Chapter 34 – Monday evening 10:18 p.m.
The dinner went perfectly well. They met with Kang-Hee who was waiting for them right when they clocked off. They skipped dinner and went straight to an izakaya (Japanese-style bar, more like snacking than a proper meal) close by. However Seung-Jae was suffering from the aftereffects of a drink-filled weekend, and Kang-Hee stated she had to pick up before 11 pm her child that she had left at her parents’ house.
Consequently carried away by the atmosphere telling her to drink since only she could, Na-Yool drank a glass, soon followed by a few others.
The bar Kang-Hee had praised for its ambiance and brought them to was actually making poor business. Na-Yool belatedly realized that the lack of customers was in fact the pitiful reason for calling it nice and quiet. Of course, the snacks were tasteless, and Na-Yool was drinking a little more eagerly, compelled by the sad thought that the alcohol that went into her mouth would actually account for half of the store’s sales today.
The fact that she felt both sad and responsible for the sales of a shop she had nothing to do with was clear proof of her being drunk. However, she was the type on which it never apparently showed.
“Na-Yool, are you okay?”
Therefore, Kang-hee’s question, thrown in the middle of venting about the difficulties of parenting, unavoidably came already too late.
“…Yes?”
“Look at this. This girl has lost it.”
Kang-Hee tapped Na-Yool’s cheeks with concern. Seung-Jae, who had just returned from the bathroom, asked Kang-Hee in surprise, “What’s wrong with her?”
“Girl, you look like you got yourself drunk!”
“No, I’m good.” Na-Yool interjected quite soberly, but it was impossible to dispel the already set suspicion.
“I know you. You always pretend to be fine then lose it in a flash.”
“Did she drink a lot?” asked Seung-Jae puzzledly. He apparently did not remember how many drinks he himself had poured her. Na-Yool denied with a head shake, pressing her slightly throbbing temple.
“Speaking of, when did she become so unused to drinking?”
“I don’t know. These days we have not been having any dinners at all, so maybe…”
Seung-Jae’s embarrassed explanation felt just as Na-Yool was leisurely conceding belatedly that soju and sake did not suit her body.
“Na-Yool, do you want to go home?” Kang-Hee inquired.
“No…Yes.”
“Which is it!”
“I am considering it.”
Na-Yool’s voice still sounded clear-headed. However, Kang-Hee, who once used to often drink with her, still accurately knew Na-Yool’s drinking pattern.
She clicked her tongue.
“Considering it, my foot! Shall I just call my husband to pick us up? You said you are working overtime tomorrow, you can’t afford to get drunk.”
“It’s fi–……”
“No problem. I will take her home.” Seung-Jae interrupted.
“Are you going to take a taxi? Her house is quite far, it might be a little expensive.”
“She is currently living at a friend’s house. It is closer to here.”
“Forget it… I’ll go back on my own.”
“Just a few more minutes and you will start talking nonsense. No way you’re going home alone. Hold tight to Seung-Jae’s hand!”
Kang-Hee cut off Na-Yool’s words with a stern attitude. Then she suddenly looked at Seung-Jae and smiled mischievously.
“Hey, good luck.”
“With what?”
“Yeah, with what?” Na-Yool immediately copied Seung-Jae’s slightly sheepish reply.
Kang-Hee shrugged her shoulders.
“Won’t you guys date already? Everyone who sees it is sick of it!”
“Gosh, I really don’t understand. Why is it that everyone is completely obsessing over Seung-Jae and me? Dramas should be watched on TV, period.”
Right in the midst of being drunk, Na-Yool’s felt even dizzier from wondering why the whole world would fret over putting them together. At this point, she wondered if she was going against her destiny.
Kang-Hee sighed with pity.
“Exactly! If you had already gotten together, then no one would say anything. Seung-Jae openly told you from the beginning—”
“Mrs. Kang-Hee.”
Seung-Jae blocked her words, almost ready to physically stop her mouth. Done with what she had to say, Kang-Hee brushed it off with another shrug and started arguing with Na-Yool about who had the most seniority and who drank the most to decide who would pay. While they scuffled at the counter, wallets in hand, Seung-Jae paid the bill and dragged them out of the bar.
Kang-hee, who said she had not had a drink since she was pregnant, behaved in the bar as if she was absolutely fine. But once she came out, she was in a worse condition than Na-Yool. In a pickle, Seung-Jae decided to call her husband. With one hand, he supported Kang-Hee’s staggering body while she insisted on taking a taxi. With the other one, he held out Kang-hee’s cell phone to Na-Yool to get her to call the husband, as a female calling was more suitable.
Befitting the title of “World’s most considerate husband” Kang-Hee had boasted, her husband arrived faster than any taxi driver and took her away. It was like a storm passing through.
“Ms. Na-Yool are you alright?”
“I was already fine since earlier.”
Seung-Jae bypassed a taxi and started walking, seemingly trusting her words unlike a moment ago. It was because Na-Yool insisted on taking the subway. Because if they both took a taxi, she would have to get off at some weird place and pretend to go home nearby. She was already almost caught this morning…
“Shall I buy some hangover drink?”
“It’s okay. I am really fine.”
Maybe the drunkenness had gone while waiting in the cold breeze for Kang-Hee’s husband, or maybe this cozy feeling was part of the intoxication itself, but Na-Yool indisputably felt better than before.
Seung-Jae perfunctorily shook his head.
“Don’t worry, I can safely go home,” Na-Yool insisted. “And that guy doesn’t even know my friend’s house.”
“You definitely are not going to settle, right?”
“Yeah. The case will be handed over to the prosecution this week.”
“Well done.”
“Well… it’s not up to me to do well or not anyway.” Na-Yool mumbled bitterly. Seung-Jae silently looked back at her.
“By the way, Ms. Na-Yool.”
“Hm?”
“Do you know that you have oddly become prettier lately?”
Na-Yool stared at him in bewilderment. She understood that he deliberately digressed from the gloomy topic for her sake, but still…
“Prettier is prettier. What does ‘oddly’ prettier even mean…?”
“No, for real, you strangely… Usually when something bad happens, wouldn’t someone’s complexion go bad and their face grow thinner?”
“……”
“But your face looks like you eat and sleep well every day.”
Well, that was true. With an unreadable expression, Na-Yool contemplated on her recent comfortable lifestyle, then jabbed at Seung-Jae.
“So I wasn’t pretty before?”
“Of course you were.”
Seung-Jae straightforwardly answered, a candid smile hanging on his face. This damn playboy look… it should be exactly the one that Mom has been hating for so long. While thinking this, Na-Yool turned her head away.
But right then.
“Maybe that’s why I felt hard.”
“What?”
“Originally… honestly, that was it. The reason I felt for you.”
“……”
“Just, because you were pretty.”
Na-Yool froze in her steps. Although she had gone through a similar situation in the morning, the current overwhelmingness was nowhere comparable.
“I think it was after 3 days working at the company… To be honest, I did not intend to work there for a long time, so I even thought of just casually trying my luck with you. If it worked, then great – ah, of course, I was sure it would obviously work out even if I just tried. I am a bit arrogant, after all. And then if we break up… then so be it.”
“……”
“Then on the 4th day, I made some mistake… and you scolded me with no mercy, arguing that I squandered my 4 years of university. It really hurt my pride… It was the first time a woman treated me like this.”
Na-Yool had absolutely no memory of it.
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