The Drunkard and Cozy Chatter
“♪”
A soft humming drifted through the room.
It was Cecilia, humming through her nose. Both hands clutched strips of jerky like a little squirrel, and she was nibbling away with pure, simple delight.
“…So good♪”
And what she was lifting to her lips now wasn’t a glass of liquor at all — it was a cup of orange juice. She’d already put away a bottle and a half of soju; there was no way I was letting her drink any more. I’d taken the bottle away and poured her that instead.
“♪”
I’d been a little worried she wouldn’t like it… but she seemed perfectly happy with it, which was a relief. Honestly, she looked like she might even prefer it to the alcohol. That quiet little smile of hers was a good look on her.
“By the way, we really filled up at a weird time of day.”
“Did weee?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
It was way too late for lunch and way too early for dinner. Not quite brunch either — what would you even call it? Linner? Dunch? Whatever the name, the fact remained: we’d eaten something vaguely substantial at a vaguely awkward hour.
“Cecilia, how full are you right now?”
“Mmm~. So-so?”
“So-so, huh.”
About the same as me, then. Awkwardly in-between.
So what were we supposed to do about dinner? Hmm…
“…Eh. We’ll figure it out when we get hungry.”
In the end I just shrugged it off. Late-night snack, delivery, whatever — we could deal with it when the urge hit. There was no reason to settle the question right this second.
“I want orange juice too…”
“Want some of mine?”
“Huh? No, I’ll grab a fresh cup.”
I waved off the cup Cecilia held out toward me and got up from my seat.
In the kitchen I found a clean glass and poured orange juice into it with a soft glug-glug-glug. Back in my chair, I was about to take a sip of that swaying citrus-colored liquid when—
“Hmm.”
—a flicker of curiosity got the better of me. I tipped the last dregs of soju from my shot glass into the cup, then stirred it around with a pair of chopsticks. A homemade cocktail. Very homemade.
“…Gulp.”
I took a taste, and—
“Oh. Not bad.”
Surprisingly, it was pretty good. Bright and sweet. The harsh bite of the soju had mellowed out, leaving only a gentle warmth behind. The kind of drink you could sip and sip until it snuck up on you.
“What’s that taste like~?”
Cecilia leaned in, eyes bright with interest at whatever was in my cup. Curiosity filled her whole face. Her clear eyes caught the tangerine glow of the liquid and shone with it, beautiful.
“Want to try?”
“Yeah!”
She nodded, and I carefully held the cup out to her. Cecilia went to snatch it up in a rush — then saw how close it was to spilling and switched to the gentlest of hand movements.
“Careful, careful…”
She even said it out loud. So childlike it was adorable.
Slowly, she brought the cup to her lips…
A soft gulp sounded.
“………!!!”
And then she jolted — a full-body shiver. Her eyes flew wide; her ears twitched. Her tail crackled like it had been shocked, then shot straight up toward the ceiling.
“Th-this…”
She whipped her head toward me. That startled expression was overflowing with a bliss and joy she couldn’t possibly hide.
“This is so good, Eunhyuk!”
And with that, Cecilia gave me the brightest smile she’d worn all day.
“Hnya…. Ehehe. Bed~♪”
And so, in the end, I let her have another three shot glasses’ worth.
I will defend myself by saying I had no choice. When she looked up at me with those glistening eyes and pleaded, “Just one more cup… please?” — who on earth could refuse? Who could blame me for that tiny crack in my self-control?
And when I finally told her that cup was the last one… the guilt was almost unbearable. Ugh. I didn’t even want to think about it.
“Eunyuk~♪”
“At least when she’s drunk her mood bounces back fast. That’s a relief. Yeah, what is it?”
Following the thick, tipsy lilt of Cecilia’s voice, I walked over to the bed where she was lying.
As always when she was drunk, she was sprawled out on top of it, grinning goofily. Between being nearly plastered already and then drinking even more on top of that, she was completely, utterly loose.
“Mm♪”
With a little nasal hum, she rolled onto her side and flung both arms wide open. Behind her, her tail swayed lazily. I’d seen this move before.
“…A hug?”
“Nooo~!”
I asked based on what I remembered from a few hours ago, and this time the answer was no. It was annoying — and the fact that I still found it cute was deeply confusing.
“That!”
“That? …Ah. The pillow.”
What she was pointing at was the pillow I slept on — a soft, fluffy one I’d carefully picked out at a specialty shop.
“Here.”
