episode_0000

Different races.

They’re the kind of species commonly found in fantasy settings.

From elves and dwarves to harpies, dragons, fairies, spirits, and beyond……

Beings you’d only expect to see in media—not in modern reality.

Why bring this up all of a sudden?

Well… it’s because I became part of that very fantasy.

“Yun Seohyun.”

“Yes.”

At the professor’s call, the gazes around me turned in my direction, followed by hushed murmurs.

Well… of course they’d whisper.

Because coiled atop my head right now were massive, jet-black horns like a ram’s.

Yeah.

When I came to my senses, I had become a dragon.

And to top it off, my gender had changed along the way.

The assignments are endless.

Why on earth do every single Korean literature professor love group projects so much? Grumbling under my breath, I forced myself to piece together the PowerPoint.

Just my luck—the majority of our group were international students, forcing me to juggle everything. They barely scraped together research, and even worse, they didn’t even know how to format a damn slide.

I wanted to ask, What can you do? But I bit my tongue. Fine, I’ll just shoulder the extra work. Honestly, the bigger pests weren’t the international students but my own juniors from the department.

Juniors in name only—they had zero connection to me, some antisocial loser.

Still… even if we weren’t close, was it really okay to straight-up tell your senior, I don’t know how to make slides?

I nearly snapped, Since when does anyone know how until they learn? But given my already tarnished reputation in the department from past incidents, I knew stirring the pot would only invite more trouble.

Fine. I’ll swallow this bullshit. Fucking assholes.

In this godforsaken department, it was practically an unwritten rule that returning students always got stuck as group leaders. Nothing I could do.

At most, I cobbled together the scraps of research others had dumped on me into a paper. Fixed the messed-up footnotes, double-checked citations—then dove into the PowerPoint.

Surprise, surprise—it wasn’t working. No clue where to even start. Damn it, I don’t know how either. But since everyone dragged their feet, I had no choice.

Somehow, I brute-forced my way through. Copy-pasted a decent template I’d used before, tweaked it to look halfway presentable, and crammed in just enough readability to pass.

The moment I uploaded it to the group chat, the obligatory replies flooded in.

[Thanks for your hard work.] [You really went through a lot! Random image of a weirdly crying bunny] [I’ll treat you to a meal someday! You’re the best, leader! Spam of joy-filled emoticons]

Disgusting lies. Unbelievable. The one junior who actually put effort into research at least kept it curt—just a simple Thanks for the work. Meanwhile, the useless ones drenched their messages in empty flattery.

Yeah, sure. And now the presentation’s my job too.

The project was on classical poetry—analyzing reinterpretations in modern films, dramas, poems, novels, etc. Thankfully, the content wasn’t too complex, so I breezed through it.

But finishing this one didn’t mean the end. Six more group projects were stacked ahead. Is this even humanly possible? The urge to drop out surged violently, but I forced it down.

Too much tuition wasted. And the prestige of the university—too valuable to throw away.

Sure, humanities students got cheaper tuition, but that was the only perk.

This is insane. Even if it’s way easier than what STEM majors go through—six group projects? And I’m leading all of them?

It wasn’t like I had zero friends, but of course, group assignments were all randomized.

Yeah, great system for antisocial loners like me. But if you insist on fairness, why not just make them individual assignments?

“Goddamn fucking assignments.”

I wanted to whine to the professors, but between my nonexistent courage and walnut-sized guts, I’d never dare. So instead, I cursed under my breath while racing to get it all over with.

Even though the presentation was a month away, I figured I might as well push through now. I badgered my groupmates to at least send over their parts of the paper ASAP.

Of course, I wasn’t dumb enough to leave it all to them. I’d agreed to handle the paper, slides, and presentation myself—for all six projects.

A raw deal, but what choice did I have?

Trying to coordinate with these people would just drag things out and produce half-assed results.

Fine. You’ve all got your circumstances. I’ll take the hit. Honestly, seeing how useless you are, I’d rather work alone anyway.

And I sure as hell didn’t want to get personally tangled up with these kinds of people.

Materials for the other group projects were trickling in too. If I proofread the papers and whipped up slides, sacrificing one weekend would seal the deal.

Their opinions? Who cares. Dump the finished product in the chat, and if they pull a random presenter rule, I’d just say:

Just read the paper and slides. Don’t choke. Not my problem after that. What more do they want?

I set aside work for a moment and stepped outside. 4 AM. What the hell? Since when did it get this late?

I needed air.

Most people would probably light up a cigarette at a time like this… but not me.

Never smoked to begin with, and I quit drinking ages ago. Hangovers wrecked me—one drink, and the next day vanished. A waste of time.

Friends asked what I did for fun, and I’d just say, This is fun enough for me.

No real ambitions either.

How the hell am I supposed to make a living?

The breeze helped—just a little. While I was at it, I glanced up at the sky. Felt like forever since I’d last done that.

No stars in sight. A disappointment.

I wanted to see them. Though, what was I expecting? This wasn’t the countryside—just a tiny studio in a glittering downtown.

The group projects… eh. If I grind through the weekend, I’ll scrape by.

I’m exhausted.

Staring into the wind, my thoughts spiraled.

How to wrap up the projects. What to prep for job hunting once they’re done.

But of course, no answers came.

After zoning out for who knows how long, I snapped back to reality—this was no way to waste time.

Right. Finish this goddamn project, then relax with games or streams.

Right now, I need rest more than life plans. Gotta push through.

Just as I turned to head back inside—

A sudden brightness flooded my vision.

Something gleamed in the distance—like a brilliant streak of starlight.

…What is that?

A meteor?

No… Doesn’t look like one.

That was the last thing I remembered.