Whether the logic worked quite well, Baek Sahyun was silent. However, looking at his indifferent expression, it didn’t seem like he would seriously consider my protest.
After our gazes clashed sharply a few times, the phone vibration sounded again, breaking the silence.
You went to the villa with Baek Sahyun? I’m also planning to stay nearby for a few nights for vacation, so contact me if you’re bored.
A text message appeared below the missed call screen. Both his and my gaze simultaneously focused there. Well then. I dry-washed my face and let out a hollow laugh.
It’s definitely inside a novel. To have such an episode prepared in a serious situation. Though I wasn’t sure if the timing was good or bad, for a forced development it seemed quite usable.
I quickly snatched the phone and walked toward the entrance. I didn’t want to waste time playing absurd word games with Baek Sahyun. Just because it was Seo Jeongmin didn’t guarantee my safety, but even if something happened, the level would probably be similar there or here.
“…I’m going to be toyed with either way, so Seo Jeongmin who at least accommodates me would be better, right, Sahyun-ah?”
I picked up the jacket placed on the sofa and left the pension as is. Even as I quickly walked out of the large garden surrounded by a fence and headed toward the roadside, there was no hesitation in my two legs.
Baek Sahyun seemed to have his feelings seriously hurt, as he didn’t try to stop me even once the day I left the house.
The characteristic hot and humid air of midsummer covered my face. It should have been suffocating, but strangely I felt like my breathing was becoming refreshing.
Riding this momentum, I input a number I wasn’t keen on and made a call.
Seo Jeongmin. It was time to go meet that bastard now.
❖ ❖ ❖
“Wow. You really came?”
A sly-looking face stickily scanned my face up and down. As if it was amazing that I had readily come all the way to his pension after receiving a text, Seo Jeongmin kept uttering exclamations and let me inside.
A pension located on the outskirts.
Though not as much as Baek Sahyun’s detached house, it was quite a spacious place. Following the long corridor and entering the living room, two people sitting on leather sofas tilting their drinks looked this way.
“Could it be Nam Heejae? Wow, it’s really been a while!”
One of them, who looked bulkier, got up and walked toward me while speaking. His face was as red as a radish, as if he was quite intoxicated. When a sour sweat smell mixed with terrible perfume scent wafted over, I unintentionally grimaced.
When I stepped back hesitantly, the man expressed disappointment.
“Heejae, you’re still good at making people feel awkward. Did you forget about us already? Huh?”
I didn’t forget—I just didn’t know them—but for now I just held an awkward smile.
The seat these guys guided me to was the most corner spot. After clinking glasses a few times to lighten the atmosphere, I opened my mouth with an apologetic tone at the appropriate timing.
“Hey, you know, I got into an accident a while ago.”
“An accident? What accident all of a sudden?”
“A traffic accident. I was unlucky and got hit while walking down the street.”
Toward the guys whose eyes widened, I conveyed while glossing over it.
“Ah, of course it wasn’t a big accident. Just hurt my head a bit?”
“……”
“So lately my memory keeps coming and going.”
Since pretending to be Nam Heejae would obviously be exposed quickly anyway, I intended to lay down a lie that could cover the truth in advance. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even a lie.
“Everyone’s faces are familiar but my memory is hazy. I came here hoping that if I talk with you guys, I might properly remember even a few things, so, um. Please understand.”
When I finished speaking, a burdensome silence flowed.
‘Damn. Did I mention it for nothing?’
Around the time I was regretting it because the atmosphere seemed shattered, one guy who had been silently propping his chin suddenly started introducing himself.
“Well, living life it’ll come back quickly, won’t it? Don’t worry too much, and let’s introduce ourselves again while we’re at it. I’m Kim Jongsu. Kim Jongsu.”
“…Right. Jongsu-ya. Thanks for the comfort.”
The man who introduced himself as Kim Jongsu mixed a bomb shot with familiar hand movements and offered it to me.
“You know KM, right? They’re your company’s lackey. Had all their shares taken away, subsidiaries merged too. Puhaha!”
Kim Jongsu bursting into exaggerated laughter felt very uncomfortable to me. Moreover, since the business world wasn’t an area I knew, I had nothing to add.
I accepted Kim Jongsu’s glass with an awkward smile.
Kim Jongsu pointed at the remaining one and said:
“And here’s Yunjae. Lee Yunjae. The nouveau riche bastard who got dumped by your company recently. You remember him, right?”
It was the guy who hadn’t even opened his mouth and was just sipping his beer can alone.
“…Hello, hyung.”
“Yeah. Nice to meet you.”
Lee Yunjae had quite a youthful impression. The guys here would all be youths in their mid-twenties at most, but among them, he especially gave off a young vibe. Should I say he had skin that seemed like it would smell of powder like a high school student? Looking carefully, he seemed to resemble Haesu too.
‘These guys drink while talking about stocks….’
Starting with brief self-introductions, the drinking session gradually ripened. Lackeys or whatever, they were all guys with outstanding backgrounds without exception. The sight of formal conversations going back and forth between drunken rants quite surprised me. This was the first time I’d experienced this kind of drinking session.
