<p>Evening fell.</p>
In the group chat reserved exclusively for the modeling department, the class president had posted the name and address of the restaurant where the freshman welcome party was being held.
They gave a time limit, but true to freshman form, Huila and Yeona had absolutely no intention of arriving early.
If they went at all, they planned to cut it as close to the deadline as humanly possible.
Because they knew it was just going to be a bunch of fossilized imbeciles bothering them anyway.
But time flew by faster than they expected, and they eventually found themselves having to step inside the restaurant.
"Huila. It's time. We should go too."
Pushing aside the sigh that threatened to escape at Yeona's words, she opened the restaurant door and went inside.
A loud bell announced their arrival.
"Huila! Over here! Here!"
Kwon Minhyeok shot up as if he had been waiting, trying to force her to sit at the empty seat next to him.
Huila and Yeona quietly glanced around. The boisterous atmosphere had quieted down, and the occasional whispers were all about Huila.
"There isn't one..."
Yeona, standing next to her, let out a sigh.
And for good reason. As she looked for a place to sit, there wasn't a single decent free table except for the one where Kwon Minhyeok and his crew were sitting.
They must have made sure it was this way on purpose. There were clearly a few tables that could accommodate more people, but bags were piled up on the chairs, or the chairs themselves were missing from where they should have been.
With no other choice, the two of them sat down next to Kwon Minhyeok.
"Alright, alright. Drink up."
The moment they sat down, he was already pushing alcohol on them.
"You drink too."
"Ah... okay..."
Huila's brow furrowed at the sight of the men pressuring Yeona sitting next to her with lecherous eyes, as if targeting her as well.
"I don't drink."
Yeona downed her glass, but Huila didn't drink. He shot her a look that asked what he was supposed to do now, but she completely ignored him.
"If you don't drink, you can start today~! Come on."
No matter what they said, it was obvious they were determined to get Huila drunk by any means necessary.
"I hate alcohol..."
Just as Huila was about to refuse again, a female senior, as if already drunk, stormed over to their table and shouted:
"Is she already drunk? Hey. If you're drunk, go home. Don't ruin the mood."
"Wha...? Mood? Ha! Who are the ones ruining the mood here?!"
She had no intention of leaving quietly.
"Come on. Get out of here. Don't hang around with these losers. I'm telling you, those guys are pure bad news!"
The senior struggled to drag Huila and Yeona out of there.
"Where else are you going to find wholesome people like us!"
"Do wholesome people grab a girl who says she doesn't want to eat and force-feed her alcohol?"
"......"
They were speechless, unable to come up with a retort.
"And you two have girlfriends, don't you?"
At her pointed look at the two men, they flinched and averted their eyes.
"Tch. Dirty bastards."
In the end, the men couldn't bring themselves to stop them, sitting frozen as Huila and Yeona slipped away.
The female senior led the two of them back to her own table. It was a table with no men, only women.
"Let's hang out with us here. Hehe."
She found the chairs that Kwon Minhyeok's crew had hidden and set them down, urging them to sit.
Figuring it was much better here than there, Huila and Yeona obediently took their seats.
The questions began as soon as they sat down.
"It's Huila, right?"
"Yes."
"Right... Huila... Our Huila..."
One female senior, her face flushed, whether from alcohol or not, stared blankly at Huila. Or more precisely, at Huila's large chest.
"Are those... natural?"
She opened her mouth, her face a mixture of envy and greed.
"Ah... I haven't had any surgery or anything."
Huila replied in a slightly softer tone. For some reason, she felt shy, and her face turned a bashful red.
"Whoa..."
Hearing her answer, the senior swallowed dryly.
"Can I touch them?"
She made an absurd request.
"Hey! You crazy bitch!"
At that, the senior who had been eavesdropping while chugging her drink—so, the senior who had rescued Huila and Yeona from Kwon Minhyeok's group—mercilessly smacked her on the back, scolding her for saying such a thing.
"Eek! It hurts! I said it hurts!"
"Haha."
Yeona let out a laugh at the funny situation and the not-so-bad atmosphere. A faint smile hung on Huila's lips as well, finding it amusing.
"Huila. Ignore what that bitch said. Just pretend you didn't hear it."
Seeming satisfied she had hit her enough, she grinned and started to introduce herself.
"I'm Baek Hana. You can call me Hana unni. I'm a third-year."
She chugged her drink as she spoke, and though her language was rough, she seemed like a good person. She had, after all, rescued them from those men with ulterior motives, so she was definitely a good person.
"And this one... hmm... don't bother remembering her name."
"You crazy bitch! Why are you doing this to me?!"
"There's no need to know the name of a bitch who asks if she can touch tits the moment she meets someone."
"Ughhh...!"
Admitting her mistake, she hung her head without protest.
"These girls here are freshmen who got in this year just like you. Their names, in order..."
Under Hana unni's lead, they had an introduction session with the other first-year girls.
They asked and answered various questions, and the fun continued to the point where Huila, who had said she wouldn't drink, began to sip at her alcohol as well.
