I wanted to ask if he was part of some narcotics investigation team, but I wisely swallowed it. Since Baek Sahyun wasn’t a reasonable bastard, I felt like I’d go crazy first if I tried to deal with him with reasonable thinking.
That bastard would obviously spout bullshit like “Yeah, I’m part of the drug team. Didn’t you know?” without batting an eye. Baek Sahyun, who had been drawing things out, finally answered in a low voice.
“Yeah. I was worried. In case you were doing unhealthy drugs with that guy.”
I thought “no way,” but he really had suspected me of being a druggie. I was truly dumbfounded. I was about to retort asking if he’d watched too many noir films. Baek Sahyun sighed “Phew” and recited.
“I was going to let it slide as you being drunk, but you must have talked quite a bit of nonsense.”
The ‘nonsense’ the bastard mentioned was undoubtedly my confession from a few hours ago claiming “You got Chae Eunwoo pregnant and broke his ankle!” I’d been raging so wildly that I couldn’t distinguish between what I should and shouldn’t say and just blurted everything out.
Feeling embarrassed, I just scratched the back of my head. It wasn’t shameless enough to make excuses now.
What would I say? That I was crazy back then? That I forgot the timeline because I was possessing someone else’s body? Right. That I’m actually Woohyun hyung, much older than you and who even served active military duty?
Forget it. In this case, I’d be lucky if I wasn’t locked up in a mental hospital.
“Heejae, why did you act like that today?”
As I was absorbed in thought, Baek Sahyun asked calmly. The car, which had already arrived in front of the hotel, was entering the parking lot at a speed neither fast nor slow. I silently stared straight ahead before speaking.
“…Who knows. Maybe I wasn’t fully sober?”
Pathetically, I ended up borrowing the exact words Baek Sahyun had snapped at me.
Damn it, my head was severely bad. Meaning I wasn’t a talent specialized in psychological warfare like Baek Sahyun. Naturally, I had no skill in verbal sparring either. Just struggling to keep up with however my mouth moved.
“I drank alone at dawn and the buzz hadn’t worn off yet. When I came to my senses, I was doing that with you.”
Baek Sahyun, who had been listening to my bullshit, shrugged as if to say not to worry about it.
“I thought so.”
Strangely, the bastard didn’t nitpick like before. It seemed like it wasn’t a question thrown out to hear a logical explanation, I was busy agreeing with myself.
❖ ❖ ❖
Since the atmosphere so far wasn’t too bad, I believed I might be able to send Baek Sahyun back just like this.
So when the bastard asked me to take off his cardigan, I took it off for him, and even when he said his shoulders hurt from driving and to massage them, I demonstrated craftsmanship and gave him a massage.
‘Thanks for bringing me, Sahyun-ah. Get home safely.’
I even decided on an ending, thinking words like this should be enough. But my prediction became useless from A to Z. Why?
“Today I’m going to sleep over in your room, Heejae.”
Because Baek Sahyun was being stubborn. It’s not like we’re two guys having a pajama party, and I couldn’t understand Baek Sahyun’s temperament at all. That’s the kind of thing Haesu and Haesu’s friends seemed to do often.
And for me, there was one more reason why I couldn’t help but be reluctant about Baek Sahyun’s pajama party proposal. After wavering about whether to ask or not, no matter how much I wracked my brain I couldn’t think of a solution, so I just asked.
“Hey, I’m really sorry for asking this kind of question.”
Baek Sahyun turned his head with a “Hm?” I laughed “hehe” awkwardly and added.
“What room number was mine again?”
Actually, rather than being sorry, I was worried about looking like a crazy person. Since I wasn’t really Nam Heejae, the information I knew could only be tiny. Naturally, I didn’t know what number the hotel room he originally stayed in was.
I’d read the novel’s content to completion recently and practically memorized it, but there was no way to find out the minute details not explained in the text. I didn’t even know when Nam Heejae’s birthday was until after I’d just possessed him and checked his ID.
“You can’t remember your room number?”
Baek Sahyun’s sharp gaze stabbed me all over. Since the bastard asked back, I hastily made up an excuse.
“I have so much money, you know. I book rooms in various places so it’s hazy, hey.”
“……”
“Ahem! I was going around here and there to see which hotel is the best. So doing that, haha. I keep forgetting the room numbers? This place looks like that place, that place looks like here. You’re rich like me so you understand, right?”
“……”
“D-don’t you understand?”
Even I thought it was an absurd explanation, so a deep sigh burst out from within. Baek Sahyun also rolled his eyes primly as if suspicious. The bastard soon attacked me gently.
