You Don't Have to Entertain Me
They settled on a chicken place tucked inside the shopping district alley. The interior was a little noisy, with a few outdoor tables set up outside. Minjun glanced inside briefly before naturally choosing a spot outdoors. Eunju noticed the choice. The outside offered a better view than the inside. It was a seat where people could walk by, the convenience store lights could shine on them, and the gazes of men standing in front of the bar could occasionally brush past. She couldn't tell whether Minjun had chosen it on purpose or simply because it felt less stuffy. But Eunju could no longer simply overlook such differences.
Minjun pulled out a chair for her. Eunju sat down carefully. The short pants rode up a little higher on her thighs. She tried to keep her knees together naturally, but the night air slipping under the outdoor table made the skin on the inside of her legs react first, growing sensitive. The cold air swept between her clothes and bare skin. Every time a breeze slipped through the small gap between the hem of her pants and her thighs, Eunju unconsciously straightened her back a little. Even with the cardigan draped over her shoulders, she didn't feel sufficiently covered.
Minjun ordered one fried chicken and two draft beers. Eunju set the menu down without a word. Gyujin still hadn't arrived. Because of that, the table felt momentarily like it belonged to just the two of them. But it wasn't entirely theirs alone. Men were passing through the shopping district alley. A man smoking on his way home from work, another coming out of the convenience store with a can of beer, and yet another waiting for his group in front of the bar. They didn't stop and stare openly. But Eunju knew. Their glances were always brief. That made it easier to make excuses. They had simply looked while walking by. They had simply looked because a person was sitting there.
Yet Eunju had now learned to distinguish the direction of those short glances. They would pause at her face, then slide down to the line of her shoulders beneath the cardigan, and linger just a fraction longer at her legs under the table. That tiny hesitation stayed inside her body. Eunju picked up her glass. Condensation from the surface wet her fingertips. She took a sip, and the cold beer slid down her throat. The alcohol hadn't even begun to take effect yet, but her body already felt slightly heated.
Minjun was watching her. He didn't speak. He simply observed quietly how she was conscious of the gazes, and how that awareness made her body tense little by little. Eunju felt that stare too. More deeply than the passing men's glances came the fact that Minjun was seeing it all with her. At that moment, Minjun lifted his head.
Eunju sensed someone approaching from behind. Minjun raised his hand.
At that instant, Eunju's heart gave a small flutter. It was a different kind of tension than when she met the men from the club. Gyujin wasn't one of the men who had seen her photos. He wasn't one of the men who had consumed rumors about her body. But he was someone who knew the old Eunju. The Eunju who had been a mother. The Eunju who had smiled quietly at gatherings, arranged food on plates, and brushed off her children's clothes. He was a man who remembered that version of her. Showing her current self to someone like that felt strangely more embarrassing.
Eunju turned her head slowly. Gyujin was walking toward them. His face looked a little thinner than before. There were more fine wrinkles around his eyes, and he wore a comfortable jumper with a phone in his hand. He smiled brightly at Minjun, then shifted his gaze to Eunju.
Gyujin smiled brightly. He came close to the table and gave a slight bow.
The moment he lowered his head, Eunju noticed a very small change. Gyujin's gaze dipped down and then rose again. It was so brief she could have pretended not to notice. But Eunju didn't miss it. Neither did Minjun. The line of her shoulders visible beneath the cardigan. The thighs revealed beneath the short pants. An outfit completely different from the friend's wife in his old memories. Gyujin saw it and was flustered for the briefest moment. It wasn't a rude stare. Rather, it was a reaction he tried to hide out of politeness. The awkwardness of thinking he shouldn't look at his friend's wife, yet the woman before him striking him as unmistakably feminine in a way he hadn't expected. Eunju even sensed that consideration. And that consideration made it all the more embarrassing.
Gyujin quickly let out a hearty laugh.
It was a joke. A way to keep the mood from freezing over. Minjun laughed.
Gyujin deliberately steered the conversation toward himself. Then he looked at Eunju again and smiled.
Eunju smiled carefully.
