Chapter 43: You just have to stay as my grad student forever!!

“―You can just stay as my grad student forever!!”

“Hehe, so this is the school I’ll be attending with Oppa from now on!”

KAIST.
The moment we got off at the north-side taxi stop, the campus scenery unfolded before us.

“Wow, it’s huge! It’s completely different from Seoul!!”

Han Seol-ah seemed utterly overwhelmed by the vastness of KAIST before her eyes.
But that was probably because she had failed to get into Seoul National University, as well as Yonsei, Korea, and Sungkyunkwan.

“Seoul National University is about 1.5 to 2 times bigger than this. Though, that’s mostly because it has a mountain in it.”
“Oh, really? Seoul National University is bigger?”
“Yeah. It’s both bigger and higher.”

That “higher” part had a double meaning.

Still, it’s understandable why KAIST looks bigger at first glance.
Seoul National University is ridiculously hilly with crazy elevation changes.

People even joke that if you’re an engineering student at Seoul National, at least you don’t have to worry about exercise.
I remember when I visited for a seminar once—I thought it was absolutely insane.

On the other hand, KAIST, located in Daejeon instead of Seoul, was different.
There’s a reason why “Daejeon” in Hanja means “a ridiculously big field.”

Only the freshman dorms for first-year undergrads on the north side and the north-side cafeteria, KAIMARU, were on slightly higher ground.
But even then, it wasn’t a mountain—just a hill.

Below that, you could see the Central Duck Pond, home to the undisputed rulers of KAIST, the geese.
Beyond that, all the way to the main gate—it was all visible at a glance.

“…So that’s how it is. Seoul National was higher… I thought KAIST was more prestigious since Oppa went here. Hehe♡”

Han Seol-ah looked at me—her older brother, yet now a middle school girl—with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

As if she were recalling that moment a few days ago,
That time when she… a hundred times in a row…

—Lick.

She stuck out just the tip of her tongue and lightly licked her lips.
No matter how you looked at it, that was not the kind of gaze you give your older brother.

And then—

—Rustle!

My hand moved on its own.
And just like that, I flipped up my little sister’s skirt.

“…Kyaah?!”

For the record, I did nothing wrong.
I’m not just making excuses like a cat knocking over a cup and saying, “It wasn’t me.”
No, seriously—my arm moved on its own.

“Hold on, wait. Calm down, calm down. If you use First Filial Piety Strike on her, she’ll just like it even more.”

See? Just look at this.
Without even realizing it, my stance had shifted, my fists clenched, ready to unleash True Heavenly Maiden Spirit Fist – Gut Punch.

“Ugh… Jinsun, you’re the worst… There were people around, you know…”

Seol-ah pulled her skirt back down from where it had ridden up to her stomach, smoothing it back into place.

By the way, “Jinsun” was referring to Jinzuko.
Now, even my little sister, Han Seol-ah, knew about Jinzuko.

Of course she did—after all, I had already revealed to her that I was actually her father… no, her Oppa.
If I’d come clean about that, there was no way Jinzuko wouldn’t come up as part of the package.

And no matter how much I tried to stop her, she kept interfering like this at every opportunity.

She claimed it was her “righteous disciplinary action” to prevent “psychological incest,”
But to me, it just felt like she was venting her frustrations out of jealousy.

I mean, she had stolen my middle schooler lips a hundred times in a row before Jinzuko could.
That must’ve really stung her pride.

Still, even if she pulled this kind of nonsense on me, wasn’t she just doing it to herself in the end?
This was narcissism at its peak.

Anyway—

“Now I can’t get married… So I guess I have no choice but to marry Oppa…”

Once again, my little sister gave me an incredibly dangerous look.

“…Khh! M-My right hand…! C-Control yourself…!!”

And I, standing right beside her, flailed around in an exaggerated struggle, as if trying to suppress the Dark Flame Dragon sealed within my right hand—Jinzuko.

…Seriously, how did things end up like this?
If I’d known it would turn out this way, I should’ve just kept my identity a secret.

Because thanks to that, I had to spend all the way until today, a Saturday, stuck in a hotel room in Daejeon, completely sleep-deprived.

And today of all days—
The day of my KAIST undergrad admissions interview!

Just a few days ago, whenever I had a nightmare about Xaré, it was just Aya-chan.
Or sometimes, at most, Jinzuko would join in, making it two.

