“Their first meeting was quite romantic.”
After hearing the story, Namgoong Ruby looked at me with a face that said it was a surprise.
“What did you think it would be like?”
“Of course, I thought it would be like childhood friends. It was clear from the start that he had a huge crush.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Since it was such a spot-on remark, I scratched my cheek with an ambiguous smile.
“So, does Rin like Chilbok because he’s her lifesaver?”
“I thought that at first too, but it turned out not to be the case.”
“Oh really?”
“She just said she fell in love at first sight.”
“Wow-”
Namgoong Ruby stared at my face with half-open eyes.
“Chilbok is handsome, but is that really the reason?”
“How am I supposed to answer that?”
I made a face of disbelief, and Namgoong Ruby shrugged her shoulders with a cheeky expression.
“But I thought you were uninterested in love stories; you seem to have a different side.”
“Oh, really? Why did you think that?”
“From how you usually act, it seems like you’re obsessed with making friends.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
As she said this, Namgoong Ruby nibbled on her tongue slightly.
There’s something annoying yet cute about her; it seems that people’s faces really are the most important thing.
If this girl were born in modern times, wouldn’t she be an influencer or an idol?
“So, how close are you to achieving your goal of making 100 friends?”
“Um, right now, I have about 40 people I can call friends? It seems tough to make friends in my class, so I’ll probably have to make them in other classes or the dorm.”
At first, I thought the 100 friends were just a metaphor, but it looks like she was serious about it.
“That’s interesting. Is it really possible to just make friends like that?”
“Why? Don’t you have many friends?”
Namgoong Ruby casually said as she smiled knowingly.
I was momentarily at a loss for words but quickly gathered my thoughts.
“I don’t usually just befriend anyone.”
Then Namgoong Ruby immediately realized her mistake and apologized.
“Ah, sorry! That’s not what I meant.”
If I didn’t accept her apology, it would make me look cheap.
I sighed softly, said it was okay, and then asked Namgoong Ruby, who was walking beside me,
“Can I ask you something now?”
At my question, Namgoong Ruby’s expression brightened even more.
“Anything!”
Seems like I made her feel guilty.
It felt a bit pressuring, but I asked something I was curious about.
“Do you have siblings?”
Maybe one named Namgoong Aquamarine or something?
*
Unfortunately, Namgoong Ruby was an only child.
To be precise, she had half-siblings, but none shared the same mother.
Before I could feel a strange disappointment about that fact, I accidentally ended up hearing about Namgoong Ruby’s family situation.
“My mom is from the Western Regions. I’m not sure exactly which country, but she came to the Central Plains for silk trading and happened to meet my dad. My dad fell in love with her at first sight and made her his concubine, then I was conceived.”
Namgoong Ruby chattered away about herself beside me.
Honestly, I wasn’t looking to dig so deep, but once she started talking, she freely shared everything, leaving me feeling a bit dumbfounded.
Anyway, according to her, she was weak as a child due to a congenital illness, making it impossible for her to live a normal life, but she gradually got healthier after taking the elixir her father provided and started training in swordsmanship.
Up to this point, I’d heard this story before, so it didn’t feel particularly special, but what she shared next was unknown to me.
“When I first mentioned wanting to go to the academy, the elders strongly opposed it. They said the Namgoong family’s martial arts secrets would leak out. But my father, knowing I wanted to make friends since I was little, insisted on sending me to Cheonmu Academy.”
I nodded in understanding after hearing Namgoong Ruby’s explanation.
“You have a good dad.”
“Hehe, don’t you think so?”
With her arms crossed behind her back, Namgoong Ruby pondered for a moment before asking,
“What about Chilbok’s parents?”
“Our parents?”
I was momentarily at a loss for words.
In fact, I had never met anyone claiming to be Ichilbok’s parents.
So I hesitated for a moment and then spoke about my mother from my previous life.
“She was a very kind person. Even in tough times, she always tried to take care of her only son.”
