“But why is it bad to drink cold things after drinking alcohol? Are you a doctor?”
Watching Lee Jiwoo keep going on about doctors, I could only sigh. All the bizarre behaviors he’d shown until now flashed by like a panorama.
“Lee Jiwoo.”
“Yes, teacher. Please speak. I’ll listen attentively.”
“What I’ve been telling you until now is common sense that everyone knows, not just doctors.”
Lee Jiwoo, who said he’d listen attentively, didn’t even look at me and just sipped his water. Since he probably wouldn’t remember tomorrow anyway, I didn’t really care whether he was listening or not and just said my piece.
“Like how you shouldn’t keep waiting outside without proper clothes on a cold day, or how you must eat snacks when you drink alcohol, stuff like that.”
At my words, Lee Jiwoo tilted his head.
“But I ate snacks?”
“Really? Then that’s good.”
“Why are you slandering me?”
“You were making a fool of yourself at the seolleongtang restaurant, so I thought you originally drank that stupidly.”
Lee Jiwoo stuck out his lips again and glared at me with narrowed eyes.
“That’s unfair. Actually, I didn’t eat though.”
“Then what’s unfair about it?”
When I laughed as if dumbfounded, Lee Jiwoo asked as if puzzled.
“Why are you laughing?”
“I’m laughing because it’s funny. Then what, did I laugh because I was sad?”
Lee Jiwoo’s expression as he watched me laugh once more was pointlessly serious.
“In this world, there are people who laugh even when they’re sad.”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“There are also people who laugh even when it’s not funny.”
“Yes, yes.”
I couldn’t understand how he could go on and on about such utterly useless nonsense like that. Ah, he’s acting like this because he’s drunk. I sighed and said.
“Anyway, make sure to eat snacks when you drink. If you only drink on an empty stomach, you get drunk faster and the hangover is much worse.”
It was funny to say things for his sake while I was in a position of deceiving Lee Jiwoo, but I was half sincere. However, after saying it, I felt too hypocritical myself, so I corrected it on my own, thinking it was just lip service to gain his favor.
“I did it to get drunk faster though.”
Just then, Lee Jiwoo mumbled like talking to himself while staring blankly into the tumbler. I tilted my head.
“Why do you want to get drunk faster?”
“Because I drink to get drunk.”
“Why?”
Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered responding to a drunk’s nonsense one by one. I would have just played along half-heartedly and put him to sleep quickly, but strangely, today I didn’t really feel like doing that.
“When my mind is a bit hazy…”
Lee Jiwoo frowned as if choosing his words and pursed his lips for a long time. Then he tilted his head and mumbled.
“It’s less hard?”
The way he paused with that expression before answering also looked like he was searching for an excuse.
“What’s so hard?”
When I asked with narrowed eyes, Lee Jiwoo made a blank expression again.
“Recently, you’re the hardest. Because of you.”
“Why me?”
“You don’t meet me. You don’t touch me either. You don’t hold my hand. Even when I grab it first, you keep shaking me off.”
Maybe because his frozen body had thawed, his pronunciation was much better than at first. Or was he gradually sobering up? Looking at his cloudy eyes, it didn’t seem like that either.
“I don’t understand why you won’t meet me…”
Watching Lee Jiwoo mumble in a pitiful tone, I felt slightly wronged too. It’s not like I ignored his contact, I was sick, so is this really something to be scolded for like this?
Here, I should obediently apologize and soothe him to score points, but before I knew it, the words popped out.
“I was sick too.”
At my words, Lee Jiwoo looked at me with cloudy eyes.
His eyes were like mystical pits leading to another world. Normally, I couldn’t guess at all what he was thinking, but now that he was drunk, I could feel Lee Jiwoo’s emotions completely.
“That’s why I said I’d buy medicine and come, but you coldly refused.”
“I just wanted to be alone. I appreciated the thought though.”
“You said you didn’t even want me to come briefly just to see your face.”
“That’s why I’m saying I wanted to be alone.”
At my words, Lee Jiwoo stuck out his lips with a blank expression like an 8-year-old kid being told to stop watching TV. Like how words popped out before I knew it earlier, when I came to my senses, I was holding his lips with my index finger.
“Uuung.”
He could easily escape just by shaking his head once, but Lee Jiwoo only made dissatisfied sounds without moving. I kept hesitating whether to let go or not, alternately applying and releasing pressure on the finger holding his lips. Then I suddenly realized his lips were too soft and got annoyed, so I let go.
