What's this?

The lecture hall was a good size.

About sixty computers ran in a ring, stacked in a spiral of tiered rows some five levels high.

A strange room.

And then there was the owner of the grabby hand that had just made off with my coffee.

Click.

Without so much as asking, she popped the can and gulped it down like it was the best thing she'd ever tasted.

"Ahhh. Caffeine recharged!"

A woman.

Her hair was yanked back any old way with a rubber band, and she'd downed my coffee in one shot.

She wasn't tall.

163 centimeters, tops?

She was bundled up in a black padded parka that didn't fit a campus in full spring bloom at all.

Thick, out-of-style horn-rimmed glasses sat on her nose.

Her fashion was a disaster, but...

A girl like this, in engineering?

Computer Science and Engineering had more women than the other engineering departments.

Still, an engineering girl is an engineering girl.

But this one was a diamond in the rough.

She hadn't done a thing to herself, yet a glow from inside shone right through.

Her eyes were black as peppercorns and bright as glass beads.

Like a star that had survived all alone inside a black hole.

Her forehead was smooth and straight.

Her face was slender, her nose high and fine.

She'd tried to hide her looks behind those clunky glasses, but they only made her prettier.

Her features were so delicately perfect it was startling.

"You're a freshman, right?"

"Yes."

"Don't take it personally. Your noona here is On Si-eun, fourth year. Nice to meet you, newbie."

She'd stolen my coffee and didn't look the least bit sorry about it.

On—an unusual surname.

She stuck out her hand for a shake without a moment's hesitation.

I took it firmly.

Her hand was warm.

"Think of it as tribute. My caffeine had totally crashed, and you saved me. From now on, just trust your noona. Noona's got killer skills."

"At what?"

She had a funny way of talking.

The bounce in her voice was cute.

"I butted…