Have a Good Night, Baby
The two women greeted the man who had come looking for them as if they knew him well.
“Tae-jin, what are you doing here?”
“You guys came out to have some fun too?”
“...And what are these?”
“……”
Colt stared blankly, unable to follow the Korean conversation, while a faint crease formed between James’s brows.
“What do you mean, these? I’ll let it slide if those two don’t understand you, but I’ve got to say, that’s pretty hard to listen to.”
“...Su-ji, I’m just saying this because I’m worried about you.”
Tae-jin flinched a little when James and Colt met his eyes, but he had already drunk quite a bit, and the alcohol quickly gave him back his posture. Liquor had an uncanny power, like magic that filled a man with endless courage.
“Su-ji. You can’t just go around meeting people carelessly when you’re in a foreign country.”
“Hah! Then I guess the seniors who came here were just out having a nice, wholesome drink?”
“……”
If they had only come to drink, they never would have chosen such a noisy club in the first place.
“So when a woman meets a man, it has to be called ‘careless,’ but when a man meets a woman, that’s normal?”
“Su-ji, I just thought of you as—”
“I’ve told you over and over that that’s none of my business, senior!”
Tae-jin had once confessed to Su-ji and been turned down. After that, she stopped calling him oppa and switched to senior instead. Even the form of address was a way of keeping her distance.
“If you came out to have fun, then go have fun. Don’t meddle in other people’s love lives.”
“……”
Whether it was because his emotions had boiled over or because of the alcohol, Tae-jin’s face turned red. He needed someone to take his frustration out on, and James, who looked like an East Asian man, became the target.
“Hey, you!”
To ruin Su-ji’s love life, Tae-jin had to pick a fight with James.
“……”
James only shrugged as if to say, What’s your problem?
“Who the hell are you, huh?”
“What is he saying?”
At James’s casual question, Su-ji answered, equally casually.
“He’s asking what your job is.”
Even though Su-ji mistranslated it, James smiled faintly and took a card from inside his jacket.
“I’m a magician.”
“……”
Ping.
The card in James’s hand floated up into the air, and Tae-jin, who had been looking for trouble, found his eyes drawn to it all at once.
“And……”
James wasn’t finished introducing himself yet.
Wizard.
Mana no one else could see was winding itself around James’s fingers.
Mana that brings peace and calm… you will always grant a tranquil sleep… Deep Sleep Action.
The Mana drifting through the air was sucked into Tae-jin’s eyes, which had been stolen by the floating card.
“!!”
James’s final words, meanwhile, barely moved at all from his lips, quiet enough that no one else could hear them.
“Have a good night, baby.”
Thud.
As Tae-jin toppled backward, the men who had come with him rushed to crowd around his body.
“Tae-jin, are you okay?”
“Did he drink too much?”
“Ugh. Looks like Tae-jin snuck off and had even more to drink than we did.”
While his friends fussed over him, a strange sound came from Tae-jin’s nose.
Snore. Fffshhh.
“……”
“……”
“...He’s sleeping here?”
“That’s impressive. How can he sleep in a club this loud?”
“He kept bragging about how well he could hold his liquor and then went and drank the whole thing himself……”
James asked, pretending he had nothing to do with it.
“Looks like Su-ji’s friend had a little too much to drink.”
“Honestly… what a disgrace.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Let’s move our table. It’s too noisy here.”
“What do you think, Colt?”
“I completely agree with her.”
Colt leaned in close, placing a hand on James’s shoulder and lowering his voice.
“When a man and woman are going to move on to something deeper, the first thing they should do is change locations.”
“Hah. Forget it—let’s go to a café and get something cold to drink. I’ve had too much.”
The four of them left the club, leaving behind the sleeping Tae-jin and the men who had come from the same hometown, and soon found a quiet café.
“Why the hell is a café open at this hour?”
“Haha. Were you hoping it wouldn’t be?”
Colt clearly regretted that the relationship had stalled before it could move on to the next stage. James, however, had no reason to feel disappointed. He calmly sipped his cold drink, then took out his phone and waved it in front of Su-ji and Ho-jung.
“An opportunity to get the number of a famous magician doesn’t come around every day.”
He was referring to what had happened earlier, when they had been about to exchange numbers.
“Magician. This time, why don’t you try guessing our numbers?”
“Oh! That’s a great idea.”
But James had no intention of using any more magic.
“Hey, that’s too hard. I’m a magician, remember? Not a wizard.”
He had regained some of his senses after drinking a cold beverage. If he’d been any more drunk, he might actually have cast a spell and made her blurt out the number.
“You finally got it wrong! You have to drink!”
“But there isn’t any alcohol anymore.”
What James was holding now was a cup of juice. The drinking session was over.
“Ah, damn……”
“Hahaha.”
