The night streets felt unusually pitch-black on the rural provincial road where high-rise buildings were scarce. Myeongwoo, sitting in the passenger seat, belatedly fastened his seatbelt and took a breath. As the tension gradually released and the alcohol seemed to rise thickly, he yawned with his mouth wide open.
In the silent car at dawn without even the radio on, everyone passed the time looking in different directions. Myeongwoo, who had been yawning his mouth to the splitting point, started dozing off with snoring sounds not long after the car entered the highway.
“Im Seungun-ssi.”
The highway at this late hour was quiet. Inside the symmetrically printed white lanes, only the sound of the vehicle’s engine speeding through the wind existed. A voice that clear called out to Seungun.
“Yes?”
“When did I tell you to report to me and act?”
Instead of thanking him for taking the alcohol in his stead, he was being scolded for butting in and interfering with his work.
“The picture would have been better if I’d been the one hit. That way the tabloids would have circulated more dramatically. I was trying to make Kim Hojun look like a bastard.”
Myeongwoo’s intermittent snoring mixed into the two people’s quiet conversation.
“Did you know? About what people were gossiping about.”
Seungun, who was driving, asked while staring only at the rearview mirror. Their eyes met through the mirror. Even in the darkness, his face was luminous. Inside that upright face, eyes that seemed to know everything looked at Seungun dryly.
Gi Siyoung knew all about how everyone around the two of them was leaving vivid play-by-play coverage in the group chat room. He said to be careful, but Seungun’s heart pounded, wondering if he’d been caught turning on the recorder right beside him without anyone knowing.
“The problem with that bastard Kim Hojun is that he has no sense.”
“……”
Gi Siyoung muttered while slowly closing his long eyes.
“His outside and inside are so transparent that if you watch, there’s a stupid kind of fun to it. Even though there are so many eyes watching, he can only feel satisfied if he acts according to his temper.”
That’s right. That type was originally easy to handle. Seungun agreed.
“If you hadn’t butted in, I could have gotten him removed from the work.”
“…Ah, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For butting in unnecessarily.”
There was something Gi Siyoung had wanted, but his plan got twisted because he butted in unnecessarily.
“Still, if something like that happens again next time, I’ll make the same choice.”
However, at Seungun’s following words, Gi Siyoung opened his closed eyes. The car that had stopped briefly started moving again in time with the green light signal.
Siyoung looked at the swaying back of his head with a strange gaze. He had a young face like someone fresh out of school but acted like he’d been through thick and thin. He was someone who only did things with words and actions that missed all his expectations.
“You seem to be saying that kind of thing will happen to me all the time.”
“Of course that’s not what I…”
“……”
“That’s not it. Really.”
The conversation ended there.
Both hands gripping the steering wheel cut through the night streets. Gi Siyoung’s house was a bit farther than the company. After dropping off Myeongwoo first, who lived near the company, and arriving at Gi Siyoung’s house parking lot, the clock hands were already pointing to 2 AM.
“Um, here.”
“What.”
“You need to take your ring.”
“……”
He finally took out from his pocket the ring he’d been looking for timing to return all day. Under the orange light of the vehicle, the thin ring was held out. It sparkled so much from being polished that even if a fly landed on it, it would slip off. Hair was stuck to the temple next to his questioning eyes wondering why he wouldn’t take it. His face, which had been hit with alcohol and driven while getting air conditioning the whole time, somehow looked cold.
“Get out.”
“What?”
Gi Siyoung ordered while taking the ring.
“Are you going home like that? Come up and at least change your clothes before going.”
“No. I can just leave the car at the company and go home.”
“……”
“I’m really fine. As you can see, I’m really perfectly fine. The alcohol has dried a lot and it’s late too. Don’t worry about me. You’re the one who must be tired from filming all day, Gi Siyoung-ssi, so go in quickly and rest. You drank too.”
Gi Siyoung sighed quietly. Then he leaned one arm against the vehicle and bent his upper body as he retorted.
“Sometimes at this hour they do drunk driving checkpoints. I don’t want to hear talk about whose manager was driving with an alcohol smell on their body or not, so stop talking and get out. Do you know how many reporters follow me around at night trying to land one of my scandals?”
