Chapter 99: Date (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 99: Date (4)
As I paid the bill and walked out with a drunk Yoon Ji-an on my back, the main feeling I had was one of disappointment.
We were on our way to my car, parked in the movie theater’s parking lot.
The calm night air settled around us, and my sense of disappointment only deepened.
“The night is just getting started.”
It wasn’t that I had been determined to spend the night with her.
It’s just… isn’t that what the night is for?
After dinner, you find a place for a light drink, you chat, you end up revealing parts of yourself you didn’t mean to, and in doing so, you grow helplessly closer.
That’s the feeling I’d wanted—the sense that as the night deepened, so would the connection between us.
“Who would’ve thought she’d get drunk from just a few drinks with dinner…?”
I should have stopped her when she started drinking like a wild horse that had broken free.
But she kept holding out her glass with such confidence that I just assumed she could handle her alcohol. That was my mistake.
Then, a thought struck me.
“But why was she downing drink after drink when she can’t even hold her liquor?”
It was hard to understand.
It wasn’t like she was a good drinker, nor did she have somewhere urgent to be.
“Maybe she was just in a really good mood.”
If she drank uncontrollably because she was just that happy today… then I could accept that.
If that were the case, then even if we couldn’t enjoy the rest of the night, it wouldn’t have been a bad day.
After a short walk, I finally reached the movie theater parking lot.
“The car key…”
I opened the small bag hanging around Yoon Ji-an’s neck, found the key, and unlocked the car.
“Alright.”
I laid her down in the back seat for now.
“Ugh…”
Just then, Yoon Ji-an mumbled something in her sleep and bent her legs. My eyes were naturally drawn to the sight.
A pair of black panties was clearly visible under her skirt.
For a brief moment, I wondered what lay beyond them, but I quickly shook my head.
Lately, I was the one who truly deserved to be called a wild horse.
“I can’t seem to control myself around pretty women.”
Especially the closer they were to me.
Was this some kind of psychological backlash from having lived such a repressed life until now?
I had decided to live a life true to my desires, but I hadn’t intended to go down such a lecherous path…
“Or did I?”
I wasn’t sure.
Then again, maybe it was natural for most of a man’s desires to be concentrated in that area…?
Anyway.
“This isn’t the time for that.”
Looking at and touching a drunk woman without her consent is a crime, plain and simple.
It might be a different story if we were lovers in a passionate relationship.
I adjusted her legs to cover her underwear, then took her smartphone from her bag.
I had to know her address to take her home.
To find it, I used the same method Shin Yu-jeong had used on Im Na-eun.
I used her limp finger to unlock the phone and opened a delivery app, which was practically essential for young people these days.
And there it was, her address.
“This is surprisingly effective.”
Back in the day, if you didn’t know where a drunk person lived, the unwritten rule was to drop a guy off in front of a police station and get a girl a motel room to sleep it off in.
Now that I had the address, I immediately called for a designated driver.
“You’re the one who called for a driver, right?”
Perhaps because there were so many drunk people in Gangnam calling for drivers, he arrived faster than I expected.
With Yoon Ji-an sprawled across the back seat, I naturally took the passenger seat.
The car was silent.
As I gazed out the window, old memories came to mind.
There was a time when I used to enjoy spilling my guts to designated drivers like this on my way home after a few light drinks.
Now, I had no desire to do so.
That alone made me realize just how much my life had changed.
“…It’s nothing special, but I feel kind of proud.”
“Huh? What did you just say…?”
“Ah, I was just talking to myself. You don’t have to pay me any mind.”
“Oh, okay.”
That was the extent of our conversation.
Before long, we arrived in front of her home.
A clean officetel building, which looked like it had been built recently, came into view.
A new officetel in Jongno… the rent or deposit would be pretty steep.
Then again, an Association employee could probably afford it.
I rummaged through her wallet, found her key card, and entered the building.
An elevator was conveniently waiting on the first floor, and I made it to her apartment, unit 602, but…
“The password is the problem.”
On the off chance someone was home, I pressed the doorbell.
Ding-dong!
There was no response, which seemed to confirm she lived alone.
My favorability toward her suddenly shot up.
“I have no choice.”
There was nothing else I could do, so I decided to wake her from her deep slumber.
I shifted my body, jostling her on my back to wake her up.
“Ji-an-ssi, Ji-an-ssi?”
“Ugh…”
“We’re at your door. I need the password, Ji-an-ssi.”
Ji-an-ssi? Ji-an-ssi? Ji-an-ssi? Ji-an-ssi?
After repeating her name over and over, her mouth finally opened.
I got ready to punch in the code…
“Blech…”
No… I needed you to spit out something else.
*
“Ugh.”
A churning stomach that felt like a furnace and a splitting headache that squeezed her temples.
This fantastic duo of hangover symptoms grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back to consciousness.
Her eyelids fluttered open.
Through her blurry vision, a familiar scene began to take shape.
“Where am I…?”
It was none other than her own home—her bedroom, to be exact.
“Why am I here?”
Her memory stopped at the Japanese restaurant.
They say all history is made at night, and in a moderately drunken state.
She had heard that nothing helped close the distance—emotionally or physically—better than alcohol, so she had drunk diligently.
But it had backfired.
