But Dongwoo’s behavior was a bit strange. He covered the phone’s microphone so the sound wouldn’t carry well and nagged, “Forget it, go home and eat.”
“Why? What’s Dongmi saying?”
“She’s asking to have dinner with us.”
Even though Dongwoo hung up saying no, Dongmi persistently called back. After listening to them talk back and forth a few times, I cheerfully said, “Just tell her to come,” and Dongwoo sighed, asking if I was serious.
My voice must have been audible, because I heard Dongmi burst into laughter through the receiver and shout that she’d come quickly so don’t eat everything!
“Her parents went on a trip, so I guess she doesn’t want to eat alone.”
“That works out well. It’s the first time I’m talking to Dongmi since graduating too. It’ll be nice to eat together.”
“She’s officially your ex-girlfriend, so don’t act too friendly. It’ll make the lie obvious.”
“Got it, got it.”
“But still… ah… Dongmi’s going to eat a ton…”
“Ah…! I forgot about that.”
We started eating hurriedly as soon as we flipped the pork belly. We grilled all three initial strips and were diligently eating ssam wraps when the restaurant door opened and Dongmi walked in.
She must have recently cut her long hair—it was a fresh bob with curled ends.
“Heyyy─ Long time no see. Ex-boyfriend.”
“Good to see you. Ex-girlfriend.”
I played along with Dongmi’s playful greeting and set out a spoon and chopsticks for her. Dongmi unwrapped her scarf and took off her coat while asking if we passed the exam.
“Yeah, barely.”
“This is supposed to be a national exam, but the difficulty level is questionable. How did you guys pass?”
Rather than congratulating us, Dongmi tilted her head and doubted our passing.
“By the way, what brought you to this area?”
At Dongwoo’s question, Dongmi pulled out the latest model phone from her handbag.
“Me? This.”
“Wow… That’s the Apple phone that just came out! Let me see it.”
“No way. It’ll get scratched. This is a 24-month installment plan, so I have to handle it carefully.”
“Cheapskate.”
“You buy one too. Don’t you have money your dad gave you?”
“Forget it. I’m going to buy one later when they make phones that fold into three parts.”
“Me too,” I added my opinion to Dongwoo’s words. But Dongmi seemed to have already caught on that we were just bragging out of envy without the ability to actually buy one.
Anyway, that aside, I asked Dongmi what she wanted to drink, happy to see her.
“Dongmi-ya, do you want cider or cola?”
“Are we kids? Boss! A bottle of Like the Last Day and 5 more servings of pork belly, please.”
Dongmi refused the drinks I offered and ordered alcohol instead. Dongwoo and I hadn’t been thinking about drinking, but when the boss brought three soju glasses, we unconsciously ended up tilting our glasses.
Still, normally I would have refused, but strangely, today was a day when my heart felt weak enough to want to rely on alcohol.
“Cheers!”
As soon as Dongmi clinked glasses with us, she downed it in one shot, and Dongwoo clicked his tongue and started nagging as soon as he saw. Because if Dongmi got drunk, Dongwoo would have to take her home.
“Dongmi-ya, if you drink like that, it really could be your last day.”
“I have to drink a lot while Mom and Dad are gone. Let’s drink today and die.”
“You go die.”
Whether they were fighting across from me or not, I faithfully just ate the meat. But Dongmi was pouring herself drinks when she noticed my glass that hadn’t decreased and said something.
“What? Daeyoung, why aren’t you drinking?”
“Me? I’m trying to drink slowly. I’m weak with alcohol.”
“When did you have a chance to drink? With who? You don’t have friends.”
“I went camping with our parents. I drank with the hyungs there.”
“Aha.”
I didn’t really want to drink, but Dongmi clinked against my glass and took another sip.
“If you don’t drink after clinking glasses, you’ll have bad luck all year.”
If she’s going to drink, she should drink alone—I cursed inwardly. So I lifted it slightly, just wet my lips, and put it back down.
Unlike when I first drank it, it was too bitter. I don’t know if it was because the atmosphere was different that day, but back then it wasn’t this bitter—it was sweet. That’s why I drank it without fear back then. If it had been this bitter, I wouldn’t have drunk it.
“Ugh…”
When I made a face, the Dong siblings simultaneously laughed and looked down on me. So I got stubborn and without putting down the remaining alcohol, I poured it all down my throat.
“Whoa, that’s a man.”
“Hey, stop teasing him.”
After rinsing my mouth with water to get rid of the astringent taste, I put another meat wrap in my mouth. Other people eat snacks after drinking, but I found it more disgusting and unpleasant when the taste of alcohol and food mixed.
“By the way, why are you eating dinner so early?”
At Dongmi’s question, Dongwoo answered that it was lunch. While talking about why we hadn’t been able to eat lunch until this time, he also told her about Seongheon hyung’s accident news today.
