You Started It First
Leaving Lee Sihyun behind to wait for the older guy she knew, the friends who had gone in ahead of her let out little gasps the moment they stepped inside.
The club was so crowded there was barely room to put a foot down.
It felt like they’d been dropped into another world.
“Wow...”
“There are so many people.”
“Everyone’s ridiculously pretty.”
“Look at that one over there...”
It felt like a whole new universe. All the pretty and handsome people you rarely saw outside seemed to have gathered here in one place.
Following along behind the guys they knew, the girls moved deeper inside.
They spotted a table with about seven bottles of liquor already lined up on it.
Suddenly, everything felt special.
Not because the alcohol itself mattered.
What mattered was that while everyone else was packed shoulder to shoulder with nowhere to stand, they had a place to sit, a table to enjoy, and room to breathe.
It made them feel like they were different from all those other people.
“Go ahead, drink as much as you want. We were going to order more anyway.”
“Really? How much is it?”
“If we add more drinks, it’ll probably come to about two million won.”
“...What!?”
“W-wait a second. Did I hear that wrong?”
“Th-that can’t be right.”
The girls were genuinely shocked by the unexpectedly obscene price of the drinks.
The guys watching them just smiled and nodded.
Right. That was exactly the expression they’d wanted to see.
They’d worked hard to save up for this.
It had been a little reckless, sure, but if four people split five hundred thousand won each, it was just the cost of skipping one trip somewhere.
And especially today, it didn’t feel wasteful at all.
Sihyun...?
She was so beautiful people in high school had called her the Ice Princess, yet she was impossible to get close to. That was Lee Sihyun.
And now she was here in the club with them.
If they let the mood carry them later—pressed close, touching, feeding each other drinks—then maybe, if they were lucky, they could even end up at a motel together.
For that, he was willing to spend whatever it took.
Even if it hadn’t been Sihyun.
They’re all pretty anyway...
The other girls weren’t ugly either.
“So who’s Sihyun waiting for?”
“Some older guy she knows. He’s three years older.”
“...What? She’s close with him?”
“I dunno, she said they’re close.”
“There was someone like that?”
“Yeah. But apparently he’s doing really well for himself. Said he had a nice car.”
“...Come on, he’s obviously just rich because of his parents. Or he’s into something illegal. What kind of guy succeeds at twenty-three and drives a great car?”
Anyway, there were always way too many weird men swarming around pretty girls.
***
Sihyun followed along with a dazed expression.
Cute.
“Oppa, are you okay? If you want, we can apologize and go home now...”
“I’m fine. You might worry because you don’t know much about this, Sihyun, but... oppa’s actually done pretty well for himself.”
“...Still. I feel bad if you’re spending money just because of me.”
“That’s not it. I wanted to experience a club too.”
It took some coaxing to calm Sihyun down.
Actually, I wasn’t even sure I had fully calmed her down yet. She still looked uncomfortable.
“Let’s go.”
So VIP tables really were different. There was a private passageway, and a guard led us in person.
Well, if you were going to spend six million won in a day, you deserved that kind of treatment.
To me it wasn’t much, but to other people it was a huge sum.
We arrived at the table.
It was the biggest one in the club, right next to the DJ.
The moment we appeared, the people dancing in front of the DJ glanced over. Among them were a few pretty girls too.
Wait. Did she just smile at me?
Hoo...
For a second, I nearly got hooked on the spot.
Yeah, this place was dangerous.
Because Sihyun was here with me, I could harden my resolve and hold out.
The guard who showed us to our seats asked what liquor we wanted to order.
“Hmm...”
I checked the menu. With just the two of us, it would be hard to spend six million won by ordering cheap bottles.
I’d need to buy thirty bottles at two hundred thousand won each, but then what the hell was I supposed to do with all of them?
So I ordered six of the most expensive ones.
I also added a drink called X-Rate.
On the way here, I’d asked Jaehun hyung about it, and he said it was one of the easiest drinks for girls to like and get down.
Sihyun probably didn’t have much drinking experience, so expensive liquor might not suit her palate.
“Three bottles of Dom Pérignon and three of Armand de Brignac, please. And two X-Rate as well.”
“Yes, of course. And what would you like written on the LED board?”
“The LED board?”
“When we bring out the drinks, we can display a message your VIP would like on the board.”
I looked at Sihyun.
Her pupils were shaking violently. She gave a tiny shake of her head too.
That meant it would be too much pressure.
“No need to do anything special for us.”
“Understood.”
The staff member who took the order left, but one guard stayed posted beside our table.
Yeah, this was definitely what money bought you.
So this was the ultimate expression of capitalism, huh? The club. That saying wasn’t wrong.
Your position changed depending on the price of your liquor, and the treatment you got changed on a whole other level.
