Chapter 4: The Freshman Without a Shadow

The world was still full of noise.

But the texture of that noise was completely different from a week ago.

Even the vibrations of an old village bus’s worn-out diesel engine sounded like a cheerful rhythm with a specific frequency to me.

[Environmental Scan in Progress]

[Location: Village Bus Stop, Seoksu-dong, Anyang, Gyeonggi Province]

[Atmospheric Conditions: Fine dust concentration 45㎍/m³ (Moderate). Temperature 4.2°C. Morning air mixed with carbon compounds from incomplete diesel combustion and the hurried heartbeats of commuters.]

[Financial Status Analysis: Bank Account Balance: 0 Won. Transportation Card Balance: 1,300 Won.]

[Remaining Possible Bus Rides: 1]

My wallet had become physically lighter, but my internal calculation engine remained unbelievably calm.

The warmth still lingering in my fingertips from yesterday was vivid.

That was when I had poured all 30 million won into my family under the sweet deception of a “scholarship.”

Exactly zero won remained.

I could get to school.

But I had no way to get back.

It was literally a one-way trip.

Yet the lack of money didn’t make me anxious.

If anything, scarcity only sharpened my senses.

At that moment, my enhanced hearing picked up the sound of tires scraping against the road and heavy breathing.

A rough hand suddenly grabbed my shoulder.

“Hey, Han Ji-hoon! What are you doing here?”

It was Tae-ho.

He had appeared while furiously pedaling his bicycle.

He wore an old tracksuit with stretched-out knees, and there was still a trace of milk around his mouth from breakfast.

[Target Analysis: Kim Tae-ho]

[Physical Condition: Elevated lactic acid levels due to intense cycling. Heart Rate: 125 BPM]

“Waiting for the bus. As you can see.”

“What? Dude! Aren’t you the top-ranked student at Baekgyeong Medical School? Didn’t you get a perfect score nationwide? Shouldn’t you be driving some shiny imported car through the front gate screaming, ‘I’m number one!’? Why are you standing here waiting for a village bus? Did you spend all that money already?”

Tae-ho laughed in disbelief.

His voice frequency was about ten percent higher than usual.

Even while being shocked, he was genuinely worried about me.

A simple and honest reaction, just like always.

“Tae-ho, the foundation of medicine is humility. Besides, I only have enough money in my pocket for one bus ride.”

“Yeah right. So much for being a scholarship student. Oh, right. You’re going to that scary place today, aren’t you? You know, the medical school building. The place with all the dead bodies.”

Tae-ho lowered his voice dramatically.

The term “anatomy lab” simply didn’t exist in his vocabulary.

To him, medical school was just a creepy place where smart people gathered to play around with corpses.

“I won’t be seeing any corpses yet. Today is just a boring lecture day.”

“Still, be careful. What if those corpses get up at night and ask you to tutor them? Ever since you came back from that hospital, it’s like you’ve become fearless. Oh, look! The junk bus is here. Have fun making friends with the dead bodies!”

Tae-ho pedaled away again.

His innocent concern disappeared into the morning air as white breath.

I stepped onto the village bus.

The moment I tapped my transportation card, the electronic beep sounded like the signal announcing the start of a new war.

***

Baekgyeong University Medical School Lecture Hall

The first lecture for first-year pre-med students.

Introduction to Medicine.

The large auditorium was packed with some of the brightest students in the country.

But what stood out more clearly to me than their intellectual passion were the microscopic concentrations of jealousy and suspicion each of them emitted.

[Psychological Profiling in Progress]

[Targets: 80 Medical School Freshmen]

[Average Emotional State:]

• Distrust toward “the football-player valedictorian”: 42%
• Curiosity and observation: 35%
• Unconscious contempt: 23%

To them, I was a system error.

A contaminant who had somehow stolen the answer sheet.

I took a seat in the very back row where the noise level was lowest.

Then I began organizing the massive amount of information I had physically scanned into my brain during those two weeks in the library.

