Twenty to One
As I stepped out of the subway entrance, I spotted the two familiar faces right away.
The tall, good-looking one was Kim Jiho, a high school classmate I hadn't seen since before he enlisted. And the other—glasses nowhere to be found, hair spiked up like a rooster's comb—was Park Sangyoon, another high school buddy and tonight's deep-pocketed sponsor, fresh off his crypto windfall.
"Yo~ Kim Jiho, man, it's been forever. And Park Sangyoon, what's with the getup today?"
"Oh~ Kim Minseok, long ti— wait. Why the hell are you so tall? You wearing lifts?"
So the moment had finally arrived.
Back in high school, Kim Jiho had been a good ten centimeters taller than me. Now his eye level sat below mine, so the question was only natural. And of course, I already had my answer locked and loaded.
"Ah, I shot up in the military. Heard some guys hit a growth spurt in the service—turns out I was one of them."
"For real? Damn, you got tall…"
A guy who hadn't seen me in nearly four years bought it without a second thought. Park Sangyoon, though—he'd seen me just three weeks ago—tilted his head.
"Dude, you weren't this tall last time we met, were you?"
"What are you talking about? I was already— ah! We were sitting the whole time drinking, remember? You just didn't notice. Plus I was carrying some extra weight back then."
"Yeah? You do look leaner, but… something still feels off…"
No matter how hard he frowned and dug through his memory, human recollection has its limits. Armed with pure shamelessness, my lie held up beautifully once again.
"Guys, save the chat for when we're sitting down. I haven't eaten a single meal since I got up."
Kim Jiho's perfectly timed assist cut in.
"Yeah. I'm starving too. At least fill up on some bar food first… wait, are we heading straight to the club?"
It was barely seven in the evening. With a meetup this early, I'd figured we'd grab dinner, shoot the breeze for a while, then head over. But thinking back on the earlier texts, it had sounded like they wanted to start drinking right away…?
Park Sangyoon looked up at me like I was an idiot for even asking if we were going straight to the club.
"Who goes to a club at this hour? Clubs are for around eleven, nice and easy. The girls we're after are the ones who show up after midnight anyway."
"Ah, right. After those texts I thought we were just gonna hit the club and order snacks there."
"Haa… Minseok. Stop advertising that you've never been to a club. Who the hell eats a meal at a club?"
Come on. How was I supposed to know?
It wasn't like going to a club was some huge deal.
"Can we stop talking about clubs out here where it's embarrassing and just pick a place already? Tonight's on you, right, Lord Sangyoon? Where shall we go?"
Apparently mortified that we were making a scene at the subway entrance, Kim Jiho stepped in to mediate. Park Sangyoon mulled it over for a second, then spoke like he'd made up his mind.
"Didn't you say there are a ton of hunting pochas around here? Know any decent ones?"
"Obviously. I've got every bar in this neighborhood locked down."
Huh? A hunting pocha?
Not just a regular bar? Why?
"Hold up—hunting pocha? Weren't we supposed to be picking up at the club?"
Park Sangyoon let out another long-suffering sigh at my perfectly reasonable question.
"Never heard the saying that more hunting is always better? If it works at the pocha, great. If not, we just hit the club after."
Fair point, but…
"You crazy bastard, I came all the way to Seoul because you said we were going to a club."
"Ah, the odds of scoring at a hunting pocha are like ninety percent failure anyway~. You're already drinking the kimchi soup before anyone's even offered you rice cakes. Quit yapping and let's go. Yo, Kim Jiho! Lead the way!"
"Yes sir~ heading to HQ. This way!"
Watching the two of them stride ahead, I couldn't help but sigh. Unlike me, who was dead set on scoring tonight, those two had clearly come out with a pure "if it happens, cool; if not, whatever" attitude.
The hunting pocha turned out to be every bit as solid as Kim Jiho had bragged. The place was spacious, the interior and bar food quality were decent, and the crowd was all around our age with respectable looks across the board.
The problems, though—first, there were way too many good-looking guys. And second…
"Ah, let's just eat and drink here and hit the club later."
"What's with this place tonight. The guy-to-girl ratio is brutal… screw it, let's just drink!"
Just like they said, the gender ratio in here was roughly eight-to-two, heavily skewed toward men. Even worse, for a proper hunt you needed matching numbers—and in this entire massive bar, there were only two tables with three women.
"We should at least try, though, right?"
Just giving up on the spot like these guys wasn't my style.
"Dude, look over there. You think that's happening? In the short time since we got here, two groups of guys already got shot down."
I scanned the room at that and felt even more bleak. Damn it. Tables with three guys numbered around twenty, easy. So that made it ten-to-one?
