Chapter 5 – Episode 5. Encounter With Eunseo
***
– Took…
“Oooh!”
Dark red nosebleeds dripped onto the bookshelves filled with letters.
I didn’t care and immediately plugged my nose with a tissue.
And then I studied more.
Lately, I’ve been spending every day like this.
Two weeks?
Meeting Eunseo was the last time I met other women, and I studied with all my might.
I was not interested in being a celebrity.
It also had a special occasion. It was probably around the time I slept with a celebrity.
I wanted to live a normal life, secretly enjoy my life, and meet many beautiful women in such a freewheeling life for the next 10 years, until I got married.
What next live a really normal life
So, I studied hard.
***
When I was studying, it was past 10pm.
In the second half of the study, I didn’t even notice the time passing thanks to my concentration.
A day is passing by.
It was dark outside the window.
“Ugh~.”
I stretched as much as I could while sitting in my seat.
Even if I am immersed in my studies, of course, the net study time is not that much like 15 or 17 hours a day.
It is said that I work hard, but I am also a human being, so there are times when I think about other things during the civil service examination papers and online lectures, or doze off in the middle.
Still, I’m pretty good at the skill of studying itself.
Therefore, the progress is being pulled out well.
For me, since I am an existing test taker, not a new test taker, I can see progress as increasing the number of readings or solving more problems according to the corresponding unit rather than seeing something new.
-Sue…
I took out a notebook that had been placed on a bookshelf.
It is a notebook that you use when you finish your studies.
The notebook is marked with the date of each day, and I briefly checked the contents of today’s study in the notebook.
It can be seen as something like a diary, but it’s a little hard to describe it that way because it’s clunky.
-Shyuk…
Looking through this notebook, I feel that time goes by so fast.
Because I can see the things I wrote in the past days.
When studying for the civil service exam, 1 hour, 1 hour… Or one minute, one minute… I don’t think this time really goes by.
For some reason, it seems like time is passing as if a big time like a week or a month is pulled out in chunks.
October is already gone.
With just five months and a little more time left for the exam, I felt a little nervous.
When I decided to do it right…
That is, when I had been fucking with Eunseo day and night and then suddenly forgot about the day to pay the rent, and received a phone call from the landlord, I was furious and resumed my studies.
But now it’s not completely 5 months, but 6 months have been broken and the 5 months have entered.
Preparing for civil service exams is a bit like that.
I don’t know if it feels that way because it’s a rather long race, but it doesn’t seem like every day is the same, and it feels like the experience time changes depending on the remaining period.
If there are 11 or 12 months left, it seems like there is a lot left and I think I can study later.
Even with 8 or 9 months left, it seems like there’s a lot left, and I think I can study later.
However, when 6 months are broken, a sense of crisis begins to come little by little.
The good thing was that these days, studying was pretty good.
I am listening to the number of online lectures as much as I have aimed for, and I understand most of the contents well and move on.
I was about to fall by 1 point in the last test, but I found out that it wasn’t completely my ability, as I resumed studying.
There were some problems I got lucky with, and in fact, there were some things I was lacking in a little bit, and there were also things I studied but I couldn’t remember well, but I took this opportunity to review them again and again.
Conceit diminished.
As I studied hard again, I realized more and more that just because I fell by one piece of paper, it wouldn’t guarantee that I would get a higher score on the next test.
At the same time, I also regretted the past times.
What did I do all October?
After failing the last exam, I decided to take a break because I would be exhausted if I started studying right after the exam.
So, with my respectable appearance, I have continued to do things that are not difficult by any means: meet and fuck women, meet and fuck women.
I tried to take a break for about a month, but the inertia deepened, and I took a break from studying for about six months, and it was only after the test period was consumed more than half that I was able to properly hold onto the book again.
But what is past is past.
What I have to do now is to continue the study race, which started in mid-October, until the exam in April next year.
Rather than regretting the past, I think it is more promising to grasp what needs to be dealt with in the future.