Getting Su-ji’s number turned out to be easy, and Colt also managed to get Ho-jung’s.
“If I come to Korea later, I’ll call you. Right—when are you heading back?”
“We’ll be in Korea in about a month.”
After a stop in England, the timing should work out if they went on to Korea from there.
“All right, all right. Let’s split up for now.”
“What?”
James echoed Colt’s words because he didn’t understand, but there was someone else who understood perfectly—and agreed wholeheartedly.
“Then Colt can have one more drink with me!”
Ho-jung brightened and started getting up from her seat, and Colt had no reason to refuse.
“Call! Call!”
“……”
“……”
Before James could even stop them, the two of them linked arms and left the café together with the easy familiarity of a long-time couple.
“That Ho-jung girl sure is bold……”
After hearing Su-ji’s mutter, James found himself answering without thinking.
“A puppy doesn’t know why it should fear a tiger. She’s practically begging to get eaten alive.”
“……”
Su-ji’s eyes went wide as she looked at James.
“What?”
“...I thought you said you didn’t know Korean?”
That was because James had just answered her in Korean.
“I was listening to the way you two were talking, and the words just came to me. Maybe I’m smarter than I look.”
“...Then why are you talking so casually?”
“If you don’t like it, you can talk casually too.”
“Seriously?”
“For the record, I’m a lot older than you.”
“Heh.”
“If you’re worried about your friend, do you want to go after her?”
“No. This isn’t the first or second time she’s done something like that… She’s the kind of girl who swaps men whenever she feels like it, so I’m not that worried.”
“Heh. So there really is a match for everyone.”
“What about Colt?”
“If Ho-jung is a puppy, then Colt is a tiger. They’re absolutely not in the same league. Colt is a pro among pros.”
“Heh.”
“Haha. Hahaha.”
It wasn’t a particularly funny exchange, but Su-ji laughed anyway, and James laughed with her, as if he’d been infected by the freshness of her smile.
“Oh! Tell me more about what you were talking about earlier.”
“About what?”
“You said you’d be going to Korea after England.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you going there just to travel? Or is there another reason?”
“Su-ji, you’ve got good instincts.”
“If a Korean child who was adopted into the United States comes back as an adult, then most of the time……”
“You’re right. It’s the obvious reason.”
“……”
It was such a tired old setup that even dramas hardly used it anymore these days.
“I was left in an orphanage, then adopted to the United States, and only after I became an adult did I start wondering who my biological parents were.”
“...I hope you find them.”
“I’m not expecting much. If I find them, fine. If I don’t, fine.”
“Don’t you miss them?”
“...No. Not at all.”
The only love James remembered receiving from parents was what his adoptive parents in America had given him. He felt nothing at all for the coldhearted people who had given birth to him and then abandoned him in an orphanage.
“I don’t resent them, though. I guess it’s more accurate to say I don’t even have enough feeling left to hate them.”
“Ah……”
“Still, I don’t know much about how things work in Korea, so if I contact you, will you help me?”
“I think there are local services now that help overseas adoptees find their families. If you enter the country and go through the official process, it’ll be easier to track them down.”
“Ohhh. You’re already helping me?”
“When you come to Korea, make sure you call me. I’ll throw myself into it.”
“...Don’t be too nice to me. I’m every bit as bad as Colt.”
James, strangely enough, felt almost uncomfortable with Su-ji’s kindness.
It’s a little suffocating……
James had always been reluctant to get close enough to anyone that feelings could deepen. Not having made real friends when he was young, and losing his parents in a gun accident, both had helped shape the way he was now.
“What kind of bad guy says he’s a bad guy?”
“This one, right here.”
“Heh.”
“It’s late. Let’s go.”
“Where to?”
“I’ll walk you back. The streets of LA are different at night.”
“And here I was thinking you didn’t want me being too nice to you……”
“This isn’t kindness. It’s just basic manners.”
If I take her back, then even if some weirdo comes sniffing around, I can deal with it easily……
“All right. Let’s go.”
As Su-ji stood, she suddenly reached out and took James’s hand.
“!”
“Were you planning to just walk beside me like some stranger?”
Su-ji’s hand was warm, and it sent a tiny ripple through James’s heart.
“At this rate, I might end up becoming Colt myself.”
It was only half a joke, spoken with the last scraps of alcohol in his system, but she answered with a boldness that surprised him.
“Pfft. Then I guess you will.”
Su-ji was looking straight at him with her bright, shining eyes. They were pure and clear eyes, the kind that made a person want to protect her without even thinking about it. James could also read the feelings hidden in her Mana. Right now it was only a little curiosity and affection, but the feeling in his own heart was beginning to grow as well, and the Mana flowing out from both of them was tangling together.
Why do you have to wake the beast inside me……
Even James, who usually held back, no longer had any reason to resist.
“Want to come to the hotel I’m staying at and have one more drink?”
