Chapter 66 Chapter 66

2011 was undoubtedly a year of great change. Twitter began to sweep the world, and fragmented records quickly replaced long texts.

Pann gradually replaced the Bestiz forum, and a large number of netizens migrated to new platforms. Contacts between acquaintances also stopped relying on SNS, and a chat app called Kakaotalk quickly became popular among young people.

During the transition period between the old and new platforms, many people began to organize classic posts on Bestiz into categories, taking on the role of "porters." This was especially true for fans.

The long reviews, research posts, and short essays written over the years are all traces of accompanying their idols through their glorious years. Even after so much time has passed, there are still people who patiently take screenshots, save them, and repost them on new platforms.

"[Bestiz Name Card Repost] 10 Reviews of BIGBANG's God-Level Amway Articles" "[Bestiz Name Card Repost] Dong Shen: That Year We Chased Their Light All the Way to Tokyo Dome"

"【Bestiz Business Card Transfer】Girls' Generation's Debut Complete Record"... Gradually, a fixed "Bestiz Archaeology" section was formed on the new platform, and its popularity remained high for a long time.

Lia was no exception. Everyone was rushing towards a new future, so she had no reason to stay where she was.

She rarely logged into Bestiz anymore, and the young fans who once actively interacted with her gradually disappeared. This place, once so closely connected to her, was eventually sealed away in the museum of memory, along with her entire high school years.

As school was about to start, she began looking for apartments near Seoul National University. There was no direct subway connection between her company's dormitory and the university, and the one-way journey took over an hour. To save commuting time, she decided to rent a place to stay.

It was convenient for her to stay overnight during busy classes. Xia Qing accompanied her on several trips, looking at several apartments in decent locations but cramped spaces. With the start of the school year, rentals were in short supply, and most landlords were indifferent.

She eventually rented a one-bedroom apartment. It was simple, with a bedroom connected to a small living room. The windows faced the alley, providing ample sunlight. The furniture was basic. The landlord, a woman in her sixties, spoke in a gentle voice.

Communication was smooth. Most importantly, the room could be rented on a monthly basis, which was particularly helpful considering she had little left over from her final payment.

She packed her essentials into the apartment, planning to stay overnight when classes were busy. She also had a simple recording set she had stored at the company's studio, and she planned to bring some of it over to handle some of her work from home.

In the blink of an eye, the first day of school arrived. The Student Union arranged a welcome event for the new students. The booths of various departmental clubs lined the slope leading from the main entrance to the main teaching area, creating a colorful and lively atmosphere.

The spring chill was still there, and the freshmen, wearing thick coats and blinking their eyes excitedly, were moving among the crowd, receiving flyers, trying snacks, and filling out forms.

"Junior, are you interested in joining the debate club?" a voice came from the left. It was a boy wearing black-framed glasses, handing over a double-sided flyer. Lia took it, glanced at it, and smiled, shaking her head.

Debate was clearly not for her. She slowly followed the flow of people, passing by stalls displaying their talents one after another.

The hip-hop dance club played speakers and recruited random dancers; the literature club laid out a table full of self-printed publications and posters; and a few older-looking students sat quietly in front of a Go board and tea sets—presumably from the Go club...

The air was filled with the sweet smell of ink, drinks, cotton candy, and the cacophony of voices. Finally, she stopped in front of a booth without any loudspeaker equipment. It was a photography club.

Several hand-bound portfolios were displayed on the booth, and a few developed film photos were fixed with magnets on the background board. The girl sitting behind the table saw her stop and stood up to greet her, "Junior, are you interested in joining the photography club?"

The boy behind her poked his head out and said, "We have irregular field trips, free outings."

The girl pushed his head back and added sheepishly, "It's not necessarily completely free. Some of the photos we take will be sold to fund the event. If it's not enough, we have to pay for it ourselves."

Lia nodded and said okay, then lowered her head and flipped through the portfolio on the table.

The photos are both in color and black and white, mostly landscapes: corners of campus, subway cars, the Han River Bridge in the fog, and occasionally a few portraits. The composition is simple and exquisite, and one can see a certain quiet patience of the photographer.

She pointed to one of the photos and asked, "Was this taken at school?" The girl behind the desk nodded and said, "Yes, it was taken of the woods behind the library last autumn when the ginkgo leaves were almost gone."

"It looks great." Lia praised softly, then took out a pen from her schoolbag and wrote down her name, department and phone number in the registration book.

"Are you in the philosophy department?" the girl glanced down. "Kim Lia...is she a foreign student?" It didn't sound like a common name in Korea. "Yes. I went to high school here," Lia said.

The round-headed boy popped his head out again. "Wow, you speak Korean so fluently. We're going to Paju next Saturday. If you're interested, you can come along. We'll mainly relax, take photos, and eat delicious food."

