Birthday Night
A drink or two is all it takes for the alcohol to start working its way in. That goes for ordinary liquor — and hard liquor hits even harder.
Seong-min was no exception, and neither was Hye-suk. Round after round of whiskey passed between them until the buzz settled in for good. Then they pulled the canned beer from the fridge on top of that, and it only got worse.
Time slipped by. Before either of them knew it, midnight had come and gone.
"Look how late it's gotten already~?"
Hye-suk checked the wall clock, her face flushed a soft red.
"Eating and drinking like this, the time just flew by, didn't it?"
"Ah… I'm drunk."
She tipped her head to the side. Her temple came to rest against Seong-min's shoulder as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Should we stop here?"
"Already~~? It's your birthday, Seong-min~~~?"
"It's past midnight. The birthday's over."
"Even so~~~ we haven't gone to bed yet, so it doesn't count as over…"
"You seem more drunk than usual, Auntie."
"Me?"
Hye-suk gave a bashful little smile.
"Do I… look drunk to you, Seong-min…?"
"Yes. You do."
"I see…"
She stayed like that for a while, quiet, her head still against him.
"Seong-min…"
"Yes?"
"Last time, in the car… you said something to me, didn't you?"
"Said what?"
Seong-min took a sip from his glass of ice water.
"That you felt sorry for how much help and care you'd received from me… that you were so grateful a stranger would look after you and worry about you like that…"
"Yeah… I did say that…"
Ever since moving into the Rooftop Room, Seong-min had received no end of kindness from Hye-suk, the landlady downstairs. When he'd been hurt in that traffic accident, she had even stepped forward as his guardian and nursed him back to health in her own home.
How many people in the world would do that?
Which was why Hye-suk could only ever be a precious connection to him.
"It wasn't just you, Seong-min…"
The expression on the woman leaning against his shoulder turned soft and emotional.
"I… also received a lot of comfort from you… the way you did from me…"
"From me…?"
"Mm. After my husband passed when Seong-jun was little… I lived like my life depended on that boy alone. Thankfully he grew up well — he's overseas now, found a job, living his life. But once I was actually alone… it felt so empty."
"Seong-jun hyung still calls you, though."
"He does… but only for those few minutes. Once the call ends… it's just me, rattling around this big house by myself."
Hye-suk fell silent for a moment. Eyes closed, still leaning on him, she seemed to be turning something over in her mind.
"So I thought… maybe I should take on a tenant. And then…"
"And then I showed up."
"Yes… you came looking for a room. I couldn't just take anyone, so I talked with you first, planning to decide if it felt right. And once we started talking… I felt so sorry for you."
Through that conversation she had learned Seong-min was raised in an orphanage.
When she was raising Seong-jun, Hye-suk had sometimes thought: What would have become of this child if even I, his mother, hadn't been there? Just imagining Seong-jun left alone had filled her with pity and ache. That was probably why she had raised him so hard.
Having thought those things, of course an orphan like Seong-min would tug at her heart. So she took him as her tenant.
"You were so strong, Seong-min. Coming up from the countryside alone to live in Seoul isn't easy. And yet there you were, left all alone in the world, always smiling… it made me proud of you. And… watching you, I felt a lot of things myself."
If a boy like him can live like that, I have no right to fall apart.
After that, Hye-suk had found her smile again and settled into the life she had now. The hollow, the quiet depression that had settled in after her son left for overseas — Seong-min had filled it, and healed it.
"And… you know what else?"
"What…?"
"Sometimes… when you smile at me… my heart flutters."
"…What?"
Seong-min's hand, halfway to bringing a can of beer to his lips, stopped cold.
Hye-suk, who until then had kept her eyes closed with her head on his shoulder, slowly opened them.
"I know I shouldn't… but every so often, looking at you makes my heart race…"
"……"
"An old woman being ridiculous, right?"
She laughed under her breath.
"Then… what you said earlier might not have been a joke either?"
"What…? About warming your bed?"
"Yes. That."
"Hmm~ well? It could have been a joke. Or… I could have been testing you."
Hye-suk lifted her head straight. Then she looked at him.
"Why? If I said I'd warm your bed tonight… would you take me up on it, Seong-min?"
Seong-min didn't answer. He only looked at her.
"Hohoho, I'm kidding. Don't look so serious…"
"It's fine."
"What?"
"If you want to… I'm fine with it."
"……"
A strange silence settled over them.