“……”
Gi Siyoung’s way of speaking was always strangely commanding. His personality, having lived from the position of ‘authority,’ showed in things like this. The reason Kim Hojun, who had referred to himself as his senior, got angry at the drinking gathering was probably also because of that aspect. Seungun, who judged that further war of words was meaningless, turned off the car’s ignition.
“Then I’ll excuse myself briefly.”
He slung the crossbody bag containing his belongings across his body and got out of the car. Then he followed the steps of Gi Siyoung walking ahead. Gi Siyoung looked back at Seungun, who had followed him up to his house and was hesitating at the entrance.
“What are you doing not coming in?”
“Just a moment.”
Seungun, with a slightly reddened face, fumbled while pulling apart both sides of the crossbody bag’s opening across his chest. And what he took out was a rolled-up pure white sock. Not even a new sock but a sock washed at home and neatly folded.
“What’s that?”
Gi Siyoung narrowed his eyes. Seungun took off his shoes. Then, standing awkwardly, he took off the socks from his feet that had suffered all day. Then he unrolled the clean rolled-up socks and put them on. He rolled up the socks that had worked hard again and tucked them into his own pocket, not his bag. Only then, with a relieved face, did he firmly stamp his now-clean foot print on the clean marble floor.
“I used to do delivery work before. When I delivered heavy furniture, I had to go inside the customers’ homes myself. Occasionally there were some customers who found it unpleasant for me to enter indoors with the socks I’d been wearing.”
“……”
“So if I had new socks in my bag, it became a habit to change into new ones when entering someone else’s house.”
“You have all kinds of habits.”
Gi Siyoung was a person with a clean personality, to the extent that he had to carry many spare clothes. Just looking at his house showed this. His clean lifestyle habits with nothing spilled or stained when eating, with no excess, could be felt even in his living space. So changing into new socks in front of Gi Siyoung and entering his house would not be a minus factor at all.
“Acting like that first, people must have really liked you.”
“No.”
“Anyway, wait while I bring some clothes.”
While Gi Siyoung was briefly away, Seungun quietly looked around. Coming at night rather than day gave a different feeling. It was still an interior structure that seemed like it would only be seen in famous magazines, and the splendid night view lights twinkled and flashed.
“Come out after changing.”
“Thank you.”
“Give me the wet clothes.”
“Why?”
“So I can throw them away.”
“What? There’s no need to throw them away.”
“You’re going to keep wearing those clothes?”
“What if I don’t? If I take them, I can wash them. They’re just wet.”
“What good memories do you have that you’d even wash and treasure them. Hurry up and change and give them to me.”
Gi Siyoung had stubbornness in strange places. When Seungun came out of the room after changing clothes, Siyoung was standing right in front. He had clearly been waiting to take the alcohol-soaked clothes. Seungun, who caught on, rolled up the clothes tightly and clutched them. He had absolutely no intention of throwing them away.
“I said I can take these?”
“It doesn’t look like they’ll even fit in that bag, so what are you going to carry them for?”
“…No, let go.”
A small tussle broke out over Seungun’s wet clothes. Even though he clenched his hands with all his strength, Gi Siyoung’s power was beyond imagination. Worried the clothes would tear, he ended up letting go. Gi Siyoung put his clothes in the trash can right in front of Seungun. If he’d changed his bottoms too, he would have nearly thrown away two perfectly good pieces of clothing.
“Why on earth are you throwing away perfectly good clothes?”
“Im Seungun-ssi will continue wearing those clothes in the future, and then you’ll remember Kim Hojun splashing alcohol in front of me today. I hate having those kinds of memories recalled.”
“……”
It wouldn’t be good for him either to go against Gi Siyoung’s mood.
“Can I take the pants you gave me?”
“Do as you like.”
Seungun folded the pants and put them in his bag. The auxiliary bag bulged. As if showing that this was how Gi Siyoung always moved when he came home, he skillfully popped open the cap of a whiskey bottle with a thick neck and poured it glug glug glug. Then he held out a hexagonal crystal glass.
“No, I’m fine.”
Seungun declined as nicely as possible.
“I thought you said you like alcohol.”
“How did you know?”
“Ah… I happened to hear it earlier.”
“Your hearing is sharp too. But as you know, I have to drive home…”
“Are you worried I’ll make you drink without calling you a taxi? Or do you hate drinking alcohol given by human scum trash who works his manager like a dog?”
