TIC 02

The arrivals hall on the first floor of Incheon Airport’s Terminal 1 was a mess.

“Why is it so chaotic?”

Professor Kwon Min-hyun asked with a deep frown. Assistant Ma, who was standing next to him pulling a suitcase, looked up at the god-like Professor Kwon and chattered excitedly.

“Yong Seok-hyun is arriving today. And apparently Nabi, who had a scandal with him, is also arriving today, so it’s a mess with fans and reporters. Give me the trunk!”

“Who is Yong Seok-hyun?”

Assistant Ma stared at Professor Kwon with cold, hardened eyes.

Professor Kwon was really too much. How could there be a citizen who didn’t know Yong Seok-hyun? The hero who saved South Korea at the last World Cup, the pride of the nation.

Unless he was a spy. Every time this happened, Assistant Ma would think, ‘Report spies to the National Intelligence Service by dialing 111, and to the National Police Agency by dialing 113.’

But wouldn’t a spy know South Korea better?

Dismissing the suspicion of espionage, Assistant Ma asked, as if no longer surprised.

“You really don’t know? Really? That’s crazy!”

“Our assistant Ma is always so brave.”

The corners of Teaching assistant Ma’s mouth turned up uncontrollably at the unexpected compliment. Well, he deserved to get praised for giving up his precious Sunday to go and pick up his Professor from the airport after an academic conference.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

As Teaching assistant Ma modestly scratched his head, Professor Kwon spoke in an almost boring monotone.

“I think Teaching assistant Ma is the only graduate student who can say ‘crazy’ to his thesis advisor.”

Professor Kwon slowly lowered his eyes and looked down at Teaching assistant Ma. His heart skipped a beat at that look and Teaching assistant Ma felt flustered.

“I’m sorry. Please give me the case.”

Embarrassed, Teaching assistant Ma snatched the trunk out of Professor Kwon’s hand.

Caught by Professor Kwon’s dark grey eyes, Teaching assistant Ma almost blushed. It was all because of Professor Kwon’s captivatingly handsome face. Professor Kwon was so beautiful that he made Teaching assistant Ma question his own sexual orientation.

Teaching assistant Ma wasn’t unattractive himself. But standing next to Professor Kwon, he felt like a fly swatted by a fly swatter. It was so bad that even Teaching assistant Ma’s mother had told him to stay as far away from Professor Kwon as possible.

Well, could someone please tell him how a graduate student was supposed to stay away from his advisor?

Anyway, it was a huge disadvantage for Teaching assistant Ma. At 178 cm, he wasn’t short. But standing next to Professor Kwon, who was almost 190 cm tall, he looked as pathetic as a mayfly next to a majestic rhinoceros beetle.

Teaching assistant Ma gazed longingly at Professor Kwon’s broad back as he walked ahead. 

I want a back like that.

I’ll definitely start working out next month. But what about my face? Should I try some facial yoga from YouTube?

It seemed quicker to call his mother and ask her to arrange an appointment at a plastic surgery clinic.

Teaching assistant Ma had been obsessed with Professor Kwon ever since he joined the department. He hadn’t even experienced a typical campus romance. On his own, he had a cute face, but next to Professor Kwon, he just became a cute bug.

He felt a new wave of injustice. He was staring at the back of Professor Kwon’s head when he suddenly turned around. Teaching assistant Ma, who hadn’t yet lowered his glare, ended up facing Professor Kwon with a resentful expression on his face.

“Why?”

Professor Kwon asked curtly. The flight time alone was almost 24 hours, from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Incheon Airport via Dubai. Adding in the airport transfer and layover, it was more than 30 hours.

Yet Professor Kwon looked neat and tidy, as if he had just showered, dried his wet hair and put on a suit.

If anything, Teaching assistant Ma, who had just had a shower at home, was the one who might have smelled, while Professor Kwon seemed to exude the scent of fabric softener from a sun-dried shirt.

“Just… would you like some coffee?”

Professor Kwon chuckled as if he had seen it all.

If Snow White from the fairytale was born a man and lived as a social misfit, wouldn’t he end up just like Kwon Min-hyun?

The skin of the man whose head was filled with thoughts of insects was white as snow, and his hair was bluish black, with dark grey eyes.

“Teaching assistant Ma, are you tired?”

