By Zephyria 
Was he… was he crossing the line with his cheekiness?! Just as Jiha was about to immediately bow his head and apologize, Jeil Heon’s face turned bright red, as if red paint had been spilled over it. It was as if he had only now digested and understood the word ‘jealousy’ that he had heard.
Jeil Heon hurriedly covered his face with his hand and turned away, but Jiha had already seen it. Yoo Jiha’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.
“Wow, Mister. Your face. Let me see your face.”
“It’s hot. It’s because it’s hot.”
“You don’t even turn on the fan in your room in the middle of summer. This is the first time I’ve seen your face turn red! I have to archive this as a photo!”
Jeil Heon twisted his head here and there to avoid Yoo Jiha, who was excitedly thrusting his phone camera toward him, and eventually fled with quick steps. He hurriedly covered the back of his neck with his hand at the words, “Your neck is red too!”
「Tsk tsk. For someone old enough to have children, they sure play well.」
It was a peaceful time, with the sound of some old fogey clicking their tongue on the roof echoing in the wind.
Jiha was brimming with the will to tease him all day with this incident, but a lifeline for escape descended for Jeil Heon. It was a call from Kang Suk-young, suggesting they grab a drink after dinner.
“Suk-young says you should come along if you’re okay with it. What do you think?”
Yoo Jiha thought for a moment and then shook his head. Although he felt psychologically closer to Kang Suk-young than before, he wasn’t at the point where he could drink with her.
Left alone at home after Jeil Heon went out, Yoo Jiha organized the day’s interviews and emailed them to the group leader. Between drinking a glass of soju, studying, and watching variety shows, it was past midnight.
If it had been before they started dating, he might have been anxious, thinking, ‘What if those two…?’, but now Yoo Jiha had confidence in his heart. He would coolly let him go on a four-day, three-night friendship trip with Kang Suk-young… No, still, that’s not right. He would follow them, even if he had to hide in a trunk.
To calm his mind, he sneaked into Jeil Heon’s room. Seeing the mini delphinium bouquet hanging on the wall, a giggle escaped him. He found out later that even when Jeil Heon said he couldn’t accept the confession, he hadn’t thrown the bouquet away but had asked his younger sister to preserve it. The sister had freeze-dried it so it could be kept in its original form.
He really should give the sister a Spam gift set. While he was wearing a smirk, his phone rang. He answered quickly, but the caller was Kang Suk-young.
I didn’t wake you up, did I? Sunbae is so drunk he can’t even find his way. Can you come meet him at the bottom of the hill?
“Does the Team leader ever get drunk?”
Jeil Heon was someone whose expression didn’t change a bit even while drinking liquor straight from a bottle he’d smuggled from his father’s house in Suwon. It was surprising and fascinating, and Kang Suk-young let out a laugh that felt somewhat sinister.
I guess you haven’t seen Sunbae drunk yet. It’ll be an unforgettable memory.
When it came to drinking, Jeil Heon was truly a bottomless pit. None of the renowned heavy drinkers in the Management Bureau could keep up with him, and at company dinners, it was always his role to take care of the drunk people until the very end.
Not only was his tolerance incredibly high, but because he knew his own drinking habits well, he rarely drank until he was intoxicated. In other words, the fact that he was drunk meant that something quite extraordinary had happened.
The employee bringing new bottles to the room flinched upon opening the door. Since a guest the size of a door was curled up on the sofa, they thought he was some kind of bear. Regardless of whether the employee entered or not, Jeil Heon buried his face in his hugged knees. Kang Suk-young snapped a photo of that miserable sight with her phone. Despite being practically a human weapon, his quite pitiful appearance was not even funny.
After the employee glanced awkwardly and left, she poured liquor lavishly into an empty glass. Smelling the new alcohol, Jeil Heon’s glazed eyes peeked up. Kang Suk-young slid the glass toward him and whispered suggestively.
“Sunbae. There’s a new sports car I’ve had my eye on lately, but it’s too expensive for me to even dream of. But after a test drive, it was killer. Give me your card so I can buy the car.”
“Okay.”
Jeil Heon, who gulped down the drink without any side dishes, fumbled to take out his wallet and handed the whole thing to her. Then he curled back up miserably, hugging his knees.
“No limit, right? I’m charging it in one lump sum.”
“Okay.”
“Since I’m at it, tell me the password so I can withdraw cash too.”
“The total number of chocolates Eun-jung gave me every Valentine’s Day.”
“…Did you change your password once a year?”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad my brother isn’t a creepy human like you. So, what exactly is it?”
