GBAS 33

“Jooin hyung should be treated to a meal sometime, too.”

The moment Jooin’s name was mentioned, Hyunwoo’s body stiffened, and he gulped down a dry swallow. Seonwoong, not noticing Hyunwoo’s reaction, tapped his shoulder and asked.

“Hyunwoo Hyunwoo. Is Jooin hyung very busy these days?”

“…How would I know that.”

“Huh? Weren’t you guys getting along well recently? Aw, man.”

How can he not know after seeing exactly what the atmosphere was like that day. This is why clueless guys are hopeless.

Anyway, to think he’d hear Baek Jooin’s name even here. Just thinking of him for a moment made his stomach burn and his head throb.

As Hyunwoo, whose face had instantly turned ashen, shook his head, Jiwoo, who was watching from across the table, clicked his tongue inaudibly.

“Excuse me!”

Juha, unaware of the situation, stretched out her arm to call over a passing employee. To the employee who was taking out a notepad from their apron pocket, Juha pointed to various spots on the menu to place their order, then opened the last page and said.

“We’ll have three 500cc draft beers and one bottle of isul. And for Noja-nim?”

Without hesitation, Hyunwoo pointed to the top of the page, to the part that said “New Menu.”

“A highball, without the whiskey. Thank you.”

“Eck, what’s that.”

A complaint flew from Jiwoo at the bizarre order. The employee, who had paused their writing at the unprecedented order, soon nodded as if they understood. After jotting something down on the notepad in their hand, the employee confirmed the orders one last time and left for the kitchen.

As Hyunwoo reached for the heaping pile of edamame, Seonwoong’s elbow nudged him in the side.

“Just drink a soda. Why a highball? It’s three times more expensive!”

“It’s what I want.”

“Hul…”

At the blunt reply, Seonwoong’s lower lip jutted out.

“Mr. Hyunwoo. You’re being so cold to me these days. Did I do something wrong? Guys, did I do something wrong to him? I really don’t know? Jeon Hyunwoo, if you keep acting like this, I’m gonna get upset, you know?”

Seonwoong grabbed Hyunwoo’s left arm and shook it back and forth, whining, but Hyunwoo didn’t even glance at Seonwoong, simply continuing to shell the edamame he was holding. Watching the bean pop out and roll onto his side plate, Hyunwoo thought.

‘Right. Why am I so irritated with him?’

In truth, he didn’t know the reason either. From some day on, he’d get strangely cranky just by looking at Seonwoong. And it wasn’t like it had only been a day or two that he’d been hanging around Kwon Seonwoong like best friends.

Seonwoong, who had been bonking his forehead against Hyunwoo’s unresponsive shoulder, suddenly lifted his head and asked.

“HyunwooHyunwoo, could it be that you’ve been abstaining from alcohol ever since that time?”

Hyunwoo, who had been moving his hands busily, stopped and looked at Seonwoong for a moment.

Of course. Anyone would swear off alcohol after going through something like that.

As he popped a shiny bean into his mouth and gave a cursory nod, Seonwoong looked at Jiwoo in disbelief. In response, Jiwoo replied with a displeased expression.

“Yup. He says he hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol since that day.”

“I’ll give you that. But it was understandable. That was really something else.”

“I tried to stop him when he was mixing the drinks, didn’t I? I told him to make it smaller.”

While the three of them each chimed in, Hyunwoo wiped his hands with a wet wipe and quietly readjusted his chopsticks. As he poked at the cabbage salad in front of him, the cabbage, wilted from soaking up the dressing, collapsed limply.

Juha and Seonwoong began to reminisce about the events of the offline meeting, one by one. Jiwoo participated in their conversation while observing Hyunwoo’s behavior with his eyes.

He finally came out. It was more than just strange that the guy who used to run around like a dog with a motor on its tail at every gathering was now choosing to play by himself.

‘I should probably ask soon…’

Right on cue, the drinks they ordered arrived. From among the drinks the employee had placed together in one spot, Jiwoo picked out the one glass that was a different color.

As he set the glass down in the empty space, Hyunwoo, who had been showing only the top of his head, peeked up. As if his mouth had been glued shut, Hyunwoo immediately reached out, seemingly already thirsty.

It was Juha who stopped Hyunwoo from gulping it down first.

“Hey, hey? Noja-nim. We have to make a toast.”

“Right, right!”

At Juha’s urging, four heavy glasses gathered in the middle of the table.

“To our gaming life-!”

“-is our real life!” Juha’s lead was followed by the chant, and with a clinking sound, the four glasses lightly touched.

