#014
The makgeolli that went down smoothly like a soft drink and the jeon that paired well with it had already hit bottom when we had each emptied two bottles of makgeolli.
“Ah, delicious. Ranho-ssi really makes good jeon.”
“Are you good with alcohol?”
“Just. I drink enough to match the atmosphere. It also depends on my condition.”
Ban Hajoon’s cheeks were flushed as if he had applied blush. I staggered up to make a few more jeon, and since we ran out of makgeolli, I took out soju and beer. I was tipsy but not drunk, so I could drink more, but I was a bit worried about Ban Hajoon. He already seemed drunk…
“There’s no makgeolli left. Somaek is okay, right?”
“Good.”
“If you seem drunk, stop drinking appropriately.”
“Don’t worry, Ranho-ssi. That day I got drunk quickly because I was tired.”
Even if not like that day, he seemed a bit drunk. Despite my worried gaze, Ban Hajoon refreshingly emptied his glass. I took out two soju glasses, placed one each at Ban Hajoon’s and my seats, and also put down one bottle of beer each harmoniously.
“Ah, I’m not good at mixing somaek.”
“Then I’ll specially mix this one. Somaek is all about the ratio.”
I brought over Ban Hajoon’s tumbler and carefully adjusted the ratio. One glass of soju, beer… Beer was… hard to control. I tilted it just a little but it poured out gushingly, so I added one more glass of soju and firmly tapped the bottom with a spoon. Bubbles came up bubbling.
“Ah, Ranho-ssi is drunk.”
“I’m not drunk.”
“What kind of somaek is this? This is just soju.”
Ban Hajoon burst out laughing. What do you mean soju? I looked closely at my glass. Yeah, the color was a bit more transparent than yellow, but this was still somaek. Foam was bubbling up.
“Because Hajoon-ssi can’t handle alcohol well, I put in a lot of soju, so if you drink this you’ll get drunk, right? Give it to me. I’ll drink it all.”
“What, no way. I really drink well.”
He kept showing off. He lifted his glass, clinked it however he wanted, and took a shot right away. This doesn’t feel good…
After switching to somaek, Ban Hajoon clinked glasses whenever he was bored. And he kept exclaiming in admiration.
“Wow, Ranho-ssi. You really drink somaek well.”
No. I was also drunk, so my hands kept slipping, making the ratio almost 5:5.
“Ah… wait, Rano, no, Ranho-ssi. Wow, you really drink well. This is no joke-.”
“Yes?”
“Wow, isn’t that soju? Ranho-ssi, aren’t you drunk?”
“This?”
The green bottle making glug-glug sounds while filling the tumbler was obviously soju to anyone. I recognized it, but my tilted hand was very late to straighten the bottle. The transparent liquid sloshed and filled more than half.
“Ah. That’s right.”
“You’re drunk. Right?”
“No, no, I’m not…?”
Since I couldn’t pour back what I had already poured, I decided to just drink it and placed it in front of Ban Hajoon.
“Wait, Ranho-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“This isn’t my glass.”
“Yes?”
“This is Ranho-ssi’s.”
“Mine?”
Ban Hajoon put the gray tumbler that was in front of him in front of me and took the black tumbler that was in front of me. But… I think I was black from the beginning.
“This one.”
“That’s Ranho-ssi’s.”
“Ah…”
Is it not? Is it gray? I thought hard about the color of my glass that I couldn’t remember well, then lightly agreed and lifted the glass. Gray or black, whatever.
Clink. I clinked my glass against Ban Hajoon’s tumbler on my own and brought it to my lips, tilting it, and the alcohol that now had no taste wetly moistened my throat as it went down.
“Keu…”
“Ah, the alcohol goes down well.”
“The weather… because the weather is like this… but ah… I’m a bit… a bit dru… drunk.”
“It’s because you mixed drinks.”
“I guess so.”
Ban Hajoon’s voice was also completely soaked in alcohol. Of course, I was more drunk than him.
“Want to stop drinking?”
“No? But why isn’t Gyoyeon coming…”
I tried to grab the glass I had put down again, but it felt too heavy, so I pushed back my chair and stood up.
“Ranho-ssi?”
“There are straws.”
“Yes?”
“Straws.”
I rummaged through the kitchen cupboard. I definitely put straws somewhere here… After opening all the drawers, searching all the cupboards, and opening the drawers again, I finally found straws that hadn’t been unwrapped from plastic. Ah, found them.
“Here.”
“Ranho-ssi?”
“Straws. Should I give you one…? But my cup is heavy…”
I staggered back and sat down, then hugged the straws to my chest. Making eye contact with Ban Hajoon, I spoke as if I could naturally give them if he asked.
“This is mine, but straws… the cup is heavy… Is that cup heavy? This… but there’s only one… should I give it to you…?”
Ban Hajoon smiled at my increasingly small voice and held out his hand as if asking for it. I tore the plastic while staring blankly at his properly extended palm, then stuck the straw straight into my cup. In that state, I just moved my head and sucked the soju steadily.
