Chapter 75: Even the Privileged Have Exams

“Wow… so even someone high and mighty like you can’t escape exams?”

“Right? He’s been MIA, but look at him, showing up to school like clockwork.”

After numerous calls, a few classmates whose names and faces I recognized spotted me and gathered around, greeting me warmly.

“If I get an academic warning, I’m screwed. The penalty for me is terrifying.”

“Penalty? What kind of penalty?”

“If I mess up my school life, my grandfather won’t give me stock. It’s a huge deal.”

“Sto… stock?”

“Yeah. Stock is scarier than a failing grade. Heh.”

I even laughed to clearly show it was a joke, but these guys seemed to take it seriously. Their faces were serious, and their mouths hung open.

“Seriously? One failing grade could cost you billions?”

“No, wouldn’t it be tens, or even hundreds of billions? If it’s the Chairman’s shares, it’d be in the holding company, right?”

Oh, these kids… they’re taking it seriously again.

Are chaebols like fantasy figures to ordinary people? The more unrealistic the story, the more they seem to believe it.

“Hey! Enough! Let’s talk after the exam.”

I chased away the surrounding classmates and opened my textbook.

I scanned the table of contents, gathering my thoughts.

It’s obvious I’ll write nonsense answers anyway, but as long as they have logical consistency, it’s fine.

And as long as it’s not blank. If I fill the answer sheet reasonably, I’ll get a C or D. How much scholarship money am I getting from the Soonyang Scholarship Foundation anyway?

As the first day of exams ended, a few kids flocked to me again.

“Do-jun, want to grab a beer?”

“What about tomorrow’s exam? Did you give up?”

“We’re just having one quick drink.”

Even Seoul National University is no different.

I thought only the students at the no-name university I attended would drink during exam periods, but even at a prestigious university, people are still people.

“I told you, my stock is on the line! Let’s have a drink at the end-of-semester party after the exams. It’s on me. Deal?”

Their eyes changed when I said it was on me.

“Hey, hey! Don’t get your hopes up too high. It’s nothing fancy. I’m talking about soju or beer.”

“The choice is one of those two, but the quantity is unlimited, right?”

As if waiting for this, one of them asked back.

Ah, right, these guys are still freshmen.

They’re at the age where being able to drink their fill without worrying about money is enough to make them happy.

“Yeah, it’s unlimited, you guys. Heh.”

* * *

These bastards. It looks like they’re determined to get their money’s worth.

After the final exams, the place the guys dragged me to was the biggest pub in front of the school.

It was already packed with no empty seats, and I could see some seniors here and there.

Thankfully, the guys who talked to me casually sat at the same table, so the awkwardness was greatly reduced.

“Alright, let’s order. Do-jun, what do you want to eat?”

“Hey! Would Do-jun even have been to a place like this? Just order whatever.”

A place like this? I’ve been to countless.

How many times have I wanted to order freely but couldn’t because I didn’t have the money?

Thinking back to those times, I chuckled.

Since I’m paying, I should get them to eat what I wanted to eat but couldn’t back then.

I raised my hand and quickly called a part-time worker.

“Are you taking alcohol orders from other tables?”

“Yes, we’re doing a unified order with 3,000cc pitchers.”

“Cancel that and bring out bottled beer for everyone.”

“Pardon?”

“What?”

The classmates were even more surprised than the server.

“It’s a rare occasion to drink, so when I treat, I should do it right. I can’t be called stingy.”

As I said with a slight smile, the mouths of the guys at the table stretched wide.

“Hey! Do-jun’s buying bottled beer!”

One guy jumped up and shouted, and a moment of silence fell.

Soon after, cheers erupted.

Right. What better high-class alcohol for young guys without money than bottled beer?

“Do-jun, can we drink Capri?”

Someone shouted loudly.

Capri? Ah… that yellow, Miller knock-off-like beer you drink with your eyes?

I shrugged.

