Before Midnight
It was only after an incident none of us had seen coming had finally blown over that we got to taste the expensive stuff.
Oh. This is actually good.
A gentle fruit aroma lingered on my tongue, and even with the carbonation, it went down remarkably smooth. It was my first time drinking champagne, and I couldn't help thinking it felt more like a beverage than liquor.
"Wow! This is seriously delicious!"
"How much did you say this was?"
The girls clearly loved it, gushing with one compliment after another. Choi Eunchae turned to Park Sangyoon, who was doing his best to look unimpressed, and offered her thanks.
"Thanks to you, I finally got to try Dom Pérignon. I'd only ever heard of it."
"Ah, come on, it's nothing. What's it even cost?"
"Ugh, you're the worst. I can't even give you shit for it when you actually are that rich."
Choi Eunchae tossed out the playful jab and finished off her glass. Once every flute on the table had been emptied, the conversation drifted naturally back to where it had left off.
"But did you really make that much just from Bitcoin?"
"Technically it wasn't Bitcoin — it was altcoins. You know what those are, noona?"
"I trade too, so yeah, I know. Not as much as you, but I've made a bit myself."
"Oh? How much?"
"Started with 3.5 million last month, and I'm at five million now. What'd you start with?"
"Me? I started with around three million, but that was back when..."
As it turned out, Choi Eunchae traded coins as well, and the two of them slipped into conversation like it was the most natural thing in the world. At first everyone nodded along and listened. Then the talk showed no sign of ending.
"So what's your take on Ripple?"
"Noona, don't tell me you're holding that. I took some profits yesterday when it was ripping."
"You sold? I bought in at 380 yesterday..."
"380 yesterday? That's a crazy high entry, isn't it? I got in at 80, cashed out about half at 350 yesterday, and got out."
"Wait, seriously? I should've sold then too... I thought it'd keep going up... Should I just sell now?"
"It's a small position anyway, so I wouldn't dump it immediately..."
Choi Eunchae had her own money on the line, and this was Park Sangyoon's whole world. Neither of them paid the slightest attention to anyone else as they kept going, talking right across the table. I could follow along well enough, but the other two girls and Kim Jiho clearly had no idea what any of it meant. They just sat there, reading the room.
"Minseok, do you trade coins too?"
"Huh? No, I don't. Why? You interested, Dayoung?"
"No, it's not that... it's just, those two are going at it so hard..."
It wasn't just us. Across the table, the other two spectators — Kim Yuna and Kim Jiho — had started whispering among themselves as well.
Choi Eunchae seemed to catch the mood a beat late. She stood up.
"Yuna. Switch seats with unni."
In her right hand as she rose, her phone screen was still open to a coin exchange.
Once Choi Eunchae had taken the seat next to Park Sangyoon, the pairings were as good as set — an unspoken agreement. The newly formed pairs teamed up for drinking games and traded little bits of skinship, love shots and the like. Drink after drink went down, and before long the table had stopped being a group. More and more, everyone was just talking one-on-one with their partner.
Maybe we should slip out around now.
The expensive champagne we'd ordered earlier had been gone for a while, and the fruit liqueur we'd gotten next — something that clocked in around eighty proof — was nearly empty too. Thanks to Drinking, Singing, and Dancing, I was perfectly fine. Everyone else, though, was thoroughly wasted.
"Nooo~ you can't do that, noona~."
"Yah! Park Sangyoon! What the hell would you know...!"
Across from me, Park Sangyoon and Choi Eunchae were bickering. To my right, Kim Yuna was nodding off, her head dipping. Kim Jiho had said he was just stepping out to the bathroom, but it had been over ten minutes. He was probably emptying his stomach...
"Hiiing... my stomach feels awful..."
Song Dayoung, who'd clearly blown past her limit a while ago, was leaning her whole weight against me now.
"You okay? Want to get some air?"
"Uuung... let's go!"
For all the energy in her voice, Song Dayoung made no move to stand. I snorted a laugh, slid an arm around her waist, and pulled her up. Then I turned to Park Sangyoon.
"Sangyoon. I'm gonna run to the convenience store with Dayoung."
"Ah... yeah. Go ahead."
Park Sangyoon had already figured out we weren't coming back. He gave me a little send-off. But he wasn't the only one who'd caught on.
"Ah, you little shits... you're just gonna bounce first, just the two of you?"
"Come on, noona, we're just grabbing some air at the convenience store. We'll be right back."
"Liar! Leave your wallet!"
Okay, so the part about coming back was a lie...
But we'd said we were going to the convenience store. Why the hell would I leave my wallet?
Well, we'd come this far. It was only right that we slipped out first and left the rest of them to figure it out on their own. I sent Park Sangyoon a silent good luck and tossed Choi Eunchae one last goodbye.
"You two have fun. We'll be right back."
Something unintelligible grumbled out of Choi Eunchae behind us, but I ignored it, grabbed our coats, and headed out with Song Dayoung.
