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Episode 2
Two days later, Lecture Hall 301, College of Business Administration.
In the empty lecture hall, only Yeon-jae was present.
She examined the classroom floor on her hands and knees, looking for her notebook, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Yeon-jae sighed and straightened her knees. She had already searched here yesterday, so realistically, the chances of finding it were slim. She was just clutching at straws.
She half-hoped a cleaner had found it and thrown it away. But if they had found it, wouldn’t they have turned it in as lost property rather than throwing it in the trash?
What if the staff member in charge of lost items opened the notebook? What if they saw Dohan’s name written all over it and delivered it to the senior student?
A look of utter dismay spread across Yeon-jae’s face as that thought struck her.
This was truly the biggest crisis of Shin Yeon-jae’s life.
Just as she was holding her numb lower back and getting up, a voice came from behind her.
“What are you doing?”
Yeon-jae instinctively turned her head, and before she could even register who it was, she first recognized the object in his hand.
“Looking for this?”
It was Kang Hyun-oh.
And in Hyun-oh’s hand was Yeon-jae’s black notebook.
“Uh, uh!”
Hyun-oh fluttered the notebook in his hand.
Yeon-jae ran up the steps of the lecture hall. As she tried to snatch the notebook from his hand, Hyun-oh lifted the hand holding it high.
Yeon-jae wasn’t exactly short, but Hyun-oh, who was even taller than Dohan, raised his hand, and no matter how high she stood on her tiptoes, she couldn’t reach it.
“Give it to me! It’s mine!”
Giving up on grabbing it, Yeon-jae just glared at Hyun-oh. Finding something amusing, Hyun-oh smiled faintly, lowered his hand, and handed the notebook back to her, asking,
“You’re really a stalker of Lee Dohan?”
Stalker.
She had heard it behind her back before, but this was the first time she’d heard it to her face.
Yeon-jae forced herself to ignore the comment and quickly snatched the notebook. The tips of her fingers holding it trembled slightly. She tried to act calm, but her heart was racing.
Hastily stuffing the notebook into the deepest part of her bag, Yeon-jae, turning the tables, retorted,
“Hey, why were you looking at someone else’s property?”
“Sorry, but it was lying there open.”
Her sharp question was met with a weak, non-answer.
“I picked it up, and I’m the only one who saw it. You should be thankful.”
There was a hint of laughter in Hyun-oh’s voice, as if he was having fun.
Yeon-jae thought about glaring at him more but quickly gave up. She had her own reasons to feel guilty.
It would have been one thing if it only contained information about Dohan. But the notebook also contained detailed records about the people around Dohan.
The person occupying the largest portion of those records was the guy standing right in front of her now, Kang Hyun-oh.
Please, just don’t let him have seen that part… .
“My name was in there too.”
Damn. Her wish vanished in an instant with that one sentence.
“I had quite a big part, didn’t I? Like a supporting actor?”
It was phrased as a question, but it was hard to tell if he was actually asking. It just sounded like he was being sarcastic.
“Th-that is… I…”
Yeon-jae tried to come up with some kind of excuse.
But then students started flooding in, and their conversation fizzled out.
Amidst the commotion, Hyun-oh casually placed his textbook, which he had just brought, on the seat next to Yeon-jae and said,
“This is your spot? I’ll sit next to you.”
“What?”
Somehow, she ended up letting him take the seat next to her. Bemused, Yeon-jae also sat down.
Around the same time, Dohan entered the lecture hall and looked surprised to see Hyun-oh.
“What brings you here?”
“Just felt like coming a bit early today.”
“Well, one more late mark and you fail, right.”
Instead of answering, Hyun-oh just shrugged his shoulders.
Then, Dohan’s gaze naturally fell on Yeon-jae, who was sitting next to Hyun-oh.
Feeling embarrassed, Yeon-jae quickly lowered her head. But Dohan didn’t mention her at all. He just glanced at her briefly.
The professor came in and the class started. Today too, Hyun-oh focused quite well on the lecture.
In a world where everyone takes notes on tablet PCs, he was even taking notes in his own way with a pen.
Yeon-jae was also trying to forget the commotion before class and concentrate when…
Hyun-oh slid his textbook into Yeon-jae’s field of vision. There was writing on the corner marked with page number 178.
『Ipapa?』
The handwriting was so hard to decipher. After staring at it for a while, Yeon-jae finally wrote a reply underneath.
『?』
Then Hyun-oh wrote neatly in large letters.
『Lunch?』
Not knowing what to write back, she just stared blankly at the empty space. Then Hyun-oh tapped the corner of the textbook with his index finger.
When Yeon-jae showed no particular reaction, he personally picked up the pen and wrote one word.
『Notebook』
ha
In the end, Yeon-jae let out a sigh loud enough for everyone to hear. People sitting all around peeked at her. And from a distance, Dohan also glanced at the two of them.
Yeon-jae quickly bowed her head. And underneath, she quickly drew a circle.
『O』
After that, she couldn’t concentrate on the class at all. Yeon-jae was consumed by worry.
What if Hyun-oh told Dohan about the notebook?
Or worse, what if he had already told him?
Just imagining it made her feel so troubled that she spent the entire class pointlessly tearing at her hair.
After class ended.
Yeon-jae closed her almost blank textbook and put it in her bag.
Meanwhile, Hyun-oh was waiting for Yeon-jae to pack up, holding just his textbook.
He had a bright smile on his face, as if he was really looking forward to eating. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, Yeon-jae asked without even looking at Hyun-oh.
“What would you like to eat?”
Just then, Dohan approached Hyun-oh. Yeon-jae held her breath and took a step back.
“Kang Hyun-oh, wanna go to the student union cafe?”
