# Chapter 77
After pleading with him about a hundred times to please go home, Jiho reluctantly left first.
“It’s disgustingly cold…”
About 20 minutes after being left alone like that, Yeomin slightly regretted sending Jiho away.
He thought soliciting customers would be no big deal… but standing there idly in thin clothes (the president had brought him a new shirt because his was shabby) turned out to be quite embarrassing.
‘Maybe I should have at least kept Seol Jiho standing next to me. No, if I did that… people would swarm like flies, and how could I bear to watch that?’
Yeomin shook his head firmly.
His radar picked up two students looking around, who caught his attention as he stood there awkwardly.
Just by looking, they seemed to have no destination in mind—
‘Those are the ones!’
My first customers! Yeomin seized the opportunity and subtly approached the students.
“Excuse me… if you don’t mind, do you have somewhere to go?”
He wanted to punch himself for saying something so shameful.
But Yeomin summoned his courage for the sake of getting home early.
“We have… lots of side dishes, and we’ll give you plenty of service too. If you haven’t decided on a place, please come to our bar!”
He’d rather clean ten ashtrays full of cigarette butts. He spoke with humiliating obsequiousness while the two women giggled.
“Will you really give us a lot of service?”
“What? Yes…! Of course!”
“Should we go here?”
“Why not. I’m fine with it.”
“Thank you. Two customers coming in~”
Yeomin guided the two people inside the bar.
‘Whew… finally filled one table.’
As he wiped the sweat from his forehead, someone pointed at him.
“Wow! It’s a rabbit!”
At that moment, a group of students who looked barely twenty pointed at Yeomin and snickered.
They even approached him, showing interest.
“Are you running a bar now?”
Yeomin answered stiffly.
“Yes, if you come in now, I’ll prepare a table for you right away.”
“What will you do for us if we go in?”
“…Pardon?”
“We’ll go in if you give us your phone number.”
What is this…
“…Um, no, that’s not happening.”
Was that response too blunt?
But no means no. This occasionally happened at his PC bang part-time job too. Regular customers sometimes asking for his number.
When he apologized, those customers never came back.
“Wow~ That was totally harsh.”
“I’m sorry. Have a nice day.”
“But we’re not leaving. We can go in, right?”
Yeomin awkwardly guided the group of customers who coolly walked into the bar.
‘This is draining me. I should do this for just 30 more minutes and then run away saying I can’t do it anymore…’
Come to think of it, it was strange that Jiho was quiet with no contact. Yeomin checked his silent phone.
‘Is he really just waiting quietly because I told him to wait? If so, that’s very admirable.’
As Yeomin was tilting his head in confusion, a clear voice came from behind him.
“Three people here!”
“Ah, yes! Welcome…”
Yeomin, who was mechanically greeting them, froze while bowing. He only raised his head to check their faces and couldn’t control his expression when he saw who it was.
“What the hell?”
“We were drinking nearby with friends, and heard this place was hot, so we came to check it out.”
The woman smirking was… none other than Yeojin. With two friends tagging along.
“Go somewhere else.”
Yeomin spoke coldly, as if sprinkling salt. But Yeojin didn’t care at all.
“Go to the bar next door…!”
Instead, she pushed past Yeomin and entered the bar, shouting excitedly.
“Three tables here, please~ More people are coming!”
Yeojin’s friends took their seats first. Before Yeojin could sit down, Yeomin quickly grabbed her arm.
Yeomin lowered his voice and demanded,
“What is this, really? How did you know to come here?”
“Seol Jiho told me to come.”
“What?”
“Why are you being like this? Let go and talk. Do you want to look like we’re getting along?”
Yeojin removed Yeomin’s hand from her arm.
“Did Seol Jiho tell you to come? Tell me in detail.”
“Jiho contacted me asking for help.”
Since when are you calling him ‘Jiho’? Yeomin was shocked, not knowing they were even in contact with each other.
“He told me to come to this bar and sell as much as possible. Said to bring everyone I know.”
“…So you came all the way here after hearing that?”
“Took a taxi right over. I even got this. Company dinner funds.”
Yeojin showed him a white envelope. Even without opening it, its thick bulk suggested it wasn’t a small amount.
Haa… Yeomin felt a headache coming on.
“I wonder what appetizers are good here~”
He couldn’t stop Yeojin, who was humming with excitement.
Should he stop Yeojin or should he stop Jiho? He couldn’t tell.
‘No, it’s more like my life seems completely dried up because of these people…’
* * *
Yeojin kept summoning people she knew, as if showing off her social influence. In less than an hour after the bar opened, half the tables were filled with Yeojin’s acquaintances.
That was another way Yeojin was very different from Yeomin. Unlike Yeomin, who only hung out with a few friends since childhood, Yeojin had many close friends and enjoyed noisy atmospheres.
“But what’s with those ears? Don’t tell me… it’s Seol Jiho’s taste?”
Yeojin, who had found Yeomin soliciting customers at the entrance again, picked a fight. Her face was already tipsy.
Yeomin frowned.
“It’s not.”
That’s how he answered, but… he wasn’t sure what Jiho’s tastes were.
‘Come to think of it, what are his preferences?’
They had never talked about such things until now. He seemed outgoing, but also somewhat conservative.
It suddenly struck him that despite their numerous intimate encounters, he didn’t really know much about Jiho’s sexual preferences.
“That’s not the issue right now. Why are you and Seol Jiho in contact, noona?”
“Well. You could call it a mutually beneficial relationship. When I sent him a few pictures of you from when you were little, he was really happy. Thanks to that, I got what I wanted too.”
