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Chapter 20
Even though they were classmates, this was Woo-jin’s first time meeting Jayden.
Jayden hadn’t attended the orientation and was in a different section, Class A, for the major courses.
However, today’s major class was “Visual Graphics,” which all freshmen were required to attend together, regardless of section.
That’s why they ended up encountering each other in the student lounge.
While it was Woo-jin’s first time meeting Jayden, Seon-bin already knew him.
On the day of the entrance ceremony, when Woo-jin had only briefly appeared and disappeared, Seon-bin had been the one to have the most conversations with Jayden.
“This is the first-year student lounge, Jayden.”
“Oh, I found the right place.”
Jayden was British but spoke Korean fluently.
He was of mixed heritage, with a British father and a Korean mother.
Thanks to his mixed lineage, Jayden possessed strikingly good looks, with an ideal blend of Korean and British features.
Standing tall, as tall as Seon-bin, his appearance resembled that of a model from afar.
Seeing Jayden for the first time, Woo-jin greeted him with a slightly awkward expression.
“I’m Seo Woo-jin. You must be Jayden?”
“Oh, Woo-jin! I’ve heard about you from Seon-bin.”
“Huh? About what?”
“That you’re a modeling master.”
“What? A master?”
Woo-jin looked at Seon-bin with a bewildered expression, while Seon-bin scratched the back of his head and shrugged.
What Seon-bin had actually told Jayden was simply that Woo-jin was very skilled at building architectural models.
Jayden had just exaggerated it a little.
Jayden, grinning cheekily at Woo-jin’s flustered reaction, casually extended his hand.
“Anyway, nice to meet you, bro.”
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Woo-jin shook Jayden’s hand and smiled pleasantly.
Woo-jin didn’t dislike British people—he just disliked English.
Moreover, Jayden’s lively and handsome first impression made him quite likable.
Though Jayden turned out to be more talkative than expected, he was a rather amusing person.
“So, Woo-jin, since you’re two years older than me, should I call you hyung?”
“Not ‘hyung’; it’s ‘hyung.’”
“Okay, hyung.”
“…”
Ultimately, Woo-jin couldn’t help but like Jayden even more.
It was because of Jayden’s unexpected interest in Woo-jin’s elective course dilemma.
A ray of hope (?) had begun to shine on Woo-jin’s otherwise bleak course registration.
“Woo-jin hyung, are you planning to take ‘Understanding Global Culture’?”
“Decide if you’re going to call me hyung or just use my name, Jayden.”
“That’s not important, Woo-jin.”
“Then what is?”
“What’s important is that I registered for that elective.”
“Oh… Really?”
Jayden’s words immediately piqued Woo-jin’s interest.
If he could take a foreign-language course with a British guy fluent in Korean, it might actually work out.
‘Plus, it’s a pass-or-non-pass course. This could really be a jackpot.’
With the language barrier essentially solved, “Understanding Global Culture” seemed just as good as Hye-jin’s “Humanities Reading.”
Having such a stellar “interpreter” on board, there was no reason to refuse.
“Great. Let’s do this!”
While chatting with Jayden, Woo-jin quickly opened the course registration page and added the elective to his schedule.
Ding!
[You have successfully registered for ‘Understanding Global Culture.’]
Miraculously, as soon as Woo-jin secured his spot, the course switched to red, indicating it was fully booked.
Seon-bin, watching this from the side with a slightly envious expression, spoke up.
“Wow, hyung. You really lucked out.”
“Haha. Life’s all about timing.”
Although Seon-bin had successfully registered for a course like Hye-jin, he couldn’t help but wish he had known earlier that Jayden was taking this class.
He might have considered swapping one of his courses.
“What about the remaining 2 credits?”
“Well… I’ll figure that out bit by bit.”
Woo-jin glanced at the clock.
There were about twenty minutes left before the major class started.
‘Since I’ve secured one course, maybe I should grab a coffee.’
