Chapter 46: The Cushion Controversy

Anyway, if he could just endure for about ten minutes, he would have to get up to accompany Yunso’s practice.

Deciding to ignore him and just leave after sitting there, Chaewoo began reading his book again.

— (Drawing of a cushion)

However, a moment later, the screen showing a drawing of the cushion he had won as a prize popped up again.

Biting his lower lip in annoyance, Chaewoo scribbled a comment below it with the stylus.

— Fck off

“Seol Chaewoo, what… are you doing?”

Kim Yunso, who had been dozing next to him, got up unsteadily.

When she asked what was wrong, perhaps noticing his restless movements, Chaewoo cleared his throat.

Keeping his gaze on the air, he busily turned the pages with his hands.

“Hmm, studying for the exam.”

“What time is it now?”

“There’s still ten minutes left before we have to go to the practice room.”

“Really? Ah, I’m so sleepy. I’ll sleep just a bit more then.”

“Okay.”

Kim Yunso quickly lay back down to sleep.

Watching her, he felt a sudden surge of annoyance.

‘Why on earth did I win that damn cushion?’

‘I should have at least asked what he was going to use it for.’

Beom Euigeon, who had drawn and even colored it on the tablet as if showing off, was incredibly detestable.

Snatching the tablet and stylus again, Chaewoo scribbled roughly.

— Hey, throw the cushion away

— I don’t want to.

— I won it ㅡㅡ

— I already took the cover off and washed it. It’s fluffy now.

— 🖕🖕

— It’s like your butt, Senior.

— Crazy bastard perverted bastard psycho

— When are you coming to my place?

“Sigh.”

As Chaewoo suppressed his anger and gripped his pen tightly, Euigeon chuckled beside him, finding something amusing.

— Senior Seol, have you been to the new cafe at the entrance of the humanities building?

‘He asked if I’d been there last time too.’

— No

— Want to go there?

— Today?

— Yes

‘Then what about s*x?’

‘Does he mean we’ll do it after going to the cafe, or not?’

‘I’d prefer the latter, if possible.’

— Then what about that?

— What’s that?

— That….;

— What is that….;?

‘Why is he acting like this when he knows?’

Chaewoo didn’t pick up the stylus, holding off his reply.

Then Euigeon wrote again.

— What is it, Seol Chaewoo

— Don’t speak informally

— I’ll speak formally again if you answer

— s-e-x

— Novels? Do you like novels, Chaewoo?

— s-e-x

— We can have s*x after going to the cafe

— ㅠㅠ,,

‘Doing just one should be enough; why do we have to go to the cafe and have s*x too?’

“Are you guys studying in a group?”

At the sudden voice, Chaewoo, who was holding the stylus, hurriedly covered the screen.

Looking toward the unfamiliar voice, a freshman from another class was standing there.

Subtly sliding the tablet and stylus toward Euigeon, Chaewoo acknowledged the freshman.

“We’re not studying; we just happened to gather.”

“It’s nice you got a spot. The library is fully packed now, so there’s nowhere to sit.”

“Yunso and I are leaving soon, so sit here if you need to.”

“It looks like Senior Yunso is asleep though…”

“I’m going to wake her up now. Kim Yunso, wake up. We have to go to the practice room.”

With unnatural movements, Chaewoo shook Kim Yunso awake.

Perhaps she had fallen into a deep sleep, as she went limp without immediately opening her eyes.

While packing his books to head to the practice room, his heart was in his throat, worried that the junior might have seen him writing to Euigeon.

While he had written in small letters, Euigeon’s writing was large enough to be read even while standing.

‘Or maybe not. Since his handwriting is a mess, maybe they couldn’t read it.’

“Yawn. Oh… Senior Chaewoo, are you already leaving?”

Waking up late, Jeong Taehyun rubbed his eyes as he noticed Chaewoo busily packing his bag.

“How is it that you haven’t taken a single note?”

Not thinking about her own sleeping, Kim Yunso scold him after glancing at the state of his notebook before closing it.

“Even if I came to kill time because of practice, what have you been doing all this time, Chaewoo-saurus?”

“…Just come out.”

Yielding the seats to the juniors, Chaewoo glanced toward Euigeon.

However, it was difficult to see his face clearly.

Because students from other departments passing by were surrounding him to greet him, blocking him from view.

Meanwhile, Euigeon briefly turned his head, and his gaze met Chaewoo’s, but they both naturally ignored each other right after.

He continued his conversation with the students with his usual nonchalant expression.

‘How can he look so normal in front of others?’

‘When in truth, he’s a pervert whose head is filled with nothing but that.’

While walking toward the practice room with those thoughts, Kim Yunso spoke up.

“Sigh, I told Jeong Taehyun not to do that.”

“What?”

“Moving Beom Euigeon’s bag next to yours.”

“Ah…”

“Nothing happened between you two while I was asleep, right?”

“Nothing happened.”

Strictly speaking, something had indeed happened, but it wasn’t the kind of thing Kim Yunso was worried about.

“That’s a relief then. I asked because your face has been so stiff since we left the library.”

“Yunso-saurus. Why are you suddenly overflowing with humanity?”

“Did it show? I’m just telling you to do a good job accompanying me today.”

“Ah, right. Actually, I was looking at the sheet music and thinking that trying out two different versions would be more helpful.”

Due to his mother’s influence, Chaewoo was skilled not only in singing but also in playing the piano.

