Chapter 9: The Name in the File
537 Words
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The university looked the same.
But everything felt different.
Eun-ha walked through the stone arch of St. Lysander like she wasn’t unraveling. The quad buzzed with soft winter sun and students snapping pictures of snow-covered trees, but Eun-ha felt none of it. Her world was colder than the air.
People smiled at her now. Professors called her by name. Strangers no longer whispered cruel things — just curious ones.
But none of that mattered.
She hadn’t spoken to Jae-won since the day she told him to choose. Her phone remained silent. She tried not to check it. She failed.
Again.
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In the admissions office, a quiet storm waited.
She sat across from the dean, his expression unreadable. A slim folder rested on his desk. He slid it toward her without speaking.
“We reviewed your scholarship paperwork,” he said.
Eun-ha stiffened. “Is something wrong?”
“There’s a name. One that caught our attention during re-verification.”
She opened the folder. Inside: a scanned copy of her scholarship approval form.
Perfect. Neat.
But at the bottom, in bold ink:
Recommended by: S. Seo
Her pulse stuttered.
“Seo?” she asked.
The dean nodded. “Seo Hyun-min. Chairman of the Dalen Group.”
Jae-won’s father.
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Eun-ha walked out of the building in a daze.
She sat on the steps and stared at nothing. Her mind raced.
Why would Jae-won’s father have anything to do with her scholarship?
Had Jae-won known?
Had he picked her… or had she been picked for him?
Was she here because she earned it, or because she was part of someone else’s plan?
And if she was… was any of this real?
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She didn’t go back to class.
She didn’t call Jae-won.
She took the train home.
The quiet was almost unbearable. Her family’s small apartment welcomed her like always — the warmth of stewed r****h in the air, her father humming a news jingle, her mother folding laundry on the floor.
“Eun-ha?” her mother blinked. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming home?”
“I needed air,” she said.
Later, over dinner, she asked it softly:
“Mom… do you remember the name Seo Hyun-min?”
Her mother froze. Then nodded.
“It was on your award letter, wasn’t it? I thought it was a school board signature.”
“You didn’t think it was strange?”
Her mother looked guilty. “I did. But we wanted to believe you got it fairly. We didn’t want to take that away from you.”
Eun-ha’s throat tightened. She stood and went to her room.
Nothing made sense anymore.
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Later that night, she opened her phone.
No new messages from Jae-won.
But she scrolled back, reading old ones.
> You scare me more than my dad does.
You’re the first person who sees me for who I am.
Had he meant it?
Or was it part of the act?
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She stared at the file again before bed.
Recommended by: S. Seo
Three words. One signature.
A single question bloomed in her chest, sharp and dangerous:
Had she ever really had a choice?
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End of Chapter 9
[To Be Continued...]
- Writer
