KFPCA 12

Chapter 12

The portions were huge—a massive seafood platter, a super flavorful shrimp seafood paella, a refreshing vegetable salad, and the highly recommended daily special steak.

Kwon Ji-yong’s other two meals that day had been airplane food, and even first-class airplane food couldn’t be called delicious—he hadn’t eaten much.

Kim Seung-hyun wasn’t much better off—she’d only had one egg for breakfast and grabbed a quick bite at the cafeteria for lunch before rushing to pick up Kwon Ji-yong.

By now, both of them were quite hungry and polished off all four dishes cleanly.

After sitting a while longer, Kwon Ji-yong and Kim Seung-hyun prepared to head back to the apartment.

It was already nearly eight o’clock, Kwon Ji-yong’s luggage hadn’t been unpacked yet, and Kim Seung-hyun had to go to school the next day.

Kwon Ji-yong had brought two 30-inch suitcases this time. Besides his clothes and shoes, half a suitcase was filled with Kim Seung-hyun’s things.

When Kwon Da-mi brought back Kim Seung-hyun’s things, they came in a large bag. Kwon Ji-yong hadn’t opened it, just stuffed it directly into the suitcase.

Now, he couldn’t help but be curious—what was it that had to be brought all the way from Korea?

**Author’s Note:**
*Two such hardworking people both deserve good outcomes!*

**Chapter 8**

Kim Seung-hyun opened the bag, and like a set of nesting dolls, there were several more bags inside.

But on each bag, Kim’s mother had carefully attached labels.

“Medications & Nutritional Supplements”

Inside were all the nutritional supplements Kim Seung-hyun had taken since childhood, plus the over-the-counter medications that worked particularly well for her.

“Seasonings”

Small bottles of Korean gochujang (red chili paste), red chili powder, fish sauce, shrimp paste, and some Chinese seasonings. Although these were available in the US, it was hard to find such authentic ones.

“Skincare”

Inside were skincare products from small Korean brands that Kim Seung-hyun liked but weren’t available at US department stores.

“Clothes”

US clothing sizes ran large. Although Kim Seung-hyun’s height of 165 cm (5’5″) wasn’t short, it wasn’t tall either, and she had a slim build, making it difficult to find clothes that fit well. Outerwear and pants that were slightly oversized could still look good, but thermal undergarments and form-fitting clothes for winter were a different story.

Kim’s mother had great taste. Even now, Kim Seung-hyun often wore clothes her mother bought—because the clothes her mother picked were comfortable and good quality.

“I understand everything else, but why bring Chinese seasonings from Korea?” Kwon Ji-yong asked.

“Because my mom bought those seasonings in China and brought them back. You either can’t find them in the US, or they’re not authentic.”

“I see~”

Although Kim Seung-hyun’s mother was a Korean citizen of Chinese-Korean heritage, her grandmother was Chinese living in Korea. Kim’s mother accompanied her grandmother back to China every year to visit relatives.

Kwon Ji-yong knew this.

As if remembering something, Kim Seung-hyun pulled a plastic card from her backpack hanging by the entryway.

At the top of the card was Yale University’s full name. Kwon Ji-yong’s photo occupied the center-left portion of the card, next to the Yale emblem and his name. Below that were the visit duration and type, and further down was the barcode used for access authorization.

“This is my visitor card?”

“Ne, I specifically chose a very handsome photo.” Kim Seung-hyun explained. “This is the first year, so there are more general education courses. Whether required or elective, I’ve already submitted applications for all of them, so you can come with me directly. As for the smaller academic seminar classes, they’ll be more boring—you can just rest at home or read in the library.”

“Okay.” Kwon Ji-yong followed her arrangements completely.

The PhD program Kim Seung-hyun was in didn’t require a master’s degree as a transition because the first two years included a structured coursework phase, covering the core knowledge points of a master’s program and laying the foundation for doctoral research.

So the first year’s research workload wasn’t heavy—the focus was on “broad exposure + precise trial and error,” while building foundational knowledge, communicating with advisors, and getting academic training.

Putting it crudely, most of the time she’d attend general education classes to build knowledge, have one weekly academic seminar with her advisor, and fulfill course credit requirements while laying the groundwork for her thesis topic.

Once she’d covered what needed to be covered, Kim Seung-hyun waved her hand and made arrangements. “Alright, that’s about it. Now I’ll put these things away. You go unpack your luggage, then shower and sleep. We leave at 8:50 tomorrow—I’ll come wake you.”

Kwon Ji-yong had thought he might have trouble sleeping in a new environment, but to his surprise, after washing up and going to bed, he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The next morning, when Kim Seung-hyun came to wake him, Kwon Ji-yong—rarely—had no morning grumpiness and got right up.

Breakfast was simple: frozen sandwiches from the store and milk from the fridge, microwaved for three minutes. That was their breakfast.

Fortunately, neither of them was picky.

They finished breakfast at 8:40, ten minutes earlier than planned.

Kim Seung-hyun was already used to this schedule, so she was bright and alert.

Kwon Ji-yong, on the other hand, was physically awake but his brain hadn’t caught up yet. Plus, having just changed environments, his face was still a bit puffy.

