Because I Wanted Ice Cream
"Yoyo, the foam is actually the best part, you know. It might look like they're just padding the glass with bubbles, but once you try it with foam and without, the difference is huge—"
"Hyung, are you doing this on purpose? It feels worse than earlier."
"So the TooMuchTalker thing wasn't a bit. It was real…"
"I don't even like foamy beer."
"That's because you've never been to a place that does it right. I've been hopping around drinking since I was twenty, and by my evaluation this place—"
"Talk later. Let's just toast first."
"Cheers!"
Everyone raised their glasses, and a bright clink rang out a moment later.
Ice-cold beer in a chilled glass, cold enough to make your teeth ache. The way it slid down the throat was pure relief. I gulped down a whole glass in one go, and a worried voice rose from beside me.
"Ahh!"
I set the glass down with a soft tak and turned my head. Ririyang was staring at me with a look of pure dismay.
"Whoa, you just downed five hundred at once?"
"You must have been really thirsty."
"Teacher, drink slowly. You'll go under in one shot like that."
Honestly, that stung a little. It was just beer. Who gets drunk off a bit of beer?
Well… me, apparently. I had a track record, so I couldn't really argue.
Thinking about it again, the team's reaction made sense. If I got as wrecked as last time—if I blacked out completely—cleaning up after me would be a nightmare.
"Okay."
So I answered with a bright little smile. And I didn't forget to order another beer while I was at it.
This much felt like a reasonable line. After all, from the first team dinner until now, I hadn't really gotten to drink properly.
All because of Ririyang's guard. For some reason she kept sitting right next to me and snatching my drinks.
With her guard down now, this was my chance. It was only beer, after all. This time I was confident I could stop at a pleasant buzz. I hummed under my breath as I drank.
Han River really lived up to the hype. Not bad. Not bad at all.
"Tea—cher, you can't drink that fa— mmph."
Even drunk, Ririyang kept nagging, so I tore off a piece of dried pollack and stuffed it into her mouth. Worried it might be too dry, I dipped another piece in sauce and fed her that too.
She couldn't spit it out—not after someone had gone to the trouble of giving it to her. Then, as if her throat had gone dry, she drained the beer sitting next to her as well.
She chewed away, cheeks full. Watching her like this, I almost understood why mothers used to force-feed their kids. There was something oddly satisfying about someone just taking whatever you put in front of them.
"W-wait. Mmph."
And this was also a kind of countermeasure. Nothing was more efficient at shutting Ririyang up and keeping her under control.
Every time I took a sip of beer, I peeled her another strip of dried pollack. Eating only one thing gets boring, so every so often I slipped her some dried squid or young pollack too.
The result: Ririyang spent the whole time wiping her mouth and gulping down whatever snacks I handed her.
Something about the table felt quieter. When I turned my head, everyone was sneaking glances my way.
"Teacher, you're really good at peeling those so they're easy to eat."
"No, this is starting to look like animal husbandry…"
Come to think of it, maybe I had been monopolizing the snacks a little too hard. Once that thought hit me, I set a piece of the pollack and young pollack I'd already peeled onto each of my teammates' plates.
One by one, left to right. Looking at it like this, it almost felt like a mini-game.
That was when it happened. Instead of a teammate's plate, a different plate was thrust toward me.
I looked up to see who was holding it—a solidly built young man, smiling awkwardly.
Our eyes met. He sucked in a short breath, his eyelids fluttered, and then he raised his voice.
"I lost a drinking game, so would it be all right if I took just one piece of dried pollack?"
"Dried pollack?"
"Yes."
Not a drink—dried pollack. What was that about?
His real motive was so obvious I sighed inwardly. He'd pulled the same thing a few times at the sentimental bar, and now he was doing it here too. I'd figured a small place tucked in an alley would be free of this kind of thing, but apparently not.
An uninvited guest out of nowhere left the table in dead silence.
The mood had turned strangely uncomfortable. My teammates cleared their throats and shot him looks, but he just kept smiling brightly, eyes fixed only on me.
A formidable opponent. He didn't seem oblivious—he was probably doing this on purpose. Maybe this was what people meant by thick-skinned.
I still didn't get it. What meaning could there possibly be in snacks handed out by me?
Just give him a piece of pollack and send him off—no after-party plans, no phone numbers. That was the plan as I reached for my chopsticks.
"Waah."
Ririyang, who had been sitting quietly beside me as the alcohol hit, finished chewing everything I'd fed her—
—and then swept every last remaining piece of dried pollack into her own mouth. With her face flushed bright red, she started chewing them with aggressive, deliberate crunching, right in front of the guy.
For a second, the man's poker face cracked. A flash of pure disbelief crossed his features, but it didn't last. His gaze slid toward the remaining young pollack.
