29. Company Dinner
"Yerin… you know I love you so much, right…?"
"Yeah, I know."
"Yerin… you know I love you so much, right…?"
"Yeah… I know…."
"Yerin… you know I love you so much, right…?"
"Yeah… I know…."
I let the sound of Yerin tormenting Minseo in the living room wash over one ear as my hands moved at full speed.
You might call this too cruel, but I had my reasons. All of them, actually.
Smack!
"Ow! Yeonwoo! Just let me drink a little!"
"No."
"I won't touch you!"
"No."
"For real! I'm serious! I won't touch you!"
"If you touch me again after that, I'll teach your body never to do it again."
"That…."
"No."
To explain roughly what was going on: Yubin had taken a crying, drunk Yuna off to the bedroom, and Yerin, somewhere along the way, had gotten tipsy herself and was now running her own infinite loop against Minseo.
The two of us were relatively sober and had kept drinking, until Sua suddenly realized that if she got drunk, I'd be the one who had to deal with her. Her solution — 'what if I just make sure I don't get drunk?' — was what had landed us in this situation.
"Ugh, fine! It's gross, I won't eat it! You eat it yourself!"
"Good job."
"Don't just say it! Praise me properly! Pat my head!"
Was it the alcohol?
Where did the usual sly troublemaker go, leaving behind nothing but a whining brat in her place?
Still, if a single head pat would make her give up, I could stomach the hassle. I set my chopsticks down for a moment and patted Sua's head with my right hand.
"Good job."
…Wait, do I really have to go this far?
A sudden wave of self-loathing hit me with a reality check, but I rationalized that this was better than offering up my body, and powered through.
And if the negative thoughts kept coming, I figured I'd end up so deep in my own head that I'd ascend to enlightenment right there, so I made myself think positively instead.
Her hair's soft, at least.
…But is there anything else positive here?
The path of enlightened seclusion was starting to shimmer before my eyes, so I pulled my hand away.
"Happy now?"
"Hmm…."
"What. What is it. What now?"
No matter what I said at this point, she wasn't going to let it go. Rather than endure another reality check like the one I'd just had, I'd decided to just pour the drink down her throat and knock her out cold.
As I steeled my resolve, Sua looked up at me with half-lidded eyes.
"Something… something's missing."
"Not doing it."
"Ah! I know! Can't you just smile for me? Once?"
"I'd rather not."
"Mm? I wanna see Yeonwoo sm— okay, sorry, I won't. Oof! That sobered me right up!"
Thank god. She realized what my expression looked like just before my patience hit its limit.
"Let's clean up now."
Drinking alone in this atmosphere felt pointless, so I decided to call it. My appetite had crashed the moment that reality check happened anyway.
"Yeah."
And so the cleanup began.
Wow… we really drank a lot. Seriously.
At this rate, I could sell the empty soju bottles back to the convenience store and buy hangover pills with the money.
Hangover pills… huh. Wait, what should I eat tomorrow morning to recover?
I mulled it over while moving dishes around, but nothing in particular jumped out, so I asked Sua.
"Anything you want to eat tomorrow to sober up?"
"Ooh… jjampong!"
Jjampong, nice. There's really nothing like spicy seafood noodle soup for a hangover.
"Then let's order jjampong tomorrow."
"Can't you cook it for me? I want to eat food that our Yeonwoo makes."
"How am I supposed to make jjampong at home? The ingredients would cost more than delivery."
Not to mention it takes forever and a mountain of prep work. Ordering out was far and away the better option.
"Fair point… then! Something else!"
"What?"
"I'm suddenly craving soft tofu stew."
"Oh, that much I can actually do."
Soft tofu stew is great for hangovers too. Would it work if I dumped in plenty of chili flakes and made it properly spicy? An anchovy broth base would taste best, right? Then what I'd need to buy was…
I pictured exactly the soft tofu stew I wanted in my head and started drawing up a shopping list for tomorrow.
"Oh! Take Minseo-unni with you tomorrow and teach her to cook. That unni's going to get torn apart when she gets married someday."
"We already agreed on a cooking collab later. She's supposed to think about that then."
If I was going to do it, teaching her from absolute zero was the fun part. If she tried to hover at my elbow 'helping' tomorrow, I'd end up swatting her with coaching without even meaning to.
"Oh? You're really doing that? Can I come on too?"
"Just as hands, I think that'll be fine."
Honestly, it sounded fun. If she was only lending hands, the risk was low. And since posts like [The Real Reason Rose Weighs Triple Digits] periodically popped up on the community boards, I was curious how viewers would react too.
"Do you cook often, though?"
"Not often… every once in a while?"
Though lately it'd been too hot to bother.
"If our Yeonwoo cooks well too, people are going to try and steal you away. What do I do?"
Oh, please.
"I'm a sworn bachelor, thank you."
Please, never say anything that horrifying again.
"You hate the idea that much? Even me?"