Gyujin sat down and naturally brought up old stories. His face showed he wanted to start off as comfortably as when he drank alone with Minjun. Even so, he tried not to look directly at Eunju for too long. To Eunju, that was even more noticeable. Eyes that tried not to linger. Yet eyes that, having seen once, could not easily forget. Eyes conscious of the line that she was his friend's wife, yet unable to place the current Eunju neatly back into old memories.
Eunju picked up her beer glass again. The cold glass touched her palm. The night air still crept under her pants. The cardigan rested on her shoulders, but the slightest movement made one side slip loosely downward. Eunju didn't fix it right away. Gyujin deliberately picked up the menu.
Minjun answered.
Gyujin laughed.
At those words, Eunju shook her head.
Even as Gyujin said that, he carefully chose his tone toward Eunju. His face showed he still couldn't quite figure out whether he should act as familiar as before or keep his distance as his friend's wife. He didn't know yet. What kind of inclinations she had acknowledged. What kind of promises she had made with Minjun. What that outfit meant to the two of them. Because of that, the small fluster Gyujin felt now was closer to something raw.
Gyujin tried to hide that fluster by acting even brighter. He brought up old stories, talked about when the kids were little, and even dragged in how much of a show-off Minjun had been when he was young. He talked a bit too much. He laughed more often and glanced at Eunju more frequently than when he usually drank alone with Minjun, only to look away again. Eunju could see his efforts. The consideration of not wanting to make her uncomfortable. At the same time, the tension of a man who had grown awkward in front of her. Seeing the two together strangely gave Eunju a bit of composure.
Eunju set her glass down and spoke. Gyujin lifted his head immediately.
Eunju wore a small smile at the corner of her lips.
For a moment, an awkward smile spread across Gyujin's face.
Eunju spoke playfully on purpose.
Gyujin smiled sheepishly.
Eunju nodded.
Gyujin looked at her for a moment.
The words came out quieter than expected. Eunju's hand holding the glass paused. Minjun heard it too. The hand that had been picking up a piece of chicken slowed for the briefest moment, but he said nothing. Gyujin seemed to realize he had spoken a bit strangely and quickly laughed.
Heat rose in Eunju's face. It felt strange to know someone remembered her from back then that way. The Eunju of that time had been a mother, a wife, a woman who had quietly tagged along to gatherings of Minjun's friends and their wives. Yet Gyujin said he had noticed her even then. From a long time ago. He hadn't spoken to her, but she had stood out. That fact touched something deep inside Eunju.
Gyujin lifted his beer glass and smiled.
Minjun let out a small snort of laughter.
Gyujin brushed it off like a joke. The three of them laughed together. The mood loosened a little. The initial awkwardness hadn't completely disappeared, but the warmth of alcohol slowly began to cover it. The fried chicken arrived, along with one more side dish. Gyujin naturally ordered soju. Minjun raised his draft beer glass and said,
Gyujin said as he prepared the drinks. At first, Eunju waved her hands in refusal.
Gyujin spoke as if minding his manners. But the hand pouring the drink was strangely excited. The fact that a woman was sitting at a drinking table that had only ever been for two men. And not just any woman, but his long-time friend's wife, sitting there looking completely different. That fact was making Gyujin's tone and fingertips grow subtly animated. Minjun noticed it.
Drinking tables with only men had always been a bit dreary. Voices were rough, laughter was crude, side dishes were grabbed carelessly, and glasses were passed around mechanically. But today was different. Gyujin chose his words carefully in front of Eunju. The speed at which the glasses circulated grew faster, yet the air above the table became even more cautious. In that caution, Eunju felt like she understood what she had become. A woman sitting at the center of two men. A woman receiving the tension of two males in one body after a long time. That feeling quietly warmed the inside of Eunju's body.
Gyujin hadn't crossed the line yet. Minjun simply watched without saying a word. But the air above the table was slowly changing. Gyujin lifted the soju bottle and filled Minjun's glass, and Minjun smiled as he poured a little into Eunju's glass too. Eunju accepted it. The liquor swayed inside the cold glass. She thought her fingertips holding the glass looked a little more feminine than before. It seemed Gyujin had noticed those hands. No, it probably wasn't just the hands. Eunju felt it but pretended not to notice.