“Lee Jiwoo.”
“It hurts…”
“I didn’t even grab it that hard. Anyway, do you like me that much, Lee Jiwoo? Will you go crazy if you don’t see me for even a day? Enough to drink yourself into a stupor and barge in like this?”
He nodded his head vigorously without a moment’s hesitation.
“Why? Not some drama line like ‘you’re different from other people.'”
“Drama? You like that kind of drama?”
Watching Lee Jiwoo tilt his head, I laughed.
“You’re deflecting again.”
“Next time, let’s watch the drama you like together then. While eating sushi. Come to think of it, we didn’t eat sushi either. We agreed to eat together.”
Talking about sushi reminded me of the drugs I’d briefly forgotten. Those white granules in the fish sauce container… I shook my head and sighed.
“What do you like so much about me?”
“You’re different from other people.”
That again. I recalled the story of a common drama where a rich family’s young master gets slapped by the female protagonist for the first time, gets flustered, then falls for her. Is Lee Jiwoo really that kind of case too? But wasn’t he already smitten with me before I hit him?
“Besides that. Isn’t there another reason?”
“Another one?”
“Yes.”
Lee Jiwoo rolled his eyes and pondered. Then he scrunched his brow and seemed to think hard for a while before saying decisively.
“No.”
“…No?”
“Yeah. If you were the same as other people, I wouldn’t bother…”
Lee Jiwoo yawned widely. His eyes had been cloudy for a while now, and it seemed he was starting to get sleepy. He mumbled while nodding off.
“Anyway, keep meeting me… And touch me…”
“Wait, excuse me. How can you suddenly fall asleep in the middle of talking? What exactly is so different about me compared to other people? Not stuff like having a washing machine in the bathroom or whatever, the real reason…”
I grabbed Lee Jiwoo’s shoulders and shook them hard. I wasted this good opportunity on useless talk. I should have dug out some more hidden secrets!
“Don’t sleep! Then tell me why it’s hard. Who’s making it hard? Because of what? What’s so hard? Besides me!”
Just before falling asleep as if fainting, Lee Jiwoo slowly opened his eyes.
“…Because of… what?”
“Yeah, because of what? You said it’s a bit less hard when your mind is hazy?”
He was almost half asleep, blinking his eyes. Then suddenly, in an instant, tears welled up in his eyes.
“You’re loud…”
“……”
“I said you’re loud…”
He shed pitiful tears and shook off my hand. Then he buried his face in the blanket, sobbed, and became quiet. Watching the pink back of his head tremble then settle down, I couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded.
“Excuse me.”
“……”
“Are you sleeping? Really?”
“……”
Just in case, I grabbed Lee Jiwoo’s shoulder and turned his face buried in the blanket. I saw his white face completely drenched with tears.
“This is really ridiculous.”
To suddenly barge into someone else’s house, throw a drunken fit, then while crying tell me, the homeowner, that I’m loud and fall asleep? No, I’m wide awake now though…
“Ha.”
Still, I couldn’t wake up and kick out someone who’d fallen asleep drunk. I stood up on my knees and brought over the tumbler Lee Jiwoo had left beside him. There had been quite a lot of water, but his throat must have been quite dry because it was completely empty.
I went to the kitchen and was putting the tumbler in the sink when I suddenly realized. Until I fell asleep, my whole body ached and hurt so much, but now I was too fine.
I must have forgotten my body hurt because I was too dumbfounded by Lee Jiwoo. I seemed to be hungry too… Jeez, really.
If I’d been alone, I would have eaten something, but I couldn’t do that in case Lee Jiwoo woke up and acted like a drunk again. I wandered around the kitchen pointlessly, then had no choice but to turn off the lights again and lie down.
It’s still the middle of the night, so even if I can’t sleep, I should at least try.
“Ugh, it’s cramped.”
Trying to sleep under one blanket, it was so cramped I felt suffocated. I should have laid out a different blanket to lie on, but it was too bothersome to get up again.
“Sleep at the edge, why are you in the middle like this…”
“…edge…”
“Huk.”
Lee Jiwoo mumbled in his sleep. Startled, I quickly shut my mouth and turned my head. By then, I’d already gotten used to the darkness and could dimly see Lee Jiwoo’s face. He frowned and pursed his lips again.
“You’re loud…”
There was still crying in his voice.