"H-hohoho… I think we've had way too much to drink. Seong-min, shall we get up? I'll clear the table — you go on upstairs and rest. You have work tomorrow, don't you?"
Hye-suk rose in a fluster and started clearing the dishes. Seong-min watched her for a moment, then drained what was left of his beer.
"I'll help clean up."
"No~!! It's fine! I can do it myself — you're tired, so go upstairs and rest~! It's your birthday. I can't put you to work…"
And with that she pushed him by the back toward the front door.
"I'm fine, so you go on up and rest, Seong-min~~~"
Looking at her, Seong-min gave a wry smile.
"Alright. I'll head up then. Thank you for the gift."
"Don't mention it. Just wear it well…"
Seong-min opened the front door and stepped out.
Once he was gone —
"……"
Hye-suk stood there for a long moment. Then, carefully, she brought a hand to her chest.
Thump-thump.
Her heart was pounding. Hard. Racing.
Out in the yard, Seong-min started up the stairs, then glanced back at the closed front door.
Why did I say that?
It had come out of nowhere. In answer to her words, the reply had slipped out before he could stop it.
But he didn't regret it.
Auntie Hye-suk was a good person. That was all.
The next day, Seong-min woke early as usual. Tomorrow and the day after he had Gombang Work lined up, so he wouldn't be doing parcel loading — but today was different. He was headed to the delivery job. So he was up before six.
He washed up, got ready, and opened the door out onto the rooftop.
Beep…
The door closed behind him with the soft click of the electronic lock.
Coming slowly down the stairs, Seong-min noticed Auntie Hye-suk hadn't come out to see him off.
We drank a lot last night…
They'd been drinking past midnight. It would have been stranger if she had come out.
Seong-min opened the gate quietly so as not to wake her, and left.
A short while later, after he was gone, the first-floor front door opened and Hye-suk appeared in the yard. She looked toward the gate he had just passed through with a complicated gaze.
"Hyung~!"
Arriving at the site on time, Seong-min found Min-hyeok already there waiting.
"You got here first?"
"Of course I did~~ haha…"
"Sleep well?"
"Yeah. We had so much fun I crashed right away."
"Look at this."
Seong-min pulled a wallet from his pocket.
"Ohh~!! That's the Bean Pole wallet I got you, isn't it?!"
"Figured I'd switch it out right away."
"I'm touched~~! You swapped it in a single day…!"
"I pulled out the sneakers Noona Areum gave me too — planning to wear them day to day."
"Your old ones really were wrecked, hyung. Good call~!"
Seeing Seong-min put the gifts he and his sister had given him straight to use put Min-hyeok in a fine mood.
"We've got a little time."
Seong-min checked his wristwatch and spoke up.
"Let's grab a drink from the vending machine."
"Huh? Hyung, what's that watch? I didn't see that yesterday."
"Got this as a gift too."
"What brand? Looks like a metal watch."
"X-Wind Quartz Chrono."
Seong-min deliberately left the brand name out.
"X-Wind — that's Hamilton, isn't it?"
"You know it?"
"I've heard of it, yeah~. But isn't that expensive? Hamilton's not cheap."
"This model runs about 1.4 million won."
"Huk!"
At the number, Min-hyeok's eyes went wide.
"Th-that's insanely expensive?!"
"It is. I was pretty shocked when I got it too."
"Holy crap! Hyung~! Let me see it one more time."
"Look all you want."
He held out the watch on his wrist.
"Damn… the design, the whole thing — it looks like it means business!"
"Isn't that just the price talking?"
"That too… haha…"
"Come on, let's get a drink."
They walked over to the vending machine. Seong-min pulled a card from his wallet and tapped it.
"Cocoa, right?"
"You know me~"
Seong-min hit the cocoa button. A paper cup dropped, filled, and he pulled it free from the slot.
"Here. Drink up."
"Thanks!"
Seong-min got himself a milk coffee.
"It's starting to get pretty warm, huh?"
"Yeah. It's July — full summer's right around the corner. They say next week it's going to get properly hot."
Looking up, sunlight poured down hard enough that you could feel the heat in it.
"Still, we've got work to do."
"Obviously~ haha! Lately I've gotten hooked on the daily wage…!"
Min-hyeok might struggle while he was at it, but he never quit — he stuck with his share of the work with real grit. That was why the Gombang crew liked him: he was sharp, approachable, and he pushed hard even when it hurt. That was why they'd taken him onto the team.
