Her Body is Hazardous
It went without saying, but I didn't really know what alcohol tasted like.
There was no point in even mentioning my past life spent confined to a hospital bed, and Yu Nabi had no memories of drinking either.
In the first place, it hadn't been that long since I legally became an adult.
They say you usually learn these things from your parents.
But my parents weren't really the drinking type either.
I had never felt the urge to try it, so I had just drifted along like this until now.
What if I get drunk and make a mistake?
Even I had heard stories about rookies getting into trouble at work because of alcohol.
Knowing this would happen, I wondered if I should have tried it at least once beforehand.
Well, I probably would have if I actually had friends.
You know, I saw a post about it once.
A nostalgic post about buying alcohol at a convenience store on January 1st, the day they legally became an adult, and drinking it with friends.
I remembered the comment section being flooded with replies from people saying they did the exact same thing.
Yu Nabi... had honestly been envious.
The day the first year of my adulthood dawned. Honestly, I couldn't remember that day very well.
Because my only memory of it would have been killing time all by myself in a dark room.
Finding a single day out of those countless, identical days was no easy task.
"Alright, let's have a toast."
Anyway, for that reason, a drinking gathering was something both terrifying and exciting to me.
I clinked my glass, which I held with both hands, against the others.
It made a clear, crisp sound, just like the ones I had heard in videos.
Perhaps because my grip was a bit awkward, a splash of soju spilled from the glass and got on my finger.
When I lightly licked the tip of my finger... I couldn't really tell.
Maybe trying to taste it from just a drop or two was a mistake in itself.
Summoning my courage once more, I took a proper sip.
"Ugh...?"
The flavor is weird.
It was bitter overall, but with a suspicious sweetness cutting through it.
It wasn't purely bitter, nor was it entirely sweet, leaving me with an indescribable feeling.
Why do people like this stuff?
I had heard that if you've gone through a lot of hardships, soju tastes as sweet as juice.
Seeing how I couldn't possibly drink this like juice, I guess I hadn't experienced enough of life's pain.
A life harder than mine, when I was completely paralyzed?
What kind of hell were people living in, exactly?
"Looks like it's not to your taste. See? I told you kids these days don't like soju."
"Maybe... my taste is just different?"
"Nah. The first-team kids hate soju too. Whenever we have a team dinner there, I'm always the only one drinking."
That was one more reason to make it to the first team.
Maybe their tastes were similar to mine.
"Do you want to try some fruit soju?"
"There's... such a thing?"
"Yeah. Don't expect too much, it's just a sweeter soju. Give it a try while you're here."
"Then... I'll try this one. The grapefruit flavor."
If I had to classify my first glass, it was a failure.
It was somewhat tolerable when paired with meat, though.
But I didn't think I would ever spend my own money to drink it.
The salary of a second-team pro gamer wasn't exactly generous.
It wasn't like I had any expensive hobbies, but I didn't want to waste money either.
I was afraid that once I started spending, it would leak away like water through a sieve.
Since it was hard-earned, precious money, I wanted to spend it on something more meaningful.
My thoughts kept drifting.
Is this also the effect of the alcohol?
No way. It was probably just my imagination.
I had only just received my second glass.
No matter how I looked at it, I hadn't drunk enough to feel tipsy.
"Shall we... toast again?"
"Is this really Nabi's first time drinking?"
"Is it okay to give her sweet alcohol when she doesn't know her limit?"
"It'll be fine. She's heading straight home after the match anyway, right?"
The second glass I received was definitely much better.
I didn't know if it was because I loved sweet things so much, but it was much easier to swallow.
Word must have spread, because quite a few people were watching me.
Not just my fellow second-team members, but even the coaches sitting a bit further away.
I felt a bit embarrassed having all eyes on me so suddenly.
By the way, if I wanted something sweet, wouldn't it be better to just drink soda?
Despite that thought, the alcohol kept going down strangely well.
Perhaps I was strong against alcohol, because I didn't feel drunk at all.
In the West, there are cocktails commonly referred to as "lady killers."
Cocktails that look pretty and hide the distinct taste of alcohol with sweetness.
It was a nickname given to drinks where the intoxication was hard to control.
The key was that the sweetness made them easy to drink.