“No.”
Saying that, Hyun-oh pointed his thumb towards Yeon-jae.
“I’m going to eat with her. Speaking of which, what’s your name?”
“Shin Yeon-jae.”
“What’s your major?”
“…Korean Language and Literature. Business is my double major.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two.”
Even as she wondered why she was answering all these questions in a row, Yeon-jae replied immediately.
Only Dohan, unaware of the situation, looked bewildered, glancing back and forth between Hyun-oh and Yeon-jae.
“He says his name is Shin Yeon-jae, twenty-two, Korean Lit major. Oh, and Business is his double major.”
Before she knew it, Yeonjae had even introduced herself to Dohan in a way she had never once imagined.
Dohan still looked utterly clueless. He hesitated as if to say something more, then just let out a short laugh, ending the rather flat conversation.
“Well, I’m off. See you later.”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
After Dohan left, only Hyun-oh and Yeon-jae remained in the lecture hall.
Yeon-jae was dumbfounded.
In that unexpected moment, she had achieved one of her goals: making Dohan aware of her existence.
Considering she knew enough about Dohan to fill an entire notebook, Dohan probably knew nothing about her. Apart from the information that she was a creepy stalker, as Kwak Sung-hyun had said.
…If only she could just be happy that she had, in this way, made her existence known to Dohan. But Yeon-jae still had a problem to solve.
Namely, the cause of all this, and yet also the contributor.
Yeon-jae looked up at Hyun-oh.
He had his hand inside his t-shirt, casually scratching his stomach as if he were at home.
Despite looking like he’d be bothered by everything, he seemed to work out, as fairly defined muscles were visible through his t-shirt.
Then her eyes fell on Hyun-oh’s messy, in styled hair.
Everyone taking the same class probably knew he wasn’t the type to arrive 30 minutes early for a first-period class.
Could it be that he got up early because of the notebook? That would be just absurd.
“What are you looking at? Got all your stuff?”
So, seriously, why. What on earth do you want to say to me?
“Yes. So, what would you like to eat?”
“Pork blood soup?”
“You ate that two days ago.”
Yeon-jae answered without thinking and then realized her mistake.
“How do you know that?”
“I heard you talking with Senior Dohan.”
Hyun-oh’s eyes narrowed as he asked.
“Are you really a stalker?”
“Yes. Wasn’t that obvious from what you said?”
Yeon-jae decided to just be brazen about it. Since everything was out in the open, she had nothing left to be embarrassed about.
“Haha, you’re really funny.”
She had no idea what he found so amusing. Soon, Hyun-oh was laughing so hard the corners of his eyes were getting moist.
Meanwhile, students for the next class began gathering in the lecture hall one by one.
In the end, without even deciding on a destination, the two of them just headed outside.
She crossed the vast campus alone with Hyun-oh. Not knowing where they were going, she just followed wherever Hyun-oh walked.
She assumed it would probably be the pork blood soup restaurant. But it seemed he hadn’t really thought about it either, as he suddenly stopped walking the moment they exited the main gate.
And then he asked.
“Stalker, where should we go?”
“Weren’t we going to eat pork blood soup?”
“Oh, right?”
Hyun-oh started walking again. Yeon-jae followed without much thought.
The restaurant wasn’t far from the main gate. There were flower wreaths and lucky bamboo plants on either side of the entrance, suggesting it might be newly opened.
The cold late winter wind in early March was biting. As they entered the heated interior, her glasses fogged up.
As soon as she sat down, Yeon-jae took off her glasses. After wiping them clean and putting them back on, she saw Hyun-oh staring intently at her.
“…W-what.”
“Man, that’s quite the disguise you’ve got there.”
“Huh? I didn’t catch that.”
Instead of answering, Hyun-oh ordered two pork blood soups. Only then, as if he’d forgotten, he asked for Yeon-jae’s opinion.
“Stalker, do you even like pork blood?”
“No.”
“Hey, why didn’t you say so?”
“You didn’t ask, did you?”
“Well then, Stalker, want to go somewhere else?”
“Ah, it’s fine. Let’s just eat this.”
“That won’t do. Do you eat pork bone hangover soup, Stalker?”
“Yes, I do. But can you maybe stop with the ‘stalker’ thing?”
“Auntie, please change one of these pork blood soups to pork bone soup.”
Hyun-oh effortlessly ignored her request, and Yeon-jae let out a small sigh, setting down her spoon.
The pork blood soup came out quickly, and Hyun-oh ate it heartily. Yeon-jae, not having much of an appetite, just stirred the broth of her pork bone soup. In the end, she put down her spoon before even finishing half a bowl of rice.
Hyun-oh glanced at her and asked.
“Stalker, how about a bottle of soju?”
“Are you crazy?”
Though they were sitting cross-legged in a soup restaurant early in the morning, it was barely 11 a.m.
As she looked at him incredulously, Hyun-oh added, as if explaining.
“You seem really troubled.”
“And whose fault do you think that is?”
“Usually, half your worries disappear once you start drinking.”
“Don’t talk like an alcoholic.”
“Hey, it’s true.”
“Yes. You drink a lot yourself.”
At that, Hyun-oh lifted his head, looked at her, and asked back.
“You? You?”
“Uh-huh. You.”
“You know I’m the same age as Dohan, right? Two years older than you?”
Hyun-oh was more of an old-timer than he looked. Before he could nitpick further, Yeon-jae corrected her term of address.
“Fine, Mister.”
Hyun-oh looked flabbergasted.
“…So, what exactly do you want from me?”
“What I want?”
“Yes. There must be a reason you’re acting like this.”
With a slight smile, Hyun-oh opened his mouth.
