Chapter 1
“Kyum Tae-heon.”
“……”
“Kyum Tae-heon.”
The professor, who had been looking down at the attendance sheet, raised his head and looked around the lecture hall.
Everyone only glanced around following the professor’s gaze, but no one raised their hand to answer.
“Kim Yoon-ah.”
“Yes.”
As if he were used to it, the professor called the next student’s name without changing his expression. However, the eyes of a female student sitting in the very back row sharply narrowed.
He didn’t come again?
It was already the third lecture.
Because of a man named Kyum Tae-heon, who had failed to attend three lectures in a row since the very first class, Yi-seo’s face became cold.
It was a two-hour general education course, not a major course.
‘Korean History Through Historical Figures’ was one of the least popular lectures among the students.
Most of the students taking it were those who had missed the course registration period, or those who needed to fill their credits but had lost the competition for more popular classes.
But Yi-seo was an exception.
Because she loved history so much, she had registered for this class before any of her major courses.
Normally, whether someone was taking a class unwillingly or simply never attended would not have interested her at all.
But right now, the poor attendance of the man named Kyum Tae-heon, who was written first on the attendance sheet, was extremely irritating to Yi-seo.
Daeun, do you happen to know anyone among the third-year business administration students?
His phone number was personal information, so she could not get that. The only thing she had managed to find out after persuading the teaching assistant was his department and year.
Of course I do! Why? Who do you want me to find out about?
His name is Kyum Tae-heon. Could you see if anyone you know has some connection with him?
Unable to concentrate on the class because of her anxiety, Yi-seo eventually sent an SOS message to Daeun.
It was very fortunate for Yi-seo right now that her closest friend happened to be the biggest social butterfly at the university.
??? Kyum Tae-heon??
Along with the question marks came a cat emoji with its mouth hanging open in surprise.
Yi-seo tilted her head slightly to the side.
Why was she reacting like that? Was it because his surname was unusual?
Yes. It would be best if I could get his phone number, but I know that won’t be easy…… So could you at least find out if anyone knows him and can contact him during today’s class?
She could not wait any longer.
She had to meet him today and settle this once and for all.
Buzz.
Another message arrived from Daeun.
You really don’t care about anything in the world except studying! You don’t know that senior? It would be stranger to find someone at Korea University who doesn’t know Kyum Tae-heon from Business Administration!
This time, Yi-seo narrowed her eyes.
There was no one who didn’t know a man who could not even attend his classes properly?
Was he perhaps a troublemaker in his other classes too?
Before her curiosity could grow any further, Daeun sent her Kyum Tae-heon’s contact information.
She would find out when she met him.
Yi-seo immediately sent him a message asking to meet.
“Yi-seo! Over here!”
Daeun, who was standing at the entrance of the building, waved her hand enthusiastically.
“Thanks, Daeun. I’ll buy you lunch and dessert today.”
“Come on, it’s nothing. I have time before my next class anyway, and it’s nice to get some eye candy after such a long time.”
“Eye candy?”
Yi-seo headed toward the Business Administration building with Daeun, who had said something she could not understand.
No matter how many messages she sent or how many times she called, Kyum Tae-heon did not answer.
Just as she was nervously biting her lip, wondering if he had skipped his major classes too and was not even on campus, a message arrived from Daeun like a ray of light.
Did you get in touch with him? Senior Tae-heon just came outside after finishing his morning class.
So he really was deliberately ignoring her.
Anger rose inside her.
At Daeun’s words, Yi-seo decided to go straight to the Business Administration building.
However, there was one problem.
She did not know what he looked like, so even if she found him, she would not recognize him.
When Yi-seo called Daeun to ask about his appearance, Daeun readily offered to come along. That was why they were now searching for him together.
“Is Kyum Tae-heon particularly handsome?”
“Handsome isn’t even enough to describe him.”
At Yi-seo’s question, Daeun began enthusiastically describing his appearance.
“You know how important a guy’s hairstyle is? But Senior Kyum Tae-heon keeps his hair really short, like a soldier. In other words, he has a complete face that gets absolutely no help from his hairstyle.”
“Ah.”
Even though Yi-seo gave a half-hearted response, Daeun continued.
“On top of that, he’s really tall and has an amazing build, so he looks like a professional soldier who has trained really hard. When he has a blank expression, he can even look a little scary. He actually finished his military service not that long ago, so he has a somewhat rough feeling too. Anyway, his features are strong and distinct overall, so he has the kind of image that makes you feel like no one would dare pick a fight with him.”