Naturally, if you keep chugging high-proof alcohol, you will get drunk quickly.
A person who had never felt drunk in their entire life.
Yu Nabi, despite not even knowing her own limit, simply loved sweet things.
Since she wasn't the type to speak up or make her presence known, there was no one to stop Nabi from drinking during the dinner.
The fruit soju played the role of a lady killer.
No one was trying to kill her, but she ended up getting killed all on her own!
The one who realized something was wrong was Hero, Seo Hee-ryun.
"Hehehe... Coach..."
"Hmm?"
At first, she naturally thought it was someone else.
Although her position here was quite high, she usually interacted with everyone without much formality.
Closing the distance by riding the mood was something she welcomed.
After all, that was the whole point of hosting this dinner.
In truth, today's dinner wasn't just to celebrate the victory.
It was intended to create an opportunity for the two newly called-up players to blend in with the existing roster.
But wait, there was only one person sitting to her left.
Sitting to Seo Hee-ryun's left was none other than Yu Nabi.
Her foolish disciple, who had holed herself up in a corner despite being given a chance to socialize with the other players.
Hee-ryun had thought about sending her to another table, but held back, knowing it would be too hard on the girl.
Seo Hee-ryun felt a strange sensation.
The moment she looked to her left.
Something soft and squishy pressed against her arm.
"What in the... How many glasses did you drink by yourself?"
"I... did well today, right...?"
Wait, she didn't even drink that much.
Honestly, it was true she hadn't paid attention for a brief moment.
But she was at least aware that the kid next to her was drinking for the first time.
If Nabi had suddenly ordered more alcohol or brought over another bottle, Hee-ryun would have noticed immediately.
In other words, Yu Nabi hadn't actually drunk that much.
Just a single bottle of fruit soju that had been left there because no one else wanted to drink it.
She had finished that single bottle all by herself and gotten completely wasted.
I shouldn't give her alcohol next time.
They say it's hard to control yourself the first time you drink, but she didn't expect the kid to be this weak.
Fortunately, she didn't seem to be a violent drunk.
She didn't suddenly turn into a completely different person and start shouting profanities like the horror stories on the internet.
No, strictly speaking, she had turned into a different creature.
As if trying to change her species from human to a snail.
The moment the alcohol kicked in, she clung to Hee-ryun's body for dear life.
"Hehe."
And what did she do while clinging to her like that? Absolutely nothing.
Her attitude suggested that simply pressing their bodies together was her ultimate goal.
Aside from the rather suggestive sensation of her chest pressing against her, Yu Nabi herself was completely harmless.
Hee-ryun didn't entirely believe the saying that a person's true colors show when they're drunk.
Drunkenness was just drunkenness. There was no way words spoken when one's brain wasn't functioning properly could be their true feelings.
However, she did believe that it revealed a tiny, tiny glimpse of one's inner desires or feelings.
This kid, who was normally so painfully shy.
Once you peeled back just one layer of her shell, she turned out to love people this much.
Hee-ryun found her happy, smiling face adorable, but at the same time, a little pitiful.
"I'll have to take this one home myself."
"Coach... why aren't you praising me?"
"I did earlier. Ugh, stop clinging to me. Someone take her for a second. Let me eat this at least."
"Did I do well?"
"Do you realize this is the third time you've asked me that?"
Surprisingly, Yu Nabi's clinginess didn't discriminate.
Coach Choi, whom she had barely met, and Indure, who had been with her since their trainee days.
Though the degree varied, she would hug and cling to whoever she could get her hands on.
Among them, her interaction with Indure was a sight to behold.
The two most socially awkward people on the current roster!
One was giggling drunkenly, while the other was frozen solid with his hands raised in the air, terrified of making any physical contact.
Well, they couldn't let them stay like that for long.
The combination of the two was amusing, but Nabi possessed a body that looked inherently suggestive just by existing.
Seeing her large chest pressed flat against someone else's body was bound to give anyone inappropriate thoughts.
Yu Nabi was harmless, but her body was hazardous.
Feeling a subtle contradiction, Hee-ryun loaded Nabi into the car.
On the night of that dinner.
Nabi's parents had to witness their daughter clinging tightly to a married woman's arm.
It was a difficult time in many ways.