#53
“Hajun hyung, you’re here!” A green head peeked out and then disappeared from the entrance door that was furthest away. It must be over there. While moving his feet with a grin, Imun suddenly stopped and gently pulled his hand. There was already concern mixed in his eyes as he looked at him.
“Our members… they all have mischievous personalities so you might feel awkward. I’ll try to keep them in check as much as possible.”
“Pfft, it’s fine. Wow, I’m really looking forward to this. It might be a bit awkward but… yeah, I’m counting on you.”
It seemed like he only remembered Hajun’s shy personality just before entering the house. “But you know, it’ll be fine.” He messed up Imun’s kind head to his heart’s content and smiled bravely.
*
What greeted them first was none other than a generous spread of food. Stir-fried pork, bossam, pig’s trotters, pizza, and all sorts of high-calorie foods steamed on the table.
While Hajun was marveling at the space that seemed several times larger than his own home, Saha pulled out a chair from the center of the table.
“Hyung, sit here!”
“What is all this… Hello. Did you all wait without having dinner because of me?”
“You can speak casually with us! We’re all younger than you!”
“La… later.” Just as he was awkwardly conversing with Saha who was approaching without hesitation, Imun jumped into the conversation like a relief pitcher.
“What are you going to do, what are you going to do.” “Haha, what am I going to do?” From when he first joined their video calls, he had somewhat expected it, but Saha seemed quite prone to teasing.
How can he take all that without getting angry?! While watching Imun laugh off Saha’s provocations as if he was used to this kind of situation, Sura came out of the kitchen carrying plates.
“Hello, Gangha-nim.”
When Hajun hurriedly stood up to help, Sura shouted, “Guests should remain seated!” “Oh, no, but, how can I…” While standing awkwardly in surprise for a moment, he grabbed Sura as he was heading back to the kitchen.
“Is there… more food coming? This seems more than enough…”
“With five grown men here, we can chew through steel. We earn money to eat well. Our activities are over, so we want to eat until our stomachs burst, at least for a day.”
“Jaeyeon hyung, bring that too!” Rai walked out of the kitchen in response to Sura’s shout. “Hello.” Rai, who calmly greeted him, was holding several bottles of soju and beer in both hands. Sura quickly took the bottles and began setting up the drinking table.
“Gangha-nim, do you drink? After all, drinking is the best way to get close, right?”
While Hajun was stammering, unable to answer Sura, Imun raised his voice slightly in irritation.
“What’s with the sudden alcohol without any prior notice?” “Hyung, we need to maintain the concept.” Around the time Imun made a dejected expression as if he had lost the brief clash with Sura, Saha used himself as a shield and shouted from behind as if wronged by Imun.
“We want to get close to Hajun hyung too! Were you planning to bring him to the dorm and not let us talk to him?”
“That’s not it, but still, alcohol isn’t right.”
Amidst the chaotic conversation, Hajun felt like a borrowed sack of barley. Sitting awkwardly in the chair, watching the verbal battle between Imun and the members, he frowned slightly.
Can I add something here? The subtle tension flowing from earlier was clearly because of him. Although he appreciated Imun trying hard to block the members’ actions, he didn’t want to cause discord among the On The Sky members.
“…Actually, I brought alcohol too.”
After the sudden attention of all four members, he brought out a bottle each of whiskey and cheongju from his suitcase. It was a housewarming gift he had chosen according to his grandmother’s theory that nothing is better than alcohol for overcoming awkwardness.
“I thought it would be good for getting to know each other…” “That’s right! Hajun hyung, you know your stuff!” The moment he smiled awkwardly at Saha who was cheerfully patting his back, Imun jumped up from his chair. “Park Saha!” Just as his eyes turned cold as if he couldn’t tolerate it anymore—
“Since Gangha-nim purposely brought alcohol too, let’s just drink a little.”
“Ha, all of you, you really planned this, didn’t you.”
Imun irritably sat down, shaking off his wrist that was caught by Rai. As the laughter instantly disappeared, Hajun poked his side and whispered in his ear.
“Why are you so sensitive? What’s wrong with drinking a little?”
“You… you can’t handle alcohol well.”
“Huh?! Ah, no. I’m actually a pretty decent drinker.”
“And I wanted to be… the only one to be your first drinking buddy, hyung.”
