“Group seven, is everybody here? Get on bus seven with the seniors!”

“Group nine! Group nine! Over here!”

“What? Dong-sik went to Sillim-dong? Oh, my head… this freshman’s got exam fever bad.”

“Ye-rim, your makeup looks amazing. You’re so pretty!”

“Gwang-jun, you memorized all your lines? Heh heh heh. I’m so pumped for today.”

The parking lot in front of the law school was as noisy as a market.

Most of the two hundred freshmen and a good number of the upperclassmen had gathered.

I’d parked early and watched them.

This was college life I’d already lived once, so I wasn’t excited.

I watched the flushed freshmen with the heart of a TA who’d seen some life.

“Ah, to be young~.”

The words just slipped out.

Sitting on a bench off to the side and watching them was pretty fun.

Everyone seemed to be only now realizing they’d become Hanguk University freshmen.

Kids who’d been called geniuses back home had become ordinary among the geniuses.

It wasn’t much different from the orientation at the provincial college I’d gone to before.

The girls whose skin had been so fresh had somehow caked their faces with makeup.

The guys had shed their high-school skins and looked like college students now.

Their faces were still erupting with acne like active volcanoes, but their clothes had changed.

With graduation over, they seemed to be tasting real freedom and release.

They were as giddy as grunts on leave, with the great battle of the bar exam still ahead.

Our group ten, on the other hand…

“Group ten! Group ten! Over here, kids!!!”

Senior A-rin’s voice sounded pitiful.

She had the bar exam too, so she couldn’t put her whole mind into this.

It was a miracle Hanguk University’s law department even had a student council.

The group-ten kids drifted over to the law school benches.

We’d texted a few times, but back then there were no smartphone group chats, so everyone was still awkward.

We hadn’t spent enough time together to call each other up.

These kids were used to being the best and didn’t know how to be humble.

Only the ones I’d met the first day nodded hello.

Preparing a talent show with kids like these was out of the question.

“Hi.”

While I was lost in thought, I heard a familiar voice.

“You’re here.”

I answered without even looking.

Everyone has their own scent and a favorite perfume.

Women especially.

From the scent of the woman coming toward me, I knew exactly who she was.

“Drink this.”

Son Yu-ri’s hand suddenly appeared in front of me.

Won Bin’s canned coffee, which you could only get from the law school vending machine.

“Aren’t you coming to school a lot over break?”

“That’s how it is in my line of work. There’s no break. Even giving up my whole vacation isn’t enough to finish my major portfolio for next semester. It’s the same as law students going to Sillim-dong.”

Hanguk University students really lived fiercely.

It was a tension I’d never felt back in the provinces.

As soon as break started, my friends had scattered.

We’d put on a show of staying at school to study, but without competition, nobody burned very hot.

I popped the canned coffee and took a sip.

The canned coffee, warm from the machine, was as smooth as Won Bin’s smile.

“Are you all ready?”

I turned my head and looked at Son Yu-ri.

She was wearing the paint-spattered field jacket, just like the day we first met.

The girl who made the law seniors’ hearts skip was pretty again today.

Living life over really was different.

Beauties I’d only seen on TV in my past life were lined up beside me now.

“Ready for what?”

“A-rin said you were preparing the talent show on your own?”

“It’s not just me.”

“Huh?”

Senior A-rin had a long way to go before she figured me out.

I’m a character no ordinary person’s common sense can make sense of.

“Where’s Jang Tae-san! Tae-san!!!”

Senior A-rin’s voice echoed as she called me desperately.

“Thanks for the coffee.”

“I don’t know what it is, but go knock ’em dead.”

Son Yu-ri smiled brightly.

“I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Okay~.”

Meeting Son Yu-ri in the morning put me in a good mood.

And so I went to the second orientation of my life.

“Ugh! Those old farts have really lost it. I’m swamped, and they make sophomores come too? Insane…”

Oh Dong-seong scowled.

“The law school fossils are nothing. The old men in business make everyone but seniors come.”

“Heh heh heh. Still, they say there are a lot of good-looking girls among the freshmen this year.”

The business students trailing Oh Dong-seong like bodyguards licked their lips.