The moment we stepped outside, a cold wind cut across my skin.
"Minseok~! I think I feel a little better now that we're outside!"
She was putting on a brave face in that thick, slurred voice of hers, but her body was still swaying.
"I want chocolate milk! I wanna drink it!"
The second she spotted the convenience store, she shook off my hand and went toddling toward it at a wobbly run. Watching her from behind, I started second-guessing myself for no good reason.
Is going to a motel like this really the right call?
It wasn't like this was new — I'd gone to a motel with Cha Heejung the first time plenty drunk too. But this was a little different. Cha Heejung had been pretending to be drunk. Song Dayoung actually was drunk.
"Welcome."
"One pack of Marlboro Reds, and... this too, please."
Song Dayoung had already sidled up next to me. I plucked the chocolate milk out of her hands and set it on the counter with the cigarettes.
"Hehe, thanks~ I'm gonna enjoy this!"
While I was paying, Song Dayoung wrapped her arms around my waist from behind. I could feel the part-timer's face tighten a little at the PDA. Couldn't blame the kid. If I were stuck working a convenience store on a year-end night with no time off, and some couple walked in and started hanging all over each other, I'd want them gone immediately too. I actually felt a little bad — like we'd rubbed salt in the wound without meaning to.
"Here you go."
"Hang in there~."
We finished paying and stepped back outside, and Song Dayoung hooked her arm through mine. Hair tucked loosely behind one ear. A dimple pressed into her cheek. The way she looked up at me, smiling with her eyes — whatever I'd been wrestling with tipped hard to one side in an instant.
Hold back because she's drunk?
If that was the plan, we should've been hunting somewhere other than a bar to begin with.
Besides — sitting down together was already implicit consent, wasn't it?
I ran through reason after reason, justifying to myself why going to a motel was fine. And if we were going to a motel anyway, we needed to get there as fast as possible — before midnight.
Already 10:30.
If we headed to a motel right now, I could mine Sex Coin twice in a row — tonight and tomorrow. There was no time to walk it off and sober up.
"It's so good! Minseok! You want some?"
On the white straw of the chocolate milk she held out, I could see a faint smear of her lipstick. Instead of taking it, I reached up and gently stroked her hair.
"Nah, I'm good. More importantly — how's your stomach?"
"Uuung... it still feels queasy..."
"Yeah?"
Still holding her close, I glanced around. Opposite the bar we'd come from, an LED sign for an unmanned motel glittered in the dark. I steered Song Dayoung that way, walking naturally in the opposite direction of the bar, toward the motel.
By the time we reached the building, she seemed to know exactly where I was taking her. She didn't say a word — just kept the straw of her empty chocolate milk carton between her lips.
"Let's go in."
"..."
Song Dayoung, who'd been running at full drunk-volume just minutes ago, had sobered up enough that all she could do was blush. She stayed silent the whole way through checkout, all the way into the elevator.
But the moment we stepped into the room, it was like the shyness had never happened. Song Dayoung grabbed me by the neck and pulled my face down to hers.
The empty chocolate milk carton hit the floor with a soft tap — and at the same instant, a gentle warmth pressed against my lips.
Our first kiss, right there in the entryway. Without either of us saying a word, our lips parted, and we started trading spit.
"Haa, haa..."
Whether it was the alcohol she'd drunk to her limit or the kiss we'd just finished, she looked up at me with hazy, unfocused eyes. That look alone sent the thing that had already been throbbing in my pants to its absolute peak.
"Let's go to the bed."
"Eung..."
The second kiss, on the bed, was stickier. Not just lips and tongue — we were wrapped around each other, grinding, a passionate kiss that took in the whole body. The clothes getting in the way of that started to become a real problem, whether we meant them to or not.
I stripped off my top in one motion and started undoing the buttons of her shirt, one by one. Her pale, milky skin revealed itself by degrees, set against a jet-black bra. When I unhooked that too, the small breasts hidden underneath came into view.
"Mine are too small, right...?"
She said it shyly, face flushed — a complex about her chest, apparently.
"Why? They're just cute."
I wasn't lying. Her breasts were nothing but cute. A soft little swell of flesh, barely there, and in the center a stiff, pink nipple standing up. If Cha Heejung's full chest had made me want to grab and squeeze, Song Dayoung's tiny ones made me want to stroke them gently. So I didn't hold back. I stroked them with my hand.
"Nnnh!"
The moment her pink nipple caught between my fingers, a moan spilled out of her. They say women with smaller chests feel more through them — and her reaction was instant.
They're even smaller than they looked through her clothes, though...
I'd already confirmed they were A-cups through the app, but she was flatter than I'd expected. Curious, I gave the discarded black bra a light squeeze — and felt something soft and padded inside, the kind of insert that makes a chest look bigger. She must have seen me do it. Her face went another shade redder, like it was about to burst.
"Don't touch that...!"
She was more embarrassed by me handling the bra she'd taken off than by me touching her actual chest. It was so cute I kissed her all over again.