"Then maybe just some young pollack…"
It was as good as a hard rejection, but the man wouldn't give up.
His determination didn't matter. The young pollack was no longer available either.
Every last piece of it had already disappeared into Ririyang's mouth.
"What the…"
Ririyang's energy had been a little too fierce for him to keep smiling through it.
"Aigoo, our Da-hee must have been starving."
"I wanted some dried pollack too! What a shame!"
"This place's dried pollack is pretty good, though."
The teammates piled on with easy banter.
I couldn't hold back a laugh either, just making deflated little sounds. A moment later the man clicked his tongue and went back to his seat.
"Pfft—hahahaha! Ririyang, that was legendary!"
"Did you see his face? Total 'what kind of person even does that' energy."
"But how do you even pull that at a beer hall? This isn't some sentimental bar. The whole vibe is different here."
Meanwhile, I couldn't quite hide how uncomfortable I felt. I kept wondering if I'd somehow caused trouble for everyone because of me.
"Huh? What are you talking about? This isn't your fault at all, Teacher."
"It worked out fine, so it's okay. Honestly, you must get exhausted. With a face like that, people are going to keep latching on."
"Next time let's drink somewhere fully private, like a restaurant. Today's route was a bit off. I've been hitting places since I was twenty, so I know all the good spots."
They all smiled kindly and firmly denied it.
With Camilla's body—and the superhuman dynamic vision and reaction speed that came with it—I could tell. These people weren't lying.
When someone lied or hid something shady, it showed in the micro-expressions that flickered across their face. These people didn't have a trace of that.
Something warm settled in my chest. In Ririyang terms, my heart went all soft and fluffy.
Ririyang? Come to think of it, she hadn't said a word since vacuuming up the dried pollack and young pollack. Curious, I turned to look at her.
"Urgh."
Ah. This was bad.
"I'm sorry, Teacher…"
"It's fine. Has the alcohol worn off a bit?"
Ririyang hid her face behind her sleeve and hung her head. She really didn't need to feel that sorry.
Wait—was this less apology and more pure embarrassment?
I'd shoved so many snacks into her that Ririyang had nearly manufactured a seafood pancake right on top of the bar table.
I'd caught it just in time and hauled her to the bathroom.
I patted her back and sent a quick text to the team beforehand. We're fine, keep drinking without us.
Nothing had gotten on her clothes, and Ririyang wasn't in terrible shape—once the cleanup was done, we could just go back in.
Even so, as if she still had the sensibilities of a teenage girl, Ririyang couldn't meet my eyes even after everything was finished.
Was this really something to be this embarrassed about? She was twenty-three. At university welcome parties or MTs, people patted each other's backs and threw up all the time. Wasn't that just normal?
"I… I'm a high school graduate…"
"Ah. I see."
Which meant she hadn't been through many of these gatherings, and this was the first time she'd ever overdone it this badly. She'd thrown up before, sure—but never while being led by someone else's hand, never with the sound and the liquid both on full display for that person.
"There's nothing on you, right? There better not be…"
"Doesn't look like it."
She hadn't actually thrown up while I was bringing her here, so there shouldn't have been any collateral damage. Still, she kept fretting, so I checked just in case something had gotten hit.
Ah. The handkerchief I'd used earlier to wipe her mouth had a faint stain on it.
The color had changed, so this was definitely—
"G-give it to me! I'll wash it and give it back!"
"Uh, you really don't have to…"
"No! This has to be washed! It has to be washed!"
Ririyang snatching the handkerchief I'd been examining right out of my hands. She folded it fast and stuffed it into her pocket. With her looking that desperate, there was no real reason to refuse.
"Shall we head back in, then? People are going to worry."
"Okay…"
We started walking slowly. But contrary to her claim that she was sober now, Ririyang's steps wobbled; she couldn't quite keep her balance.
In truth it wasn't that different from before we'd even arrived at the beer hall—except this time her mind was clear, and that made all the difference.
"Careful. You're going to fall."
"Th-thank you."
Step by careful step. Ririyang held my hand, face a little red, and we made our way out of the building with the restrooms.
"A little walk and some fresh air should help. Or we can stop by a convenience store on the way and grab hangover remedies. Oh—we can pick some up for everyone else too."
"Y-yeah. Let's do that."
Ririyang nodded, and I took the lead, holding her hand and guiding the way.
I was checking the map app and heading toward a convenience store when something caught my eye and I stopped.
Even in the pitch-dark night, a shop sat brightly lit along the street. More precisely, an unmanned ice cream discount store.
For some reason it looked incredibly tempting. I was craving something sweet. Come to think of it, hadn't someone said ice cream helped with sobering up?
Operating on that logic, I turned to Ririyang with a voice that was maybe a little too excited.
"Want to get some ice cream before we go?"