Chapter 112:
Translator: MarcTempest
Chapter 112
She had no interest in celebrities.
She was like that even in her school days.
When her friends in uniforms would gossip about celebrities, she could count the ones she knew on one hand.
When her peers would coat the pictures of their favorite male actors and use them as bookmarks, she used plain-colored bookmarks.
And instead of having a celebrity poster on the wall like most of them, she only had five letters that said ‘Korea University’ as if it was a motto.
“Jae-hee, did you hear that Actor Jang Young-guk is entering your department?” her mother asked excitedly. But Shin Jae-hee, who was drying her short hair, just nodded briefly and didn’t say anything else.
Her mother kept talking about Actor Jang Young-guk.
From the dramas he starred in to the movies he appeared in.
She didn’t know, but her mother seemed to be a fervent fan of Actor Jang Young-guk.
When her daughter didn’t show any reaction, she even grabbed her hand and begged her.
“Jae-hee, please get Mom an autograph from Jang Young-guk.”
“Mom, I have to go to school early today because of the orientation. Let’s talk later. And you can ask Dad, why me?”
“Well, you see. Your dad is.”
Her damp hair fluttered in the breeze.
‘What’s so great about Actor Jang Young-guk that she’s making such a fuss? He’s just an actor.’
In Shin Jae-hee’s mind, the profession of an actor could be defined in one sentence.
A person who acted on the screen or the brown tube.
Nothing more, nothing less.
‘Well, he seems to be good at studying.’
Of course, it was surprising that he was the top student in the Law Department this year, but that was it.
After all, Shin Jae-hee also entered the Law Department of Korea University as the top student three years ago.
“Let’s start the orientation of the Law Department of Korea University!”
As the back door of the lecture hall suddenly opened, Shin Jae-hee stopped talking.
And she opened her eyes wide as she saw a man entering through the back door.
‘What’s with him.’
He looked so handsome that the picture her mother showed her looked shabby.
His broad shoulders, his flawless skin, and his straight nose drew attention.
He seemed to have an inexplicable aura that made him look like an actor.
Shin Jae-hee quickly came to her senses and put some strength on her tongue.
“Why are you so late? Hurry up and sit down.”
Huh.
“Are you new students in the Law Department? What are you looking at? Even if your classmate is handsome, you don’t have to stare at him with your mouth open. How sad do you think the sunbaes here are? Come on, focus!”
But she unwittingly said that he was handsome in the following sentence. But fortunately, no one seemed to care.
Shin Jae-hee quickly erased her thoughts. After all, he was a new student in the Law Department, but he had nothing to do with her.
Since his main job was an actor, the possibility of him taking the bar exam was very low.
“There is no solution because you lack self-reflection. That’s what’s been haunting me in my chest. Do you still think so, Jang Young-guk?”
Shin Jae-hee’s eyes widened at the question of Professor Shin Jung-gil, the head of the department.
She couldn’t believe that he gave such an answer in the oral interview on judicial justice. But what was more surprising was Jang Young-guk’s answer.
“I came here today and I was sure of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, a loach can muddy the water.”
She felt her face burning.
She was supposed to lead the students as the president of the student council, but she ended up having a nerve war with a sunbae on the first day of orientation.
It was obvious who the loach meant in the narrow sense.
As proof, the sunbae who had a nerve war with her had a red and blue face.
And the answer to the question of whether he should catch the loach was outstanding.
“It means that the fish that grow up in the muddy water think they are loaches.”
Shin Jae-hee’s gaze changed as she looked at Actor Jang Young-guk.
****
Was this what it looked like when ducklings followed the mother duck?
The new students were divided into groups of three and were touring the law building with the guidance of the seniors.
They were cut off in groups of three as if they were making a military buddy group, but coincidentally, except for Young-guk, the two new students were all girls.
As Young-guk looked around the school, he couldn’t tell if they were looking at the school or at him.
A senior student who was already enrolled spoke.
“This is the Ulpianus Hall, where you’ll be studying. You probably won’t come here often in your first year, since your curriculum is mostly general courses. But take a look around. It’s four years at the shortest, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that some people stay here for five or six years. At first, you might find the building pretty and exotic, but you’ll get sick of stepping into this building eventually.”
Named after an ancient Roman jurist, the Ulpianus Hall followed the Western style of architecture rather than being a department building.
It seemed like they tried to preserve the feel of an ancient temple. That was when it happened.
“Alright, everyone, focus!”
As we were about to enter the Ulpianus Hall, another senior student popped out of nowhere.
He coughed a few times as if he had been waiting for them, and then made a playful expression.
