[How to Talk to a Man (2)]
“Ugh….”
Sunday afternoon. I was drying my hair with a hairdryer, staring at my phone and letting out a soft sigh. The reason was the dog emoticon currently bowing in apology on my screen. I had intended to call Lee Hayoon out, but she’d sent me a text saying she had prior plans with friends, accompanied by that dog emoticon.
…What a shame.
I wanted to buy her something good to eat and casually ask her how it felt to walk around with Jiyoon yesterday. But if I asked that over text, my dark intentions would be way too obvious….
Can’t be helped. Not everything in this world goes the way I want it to. I’ll just have to find another time for it.
“So, is Lee Jiyoon home alone right now?”
With Lee Hayoon out playing with her friends, it meant Lee Jiyoon was likely home alone, probably just playing games. What should I do…. It would be fun to drop by and surprise her right now. It would also be quite amusing to keep teasing her like this until she eventually brings it up herself. Both options sound delicious.
Hmm.
I was lost in thought, drying the roots of my hair that were still damp, when the phone I’d just set on the table vibrated lightly.
“……?”
As soon as I tilted my head, I saw a familiar name.
The Crazy Bitch.
And she sounded like a very drunk crazy bitch at that.
“…….”
I’d seen this sight countless times over the last ten years, so I felt nothing. She must have had at least eight bottles yesterday. No, probably ten…, that was my only guess. Besides, why was she reporting to me one by one that she’d heard from Han Su-a? Did she get so drunk she forgot the persona she’d set for herself? Or was it because she remembered me telling her to bring Han Su-a to the bookstore last time?
…Well, whatever the reason, she contacted me because it involves me. I finished drying my hair, guessed at Yozora’s state, and picked up the phone.
What the hell am I supposed to do with that? A moment ago she said Han Su-a contacted her, and now she’s talking about random manga. Reading Yozora’s texts, which were all twisted and slurred from the alcohol, I felt that familiar disgust I’d built up over ten years crawling out from deep within me.
I’m an adult. I should endure it. Endure it.
Finish your first sentence properly.
I’m asking why you contacted me.
Like, what was it.
I was slowly preparing a gift for you from her.
Ah wait. This is a secret.
I’ll delete it. Wait.
…Idiot.
I muttered to myself and gulped down some bottled water. Won’t she come running to me later when she’s sober and retraces her memories? Ah, she seems to have drunk more than usual this time, so she might have a blackout for the first time in a while….
“…….”
More importantly, wait. A gift? Before I could even interpret the meaning, Yozora’s texts continued.
I accidentally, like, really really accidentally talked a bunch about erotic manga with her!
So I guess Su-a got interested in lewd stuff too.
So you know what I did?
I told her to come to my place! (*≧∀≦)ﾉ
She’s arriving soon. Yay!
“……….”
…Crazy bitch.
No matter how much Han Su-a had never asked her liver to detox alcohol before, I could be certain of one thing. The text, which was clearly typed by hand, reeked of alcohol.
“The manga I recommended? Did you really watch all of them?”
“I don’t know the length of each episode, but if you add them all up, it’s quite a lot.”
“I didn’t expect you to watch them all over the weekend.”
“Ugh. My fingers hurt. I should have just called….”
“No, wait. Do you want to come to my place? I’ll send you the address.”
If I were to clean up the messy sentences Yozora sent, I imagine this is what they would look like. Han Su-a, who had pulled her scarf up to her lips, looked at her phone and sighed. Visiting a friend’s house itself was fine. It was better for the Hanseol Group to have more memories with people than just being light acquaintances who only greeted each other when they met. Even if it was annoying, taking the time to leave a "good friend" impression was work for the Group.
That was the assessment of Han Su-a, the face of the Hanseol Group.
The reason she sighed was because the assessment of Han Su-a, the human, was a little different. No, listen? We were talking about erotic manga, and she suddenly told me to come over and keep talking?? Is this something that can really happen in reality? Not in a manga, but for real?? Does this make sense??
Of course, one of the reasons she left her house without a word was that she was worried about how much Yozora must have drunk to be like that, and since the person who called her was Yozora, who was popular everywhere, she figured "insiders" probably didn’t care much about such things~.
“Ugh….”
I don’t get it. The way of the insider. If I want to make a lot of friends, maybe I should try to have that kind of mindset too….
Han Su-a’s head nodded heavily.
“Is this it?”
Han Su-a, who had arrived at the destination indicated by the map, compared the map with the geography of the neighborhood one more time before pressing the bell firmly. The building standing before Han Su-a was, surprisingly, a much more luxurious officetel than she had expected. Of course, it was a grade lower than the "moderately expensive" officetel Han Su-a had purchased.
Well…. She said she came to Korea because of her parents’ work last time. I don’t know exactly what they do, but it seems her family has a lot of money. Maybe they work in trade…. I guess that’s it.
“…….”
Could it be illegal work……?
…Hmm. A boring joke.
