Chapter 72

Their gazes crossed.

For an instant, Yeonhoo felt as if his wavering vision had locked into place. Kwon Mieon looked at him as though drawing him in, as though he would not let Yeonhoo pull his eyes away.

“Mo Yeonhoo?”

At the sound of Kim Seongjae calling his name, Mo Yeonhoo hurriedly pushed Kwon Mieon away with a light shove.

“Sorry. I think I’m drunk....”

“What? Drunk? You don’t usually go down after this much.”

“He wasn’t in great shape from the moment he got here. And he mixed drinks.”

Mo Yeonhoo could hold his liquor, but his condition affected him heavily.

“Yeah, I’m going to head out first. You guys keep having fun.”

“Hey, just stay and hang out. You sober up fast anyway.”

“You’re the ones who always tell me my drunk habits are awful and to get lost....”

“True.”

On top of that, he was the type whose drunkenness came rushing up late, then ebbed away just as suddenly. If he stayed here any longer, he was sure he would end up showing off a full course of terrible drunk behavior. And after what had happened recently with Kwon Mieon, he had only just resolved never to drink until he blacked out again.

“Yeonhoo, I’ll get you a taxi.”

Park Taekyun, who knew Mo Yeonhoo’s drunken habits well, clicked his tongue and stood up.

“Kim Seongjae, stay here and have fun. I’ll take Yeonhoo home and come back.”

“Uh, yeah. Mo Yeonhoo, you okay?”

“Yeah, but I feel bad.”

“Forget it. Your face was pale from the moment you arrived. Go rest. We can drink again another time.”

“Right, Yeonhoo. I’m going to be in Korea for a while anyway.... I’ll help you walk. Hold on here.”

The two of them, both moving with practiced ease to take care of Mo Yeonhoo, paused at the motion that blocked their way. Come to think of it, they were not the only ones here.

“What do we do? Yeonhoo’s drunk, so I think we’ll have to go.”

When they turned their eyes, they saw Kwon Mieon, who had been standing there in complete silence as he watched the way they treated Mo Yeonhoo.

He shifted his gaze toward Park Taekyun, then approached.

“I’ll support Yeonhoo.”

What was this strange sense of déjà vu? Park Taekyun stared at Kwon Mieon, who had somehow come close and was trying to help Mo Yeonhoo.

“What is it?”

Park Taekyun, looking uncertain, asked,

“Uh... have we met somewhere?”

“There’s no way.”

“No, but....”

When he had first seen him, and just now. Those eyes, like glass beads submerged in water, seemed to have no interest in other people. That was not the kind of gaze one forgot easily.

As Kwon Mieon lowered his head, his bright hair darkened for a moment. It looked almost black, and Park Taekyun’s eyes flashed.

“Huh?!”

Wait. Could it be—

But just then, Mo Yeonhoo staggered, and Park Taekyun could not continue. Kwon Mieon caught Mo Yeonhoo firmly.

“It must be hard for you, right? I’ll take him.”

Kwon Mieon said it strongly once more, then naturally pushed away even the remaining hand Park Taekyun had been using to support him and pulled Mo Yeonhoo in as though embracing him. Park Taekyun, who reflexively put strength into his arm to hold on, flinched.

What kind of strength is that?

Unlike the softness of his movements, the hand that had grabbed his arm and pulled it down was strong. It felt as though the slight buzz of alcohol in him had been chased away.

Kwon Mieon was supporting Mo Yeonhoo almost as if holding him, while Mo Yeonhoo dozed like he might topple over at any moment. Helping a drunk adult man was no easy task, yet he looked entirely unbothered.

“I didn’t drink, so we can go straight in my car. You two should stay and enjoy yourselves.”

Looking at that tenderly smiling face, one would think he had never forced Park Taekyun’s arm away at all.

“Wow, you’re nice.”

Moved by the sight of Kwon Mieon taking care of Mo Yeonhoo and trying to leave with him as soon as he arrived, Kim Seongjae told him to go ahead. Kwon Mieon bowed politely.

“It’s nothing. Have fun before you leave.”

With another harmless smile, Kwon Mieon led Mo Yeonhoo away from the two of them quickly. Watching their backs, Kim Seongjae kept clapping and saying young men like that were rare these days, while Park Taekyun—

“Why is he really here?”

“What are you talking about?”

“...Nothing.”

As though it were nothing, Park Taekyun naturally took his glass and watched with curious eyes as the two disappeared.

*****

“...Ah, my head.”

He thought he had only blinked for a moment. He had not fallen asleep. His head was spinning, and his body kept swaying, making nausea rise in him. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.

