86. Sweet Wine
86. Sweet Wine
***
After ordering the sashimi, we didn't order any alcohol separately.
Sua had said she wasn't much of a drinker, so the wines we'd brought seemed like they'd be enough.
Ding.
At the notification that the food had been delivered, Sua brought it in and began setting it out on the living room table near the window with the night view.
Slip.
Slide.
Maybe she'd ordered from a fairly expensive place, because even as I unwrapped the food one package at a time, I kept thinking how fancy the packaging was and found myself glancing at Sua.
"Ah, it's not as expensive as you're thinking, Serin."
Maybe she noticed my gaze, because Sua laughed softly as she said it, but honestly, I didn't believe her.
I looked at the wrapping cloth.
It was wrapped luxuriously, like gold silk, and looked expensive at a glance.
"How is this not expensive?"
"Compared to the wine you brought, Serin, it isn't. And are you really going to keep looking at me like that? It's embarrassing."
She changed the subject as if she were genuinely embarrassed, and I played along, but it felt a little odd.
Once the food on my side seemed fully set out, I reached for the wines I'd brought today.
Thunk.
I took the wines out of their box one by one and set them on the table, and suddenly Sua burst out laughing.
"Serin, how many bottles did you actually buy?"
"...Looks like four."
I answered as I set down the last bottle.
"Are all of these sweet? I can't really drink bitter or sour ones."
"I only ordered ones that said sweet in the description, so they're probably all sweet."
We chatted back and forth like that as we finished setting everything up.
The sashimi in its fancy packaging decorated the table, each piece showing off its own beautiful color, and the wines with their elegant labels lined up on one side made the table look pretty impressive at a glance.
Slide.
As I sat at the table and turned my head, the glittering city night view beyond the huge window naturally filled my vision.
The words slipped out before I knew it.
"When I sent that message, I was picturing a casual drinking session. This is pretty fancy."
The whole situation was kind of funny, so I glanced at Sua.
This definitely wasn't the kind of drinking session I'd expected, but the food, the alcohol, even the backdrop—everything had atmosphere.
"That's all because of the wine you brought, isn't it?"
Sua fiddled with one of the bottles on the table and laughed like she couldn't believe it.
"Oh, right. And if I change the lighting like this—"
She suddenly fiddled with her phone, as if adjusting something.
—Click.
The room suddenly went dark, and then a soft light brightened around the table where the food was set.
I tilted my head up slightly and saw a single light directly above, casting a gentle glow over the table.
"How is it!?"
Right in front of me, Sua wore an expectant expression, like a kid waiting for praise, and it made me laugh.
"It's got a nice vibe."
"Right? It does, doesn't it? Sometimes even when I'm not thinking about anything, just sitting at the table and looking at the night view makes me feel at ease."
Listening to Sua, I picked up the wine opener that had come with the fancy packaging.
"So, what should we start with?"
I figured it'd be better to have at least one glass before eating.
"I don't know much about wine. You pick, Serin."
"I don't know that much about wine either."
I didn't have much experience drinking in the first place. The only memories I had of drinking were from the world of Black Ark, when money had piled up until it was rotting, and I'd tried some expensive-looking wine just out of curiosity.
"Still, you know more than I do, don't you?"
Pressed by her urging, I wondered what to pick, then just reached for the wine right in front of me.
From what I remembered when ordering, the wine's name was Gonzalez Byass...?
It was a wine that was hard even to read.
From the outside, it was just a black-background wine covered in a gold label.
I carefully lifted the wine, peeled off the label over the opening with the sharp tip of the wine opener, then turned the corkscrew with practiced ease.
Scrape. Slide.
Pop!
Soon the cork came out of the bottle with a subtle sound.
"Wow! Serin, how are you so natural at that? You looked like a real sommelier just now. Seriously."
Sua marveled from right in front of me, and I felt a little embarrassed. I wondered what actual sommeliers would think if they heard that, and opened my mouth.
"First... can you hand me a glass?"
Sua handed me a glass, and I carefully poured the wine.
Drip.
After pouring an appropriate amount into the glass, I quietly handed it to Sua.
"Is there some special way to drink wine? Like, a proper method?"
Sua asked as she took the glass, and I shook my head slightly.
"No, nothing like that. Just that all the wines I brought are on the stronger side, so you shouldn't drink too much at once."
Drip.
As I poured wine into my own glass, wine etiquette did come to mind, but I'd never actually followed any of it myself.
I'd only drunk because I had money piling up in another world with nothing to spend it on. It would've been ridiculous for someone like me to lecture Sua about wine etiquette.
Thunk.
I set the wine down, picked up my glass, and looked at Sua.
As if she'd been waiting for this, she looked at me with sparkling eyes, holding her wine glass, and I raised mine too.
Clink.
Our glasses met with a soft ring, and the deep golden wine inside rippled gently.
"..."
"..."
We each raised our glasses to our lips.
My first impression of the wine. First, a dense, nutty flavor hit me all at once.
Then a rich sweetness surged in.
Before the wine had even gone down my throat a few times, I pulled the glass away from my lips.
