Stories of Everyday Life (8)
"Hehehe…"
"S-Sowol…?"
"Yeees… Unnie… Hehe♡"
Baek Sowol's face was flushed a deep red. Everyone rushed to ask what was wrong with her, but the only answer that came back was a thick, nasal, utterly melted-down dose of aegyo.
"Jeonghwan. What the hell did you just feed her? Bacardi White—seventy-five proof? Or a martini at thirty-five to thirty-seven?"
"Neither. What we just ordered isn't even five percent. Lower than fruit soju."
"And that put her like this?"
"…Looks that way?"
"I am not drunk, okayyyyy!!!!"
Sowol squawked in protest the second anyone suggested she was drunk, but her claim was instantly buried under the flat stares of every sober person present. True to form as a mage, she tried to mount a reasoned counterargument—
But no matter how coherently you explain something, persuasion only works if the other person believes you. And not a single soul at that table was prepared to agree that Baek Sowol was fine.
"How old is she, exactly…?"
"Two years younger than me, so… yeah, she just turned twenty."
"…She might never have had a real drink before."
"Could be she has no idea what her tolerance is. Looking at those bodyguards, you can tell she was raised pretty sheltered."
Sowol herself had no idea, but from everyone else's point of view she was very much a precious young lady from a wealthy house. Her common sense ran off-kilter in half a dozen places; her friendliness was off the charts; and she was so pure-hearted it was hard to tell whether malice even registered for her.
She didn't know how to do makeup. She didn't know how to dress. She was ignorant in all sorts of everyday ways, and she even had bodyguards trailing after her—
As if these were things she had never once thought about, and never needed to.
The most reasonable conclusion was that a pampered rich girl had decided she wanted to try being a hunter. That alone forced everyone to handle her with kid gloves.
If anyone at this table committed a serious faux pas, everyone except SS-rank hunter Kang Suhyeon and S-rank hunter Han Yaeseo could very well lose their heads.
"Heheh. Yaeseo unnie. Hehe."
Of course, that fear was everyone else's problem. From Baek Sowol's perspective, it was none of her business. You couldn't exactly expect that level of self-awareness from someone who didn't even know she was drunk.
She toddled over to Han Yaeseo and nuzzled her face straight into her chest. Objectively speaking, it made for a pretty picture. Han Yaeseo was a beauty by any standard, and Baek Sowol was even prettier than she was.
Yaeseo didn't mind—Sowol was her cute little sister, after all.
But…
"Yaeseo. Tell this kid she is never, ever drinking outside again…"
"Yes. One wrong move and some scumbag is going to scoop her up whole."
"Whaaat? I'mm not thaat eashy a pershon, okayyy? I haven't even met that many guyyys. Hehe."
"Okay, okay. Got it, Sowol. Just calm down for a second."
"Hehe… Yeees~"
Up until now, Baek Sowol had always carried a certain eccentric, mage-like edge beneath the spoiled-rich-girl exterior.
Raised so sheltered she didn't know how to dress herself? Fine, that tracked.
Raised so sheltered she had no idea how scary the world could be? Also fine.
But Sowol had been scolded before for not putting herself together. She had felt firsthand just how much malice the world was capable of.
And yet she still carried herself like none of it touched her—exactly what you'd expect from a politician's daughter who knew how to be bold. But the way she looked right now…
"She just seems like a normal girl…"
"She's literally just a cute little sister!"
Just an ordinary young woman fresh out into the world. Baek Sowol was a legal adult—but she was only twenty. She still hadn't fully shed the air of a high schooler.
On the inside lived Heo Donghyun, a working adult who'd already turned twenty-five. On the outside, though, Baek Sowol was still a kid in the thick of her youth.
"Honestly… Sowol unnie always gave off such a strong impression, but looking at her now? She's just tall. She feels younger than me. She's insanely pretty and cute."
"Hnn? I am not cuuute!?"
"See? Even getting mad with her tongue all loose is cute."
"Ari. You do not talk like that to an unnie who's older than you, no matter what."
"Oh come on, Sujin unnie, you're doing the exact same thing! Petting her head, squishing her cheeks…!"
"That's different. Sowol is like a little sister to me."
Women were relatively free with physical affection, and they absorbed every scrap of Sowol's aegyo without hesitation. The two men present, on the other hand, watched the whole scene unfold from a safe distance.
"We should at least get some photos."
"What if she reports you for taking them without consent?"
"You think she would?"
"How would I know? She's not someone I know well. You've got social standing, so maybe you'd be fine—I'm just some lowly A-rank. If someone picks a fight with me, I'm cooked. You do it. And if you've got any interest in that mage, drop it. You're already out on age. What's a thirty-five-year-old doing looking at a twenty-year-old who isn't even mid-twenties?"
