Perfect Crown in Royal Academy of Korea - Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: The Campus in November

November, when the temperature lodged in the wind grew cool. The campus of the Royal Academy became fierce. It was because the sensitivity of the 12th-grade students, who held the university entrance examination ahead of them, grew severe day by day. Most of the Royal Academy enrolled students set a goal of entering the Royal University, but the students who made that goal into a reality were a mere minority.
 
"Ah, I'll just go study abroad."
 
"Are you saying you want to do a long-distance relationship with me right now?"
 
"No, Dayoung. How many times have I been suspended, to go to the Royal University. Let's go study abroad together too, huh?"
 
"Shh!"
 
Dayoung slapped the back of Taejoo's hand with a smack. It was a point in time when barely two weeks remained until the university entrance examination.
 
"You said you'd inherit the company. Then doesn't that mean you're going to do business in Korea?"
 
"What relationship does that have with this."
 
"Then a bachelor's degree must be received from the Royal University as a matter of course. Do you not know how important educational background is in our country?"
 
"Ah, I know it too well. I know, but...."
 
Taejoo knew that no matter how much he exerted effort, the Royal University was impossible. It wasn't that his grades were good like Sung Heejoo's, and it wasn't that he possessed a talent worth putting forward besides studying either. If there was a point better than Sung Heejoo at least, it was only to the extent that his peer relationships were not bad? Because at least he wasn't a fighting cock like Sung Heejoo.
 
But because he did tardiness like eating meals, didn't do assignments like eating meals, and did unauthorized outings like eating meals, he had to cross the crisis of expulsion countless times. Probably, if it weren't for his father's tremendous donation money, it was a track record where he would have been processed for expulsion long ago.
 
"You know, but?"
 
"No...."
 
When Dayoung stared while killing the light in her eyes, Taejoo's voice grew small. Taejoo also knew. That Dayoung, unlike himself, would end up entering the Royal University. It wasn't that Taejoo overevaluated Dayoung, but the fact was so. Because Dayoung's grades were good even if she played the same as Taejoo, she was good at calligraphy on top of that, and her peer relationships were good enough for her to take charge as the dormitory leader.
 
In addition, there was a special custom at the Royal University. A kind of privilege that granted extra points if there was someone from the Royal University among family members; although it wasn't a system openly prescribed in the regulations, it was a system that clearly existed.
 
And Dayoung possessed the qualification to use that system to her heart's content. Dayoung's father, who was holding the position of the Minister of Justice, and Dayoung's mother, who was a professor of the Department of Law at the Royal University, were both from the Royal University, and Dayoung's two older brothers were likewise enrolled in the Department of Law at the Royal University.
 
"I want to attend university together with you too. But you know it's realistically difficult."
 
Taejoo murmured with a dejected face.
 
"Uh-huh. Why does our Taejoo not use what he has?"
 
"What I have?"
 
"Yeah."
 
"Is there such a thing?"
 
Dayoung lightly cupped Taejoo's face, which wore an expression of not knowing at all.
 
"You have money."
 
"Money?"
 
"An immense amount of it, too."
 
Dayoung was not unaware that Taejoo's grades were at a level that wouldn't even go near the entrance of the Royal University. She was not unaware that he could not receive the privilege of the legacy system, and that he could not receive the recommendation letters of the teachers either. But she was also not unaware that there was no person who had as much money as Taejoo's father in this country.
 
"Do a donation admission."
 
"Ah, I hate it!"
 
Taejoo, who shook his head at once, raised his voice.
 
"Ah, why!"
 
"It's obvious that Sung Heejoo girl will go to the Royal University too, so why should I go."
 
"Are you doing this right now because you hate attending the same university as your younger sister?"
 
Dayoung asked with a flustered face.
 
"Ah, it's not that...."
 
"If not, what!"
 
"It's embarrassing. She will go with grades, but for me to go paying donation money...."
 
No matter how much Taejoo was a human with high self-esteem, he didn't wish to prove in every single matter that he was a seed inferior to his younger sister.
 
When it reached that point, Dayoung also gave up on persuading and shut her mouth. It wasn't because Taejoo's mind was understood. It was just that she didn't wish to pressure Taejoo, who was upset with a sullen face, any further.
 
"Sung Taejoo."
 
"Uh?"
 
"Do you have confidence not to cheat if you go to study abroad?"
 
Taejoo, who knew that those words were Dayoung's permission, rose while brightening up.
 
"Hey, Han Dayoung. I am Sung Taejoo. Do you think another woman besides you would be seen in my eyes?"
 
"If only you couldn't speak well."
 
"Uh-oh? You don't trust me?"
 
