Semantic Error

Sangwoo waited for Jang Jaeyoung with three bullets loaded1. He didn’t expect the day would come when he’d want to see him. Now, Sangwoo couldn’t wait to see Jang Jaeyoung’s flustered expression. He sat in the fourth row, at the second seat on the right, and waited. His textbook was open, but, these days it was just a habitual setup that didn’t mean anything.

Even if he was the TA, Jaeyoung hadn’t even arrived after the professor did. Sangwoo had turned his body to look at the back entrance, but there was no red padding among the students who were rushing in.

“Where are you looking? I’m right here,” said the man with his hand in his pocket in Jaeyoung’s voice.

Sangwoo stiffened. The reason why he was surprised was because he was wearing a dark green coat. Moreover, he wasn’t even wearing glasses.

When the man who had occupied the most perfect seat in the classroom in advance sat down, Sangwoo felt seriously confused. The mere fact that he didn’t wear red padding made him feel like his data model  was broken. Anyway, whatever it was he was wearing on the outside, it was clear that he was Jang Jaeyoung. So, Sangwoo took out the first bullet he had prepared, the divider, and placed it on his right side. He heard laughter coming from behind the yellow cardboard.

“You probably know that the skits start next Thursday. I’d like to start preparing during this class.”

He was aware of this, as it was written in the syllabus. The task of two people presenting a three-minute short play in Chinese was an important assignment that accounted for 20% of the total evaluation. The professor handed out the assignment to the first row of students (it wasn’t done by the TA) and used the projector to display the pairing list.

“It’s a list of the skit pairs and the order of the presentations. It would be disadvantageous to have an early presentation date, but it will be considered in the evaluation.”

While looking through the list, Sangwoo found his name. The problem was the name next to it.

Choo Sangwoo (Computer Engineering), Jang Jaeyoung (Visual Design)

3/14 (Thursday) Presentation

“…….”

Out of the over 30 students, not only did he have to be paired with him, but they also had to present first, which was on Thursday the following week. When Sangwoo raised his hand, the professor looked at him.

“Do you have any questions?”

“If I can’t proceed with the team because I don’t like the team member, would I be able to change it, professor?”

She replied with a frown.

“No, some students are better and some are lacking. You have to use teamwork to overcome that. I was afraid people would ask this, so I asked the TA to choose at random. So you don’t have to worry about it being unfair. Do you have any other questions besides changing groups or presentation dates?”

‘That bastard’s got a problem with fairness, professor….’

She cut him off so firmly that Sangwoo lost the courage to ask more. As he had already been branded by Professor Choi of the “Embedded Systems” class, he kept quiet because of the anxiety that he’d stand out here as well. At that moment, the divider collapsed like a scarecrow and fell to the floor. Jang Jaeyoung, with his chin supported in his hands, had a strange smile.

“Just trust your hyung. I’ll carry you.”

‘Shut up, please!’

Sangwoo stuffed the useless divider into his backpack.

He waited a little while before he got his handout. Sangwoo kept the paper before Jaeyoung left, and wrote down his student number and name on the top left.

“There are some expressions that you learned in “Beginner’s Chinese,” and some that are more advanced. You can use these 100 sentences to form a skit. Now, meet your partners and discuss with them.”

Sangwoo read the handout diligently. About 30% of the sentences were stuff he had memorized in the past, so he could already understand their meaning.

Sangwoo got an A in his “Beginner’s Chinese” class during his freshman year. He had perfect attendance and got a full score on his exams, but many points had been deducted from the skit and the oral exams. Therefore, in order to get an A+ this time, all he had to do was to get as many points as possible on the skit.

Since he wasn’t taking that many classes, he had plenty of time to practice, but if he had a problem, it was that he had a partner who would do anything to hold him back. However, Sangwoo did not worry too much. In the worst case, he was planning on just playing both roles during the performance. Either way, the syllabus stated that they would be scored individually.

He opened his notebook and wrote down his ideas. He was going to do it alone, but Jaeyoung dragged the desks that were side by side and moved so he sat back to front with Sangwoo’s desk. Without looking at him, Sangwoo said:

“There are many expressions to ask and answer about locations, so let’s use a set-up where we help Chinese exchange students who came to Hanguk University with directions. I’ll play the Korean, so sunbae should be Chinese.”

