Unrequited Love Obsession Diary - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 12

* * *

First meeting.

Regardless of department, the venues for freshman welcome parties are pretty much the same.

Cheap and affordable bars in Daehakro.

No matter how much graffiti covers the walls or how sticky the tables are, if the basic side dishes are generous and the soju is cheap, it’s absolutely perfect.

Since such bars are usually clustered together, when the new semester begins, all the bars in Daehakro would be packed with crowds holding freshman welcome parties.

Though Hyeonoh would normally find group activities annoying to death, today he was unusually sitting in his seat.

It was all because of Kim Jun-sang, the department president.

A few days ago, Jun-sang had suddenly told Hyeonoh:

“Hey. You must come to the freshman welcome party. You must!”

“Ah. That’s annoying.”

“I already told them in the group chat that there’s a handsome senior.”

“Hey, Jun-sang. You’re really handsome.”

“Ah, whatever. Are you really not coming? Lee Do-han said he’s coming because you’re coming.”

“Huh? Really?”

Dohan was the type who would dutifully participate in mandatory department activities, but showed no interest in department activities that required voluntary participation.

Just as Hyeonoh thought it was surprising that he would attend:

“Of course it’s true! Where the thread goes, the needle must follow, right? So I’ll mark you down as coming too, okay?”

And that’s how it happened.

But Lee Do-han, who was supposed to come, was nowhere to be seen.

Where are you?

Home

That bastard Jun-sang. It was a scam.

Hyeonoh looked toward where Jun-sang was, but Jun-sang pretended not to notice and turned his gaze away.

‘Ah. Should I just leave?’

But the timing was awkward.

Hyeonoh had already come, and unfortunately he was sitting right in the center, constantly being asked for his contact information by all kinds of juniors, both male and female.

Jun-sang, who had been going around checking the atmosphere, tapped Hyeonoh and whispered:

“Oh, you’re popular.”

“…You’re dead.”

“Hyeonoh. You’re the most popular one here right now. Enjoy it.”

“I don’t need it.”

Once everyone had a drink, almost everyone was busy showing off like peacocks.

Only Hyeonoh looked like he had just woken up. A cap pulled down low. A t-shirt that looked like it came from somewhere, and gray sweatpants.

He had actually been sleeping all day and only came out after washing his face when he read Jun-sang’s message asking “You’re coming, right?” one more time.

And whenever men and women gather like this, regardless of the purpose, there are always those who treat it as a dating scene.

Especially at freshman welcome parties, there were always upperclassmen who targeted freshman girls every year without fail.

These guys, who had completely struck out with their female classmates, would diligently attend freshman welcome parties with fire in their eyes, hoping to hook some naive female juniors.

This wasn’t just true for the College of Business that Hyeonoh belonged to, but apparently also for the Department of Korean Literature over there, which had coincidentally booked the same bar at a similar time on the same day.

“Ah, shit!”

A male student shouted and jumped up from his seat. He was holding his face with both hands as if he’d been stung by a bee.

Across from the shouting male student sat a girl with a pale, thin frame and frustratingly thick, long straight hair, looking flustered.

A classmate who had gone over to the Department of Korean Literature table to watch the situation happened to pass by Hyeonoh.

Hyeonoh grabbed his classmate by the back of the neck and asked:

“What happened?”

Normally, Hyeonoh wouldn’t have been particularly interested.

For some reason, he was unusually curious that day.

The full story of the commotion that his classmate told him was as follows:

A returning student who had been eyeing a freshman sitting next to him had apparently been bothering her continuously. There was also forced drinking involved.

Each time, the freshman would spill her soju glass, whether by accident or on purpose. The returning student laughed it off the first couple of times, but after it happened three or four times, he finally realized the freshman was spilling the soju glass on purpose.

And she was aiming precisely at the middle of his pants.

“But seriously, what kind of girl is so aggressive? There are plenty of guys like that in college. She could have just politely refused. What kind of girl…”

His classmate continued rambling with his unsolicited opinions, but:

“Hey. What era do you think this is, the late Joseon period? Stop talking nonsense and get lost.”

Hyeonoh cut him off sharply.

And he watched the ongoing situation with interest.

The man was irritably wiping his pants. Unfortunately, he was wearing light-colored cotton pants, so the more he wiped, the more the wetness spread.

At a glance, it looked exactly like he had wet himself.

