By Zephyria 
At those words, the man looked down at Mo Yeon-hu with a momentarily frozen expression before hurriedly leaving the stall.
Thinking that he had gone to look for the watch, Mo Yeon-hu stared blankly at the bathroom ceiling.
‘What did they feed me?’
Strangely, he couldn’t steady his body. The bathroom lighting was vivid, without a single blur. Despite the unpleasant heat and sweat, he kept giggling, a silly smile plastered on his face.
‘Wow, it’s bright. So bright.’
Was the lighting always that pretty? Twinkling… it was twinkling…
“Hey.”
Twinkling.
“Are you okay?”
A very twinkling light was approaching.
“Wake up.”
But why was there a human face embedded in it?
Mo Yeon-hu looked at that face and smiled. He kept laughing, and his body felt limp.
“Whoa, you’re glowing.”
“What is wrong with you? Get up.”
The man spoke as if he found Mo Yeon-hu’s beaming smile absurd and tried to support him. However, the man didn’t seem to be in a perfectly stable condition either; with a loud crash, he lost his grip on Mo Yeon-hu.
“Ack.”
“…Hah.”
Mo Yeon-hu slammed his head against the wall, and the man also slid down with a loud thud. As both of them suddenly tumbled to the floor, Mo Yeon-hu spoke with a laugh.
“You should’ve woken up properly…”
It was a pointed remark. Still, perhaps because he was in a better state than Mo Yeon-hu, the man managed to grab hold of him.
“Whoa, did my arms and legs get cut off? Why aren’t they moving?”
“…….”
Mo Yeon-hu’s condition was alarming. Now, as he chatted excitedly about stars appearing in the bathroom, the man turned around, realizing this wouldn’t do.
“Get on my back.”
“No.”
Mo Yeon-hu was firm. At the sharp refusal, the man looked back in confusion, only for his expression to crumple at the following words.
“You’re too scrawny.”
“……Huh?”
Irritated by the comment, the man frowned, but he didn’t even have time to relax his expression before what happened next occurred.
“You… crazy! Hey!”
Suddenly, Mo Yeon-hu bolted upright… and abruptly started running! He could hear the man’s voice chasing after him in shock, but Mo Yeon-hu couldn’t stop.
Is this what it feels like to be a cat? All the lights in the hallway looked like stars floating before his eyes. The world was spinning, and he felt great.
Running like a madman past the central stairs and down the hallway, Mo Yeon-hu arrived at the stairs at the far left end of the building. Since most of the attendees were in the center, it was a quiet place where no one was in sight.
However, the man grabbed Mo Yeon-hu by the scruff of his neck just as he was about to go down the stairs.
“What kind of person… Urgh!”
The man’s face had turned pale. Having rushed to follow Mo Yeon-hu, his stomach had turned and a headache seemed to have hit him; he curled up, clutching himself, not knowing what to do.
Seeing this, Mo Yeon-hu, who had been standing unsteadily, approached the man.
“Huh…?”
And abruptly began patting his back. The man immediately whipped around.
“If you’re going to throw up… you have to do it cleanly, ugh.”
Though he was dry-heaving himself, he didn’t stop patting the man’s back.
“…This is seriously absurd. Who is helping whom here?”
Seeing this, the man finally burst into laughter. At the sound, Mo Yeon-hu looked up and stared blankly at the man’s laughing face for a moment.
“You’re a real weirdo, this guy.”
The expression on the man’s face as he spoke was quite different from the rigid atmosphere of a moment ago. Even in his haze, Mo Yeon-hu clearly saw the face—which looked like it didn’t know how to smile—soften.
“…By the way, what’s your name?”
“Kwon Mi-eon.”
“Never heard of it.”
“Because it’s the first time we’ve met.”
“I see.”
What kind of conversation was this? The man, Kwon Mi-eon, looked at Mo Yeon-hu—who was nodding in agreement with his words—with a bewildered expression and asked.
“What’s your name, then?”
“I’m Mo Yeon-hu. Twenty-five. You’re… maybe… thirty-five?”
“What?”
Kwon Mi-eon flared up instantly.
“I’m two years younger than you!”
“That’s strange. I’m twenty-five, not thirty-three.”
“That’s why I’m saying I’m two years younger than you!”
“Why? I’m twenty-five. How can you be younger than me…?”
As he muttered that the man looked way older than he was, Kwon Mi-eon closed his eyes tight, as if he didn’t even want to respond anymore.
“That’s because you look abnormally young…”
And when he opened his eyes again, he stopped dead, forgetting what he was about to say. One step down the stairs, Mo Yeon-hu had already stood up and was leaning over, right in front of his nose. His eyes were unfocused, looking abnormal to anyone, but Kwon Mi-eon couldn’t tear his gaze away from those eyes.
It was this face earlier. The face that had stared at him with clear eyes amidst the crowd, the face that had uniquely captured his attention even while his stomach was churning and his head was spinning from the alcohol he’d been forced to drink.