“Capri is bottled beer too, isn’t it? Drink whatever.”

A happy smile came naturally.

The young days when you can feel good with just a bit of extravagance.

Sometimes I need to mingle with these guys and not miss out on these simple pleasures, I resolved.

“Right, we need to order appetizers.”

I picked up the menu and scanned the appetizer list.

Okay. There are a few eye-catching food photos.

I raised my hand high.

“Excuse me!”

The server rushed over like a bullet.

“First, give us eight bottles of Capri.”

Ignoring the classmates who were just blinking, I picked up the menu again and pointed out the appetizers.

“For appetizers… let’s see… one ‘Ssoya’ [sausage and vegetables stir-fry], spicy whelk salad with somyeon noodles… oh, and one nogari [dried young pollock].”

As I closed the menu, the server checked the memo they had written down.

“Eight bottles of Capri, Ssoya, spicy whelk, nogari. Is that correct?”

“Yes. Ah, just a moment. Do you happen to have dried anchovies with gochujang as a service?”

“Yes, of course.”

One of the classmates, who had been spacing out, snapped back to attention and hurriedly shouted.

“Order chicken too!”

“Okay. Seasoned? Fried?”

“Fri, fried.”

The server nodded and went back, and the guys finally opened their mouths.

“What is it? You go to places like this too? You know your way around?”

“A chaebol’s heir at a pub! That doesn’t fit the picture, man!”

Suddenly, I became curious. Did my other chaebol heir cousins frequent pubs too? Had they ever shared a single bowl of odeng [fish cake] soup with soju?

“I go often. My family goes to ‘Tudari’ [a chain pub] for ‘gochi’ [grilled chicken skewers] too, and I drink soju with my cousins with a single stew in front of us. What, did you think we only go to hotel restaurants or expensive specialty restaurants every day?”

My classmates’ eyes widened.

“When we eat at home, we don’t eat a 12-course royal meal every time. We just have soup, stew, side dishes, and rice. Nothing special.”

As someone who comes from a humble background, pretending to be ordinary is easy for me.

Using this opportunity to also launder my chaebol heir image was killing two birds with one stone.

As we quickly emptied the beers and ordered a few more bottles, some seniors cautiously approached.

I didn’t recognize them, so I just blinked, but my classmates jumped up and bowed.

“Sorry to barge in, a graduating senior.”

“No problem, Sunbae-nim.”

When they said they were fourth-year students, I also stood up.

Seeing graduating students wandering around after the end of classes, they must be preparing for employment.

If their goal was to become a judge or prosecutor, they should be buried in law books 365 days a year.

“Mind if we borrow your table? It’ll only be a moment.”

Judging by their expressions, something was up. I had a rough idea.

“Do-jun. We purposely stopped by to ask you something. Is that alright?”

“Yes, Sunbae-nim. Please, go ahead.”

The seniors took deep breaths and downed their beers.

“Actually, the three of us got jobs at financial companies, but one went bankrupt, and the other two received notices of offer cancellations. They said they won’t be hiring new employees this year….”

What to do.

They probably chose those places because of the high salaries, but now they’ll graduate as unemployed. If it were a big company, even if the salary was a bit lower, at least they wouldn’t be unemployed.

“Ah, don’t get me wrong. We’re not asking you for a job.”

The seniors frantically waved their hands, perhaps noticing my bitter expression.

“The IMF. What do you think will happen? You know a lot more than we do, right? You probably have a lot of high-level information floating around you.”

“We have no choice but to retake the job hunt… To be honest, if things are still like this in a year, we’re going to change course. We’ll either prepare for the bar exam or the higher civil service exam.”

The seniors’ question made the surroundings quiet. Everyone perked up their ears and stared at my mouth.

What should I say?

Should I tell them the truth? Or should I offer comfort?

Even if they’re graduating seniors, they’re still like children in the real world.

Inside the school, they act like adults, talking about their military service, but once they leave the school, they’re just naive kids.

