Chapter 32: Drunken Mistake

“You bastard….”

“Are you talking about me, by any chance?”

At an exquisite timing, Woohyung burst open the door and walked in.

His face looked slightly exhausted, as if he had just finished working on a song.

Perhaps he had washed up before coming to the room, his hair was slightly damp.

“What are you doing? Swearing by yourself and drinking alcohol alone.”

Woohyung looked at Jemin with utter disbelief.

Naturally so, as the sight greeting him the moment he opened the door was quite a spectacle.

Because the room was small, the gap between Woohyung and Jemin’s beds was narrow.

Sitting cross-legged in that tight space, flushed bright red with three soju bottles lined up, looking at Jemin made one automatically let out a scoff.

“They say speak of the devil and he shall appear… Guess there really was a reason people call you a tiger.”

“You don’t particularly look human right now either, you know?”

Because he was tired, Woohyung’s plan had been to wash up, change clothes, and immediately collapse onto his bed.

His roommate Jemin being this dead drunk was completely outside Woohyung’s expectations.

“We have a schedule tomorrow, so drink moderately and go to sleep. Though it seems you’ve already crossed the moderate level.”

Woohyung set down his laptop bag by his bedside.

It had been a day of relentless work.

He didn’t have the leeway to deal with Jemin’s drunken habits.

“Starting today, I’m only supporting four members.”

Whether Jemin said so or not, Woohyung finished getting ready to sleep.

Just as Woohyung was about to head to bed, Jemin looked at him and muttered incoherently.

Woohyung let out an involuntary chuckle because it was so ridiculous.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you running for office?”

Candidate No. 1 Yoo Jemin!

For a brief second, Woohyung pictured Jemin campaigning in his head.

Then I guess I should vote for No. 2.

After wrapping up the useless imagination, the expression on Jemin’s face in front of him was unexpectedly serious.

“I’m not going to like you.”

Woohyung didn’t find Jemin’s words surprising at all.

“Since when did you ever like me?”

“I’m going to hate you even more. Just like how you hate me.”

Seeing him switch back and forth between laughing and being dead serious, he was definitely drunk.

Woohyung pretended not to hear and went to his bed.

He lay down facing away, but Jemin’s voice reached him from behind.

“What did I do so wrong to you?”

Woohyung simply opened his closed eyes while remaining in that position.

“Why do I have to struggle so hard just to get recognized by you?”

Hearing him say something like that, he couldn’t bring himself to pretend he didn’t hear and just sleep.

Woohyung slowly got up and turned around.

“To you, I might just look like a person filling up the member headcount without any meaning, but you shouldn’t treat a team member like that.”

Woohyung had thought Jemin was simply rambling about his upset feelings.

But seeing Jemin staring at him with tears dripping down from eyes full of venom, Woohyung’s body froze solid.

He felt it would have been far less perplexing if Jemin had choked back sobs or yelled at the top of his lungs instead.

“…To the point of crying, even.”

Woohyung was clumsy at comforting people who were crying.

Instead of “To the point of crying, even?”, it might have been better if he had voiced his inner thought: “It wasn’t to that extent, was it?”

Woohyung’s response only caused Jemin’s emotions to surge up even further.

“You really don’t think about the other person’s perspective until the very end, do you?”

“It’s not meant in that way….”

They say you shouldn’t listen to drunk people’s talk.

Frustrated, Woohyung ruffled his hair, got up from his spot, and sat down in front of Jemin.

“Fine, so just look at my face and say whatever curse words you have. I’ll listen while keeping the speaker’s perspective in mind.”

As he spoke, Woohyung subtly pushed the remaining liquor bottles far away.

“Crazy bastard, did you think I wouldn’t be able to curse at your face if you told me to?”

“Why do you twist everything you hear, seriously.”

In the first place, Woohyung didn’t even think Jemin would be unable to curse to his face.

Jemin’s glare was already practically hurling severe profanities at Woohyung anyway.

“I wish you would fail, but if you do, I’ll fail too, so I can’t even curse you.”

“To think you were even trying to curse me, that’s pretty scary.”

Why do people like this bastard? Is it reflecting a social atmosphere that likes people who do their jobs well even if their temper is dirty? Is being handsome everything? It probably is, but…. Still, it’s too much. Cursed bastard. But I wish he would fail alone.

“I don’t know if you just thought that in your head, but I can hear everything.”

He said he couldn’t curse me, but he’s doing it just fine.

Thinking so, Woohyung crossed his arms and looked at Jemin.

“So what do you want me to do?”

Woohyung wanted to clarify whether this was simply a declaration that he was going to hate him, or a plea not to hate him.

If it was the former, it was a territory of Jemin’s feelings that he couldn’t stop, so there was nothing he could do.

If it was the latter, he was already making an effort to view him in a good light.

To be precise, he was observing him to find Jemin’s good points.

After all, Jemin was one of the ingredients he needed to make good use of.

“I just want you to….”

Whether the drunkenness was surging up further, Jemin’s wide-open eyes began to lose focus slightly.

“Are you crazy?”

“Ugh….”

At the touch shaking him awake, Jemin knitted his brows and let out a groan.

Feeling a headache like his brain was splitting apart, he must have overdone it far too much yesterday.

“What is all this?”

“Water… give me some water.”

Drinking straight soju without any snacks like that was nothing but reckless bravado of youth.

When Jemin, who couldn’t even open his eyes properly, reached out his hand looking for water, James shoved a whole 2L plastic bottle right at him.