Since he had started at a very young age, believing it would be useful for making music, he was capable of accompanying most art songs or arias as long as he had the sheet music.

Though not often, he would occasionally help out juniors or peers who couldn’t find an accompanist due to circumstances, just like now.

Since Kim Yunso’s only goal was graduation, she wasn’t particularly greedy about practice, which made her easy to work with.

Moreover, even though the school practice rooms could be rented for up to two hours, Kim Yunso would always make sure to use it for exactly one hour.

****

The practice ended smoothly.

While going down the stairs with Kim Yunso to finally head back to his studio apartment, the TA called out to Chaewoo from behind.

“Chaewoo, you haven’t received your competition lesson schedule yet, right?”

“No. The professor didn’t tell me.”

“She said we’d absolutely set everything this week. Perfect, do you want to follow me to the department office for a second?”

Chaewoo looked at Kim Yunso, who was standing beside him.

“I have nothing else to do, so I’ll come along too.”

For once, Kim Yunso willingly agreed to go to the department office with him.

As they walked down the hallway, the TA explained to Chaewoo.

“If you have a preferred lesson time, tell me in advance. The professor said she’d match it as much as possible, focusing on the students participating in the competition. When is convenient for you?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet…”

Before he could even finish speaking, Jeong Taehyun popped out from somewhere.

“Hello, TA!”

“Oh, right. Taehyun and Euigeon are entering the competition too, right? Follow me to the department office for a second to set your lesson schedules.”

‘Why of all things does that group have to be passing by here?’

The timing was truly impeccable. Chaewoo complained inwardly so he wouldn’t be heard.

Thanks to the uninvited guests who had suddenly joined, the surroundings became bustling.

Chaewoo and Kim Yunso naturally stood at the very back, following the others.

****

Once they had each written their preferred times on the schedule request sheet, the TA picked up the phone, saying she would bring it straight to the professor to get confirmation.

The professor only answered after the ring tone had continued for a long time, right before the call was about to disconnect.

“Professor, do you have a moment to talk?”

Chaewoo killed time looking at competition posters hanging on the wall.

Beom Euigeon, Jeong Taehyun, and Kim Yunso sat on the chairs provided in the department office, waiting for the call to end.

“Where do you happen to be right now? Since you said we’d handle the lesson schedules for the competition students starting today… pardon?”

The expressionless TA’s eyes widened.

Chaewoo also pricked up his ears in response.

“Ah, then there’s no helping it. Hold on a second, I’ll pass the word to the kids.”

“What’s going on?”

Jeong Taehyun was the first to ask.

While still holding the receiver, the TA looked back and forth among the four waiting people.

“The professor can’t see you today due to an external event, so she said she’d give you lessons starting tomorrow.”

“Then isn’t that fine? Tomorrow is okay too.”

“But she said she suddenly got a performance schedule in Cheongju tomorrow, so you have to go down there yourself.”

“Pardon? We have opera team practice tomorrow, so why do we have to go all the way there…”

The TA sent a stop sign by raising her index finger.

“Just a moment. Yes, yes, Professor. Go ahead. The members here right now are… Yunso, Euigeon, Taehyun, and Chaewoo. Ah, the four of us?”

Somehow, the phone conversation was growing increasingly ominous.

The moment their names were called, the expressions of Chaewoo-saurus and Yunso-saurus, who had existed in the vocal department since the Cretaceous period of Yeonseo University, stiffened instinctively.

Chaewoo exchanged glances with Yunso.

These kinds of foul premonitions were generally never wrong.

After listening to the professor for a while, the TA nodded, turned toward the four standing there, and spoke.

“She wants the four of you to come down to Cheongju tomorrow. She said she’d give you the lessons for the competition there.”

‘Yeah, I knew it would be like this,’ Chaewoo lamented inwardly.

“I’m not even entering the competition, you know? And I have a theory class tomorrow.”

Yunso was the first to protest.

“Tomorrow is Tuesday… Senior Chaewoo, Euigeon, and I have to participate in the opera team practice.”

Even Jeong Taehyun, who usually pretended to die at the professor’s words, wore a tearful face.

After all, this only meant going to wait on the professor, who was heading down to Cheongju for a performance. On a weekday, no less.

Chaewoo’s face also stiffened because he didn’t want to go, but he was half-resigned.

As a senior, he was familiar with the professor’s sudden whims.

When Chaewoo was a sophomore, he had even received a call in the early morning and taken the first train to Busan to attend the professor’s performance.

Wasn’t Cheongju about a two-hour one-way trip from Seoul?

That much was reasonable.

And it wasn’t a same-day notice either.

However, just as Jeong Taehyun had said, the opera practice and his evening part-time job were sticking points.

“Ah, everyone quiet down for a second. Yes, Professor. The kids say they all have schedules, so what should we do? Ah, is that so?”

The TA subtly scanned the four of them with a meaningful look.

“The professor said she spoke with them, so you can skip the opera practice for a day.”

“Then what about me? Tomorrow’s theory class…”

“Since that’s a music department lecturer’s class, they’re close with the professor, so she said they can count it as an excused attendance.”

“Sigh…”

Every escape route was so perfectly blocked that it made him wonder if she had spent her journey to becoming a professor only researching how to effectively exploit students.

Yunso also shut her mouth, having no more loopholes to use as an excuse.