Semantic Error

CH 1.1

Default Dyslexic Roboto Lora

The first quarter of the third grade semester was over.
The toughest time for Sangwoo, who had a tight schedule of 23 credits, was not because of his infamously difficult major, but instead, a two-credit liberal arts class.
“Korean University Student Personality Education,” was a compulsory liberal arts class with mandatory course attendance and required for graduation.
It consisted of basic lectures and a simple group presentation.

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‘The presentation topic was so easy, that I thought it was funny at first.
It was no big deal to know that one of the group members did not come to class allegedly to participate in a contest.
But someone was injured and someone went off the grid the day before the presentation.
If I had done it alone from the beginning, I would have finished it in a day.
Instead, I spent all my time contacting my group members and sending them data.’

Sangwoo was annoyed, but after the presentation, he forgot about those bad experiences.
However, after he received the grade, he realized there was a problem.

Freeloader 1: Hyung, did you remove my name from the presentation? Why did you do that? Did you happen to notice that I couldn’t attend because my grandmother died?

10:04 pm

Freeloader 2: I eventually got an F in humanities.
Are you satisfied?^^

15:29 pm

Freeloader 3: Let’s chat, Hoobae.
Thanks to you.
I couldn’t graduate.
20:23 pm

On the day the score was announced, messages inundated Sangwoo’s phone.
The messages were sent one by one, but one of the senders kept begging to meet up and talk.
He even called.
In the end, Sangwoo blocked the number.

Then it was vacation.
For the next semester, Sangwoo planned to reduce his course load and produce mobile games.
He taught himself a programming language during the week and worked part-time at a PC room on the weekends.
His daily life went smoothly, but there was one thing that bothered him.

As usual, on a Saturday, when he was working in the PC room, two college students came in and played games all day long.
Sangwoo heard their conversation while in front of the counter.

“Did you hear? Jaeyoung won’t be able to graduate.”

“Why? I thought he was going to study abroad.”

“It was a two-credit humanities course, but then someone snitched to the professor that someone else was attending on his behalf, so he got an F.”

“Can’t they change the grade?”

“The professor must have said that he couldn’t let it go because he was so popular.”

“They should talk to the person involved.”

‘I’ve heard this story before.’ Sangwoo kept eavesdropping on their conversation, pretending to be looking at the counter.

“But the person isn’t picking up the phone.”

“Which department is he in right now?’”

“Is it mechanical or computer engineering? He said he wanted to find this guy’s address and kill him, but no one knows it.
It’s fucking absurd.”

“Wow.
You’re messing with me.
I guess he’s going to live lawlessly.”

Sangwoo seemed to have involved himself with a very bad person.
He has often been in conflicts while attending university, but they have been resolved so far.
When he was a freshman, he almost got into a fistfight with a senior who forced him to drink a bomb shot.
Even a newspaper company reported that he would not pay student fees.
There was a time when he bumped into a passerby on the street, and there was an incident where he went to the police station, because he quarreled with a person who cut in line, but it was a trivial thing compared to not being able to graduate.

Sangwoo seriously thought about changing his cell phone number.
In the end, he didn’t do anything, because he thought he had no grounds to be afraid.
But after that day, he got into the habit of being nervous whenever he received a phone notification.

Han Sooyoung Sunbae, from the Visual Design Department: Engineer Hoobae^^! I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t work with you because I have an urgent job opportunity.
However, I have asked a good colleague to go to the meeting in my place.

12:31 pm

The next message, which took some time to arrive, contained few details.
Han Sooyoung was so busy, that she was slow in submitting her design, even though she did a great job.
Sangwoo had already planned the game according to her design style, so it was bad news for there to be a change in designer.

There were too many irresponsible people at school.
Was it a relief that this person had a successor and ran away? There was no guarantee that this replacement designer was a talented student.

That’s too bad.
I liked your drawing style tho.

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12:33 pm

Han Sooyoung from the Visual Design Department: This person is better than me.
Don’t worry!

12:34 pm

Give me their phone number, at least.

12:34 pm

Han Sooyoung from the Visual Design Department: Something happened to my contacts list, and I don’t have their information.
When we met yesterday, they told me exactly where and when to meet.
They are in the same class as me and named Jaeyoung Jang!^^

12:40 pm

All right.

12:41 pm

Sangwoo finished his conversation with her and headed to school.
The meeting was at four o’clock, but he arrived three hours early to organize the draft and a character.
‘Jang Jaeyoung, a visual design major.
I don’t know anything except some vague information that they are capable.
I don’t know if this person is a man or a woman, their appearance, or design style.
I doubted that they would be busy since they are a senior.
I also don’t know if they would disappear in the middle of the project due to getting a job like Han Sooyoung, but I think I should meet them for now.’

Sangwoo left his seat at 15:55pm and climbed the stairs.
He arrived at the small conference room on the third floor of the library, which he had reserved online.
He arrived a minute before the appointment and took out his notes and papers.

However, the designer did not show up.

‘If I had other appointments, I would have left without looking back, but I need a designer.
This is a project that I can’t do alone.’ Sangwoo took out his cell phone and spent 10 minutes playing a game, but the designer still had not shown up.

‘Maybe he was mistaken about the time? Maybe Han Sooyoung got the time and location wrong? Maybe he changed his mind, or did something else happen?’ Another 10 minutes had passed while he pondered questions he had no way of answering.

The designer did not show up.

‘They have a bad personality.’

‘There’s no one who’s punctual.
There’s no way it’s going to work out well on a project with someone like that.
It’s been more than 10 minutes since I’ve been waiting inside.’

The designer still hadn’t shown up.

‘This is really the last time.’

Sangwoo waited another 10 minutes to see the replacement designer for Han Sooyoung, a talented and kind senior.
He endured this stoically, but the designer never showed up.

He clenched his teeth and got up aggressively from his seat.
Sangwoo was reluctant to waste anything, but what he hated most was wasting time.
However, as soon as he tried to grab the door handle, it swung away.

“Is it him?”

Sangwoo looked at his opponent angrily.
The man, wearing a slouchy, black beanie, walked in with an arrogant look, and sat across from Sangwoo.
There were large glasses on the tip of his nose and three metal piercings in one ear.
He came to the meeting but was empty-handed.
He took his hands out of his pockets, rubbed them together , and looked up.

“Oh!”

As soon as their eyes met, he pointed at Sangwoo.

“What?”

Sangwoo inadvertently touched his cheek, wondering if something was on his face.
The opponent looked surprised, but his eyes increasingly narrowed.
Sangwoo had no intention of working with this person, but he forced himself to sit down thinking that he should make some effort.
He grabbed a pen, purposely not looking at the man’s face.

“You’re a senior designer, aren’t you?”