So, in other words, he was the type who relied on his face and put studying second.
That was how Yi-seo summarized Daeun’s description in one sentence.
“But do you know what’s even more amazing? He’s one year ahead of us, right? He even completed his military service. But……”
“But?”
“He’s the same age as us?”
Daeun grinned as she explained.
“He graduated one year early from both middle school and high school and started university early. Crazy, right? But maybe because he studied too hard when he was young, after entering university, he hardly attends classes. And even when he does come, he seems more interested in drinking with his friends than studying.”
Tsk.
Yi-seo clicked her tongue inwardly.
What good was being so smart?
He was wasting the opportunity to attend a university that some people could not even dream of entering, spending his expensive tuition money just fooling around.
The more she heard, the worse her impression of Kyum Tae-heon became.
“I heard his family is really rich too. If his friends ask him to buy them food, he buys it. If they ask him to buy them drinks, he buys those too. So there are always tons of people around him. But……”
“……”
“That doesn’t mean he actually lets people get close to him.”
What was this supposed to mean?
“He always has a lot of people around him, but Senior Tae-heon somehow always seems alone. He doesn’t like people getting closer than a certain distance, and he never talks about himself either. Isn’t that strange?”
He always kept people around him while maintaining his distance from them?
His contradictory and incomprehensible behavior made Yi-seo frown.
“And people still stay around him?”
“That’s why they’re even crazier about him. The guys respect Senior Tae-heon because he has this presence that no one can approach, and the girls say they want to be the one who crosses the line no one else can cross and win him over.”
“Huh.”
Was he some kind of celebrity?
Wasn’t he just a delinquent who was full of himself?
There was not a single thing about him that made her like him.
They said you could know ten things about a person by seeing one.
Judging by the fact that he could not even attend his classes properly, it was easy to tell what kind of person he was.
“Ah, there he is! Senior Tae-heon.”
Just as they were walking along with Yi-seo scoffing to herself, Daeun pointed at someone.
“……”
Yi-seo immediately understood why Daeun had said it was strange not to know him.
The man who stood a head taller than everyone around him stood out even from a distance.
Was he over 190 centimeters tall?
His shoulders were really broad too.
However, there was a slight difference between him and the image Yi-seo had imagined from Daeun’s description.
She had imagined a cocky delinquent who looked down on people with an arrogant face.
But he had a pale face, sharply narrowed eyes that looked almost irritable, dark circles beneath them, and unusually red lips that somehow drew her attention.
How should she put it?
To say it nicely, in the words people used these days, he had a face overflowing with a decadent charm.
Yi-seo hurried her steps without taking her eyes off him.
“Hey, slow down. Don’t tell me you fell for him at first sight too?”
“It’s not like that.”
It was not because she had been attracted to his face like everyone else.
There was something she needed to confirm.
“Oh my……”
From a distance, she had thought it might be the case.
But as she got closer, Yi-seo’s eyes gradually narrowed.
“Tae-heon, come on. Just this once.”
At that moment, a female student standing beside him spoke to him in a sweet, coaxing voice.
“I’m not going.”
Kyum Tae-heon looked extremely annoyed and indifferent, but the girl still smiled and moved even closer to him.
Then she grabbed his arm and gently shook it.
“It’ll be really fun if you come with us. I promise, Tae-heon. Please?”
Smack.
Kyum Tae-heon roughly shook off the woman’s hand, so harshly that even the person watching felt embarrassed for her.
“I told you I hate people clinging to me. I told you not to touch me.”
“……Sob, that’s so mean.”
The woman he had pushed away turned bright red from embarrassment. Eventually, tears welled up in her eyes, and she ran away as if fleeing.
Rather than worrying or feeling sorry for her, Kyum Tae-heon brushed off the part of his arm she had touched with his other hand, as if something dirty had gotten on it.
Seeing him like that, Yi-seo quietly clicked her tongue.
“If he hates people clinging to him, isn’t he letting way too many of them cling to him?”
“Hm? What did you say?”
Daeun, who had not heard her quiet muttering clearly, asked again.
Yi-seo slightly shook her head as if it were nothing and once again scanned Tae-heon from head to toe.
Two on his legs.
One on his shoulder.
One on his head.
This guy was practically a ghost magnet.