“You must have heard this in the orientation lecture, but you’ll get a question every time you move to a different building. The team that gets the most answers right among the freshmen will get a waiver for the upcoming MT, so do your best. Now, let me give you the question.”
It was a question related to law.
Of course, it was easy, since they were freshmen who didn’t even know the basics of law.
Besides, they were the top students in the country, who had been admitted to the Law Department of Korea University.
There was even a joke that the freshmen from Daechi-dong, a famous education district, started preparing for the bar exam starting from their first year. By the way.
‘I’m not going to attend the MT.’
Luckily, before Young-guk could step up, the two freshmen ahead of him solved the problem.
They must have been the ones from Daechi-dong, as the rumor said.
They solved it so quickly that even the senior student who gave the question looked flustered.
They got a question every time they visited a building named after a famous jurist, such as Ulpianus Hall, Yale, or Yellinek.
The two freshmen, except Young-guk, were so into solving the problems that they seemed to be competing with each other.
It was when they arrived at the last building, named after Astraea, the goddess of law and justice.
“There are a lot of freshmen who studied in advance this year, huh? There are three more teams that got three questions in a row right, besides this team. It wasn’t like this when we were freshmen.”
The president of the Law Club, Shin Jae-hee, came out with her head tilted.
She must have been the one who made the last question.
The other three teams that arrived at a similar time had fire in their eyes.
Of course, since all the teams here were tied, the team that solved the last question first would win.
“This is the last question, so raise your hand and answer if you know it. Don’t just raise your hand without thinking because it’s first come, first served. The question is harder than the previous ones anyway. If no one gets the last question right here, all four teams will be second place, and there will be no first place.”
There was no prize for second place, so the MT fee waiver was as good as gone. Then, Shin Jae-hee recited the question.
The question was harder than she said, unlike the previous ones that were close to common sense.
It was a question about civil litigation.
‘How can a freshman solve that?’
She asked them to name the civil law provisions related to a case she gave them.
It was a question that even some undergraduates couldn’t answer.
That was understandable, since they were just exam takers who had been studying for the college entrance exam until a few months ago. Then, a female student who was in the same team as Young-guk raised her hand.
“According to Article 2, Paragraph 1, and Article 750 of the Civil Code, we should focus on whether the obstruction of sunlight caused by building construction is a legally wrongful act.”
Huh.
Young-guk forgot.
There were the Daechi-dong kids.
Even if they didn’t know, they must have studied law subjects in advance if they aimed for the Law Department of Korea University.
Daechi-dong’s passion for education was said to be the best in the country.
The female student looked proud.
She occasionally looked at Young-guk and seemed to show off her smartness.
Shin Jae-hee also looked surprised, but she didn’t declare the answer yet.
“I didn’t expect you to memorize the law provisions, but it seems like the freshmen these days are no joke. But you only got half right.”
The female student’s face showed a hint of confusion. Then, she glanced briefly at the senior student who was standing next to Shin Jae-hee.
The senior student looked embarrassed and pretended not to know.
They must have known each other from before. Well, then.
“I guess there’s no freshman who knows the whole answer, huh?”
That was when it happened.
“I know it.”
The reason Young-guk knew the answer was simple.
He had looked over some civil law cases while preparing for the oral interview, just in case.
That was because he heard that some of the mean professors in the Law Department sometimes asked questions about civil or criminal law cases.
Of course, if Young-guk didn’t have an excellent memory, he wouldn’t have remembered it until now.
“We need to judge whether the act of infringing the right to a view exceeds the social norm of tolerance, and before that, we need to verify whether this case meets the legal protection criteria for the right to a view under Article 35 of the Constitution.”
Soon, the president of the club, Shin Jae-hee, widened her eyes.
She couldn’t help but be surprised when the correct answer suddenly came out of Young-guk’s mouth, which had been quiet until then.
****
Did a ghost who died of alcohol poisoning in their previous life possess her?
‘Huh.’
Young-guk sighed as he watched the woman who drank a glass of liquor mixed with soju and beer at almost a one-to-one ratio.
Young-guk thought she was just an ordinary person, being the president of the Law Club, but she was a real booze whale.
The faces of the freshmen were also full of drunkenness.
They had just peeled off their underage stickers.
They must have felt like adults as they tilted their glasses so much.
‘Ha.’
Young-guk also followed them and put a glass of soju in his mouth.
The sourness that went down his throat reminded him of his past life.
‘I thought I would d*e from drinking then.’
The Law Department was tough, but it was nothing compared to the Theater and Film Department he entered in his past life.
From the after-party of the orientation, the sunbaes made all kinds of liquor.