They finished their drinks, crumpled the paper cups, and tossed them — just as the site supervisor called everyone to gather.
"Let's go."
"Yes~!"
Min-hyeok drained the last of his cocoa, chucked the cup, and hurried after Seong-min.
That day, too, they worked the parcel loading hard as a pair. With Seong-min's Stamina and Strength stats both at 100, his efficiency was absurdly high. Clearing a whole truck never took him long.
Min-hyeok pushed himself not to fall behind, but he was never going to keep up.
"Alright. Break."
They finished off one truck's worth of boxes and sat down. A glance at the wristwatch said they had a comfortable ten-plus minutes to cool off and rest.
Truthfully, they could have finished even faster and taken a longer break. Seong-min deliberately paced himself so the other teams wouldn't feel the pressure.
"Hyung, you said you go to the Gym."
"Still do."
"If I hit the Gym, I still couldn't build stamina like yours, right?"
"Probably not."
"Hyung, you must've been born with dinosaur genes…"
At "dinosaur genes," Seong-min huffed a quiet laugh.
Just being able to sit like this with a cool drink of water, resting without racing straight to the next truck — for Min-hyeok, that alone was a blessing. Seong-min could have kept going either way. Min-hyeok couldn't.
"So hyung, who gave you that watch?"
"Auntie."
"Auntie Hye-suk?"
"Yeah."
"Wow… living in a detached house like that already said she wasn't ordinary, but the gift is seriously next-level."
"She's a good person…"
"Yeah. I felt that too when I visited last time."
Seong-min thought back to last night — more precisely, to the early hours of the morning.
Why? If I said I'd warm your bed tonight… would you take me up on it, Seong-min?
That was what she'd said in the middle of leaning on him and pouring her heart out. Then she'd laughed it off as a joke.
And he had said it was fine. That if she wanted it, he would do it.
The words had come out in a single moment. Not planned. Just spoken.
And Hye-suk had stood up, smiling, saying she'd clear the table herself and that he should go upstairs to rest — and walked him to the door.
Was it really a joke?
From her voice, the atmosphere, the look in her eyes — it hadn't felt like something light.
"Hyung, next truck's coming in."
While he was lost in thought, the second truck had already pulled up.
What did she mean by that?
Around that same time, Hye-suk stood by the living room window, looking outside.
The answer Seong-min had given to what she'd said.
If… I had really meant it…
She shook her head before the thought could finish.
What am I even thinking, Hye-suk… Seong-min is a boy around my son's age.
An orphan who still held his head high and worked hard at living. The very idea of harboring impure thoughts toward a young man like that was mortifying.
And yet…
Hye-suk gently brought a hand to her chest.
It was real…
She had scrambled up and sent him out, yes. But even while clearing the table, even after going to her room and lying down, her heart wouldn't settle. Drunk as she was, sleep still wouldn't come easily.
This was an accident… a light fender-bender from getting carried away by the mood.
She repeated it to herself again and again.
All that day, Hye-suk's mind stayed restless. Every time she passed through the living room, her eyes drifted to the wall clock.
Before long it was past eight in the evening — around the time Seong-min would be coming home.
And after a little while longer, the sound of the gate opening reached her ears.
Seong-min. It had to be him, back from work and stopping by the Gym on the way.
Soft footsteps climbed the stairs toward the Rooftop Room.
"Haa…"
Hye-suk drew a long breath in, then let it out. Slowly. She set a hand against her chest.
What is wrong with me?
Her heart was pounding fast.
Seong-min stepped into the Rooftop Room and flipped on the light. He changed out of his work clothes into something comfortable, then took one of the cold canned coffees he'd bought and went back out onto the roof.
Looking out over the night view beyond the rooftop, he cracked the can open and brought it to his mouth.
Gulp, gulp…
What's Auntie doing right now?
The living room light on the first floor was on, so she was definitely home.
I'm being ridiculous.
That he was fretting over this after last night, of all things.
Is she thinking about what I said too?
She might be. She might not.
Either way, Seong-min only hoped his words hadn't left her feeling burdened.
The next day, Seong-min left the house around seven. Today was Gombang Work, so he headed out an hour later than yesterday — he only needed to arrive by eight-thirty.
He came down the stairs to the first floor.
Once again, Hye-suk did not come out to see him off.
Whether it was parcel loading or Gombang Work, she had always seen him out. But since yesterday, she hadn't.
Before stepping through the gate, Seong-min paused and looked at the closed front door for a moment.
Then he turned and walked out.