“Why are you doing this?”
“Why are you doing this? If I tell you to come, just come. So much talk. By the way, are you new? I haven’t seen your face before.”
“Ah, I’m not someone who works here—”
“What? I can’t hear you well!”
Lee Jinwoo stood up from his seat, grabbed Seungun’s wrist, and forcibly sat him down. Only then did Seungun realize that the staff’s uniforms here were similar to the shirt he had worn today. And none of those sitting here remembered that he was the manager who had come following Gi Siyoung.
As he fiddled with his shirt buttons trying to clear up the misunderstanding, Lee Jinwoo put a liquor bottle in his hand.
“Pour some.”
“…….”
“Why aren’t you pouring? Want a tip?”
Ah, the staff here pour alcohol and collect tips. Seungun recalled what his former colleague had said earlier. There was nothing he couldn’t pour, man to man. Seungun poured the alcohol smoothly. The heavy liquor bottle almost slipped from his hand, so he grabbed the bottom of the bottle with one hand.
He just needed to pour one drink and get up from his seat before Gi Siyoung came. But Lee Jinwoo forcibly sat Seungun back down as he tried to get up. He was frowning unconsciously at that insolent attitude when the room door opened.
“…….”
Gi Siyoung entered without any change in expression. And sat down across from Seungun with his legs crossed.
“Siyoung-ah. Your seat is here.”
Someone else pointed to an empty seat.
“It’s more convenient to come and go from here.”
“Leaving already?”
“I was going to, but I’ll sit a little longer before going.”
Gi Siyoung alternately looked at Lee Jinwoo and Seungun, then conversed with a colleague who spoke to him from the side. Lee Jinwoo’s outrage didn’t end with one drink. He told Seungun to pour alcohol again. Seungun didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. He was silently pouring the drink when Lee Jinwoo leaned his body against him and asked.
“New face? How old are you? You look young.”
“I’m not that young.”
Everyone gathered here must be actors around Gi Siyoung’s age. If they were Gi Siyoung’s friends, they would definitely be younger than him. Seungun scooted sideways with his butt because he didn’t like this guy sticking close to him more than the fact that he was speaking informally to him at first meeting, mistaking him for staff.
“What? I said I can’t hear well because it’s noisy.”
“…….”
Lee Jinwoo stuck his face close again with the excuse that he couldn’t hear well, and the feeling wasn’t very good. Rather, it was closer to unpleasant. Even Lee Jinwoo, who was acknowledged as handsome, was making such a spectacle with staff at a bar—how much more of a spectacle would guys more handsome than him make elsewhere? Having watched Gi Siyoung 24 hours a day, his standards seemed to have changed unknowingly.
“I’ve poured enough, so I’ll get up now.”
“Ah. Why. What is it. What’s the rush?”
Lee Jinwoo whined in a regretful voice. Lee Jinwoo, whom the public loved, was just an ordinary man. Seungun suddenly felt sorry for his fans. Lee Jinwoo sat Seungun back down again.
“Who’s next to you, Jinwoo-ya?”
Just then, Gi Siyoung asked a question in a voice so sweet it gave him goosebumps. The shadowed face under the cap acted as if he didn’t know Seungun at all. Lee Jinwoo grinned and put his arm around Seungun’s shoulder.
“Him? I don’t know either. First time seeing him today.”
“Ahh…. First time seeing him today. But isn’t the progress too slow? If you sat him next to you, there must be a reason for it.”
Gi Siyoung retorted while rubbing his chin. His eyes were fixed on Seungun like an awl. Whatever part of Lee Jinwoo Gi Siyoung’s words touched, he suddenly got worked up.
“Fuck, you’re so fucking impatient. I’m in a hurry too, you bastard.”
“…….”
“Hey, is there an empty room here? It’s uncomfortable to book a room.”
The last words were a question Lee Jinwoo was passing to Seungun. Gi Siyoung was watching from the front. From here on, even Seungun couldn’t stand it anymore. Moreover, that attitude of Gi Siyoung, pretending not to know even as his manager was being humiliated!
He had deliberately visited Gi Siyoung’s house because he was having a hard time from the drunk driving incident. Feeling guilty, he had given him the comfort he wanted. Even if he was an ordinary person incomparable to them, they shouldn’t treat him like this.
