Campus Log - Chapter 7

He hesitated but deliberately didn’t look back at me.

Ryu Eun-seok was openly avoiding me.

We only had one overlapping class, but whenever he entered the lecture hall, he would check where I was sitting and then go sit exactly on the opposite side. If we ran into each other in the hallway, he would get startled for no reason, fix his gaze somewhere in empty space, and press himself flat against the wall—it wasn’t even funny, just ridiculous.

After more than a week of that, even I began to feel offended. We’d never greeted each other to begin with, but there’s a difference of light-years between two people who simply don’t pay attention to each other, and someone who consciously ignores you.

He was the one who had been careless, yet he acted like I was some villain, and the unfairness of it started to grate.

I hadn’t even told my mom, who I talk to every day.

Suppressing my irritation, I walked into Lecture Room 308. International Financial Management was the only course I shared with Ryu Eun-seok. A moment later, he and his friends noisily came in, but whether they entered or not, I kept my eyes fixed on my tablet, determined not to look at them.

“Hong Sang-hee? We have someone like that in our department?”

Coincidentally, I heard my name from directly behind me. Gossip? Half of me wanted to shut my ears because it was bound to be something bad, and the other half was curious about what they would say.

“There’s a kid who’s good at studying. I think she’s a senior now?”

I’m in my third year.

“Ah, that girl who hangs out with Jung Ye-eun?”
Who even is that?

“I don’t know either. Didn’t they say she went to high school in America? So she’s good at English.”

The only time I ever went abroad was a short language program in Canada last year.

The nonsense drifting from behind didn’t particularly bother me. Ever since I was young, I’d grown used to blending into the background with a blurred presence.

Don’t stand out, just take care of what’s mine. It was the strict creed I set for myself at twelve, right when adolescence hit.

Middle and high school, filled with endless group activities, were pure torment. On days when someone asked, “Sang-hee, why are you always alone?” and I accidentally drew attention, I wanted to bolt out of the classroom immediately.

So coming to university felt like breathing again. Outsider—just that one word solved most of my daily life.

It wasn’t until group assignments came around that classmates aiming for an A+ remembered my name, but I didn’t feel even a little hurt. It wasn’t like I could do a group project entirely alone, and I also needed a few decent names to put on the first slide of the PPT.

“That’s Hong Sang-hee. The girl who took Do-wan’s name off the Consumer Behavior assignment.”
For the first time, accurate information came from behind me.

“Oh, she’s Hong Sang-hee? She’s got some nerve.”

“That time, their whole group got A+ so Do-wan was even more pissed.”

I took off my glasses and wiped them against my checkered shirt, trying to calm my pounding heart. Even something as trivial as this kind of gossip made me tense, and every now and then, the fiery temper I kept tightly hidden would flare up.

Last week’s incident with Kim Do-wan was one of those times.

I was listening carefully to what the seniors behind me were talking about when someone approached with heavy, thudding footsteps.

When I lifted my head, Ryu Eun-seok was standing there.

His expression looked almost identical to Kim Do-wan’s when he had spat at my feet.

“Hey, Hong Sang-hee.”

Because I hadn’t had time to put my glasses back on, his features were blurred and hazy.

“Did you tell everyone?”

What kind of nonsense was that to open with? Before I could even question him, he leaned in and lowered his voice.

“Did you spread rumors that my family went bankrupt?”

But everyone around us—who had already been listening with their ears perked—heard him loud and clear. Judging by the startled whispering that broke out, it was obvious he was the one spreading the rumor himself.

“No.”

The answer slipped out smoothly. I had nothing to feel guilty about, so there was no reason to be nervous. I put my glasses back on and looked straight up at Ryu Eun-seok.