"That's not what this is. I fed her one drink at five percent and she ended up like that. We're going to need an explanation."
"There are bodyguards outside. They'll handle it. Whatever."
The two of them were in just as much of a bind. Kang Suhyeon and Lim Jeonghwan were the ones who had effectively called this gathering, and they were the ones who had pushed the drinks. Nobody had expected one glass to put her under the table.
If someone had a low tolerance, one drink would show it, and that would have been the moment to cut them off.
"Unnie! Want to take a picture together?"
"Hnn? Of whaaat?"
"It's this thing that's trending on Insta right now…!"
They just hadn't expected even that one drink to do this. It was like administering a test to check someone's level and watching them score a perfect zero.
"That… is that what you'd call a terrible drunk?"
"Not a good look, no. Imagine if it were you acting like that. Ugh."
"Yeah, fair. It only slides because she's a girl, still young, and drop-dead gorgeous. Ugh."
"So—are the shots coming out okay?"
"Yeah. At least I'll be able to explain to the assemblyman what the hell happened."
"Then we're good."
After filming enough related footage, the two of them kept an eye on the situation. Before long, Sowol was being petted and fussed over by several of the women at once, and she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.
"The gap is a little extreme, though."
"Plenty of people are completely different drunk versus sober. Some get insanely violent the second they drink and act totally normal when they don't. The problem with people like that is they know alcohol turns them into a problem and they keep drinking anyway."
"True enough."
As they talked, the atmosphere kept climbing. They'd stopped Sowol from drinking any more, but everyone else except Yu Ari had been nursing their own drinks little by little.
The mood rose steadily—but there wasn't much room for the two men to join in. If anything, Ari, who hadn't touched a drop and was still clear-headed, slotted into the circle more easily than they did.
"…"
"I think we should start wrapping this up."
"Should I just cast a sobering spell on everyone right now?"
"Why didn't you cast it earlier, then?"
"Because she might give some weird testimony later. Better safe than sorry."
"Caution's not a bad instinct."
The two of them decided it was time to end the gathering.
"All right. Night's getting late, so let's call it here. If anyone still has things to talk through, it'd be better to meet one-on-one tomorrow. And since some of you drove, and we should account for tomorrow's hangover—I'll clear the alcohol with magic. Come on over."
"Yes."
At that, An Sujin, Han Yaeseo, and Lee Jihyeon stepped forward. Yu Ari, who hadn't drunk at all, and Lim Jeonghwan, who'd already been sobered up by magic earlier, were left out.
But besides those two who didn't need the hangover cure, there was still one person who hadn't come over.
"Miss Baek Sowol? Aren't you coming?"
Baek Sowol—the woman who had been reduced to a near-total wreck by a single low-proof cocktail—did not answer Kang Suhyeon's call.
"Hehehe. Don't waaanna~?"
"…Jeonghwan. What do we do?"
"Can't you just force the spell on her?"
"We've known each other for less than two hours."
"Then just hand her off to the security detail. They're her bodyguards—if their protectee ends up like this, they can deal with it."
"Yeah. That'll have to do."
With a look of pure resignation, Kang Suhyeon—helped along by Lee Jihyeon and Han Yaeseo—presented Baek Sowol to her bodyguards exactly as she was.
"What on earth happened…?"
"We gave her one glass of Kahlúa milk and she ended up like this. The proof on that is lower than soju."
"…Excuse me?"
"She is genuinely that weak to alcohol, so please advise her never to drink again. We don't know Miss Baek's home address, so we'll need you to take her home. You can manage that much, right?"
"W-well—the young lady didn't come here by car…!"
"You people don't have a car? Then how did you even follow her here? Ah—Hermes insignia. So you've got a transfer-skill bodyguard on the team. That tracks. Well, figure something out. Or, Miss Lee Jihyeon over there said she drove, so you could ride with her."
"Th-that's…!"
Kang Suhyeon was done dealing with Baek Sowol for the night. He was that exhausted. Originally he'd planned to explain all sorts of mage-related matters, and to try recruiting her into Chulhyul while he was at it.
But a woman… that had been a serious curveball. No matter how you cut it, the picture just looked wrong.
If she'd been a guy, I might have taken her on as a proper disciple. Shame.
He hated scandals more than anything.
"If there's another chance, let's meet again. Everyone, good night."
And just like that, the AckMaGal meetup came to an end.
And then…
"…What the fuck happened?"
The next morning, Baek Sowol woke up with absolutely no idea how any of this had come to pass.