"why?"
"The teaching assistant told me to stay for a bit. It looks like it'll take a while. Professor Hong won't finish it easily."
"Okay, I'll do it on the way here."
"Sorry. Let's go on a date after we finish."
"Student Baekhyun... what do you think about the essay you submitted?"
"Haha.. Even I think it's sloppy.."
"Baekhyun always gives off the impression that he's just flashy on the outside. Is that what you call stupid? Idiocy isn't beauty. I used to get goosebumps when I saw Baekhyun's middle school work, but I don't feel that way anymore. Sometimes I even wonder if it was plagiarism? I don't need empty writing. It's trash. I want to throw it away or burn it right now. How could it be worse than in middle school? I'm disappointed."
"I'm sorry, professor..."
"You should be sorry to Baekhyun himself, not to me. You wasted time and resources writing such a piece of crap."
"yes.."
"Write it again. From the beginning. Don't lose your touch. Always be sincere."
The professor neatly organized the crumpled A4 papers and tied them together with clips.
"I'll go."
"Never take my writing lightly. If you're going to write like a child's play, stop right now."
The words Professor Hong spat out as if he was chewing on something pierced my heart.
".........."
I went into the empty room, sat on the sofa, and read the writings again.
The foolish boy couldn't see even an inch ahead of him, and simply wandered in reality. He lacked the resilient spirit to endure pain, nor the refined and elegant values to shine beautifully. He was simply an unattractive boy.
"Disgusting."
As soon as Baekhyun read the first paragraph of the article, he threw it in the trash can.
Summer was withering like a flower, and autumn was racing towards winter. The leaves of some trees had fallen ungainly, staining the road, creating a mess like a store's clearance sale. I didn't want to live. Seeing happy people instilled a sense of inferiority in everything about me. Like a perpetual second-place finisher. Running around, showing off, and living a weary life, consumed by the inferiority and superiority complex I felt toward the number one. It was so depressing that I wanted to rip out the mouths of all those who smiled.
I even hate seeing the diary I wrote in my second year of middle school.
Since when have you been writing such empty articles?
It's disgusting, dirty and burdensome.
Tears fall between my trembling eyelashes.
"Baekhyun, are you crying?!"
A male student comes in.
"No. There's something in my eye."
Kim Min-hyun
He, a male student at Moonchang University, was especially kind to Baekhyun.