“…I’m gonna die.”

Wiping the water off the edges of his mouth with the back of his hand, Jemin recalled yesterday.

‘What did I say after that?’

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t remember the situation following that.

“Did you two drink in the room yesterday? Wow. Three bottles is too much.”

I drank three bottles by myself?

Surprised by Yunbin’s words, Jemin clutched his aching stomach and pushed his upper body up.

In a corner of the room, three soju bottles were huddled together neatly.

“…We just had some things to talk about.”

While Jemin was contemplating whether he should confess that he drank them alone, Woohyung jumped in.

“You two are really doing great. We have a photo shoot today, is it okay to have this kind of condition?”

Listening to Yunbin’s nagging through one ear and letting it out the other, Jemin looked toward Woohyung.

Their eyes met for a moment, but Woohyung immediately turned his head away.

‘He’s ignoring me as usual.’

Jemin felt unpleasant, but soon nodded his head.

He figured it was probably because he had said harsh words yesterday.

What could he have said? I wish you would leave the group. I wish you would retire. I wish you would die.

Gasp, I wouldn’t have said it to that extreme, right?

After mulling over various scenarios in his head, Jemin imagined the worst possible line and gasped in shock.

“I’ll go buy some hangover cure drinks, so you both need to sober up within two hours, got it?”

“Leave the ramen to me!”

After giving strict instructions, Yunbin left the room together with James.

Jemin held his head for a moment, then lifted his face.

‘If I ever drink again, I’m Ryu Seong.’

Glancing subtly to the side, Woohyung seemed to be reading his reaction.

Their eyes met again, but the way he pretended not to see was suspicious.

If it were usual, Woohyung was someone who would have dropped snarky comments about four times by now.

Staying silent like this was strange.

‘Did I curse at Jung Woohyung and grab him by the collar or something? I don’t have a violent nature at all though. Nor do I have bad hand habits. Don’t tell me?’

To check if there were any injuries on Woohyung’s face, Jemin moved closer and stared at him intently.

“…What, what is it.”

As Jemin approached closer and closer, Woohyung retreated backward step by step with a pale face.

“No, just.”

Woohyung’s reaction was anything but ordinary.

After pondering deeply, Jemin asked directly:

“Did I do something wrong to you yesterday, by any chance?”

“…Well.”

Seeing Woohyung trailing off vaguely, something must have definitely happened.

Though he didn’t know the details, Woohyung couldn’t even look Jemin properly in the eye.

Seeing that, Jemin figured he must have pulled a big stunt while drunk.

“You’ve done plenty wrong to me so far too, so let’s just call it even.”

Watching Woohyung offer no reply, Jemin let out a snort.

‘I didn’t think Jung Woohyung was like that, but he’s properly sulking, huh.’

He felt like he needed to eat something to settle his stomach.

Deciding he should focus on hangover relief first, Jemin got up from the bed.

‘Hm?’

It was the moment he reached for the doorknob to turn it.

Suddenly, a certain scene flashed through Jemin’s mind.

‘What was that, just now?’

This was something that could absolutely never happen.

Something that should never have occurred.

Fearing that a nightmare he had suffered last night was flashing through his mind, Jemin furrowed his brows.

However, he realized soon after.

That was no dream.

Unable to muster the courage to turn around, Jemin hurriedly rushed out of the room.

To lay out what exactly happened yesterday:

‘I just want you to feel f*cking terrible.’

Right after saying that, he aggressively grabbed Woohyung’s cheeks and showered him with quick peck-peck-pecks.

A flustered Woohyung froze completely, and only on the third peck did he grab Jemin’s shoulders and push him away.

To think none of that was a dream.

‘What are you doing right now….’

‘Does it feel terrible?’

Woohyung had been prepared for Jemin to vomit, grab him by the collar, or even slap him across the cheek.

However, he had never imagined Jemin would kiss him.

Least of all, a kiss specifically intended to make him feel terrible.

‘Should I do it deeper?’

With his eyes half-unfocused, Jemin had muttered.

Snapping awake at those words, Woohyung urgently covered Jemin’s mouth with his palm.

‘It feels terrible enough, so that’s fine, stop.’

‘Really? That’s a relief.’

At Woohyung’s words, Jemin let out a giggle and slid down, collapsing into sleep.

After sitting dazed by himself for a long while, Woohyung knocked back the remaining soju he had pushed aside earlier down his throat.

‘I shouldn’t have dealt with a drunk person after all.’

It was the same for Woohyung, who had not recovered from yesterday’s shock.

Looking closely, Jemin didn’t seem to particularly remember what had happened.

Then Woohyung knew in his mind that all he had to do was treat it as if nothing had happened.

A person can make a mistake once when drunk.

Even though Jemin had made a mistake not once, but three times toward Woohyung.

“Am I crazy? Why can’t I look at his face?”

He had tried to just think of it as taking three punches.

He thought that after sleeping and waking up, seeing his face would just end at the level of feeling unpleasant and gross.

He hadn’t expected it to be this embarrassing.

In fact, far beyond being embarrassed, just Jemin staring at his face while speaking brought back yesterday’s image.

The sight of him pushing his lips forward with a flushed red face, and the sight of him giggling with his mouth covered by a palm.

“That from yesterday was just a drunkard causing an accident. Don’t pay it any mind.”

Muttering to himself, Woohyung slapped his own cheek.