After I finished studying for the day and finished writing in my notebook, I took out a beer from the refrigerator of an appropriate size in the studio.
– Tung
Closed the refrigerator.
Closing the refrigerator seems a bit breezy, maybe right after finishing my studies.
Carrying a can of cold beer, I went up to the roof.
It’s nice that the roof is a little open.
Studying is also a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of It’s okay to go up to the rooftop once in a while and see the open space.
It’s like sometimes when you go to the completely open sea, you feel like your mind is also open.
I settled down.
To the direction where you can see Koshi Village at a glance from the rooftop.
And, I opened a beer can.
-Tack!
Beer tastes best when it is full of carbonation, so I immediately drank it as soon as I opened it.
“Gulp, gulp…”
I liked the taste of the beer that went down my throat.
This cold taste.
Also, beer is imported.
“Big~.”
I grabbed a beer can and looked down over the rooftop.
People look small.
It’s past 10 o’clock, but there are a lot of people walking around.
This one is kind of like that originally.
Gosichon is not nightly, but there are still quite a few people until 1 am.
There are many places where not only people but also shops are open.
Those dazzling lights catch the eye.
Tteokbokki restaurant, Gopchang restaurant, Chicken gangjeong restaurant, discount mart, convenience store, bakery, etc…
You can see many shops.
Among them, I would like to pick PC rooms and bars as the most booming industries in this area.
Although it is a goshi village, there are many temporary residents in their 20s and 30s who are not that old.
Among them, there are those who do not have that much enthusiasm for the civil service exam, or those who want to play sometimes because they are tired of studying for the exam.
They flock to PC rooms and bars.
How do you look at this…
It could be seen as a fight with myself.
There is a saying called gyeonmulsaengsim.
In a place like the military where there are only men, you might think of women less, but in a place where there are so many women like this, it is impossible not to think of women again.
I see you passing by every day.
So it seems to me that the current me is fighting against myself every day.
This may be one thing that differs from person to person, but I don’t study well when I meet a girl.
In high school…
So considering my 26-year-old age, it’s already been nearly 10 years…
The first place in my school had a girlfriend.
I didn’t quite understand it.
What?
I really can’t study when I meet a girl.
So I think that dating has individual differences.
Anyway, October seems to have endured well.
I don’t mean to meet women.
I haven’t been to school yet
Will be going soon
According to the academy schedule, I go to the academy from next week.
You will hear the real lecture.
A problem-solving session is held.
It is usually held in odd months.
The lecture I decided to listen to this time is a comprehensive problem-solving class for a two-month course starting in November.
It’s fine with me too.
Studying at home every day seems to be advantageous in terms of time, but it can be emotionally boring, but listening to live lectures is a little refreshing and good in that respect.
Solve some problems by self-study.
It is to listen to some of the problem solving in the lecture in the actual lecture.
It seems that I started going to an academy just when I was feeling stuffy.
When I go back to school, I suddenly think of old times.
When I first came up to this goshichon.
A gosichon that was just amazing.
There are shops I have never seen before, studio villages and gosiwon villages that I have never seen before, and academies I have never seen before.
I felt strange and unfamiliar feelings as I wandered around in the things I had never seen before.
And in those moods, I devoted myself to my studies with passion.
That feeling at the beginning has been diluted a lot now.
Now, even the tangled roads of the gosichon are like a spider’s web.
I learned about all the shops to the extent that I could know where they went out of business, where new ones were opened, and even what new menus were launched.
I got used to it, and when I took the second test, I prepared quite a bit, so my skills improved.
From my point of view, this place seems to have a double meaning.
On the one hand, the more you get used to it, the more convenience facilities are nearby, so it’s probably more comfortable and cozy than home.
However, this place is also a swamp-like place that must be quickly escaped and consumed only among the landlords and merchants in the end.
This is because if you fall into mannerisms and become insensitive, a situation may occur in which you cannot distinguish whether this place is a swamp or a bed.
So, from mid-October, I have maintained my mindset that I will pass the exam by doing it properly.
