TWKH Ch5

When the introduction time for the freshmen ended, the drinking session officially began.

Jehyun’s long-time friend, Seo Eunjae, was surprisingly serving as the class representative. Unlike the wild drinking parties of previous orientations, the one led by Eunjae had a more constructive atmosphere. They still poured drinks, but Eunjae introduced the mentoring program early on, encouraging productive conversations rather than just drinking.

“So, Giwoo, why did you choose the Department of Political Science?” Eunjae asked Kim Giwoo, who he had picked as his mentee.

While they were talking, Jehyun sat next to Eunjae, holding his drink and staring at Ha Baekyung. Despite the intensity of Jehyun’s gaze, which could have been intimidating, Baekyung also smiled back at him, staring intently.

“Are you guys having some sort of eye contact moment?” Eunjae asked after Kim Giwoo finished answering.

Jehyun subtly shook his head and, with a curious expression, reached for the bottle of soju. He filled half of Ha Baekyung’s ice cup with soju and topped it off with beer, then asked, “Your name is Ha Baekyung, right?”

“Yes.”

“Have we met before?”

To be precise, it wasn’t that he thought he had seen Baekyung’s handsome face somewhere before; it was that Baekyung’s voice sounded strangely familiar. But it wasn’t like he’d ever had a phone conversation with someone whose name he didn’t even know… Maybe he was just imagining it?

“I’m not sure… You have a face that’s hard to forget, but I don’t recall seeing you before.”

In any case, Ha Baekyung seemed to be a fairly sociable person. Despite his large frame, the way he lowered his eyes as he spoke was rather endearing. Jehyun smiled briefly, meeting Baekyung’s gaze.

Although others might find it unusual, Jehyun had a tendency to find taller younger people endearing, possibly due to his 185cm tall younger sister who was six years younger than him. As Jehyun squinted his eyes affectionately at Baekyung and sipped his drink, he asked, “What? Do I look too much like a thug?”

“…”

In response to the self-deprecating question, Baekyung squinted slightly, seeming a bit troubled. He tilted his head slightly, raised the corners of his mouth, and gently shook his head as if to say, “What are you talking about?”

“No. You’re just too good-looking…”

“Yeah, you’re good-looking too.”

Jehyun chuckled at the straightforward response and returned the compliment. Baekyung raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled in return. Despite his size and overall mature appearance, when he smiled like that, he reminded Jehyun of a big puppy. Just as Jehyun was raising his glass, lost in these thoughts, Seo Eunjae, who had been watching them, spoke up.

“Hey, we’re not here for a matchmaking program, you know?”

Eunjae shuddered as if creeped out, rubbing his arms over his hoodie. He looked back and forth between Jehyun and Baekyung as if he were watching something absurd, then draped an arm over Jehyun’s shoulder and introduced him to Baekyung.

“Baekyung, our Jehyun here scored a perfect mark on the college entrance exam and entered the Department of Political Science as the top student. You scored perfectly too, didn’t you?”

“What are you talking about, a past life?”

If someone heard this, they might think Seo Eunjae was Jehyun’s father. Annoyed by Eunjae constantly bragging about him, Jehyun brushed off his arm and turned back to Baekyung.

The Department of Political Science and International Relations at Korea University was known for being highly competitive, so Jehyun knew that a lot of brilliant students would enroll. But this seemed a bit unbalanced. Jehyun was a little surprised to learn that Ha Baekyung, who was tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome, had scored a perfect mark on the entrance exam.

“Oh, really? But our exam was really easy, so there were a lot of people who got perfect scores. I have a lot to learn from you, sunbae. I look forward to your guidance.”

Baekyung said with a smiling face. And on top of everything, he was humble too. Just 30 minutes ago, Jehyun had been thinking how bothersome this mentor-mentee thing was, but now he felt like he could get along well with this big, cute junior.

Forget about graduation; I should just study. That thought had long since flown away. Shin Jehyun, who had slipped back into his pre-enlistment social mode, quickly warmed up to Baekyung, nodding and saying, “Yeah.”

Seo Eunjae, watching them with a satisfied smile, proudly said, “Yeah, yeah. You two should get along well. Try to have a positive influence on each other. Especially you, Shin Jehyun. Look at Baekyung’s personality. Isn’t he great? You should learn from him.”

“Take care of yourself.”

“You rude bastard.”

At Eunjae’s grumbling, Jehyun raised his voice and narrowed his eyes.

“Hey, everyone! Seo Eunjae is about to introduce himself!”

“Woohoo! Class rep, come out!”

Their friends cheered and pushed Seo Eunjae to the center. Jehyun laughed dismissively and gave Eunjae a shove. Watching this, a faint question lingered on Baekyung’s gentle face.

—

Department of Political Science, Ha Baekyung: [Did you get home okay, sunbae? Thanks for everything yesterday and today^^]

Lying in bed, Jehyun slowly blinked at the message from Ha Baekyung. He had spent the first night of orientation drinking until morning, then woke up early to drink more, and later took a bus to school where he continued drinking at a hangover soup place with Seo Eunjae and other friends.

He had no memory from the early dawn when they arrived at the back gate until now. Jehyun had drunk so much that he wondered if his blood had been replaced with alcohol, and his vision was blurry.

The daily quest ingrained deep in the bones of a gaming addict barely kept him from sinking into the depths of sleep, but just as he was about to lose the battle with the alcohol and drift off, Ha Baekyung’s message woke him up.

Department of Political Science, Ha Baekyung: [See you at school next time :)]

— [Lol, you don’t have to call me sunbae. Just call me whatever you’re comfortable with.]

