Episode 6

Before I could even respond, Shin Seo-joon placed his tray on the table with a thud.

The menu was the same as mine, oven-baked chicken gratin.

It was only natural since it was his favorite food in the original story.

“…I’m almost done eating.”

“It won’t take long. I also tend to eat pretty quickly.”

Despite my indirect refusal, Shin Seo-joon sat down without a second thought and shoveled a spoonful of gratin into his mouth.

For a guy who looked as refined as a medieval aristocrat, his behavior was quite down-to-earth.

“You’re Park Yoo-seung, right? I’m Shin Seo-joon, who presented on the same problem in the criminal law class in Class A earlier. I was really… impressed by your presentation.”

“I just got lucky.”

“I thought it was just a question to check our pre-existing knowledge by asking if we knew about defamation, but I never imagined that there were two other hidden issues. I only realized it after hearing your explanation. I thought, ‘Is this how a ‘genius’ solves problems?’ Haha.”

Shin Seo-joon was being friendly and laid-back.

This was also a tactic he often used.

He knew how much people admired and longed to be like him, so he would, in turn, lower himself without hesitation and flatter the other person.

He made the other person feel excited, thinking, ‘This amazing guy is acknowledging me!’ and easily gain their favor.

Honestly, I felt good too.

It was quite a thrilling experience to have the protagonist of the original story, whom I had only watched and envied from the other side of the screen, praise my solution.

But, I shouldn't fall for it.

“I’m busy, so let’s get to the point.”

“Oops, my apologies.”

Even though I was deliberately acting more rude, Shin Seo-joon didn’t change his expression and continued to smile.

If someone who didn’t know him saw him, they would think he was a really good person, but that was far from the truth.

Shin Seo-joon was not that angelic, straight-laced, model protagonist.

If anything, it was the opposite.

“Park Yoo-seung.”

Shin Seo-joon narrowed his eyes.

“What kind of person do you think makes a good lawyer?”

His testing gaze flew at me sharply.

‘…This is.’

I knew this question.

‘It’s the question he asked Han Seol in the original story.’

In fact, Shin Seo-joon was not a case of someone who had entered law school to purely study law.

It was revealed as the original story progressed, but he had a special ‘purpose’ that required him to enter Korea University Law School.

For him, the relationship with the other students was just a search for pawns to achieve his goal.

With that smiling face, Shin Seo-joon hid his intentions and sought out people he could use.

If you got caught by his radar, you would inevitably get involved in the main story.

In that tense suspense where people died and faculty members were caught as suspects.

I couldn't let that happen.

I had a dream I wanted to achieve, didn't I?

It was a distant goal that I might not even be able to achieve even if I focused solely on studying.

There was no room to get involved in a scenario that Shin Seo-joon would solve on his own anyway.

So, I retorted bluntly.

“Someone who’s good at law.”

“…What if he uses his power and knowledge for unjust things?”

“Being good at law is justice.”

Shin Seo-joon’s eyebrows twitched.

For a very brief moment, a look of disappointment flashed across his face.

“…I see.”

That was enough.

Han Seol in the original story had answered, ‘Someone who applies principles fairly to everyone,’ and ended up getting caught in Shin Seo-joon’s web.

The sense of justice of prospective law students was a bait that he liked very much, and that he often used.

Shin Seo-joon, whose words had decreased drastically, devoured the gratin at a speed where I couldn't tell if he was eating or drinking it, and then left, saying, "Well, thanks for the meal."

I had managed to survive for now.

“Hmm…”

It was to avoid the situation, but it still felt bad to say something unjust.

No matter what anyone said, I had dreamt of becoming a prosecutor because I wanted the world to be fair.

That was why I said that.

‘Being good at law is justice.’

That was the right thing to say.

If someone was unjust, then they weren’t truly good at law.

* * *

The results of the first test were announced.

It had been just a few days, but they had already graded all the multiple-choice questions and the essay-type questions where each person submitted tens of thousands of characters worth of answers.

Were the professors at Korea University Law School all monsters?

In the meantime, several civil law, criminal law, and constitutional law classes had passed.

Whenever the professor asked a question, Han Seol would raise her hand and shout out the correct answer, and thanks to that, our group was steadily accumulating points.

