Chapter 6.5

Sangwoo glared at the screen. After reading the short messages a few times, he touched the reply button and hesitated for a while.

‘That’s great.’ 

‘I’m glad.’

‘Please do so tomorrow and the day after tomorrow as well.’

He wrote and erased several messages. Sangwoo eventually just replied with a “Yes.” and threw his cellphone into his bag.

Jang Jaeyoung was clearly very mistaken. Or perhaps he was joking as usual. What did he mean by sad? Why the hell would he be sad because of him? It was a wonderful feeling to have a person who had been disturbing him disappear.

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“Hi, Sangchu oppa,” Jihye said while sitting down next to him.

It was 15 minutes before the cultural theory class would begin. Sangwoo nodded at her. His eyes returned to the thick stack of humanities handouts.

“The exam is still far away, yet you’re studying very hard.”

“I’m studying in advance.”

“I want to do that as well, but I can’t.”

Jihye kept chatting next to him, but it didn’t even disturb him half as much as when Jaeyoung had been sleeping. These days, he disturbed Sangwoo even when he wasn’t in his seat.

“Oppa, you seem to be in a terrible mood.”

Sangwoo ignored her words.

“I’ll show you a picture that’ll make you feel better.”

Jihye brought the cellphone into his view. Sangwoo looked at several pictures of a small white dog taken from several angles with an indifferent expression.

“Is it not good? Then how about this one?”

The next picture was of an orange cat. Sangwoo was just waiting for her to get through all the pictures. Then, he saw something unfamiliar when she was swiping through the pictures.

“Wait, what was that?”

“What? Ah, I took a screenshot while I was shopping online, but I put it in the wrong folder.”

A picture of a keyboard appeared when Jihye tapped the screen with her finger. Sangwoo zoomed in on the small picture and examined it closely. Below the keyboard was a special edition Ninja Tenkiris. Each key had a special black and yellow color with LEDs as well.

“It’s the Philcom ac8990 Honeybee Edition.”

“What?”

“It’s a bit pricey, but it uses a Berry 4 switch, so it’s quite durable, the responsiveness is good, and you can also enter things at the same time, so it’s just decent in many ways.1 You’ll probably use it for a long time. Reconsider the LED for a bit. It drives me crazy. Which type of switch do you prefer?”

“Ah… Which one is good if I’m planning on working on paperwork?”

“Then a clicky tactile switch that isn’t audible. If you want a quiet one but still want to distinctly feel the keys, then a soft tactile switch is fine. Gamers usually prefer a linear switch.”

“Right? Right? Then should I buy a clicky tactile switch?” Jihye nodded while asking.

Sangwoo responded after thinking for a bit.

“This one is listed for 198,000 won. Is that an okay price? It’s a classic one that was released a long time ago, so there are many used ones. You can even get one in a good condition for around 100,000 won.”

“Oh, really? How do transactions with used goods work?”

Sangwoo spent the rest of the time giving her trading tips for used goods. Jihye nodded while listening eagerly, and she even took notes, which made it difficult for him to stop.

“Oppa, there’s nothing you don’t know.”

“Not at all.”

The professor entered the classroom as Jihye said something odd. Sangwoo immediately turned to his textbook. A minute after the class had begun, Jihye placed something on top of the book. It was a note she had made by ripping out a page of her notebook. Sangwoo almost got mad at first, as he thought that she had put trash on his book, but when he closely examined it, there were letters written on it.

Sangchu oppa ^-^ Thank you for giving me good information!!! If there’s anything you don’t know, just ask me, please. I would like to be of help *_* 

Sangwoo wrote “Sure” at the end of note and handed it back to Jihye. However, a question arose in a part of his mind. What could he possibly need to ask Jihye about? When he was curious about anything, he usually looked it up in books or solved them by checking the Internet. As a student in humanities, Ryu Jihye clearly understood the cultural theory subject much better than Sangwoo, but she was still only a college student just like him. She was unlikely able to provide more information than the collective intelligence he could find on the Internet world or through professional books. As Sangwoo was mulling this over, he recalled an area Jihye would know much better than him. 

‘I’ll have to ask her later during the break.’ 

Sangwoo made a mental note and focused on the class again.

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“That sunbae I was talking about.”

It was recess, so Sangwoo seized the opportunity to speak to her. Jihye even corrected her posture while listening earnestly.

“Who?”

“That… Jang… Jaeyoung sunbae.”

“Oh, yeah yeah.”

“I think he has a girlfriend.”

Sangwoo felt embarrassed after spitting out those words. What Jihye looked for was a question. When Sangwoo thought about it, the statement was a perfect question, but when he blurted it out, it became neither one nor the other.

Fortunately, Jihye didn’t seem to care.

“As far as I know, he doesn’t,” she replied with a smile.

Sangwoo’s curiosity had easily been quenched.

Footnote(s):