Just as Teaching assistant Ma gave a quick shake of his head, the people who had been milling around in the arrival hall suddenly started to run in the same direction as someone appeared.

“Argh!“

Swept away by the crowd, Teaching assistant Ma lost his balance and fell, the trunk rolling away from his grasp. The socially inept Prince Charming, no, Professor Kwon, who had pushed through the crowd, helped Teaching assistant Ma up like he was lifting one of the Seven Dwarfs.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine… Ah! The trunk!”

Teaching assistant Ma quickly ran and grabbed the trunk that had rolled away into the crowd. It was the trunk filled with precious specimens that Professor Kwon had flown all the way to Rio de Janeiro to obtain. If anything happened to it, Teaching assistant Ma’s life would be over.

“Give it here.”

As if he couldn’t trust him, Professor Kwon grabbed the handle of the trunk and stepped forward.

“But Teaching assistant Ma?”

Professor Kwon, who was leading the way, suddenly turned and narrowed his eyes.

“Why is soccer player Yong Seok-hyun having a scandal with Nabi? Does he have a butterfly fetish?”

He mentioned the national hero as if he were talking about a most heinous criminal. The man, who had already drawn attention to himself because of his unusual appearance, was now shouting out provocative words such as ‘Yong Seok-hyun, Nabi, fetish’ at the same time.

Teacher Ma quickly approached him and lowered his voice.

“The female idol singer’s name is Nabi. Her fans are everywhere here. Please be careful what you say.”

He was about to tell him not to, when Professor Kwon suddenly furrowed his brow and asked, “Then is her idol group’s name Insecta?”

Butterflies are classified in the animal kingdom, phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, order Lepidoptera. Since butterflies belong to the class of insects, he asked if the group to which Nabi belonged was called Insecta… It was Professor Kwon’s attempt at a joke.

“Hahahahahaha!“

Teaching assistant Ma burst out laughing.

If I’m guilty of anything, it’s entering graduate school. My innocent laughter is no crime.

But Professor Kwon, knitting his straight eyebrows together, asked coldly, “Why are you laughing? It wasn’t meant to be funny.”

It wasn’t a joke… Life is so bitter.

All the professors in the Department of Applied Biology of the College of Life Sciences at Korea University were gathered in the conference room, even though it was Sunday. 

Teaching assistant Ma thought it was a gathering of impatient social misfits. He vowed that when he became a professor, he would never call his graduate students to school on a Sunday.

But why were there so many graduate students there who didn’t even have this as a major subject?

Apparently, they had gathered to see Professor Kwon’s face up close and prove that he was the idol of the College of Life Sciences. What was the point? Professor Kwon didn’t even look at them.

“The conference schedule must have been tight. You’ve worked hard. And to bring back the specimens yourself like this, Professor Kwon, you are the future of Korean entomology”.

The department head laughed out loud, praising Professor Kwon’s hard work. Excessive praise was a sign of excessive expectations.

“I’m not sure you’ll like it. Thank you for making sure there were no problems during the quarantine.”

“I just did my job.”

The sight of Professor Kwon and the head of the department exchanging compliments was so beautiful it almost made him yawn.

“Open it quickly.”

There seemed to be at least 50 people in the large conference room.

Professor Kwon placed the aluminium case in the centre of the table and smiled casually. The Snow Prince’s smile was brighter than the white lab coats worn by the researchers.

“Then I’ll open it.”

The trunk should have been filled with mating specimens of various insects that inhabit the Amazon.

The extinction of insects, the longest-surviving creatures on Earth, would mean the extinction of mankind. The reproduction of insects was therefore a valuable subject of research, directly linked to human survival.

With a click, the lock on the trunk opened. Professor Kwon opened the trunk with the elegance of a magician opening a magic box on stage.

But the face of the department head standing next to Professor Kwon hardened.

“What… what is this?”

The head of the department picked up the object between his thumb and forefinger. It was a pale yellow linen pajama with a small floral print. The trunk also contained a frilly pillow and an ivory-colored blanket.

Except for the faculty members who tried to maintain decorum, everyone discreetly pulled out their mobile phones.

The news that Professor Kwon, who had promised to bring specimens of insect sex life, had revealed his own private life spread faster than the evaporation of ethanol.