Seungun felt more betrayed by Gi Siyoung watching from the front than by Lee Jinwoo, who mistook him for bar staff. The time he had felt guilty about such a person became desperately regrettable.
“Let’s stop this now.”
Seungun twisted his shoulder and escaped from Lee Jinwoo’s grasp.
“Stop what? We haven’t even started yet. Ah, this fucking bastard. Acting coy.”
Suddenly Lee Jinwoo grabbed the thigh of Seungun, who was trying to get up, and pressed down hard. The pressing force was tremendous. It seemed they all just ate, acted, or exercised. Seungun gritted his teeth. It hurt enough to make him cry out.
“Ugh, it hurts.”
“…….”
“I said it hurts! Stop it!”
When Seungun shouted, people who had been turning away thinking it was nothing looked at them all at once.
Life was always like this. If you go out quietly with a low posture and manners, no one acknowledges it. You had to show them that even a worm wriggles when stepped on. There were people it worked on, but that wasn’t always the case. And there were more of the latter around Seungun.
Smack!
“Huk!”
“Hey, Lee Jinwoo! What are you doing, man!”
“Are you drunk?”
“What’s going on?”
Everyone around added a word.
“This bastard doesn’t know his place and is being difficult, fuck.”
Lee Jinwoo was in a bad mood. So he raised his hand as usual. He knew the people gathered here weren’t those kinds of guys, but he looked around out of concern just in case. Fortunately, there was no bastard stupid enough to be recording this situation. He looked at Seungun’s turned face and muttered.
“Speaking informally out of nowhere.”
“Hey, you go out and get some air. Why are you suddenly like this?”
“Huh? That person… has a nosebleed…”
Someone muttered quietly. At those words, Seungun wiped under his nose with the back of his hand. It was wet. However, it wasn’t clearly visible because of the dim lighting. He straightened his head that had turned from being slapped once on the cheek.
“…….”
Seungun stood up from his seat with a face like he’d stepped in shit.
“Still can’t come to your senses—!”
It was when Lee Jinwoo was grumbling and trying to get up together. Crash! The table was pushed roughly with a sound.
“Ugh!”
When the edge of the table struck Lee Jinwoo’s thigh, he groaned and collapsed. The rattling tabletop became a mess in an instant. A hand suddenly shot out from across the table and lifted Lee Jinwoo’s body up onto the table.
People stood up and scattered all at once. Before anyone could stop it, liquor bottles rolled helplessly with dull impact sounds. Lee Jinwoo’s sturdy body, now caught in Gi Siyoung’s grasp, dangled like a paper doll.
“Gi Siyoung-ssi!”
“Aaah!”
Im Seungun tried to stop him but froze at Lee Jinwoo’s scream. Things had gotten big. Myeongwoo’s face, who had clasped both hands tightly and asked him to please get through this time safely, flashed through Seungun’s mind as a chill ran down his spine.
“Hey, call the guards here! Right now!”
Someone shouted. Seungun couldn’t even wipe the flowing nosebleed and squeezed between the two. The table was flipped over. It was chaos. Gi Siyoung acted as if he was going to pour out all the misfortune that had happened to him in the past few days. He tried to butcher Lee Jinwoo with an expression that said he’d met just the right person. Seungun just wiped the now-stopped nosebleed stain with the back of his hand and headed toward Gi Siyoung again.
“You can’t do this here!”
The Libero manager and several burly staff members who someone had quickly called came running toward Gi Siyoung and Lee Jinwoo. Seungun also joined them, but when Gi Siyoung swung his arm back once, the three people hanging onto it went flying.
Now even the fellow actors who realized the seriousness of the situation rushed at Gi Siyoung. Among the staff the manager had brought along was Seungun’s former colleague. He shouted at Seungun while forcefully gripping Gi Siyoung’s elbow.
“Hey! Seungun-ah! How do we stop this? Try contacting your company! We can’t call the police!”
“…….”
Gi Siyoung’s arm, which had been twisting in the air, stopped abruptly. The people who had been restraining him stumbled back at the violent recoil. Gi Siyoung glared with eyes glistening with fighting spirit as he turned around.
“How does that bastard know you again!”
Seungun gulped.
The man, overwhelmed by Gi Siyoung’s energy, hunched his shoulders.
“Th-that is, w-we are, what kind of relationship…”
“Did I ask you?”
Seungun closed his eyes. His eyelashes trembled.
It was over now.
Everything was finished.