Jiwoo emptied about a third of the beer in his glass in one go.

“Kyah!”

Setting his glass down with a refreshing sound, Jiwoo peeked across the table.

Hyunwoo was just now pulling his lips away from the glass. A cocktail without alcohol. What’s the point of drinking something like that, the thought briefly lingered on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed the unnecessary words and brought up the question he had been curious about all along.

“By the way, why on earth did you drink that?”

At Jiwoo’s words, the gazes of the three others gathered.

“Baek Jooin even played the black knight for you, so why? You didn’t have to drink it, originally.”

“Pfft!”

Startled by Jiwoo’s question, Hyunwoo covered his mouth with both hands.

It was a good thing there was only a little left; it could have been a disaster. As he glared at the other side with reddened eyes from forcibly holding back what was about to burst out, Jiwoo asked again with an unfazed expression.

“It’s because I don’t get it. Look. I know full well you hate skinship, but Baek Jooin saved you from almost kissing him, right? You should have been happy, so why the hell did you drink that alcohol?”

“……”

“Come to think of it, you’ve been weird ever since that day. I thought you guys were getting along, but then you started avoiding him again. I thought you were avoiding him, but then you started following him around again. The guy who used to risk his life for a ‘no-down clear’ throws his body to save someone… And why the hell are you being so snappy with Kwon Seonwoong?”

When his name came up, Seonwoong put down the hand that was about to pick up some dry snacks and acted pitiful with a “hng, hng” sound.

As if he had a motor in his mouth, the questions piled up quickly, and a dismayed Hyunwoo washed his face with his dry hands. Behind the glasses that had gone crooked again so soon after he fixed them, a resentful gaze shone through.

“If I knew, would I be acting like this?”

Hyunwoo muttered in a barely audible voice.

Why did I do it? How would I know. As it was, he hadn’t been able to sleep for the past few days because of that thought. His chest felt tight in an instant.

Hyunwoo picked up the glass he had set down beside him, swallowed the rest of the drink, and then put the empty glass down. The clear ice left in the glass clinked.

After crunching and swallowing an ice cube, Hyunwoo finally opened his mouth after a long pause.

“I drank it because I wanted to. Why.”

“…What?”

“I said I wanted to drink it.”

“That?”

“Yeah.”

At the end of a silence that lasted several seconds, Jiwoo was the first to let out a scoff.

“Unbelievable.”

Silence fell over the table again, and as the heavy atmosphere continued, the other two, who had only been rolling their eyes, exchanged glances.

What’s going on?

I know, right!

Juha and Seonwoong continued their silent conversation by raising their eyebrows and twitching their lips. You go first. No, you go first. After some bickering, a determined Juha was the first to gather her chopsticks and tap the table.

Picking up a piece of well-cooked grilled mackerel, Juha casually brought up a topic.

“W-well, that day…”

“……”

“Wasn’t Jooin-oppa really cool? I was so jealous of Aqua-nim. You even got a kiss. Kyaa-!”

It was a desperate attempt to change the subject that she had come up with after racking her brain. As Juha gave a signal to the person across from her, Seonwoong, who had been ready, took the baton.

“Ah, it was an honor. I totally fell for Jooin hyung.”

Becoming shy at the sudden thought, Seonwoong rubbed the area around his mouth.

“Ever since that day, I keep getting all bashful whenever I’m in front of him, you know?”

When Seonwoong even started squirming his body, the gazes of Hyunwoo and Jiwoo landed sharply on him. At that moment, Hyunwoo’s expression became somewhat puzzled. It was because the memory of being very angry right before chugging the penalty drink had surfaced.

Why was I angry? Hyunwoo, retracing his thoughts, soon let his jaw drop in a look of horror. A large hand covered the lower half of his face.

‘…No way.’

At the same moment, among the other three, another conversation started, beginning with Jiwoo.

“Ah, this bastard, here he goes again. Again.”

“Whaat.”

“You’re not into that. Cut the crap.”

“Hey, can’t I keep my options open? If I can go this way and that way, the probability of dating doubles!”

“……”

“…Isn’t that right?”

“Sigh. You innocent fool. Don’t you go around saying things like that.”

“Fine, whatever!”

Frustrated by his incredibly simple-minded friend’s comment, Jiwoo twisted open the cap of the green bottle next to him. He poured the clear liquor into his half-empty beer glass, and as the two liquids mixed, white foam bubbled up.

Just as he was clinking glasses with Juha sitting next to him and taking a drink, Hyunwoo, who had been sitting with a serious face, asked.

“I’ve been curious for a while, but what exactly is ‘that way’?”