At that moment, Mo Yeon-hu staggered. As his precarious center of gravity shifted backward, Kwon Mi-eon reached out with a startled face and wrapped his arm around his waist. In an instant, Mo Yeon-hu collapsed into Kwon Mi-eon.
“Puhu.”
Seeing the shortened distance, he laughed.
“Hey.”
The hand he suddenly reached out touched the tip of Kwon Mi-eon’s nose. Kwon Mi-eon blinked, closing and opening his eyes, and thought. Normally, he hated it when anyone touched his body, so why?
“Tell me.”
Why was he currently holding a stranger by the waist as if embracing him, and why was he letting the man touch his face?
“Tell you what?”
“Yeah. Anything.”
At the abrupt question, Kwon Mi-eon blinked with a confused face, wondering if he had understood correctly, before speaking.
“Why did you help me?”
At those words, this time Mo Yeon-hu just blinked, as if he had lost his words.
“Why did you drink in my place, and why did you return the watch?”
He seemed to think deeply about Kwon Mi-eon’s words. Beyond his fading consciousness, Mo Yeon-hu spoke.
“Because it looked precious.”
The watch, to you. At the words spoken with a pause, Kwon Mi-eon’s eyes widened slightly. Regardless, Mo Yeon-hu mumbled.
“And you talked to me.”
“When? I never…”
“I heard it.”
Mo Yeon-hu looked straight into Kwon Mi-eon’s face.
“You told me to save you.”
Kwon Mi-eon hesitated at the voice filled with conviction, as if he had truly heard it. He parted his lips as if to say something, then pressed them shut.
“…Even so, you shouldn’t just save people on a whim.”
“Why shouldn’t I save someone on a whim?”
“Because if you save someone, you have to take responsibility for them.”
“Then I’ll just take responsibility.”
Kwon Mi-eon’s gaze followed the face as it tilted slightly.
The lights were twinkling, the world was dizzy, his stomach was nauseous—despite not a single sense being normal, Mo Yeon-hu looked at Kwon Mi-eon brightly.
“I’ll take responsibility for you!”
At the beaming face, Kwon Mi-eon’s entire face turned bright red, and his gaze remained fixed on him as if engraving the image.
“…Yeon-hu? Mo Yeon-hu?”
“…….”
“Hey! Mo Yeon-hu! Aren’t you going to answer? What’s wrong with this bastard all of a sudden? Are you scared, huh?”
……Afterward, during the rest of that night, the two shared countless conversations.
And while Kwon Mi-eon had stepped away for a moment to get water for the thirsty Mo Yeon-hu, Mo Yeon-hu had met Park Taek-yoon and, immediately upon returning home, slammed his head hard against the entryway floor and ended up in the emergency room, completely erasing the memories of that day.
“Oh. You’re finally looking at me. Get it together, Mo Yeon-hu.”
Because he didn’t have a Korean number, they had exchanged starsta accounts, and in order to cut off Lee Seung-hwan—who was making a fuss about when he’d get an invitation—Mo Yeon-hu had deleted the account entirely, erasing their only point of contact. He remembered it all perfectly now.
‘Right, this guy is the root of all the trouble.’
However, the timing was bad. In front of him was Lee Seung-hwan, looking at him with a smug grin.
‘But what was that watch?’
‘This? This is…’
Not only had he almost killed someone with a drink mixed with all sorts of strange things…
‘A family heirloom.’
‘Heirloom?’
‘It’s my Hyung’s watch.’
He even remembered that he had messed with Kwon Mi-eon’s family heirloom.
“Lee Seung-hwan.”
When Mo Yeon-hu, who had been frozen for a moment while recalling the forgotten memories, called his name, he immediately approached.
“I thought you’d finally lost it since you suddenly went blank.”
Lee Seung-hwan laughed, smelling of alcohol. And the moment he saw that laughing face, Mo Yeon-hu, suddenly enraged to the limit, snatched the glass the other was holding and slammed it right into him.
“You son of a bitch!”
The glass made a thudding sound but didn’t break.
“Agh! Are you crazy?! Why the hell are you suddenly exploding… Ack!!”
Not only Lee Seung-hwan, who was suddenly hit on the head and drenched in alcohol, but also Park Taek-yoon, whose eyes went wide, and the employees further away, all stood there with their mouths agape. But Mo Yeon-hu threw the glass aside and now picked up a chair to start beating Lee Seung-hwan.
“Grow up already! Drinking here again and dipping a watch in alcohol? You piece of shit, you son of a bitch!”
“Shit…! This bastard!”
“You ugly piece of trash, touching my baby?! Die! Die!! Just looking at your face pisses me off, fuck!”
“Excuse me!! Please calm down!! Sir!!”
“Get out of the way! I’m going to kill this bastard Lee Seung-hwan!! I’ll rip his hair out so he’s too embarrassed to even step outside!”
“Fuck, Mo Yeon-hu!! Let go of me?!”
“I’m not letting go, you son of a bitch!”
Park Taek-yoon and the employees finally rushed in toward Mo Yeon-hu, who was now ripping out Lee Seung-hwan’s hair with both hands with all his might.