NORTHHOWMUCHISYOURLOVE, Chapter 1 part 1
Chapter 1: If I Didn’t Get Drunk
I opened my eyes with great difficulty, swearing that I had never had such a terrible headache from drinking before. I clenched my teeth to suppress the pain shooting through, the first thing I saw was a blurry white ceiling.
“Umm”
Why do I feel so heavy?
“North”
Hmm?
I turned towards the voice calling me.
“Ter.” I called out to the owner of the voice. No matter how messed up I was, the first face I saw when I woke up was still Ter’s, “Ouch, fuck.”
“Why would you try to get up? Don’t you see your own condition?” “I wasn’t trying to get up, just moving a bit, damn it, my whole body hurts.” Even though the wound at the corner of my mouth still hurt, I managed to grumble.
“[Sigh]…looking at your state, I don’t even want to scold you, but just once. I don’t know where to start scolding you.” Ter furrowed his brows, looking stressed at me.
“Save the scolding for later, thanks for picking up my corpse.” I said, not really remembering much, just that I was super drunk and got into it with Temp, then everything cut off.
“I didn’t pick up your corpse, open your eyes properly.” Said Ter. I raised my eyebrows in surprise at his words, then scanned the room around me.
This isn’t my room…
“Confused, huh? I won’t tell you.” Said Ter before tossing a damp towel at my face, “I’m super annoyed with you, bastard.”
“What are you annoyed about?”
“Do I still need to tell you? I’ll kick you again then.” He said, pressing his thumb hard against the wound on the corner of my mouth, I mean, really hard!
“Ouch, how can you do this, I’m already hurt, you know?” I protested, then turned to see Phii Hill sitting on the nearby sofa, looking as unconcerned as ever.
“Hello, Phii Hill.” I greeted. Phii Hill gave a small smile in response.
“But what’s going on here, is this Phii Hill’s room?” I asked, guessing it might be Phii Hill’s room since it was way too luxurious to be anything else.
“No, it’s the room of the person who braved the storm to pick up your corpse last night.” Said Ter, letting out a small sigh as he placed another small towel back into the basin.
His words made me even more curious.
Someone braved the storm to come for me…?
“What are you confused about now? Seeing your face ruins my mood, seeing your wounds makes it worse. I’ve never complained about you being drunk, but you went and picked a fight, North. I wanted you to get beaten up more so you’d learn your lesson. I’m worried about you, you know, damn it. Around 5 PM to midnight, Kyu called to say you were drunk and causing trouble at the bar. I couldn’t go because of the storm. You need to think a bit about what you’re doing. If something had happened to you…”
“Ter…chill out.”
I was at a loss when Ter suddenly scolded me fiercely. Plus, he looked like he was about to cry. I know Ter is very caring, he cares a lot about me. I remember, even if he’s busy, he never leaves me alone in the room because he knows I can’t manage on my own.
“You…I hope Temp and his gang beat you up next time so you end up in the ICU. Maybe then your hot-headedness might cool down a bit.”
“What do you hate about me, Ter?” I let out a deep sigh, “I’m sorry…I’ll be calmer next time.”
“There won’t be a next time.” Ter said.
“I’ll be calmer next time.” I argued back.
“Yeah, you won’t dare drink so much again anyway, I’ve warned you.”
“Why? And what’s the situation now, what happened, you can tell me, right?” I said, adjusting myself to lie more comfortably. The bed is really soft, by the way.
“Last night, there was a storm coming, and it looked like it was going to rain since early evening, so I couldn’t pick you up.” Ter began to explain, “I went to stay with Phii Hill once it started raining. I called you, but you didn’t answer.”
“Of course, if I’m not there, you go sleep with your boyfriend, huh?” I couldn’t help but tease, and the storyteller immediately looked annoyed.
“Is this the time for that?” “Sorry, please continue.” “Kyu called me, told me to come get you, you passed out at the pub. He said you started the fight, suddenly went over and started punching. Both of you were drunk and hot-headed, only Kyu was somewhat sober but couldn’t carry you back.”
“So how did I get back? Did I teleport like an animal?”
“Phii Hill said he would handle it.” Ter said, glancing at Phii Hill, who said nothing in response, “In the morning, I asked Phii Hill to take me to you.”
“In the morning? Is it still morning now?”
“It’s almost four in the evening, man, you either slept or were knocked out, who knows.”
“So, Phii Hill picked me up?” I furrowed my brows, asking again, not sure if Ter wasn’t clear or if I was still too drunk to understand.
“No, it was Phii Hill’s friend.”
“Oh?” I drew out the word, raising my eyebrows in complete surprise. How could it be Phii Hill’s friend? At first, I thought it was Phii Hill, which was strange enough.
“Phii Jo, you remember him, right?” Said Ter, looking as surprised as I was.
“Yeah, I remember that part, but why did he come to get me? And with my state…fuck, tell me I didn’t vomit on him.” Suddenly, a vague memory of last night came back, ohhh, thinking about it now makes me embarrassed, T^T
“You emptied your stomach on him.”