Still feeling slightly groggy from staying up late the previous night, Woo-jin didn’t want to doze off during today’s class.
Additionally, he wanted to celebrate landing such a good elective with the help of the two guys.
“Seon-bin, Jayden, want to grab a coffee at the main building before class? My treat.”
Woo-jin didn’t mind buying his juniors a coffee each.
“Sounds good.”
“Treat me? Nice.”
With that, Woo-jin led the two tall guys toward the café on the first floor of the main building.
“Visual Graphics” was one of the core major courses for freshmen in the Spatial Design program, just like “Basic Drafting.”
Photoshop and Illustrator—essential tools for any designer to visualize their ideas—were taught in this course.
It was a foundational class aimed at equipping students with the basic skills necessary for design.
However, compared to other major classes, it was relatively light in content and didn’t require particularly extensive qualifications to teach.
Thus, this year’s instructor for Visual Graphics was Lee Ah-rang, a lecturer in her early thirties who was teaching in the Spatial Design department for the first time.
Despite being a lecturer, Lee Ah-rang wasn’t just any instructor.
She was a graduate of K University’s Spatial Design program and a promising talent who was expected to earn her assistant professor title soon.
“Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been on campus.”
Closing the car door, Lee Ah-rang glanced around the familiar campus with a nostalgic smile.
It had been nine years since she graduated.
Although a lot of time had passed, the campus hadn’t changed much.
‘I’ll be teaching fresh freshmen from today, huh?’
Lee Ah-rang belonged to the Class of ’97, while this year’s freshmen were the Class of ’10.
Though there was a 13-year gap between their matriculation years, the title “sunbae” still felt more familiar to her than “professor.”
Clack, clack.
Walking through the design department building with excitement, Lee Ah-rang encountered a familiar face.
“Well, look who it is—Kim Yoon-ho, right?”
“You’re here to teach today, sunbae?”
“Of course. Why else would I bother coming here, expecting someone to welcome this fossil?”
“Ah… Sunbae. I’m a fossil now, too. Don’t say such sad things.”
Kim Yoon-ho, currently working as a department assistant, was from the Class of ’03.
When he was a freshman, the person who had been working in the same position was none other than Lee Ah-rang.
Yoon-ho, who greeted Ah-rang quite warmly, guided her to the lecture room.
“If you go to the end of that hallway, sunbae, it’s the largest computer lab.”
“Okay, thanks, Yoon-ho. Let’s grab dinner later.”
“Sure, sunbae. See you later!”
After happily greeting her junior, whom she hadn’t seen in a while, Lee Ah-rang shook off the slight tension that had risen and resumed her steps toward the lecture room.
Clatter
And soon after, her first class began.
Woo-jin, who had even brought a cup of coffee from the café, displayed a completely different attitude in class compared to the Basic Drafting course.
Part of it was due to the slight guilt he felt for dozing off too much in the Basic Drafting class, but that wasn’t the only reason.
Unlike Basic Drafting, where he already knew most of the content, the Visual Graphics course taught tools Woo-jin had long wanted to master.
I need to learn Photoshop and Illustrator properly while I can.
Assuming that architectural designers, who build structures in three-dimensional spaces, don’t need 2D design tools is a huge misconception.
No matter how famous the designer, they had to get a client’s approval before finalizing a design.
To persuade the client, they needed to present a “beautiful” proposal.
From floor plans of the building they designed to elevations, side views, and finally exterior designs—
It was natural to show all of these as illustrations before construction began. Additionally, the better the proposal design looked, the more positively the content itself was perceived—an undeniable truth.
Furthermore, perspective views of buildings modeled with 3D programs became much more convincing after undergoing the magic of Photoshop retouching.
Similar to how photo editing could completely transform someone’s appearance.
For all these reasons, Photoshop and Illustrator were design tools Woo-jin couldn’t help but desire.
They’re essential for portfolio building too.
That’s why Woo-jin paid close attention in class—so much so that So-yeon and Hye-jin, sitting nearby, were amazed.