Even with my brain operating at only five percent capacity, I could process more information than most supercomputers.

Then the lecture hall doors opened.

A familiar presence entered my sensory field.

A faint but cool lavender scent.

I didn’t even need to turn my head.

It was Lee Se-young.

[Target Scan: Lee Se-young]

[Physical Status: Stable]

[Heart Rate: 72 BPM]

[Walking Stride Error Margin: Less Than 0.5 cm]

[Perfect Self-Control State]

“The top-ranked student seems awfully distracted during the first lecture. This isn’t a place where answers come as neatly as they do on entrance exams.”

Se-young sat beside me and whispered quietly.

Her voice was calm and refined like polished ice.

But the intensity of her gaze felt sharp enough to pierce skin.

“Se-young, did you swim in a lavender field or something? The scent is so strong it’s interfering with my calculations.”

I smiled playfully.

The area between her eyebrows narrowed by approximately 1.2 millimeters.

Not annoyance.

Curiosity.

“Good. I can’t read what you’re thinking with those clear eyes of yours. Were you always this relaxed when you played football? Or is this all just an act?”

“Football exhausts your legs. Medicine exhausts your brain. I’m better suited for mental labor than physical labor. Since I don’t like struggling, I’m just reviewing the answer sheet in advance.”

Our short conversation ended when Professor Park stepped onto the podium.

Professor Park.

A famous authority in basic medical sciences.

Also notorious for being conservative and authoritarian.

The moment he entered, his eyes swept across the hall.

Like a predator searching for prey, he immediately found me.

[Biological Log Analysis: Professor Park]

[State: Rising anger levels.]

[Adrenaline increased by 15%.]

[Displaying biological rejection toward the variable known as “Han Ji-hoon.”]

“Today’s lecture will cover the foundation of medicine: observation.”

Professor Park changed the slide.

The screen displayed a highly complex blood analysis chart from a patient with a rare genetic disease, along with multidimensional ECG data.

It was far beyond the level of first-year students.

Confused murmurs spread through the room.

“Han Ji-hoon.”

Professor Park called my name.

“Why don’t you answer? Based solely on this data, tell us the patient’s current condition and survival probability. If you can’t answer, we’ll simply conclude that your talents would be better spent running around a football field.”

A few mocking laughs spread through the lecture hall.

The eyes of my classmates turned toward me like arrows.

They desperately wanted me to fail.

They wanted proof that I didn’t belong in this sacred place.

Slowly and gracefully, I stood up.

[Multidimensional Calculation Layer Activated]

[Data Scan Complete: 0.002 Seconds]

[Reference Identified: Professor Stephen’s Harvard Medical School Research Team Paper (2023)]

[Cross-Analysis Initiated: Matching With Recently Archived International Medical News and Research Data]

Thousands of research papers flashed through my vision at the speed of light.

After only 0.1 seconds, I discovered the fatal flaw.

I could also see the smug confidence behind Professor Park’s glasses.

“Professor, this data doesn’t require diagnosis.”

“What?”

“It’s not medicine. It’s fantasy fiction.”

“What did you just say? Are you refusing to answer? Or are you running away?”

Professor Park’s voice trembled with anger.

I shrugged casually.

“I’m not refusing. I’m saying the data itself is invalid.”

More precisely, it’s contaminated data.

“The paper by Professor Stephen that you cited regarding this genetic mutation was officially retracted three days ago. Harvard’s ethics committee confirmed data manipulation and poor sample management. These numbers are now medically useless garbage.”

The lecture hall instantly fell silent.

Professor Park’s face turned pale.

His hand trembled slightly.

A student had just declared one of the most respected recent studies in medicine to be false.

“That’s impossible! Professor Stephen’s paper was considered the greatest breakthrough in medicine last month!”

“The world moves quickly, Professor. Information expires much faster than you think. Diagnosing patients using contaminated data isn’t medicine. It’s statistical murder.”

I smiled lightly.

“If observation is the foundation of medicine, shouldn’t we first verify whether the data we’re observing is actually true?”

