SMNTCERR, Chapter 14 <11> #1.
Sangwoo was mentally waiting for Jang Jaeyoung for the third appointment with a gun in his pocket. He never thought there would be a day when he wanted to see the startled face of Jang Jaeyoung again. Now Sangwoo wants to see the surprised expression on Jang Jaeyoung’s face soon. He sat waiting in the fourth row, the second seat from the right.
Although he had opened a book, he was just pretending as it has been useless lately.
Jaeyoung is an assistant professor, but even though the professor has arrived, he has yet to come. Sangwoo turned to look at the back door, but he didn’t find the owner of the red duck-down jacket among the panting students rushing in.
“Where are you looking? I’m here.”
Sangwoo was taken aback. The man sitting in front of him kept his hands in his pocket and spoke with Jaeyoung’s voice, but what surprised him more was that the opposite side was wearing a dark green coat and didn’t wear glasses.
Sangwoo felt a great confusion as the man sat down on the reserved seat, the most perfect seat in the classroom. Just the fact that the other side didn’t wear the red duck-down jacket made him feel like the information system[1] had collapsed. But no matter what clothes he wore, he was definitely Jang Jaeyoung. That’s why Sangwoo picked up the first appointment bullet that he had prepared, which was a partition made of rice straw paper, and placed it on his right hand. Then he heard a mocking laugh coming from the other side of the scene.
“As we know, starting from next Thursday, we will begin presenting short dramas together. Therefore, I want us to start preparing from this class onwards, okay?”
He already knew because it was written in the lesson plan. Group work, pairing up to perform a three-minute Chinese language drama, is an important activity for this subject, accounting for 20% of the total score. The teacher distributed a sheet to the students in the front row to pass on. “The assistant should be the one distributing, right?”. Then they opened the projector to display the list of pairs.
“This is the list of pairs and presentation order. The first few presentations may feel unfair, but the teacher will consider scores based on various factors.”
Sangwoo glanced around and found his own name, but the problem was the name next to it.
[Chu Sangwoo “Computer Engineering”. Jang Jaeyoung “Visual Arts
Design”.]
Presented on 14th March “Thu.”.
[…]
Among thirty students, he had to be paired with him. Moreover, the presentation day happened to be next Thursday, so he immediately raised his hand, and the teacher turned to look.
“Do you have a question, student?”
“If I don’t like my team partner and can’t work together, can I change partners?”
The professor frowned and replied.
“No, in this subject, there are students who can perform well and those who can’t. Overcoming this issue is called teamwork. I don’t want such questions to arise, so the assistant randomly selected the pairing. Don’t worry about equality. Besides changing groups, changing the presentation day is also possible. Does anyone have any other questions?”
‘It’s because that person is the one who randomly selected this, resulting in inequality. Teacher…’
The teacher cut him off abruptly. Sangwoo dared not say anything more; he was assigned to the ‘Embedded System’ subject by the professor. He couldn’t let it spread to this subject, so he closed his mouth hesitantly. At that moment, the partition curtain behind them rumbled and fell to the ground, revealing Jaeyoung sitting cross-legged with a strange smile.
“Trust me, I can handle [1] it myself.”
‘Shut up!’
Sangwoo stuffed the useless partition curtain into his backpack.
After a while, some supporting documents for the lesson were passed on. Sangwoo quickly protected it with his life before Jaeyoung could snatch it away. Then he wrote his name and student ID in the top left corner of the paper.
“The document that the teacher just handed out contains both sentences that have been learned in the course ‘Basic Chinese Language’ and more complex sentences. Students can prepare dialogues for short dramas based on the provided 100 examples. So, they can start looking for their partners and consult with each other.”
Sangwoo carefully read the content in the sheet, about 30%, as they were sentences he had memorized before, so he could understand their meaning.
In his first year, Sangwoo, A., attended all classes and scored full marks in the exams for the course ‘Basic Chinese Language.’ However, he lost a significant amount of points in the oral exam and drama performance. Therefore, this time he had to perform exceptionally well in the drama to get an A+.
He didn’t have many subjects, so he had plenty of time to practice. But his problem was the friends in his group who seemed to always hinder him in every way. Nevertheless, Sangwoo thought that the worst thing he had to do was to perform alone with two characters, so he wasn’t too worried. Besides, the teaching plan stated that scores would be given individually.
He opened his notebook and wrote down some ideas. He planned to perform alone, but Jaeyoung still pulled a table, aligning it next to Sangwoo’s table. Sangwoo raised his eyebrows without looking at the other side.
