There are many ski resorts in Gangwon Province.

Woo-jin, who quite liked snowboarding, used to visit a ski resort in Gangwon at least once a year in his past life.

However, during his first visit to a ski resort after regressing, Woo-jin couldn’t even get close to his beloved snowboard.

“Why not?”

“It’s not on the schedule, oppa.”

“Then why even bother coming here for OT in the first place?”

“How would I know? I’m a freshman too.”

The OT destination was a large ski resort in Gangwon Province, but there wasn’t a single moment allocated for the students to actually ski.

“Damn it.”

Seeing Woo-jin grumble, Hye-jin chuckled.

At the moment, Woo-jin was walking with Hye-jin.

Sae-yeong, from the video design department, had moved on a different bus since their departure from school.

And since Hye-jin didn’t have any acquaintances among the new students in the space design department, she naturally ended up sticking with Woo-jin.

Of course, Woo-jin had only met her that morning as well.

Still, thanks to Hye-jin’s sociable nature, the two had grown quite close.

“Oppa, why did you choose to apply to the space design department?”

“Wow, so you’ve even finished your military service?”

“What? You’re older than my unnie? You’re practically a grandpa!”

When she called him an old man, Woo-jin felt slightly attacked and almost snapped at her…

“Okay, okay, relax. I thought my uncle was the only one who’d get so riled up when called an old man.”

Still, it was definitely better than wandering around aimlessly on his own like a sack of rice.

‘Well… it’s much better than being bored.’

And while they were having a light-hearted conversation like this, the two eventually arrived at the main auditorium where the OT would take place, following the guide of a teaching assistant.

Under his guidance, they found seats in a corner of the auditorium.

“New students of the space design department, please sit from row A to row C!”

At the teaching assistant’s announcement, Woo-jin subtly turned his head to observe the faces of the students around him.

‘Hmm, so all the students sitting here are my fellow department mates.’

Soon enough, his expression grew slightly awkward.

As expected of the design department, most of the freshmen were girls.

Out of the 55 spots in the space design department, it looked like over 40 were female.

For Woo-jin, who had always been surrounded by the sweaty company of men at work, this flower garden of sorts was something he wasn’t accustomed to.

‘I knew it’d be a female-dominated department, but… I didn’t think it’d be to this extent.’

Of course, Woo-jin was still a man.

So naturally, when his eyes landed on a particularly pretty girl among them, his gaze was drawn to her.

But just as a small pang of conscience started to kick in…

“Grandpa, what are you doing?”

His pleasant moment was cut short by an intruder staring at him with half-lidded eyes.

“If you keep making remarks like that…”

“Yeah? Then what?”

“You know your blind date this morning? It’s going to fall through, right?”

“Oh, oppa, wait! No, orabeoni…!”

Seeing Hye-jin instantly change her attitude, Woo-jin couldn’t help but smirk.

The blind date proposal Woo-jin mentioned was about his immediate successor, Kim Seong-gwan.

Seong-gwan had distinct, sharp features with dark eyebrows, making him quite the handsome guy.

After seeing his picture, Hye-jin had persistently begged Woo-jin to set her up on a blind date with him.

Of course, Hye-jin wasn’t lacking in looks either, so Woo-jin had agreed easily…

‘Heh. At least during this OT, I can hold this over her.’

Before he fixed this cheeky brat’s habits, he figured he’d hold off on making any promises.

“It depends on how you behave.”

“Ha… You sly old man…”

“Hoho. That’s 3 points deducted already.”

“Forget deductions; how do I earn bonus points, then…?”

“Who knows? Isn’t it the thirsty person who digs the well?”

“Ugh…”

While the two bickered in the auditorium, the seats—easily numbering in the hundreds—were quickly filling up.

And just as the room started feeling noisier…

Ziiiing—

A large screen at the front of the auditorium suddenly lit up, displaying a new image.

At the same time, the once noisy room instantly quieted down.

Naturally, Woo-jin’s gaze shifted to the screen, and his expression turned intrigued.

“Oh, is that today’s schedule?”

Hye-jin, who was also looking at the screen, nodded in agreement.

“Looks like it. Pretty simple.”

But then, a moment later…

“…!”

Both their gazes simultaneously fixed on the bottom of the screen, as if it had been prearranged.

Unlike the dull-looking items at the top of the schedule, the final event instantly caught their attention.

Step 5 – The Night of Design.

A time for freshmen, who have taken their first steps as designers, to fully unleash their ideas and creativity.

…The description continued.

If it weren’t for the conversation Woo-jin had overheard with Hye-jin and Sae-yeong on the subway, he would’ve tilted his head in confusion.

The title “Night of Design” was too vague.

But knowing about the “competition” now, Woo-jin instinctively realized what this event was about.

“This…”

And Hye-jin, too, seemed to catch on.

“Oppa, I think this might be the competition?”

“Right?”

Woo-jin’s eyes sparkled as he read through the description on the screen.

But even there, there was no mention of specific details about the competition.

The only thing that caught Woo-jin’s attention was the rather cryptic final sentence.

“The Night of Design is a festival for you all. And this night… may turn out to be much longer than you imagine.”

Woo-jin stared at the explanation on the screen, wondering if there were any hints about the competition.

“A long night? What does that even mean?”

But in the next moment, Woo-jin’s thoughts about the competition were abruptly interrupted.

