“Section Chief Cha.”

“Yes, young master. Go ahead.”

“You know the girl group FOB?”

Section Chief Cha Yeong-tae of the Ana Group secretariat tensed at the sudden call from the chairman’s son.

The boy was still immature and had caused a lot of trouble.

The chairman doted on his son and believed a boy had to grow up free to become a great man, so the son got full backing.

“You mean the new girl group FOB?”

“You know them? Then I’ll keep it simple. Get the FOB girls ready. Especially the one they call Seo-ryeon—I want to see her as soon as possible.”

“Y-yes, understood!”

“Let’s see what you can do.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it without fail.”

“Then I’m counting on you.”

Back in his resort room, Oh Dong-seong had immediately called the secretarial-team section chief who handled his dirty work.

The man had been groomed for exactly this kind of work.

Not just his father but his brothers too used the secretarial team to satisfy their desires.

Sometimes they even called in gangsters to handle things.

Oh Seung-hyeok, the hot-tempered group chairman, was especially fond of using gangsters.

Dragging in a union chairman, beating him to his heart’s content and then smoothing it over with money was his specialty.

With a father like that behind him, Oh Dong-seong feared nothing in Korea.

That’s what it meant to be one of the top ten conglomerates.

Nothing beyond their power!

There was nothing they couldn’t do.

The only rule was not to touch the children of the upper class.

Against anyone else—the middle class, ordinary citizens—money made everything possible.

“Jang Tae-san… so you came in as my junior in law, huh? Heh heh heh heh.”

Oh Dong-seong had been shocked to see the bastard’s face.

He could never forget, not even in death, the humiliation he’d suffered last summer in Daecheon.

Ban Dae-sik had warned him off—too many witnesses. Otherwise he’d have dug a hole in the sand and buried the guy right there.

“Fearless little bastard… walking right into the tiger’s mouth…”

Oh Dong-seong’s yellow eyes glinted.

A thrilling excitement washed over him.

“Good thing I came today. I found two decent girls and saw that son of a bitch too.”

Oh Dong-seong had set his sights on the business freshman he’d seen today and on Seo-ryeon of the girl group.

It was a hunger he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Oh Dong-seong treated women like food to be eaten.

He’d grown up knowing nothing of love.

The business freshman who played the heroine was fresh, and Seo-ryeon was sensual.

When Seo-ryeon danced, Oh Dong-seong’s blood had boiled.

He’d been going crazy wanting to call her to his room right then and take her.

“Your luck ends here. Of all places, Hanguk University law… heh heh.”

There were a fair number of people in the department who followed Oh Dong-seong too.

With them, making the kid’s life miserable would be easy.

However good he was, he was only a freshman.

He meant to teach the kid exactly how the world works.

“Drink up~ Tae-san! You know I’m totally smitten with you. How about this noona? My heart’s wide open for you. Hehehe.”

Senior Kang A-rin was good and drunk.

After the talent show, law group ten took the grand prize.

As an extra prize, we were awarded ten bottles of decent whiskey.

The huge auditorium turned straight into a drinking party.

Drinking circles broke out everywhere.

With the business students joining in, it went beyond anything you’d imagine.

Boxes of soju and beer were stacked on all sides.

The freshman initiation drinking that still survived in 2008 got going too.

It wasn’t quite bowls of soju, but the seniors zeroed in on the freshmen.

The professors left with a word of advice to drink in moderation and slipped off together.

Group ten claimed a corner too, and it was pour-and-drink mayhem.

The fried chicken we’d ordered was delivered for snacks.

Snack bags and paper cups rolled around the floor.

The drinking had only been going for two hours, but a few of the kids were already wasted.

And Senior A-rin, glued to my side, started her drunken act.

She was making a scene, saying she really liked me and we should go out.

She’d be a junior this year, so she didn’t seem to feel any pressure.

With Senior A-rin marking me like an iron wall, the girls who liked me couldn’t get close.