“In this part, there are several questions and answers related to the location, where we create a direction scenario for Chinese exchange students at Hankuk
University. I will be Korean, and the senior will be Chinese.”
Even though Sangwoo didn’t expect a positive reaction, Jaeyoung kept complaining and waiting.
“It’s so boring. It would be terrible if I had to work on a game project with him. Almost there.”
“…”
In the past, he often criticized Sangwoo’s creative ideas as ‘vegetable-like humans’ as not very interesting, thinking that he lacked imagination sometimes. When he composed a three-line poem, it received a score of 0 for novelty.
“So, come up with an idea!”
Sangwoo threw his pencil onto the notebook. Jaeyoung leaned back confidently in his chair as if it were his routine. When he raised his hand and hugged his chest, it felt like he had some kind of idea. Jaeyoung swept his eyes across the paper with Chinese sentences and then lifted his head.
“Let’s do a story about a fraudster during the Chosun Dynasty who tricks people out of money through telephone scams.”
“What is it?”
“First, you sell goods at the market. ‘How much is this?’ ‘One hundred thousand won for two grapes.’ ‘Too expensive!’ ‘Stop! Using violence is against the law! Please leave through that door.’ Use sentences related to buying and selling extensively. And then…”
Sangwoo, who was prepared to mock and ridicule the storyline, got into the story.
“And use this sentence ‘Today’s income is 0 won. Begging’ ‘I’m so poor’ … Then use this sentence, ‘I’ve sold all my belongings’ ‘Used the remaining money to buy a phone’ ‘Now I have 0 won left. Begging.’ Oh, this is a good one ‘I am a professional soup maker.’”
Sangwoo examined the sentence mentioned by the other party in the sheet and started organizing the plot in his notebook.
“Then he picked up the phone and dialed ‘Hello?’ ‘I’m currently with your son’ and he said, ‘He can come home, bring a billion dollars for me’ And then on the other end of the line, it would say, ‘I’m single, you’re a troublemaker.’”
“And what happened next?”
“I don’t know, I think it’s still ongoing.”
Sangwoo pondered, but couldn’t figure out how to handle the situation if the scammer from the Qing Dynasty era who failed to trick him out of money through the telephone would react, he had to do his best…
“If there’s no food, they just starve to death?”
“…Hmm, like being a lord, there are some good phrases here, ‘I’m hungry,’ ‘Can I have some food?’ even though it doesn’t have anything to do with dying, it could work. And then he would pass down the telephone as an inheritance to his younger brother.”
Sangwoo organized the content and read it once, finding some strange elements, but there were both easy and difficult sentences. At that moment, he was curious.
“Why does it have to be the Qing Dynasty?”
“That teacher is really obsessed with the Qing Dynasty. If we wear Qing
Dynasty outfits and have our hair in queues, we might get full marks.”
“That doesn’t sound reasonable…”
“Look here, ‘Presentation/Entertainment/Preparation’ 20%.”
Sangwoo wondered why these requirements were included. Moreover, the weighting seemed very high compared to ‘Tone/Pronunciation/Fluency,’ which accounted for 50%, and ‘Difficulty/Interpretation of the Lines/Grammar,’ which accounted for 30%. Seeing Sangwoo’s confused expression, Jaeyoung added.
“She is my club advisor, so I know her well.”
“What club?”
“Drama club.”
The wooden stick cracked loudly as Sangwoo swung it forcefully, accidentally hitting Mr. Jaeyoung in the face without intending to. In response, Jaeyoung instinctively raised his hand to rub his cheek. Even the incident with the drama club’s schedule causing the closure of the playground was a troublesome matter.
Sangwoo averted his gaze from Jaeyoung, as if he wasn’t there anymore, and began to think about the dialogue. For sentences he didn’t know, he left the Korean meanings blank. For sentences he knew or were in the sheet, he copied them. Meanwhile, Jaeyoung remained silent for some reason.
“…”
But it was too quiet, so quiet that it made him worried. Normally, Jaeyoung would do something. If not knocking on the table, imitating with words, or flipping through the book loudly, but this time he did nothing at all. Sangwoo felt a conflicting feeling in his heart and glanced at Jaeyoung, who was very close. He propped his elbow on the table, placing his hands together and resting his chin on the back of his hand, gazing at Sangwoo’s face.
“It’s strange.”
He spoke like that, and then looked again. Sangwoo quickly lowered his face and pretended to be busy with his pencil.
“I’m asking what’s strange…” Jaeyoung whispered softly.
“I found out that we have something in common.”
How can we have a conversation like that? Sangwoo frowned upon hearing the words that made him annoyed. Jaeyoung saw that and smiled slightly.