He noticed someone walking up onto the stage where the screen was displayed.

“Huh…?”

Woo-jin’s eyes widened unconsciously.

In an unexpected place, at an unanticipated moment, he saw an all-too-familiar face he never thought he would encounter.

“Kim Ki-Tae…? Why is that guy here?”

A man with neatly styled hair in a voluminous part perm and black horn-rimmed glasses.

Woo-jin recognized him immediately. But it was far from a welcome sight.

“Don’t tell me… that guy also went to K University?”

As Woo-jin confirmed the face of the overly dressed man once more, his expression naturally turned grim.

---

Woo-jin and Kim Ki-Tae’s connection stemmed from their past lives.

Unlike Woo-jin, who was essentially a Seoul native, Kim Ki-Tae was an overseas-educated professional raised abroad.

Though it wasn’t entirely clear, Kim Ki-Tae was about four or five years older than Woo-jin.

Woo-jin first met Kim Ki-Tae in his previous life when he was well into his thirties.

“Nice to meet you, Supervisor Seo. I’m Kim Ki-Tae from the De Pinos Design Office.”

When Woo-jin first encountered him, Kim Ki-Tae was the team leader of the design office at De Pinos, one of Spain’s most renowned architectural firms.

At that time, De Pinos had just taken on its first project in Korea, and Woo-jin worked as the lead carpenter for a subcontractor hired by them.

Their initial meeting wasn’t all that bad.

De Pinos was a well-funded major architecture firm, and they paid Woo-jin’s team generously.

While Kim Ki-Tae’s tone could sometimes be overly authoritative, such things were commonplace at construction sites, so it wasn’t something that offended Woo-jin too much.

“Why is the marble tiling on the second floor so messy?”
“The distribution panel is sticking out way too much. You should’ve thought to hide it within the wall!”

If anything, Kim Ki-Tae gave off the vibe of a slightly annoying and overly picky overseas manager.

Still, since his criticisms weren’t entirely baseless or unreasonable, Woo-jin didn’t harbor significant resentment.

At least, not until about a month before the project’s completion—when that incident happened.

“Ah, no, Supervisor Seo.”
“Yes?”
“About the third-floor pilotis. Why is the partition wall at such an angle?”
“What? That’s because the blueprint called for it…”
“What did you say? Are you kidding me right now?”
“Excuse me?”
“Where on the blueprint is there such an absurd structure?”
“……?”
“Hah… This is driving me crazy. I’ll escalate this to HQ and file a compensation claim.”
“What are you even talking about? I clearly followed the blueprint you provided, and you personally supervised it just yesterday—”

Architectural designs undergo dozens, even hundreds, of revisions.

The blueprint evolves constantly to meet client demands, budgets, and building codes, aiming to create the best possible space.

This particular project Woo-jin was working on with Kim Ki-Tae also went through at least five major revisions during on-site meetings.

During that process, Kim Ki-Tae had miscommunicated with the client, resulting in some parts being constructed according to an incorrect design.

Such incidents were rare but not unheard of.

In Woo-jin’s entire career, only two accidents of this magnitude had occurred.

The truly appalling part, however, was that Kim Ki-Tae blamed Woo-jin for his own mistake.

He went so far as to cunningly alter the records to cover his tracks, executing his scheme with chilling precision.

“Here, do you see the blueprints sorted by date?”
“……”
“Our firm, De Pinos, provided you with the correct blueprint. It was you, Supervisor, who executed the construction based on a faulty version. Understand?”

Ultimately, the outcome of the incident wasn’t catastrophic.

The flawed structure coincidentally aligned with an earlier draft that had been debated as a potential final version.

Since the design was aesthetically acceptable, the client overlooked the mistake, and the matter was resolved.

But from that moment, Woo-jin held nothing but contempt for Kim Ki-Tae.

“You can’t live your life like that, Team Leader. You got lucky this time, but… this industry is small.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Haha, look at this guy, trying to pin his mistake on me.”
“……”
“And, since you brought it up, this industry is indeed small.”
“……?”
“But I doubt I’ll have to work on these tiny projects in such a narrow field anymore. De Pinos is a global company, after all.”

As Woo-jin recalled the long-buried memory of that nightmare, he felt his good mood plummet.

What made it worse was the thought that the wretched incident had not yet occurred for Kim Ki-Tae in this timeline.

If Woo-jin were to charge onto the stage and punch him right now, he would simply come across as the aggressor.

“This is… unexpectedly irritating and unpleasant.”

Noticing the sour expression spreading across Woo-jin’s face, Hye-jin cautiously asked,

“Oppa…? Did something bad happen all of a sudden?”

“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”

Woo-jin, forcing himself to rein in his emotions at Hye-jin’s voice, shifted his gaze away from Kim Ki-Tae and closed his eyes briefly.

“Yeah, as if that bastard’s rotten nature would change just because I’ve come back in time.”

Though he couldn’t predict whether he would cross paths with Kim Ki-Tae again in this lifetime, Woo-jin made a firm resolution.

That man would undoubtedly pull off more vile deeds in this life.

And when that time came, Woo-jin vowed to repay the debt from his past life—with interest.

While Woo-jin was suppressing his simmering emotions, Kim Ki-Tae’s voice began to echo throughout the auditorium.

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