Chapter 16

“Seol-rin, is something bothering you?”  

Near the university, in a bustling food alley, Seol-rin and Mi-yeon were having pork bone soup for lunch when Mi-yeon suddenly asked. Startled, Seol-rin, who had been slurping down the spicy red broth, began coughing violently.  

“Cough, cough! W-Water!”  

“Water? Here. Are you okay, Seol-rin?”  

“Mm…”  

After gulping down some cold water, her flushed face finally returned to its normal color. Fanning herself with her hands, Seol-rin tried to act nonchalant as she turned to Mi-yeon.  

“Bothering me? What do you mean, all of a sudden?”  

“You don’t look so good. And when did you hurt your arm?”  

“Oh…”  

At some point, a large bandage had been plastered onto Seol-rin’s wrist. Even when the infirmary staff disinfected and applied ointment to the wound, Seol-rin hadn’t been able to focus. Her heart had been racing far too wildly.  

‘Have I really fallen for the professor? Is this true love?’  

Unable to keep bottling it up, Seol-rin finally spoke cautiously.  

“Mi-yeon, I need some advice.”  

“Yeah, sure, what’s up?”  

“Well… my feelings have been kind of all over the place lately.”  

“All over the place?”  

“Yeah…”  

“Why are you hesitating so much? Just spit it out.”  

“I… my heart races whenever I see the professor…”  

“What?!”  

Mi-yeon’s face turned pale at Seol-rin’s sudden confession. She knew all too well about Ma Tae-oh’s notorious history. She was well aware of how many assistants, full of confidence, had been fired in record time. The reason was always the same—they had fallen helplessly for Tae-oh and pursued him persistently.  

“I was wondering how you’ve lasted this long…”  

Mi-yeon let out a deep sigh, and Seol-rin, feeling guilty, hung her head.  

“But… honestly, I’m not even sure if I really like the professor. It’s all so sudden… My heart races, but that could just be because he’s so good-looking.”  

“Well, there’s a pretty standard way to figure that out.”  

“Huh?”  

“There’s a way to tell if you like someone.”  

“What’s that?”  

Seol-rin leaned in, curious about Mi-yeon’s next words.  

“Imagine kissing them. If you think, ‘Yeah, I could kiss this person,’ then it means you have feelings for them, even if it’s just a little.”  

“What?! But I already—!”  

Seol-rin’s voice rose, but she quickly fell silent. Come to think of it, she had already done more than kiss the professor—in her dreams, at least.  

“…”  

Do I have to admit it now? 

Seol-rin rubbed her face with her hands, her expression troubled.  

“What do I do, Mi-yeon…?”  

“Wait a second. Jin Seol-rin, are you saying you’d actually kiss the professor?”  

Seol-rin nodded hesitantly, her face blank with despair.  

“Yeah… I’d totally kiss him.”  

“Oh my gosh, you crazy girl! Are you out of your mind?!”  

Mi-yeon smacked Seol-rin on the back with a loud thwack.  

“Hey, what was that for? That hurt!”  

“It was supposed to hurt! Ugh, get a grip! If you’re not careful, you’ll get fired on the spot!”  

“I knooow… I know that…”  

No one knew this better than Seol-rin herself. After all, Mi-yeon had warned her repeatedly before she started working as an assistant—never, under any circumstances, fall for Ma Tae-oh.  

“Now I see why they call him ‘SexMa.’ To think he could steal the heart of Jin Seol-rin, who’s been single for 27 years. I thought you weren’t interested in men at all since you never dated.”  

“Ugh, whatever. I don’t care anymore. Let’s stop talking about this. It’ll pass eventually.”  

“Pass, my foot! You’re going to be seeing him for the next year. Do you really think you can avoid falling for him even more?”  

“Hmm…”  

Honestly, she wasn’t confident. Just this morning, her heart had felt like it was about to burst the moment she saw Tae-oh’s face. If this kept happening, and she blushed every time, he’d definitely find it strange.  

After some serious thought, Seol-rin shook her head.  

“I’m not confident, but I have to let it go. The best thing to do is to stop these feelings before they grow any bigger.”  

Even as she said it, her mouth felt bitter. Feeling frustrated, she bit into a cucumber on her plate with a loud crunch.  

“Ugh, it’s bitter. Why is this cucumber so bitter?”  

But she couldn’t even chew it properly before spitting it out. The dried-out cucumber was neither sweet nor refreshing—it just tasted bitter. Frantically, Seol-rin reached for her water.  

Watching her, Mi-yeon clicked her tongue in pity, then her eyes suddenly lit up.  