The man, who was furious beyond measure, finally shouted threateningly at the freshman:

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? Are you crazy?!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

The woman bowed her head in panic, making it hard to believe she was the person who had deliberately spilled the alcohol.

Hyeonoh tilted his head slightly to get a better look.

Then he caught a glimpse of the woman’s face beneath her long hair. And seeing that face, Hyeonoh was momentarily taken aback.

Contrary to her apologies, the woman’s expression that briefly showed looked simply bored.

She’s really funny.

Hyeonoh, who had been yawning constantly with an expressionless face all day, smiled for the first time that day.

* * *

The aftermath of the ‘soju glass incident’ from the Department of Korean Literature freshman welcome party eventually moved from offline to online, monopolizing Eata’s popular posts for almost a week.

It even led to a petition condemning the evil practice of forced drinking at universities, which says it all.

For a while, the woman was called the Department of Korean Literature crazy girl.

But if one side called her a crazy bitch, someone from the opposite side would pop up to correct them, saying she wasn’t a crazy bitch but Joan of Arc.

Between crazy bitch and Joan of Arc.

‘Joan of Arc was also witch-hunted.’

Hyeonoh thought randomly.

Most importantly, such gossip burns as if it will last forever, then cools down as if nothing ever happened.

Similarly, the ‘soju glass incident’ was soon forgotten from people’s memories due to new issues.

The same was true for Hyeonoh.

Since it wasn’t even an incident that happened in the College of Business, he forgot about it much earlier than others.

* * *

He met the woman again a few months later at a cafe near the school.

The woman was wearing an apron with the cafe’s logo on it.

Hyeonoh, who wasn’t good at remembering faces, didn’t recognize the woman right away.

It was even more so because she was wearing glasses, which she hadn’t been wearing at the freshman welcome party.

He was sure her eyes had been as big as marbles back then, but with such high prescription glasses, they appeared half the size.

So at first, Hyeonoh just thought, ‘Her face looks somewhat familiar.’

“One large double chocolate chip caramel shake, please.”

“Yes. Would you like whipped cream on top?”

“Yes. Please put a lot on.”

“Are you having it here?”

“I’ll take it to go.”

“How would you like to pay?”

“Card.”

Hyeonoh inserted his card into the terminal.

“Payment completed. We’ll call you with the buzzer when it’s ready.”

Moving to the pickup counter, Hyeonoh waited for his drink while casually scanning the store.

‘I really feel like I’ve seen that face somewhere.’

Just as he was leaving the pickup counter with his double chocolate chip caramel shake, the identity of that sense of déjà vu suddenly came to him.

Ah. I remember now.

That crazy (in a good way) woman from back then.

Coincidentally, her shift must have ended because the part-timer was entering the changing room to change out of her uniform.

Hyeonoh glanced at her once and went on his way.

But what do you know? Their paths kept overlapping.

‘Well, makes sense. We go to the same school.’

Even when Hyeonoh had almost reached his destination, the woman was still moving in the same direction as him.

Unlike Hyeonoh, who kept stealing glances at the woman nearby, she seemed so uninterested in her surroundings that she didn’t seem to notice the man who had been her customer at the cafe was still walking in the same direction as her.

Hyeonoh realized the woman was heading toward the ‘Liberal Arts Building’ where he also had class.

Since about half of the liberal arts classes were generally held in the Liberal Arts Building, Hyeonoh didn’t pay much more attention to the woman’s route.

But when he realized the woman’s final destination was Room 602, the same as his, his interest was piqued again.

“Student Shin Yeon-jae.”

“Yes.”

He learned her name for the first time through the professor calling roll.

Hmm. So that was her name.

Shin Yeon-jae took a seat in a corner spot.

And with bright, sparkling eyes, she diligently took notes on the professor’s words.

Of course, Hyeonoh took notes too.

With some random pen on his major textbook that was so unnecessarily thick and heavy that he always tore out just the pages he needed, writing in terrible handwriting that looked like chicken scratch…

Ahem.

Now that he had pushed even that aside, Hyeonoh felt a bit embarrassed about his clean major textbook (or rather, bundle of papers) unlike Shin Yeon-jae, who was still busily moving her hand at that very moment.

He deliberately turned his thoughts elsewhere.

‘She must usually wear glasses.’

The woman was constantly taking notes while pushing up her sliding glasses.

‘She’s much prettier without glasses though.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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