System, bring out the reward page again.
[Main Mission: Help Yoona With Her Suitcase]
[Result: Passed] [Passing Grade: B]
[Reward: 1000% Crit Cashback Card for Clothing Items ×2]
[Tap here to get the Rewards]
As usual, Suho pressed the [Tap here to get the Rewards] button, and two yellow cards appeared in his hand. They looked like credit cards, each with a small chip and "1000% CRIT" written across the front in huge letters. He turned one over and read the words on the back.
[Description: Each card can be used for one shopping trip at a single clothing store. No limit on the number of items or the total amount spent. Receive 10× your total purchase amount directly in your bank account.]
So the limit is the store, not the clothes or their price.
Suho looked at the two cards again. He could buy one jacket or a whole pile of clothes from the same store, and the card would apply to the entire purchase. If he spent ₩10,000,000 ($7,000), he would receive ₩100,000,000 ($70,000) in his bank account. With two cards, he could do this twice.
Fuck, I can make crazy money with this. I’ll go back to that store at Guri Station... Guess I’m kind of petty.
With that in mind, Suho tucked the two cards into his chipped wallet and slipped it back into his pocket. Soon, he saw a long line stretching ahead of him. Around fifteen people, all seemingly around his age, were waiting in line. He asked the last guy if this was the admission line, and although the boy nodded, he didn’t do so before giving Suho’s worn-out, almost broken shoes a quick glance.
Suho didn’t mind and simply waited in line. When his turn finally came, he walked inside and found five people sitting across from him, two of them even wearing white doctor coats. They began asking Suho questions in a casual tone, and to him, the whole thing actually felt casual, but the people sitting across from him were taking every answer seriously.
Suho answered everything without much trouble, and after registering his name and completing the process, he walked outside. The dormitory office was just across the street.
"So, he was the one who got the perfect score?"
"He’s not bad... His viva was ten out of ten. I guess it’s true what they say—don’t judge a book by its cover."
After Suho left, the two medical lecturers lowered their eyes toward the evaluation sheet and began writing. This interview wasn’t only a formality; the faculty was quietly seeding the incoming medical students, separating the exceptional ones from the rest.
The pen stopped beside [Kim Suho], and a small [1] was written next to his name. For now, Suho was seeded first among the students they had evaluated. The lecturers also had the authority to flag a student for final review if they found serious problems during the interview, which could still put a provisional admission at risk.
The door opened again, and the next girl stepped inside with confidence. A few minutes later, it suddenly opened once more. She rushed out with tears running down her face, clutching her papers tightly as she hurried past everyone waiting outside. Whatever had happened during her viva, her admission had failed at the final review.
Suho entered the dormitory office, and unlike the admission office, this one felt almost vacant. The people inside looked like they had already done a massive amount of work and were now relaxing. Some were drinking coffee while others were reading newspapers. Suho went up to the help desk.
"Hey! I wanted to ask about the dorm I got. It says Building 923. Where do I collect the key?"
"Key? What key? The dorm shuffle already happened yesterday. Everyone who was selected had to show up and claim their room, and if they didn’t, the room was immediately given to another student on the waiting list who needed it."
"What? No one informed me about that..."
Suho was shocked. That room wasn’t something he had gotten easily. He had applied several times for the free dorm placement, filled out piles of forms, and had even stayed awake almost an entire night refreshing the application page when the final round opened. After all that trouble, he had finally secured a room, only to find out that it had been given away because he hadn’t shown up yesterday.
"Well, we posted it on our website. There were too many applicants and too few rooms, so the admins decided to remove anyone who didn’t pay attention to the notices, even if they genuinely needed the dorm."
Looking Suho up and down, the middle-aged man at the help desk turned his monitor around toward him. The dorm website was practically screaming about it. Huge notices covered the front page—[DORM SHUFFLE YESTERDAY], [SELECTED STUDENTS MUST CLAIM THEIR ROOM IN PERSON], [UNCLAIMED ROOMS WILL BE GIVEN TO WAITING STUDENTS], and even a bright red warning banner across the top. Suho stared at the screen for a few seconds, realizing that he had missed every single one of them.
"Hey! Listen, my orphanage had a huge fire incident..."
"Don’t even try. Since morning, I’ve heard students telling me their mothers died, their fathers died, even their whole families died. I can’t do anything about it. There are simply no rooms left. Even the students who were already assigned rooms have people waiting behind them in case they fail to show up or give up their rooms. The moment one becomes available, someone else takes it. This economy... sigh! People want free stuff."
Suho looked at the man and took a deep breath. He had no idea where he was going to live now. So far, people in this city had been nothing but mean to him. He hadn’t done anything wrong other than being poor, and Suho was slowly starting to feel like being poor itself might be a sin.
"Where can I get a cheap room or...?"
Suho didn’t even know what to call the places people rented here. Back at the orphanage, the children usually shared rooms with five others. He had only been given a small room of his own after taking first place in the Korean Biology Olympiad at sixteen. This time, he wanted somewhere quiet and safe where he could study properly, and somewhere nice enough that when Eunji and Mina came to visit, they could see that he was living happily.
"Sillim-dong. Go back toward the Administration Building and take the shuttle toward Nokdu Street. Once you get there, ask around for rooms. There are plenty of real-estate offices and student housing around there. Most students looking for cheaper accommodation live in that area. Someone coming from the rural outskirts like you should start there."
"Sigh! Yeah... thanks."
Suho simply shook his head and walked out. People never seemed to stop surprising him, but at least he had a goal now—find somewhere to live. A nicer place would be good since he had money now, but he had no idea how much renting in Seoul actually cost. He hadn’t expected to lose his dorm room, so researching apartments had never even crossed his mind.