“Just how much have you been drinking to not even remember such trivial things.”
“My brain cells must have died. That’s how it always is when you drink.”
“And yet you can’t even remember what room number you were staying in?”
This is really mountain after mountain. As communication lengthened, the situation was getting worse.
“The Nam Heejae I know doesn’t have memory this bad.”
“……”
“You’re practically a goldfish.”
Well yeah, the Nam Heejae you know was like that… Unfortunately, I wasn’t the Nam Heejae that Baek Sahyun knew. Therefore, I was severely lacking in basis even to frantically make excuses.
While I was suffering with my head in my hands, Baek Sahyun opened the car door first as if doing me a favor and got out.
“Just follow me out. Let’s go up.”
“Huh?”
“I know what room number you’re in, Heejae-ya.”
“Th-then can’t you just tell me? You can just get in the car and go home.”
“I clearly said I’m sleeping over here.”
“……”
“Don’t make me repeat myself, Nam Heejae.”
It felt like he’d tear me to shreds if I waved my hands saying no, so I just took heavy steps and approached the bastard’s side. Since I didn’t want to stick close, I deliberately kept distance, then Baek Sahyun grabbed my nape hard and pulled.
“Don’t act like strangers.”
“…Yeah. Sure. It’s great looking close. I’ll be fortunate if we’re not misunderstood as dating.”
“I’m happy since you like it.”
The bastard who calmly retorted even to sarcasm only let me go after entering the elevator. Rubbing my throbbing nape, I stared blankly at the 14th floor button the bastard pressed. I see. Nam Heejae was staying on the 14th floor.
The elevator quickly rose and stopped at the 14th floor. With a simple arrival sound, the elevator doors opened wide.
I dashed out, but Baek Sahyun, as if mocking such behavior, walked with leisurely steps toward room 1405. Room 1405. Room 1405. I memorized the room number while following Baek Sahyun.
Now I have to go inside here together with Baek Sahyun. In this stomach-churning situation, I glanced at the bastard. Baek Sahyun, who smiled with his eyes folded cheerfully, took out the card key and dangled it. Huh?
“Why do you have that?”
When I confronted him, Baek Sahyun clicked his tongue and said.
“Nam Heejae, you’ve been drinking so much that your memory is really a mess. You went out without even taking your card key.”
The bastard who tapped the card key on the hotel door whispered in a now-lowered voice.
“So I took it. I did well, right?”
“……”
“Now, go in. It’s time for our Heejae to be punished.”
❖ ❖ ❖
Baek Sahyun pushed past me, who was just standing there stupidly with my thought process stopped, and entered the hotel room. Hearing crude words from a bastard whose head still wasn’t even dry of blood was making the vicissitudes of life feel truly futile.
Did I live desperately only to get hit by a car and cross the River Styx just to receive this kind of treatment?
“Heejae-ya. It’s cold with the door open.”
Damn Baek Sahyun urged me through indirect words. It felt like he’d start waterboarding me again if I just stayed still, so even though I was choked up, I obediently followed the bastard’s command.
When I closed the door, the room with no lights on greeted me. Maybe because blackout curtains were drawn, even though it was broad daylight, gloomy darkness surrounded Baek Sahyun.
“Heejae-ya.”
The bastard called me bleakly like a villain that would appear in a horror movie. Though it was only three syllables, it was definitely a horror movie-esque tone and vocalization.
Therefore, I appealed with all my might. My fingertips and toes trembled simultaneously, but I didn’t care.
“Do I really have to be punished…?”
This is inside a novel where a crazy bastard who crushes people’s teeth with pliers appears. And that crazy bastard was none other than this bastard Baek Sahyun.
Because of that, I couldn’t know what level Baek Sahyun’s “need to be punished” was at, so I was just feeling an instinct to avoid it. What if by any chance the bastard was after my teeth? I didn’t want to lose one of the five blessings so vainly like this.
“I don’t think I’ve said much yet.”
Baek Sahyun answered nonchalantly. I showed my fearful heart.
“You’re going to soon. I don’t want to.”
“Take off your shoes and come in quickly.”
“Why the fuck! Why do you keep ordering me around from earlier! I said I don’t want to!”
Nam Heejae and Baek Sahyun were equal friends to begin with. I couldn’t understand with my head why this kind of brutal dynamic was being created when I neither owed him a debt nor owed him a grudge.
Could there be a secret incident hidden in their past?
“Don’t provoke me.”
As I gritted my teeth with groundless suspicion, Baek Sahyun threatened in a gentle tone.
“The more you do this, the more I want to help you come to your senses.”