"Whoa... so, the guy you're dating now is your first love?"
When the conversation turned to romance.
The fact that Huila had a boyfriend. And the fact that he was her first boyfriend left everyone stunned.
"Yes."
"Oh... holy shit!"
Hana unni couldn't believe it.
With her overwhelming looks, she could have picked and chosen whomever she wanted to date. For someone with such striking beauty that she could have easily dated multiple men at once without any problem, it was only natural that the fact her current boyfriend was her first was hard to swallow.
"Is that true?"
They turned to Yeona for confirmation.
"Yes... it's true."
She had been her friend for three years, and that was more than enough to know. After all, Huila used to be overweight and her face was full of blemishes, making it impossible for her to get a boyfriend even if she wanted to. And she fell in love the moment she became pretty, and she herself had, indirectly, played a part in connecting that love, so she could say it with certainty.
"It's true."
She confirmed it.
"Ooh. That's no joke."
"I know, right."
The seniors began to see Huila in an even better light. And they became curious about the man who had captured all of her heart and body.
"Do you have a picture? If you do, show us. Haha."
Eventually, they even asked to see a picture.
Huila didn't really mind, but she glanced sideways at Yeona sitting next to her. Yeona didn't mind either. Even though they shared the same man, Huila was the one who started dating him first, so Yeona figured Huila could just do what she wanted.
"Here it is."
With the silent permission given, Huila showed Jihoon's picture from her phone.
"Oh...!"
"Well, this is..."
"He's pretty average, isn't he?"
The reaction from the seniors and fellow freshmen who saw Huila's boyfriend Jihoon was unanimous. They had naturally assumed he would be absurdly good-looking, like a celebrity. Because seeing him in the picture, he was not just not handsome, he was average.
"I guess Huila doesn't care about looks?"
"Looks...? I think a person's heart is more important than their appearance."
This wasn't a lie. What's the use of being handsome if your character is rotten? Just look at Kwon Minhyeok and his crew, for example. It was clearly not his first time doing this, and the way he kept forcing drinks on the freshmen gave a pretty good glimpse of his personality. Someone like that wasn't worth loving. Trash who sees women as disposable items, as trophies.
"That's right. Looks aren't everything."
In a way, it was a pointed remark. Unlike Huila, they had always judged by looks rather than personality, so they all had a guilty conscience. The female seniors let out awkward laughs and sat their hovering butts back down on their chairs.
"So... shall we drink?"
"Yeah, why not."
The atmosphere had cooled a bit. They picked up their glasses, deciding to fix it by drinking.
"Alright, let's eat and die!"
"Let's diiiie~!"
And so the women surrounding the table emptied their glasses.
As time passed, the empty bottles piled up in a corner of the restaurant. Every time he saw that, the owner's face broke into a bright smile. The people who had been fine were now completely drunk and groaning.
Similarly, Yeona, who had been drinking caught up in the atmosphere, couldn't hold out any longer and was asleep with her forehead planted on the table. Huila also, though she tried to control herself, was drunk.
"Hey there. This girl's gonna die. Stop feeding her."
As if he had been waiting for this moment, Kwon Minhyeok appeared and gently chided Hana unni.
"Ugh..."
Hana unni, not in her right mind, smiled goofily, set down an empty bottle haphazardly, and left to get more drinks.
"Huila. Are you coming to your senses?"
Blurry vision. Though Kwon Minhyeok spoke in a concerned tone, lust was faintly visible on his face.
"Let's stop eating and get out of here now. I'll take you home."
Saying he would take her home, he reached a hand out towards Huila's body. A sleazy hand was also reaching out for Yeona.
But his touch never reached their bodies.
"Get him out of here."
"Yes, Director-nim."
At those furious words, burly men in suits forcefully pushed Kwon Minhyeok and his friends away.
"Wha, what the fuck?"
"Who the hell are you?!"
Though flustered, they instinctively scrambled back.
Hana unni and some of the others, who had been too drunk to think straight, sobered up a bit and witnessed the scene.
"Geez... I told you to drink in moderation."
The man the burly men in suits had addressed as Director.
"Hehe. Jihoooon~!"
The moment Jihoon approached with a scolding tone, Yeona jumped up, as if she hadn't been asleep with her head on the table just moments ago, and threw herself into his arms. She rubbed her face against his chest, acting cute.
"Noona. Let's go."
He held out his hand to Huila.
It would have been cooler if he hadn't been holding Yeona in his arms... but it was still really cool.
"Yeah..."
A shy smile bloomed on her face. At that moment, her smile was more beautiful than any pure and innocent girl's.
And just like that, Jihoon, who had appeared out of nowhere, swept through the place like a storm, took Huila and Yeona, and left the restaurant.
"Fuck... we're screwed."
Kwon Minhyeok and his crew remained. They broke out in a cold sweat, realizing they had messed with a girl who shouldn't have been touched.
After that welcome party, no man ever dared to touch Huila or Yeona again.