Even though he wasn’t waiting for a response, Jaeyoung muttered as if he had been waiting.

“That’s hella fucking cheesy. I would have been in big trouble if I made a game with you.”

“…….”

Come to think of it, he always criticized Sangwoo for his lack of creativity. While he said that “Yachae Man” wasn’t fun, he also told him that he lacked imagination on two separate occasions. He had even given him zero points in the originality category in the acrostic poem evaluation.

“Then come up with an idea.”

Sangwoo threw his sharpener onto the notebook and leaned back on the chair as Jaeyoung always did. Then he felt like he was doing something with his arms crossed. After looking through the handout of Chinese sentences, Jaeyoung said:

“Let’s talk about voice phishing during the Qing Dynasty.”

“What?”

“At first, we’ll sell things at the market. How much is it? It’s 100,000 won for two clusters of grapes.2 It’s too expensive. Please stop. Violence is an illegal act. Please exit through that door. Let’s use all kinds of buy and sell expressions…”

Sangwoo, who was getting ready to snort, gradually fell into the story.

“Today’s income is 0 won. I am very poor. I have no money. Use these expressions… I’ve sold all my stuff. I bought a phone with the remaining money. The remaining money is 0 won. I’ll write this…Oh, here’s a good one. I’m a swindler.” Jaeyoung continued.

Sangwoo began to organize the plot in his notebook by checking the sentences he mentioned in the handout.

“I’m calling with a cell phone, ring ring. Wei3? I am with your son. Give me 10 billion won please. He can go back home. Then the person answering the phone says this. I am unmarried. You’re a swindler.”

“And so? What about the ending?”

“Not sure, what would you prefer?”

Sangwoo thought hard about it, but he couldn’t think of what the peddler, who failed to voice phishing in the Qing Dynasty, would do. At best…

“You starved to death because there was no rice?”

“…yeah, that’s very you. There’s a good expression here. I’m hungry. Please give me food. Expressions about dying are not on the list, but it’s fine if we use that. I’ll bequeath the phone to my younger brother through my will.”

Sangwoo organized the contents and read through it once. Although the material looked a little strange, it contained an appropriate amount of both easy and advanced expressions. Then he had a question.

“Why the Qing Dynasty in particular?”

“That professor is a history buff on the Qing Dynasty. If we show up wearing outfits from the Qing Dynasty and Chinese queues, we’ll probably get a perfect score.4“

“What kind of nonsense is that….”

“Look here. ‘Production/Humor/Preparation.’ 20%”

He had been wondering why those items were included. In addition, the allocation was extremely high, considering that 50% accounted for ‘Intonation/Pronunciation/Fluency,’ and 30% for ‘Level of difficulty/Relevance of lines/Grammar.’ When Sangwoo made a face indicating that he couldn’t understand, Jaeyoung said:

“She’s a professor in our club, so I know her well.”

“What club is it?”

“The theater department.”

Sangwoo’s mechanical pencil lead snapped and broke. It was unintended, but it hit Jaeyoung’s face, so he frowned and rubbed his cheek with his hand. Sangwoo’s walk had inevitably been stopped because of the theater department’s schedule. Even that was a hoax.

Sangwoo turned away from Jaeyoung and began to make lines as if pretending that he wasn’t sitting in front of him. He only wrote down the Korean meaning of the sentences he didn’t know, and copied the sentences he knew or that were on the list. Jaeyoung was quiet for some reason.

“…….”

Except he was too quiet to the point where it bothered him. It was normal for him to slap the desk, mock him, noisily hand over the book, or do something, but he didn’t do anything. Sangwoo looked up because things felt out of place. Then, he met Jaeyoung’s eyes, which were very close to him. He was staring at Sangwoo’s face, with his chin resting on the back of his hands.

“That’s amazing.”

He said that and kept staring. Sangwoo immediately lowered his head and moved his pencil.

“What’s amazing is….”

Jaeyoung whispered very quietly: “We found something in common.”

There couldn’t have been such a thing. Sangwoo’s face creased at the unpleasant words.

Jaeyoung laughed quietly: “Look at your expression. I meant the handwriting.”

Sangwoo was shocked in a different way. He had never considered himself good at writing, but he didn’t think that his writing was that messy:

“Don’t disturb me.”

“Sangwoo.”