Even if I tell these kids what’s going to happen, will they truly feel the deep truth of it?

But I couldn’t ignore the seniors’ earnest gazes, treating them like clueless children.

“If I may share my thoughts… give up on job hunting and prepare for the bar exam or the higher civil service exam. Aren’t you good at studying? It’s not too late, so start quickly.”

Disappointment was evident on the seniors’ faces when the answer they had hoped for didn’t come.

“Does that mean it’ll be difficult to find a job next year too because of the IMF?”

Next year?

It will be difficult forever.

Finding a job will only become more difficult. Even for Seoul National University graduates.

“Forget about finding jobs, even the people who are currently employed will be getting cut. A storm of layoffs will blow under the guise of corporate restructuring.”

“Lay… layoffs?”

“Yes. Even most major companies will be cutting at least 30%. The IMF crisis isn’t just about a shortage of liquid funds. It means our country is in a state of economic default.”

The seniors’ silence spread throughout the pub. The lively noise gradually began to diminish.

“The concept of a lifelong job has disappeared. Companies can fire employees at any time, and a new term called ‘non-regular worker’ will emerge.”

“Non-regular worker? What’s that?”

Non-regular worker, a foreign concept that emerged in this era.

How should I explain it?

At that moment, the part-time worker walking around the hall caught my eye. I pointed at the worker.

“Does that part-time worker pay income tax or withholding tax?”

“Probably not?”

“What about severance pay?”

“Why would a part-time worker get severance pay?”

The seniors started looking at me with bewildered expressions.

“Then what if the boss tells them to quit tomorrow?”

“They’d have to quit, right?”

“That’s what a non-regular worker is. It’s not just used in places like this, but also big companies hire in this form.”

The era where ‘Our wish is not unification, but a permanent job’ dominates Korea is not far off.

But they don’t grasp the reality. I could tell from their expressions right now.

They were all looking at me with disbelief, and I said to the surrounding classmates.

“It will take quite some time to overcome the national default and for the economy to return to normal. If you’re thinking about employment instead of preparing for state exams, go to the military first. At least you can delay graduation, right? Better to avoid the downpour.”

But because the atmosphere was so gloomy, my words probably carried quite far. Many students were tilting their heads in confusion.

It’s true that these stories won’t resonate with the freshmen who have barely finished their first year.

But from next year, when the real storm hits and the people around them become victims of the IMF, they will understand my words about avoiding the downpour.

Is it because of the old man instincts sleeping inside me?

My worries and nagging became long. How do I recover the sunken atmosphere?

Fortunately, the fourth-year seniors were a bit better.

“Thanks to you, I’ve come to my senses. Thank you.”

“No problem. I might have been too negative. The people around me who run companies always have the worst-case scenario in mind.”

“We need to think about the worst-case scenario and prepare. We’re graduating now, after all.”

The seniors smiled bitterly and raised their glasses.

“This is a mess because of us. Sorry. Cheers!”

“You guys still have plenty of time left. Plenty of time to avoid the downpour and plenty of time to prepare. Don’t worry and drink up today. Haha.”

Even if it was a forced laugh, it helped to turn the atmosphere around.

Besides, as freshmen, they are still far removed from reality. The students’ voices began to rise again.

But silence fell again.

It was because of the person who burst through the door, bringing a gust of cold air with them.

They were wearing a thick down parka, a fur hat, and a scarf that hid everything but their eyes, but it was clear enough that they weren’t a man.

The woman glanced around the pub and strode towards my table.

When she took off her scarf, a pretty face was revealed.

“Jin Do-jun. It’s been a while.”

I knew who it was. It was the girl who didn’t take the laptop at the freshman orientation party.

But I couldn’t remember her name. The name was on the tip of my tongue, what was it?

Seeing my expression, the girl clicked her tongue as if she was dumbfounded.

“You forgot my name, didn’t you?”

I made the mistake of nodding my head in bewilderment.