SMNTCERR, Chapter 78: <1001> #6.
“Uh… I wonder if I chose the wrong major.”
Yoona took a rectangular mirror from her bag and stuck it into Sangwoo’s hand. Then she turned back to search for a box in the corner of the room. Meanwhile, Sangwoo looked into the mirror quietly before raising it up for closer inspection.
‘I don’t see anything that has changed.’
He looked critically at the mirror, but he still couldn’t feel any difference – except for the slight rise on his forehead. Meanwhile, Yoona threw one of her shoes towards him, a brown open-toe pump without straps.
“What shoe size are you? Try this pair.”
“It’s not mine.”
“Just try them on.”
Sangwoo took off his black sneakers without any choice. Then he placed them flat under the table and put his feet into the pumps, feeling a little strange but they fit just right. Yoona took a lip balm out of Jaeyoung’s drawer and helped apply it on Sangwoo’s dry lips, as if that was his fault. Then the woman commanded him to stand up.
He stood up, feeling like a fool. Yoona hugged him and looked carefully at him from head to toe before sitting down with her legs folded, revealing her tiny ankles.
“Great. If you had some jewelry it would be perfect…”
After saying that, she ran to her own table, opened the drawer, took out several necklaces and rings, and walked towards him.
“I don’t wear anything like that.”
“Just look at this one, it looks so cool.”
Sangwoo frowned when he saw the skull-shaped head and raised eyebrows in the picture. Yoona noticed his expression and tossed the remaining scraps onto the table before handing him a silver bracelet without any patterns on it.
She then put it on his wrist before sighing.
“Jang Jaeyoung’s eyes will pop for sure.”
Yoona picked up her broken smartphone and took a couple of pictures despite seemingly being unable to have it fixed from her shirt pocket. Sangwoo hugged one side of his chest and looked at the other party.
“I have done everything you told me to. Now, can you explain what we’re doing?”
“It’s a strategy… something I declared as the most sophisticated policy, Chu
Sangwoo.”
“What should I do then?”
“Is there any law that says we have to be on the same side? We can talk and answer like equals. After this, you will kill some time, have a quick dinner, and around 2 a.m., go to Yeonsokdong. Drink some alcohol at a bar there. I’ll handle the rest.”
“Why should I have to drink in Yeonseokdong?”
“Because there are a lot of good bars there. Do as I say. Then, Jaeyoung might call you. If he missed your call once or twice and you answer next time, tell him clearly that he wasn’t clear. You then change the atmosphere, this is a proven strategy. 99%.”
“What’s the percentage of error?”
“Don’t ask any weird questions.”
Sangwoo blinked, thinking that he might run into Jaeyoung if he went drinking in YanSanGok. While Yoona only talked about the method and the results of the strategy, she didn’t explain how it worked.
“If we do that, will he come?”
“Just saying, 95% or whatever.”
“Why does the success rate decrease when you said it is going to be 99%?” Yoona made a frustrated face, but it was an important issue for Sangwoo.
“Let’s assume he’s sick of me and the probability of him coming to see me is
1-5%. What should we do then?”
Yoona had a variety of facial expressions and the same goes for this time. Her expression changed as if she was acting in a drama, giving the feeling of despair before changing the expression and laughing out loud.
“If that’s the case, then Sangwoo, you should have a pretty unnie or a handsome sunbae in that area to have them treat him to alcohol. Then, forget about Jang Jaeyoung.”
Sangwoo frowned and sat down on a chair, his eyes locked onto the young man wearing a V-neck shirt reflecting on the black screen of his power-saving laptop mode.
Yoona, flustered, said her goodbyes and lightly patted Sangwoo’s back.
“Fighting. Chu Sangwoo, love is just complicated like this.”
“It’s not love, just a little crush.”
“And remember, only two missed calls are enough. That Jaeyong is really scary when angry, you know? I’ll go first.”
“Thank you for your help. I hope the interview goes well.”
Yoona smiled and left without saying anything, leaving Sangwoo to take a deep breath and open the bus app.
“An excellent top-down policy.”
He laid out the route and reviewed the plan in his head.
Work until 6:00 p.m., eat at the cafeteria, collect his bag and brush his teeth, take the bus at 7:20 p.m., arrive at Yeonseokdong at 7:56 p.m., drink, screen calls and answer on the third time, and tell Jang Jaeyoung to be more clear when changing the atmosphere. Then he waits.