While we could sit comfortably at a broad table and drink at our leisure, the floor was full of people clutching beer bottles and knocking back drinks wherever they could stand.
The girls were drinking from little cups.
“Oppa, I’m not even good with alcohol... wasn’t that way too much to order?”
“It’s fine. If you want a table here, that’s about what you have to order.”
“Phew... I still really don’t get it. Is it really okay to spend that much money here?”
“Just trust oppa today. This much is really fine.”
“...Okay.”
A little while later—
“...This is wild.”
Eight bottles of liquor were brought over to our table by gorgeous women.
There were even tiny fireworks attached to the bottles.
This time, not just Sihyun but I bowed my head too.
Everyone’s attention turned to us, and whistles filled the air.
Maybe they’d sensed our embarrassment, because they kept it as short as possible and handed the drinks over quickly.
Damn.
If I were left to my own devices, I’d want to down a bottle in one shot.
But my liver wasn’t built for that, so I held back.
“...I didn’t know they did this either.”
“...Well, it’s your first time too.”
“Should we have a drink first?”
“Sounds good. You already bought me such expensive liquor, so it’d be wrong not to drink it.”
“You don’t have to force it if it’s hard.”
“I’ll tell you if it gets too much.”
So I poured the Armand de Brignac first.
Her expression didn’t brighten after she drank it. She immediately reached for some fruit.
“Cough. That’s alcohol.”
“Not good?”
“No, it’s not that... I just thought it might be something really special.”
“Well, it was expensive.”
Next I poured the X-Rate.
It was the cheapest bottle there, at two hundred thousand won.
Even that was club pricing; outside, you could probably get something cheaper.
“Wow... this is really tasty.”
“...Haha.”
Apparently she liked the cheapest one best.
Once again, I had to admire Jaehun hyung.
How the hell did he know all this stuff?
It looked like we wouldn’t be finishing the Armand de Brignac or the Dom Pérignon between the two of us.
Probably not even one bottle.
They were just for showing off.
***
“Did your friends contact you?”
“They just sent me their location. Since they aren’t picking up the phone separately, I think... they’re probably not touching their phones.”
“Really? Since we’ve got a guard, let’s ask him for directions.”
“Yes, sounds good.”
Sihyun was going to meet her friends.
From the start, the reason she had come to the club was to hang out with them.
The guard told us he’d lead us there himself.
The walk wasn’t exactly smooth, though.
No matter how much the guard tried to clear the way for us—
there were just too many people.
And I didn’t waste the opening.
“We might get separated. There are too many people. Why don’t you hold my hand?”
“Sh-should I?”
Sihyun took my hand.
It was small and slender. Just that alone felt like enough to repay me for the cost of the drinks.
I could see her snow-white face turning bright red.
It wouldn’t have been from the alcohol.
She hadn’t had that much yet.
I cut off the other guys trying to approach us.
As if they were going to get anywhere.
Even coming close to her annoyed me.
Before long, I spotted Sihyun’s friends.
The guard stood by again nearby.
“Oh, Sihyun!”
“Yejin!”
Her friend waved both hands and greeted her warmly.
She was cute, too.
But standing next to Sihyun, the difference was obvious.
Her friends exchanged greetings with her, then turned to me as well.
“Hello! I’m Yejin, Sihyun’s friend!”
“Hello...”
We finished introducing ourselves.
“You’re the first guy I’ve ever seen who actually knows Sihyun!”
“Really?”
“Yes! She hardly ever even talks to guys!”
“Well, now I feel honored.”
“Right? Please treat our Sihyun with love. She’s really delicate.”
“Of course.”
I liked that.
So there really hadn’t been any men around our Sihyun.
At the same time, that bastard’s face flashed in my head.
A pretty-boy looking creep who just went around stalking people.
And then—
What’s this?
A guy sitting at the same table walked over to us and looked me up and down.
This little shit seriously?
He ignored me and spoke directly to Sihyun.
“Sihyun’s here? If you came all the way to a club, you should dance. I’ll teach you.”
Then he reached for her hand.
Who the hell does this lowborn bastard think he is? Doesn’t know his place.
“Sorry, but I’m the one who said I’d teach her.”
“...You?”
“Have you even been to a club before?”
“Not sure.”
Trying to provoke me, huh? You? He’d clearly heard about me from the side.
“You might not know this, but if you don’t get a table, a bunch of other guys will swarm in. Especially if it’s someone like Sihyun.”
“That’s why I got one separately.”
He looked at me with suspicion.
But before that—
“Ooooh! Nice, Baekhyun!”
“Whoa, love triangle at the club!”
“What is this!”
“Eek! So cool!”
It was turning into a scene.
What do you mean, what is it? I’m the only male friend she has.
Well, not exactly the only one for me...
But to me, she was special.
“Is this table really okay? It looks too small for seven people.”
“...Hah.”
You started it first.