What is this? Where am I?

The smell of a car. The view of a parking lot in his line of sight. It seemed to be the bar’s parking lot. Maybe the alcohol had hit him harder in the meantime, because the cars parked in front of him kept multiplying as if they were breeding, and Mo Yeonhoo’s expression turned strange.

But I’m inside a car? I didn’t bring mine. Whose car is this? Park Taekyun’s? Kim Seongjae’s?

He had no room to think any further. With a groan, Mo Yeonhoo clutched his head.

My headache is insane today. My head.

Sometimes, when he drank while in poor condition, a fierce headache would come over him, and this was exactly that. In cases like this, the headache sobered him up comparatively fast, but the hangover the next day was no joke. Mo Yeonhoo was grimacing miserably and clutching his head at the pain he would be feeling vividly tomorrow when the driver’s-side door opened with a clunk.

And the person who got in was...

“Are you okay?”

It was Kwon Mieon. Well, Park Taekyun and Kim Seongjae had both been drinking, so there was no one else.

“It really is Kwon Mieon....”

Even seeing him again, it still felt somehow unbelievable that he was in front of him.

“How the hell did you... ugh... get here?”

“Drink this first.”

No matter how he thought about it, Kwon Mieon’s appearance was too random. But Kwon Mieon only twisted open the cap of a water bottle and held it out together with a hangover cure.

“No, I asked how you got... ah.”

He needed to interrogate him, so why did his head hurt this much? Mo Yeonhoo raked through his hair with an expression that said he was dying.

“Are you okay? Do you feel sick?”

“Yeah... no? ...No, yeah.”

He said he was fine, shook his head, then nodded again.

“You feel sick and your head hurts, right?”

“Yeah, my head....”

“You’ll feel a little better if you take this and drink some water.”

His head hurt as if it might split open, so he could not refuse any longer.

He should not have drunk so quickly. If his condition was bad, he should have paced himself, but he had kept downing one glass after another, and apparently that had sent him over the edge. In the end, Mo Yeonhoo took the medicine Kwon Mieon offered and drank the water too.

Once the water went down, his nauseated stomach felt as though it might survive, but that did not mean the headache disappeared.

Even in that state, Mo Yeonhoo was determined to hear why Kwon Mieon was here, and he called his name through sheer stubbornness.

“Kwon... Mieon.”

His will had gotten ahead of him, though, and his pronunciation tangled.

“Yes, the Kwon Mieon whose calls you ignored and DMs you ignored, ignored so much that I got chewed into gum. Gum Mieon, that’s me.”

But no matter what Yeonhoo called him, Kwon Mieon answered with a calm expression and only carefully leaned in. He took the water bottle from Mo Yeonhoo’s hand while using his other hand to pull the seat belt out.

“Ah, ahaha.”

At the sudden burst of laughter, Kwon Mieon paused. Bent at the waist to fasten Yeonhoo’s seat belt for him, he lifted his head slightly, then widened his eyes at the face right in front of his nose.

“Hahaha.”

Mo Yeonhoo was laughing. He even tipped his head back, the corners of his mouth pulled high, his eyes curving beautifully as he slapped the seat with his hand.

“Gum Mieon, he says. Gum Mieon. Ah, seriously, that’s so funny....”

Apparently, the word had caught him. Mo Yeonhoo kept bursting into laughter as though savoring it, then suddenly opened his eyes wide in surprise. It was because of Kwon Mieon’s face right in front of him.

Kwon Mieon was pale. Mo Yeonhoo had fair skin too, but Kwon Mieon’s face usually carried a faintly bloodless cast. Right now, however, it was different. The moment their eyes met, Mo Yeonhoo froze where he was, unable to move.

“.......”

Kwon Mieon’s face, all the way to his ears and neck, had flushed bright red. Facing that face as it stared back at him, reddened all over, Mo Yeonhoo felt as if the alcohol had sobered out of him all at once.

Tension flowed between the two of them as they went rigid, as ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) though they had turned to ice. The taut air stretched on for a moment, then broke when Mo Yeonhoo’s eyes shifted slightly and he drew his body back.

Click. Kwon Mieon fastened the belt quickly, as if he had never been that close, and returned to the driver’s seat.

Mo Yeonhoo repeatedly curled and uncurled his fingertips.

What... was that?

Not only had the little alcohol still left in him disappeared, it even felt as though his headache had vanished. But he did not feel refreshed at all.

Why does it keep coming back to me?

The sight of Kwon Mieon’s face turning bright red was replaying automatically inside his head.