Episode 10

Lee Ha-roo, who appears in the original story, was, so to speak, a ‘fallen genius.’

Most of the students at Korea University Law School were liberal arts majors who had graduated from the College of Economics, Social Sciences, or Humanities, but Lee Ha-roo’s background was different.

She was a 100% pure science and engineering elite who had graduated early from Hanyang Science High School and had also graduated from the Department of Computer Science at KEIST in three years, at the top of her class.

It seemed like she only had a triumphant path ahead of her, but after experiencing some kind of ‘failure,’ Lee Ha-roo lost all motivation and chose the law school entrance exam as an escape.

The problem was that she was so smart that she had gotten a national top ranking score on the entrance exam.

It was possible because the exam didn’t test legal knowledge, but was operated as a kind of intelligence test or aptitude test.

Because her scores were too good to waste, she had applied to Korea University Law School and had been accepted right away, but Lee Ha-roo hadn’t even touched her law studies.

Around this time, she was probably living like a shut-in, spending her days and nights going back and forth between PC cafes and arcades…

“...An arcade.”

Come to think of it, I also used to go to arcades quite often in my previous life.

I couldn’t go after my sibling collapsed because I was working, but I often went there during my test-taking days.

When you were fighting with yourself in a five-pyeong [approx. 180 sq ft] goshiwon, you needed a way to relieve your stress regularly.

An arcade was a hobby where you could find energy at a low cost in a short amount of time.

“I miss it. Should I show off my skills for once after a long time?”

It was something I wouldn’t have thought of doing normally, but the taste of the alcohol and meat that I had after a long time must have stirred up my excitement.

Anyway, even if I went straight home, there wasn’t a good plan that I could come up with.

I walked around the busy streets and looked for an arcade.

It didn’t take long.

“Heh, there’s one in this world too.”

Surprisingly, the arcade that I used to go to when I lived in Sillim-dong in my previous life was still there in the same location.

As I was walking down the stairs with a mixture of fondness and wonder, and just as I was about to step inside.

“Ah, you have no game sense, for real. If you got beaten, stop being a sore loser and go home.”

“You little…! Hey, let’s just do one more round! I’m not going to be tricked like that twice!”

“You’re just bad at the game.”

“Aaaaaaah!”

A small woman with a training suit hood on and a large man were arguing in front of a fighting game machine.

Wait a minute, that cynical way of talking, like someone who was addicted to the internet.

It seemed familiar somehow…

At that moment, the woman turned her head towards me.

A pathologically white face with dark circles under her eyes, barely visible under the hood.

“What are you looking at? Never seen a fight before?”

It was a face that I knew.

“…Lee Ha-roo?”

“Huh. How do you know my name? Are you a stalker?”

It was Lee Ha-roo.

I didn’t expect to meet her like this, but since it had turned out this way, I decided to try to persuade her now.

If I missed her here, I didn’t know where I would meet this legendary Pokémon-like eccentric again.

“Stalker, my ass. I’m a student at Korea University Law School, like you. I’m also in your group.”

At the words ‘Korea University Law School,’ the man who had been fighting with Lee Ha-roo widened his eyes and then slowly backed away and ran out of the arcade.

There was an old saying that you shouldn’t get involved with people who were studying law.

Well, Lee Ha-roo hadn’t even opened ‘Minmae’ once, so it would be difficult to say that she had studied law.

“Group member?”

“Yeah. Because you’re not coming, our group’s score is about to get slashed. They also said that attendance will be reflected in the group score.”

“Ah, so that’s what happened.”

“Please. Can you just come for the rest of the time?”

Lee Ha-roo stood there quietly as if she was thinking about it, and then she confidently shouted.

“I refuse one thing!”

“No, hey.”

“I don’t listen to the words of those who are weaker than me.”

Then, Lee Ha-roo pointed at the fighting game machine.

“If you want to persuade me, let’s have a match with that.”

While I was looking at her in disbelief, she put a coin in and started the machine.

With a ‘ping’ sound effect, the screen lit up, and Lee Ha-roo’s character and a game rank that was sparkling in blue appeared.

“…You want to have a match with a game?”

“If you don’t want to, then that’s fine. Is it because you’re a bookworm who has only studied and can’t do something like this?”

Heh, this was something else.

“Well, even though I’m a chair rank, there’s no way that I would lose to a newbie that I’ve never seen before…”

“Alright. Let’s have a match.”

“Oops.”

I sat across from Lee Ha-roo and turned on the game machine.