“Wait a second. If it’s come to this, maybe we should change tactics.”  

“Tactics? What tactics?”  

“Why not try seducing Professor Ma Tae-oh yourself?”  

“What?”  

“Operation ‘Seduce Sexy Professor Ma’!”  

“Pfft!”  

Seol-rin spat out the water she had been drinking. Coughing and spluttering, her face turned beet red. She was so shocked by what she had just heard that her mind went blank.  

“Hey, what the heck are you doing?!”  

“And what the hell are you even saying all of a sudden?”

Seol-rin stared at Mi-yeon in disbelief. 

What? Who was supposed to seduce whom?  

“Why give up before you even try? Falling for someone after 27 years might just be a sign from the heavens.”  

“Mi-yeon, be serious. How could I possibly… seduce the professor?”  

Her voice trailed off. Just saying it felt wrong, like she was committing a grave sin. The idea of seducing none other than Ma Tae-oh himself was absurd.  

“And why not?”

“Of course I can’t! And besides, there’s no way the professor and I would ever work out.”

“No, I mean, why are you so sure about that? The age difference isn’t much, and you’re not even in a teacher-student relationship, so what’s the big deal? To be blunt, if you quit being an assistant, you’d just be strangers!”

Mi-yeon’s argument had some merit. No matter how much of a professor-assistant relationship it was, Tae-oh and her were only four years apart. 

Isn’t there a saying that a four-year age gap doesn’t even need compatibility checking?

But the tempting thought lasted only briefly. Seol-rin shook her head firmly once again.

“No way, it’s still ridiculous.”

“What’s so ridiculous about it?”

“Even if I concede a hundred times and say I’m trying to seduce the professor, do you think Professor Ma Tae-oh would even look at me? A guy that young, handsome, and capable falling for someone like me who has nothing? It’s like a comedy skit.”

“Hmm. Don’t be so hard on yourself…”

At Seol-rin’s logical rebuttal, Mi-yeon quickly quieted down. Seizing the moment, Seol-rin began to fire off her thoughts rapidly.

“And you were the one who told me at the beginning not to fall for the professor, remember? So why are you suddenly encouraging me to seduce him now?”

“I just… feel bad, that’s all.”

“Feel bad?”

“It’s just, it’s the first time I’ve seen you interested in someone. You never said anything like this even back in college.”

From Mi-yeon’s perspective, she truly felt sorry for her friend. Throughout their school days, Seol-rin had never experienced a proper college life, let alone dating, as she struggled with tuition fees and juggled three or four part-time jobs a day. That image of her friend lingered vividly in Mi-yeon’s mind. That’s why she wanted to cheer for Seol-rin’s feelings, even if the target was the unattainable Ma Tae-oh.

“Thanks for worrying, but anyway, there’s absolutely no way anything can happen between the professor and me. Besides, I’ve even seen a former assistant confess to Professor Ma and get brutally rejected. If you had witnessed that brutal scene yourself, you wouldn’t be telling me to seduce him.”

“A former assistant? You mean that ‘Gu Fox’?”

“Gu Fox?”

“Yeah, Gu Yu-na. She was famous for flirting with male professors to get good grades. So even the infamous Gu Yu-na fell for Professor SexMa, huh?”

“Anyway, even someone as pretty and curvy as her got rejected like a soccer ball, so I don’t stand a chance at all.”

“What did Professor SexMa say when Gu Yu-na confessed?”

“He told her to die.”

“What?”

“She went on about how she’d rather die if he didn’t accept her, and he told her to just go ahead and die.”

“Wow…”

Mi-yeon let out a sigh, amazed at how harsh he was.

“If he finds out I have feelings for him, the professor will definitely say something like, ‘Assistant Jin Seol-rin, don’t come to work starting tomorrow.’ Ugh, it gives me chills.”

“Well, I can’t really argue with that…”

“I’ll just… hmm, yeah. I’ll think of it as fangirling over the professor for a year. Like how people fangirl over idols.”

“Well, if that’s how you see it, there’s nothing I can do…”

“So stop saying ridiculous things about me seducing the professor. Ugh.”

Exaggerating her reaction, Seol-rin shuddered and then smiled brightly. Her heart briefly warmed at the sincere concern of her friend.

“Still, thank you. There’s no one else like you who cares about me this much, Kim Mi-yeon.”

“Pfft, what are you saying? Stop being so cheesy and let’s eat. We’ve got less than 20 minutes left for lunch.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Responding energetically, Seol-rin slurped down the bright red soup.