“You slept with him, you did.”
“Ha, hahaha……”
Jang Juwon awkwardly laughed instead of answering. Shin Jisu sighed deeply as if she had a headache.
“Haa…… Please tell me you’re not dating?”
“Absolutely! Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely not.”
“Then why are you eating meals together? You could just fuck and be done with it.”
Shin Jisu frowned hard and asked.
“Actually, every time we eat together he gives me one quiz study guide……”
“Ha, what? He’s completely crazy. Don’t tell me, does he like you?”
“No. He just…… said he doesn’t have friends to eat with.”
“Jang Juwon, do you believe that? That Baek Iseon doesn’t have friends?”
“……It could, be possible……?”
Jang Juwon trailed off. Even he thought it was strange. It seemed like even if he grabbed any random passerby and asked them to be friends, they’d all say yes.
“It’s definitely suspicious. I think he has an ulterior motive.”
“No. It really wasn’t like that.”
Jang Juwon felt a bit wronged about why he was now in a situation where he had to make excuses to Shin Jisu because of Baek Iseon, who was nothing to him. But because he also knew what Shin Jisu was worried about, he couldn’t avoid answering.
“I get it all, but don’t give him your heart. I can’t watch that scene twice.”
“Yeah, of course. You know what style I like. Baek Iseon is absolutely, absolutely not it.”
“Haa…… Okay, you know best.”
Shin Jisu got up from her seat and placed a hand on top of Jang Juwon’s head.
“Let’s go, I’ll buy you something you want to eat.”
* * *
The three people elegantly held up their knives and cut their meat. When they put a piece in their mouths, it had a soggy, familiar taste. The browned white table they were sitting at exuded a quite cheap atmosphere.
“Hey, you said you’d buy us food. Just the cafeteria?”
“Sorry…… I didn’t know I’d left my card. All I have is only meal tickets……”
When Choi Yeonho scolded her, Shin Jisu apologized and bowed her head down. For that reason, the three were amicably cutting pork cutlet in the student cafeteria. Choi Yeonho grumbled but diligently stuffed pork cutlet into his stomach. Just then, suddenly, Shin Jisu crumpled her expression and roughly stabbed the pork cutlet with her knife. At the sharp clanging sound, Jang Juwon, sitting across from her, asked in surprise.
“Shin Jisu, what’s wrong? Are you trying to…… kill Choi Yeonho?”
“M-me?”
“Fuck, what’s with that bastard.”
Shin Jisu said with an extremely unpleasant expression. Her eyes were directed over Jang Juwon’s shoulder. Jang Juwon quickly turned around and looked where Shin Jisu’s gaze was directed. Then he saw a man sitting at a distant table wearing a black baseball cap pulled low. And at that moment, their eyes met. He jumped in surprise and quickly bowed his head down low. Jang Juwon turned his gaze back forward and said to Shin Jisu.
“If it bothers you, want to switch seats with me?”
“It’s fine. If he looks again I’ll just gouge out his eyeballs.”
Shin Jisu responded as if annoyed. Not just her, but this was a common occurrence. Since it was a student cafeteria mainly used by mechanical engineering students, the minority of female students stood out quite noticeably. Among them, if there was someone particularly eye-catching, some male students would rudely stare at them like eye candy. Though it happened occasionally, it couldn’t help but be unpleasant. Shin Jisu’s personality was shitty, but she was quite a recognized beauty in the Engineering Building. This was probably a similar case.
Still, after a few incidents during her freshman year, the number of male students glancing at Shin Jisu had clearly decreased. Of course, her reputation had also been buried below the mantle.
“What?”
Shin Jisu, who had been glaring behind, slightly raised herself and looked beyond. Jang Juwon also turned his head along with her. Suddenly the man jumped up from his seat and hurriedly gathered his things, grabbed his tray, and was leaving. And before even taking a few steps, he tripped over his own feet and fell.
Crash!
The tray overturned and food flew everywhere. In an instant, the student cafeteria became quiet. Everyone looked at the man sprawled on the floor, but no one came forward to help him. The man tried to get up from where he was, but perhaps because he was flustered, he kept stumbling and just flailed about.
“Idiot, what a sight.”
