Escape (2)
Escape (2)
"Yeah, okay, don't worry."
When Eun-ji returned after stepping away to answer a sudden call, Hwa-young and Yeji looked at her.
A-ra turned around a beat late, right as she was casting her fishing rod.
"Who was it?"
"Seong-hwan. He said to fish in a bright spot if we're going to stay late."
Seeing Eun-ji shake her head with a wry smile and say, 'As if he doesn't have enough to worry about,' Yeji gave a wry smile, and A-ra tilted her head in confusion.
"Why did he call you about that?"
"Because he's worried about you, so he called me to ask me to look after you."
Saying 'You don't even get that?' Eun-ji pinched A-ra's cheek.
Of course, it didn't even tickle, let alone hurt, so A-ra just giggled, 'Hehe.'
"Are you that happy because your husband is worried about you?"
"Of course~"
"There really is no guy like Seong-hwan."
Since A-ra was the only married person here, naturally the man they interacted with most was her husband, Yoo Seong-hwan.
"Anyway, he said absolutely do not go to dark places."
"Dark places?"
"He meant places like rocky shores or tetrapods are dangerous, so we should only fish in spots like this."
Eun-ji stomped her foot a couple of times on the ground where they stood.
A large streetlamp above them was giving off a bright light, and it was a spacious spot where you could even pitch a big tent.
In fact, the tent was already set up.
"And he said don't get Unnie drunk."
"He says you, but Seong-hwan is the one who gets drunk even faster."
He couldn't even drink half a bottle of soju without losing his balance, but he still worried about everything, which made her smile.
"You're not a strong drinker either, Unnie, are you?"
"Eun-ji, you're not one to talk, are you?"
Hwa-young, who had sat back down after casting her rod again, let out a chuckle.
"That's right, she keels over after two glasses of soju."
"Did you know Seong-hwan was shocked when he saw that? He said our husband nearly had a heart attack."
"Ugh... it's not like I can't drink on purpose..."
For Hwa-young and Yeji, except A-ra, these were women who took pride in their alcohol tolerance.
For Yeji, three bottles of soju was just the start, and she was fine up to four or five, and in Hwa-young's case, rumors circulated around Hollywood that she once downed an entire bottle of Macallan 25 Year Sherry Oak by herself on the spot.
A-ra could hold her own to some extent, but she was still outmatched compared to the two of them.
"Haa... talking about alcohol is making me crave the delicious things Seong-hwan makes."
"He said if we bring back the fish we catch alive, he'll make us spicy fish stew."
"Spicy fish stew?"
Hwa-young's mouth started to water.
She still couldn't forget the spicy fish stew she'd had when Seong-hwan invited her over after her fight with A-ra.
Of course, no matter how close Hwa-young was with Seong-hwan, asking a married man to cook for her wasn't exactly socially proper.
"So stop drinking and catch more delicious things."
A-ra said if they wanted to eat her husband's cooking, then hurry up and catch more fish, or jump into the sea and dig up some shellfish, and everyone nodded.
Seong-hwan, who had captured the stomachs of not just A-ra but the entire group, simply coughed once and went back to picking apart his fried chicken.
***
"Fried chicken is delicious when you haven't had it in a while."
I ordered a whole chicken from Golden Olive Chicken and was tearing into it while watching videos on Qtube, and time seemed to fly by.
This is why, whether it's people or buildings, you need to air them out once in a while.
"Come to think of it, I checked the community but not my SNS."
If I only communicate with people on the community, the SNS crowd gets sulky, so I have to split my time fairly.
Because I get these subtle messages on SNS telling me to pay some attention to them too.
They probably can't even imagine that a big event is coming up soon.
"Let's see... fan meetings... live broadcasts... card pack openings..."
It seemed like the SNS side had a strong vibe of 'do some fan service or something whenever you're bored.'
Anyway, what was this about card pack openings?
Were they telling me to open celebrity cards or something?
I already had a full set, so there was no reason to pull for them.
"Going to a coin karaoke alone... going to a board game cafe..."
While there were some surprisingly normal posts, I also saw posts telling me to sell my body and stuff.
I could understand and overlook light sexual harassment, but the more I let it slide, the more people crossed the line sometimes.
"Screenshot this bastard... sent."
I sent it to Jeong Hwan-yi, not the lawyer first.
