At Do Jihoon’s eyebrow twitch as he asked back, I lowered my head like a shriveled worm.
“Huh? It’s a worm.”
Fuck. The moment I thought of a worm, more bizarre memories came spilling out in a chain.
“Thanks to you, I got to ease my worries.”
“……About what?”
“Worrying that you’d cheat.”
“……”
“Seeing how you kept rambling about ‘my alpha’ this and that.”
I wanted to pour out a bucketful of curses, but I had no mouth to do so. I just sat there quietly, taking the scolding.
“So. How are you going to repay me?”
“…….”
“Why so quiet? Yesterday you wouldn’t shut up even when I told you to.”
“……Should I give you money for the dry cleaning?”
He looked at me like I was an amoeba or a paramecium. I hurriedly changed my answer.
“I’ll grant you something you want.”
“Right. That’s the answer I was looking for.”
What a petty bastard. Even as I grumbled inwardly, my thoughts wandered to the fact that if the situation had been reversed, I would’ve acted the exact same way. No—if it were me, I probably would’ve just run off no matter what happened to Do Jihoon. I wouldn’t have wanted to get involved.
But damn it, I got properly entangled. And not just entangled—bound by ill fate.
“I’ll keep this debt well stored. I don’t have a use for it yet.”
“…….”
“That look in your eyes is insolent.”
“It’s not.”
I quickly lowered my gaze. He tapped my hair lightly as if patting a puppy.
Just then, a knock knock sounded at the door. My body stiffened. If it wasn’t my noona, it was Mom or Dad.
I was screwed. In my current state, I was seconds away from being beaten with a twig broom. Not only had I come home plastered before even graduating, I’d also made a drunken scene in front of my fiancé-to-be.
I tried to avoid trash and ended up stepping in shit instead.
“Yes.”
That dog bastard Do Jihoon! Before I could even think, he answered. The gates of hell opening were crystal clear in my vision.
“……Noona.”
Feeling a chill crawl over me, I called out to her. But as if I were invisible, she looked only at Do Jihoon and spoke.
“Jihoon-ah. You can head home now. Yuri’s awake. I’m sorry for the trouble.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m just happy that Yuri seems to trust me that much already.”
What am I looking at right now? Am I still drunk?
Look at Do Jihoon’s face. Smiling brightly, cheeks slightly flushed as if shy.
It was such an absurd, grotesque scene that I couldn’t accept it unless I called it a dream. My brain flat-out refused to process reality and declared a strike.
“I’ll leave after I see Yuri eat. I didn’t really have much to do today anyway.”
“Thank you for saying that. You should eat too before you go. I’ll let the housekeeper know.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. Then come down in about ten minutes.”
“Yes, noona.”
The moment she left and the door closed, all expression vanished from Do Jihoon’s face.
“You crazy two-faced bastard…….”
“Yuri-ya. Having trouble controlling that mouth of yours?”
“No. What’s attached to my face isn’t a mouth, it’s an asshole, so all it does is spew shit. I’m sorry.”
He ran a hand through his hair once and then perched on the arm of a chair far from the bed. Beneath his messy hair, his black eyes were soaked in fatigue.
“Didn’t you sleep?”
“If you have a brain, think about it. Do you think I slept? My entire body reeked of vomit.”
“You could’ve washed…….”
“Are you an amoeba? The moment I let go of your hand, you started blasting pheromones everywhere. How was I supposed to go wash?”
“The neutralizer…….”
“For a dominant omega’s pheromones? And ones that keep pouring out? Even if I used up every neutralizer in your house, it wouldn’t be enough. Right?”
He answered calmly, but clearly enough that his irritation came through. The more I spoke, the more I felt like I was devolving into a single-celled organism just as he said, so I shut up.
I was seriously tangled up. With Do Jihoon. In that so-called relationship of debt and resentment that’s hard to sever. The refreshing sensation of being one step closer to death filled me. To survive, simply “not obsessing over Do Jihoon” wasn’t enough. I realized that far too late.
“Crazy…….”
While I gloomily tugged at my hair, Do Jihoon stood, opened the door, and looked back at me. When I checked the clock, ten minutes had passed. I trailed after him downstairs.
The dining room was filled with the delicious smell of dried pollack soup. It smelled amazing……. It seemed my noona had asked the housekeeper to prepare hangover soup. I sat across from her at the table and made a deeply moved expression. Her face immediately twisted.