"Whoa, that table over there already joined up with some guys? Now there's only one left."
Just as Kim Jiho was calling the play-by-play, one of the two remaining girl groups moved over to a guys' table.
So now it's basically twenty-to-one?
Was I supposed to just throw in the towel? My mood soured, and I knocked back the cocktail soju in front of me in big gulps. All I got was a sweet taste with a faint bitter edge—thanks to Drinking, Singing, and Dancing, I didn't feel even a hint of a buzz.
"That table just rejected their third group of guys."
"Yeah, let's bag it here and plan out the club instead. First I'll order some whiskey and grab us a room…"
Yeah. They were right. Giving up here already was the smart call.
But we came all this way—shouldn't we at least try?
This was Seoul, after all. Besides these two, I didn't know a single soul here. Nothing to be embarrassed about. Nothing to feel ashamed of.
"Hold up. I'm hitting that table."
I said it with flair and stood up from my seat. Naturally, neither of them tried to stop me—they just started snickering.
"Heh heh heh, look at this idiot. Why's he even going over there?"
"Hasn't changed one bit. Gotta hand it to him."
I shut out the commentary behind me and headed for the table with the three women. Whether luck was with me or against me, at that exact moment one of them got up and headed for the bathroom.
Ah, shit. What do I even say?
My brain kicked into overdrive. My feet, unfortunately, were even faster. By the time I reached the table, I could see a fruit platter and two bottles of soju. One woman was a little on the chubby side with a gentle face—not quite my type—and the other had a slender build with a faintly intense vibe. The third seat was empty.
Nothing clever came to mind, so I just winged it.
"Hi there~. You three came together, right?"
"Ah, yes… hello."
The one I'd pegged as intense only glanced at me, while the gentle-looking one actually answered. My mind went blank, but I kept smiling and forced myself to sound relaxed.
"Looks like you've been getting a lot of approaches. How come you keep turning everyone down and sticking to just the three of you?"
"Ah, we were talking about work…"
"Work? Ah~ so you're all coworkers? What do you do?"
"We work at a hospital."
"Whoa, a hospital? So you're nurses?"
"Yes…"
Up to this point it was just back-and-forth, bleeding off the tension. Now came the real pitch.
"Ah~ nurses, got it~! Anyway, funny thing—there are three of us too. That table over there."
I pointed toward our table, and both women's eyes flicked over for a second. They'd clearly scanned the faces of my two buddies, who'd been staring this way the whole time just to watch the show. Park Sangyoon was whatever, but Kim Jiho should be solid enough, right?
I gave them a beat, then pressed on.
"We've been hanging out just us guys and it's getting a little stale—would you maybe want to join tables?"
The second the words left my mouth, my head filled with how painfully average that line had been. Five out of ten, maybe.
They exchanged a look, and the intense-looking one answered first.
"Our friend isn't back yet… we'll talk it over when she gets here."
A perfectly natural answer, and a soft rejection all the same. I felt the sting, but I smiled through the closing line.
"Got it~. Then I'll swing by again once your friend is back. That's okay, right?"
"Ah… sure."
With a warm, easy demeanor, I'd secured permission for a return visit. Walking back to our table, the tension drained out of me all at once.
"Hoo… that was rough."
"Yo, what'd they say? They joining?"
"What'd you say over there?"
Funny how the same guys who'd had zero expectations a minute ago were now staring at me with bright, eager eyes.
"What do you think. One of them's missing, so they said they'd talk when she gets back. And I got the green light to go over again later."
"Oh~. Not bad for a first pass?"
"For real. I figured you'd get shot down instantly and come crawling back, but they actually looked over at us. What'd you even say?"
I was walking them through the play-by-play when I spotted the missing woman returning to their table. I watched, curious what they'd say to her—and then a string of unpleasant scenes unfolded one after another.
"Heh heh, holy shit. Two more groups already hit them."
"Damn, do those guys even take breaks?"
The second one team got rejected, another team went straight in. When that team got turned down, yet another one showed up. Watching it, I couldn't help but sigh.
"No way that's happening, right?"
"You think it is? Look—that's their third group already. I'm keeping count."
A guy who was better-looking than even Kim Jiho—a genuine pretty boy—was standing in front of the women's table. And then came the dejected trudge of his retreat.
Yeah, that's impossible.
That table genuinely never got a moment's peace. How was I supposed to win in a jungle like that? Looks-wise I was already behind the guy who'd just gone over, and I couldn't even deploy my one real weapon—my singing—in a place like this.
"Ah, screw it. I said I'd go back, so I'm going back."
With the resolve of a man making his final stand, I picked up a soju glass and rose from my seat.