"Okay, senior," Lia nodded. "Let me check the schedule." There were too many booths for her to look through them all. After checking the time, she said goodbye to the photography club members and headed towards the department.

My phone vibrated twice, and two friend requests popped up on KakaoTalk. [Choi Ji-eun requested to add you as a friend] [Tudou Cam requested to add you as a friend]

One used a nickname... the other, presumably, used her real name. She accepted each one. "Potato Cam" quickly sent a message: [Potato Cam]

Hi, Lia-san. My name is Park Dong-woo, and the senior we met is Choi Ji-eun. We'll add you to the photography club chat group later. ^^ [NeonL] Thank you, senior. Just call me Lia.

[Tudou Cam] Okay, junior Lia ^^ The Department of Philosophy is located in an unremarkable three-story building in the College of Liberal Arts. The floor tiles in the corridor are quite old, and departmental notices are neatly posted on the walls.

The new student reception area was located in the first-floor lobby. Staff were standing behind a long table, guiding students to sign in and distributing books. There were groups of new students, along with several accompanying parents. Lia approached, found her name on the list, and signed in.

The staff member smiled and handed her a thin handbook that briefly introduced the history of the philosophy department and provided guidance on course selection. "The course structure and credit requirements are all written in it. Remember to read it," he reminded her.

Lia nodded, took the handbook, and politely said thank you. The philosophy department doesn't have fixed classes; it operates a large-class elective system. Although freshmen are categorized as part of the same "year group" behind the scenes, the students they encounter in each class are actually different.

Aside from the mandatory general education courses, freshmen don't take many philosophy courses. If you only consider the number of class hours, it can even be considered easy.

After Lia checked the general education and introductory philosophy courses, she also took an additional cross-disciplinary elective course in German.

Many original works of Western philosophy were written in German, particularly those by core thinkers like Kant, Hegel, and Marx. Even if Korean or English translations exist, the linguistic feel and details often deviate once the language is translated.

Therefore, German is a subject that many philosophy students will choose as a cross-examination. She does not expect to master the language in a short time, but as long as she puts in enough effort, one day she will be able to read those works word for word by herself.

After all the arrangements, her schedule was only full of classes from Monday to Wednesday, with the rest of the time free. She couldn't help but look forward to a relaxing college life. But within two weeks of school, her fantasy was shattered -

The class hours were short, but the amount of reading after class was immense. The first semester of my freshman year, "Introduction to Western Philosophy," alone covered the entire development of philosophy from pre-Socratic natural philosophy to medieval scholastic philosophy.

The textbook is only a thin volume and contains only some original text fragments, but the reading assignments assigned by the professor are directed to the complete works of each important philosopher, which is almost equivalent to taking several "Classical Literature Intensive Reading" courses at the same time.

She was forced to realize that being busy was the main theme of her life, and even considered living in the library. Xia Qing was busy in a different sense.

She majored in economics and applied for the freshman dormitory at Yonsei University in advance. She lived in a four-person room. On the first day of school, she excitedly took a video of the room and sent it to Lia.

Compared to studying itself, Xia Qing is obviously much more interested in things other than studying. Unlike Lia, who has only joined a photography club since the beginning of the school year, she almost knows everyone in her grade. Every day she is either participating in club activities or running for student union elections.

Therefore, I often reply to Lia's messages after 11pm, and the content is usually concise, not more than ten words: Summer: alive today Summer: alive check-in +1

Summer: The salty seaweed soup in the cafeteria (picture.jpg) By the time she finally recovered and found a chance to contact Lia, spring was almost over. * The day she received Xia Qing's message, Lia was in the library.

She was studying Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" in "Introduction to Western Philosophy" and had just finished writing her notes when her phone screen lit up. She had planned to ignore the vibration and wait until she finished copying the paragraph before looking at it, but the phone kept buzzing -

【Summer】 There's a social gathering on Friday night. You don't have to say anything, I'll cover it. Then there's another one—— 【Summer】 Myeongdong ILATE Coffee Shop 7pm

There are four boys, freshmen in the Department of Economics at Yonsei University, one of them is very handsome!!! Next post: 【Summer】 Really handsome, must come!! I will find two more girls to join us

Lia stared at the screen in silence for a few seconds, her lips twitching slightly. Even through the screen, she could sense Xia Qing's urgency. These few messages combined almost equaled the weight of everything she had sent in the past month.

It was Thursday afternoon. She needed to finish a short essay by the weekend and also go to the company to confirm the post-production mix of one of her OSTs. Her finger hovered over the input box, thought for a few seconds, and finally typed: [NeonL]

I thought about how handsome he was and asked for a picture (starry eyes.jpg). The other person replied almost instantly: [Summer] Okay, okay! Remember to wear a pretty dress! No pictures, just assumed she agreed. Lia held her forehead.

She knew it! But because she was really curious about what Xia Qing said, "very handsome," she could only respond with an expression and continue to study hard.

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