It wasn’t the most trustworthy advice, but there was no other way… Sometimes, when you fall into the water, there’s no choice but to grab onto a straw of rice. return 0;
The app clearly stated that it would take thirty-six minutes to reach the destination, due to traffic accidents causing congestion on the road, therefore making it slower than usual. On top of that, he checked his mobile phone frequently today, keeping both the GPS and map on at all times, which caused the battery to run out twice as fast.
As the anxiety began to grow, Yoona called. Sangwoo quickly answered.
“Hello.”
[Where are you? Are you ready?]
“I’m still on the bus. I won’t make it there by 2:00 a.m. What should I do?”
[I haven’t contacted them yet. It’s okay, can you reschedule it for 3:00 a.m.?]
“Okay. I should have arrived by then.”
[Okay! That’s it then.]
“Wait a moment.”
[Why?]
“What are the chances of success right now?”
[100%, yes, just remember what I told you.]
“I understand. That’s all then.”
Sangwoo took a deep breath after putting down his phone. The bus was packed with passengers, making the air hot and stuffy. He stood holding onto a handle, staring at the red dot on the slowly moving map app. But now he had another call coming in from Jaeyoung.
“…”
He didn’t even have time to start a plan, what is this? Did Yoona undermine him? Sangwoo clenched his phone tightly and couldn’t do anything. A call from Jaeyoung came in and lasted for a moment. Just as the call ended, another call came in immediately. Sangwoo stood still, afraid that he might accidentally answer the call without intending to.
After the screen displayed “Missed call 2,” some text messages also arrived.
[Jaeyoung, ㅅㅂ♨: I give up _19:55.]
[Jaeyoung, ㅅㅂ♨: Keep flirting with you and I’ll probably die before
I’m executed _19:55][1.]
Sangwoo frowned, Jaeyoung’s message, written without spaces, had the highest level of difficulty in reading, like his handwriting. Sangwoo tried to decipher which word was misspelled before losing concentration.
[Jaeyoung, ㅅㅂ♨: I have something important to talk to you about, I’ll come to your house later _19:56.]
But even so, he could understand the consecutive messages that followed.
‘I’m not at home right now.’
He was on a bus heading towards the winding mountain range, the plan had been fully laid out already. Sangwoo bit his lip, feeling hesitant. He thought asking Yoona for advice on what he didn’t know would be better.
[What now?]
“Jaeyoung contacted me and said he’d come to my house. Should I avoid him?”
[Hey, don’t do that. He has screwed up nine times and now he wants to do something good once? That’s a common method. If I tell you to do something, just do it. It’s that simple.]
“Are you sure?”
[Do you want to keep being pushed around forever? Now it’s time for that guy to see it. Ignore the calls. And do what I told you to do.]
“What do you mean I don’t have to answer just two calls? There have been two calls already.”
[Change your plan and don’t answer until three in the morning. Got it?]
“Understood.”
Sangwoo felt frustrated.
“Can’t I just go home?”
[No, that’s it!]
Yoona, who plans heavily and cannot express her opinions directly, after hanging up, the plan appears on the screen again, the red dot on it is far from home.
Nine minutes later, the bus arrived at Yeonsokdong. Sangwoo headed to the bar that he had searched for in advance, which was said to have the most comfortable atmosphere and best service in the area. Although it was just an ordinary evening, the street was filled with people who came out to have fun, making him feel uneasy. Even though he was bumped by drunken people, he didn’t receive any apology, and was even splashed with liquor. Sangwoo pretended not to see any of these immoral acts and let them pass because there was something more important.
The bar he was looking for was located on the first underground floor, with a sign decorated with light bulbs, a staircase leading down to the lower floor, and a black ceiling. As he passed through the cozy dimly lit hallway, a spacious and dark area appeared before his eyes, with two or three people dancing on one side and a table for drinking on the other. Electronic music echoed loudly from the speakers, although it was the type that Jaeyoung liked, but it was not on his playlist.
Sangwoo walked to the bar that had a wide selection of liquor and beer, placed his mobile phone and wallet on a long table, and then sat on a stool that was high enough not to touch the ground with his feet.
“Can I have a menu, please?”
The bartender with an extravagant hairstyle handed him a menu divided into two pages. Sangwoo found it difficult to choose a drink because there were too many types of liquor and beer with unfamiliar names. He picked up his mobile phone and typed in each name of the cocktail and checked the ingredients on the internet. No sweets, no fruit juice, no cola. After eliminating several options, only a few were left to choose from.
