She Liked the Tall One
When I stepped out of the bathroom, the girls were still at the counter settling their bill.
"Minseok, just sit back down where you were."
"Huh? Here? We're just gonna sit like this?"
"Obviously. Sit down already. I already ordered more drinks."
The three of us were already settled around the circular table in a naturally formed triangle. Now that we were joining tables, I'd figured we'd bunch up on one side and leave the opposite seats for the girls...
Actually, this isn't half bad.
This wasn't a formal group date. It was a hunting-bar join, so mixing from the start seemed fine. For us guys, landing a girl who matched our type mattered less than actually making it to a motel tonight — even if she was a little off our usual preferences. No matter how much you liked your partner, failing to get her back to a room meant you'd failed, period.
And if we sat down first like this, they'd get first pick. If the girls sat next to whoever they liked, we could just pair off accordingly — and that would only boost our odds of hitting a home run.
We'd barely sat down before the girls finished paying and walked over to our table.
"Hi. We were hoping to join you... um, where should we sit...?"
"Oh, hey. Sit wherever you'd like."
Park Sangyoon answering that nicely? The guy must've been starving for some action. Then again, he'd been the one who brought up clubs and hunting bars in the first place.
"Ah... well then..."
"We can sit wherever? Then I'm taking this spot!"
While everyone else hesitated, Choi Eunchae — the bold noona type — plopped herself down without a second thought. The seat she claimed sat between me and Kim Jiho, directly across from Park Sangyoon.
"Then, would it be okay if I sat here?"
The next one to pick a seat was Song Dayoung, whose looks were right up my alley.
"Of course. Make yourself comfortable."
The seat she pointed to was the one between me and Park Sangyoon.
Nice!
Kim Jiho's side was still open, and she'd chosen this spot instead. What else could that mean? She liked me more than Kim Jiho. That much was clear. Sure, she might've just sat down without thinking — but I wiped that possibility from my mind.
Kim Yuna, the one with the highest mining Difficulty, ended up in the last remaining seat — between Kim Jiho and Park Sangyoon.
Guess that means I'm going after Song Dayoung.
All that time I'd spent deliberating between Song Dayoung and Kim Yuna, and the situation had just decided itself. Choi Eunchae was sitting next to me too, but her Difficulty was in the negatives, so she'd been out from the start.
So I'm with Song Dayoung, Jiho gets that noona, and Park Sangyoon gets Kim Yuna?
Would Park Sangyoon actually go along with that? From my perspective — with Sex Coin in the picture — Kim Yuna would've been great too. But objectively speaking, she was the least attractive of the three.
Song Dayoung, the one I'd had my eye on, had porcelain-white skin, a cute face, and a slender figure that made you want to protect her. Anyone would call her pretty. Anyone would want to date her. Choi Eunchae had a slightly tanned complexion and a butterfly tattoo on her exposed shoulder that gave her a tough look, but the killer body in that tight outfit and her pretty face were more than enough to make her popular.
And Kim Yuna? A slightly chubby build. Makeup on, but a thoroughly ordinary face with nothing that stood out. She might've been fine somewhere else, but sandwiched between these two, she came up a little short. That was just the truth.
And that bastard Park Sangyoon has ridiculously high standards for no reason...
He wasn't even that good-looking himself, but Park Sangyoon had always been generous when it came to his own reflection. "I'm pretty handsome, honestly" was a phrase that lived in his mouth. He'd even once had the audacity to claim that if it weren't for his height, he was better-looking than Kim Jiho.
"Alright, everyone's here, so let's do a round of drinks and introductions. Fill 'em up~"
Park Sangyoon took charge of the mood, casually pouring Song Dayoung's drink first. That was his unspoken signal to us: he had his eye on her.
Haaah...
While I was still figuring out what to do, people started introducing themselves after knocking back their drinks.
"Ah, I'm Park Sangyoon, twenty-four. I took a leave from college, and right now I'm just freelancing from home, making some easy money."
"Easy money" was a hell of an understatement given what that guy was actually pulling in. He'd started trading crypto in secret with the college tuition his parents had given him, and last time we met, he said the money he was rolling in coins was over five hundred million won. The way he phrased it wasn't humility, though. It was a setup — play it down now, and later me and Kim Jiho would casually drop the real numbers so the girls would go, Wow, that's amazing~
"Um... I'm Kim Yuna, twenty-four... I'm a nurse... nice to meet you!"
