The Mood Had Ripened
By the time six bottles of wine had been lined up on the table, the Mercedes man was trembling so hard he couldn’t say a word.
This is fun.
I’d once heard someone say that when a person has a lot of money, it becomes hard to feel happy about money.
What nonsense.
I was genuinely happy.
He’s hesitating.
Unlike before, he couldn’t answer right away. He was biting his lip so hard it looked like he was in a vicious internal struggle.
He was probably torn between two choices.
Either bend his pride, apologize, and back down.
Or keep his pride intact and spend roughly 50 million won on wine.
The second option couldn’t have been easy. Even if he got a ten-million-won allowance every month, how much money could a kid who’d only just become an adult have actually saved up?
Besides, the fact that they’d booked this lodging told me his spending habits weren’t exactly modest.
It didn’t look like he had even 50 million won sitting in his account right now.
And asking his family for help?
As if he could.
He’d probably decide it was better to swallow his pride.
Not only was the chance of his family lending him the money slim, but the money he’d have to pay back wouldn’t even be spent on himself—it would go into wine for other people. That kind of thing would be hard to accept.
He must have made up his mind.
In the end, he said, “...Hyung, I’m sorry. I don’t have that much spare cash, so wine is going to be tough.”
He apologized through clenched teeth.
Still, it was funny as hell.
“Really? How short are you?”
“Honestly, I can maybe do one bottle at most. Even that’s pushing it. I’ve spent a lot of money lately...”
“Hmm.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know the wine would be this expensive.”
After the Mercedes man’s surrender, disappointment settled over the rest of the group.
They were probably too young to know much about alcohol, but they still understood it wasn’t easy to drink wine worth over ten million won anywhere you liked.
It wasn’t their money, and the chance to drink something that expensive was disappearing. Of course they were disappointed.
Especially now, when social media mattered so much.
I patted the Mercedes man on the shoulder as he shook with humiliation and said, “Then I’ll buy the alcohol. You guys covered the lodging, so it’s only right I handle this much.”
“...Thank you.”
He hadn’t expected me to pay at all.
Surprise and gratitude flickered across his face.
There was no need to push him all the way to the wall.
If I wanted to enjoy the night, this was the right amount of pressure.
And I didn’t have to worry about him making a move on Ji-hyun anymore.
After all, the only reason I’d come here was to make it clear I was Ji-hyun’s guy.
Once the Mercedes man had already tasted defeat, there was no way he’d get greedy and keep fighting for her.
In the end, we ate dinner in that awkward mood and headed back to the lodging.
***
By the time we got there, it was nine o’clock.
We’d met in the morning, so everyone must have been tired, and yet none of them looked worn out.
The reason was simple.
It was time to drink wine that cost nearly 15 million won per bottle.
From the moment we arrived, everyone looked giddy.
We put out some fruit and sashimi as snacks and took our seats.
“C-can we post this on social media?”
“I don’t mind.”
“Wait a sec. I just want to take a photo. Sorry.”
“Take your time.”
The girls took pictures of the six bottles of wine laid out on the table.
The liquor the Mercedes man had chosen—a few bottles costing a few hundred thousand won—had been reduced to chopped liver. I’d paid for that too, but still.
After about five minutes of photo-taking, everyone poured wine into their own glasses and drank with faces full of anticipation.
So did I.
Glug.
“Hmm... wow...”
“Whoa... insane.”
“What the hell...? Expensive booze really is different?”
The girls took a sip and let out little exclamations.
I tasted the wine too, but honestly, I couldn’t tell.
Was this really a 15-million-won bottle?
Even if you compared it to wine from a neighborhood convenience store, I doubted I’d notice much difference.
It was supposedly about one million won per glass...
Well.
It was wine you could only drink because you had money rotting in your account.
Hyung’s the same.
I looked over at my brother, wondering if maybe my tongue was just cheap, and he was making the same dubious face I was.
He probably couldn’t understand everyone else’s reaction either.
Ji-hyun, just like the other girls, wore a blissful expression.
So women really did get swept up by the atmosphere.
“You guys relax and drink.”
“Thanks, Hyung.”
“We really were sorry earlier. I didn’t know who we were dealing with.”
“It happens.”
The guys, who had been watching my reaction, started drinking their wine too. Maybe they weren’t as free from money anxiety as I’d thought, because they sipped and savored it carefully.
They didn’t gasp the way the girls did.
Instead, they looked focused, trying to memorize what kind of aroma such expensive wine had.
If anything, they were probably more suited to this wine than I was.
At least they were making an effort to taste the aroma.