But now?
Forget two—three of them appeared at the same time!
Forming a perfect equilateral triangle like the Bermuda Triangle or something…!

“…But Oppa, why is no one paying attention to us even though we’re making such a scene?”

• …

• …

• …

Even as we made an absolute spectacle of ourselves, people occasionally walked past us.
But not a single one of them seemed to care.

“Even when my skirt got flipped up just now… And I’m calling my middle schooler Oppa ‘Oppa’ out loud… No one’s even looking at us weirdly?”

It wasn’t just me.
Even though my little sister was practically glued to my side, she stood out way too much at KAIST.

Ever since we were little, my sister’s looks had been skyrocketing in contrast to my own deteriorating face.
And today, her outfit was something no KAIST student would ever wear.
Just by looking at her, nine out of ten people would assume she was an outsider.

“Well, that’s just how it is.”
“But still… And Oppa, your hair is so ridiculously white and shiny. It actually hurts my eyes in the sunlight.”
“White reflects most of the light, so it’s actually a major win in the summer…”

And then—

—Rustle, rustle!

Some passing students suddenly turned their gaze toward us.

“Wh-What? Oppa? They’re looking now?!”

They weren’t outright staring, but…
They kept stealing uncomfortable glances at us.

“…Tsk, must be physics majors. And from the s*ave division, no less.”

So, I decided to correct myself.

“White is white because it reflects most of the visible light spectrum. So it’s actually a major win in the summer.”
“That’s the same thing you just— Huh?!”

At that moment.
The students who had been glancing at us suddenly looked relieved and calmly went on their way.

“Wh-What was that just now, Oppa…?! And you just called them slaves to their faces, but they looked proud about it…?! That was seriously creepy!!”
“…You’ll get used to it. It’s not as bad with undergrads, but the higher you go, the closer you get to the College of Natural Sciences, and the closer you get to PhD level… The worse it gets.”

I let out a sigh and started walking again.

And for some reason, an old memory came to mind.
A story of a grad student’s first-ever blind date—how he had taken a walk with the girl across Expo Bridge,
Explaining load distribution and tensile forces to her.

He successfully graduated with a PhD.
And never went on another blind date again.

—Step.

I headed toward the Creative Hall, where the KAIST undergrad admissions interview was taking place today.

And as I walked, I began explaining.

“KAIST is like South Korea’s own little Galápagos.”

After all, I had promised to be her guiding light for a while.
This much was just a trivial NPC dialogue.

“Galápagos…?”
“Yeah. It’s in Korea, but it doesn’t feel like Korea.”

And that was the truth.

Just try stepping into any other university, whether in Seoul or anywhere else in the country.

Where else could you find a place like this?

There’s probably no other school that picks students who look like they’d be good at physics and math as meticulously as this one.

At first, I thought the admissions officers here must’ve been selecting students based on appearance. After all, around here, you could tell at a glance whether someone was from Chungnam National University or KAIST—just by looking at their face.

“Individualism is the default, but ironically, no one actually exploits others. They’re all just pushovers.”

There’s probably no other place that produces as many PhDs who are total pushovers as KAIST does.

“Because they’re such pushovers, they end up getting used instead. The word’s already out—these guys are hopeless at surviving in the real world.”

In the world of office politics, they’re probably the last people you’d fear as enemies.

Even lawyers say the same thing. Clients who, if they just fought it out to the end, would definitely win—yet they insist on settling. The kind of clients that make you want to tear your hair out.

On the flip side, when dealing with them as targets to extract money from, lawyers say they’ve never had an easier, more cooperative, more agreeable bunch.

“These guys don’t know how harsh the world is. If you ask them something, a simple ‘1’ or ‘2’ would suffice—but no, they’ll explain all the way to ‘10.’”

Yet, when they have concerns of their own, they just bottle it up and agonize alone.

Normally, if someone shares this much, they’d at least expect something in return. But not these guys.

Instead of thinking, I told you this much, so I should get something back, They just decide to figure it out on their own, preserving their pride in the weirdest ways.

“They have a stronger desire for success than anyone, yet when the chance for success comes, they hand it over to others. It’s not like they don’t feel jealousy. In fact, they have more inferiority complexes about medical school than anyone.”

The reason was obvious.

“I studied a lot too. That’s it.”

But if you look at their actual major choices, they weren’t even in engineering or computer science. No, they were in physics, math—those kinds of departments.

