Lee Hyo In cupped her hands while squinting at these handsome duo hoobaes.
"Don't you know that you can make everyone have a heart attack just by looking at you?" Hyo In must be insanely drunk. She spouted a dry joke that she herself was not aware of.
Surprisingly Semi seemed to agree with an unchanging expression. She said with a nod, "You're right. One is as handsome as a flower and the other is as cool as ice."
Yujin shook his head with a helpless look. These two seniors often spout irrelevant things when they are drunk.
Jiyu had been getting used to hearing that flattery thousand times so that he would naturally accept the compliment. His smile was not wide but still as sweet as flower nectar. His beautiful appearance made Hyo In squint her eyes.
"Hyo In Nuna and Semi Nuna are undoubtedly more beautiful," Jiyu replied with a vague smile.
Surprisingly, Hyo In and Semi didn't react too much. As if not realizing that they were seduced by a very handsome man who not all girls got the same opportunities. Semi nodded confidently whereas Hyo In's response was even more eccentric.
"Hmmm, this Nuna doesn't like people who are more beautiful than this Nuna. Nuna prefers the dashing Gong Ju."
Jiyu didn't look bothered by Hyo In's frank objections and continued to flirt as usual.
"It's a shame then," He said, but he didn't look disappointed.
The people at the table were full of laughter. They enjoyed the food and drank the beer with satisfaction. However, there was one person whose mind had been wandering for a while. Yujin, who was usually friendly, now was a little quiet and showed an awkward smile. Jiyu who was sitting beside Yujin became curious and gently nudged Yujin's arm.
"Looks like Yujin Hyung is not in a good mood."
Jiyu's voice wasn't soft, Yujin came back to his senses after hearing it. Yujin suddenly rubbed her forehead, feeling dizzy for an unknown reason.
"Hyo In Sunbae," Yujin called.
Instead of answering Jiyu's question, Yujin called Hyo In. Hyo In was a little drunk so she only mumbled nonchalantly.
"Hmm?"
"Didn't Sunbae forget something?" Yujin asked out of context.
"Oh?"
"Gin Sunbaenim was gone a long time ago."
Hyo In replied calmly, "Ahh I see. I forgot about that."
Instantly the atmosphere at the tables was quiet with several people breaking out cold sweat. While there were two people who didn't understand the situation.
Semi also nodded. "Me too."
Yujin was silent, not knowing what to do. Sometimes he didn't understand and was suspicious, questioning if Hyo In Sunbae and Gin Sunbaenim were really close like Hyo In said.
Hyo In finished in one gulp of her remaining glass of beer. "Don't worry, Yujin-i. It wouldn't be any good for her to stay long anyway. I forced her to come here just so she could get out of her room. Sometimes I don't understand why she feels so comfortable staying in his room without getting out for days."
Jiyu and Gong Ju still didn't understand so they slowly looked at Yujin.
Yujin smiled helplessly. "Didn't you see a girl in a black tracksuit here before? She's Gin Sunbaenim we talk about."
Gong Ju slightly raised his thick eyebrows. "Yes. And if I'm not mistaken that Senior was drenched.
Yujin nodded. "She was caught in the rain when she just got off the bus. Hyo In Sunbae often forces her to join our major's events."
"Does it mean that Sunbae isn't in the same department as us?"
"Yes. Not to mention we're in different faculties. She's a third-year student of a Law School."
"To think she's quite smart with such an appearance," Gong Ju replied, slightly impressed. "Usually law students of Seoul Uni have genius characters but this Gin looks quite eccentric."
Yujin laughed. He had heard those comments several times about their first impression about Gin.
Jiyu put his hand on his chin, there was a strange glint in his eyes.
"Yujin Hyung seems really worried about this Gin Sunbae."
Yujin choked a little. He denied hard but his red face made them couldn't help but suspect after seeing his response. Yujin rubbed the nape of her neck awkwardly.
"Actually I don't imply anything. It's just that Sunbae's personality is quite hard to guess. During my own freshmen party last year, Gin Sunbaenim was also being dragged by Hyo In Sunbae to join. I remember back then, a girl of my age was seduced by a sixth-year senior and asked to drink beer many times. Gin Sunbaenim was probably sick of hearing that senior's blabbering so she started arguing with him and ended up being verbally abused by Gin Sunbae."
Yujin paused for a moment as he felt his heart stop for a second as he remembered that. "At that time Gin Sunbaenim was very scary. Since then we juniors have respect for her and didn't dare to make her displeased even though she is mostly acting indifferent."
Jiyu and Gong Ju did not say anything nor did they ask for more.
