#062
My hands kept losing strength, so I put my phone down on the dining table, switched the call mode to speakerphone, and turned the volume up to maximum. The boring dial tone continued.
“He’s not picking up. Why?”
I counted the calls once, twice, three times, but after that I stopped counting how many times I’d called. After it went past ten times, I got confused and gave up counting.
I tilted the champagne bottle and gulped down the remaining liquid. The liquid filling my stomach made sloshing sounds every time I moved my body. At this rate, my stomach’s going to burst. I rubbed my protruding belly and pressed the call button again.
“Why won’t he pick up… Maybe he’s avoiding me…?”
But why would Woo Dohwan avoid me? He likes me so much. Listening to the pretty-voiced guidance message, I pressed the call end button and pressed the green call button again.
“Is he sleeping…? What time is it now…?”
I checked the wall clock. What time is that? I couldn’t tell which was the long hand and which was the short hand, so I resolved to change it to a digital clock when I sobered up. The dial tone continued with a trill- then cut off. Not this time either. I exhaled heavily while waiting for the nightingale-like voice I’d soon hear. But no matter how long I waited, I couldn’t hear the guidance message. Instead,
– …Hello.
A voice that was clearly from being woken up but excessively cold rang out.
“Hello, hello.”
– Haa… Do you know what time it is right now?
“Right now is… No. I don’t know… No, I looked at the time, I looked at the clock, but the long hand… there’s no short one.”
– Did you drink by any chance?
Does it show? I huffed, exhaled and inhaled repeatedly, then nodded my head vigorously. I thought I was speaking as straight as possible, but it seemed less obvious.
“Yes. I drank… but I’m not drunk… I’m not drunk.”
– What’s going on at this hour? I was trying not to worry about you like you told me to, but why are you interfering like this? Making me worry.
“No- I didn’t mean don’t worry about me, so… let me explain, ex-, ex-plain,”
His grumbling voice still sounded angry. I earnestly tried to explain that wasn’t it. But the more I explained, the deeper Woo Dohwan’s sighs became. “What are you even saying,” his muttering pierced my ears several times.
“But wait. What was I… what was I talking about?”
– …Where are you right now?
“Home. Home.”
– Ranho. That tea you told me to come drink, can I come drink it now?
At his sighing question, I nodded my head very enthusiastically even though Woo Dohwan couldn’t see me.
“Yes, yes. Totally fine. There’s tea to drink. The one made with flowers, flowers.”
– I’ll be right there. If you fall asleep, I won’t let it slide, baby.
After hanging up the phone, I dozed off like a sick chicken as Woo Dohwan had worried, then banged my head on the table with a thud and jumped up from my seat in surprise. How much time passed? When I checked my phone and saw no missed calls, it didn’t seem like much time had passed.
I got up from my seat wobbling and naturally left through the front door. I took the elevator down to the first floor and passed through the lobby. I’m not sure if it’s late or early. I left the quiet officetel building and crouched down in front of the entrance. I thought Woo Dohwan would see me right away if I sat here.
I only threw on a thick jersey so it was cold. The weather was really chilly. My toes sticking out between my slippers were cold and wiggling, so I turned my hands to pull my hood over my head and closed my eyes, making the black view spin around. Even though I was sitting still, I kept swaying. My body that was tilting back and forth as if about to fall was suddenly pulled upright.
“Huh?”
“Were you waiting for me?”
A handsome face that looked good no matter when I saw it came close to my nose.
“Ah, you’re really handsome…”
“What?”
“Yes?”
“What are you doing here? It’s cold too.”
“Might not… if I sleep…”
Might not be able to meet you. As I mumbled and stammered, a large hand gently stroked the top of my head. He held my swaying body and moved toward the officetel. By the way, he looked like he just woke up but why did he come looking so cool?
“How admirable.”
“But weren’t you sleeping?”
“I was sleeping.”
“Looking at your face, it seems like you weren’t sleeping…?”
Without knowing it, I reached out and grabbed Woo Dohwan’s hand. I rubbed his soft palm and suddenly lifted my head to meet Woo Dohwan’s eyes. He mouthed “why?” but I gave up answering with my increasingly slurred pronunciation and just shook my head.
Even after getting on the elevator, I stared intently at Woo Dohwan, so he covered his face with his free hand and slowly exhaled.
“What’s wrong? Does your face hurt? Don’t touch it if it hurts.”
“Would I cover it because it hurts?”
“Then why…?”