After speaking, Gyujin laughed right away. It was a laugh meant to brush it off as a joke.
Eunju paused with the glass at her lips and looked at him. When he received her gaze, Gyujin looked a little flustered. He had complimented his friend's wife and was now belatedly calculating how far he could go. At that moment, Minjun let out a small snort of laughter.
Gyujin's face hardened immediately.
Minjun spoke lightly on purpose.
Gyujin waved his hand.
Gyujin looked toward Eunju and smiled in embarrassment.
Eunju didn't answer right away even after hearing the apology. Strangely, she didn't want to let that moment pass. After Minjun had tossed out the words like a joke, she saw Gyujin hurriedly trying to clean it up. That caution instead touched something inside Eunju. She set her glass down.
Both men looked at Eunju at the same time. Eunju smiled very faintly.
Gyujin's face went blank. Minjun also stopped speaking for a moment. Eunju didn't avoid their eyes. She knew she had just thrown out an ambiguous remark. She had deliberately not defined how far "liking" went. Whether it was fondness, memory, or seeing her as a woman. Because she hadn't defined it, it was even more dangerous.
Gyujin opened his mouth and then closed it.
He tried to laugh but the laugh didn't come right away. Eunju added gently,
At those words, the air above the table grew quiet once more. "Did anything." It could have been an insignificant expression. It could have been brushed off as simply meaning he hadn't taken any action. But all three of them knew the words carried a slightly different meaning. Minjun's eyes lingered on Eunju. He said nothing. But that silence reached Eunju instead. Gyujin lifted his glass and took a sip. His Adam's apple moved noticeably.
He tried to say it playfully. Eunju smiled.
Gyujin spoke with a face that had relaxed a little.
Minjun jumped in right away.
This time Gyujin laughed louder.
Eunju's fingertips wrapped around her glass. Gyujin added a laugh as if trying to clean up his own words.
Minjun lifted his glass.
Gyujin pretended to glare at Minjun.
Minjun laughed.
At those words, Gyujin looked at Eunju again. It was a very brief glance. But in it, Eunju saw the mixture of alcohol, fluster, and old memories. Another glass of liquor went around. Gyujin's face grew a little redder. Minjun's voice also loosened and deepened. Eunju felt herself slowly becoming the center between the two of them. The two men's conversation passed through her. When Gyujin brought up an old story, Minjun would retort. When Minjun teased Gyujin, Gyujin would turn his gaze to Eunju as if pleading his innocence. Each time, Eunju smiled. She didn't laugh loudly. She simply lifted her glass, tilted her head slightly, and added a small smile at the end of her words. That alone made Gyujin's words slow down little by little.
Eunju touched the front of her cardigan once. Her hand moved as if to pull it up, but in the end she left it as it was. Her shoulder line showed a little more under the light. Gyujin's eyes brushed over that spot for the briefest moment. Once again, he immediately looked away. Eunju even saw that short flicker of guilt. And she didn't dislike that guilt.
Minjun set his glass down.
This time, Gyujin couldn't answer right away. Eunju looked at Minjun. The words were shaped like a joke, but they went deeper than before. Eunju knew Minjun was deliberately raising the level. Gyujin tried to brush it off with laughter.
Minjun spoke as if it were nothing.
Gyujin looked at Eunju, then back at Minjun.
Minjun laughed.
At those words, Eunju's heart quietly sank. Gyujin didn't fully understand the meaning. But Eunju did. Minjun was using the joke to slowly open the door. Eunju lifted her glass. The liquor entered her mouth. The heat that slid down her throat slowly spread beneath her chest. And Eunju looked at Gyujin.
Gyujin's eyes widened.
Eunju wore a very small smile at the corner of her mouth.
This time, no one could laugh right away. The air outside the chicken place grew a little colder. Water droplets had formed on the soju-beer glasses on the table. The footsteps of passing men drew briefly closer, then moved away. In the end, Gyujin laughed. But it was a somewhat dry laugh.
Minjun said,
Gyujin looked at Eunju. This time he looked a little longer. Then he said in a low voice,
Eunju's fingertips stopped. Gyujin quickly added,
The words were short. But to Eunju, they entered faster than the alcohol.