Kwang could not look directly at Jung as his friend enthusiastically congratulated him for being chosen as a scholar at Hamhung University of Education in Pyongyang.
Jung was even happier than his parents were after receiving the news, and that is what is making the big Korean even guiltier than he already is.
Kim Jung-hee was the school's smartest kid. It is a fact that no one has questioned since their elementary days or even throughout high school. He had proven this time and time again as he helped his fellow students. He had competed in many school academic competitions throughout the years, and no one questioned his right when he became the school valedictorian for their batch.
But he is also one of the poorest kids in the whole school. He dressed presentably and cleanly enough, but it is obvious that most of his clothes are hand-me-downs from his parents or neighbors. Hell, he proudly admitted it enough himself. And so, despite his academic accomplishments, no one was really surprised when all the various universities he applied to rejected him since he was also requesting a scholarship program.
Jung Hee simply could not afford to pay any tuition fee at this time because of his financial predicaments.
Kwang was officially in the middle of the class, but if the truth were told, Jung actually carried him throughout high school. Without Jung's help, he can almost picture himself at the bottom of the rankings.
That record, however, is more than enough, especially since his father donated a sizable fortune to the Hamhung University library to get him a scholarship at one of the most premier North Korean universities in the capital. Of the more than 800 other students in the graduating batch, about 11 other kids will go to college, albeit a form of community college and not an actual university. And all of them have one thing in common: that their parents or family friends have communist party affiliations.
Unfortunately, Jung was not one of them. To Kwang, this is very unfortunate since his friend was the most capable person he knows, and it is such a waste to relegate his future as a simple farmer. Earlier today, Jung gave the graduation speech in front of his class in a passionate speech about doing our best in helping Chairman Kim and strengthening the communist party through hard work and perseverance.
He always wondered how Jung and the rest of the peasantry still believed in the communist movement despite always being the ones who were stepped on by its injustices. The oligarchs like his family are the only true Koreans who understand how the real world works, and the great father is not the best example of a true Korean.
After losing his scholarship, Jung scrambled in the last 3 weeks before graduation and looked for an alternate path to higher education. But all the gates were closed to him.
On paper, the national North Korean scholarship program was designed to help poor but eligible young men and women go to college. The sad reality of it was that, despite the fact that the average tuition fee of universities and colleges in their country is not even a tenth of their western counterparts, the cheapest tuition fee is something the average North Korean family today could not afford.
At first, the program was doing just that, helping the poor but eligible kids to reach college, but all it takes are a few corrupt officials and a neglectful oversight from the main communist party, and then it mutated into someone's cash cow.
First, corruption was small. The officials will only set aside certain slots that can be given to certain oligarch's children who could be persuaded to invest a small amount of money in appropriate personal programs. But as it became apparent that the ministry of education couldn't care less about the program, the corruption expanded, and more and more of its available slots were given to richer but less qualified children, discarding the poorer students.
After a certain amount of time, officials who are in the know began to eased in the deputy minister of education to their operations. It helps a bit that the minister is known for his bourgeois lifestyle. Suddenly, the scholarship program was a joke. After a few more years, only oligarch children are eligible for the program. The poor but intelligent young men and women are thrown out of the window.
Including Kim Jung Hee.
His one and only chance was with the scholarship arranged by the principal, but after the incident with Eun Mei, people could not blame the principal for rescinding his offer. Curiously, he did not withdraw the scholarship for Eun Mei.
Kwang cringed again, remembering that debacle.
Just after the final exams, the school was ordered by the mayor to gather and witness the execution of the former principal. He was found guilty by the people’s tribunal, and right in front of the students and academic staff of the Guanzu people’s school, the old man was dragged to the makeshift podium, and after a lengthy declaration of his crime, he was executed by a group of militia riflemen. Jung simply watched stoically and ignored the hateful glare from the staff and student alike.
Kwang even noticed the young doctor, who runs the only clinic in town, watching the entire proceedings in the massive screen. After the old man was killed and his body taken away, she simply went back to her car and drove away. Days later, Kwang just heard that the doctor was gone and the clinic was closed.
Meanwhile, Jung quietly looked around for any hope of getting a scholarship after losing the one offered by the principal. Kwang watched as Jung went as far as North Hamgyong, the most northern province of Korea, for interviews and possible leads. But no one was interested in a peasant boy. No matter how smart he is, the sons of farmers like him are a dime a dozen.
Kwang hated that his likable best friend would never set foot in higher education because of politics, but that is real life, and people like him must deal with the cards life has given them. Kwang promised that when he established himself in the communist party, he would find Jung Hee and give his best to help him out.
Jung Hee stared at his friend and sighed. "I know what you are thinking, you damn kaiju," Jung said slowly yet kindly.