“I heard the rumors too. We’ll see soon enough. Dong-seong, just say the word. I’ll pick one out and hand her over.”

“Forget it, man. I can do that much myself.”

Oh Dong-seong, third son of the Ana Group, had arrived early with his business-school friends. The department orientation was at the Boyeong Phoenix Park Resort.

Since this was the last undergraduate intake, the order had come down that sophomores had to attend too.

Law school was very every-man-for-himself, but it jumped when a professor gave an order.

The professors had enough pull to affect where judges and prosecutors were posted.

With their influence, a few people could be assigned to Seoul or inner Gyeonggi Province.

Even Oh Dong-seong couldn’t ignore the professors.

Korean conglomerates were always the government’s targets.

If you didn’t get information fast and deal with it, you’d end up on prison rations sooner or later.

So he’d come, grumbling all the way.

“Still, we got on base last night, didn’t we?”

“It was great. Those girls really knew how to party.”

The business students who hung out with Oh Dong-seong were all children of Ana Group employees.

The group had recruited them and supplied them to Oh Dong-seong.

They’d been promised jobs after graduation.

They weren’t in the same league as Ban Dae-sik of the Joguk Ilbo or Choe Sang-deuk’s son, Choe Ji-hyeong.

At school, they were his hands and feet.

They wrote Oh Dong-seong’s reports and sat in for him in class.

Devoted henchmen, through and through.

“Waaaaaaaaaah!”

“Wheee~ wheeeee~.”

Cheers and whistles erupted in the resort auditorium, where they’d arrived after skiing and dinner.

“It’s already started?”

“Let’s get this over with and go drink. What’s with the talent show…”

Oh Dong-seong had no interest in school life.

He’d built his connections with anyone likely to become a judge or prosecutor through money, booze and women.

He did as his father and his uncle advised.

His funds were unlimited.

The Ana Group chairman’s dream was to catch up with the Ojeong Group’s scholarship men, who held Korea in their grip from the shadows.

The three of them opened the auditorium doors and went in.

“Perfect! That was law group nine’s act! I’ve got stamina like a river, a dance-and-song number… I never imagined I’d see that stale old orientation staple from the ’90s classes here.”

With money pouring in from all sides, they’d booked the famous comedian Go Byeong-man as MC.

Phoenix Park here was free too.

The courtesy of a chairman who’d gone to Hanguk University.

“Hahahahahahaha.”

Law group nine’s talent-show act ended as a total throwback.

Still, everyone looked satisfied, relieved it was over.

“And now~ let’s enjoy the dazzling performance of business group ten, who’ve even prepared costumes today! Please give them a big round of applause!”

Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap.

Loud applause rang out.

The show had been running for over two hours.

With the stage in the middle, the law professors, alumni and students sat on the right.

The business professors, alumni and students took the other side.

Sparks were flying.

For one thing, the business school’s acts, with their strong teamwork, were flashier and more worth watching.

Some groups had even roomed together since the preliminary assembly.

Unlike law, business students often went into big conglomerates, so pulling together and teamwork were a business-school tradition.

“Dong-seong, isn’t that her over there?”

“Who?”

“Your little thing~.”

His friend held up his pinky and wiggled it.

“She should’ve stayed buried in Sillim-dong studying…”

Seeing Lee Ye-rin, Oh Dong-seong scowled harder.

He never went back to a woman he’d dumped.

However pretty or devoted, once Oh Dong-seong got bored, he threw them away.

“Still, she’s really pretty for a law student.”

“So what? The rumor’s all over the place.”

The rumor that Oh Dong-seong had dumped her had spread everywhere.

Lee Ye-rin was off to one side, clapping and watching.

She was the one who’d caught Oh Dong-seong’s eye at last year’s preliminary assembly and fallen for him.

“Waaaaah! Kill the Montague bastards!”

“Get the Capulet mutts!!!”

Clang-clang-clang-clang!

Business group nine appeared in medieval men’s tights, swinging swords in a realistic battle.

Photocopied money, promissory notes and checks were stuck to their swords.

Even painted boards of castle walls showed up; it was like watching a real play.

“Oh! I cannot live under the same sky as those Montague bastards!”

“Dear God! Put an end to the Capulets!”

