Seongyeom wanted to drink another glass and scanned the table with bleary eyes, searching for the liquor bottle. One of the hyungs sitting next to him poured him a drink.
“You drink well, huh?”
“Hehe, that’s right. Oh my, thank you.”
Seongyeom downed the shot of soju in one gulp and pressed his flushed cheeks firmly. A warm sensation rose from his solar plexus, and he flapped his short-sleeved shirt with both hands.
Yi Cheong and Seoldong, who had been noisy, had at some point stopped bickering and were eating quietly.
When Daerim put some finely cut side dishes on Yi Cheong’s spoon, Seoldong, not to be outdone, placed a piece of meat he was about to eat on top of it, earning a glare from Yi Cheong. Watching this, Seongyeom asked the hyungs he’d been chatting casually with something he’d been curious about all along.
“Wait, but! You hyungs seem more like bosses than the actual Boss… Why, why is that person the Boss?”
It was truly a question that could only be asked while drunk. The organization members who had been listening with stern faces and closed mouths looked at Seongyeom’s finger pointing upstairs and laughed mischievously.
“Teacher, if you know too much about us, you’ll get hurt. Be careful.”
“That hurts my feelings, hyungs?! I’ve given you as much affection as the regular customers at my parents’ drivers’ restaurant! Secrets between us?”
“Teacher’s drunk. That’s enough, stop feeding him alcohol. Hey, bring some more of that over here.”
The hyung who naturally snatched away Seongyeom’s glass placed a plate in front of him. With an uncle’s heart, he deboned the braised meat and brought it to Seongyeom’s mouth, and Seongyeom munched on it. Watching this, the organization members burst into hearty dad laughter.
They all look scary but seem to have warm hearts, Seongyeom thought, turning to look at Seoldong and Yi Cheong. Admirably, they were drinking orange-flavored soda instead of alcohol.
If those kids keep rolling around here, their good looks will fade and they’ll end up like these hyungs. Before that happens, they need to give up their determination to become gangsters. Hmm…
The tipsy organization members had at some point gone out to the living room and brought out a karaoke machine. One hyung singing an outdated pop song held up a liquor bottle in each hand and raised them high.
“For our youngest ones’ new tutor and housekeeper, cheers!”
“Cheers!”
Swept up in the lively atmosphere, Seongyeom also stretched out his arm and shouted cheers. He was already calling the gangsters he’d met for the first time today “hyung, hyung” and linking arms with them, doing left-and-right kicking dances.
“Huh…?”
In his alcohol-soaked, hazy vision, he saw a man in a white sleeveless shirt. It was Siwon. He must have just showered because his hair was damp, and his figure looked like a scene from a photoshoot.
“Wow…”
Even the sight of him tossing a towel into the laundry basket was art.
“Huk…! That’s a goal…”
Seongyeom was amazed watching him. Words that should have stayed only in his head kept slipping out of his mouth because of the alcohol.
If the hyungs wore that sleeveless shirt, they’d look like ahjussis in undershirts, but because the President is wearing it, he’s no different from a fashion model. The presence of the muscles firmly positioned under that thin tank top is even clearer than my future.
“Ideal type spotted!”
Seongyeom, who had raised both hands to his eyes pretending to look through binoculars, followed Siwon toward the kitchen. Siwon was just taking out a glass cup from the cupboard. In the meantime, Seongyeom raised both hands in a flower-offering gesture and collapsed into a dining chair.
“The transparent glass cup touches those moderately plump-looking lips.”
“…What?”
“Oh, did I say that out loud? My apologies.”
Seongyeom grinned sheepishly. Siwon sighed and drank the water in the glass.
Ah, look at that sensually bobbing Adam’s apple. As he giggled internally while providing live commentary, Siwon laughed helplessly and ruffled Seongyeom’s hair.
“Drink in moderation, and leave when I send you home.”
That action set his heart on fire. Following Siwon as he left the kitchen, Seongyeom also jumped up from his seat.
Leaving the kitchen, he saw the living room, which was as chaotic as a banquet hall. Teolbo hyung and the hyung with a long scar near his left eye were holding each other and dancing the blues.
Whether drunk on the atmosphere or not, Seoldong, with his eyes half-closed and bleary, stuck out his lips to Yi Cheong once more and got hit on the head. Giggling as he watched them, Seongyeom confirmed that no one was paying attention to him and headed up to the second floor where Siwon had gone.
“Tch, does acting cute solve everything…? Does being the Boss mean you can do anything, hmph…”
Grumbling with a tongue twisted from alcohol, Seongyeom giggled to himself and passed by Yi Cheong and Seoldong’s room, which he’d become familiar with, going deeper inside.