"Your biggest weakness has always been your lack of confidence in yourself. You are good enough, my friend, just like the rest of them. Sure, you may struggle at some things, but I've seen you persevere, and eventually, something that is hard for you to understand will come to you naturally. It might take time, but you always understand the problem in the end. That is what matters the most. So go out there and make all of us proud!"
"I will, Jung, and thank you," he said, trying not to cry in front of his friend. "That means a lot to me, especially from you."
“Stop crying; you are embarrassing me,” Oh Sang-ki said. He was watching them slightly back with an amused expression in his face. Jung’s effort to negotiate a job for him in the junkyard turned out to be unneeded. Their wheelchair-bound friend has secured a sort of apprenticeship in a bookbinding business in the next town over and will start working there soon.
Sang-ki stared at Jung Hee, who is still smiling but is looking at his left every now and then. Sang-ki didn’t need to use his big brain to know that his friend was looking at Eun Mei. He sighed, resigned to his friend’s feelings.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Like most of Jung’s closest friends, he was initially opposed to Jung’s unrelenting interest in that girl. But he realized Jung Hee was Jung Hee because of that. Eun Mei has always been this enigma wrapped in layers of intrigue. And Jung’s boundless curiosity made it almost impossible for Jung not to be attracted to the young woman. If they ever get together, Sang-ki thought sagely. then he'll give them his reluctant blessing. But then again, he is happy the girl is leaving town and moving far, far away. When she is gone, he is hoping that the town will heal once again.
Some of the more callous supporters of Principal Noh had been heard to say, “Why the hell did those kidnappers didn’t just kill her immediately? ”
Sang-ki sighed. With the benefit of hindsight, it was easy to see how that did not happen immediately. One afternoon, Eun Mei was kidnapped.
That night, her parents were already alarmed because this had never happened before. Like most Asian kids, they will always have to ask for permission from their parents to do anything overnight. And Eun Mei didn’t do that. The following day, her mother went to the militia office at the earliest moment possible and told them that her daughter was missing. The militias in town aren't exactly swamped with work, and given Eun Mei’s mother’s personality, she is able to make them do something. So when they followed Eun Mei’s path, it was obvious that something did happen to her on her way back home.
Meanwhile, the mother didn’t stop there. She went to school and asked for their help as well. The principal announced Eun Mei’s abduction, and Jung Hee immediately acted. The entire kidnapping happened in barely 24 hours. The entire operation was headed by a normally sane person and executed by a group that had never done anything like that before in their lives. It was normal for them to build up their courage to kill the girl.
Jung didn’t give them that time.
*****
Suddenly, more well-wishers descended on Kwang and sang-ki, and they were separated. Jung didn't mind. He was genuinely happy for his friends.
Jung stood alone for a moment, a sad smile on his handsome face.
Fate felt the irony of Jung's message to his friend, for even as he pushed his friend to be more confident, Jung himself had this inner sense of failure, not because of anyone or anything but because he felt he failed himself in the end.
Bitterness never truly became part of the equation in his feelings about the matter. He felt that he did everything he needed to do in order to ask for the government's help. He felt that he was simply not good enough for the government to take notice of him. Besides, the main goal of going to college has always been to support his family and the fatherland.
The principal’s scholarship was simply not meant for him. He accepted that now.
Now that he can't go to college, he can put his entire resources into straight-out helping his family by going and registering himself as a farmer of the cooperative.
Almost against his will, his eyes sought out and found the one girl he considered special outside his family. Jung smiled sadly as he watched her laugh at something her friend said, and she unconsciously rerouted her unruly hair back between her ears. If he is honest with himself, this is the only true moment that he regretted not going to college. The fact that, for better or for worse, this girl is now truly lost to him.
For a moment after the kidnapping, Jung entertained the possibility of winning over the girl. After everything that happened, she might finally see him as something more than just a friend. But that is not how reality works. The only way he can actually win this girl over is if he can provide for her and her future family. Being a farmer might be noble work, but it was not good enough for Eun Mei. The girl even said in one of their intermittent discussions that she was never going to end up as a farmer's wife. If destiny forced her to such a fate, then she would rather end her life there and then.
She has many material needs and plans to explore places she has never been to. That is her goal in life. And as a farmer, he cannot do that for her, and thus the girl will definitely look for someone far more valuable to her than him. Aside from the disappointment he caused his family, it was Eun Mei who made him sincerely regret his failure.
This came after Jung learned that Garam and she had already broken up after the incident. He didn’t know exactly why, but Garam barely even spoke to her anymore. He didn’t even attend the graduation; he and his family left after the death of Principal Noh. Like the doctor, his father was exonerated simply because there is not enough evidence to prove that they are part of the former principal’s confidants. They are merely subcontractors for his illegal goods. They received massive fines for that, but otherwise, they were able to leave with their heads intact.