As I was thinking about that, my cell phone rang in my pocket.
-Ugh, uh, uh, uh, uh…
I took my smartphone out of my pocket.
I wasn’t going to answer a woman’s phone call.
It is because I am of the opinion that dating the opposite sex cannot go hand in hand with studying.
‘What.’
By the way, the caller on the phone was not a woman.
It was Kim Joo-hwan, a ball friend.
We haven’t been in contact with each other since last year.
It happened because we were preparing each other for employment.
However, the frequency of contact or meeting does not determine closeness, and it has not changed in that Kim Joo-hwan and I are ball friends.
I got a call for some reason.
“Hello?”
-Uh, Jinhyeok. How are you been?
“It’s been a while~, how are you living?”
-Ah, I’m stuck in the second half of this year, so I contacted you to buy you a drink.
“Really? All~, that’s great! Hey~, where did you get it?”
I talked with Kim Joo-hwan.
Unlike me, who took the rapid graduation course, Kim Joo-hwan delayed graduation for a year to prepare for a job, but this time he graduated, and he was accepted by a large company.
Young.
Great.
It feels good to see my friends doing well.
I hope everyone is well.
I heard some stories about Kim Joo-hwan’s passing.
Like me, Joo-Hwan Kim also graduated from a well-known university, and he said he was accepted after writing over 80 applications.
The fort seems to have everything.
I thought it would be okay because he seemed satisfied.
After talking for a while, Kim Joo-hwan said that he should go to sleep, and he suggested that we meet tomorrow for a drink.
Hmm… I was a bit worried.
Still, wouldn’t it be okay to have a drink to commemorate the start of registering for the academy, as long as it doesn’t interfere with studying…
I rationalized my craving for alcohol after a long time.
Consent.
Kim Joo-hwan told me.
-Then I’ll go there tomorrow evening. What time is convenient? After you’ve done enough to study?
“No, I’ll go to Gangnam. That’s our front yard, isn’t it?”
-Nice! It’s like that again, do you want to go to the club?
To be honest, I was a little worried about Kim Joo-hwan’s proposal.
I had a hard time deciding to refuse.
“The club, um~, let’s go in late summer. From the written exam to the interview and the final presentation, it’s over.”
-Ah. Mr. Bar. I hope summer will come soon. Look at the return of our respectable Jinhyeok Lee.
“Until then, save some cash?”
-Yes, brother.
Haha! Oh, do you keep in touch with Jonghun?”
– Shall we go out with Jonghoon? I also recently contacted you again while preparing for the exam.
“Ah, is Jong-hoon good at going to the bank?”
-Uh. I passed in the first half of the year, so I think I’ve gotten used to it.
Our group is three.
Me. Joo-hwan Kim. Jonghun Choi.
They are friends from high school, and all three houses are close to Gangnam.
Everyone is scattering because they are at work or something, but that is our hideout.
“Okay, let’s see the three of you. You can also contact Jong-hoon and call him tomorrow.”
-I get it. Then see you tomorrow!
“Uh.”
The call has ended.
It’s been a while since I’ve been in touch with someone, so it’s a little disappointing that the phone call ended.
This seems to be a bit addicting to people too.
And it seems that talking with a woman, that is, with the opposite sex, is more addictive than a man.
Ah.
Shall we just go to the club tomorrow?
No, no.
If you start going clubbing once again, you might want to meet all the girls in the world.
Let’s just have a drink with Kim Joo-hwan in a quiet place.
Gangnam.
When we were in college, we would just have a drink in a friendly neighborhood where we used to meet once a week and have a drink while attending our respective universities.
Now let’s have a drink tomorrow.
From next week, I will go to the academy steadily and solve some of my problems.
Then, I promise myself to run until I pass.
Drinking a beer, I looked down at the rooftop a bit more.
It was to the extent that the night breeze might feel a bit cold, but it felt cool to me because I had come up after studying quite a bit and my head was slightly warmed by the saturation of knowledge.