Among them, the one that still remained in his memory was the kimchi cocktail, which matched the ratio of kimchi stew broth and soju to one to one.
It was called a cocktail, but he still couldn’t forget the fiery heat that went down his esophagus.
He had to go in and out of the bathroom several times the next day. But that was decent.
The atmosphere of the after-party was free.
There was no sunbae who forced alcohol on the freshmen who couldn’t drink.
“Hey, freshman. Will you take a drink from me?”
As the saying goes.
“Why? Can’t celebrities drink what ordinary people give them?”
His cheeks were puffy, and his nose was as big as a hallabong.
He looked like he was provoking Young-guk, and he couldn’t even laugh.
Maybe he was still annoyed by what he said in the classroom.
“Yes, please give me a drink.”
“Hey, where did you get the guy who takes the drink from his sunbae in a soju glass? Did you leave the beer glass next to you for show?”
B******t.
Young-guk picked up the beer glass and the sunbae poured soju for him.
He poured so much that he emptied the half-bottle of soju that was left.
It was as if he was saying, drink it if you can.
Young-guk didn’t bother to argue and put the beer glass in his mouth and put it down loudly.
“Sunbae, please have a drink from me too.”
“Huh?”
He looked surprised when Young-guk drank all that soju in one breath. But he had pride in his appearance as a sunbae, so he hurriedly picked up the beer glass.
You picked the wrong person.
He opened his eyes wide as Young-guk poured as much as he had received before. But he couldn’t spit it out when he smiled and offered him a drink.
In the end, he picked up the beer glass and poured it into his throat.
He paused for a moment, but he had to drink it reluctantly because he couldn’t be humiliated in front of the freshmen.
It was obvious that he was drinking the alcohol forcibly.
“Keeeh. That’s the taste.”
He looked like he had lived a full life.
“Come on, have another drink?”
His nose flared as he said that.
He was trying to see if Young-guk could drink this time.
Not to mention the freshmen around him, even the students were watching the spectacle with interest.
‘Hey, I spilled more alcohol than you drank in your life.’
“Thank you.”
Young-guk once again put the beer glass full of soju in his mouth and showed it to him. Then the sunbae’s eyes popped out. And then.
“Come on, it’s your turn, sunbae.”
How much time had passed?
Young-guk glanced at the fridge of the pub and saw that the soju bottles were almost empty.
His sunbae with a big nose was already passed out on the table, his face buried in his arms.
He should have stopped bragging so much. That was when it happened.
“Have a drink with me.”
Who was this guy?
“Why not?”
“Well, Ms. President, you’ve already had a lot, haven’t you?”
“Okay, I’m glad you know how to control yourself. But don’t hate this guy too much. He just came back from the army, so he still has some rough edges.”
“Do law students go to the army as active duty?”
“I don’t know, I’m a girl. But if you’re not confident about passing the bar exam right away, it might be better to go and come back. Otherwise, you might get dragged away when your service is due and become a blockhead. So don’t hate Hwang too much. I don’t like him either, but he’s not that bad.”
“I see.”
By the way, this guy’s last name was Hwang.
Why did he think of Hwang Chul-soo, the former co-CEO of Songwon Entertainment?
He looked kind of similar, with his greedy cheeks.
Just then, Shin Jae-hee’s voice snapped Young-guk out of his thoughts.
“You see? Weren’t you talking about him earlier?”
“I’m not a face reader. How can I judge someone I’ve only seen for a day? And the professor’s question was about judicial justice. The department is too shallow and narrow to be called the river of judicial justice.”
“Are you preparing for the bar exam by any chance? I didn’t think anyone among the freshmen would get the last question right when I handed it out in front of the college building.”
“Didn’t one of the freshmen get half of it right?”
“That guy, Byung-chul said he was tutoring her. He showed her his answer sheet before they came. He said she became a junior in the same department. But she didn’t memorize everything. But you got it right, amazingly. Are you really preparing for the bar exam?”
“Of course not. And I’m not smart enough for the bar exam. I just got lucky that the case I studied for the oral interview came up.”
“Then why did you apply for the Law Department?”
“I wanted to see the world more broadly. If you just read scripts as an actor, you don’t know how the world outside works. And you never know. Maybe I’ll get to play a legal role in a drama someday.”
“Really?”
But why did this sunbae look at Young-guk like that?
He saw her gulp down soju and beer like a general earlier, but was that why?
The corners of President Shin Jae-hee’s eyes were strangely curved.
He was afraid she might try to flirt with him here.
“Ms. President.”
“What?”
Should Young-guk tell her this?
“You have red pepper flakes on your front teeth.”
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