After turning one corner, the noise from downstairs was cut in half. As it became quieter around him and some rationality returned, Seongyeom looked around with flickering eyes.
“This is…”
Somehow it felt gloomier than other places, so that great Boss-nim’s room must be nearby.
Seongyeom grabbed Siwon’s door handle and caught his breath for a moment. With each breath, his stomach felt warm, and it seemed like he wouldn’t be scared of doing anything right now.
“Alright! Uh, uh oh…!”
He had only meant to press his ear against the door to confirm if it was the Boss’s room, but his drunk body moved regardless of his will. The moment he grabbed the door handle to avoid falling, the door swung wide open and Seongyeom tumbled in.
“Ow, ugh. That hurts…”
But thanks to that, Seongyeom was able to find Siwon inside the room.
“What is this.”
One stand lamp instead of an overhead light. Beneath it, a figure sitting on a warm brown leather sofa.
“Uh oh. Well, I…”
It was Siwon.
He was organizing documents and looking this way with a displeased expression.
He was so startled that he seemed to sober up. As his mind became clear, the pressure from that gaze turned his head white. The man who had gently smiled while ruffling his hair in the kitchen earlier had disappeared.
“I asked what this is.”
Siwon got up from his seat and shuffled in his slippers toward Seongyeom. Seongyeom’s mind went completely white. His rationality argued to apologize quickly and leave, but his alcohol-fueled heart urged him to say what he wanted before his courage ran away.
In the end, Seongyeom squeezed his eyes shut and held out his palm toward the approaching Siwon.
“Stop! Stop right there!”
“Huh?”
He managed to stop Siwon, but his vision seemed to be spinning.
“I, I, I!”
Stuttering like a malfunctioning robot, Seongyeom jabbed his finger at Siwon and shouted.
“Just because I’m a bit cute and attentive and accommodating, don’t you dare think about doing anything to me! This is a warning!”
“…What’s what now?”
“Does being a gangster mean you can do anything?! I’m not that easy of a person either!”
“I see.”
The way he crossed his arms with a subtle smile and nodded seemed like he was thinking about how to kill him. Seongyeom wanted to cut off his own finger that was jabbing around.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ah, fuck. Hehe…
This isn’t right.
Cold sweat prickled on his back and goosebumps rose on his arms. Even now, while not yet sober, he knew he would regret today for a long time.
Why do I get this kind of courage whenever I drink?
“Keep going.”
“W-well…”
“Does Teacher think he’s cute?”
With each step Siwon took closer, Seongyeom took a step back in the opposite direction.
Strange. He definitely seemed to have walked straight in, but instead of the door, a hard wall touched his back.
Siwon, who had cornered Seongyeom until there was nowhere left to retreat, pressed against the wall and matched eye level.
“From what I see, you seem more sexy than cute…”
When he pulled on the collarbone area of the t-shirt, bare skin was revealed beneath the loosely stretched clothes.
“Look, what a spectacular view.”
With a dangerous smile, Siwon’s gaze moved as if examining every feature of his face, looking exactly like a wolf that had been starving for a long time. Captured by his gaze, Seongyeom widened his eyes and swallowed. His face was hot.
“Isn’t your heartbeat a bit too loud?”
Siwon asked cheekily, pretending to bring his ear to Seongyeom’s chest.
“D-don’t joke around!”
Seongyeom grabbed his clothes with both hands and turned his body as he spoke. Siwon, who laughed lowly and obediently stepped back, put his hands in his pockets and looked down at Seongyeom with a relaxed appearance.
“Is that it already? I was secretly looking forward to it. Playing with fire between a gangster and a tutor, you know, something like that?”
“What?! No, you, you’ve watched too many strange things! And I, I came in here by mistake…!”
In truth, he had been looking for Siwon’s room, but he lied and pretended not to know.
Siwon, who looked at Seongyeom with an expression that said ‘as if,’ sat on the sofa armrest.
“If you’re going to be stubborn with a gangster, you should at least stake your life.”
Seeing Siwon joking from a reasonable distance, Seongyeom found himself grinning again.
He was definitely scary when he came right up close, but it’s nice to look at him with some distance.
“You’re smiling?”
Siwon looked at Seongyeom as if dumbfounded.
When I got close earlier, he was trembling like he was about to die, but now that there’s distance, he’s lively again.
Feeling mischievous, Siwon asked Seongyeom bluntly.
“Are you always this loose?”
“Loose, me?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly how you look right now.”
When Siwon made a pitiful expression as if looking at a frivolous person, the corners of Seongyeom’s smiling mouth twitched.