“……”
Su-ji didn’t misunderstand what he meant. Just now, Colt and Ho-jung had clearly gone to a hotel too.
“Let’s go. I think it’ll make a good memory.”
“Then I’ll just be a small memory in Su-ji’s heart?”
“Isn’t there still room for that memory to continue in Korea?”
“Haha.”
It was a light meeting that led into a light night. And the beginning of something new.
James ran into Colt at the hotel gym.
“Col- Col.”
“Jim- Jim. Huff. Huff.”
Colt was running on the treadmill, and James joined him on the one beside it. As always, they were starting the day with exercise.
Tap. Tap.
James jogged lightly and asked, “So, Colt. Have a good night?”
“As always, I spent a hot night that was completely different from sweet-tempered JimJim’s.”
“Oh?”
James smiled a little and added, “Sweet-tempered JimJim had a hot night too, though.”
“...What?”
Colt stopped running without meaning to and nearly toppled backward.
“Ah!”
He just barely managed not to fall, then hurried over to the side of James’s treadmill.
“What? Last night? What happened?”
“I sent her off in a taxi after we spent a hot morning together.”
“Hah! Hah! Hah!”
“……”
James didn’t even look at Colt, who was gasping in disbelief. He just kept running.
“Woooow.”
“……”
“James does things like that too? I’d been wondering if you had a somewhat unusual taste, since you never really looked at women.”
“...What was that?”
“I mean, come on. It’s not like I’ve only brought one or two women home……”
He had brought home women with all kinds of different charms, yet James had never once given them a second glance. Some of them had even tried to seduce him, but James had never fallen for it.
“You thought I wasn’t interested in women?”
“Yeah.”
“And you still managed to live under the same roof as me while thinking that?”
“Whatever your taste is, you were still a reliable tenant who paid rent on time.”
“Heh.”
“Anyway! Now that I know your taste, I can finally relax.”
“Pffft. Did you send Ho-jung off in the morning too?”
“She left early yesterday.”
“So that’s why you didn’t run into each other.”
“We’re supposed to see each other again later. We still have plenty of time before we leave.”
“Don’t forget that we still have to go to Korea. You’ll see her again there too, won’t you?”
He was reminding James not to make the mistake of thinking it was just a brief meeting.
“Do you think I don’t know that? The women I ran into in Las Vegas all smiled when they saw me again.”
“Heh. Yeah, I know. I know.”
Colt was a pro among pros right through the final step. Even when it came to a woman he’d been deeply involved with, he could leave things cleanly without dragging any mess behind him. He treated women with perfect manners to the very end, and the fact that he simply didn’t go after women who seemed likely to get possessive also helped keep things from turning ugly. Even yesterday, Colt had shown interest in Ho-jung rather than Su-ji because he had instinctively picked up on the other woman’s temperament.
“I’m more worried about you than myself. I’m afraid you’ll hand over your body, your heart, and everything else……”
“I’m sweet-tempered JimJim.”
“...Still, make sure you keep your secret. You know what I mean, right?”
“I don’t want anyone but Colt to know.”
He meant the secret between the two of them—that James was a wizard, not a magician.
“The second a secret leaves your mouth, it isn’t a secret anymore.”
“Colt, you’re awfully talkative today.”
“Tch. I’m only saying it because I’m worried about you!”
“You’re not just worried about our money?”
“...I can’t exactly pretend that doesn’t matter too.”
“At least you’re honest.”
The two of them finished working out and ate breakfast at the hotel, talking animatedly about the history they had made the night before. Naturally, they couldn’t leave out the part about the unwanted guest who had shown up and ruined the mood.
“Hahaha. So that bastard passed out because of you? Nice.”
“There’s always one of those idiots hanging around pretty girls.”
They were talking about Tae-jin, the guy who had picked a fight with James at the bar the night before.
“Uh… I feel like I forgot something important… what was it?”
“Why are you acting like that loser matters?”
“I put a spell on him and……”
“Of course you did. That’s why you said he fell asleep.”
While James was talking to Colt, he suddenly remembered the consequences of what he’d done.
“Ah!”
“What is it?”
“I… never took it off?”
“You used it while drunk, didn’t you……”
If he had been sober, he would have cast the spell so it would wear off by the next day. But because he had used magic without thinking about the aftereffects, the spell was still holding.
“What? Then what happened to the guy?”
“He probably turned into Sleeping Beauty.”
“...He can’t wake up? Not even now?”
“Not until I wake him up……”
Since he’d been put to sleep by magic, nothing but magic could wake him.
“I don’t know. You’re the one who caused the mess, so you go fix it.”
“Ugh.”
If James left it alone, Tae-jin would probably stay asleep for at least a few years.
“Maybe I should at least give him a kiss to wake him up……”
“Hell no!!”