“I’ll have a Martini, please.”
The search was complete, and the battery was only 6% remaining. And then.. Sangwoo reluctantly turned off his mobile phone. He planned to turn it back on in forty-three minutes.
Having searched for it, he knew that it was a mixture of gin and vermouth in a ratio of 5:1, shaken together, the young woman used tongs to remove ice cubes and poured the liquor into a stemmed glass, rubbed the lemon peel around the rim, squeezed a green olive into it, and then handed it to Sangwoo.
He received the glass and drank it in one gulp, causing the bartender to be surprised by his facial expression. The bitter liquor, without any sweetness at all, was also hot and dry. His heart was beating fast, perhaps because he had drunk liquor with twice the strength of Soju in one go. Sangwoo still wanted to drink a couple more glasses, otherwise he might be so anxious that he wouldn’t be able to wait until three o’clock.
“May I have another glass please?”
“Certainly.”
“What time is it now?”
“Just a moment… It’s 2:23 am.”
“Okay.”
After sitting and waiting for a moment, the bartender expertly made another cocktail for Sangwoo to gradually sip on so he wouldn’t get too drunk.
Sangwoo asked about the time twice more, but there were still over thirty minutes left until 3am.
‘What am I doing here?’
Suddenly, Sangwoo felt embarrassed. As a university student, his main responsibility was to study, yet here he was sitting at the bar buying a cocktail that cost more than 10,000 won but was less than a hundred milliliters. He was wearing unfamiliar clothing and in an unfamiliar place doing unfamiliar things at a level that made him uncomfortable due to his sexual desires. Despite feeling awkward, Sangwoo quickly made the glass empty again despite deciding to drink slowly.
This time, he felt the hotness of the alcohol burning his throat. Meanwhile, his anger and anxiety gradually subsided. The liquor acted as a nerve suppressant that calmed down Sangwoo’s emotions that fluctuated up and down. He felt a slight relief, turning his chair to look around comfortably.
The bar was filled with various people – big ones, thin ones, ones with fancy clothes and ones with simple clothes, ones who were young, and ones who were old. Sangwoo’s eyes lingered on the young men in the crowd.
Despite intentionally observing and scrutinizing, there was no one that he liked. If they weren’t overweight, they were too thin. Some didn’t look attractive up close, some had unattractive hands, some didn’t have a good voice, and some didn’t walk elegantly, some didn’t look good when they laughed, some had overly tough facial expressions, some looked stupid, and some were just too enchanting. Sangwoo found it too easy to recognize the faults of people who passed by.
‘Think about Jang Jaeyoung’s first impression. It wasn’t good either.’
Yes… It was like that. The other guy was just a forty-minute latecomer thug but he didn’t feel wrong at all. At that time, he didn’t pay attention to Jaeyoung’s appearance, so Sangwoo felt hurt.
Maybe it was because of the alcohol, tears started to fall. The control over his anger was flawed, his emotions fluctuated, his mood was fragile, and many strange symptoms occurred since he met Jaeyoung.
While Sangwoo ordered another glass of whiskey, he heard a voice from the left.
“I want the same thing as that man.”
____________________________________.
[1] “Keep flirting with you and I’ll probably die before I’m executed.” The Korean sentence is, 너랑, 밀당하다가, 제명에, 못, 살, 듯(Neorang mildang
hadaga Jaemyeong-eomdulseut).”, which is typed without spaces. “In
Korean, there is a grammatical rule for spacing, like in English.” The correct
spacing for the above sentence is, “너랑 (With you), 밀당하다가 (While flirting), 제명에 (At execution), 못 (Cannot), 살 (Live), 듯 (Maybe).” Typing without spaces can lead to misunderstandings.
[2] Due to Jaeyoung’s lack of spacing in his writing, Sangwoo misinterpreted the words. Originally, the meaning should have been “with you” with ”that man,” “flirting” with “playing,” and ”executed” with
“life/breath,” “cannot” with ”not,” and “Maybe” with “seems like/looks like.”
But since they were typed continuously, Sangwoo took “가 (ga)” from “다가 (daga) and combined it with ”제명에 (jemyeong-e)” to make ”가제 (gaje),” which can mean “gasoline” or “temporary title,” and “명 (myeong)” which can mean “name” as well. “에 (e)” is a word that has various meanings.
Going back and forth, Sangwoo did not know what Jaeyoung meant to convey.