TWENTY 3

Checking the time briefly, Jiseo belatedly sent the reply that he had previously kept to himself.

So what time are you coming back?

Should I take the pillow and blanket out and put them on the bed or not? Let me know if you need them.

Able to return home around the time he expected, he sent another message to Youngwon.

Hyung is going to head in now. I’m going to fall right asleep so I can wake up late. I’ll leave out what you need, so use it. Okay?

I set an alarm, so don’t worry about Hyung, wash up, and go to sleep. Get a bit of a sleep-in, too. You must be tired.

Before even washing up, Jiseo prepared Youngwon’s sleeping spot first. If he didn’t pull them out in advance, Youngwon wouldn’t bother taking care of it himself. He’d probably just end up falling asleep curled up awkwardly on the sofa.

Still, is it okay for him to be out playing all night? Did he get permission from his manager or parents?

Since he hadn’t carried any controversies on his back since his debut, he certainly wouldn’t be binge-drinking at places like clubs.

He figured Youngwon would know how to appropriately maintain boundaries in a way that looked cute to others, so he had no worries. Even though he always looked so young, Youngwon was always dependable when it came to carefully managing his image as a celebrity.

For the moment, it was true that fatigue had piled up to the point where he couldn’t even think about Youngwon, so Jiseo quickly finished his shower and dove straight under the covers.

Though he had washed off his makeup and showered cleanly, he couldn’t bring himself to mess with his hair, which was still fixed in place with hairspray.

A premonition that would make his body even more exhausted amidst all this tiredness had suddenly popped into his mind.

“Wake up already, Hyung.”

At the voice speaking right in front of his face, Jiseo fumbled as he opened his eyes. With groggy vision that hadn’t quite adjusted yet, he slowly looked straight ahead.

Youngwon, buried deep into the pillow he had handed him earlier as if it were the most natural thing in the world, met his eyes expectantly.

“Alright… just a minute.”

Unable to withstand the intense gaze pouring down on him, Jiseo fumbled and made a hand gesture asking for a bit of understanding.

It meant he just wanted ten minutes to wait. Even though he had only caught a hazy glimpse of it in his sleepy state, an ecstatic, excited face had slipped into his partially opened eyes.

He’s the exact same even after waking up and sleeping. Jiseo muttered inwardly with a short sigh.

He had a long-standing habit of chattering away mindlessly about whatever was on his mind whenever he wore a face like that. To counter speech so fast it was hard to comprehend, the first thing he needed to do was wake his mind up.

He ideally wanted to wash his hair first, but unable to resist that persistent gaze, Jiseo forced his body up, swallowed an unidentifiable sigh, and headed out to the living room.

Following right behind him like a duckling, Youngwon unlocked his sleek lips the moment he got an opening.

“It’s time to keep our promise, so I adjusted my schedule and prepared my heart in advance, coming to see you as early as possible. So look at me quickly and… Hyung, lon—”

“Did you drink with your friends yesterday? I thought you said you were going to watch the awards ceremony live broadcast and do the countdown with Hyung.”

“I meant to, but Hyung didn’t end up getting shown on screen that much. And I already got my award before midnight anyway, so I just hung out casually around the neighborhood.”

“Shall I ask for your thoughts on your first-ever drinking experience? How much did you drink? Did you get drunk? What about a hangover?”

“What I came here for is way more important, but if we’re talking about that first, it wasn’t really a big deal.”

“That’s your first time drinking at a shop, and your reaction is kind of lukewarm?”

“Not just at a shop, I mean… it was my first time ever drinking alcohol, period.”

“I know. That’s why Hyung is curious.”

Watching Youngwon stand there rattling on without even sitting down, Jiseo gently pulled his arm and made him sit on the sofa.

It was still too early to let out all that heat filling up his body. Judging by the purpose of Youngwon’s visit today, it was bound to be a long conversation, so Jiseo temporarily steered the topic away.

Since it wasn’t a time or two that he had witnessed Youngwon chattering away right beside him, successfully stalling for time was a piece of cake now. Ever since he was little, he hadn’t been the taciturn type, and Youngwon always had a lot he wanted to say.

As Jiseo continuously tossed in conversational prompts to keep pace with the rambling experience stories being poured out, he first grabbed a change of clothes and came back out to the living room.

“I’m not at the level where I enjoy drinking regularly, but I can match Hyung’s pace occasionally now, you know.”