Still, every time my eyes met theirs, their cheeks went red or they looked at me hotly.

I’d become popular with both business and law in one shot.

My nickname changed from the Arrogant Mouth to Hot Candy.

Senior A-rin said that when I confessed to Seo-ryeon, she’d had the fantasy that I was confessing to her.

Fooling yourself is free.

“Tae-san. When did you learn that dance? You took lessons from a pro, right?”

The guy I’d had drinks with at group ten’s preliminary meetup asked.

“Aren’t you an idol trainee or something?”

As if she’d been waiting, Yu Ji-yeon, the girl with glasses, showed interest too.

The kids knew it wasn’t an ordinary person’s choreography.

“I learned from an amazing teacher. In terms of skill alone, she’s beyond Korea—beyond Asia, even.”

“Whoaaaaa. I knew it!”

“Who is she? Somebody we’d know by name?”

I could never, ever say it was Hwang Jini noona.

Jini noona, who kept tempting me to come hang out whenever I had time.

The forty-eight hours I’d danced like mad with her—I’d never forget them, not even after death.

Especially grinding with her in a passionate Latin dance…

I got a nosebleed.

“She’s a master in hiding.”

“Ahh~.”

Don’t be disappointed.

If you ever met Jini noona, she’d melt your bones.

“Our Tae-san’s got a nice body too~.”

Senior A-rin was so drunk she’d lost it.

She sat next to me and openly squeezed and pawed at my arms and legs.

Strictly speaking, this was sexual harassment too.

But I’m not that petty, so I put up with it.

“Tae-san.”

Just then, a woman I knew came over to our group.

“Oh!”

“Who’s that???”

The kids asked the others.

The guys especially were staring.

With subtle makeup, her skin had even more of a glow.

A little tipsy, her cheeks were flushed pink.

And her short skirt, showing off her slim legs, was a surefire way to blind men.

“Haah, I’m getting tipsy. A year ago I was a freshman too~.”

Senior Ye-rin sat down next to me.

The girl from our class, startled, moved aside.

“Nice to meet you all. I’m Lee Ye-rin, a sophomore.”

“Hello, sunbae!”

“I’m Choi Jun-sik!”

“You’re so pretty, sunbae. You look like an actress!”

At the word sunbae, the kids came right up to her without hesitation.

They had no idea how scary a woman Lee Ye-rin was.

“Aww, so cute. Let’s get along from now on, juniors.”

“Yes! Senior Ye-rin!”

“Please, have a drink.”

Not knowing why Senior Ye-rin had come, the guys in our class held out their cups.

“All right, shall I take a drink from a junior?”

Senior Ye-rin raised a paper cup and let them pour her beer.

“Welcome again to Hanguk University law~ Cheers!”

“Cheers!!!”

The kids happily emptied their cups.

“Tae-san, you have one too.”

Senior Ye-rin emptied her beer and held the cup out to me.

The look in her eyes was hot.

“Senior Ye-rin, you know Tae-san?”

“He’s a kid from my neighborhood. Two years ago Tae-san used to chase after me.”

“What? Ch-chase after you?”

“Then maybe…”

The kids’ imaginations took flight.

“She was my crush, once.”

I stepped in and settled it myself, cleanly.

“Waaaaaaah! No way!”

“So you got into Hanguk University to see Senior Ye-rin? Looking for your crush?”

Go write a novel.

“Senior Ye-rin is pretty, isn’t she?”

“What! You really have feelings for her?”

The kids suddenly got interested and looked back and forth between Senior Ye-rin and me.

Senior Ye-rin looked at me with heated eyes too.

“Not now. I told you. She was my crush.”

“Aww… what.”

“So you don’t like her now?”

The girls in our class pressed harder.

Past or present, other people’s love lives are always that fascinating.

I looked Senior Ye-rin straight in the eye.

It was a shame to see her still looking at me as if she expected something.

“No. There’s a girl I like.”

I said it to Senior Ye-rin, clearly and deliberately.

The trouble is there are too many great women around me.