“Ehehe♪”
The moment I handed it over, she wrapped her arms and legs around it in a full-body squeeze. Then she nuzzled her cheek against it. She clearly liked the feel.
“Mmh♪”
“Sleepy? Want me to pull the blanket over you?”
“Noo~? I’m not sleepy!”
Fair enough. She’d slept well last night, napped again around midday, and it wasn’t even that late — being sleepy would have been the strange part.
“I just wanna lie here~.”
“Lie there as long as you want. I’ll just sit in the chair.”
Fortunately, we had a couple of decent chairs in the house. Even with the bed fully occupied, I wasn’t left without a place to be.
“♪ ~♪”
Leaving Cecilia behind — still hugging the pillow and humming through her nose — I sat down in the chair and opened a book. Just an ordinary novel. Fantasy genre. Decent enough.
“…♪”
A soft quiet settled over the room, filled with the faint sound of her humming, the rustle of blankets, and the tick of the clock. Quiet, but not awkward.
“….”
I could hear Cecilia’s small, even breaths. The soft flutter of turning pages melted gently into them. It had more atmosphere than I’d expected. Just one little sound layered into the space around me, and suddenly reading felt like a pleasure.
I quietly followed the story etched into the type.
“…I’m bored.”
At least until that cat decided to open her mouth on a whim.
“Eunhyuk~. I’m booored~.”
“You’re basically a spoiled little princess at this point.”
I wasn’t a babysitter. Though, to be fair, the way the distance between us kept shrinking wasn’t a bad feeling at all…
I closed the book with a sigh and stood up again.
“But even if you’re bored, I don’t really have anything to give you. Hmm…”
The computer was out — she didn’t look like she could operate it properly. Same for my phone.
There were a few board games a friend had left behind, but nothing you’d want to play while drunk. Beyond that, there wasn’t much that counted as a toy…
Hmm.
“Want to try reading this?”
In the end, what I handed her was another novel from the bookshelf — a short story collection with a bunch of different tales in it. I remembered enjoying it myself.
“What’s thiiis?”
“A book.”
“A book?”
“Yeah. Oh, right — can you even re—”
“‘A Collection of Short Stories to Stir Your Sensibilities, Volume 1’…”
“—ad. Okay, so you can. How does that even work?”
If she was from another world, the writing system should have been completely different. I’d never really thought about it, but the same went for spoken language. There was no way it should line up this perfectly — and yet we communicated without a single hitch. A total mystery.
“Mmm…”
She flipped a page with a soft flutter. I could see her eyes tracking the text. Curious what her reaction would be, I sat still for a while and just watched Cecilia read.
“….”
Thirty seconds passed.
“…….”
Two minutes passed.
“……….”
Five full minutes went by.
“Cecilia?”
Calling her name got no response. When I peeked, her eyes were sweeping neatly left to right — following the type, reading the story. The way she was completely absorbed in the book was so lovely from the side that it looked like a painting.
“…Looks like she likes it.”
I smiled quietly and slipped away from the bed. Then I sat back down in the chair and picked up my own novel where I’d left off.
Time drifted on like that until night, and in the most natural way in the world, the two of us fell asleep. Cecilia on the bed, me on a blanket on the floor. A satisfied feeling settled over me as my consciousness slowly drifted away.
And then morning came again.
“Mmm~…”
When I woke up, Cecilia was still asleep.
I lifted my head a little and saw her still hugging the pillow, the book left by her head. Her expression was peaceful, her breathing soft and even. No sign of a hangover, at least.
“Mmm…”
I rustled myself upright and stretched long and hard.
Another day was starting.
“Kuuu—…”
“Sleeping like a rock. …Would be nice if she stayed this well-behaved after she wakes up, too.”
After a full night’s sleep, the alcohol would be long gone. Which meant last night’s soft, easygoing Cecilia would be gone too — replaced by the timid, frightened Cecilia from yesterday’s lunch.
Still, I’d earned a fair bit of her trust yesterday. All I could hope was that she’d look a little more settled today.
“Alright then… huh?”
I was about to start getting ready for the day when a sudden ding-dong rang through the room.
“Who’s that?”
I dragged my heavy body toward the front door, one sluggish step at a time. Reached it. Opened it without much thought. The door creaked open, and standing on the other side was—
“Yo.”
“….”
—a guy with bleached-blond hair and two piercings by his mouth. A total delinquent.
“How’s it going, Eunhyuk? Came to hang—”
I slammed the door shut.
“…Haa.”
A sigh came out on its own. Looks like today was going to be a noisy one — starting first thing in the morning.