Despite him wanting to study further, he had no choice but to go along with his mother’s wishes.
“My fiancé’s heart ached for my situation and he decided to sponsor my admission into a famous university abroad with a hundred million dollars. Through his actions, I was able to get accepted into that university. After that, I came to Seoul national University as an exchange student and was eventually transferred here to become a proper student of Seoul national University. This is my so-called ‘secret’ that Teacher song spoke of.”
Taehyung paused for a moment before continuing. “The matter of my fiancé spending a hundred million dollars to exchange an opportunity for me to be enrolled in a foreign university is a common occurrence. The only difference is that my fiancé happens to be wealthier and was able to afford a larger sum. But this is unrelated to Seoul national University. Seoul national University remains the best university in the country, and I am not being kept by some man. I do not think that by transferring here from a different school, I am humiliating seoul national University’s reputation.”
In his previous life, he had been foolish and suffered a lot of coldness and humiliation after enrolling here.
With jennie and eunji's interference, he blamed all of this on jungkook and felt that if he had not been a busybody, he would not have to go through this.
He never even thanked him once for the money he had spent.
In fact, the trouble he met in school was completely unrelated to him.
Jungkook had helped him in getting a chance to progress from being just a high school graduate. Moreover, he gave him the opportunity to become a student in Seoul national University, the school that everyone dreamed of attending.
After gaining clarity in his mind, his heart genuinely ached for how much jungkook had done for him. He finally knew that jungkook had the best intentions for him.
If things went as they did in his last life, he would suffer today’s defamation and the school would decide to expel him. Then, jungkook would secretly interfere to suppress the matter.
In the four years he stayed in university, he was almost expelled many times. It was with jungkook's help that he eventually managed to graduate from this place.
Still, whenever teachers or students brought his name up, they would consider him to be a stain on the university’s reputation. Jungkook's reputation suffered as well because of him.
Thus, in this life, even without depending on jungkook, he would definitely eliminate all those stains on his reputation and become an independent man. This way, he would be able to... be of some support to him.
Upon hearing taehyung's version, all the students and teachers fell silent.
“Is that the truth?” The person who asked this was eunwoo, who was leaning against the door.
“Of course it’s a lie.” iseul responded angrily. “he’s a kept man and he spent a hundred million dollars to be enrolled here. He isn’t an exchange student at all!”
Eunwoo became unhappy. “Teacher song, you have to be responsible for your words. Do you mean to say that someone from Seoul national University accepted the money? If you do, everyone will assume that my father, the principal, is the most suspicious person in this case. Are you certain about this matter?”
Although iseul felt this way, she tried her best to deny it. “I never said that the principal accepted bribes.”
“My father is fair and hard working. Since giving birth to me, he has been expressing his gratitude to God everyday. The profits from my mom’s company are also endless. There’s absolutely no way my father will accept bribes!” eunwoo normally appeared to be careless and playful, but when it came to crucial moments, he knew how to protect what was important to him.
Taehyung had already expected this situation. He brought out a certificate from a certain university with the university’s logo stamped on it. On the certificate, the sum displayed had eight zeros behind it. “Everyone, please take a look. When my fiancé donated the sum to the school under my name, it was properly documented. No one in Seoul national University accepted bribes. If you wish to find someone to blame, please blame certain universities for accepting donations. However, please also respect that different universities have different ways of operating and refrain from being too harsh on them.”
iseul realised that taehyung was not lying. After all, a phone call alone could verify whether the document was real or not.
However, she struggled to accept that, with the turn of events, she had ended up on the losing end.
Taehyung suddenly turned towards iseul and asked. “Teacher song, aren’t you normally very concerned about your students? You didn’t even know that I was an exchange student?”
“I...” She bit her lip. Why would she pay attention to taehyung, the ugly trash!
“That’s right. She didn’t even know this. She appears to be so worried about her students. What a hypocrite!” A student spoke up in the crowd and the other students gradually started to agree.
In an instant, the number of people, who could not stand iseul's attitude, increased.
Iseul' complexion turned pale and her expression was extremely ugly.
Changwoo said in a heavy voice, “Alright, everyone! I hereby announce that we will not be expelling taehyung from the school. We will not pursue the incidence where they used physical force against each other. The matter ends here.”
“Is that all?” taehyung lifted his brows. He was clearly not happy with the conclusion.
Changwok questioned him sternly. “taehyung, what exactly are you unhappy about?”
