of the 1960s?

Does she think that students from underdeveloped countries like Korea can only solve problems of the principle level exercises by putting their heads together?

Or is it because the Professor has a shady hobby to bother the students who are outsiders like Yoon-woo, so that is why she intentionally made them introduce themselves in English or make meaningless team projects?

Or is it that Bolivia is a happy country, so they can’t even imagine that there are students who can’t form a team and are left out?

Yoon-woo continued thinking like this.

“Hey, uh… … Perhaps… … Do you happen to take modern business administration class?”

Yoon-woo turned around and saw a beautiful woman with elongated limbs, wearing skinny jeans and a red hoodie with a large leopard on her back, the symbol of the college.

Surprisingly, it was Hye-rim. What is surprising is that, because he didn’t like the atmosphere of the students of the Department of Food and Resource Economics, who are noisy among themselves, Yoon-woo barely arrives in the classroom right before class starts, checks the vacancy, and sits in the seat farthest from Hye-rim.

In other words, Hye-rim who is here now came to talk to Yoon-woo, who is sitting far away from her seat.

“It looks like you’re sitting next to me… … right? The leftmost corner of the middle row.”

“… … Yes, that’s right.”

Hye-rim’s expression brightened up after hearing Yoon-woo’s answer. Yoon-woo was thinking, ‘When did you see me when you were always sleeping?’

“If you don’t have a group yet, why don’t you join me? It’s a group project after all.”

‘No, I don’t want to. I’d rather just do it alone than to do it with you.’ But I couldn’t.

Even if they met each other for the first time, he had to be courteous.

Outsiders who don’t have any self-respect should not lose their courtesy in any situation because they are easy to get bullied by if gotten on anyone’s bad side even for trivial things.

Unfortunately, there was no way for Yoon-woo to politely reject Hye-rim’s offer in this situation.

It was obvious that Yoon-woo was the only one taking that economics class with her in the whole class now, and there was no justification to refuse her and look for another partner.

And Yoon-woo was not good at finding a suitable lie to reject others’ suggestions.

Then the answer is to finish the conversation as soon as possible.

“Sure. Then, how about we take two questions each and then go over it and submit it?”

So, I decided to have a professional relationship with her as much as possible.

If I divide the roles well and solve the problems only through Kakao Talk, I might be saved from talking to her again after this time.

“Yes! My name is Cho Hye-rim! You are…….”

It was time for Hye-rim to ask Yoon-woo’s name.

“Hey, I’m sorry, but can you let me in? I’m alone, too.”

A handsome boy with a two-block haircut interrupted the conversation.

Were you aiming for Hye-rim? It went well for me anyway.

When a man like that came in, my presence in this team project would decrease sharply, and I could just quietly solve the problems and remain conspicuous.

Yoon-woo was willing to accept the man’s offer.

But even before Yoon-woo could talk, Hye-rim replied to the man.

“There are four questions, wouldn’t it be easier to have even numbers? I’m sorry, but I think it’ll be more comfortable for just the two of us to do it. I’m very sorry.”

Hye-rim rejected the man’s proposal.

Is there any reason to say no? Isn’t it more convenient if there are more people and fewer problems to do per person?

“Uh… … Wouldn’t it be more convenient if there were more people… … . Isn’t it better to do 2 questions, 1 question, 1 question at a time?”

The man seems to think the same as Yoon-woo.

“The problem isn’t that difficult, but if there are a lot of people, the responsibility is dispersed, and I might delay the problems because of my prior appointments or personal schedules, and I don’t like having someone else do it for me, and I don’t want something like that to happen.So, I’m sorry.”

Hye-rim said in a very determined tone.

The man left with a regretful expression saying he had lost the energy to persuade Hye-rim anymore.

Yun-woo seemed to know about Hye-rim’s intentions.

When doing group assignments, there is a chance to get such a handsome person as a team member who might just fool around and result in no time for them to review the answer, forcing someone else to take over.

In that respect, a nerd who has no friends like Yoon-woo, who doesn’t do extracurricular activities, and only goes to the library, is the right person to efficiently carry out group assignments.

Hye-rim must have approached with certainty that Yoon-woo was such an outsider.

“Sorry. I rejected it.”

“No, apparently you have a good point.”

“Don’t talk with me so formally, you can call me Hye-rim. By the way… … What is your name?”

In Yoon-woo’s mind, for a moment, Cho Hye-rim, a 4th grader, and various possibilities that he was worried about came quickly.

But if Hye-rim had tried to pretend she knew Yoon-woo, she would have done it sooner.

Considering the current atmosphere, he thought that the things he was worried about would not happen, and he shook off his anxiety.

“It’s Lee Yoon-woo.”

“Lee Yoon-woo… Yes, Yoon-woo. Can I have your number?”

Hye-rim called Yoon-woo’s phone and Yoon-woo registered her number.

Yoon-woo hoped that the semester would end soon and the day would come when he could erase this number.

In the end, Hye-rim wrote down the confirmed list of team members and submitted it.

To be fair, Yoon-woo decided to solve 2 questions each, questions 2nd and 4th for him, and questions 1st and 3rd for her, and post the answers on KakaoTalk by the weekend.

