“……Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”
I gave him a look that made no attempt to hide how absurd I found it, and Cha Jae-woo set down the empty glass and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. This guy drinks cocktails like they’re soju or beer.
Even the sight of him snatching someone else’s drink and downing it was unfairly attractive.
It felt like watching a beer commercial — but that didn’t make it any less ridiculous.
“That was meant for me — why are you drinking it?”
“Your liver levels are off.”
“Even so, something this light——”
“It’s still alcohol.”
After saying that, Cha Jae-woo went on to intercept every single cocktail that was placed in front of me and knock it back himself.
Up to that point I let it go — but at some point a zero-sugar cola was set down, and he downed that in one go too.
I stared at the instantly emptied glass and genuinely thought is this guy out of his mind, and before I knew it the words were already out.
“Hey, is that alcohol? That’s cola. My liver levels are the problem, not my blood sugar.”
“It might not be ordinary cola.”
I narrowed my eyes at what sounded like complete nonsense, and Cha Jae-woo had the nerve to scold me.
“How do you know no one put anything in that cola?”
“……What?”
“Ha Yun-su, do you have zero sense of caution?”
And then he glared at me like he was lecturing a careless child. I was so baffled by Cha Jae-woo’s behavior that I was struck speechless.
But wait — what about him, then? Was his stomach made of steel, unlike mine? The logic was so absurd my head throbbed.
“Whether it’s me or you, if either of us eats something off, we both go down the same.”
“I, at least, don’t spend days moping around just because I catch one cold, unlike you.”
“……It wasn’t days — I was only sick for one day.”
“You kept coughing and complaining about your throat even after that.”
He had a point there, and I had nothing to say. It wasn’t just recently — the truth was, I got sick far more often than Cha Jae-woo.
As I’d said before, I was the type who got cold easily and caught colds all the time.
It was my constitution — not something that could be changed with effort — so I felt vaguely indignant about it. But Cha Jae-woo drove the point home without any concern for that.
“So stop taking whatever anyone hands you and putting it straight in your mouth.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a new glass appeared. This time it was a non-alcoholic cocktail — but that, too, went into Cha Jae-woo’s mouth and not mine.
Maybe thanks to Cha Jae-woo’s bizarre behavior, the glasses that had been appearing in a steady stream in front of me disappeared at some point. It seemed everyone had decided I was spoken for and given up.
There hadn’t been anyone I was particularly interested in anyway — but at this rate I was going to go home with nothing to show for it, and I let out a sigh.
“God, damn it.”
Just then, Cha Jae-woo suddenly stood up with a muttered curse.
I turned to see what was happening, and he was raking his fingers irritably through his hair, then pointed toward the exit.
“I’m stepping out to take a call.”
It seemed to be something work-related, so I nodded. Cha Jae-woo, for his part, checked his phone, shot me a deeply displeased look, and let out a sigh.
“Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone. Just sit still.”
“Do you think I’m a child?”
“……A child would actually be better.”
It was astounding that Cha Jae-woo thought less of me than a toddler left near water — but I gave him the answer he was looking for with a docile nod.
“I’ll be on my best behavior, so go take your call.”
Even with that firm answer, he didn’t seem reassured — he looked back several times before finally letting out a long sigh and picking up his pace.
I wasn’t a child. I was a fully grown adult — twenty-eight years old — and I hadn’t expected to be treated like this.
Then again, Cha Jae-woo has always treated me like a kid.
It had been the same back in high school. Cha Jae-woo would often act as though he’d forgotten that I was a dark-complexioned guy with an average build and average height.
To give you a sense of just how over the top he was — my nickname in high school was “that guy who hangs around Cha Jae-woo,” and Cha Jae-woo’s nickname was “Ha Yun-su’s mom.”
Maybe it’s because he’s naturally big and never gets sick.
Cha Jae-woo had a height and build that far exceeded the male average in Korea. And for all the years I’d known him, I’d never once seen him come down with a proper cold.
It wasn’t that he’d never gotten sick at all — but when he did, it was mild and over quickly. With a constitution like that, it probably made sense that to him I looked like a sickly little bird deserving of pity.
That’s probably why he keeps worrying about me and looking out for me.
If he’d directed even half that energy toward Kwon Tae-gyeong, the two of them would have been dating long ago.
Thinking about it that way, the fact that Cha Jae-woo paid me such particular attention felt like a good thing — and also like it wasn’t.