“Whoa…”

At my bombshell, the kids’ faces turned bewildered.

I don’t know why she came all this way just to embarrass herself.

A woman who betrays you once will betray you twice—that saying is the truth.

Senior Ye-rin was forcing a smile, but her eyes were trembling.

Nerves of steel.

Even getting the cold shoulder at the interview hadn’t brought her to her senses.

I’d made myself clear that very day.

I don’t know why she’s so fixated on me.

I’m just an ordinary Hanguk University law student.

There were plenty of guys who were great at studying and plenty whose futures were set.

With Senior Ye-rin’s schooling and looks, becoming a conglomerate’s daughter-in-law would be easy.

She was the type who’d make it in show business too.

But she was finished in my life.

Next to the women around me, Senior Ye-rin’s looks weren’t all that outstanding.

Looks aside, I’d seen her heart, and I couldn’t forgive it.

I couldn’t erase the image of her at graduation, avoiding me and wanting me gone.

The first-love bond I’d tasted in this second life was over.

“Hehe… right. Tae-san… you can’t fall for that sly fox~. That Ye-rin thinks guys are a joke…”

Drunk, Senior Kang A-rin was openly dissing her junior.

Her eyes half open, she pointed a finger right at Ye-rin.

“Senior A-rin, come on, how am I a sly fox? You even gave me the nickname Kkotsuni~.” (TL Note: Kkotsuni — the same pet name as the granny’s restaurant in Ch. 82 — is an old-fashioned country girl’s name built on 꽃, “flower”: roughly “Little Flower.”)

Ye-rin composed herself and fended it off with a big smile.

“Kkotsuni… a Kkotsuni who’s a rose with lots of thorns.”

Go, Senior A-rin.

“Don’t you set your sights on our Tae-san! He’s my friend Yu-ri’s man. You’re nothing next to Yu-ri. Right, Tae-san?”

Not long ago she was begging me to be hers, and now my senior was selling me off to her art-school friend.

“S-Senior Yu-ri?”

Ye-rin looked flustered.

She seemed to know Senior Yu-ri well—the one the law school guys called the art school goddess.

“If it weren’t for Yu-ri… Tae-san would be mine~ mmph~ these two spent the night…”

“!!!”

At the words spent the night, everyone’s eyes went wide.

Senior Ye-rin clenched her fist hard and looked at me.

I grinned.

Whether we’d spent one night or two, it was nobody’s business.

The rumor would spread soon enough, but it was no black mark for me.

It clearly put Senior Yu-ri in a bad spot, though.

This is why you have to choose your friends well.

“Mmnya…”

Senior A-rin dropped her bomb and keeled over onto me.

The mood froze in an instant.

“Tae-san, don’t tell me that night…?”

The kids who’d been drinking with us that night went for the finishing blow.

“She was too drunk, so I let her sleep at my place. I swear on my father’s name nothing happened, so don’t look at me like that.”

They wouldn’t believe it, but I told the truth.

Even so, nobody seemed to take it as the truth.

All kinds of stories and pictures were probably flashing through everyone’s heads right now.

I ignored it cleanly.

“What are you doing? Your cups are empty.”

I filled a paper cup to the brim with soju.

“Cups up!”

Rumors are rumors, and drinks are drinks.

It was my first orientation since the regression.

Here, nobody would say a thing no matter how much we drank.

“Yeah! Let’s eat and drink till we drop tonight!”

“Hoho~ that’s true. If I get drunk, Tae-san, you’ll take responsibility, right?”

“What~ I’m getting drunk first!”

With the help of the alcohol, the girls in our class cracked jokes and raised their cups.

“If you get drunk and have nowhere to go, you’re always welcome.”

If my classmates wanted it, how could I refuse a wish that small?

And so everyone filled their cups and raised them.

“Class of ’08…”

Just as I was about to lead the toast…

“Excuse me~.”

Suddenly a woman appeared, calling Excuse me.

(End of Chapter 98)