“What? You gave him my pictures?”
“Yeah, ones where you look really ugly.”
“You’re seriously crazy.”
Yeomin decided that as soon as he got home, he’d block Yeojin’s contact from Jiho’s phone.
He didn’t even want to imagine what the two most suspicious people in the world might have been talking about behind his back.
‘I shouldn’t have introduced them back then…’
What made it even more annoying was that Jiho hadn’t contacted him once since going home, but had been conspiring with Yeojin.
Yeojin was in high spirits, either because the alcohol was making her feel good or because she was excited about getting one over on Yeomin.
“It feels nice coming to school after so long. Joo Yeomin, enjoying the festival despite being an old student? Youth is so good~”
“What youth? I’m being exploited for labor here.”
“Joo Yeomin, you should do things like this even if you have to force yourself.”
“…”
“Force yourself to date, force yourself to get married… oh, is marriage off the table? Anyway. Jiho said he’d invite me when he marries you?”
“…What kind of crazy talk have you two been having?”
‘That Seol Jiho. I was going to praise him for waiting patiently, but now I see he deserves punishment and more.’
Yeomin muttered, consumed with betrayal.
“…Seol Jiho. I need to teach him a lesson.”
“He’s probably just waiting for you to come and scold him. Want to see my KakaoTalk chat with him?”
Yeojin shoved her chat with Jiho in front of Yeomin’s eyes. There were dozens of messages.
[Young Master: How many tables are filled?]
[Young Master: Is it full?]
[Young Master: If it’s not enough I’ll send more staff]
[Young Master: Hurry and report the situation to me]
The chat was flooded with urgent messages.
Yeomin’s furrowed brow relaxed, and soon he let out a laugh like a cough.
“He’s really driving me crazy…”
Truly, it was so ridiculous it was funny. It seemed he had fallen hard for Jiho. To think even this was endearing.
Suddenly, Yeomin felt like he needed to go home right now. He wanted to see Jiho immediately.
“Noona. Can you handle the rest here? The cleanup too.”
“Okay. I’ll clean out all the appetizers here today, so don’t worry-“
“Alright… see you next time.”
“Answer when I call you.”
Yeomin turned around coolly. Then he crossed the crowded campus. The campus was full of loud music, cheers, and soliciting voices. Yeomin’s steps through that crowd gradually quickened.
Before he knew it, he was running. He didn’t even notice he was out of breath, driven solely by the thought that he had to see Jiho.
“Huff, huff…”
Should he scold Jiho for calling Yeojin, or praise him for waiting patiently as instructed? His confused thoughts soon cleared.
‘I should tell him I missed him.’
Our Sundoli. Temperamental, with separation anxiety, sometimes fierce, rude to most people, but so lovable to me… Seol Jiho.
* * *
Yeomin entered Jiho’s officetel passcode. There wasn’t even time to ring the doorbell and wait. Having come and gone countless times before, his fingers were very quick at entering the code.
As soon as he flung the door open and rushed in, Yeomin almost tripped over a huge obstacle.
“Aack!”
He thought it was a bundle of luggage, but it turned out to be Jiho crouching down.
‘Why on earth is he sitting at the entrance?’
It was Jiho’s specialty. Acting pitiful. Making himself pitiful on purpose.
“You scared me! I was surprised, haah…”
“Hyung. Why are you breathing so hard? Did you run here?”
“Uh… ah, I’m dizzy.”
Having run all the way here without stopping, his head was suddenly spinning. Yeomin’s legs gave out and he collapsed.
Jiho examined Yeomin’s complexion. His eyes were wide open, looking quite surprised.
“Are you okay? Breathe slowly.”
“…Yeah.”
“But hyung,”
Jiho’s worried eyes gradually became sultry.
“Did you really come all the way here wearing those?”
He tapped the rabbit ears that were popping up on Yeomin’s head. His smiling face was playful.
Yeomin only then realized he had hopped all the way here like a rabbit, wearing rabbit ears.
‘Crazy. No wonder everyone was staring.’
I was being such an attention-seeker today. Yeomin, who was usually far from being an attention-seeker, felt belated embarrassment.
Unable to handle the shame, he buried his face in Jiho’s shoulder and made a groaning sound.
Jiho embraced him.
“You should only be seen by me, but you showed yourself to the whole world. That’s annoying…”
“How can you say that? Why did you and our noona-!”
“It seemed like it had been a long time since noona and you had seen each other’s faces. I just orchestrated a sibling reunion.”
Well, well. ‘Yeojin noona’? Your terms of address are so friendly.
Yeomin scoffed.
“You two have quite the connection?”
“Your family is my family… actually, that’s a lie. Yeojin noona and I are sort of business partners, you could say.”
…Fine. What explanation could he expect from someone who had no intention of explaining?
Faced with Jiho’s brazen response, he lost the will to press further. That wasn’t why he had rushed here anyway.
“Anyway, since you waited well until I came, I’ll give you a reward.”
“What kind of reward? I was so excited I couldn’t even take off my shoes while waiting.”
Jiho’s eyes sparkled. His hand, which had been on Yeomin’s shoulder, traveled down his arm. The hand that gently played with Yeomin’s elbow was quite explicit.
“Give me my reward. Please?”
His lower abdomen was starting to tighten, but that wasn’t what was important right now. Yeomin said boldly.
“Let’s go ride the carousel.”
“What?”
“This time, I’ll wait for you.”
Yeomin’s gaze toward Jiho was infinitely warm.