I’d come here to stop thinking about things like this, and here I was going in circles back to Cha Jae-woo. I really was far gone.
All the drinks had been polished off by Cha Jae-woo, so the only thing left on the table was the fruit snack we’d ordered at the beginning. I picked up a cherry tomato and chewed on it absently, and it suddenly occurred to me that this might be my chance.
Cha Jae-woo, who had been making a dedicated effort to block me, was away from his seat, and I was alone. I had told Cha Jae-woo I’d behave — but the definition of “behave” was inherently relative, wasn’t it?
With that thought, I rinsed the tomato from my mouth with the water in front of me and quietly looked around.
Maybe it was the dim, muted lighting typical of a bar — even people I’d have frowned at in broad daylight somehow looked passable in here. The problem was that I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol.
There’s a significant difference between scanning a room with a decent buzz on and doing it stone-cold sober.
Unfortunate as it was, I’d always had high standards — and having spent as much time with Cha Jae-woo as I had, settling for someone whose looks were only propped up by bar lighting felt like too little.
So even though I scanned the room diligently, trying to look casual about it, there was no one who caught my eye at first glance — not even anyone I’d want to exchange a few words with.
“Damn Cha Jae-woo.”
I filled my glass with the mineral water beside me and drank it down in gulps. Then I wiped the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand, just like Cha Jae-woo had done earlier.
At this rate, the issue wasn’t even that I was into men. With Cha Jae-woo as my measuring stick — not someone else, but Cha Jae-woo — it was obvious I’d struggle to find anyone worth dating, man or woman. It wouldn’t have made much of a difference even if this had been a regular bar or a club.
Once the interest was gone, my thoughts drifted back to Cha Jae-woo, who was still away from his seat. The call was running longer than expected.
Come to think of it — did he ever manage to sort out that thing that blew up last time?
I had no particular intention of bringing it up — but I was a little curious. Still, it was probably better to let it pass quietly. I was mulling over when on earth Cha Jae-woo might come back when a man approached.
He looked to be around my height or maybe slightly shorter, and broad rather than tall. Out of consideration for his dignity, I made an effort not to evaluate his face.
“Excuse me — did you come here alone?”
“Hm? No, I’m——”
But the man sat himself down in Cha Jae-woo’s seat before I could even finish. He radiated the confidence of someone who had never once been rejected.
Who is this guy? I sat there with nothing to do but stare, caught off guard, and this man — whether he was oblivious or just shameless — opened the menu with a smile and even started recommending things.
“This one’s good here.”
“……What? No, I’m fine. I’m here with someone.”
“Ha, come on, let’s just hang out.”
He’d already dropped the formal speech, and the name of the cocktail he was pointing at was rather explicit.
Pointing at something with “sex” in the name and giving a little wink — he seemed to think he was flirting, but the problem was that I didn’t feel a flutter of excitement. I just felt annoyed.
He clearly wasn’t close to my age, and his looks weren’t exactly my type either. On top of that, making such a blatant move as if to say let’s go to bed right now — there was no way any appeal was going to land.
Right. Turning him down.
While I was making up my mind, the man had already gone ahead and ordered the drink he’d recommended.
It felt a bit awkward to tell him to leave when he’d already ordered — but he was the one who ignored me saying I had company and sat down anyway. I was about to point that out and send him on his way, when —
“Never seen you here before. How old are you?”
As he asked that, the man rested his hand on my shoulder with a greasy smile. His intentions were uncomfortably clear.
I wasn’t pleased — but the fact that he was being this direct actually made things simpler, and I felt a small sense of relief.
As expected, the hand on my shoulder moved with zero restraint. He was rubbing my shoulder and grinning openly when he brought up what he was really after, in that slick, oily voice of his.
“How about we finish this drink and go get a room?”
“No, I’m sorry, but——”
I tried to remove the hand from my shoulder and make my refusal clear.
But before I could, the wrist of the hand that had been pawing at my shoulder was twisted sharply — the chair toppled, and the man let out a cry as he went face-first onto the floor.
I had no time to process what had just happened when an almost chilling, crushing presence settled right beside me.
I didn’t even need to turn around to know it was Cha Jae-woo. And I knew at the same instant — Cha Jae-woo was furious.
“You piece of shit — who do you think you’re putting your hands on?”
“……”
“Filthy.”