The gathering ended quite fast, before midnight. Everyone said goodbye to each other.
"Be careful on your way back Hyo In Nuna. Semi Nuna."
Semi nodded calmly and Hyo In waved while smiling broadly.
Gong Ju looked at his cellphone and spoke to Jiyu without taking his eyes off it. "I'm going straight home. You?"
Jiyu started spinning his pack of cigarettes and was in a little trance when he answered nonchalantly, "Not in a good mood to Sun's."
Gong Ju nodded in understanding. While he was still looking at something on his cell phone, he remembered the conversation earlier and spoke in a doubtful tone.
"I think I have seen her somewhere. That sunbae we talked about earlier."
Surprisingly Jiyu took it seriously. "It's not strange because I do feel she is a little familiar."
Jiyu stopped his action and put the pack of cigarettes back, suddenly losing the intention of smoking.
"Her name is Gin, right?"
They both had good memories. Gong Ju might be a little impressed with Gin so he tried to dig into his memories for a while. After that, he raised an eyebrow while looking at Jiyu's side profile as if confirming something.
As if confirming the conjecture in his friend's mind, Jiyu let out a small smirk on his thin lips with an unusual glint in his eyes.
••
A year ago. XX24. Mom's Chicken. The new batch of XXth freshmen of the Management Department, Seoul University School of Business.
"Hey... Hey... Come on... You guys are still young and energetic so you have to finish every beer Big Brother pours."
"Yes, Sunbae!" answered the new students in unison.
"Hohoho. You are also a cute girl, and you drink a lot."
"Y... Yes, Sunbae."
"Hoo. Don't call Sunbae. Too formal. Just call me Oppa okay?"
The girl in the blue overalls became nervous and uncomfortable due to being constantly disturbed by that sunbae from the beginning of the party. When she was asked to act close to a senior in his sixth year, she was very scared. The other new students wanted to help but the senior's face looked so evil and on top of that, he was already in his old year of college so they could only gulp their saliva in nervousness.
Hyo In laughed. "Yoon Sunbae, you scared this little girl."
"Ha ha ha ha." The senior was not angry hearing that, even looked slightly amused. "Beautiful Hyo In is drinking too. Give this Big Brother a toast. We won't see each other often in the future."
Hyo In smiled faintly and just silently accepted the full beer poured into her glass. The girl in the blue overalls also received another pour of beer.
Gin, who was a complete stranger among these other faculty students and just sat quietly beside Hyo In, finally spoke up after getting fired up hearing the senior's blabber.
"Hey. Stop pouring beer on other people. Very disturbing, you know?"
Gin's deliberately amplified words sounded very annoying. As if she herself was the one who was being disturbed. The kids already knew that Gin wasn't one of theirs. Several people were secretly burning incense in their hearts at Gin's bold attitude.
The reprimanded senior stopped his laughter. His eagle eyes stared intently at Gin. He'd seen this kid quite often hanging around at their faculty events. Usually, he didn't care about this snotty kid but it seemed she should be taught a lesson about where she was.
"You're playing with me kid?"
Gin hated being called like that. So, her face was getting worse while her smile was so wide.
"Haha. Didn't have time to play."
The senior was angry because he was being humiliated in front of his juniors. He gritted his teeth in anger.
"You want to die, kid?"
"LMAO. Sunbae you spout bullshit. It obviously is you who keeps harassing my ears and hurting my eyes with your stupid words and annoying acts. How ridiculous and embarrassing," Gin replied nonchalantly but her scary eyes seemed to imply that she wasn't afraid if they started throwing fists right now.
The atmosphere was getting hotter. Everyone felt that their spines were shivering. It was good to be brave but it shouldn't be too extreme like what Gin Sunbae did. Her opponent wasn't even just a year or two older, a man. Besides, didn't she see that bulged body shape that could scare people to death?
Hyo In was already breaking out in a cold sweat. She had gotten used to Gin's strange personality in the past year but this was too much. She cursed Han Jun-woo for not being here to stop Gin.
When the senior really intended to hit Gin, people finally took action to stop him. Until the event ended, everyone was still traumatized by the sight of the killing intent of these two. They had a hunch that a few days later bad news would be heard.
Two weeks later there was indeed bad news that reached into their ears. It was just that what they heard was slightly beyond their expectations. Because the party they thought would be suffering a great loss turned out to be that old senior who was admitted to the hospital. Also, there were rumors stating that his lower body was almost paralyzed. The news practically gave them goosebumps with fear. And some men feel pain in their lower part when they hear the suffering of Sunbae.
Since then, Gin secretly left a psychological shadow in everyone's heart.
**