Seeing Kwon Ji-yong’s round, puffy face and dazed expression, Kim Seung-hyun couldn’t help but laugh.

Under Kwon Ji-yong’s silent questioning, Kim Seung-hyun explained why she was laughing.

“The way you look right now suddenly reminds me of when you used to cry over difficult math problems. You look very easy to bully.”

“I’ve told you, that wasn’t crying because I was stuck.” Kwon Ji-yong’s voice was still husky from just waking up, but that didn’t stop him from defending himself.

There was only so much time in a day, but back then, Kwon Ji-yong had to get to the company, wait for the senior trainees to finish practicing, clean up, and then he could practice in the studio. By the time he got home every night, it was already past midnight.

So most of the time, Kwon Ji-yong would finish the homework that had to be handed in first thing in the morning, along with the problems he knew how to solve, and leave the harder ones for the next morning.

Because of this, every morning Kim Seung-hyun would see her deskmate with a puffy face, sprawled across the desk, yawning, staring blankly at his math homework with a look of utter despair.

That’s how Kim Seung-hyun’s claim that Kwon Ji-yong got cried over math problems came about.

Kwon Ji-yong always explained that those were just physiological tears from yawning. Kim Seung-hyun always insisted they were tears from frustration.

Neither would accept the other’s version, and this disagreement had persisted from the second year of middle school all the way to the present.

There was no denying that Kim Seung-hyun’s apartment was truly close to the school. They left at 8:45 and were already sitting in the classroom for that day’s class by 8:52.

When Kim Seung-hyun walked in with Kwon Ji-yong, some of her familiar fellow students had already arrived.

They waved at Kim Seung-hyun, gesturing that there were seats next to them.

Kim Seung-hyun waved back in greeting, then said to Kwon Ji-yong, “Those are my classmates under the same advisor. Do you mind sitting with them?”

“Not at all.” Kwon Ji-yong shook his head. “Let’s go over.”

Seeing that Kwon Ji-yong didn’t mind, Kim Seung-hyun led him over and sat next to the seats her fellow students had saved for them.

One of them, seeing the masked Kwon Ji-yong behind Kim Seung-hyun, asked, “Blair, is this the friend you mentioned before?”

“Yep, my very, very good friend. You can call him G.” Kim Seung-hyun introduced Kwon Ji-yong to her classmates, then introduced her classmates to Kwon Ji-yong. “Ji-yong, these are my classmates—Elias, Arthur, Lila, Maisie. Our advisor only has the five of us.”

After Kim Seung-hyun introduced them, Kwon Ji-yong took off his mask and politely greeted them.

Once introductions were made, Kim Seung-hyun’s fellow students showed the warmth and straightforwardness typical of Westerners.

Lila, seeing Kwon Ji-yong’s clean, makeup-free features under the mask, teased, “Wow, Blair, G looks just like you—young and handsome. So shy, so cute!”

“Hey Lila, I think compared to cute or shy, G would lean more toward reserved.” Although she knew it was well-intentioned teasing, Kim Seung-hyun didn’t think Kwon Ji-yong would like such comments and retorted without hesitation.

“Ok.” Lila understood Kim Seung-hyun’s meaning and dropped the topic. “Earlier when Claire said you’d submitted an application for a friend to audit classes, we wondered whether this friend was a boy or a girl. Now the mystery is solved.”

“Yeah, we’ve always heard Blair mention having a good friend in Korea, and today we finally get to meet him.” Elias changed the subject. “We’re all curious about how you and G met, since you rarely talk about yourself.”

Coincidentally, all of Kim Seung-hyun’s fellow students were from the US. Though they came from different cities, they were all native Americans, so they often had various activities together, and naturally, personal matters would come up in conversation.

Kim Seung-hyun, on the other hand, came from distant Asia and was always alone at Yale. She mostly played the role of listener and rarely volunteered information about her life outside academics, except for the occasional mention of a friend.

So now that they finally had a chance to meet her friend, their curiosity was understandably piqued.

Kim Seung-hyun had curious classmates on her left and a somewhat dazed Kwon Ji-yong on her right.

Kim Seung-hyun first explained to Kwon Ji-yong: “Claire is my advisor. I told him before you came, and he must have let it slip.”

Kwon Ji-yong nodded, understanding. Westerners were generally open, and gossip was only human nature.

After saying that to Kim Seung-hyun’s side, she gave her classmates a brief introduction: “G was my middle school deskmate and my longest-known friend. He’s on vacation right now, so he came to visit.”

Just then, the bell rang, and Kim Seung-hyun quickly said, “The professor’s here—let’s start class!”

Her classmates, who wanted to dig deeper, had to hold off for now upon seeing the professor walk in.

The class was called East Asian Intellectual History: From Ancient to Premodern—a required core course that mainly traced the intellectual evolution of China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula from ancient times to the pre-modern era.

For a history course like this, if you weren’t carrying a heavy academic load, it was like listening to stories. Although the professor spoke very quickly, it took Kwon Ji-yong about ten minutes to adjust to the pace, and in the end, he was completely absorbed.