“Fuck…” I rubbed my face back and forth with my hands.
“You don’t remember anything else?”
“I remember a bit…but I thought I vomited so I didn’t think much of it.”
“Bastard, what kind of mind would think like that?” Ter scolded me, raising his hand as if to press on my wound again, but I quickly stopped him. “Come on, I was just kidding.” I said, “But seriously, how did it go down? It must have been a hassle for him to bring me back. And I probably caused him more trouble.”
“Yeah, he was pretty mad.” Said Ter, which made me feel even worse.
“But why was it Phii Jo who came to get me?” I asked, but Ter probably didn’t know, so Phii Hill answered for him.
“His condo is close to the bar.” Phii Hill explained.
“But isn’t this Phii Jo’s house?” Ter countered, and then I realized, oh, we’re at Phii Joe’s house right now?
“North was in pretty bad shape, so it was better to bring him here.” Phii Hill explained.
“Yeah, this morning I saw the housekeeper wiping you down. If they had gone to the condo, Phii Jo would’ve had to look after you, so this was better.”
That’s true…bringing me home was better than having him clean me up at his condo…
Before I could ask more, Phii Hill’s phone rang. He excused himself to take the call and left the room, leaving me alone with Ter in a room that felt completely unfamiliar.
“I don’t understand.” I said, because my head was full of questions. Besides the confusion, there was also the lingering effect of the alcohol. I could understand if it was just because his condo was close by, but if it were me, I wouldn’t go out in a storm to pick up someone I barely know who was drunk and causing trouble.
“I was confused at first too when Phii Hill said he’d handle it. I didn’t expect him to call Phii Joe to pick you up. What confused me even more was that Phii Joe agreed. You know, last night, the storm was really bad.”
“Um…so how did the night end exactly?”
“That, I don’t know. You should ask Kyu.” “Where’s my phone?” I asked, silently praying that it was still intact. “Here you go.” Ter turned around to hand it to me.
Yeah, it was still there…
But not in a good state, huh…
“Why…” I looked at my phone screen which was completely shattered. My heart sank; no money for a new one, and no funds for repairs either, “What happened?”
“At first, it probably wasn’t this bad.”
“Huh?”
“Until Phii Joe threw it against the wall.”
“Ha!?” I was left speechless for a moment, shocked by Ter’s response, “Phii Joe threw my phone!?”
“Yeah, he said he did it because he was annoyed by someone spamming your phone with LINE texts. He was probably busy dealing with you throwing up at the time.”
“Damn, is he that pissed at me? Why take it out on my phone? I don’t have money to fix this, man. This is too much, it won’t even turn on now.”
“When Phii Hill found out about the phone, he didn’t say anything. At first, I thought he might have said something.”
“You didn’t say anything either, did you?” I asked.
“Well…I was kind of scared, you know. You too.” Ter replied with a sweet tone, giving me a pleading look.
“Do you think that’s cute? I’m not Phii Hill, you don’t need to act cute.” I said with a slight jest, putting down the completely dead phone beside me. Honestly, I was really mad about someone throwing my phone like that. No matter how bad what I did was, couldn’t we just talk it out first?
“By the way, where did Phii Joe go? Haven’t seen him yet.” I asked. “Heard he had some errands. Since the afternoon. He said he’d be back later. Oh…he asked me to keep an eye on you.”
“Keep an eye on me?” I repeated.
“Probably afraid you’d bolt.”
“Bolt from what?” My question made Ter pause as if he’d just remembered something before he walked out of the room. He returned shortly, carrying a piece of paper.
“Ah, remember when I said you wouldn’t dare drink so much again?” I took the paper to look at it, finding it was an incredibly long list that stretched all the way to the bottom of the page.
I looked around the room, still puzzled, and just as I was about to speak, Ter…
The room’s owner returned…
Phii Joe opened the door, walked in without saying a word, and sat down on the sofa behind where Ter was, where Phii Hill had been sitting earlier. Soon after, Phii Hill also came back into the room and sat down in his previous spot.
Phii Joe turned to meet my gaze, his eyes revealing no emotion. I had initially thought he’d be in a bad mood, but honestly, I don’t really know him well. I’ve only met him when he came to pick up Ter at the dorm.
And then the room fell silent…
It seemed like only Ter and I felt uncomfortable. Your boyfriend is sitting right behind you, so why are you uncomfortable? It’s the likes of me, who isn’t close and caused the trouble, that should be feeling this way.
I looked at Ter with a gaze that was asking for help.
Why isn’t anyone saying anything? Like, “Oh, you’re awake, how are you feeling?” Or even scold me about last night. Why the silence? Or should I be the one to speak first?
“Um…I mean, I’m sorry.” I finally said in a low voice. “…” Phii Joe looked at me, as if waiting for me to continue. “Sorry for last night, and thank you.” I added.
“Hmm.”
Suddenly, he seemed to be in a worse mood…
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