“He’s sitting over there.”
The teaching assistant glanced at Woojae standing there blankly and mouthed the words while gesturing with her head. The tip of her chin pointed toward a room inside the office. It was his first time seeing a university department office, and it was more spacious and comfortable than he’d expected. Woojae settled his bottom onto the reception sofa positioned in the middle of the room. Two empty desks placed to one side caught his eye. Those were probably the seats for work-study students.
“Go Woojae?”
“Yes.”
The teaching assistant, having finished her call, entered while calling Woojae’s name. She had a face that looked exhausted at a glance.
“Should I make you some coffee?”
“I’ll do it myself.”
“No, it’s okay. This machine is acting weird, so it’s difficult if you’re touching it for the first time.”
“Thank you. Then I’ll watch from the side.”
“……You seem sharp.”
It must have been a compliment. Having endured strange looks all day, even kind words didn’t sound pleasant. Woojae straightened his posture as he watched the teaching assistant quietly looking him over. Even if he was confirmed as a scholarship student, it would be troublesome if the teaching assistant didn’t like him.
“Sit comfortably. Here, hot is okay, right? It was cold today.”
“Yes. I’ll drink it gratefully.”
“You don’t need to be so formal. Think of it comfortably. Like a noona?”
I don’t have a noona. But for Woojae, who had been tempered by countless part-time jobs, that much wasn’t difficult. As he lifted the warm mug and took a sip, coffee just that hot flowed into his mouth. A strong coffee scent brushed past his nose. It was excessively bitter.
“There’s not much for you to do here, Woojae. I’ll occasionally have you do printing or typing, and when the professors come, you just need to ask what drinks they’d like and serve them. You see that refrigerator and teacups over there? I’d appreciate it if you’d wash the dishes. Normally, you can just come here and study.”
“Yes. I understand. Please feel free to speak casually.”
The teaching assistant hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth.
“I’m a bit awkward with casual speech. I’ll mix it up. Should I give you my phone number? I have your number, but you don’t have mine.”
“If you call my phone, I’ll save it.”
She was sort of a superior, so it seemed wrong to have her enter the number directly.
“Is this number right? This one.”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
Soon Woojae’s cell phone began to ring. When Woojae took his phone out of his pocket, the teaching assistant openly showed her surprise.
“Wow, you still use that model?”
“I don’t feel the need to buy an expensive one.”
Woojae’s cell phone was an old model that he’d been using for six years now. It had many scratches from being dropped frequently and looked like junk compared to new phones, but that wasn’t a reason to replace it.
“You’re really frugal.”
“What’s your name, Teaching Assistant-nim?”
“It’s Im Jiwoon.”
Woojae received Jiwoon’s number and honestly saved it as ‘Liberal Arts Im Jiwoon Teaching Assistant-nim.’ He needed to memorize the name since he’d be seeing her often.
“You can come work during your free time slots, and you just need to fill 20 hours of work per week.”
“Yes. Then should I print out my schedule and post it?”
“A first-year’s free time is in the palm of my hand. The department office operates until 5:30, and I leave work then too. When I’m not here, you can enter and exit by scanning your student ID there. You just need to properly set and release the security. You scan after pressing the button—should I show you once?”
Woojae recalled the card reader next to the door he’d seen when entering. He already roughly knew how to use it, but since she was offering to show him, refusing seemed impolite, so he followed Teaching Assistant Im. After learning how to enter and exit smoothly, Teaching Assistant Im said to Woojae.
“It’s almost time to close, so you can go ahead and leave for today.”
“I look forward to working with you.”
“I was worried, but I think you’ll adapt well. Get home safely.”
Woojae, who had been about to leave after bowing, remembered something he’d been holding onto. It was about the opening general meeting. The opening general meeting that bastard had told him about.
“Teaching Assistant-nim!”
“Oh, what is it?”
“About that opening general meeting. I didn’t receive a separate contact about it.”
Teaching Assistant Im narrowed the space between her eyebrows, looking puzzled.
“Really? I gave all the freshmen’s contact information through the student council president…. You must have been left out. I’ll contact them about it later.”
“Thank you.”
“By any chance, didn’t you get contacted by Sajun? He’s this year’s freshman representative, so I told him separately just in case.”
What’s “Sajun-i”? When Woojae made an expression showing he didn’t know, Teaching Assistant Im scratched her head with an awkward face.
“That’s the freshman representative’s name. It would be good if you got along well.”
“I’m not sure who that is. Anyway, thank you.”
“Alright. Get home safely.”
Woojae bowed his head again, seeing Teaching Assistant Im encourage safe return home once more. It felt strange to greet the same person twice, but the name “Sajun” was oddly bothering him. Before long, Woojae would realize he had quite good instincts. Because that strange name was destined to have a tremendous impact on Woojae’s life.
