By Zephyria 
Fоr а moment, his liрs tightened. Реrhарs рlеased bу thе сhange in Wоo-yeоn’s eхprеssion, Jun-sеong lеt оut а short snort. Нe сrossed his arms, tiltеd his chin up, and wоre a fishy, mоcking snееr.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
Thеre was no nееd tо аsk whаt he knew. Wоo-уеon remаinеd silent, but Jun-seong spоke thе rеst with a tonе оf аbsоlutе cеrtаinty. It wаs a manner of speаking that cоmpletеly disregardеd the gаze of thе оther students.
“Оne of thе bastаrds in thе grouр must hаve tоld уou. Тhаt I dеcided tо mаke thе рrеsеntation and send it. But you didn’t contact me even though you knew. And now you’ve come scurrying over here like a dog that needs to shit, right?”
“…….”
“I guess you don’t care about your grades? Seeing how you’re acting so smug?”
Woo-yeon was surprised that he had grasped the situation quite accurately. He had thought Jun-seong was just acting recklessly and stupidly, but it seemed he had expected word to reach Woo-yeon. While Woo-yeon remained silent, Jun-seong’s face twisted irritably.
“What exactly are you relying on to act so rude?”
Surprisingly, it was something he had heard back in middle school. Though the words that followed were slightly different from back then.
“Just because you’ve got a decent face and you’re a dominant, you think you’re above everyone?”
‘Just because my family is rich, I think I’m above everyone?’
Caught in an untimely wave of reminiscence, Woo-yeon let out a hollow sigh. Taking that however he wanted, Jun-seong’s face became even more brazen.
“At first, I was pissed that you were ignoring me, so I thought I’d try talking to you……”
“…….”
“Forget it, fuck. I’m the idiot for even trying to have a conversation.”
It was an absurd statement, enough to be a topic of conversation for a long time. Could there be anything more ridiculous than the fact that the Kang Jun-seong had attempted a conversation? If Woo-yeon had been a heavy drinker, he would have finished three bottles of soju just from this conversation.
“I’ve put the PPT on the desktop. Try presenting it if you can. With that great English skill of yours, I’m sure you’ll manage somehow.”
“…….”
“If you can’t, I’ll do it instead.”
Jun-seong spoke sneeringly and looked up. In the brief clash of their gazes, Woo-yeon could feel a surge of childish hostility.
“But if I do it, I’m taking your name off. You know you’ll get an F if you don’t get points for this, right?”
It seemed this was what Jun-seong had aimed for from the start. Either Woo-yeon would force himself to present and be humiliated, or he would give up the presentation and ruin his grade. While the latter was one thing, the former would be a loss for Jun-seong as well; it was a truly moth-to-a-flame kind of behavior.
“Do the other group members know you’re doing this?”
“Who cares? Those mute bastards. You think they even care about their grades?”
“They do care,” Woo-yeon countered in a deliberately small voice. Jun-seong made a gesture of picking his ear as if he barely heard him and scoffed at Woo-yeon.
“What if they care? Are they going to be childish and tattle even in college? Like, ‘Professor, he did this’?”
Jun-seong mockingly lowered his voice to imitate someone tattling. He clearly had no idea who the truly childish one was.
“Hey, with how many people in this lecture, do you think the professor would even listen to that?”
As Jun-seong said, the professor had no interest in how they conducted their group project. People talk about the ‘process, process,’ but in the end, it’s a world where only the result matters. It was highly likely that the grades would be distributed moderately and wrapped up, just like in middle school.
“Kang Jun-seong.”
At this point, Woo-yeon felt unsettled. What kind of ill fate bound them together that they were still like this even in university? Four years had passed, so why hadn’t a person like Kang Jun-seong changed a single bit?
“Why do you hate me so much?”
Feeling a bit troubled, Woo-yeon asked the question. He had never asked before, thinking it wasn’t worth it. Naturally, Jun-seong sneered, his shoulders shaking.
“Wow…… it’s fucking hilarious hearing that from you.”
Jun-seong looked so genuinely triumphant that, for a brief moment, Woo-yeon envied him. If he could feel that he had achieved revenge through something so trivial, Woo-yeon would have shaken off the memories of the past long ago. He hadn’t realized his unnecessarily complex nature would hold him back like this.
“Who was the one who completely ignored me when I first approached you to get close?”
“…….”
“If you’re sorry, apologize now. Then I’ll at least give you the script. You’re good at English, so you can translate it and speak it in English.”
Jun-seong pulled out a piece of paper he had tucked between his major textbooks and fluttered it in front of Woo-yeon. Seeing that he had even prepared a script, he must have expected Woo-yeon to apologize and beg. Woo-yeon stared at him blankly and murmured in a dry tone.
“You really…… haven’t changed one bit.”
“What?”
Jun-seong furrowed his brow as if asking what that meant. A confused emotion mixed into his harshly hardened face. Woo-yeon leaned one hand on the desk and met Jun-seong’s eyes at the same level.
“Do whatever you want.”
Jun-seong’s pupils flickered. It was because the pheromones emanating from Woo-yeon felt quite oppressive. Maintaining steady eye contact, Woo-yeon spoke clearly.
