MORE 14

“Why are you laughing like that?”

“No, it’s just funny. I never thought a CEO would ever come to a place like this.”

“Does it look like that?”

Siyul puffed out his cheeks like a goldfish and nodded. Woo Hyunse just shrugged his shoulders and hooked some noodles with his chopsticks. He didn’t have a hobby of watching others eat, but for some reason, he kept finding his gaze drawn to his companion. Perhaps it was because his chopstick technique was flawless, without a single flaw.

Siyul tried using his chopsticks in the air a couple of times. He wasn’t as skilled as the other. He quickly lowered his hands before Woo Hyunse could see.

“I used to come here often. Back in college, I think. Everyone was poor back then.”

“Have you ever been poor too, CEO?”

“No.”

It was a very Woo Hyunse-like answer. It was shameless, but it suited him well. Siyul crumpled his face like paper to show his annoyance, then, as soon as the other glanced his way, he put on a coy expression as if he hadn’t done anything.

“Is your situation not very good, Mr. Kwon Siyul?”

“Yes. If it hadn’t been for the installments, we would have struggled with next month’s rent, too. But why do those shoes cost several million won? Do shoes like that really exist?”

“If you’re struggling, apply for revolving credit. I’ll accept it.”

“Revolving credit?”

Siyul asked back, as it was a term he was hearing for the first time. Woo Hyunse explained kindly, as if teaching a young child, while pouring alcohol into an empty glass.

“You pay off only a portion, and the rest is added to next month’s balance to be paid later. Instead, there’s an overdue interest fee attached. It’s usually around 20%, I think.”

He still couldn’t understand. As he sat there with his eyes wide and blank, showing he hadn’t caught on, Woo Hyunse added details step by step. In summary, if you have to pay back 1 million won, you pay half, and then next month, you pay the remaining 500,000 won, that month’s installment, and the interest on that.

Even though he was bad at math, he knew it was a system where debt piled up like a snowball. Siyul stopped using his chopsticks.

“…By any chance, CEO, do you also deal in private loans?”

“This is legal.”

“How could such a law exist? No matter how I look at it, it’s a swindling tactic.”

Before he became independent from the orphanage, he had heard the warning “It’s a world where they’ll cut your nose off even while you’re wide awake, so brace yourself” until his ears grew calloused. Not a single word of that was wrong. Why were there so many things in the world that people wanted and needed to buy?

Whenever he was short on money, spam texts and calls would come in—as if they somehow knew—telling him to get an interest-free loan or open a credit card. If Kwon Yuwon hadn’t been there nagging him by his side, Siyul might have been buried under a mountain of debt long ago, sobbing his heart out.

“I won’t do that. I’ll just work hard and pay it off.”

“You’re sound. And kind.”

Woo Hyunse reached out and ruffled Siyul’s hair as if petting him. He didn’t particularly like anyone touching his head, but perhaps because the other’s hand was large, firm, and warm, it didn’t feel unpleasant. As if starving for praise, Siyul took the touch quietly.

He had intended to finish just one bottle lightly, but in a drinking spot, one glass always turns into three, and three glasses turn into three bottles. As the empty bottles increased, Siyul’s cheeks became flushed. The skin under his eyes turned reddish as well.

Even though it wasn’t as if he had drunk it all by himself, his drinking companion sitting opposite him didn’t change his complexion at all. His gaze, too, was no different from when they first started.

“What’s your alcohol tolerance?”

Woo Hyunse asked, resting his chin in his hand. Siyul furrowed his brow, trying to steady his vision, which kept swaying, and held up four fingers.

“Three bottles.”

“Not four?”

“Three.”

Haha, Woo Hyunse laughed out loud in a low tone, reached out, and wrapped his hand around one of Siyul’s fingers. Even though he folded it down, it popped back up as soon as he let go. Tilting his head, Siyul looked at his fingers, glared at the soju bottle, and only when he made a fist and extended them one by one did he finally hold up three fingers straight.

On the day he became an adult, he drank until he was nearly dead with Kwon Yuwon, saying one had to know their limits to survive a drinking party. He had passed out after three bottles of soju, and Yuwon had barely managed to last until half a bottle.

Since then, he had learned to pace himself so he wouldn’t collapse at gatherings, but for some reason, the alcohol was sliding down easily tonight. He wondered if it was because the snacks were exceptionally delicious.

“It’s the sixth bottle now.”

“Already?”

“Yeah. See?”

Woo Hyunse lightly flicked the neck of the soju bottle with his middle finger and thumb. Siyul straightened his swaying head and stared at the bottles. Pointing with his finger and counting them one by one, there were indeed six. Even if the two of them drank together, he had already far exceeded his limit. It might be dangerous if he drank more.

He didn’t have any particular bad habits when drinking. If he got too drunk, he tended to just fall to the floor and sleep. Still, since he couldn’t show such disgraceful behavior in front of someone other than Kwon Yuwon, Siyul forced his drooping eyelids open. He intended to restrain himself from now on, but Woo Hyunse, unaware of his inner thoughts, filled his empty glass with alcohol again.

