Even while throwing out the question of whether he would make a drinking bet, Yujeong didn’t think for a moment that he would accept the proposal. In other words, it was a question meant to make him shut his mouth in displeasure. However, instead of frowning in displeasure, Yujeong maintained his composure.
Yujeong looked back and forth between his own glass that Seongjo had just filled while answering the question and the second soju bottle Seongjo had opened, then emptied his glass and opened his mouth.
“A bet. What will you wager?”
It was an answer that gave far more leeway than the expectation that he would ignore or refuse. Since he hadn’t expected at all that Yujeong would show even this much of a positive reaction, Seongjo was at a loss for words for a moment.
“Well, something safe…… granting one wish?”
“Let’s do that.”
Yujeong immediately nodded his head. It was such a ready acceptance that it was doubtful whether he had seen wrong. Seongjo asked with an ambiguous smile while frowning.
“What’s gotten into you to go along so obediently? Do you already have a wish in mind?”
“No, I’ll think about it from now on.”
Those words seemed to be certain that Seongjo would end up granting Yujeong’s wish. While saying he couldn’t understand people who liked alcohol, was he also confident in his drinking capacity?
“You’ve already finished one bottle, shall I match you?”
On top of that, he even said such things as if he had plenty of leeway. It was fine to wait until he finished one bottle too. He’d never once in his life thought his pride would be scratched by something like alcohol, but when such words came from Yujeong’s mouth, he somehow felt competitive.
“No, it’s fine. Let’s consider that much a handicap. I’ve never lost at a drinking bet.”
Having finished speaking, Seongjo quite boldly poured Yujeong’s glass, then also downed one glass himself in one shot. Yujeong was still looking at Seongjo with a calm face.
How much time had passed exactly? At some point, the two people postponed even ordering snacks and filled their stomachs with only alcohol. Occasionally, he could feel glances stealing looks this way as if there was something to see.
“Wow……”
Seongjo, who rarely let out a pure exclamation, set down his soju glass with a sound. With his other hand, he was holding his throbbing head.
The two people’s table was so full of piled-up bottles that there was no more empty space. Following Seongjo’s insistence that the drinking bet should be conducted with soju, not bomb shots, beer, or other alcohol, they were all green bottles.
It was true that he felt competitive, but still, Seongjo wasn’t the type to put on pointless bravado. That meant he had no intention of insisting otherwise when his head hurt and he was getting drunk. However, it was absurd. No matter how much he’d drunk almost a bottle first, after that they’d exchanged glass for glass equally…… Unlike Seongjo, who was quite drunk, Yujeong’s complexion hadn’t even changed.
“You seem to be getting tired, Lee Seongjo-ssi.”
Whether to provoke him, Yujeong threw out a comment. Instead of insisting otherwise, Seongjo readily nodded his head.
“That’s true. Jeon Yujeong-ssi, you’re amazing. I’ve never been this drunk……”
Seongjo was about to trail off when he let out an “Ah” exclamation. Now that he was this drunk, he remembered. He’d never lost at a drinking bet, but it wasn’t that he’d never been this drunk at all. Whether he succeeded in getting the words “Ah, there was one time……” out of his mouth or not, he couldn’t tell. It was because as soon as he acknowledged being drunk, the drunkenness and drowsiness rushed in simultaneously as if delivering a final blow.
“I’m gonna sleep a bit……”
With those words, Seongjo’s memory cut off.
* * *
“Lee Seongjo-ssi.”
“……”
“Lee Seongjo-ssi?”
Yujeong called Seongjo’s name in an extremely calm voice. There was no answer. Since he’d known from the start that it wasn’t an act, it wasn’t a call expecting an answer from the beginning.
Seongjo’s complexion was originally white enough to look pale like a plaster statue at a glance, but now his ears, heated from the alcohol, had a rather lively reddish tint. Yujeong, who had been looking with calm eyes at the exposed ears, the collar of the dress shirt that was still stiff without wrinkles despite it being quite a while since going out, and the neckline between them, turned his eyes away after a moment.
He looked around the inside of the pojangmacha. Was there anyone among them who recognized who Lee Seongjo was? He was in a position where he often appeared in the media as the next heir of Sejin Electronics, so if someone very interested in that field happened to be here, they would more than recognize him.