“But if I win, you have to show up faithfully until the end of the pre-law program. Promise me.”

“If you lose?”

“Then I won’t bother you anymore.”

“Isn’t that only a loss for me… Well, it doesn’t matter since I’m going to win anyway.”

‘That confidence is only for now, you little…!’

Actually, I wasn’t the kind of beginner that Lee Ha-roo thought I was.

When I was relieving my stress at the arcade during my goshiwon days, my rank in this game was a so-called ‘golden rank.’

That meant that I had the skills to become a professional if I had wanted to.

I had just left it as a hobby because I liked law much more.

Lee Ha-roo’s rank was also that of a skilled player, but there was a difference in skill between us that was similar to a national soccer player versus an ace of a middle school soccer team.

Especially since something like games were similar to exercise or skills that were imprinted in your body, unlike studying.

That meant that even if you took a break for a few years, you could quickly get it back.

I had no confidence. No confidence in losing.

[Here comes a new challenger!]

A message that announced the start of the game appeared.

And, as expected.

[K.O.]

It wasn’t long before the winner and loser were decided.

It was Lee Ha-roo’s character that had fallen, and it was my character that was alive and taking a victory pose.

Lee Ha-roo was staring at the screen with a blank expression.

“That’s impossible…”

“You promised, right? You’re coming starting Monday, right?”

“H, how did you…”

Although Lee Ha-roo hated studying law more than anything, she also had a side where she hated breaking promises even more.

She wasn’t the kind of person who would take back a word that she had said.

So, that was enough.

I was about to get up, thinking that I had put out the urgent fire.

“How did you do that? What you just did?”

“...?”

“Tell me! If you tell me, I’ll serve you as my master for life! I’m begging you, really!”

Lee Ha-roo suddenly came closer and asked with sparkling eyes.

Judging by the situation, she was probably talking about the move that I had used to knock her character down at the end.

I had thought that it was just an escape, but I never knew she was this serious about games.

‘If she’s this addicted to games, then even if I drag her here by force…’

If I could somehow make her attend, I would get the attendance points, but every time Lee Ha-roo was chosen for the presentation, our group would not get any points. We could even lose points.

“I’ll, I’ll do anything!”

‘No, is this a chance?’

I had originally been content with just making her attend class, but if she was this serious about it, then I might be able to use her in a different way.

I decided to be a bit more greedy.

“…You said you would do anything just now, right?”

“Yes!”

“Then, you have to study law with us.”

“…?”

She might have looked pathetic right now, but Lee Ha-roo was still one of the top brains in the story.

In short, that meant that she was a ‘kid who could do it if she tried.’

In the original story, she had caught up with the rest of the students at a considerable speed after she had come to her senses later on.

‘Especially when it came to intellectual property law, which required a base in science, she was so unique that she swept all the competitions.’

I planned to make Lee Ha-roo grow faster than in the original story and to reap the benefits.

“…Ugh, I can’t help it. I’ll do it.”

“Really? You can’t go back on your word?”

“I promise. For real.”

It was an unexpected major gain.

“But, what’s your name?”

“You’re asking that now? It’s Park Yoo-seung, Park Yoo-seung.”

“Park… I’ll just call you master.”

“Then why did you even ask…”

It was already late at night when I came out of the arcade.

I had made Lee Ha-roo promise me firmly that she would come again and had even exchanged numbers with her in case something happened, and then I parted ways.

When I got back home and did a bit of review of what I had learned this week, it was already way past my bedtime.

And then, Monday morning.

“Park Yoo-seung, we’re in big trouble! I was so excited that I forgot, but our attendance starts today.”

“Hi.”

“...Huh?”

“Please take care of me starting today.”

“...Eeeh?”

* * *

Korea University Law School held a regular faculty meeting every Monday morning.

If there wasn’t anything special on the agenda, they would finish early or even skip it, but at this time, before the start of the new semester, there were many things to check.

That was why Jang Yong-hwan was heading to the conference room with a reluctant expression on his face.

“Oh, Professor Jang! You’re here early!”

Professor Park Soo-geun, who had arrived earlier, waved his hand happily.

“Did you have another fight with your wife?”

“It’s a bit of a… Wait, how did you know about that?”

“The bandage on your left hand. Considering the location, it’s probably a cut you got from being clumsy with a knife. Your necktie, which always used to be neat, as if someone had fixed it, is also sloppily tied today. And you don’t have the usual stew smell that you always have after coming to work, so you probably made breakfast yourself.”