As the conversation of the two changed from bickering to flirting, the expression of Heejoo, who passed by that place by chance, slowly rotted away. Exactly why he was talking about going to study abroad because he couldn't study in that sort of way. Why that senior was liking it again, too.
 
"Do that senior's parents know that their daughter is meeting my brother."
 
Heejoo worried about a middle-aged couple whose faces she didn't even know for the first time on that day.
 
"What department are you going to go to, Oppa?"
 
Heejoo, who was studying in the library together with Jungwoo, asked. Whether it was because of the conversation between Taejoo and Dayoung she had heard during the day, she couldn't shake off the thought about university all day long.
 
"Suddenly?"
 
Jungwoo, who lowered his voice as if whispering, asked. Even after they became decently close, Heejoo never used to ask personal things. He had thought whether she was keeping lines well, or whether she had no curiosity. Seeing her ask with her eyes wide open, it seemed until now she just hadn't asked because there was nothing she was curious about.
 
"Yes, suddenly."
 
"Well... Sociology or Political Science and International Relations?"
 
"The Royal University?"
 
"Yeah."
 
"Is that your dream for real, Oppa?"
 
"Uh?"
 
"Your father is the Prime Minister, Oppa. So aren't you following along for nothing?"
 
Jungwoo, who was staring blankly at Heejoo asking with a serious face while leaning her body to the utmost, burst into chuckling. Heejoo, who doubted his future, which everyone thought of as a matter of course, as a matter of course, was interesting.
 
"What about you, then."
 
"Uh?"
 
"You said you'd manage the company following your father too."
 
"That's true...?"
 
Heejoo, who admitted readily, began to concentrate on math problems again. But before much time passed, she set down her mechanical pencil. Jungwoo, who noticed the nervousness loaded into that small movement, pulled out the earphone plugged into his ear.
 
"Why."
 
"Oppa, do you want to repeat a year for just about 3 years?"
 
"Me?"
 
"Yes, if you graduate, Oppa, I am an outcast again."
 
She knew it was an absurd complaint. She knew it wasn't words to say to a person who held the university entrance ahead of him. But thinking of Jungwoo graduating, it couldn't be helped that her mood dropped. Because it was an undeniable fact that her school life had become comfortable ever since getting close with Jungwoo.
 
"Repeating a year won't do."
 
"Annoying."
 
"...Shall we go to the snack bar?"
 
"Instead of repeating a year?"
 
"Instead of repeating a year."
 
Heejoo, who was quietly glaring at Jungwoo, let out a loose chuckle. Because it was absurd that the choice he chose on the account of it being his own way of comfort was the snack bar, it was also funny to complain further.
 
The two, who came out of the library, headed straight to the main building snack bar. Although it was to the extent that a chilly wind made the body shiver, Heejoo, who liked cold things, nimbly chose an ice cream.
 
The path heading to the dormitory was quite quiet.
 
"Heejoo."
 
Perhaps because of that, Jungwoo's voice was distinct, and,
 
"Uh?"
 
"You do early graduation."
 
"......"
 
The silence was long.
 
Heejoo, who was knitting her brows wondering what kind of sound it was, before long burst into laughter.
 
"Aie, I can't say anything. That from earlier was a joke."
 
"I am not joking."
 
"No, how do I do early graduation suddenly."
 
"If you prepare from now on, you can pull it forward by 1 year."
 
At Jungwoo answering without a trace of a smile, Heejoo's expression also became quite serious. Because just as Jungwoo said, it wasn't an entirely impossible story either.
 
"Still, I feel like it will be too intense...."
 
"I'll help you."
 
"You will, Oppa?"
 
"I have many past exam papers."
 
"No, past exam papers are not the problem...."
 
"If there is a teacher or senior you need a recommendation letter from, speak up. I'll get that for you too."
 
At Jungwoo speaking as if he had waited, Heejoo became absorbed in thought once more.
 
"Why are you being this active?"
 
"You said you hated being an outcast."
 
"I didn't say I hated it."
 
"......"
 
Jungwoo shrugged his shoulders instead of an answer. From the moment he heard the word telling him to repeat a year to until he found out the solution called early graduation, he didn't wish to get caught being quite desperate himself. Especially since the very party who brought up words like outcast or whatever appeared peaceful.
But—
 
"I feel good."
 
"About what."
 
"That you are on my side, Oppa."
 
At those words, pride welled up again. To the extent that he wanted to take her side a bit more actively, a bit more frequently.
 
"It would be good if you were my real brother, Oppa."
 
"I hate that, Heejoo."
 
"What?"
 
"I should have seen you hitting Sung Taejoo a bit."
 
It was a peaceful and cold November campus.