Strange Things I Made Happen
I’d arranged a whole spread of side dishes and a ridiculous variety of liquor on the table.
We, dressed comfortably, sat in our chairs and looked over the food like kids at a feast.
“Wow... why do these side dishes look so fancy?”
“Is this how they eat in Seoul...?”
“Well, I don’t know. I just ordered from an expensive place.”
“...That’s all it was?”
“Honestly, this isn’t even a matter of quality. The ingredients are different from the start.”
There was sashimi, raw beef, more sashimi, side dishes paired with cheese, snacks, fruit—there was nothing missing.
And the liquor beside it was even more absurd.
“Now, this wine—how much was it again? Anyway, it was a few million won... and later we should try the bottle worth tens of millions.”
“...Hold on a second. Am I hearing things?”
“W-what kind of wine costs that much...?”
“That’s why rich people have wine as a hobby, I guess. I just got it as a gift.”
The chief secretary had given it to me as a present, saying it was a rare wine.
I only later found out it was worth tens of millions of won.
Apparently it had been hard to get.
Maybe it had been a real shock to the chief secretary that DE Holdings was finally starting to produce results, which in turn had raised his annual salary to 800 million won.
Of course, the performance bonus was separate.
From my point of view, the chief secretary was absolutely indispensable to DE Holdings.
Anyway.
Since it had been a gift, I treated that wine carefully too.
Couldn’t help it.
When a single glass costs hundreds of thousands of won, or even millions, how was I supposed to drink it casually?
Even for me, it wasn’t the kind of wine you could just toss back without thinking.
Though my sisters looked like even the bottles in the millions made them nervous.
And with this stuff costing tens of thousands per glass...
For ordinary people, the price would hit them before the flavor even had a chance to.
“Just relax and drink. Even if it’s not this one, everything up here costs about the same, so don’t feel pressured.”
“...Are you trying to ease the pressure or put more on us?”
“Whichever one you pick, the price is similar, so I’m just telling you to enjoy it.”
“Thaaanks.”
As far as I remembered, my younger sister had never been great with alcohol...
I hoped that memory was accurate.
Please, get drunk quickly and go sleep somewhere else.
The problem was that if she paced herself, she’d never actually get drunk, no matter how much time passed...
Damn it.
She went and paced herself too.
The fact that I’d said it was expensive backfired spectacularly.
She was taking the tiniest little sips with her hands actually shaking, and honestly, if she just let the wine touch her tongue, I’d be drinking more than that.
“Drink faster. Harder.”
“Geez, how could I? Expensive alcohol should be savored slowly.”
“Still, Ha-eun, at that point you’re not savoring it, you’re just touching it with your tongue.”
“...I still have to taste the other drinks too, and I’m scared I’ll get drunk too fast.”
“If you’re going to drink anyway, you might as well do it properly. Like Doyun said, you have to drink hard if you want to savor it.”
“Ugh, fine, fine.”
In the end, she finally took a real mouthful.
Then she paused, tasting it properly.
“Oh. I guess expensive alcohol really is different. It isn’t just bitter.”
“Try holding it in your mouth and letting some air in too.”
“Oh! So this is how you enjoy it.”
Looks like she’d discovered the true taste of wine.
My sister had said she wanted to be a chef, so maybe her palate really was sensitive.
To me, it had all tasted bitter.
“Want to do a drinking game? At this rate, who knows when we’ll finish.”
“What drinking game would the three of us even play...”
“Why not? Sounds fun! Let’s play!”
“...Well, if Yeon-woo says so.”
No way...
Was Yeon-woo thinking the same thing as I was?
Her eyes looked suspiciously intense.
Before I knew it, we’d started playing a drinking game naturally.
And before long, the person taking the punishment drinks had become my younger sister.
Yeon-woo burst out laughing, slapping my thigh.
Maybe because the alcohol had really kicked in, everyone was getting lively.
I laughed along and casually touched her thigh too.
So this was what made drinking games so great.
I felt endless gratitude toward the chief secretary for gifting me such expensive wine.
They said wine was something women liked...
Though at that price, it probably didn’t matter whether you were a man or a woman.
Either way, they seemed to like it more and more.
Gradually, everyone started getting tipsy.
If Yeon-woo and I were already getting tipsy, then my younger sister was basically drunk out of her mind.
Her eyes were glazed over.
She was even nodding off.
“Hello?”
“Mm? Yawn... I’m sleepy. Should we just stop drinking and sleep now...?”
“You have to drink what you poured out, then go sleep! This is worth millions, Ha-eun.”
“I give up...”
“Then I’ll drink yours too.”
“Okay. I’m going to rest my eyes first. You two should go to bed soon too.”
“Don’t worry about us.”
Worry, my ass.
Please just disappear from my sight already.
My sister went into the room and lay down on the bed.
Thanks to that.
We were left alone.
***
Ugh, hot.
Even when I touched my own cheek, it felt hot.
When was the last time I’d drunk this much?
I could hardly remember.
I’d been trying to get my younger sister drunk, but in the process I’d ended up drinking even more myself.
“Ugh, I’m overheating...”
Yeon-woo seemed just as hot as I was.
She was fanning herself with her hand.
Because the air was so warm, she’d rolled the sleeves of her pajama top all the way up...
And through the gap, I could see her bra.
