[CANCELLED] ᴱᴺᴳ TRUE MIND
Description
TRUE MIND
by stopit님
An excerpt for
TRUE MIND
“I don’t like how sunbae is doing that.”
“What?”
“I don’t like how you’re dragging and holding responsibility for things that aren’t your business.”
“Minjeong-ah.”
Kim Minjeong took off her cap altogether. Her flat bangs didn’t look ridiculous, but Kim Minjeong shook them. Even that behavior seemed like a high school student full of complaints. Exactly why did Kim Minjeong not like it? A lot of people talked about Jimin’s behavior, her excessive consideration and understanding. “You’re going to get scammed.” Most of them were concerned. However, Kim Minjeong, like the kind of person Jimin had never met before, said something that Yu Jimin had never heard before in her life.
“Sunbae, you’re doing charity work for sympathy right now.16”
“What?”
Kim Minjeong looked Jimin straight in the eye and said, “You’re doing charity work for sympathy.” She wasn’t concerned about that. She couldn’t say she was concerned about her tone, expression, or the way she articulated it. Yu Jimin, who had lived her 22 years of life like the sunlight, had her feelings hit, crushed, and wrecked for the first time. Because of Kim Minjeong, who she had now met for the second time and unpredictably started arguing with. Kim Minjeong, who had helped her albeit unfriendly in their first meeting, who had told her ahead of time her schedule unlike the others, who had organized her file well, lost all of Jimin’s affinity from Minjeong’s sudden hatred. Like pulling out the wrong Jenga block.
The block that toppled the tower over was treated as a troublemaker. And when she first touched the block, she had a feeling something was wrong. Let’s put the Jenga into perspective. Yu Jimin was the tower, and the troublemaker block was Kim Minjeong. There was no doubt about that. From the beginning, from when she got a bad feeling, Kim Minjeong must have been a faulty, problematic block that would knock Yu Jimin down. Then let’s move on. Is it the person who picked up the block who is at fault? Yu Jimin wasn’t wrong to say that she was the tower. Then who picked Kim Minjeong?
Jimin couldn’t answer those questions. Her thoughts were complicated. However, she knew one thing. She had met Kim Minjeong only twice, but she was the only person she was on the fence about.
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Published: March 22, 2023
Released: April 22, 2023
Chapters: 05/24
Formality: It's very important in Korean culture! Strangers will always speak formally unless they want to come off as rude. This is why people would ask for when you were born or your age; to determine whether they can drop formality or maintain it. Your age determines the status of certain titles. The older you are, the more respectful titles you get is one way of thinking of it. Same age people are considered friends and they speak informally. If you are younger, you speak formally and the older speaks informally to you. If someone younger speaks informally to someone older, it shows that they are very close/comfortable with each other. That's why if the older person wants to get close to you (and you're younger) or they are just chill overall, they will suggest to you first to drop formality and talk informally. In most cases, the younger doesn't drop formality but they change their title to something friendlier. For example, say you are the younger one and you just met someone in college. The order of their title changes from sunbaenim -> sunbae -> unnie/oppa if you are female. Anyway, I decided to underline speech to indicate that the person is speaking formally because English has no heavy emphasis on formality in its language and it helps the reader determine who is speaking without having to outright say who said what since we all know the younger one here is Minjeong. So, if there are underlined speech, you can assume it is being said by Minjeong in most cases :)
Alcohol: Huge impact in K culture. College is the gateway or official starting point of drinking culture in Korea. Everyone is legally to drink at that point and there is an event called MT (membership training) where you basically go on a trip for 2 or more days and socialize with peers. You can view it as a retreat or a field trip. During MT, there are a lot of occasions where students get wasted. I digressed. Drinking culture is strong in Korea and there are certain manners you must do to show respect to older people but I won't get into that either. Just know that it's culture is so strong that there is a word to describe food that comes as a side dish/meal/snack for drinks called, anju. There are a variety of anju that differ from, spicy, oily, dry, etc. For soju, spicy and/or oily foods/snacks. For beer, dry foods/snacks like chicken (chimaek) or dried squid...etc.
Smoking: It's pretty common in South Korea but it's rude and prohibited to smoke anywhere you want. There are designated spots to smoke. It's prohibited to smoke indoors unless there is a smoking room which is common in pubs and bars (because so many people smoke there).
Major vs Department: In America (I'm not familiar with other places), a lot of people typically generalize based on major like, "what's your major (전공)?" but in Korea, they typically use departments (과). But it can be used interchangeably.
sunbae - senior
hoobae - junior; underclassman
unnie - older sister, older female (only younger females use this; younger males use noona)
oppa - older brother, older male (only younger females use this; younger males use hyung)
published 2022.06.21
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