And from the way they snapped their wrists, they seemed to know how to drink wine properly, too.
Well...
Not my problem.
It had nothing to do with me.
If I couldn’t taste the bouquet this time, I could just buy it again later.
It was the kind of wine I could buy anytime I wanted.
Several rounds of tasting continued.
At this rate, it looked like it would take days to finish everything, so I reassured the ones who were drinking carefully.
“Drink as much as you want. We’re finishing all this tonight before we sleep.”
“...Really?”
“Of course. I’m not taking it home with me.”
“Then I’ll drink comfortably.”
Everyone brightened up and started drinking faster than before.
We were already down two bottles.
Even so, there were still four left.
Everyone was clearly starting to feel the alcohol now.
Hmm.
My brother and I exchanged a glance, then focused on pouring drinks for the two guys.
Maybe because they felt bad about having looked down on me earlier, they didn’t turn down any of the drinks.
“Try this one too. You said you liked it, right?”
“I do drink it pretty often.”
“Here, cheers.”
To make them get drunk faster, we started mixing drinks. That meant I had to taste them too, but I only let the liquor touch my tongue and didn’t actually swallow it.
I couldn’t afford to get drunk as well.
Thanks to that, the two guys got plastered before long, drooping in their chairs, so we all moved them into the bedroom.
Normally, that would have been the end of the party, but the girls looked ready to keep going and returned to the table with renewed energy, determined to really finish the wine.
Several of them were already slurring.
“Wooooow... Oppa, my friends are all jealous.”
“Really?”
“Me too. I mean... it’s 15 million won a bottle. Hic. Thinking about it again, it’s crazy expensive.”
“Take it slow.”
Once I saw that Ji-hyun was tipsy, my brother stepped in at exactly the right moment.
“Should we play a drinking game?”
The mood was good, so no one refused.
Playing drinking games with regular college students instead of some room salon crowd made my heart flutter for some reason.
After a few rounds, everyone was taking their punishment drinks with admirable ease.
The atmosphere got warmer.
“All right, Mountain Over Mountain. Mountain Over Mountain.”
When my brother moved the game into Mountain Over Mountain, the mood changed a little.
The two girls didn’t seem to care much, but Ji-hyun tried to stop us.
“Oppa, not Mountain Over Mountain... seriously.”
Fortunately, the two girls backed us up.
“Why? It looks fun. It doesn’t have to be dirty. If you can’t do it, you just take the punishment drink. And what punishment drink? This is over a million won a glass.”
In the end, Ji-hyun’s opinion was overruled.
Even so, since she didn’t seem eager to go all the way, she ended up taking a few punishment drinks.
At this rate, Ji-hyun’s going to drop out.
It would still be fun, but it was a lot more exciting with her involved.
Mountain Over Mountain with Ji-hyun, who was normally completely out of our reach...
Up to now, it had only been light hugs, so of course I was getting greedy.
My brother had positioned himself well between the two girls, which meant Ji-hyun was only skinshiping with me and the other girl.
“This is fun. Thanks for making the night so enjoyable. Hmm... to make it even more fun, we need to drink a ton. So, the last two people standing will get this as a gift.”
“Huh? Oppa, really?”
“W-wait... isn’t that crazy expensive?”
“Whoa! I’ve really wanted that!”
They were two Cartier rings.
Each one was worth several million won.
Only then did their eyes change.
We filled the punishment drinks to the brim.
“I’ll start.”
“Sounds good, Hyung.”
My brother went first.
At first, it was a simple hug.
When it came to me, it had become a kiss.
Ji-hyun looked at me, hesitating. Should she do it or not?
In the end, unable to resist the allure of Cartier, she kissed me.
Since she could trade those rings or even return them, it was understandable that she’d be tempted.
I answered her kiss with another, and when it was Ji-hyun’s turn again, I went as far as touching her chest.
She probably wouldn’t hesitate much if I touched hers.
What she’d be worried about was pushing the line further.
In the end, Ji-hyun clenched her teeth, let me touch her chest, and then moved my hand lower.
“Mm...”
“Hhng.”
Our lips overlapped, and before long even our tongues were tangled together.
The mood kept ripening.
With the next partner, hands went under shirts to cup breasts.
“Ah.”
The next person forgot the order and ended up drinking the punishment shot.
Maybe frustrated, they poured themselves another one and downed it.
It wasn’t just because they were angry.
They were trying to get the others drunk, too.
And with everyone already pretty intoxicated, mistakes were happening all over the place.
“From now on, I’m speeding things up. I can’t even remember the earlier rounds.”
From the very start, hands went under clothes.