Whiskey and makgeolli — the ultimate combination for a hangover the next morning. They drank and drank until they dropped off one by one. Sly Minjun had been the first to swipe the guest room for himself. Suhyeok had retreated to a room as well, leaving only Eunho and Doyun in the living room. They’d lain on the living room floor using each other’s arms as pillows, then sprawled together on the sofa. When Doyun next opened his eyes, he was in a taxi headed to Eunho’s place with Eunho beside him.
And then… that night.
Just as he was about to recall what had happened with Eunho, he looked up and met Eunho’s eyes as he came out of the bathroom. Doyun turned his head away so abruptly it was obvious he was avoiding the gaze on purpose. He forcibly shoved the fragmented thoughts back down into his mind and left.
***
A low table had been set up in the middle of the living room, and Doyun, Minjun, and Suhyeok sat gathered around it. Eunho, declaring he absolutely could not sit on the floor because it was too uncomfortable, had taken his glass of drinks and was seated alone and loftily on the sofa.
“Whoa, damn — this is seriously strong.”
Minjun and Suhyeok both grimaced simultaneously as they drained their glasses, which held just a thin layer of the amber liquid at the bottom. Doyun, who had been about to do the shot with them, took one look at their faces and very carefully just barely touched his tongue to the rim of his glass. The liquor was genuinely brutal.
“As expected, the prince’s taste is impeccable. Everything we’ve been drinking until now wasn’t alcohol — it was water.”
At Suhyeok’s flattery, Eunho shrugged and responded, throwing in a graceful, magnanimous wave of his hand as a bonus.
“Right…. Drink up.”
“The fact that it doesn’t come across as arrogant when he says it like that — is it just me?” Minjun shook his head as he looked at Eunho. Even though the liquor was incredibly strong, Suhyeok dropped in some ice and started throwing back the whiskey without hesitation. Doyun still hadn’t finished what was left in his glass.
“Doyun, I heard your blind date was a total disaster. Minjun already ran his mouth about it.”
“‘Ran his mouth’ is a bit harsh — I just gave a situational report.”
“…….”
Eunho, who had been sitting alone on the sofa watching his friends like a detached third party, straightened his back and adjusted his posture. Then he slowly looked back and forth between Suhyeok and Minjun.
“So why did you let Na Minjun set you up. Leave it to me. I’ll find you someone proper.”
“You know, Suhyeok might actually have better taste. He’d know your type and all that.”
Doyun had no desire to talk any further about the catastrophically failed blind date, but Suhyeok seemed thrilled to have something to tease him about and kept going. Even with Doyun glaring at them as hard as he could, Minjun and Suhyeok had no intention of shutting up.
“Honestly, even when Doyun was little he was never really interested in girls. Like, he’d get chocolates or candy and just go completely blank — and when word got around that some girl from the next class was going to confess, he’d run away. Wasted potential.”
“That was ages ago.”
Doyun curled his fist and knocked it lightly against Suhyeok’s shoulder. Suhyeok dramatically played it up and leaned into Minjun, who reflexively let out a string of curses. When the two made eye contact, they both burst into “hahahaha” laughter. Evidence that they were getting steadily drunker.
“Eunho, I know this is hard to believe, but Doyun was popular back in middle school. I ate so many of the chocolates he’d bring home. That’s actually why this guy grew up so tall.”
Minjun called out to Eunho and started testifying to Doyun’s past popularity. And as Minjun said — Doyun had received a few rather loud confessions back in middle school. But it wasn’t nearly as grand as the way they kept talking about it.
“Wasted potential my ass…. I’m never doing a blind date again.”
“Why, too embarrassing?”
“It just felt awkward, and what’s the point of dating someone like that anyway. I want to feel something click naturally and get together that way. From now on I’m going to meet someone through a competition prep group or an academic club, something like that. Or I could even date someone while on exchange.”
The more he talked, the more tangled up his thoughts felt. Hoping a drink might help, Doyun drained the whiskey left in his glass. The hard liquor shot straight down his throat in an instant, making him shudder from head to toe. Ugh, he’d almost thrown up.
“Yeah, just live your whole life as a born-single. Every group needs at least one holy figure like that.”
“Minjun, you want to die? Didn’t you hear me? I said I’m going to meet someone naturally.”
Doyun snapped his eyes up at Minjun this time. As usual, it had no effect whatsoever. Suhyeok, who had been watching Doyun, suddenly turned serious — both his expression and his voice.