“Head Ji, you’re being biased.” taehyung pointed out bluntly. “I am willing to let go of all other matters. But Teacher song slandered me and claimed that I am being kept by a man. She has seriously damaged my reputation. I demand that she apologise to me immediately...”
“taehyung, don’t ask for a mile now that you’ve gotten an inch!” iseul would never lower her head to such a disgusting, ugly student.
“Lecturer song, don’t be impatient. I’m not done speaking yet.” taehyung continued.
“Furthermore, I request for Lecturer song to be assigned a demerit for this incident, and for it to be noted in her teaching career!”
Iseul immediately responded with displeasure in her voice.”This is only a small matter. Head ji, don’t listen to him. I was also misled by eunji. If you want anyone to take responsibility, look for taehyung's mother, eunji!”
“I don’t care who it was that misled you.” taehyung spoke calmly. “As a university lecturer, you slandered a student carelessly without clarifying the facts. Today, I, taehyung, have a resilient heart. But if you had wronged a different student with a weaker mental health, such an incident might have led to an episode of depression. If things were even more serious, they might even have attempted suicide. Have you considered these consequences?”
He gestured toward the students outside. “Head ji, she slandered me in front of all these students and prevented the teachers and students from attending their lessons. This entire commotion was caused by Lecturer song . Shouldn’t her mistake be registered by the school?”
Changwoo turned to iseul and said firmly, “It should be! Lecturer song , I represent the school to inform you that you will receive a demerit for this. I also request that you apologise to taehyung in front of everyone!”
Iseuk's complexion became pale. Such an apology would throw her face away completely!
Moreover, if she received a demerit, becoming an assistant professor would turn into an impossibility!
“I refuse to accept this...” She was about to argue when changwoo added further. “If you don’t accept the school’s decision, you will only blow this matter up further. Nothing will change. At most, it will be known publicly that you refused to accept the consequences for your own actions.”
At this point, iseul could only grit her teeth with a dark expression on her face and apologise to taehyung. “I’m sorry!”
Although she apologised, iseul's eyes held a murderous glint when she said the words.
Taehyung had no intentions of making things hard for her any longer. He understood that he needed to act within his limits.
“Wow...” The students standing outside the office were dumbstruck.
“Madam Kill-all not only failed to expel taehyung. She even apologised. It’s a miracle, ah!”
“Look at her unwilling expression! This is what it means to lift a rock and drop it on your own feet. She deserves it!”
Amidst the commotion, iseul raised her voice and said, “Head Ji, I am unable to teach today. I’m taking a leave!”
She stomped out of the office with a pale complexion.
The students kindly made way for her to pass through.
“If you’re done watching the show, hurry off to your classes. Do you all wish to get a demerit as well!” changwoo addressed them sternly and the students immediately dispersed.
As taehyung made his way out of the office, one of his classmates, park hana, called out to him. “taehyung, I have something to ask you. Who is that extremely rich fiancé of yours?”
All of the students immediately began to dawdle their feet and leaned their ears closer to these two. A few of them even turned around.
taehyung had no intentions of concealing it and was about to speak up.
But jennie, who was in the midst of her regret over how taehyung had successfully overcome the situation, immediately panicked.
She rushed to speak up first. “Why are you so curious? There’s nothing to ask. Taehyung's fiancé is quite good, but he maintains a low-profile and does not wish to publicise this matter.”
Hana smiled. “You are his second sister. You definitely know about it. Tell me...”
“There’s nothing to say. Come on, third sister, let’s go to class.” jennie was worried that taehyung would give it away. She rushed to tug him along.
For the next two classes, the question taehyung received the most remained the same: Who is your fiancé?
Why was it that he never brought him up in the past?
These questions were all fought away by jennie.
In the afternoon, taehyung borrowed this incident as an excuse to not be with jennie.
He walked alone in the small park across the school building. The warm sunlight filtered through the tree branches and formed speckles of bright spots on the ground.
The breeze was soothing and it shook the trees gently. Due to this movement, the air felt comfortable.
It had been a long time since he last walked on this path.
In his previous life, he died many years after leaving school. He had nearly forgotten about this period of his life.
He had never expected that he would be able to return to this age.
“Quickly look, it’s fattie Kim!”
“It’s so rare to see the giant witch’s true appearance. It’s even more ugly that it seems on the school forum, isn’t it?”
Several students shouted as they pointed at taehyung.
Even the students passing by walked slowly and kept their eyes trained on him.
Taehyung glanced at them. He did not recognise any of these students.
