The cherry blossoms are falling.
The pink leaves that made the hearts of college students flutter are falling, and their hearts are once again pounding hard. This is because the midterm exam period has arrived.
The eyes of the college students sitting in the lecture hall are uniformly bloodshot. It must be because they stayed up all night studying for the exams.
“The white is the blank space, and the black is the writing…!”
Kim Dongjin, a third-year law student, is holding his head and screaming. Shin Jaehee, the president of the academic society, who was watching him from the side, quietly asks.
“Kim Dongjin, didn’t you study for the exam?”
“I couldn’t because I had a rugby match. And isn’t the criminal mock trial supposed to not have an exam?”
“The mock trial only replaces the final exam; the midterm is held as usual. The professor emphasized this repeatedly during the first week of class. How did you miss that? It’s amazing. How did you get an academic scholarship when you entered?”
“I studied so hard in high school that I almost bled. I planned to take it easy in college. Anyway, as long as I pass the bar exam, my grades don’t matter much. By the way, Jaehee, no, President! Do you have any study guides…?”
“What study guides? Haven’t you heard from the seniors that there are no study guides for the criminal trial class? The professor gives different questions every year. Hey, the bar exam is not like a driving test. What will you do if you fail?”
“In that case, I guess I’ll just have to follow you when you open your law firm. Or go to the countryside and learn livestock farming from my father.”
He’s a person who doesn’t seem to belong to the law department of a Korean university no matter how you look at him. Shin Jaehee shakes her head and hands over her summarized notes.
“These are potential questions that are likely to appear on the exam. At least look at them before the exam starts. I’ve already seen them so much that I’m sick of them.”
“Thank you, Jaehee!”
When Kim Dongjin tries to hug Shin Jaehee, she pushes him away with a fierce look. Regardless, Kim Dongjin’s face looks as happy as if he had won the lottery.
At that moment, Youngguk enters the lecture hall.
“Youngguk!”
Compared to other students who brought a load of books, he is almost empty-handed. Kim Dongjin asks with a puzzled look.
“Youngguk, did you give up like me?”
“Pardon?”
“Oh man, if it was hard to study because of your schedule, you should have told a senior! I have some notes here. We still have time before the exam starts. By the way, Professor Shin Jeonggil’s class is known for not allowing retakes.”
“Hey, Kim Dongjin! You knew that and still came unprepared?”
“Ahem.”
Youngguk sits down silently. Shin Jaehee looks puzzled as she occasionally glances at Youngguk, who seems to be meditating. Wasn’t he the one who was more passionate about studying than anyone else during lectures?
But now, he doesn’t seem to be prepared at all for the upcoming exam. The midterm for the criminal mock trial is notorious for its difficulty within the law department.
“Youngguk, are you sure you don’t want to see it?”
“It’s okay, senior.”
Kim Dongjin asks again, but Youngguk only gives a faint smile. Whether his confidence comes from giving up on the exam or from being fully prepared, only time will tell.
Shin Jaehee shakes her head as if to shake off her thoughts and gets back to preparing for the upcoming exam.
Since it was the exam period, Shin Jaehee always studied late into the night. Usually, she would study in the library or a reading room in the college building, but today was different.
She flinched several times at the sounds coming from the living room beyond her room’s door.
‘Ah, should I just take a little peek?’
The reason she couldn’t move was simple. It was the day ‘Yeonsan, The Secret of the King’ was airing.
Her mother, a huge fan of the actor Jang Youngguk, was already seated in the living room watching the drama.
Her mother had lowered the TV volume, thinking of her studying daughter, but that only made Shin Jaehee more curious.
‘Okay, just a little peek. It’s not like anything will change if I don’t study for an hour.’
Shin Jaehee closed her textbook and stood up, heading straight to the living room as if she were possessed.
Seeing her sneak out of her room, her mother patted the seat next to her as if she had expected it.
“I knew you would come out, my daughter. It hasn’t been long since it started.”
Usually, she wasn’t interested in dramas at all. But lately, she had been watching them with her mother more frequently.
That was because the historical drama ‘Yeonsan, The Secret of the King’ was so captivating that she couldn’t take her eyes off it.
From the main character playing two roles to the lively supporting characters, and the engaging storyline that made her laugh and feel tense at times, it was all very appealing.
Shin Jaehee couldn’t take her eyes off actor Jang Youngguk’s performance on the screen. When he held the hand of a young palace maid and brushed off the mud, she couldn’t help but smile.