He called his name in a low and friendly voice. After two days of crazy harassment, it was funny that he pretended to be nice now.

“You’re so cool, aren’t you?”

Ignore.

“I don’t think there are any grudges. You’re sitting face-to-face with a scum, thug, sadist, and we’re even doing assignments together.”

Ignore.

“Sangwoo.”

Ignore.

“What do you think of the word ‘revenge’?”

Ignore.

“There has to be some degree of emotions involved with that too, right? It seems like I am like a fly to you, so you wish I would just get out of your way. Don’t you?”

Ignore.

“Does it taste good when you chew on hyung’s words?”

“We don’t have a bastard bully in our family.5“

“You’re starting to go too far, you cunt.”

“I’m working on this. Please be quiet.”

“If you do me a favor.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Take off your hat.”

It was a rather absurd suggestion. Sangwoo raised his eyes and saw Jaeyoung with his chin still resting on the back of his hands. He thought the way he was looking at him was a new kind of mockery, but his face just looked brazen. Sangwoo decided to ignore him.

As soon as he finished writing the last line, Jaeyoung took away his notes. He reviewed his lines in a condescending manner, saying, “I see,” or “better than expected.” Then he wrote something down with Sangwoo’s pencil.

There was no space in the notes that Jaeyoung handed back. He filled in the lines with Chinese characters in parts that Sangwoo had left blank.

‘Why is he like this?’

Sangwoo felt flustered. Come to think of it, he had written down the contents of the skit, and today he was only cooperating, not even  interrupting. Did he decide to stop harassing him?

“What’s up?”

“What?”

“You’ve been chasing me all the way to the end of the world to harass me, and it seems that you’ve settled your grudge in two days.”

Jaeyoung had been doing this and that. He had been a worthless bully and an immaculately-dressed restaurant part-timer. Then, after he’d gotten angry while cursing, he’d been all smiles, then chased after him like he wanted to kill him. Then, he’d made him do acrostic poems and then after following him around and harassing him, he’d helped with the team assignment. Jang Jaeyoung was the strangest person Sangwoo had ever come across in his life.

“How’s the story going?”

At that moment, he heard the professor’s voice, who had been walking around and surveying the students’ progress. She approached them and raised her eyebrows appraisingly.

“Oh, paired with Jaeyoung, huh? There won’t be any problems here.”

“No, professor. Sangwoo here did everything.”

Why is he like that? 

Sangwoo felt flustered by the unexpected response. The professor looked at Sangwoo with fond eyes.

“Okay. Let’s see what kind of lines Sangwoo wrote.”

Normally, he would have responded with the truth, “No, Jaeyoung did the entire outline, and I only wrote it down,” but no words of praise were able to come out of his mouth. Sangwoo politely handed his notes to the professor. She burst into laughter shortly after.

“A Qing Dynasty merchant! That sounds like a lot of fun. Hahaha! Nice content. Aha! But the lines are a bit….”

Then her face, which had only been bright, gradually grew darker.

“That’s too vulgar. Where did you learn to swear like this? Jaeyoung! You wrote it, right?

The professor stared at Jaeyoung and saw that he was empty-handed. It was Sangwoo who held the mechanical pencil. The professor’s scornful gaze shifted from Jaeyoung to Sangwoo.

“Correct the lines. If you present it like this, you’ll get 0 points. Do you understand?

“…yes.”

Sangwoo was forced to respond that way as the professor was glaring at them. Jaeyoung grinned after the professor handed Sangwoo back the notes and left. Sangwoo clenched his teeth and erased Jaeyoung’s writings.

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“I have some grudges, unlike you.”

Afraid that there would be light traces left, Sangwoo meticulously erased his writings.

______________________________________________________________________________

Footnotes

1. This is referring to Jihye’s metaphorical battle plan for Sangwoo arming him with ammunition, bullets in this case, to deal with Jaeyoung.
2.  100,000 won is roughly $88.
3. wéi; 喂  is how you answer a phone call in China, just like how Koreans answer with yoboseyo; 여보세요?
4. A hairstyle that was common during the Qing Dynasty. Basically a half a bald head with a pigtail. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/27/88/79/278879ea3dfe2b96ec4c250a4990e096.jpg
5. Hyung means older brother in Korean (when said by a male to an older male). It is also used by friends, indicating a close relationship.