It was obvious that he had fought with his wife and couldn’t get food at home.

Jang Yong-hwan nodded his head, saying that this wasn’t the first time this had happened.

“Wow, a former prosecutor is different.”

Park Soo-geun chuckled and shook his head, and at the same time, Vice Dean Professor Choi Sung-chul, who had entered the conference room, coughed.

“Alright, alright. Let’s start the meeting.”

Choi Sung-chul said as he picked up a pile of documents.

“Let’s see… Have you gathered the results of the mock bar exam for the third years?”

“Ah. I put them over there.”

Choi Sung-chul said as he read the documents that he was shown.

“It’s similar to previous years. If you calculate it backwards, it looks like the pass rate will be around 94% for all the test-takers?

“Our students are always excellent.”

“The professors in charge should take care of the graduation status of the students and send us a list of the students who are expected to fail graduation and the students who are not expected to pass the bar exam. We need to check the demand for the dormitory study rooms in advance.”

The current third-year students had taken the bar exam in the second week of January.

In the case of the essay-type and record-type questions, where you had to write long answers, the results came out late, but in the case of the multiple-choice questions, they could do a mock grading, which was used as an indicator to predict whether they would pass.

94% was no exaggeration to say that it was the highest in the entire country.

Originally, the bar exam was designed as a qualification exam that would only filter out people who were really incompetent, with the motto that ‘anyone who graduates from law school should be able to become a lawyer,’ unlike the bar exam of the past.

But now, due to the accumulated quota problem, around 3,500 people take the exam each time, and only around 1,700 people pass.

They were cutting out almost half of the applicants.

Considering that most of the applicants had graduated from good universities, and had studied for several years, receiving professional legal education and burning the candle at both ends, getting into the top half was by no means an easy task.

“The records of the second-years… are good. There are a lot of students who have good scores in prosecution practice. It looks like we’ll be producing a lot of prosecutors this year as well, thanks to Professor Jang Yong-hwan.”

“The students did well, what would I have done?”

Jang Yong-hwan waved his hand at the words that were flattering him.

It wasn’t humility, he genuinely thought that way.

He could prepare the materials and teach them how to study, but in the end, studying was something that you had to do on your own.

“Overall, there’s a lot of good news. A former graduate from the law school, Assemblyman Jung, donated a large sum of money this time as well. Let’s continue to enhance the status of Korea University Law School and create many good relationships.”

‘…It’s so obvious.’

Jang Yong-hwan clicked his tongue in his mind.

Vice Dean Choi Sung-chul was talented, but because he was someone who had come from the financial sector, he tended to be shrewd in money matters.

The mentioned Assemblyman Jung was known for having a rapidly declining approval rating recently.

It was obvious to everyone that he was trying to change his image with his charitable activities.

It crossed his mind that perhaps Choi Sung-chul had approached him first and brought him in.

“In that sense, how are the prospective first-years doing? I know that Professor Park Soo-geun and Professor Jang Yong-hwan are teaching those classes.”

“It seems like this year’s group is very outstanding. I’m personally looking forward to it.”

Park Soo-geun answered with a smile.

“First of all, the top tier is solid. Those students who were the top and second-ranked in the entrance exam are at a level where they could pass the bar exam right now if they just took it for civil law. And there is one other student that I’m keeping an eye on.”

“What a coincidence. I also have one.”

Jang Yong-hwan also added a word.

‘Park Yoo-seung, was it?’

He was an audacious guy.

When he had first asked the question, he had just sat there quietly as if he didn’t know anything, but as soon as the top student missed one of the hidden issues, he had stood up like a ghost and pierced the correct answer.

His skill at picking out only the most delicious parts was no joke.

“That’s good news. The prospective freshmen’s second test is coming up soon, right? I’d be grateful if you two could prepare for it as usual.”

In particular, he liked the way that he developed his logic starting from the truth or falsity of the evidence.

That was the thought process of someone who did investigations.

In other words, someone who was like Jang Yong-hwan himself.

There were many students who were just good at studying.

In the first place, if you weren’t at that level, you wouldn’t even be able to enter Korea University Law School.

But it was rare to see a diamond in the rough who had the mind of an investigator who could reveal hidden truths and find the links between logic and facts.

‘If he wants to pursue a completely different path, I have no intention of interfering…’

Jang Yong-hwan wanted to test his new protégé, whom he had met after a long time, a bit more.

“Vice Dean.”

“Yes, Professor Jang.”

“Can we change the method of the second test a bit?”

“…Pardon?”