The business-student actors wailing over their fallen kin were downright tragic.

Then the stage went dark, and a new scene came up in the light.

“La-la-la-la-la-la~♫.”

A girl appeared on stage with an aria.

In a gorgeous dress, she twirled once, her long hair, dyed gold, flying.

All eyes went to the girl.

“Ooooooh!”

“Who’s that? She’s crazy pretty.”

“They say she’s the best face among the business freshmen.”

“I heard she’s the daughter of a big company’s president.”

Whispers came from every side.

“Ho…”

A look of surprise crossed Oh Dong-seong’s sour face.

She gave off the kind of fresh charm only a freshman has.

The dress and the mood made her stand out even more.

Her singing voice was mysterious too.

She was a girl no one could help loving.

“Oh! My love, Juliet! Accept my love, which burns like a volcano!”

Just then the male business freshman cast opposite her proposed to Juliet in a voice full of real love.

The moment he appeared, he dropped to one knee and sang a pretty decent serenade.

“No, Romeo… our merger can never happen. I love you, but love doesn’t put food on the table.”

A realistic Juliet had arrived.

“Juliet~ say not so. I may not have much money, but my love for you is greater and wider than anything! The M&A of the families that stands in the way of our love shall be achieved! I shall pull off a hostile M&A, I swear it! Even if I must sell my soul to a vicious Jewish loan shark!”

“Have you secured the friendly shares?”

Juliet warmed to Romeo’s bold ambition.

“I have! Friar Laurence is raising a private equity fund for our love! He says he’ll push a merger to end the misery of our two families! Trust me! My love is better backed than any blank check a millionaire could write!”

“Pwahahahahahahahaha!”

The business professors and students were in stitches.

The law students, by contrast, looked unimpressed.

It was a skit that played to everything business is about.

Law, with no real talent-show act ready, felt its pride stung.

Meanwhile, the play went on.

The lines were fairly long, but the two actors handled them well.

You could see the enormous effort they’d put in over a short time.

Anyone could see it was bound to win the talent show.

“Ah… Juliet, I never dreamed you’d fall for Kim Jung-bae’s diamond and marry him! Even your love, which never bowed before your father… in the end, you were a woman weak for diamonds! Because of you, my credit cards, swiped countless times at department stores, went delinquent, and my credit’s ruined! The loan shark’s interest soared sky-high! Now I finally understand! In love, money beats words… ugh…” (TL Note: A nod to the most famous Korean melodrama of the 1910s: the heroine Sim Sun-ae leaves her poor sweetheart, Lee Su-il, for rich Kim Jung-bae and his diamond ring.)

The male lead collapsed pitifully, a paper reading Bankruptcy Filing in his mouth.

It ended as a parody of a man ruined by the wrong woman.

And so the strange fusion play came to an end.

“Brilliant! Invincible Business, class of ’08!!!”

“Wheeeeeee wheeeeeeeee~!”

Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap.

The business professors and students all applauded hard, satisfied.

The story had gone off the rails, but the heroine’s overwhelming looks and decent acting left everyone no choice but to give it to them.

“Whoa~ that was amazing. Isn’t that the lead actress from just now? Oh my God! She shone brighter than any actress I’ve seen at the TV station. If you have a moment, please give me your number. I’d love to bring you to our agency!”

The actress was so irresistible that even Go Byeong-man showed his personal interest.

“All right! Now it’s time for the last talent-show act from the law class of ’08. They must be feeling crushed after business group ten’s onslaught… but we’ve got to watch to the end, right? Everybody knows he who laughs last laughs best, right? Please give a warm round of applause to Hanguk University law, group ten!!!”

Go Byeong-man pointed to the stage and led the applause.

The business students, sure of victory, clapped at their leisure like winners.

The law students, knowing how clueless group ten was, clapped half-heartedly with no expectations.

Click!

Just then every light in the auditorium went out at once.

“Wh… what?”

“Why’d the lights…”

Fwa-bam!

After a short blackout, the stage lights hit center stage.

And there were seven silhouettes.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The women who recognized the silhouettes screamed.

“F-FOB???”

And many of the men who knew their girl groups leaped to their feet.

(End of Chapter 96)