“Hey, you said you’d give it to me.”
Ban Hajoon chuckled. I handed him the straw after emptying my glass.
“No… because the cup is heavy… anyway, I used it all. Ah… this is convenient, if you drink like this… you get drunk quickly.”
“Should we stop and clean up now?”
“Why…?”
“Ranho-ssi being drunk is cute… but you’re too drunk…?”
“I’m not drunk…? I’m fine?”
At my firm answer, Ban Hajoon said let’s drink more and opened new soju.
***
We drank too much alcohol. Even though we had both already exceeded our limits, we kept emptying glasses. Ban Hajoon tried to stop me saying we should stop drinking, but fell for my provocation asking if he was drunk first, and ended up exceeding his limit too.
“Rano-ssi. Why are you only close with Gyoyeon?”
“No. Just how many flowers are you buying? I’m dying from exhaustion, really… Do you think bouquets just pop out instantly…?”
We had conversations that neither could understand. We each just said what we wanted to say.
“Can’t you become close with me?”
“What’s with filling a 3-story cafe with flowers? It’s not about money, I’m the problem…?”
“I want to become close with Ranho-ssi…”
“I’m only telling you… I actually find making five bouquets tough too. But I think I could do about three bouquets.”
I was completely sprawled on the table rambling. We had drunk all the alcohol we bought and were drunk to the top of our heads. As I fumblingly spread my fingers muttering “three bouquets are possible…”, Ban Hajoon replied “no, no.”
“No… listen carefully. It’s a reasonable number, you know? If it’s five bouquets, that’s 500,000 won a day, and you do that every day? Then that’s 2.5 million a week. Then how much is it in a month?”
I bolted upright. I spread all ten fingers wide toward Ban Hajoon.
“Money isn’t the problem for me?”
“Money isn’t the problem for me either? I’m the problem, I am.”
“Ah, just do it. Ranho-ssi, please do it. I like what Ranho-ssi makes.”
“No… If you order in bulk from nearby flower shops, they do it cheaper, you know? I’m going to raise flower prices. I can’t do it because it’s too hard, really.”
“Ah, no way. Rano-ssi’s flowers are pretty.”
Ban Hajoon was firm. No way. He shook his head resolutely, saying there could be no compromise at all, and interlocked his fingers with the hand I extended.
“Ah, your hands are small. I wanted to touch them. Rano-ssi’s hands probably smell like flowers.”
“They’d smell like grass… I don’t even touch flower buds…”
“I wanted to look at your hands up close anyway. How do you make them like that?”
Ban Hajoon pulled my hand completely toward him. He put down the interlocked hand on the dining table and used his hand to spread my fingers one by one, feeling the places where scars remained from thorn pricks and scissor cuts.
“I thought they’d be pretty hands since you touch pretty things.”
“Ow- flower scissors are so dangerous…”
“Exactly. Flowers are pretty… pretty. Your hands are pretty too… but the scars must hurt.”
Ban Hajoon’s eyes, staring intently, were moist. He was smiling brightly, but as Ban Hajoon’s pupils gradually became wet, I suddenly felt like my drunkenness was clearing. What, don’t tell me he’s crying…?
“What, so suddenly like this?”
Moisture began to gather in his large eyes, then filled up and flowed down along his nose bridge with a drop. When lukewarm moisture fell on the hand placed palm-up, it wasn’t just a feeling of sobering up – I really did sober up. Crazy, are you crying right now?
Ban Hajoon cried almost to the level of wailing. Ah, why on earth are you crying? I was so flustered that I awkwardly lifted my butt from the chair and looked back and forth between the lukewarm moisture dripping onto my palm and Ban Hajoon dropping tears like in movies.
“Ah, no, this really doesn’t hurt anymore, it’s really really all healed.”
“Huh…”
“Ban Hajoon-ssi?”
“Your hands are so tiny…”
No, what does my hands being small have to do with you crying? I unconsciously wiped the tears falling across Ban Hajoon’s cheeks and reached out with my free hand to pull out tissues with pat-pat sounds.
“No, why are you crying…”
His nose tip flushed red with blood and his eyelashes wet and clumped in strands sent heavy drops of moisture rolling down every time he blinked.
“I said it doesn’t hurt.”
“With these hands, you make those bouquets…”
This crybaby bastard, if you’re that upset, don’t order flowers. I wanted to yank my caught hand away, but I barely held back and patted Ban Hajoon’s shoulder.
“Yes. Thank you. If you feel that sorry, please stop ordering flowers.”
“That won’t do.”
“Then stop crying.”
“…But… tears keep coming out.”
Ah, I’m going crazy. At the strangely raised voice tone and this situation where I shouldn’t laugh but maybe because I wasn’t fully sober, laughter burst out. I laughed until I was breathless, but when Ban Hajoon cried even more sadly, I bit my tongue to hold back laughter.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