However, the rumors that taehyung desired to become rich, had spent a significant portion of the Kim family’s money and many more like these flooded the school forum frequently and were known to almost everyone.
Nearly all the teachers and students in this school knew him.
Giant witch, fattie...
These nicknames provoked his anger. However, he was too lazy to be petty with these people who were clueless about the truth.
From what he recalled, many years after graduation, he once coincidentally heard Jennie talking about this with Yuna.
It turned out that the rumours about him were entirely caused by these two women.
Jennie, the vicious bitch! She had spoken up for taehyung on these forums, but also created a separate account where she slandered him and revealed all sorts of information about him.
Whenever he tried to explain himself, jennie would stop him and claim that his action would only worsen the situation.
With time, taehyung completely gave up attempting to clear the air.
He had a lot of nicknames that were given by jennie. Other students picked them up and began using them to mock him.
At the thought of this, taehyung felt that he had nowhere to vent his anger. One day, he would definitely peel off jennie's hypocritical skin!
“Stay far away from him!” A student standing around twenty metres away abruptly shouted at all the students near taehyung.
“What is it?” Several students were confused.
“Don’t you guys know? Taehyung offended Brother woo. He has publicly announced that he is going to make him face the consequences! Aren’t you afraid of being implicated if you walk with him?”
“What, then he’s screwed!” The students who stood near taehyung quickly rushed away. They only stopped when they were at a good distance from him.
Taehyung was unfazed as he headed for the cafeteria. He was hungry and needed a meal.
He turned around the corner to take a different path and noticed more than ten students following him from afar.
He immediately understood that these busybodies hoped to watch him meet with misfortune.
Some of them even held their phones up and probably wanted to record it as it happened.
As he walked past a large tree, a long creature abruptly fell out of the tree branches. Just as it was about to land on taehyung, he suddenly shifted toward the side.
The creature landed directly on the floor and stretched it’s long, black figure.
Taehyung appeared as though this was unrelated to him. He continued walking forward and did not pay a single glance to the creature.
Behind him, a chain of screams could be heard. “It’s a snake!”
“It fell from the tree, that’s so terrifying!”
“My god, did Brother woo plan this? It nearly landed on taehyung...”
eunwoo stood on the third floor of a particular school building. He held a pair of binoculars and was observing the situation.
When taehyung avoided his trap, he pursed his lips with some regret.
He brought his phone out and dialled a call to reprimand someone. “How did you manage to miss him? Trash!”
A man had been hiding in the tree. Right after tossing the snake down, he had run away.
“My apologies, Young Master Cha. I did not expect him to suddenly move to the side.”
“Pick that snake up. I have other uses for it.”
The person on the other end responded. “I understand.”
...
Taehyung passed by a snacks kiosk. He deliberated over it and felt that he needed to buy some items to prepare.
Thus, he spent three dollars on the cheapest umbrella they had, as well as some other little items.
As he passed by a school building, one student suddenly poured a bucket of fluid out of the windows.
Just as the fluid nearly splashed on taehyung, he opened his umbrella and successfully prevented it from touching him.
“Wow... that was a close call!” The students watching him were dumbstruck and exclaimed in admiration. “We really have to stay away from him to be safe!”
Taehyung took a sniff of the stench emitting from his umbrella. It was actually urine!
If it had splashed on him, he would have stunk for the entire day.
Eunwoo was really taking his prank too far.
He passed by a rubbish bin and closed the umbrella, tossing it inside the bin.
The group of students took in the puddle of urine on the ground and sighed. They felt that he was truly too lucky. He was even able to avoid this.
As they watched taehyung's receding back view, they grew fearful of accidentally falling for eunwoo's traps. A few of them gave up following him.
Around five to six of them were braver and continued after him.
taehyung passed by a patch of grass. He noticed something amiss from the corner of his eyes.
It was not obvious from afar, but when he paid close attention to it, he noticed that a small portion of the grass patch had a slightly different colour. It was clear that it was not actual grass, but a patch of artificial grass. A layer of transparent adhesive was applied on it.
It was a rather large patch of artificial grass. He guessed that if he stepped on it, he would be stuck to it like a mouse.
Eunwoo held his binoculars and watched as taehyung approached that area. He imagined the scene when his shoes got stuck on the grass patch, and he leaned down to remove his shoes. He would then find both his hands and feet stuck to the grass.
Even if he struggled like a mouse on a trap, he would be unable to escape...
Bye bye!