“How much did you drink?”

“Quite a bit? Everyone else said that for a beginner, I hold my liquor really well?”

“Did you drink soju?”

“Yeah. About three bottles? I drank with serious intent. I probably won’t get to play around like that anymore.”

“Three whole bottles of soju?”

Without cutting off the conversation, Jiseo finished what he was doing and asked back in surprise. Since it was his first time drinking, he figured Youngwon would have roughly shared less than a bottle among others, but the scale was much bigger than he thought.

“Yeah. Even from Hyung’s perspective, don’t you think I drink well? Do you look at me and think I’m a little amazing? How is it?”

With expectation written all over his face, Youngwon’s eyes sparkled as he looked for praise.

Unlike his docile appearance, when he got excited, he had a personality where he would lock in and go all out. So he must have just thrown himself right into it. Even though it was his first time hanging out with friends at such a late hour, he looked quite satisfied, as if he had thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Even though it was just a light topic meant to steer his attention away, it was more interesting than expected. He had single-handedly polished off a whopping three bottles of soju on his first try. He thought there might be a slight exaggeration mixed in, but looking at his confident expression, it seemed to be the truth.

“And you didn’t get drunk after all that?”

“I’m telling you, I didn’t get drunk at all, seriously. Even though the time wasn’t that long.”

“…”

“All the other kids got drunk, so I told them we should go home. But everyone kept insisting on staying, so even after drinking more, I was the only one who was totally fine. Look at me. Right?”

“Drink in moderation. You’re going to get into big trouble if you keep that up.”

“I played so hard that I actually got tired and came back earlier than expected. I don’t think I’ll ever cause Hyung any worry with my drinking from now on.”

“…”

“Since I’ve played out everything there is to play.”

It was merely the first day of the new year. Just by having a late-night drinking session with friends, Youngwon bragged that he had played around so decadently it would make people’s jaws drop.

He hadn’t really asked how or where he played, but since he said it was near his house, it didn’t seem like he had committed any special delinquency.

He surely hadn’t gone out of his way to play from early morning until the sun came up again. Nor had he hung out or drank with strangers.

Because of the nature of his profession, he naturally had to be that way, but Youngwon was the same in other aspects too. Not only had he never gone on trips with friends, but out of the many experiences existing in this world, he had barely tried just one. And yet, what was he saying?

Though he found it a bit flabbergasting, Jiseo couldn’t help a smile from pulling at the corners of his mouth because Youngwon’s resolute tone was quite cute.

“A single day of delinquency is enough for me, Hyung. And even counting it as just a day, I had plenty of time to enjoy it thoroughly.”

“…”

“You and I won’t ever have to fight over stuff like that. I won’t make Hyung worry about my partying and cause disruptions to my schedule. I don’t make promises I can’t keep, you know.”

“…”

“Is just playing around all that important in my life?”

Though it sounded resolute, on the flip side, it seemed like his very first drinking session hadn’t left him with all that great of a memory. Or perhaps, inherently, sitting around playing outside for hours just didn’t suit his disposition.

Since he didn’t have much to rebel over during his school days, it should normally be all the more thrilling to experience it for the first time.

Since he hadn’t fully enjoyed it, it would make sense for him to dismiss it as a boring activity, but if that wasn’t the case… maybe he was deliberately pretending not to care.

It would probably be the latter. That was the real point of his cuteness.

Youngwon used to do that often when he was little, too. Even if he wanted a toy, if the atmosphere was one where he couldn’t beg for it or where no one would buy it for him, he would purposely act like he had zero interest in it. Acting like something wasn’t fun when it actually was—he was still just as cute as ever.

“Hyung, about the marriage thing.”

Of course, there wasn’t time to drown in such trivial sentiments, though.

Jiseo naturally steered the conversation back.

“Was that even playing? Aren’t you just saying it wasn’t fun because you barely played?”

“…”

“The way you talk makes you sound like a kid who drank yogurt out of a character drink bottle. You should’ve tried properly rebelling for a bit instead of Hyung.”

He felt a twinge of conscience for egging on someone who had just become an adult to party decadently, but if he stopped here, regrets were bound to wash over him someday.

Jiseo had occasionally seen such cases around him. People who stepped into the entertainment industry at a young age like Youngwon usually turned out that way. They would vent their belated frustrations or sometimes cause accidents out of sheer regret.