“Whether you present, or take my name off. Whether you get the points with the materials you made, do whatever you want.”
“…….”
“In exchange, handle the consequences yourself.”
“……Hey, do you think I’m intimidated just because you say that?”
Jun-seong, who had momentarily shrunk back, spat out the words with a flushed face. Woo-yeon straightened his posture and maintained an expression of indifference. Thinking that Woo-yeon was ignoring him again, Jun-seong grit his teeth.
“I didn’t say it to intimidate you.”
“…….”
“I just find it fascinating that you live your life like that.”
He really was a fascinating fellow. Despite hating being ignored to death, he looked down on others relentlessly. Whether he was acting tough to avoid being underestimated, or if he just had a bad personality. Either way, Woo-yeon didn’t want to associate with him.
“Bullshit, don’t regret it later……”
Jun-seong countered with an angry face, but before he could finish his sentence, the professor entered. Without even looking back at him, Woo-yeon returned straight to his seat. Since the distance wasn’t far, he could clearly feel Jun-seong glaring at him.
“Today is the day for the midterm project presentations, right? As I mentioned before, the weight of the grade is high, so……”
After finishing various announcements, the professor called the Teaching Assistant. While the Teaching Assistant turned on the beam projector and operated the remote, Woo-yeon searched for the USB he had put in his pencil case. All the work he had prepared for two days was contained within it.
“Now, we will start the presentations from Group 1. Presenter for Group 1, please come forward.”
He thought Jun-seong would stand up immediately, but surprisingly, he sat still and watched to see what Woo-yeon would do. It was as if he wanted to see just how well he could do. Holding the assignment and the USB, Woo-yeon slowly walked toward the front of the podium.
“The presenter is…… student Seon Woo-yeon?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s see the report first.”
He caught a glimpse of Jun-seong looking anxious. It was because Woo-yeon, who shouldn’t have had a report, handed a piece of A4 paper to the professor. Woo-yeon plugged the USB into the professor’s laptop and opened the PPT he had prepared.
[I am Seon Woo-yeon, in charge of the presentation for Group 1.]
Perfect English pronunciation echoed through the lecture hall. Jun-seong was staring at the screen projected by the beam projector, his face turning pale. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a particularly triumphant feeling.
[Our group will discuss a currency converter suitable for the global era……]
‘Let’s do it this way.’
That day, after hearing everything, Do-hyun had smiled cryptically. He had continued speaking slowly in a soft, gentle voice.
‘From my perspective, it seems that kid Kang Jun-seong thought word would eventually reach you anyway.’
Surprisingly, what Do-hyun had said was almost identical to what he had heard from Jun-seong today. With three group members and a mention in the group chat, it wouldn’t make sense for not a single person to contact him. He had even guessed Jun-seong’s thoughts as if it were nothing.
‘Even if the group members didn’t tell you, he probably thought you’d contact him first once you got anxious. And if you contacted him, he’d plan to withhold the PPT until he heard the words he wanted to hear.’
Thinking back now, he truly was an incredible person. Without even having spoken to Jun-seong, how had he recited his thoughts so accurately? It was something Woo-yeon couldn’t even imagine.
‘So, don’t contact him at all until the day of the presentation. Instead, contact the other group members and ask only for the materials they gave to Kang Jun-seong. Let’s remake the PPT using those materials by the day before the presentation.’
In a way, all the hard work Woo-yeon had put in over the weekend was going to waste. He had to throw away all the research, the assignment creation, and the report he had written.
‘Tell the group members that you’ll make sure they get an A, so just ask them to stay quiet, and just remove Kang Jun-seong’s name.’
‘What if the kids say something?’
‘They won’t. Looking at how he acts, the kids probably don’t like him much either; they’ll just stick with the side that gives them a good grade.’
Do-hyun’s prediction was accurate. When Woo-yeon contacted them for the materials, the group members readily sent the data they had given to Jun-seong. Although the content was a mess, he liked their proactive attitude. Who knew they would become so talkative at the mention of ‘removing Kang Jun-seong’s name’?
‘If the professor asks, just say you removed him because you couldn’t get in touch. You have the records, right? That you asked for the PPT but everyone read it and ignored you.’
Following Do-hyun’s advice, he didn’t leave the group chat and left it as it was. Just in case, he took screenshots and deliberately contacted the other group members by phone. Everything was as Do-hyun had instructed.
‘He’s definitely getting an F.’
Had he said the group project was 50% of the grade? If he didn’t get points here, it would be difficult to get a good grade no matter how well he did on the final exam. As Do-hyun said, it would be an F, or at best, a C.
‘But what if I tell them they’ll get an A and then they don’t?’
‘Woo-yeon.’
The lingering anxiety until the very end was erased by the words Do-hyun added. In a voice that was beyond gentle, he told him the most trustworthy thing he had said so far.
‘I took this lecture.’
And so for two days, they created a PPT in the club room using the materials provided by the group members. Seon-kyu and Ga-ram helped occasionally, and surprisingly, Ga-ram excelled in the design. The final result was exactly three times more polished than the one Woo-yeon had first created.
[……That concludes the presentation. Thank you.]