That said, he wasn’t worried. He wasn’t a celebrity, so an eyewitness account wouldn’t be harmful, and even so, if he didn’t want it known, there would be plenty of ways to prevent it.
Those who had been looking at Seongjo and Yujeong’s table awkwardly turned their heads as if nothing had happened when their eyes met with Yujeong’s. Yujeong looked at the sleeping Seongjo again.
It was certainly a drinking capacity worth being confident about. Probably, as he himself said, the times he’d been drunk in his life could be counted on one hand, and even he himself wouldn’t know well what his drinking habits were. It was just that his opponent was bad. Yujeong was strong enough with alcohol to simultaneously hear both the words “blessed liver” and “cursed liver.” No matter how much he drank, only his stomach got full and he couldn’t understand what the sensation of being drunk was, and he’d never even suffered from a hangover.
Still, it was certain that he’d run so much he couldn’t tell how long it had been since he’d drunk this much alcohol. Perhaps it was the first time.
“Who told you to overdo it?”
Even while thinking that, Yujeong threw such words toward Seongjo, who was face-down on the table. There was still no answer coming back. It seemed more like he’d fallen into a deep sleep rather than passed out.
“……”
Yujeong finished emptying the glass of alcohol he’d poured for Seongjo last before he collapsed, then stood up from his seat. He put on his outerwear and moved his steps toward him to gather up Seongjo’s belongings as well.
Although he wasn’t drunk, he couldn’t drive, so with one hand he draped Seongjo’s coat over his back while with the other hand he called a substitute driver.
“Let’s get up now.”
No matter how much he shook him awake, Seongjo didn’t get up. Should he have pretended to be moderately drunk and ended the bet as his loss?
If the other party had been someone else, he would have done that. It was only because it was none other than Lee Seongjo that he couldn’t do that.
Yujeong knew better than anyone that he acted particularly childish in front of him. He was aware that at an age on the verge of thirty, he was doing things he hadn’t even done when he was really young, but it was because his actions and attitude didn’t turn out as he wanted.
Why did he want to beat him so badly? Even though he didn’t have any wish to ask for even if he received a wish ticket.
He became sharp even over trivial matters. When the distance got closer, he became conscious of him more than necessary. Thanks to that, often words or actions that were “not something he intended to go that far” would pop out contrary to his intentions.
From the beginning, if Lee Seongjo had just passed by him or kept his distance, there would have been no need to act this way.
To Yujeong’s perception, Seongjo’s interest was strange. He thought he’d put up walls sufficiently enough for the interest to disappear, but rather than losing affection and distancing himself, he seemed to enjoy it instead. Sometimes he even felt like he was treating him ‘like a rebellious but actually just bad at expressing himself young student.’
If he was a person broad-minded enough to treat a thirty-year-old adult man that way, perhaps the one better suited to the profession of teacher wasn’t Yujeong himself but him. He thought this even while knowing well that Lee Seongjo wasn’t actually such a generous person.
When he shook him awake once more, Seongjo stirred slightly. However, he still showed no signs of getting up. It was just that thanks to stirring and turning his head, his face, which had been completely buried, became visible to Yujeong’s eyes.
There’s a saying that children look most angelic when sleeping.
Does that saying apply to men over thirty as well?
Lee Seongjo was a handsome man with a cold impression, but the eyelashes cast over his closed eyes were longer than expected. His lightly furrowed brow also didn’t look as cold as when his eyes were open, unlike when awake. Watching that appearance, Yujeong felt his heart soften to some degree.
With complicated feelings, he slightly furrowed his eyes, then reached out his hand toward Seongjo. It was to lift him up directly instead of waking him.
When Yujeong’s careful touch reached his shoulder, for the first time after falling asleep, Seongjo’s mouth opened.
“……Yeongbeom-ah.”
Yujeong’s hand stopped right there.
“Jo Yeongbeom.”
As if to confirm he hadn’t heard wrong, Seongjo called that name once more. A voice so clear it was hard to believe it was from someone asleep drunk on alcohol. Yet he still had his eyes closed. Suddenly he felt like checking Lee Seongjo’s eyes, even if he had to pry open those eyelids himself.
“……”
Yujeong looked down at Seongjo with dry eyes.
This wasn’t the first time Yujeong had seen Seongjo drunk.
He muttered very quietly.
“Every time you’re drunk, you only show me sights I hate to see.”
In a voice with no strength at all compared to the content of the words.