"I'm a loss for anyone, obviously."
"…Damn it! Looking at that face, I can't even argue!"
Naturally.
"Phew… guess I'd better clean up, then."
"Good call."
"Oh, isn't this the tteokbokki you made earlier?"
"Sorry?"
At Sua's words I checked, and sure enough, there it was sitting in the sink, bowl and all. I'd noticed it earlier and meant to throw it out, but it had slipped my mind.
"Just dump that straight into the food waste bin."
"Got it."
We kept cleaning until Yerin, who'd been tormenting Minseo in the living room just minutes before, wandered into the kitchen.
"Oh? You guys are cleaning?"
"Yerin-unni! What happened to Minseo-unni? Why are you here?"
At the question, I turned to look at the living room. Empty.
Huh. Did she take her to the bedroom and lay her down? When did she even have time to do that?
In answer to Sua's question, Yerin squeezed her eyes shut and spoke in a drained voice.
"…I put her to bed."
…Sounds like a lot happened.
I'd been through it myself before, so I could sympathize.
"Thank you for your service."
"…Yeonwoo, now I understand everything you went through before."
Yeah, honestly, handling three of them last time was a lot. But personally, it was still far better than being grabbed by a drunk Sua, so I was fine.
"It was that bad?"
"You deal with Sua next time."
"I'll just throw her at you the second she gets drunk."
Frankly, I hadn't understood that the infinite loop was the worst curse of all until I'd experienced it myself.
…But now that I have, yep. Confirmed.
Ah, wait — is Sua actually the worst curse for me? Or not? Haven't experienced that one yet, so for now, the infinite loop is still the worst, right?
Hmm… moving on. I'm drunk and not in full possession of my faculties.
"No, I'm sorry— no, I'm SO sorry! Please don't!"
With three of us doing what two had been handling, the cleanup was finished in no time.
Hold on a second.
"Now that you mention it, what happened to the other two?"
"Oh! Right!"
There'd been no sign of Yubin coming back out since she took Yuna in to calm her down.
"Should I go check?"
"No, let's go together."
"Sure."
"Me too!"
Did she really need to come along?
Well, women apparently go to the bathroom in packs too, so there must be some mysterious feminine energy at work that I just don't understand.
And so the three of us opened the door of the room where Yuna and Yubin had disappeared into.
"Huh?"
"Oh my."
"What do we do! They're both so cute!"
The scene that greeted us the instant the door opened: whether they'd fallen asleep mid-conversation or simply given up mid-motion, Yuna and Yubin lay sprawled across the bed in wildly uncomfortable-looking positions, Yubin wrapped around Yuna like a giant body pillow.
Heh. Cute.
It was such an unexpected sight that the corner of my mouth lifted before I knew it, a warm smile blooming entirely on its own.
"…Whoa."
"…Holy crap."
At the sound of awe beside me, I turned my gaze toward the two of them — and found both of them staring at me with expressions that screamed oh my god, she smiled.
"…What's wrong with you two?"
"It's just… I've never seen you smile before…."
Had I not?
Well, this was only the second time we'd met, so I suppose that tracked. But people are allowed to smile, you know. Isn't all this shock a bit much?
"Snap out of it and get out already. We should at least cover those two with a blanket."
At my words, the two of them came back to their senses. We went to the bedroom where Minseo was sleeping, grabbed some blankets, draped them loosely over the pair, and filed back out to the living room.
"So where's everyone sleeping?"
"I'm taking the living room couch."
Hmm, right — Yerin slept on the couch last time too.
"Then I'll just sleep in the streaming room with you, Yeonwoo~"
"I'd rather not."
"Why? Heh heh heh, worried unni's going to do something naughty to you?"
"Yes."
"…Isn't that answer a little too instant?"
When a curse is the one touching you, there's no guaranteeing her sleep habits are safe, is there?
And besides,
"I'll just sleep in the soundproof booth."
There was a soundproof booth set up separately in the streaming room — I could sleep there. It was quiet, so I slept well in there. I knew from last time.
But apparently, my mention of sleeping in the booth inspired something in Sua.
"Oh! Want to do a surprise guerrilla stream in the middle of the night?"
"…Excuse me?"
It's three in the morning, by the way?
"Ooh… that sounds fun."
"Wait, are you serious?"
"Yup. Let's do it."
…So she'd already made up her mind, huh.
Hmm… a late-night guerrilla stream, huh. Let me think…
That does sound kind of fun, actually.
"If we're doing it, let's make it limited edition — no VOD replay, no clips."
Who knows what might come out of my mouth while drunk, so an insurance policy was necessary. Besides, just imagining the viewers wailing in despair because they slept through it was pure delight!
"Oh! Premium content, baby!"
Then it was decided. I'd turn on the stream and send our manager a quick text first.
It's easier to seek forgiveness than permission, as they say. And with all the trouble I've stirred up before, she'd let it slide.