“Haa……”
In the end, Jang Juwon got up from his seat. When he picked up the tissues on the table, Shin Jisu stopped him.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m so embarrassed for him I can’t watch.”
Normally Jang Juwon wasn’t the type to step up in situations like this. But right now, it was harder to just leave that man be. It was too pitiful that no one was offering a hand. It seemed to overlap with his own appearance at some point in the past.
“Excuse me. Are you okay?”
Jang Juwon held out tissues to the man and spoke. When the man saw Jang Juwon, he seemed to jump in surprise, his body jerking greatly, then received the tissues with his trembling hands and began wiping what was on his body. The man seemed extremely nervous, his movements greatly flustered and his speech felt awkward.
“Th-thank you. I’m fine, I’m fine.”
The man expressed his thanks and raised his head. When the man’s eyes met Jang Juwon’s, he flinched again and with his head bowed began wiping the food spilled on the floor. He seemed to have an extremely shy personality. Plus, he’d drawn so much attention and even fell on the floor…… But strangely, Jang Juwon felt the man’s face was somehow familiar.
“Excuse me, haven’t we met somewhere before?”
“Ah, ah. I, well actually, M-Mechanical Engineering……”
“……You’re in Mechanical Engineering?”
“Yeah…… I should have originally graduated…… but I took a leave of absence……”
If he should have originally graduated, he seemed to be the same year as Baek Iseon. So he was Jang Juwon’s sunbae.
“Ah. So you’re a sunbae.”
“Y-yeah. Then, I’ll be going first. Thanks, Jang Juwon……”
The man who had already gathered his things was scurrying out of the cafeteria with quick steps. Jang Juwon picked up the remaining tissues and returned to the table.
“That person said he’s a sunbae from our department.”
“And he still stared at Shin Jisu? There’s no one in our department who doesn’t know Shin Jisu is crazy?”
“Pfft, he said he took a leave of absence.”
“Ah, then he might not know.”
“……Choi Yeonho. Have you ever been stabbed with a pork cutlet knife?”
Shin Jisu raised her pork cutlet knife high. The silver knife gleamed under the cheap fluorescent lighting. Choi Yeonho’s scream, which was clearly joyful, could be heard. It seemed like blood had splattered for a moment, but Jang Juwon was lost in thought as he watched his friends playfully joking around as usual.
‘But how did he know my name?’
But he soon shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t strange for a sunbae to know a hoobae’s name.
* * *
It became the last week of March. In other words, it was the day when Applied Fluid Mechanics quiz scores were announced once a month. For anonymity, instead of real names, the teaching assistant posted a grade sheet with the nicknames they had written on the lecture hall wall. Students rushed over in droves to check their scores. And the three of them likewise scanned the grade sheet with pounding hearts.
“Ahhh, crazy!”
Shin Jisu, who found her nickname first, screamed. It was the first time in the grade sheet arranged by rank that it was faster to count from the top rather than from the bottom. Shinbiru, 48 points. 9th place.
“Jang Juwoooon! I love you!”
An excited Shin Jisu hugged Jang Juwon tightly.
“Hey, stop. Let go! Let me see mine too!”
Jang Juwon pushed away Shin Jisu’s face and started looking for his nickname. And an exclamation escaped from Jang Juwon’s mouth as well. Jangnamru, 67 points. 3rd place.
“Hey, hey, hey. Crazy…… I got 67 points!”
“Choi Yeonho, Choi Yeonho! What’s your score?”
Completely excited, Jang Juwon and Shin Jisu clung to Choi Yeonho with faces flushed red from excitement. Though he didn’t show it, Choi Yeonho seemed quite excited too as he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. Choi Yeonho awkwardly rubbed under his nose once and said,
“59 points, 5th place.”
“But you…… your nickname is ‘Tofu’s Dad’?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Really, typical Choi Yeonho. Of course you’d pick something like that.”
“So Namru and Biru are dripping with style?”
Jang Juwon became Namru because his grades were shabby (namru), and Shin Jisu became Biru because her personality was mean (biru). And Tofu was the name of the Maltese that Choi Yeonho raised at his family home. None of the three had naming sense they could criticize each other for.
lol