HPK 41

Wooseung, who had dozed off, shot his eyes open at the notification sound that roused his surroundings. Without even a moment to check the name on the screen, he ran to the bathroom.

“Ugh!”

He grabbed the toilet and retched for a long time. A burning sensation rose up along the path the bitter liquid had taken. Since he had not eaten anything, the only thing that came out was alcohol, and because of that, his solar plexus ached even more.

After brushing his teeth, he came out and crawled to the bed. His elbows trembled unsteadily. It was always like this after he had vomited with the veins on his neck bulging. His face felt like it would burst, and physiological tears streamed down. All the energy in his body drained away along with those tears.

He was just nearing the bed. Something hit his knee, and with a clang, it fell over to the side. A green bottle, now toppled, rolled clatter, clatter. The remaining liquid inside sloshed and surged. Fortunately, it did not spill.

“Haaa……”

Amidst this, he was relieved that he would not have to clean the floor, but then he suddenly thought, maybe this was not entirely a relief. The fact that nothing was left meant that he had emptied exactly that much.

‘Hyung, you really can’t handle your liquor. When I think about it, it always seems like I’m the only one drinking.’

A self-deprecating laugh escaped him as he recalled something Hyojun had once said. He scrubbed at his cheeks, where the fine hairs stood on end from washing with cold water.

He routinely pushed the fallen bottle aside. As he sluggishly crawled into the covers, the damp-feeling fabric unpleasantly enveloped his skin.

When did I fall asleep?

He remembered seeing Yejin’s text message and transferring the money, but after that, everything was black. He did not know if he had passed out or if his memory had simply cut off, but when he opened his eyes, it was now.

“Ah, it hurts.”

He pressed the bridge of his nose firmly with his thumb. There was not a single place that did not hurt, and he wanted to fall asleep quickly, but the light seeping through the flimsy curtains was bright. For this much sunlight to shine into a semi-basement apartment meant that morning had long since passed.

Wooseung reached out and grabbed his phone. He had simply intended to check the time, but a missed call was displayed on the screen.

[Kim Jaemin]

It was 1 P.M. A call at this hour. It was probably nothing special, but just in case, Wooseung made the call. The dial tone had barely rung a few times before the other person answered.

—Are you at home?

His voice was raspy, as if he had just woken up.

“Yeah, home. Why?”

—Let’s get something to eat for our hangovers.

“……Suddenly?”

Wooseung pressed his temple with a crooked index finger. On top of the headache, now even his eyes felt strained.

—I have something to ask you, and ugh, let’s just get something to eat for our hangovers while we’re at it.

He made a groaning sound as if he were stretching. Maybe he had been drinking; his voice was dripping with fatigue.

“Did you drink yesterday?”

—Ahem, uh, well……. Let’s meet at that Jeonjudaek place.

The restaurant he mentioned was a bean sprout and rice soup place the two of them often went to for hangovers. It was only about a 10-minute walk, so it was not far. Normally, he would have gone without a word of complaint, but right now, he did not feel like he could get anything down, and above all, his head hurt too much.

“I don’t think I can go out, I’m sick……”

—Sick? You said you went to the dentist.

“No, my head. Anyway, my stomach feels bad right now, so you go eat alone.”

—If your stomach feels bad, you need to eat something for your hangover even more. I’ll even buy you a rolled omelet.

“I’ll probably throw up right after I eat……”

Jaemin clicked his tongue and grumbled about how severe the headache must be for him to act like this. Still, hearing the obvious pain in his voice, he did not insist any further. However, he let out a deep sigh as if he were frustrated. It seemed more like a sigh that had escaped him unknowingly rather than an intentional one.

—Ah, crap, I have something to ask you.

“What is it?”

A rustling sound was heard for a moment, then Jaemin cleared his throat. It seemed he had been lying down and had just sat up completely.

—You know that place where you, ahem, work as a waiter.

“Yeah.”

—Do they sometimes…….

“Sometimes?”

—I mean, sometimes, do, uh…….

Uncharacteristically, Jaemin dragged out his words. Wooseung, his eyes scrunched up as his headache worsened, asked again.

“Sometimes, what?”

His voice rose slightly in his frustration, but the other person still could not seem to finish his sentence.

“What is it? My head hurts, hurry up and say i—.”

—Do police officers come and hang out there too?

“What?”

Police officers?

What is he talking about so out of the blue?

Unable to grasp the purpose of the question, Wooseung asked back.

“You’re asking if police officers come?”

—Yeah.

“How would I know…… It’s not like they come in uniform.”

—Aish, damn it. That’s obvious. What I mean is, like, have you seen them doing things like being entertained?

“Entertained? I wouldn’t know.”

A deep sigh came through the phone. Jaemin, who had an extremely impatient personality, always charged ahead without weighing his options. But now, he was uncharacteristically hesitant.

“Did you receive entertainment?”

—Are you crazy!

Jaemin flared up in anger. It was not as if it was an inappropriate question, but the spark suddenly flew his way, with Jaemin saying he was speaking of the unthinkable and that his mindset was rotten from the start. His voice was unusually loud. Just like someone who had something to hide.

“Anyway, I don’t know. They don’t really tell the waiters that kind of stuff…… Maybe the managers would know, but I wouldn’t.”

So you’re saying you don’t know what the people who come to hang out there do for a living? Only someone like a manager would know?

“Yeah. Because they’re the ones who handle the reservations.”

The call was getting longer than expected. His mouth was getting progressively drier, so Wooseung looked around his surroundings. He was sure he had left a bottle of water next to him, but he could not see it.

—Alright then. Hey, I’m heading out now, so if you feel like it, come out too.