— [See you when the semester starts.]

Barely managing to move his hand, Jehyun sent a reply to Baekyung.

He had been worried when he was suddenly assigned the role of mentor, but Ha Baekyung, his mentee, turned out to be a better guy than expected. Polite, kind, and without the typical bravado of a 20-year-old guy, he seemed like someone who would listen well.

The mentoring program was overseen by Professor Kim Gonghak. Mentors and mentees would take classes together for a semester and submit a report at the end, completing the program. Participation wasn’t mandatory for students, but since Jehyun had ended up doing it, he thought that if he and Baekyung achieved good results together, he might be able to expect a letter of recommendation from the professor when submitting his resume.

After cursing Seo Eunjae for making him a mentor, Jehyun sent him a random message saying, “You did well,” and let out a lazy sigh.

His pale face looked blank. Jehyun’s narrow eyes, thinned even more by the alcohol, were softly unfocused, and his black hair was completely tousled.

Jehyun felt like he was about to pass out, but he pushed his hair back with both hands and forced himself to sit up. Gotta do the daily quests… he muttered weakly, heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth. After splashing cold water on his face to wake himself up a bit, he sat down in his computer chair.

Welcome to Caplet, where eternity sings!

The blessing of the hero Arnea envelops your entire body.

There are 399 unread messages in your mailbox.

Arnea: It’s been a while!

[Guild] Contempt: Welcome ㅇㅅㅇ

[Guild] Healer: Hey.

[Guild] Contempt: Hyung, I’m going to the Saturation Dungeon with my alt. Can you carry me? >ㅅ<

[Guild] Healer: No cutesy talk;

[Guild] Healer: Yeah, gimme 5 minutes.

[Guild] Contempt: Okay, I’m finishing up the last battle lol.

Jehyun wasn’t the only one endlessly leveling alts for the guild ranking. Contempt, the guild leader, and even the other members who couldn’t always log in at the same time, all worked on leveling alts after finishing their main character’s top-tier dungeon runs and daily quest routines. When they were about to clear the final course of alt leveling—the Saturation Dungeon—they would ask other online guild members for a carry, and they’d help each other out.

Jehyun switched to his dungeon gear and organized his inventory. Meanwhile, Contempt finished up his main character’s PvP and logged in with his alt.

Guild member ziNeungdong1taContemptzone has logged in.

ziNeungdong1taContemptzone has invited you to a party.

You have joined the party.

Party leader privileges have been transferred to Healer.

[Party] ziNeungdong1taContemptzone: Recruit for me.. I’ll be back from the bathroom in a secㅠㅠ

[Party] Healer: That username is so embarrassing, Melon…

[Party] Healer: Is that the best you could do?

Jehyun clicked his tongue in exasperation at Contempt’s terrible sense of naming. He’d seen Contempt create alts like that plenty of times, but every time, the childishness of the username made Jehyun cringe with secondhand embarrassment.

…Well, at least with a stupid name like that, the Jangji guys won’t join with their alts. Trying to console himself, Jehyun posted a recruitment message.

[World] Healer: Saturation Dungeon or Ladder Bus, need 2 tanks/DPS 2/5 (Apply now)

[World] Healer: Saturation Dungeon or Ladder Bus, need 2 tanks/DPS 2/5 (Apply now)

[World] KimBoksun: Selling Arnea Circlet~ PM me ^6

[World] WetSand: Dammit 😭 Bros, let’s go annihilate something.

You’ve been muted for 1 minute due to duplicate messages.

You’ve been muted for 1 minute due to duplicate messages.

The moment the auto-ad message went up twice, Jehyun got muted. Seriously? They allow swearing but not duplicate messages? What a joke. Cursing the Caplet system as trash, Jehyun waited quietly for party applications to roll in. Since he was recruiting with his main and it was labeled as a bus, he figured it wouldn’t take long to gather people.

KimBoksunAlt444 has applied to the party. (View character info)

YiyoungAhPleaseDon’tEmbezzle has applied to the party. (View character info)

FlexIsCrazy has applied to the party. (View character info)

Just like he thought, it only took 10 minutes to fill the party. On a server as dead as this, forming a party that quickly was a good start.

Jehyun took down the recruitment message and scanned the list of party members, now filled with 5/5. With a gleam in his eyes, he started typing.

[Party] Healer: Hello everyone. Before we start the bus, let’s check the tickets first.

[Party] ziNeungdong1taContemptzone: Jangji bastards.

[Party] Healer: Everyone, type “Jangji bastards” just once, please.

When Shin Jehyun was running a bus with his main character, he never allowed anyone from Jangji to join. If someone was willing to swallow their pride and type “Jangji bastards” before joining, he wouldn’t stop them, but there were few funeral directors who would go that far. Usually, when Jehyun made such a request, most people would just flip him off and leave.

[Party] FlexIsCrazy: lol alright, Jangji bastards~

[Party] YiyoungahPleaseDon’tEmbezzle: You’re still the same.. Jangji bastards.

[Party] KimBoksunAlt444: hehe

Funeral directors were known to PK regular players in the field if things went south, so many small, friendly guilds avoided badmouthing them. But since there was no risk of screenshots leaking from Neungdong, the party members followed Jehyun’s instructions without hesitation.

Jehyun was very satisfied. Seeing KimBoksun’s laughing reaction, he moved his character.

[Party] Healer: Boksun, you don’t have to say it~ Let’s head into the dungeon.

[Party] KimBoksunAlt444: ^^

He should have noticed the meaning behind that smile…