Seoul Dragon

Other species. Species commonly found in fantasy. Elves, dwarves, harpies, dragons, fairies, spirits, and so on… Beings that can’t be seen in the modern world, truly the stuff of fiction. Why am I suddenly talking about this? Well… because I became a part of that fantasy.

“Yoon Seohyun.”
“Yes.”
At the professor’s call, the surrounding gazes turn to me, and whispers spread. Of course they would whisper. After all, on top of my head are large jet-black horns curled like a sheep’s.
That’s right. When I came to my senses, I had become a dragon. And with my gender changed, no less.

There are too many assignments.
Why do Korean Literature professors love group projects so much? I was spewing all kinds of complaints while somehow managing to work on the PowerPoint.
To make matters worse, foreign exchange students made up more than half the group, so I was getting dumped with all sorts of work. They half-heartedly did the research, and not only that, they claimed they didn’t know how to use PowerPoint.
I wanted to ask, “What CAN you do?” but I held my tongue. Fine, I’ll just suffer a bit more. Actually, worse than the exchange students were my juniors from the same Korean Literature department.
They might be called juniors, but they had absolutely nothing in common with a loner outcast like me. But… no matter how little we had in common, isn’t it crossing a line to brazenly tell your senior that you don’t know how to make a PowerPoint?
I wanted to snap back, “You think I know how to do this because I want to?” but my reputation in the department was already bad enough because of an incident I caused before, and if I did that, it would only create more trouble.
I’ll just watch this disgraceful scene and say nothing. Damn them.
In this wretched department, it was somewhat of an unwritten rule that returning students always took the role of group project leader. It couldn’t be helped.
I somehow managed to cobble together a paper from the materials the other members had brought. Fixing strange footnotes, clarifying source citations. After finishing that work, I moved on to the PowerPoint.
As expected, it wasn’t going well. I didn’t know where to start. Damn, I don’t know how to make PowerPoints either. But since everyone else was pushing it off, I had no choice but to do it myself.
Somehow I struggled through and completed the PowerPoint. I copied and pasted a fairly well-made PowerPoint template from before, and finished it by making it look presentable and readable.
As soon as I uploaded the material on KakaoTalk, the obligatory words of gratitude appeared.
[Thank you for your hard work.]
[You really worked hard! (Some weird picture of a crying rabbit)]
[I’ll buy you a meal someday! Team leader! (All kinds of happy emoticons)]
There’s a limit to lying. I was just dumbfounded. The junior who at least diligently did the research wasn’t obsequious and just coolly said thanks and that was it, but the ones who did absolutely nothing were laying it on thick with flowery words.
Right, so the presentation is my job too, huh.
The group project was about classical poetry.
We had to analyze classical poetry and find materials such as movies, dramas, poems, and novels that reinterpreted it in a modern way, and then analyze them. Fortunately, the content wasn’t too difficult, so I was able to finish it quickly.
But it doesn’t end with this group project. There are six more group projects overlapping after this one. Is this even humane? The desire to just drop out was fully welling up inside me, but I deliberately ignored it.
Because the tuition I’d spent so far would be wasted. And because the name value of the university would be wasted.
As an arts major, the tuition was cheap, but that was all.
But this isn’t right. Even though it’s much easier than what my friends in science and engineering go through, six group projects? And I was the leader for all of them.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have any close friends among my peers, but unfortunately all the group assignments were random.
Yes, it’s a good method for considering loners like me, but if that’s the case, why not just give individual assignments?
“Damn these assignments.”
I wanted to complain to the professors, but with my courage the size of a chestnut, I didn’t have the confidence. In the end, while spewing harsh words, I tried to finish the group assignments as quickly as possible.
There was still a month left until the presentation, but since I had become the leader anyway, I decided to just push through and nagged the group members to send me the papers as quickly as possible.
Of course, I had an insurance policy for saying such things. I told them they would only be responsible for research, and I would handle the paper, PowerPoint, and presentation. For all six group projects.
It was a losing deal for me, but I had no choice.
The moment you try to do such things with others, it just drags on endlessly with shoddy results.
Yes, since you all have your circumstances, I’ll sacrifice myself. Anyway, seeing how you all act, it’s much better for me to do it alone.
And I didn’t want to get personally involved with such people.
Materials for other group projects were also coming in one after another, and since all I had to do was correct the papers and make PowerPoints according to them, I only needed to sacrifice this weekend to finish it all.
Other people’s opinions? Why should I care? I’ll just throw the completed work at them, and if the presenter is chosen randomly, I’ll just say one thing:
Read this paper and PowerPoint well, and present it. Don’t be nervous. Then my responsibility ends. What more should I do?
I put the group projects aside for a moment and went outside. The time was 4 AM. Damn. When did it get so late?
I needed some fresh air.
Usually in this situation, people would light up a cigarette… but that doesn’t apply to me.
I never started smoking in the first place, and I quit drinking. The hangovers were too severe, and drinking once meant the next day would vanish, which was a waste of time.
Even when peers asked what fun I had in life, I would just say, “This is what I find fun,” and leave it at that.
I didn’t have any particular career aspirations either.
What am I really going to do for a living?
The fresh air made me feel a bit healed. While I was at it, I looked up at the sky. It felt like it had been a long time since I’d last looked at the sky.
No stars were visible. That was disappointing.
I wanted to see stars. But then again, this isn’t the countryside, how would stars be visible? Even at 4 AM, I was in a studio apartment in a bustling area full of all kinds of lights.
The group projects… I don’t know. It seems like I’ll be able to finish the PowerPoints over the weekend somehow, so it should work out.
I’m tired.
I continued thinking as the wind hit me.
How I should finish the group projects, what I should prepare for employment after finishing all these group projects.
But still, no particular answer came to mind.
After staring at the sky for a while, I thought that I shouldn’t waste time like this.
Right. Let’s just finish these damn group projects quickly and watch some games or live streams.
What I need most right now isn’t career concerns but immediate rest. I need to finish this quickly.
Thinking that, just as I was about to go back inside.
Suddenly I felt my vision brighten dramatically.
Something far away, like a brilliant starlight, sparkled.
…What is that?
A meteor?
No… that’s not a meteor?
That was my last memory of that day.