Kim Yuna clearly wasn't used to this kind of thing. She managed to get through her introduction in a shaky voice. Unfortunately, the next guy up was just as hopeless at this.
"Uh... I'm also twenty-four. Kim Jiho. I go to Meta University, just up the street... The three of us are high school friends... Nice to meet you."
Why did he feel the need to mention we were high school friends in his introduction...? Then again, with a face like his, plenty of girls actually liked that clueless act.
After those two painfully awkward introductions, Choi Eunchae jumped in without a hint of hesitation.
"What, so everyone except me is twenty-four? I'm twenty-six, so I'm talking casual, alright? You guys can drop the formalities too — but if you start going 'hey, you,' you're dead. Just call me noona like good boys. Anyway, I'm Choi Eunchae, and since fate brought us together, let's have some fun."
Now it was my turn, but I suddenly felt like messing around. Did I really need to do this stiff introduction thing?
"I'll go casual like Eunchae noona said. And hey, I already introduced myself when I first came over to your table, so I can skip it, right? Next."
Everyone looked confused. Of course I hadn't introduced myself when I went over to hunt. The reason I said it was so the two I'd actually met would start racking their brains trying to remember...
"Uh... I didn't hear it that time..."
...and Song Dayoung, who hadn't even been there when I first came over, would obviously get flustered.
"Ahh~ then I guess I have no choice but to introduce myself again, just for one person~. Same as them, twenty-four. Name's Kim Minseok. Fresh out of the military, currently on leave from school, planning to go back next year. Nice to meet you all~."
As I finished, I made sure to shoot Choi Eunchae and Kim Yuna a little wink. That was when they caught on to what I was doing and let out a snort of laughter.
"Pfft..."
"Huh... what? What??"
When the two of them laughed at the same time, Song Dayoung sensed something was off and looked at me. I met her eyes with a smile and just gave a little shrug.
At this point, would anyone even remember the introductions the others had just given? If Park Sangyoon's weapon was money and Kim Jiho's was his face, then this personality of mine was my edge.
"Um... I'm also twenty-four. Song Dayoung. I work at a hospital. Nice to meet you."
Even while introducing herself, she kept sneaking glances at me. Seeing how much of her attention I had was deeply satisfying.
The cringeworthy introduction round finally ended, and Park Sangyoon jumped right in.
"So why'd you guys come sit with us? From what I saw, there were way better-looking guys than this one going around."
I'd been pretty curious about that myself, so I listened in. Choi Eunchae was the one who answered.
"What's the point of being good-looking if they've got zero game? One of them said he was a soldier on leave — not that he needed to tell us. The guy was standing at attention in front of our table while he talked, I swear."
"Holy shit... that's rough. So how was Minseok over there?"
"He was pretty decent, actually? That slick attitude of his was kinda fun."
"Yeah, well, that guy's as slick as they come."
Before I knew it, the only ones talking at the table were Park Sangyoon and Choi Eunchae across from him. Handing over the entire conversation like that? Not my style.
"Come on~. You could've just said you sat with us because I'm handsome and you liked me. Why dance around it? Right?"
I slid into the conversation naturally and tossed the ball to Song Dayoung. But instead of answering, she suddenly dropped her head.
"Pfft."
The other two girls burst out laughing at the same time. Okay, I'd said a lot of funny things tonight, but that last one wasn't even that good? I immediately understood how Song Dayoung had felt a minute ago.
"What? What?? Did I say something?"
Park Sangyoon and Kim Jiho looked just as confused. Once again, Choi Eunchae was the one who spilled it.
"Okay, so after you left, we were talking among ourselves about which guys we liked. And Dayoung over here specifically pointed at you and said she liked the tall one. That's why we decided to come sit here."
Song Dayoung said she liked me? A smile spread across my face on its own. I glanced to my left and saw her, red-faced with embarrassment, and Park Sangyoon wearing a look of pure disappointment.
See that, you punk? This is why I'm the hyung.
Now that it was out in the open like this, even if he had his eye on Song Dayoung, there was no way he could make a move. That was the rule. That was the agreement. That was just how guys did things.