Although the other member still wasn’t coming to class… Han Seol was doing at least three people’s worth, so there wasn't a big problem.

“Wow, Shin Seo-joon is in first place again?”

“He’s the top graduate of the National Police University. He’s just on a different level than us.”

“Han Seol is second. She’s also really something else.”

I glanced towards the direction where the students were buzzing.

The ‘announcement’ of the first test results was not done in a lukewarm manner, such as individual notifications or confirmation through logging in to the website.

Instead, Korea University Law School utilized a much more blatant, cruel, and sinister method.

The wall of the hallway that the students were surrounding.

There was a poster on the wall that had the first test scores and rankings of all the prospective freshmen, from 1st place to 150th place, printed in a row.

1st place. Shin Seo-joon

2nd place. Han Seol

3rd place. Jeong Min-shik

.

.

.

Those were the same people I had been seeing since the original story.

For reference, my name was located far away from that shining top, in the abyss.

139th place. Park Yoo-seung

…It couldn’t be helped.

I had chosen all of the multiple-choice questions at random and given up on them.

There was no way that my score could come out well, physically.

I should probably be proud that I had managed to surpass eleven people with just the scores I got from the essay-type questions.

“Oh, there’s a correct answer rate for each question?”

“Look at the correct answer rate for multiple-choice question 4. 13%? What was the answer to that?”

“What was question 4… Statute of limitations? I also just guessed it, so I don’t know.”

The other students were talking about things that I didn’t know.

I hadn’t even read the multiple-choice questions, so I couldn’t follow them.

The quality of the questions seemed good at first glance, so I should try to solve them later as a final check when I review the basic textbooks.

“Wow, what’s with the score distribution chart for the essay-type questions? The professors here are really serious about tests.”

As one student pointed out, the poster didn’t just have the correct answer rates for the multiple-choice questions.

It also had the score distribution charts, with the highest and lowest scores for each of the eight essay-type questions.

“What’s with essay question 8? It’s out of 20 points, but there’s only one person who got 18 points, and almost everyone else is below 9 points.”

“Does that mean only one person got the correct answer, and everyone else wrote nonsense?”

“What was question 8? There weren’t that many difficult questions in the essay section…”

“Isn’t that the problem about the cancellation of the fraud by a third party?”

“What? Wasn’t that an easy question that they gave us? Is there a trap?”

A rather academic discussion began there, but they couldn’t easily agree on what the correct answer was.

Instead, there was only one proposition that everyone agreed on.

That 18 points, it must be Shin Seo-joon!

“No, it’s not me.”

But Shin Seo-joon shook his head.

“When I heard that the scores were out, I went to the professor and asked for feedback on my answer sheet. He took out my answer sheet and pointed out all the things I had gotten wrong. I got 11 points on question 8.”

The students were amazed.

While we were just looking at the poster and talking, he went to the professor to get feedback.

They couldn’t help but think, ‘No wonder he’s the top student.’

But even Shin Seo-joon didn’t get the answer right.

The students then turned to Han Seol and Jeong Min-shik, but they were also not the ones with the highest score on question 8.

“Hey. Maybe… is that you?”

Han Seol asked me with a ‘no way’ expression.

“No?”

“…I guess not. What was I thinking…”

Oh, actually, it's me.

Of course, I didn't say it out loud.

It was strange for the 139th place to be the only one who got the correct answer.

I had almost made Han Seol suspicious of me with my performance before, so there was no reason to step up.

Anyway, there was only one thing I could say for sure.

The first test was a disaster.

A complete and utter disaster!

So, to make up for it in the final pre-law score, I had to get even better scores on the group evaluation and the second test that would be held right before the end of the pre-law program.

Han Seol was playing a major role in the group evaluation, but the problem was the second test.

There were less than two weeks left until the end of the pre-law program, but unlike the first test, the second test would include the entire scope of civil law and the general theory of criminal law.

That meant that it was a test that even the other students couldn’t prepare for perfectly.

However, I was in a position where I had to get a top score, wasn't I?

In the end, it meant that I had to study like crazy.

Let’s go back and study. Just as I made up my mind and turned around.

“Oh, well, if it isn’t you.”

A mocking voice flew from behind me.

“It’s Park Yoo-seung, the shame of the Business Administration Department, the worst troublemaker born from Gwanak Mountain.”