The wine felt so sweet to me that my eyes faintly scrunched up.
"Wow, I love this."
In contrast to me, Sua murmured in admiration as she kept sipping the wine. It seemed to suit her taste perfectly.
I picked up my chopsticks and brought a piece of bright crimson sashimi to my mouth.
The firm texture of the fish and the taste of the vinegared red pepper paste filled my mouth.
"...It's good."
"Serin! Is it good?"
"Yeah."
"Thank goodness."
The way Sua said "thank goodness" was kind of funny.
......
After some time passed, it felt like it hadn't been long since we'd clinked glasses, but both of our faces had flushed bright red to the point that anyone could tell we were drunk.
Serin pressed a hand to her heated cheek and fixed her unfocused eyes on the table.
"...Ha."
Even the colors of the food under the light looked subtly doubled.
'I'm drunk.'
Aware that I was thoroughly drunk, I picked up a piece of abalone and brought it to my mouth.
Feeling its characteristic chewy texture, I blankly raised my head and looked ahead.
Sua, who'd only been picking at a few pieces of sashimi like she was tasting them, hadn't touched the sashimi at all.
It was basically just me eating the food.
"Sua, be honest. You don't like sashimi, do you?"
"Hnnn... I dunno... I dunno... Anyway, what kind of... wine did you buy? It's really good..."
Sua giggled with her face flushed bright red, deflecting the topic, and it was obvious she didn't really like sashimi.
'If that's how it was, she could've said so beforehand.'
I sighed blankly and shook my head, then suddenly, like déjà vu, a memory from a few days ago surfaced.
Me, having ordered tteokbokki and only picking at the fried food.
"Should we just order a new snack?"
I opened my mouth and looked at Sua.
But I was startled to see Sua now tipping the wine bottle straight into her mouth.
Whoosh.
Before it touched her lips, I snatched the wine away and set it down far from Sua.
Thunk.
"Ah, Serin~!"
She flailed her hands as if upset that the wine had been taken away, and I couldn't believe what she was doing.
I'd told her beforehand that it was strong, and now she was trying to chug it straight from the bottle. It was absurd.
And how was she planning to deal with the hangover when she woke up tomorrow?
"No... when did you finish all of these?"
Then I saw the empty wine bottles sprawled beside Sua.
After I'd poured her first glass, it was like she'd fallen completely for the wine. Sua had drunk almost nothing but wine, and she'd really drunk a lot.
"Ah, Serin~~~ hurry, give me the wine."
She reached out her hand, begging for the wine I'd taken, and I grabbed her hand to keep her from reaching it while a hollow laugh escaped me.
The way she whined like a kid whose toy had been taken away was cute, but she clearly needed to calm down.
"Stay still. I'll get you some water."
I got up from my seat, took the wine with me, and headed to the kitchen area of the living room.
Drip.
I pressed the water purifier button and filled a cup with cold water, then took out another cup and filled it for myself too, partly to sober up.
"...Oh, you're back."
When I returned to the table, I saw Sua licking an empty wine bottle, and I was dumbfounded.
"What are you doing...?"
I set the water cup down right in front of her, wondering what on earth she was up to.
"Serin... where's the wine? Didn't you just... go to buy wine?"
She was rambling nonsense, and I just burst out laughing.
I'd originally planned to have some kind of conversation with Sua while drinking, but now all of that seemed pointless.
"Just chug this. It's wine."
As a joke, I pointed at the water cup, thinking she might actually mistake it for wine in her state. Sua looked at me like I was crazy.
"Serin... this is water."
No, why was she suddenly being so serious here?
"Sua, you're not actually drunk, are you?"
"Who... knows?"
I let out a small laugh as I looked at Sua smiling ambiguously.
...
After that, the two of them spent the rest of the night in meaningless squabbling as the hours deepened.
***
My head felt like it was splitting.
"Ugh..."
I let out an involuntary sharp groan at the headache and brought a hand to my head.
I ran my fingers through my hair out of habit... and naturally opened my eyes.
Something felt off.
"Where... am I."
I mumbled the words as they came out, trying to pull myself together.
"Serin, wine... when... are you going... to buy it..."
Then I heard sleep-talking and turned my head to see a familiar person.
"Sua?"
And only then did I realize that the place I'd woken up was Sua's bedroom.
Slide.
I lifted my disheveled white hair and smoothed it back as I blankly tried to piece together my memories.
I definitely remembered... carrying Sua, who was completely drunk, to the bedroom to put her to sleep yesterday.
After that, I had no memory.
Sua had clung to me and whined like a child, telling me not to go, so I'd stayed to soothe her until she fell asleep.
I must have fallen asleep too at some point.
Thunk.
Then Sua rustled and kicked off the blanket, revealing her pale white legs, and my gaze went there before I could stop it.
"When did she even take her clothes off?"
I thought that since we were both women, she could afford to be this defenseless, but looking at Sua's pale legs exposed after she'd kicked off the blanket, I felt strange.
It was summer, but still, I reached out to pull the blanket back over her.
"...?"