“Look at your facial expressions, I mean different handwriting.”
Then Sangwoo felt another shock, never realizing that his handwriting was nice, but he didn’t think it was that bad either.
“Please don’t annoy me.”
“Sangwoo-ya.”
Jaeyoung called Sangwoo’s name in a low and gentle tone, pretending to be a good person for two days, but now only making jokes. “You’re really calm.” Doesn’t matter.
“You probably don’t feel anything, even if you have to look at a human cancer face, a clown, and sadist. Plus, we still have to work together.” Ignore. “Sangwoo.” Ignore. “What do you think of revenge?” Ignore.
“Even revenge should have some emotions, right? Isn’t that true for you? I guess I’m like a fly that should hurry up and smash my head against the wall, right?” Ignore.
“Do you find my words funny?”
“There’s no one in my family who is a clown.”
“You dare to talk back, you brat.”
“What am I doing? Can’t you be quiet for a bit?”
“If you listen to my request.”
“No.”
“Take off your hat.”
That was an unbelievable proposal. Sangwoo glanced at Jaeyoung, who was still sitting in the same position, and wondered if this was a new form of mimicry or something. However, all he could see was a sense of embarrassment.
Sangwoo decided to ignore him.
As soon as he finished writing the last line of dialogue, Jaeyoung snatched the notebook and inspected the lines with a proud expression, saying, “Like this.” Or “Not bad.” Meanwhile, Sangwoo used his pencil to write something on the empty space left by Jaeyoung.
When he received the notebook back from Jaeyoung again, he found that there was no more blank space. The other side had filled the gaps with abbreviated Chinese characters, which Sangwoo didn’t understand.
“What’s this?”
Sangwoo felt puzzled. It seemed like the other person was also thinking about the content of the short play. Today, he cooperated well without causing any disturbance. Could it be that he was giving up on teasing?
“Why?”
“What?”
“His actions seem like they’re going to follow through until the end of the world. It looks like the thorn in my heart will disappear in two days.”
It all started with speaking like this. Then he acted like a jester. And then he transformed into a polite part-time employee at a restaurant. And then he twisted. And then he smiled. And then he chased after him as if to kill him. And then he composed a three-line poem abruptly. And then he followed closely to annoy him. And then he helped with group work. Jaeyoung was the strangest person Sangwoo had ever encountered.
“Are you two consulting each other nicely?”
At that moment, he heard the teacher’s voice walking around the classroom, helping students with their work. She approached and gave them a glance.
“Oh, so you’re paired with Jaeyoung? Your group shouldn’t have any problems then.”
“Not exactly. Teacher, this is my friend named Sangwoo doing everything.” “What’s this about?”
Seeing an unexpected reaction, Sangwoo felt puzzled. The teacher looked at Sangwoo in a friendly manner.
Well then, please take a look at StudentSangwoo’s script. If it were normal, Sangwoo would probably answer truthfully, “No. Senior Jaeyoung is the one who comes up with the entire plot, I just copy it down.” But no matter what, the words of praise wouldn’t escape the other party’s mouth. Sangwoo politely handed his notebook to the teacher. Shortly after, she burst into laughter.
“Another historical merchant! It must be so exciting… Hahaha! The story is good, oh! But the lines are quite…”
Then her bright face gradually darkened.
“You’re too vulgar. Where did you learn such foul language? Jaeyoung! Are you the one who wrote this?”
The teacher looked at Jaeyoung and realized he had nothing in his hands. The person holding the pencil was Sangwoo. The teacher shifted her gaze and glared at Sangwoo.
“Revise the lines, please. If you present it like this, it’s a zero. Do you understand?”
“…Yes.”
When caught in the teacher’s gaze, Sangwoo couldn’t respond and simply nodded. The teacher handed him back his notebook and walked away. Jaeyoung burst into laughter. Sangwoo gritted his teeth and erased the handwriting of the other party with an eraser.
“I still feel a bit uneasy. Unlike you.”
Sangwoo meticulously erased the other party’s handwriting, afraid that even faint traces would remain.
return 0;.
________________________________________.
[1] Information System “IS” is the fundamental system for various operations. It involves input, processing, output, and data storage.
[2] Carry. In this context, it is a term used in gaming. “Carry” refers to a situation where one player in a team performs exceptionally well, allowing the team to compete against the opposing side.
[3] “Do you find my brother’s words funny?” The original Korean phrase
is “형 말 씹으면 맛있어?” “Hyeong mal sseibeum masisseo?”. The literal translation is “Does chewing my brother’s words taste good?” The phrase “chewing words” can be used as a slang term meaning “finding someone’s words amusing.”
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