Second week of college, and I already learned something important: group projects are a scam.
Not even a creative scam. Just a boring, exhausting, why-am-I-still-alive kind of scam.
"I'm going to fake my own death," I muttered, collapsing dramatically onto my desk.
"Make it realistic," Seo Yoon said sweetly. "That way, the professor won't mark you absent."
"Ah, thank you. I'll leave a tasteful obituary behind."
Group project season had officially begun. Professor Choi had just dropped the bombshell in our morning lecture: a semester-long business case study presentation. Teams of four. Randomly assigned.
I prayed for nice people.
And got… this:
Me.
Seo Ji Hoon.
Han Seo Yoon.
And some mystery name: Kang Min Woo.
"Who's that?" I asked, squinting at the roster.
"Oh," Seo Yoon said, twirling her pen. "He's our classmate. Just doesn't show up much."
A ghost student?
"He only comes when he feels like it," she added with a sniff. "He's… that type."
Ah. That type. I nodded like I understood.
I did not understand.
Still, it didn't matter. We were meeting in the café after class for our first group discussion. I was determined to be productive. Helpful. A shining example of team spirit.
So I arrived ten minutes early.
And immediately regretted it.
Because when I sat down at the long communal table, I realized: I had no idea how group projects worked. Did people bring laptops? Printed articles? A PowerPoint template?
All I brought was a pen, a Hello Kitty notebook, and two individually wrapped chestnut buns from the bakery next door.
Professional.
"I brought snacks?" I offered brightly when Seo Ji Hoon sat down across from me.
He looked at the buns, then at me. "Did you eat lunch?"
I blinked. "Is that your way of saying yes or no?"
He didn't answer. Just opened his laptop and started typing.
I chewed on my straw. "You're a man of mystery, Ji Hoon-ssi."
"Or maybe I just like peace and quiet," he said dryly.
"You wound me," I gasped, pressing a hand to my chest. "Is this because I said that thing about fish last time?"
He looked up then—expression unreadable—and just as I braced myself for another one of his perfectly deadpan remarks…
A voice interrupted us.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did the meeting start without me?"
We both turned.
Standing there like a scene-stealing lead in a rom-com was a guy I'd never seen before. Tousled brown hair. Effortlessly stylish oversized cardigan. Dimpled smile that should've come with a warning label.
"Sorry I'm late," he said with a grin, sliding into the seat next to me like he owned the café. "I was… napping."
"Napping," Ji Hoon repeated flatly.
"I nap with passion," the guy said seriously. Then offered me his hand. "Kang Min Woo."
Ah. The ghost student.
I took his hand automatically. "Ah Ra."
"Nice to finally meet you, Ah Ra-ssi." He leaned in conspiratorially. "You're even prettier than the rumors said."
I blinked. "There were rumors?"
"Don't worry," he said. "Only flattering ones. Probably."
Seo Yoon arrived a second later, hair perfectly curled, and gave Min Woo a tight smile. "You finally showed up."
"Don't sound so excited," he teased. "Missed me that much?"
"I missed your attendance record," she said sweetly. "It's a miracle you're still enrolled."
Ouch.
"Anyway," Seo Yoon continued, flipping open her iPad, "let's divide the work."
She immediately began outlining bullet points like she was chairing a board meeting.
Ji Hoon didn't say much. Just nodded occasionally, scrolling through a document on his laptop. Min Woo doodled something on a napkin. And me? I watched the chaos unfold while pretending to understand business terms like "market segmentation" and "value proposition."
"We can each take one part," Seo Yoon said briskly. "I'll handle the data and industry overview."
"No surprise there," Min Woo muttered.
Seo Yoon ignored him. "Ji Hoon-ssi, you'll do the financial modeling?"
"Fine," Ji Hoon said.
"And Ah Ra-ssi can do… the customer behavior analysis."
"Sure!" I said, even though I had no clue what that meant. Customers behave?
"What about Min Woo?" I asked.
"Oh, he can make the slides," Seo Yoon said casually, as if assigning him to decorate cookies.
Min Woo saluted with two fingers. "On it. I specialize in aesthetics."
"You specialize in slacking," Seo Yoon muttered under her breath.
He just winked.
By the time the meeting ended, Ji Hoon had sent around a Google Drive folder with folders titled "Budget Model" and "Raw Data," Seo Yoon had uploaded ten articles, and Min Woo had drawn a giraffe wearing sunglasses.
I, meanwhile, had added exactly one sentence to the shared doc:
"The customer is king."
Inspirational, I thought.
On our way out of the café, Min Woo caught up to me. "So, Princess," he said, hands in his pockets.
I nearly choked. "What did you just call me?"
"Princess," he repeated cheerfully. "It suits you."
"W-why?!"
"You just have that… lost royalty energy." He shrugged. "Kind of clueless, kind of elegant. Like a princess who got kicked out of the palace for not knowing how laundry works."
"Rude," I huffed, but I couldn't help laughing.
"Besides," he added, "you brought chestnut buns to a group meeting. That's queen behavior, honestly."
I looked at him sideways. "Do you flirt with everyone like this?"
He gave me a full dimpled grin. "Only the interesting ones."
I was still recovering from that when it started to rain. I groaned.
Of course I didn't bring an umbrella. Again.
"Of course I didn't bring an umbrella," I said out loud.
Min Woo wordlessly pulled one from his bag. A sleek black one. Still in its packaging.
"…You just carry extras?"
He handed it to me. "I lose them a lot. So now I overprepare."
I took it slowly. "…This is weirdly responsible of you."
"Don't let it ruin my image," he said. "But yeah. Keep it. Consider it a gift."
"…You're just giving me an umbrella?"
"Yup. Who knows? Maybe next week I'll give you a portable charger."
I stared. "Wait—why does that actually sound romantic?"
Min Woo just winked again.
I felt weirdly flustered by the time I got back to the hotel—I mean, my apartment. I kicked off my shoes, set the umbrella carefully by the door, and collapsed onto the couch.
Then I remembered the group folder.
I opened my laptop and clicked into it. Ji Hoon had already added notes to my section.
At the bottom of my lonely sentence, he'd written in gray suggestion text:
"This is vague. Expand on 'customer profile' using our target demographic (early 20s, urban, tech-savvy)."
I bit my lip.
So… he was actually taking my part seriously. That… meant I had to, too, right?
I Googled "How to do customer behavior analysis" and ended up watching a YouTube video narrated by a very aggressive Australian man.
By midnight, I had three pages of bullet points and a pie chart I didn't understand.
Still, when I uploaded my draft, I caught myself smiling.
Maybe I wasn't completely hopeless at this college thing.
And maybe… group projects weren't so hellish after all.