Han Su-a, who had been continuing her trivial speculations, soon entrusted her body to the elevator. She arrived at the 7th floor. Then, she pressed the doorbell in front of room 702, which Yozora had told her about. But there was no response.
“……?”
She checked her texts again, wondering if she had the wrong room number, but she was right. Room 702. Han Su-a tilted her head and pressed the bell again. The second time was the same. No response. No, she clearly opened the front door on the first floor just fine, so why was there no response suddenly? Did she fall asleep because she was drunk?
She didn’t want to run into people from other houses for no reason, so she was leaning against the wall, pulling her scarf up, when about a minute passed.
Click. The sound of the lock disengaging echoed.
“Su-a-ya….”
“…….”
The one who poked her head out from inside was a zombie.
“You’re here…. *hic*….”
“A, are you okay? There’s nothing there, did you trip over something….”
“Slippers….”
“…….”
A zombie that reeked of alcohol. And one that looked quite a lot like Yozora.
I clearly thought it was a very large officetel when I saw it from the outside, but the inside I actually saw was narrower than I thought. No, I’ll retract that immediately. It was as spacious as I thought, but it just looked that way because of the clutter scattered all over the house. Trash that was clearly delivery boxes was sitting right in the middle of the path where people had to walk. That… that is… a massager? A Japanese-style massager I’d seen in a manga once was rolling around on the floor.
That wasn’t all. The image of the room felt stifling and clogged because of the liquor bottles piled up on the small table. Ha… should I praise her for being impressive for collecting them so neatly while drunk….
“Hmm…?”
The embarrassment of seeing Yozora’s bare face for the first time was short-lived. Han Su-a turned around slightly because of something wiggling against her hair and back. She saw Yozora, who was acting cute with her cheek pressed firmly against Han Su-a’s back, perhaps because she was so drunk.
…So this is what real alcohol breath smells like. Still, for some reason, there wasn’t much of a smell inside the house. Do you only smell if you drink it? Han Su-a, who learned one more thing today, pushed Yozora’s forehead away with her elbow.
“Hey, Yozora.”
“Mmm….”
“Did you drink all of this by yourself?”
“Mmm….”
I see. I only half-believed her. How could a person drink all that by themselves? Even if it wasn’t alcohol but water, you couldn’t drink that much. Maybe she was drinking with the infirmary teacher and he was sent away halfway through….
And the reason why a man and a woman would drink like that… well……. Obviously, that. Yeah. If there were strange marks on the bed, I’d have to pretend I didn’t know.
Han Su-a, who had roughly sketched out the circumstances in her head, first carefully cleared away the empty bottles she could see. It was obvious that things would get messy the moment Yozora stumbled and knocked them over.
“I’ll put these bottles on the floor for now, okay? In that corner.”
“Mmm….”
“The delivery boxes are…. Wait a minute. My mom usually folds them like this to dispose of them.”
“Huuuung….”
The cat-like eyes that were hard to talk to, the voice that cut off coldly unless she spoke brightly on purpose. Her external features were far from kind, but her core was just a naive, shut-in romance manga otaku. Therefore, Han Su-a, who had forgotten the purpose of coming here, was busy cleaning up like a "mom who witnessed the miserable state of her daughter’s house."
“And….”
A small massager was lifted into her hand. Did alcohol get on it? For some reason, it was a little sticky overall.
“Where should I put this? The massager.”
“Ah… wait… that’s….”
Yozora, who was sitting on the sofa (she had headed to the sofa, feeling dejected after being told she wouldn’t be of any help), looked this way blankly. And then, Yozora stretched her finger out to the right. Yozora, who had naturally collapsed onto the sofa as if she’d lost all strength in that position, had an unidentifiable door at her fingertips.
“Over there?”
“Yeah….”
Is this the bedroom door? Wondering what it was, she opened it carefully, and it was just a bathroom.
“This is the bathroom?”
“Yeah…. I have to wash that….”
“You have to wash it? Ah. Because alcohol got on it.”
“Mmm…. That’s not it….”
If that were the case, couldn’t I just wash it for her and put it somewhere sunny? Han Su-a headed to the sink, checking to see if water shouldn’t get into any part of the massager. Her feet stopped.
“It’s what I used when I masturbated yesterday……. I have to wash it well before it starts to smell, yeah….”
“…….”
It wasn’t anything else, but her brain had stopped for a moment.
“…Ma, masturbate….”
“Mmm….”
…Liar.
…She masturbates with this. How on earth? Could it be that she inserts this tip part… No, no, it’s definitely not thick enough to be inserted. How could this go into a woman’s body? Then how….
While Han Su-a was flustered by Yozora’s statement and staring intently at the massager, she had finally taken a step toward the truth of why the massager was sticky.
“…….”
…But she couldn’t just throw someone else’s property away. Han Su-a just quietly placed the massager next to the sink. The sound of her scrubbing her hands echoed for a long time.