“Hey, if maybe — Doyun — you’re into guys rather than girls, just tell us straight. We’ve been friends since kindergarten, basically brothers. If not us, who else is going to understand you? A beta can date guys too. I don’t have any prejudice.”
“Right, if you like guys, just tell hyung. Hyung will find you someone real fine.”
“What are you guys on about.”
Doyun buried his face in his knees at Minjun and Suhyeok’s nonsense. He’d dismissed it as nonsense, but for some reason his face felt like it was slowly flushing. He couldn’t tell whether it was from the shot he’d downed too fast, or from the formless, haunting wet dream that had been tormenting him for the past few days.
“Hey, he didn’t say he didn’t like it. So he really does have different taste. Suhyeok, you know that guy, right — the one who was in the taekwondo club back in middle school. I ran into him at a bowling alley not too long ago.”
“Oh right, yeah. Didn’t he quit taekwondo and say he was going to be some idol trainee? Doyun — can you handle dating a celebrity?”
“What the hell, you guys are insane.”
He’d thought they’d tease him once and leave it at that, but Suhyeok and Minjun were now acting like they were genuinely about to set him up with a guy. And in the middle of all this, Eunho’s intense gaze from the sofa seemed to land on his cheek like heat. Doyun deliberately turned his head away, trying not to let it show that he’d noticed.
“He wasn’t really an idol trainee, that was just a rumor — he apparently just studied and went to university. He’s not on Sa Eunho’s level, but he’s seriously good-looking. Doyun, want to see a photo?”
“…Let me see.”
Minjun pulled out his phone and opened his photo gallery, starting to search. The classmate Minjun and Suhyeok were talking about — Doyun remembered him well too. Among the few students in the sports clubs, there had been one guy who was noticeably better-looking than the rest, and Doyun had heard he later presented as an alpha. He couldn’t remember the faces of any of the girls who had confessed to him — but that male classmate’s face was vivid and clear. Just as Doyun leaned in to look at Minjun’s phone together, Eunho’s voice came from above.
“Song Suhyeok, Na Minjun.”
Eunho, who had been sitting alone in solitary dignity on the sofa, came over and sat down across from the table with perfect posture.
“…Huh?”
Startled by Eunho’s sudden approach, Minjun responded in a dazed voice.
“You two — do you know that having absolutely zero tact is also a crime?”
Eunho said it with a gentle smile, tacking on the word “absolutely” in a way he didn’t usually speak.
“Oh, Sa Eunho’s cursing.”
Suhyeok seemed genuinely fascinated that Eunho was using crude language and let out a pure, honest exclamation of surprise. Eunho looked at his friends with a cool expression, then announced in a solemn voice, “I will now deliver my verdict.”
“The convicted Song Suhyeok — fifteen years. Na Minjun — thirty years.”
Eunho picked up the spoon sitting on the table and, as he handed down the sentences of fifteen and thirty years, brought it down against the wooden table with two sharp thwacks. The composed manner of it left all three of them momentarily speechless. Minjun was the first to recover and protested to Eunho.
“What’s your problem, out of nowhere. And why do I get more than Song Suhyeok.”
“Excuse me — why is it only us two. Sa Eunho, how many years does Doyun get? He’s the real criminal here.”
Suhyeok followed right after with an aggrieved tone. Doyun muttered “why are you dragging me into this” and buried his face back in his knees.
“Doyun is….”
Eunho set down the spoon and slowly called Doyun’s name. As if drawn in by the sound, Doyun slowly raised his head.
“…….”
The moment his eyes met Eunho’s, Doyun involuntarily swallowed. Eunho raised his hand and shaped his fingers into a finger gun.
“Death penalty.”
The sudden headshot caught Doyun off guard, and he slowly blinked. Right after, “bwahahaha” laughter erupted from Minjun and Suhyeok beside him.
***
“Honestly, these tactless bastards….”
Doyun thought as he watched the three of them drinking like it was a competition. The moment Doyun’s death sentence had been delivered, those two seemed to have forgotten their own fifteen and thirty year sentences entirely — they were clinking glasses and cackling with Eunho.
Suhyeok and Minjun didn’t have any particular drunk habits, but as tends to happen with intoxicated people, their actions and speech were growing increasingly exaggerated. Eunho, on the other hand, didn’t pace himself at all — whatever Suhyeok or Minjun poured for him, he swallowed it straight down — yet his expression and behavior remained completely unchanged. Doyun sipped his drink at a moderate pace and observed the three of them, blinking slower and slower until he drifted off entirely.