Then I calmly sat back down.

Professor Park swallowed dryly and couldn’t find a response.

The students stared at me as if they were looking at a monster.

A former football player with terrible grades was somehow aware of a cutting-edge Harvard scandal before anyone else.

It wasn’t logically possible.

And that impossibility crushed their pride.

***

After class ended and the students flooded into the hallway, I walked out with my bag over my shoulder.

At the moment, I was facing a very serious problem.

Ah… after using my transportation card this morning, my balance really is zero.

If I run home, it will take exactly forty-five minutes and twenty seconds with my physical abilities. But having the top-ranked student sprint home like a track athlete on his first day feels a little embarrassing.

At that moment, Se-young called out from behind me.

A storm of suspicion and obsession swirled in her eyes.

“How did you know?”

She stepped in front of me.

“My father is the director of Seongjin Hospital. Even the overseas medical channels used for hospital board briefings only mentioned that story this morning. The English reports haven’t even been officially distributed yet. How did you find out?”

I gave her my most natural smile.

“Well, my father may not be a hospital director, but he gave me a special talent called luck. I couldn’t sleep last night, so I wandered through some overseas deep-web sites. My English isn’t great, so I mostly looked at pictures. The data patterns seemed strange, so I figured it out.”

“That’s a lie. What exactly are you?”

“Se-young, aren’t you getting a little obsessed with me? I get tired when people are too interested.”

I shamelessly changed the subject.

Right now, transportation was a much more urgent issue than information security.

“By the way, Se-young… do you have a car? I don’t have money to get home today. Could you give me a ride? It’d be embarrassing for the top-ranked student to hitchhike.”

“…What?”

***

A short while later, I found myself sitting in the passenger seat of Se-young’s white Porsche.

The texture of the luxury leather seats and the precise engine vibrations stimulated my senses.

[Vehicle Analysis: Porsche 911 Carrera]

[Engine Status: Excellent]

[Tire Pressure: Balanced]

[Interior Fragrance: Jo Malone Lime Basil & Mandarin]

“I thought the top-ranked student would be some rich heir. Instead, you’re asking a classmate for a ride because you can’t afford bus fare? You’re seriously the most inconsistent person I’ve ever met.”

Se-young spoke coldly as she turned the steering wheel.

Yet her eyes kept drifting toward me.

“Come on. Life needs surprises to stay interesting. Medical school would be boring if everyone were perfectly polished.”

The car eventually left Gwanak Station behind and entered the narrow alleyways of Seoksu-dong.

Old apartment buildings with peeling paint stood packed together.

The neighborhood looked completely out of place next to the sleek Porsche.

“We’re here. You can stop here.”

The car came to a halt in front of my old villa.

The building still showed traces of where foreclosure notices had once been attached.

Se-young stared out the window for a long time.

Her eyes trembled slightly as she struggled to accept the scene before her.

“You… really live here?”

“Yep. It’s a little old, isn’t it? But the sunset from the rooftop is pretty beautiful.”

I stepped out of the car and slung my bag over my shoulder.

Se-young opened her door and got out as well.

She stared at me.

“Han Ji-hoon. I’m honestly curious. How can you live in a place like this, with this kind of reality, and still be so carefree?”

She paused.

“I honestly thought you were some rich golden-spoon heir from birth. Your way of speaking, your attitude, that annoyingly relaxed confidence… none of it carries even the slightest shadow of poverty.”

I stopped walking and smiled at her.

The sunset glowed behind me.

There was a strange peace on my face that no calculation could ever measure.

“Se-young, does being poor automatically mean someone has to have a shadow?”

I shrugged lightly.

“Maybe because I spend all my time looking at the answers, I never really notice shadows.”

Then I waved.

“Thanks for the ride. I’ll buy you a coffee tomorrow.”

I grinned.

“That is, if I actually have money by then.”

With light footsteps, I climbed the stairs to the villa.

Through the rearview mirror, Se-young watched me until I disappeared inside.

Only much later did her Porsche finally leave the alley.