Since the ski resort theft incident, I had some things I needed her to handle, and I felt too sorry about piling even more work on her all at once.
Jeong Hwan-yi was the PD in charge, so I should work hard for her.
"Sent... completed..."
I tossed my phone onto the sofa, stood up, and stretched broadly.
Earlier on SNS, there was a post recommending the arcade, so I thought I'd go check out the arcade in the apartment complex.
It was a place A-ra had warned me not to go to carelessly, but there was a limit to being overprotective.
Nothing was going to happen from going out to have fun for an hour or two.
"Since I needed to scan my ID card to get in, I pocketed it..."
I grabbed a few coins and bills and headed out.
*
"Yeah! This is gaming!"
There was a game where you hit a huge drum—the kind you'd only expect to see at a Bon Odori—to the rhythm.
At a regular arcade, it usually cost 500 won per game, but here in the residents' arcade, the huge advantage was that you could play for free.
Plus, not many people came down here, so all the machines were empty, making me wonder if I'd rented the whole place out.
"There's a coin karaoke here too..."
Unlike the games, you had to put coins in to use it.
Of course, it was cheap: 500 won for five songs.
"But, as expected, there are a lot of old games."
Partly because arcade games have been declining and new ones aren't coming out, but even so, there were a lot of old titles.
"Still, I never expected them to have Demon World Village..."
I could understand if it was Bubble Bobble or Double Dragon, but Demon World Village was a bit...
"Huh?"
I was sitting at the Demon World Village machine, playing for a while, when I heard the sound of people flooding in from outside.
Since it was evening, they weren't wearing school uniforms, but they were clearly a group of middle and high school students.
There were a few boys mixed in too; it looked like a group of friends from the apartments who had come down together.
"Right. There was a pool table too."
They didn't show much interest in the old games and charged straight for the pool table.
I didn't know the first thing about pool, but I was a little curious.
So, planning to just watch, I got up from the game chair and headed to the pool table.
"Hello."
"Oh! It's Yoo Seong-hwan!"
A boy who recognized me right away called me by name and bowed his head in greeting.
There was a bit of a gap between what he said and what he did, which was kind of funny.
"What bad manners, calling you by name like that, tsk! I'm sorry. He lacks respect."
She pushed the boy's head down to make him apologize again, then bowed her own head and started apologizing as well.
These kids are nice.
That was my first impression of them, even though we'd only just met.
"No, it's fine. If it's okay with you, would you mind if I watched you play pool?"
"Of course, of course! Or would you like to play with us?"
She handed me a long cue and asked if I wanted to try, but I shook my head.
I had never held a pool cue before, and I just wanted to see what it was like.
"Because I don't know how to play. I'll just watch today."
"I-is that so? I thought you were good at everything, Seong-hwan-nim..."
"N-nim...?"
"Ah, I'm sorry. It's a habit from the fan club..."
She'd been looking pretty embarrassed for a while now, and it looked like she was active in a fan club or something.
What did I even do to deserve a fan club...
***
"Thank you! Thank you!"
"Oh no, there's no need to thank me that much..."
She had said she was going home for a moment, and I wondered what was up, but she came back with something like a fan club card and a Yoo Seong Magic marker.
So I gave her an autograph on the card, and she was so happy about it I almost felt sorry for no reason.
I was happy and grateful that she liked me, but why did she like me so much...
"Well, it's because you're funny, Seong-hwan-nim... I mean, Seong-hwan oppa."
"Funny?"
"Like the funny stories or everyday life stories you tell during your cooking videos. They feel so human and are really fun."
Hearing a middle schooler say 'human' made me feel a bit self-conscious.
It was a little embarrassing.
Should I say she seemed mature?
And the fact that she looked after the boys too—should I say it felt like an inverted dynamic?
It was a sensibility I hadn't seen in a while, coming from the reversed gender norms.
"Well, I'll be going now."
"Go home safely!"
"I just need to take the elevator up and I'm home."
"Oh right, I forgot. This is the residents' game room."
As she scratched her head and smiled, I walked out.
I felt a bit bad for bothering them just to watch.
Still, he's popular because he cares about his fans that much, right?
For someone I just chatted with so casually, he was an incredible big shot, wasn't he?
If I ran into him again next time, I'd ask him about some more things.