“Hyung doesn’t even know how I feel.” Watching Imun grumbling as if he was sulking, Hajun looked at him in disbelief and gently stroked his thigh like consoling a child. “Sorry. Next time, let’s drink just the two of us.” “…Okay.” It seemed like grabbing his wrist urgently and smiling had somewhat softened his mood.
Being the object of jealousy feels good. Hajun suppressed his escaping smile and turned his head toward the table.
*
He continued talking with the members while drinking alcohol with the food as snacks. Thanks to everyone’s friendly personalities, the gathering wasn’t as awkward as he had worried.
After all, food and alcohol are indeed the best for getting close. While looking firmly at the perfect combination spread before him, he held an empty beer bottle and a soju bottle, one in each hand.
“I heard somaek is really delicious. How do you make it?”
“OMG, amazing! Hyung, you’ve never had somaek?”
Saha startled and skillfully demonstrated how to make somaek. “Then, you’ve lived in Japan since high school?” When Hajun lightly nodded while accepting the beer glass that Saha handed him, Sura smiled brightly as if it was fortunate.
“Then, you haven’t played drinking games either, right?”
Drinking games? What’s that? He shot a glance at Imun upon hearing the word “game,” but he didn’t seem to know much either. Just as he thought it must be some kind of game played with alcohol, Sura began clearing the table.
“Nothing beats drinking games for getting to know each other. It’s an honor to introduce a new world to you two social recluses like this.”
“Is that so? Wow… I’m… looking forward to it.”
“Hyung, are you okay?” Hajun swallowed dryly after trying to reassure Imun who was worried about him. He couldn’t admit that he felt an inexplicable chill from Sura’s bright smile.
*
Once started, the drinking games continued without stopping. The express train that couldn’t be stopped was cruel and merciless.
No matter how good he was at games, he had no chance of winning in games where he didn’t know the rules. It was a wicked structure that was hard to adapt to—just when he thought he had grasped the rules, they moved on to another game.
He protested to the members several times, but all he got in return was the absurd statement that drinking games are learned by drinking.
It wouldn’t have felt so unfair if the proceedings were at least fair. Every time a game started, a scary shout of “Who’s the target!” poured out along with playful gazes from the three members. Because of that, it was very difficult to escape the festival of penalty drinks.
The only fortunate thing was that Imun, being on the same team, wasn’t targeted as much as himself.
It’s better for me to drink than Imun. Hajun tearfully downed the glass of alcohol that was immediately pushed toward him as soon as he lost the game. Before he could even take a breath, another new game was starting again.
“Non-idols fold.”
“People who tried somaek for the first time today fold!”
“Brown-haired people fold… please.”
There were no more fingers to fold. Just as he was making a despairing expression and lightly hitting his forehead on the table, Sura’s voice followed: “Let’s quickly drink the penalty drink.”
“Urgh, why only me…!”
He raised his head abruptly to protest his unfairness, but no one took his side except for Imun.
Rai with an apologetic expression, Saha who was blatantly holding out the glass, and Sura who was controlling him from behind. After staring at the three extremely wicked members with drooping eyes, he reluctantly sipped the soju with a feeling of being pushed to the edge of a cliff.
Even though he just took a small sip, the alcohol scent rose up through his nose. This is getting dangerous. Objects had been appearing blurry for a while now. As he was trying to pretend to drink properly while sneakily putting down his glass, his eyes met Sura’s.
“If you keep dodging like this, we can’t just let it go!” Sura gave a sign to Saha and smiled wickedly. Soon, the two members cleared their throats with an “Ahem” and clapped their hands rhythmically while shouting his name in syllables.
“Gang Hajun drink up, Gang! Ha! Jun! One shot!”
As expected of singers, their voices coming from deep within their stomachs were powerful without a single tremor.
“You’re offering me a drink, am I offering you a drink?! Ah sha! Ah sha!” His pitiful plea to be let off just once was completely ignored. Watching the knife-like choreography of the two members raising their forearms with the sides of their hands, Hajun let out a long sigh.
How many drinks is this now? This was the only way to stop the drinking song that he had heard so many times he had memorized the lyrics. Just as he was ignoring the repeated warning signals in his head and grabbing the soju glass again—
“Hyung… stop… drinking.”
Imun snatched his glass from beside him.
“Oh, is the knight in shining armor here again?!” The moment Imun shot a cold glare at Saha who was giggling and getting on his nerves, Sura giggled as if he couldn’t stand it.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