She wondered if such a kind-hearted man could really exist in the world.
‘He’s so different from how he is in the lecture hall.’
In the drama, he was the epitome of kindness, but in the lecture hall, he was different.
He spoke very little and rarely interacted with other classmates.
Of course, most of his interactions were with the talkative Kim Dongjin. Even during today’s exam, it was the same.
‘He got the gold medal.’
As a joke, the first three students to leave the exam room were called gold, silver, and bronze medalists.
But in the law department, it wasn’t a good thing. It usually meant that the student hadn’t studied much.
Actor Jang Youngguk was the first to leave the exam room today.
It was only about thirty minutes into the exam. Even though there was still half the exam time left, he suddenly got up and left.
It made her wonder if he had given up. But considering his usual academic performance, it was puzzling.
At that moment, her father enters through the front door. He was none other than Professor Shin Jeonggil, who had administered today’s criminal mock trial exam.
As the drama ended, Shin Jaehee got up and quietly approached her father.
“Dad, who got first place in the exam today?”
Professor Shin Jeonggil, with his white hair, takes off his coat and replies.
“Do you know that telling you that is considered cheating?”
“I’m not asking you to tell me the exam questions, just who got first place. You came home late because you were grading the exams today.”
“Jaehee, it wasn’t you. Your answers lacked legal perspective. You need to work harder. When I compared your paper with the first-place paper, I felt disappointed. That student is really something. I wish they would continue as a law student.”
Suddenly hearing this, Shin Jaehee’s face turns red. She becomes curious. Who could have gotten first place in her strict father’s class?
The filming is nearing its end. The atmosphere on set is tenser than ever as they approach a scene where the character of Yeonsan undergoes a dramatic change.
“Youngguk, did you do well on your exam?”
“More or less, I think I did okay.”
“If you say you did okay, that means you got a perfect score, right?”
The famous PD makes a joke to ease Youngguk’s tension. He glances at the script Youngguk is holding, which is worn out from being read so many times.
“How do you feel about dying as Yeonsan today?”
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel bitter. Wrapping up a character I’ve been playing isn’t easy.”
Actors often get deeply immersed in their roles. Some method actors even suffer from aftereffects because they can’t detach from their characters after the project ends.
“But I think I can understand a bit.”
“Huh?”
“Dying for someone.”
Youngguk could fully understand the heart of Yeonsan in the script. He, too, had lived his life thinking he could give up his life multiple times if it meant saving his mother.
Soon, they hear a call for standby.
In the quiet valley, only the occasional hoot of an owl can be heard. Under the full moon, a man lies in a shed in the valley.
The man in fine silk clothes and a hat is none other than Yeonsan. He is groaning, holding his bleeding abdomen.
“Brother, why do you look at me with such sorrowful eyes?”
Butcher Lee Gyeol holds his head, knowing his brother ended up like this because of him.
The incident was simple.
After the purge orchestrated by Yoo Ja-gwang, the ministers, feeling threatened by the increasingly powerful royal authority, plotted a rebellion.
Yeonsan, who had visited the valley with only his bodyguards, was fatally wounded by assassins who were trailing him.
Not only that, but the bodyguard Gwak San was also covered in blood.
“Your Majesty, I will immediately call the royal physician!”
Bodyguard Gwak San kneels and shouts in a trembling voice. He has dealt with the assassins, but the king’s condition is critical.
But Yeonsan shakes his head.
“Enough, don’t do anything foolish.”
Yeonsan’s complexion is getting paler.
His brother Lee Gyeol desperately tries to save him, but without any medical skills, there is nothing he can do.
At that moment, Yeonsan’s pale hand covers his brother’s hand.
“Brother, the court is always a dangerous place like walking on thin ice. It is now too. There are more conspirators than one. They must know who you are. They might have planned to dethrone me and put you up as a puppet. That’s why I can’t leave this place alive.”
Butcher Lee Gyeol cries out, hugging his brother. But Yeonsan shakes his head.
He had always thought this day would come. Despite betraying his only brother, hadn’t he lived well?
As a brother who had done nothing for his younger brother living as a butcher, Yeonsan, speaking as a loving brother rather than a king, pleads.
“For you to be free, those who plotted the rebellion must not be alive. Especially living as a butcher in Joseon must be tough. With Gwak San’s help, escape to another place. Far, far away….”
Like a dying ember, Yeonsan’s pupils lose their light as he utters his last words.
“Brother, live for yourself from now on.”