It was already hot enough, and now my body was heating up even more.
“By the way, why do you keep switching between polite speech and casual speech?”
“Me? I haven’t been using polite speech the whole time?”
“You sneak in a casual tone now and then when you get stubborn.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“Are you doing that half-polite thing?”
“What’s that?”
“Beats me.”
What the hell was half-polite speech?
I must’ve slipped into casual speech without realizing it a few times.
“Talk casually.”
“Okay.”
“...That was fast.”
“I’m borrowing courage from the alcohol.”
“Good grief. Cute... no, honestly, you were cool today.”
...
My brain froze for a second. That sudden flirting just hit me out of nowhere.
Maybe it was because I’d had so much to drink.
One thing was certain: Yeon-woo looked even prettier than before.
“Want to keep playing the drinking game? Can you manage it?”
“I’m fine... but are you okay, sis?”
“Of course I am! Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“Then how are the two of us supposed to do it...”
“Hmm... let’s do Hand Game. Hands up.”
“Okay.”
I raised my hand and spread all five fingers.
Yeon-woo started first.
“Hmm... fold one down if you’ve dated more than three people.”
“More than three includes three, right?”
“Yeah.”
“...Why aren’t you folding yours?”
“Because I’ve dated fewer than three! What about you?”
“Me too. Fewer than three.”
The only person I’d ever dated was Si-hyun.
The others...
Honestly, those didn’t count as dating.
The only problem was that I was still technically dating Si-hyun...
But at least I wasn’t lying.
It was my turn.
“Hmm... fold one down if your hair is longer than mine.”
“...Tch, what’s that? That’s boring.”
“...I didn’t know what to ask.”
“Then let’s make it a dirty Hand Game. This is going to end boring if we keep going like this.”
“Sounds good.”
It was a relief that Yeon-woo was being so proactive.
I’d already been disappointed in myself after what I’d said.
Fortunately, things were getting better.
“I’ll go first.”
“Yeah!”
“Fold a finger down if you’ve had sex.”
“...That was fast.”
“That’s the basic level.”
Sex was only the threshold for a dirty Hand Game.
It was classic, the kind of question you needed to get through before the real fun started.
When Yeon-woo heard the question, she hesitated...
But she stubbornly kept all her fingers up.
I was startled.
With her looks, there was no way men would’ve left Yeon-woo alone.
Was that even possible...?
“You’re not lying, are you?”
“Why would I lie about this? Honestly, it’s embarrassing that I don’t have any experience yet.”
“Hey, don’t say that. That’s a good thing.”
“...A good thing?”
She wrapped her arms around herself and turned her body slightly away.
Her eyes gave me a sideways glare, but there was a playful smile on her lips.
“But if you didn’t mind it, there’s no way you wouldn’t have done it by now...”
“As you know, our family is conservative. Not me, of course. But anyway, because of that, I haven’t really had a sure chance yet. I don’t even stay out overnight. This time I came up here using Ha-eun as an excuse. So... I guess all that frustration has been coming out through SNS.”
“So that’s why you have so many photos.”
“And somehow I ended up with a lot of followers too.”
“Well, that’s because you’re pretty, sis.”
“...”
Her face turned bright red.
Cute.
Come to think of it, was I supposed to fold?
This time, I decided to be honest and fold.
Yeon-woo narrowed her eyes and stared at my fingers.
“Honestly, if it’s you, Doyun, there’s no way you didn’t.”
“Why?”
“At your age, with that body, there’s no way you could’ve gone without. You’re basically living on your own too. And it’s not like you aren’t interested in women.”
“Maybe I’m not.”
“Please. The way you looked at your sister from the time you were a student was pretty unmistakable.”
...
Next was her turn again.
“What kind of question should I ask... Hmm... Have you ever done it outdoors?”
“Nope.”
“Really?”
My turn.
“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to do it with someone here?”
She flinched.
“Even if I thought about it just now.”
“...How could you say that? Once you ask the question, you naturally think about it.”
“Then just fold.”
“...Tch.”
She folded with obvious reluctance.
Then came the next round.
“Even asking questions is hard. I’ll take the punishment drink instead.”
With nothing else to ask, she was about to take the punishment drink.
I stepped in and drank it for her as her black knight.
“Then should we do Mountain Over Mountain? You’re drunk, so your memory probably isn’t great.”
“I’m not that drunk, okay...?”
“You’ll know once we try.”
“Oh, come on. Fine!”
“I’ll start.”
I walked over to Yeon-woo and hugged her.
At the same time, she froze in place.
“W-why are you hugging me all of a sudden?”
“Mountain Over Mountain is played through actions. I remember it.”
“R-right?”
She apparently didn’t know the game very well.
She awkwardly hugged me back.
Then she patted my head.
It wasn’t a huge gesture.
And yet it somehow felt incredibly alluring.
Hugging, and then patting her head.
When Yeon-woo closed her eyes, I moved in again.
“Huh? Can you do the same thing twice? You already hugged me at the start.”
“Not yet.”
Still holding her, I brought my face close to her ear.
Then I bit her ear.
“Ah!”
“...”
“...”
The atmosphere changed in an instant.
“Y-you’re too sensitive... no, wait, that’s not what I meant...”
...
The lame excuse I muttered only made the mood even stranger.