When I turned around, I saw a face that seemed familiar from the original story.

“Who, might you be?”

“It’s Bae Hyun-joong! You’re not going to pretend you don’t know me, are you?!”

Ah, I remembered after hearing his name.

Like Park Yoo-seung, Bae Hyun-joong was a character who was used as a disposable villain.

The difference was that Bae Hyun-joong was relatively good at studying, and he had more episodes where he appeared than Park Yoo-seung.

But in the end, they were both taken care of by Shin Seo-joon and removed from the story.

But that was my memory as a reader, and I didn’t know if Park Yoo-seung had any contact with him.

If I had to guess, Bae Hyun-joong seemed to be from the Business Administration department like Park Yoo-seung and Han Seol…

When I shrugged, Bae Hyun-joong shouted, flustered.

“You bastard! It doesn’t make any sense that trash like you is at Korea University Law School!”

“Well, I’m here.”

“Ha. You must have committed some kind of admission fraud.”

‘Is that true?’

I briefly thought that it was a plausible theory for a moment.

Only those who had the highest scores in their grades and the LEET, the entrance exam, could enter Korea University Law School.

That was the same for the law schools that were the real-world models for Korea University Law School.

It was a bit of an unreasonable setting that a real troublemaker like Park Yoo-seung had entered.

But what could I do? The author put him in, not me.

When I didn’t respond, Bae Hyun-joong, who was even more agitated, continued his attack.

“139th place? Puh-ha, I’d rather drop out than get a rank like that.”

“And what rank are you?”

“37th place!”

“…You’re actually pretty good.”

It might seem like an awkward rank, but I mustn’t forget that this was Korea University Law School, where all the monsters of the country gathered.

With that rank here, you could aim for the top 3 law firms or a clerkship.

Of course, that was assuming that your current grades would last until the end.

“Of course. I’m different from inferior trash like you.”

Bae Hyun-joong sneered.

Yeah, Bae Hyun-joong was that kind of character.

He would always bow down to people who were better than him, but he would treat people who he thought were ‘lower’ than him however he wanted.

I found that pathetic, so I said something.

“If you’re so superior, then why didn’t you answer earlier? Instead of letting a 139th-place person steal your points right in front of your eyes.”

“T-that’s…!”

Bae Hyun-joong’s face turned red.

It was something that would hurt his pride.

None of the people who were there could answer Jang Yong-hwan’s question.

Except for Shin Seo-joon and me.

He could accept being inferior to Shin Seo-joon.

But the fact that I had solved a problem that he couldn't was probably a huge shock to him.

So much that he wanted to deny reality.

“Ha, Han Seol! Yeah. Seol, who is in the same group as you, must have told you! You didn’t answer it yourself!”

Bae Hyun-joong was yelling, as if that was his last resort.

“Hey, he calls you ‘Seol’? Do you know him?”

“Don’t you know? He hit on me in undergrad and got rejected. He’s still acting like that.”

When I whispered to Han Seol, who was next to me, I got a similar whisper back.

Ah, so that’s their relationship.

Bae Hyun-joong, who had seen that, had an expression as if his insides were burning black.

“…Seol must be suffering a lot. She’s forced to take care of such a useless person because you’re in the same group. Why don’t you stop that and I’ll start a study group…”

“Hey.”

Han Seol cut off Bae Hyun-joong’s words.

“I think you’re misunderstanding something, but I’m not forced to be with him? Of course, it would have been much better to be in the same group as someone else, but at least Park Yoo-seung has proven his usefulness.”

“You were thinking of me that way? I’m touched.”

I didn’t expect Han Seol to defend me on her own.

It seemed like she had inserted a sentence that would have been better if she hadn't, but anyway.

“And you don’t count as that ‘someone else’.”

A sharp refusal.

It was the moment where she clearly declared that Park Yoo-seung > Bae Hyun-joong.

“…You trash. You must have charmed kind Seol in the meantime.”

Unfortunately, Bae Hyun-joong didn’t listen.

“Just you wait. You relying on Seol and comfortably earning points behind her back will soon be over.”

After saying that, Bae Hyun-joong left while grinding his teeth.

“…That’s so annoying, seriously.”

Han Seol grumbled as she looked at his retreating back.