“What’s this? Is he the same guy as yesterday?”
“Whoa, look at him focus because a pretty professor walked in.”
“Oppa, so you like older women?”
“I told you, it’s not that….”
Professor Lee Ah-rang’s rather pretty appearance led to small misunderstandings, but it was awkward to explain them all.
Saying, ‘I already knew everything in Basic Drafting, but I don’t know much about this, so I need to learn,’ wouldn’t help either.
“Stop teasing me and focus on your line work, you two.”
“Wow, a model student.”
“Exactly.”
“At least try to lie with a straight face, oppa.”
In any case, despite the teasing duo, Woo-jin stayed focused on the class. The three-hour practical session passed by in no time.
“Alright, see you next week, juniors. The class rep will compile and send your assignments via email the day before class.”
“Yes, professor.”
As soon as the Visual Graphics class ended, Woo-jin quickly moved again.
His destination: Euljiro.
Today, too, was another busy day.
Riding the bus to Euljiro, Woo-jin suddenly thought of Jayden.
Though they had just met today, Jayden was the most striking character among all the classmates Woo-jin had met at school so far.
‘How did that guy end up enrolling here? There are plenty of more prestigious architecture schools in England.’
Although he didn’t show it when they were together, Woo-jin felt a subtle sense of incongruity about Jayden.
Despite his rare background, something about Jayden felt oddly familiar.
‘Half-Korean, with an English father and a Korean mother… And Jayden. Why does that name feel so familiar?’
Of course, it wasn’t as if they were connected in a past life.
Woo-jin, who disliked English, had no history of having foreign friends in his previous life.
‘Maybe it’s just my imagination? Because he acts so friendly?’
Sitting by the bus window, Woo-jin stared blankly at the urban landscape, lost in thought.
Then, just as his train of thought was about to veer off elsewhere, a memory suddenly surfaced.
Woo-jin almost sprang out of his seat in reflex.
‘W-Wait…! Architect Taylor. Come to think of it, wasn’t Taylor’s first name Jayden?’
As the long-forgotten memory returned, the mysterious discomfort he had felt around Jayden started to make sense.
‘Jayden Taylor. How could I not realize this earlier?’
Before Woo-jin’s regression—
Jayden Taylor had debuted in his mid-30s as an architectural designer and gained fame in Europe as a genius architect.
Even though he was a European architect, Jayden Taylor had become widely recognized in Korea due to his mixed Korean heritage.
Moreover, the work that made him a star architect was a building constructed in Hannam-dong, Seoul.
It was only natural that he became famous in Korea.
As Woo-jin’s memory reached this point, he even vaguely recalled the face he had seen in a magazine.
‘Yes, it’s certain. That funny tall guy from earlier is definitely Jayden Taylor.’
Learning this unexpected fact, Woo-jin’s expression turned peculiar.
To think he was now classmates, even the same year, as one of the architects he had admired in his past life.
It all felt surreal.
But one question lingered in Woo-jin’s mind.
Why hadn’t he immediately connected Jayden’s name to Jayden Taylor earlier?
‘Hmm, but Taylor was definitely known as an AA School alumnus… So why is he here?’
In Woo-jin’s past life, designer Jayden Taylor’s alma mater was known to be the prestigious AA School in England. So why had he entered K University as a freshman in 2010?
‘Did my regression change the future? That doesn’t make sense….’
While it’s true that a butterfly’s wings can cause storms across the Pacific, it seemed implausible that Woo-jin’s regression could have altered Taylor’s academic path.
It wasn’t like decades had passed since his regression either.
Ultimately, Woo-jin decided to stop pondering over meaningless concerns.
What mattered to him now was that a future star architect had become his classmate, and he now had a chance to build a connection.
‘This is getting way too interesting. School life is turning out to be more fun by the day.’
Recalling Jayden’s playful face, Woo-jin couldn’t help but let the corners of his lips curl up slightly.
Before he knew it, an exciting picture was forming in Woo-jin’s mind.