“I can’t drink any more.”

“If you collapse, I’ll take you home.”

“No. Yuwon is at home. The two of you shouldn’t meet.”

“Why shouldn’t we?”

“Because CEO is an Alpha. Yuwon is… Yuwon is an Omega, so you two shouldn’t meet.”

He tried to pay attention to his pronunciation so the other would understand clearly, but his tongue was slurred due to the alcohol. He opened his lips into an ‘O’ shape and tried to say ah-ah, but the tip of his tongue was still dull. It seemed his drunkenness had settled onto his tongue.

“Did you know you have a mole here?”

Woo Hyunse’s finger pointed to his face. Siyul felt around where the finger was pointing. Even though his own face was something he saw tiresomely every day, he couldn’t remember for the life of him where he had a mole.

As he felt around his forehead, nose, and lips, asking here? here?, Woo Hyunse leaned his upper body in and pressed lightly just under Siyul’s right eye with the flat part of his thumb. It felt as if a heated stone had touched him, and Siyul pulled his body back, startled.

“Ah, this. They say it’s a teardrop mole.”

Only after the other had touched it himself did he realize what kind of mole it was. It was a mole he’d had since he was young, and because of its meaning, he had sometimes been the target of teasing.

“So that’s why Mr. Kwon Siyul has so many tears.”

Always like this. There were children who played mean pranks, saying, “Let’s test if he really has that many tears.” He shouldn’t drink any more, but at the melancholy old thoughts, Siyul emptied the brimming glass in one go.

“When did I ever cry?”

“Why. You cried the day we first met, too.”

“That’s because CEO was so scary. Even though you said you’d kill me.”

“I said I’d erase you. Not that I’d kill you.”

“You also said you’d fill my stomach with concrete.”

“It was cement,” Woo Hyunse corrected. Siyul pretended not to hear and just filled his glass. Thinking back to that day, the situation of sitting face-to-face drinking alcohol like this was unbelievable. To be drinking with the person he had prayed to gods he didn’t even believe in, asking them to ensure they never met again. Life was truly impossible to predict one step ahead.

“I meant that would happen if you kept doing bad things. Mr. Kwon Siyul is living a good, honest life now.”

“I think you’re more wicked than me, CEO….”

“Me? I’m a person who could live without laws, so why would you have such a misunderstanding? That’s a bit unfair.”

Woo Hyunse rambled with a calm expression that didn’t show even a hair’s breadth of grievance. It was funny how his words and actions didn’t match at all. Perhaps because of the alcohol, he burst into laughter over something not particularly funny. Siyul curled his eyes into half-moons and giggled. The teardrop mole stood out even more above his plump aegyo-sal (eye bags).

Woo Hyunse stared at such a Siyul while resting his chin in his hand. He scanned his plump lips wet with alcohol, the corners of his mouth pushed up into rounded cheeks, and his eyes sparkling with moisture. Even though the gaze was intense, Siyul, whose mind was more than half-consumed by alcohol, didn’t notice.

“….”

Soon, he withdrew his gaze and emptied his own glass. He also poured the glass placed in front of Siyul into his own mouth and stood up.

“Let’s stop here. Unless you don’t want to introduce me to that friend of yours.”

At the word ‘friend’, the limp Siyul widened his eyes. Even so, because he was drunk, his gaze wasn’t sharp. When he grabbed the table and stood up swaying, Woo Hyunse approached and supported him.

“Is… drunk driving…”

“I’ll call a designated driver.”

The other replied with a short sigh, as if it were familiar or tiresome. Only then did Siyul relax the strength in his body, which he had been pulling back in defense.

Woo Hyunse wrapped his arm around his shoulders and pulled, causing his head to bury itself into his side. Even though they had been drinking together in the same space, the other didn’t smell crude. As he inhaled deeply, huff, the same scent as before filled the depths of his lungs. Though he flinched, Woo Hyunse did not push Siyul away.

“What perfume do you use?”

“I don’t remember the name.”

“I’ll go pay, hiccup.”

“You pay next time.”

He tried to take out his wallet, but his hands kept missing. Damn it, he cursed and tried to sit back in the chair, but he was caught by Woo Hyunse. Woo Hyunse paid the bill. Siyul floundered and tried to offer his card, but the owner snatched the cash the other had pulled out first.

“I should be the one to pay….”

“Today isn’t the only day.”

As he followed Woo Hyunse out of the tent stall, the cool night air tapped against his cheeks. Siyul tried to straighten his swaying body, but it wasn’t easy to steady himself while drenched in the alcohol’s effect. Therefore, he had no choice but to practically entrust his body to Woo Hyunse, who stood beside him. He meant to say out loud, “I’ll lean on you just for a little bit,” but it was too long to spit out, so it just hovered in his mouth and disappeared.

I shouldn’t fall asleep like this.

His body just kept going limp like a weeping willow. Still, he wasn’t worried. He was still scary, but the man who had become less scary than before was with him. He didn’t think he would pour concrete into his stomach, though he might have filled it with alcohol. Siyul laughed shyly and rested his head on Woo Hyunse.