Woo Dohwan didn’t answer. He just removed the hand he was covering with and quietly looked into my eyes with the eyes he slowly revealed. We arrived at the 8th floor in an instant. Maybe the alcohol was wearing off faster than I thought, as my distorted vision slowly returned. Unfortunately, my tied tongue didn’t return.
The arrival chime rang and the elevator opened. I walked straight toward my home and was caught by Woo Dohwan. He properly guided me in the direction I was trying to walk. He held my shoulders and even added choo-choo train sounds from behind like we were playing train. If I wasn’t drunk, I would have asked what he was doing with a straight face, but drunk me went choo-choo- and even kept rhythm with his sounds. I heard laughter from behind me.
I also giggled and recognized my fingerprint on the door lock and opened the door wide.
“Welcome, welcome.”
“You’re really cute when you’re drunk, but it’s worrying.”
“Yes?”
“I’m wondering if you’ve shown this side of yourself somewhere else.”
Woo Dohwan neatly took off his shoes and took out guest slippers from one side of the shoe cabinet and put them on. I stared in amazement at how he could take them out and put them on without me even telling him, then I also took off the slippers I had worn out and put my feet into the indoor shoes.
Looking at the carelessly placed slippers, I realized I had gone out wearing mismatched shoes.
“Huh, the shoes… those shoes are wrong!!!”
“I thought you wore one of each that you liked, am I right?”
“Uh… seems right.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say no to the question, so I nodded saying yes. Woo Dohwan laughed. Whether drunk or not, when I look at him, my heart feels like it’s going to fall to my feet with a thud.
“Your jaw’s going to drop.”
At his chuckling face and muttering, I came to my senses and quickly closed my mouth that had opened without me knowing. I passed by Woo Dohwan leaning against the front door inner gate and headed to the living room. Swish, swish, after my footsteps dragged on the floor, swish, swish, Woo Dohwan’s footsteps rang out as if keeping rhythm. Ah, right. I didn’t clean up the dining table.
“Did you really drink alone?”
Woo Dohwan, who confirmed the beer cans and champagne bottles messily placed on the table, opened his eyes wide and asked. His hand that shot out cutting through the air seemed to be counting the empty cans on the table. I opened a plastic bag for recycling, poured the cans in with a clatter, and hugged the three champagne bottles I had emptied. I carelessly laid out the bags and bottles on the kitchen veranda and caught my breath. I consoled myself that if I had the presence of mind to clean that up, Woo Dohwan wouldn’t be here.
“Wow, I thought you could drink well… but all of that went into that small stomach.”
Shame rushed in like a tide as I watched Woo Dohwan exclaiming in admiration.
“I’ve been drinking since early evening, drank-“
“It’s true I came because you lured me with delicious tea, but I’m afraid you’ll get hurt boiling water so I can’t even ask for it. Can I open the refrigerator?”
Woo Dohwan sat me down on a chair after I stopped in the middle of the kitchen and took out two bottles of sparkling water from the refrigerator. He opened the cap and put it in front of me, then seeing me gesture in the air, he put the water bottle directly in my hand.
Each time the tingling carbonation went down my throat, I had the illusion that I was sobering up a bit. Of course I wasn’t sobering up, so it was definitely an illusion. I licked the lime-flavored oral mucosa with my tongue and let out a deep sigh.
“I’m sorry…”
“For what?”
“For being so drunk… I usually don’t get dr-, dru-, drunk much. I didn’t eat anything, but why didn’t you ans-, but why didn’t you pick up?”
At my pure question, Woo Dohwan laughed as if incredulous. He looked at the clock taking up one wall of the living room and said gently.
“2:43 AM.”
“Yes?”
“Everyone’s sleeping at that time, Ranho. I was sleeping so I didn’t know the phone was ringing, but I woke up because it kept flashing.”
“Ah…”
“But you drank without eating anything?”
Woo Dohwan explained the situation at the time in a gentle voice and asked something. He made eye contact with me, who couldn’t properly understand what he was asking, and leaned against the dining table looking down at me.
“So what did you want to talk about so much without even eating?”
“So I, so why don’t you worry about me, why do you worry about other people so much…”
“I told you not to worry about your business.”
“That’s right. My business is just that person anyway, but why do you keep worrying about him… You should just worry about me instead.”
I let out a deep sigh. I raised my limp hand to sweep back my hair and muttered, why, why don’t you worry about me? Woo Dohwan, who heard my muttering, burst into laughter again as if incredulous.
“You’re really driving me crazy.”
“But, I have something I’m curious about, can I ask?”
“Go ahead. But are you this cute when you’re drunk?”
“I’m twenty-five though?”
“I think you’ll be cute even at thirty-five.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