While I was watching, Kim Jongsu tapped my shoulder and said:
“But you… somehow your vibe seems a bit different? How should I say it. Should I say you have an edge? This is the first time I’ve seen you dressed so shabbily in clothes…, hmm. But this side is much better. It’s my style.”
Well, the original Nam Heejae did seem like the image of someone who only wore neat and sharp coats. When I nodded in agreement, Kim Jongsu laughed heartily and put his arm around my shoulders.
“But for Nam Heejae to even drink with us. Living life, there are days like this too?”
“Why would you say such things?”
“I thought you only dealt with dominant alphas. Haha.”
My upper body swayed here and there by the forearm that strongly embraced my neck.
Exaggerated speech and exaggerated gestures. I could grasp that the guy was subtly expressing the inferiority complex he usually held by borrowing intoxication. But what can I do? I have no choice but to endure it.
I smiled awkwardly and untangled Kim Jongsu’s arm.
“You’re really drunk, Jongsu-ya.”
Seo Jeongmin, who walked around to the back of the sofa and draped his arm over, giggled and interrupted.
“So Heejae-ya. Baek Sahyun isn’t coming?”
He too was tipsy enough to be intoxicated like Kim Jeongsu.
I couldn’t answer immediately. Because I was conflicted whether to honestly say we fought, or if it would be better to gloss over it with another excuse. It seemed like the latter would be better since it would be troublesome to create unnecessary trouble, but for some reason an impulse arose wanting to explain the whole story.
“…Yeah. We fought so he won’t come.”
In the end, I told the truth. It wasn’t that I wanted to petty talk behind his back, but I’d drunk too, and I wanted to at least stretch out my stress in complaints.
“You fought? You and Baek Sahyun? You two were so close, why?”
Seo Jeongmin stretched his lips as if he’d found good drinking snacks. Seeing him smile brightly while filling the empty glass, I rapidly felt deep regret.
“…Just an argument, you know. Stories of fighting with friends on trips are common. This time we fought bigger than usual though, so I came out to cool my head for a bit.”
I smiled lightly as if it was nothing, but the aftertaste wasn’t refreshing. Kim Jongsu comforted me by patting my shoulder. Then he soon spoke in a rough voice.
“At this age going on trips together, running out in the middle of the night because you had an argument. Anyway, two alpha bastards are fucking harmonious. Right?”
Seo Jeongmin, who had been sipping alcohol, giggled and chimed in.
“Why wouldn’t they be? They have to get along harmoniously for crumbs to fall. Right?”
He widened his eyes and persistently stared at the remaining one, Lee Yunjae. Then Lee Yunjae awkwardly nodded his head slightly and turned his gaze to the ceiling.
The atmosphere that had ripened with entertainment was becoming cold in an instant. Is it time to wrap up soon? I grabbed my lower body that seemed to be tingling and awkwardly got up.
Kim Jongsu asked:
“What? You’re leaving?”
“Yeah. It’s late, and you guys have schedules tomorrow too, so I should go in and sleep.”
I picked up all the empty bottles I could and hopped over Kim Jongsu. Before going back, as I cleaned up the drinking session going back and forth between the kitchen and living room, Lee Yunjae followed behind me and assisted me. Though I was grateful he treated me respectfully as an elder, his clear face seemed full of sleepiness.
“If you’re sleepy, go sleep, Yunjae-ya. Hyung can clean this up quickly alone.”
When I tapped his shoulder, Lee Yunjae, who had been rubbing his eyes, stopped his movements. The sight of him tightly closing his mouth and shaking his head to decline felt quite cute. Haesu did exactly that when she was in high school too. When I was doing menial work alone at dawn, she would get up weakly and help me while yawning.
“I’ll do the rest.”
When I approached the sink piled with dishes, Lee Yunjae stopped me. With a face still unable to hide fatigue, he skillfully put on rubber gloves.
“Those hyungs will tell me to do it anyway.”
“Those guys? Why?”
“Ah…, I mean. Let me correct that. I usually do it because it’s frustrating.”
Lee Yunjae murmured quietly while surveying the surroundings. When I tilted my head, he whispered quietly in my ear, “I do it voluntarily….”
Ridiculous. Voluntarily my ass. He must have been doing all the menial work under hyungs who don’t act their age. Still, finding his attempt to maintain pride admirable, I lightly stroked Lee Yunjae’s hair.
The sight of him raising his eyes shyly and shaking his hair somehow overlapped with Jang Haesu. I smiled faintly and tapped his shoulder, when a sneering voice was heard from somewhere.
“Yunjae is recessive so he won’t be helpful….”
Seo Jeongmin was looking this way while completely collapsed on the sofa. The sight of him letting out a screw-loose laugh only felt creepy. Yunjae is recessive? …So what?
I didn’t perfectly understand the attitude of the guy suddenly bringing up traits.
That’s when it was.
“Hyung, please endure it.”
Lee Yunjae, who whispered in my ear as if fed up, successively even gently grabbed my arm. Through that action, I could vaguely sense that Seo Jeongmin had belittled me.