“Hot—!”
“Yuri-ya. Be careful. It’s very hot, so let it cool before you eat.”
“…….”
Does that bastard seriously not have a split personality? It was a reasonable suspicion. I mixed rice into the soup and ate it heartily.
After the meal, my noona suggested that Do Jihoon wash up before leaving. But he very politely declined, saying he didn’t have a change of clothes. Honestly, I had a strong, completely reasonable suspicion that he just didn’t want to be around me any longer.
After sending Do Jihoon off in our family car, I faced my noona, who had apparently possessed the spirit of a demon.
“You crazy bastard!”
“Ah! Ah! It hurts, noona! Ah!”
And then the twig broom flew at me.
“Do you want to get kicked out? You’ve only known him for three weeks! Do you have any sense at all? Chairman Do and his wife saw Do Jihoon coming out to pick you up while you were completely plastered! You’re dead once Mom and Dad find out. Dead!”
“……Mom and Dad know too?”
The blood drained from my face. If my parents found out, it was over. I’d probably get a curfew. Or maybe they’d block my card…….
“Not yet.”
“Noona……. I love you…….”
“I was just about to tell them.”
“Noona……! Please don’t tell them…….”
“Then promise me one thing. That this won’t happen again.”
“Yeah, yeah. Of course, I promise.”
“You only drink as much as you can handle. Just enough to feel good. That’s your limit. Got it?”
“Yeah. I got it.”
“Good. Now go to your room and wash up. You stink like alcohol.”
“I’ll go wash right now. Love you.”
I shot finger hearts at my noona with both arms and fled to my room. Then I grabbed my nose at the foul stench assaulting it. Every kind of pheromone smell mixed with the reek of vomit—it was basically a disgusting stew. I sprayed pheromone neutralizer and air freshener all over the room and opened the windows to air it out. I felt like I might freeze to death, but that was far better than getting caught by my parents and thrown out.
“Ugh…… warm.”
The hot water filling the bathtub and the scent of bath salts wrapped around me cozily. My stiff body slowly relaxed. I decided to stay submerged until the room was fully ventilated.
As I stared blankly at the bubbles rising with soft pops, the bastard who had handed me this gigantic pile of shit came to mind.
I immediately grabbed my phone and called that son of a bitch Kim Bo-jin. It was almost noon now. More than enough time for someone who hadn’t drunk that much to be awake.
“This asshole is ignoring my call……?”
Let’s see who wins. I kept calling over and over. Kim Bo-jin finally answered when I pressed the call button for the 59th time.
“……Persistent bastard.”
“They say the one who farted gets angry first—our ancestors weren’t wrong. Did you just curse at me, you fucker?”
“I told you! You said not to call your noona first! I didn’t know what else to do, so I called Do Jihoon!”
“You…… couldn’t…… think about…… taking me home yourself?”
“…….”
Silence from Kim Bo-jin.
“Sure, the fundamental cause of the shit was me. But you didn’t hand me any toilet paper.”
“……Fuck.”
“It’s true I got drunk as hell. But how does your brain jump straight to calling Do Jihoon? If I hadn’t told you I had a fiancé, you would’ve kindly taken me home yourself, wouldn’t you?”
“…….”
“Is the hole in your face just decoration? Your mouth is there so you can choose when to open it and when not to. Say something, bastard.”
“Ah, what do you want me to do!”
I spoke with utmost sincerity.
“Help clean up the shit I made.”
“Crazy. Your Honor, the punishment is far too severe compared to the crime I committed.”
“Come on…….”
“My ass.”
“Bo-jin. If you want to have a happy graduation ceremony, help me out?”
“Fine, fine. I have at least as much conscience as your pathetic LoL rank.”
“My League rank?”
“Bronze.”
“Let’s hang up.”
Yeon Yuri sure picked a great friend. After ending the call with Kim Bo-jin, I realized the bathwater had gone cold. I put on a robe and returned to my room.
“Fuck, it’s cold.”
Shivering, I closed each window. Fortunately, all the disgusting smells strong enough to bring back my nausea had disappeared. The sheets and blanket had been replaced with clean ones.
Happily, I dove onto my bed. Just as I was savoring the cozy feeling, a KakaoTalk message came from Kim Bo-jin.
Hehe another storyyy (*´˘`*)♡