Jeil Heon obediently revealed the password. That was it. When drunk, he became the biggest pushover in the world. In the past, he had even handed over his personal seal and ID while completely wasted.
Kang Suk-young smirked as she toyed with the black card she took from his wallet. The color was nice. She didn’t actually intend to buy a sports car, but she planned to put the alcohol bill on it. That was fair. Jeil Heon was the one who had drunk eighty percent of the liquor, which cost over a million won.
“My poor Suk-ja… Even her name is tacky, and she doesn’t even have money to buy a car… She’s a beggar…”
“So you’re saying my name is tacky, but you called it a good name when I changed it?”
“It’s tacky… But it suits you.”
At the voice filled with genuine sincerity, as if he were truly dying of pity, a vein popped on Kang Suk-young’s forehead. Wondering if she should actually splurge on a sports car with this card, she asked.
“So, why the hell did you drink so much today?”
“I’m trash…”
The drunken voice sank as if he were about to cry.
“Sunbae, you are trash. You’re trash for coming back perfectly fine after making people suffer for twenty-two years without a word. More than anything, the fact that your face looks younger than mine is really annoying.”
“Jiha is…”
“Yeah.”
“Too young…”
“Of course he’s young. He’s a human born in the 21st century. He’s a new species with a completely different brain structure than ours.”
“He’s so MZ…”
“Kids these days don’t understand when you say MZ. Stop acting like an old fogey—actually, do people even use the word ‘old fogey’ anymore? Anyway, repeat after me. MZ-ee.”
“Zee.”
Jeil Heon’s drinking habits were the same as they were twenty-two years ago, but in her hand, there was a tool of civilization that didn’t exist twenty-two years ago. Only after she had her fun teasing him while recording a video with her phone did Kang Suk-young drag him out of the bar.
‘Didn’t Sunbae get drunk because of Jiha even before he disappeared?’
The partner back then wasn’t Yoo Jiha, but Nam Jiha, but it was the same in that he got drunk while muttering to himself in a way that no one could understand. Hmm, was he saying that Nam Jiha was so pretty he could die?
Recalling old memories, Kang Suk-young called a designated driver. Soon, Yoo Jiha, who took over the care of him at Pilgyeongdang, also widened his eyes.
“Will you really do anything if I ask? Team leader, please imitate a rabbit.”
“Hop, hop.”
When Jeil Heon put his hands above his crown and flicked them like rabbit ears, Yoo Jiha burst into laughter and Kang Suk-young roared. Leaving a final tip that he remembers everything even after he sobers up, she left, chuckling repeatedly and telling them to have a good time.
“Child Heon. It’s time to brush your teeth, like this, chika-chika.”
“Chika-chika.”
Feeling like a kindergarten teacher or a robot operator, Yoo Jiha washed him and changed his clothes. Even while staggering and bumping his head against the wall, Jeil Heon managed to follow. Last time, when he fell asleep, Jiha had struggled because he couldn’t even change his clothes, but today it was so easy.
“Now, time for ko-nennae.”
“Ko-nen…? Ko, what?”
“It means it’s time to lie in bed and go ‘kooo,’ sleep.”
“Okay.”
Jeil Heon clumsily climbed into bed and lay down quietly under the covers. Feeling it was a waste to leave immediately after turning off the light, Jiha leaned toward him one last time and tapped his own cheek. Surely he wouldn’t ‘dip-eat’—play a prank—even while drunk.
With vacant eyes, Jeil Heon looked up, tilting his head. Just as Jiha thought for the first time that his left eye, sparkling even in the dark, was pretty, Jeil Heon suddenly pulled Yoo Jiha into an embrace. Pulled in unexpectedly and landing on the bed, Yoo Jiha felt a breath heavily mixed with the scent of alcohol touch his cheek. It wasn’t a kiss; it was a ‘dip-eat.’
“You didn’t just dip-eat, ngh!”
The chatter of the unknown turned into a moan. This was because the ‘dip-eat’ had moved past the cheek to the nape of the neck. No, it was an act that could not be labeled as ‘dip-eating.’ The act of biting the skin hard enough to leave a reddish tooth mark and licking it up wetly must surely have a different definition.
“Wa-wait a second. Heuu, ugh…”
Until now, Jeil Heon had left only faint traces on the skin, much like his leisurely kisses. Rubbing noses and kissing with a popping sound, or quietly pressing his lips. That alone had made his fingertips tighten and his fine hairs stand on end.
But in this moment, Yoo Jiha finally realized that all those experiences he had thought were ‘adult romance’ were entirely a misconception.