“I told you I’m not going……”

Jaemin hung up abruptly without even a reply. He was not even on duty, yet his phone etiquette was absolutely terrible. I’ve gotten what I wanted from you, is what that meant. Wooseung pushed himself up with his hands on the mattress. He crawled to the refrigerator, took out a 500ml bottle of water, and drained more than half of it.

He tried to lie down and go back to sleep, but the pain, as if someone were hammering his temples, continued, making it impossible to sleep.

In the end, Wooseung rummaged through the medicine box on top of the refrigerator and took out a Tylenol. He recalled the pharmacist’s warning not to take it after drinking, but for a hangover headache, nothing worked better. He swallowed the Tylenol with water and closed his eyes again. As soon as he gave up on going to work, sleep washed over him as if it had been waiting.

While organizing the cord of the hair dryer, Wooseung’s gaze turned to the bed. The phone he had left next to the pillow was vibrating. He stretched his arm out to the bed and brought the phone over.

[Kim Jungoh]

The moment he pressed the call button, Kim Jungoh, without any preamble, asked what time he was coming to work today. Before he could even answer, he was being rushed, told that they would be at full capacity from 7 P.M., so he should come as early as possible.

As the end of May approached, the number of reservations had certainly increased, unlike at the beginning of the month when Children’s Day and Parents’ Day were clustered together.

“I’ll be there by seven.”

—Yeah, don’t be late.

He tossed the warm phone back onto the mattress. If a call got even slightly long, or if he tried to watch a few videos, the phone would get as hot as if it had been heated over a fire. He could somehow manage this month, but it seemed it would be difficult to last until next month. He had been looking for a phone on a used goods app, but he had not found a suitable one yet. The ones in good condition were ridiculously expensive, and the cheap ones were not much different in condition from his current phone. Since his financial situation required him to use something until it broke, he wanted to be as careful as possible.

After getting ready, Wooseung fiddled with the bag lying on the laundry drying rack. It was not so wet that water would come out if he squeezed it, but a damp feeling remained. He could not very well wear a bag that was not fully dry, so he picked out a reasonably sized shopping bag from the pile he kept by the entrance. The shopping bag from an ice cream shop he had splurged on was small but sturdy.

He put his wallet and a plastic bag containing two blocks of steamed white rice cake inside it. He had gotten the rice cakes from a temple he visited in the morning, and they had given him three blocks, so even after eating one, he still had two left. He vaguely remembered Hyojun saying he liked rice cakes, so he planned to share them.

As he gave the house a final look-around, the watch placed on the waist-high chest of drawers caught his eye.

“……”

For the past few days, he had brought it to the establishment with the intention of returning it, but he had not seen a single trace of Taejung. He had loitered around Room 7 like Hyungho and even asked Kim Jungoh, but he had not gotten the answer he wanted.

[I’ll return your watch.]

[Could I know when you will be coming to the establishment?]

He had even mustered up the courage to send a text message. Of course, there was no reply.

After a moment of deliberation, Wooseung eventually turned away without taking the watch. He did not want to be worrying about a bag in the break room while looking at his own room anymore.

He arrived at the establishment around 6:50 P.M. The first-floor lobby connecting the main building and the annex was already bustling. He passed through the familiar faces and went down to the basement.

“Ah.”

As he rounded the landing of the stairs, he almost stumbled. He had stepped on his own untied shoelace. Wooseung moved against the wall and placed the shopping bag he was holding on the floor. He sat on the stairs and meticulously retied his shoelaces. He could have just tied them haphazardly and left, but he did not, for fear that it would catch Kim Jungoh’s eye and he would hear another unpleasant remark. There was no harm in being careful.

“It seems the matter with Chief Park has been wrapped up well. Moonsu handled it cleanly. For now……”

Just then, he sensed someone descending the stairs behind him. Wooseung pressed his body further to the side so as not to obstruct the passage. Contrary to his expectation that the person would pass him and continue down, a pair of sneakers that suddenly came into view casually kicked the shopping bag.

“Uh……”

Wooseung let out a foolish sound and watched the shopping bag tumble down. It powerlessly spat out its contents, thud, thud, before flopping onto the floor.

“Ah, what a shame.”

Taejung clicked his tongue, making a visor with his hand. It was a very exaggerated gesture, as if he were trying to gauge how far a ball had flown.

Wooseung finished tying his lace tightly and stood up. He then walked past Taejung and picked up the things that had fallen on the stairs one by one. As he was picking up the steamed white rice cake wrapped in clear plastic, Taejung, who had followed him down, was one step faster.

“Rice cake?”

“……”

“What’s with the rice cake?”

Hoonyeong stood diagonally behind him, staring this way with a bored expression. Regardless, Taejung seemed to have no intention of leaving anytime soon. He turned the rice cake over and over, observing it with sparkling eyes. The rice cake, which was more than enough for a meal for Wooseung, looked incredibly small in his hand.

“I brought it to share.”

“With me?”

For a moment, he was at a loss for words. It was something he had not even considered.

“I have a friend who likes rice cakes, so I was going to eat it with him……”

It’s Buddha’s Birthday today, you know, he added in a small voice, at which Taejung’s eyebrows twitched. His face seemed to say, what does that have to do with anything?

“If you go to a temple on Buddha’s Birthday, they give this out……. They share rice cakes.”

His index finger poked the steamed white rice cake in Taejung’s hand.

“Ah, really?”

“Yes……”

“And here I thought you brought it to commemorate us fucking.”

At the utterly vulgar words, Wooseung unknowingly furrowed his brow. Forgetting he was in front of Taejung, he had let his momentary emotion show completely.