Now it’s safe to say that there will be no actual meeting and conversation.

If you are in business-related conversations, Yoon-woo can also reduce the feeling of falling into a sense of inferiority.

As soon as he left the classroom after class, Yoon-woo’s Kakao Talk, which had nothing to ring during the day, rang.

-Nice to meet you, Yoon-woo! Thank you.

-(emoticon)

A cute cat character who is popular among insiders these days is making a fuss.

Yoon-woo, who felt bad just by looking at it, realized that he was not a normal human being, and sent a kakaotalk in a professional way.

-Yes, I look forward to your kind cooperation.

Then, Yoon-woo had his meal in five minutes in his living room and headed straight to the library.

It is also frustrating to divide such problems in half and wait until the other person solves them.

In addition, the saying that an insider who is likely to have a lot of appointments in the group project is not a good team member also applies to Hye-rim.

While she is busy with various gatherings, Yoon-woo would be comfortable to solve all of the tasks from the beginning rather than examining whether the problem that she has been solving in a hurry is correct or not.

There is about an hour and a half left until the modern management class, which starts at 2 o’clock, so I was going to take it easy.

However, since the first problem was a problem related to the beginning of the theory, it took less than 40 minutes to complete the problem no matter how meticulously, beautifully, and detailed explanation of the concept I did.

‘I have nothing more to do.’

Yoon-woo took a picture of the problem’s solution and sent it to Hye-rim, and headed to the modern business administration classroom early.

He thought he was going to sleep on the best sleeping chair on liberal arts campus.

Five minutes before the start of modern business administration class, I woke up to the sound of someone calling Yoon-woo.

“Yoon-woo, did you sleep well? The Professor will be here soon.”

It was Hye-rim.

As soon as he opened his eyes, Hye-rim’s pretty face was in front of him and he felt grumpy.

Yoon-woo, who had a sense of inferiority, basically hated people who are pretty and handsome, so he tried not to put them in sight.

“You didn’t see Kakaotalk because you were sleeping. How could you solve all the problems by yourself already? Sorry. I bought this to give to Yoon-woo.”

Iced Americano and Macaron. Looking at the name written on the packaging of the macaron, it is a cafe in the basement of the central plaza, near the reading room.

The iced Americano sold there is 2,800 won, and the macaron is 3,000 won, for a total of 5,800 won.

A can of mild tuna that Yoon-woo ate for lunch today was 1,200 won, and a salad was 2,700 won, a total of 3,900 won. In other words, it was a dessert that was 1,900 won more expensive than Yoon-woo’s one meal.

It’s such a luxurious reward for solving a problem that can be solved in less than 10 minutes if you roughly solve it.

“It’s just… … It’s a problem that can be solved easily, so I solved it. I feel pressured if you give me this.”

“Hey, what’s wrong with a cup of coffee? If it’s a burden, next time, don’t solve it alone, let’s solve it together!”

“If it is easy, I’d do it as it would be faster… … okay?”

“Then, I will try to finish the assignment as much as I can on the day it comes out.”

For her, coffee and dessert, which are more expensive than Yoon-woo’s one meal, seem to be commonly used as the word ‘a cup of coffee’.

Then, how much does it take for her ‘one meal’?

While Yoon-woo hastily pours a can of salad and tuna into his stomach, does she go on a college food tour with her friends?

Yoon-woo himself, who felt inferior to each of these things, didn’t like it, and he didn’t like Hye-rim, who made him feel inferior.

“But there… … Mr. Yoon-woo,”

And because of Hye-rim’s next words, Yoon-woo started to hate Hye-rim even more.

“Yoon-woo has a very pretty voice.”

The voice is Yoon-woo’s biggest complex.

Yoon-woo was teased for his feminine voice.

If you think about it, the voices of young children who haven’t even gone through the metamorphosis, girls or boys, can you find a particularly feminine voice among them?

However, because of that, Yoon-woo thought his voice was a ‘specially strange’ voice.

It was the same even after the puberty period. The voice he heard in his own ears seemed completely different from his typical male student voice.

He wanted to record it and listen to it, but he didn’t have the courage to face his disgusting voice.

But why the hell does this woman say this to him in the first meeting?

It’s not even ‘You have a nice voice’, it’s ‘You have a pretty voice’.

“Ah… … Yes… ….”

It was the best Yoon-woo could do to answer this and turn his head.

Not saying thank you was the greatest protest that Yoon-woo could possibly show.

Because some compliments are just compliments on their appearance. It is convenient to respond silently to such praise.

Hye-rim seemed to say something more, but Yoon-woo didn’t want to hear it.

So, he took a big bite of the macaron she gave him and indicated that the conversation was impossible.

Then Hye-rim looked at Yoon-woo with a happy expression.

Ah, Yoon-woo knows that expression.

The expression on her face is when Hye-rim Cho, the fourth grader in elementary school, receives a request from the teacher and becomes intoxicated by the position of her class leader, and when she sympathizes with Yoon-woo.

Yoon-woo closed his eyes, swallowing the same humiliation and misery inside him again.

It’s best that he doesn’t say anything.

Yoon-woo couldn’t fall asleep in today’s modern business administration class.