Alcohol was something you were supposed to drink while pacing yourself and making conversation. But in her nervousness, she had just kept drinking and gotten completely wasted.
“I messed up again…”
Yoon Ji-an clutched her head in her hands.
The atmosphere had been perfect until that point, but she felt like she had ruined everything.
No, it was certain she had ruined it.
“Ugh.”
But her physical condition was too awful to dwell on that thought alone.
Her head ached, her stomach burned, and her mouth had a dry, unpleasant taste.
Deciding she needed to at least brush her teeth, she opened her bedroom door and stood in front of the bathroom.
Sshaaaa—
She heard the sound of running water.
“……”
At first, she doubted her own ears.
Thinking she was still drunk or half-asleep, she leaned closer to the bathroom door, but just then, the water stopped.
Yoon Ji-an slapped her forehead with a loud smack, berating herself.
“How much did I drink to be hearing things…?”
Worried about how disappointed Kim Do-jin must have been by her excessive drinking, she reached for the doorknob.
But before she could touch it, the knob turned on its own, and the door swung open.
And then she saw it.
A torso that boasted the pinnacle of sculptural beauty, as if a god had meticulously carved it with their own two hands, and looking down from above it, the eyes of Kim Do-jin.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
His voice, clear in her ears, seemed to prove that this moment was not a hallucination.
“Do-Do-jin-ssi, why are you here…?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Kim Do-jin smiled and replied, “Why else? I brought you home after you passed out.”
“Ah, r-right. Of course.”
Come to think of it, she hadn’t even considered how she’d gotten home.
A brief silence followed.
Then she asked again, “But why were you taking a shower all of a sudden…?”
A shower, while she was asleep? Didn’t that feel a little… suggestive?
But Kim Do-jin’s answer was far from suggestive.
“Well, Ji-an-ssi, you had a little accident…”
He stepped aside, revealing his shirt lying on the bathroom floor.
It was fine everywhere except for the left shoulder, which was soaked.
The puzzle pieces clicked into place.
The unpleasant taste in her mouth and the shirt that had been washed to remove a stain.
Anyone could see what this meant…
“I-I-I-I’m so sorry!”
Startled, Yoon Ji-an bowed her head deeply.
“Hey, it’s okay. It was just a little bit, that’s all.”
“Ugh…”
Kim Do-jin’s attempt at reassurance did little to comfort her.
Whether it was a little or a lot, the fact remained that she had shown her unsightly side to him in the most vivid way possible.
“Ah, you should probably brush your teeth first. It must taste a little… unpleasant.”
“Y-Yes, then if you’ll excuse me…”
As Kim Do-jin stepped out, Yoon Ji-an scurried into the now-empty bathroom.
“Take your time and come out.”
As she heard his final words, Yoon Ji-an blushed, toothbrush in hand.
She realized something.
The meaning of an ordinary phrase could change drastically depending on where it was said.
“‘Take your time and come out’…”
Yoon Ji-an mumbled his words in a daze.
Hearing a man say that in her home made her feel as if her studio apartment had turned into a newlywed’s home.
Fanning her flushed cheeks, she finished brushing her teeth and checked her reflection in the mirror.
She was a mess from having just woken up.
Her hair was disheveled, her makeup was smudged…
The thought that he had been face-to-face with her like this made her want to plunge her face into a bowl of water and die.
“Haa…”
She sighed and washed her face.
She decided that her bare face was better than this.
She wiped off all the smudged makeup, combed her hair with her fingers as best she could, and tied it up with a hair tie from the wall.
It was a far too casual look.
The fact that this was an improvement over how she looked moments ago made her despair.
Click.
When she opened the door and stepped out, Kim Do-jin was looking around the living room.
Still shirtless.
‘Oh my god…’
The heat rushed back to her face.
She had seen it just a moment ago, but it was still unbelievable.
How could a magician’s body be so perfect?
She was staring at him, mesmerized, when he must have felt her gaze and turned his head. Their eyes met.
“Ah, you’re out?”
“Huh? Ah, yes! I’ll, uh… go see if I have any clothes you can wear!”
She blurted out the words and rushed into her dressing room. She pulled out the largest T-shirt she owned and held it up.
She had bought it oversized on purpose for lounging around at home, and it looked like it would roughly fit him.
“Hoo…”
She took a short breath and headed back to the living room.
Having composed herself, it was a little easier to avert her eyes from his torso.
“Here…”
“Thanks.”
Kim Do-jin took the shirt from her and put it on right there.
It was a little tight around the shoulders, but it wasn’t uncomfortable to wear.
An awkward silence descended upon them.
As they both wondered what to say, it was Yoon Ji-an who spoke first.
“Um… if, if you’d like, would you… care for some ramen?”
The old champion, long since pushed aside by the two reigning titans of ‘Want to come see my cat?’ and ‘Want to watch Netplus at my place?’, had made its appearance.
For her, it was the best she could do.
She didn’t have a cat, and she didn’t subscribe to Netplus.
Besides, they had both been drinking.
On a late night like this, hangover ramen was an almost irresistible temptation.
As if to prove her point, a soft smile bloomed on Kim Do-jin’s lips.
“In that case, I’d…”
Just before he could finish his affirmative answer.
Vrrrrrr—!
A loud vibration interrupted their conversation.
It was the sound of Kim Do-jin’s smartphone, which was sitting on the table.