For the first time, after all the time they had known each other, Jung moved closer to the girl, a bit more awkwardly than he cared to admit. He patiently waited for the last well-wishers to leave them for a moment. He ignored the annoyed glances toward him. He lost a lot of friends and goodwill from the school after learning that he was instrumental in the fall of their former principal, but Jung didn’t blame them. He still wishes that it could have ended differently, but saving Eun Mei was always going to be his priority.
Finally, he is alone with her, probably for the final time. When he was standing next to her, his smile was genuine.
He stood there with a straight body and was slightly at a loss. He drank Eun Mei's image. With her long jet black hair with a bit of curl in the end, her smooth, narrow face and aristocratic nose, and her cold, calculating eyes, she knew for sure what she wanted in life.
"Congratulations on your scholarship," Jung said formally.
Eun Mei's eyes narrowed. Is he being sarcastic? She heard the wild whispers of all the other jealous girls that gossiped around her about how they questioned her scholarship.
How in the world did she receive a cultural dancing scholarship when she is not even the best cultural dancer in school? But after a moment, she shook her head. Jung Hee has no notion of being subtle or deceitful. It was one of the things that made this boy both touching and annoyingly insufferable, all at the same time. The boy simply wore his heart on his sleeves like a fucking puppy.
"Thanks," she said after a bit. "It still hasn't registered that much. But I am very grateful for it."
Jung nodded. "You deserve it," he said without hesitation. "Are you... Are you ever going to visit back anytime soon?" Jung knew the university was away from their province, and he is hoping the girl will return during summer vacations just so he can see her and know that she is doing well.
Eun Mei shuddered at Jung's question. Return to this hellhole once she escapes it? Hell, no!
Of course, Principal Noh also rescinded his scholarship given to her. The sixth and final letter was for her. But unlike Jung Hee, Eun Mei anticipated this to happen and went to the people’s court to argue that a convicted criminal’s final attempt to harm a victim of a crime should not be allowed.
If she needed to really sleep with the town civil servant to get that scholarship and forever leave this place, she would have done so. That was how desperate she was to leave this small hic town. She wanted to be away from her manipulative mother and her horrible boyfriends and never see them ever again.
Luckily, she was able to seduce the lonely old civil servant who administered the case, who felt sorry for her, and somehow she was able to renew her scholarship program despite that bastard old man rescinding it. Luckily, everything was already paid for, and with the militia’s help, she was able to convince the town magister to unrevoke the scholarship by whispering sweet promises of nothing. Once he signed the scholarship papers, she was gone from that office, never to return.
Her beautiful face hardened, remembering what she had done and all the sacrifices she had made until now. "I will never return to this place ever again," she said with such vileness in her heart, her eyes gazing far away.
She never even saw the hurt look on Jung's face.
"I see," Jung said bravely. "Well, good luck with all your endeavors in life. I meant it," he said. Looking her straight in the eyes. "I'm glad I met you, Song Eun Mei, and I will never forget you."
Never.
He held her hand for a moment, then kissed it. She didn't know at the time, but Jung was actually memorizing her face before smiling one last time at her. He turned and walked away, never to look back again.
Eun Mei stared at the boy walking away.
For one crazy moment in time, she wanted to call back to him, but she hesitated. That also surprised her. Why the hell would I want to do that? She thought to herself, puzzled. Then she remembered her mother's cold gaze and her boyfriend’s clammy hands on her, and the resolve in her heart hardened once more. Jung is a nice guy—a great guy, even. He may be a book-smart kind of guy, but that is not what is needed to succeed in the harsh reality of life.
He wasn't a fighter like her, and in the end, he will always be mediocre. To survive in this world, she needed to be more. And if it means shedding the things that are not needed in her life, then so be it.
She promised she would be something more as she watched the young man walk away from him.
I've sacrificed too much just to end up becoming just another farmer's wife.
This place will never break me. I won't let it.
*****
Jung walked away from the only girl he had ever loved. In the distance, his parents waited for him with a sad smile on their faces. A shriek in the air made him look up, and the biggest owl in the land circled the sky, marking her territory. Jung closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh countryside air.
Then Jung opened his status screen. He hasn’t done this for a while, but everything was as before. He pulled out his class screen and finally chose his class.
Congratulations!
You have chosen the Farmer Class as your first class!
Every agricultural and gardening activity that you do will double or triple the XP you gain. Other physical activities will not be affected. However, all forms of mental or spiritual activities will have a 30% decrease in XP accumulation in return.
You will also receive 1 random sub-attribute point in the body category every 5 levels.
You will have the option of getting another class or upgrading your existing one by levels 30, 45, 60, and 75.
Jung nodded to himself and walked towards his parents to celebrate his graduation.