My mother, who had suffered for a long time due to an alcoholic father, became more taciturn after I graduated college and failed to find a job, isolating herself in her room.
I guess she felt cornered in many ways.
That’s why I believed she deserved to accept death calmly in her last moments.
After a lifetime of hard work, she had that right, I thought.
At the time, I was nothing more than a parasite sucking her life away.
But since I couldn’t share such dark secrets, I softened my words and said Namgoong Ruby replied, “Your mother must have been a good person,” and then proudly talked about her own mother back home.
I felt envious of Namgoong Ruby, but I tried my best not to show it and listened to her story slowly.
After some time exchanging stories about each other, we reached a fork in the road leading to our respective dorms, promising to meet again tomorrow before parting ways.
*
The next day.
Without fail, Namgoong Ruby arrived at my spot with a bright smile, exclaiming,
“I have no idea at all!”
I looked at her face in disbelief and asked,
“Which part exactly?”
“There’s just too much written in the summary that Jagi gave me!”
So, that was the issue.
“So you mean the syllabus is too broad, making it hard to know what to study?”
“Yes! Exactly that!”
When it comes to a lecture, the key is for students to grasp even the messiest explanations.
That was a tip I learned while working as an instructor at a tutoring academy.
I glanced at the summary notes of Samajak that Namgoong Ruby had written all night.
As expected, unlike the original, there were no highlights or important notes in it.
I compared the summary notes of Samajak with Namgoong Ruby’s and explained,
“Look here and here. Both have underlined parts, right? This section is especially important; it’s marked for a reason. But you didn’t understand that meaning.”
“Ah, I see!”
“I think if you memorize only the underlined portions in Samajak, you’ll do quite well in this exam. So right now, go reunderline those parts.”
“Got it! Thanks, Chilbok!”
Fortunately, even if she might lack intellect, because Namgoong Ruby had a good heart, she followed what I said well.
Relieved by that fact, I watched her as she returned to her seat, when Dokgorin, who was nearby, asked,
“How’s it going? Are you studying well?”
“Pretty much. If things go on like this, I should be able to boost my notes score smoothly.”
“But you can see a glimmer of hope, right?”
“For now, I’m planning to keep taking tests to find out what I’m lacking.”
I explained like that while seriously contemplating the future curriculum.
‘As long as I raise my average score.’
For now, I’d drop subjects that were hard to score in or would take a long time to see significant progress.
By skipping low-weight subjects or those I didn’t want to focus on, I felt I could recover somewhat.
“Well, the results will be proven in the exams. Just watch silently without saying anything. I’ll make sure you don’t become the class president.”
“Got it.”
After reassuring Dokgorin like that, I secretly prepared a mock exam sheet for Namgoong Ruby during class.
Unlike modern times where study guides are sold, there was none of that in this era, so I had to create everything from scratch.
Honestly, making a mock exam sheet by hand did take a bit of a toll on me, but it felt quite worthwhile in terms of reviewing what I’d already learned.
After all, isn’t there a saying that you learn by teaching others?
Right now, I felt just like that.
In exchange, albeit reluctantly, Namgoong Ruby decided to help me train in martial arts during her free time, but right now, the upcoming exam was the priority.
With less than a week until the exam fast approaching, I paused as I realized the irony that Namgoong Ruby, who was struggling, was the source of my anxiety while I was the one preparing for it, but then I resumed making the mock exam sheet leisurely.
*
To get accustomed to exams, the only way was by taking them repeatedly.
But realistically, that was impossible, so what I prepared for Namgoong Ruby was a mock test.
I let her solve the exam sheets I made under the same conditions as the real test.
Fortunately, unlike when she first started studying, Namgoong Ruby solved the problems at a considerably steady pace, and at certain points, she even completed them in the blink of an eye.
‘Is this the effect of repeated practice?’
Before I could bask in the odd pride from that realization, the mock exam ended.
As I graded the test sheets Namgoong Ruby completed and saw the pretty high scores, I became convinced that my teaching methods were right.