Even though Dongmi thought poorly of Seongheon hyung, she asked worriedly about the accident news. Since it’s such a small area, everyone’s a neighbor just one connection away, so when news like this spreads, everyone worries as if it were their own business.
“So did he get hospitalized?”
“No, he’s receiving outpatient treatment at home.”
“If the car was totaled, he should be hospitalized though…”
“I know, right.”
“Boss! 5 more servings of pork belly here, please!”
When the table that had already eaten 8 servings ordered 5 more, the boss gave us button mushrooms as a service.
Sizzle─.
The fresh pork belly went on and started to sizzle as it cooked. We paused from tilting our glasses and asked each other about recent news, then fell back into talking about Seongheon hyung again.
When we mentioned that we were supposed to have lunch with hyung today, Dongmi looked quite surprised.
“Wow, is Seongheon oppa magnanimous? How did he think to buy you guys food?”
So I smiled brightly and said, “Seongheon hyung always buys us food well,” but Dongmi cut the pork belly into large pieces and countered my words.
“You guys got caught stealing items in the game, right? Dongwoo said he got chewed out by Seongheon oppa the other day. Did you get cursed at too?”
“…What?”
I froze while pouring alcohol for Dongwoo. Glug glug glug… The alcohol started overflowing from the small glass.
“Ah, that’s hot!”
Dongwoo had also been stunned by Dongmi’s words, but when the alcohol spilled and his pants got wet, only then did I straighten the bottle I’d been tilting.
‘What is she talking about? Seongheon hyung, why to Dongwoo…?’
I looked at Dongwoo’s face before the wet pants. Dongwoo wore a troubled expression and sighed heavily.
“What, why are you two like that?”
While lowering the heat, Dongmi nonchalantly made a wrap.
Just moments ago I had an appetite, but suddenly my mouth felt parched. Dongwoo still said nothing, then filled my empty glass and finally opened his mouth.
“Actually when we sold the Vulcanus egg… Seongheon hyung came.”
“…What!?”
“Remember when we went to raise our life level with that Ssapseonbi guy or whatever, and you called my name? He remembered my name from then and told hyung. So hyung caught on and came to buy it himself.”
“Ah… That’s absurd…”
As I just blinked my eyes in a daze, Dongmi looked at me worriedly, and Dongwoo said, “It takes Daeyoung a while to understand, so let’s eat first,” and picked up the cooked meat.
Dongwoo was right. I’m a beat slower than others at grasping situations, but this time it took even longer because my head was so overloaded it felt burdensome. Moreover, whether my brain cells were drunk from drinking just a little, I couldn’t easily grasp the situation.
‘…Wait. This doesn’t add up.’
Like rewinding a video, I recalled last week’s events.
Dongwoo traded the Vulcanus egg on the day I went to the glamping site. Then that day Seongheon hyung found out I was ‘Keyboard Cleaning’… but far from being angry, he was the same as usual, even more attentive in taking care of me. Even today, didn’t he say he’d come pick me up to buy me lunch? So it made sense for Dongmi to find it strange.
Perhaps feeling sorry for not telling me until now, Dongwoo added an excuse.
“I told Dongmi in case something happened to me. I said if I suddenly went missing, to suspect Seongheon hyung. I wasn’t trying to hide it from you… And the reason I didn’t tell you until the end was… in exchange for forgiving me, hyung told me not to tell you.”
“So that’s why… you listened so well to what Seongheon hyung said?”
“It’s the same as having my weakness caught. But after that, there was absolutely no interference.”
“Still, I’m sorry. Because of me…”
“No. I also got a share of the money from selling the Vulcanus egg. Don’t worry about it.”
I was the one who dragged Dongwoo into this, and I was also the one who exposed Dongwoo’s name, so I wasn’t upset about getting caught. But why did I feel so unsettled—I was swept up in the feeling of being played instead.
‘Anyway, hyung already knew… why hasn’t he been saying anything?’
It wasn’t that I got revenge by deceiving him—I was the one who got reverse-trolled.
But for being reverse-trolled, it was too quiet. If he really wanted to serve justice on me, he should have exposed this fact to Gangjin hyung and Daesu hyung and said something to me too, but really nothing happened.
Moreover, that day, from hyung’s appearance of taking care of me after drinking, I couldn’t see any such intention at all. He was actually nicer to me—was that also a fake?
“He definitely said he’d scold me…”
“What?! Seongheon hyung said something to you?”
“Ah, no. He warned me in the game.”
「 [Whisper] Enter: I’m really going to scold you 」
I’d already been anxious wondering what would happen if I got caught, but hearing that I’d already been caught made my blood run cold.
What exactly did he mean by scolding me? Looking at how he told me not to tell Dongwoo, it seems he hasn’t taken revenge on me yet…
From the start, Dongwoo and I were on different levels of guilt. I was a traitor who even told Ssapseonbi the hideout’s location.
