SMNTCERR, Chapter 8 <10> #1.
Sangwoo couldn’t focus on learning Chinese because of the annoying person next to him, constantly shaking his leg and tapping his pen. Whenever he tried to concentrate, he forgot that there was another party beside him, and that party would hit him with an elbow. Therefore, a 50-minute class felt like 5 hours to him.
When the class ended, he felt relieved. While Jaeyoung was busy taking notes and coloring the corner of the desk, Sangwoo got up without looking back and hurried to the next classroom before anyone else.
‘You seem abnormal, so I thought I’d let it go, but I changed my mind. I’ll wait and see next semester.’
Saying that he changed his mind. Don’t tell me it’s because we happened to study the same subject and obstructed each other during the lecture? Although his heart felt a sense of danger deep down, Sangwoo tried to deny that. It must be a coincidence, nothing more.
As he rushed to the next classroom, he saw another bag placed on the seat once again, which was unbelievable. This time it was a dark blue backpack.
Does this class have someone who knows the perfection of this seat position?
Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on his side.
Sangwoo took a deep breath to calm his mind and sat down in the adjacent seat. Then he opened his book but struggled to see the words in those books. He wiped the sweat off the book until the pages were damp. Here, does he have to encounter that demon’s face every Monday morning like this? And that’s why he can’t concentrate on studying!
While Sangwoo cursed in his mind, the owner of the backpack arrived. Sangwoo didn’t care who the other party was, but this time his head automatically turned again.
A red down jacket, a red shirt, a red cap, and a Coca-Cola can!
His formidable enemy hung a shoulder bag and a backpack on the chair and sat down. Sangwoo stared at him for 30 seconds. While Jang Jaeyoung drank a cola in one gulp and chuckled softly ‘That’s not it anymore…’ Sangwoo thought, so he forcefully pushed his chair back and stood up. However, he couldn’t skip class, so he moved to the farthest seat from Jaeyoung instead.
It didn’t take long for the class to begin. As the attendance was being called, when it was Jaeyoung’s turn, the teacher put on her glasses.
“Jang Jaeyoung, you are an excellent graphic design student. It shouldn’t be a problem for him to take this course? Right?”
“I really like math. Teacher.”
“Even so, do you also want to take on engineering mathematics?”
Although the teacher seemed interested, Sangwoo remained apathetic. While feeling hopeless, he missed four minutes of the lesson, and after that, it was difficult to concentrate. It wasn’t the usual seat, and the angle to see the teacher was different. Furthermore, he felt like he couldn’t hear clearly. This was terrible because he felt that the atmosphere was more chaotic than usual. As soon as the class ended, Sangwoo rushed out of the room like a bullet. He had never felt so angry before. Usually, he could keep his cool, but now he felt like he had been hit where it hurt the most.
Sangwoo almost ran to join the lunch line, leaning on his knees and adjusting his breathing. Only then did he glance over and see the man in the red down jacket that he didn’t want to see. Jang Jaeyoung was chatting with the students in line as if he didn’t care about Sangwoo, but Sangwoo felt fear rising from the other side. Just having the other person nearby made him feel like a poisonous gas was spreading.
He felt that queuing today took longer than usual. After receiving his food at the Korean food corner, he walked to his seat two minutes faster than usual, but even so, Sangwoo still felt restless.
“Oh, there’s a seat available right there!”
‘Available?’
Intuition was never wrong. Jaeyoung carried a tray and deliberately walked through the numerous empty tables, intentionally walking over to sit next to Sangwoo, who was sitting alone at the table in the corner.
[1. Move to another seat: The other person will follow. And the situation will loop, wasting time.
- Stay indifferent: Nothing will happen.]
Sangwoo simulated the situation briefly. Then he continued eating his meal without paying attention to the other party.
“Hey, how do you get to the cafeteria?”
“There you are, long time no see, you jerk.”
“I heard that you insulted the teacher and didn’t graduate, is that true?”
“No way, you asshole. Who told you?”
And then he witnessed a shocking event. Unintentionally, Jaeyoung intentionally chose a next seat, but just having Jaeyoung sitting next to him made the seat full. There were many people surrounding them, making loud noises, disturbing Sangwoo’s meal without him realizing whether he was putting the food in his mouth or nose.
After finishing his meal, he lowered his head to check the time and discovered that it was 12:22 PM. He finished eating faster than usual by six minutes. Sangwoo hurriedly picked up the empty tray, swiftly put it away, and grabbed five glasses of water to drink. He felt a bit uneasy in his stomach, perhaps due to rushing through the meal and causing indigestion.
Sangwoo exited through the back door and stopped by the convenience store. He drank a canned black coffee called “Blackhole” every day after meals. He chose this brand because it was the cheapest and had an appropriate quantity.
As he walked past the bakery section, the instant noodle zone, and the ice cream zone, he came across three refrigerated beverage cabinets. Sangwoo walked up and stopped in front of the third cabinet and looked at the fifth shelf.
“Oh? Where did they go?”
No matter how he looked, he found that the shelf where the regular coffee used to be placed was now empty. Sangwoo was accustomed to unexpected events. This was the first time since he entered university that he had encountered such a situation. He stood in front of the refrigerator for a moment before walking over to the middle-aged woman who was in charge of the convenience store.
“So, they don’t have Blackhole anymore?”
“Oh, my goodness! Well…”
She avoided eye contact with Sangwoo nervously.
“Yesterday afternoon, one student bought all of them.”
Sangwoo felt like the sky was falling. There was no need to ask who that student was; everyone knew. What mattered now was how to deal with this situation.
“So, when will there be more available?”
“It’s not a popular item, maybe another two weeks.”
Sangwoo picked up a can that had a design similar to “Blackhole” but couldn’t pay for it and left the store.
Has his life ever been so chaotic? Has there ever been a day that didn’t go as planned like this? He hesitated for a moment before answering that there had never been even a single day.
Sangwoo walked with a bewildered feeling. There was a walking path he often took to enjoy a cup of coffee after finishing his meal—a small tenminute walk on a trail in the mountain behind the university that always brought his daily life back to normalcy.
Sangwoo took slow steps, pondering the unpleasant events that had occurred today. It wasn’t just one or two strange incidents. How did Jang Jaeyoung know his schedule and how did he know where to sit, what coffee to drink, and everything else along with the stickers?
“Don’t pass through here, please.”
“Why not?”
“The Drama Club is using it.”
The entrance to the pathway that Sangwoo usually strolled through was closed. Although it seemed like a reasonable occurrence, he wondered why such a thing had to happen today when it had never happened before.
With no other choice, Sangwoo had to walk another way. He opened the can of coffee in his hand and took a sip, but the taste was unnaturally sweet, causing his face to cringe automatically. As he walked past the soccer field, a worker who was taking a break near the construction site greeted him.
“Hey young man, why are you coming from that direction today?”
He didn’t understand what the other person was talking about, seemingly that this is their first encounter. Today, too many strange things were happening. Sangwoo disposed of the remaining coffee in a drain and continued walking towards the Natural Sciences building.
“…”
The second trash bin that he usually used was overflowing at this hour, and it didn’t look like an accidental occurrence. Sangwoo dropped the coffee can into the third bin, feeling uneasy about it getting full, and even more so about having to throw it into the third bin. Furthermore, the can hit the rim of the bin and fell onto the floor, making him pick it up again. Sangwoo trembled with anger and headed towards the library.
‘It’s too bothersome here.’
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