“They say they like money, but they’re doing theoretical research. Sure, things have balanced out a bit now with stipends, but before that? They were doing grad school on just 300,000 won a month.”

Even the way they reacted to stipends was laughable.

If you break it down, the labs that get a lot of research funding and actually make money are essentially donating their paychecks to the broke theoretical research labs.

But everyone just accepted it without a fuss.

“Well, even theoretical researchers need to eat while they study, right?”

Not that they were being particularly kindhearted about it. Most of them simply didn’t know. And even if they did, they’d just go, Ah and move on.

“Same thing happened when research funding got cut. Professors and students complained verbally, sure. But in the end, what did they do?

‘Yes, sir. Understood.’ End of story.”

Of course, some students tried to change things— The graduate student council would send out surveys via email, ask for votes, petition for signatures…

But most students? Left those emails unread.

Or went, Wow, my inbox is flooded today—and deleted everything that wasn’t from their professor or lab.

Some even set email filters to block anything containing the word “student council.”

Yeah, that bastard Kwak Young-jin did exactly that.

“This is the kind of place where both undergrad and grad student council presidents get rejected just because there aren’t enough votes. Most students don’t even know what the student council does.”

And so, I continued to roast my alma mater.

Ripping it apart, bit by bit.

I said, if Korea really wanted to get rid of pushovers, they should start by re-educating these guys.

“This place is basically Smurf Village. Just full of Smurfs. Look, even the school logo and that blue blob mascot over there—it’s all blue, right?”

A blue, round face. That was KAIST’s mascot.

I think it was sometime around 2016 when the school spent, what, a billion won? Maybe two billion? To create that thing.

If you ask me, they definitely got scammed.

“Oh, and recently, there’s another hilarious scam. You know the KI Building, the one connected to the library? In front of it, there’s a giant statue of a dog peeing.

If you look closely, it even has… well, you know. And water actually comes out of it.”

“…Wait, Oppa, didn’t you like your school?”

“Yeah. I do.”

I really did.

Because this place was like home.

“……But all you’ve done so far is badmouth it?”

“Badmouth? Is that really what it sounded like to you?”

I grinned and stopped walking.

Creative Hall. At some point, we had arrived in front of the interview venue.

It’s been a while.

Really.

“Seol-ah, if you really feel that way, then maybe it’s time you reevaluate how you see Korean society.”

Here, being normal gets you criticized. And being abnormal is just seen as natural.

That’s why KAIST students were pushovers, fools.

Smart, yet the dumbest Smurfs.

And if you had to pick the worst-off departments? Physics and mathematics.

For the record, I was in the former.

As for the latter… Well, math students were just inherently in it for the fun anyway.

“Anyway, doesn’t that make things more interesting? What if these Smurfs finally decided to start a rebellion?”

“A… rebellion?”

My little sister—who, despite my situation, was technically older than me— just looked at me in total confusion.

But honestly, that was better.

The fact that she didn’t get it yet—that was proof she was a Smurf too.

Which meant she had the perfect qualifications to be a grad student.

“…Oh! Like studying hard and finally winning Korea’s first Nobel Prize?”

See?

Exactly.

“Alright! Let’s go see some professors in person for the first time in a while!”

“…H-Huh? But I’ve never met them before! Ah, wait—I should’ve practiced for the interview…!”

“No worries~ No worries~ From what I just confirmed, there’s no way you won’t get in!”

“C-Confirmed…? W-Wait, Oppa, wait up~!”

Excited for the first time in ages, I took off running with a classic middle school girl sprint.

I didn’t care if my skirt flipped up and showed my underwear.

Hell, go ahead and look!

Today’s a good day—so I’ll let you see all you want!

“You should be more worried about graduating than getting in, Han Seol-ah!”

“Wha— Oppa, wait! I haven’t even gotten in yet, why are you talking about graduating?!”

“Because my plan is to finish undergrad in a year, get my PhD in another, and become a professor here in three years!!”

“W-What?! P-Professor?! But you’re a middle school girl?!!”

“Hmm, is two years still too long? Heheh! Oh, and Seol-ah, you’re fine! In fact, the later you graduate, the better! Because—”

I shouted joyfully, more excited than ever.

“—You can just stay as my grad student forever!!”

“W-Wait! Didn’t you just call the grad students here slaves?!”

“Yep!!”

Because,

“That’s what they call it too~!!”

Thus begins the true expert’s TS masterpiece.

With perhaps… a hint of harem on the side.