***
“Wow, who does a full orientation session? Seriously, all the art college professors must be crazy. Suddenly telling us to draw ourselves. Who wants to draw an ugly ahjussi?”
Minwook burst out with rough complaints as soon as he opened the dormitory door and entered. Woojae was in the middle of looking for a part-time job he could do after finishing classes.
“Are your department professors like that too?”
“I don’t know. I only took liberal arts lectures today.”
“The Autonomous Major Department has academic advisors too, right? Law school and business school professors? The places with the highest cutoffs.”
Looking at Woojae answering curtly, Minwook plopped down on his bed.
“How do you know that?”
He wondered how Minwook, an art student, knew about the Autonomous Major Department system. No, more than that, he thought first-year schedules were all arranged with liberal arts courses, so he couldn’t understand why Minwook, who was also a freshman, was talking as if he’d taken major classes.
“My cousin noona is a graduate of the Autonomous Major Department here. She’d be your sunbae, right?”
“Doesn’t the art college arrange schedules with liberal arts courses?”
“They do? But ours are mainly arranged with art-related liberal arts, so the major professors are the liberal arts professors.”
Woojae’s schedule mostly went back and forth between the humanities and business colleges. For law, the campus was different, so it seemed he could only take classes once he became a sophomore. Well, if you think about it, the art college has more specialized majors than regular departments, so it made sense.
“I heard freshmen are gathering separately at 7 o’clock—don’t you guys have something like that?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t get contacted.”
Teaching Assistant Im had even said she’d ask about it separately, but Woojae’s phone was quiet. As Woojae quietly looked down at his phone, Minwook’s gaze also turned there.
“Ugh, is that an artifact?”
“What do you mean artifact.”
“Let’s take this to the archaeology department. I think they’ll give us money for it.”
“That’s bullshit. It’s only been 6 years.”
“6 years is an ancient artifact in the phone world. But why aren’t you asking for my number? I’m about to get hurt.”
You didn’t ask either. More than that, the conversation topic jumped too much. Do art students have poor concentration? It was when Woojae was about to form a strange prejudice while looking at Minwook shaking his legs.
“Type your number in here. I’ll call, so save it as ‘Bang Minwook-nim.'”
Woojae silently took Minwook’s phone and called his own number. As soon as the intro of the default ringtone rang out, Woojae picked up his phone, firmly pressed the call end button, and saved Minwook under the simple name ‘Roommate.’
“Ya! ‘Roommate,’ isn’t that too cold?”
“You’re loud. You can save it like that too.”
“I’m really hurt, hurt. Is this all we are to each other? Does love change like this? That’s too much…!”
Every time he opens his mouth, it’s bullshit. Woojae decided to ignore Minwook making a fuss. There was no need to answer every question. It was one of the truths of life he’d learned early. Of course, whether Woojae answered or not, Minwook rattled on with trivial stories, tormenting Woojae’s eardrums. Woojae thought that if his eardrums tore and bled, it would be Bang Minwook’s fault.
About 20 minutes had passed since Woojae ignored Minwook’s chattering. Minwook, who had been silent for a moment, opened his mouth in a rather serious tone.
“Ya, but Woojae-ya.”
“……What?”
He’d been half-listening, but at the voice suddenly calling his name, Woojae answered smoothly.
“You, that Gye Sajun… you know.”
“Dog Sajun?”
“Yeah. Gye Sajun.”
Woojae, who didn’t understand at all, made a puzzled expression, but it didn’t properly register in Minwook’s eyes as he lay there talking. What’s “Dog Sajun”? Someone who bought a dog? What a cheap expression. Why buy a dog. More than anything, he’d never raised a dog.
Woojae listened to Minwook’s words. If he found out he wasn’t paying attention, it was obvious he’d whine noisily again, so Woojae gave up on asking again. He could infer from the next words that followed.
“Did you fight with him?”
“With a dog?”
What the hell is this about? Woojae openly frowned. Someone who bought a dog—he was displeased by using a word meaning transaction instead of the nice expression of adoption—and then asking if he fought with a dog made no sense. Moreover, he was a young man who loved animals, despite appearances. Two years ago, when he was working part-time at a fast-food restaurant, he had a track record of being fired by the manager for taking care of stray cat food.
Minwook continued speaking with an expression as serious as Woojae’s.
“Yeah, you saw it. Him getting, you know… that thing.”
“What did the dog go through?”
“Ah, that… like sexual harassment or something.”
“The dog was sexually harassed? Are you insane?”
The more he heard, the crazier it sounded. Woojae raised his voice, angry as if it were his own business. Just what kind of crazy bastard sexually harasses a cute puppy? It was a horrifying thing to say.
