Chapter 137

The man stared down at Yeonhoo for a moment, his face stiff, then hurried out of the stall.

Assuming he had gone to get the watch, Yeonhoo blankly stared up at the bathroom ceiling.

What the hell did they put in that?

For some reason, he could barely control his body.

The bathroom lights looked impossibly sharp, not a single blur around them. He was hot and sweaty and uncomfortable, yet he kept grinning for no reason.

Whoa. Bright. So bright.

Had the lights always been that pretty?

Sparkling... sparkling like—

“Hey.”

Sparkling—

“Are you okay?”

Something really, really sparkly was coming closer.

“Try to stay awake.”

Why did it have a person’s face stuck to it?

Yeonhoo looked at that face and smiled.

He couldn’t stop smiling, and his whole body felt loose and limp.

“Whoa. You’re glowing.”

“What is wrong with you? Get up.”

The man sounded dumbfounded as he tried to help the beaming Yeonhoo to his feet.

Apparently, though, he wasn’t in particularly good shape himself.

Crash!

He lost his hold on Yeonhoo.

“Ah!”

“...Ha.”

Yeonhoo smacked his head against the wall, while the man slipped with a heavy thud of his own.

With both of them suddenly sprawled on the floor, Yeonhoo laughed.

“You should... learn to stand up yourself first.”

There was a definite barb in it.

Still, the man seemed to be doing better than Yeonhoo, because he somehow managed to grab hold of him again.

“Whoa, did someone cut off my arms and legs? Why won’t they move?”

“......”

Yeonhoo’s condition was clearly getting worse.

Now he was excitedly babbling about stars appearing inside the bathroom.

Apparently deciding this was hopeless, the man turned his back to him.

“Get on.”

“No.”

Yeonhoo’s answer was immediate and absolute.

The man glanced back at him, puzzled.

Then his face twisted at what came next.

“You’re too scrawny.”

“...Excuse me?”

The man scowled in irritation.

He did not even have time to smooth that scowl away before—

“You— Are you fucking insane?! Hey!”

Yeonhoo suddenly sprang to his feet...

and started running.

The man’s shocked voice chased him from behind, but Yeonhoo couldn’t stop.

Was this what it felt like to be a cat?

Every light in the hallway looked like a star floating right in front of him.

The world spun.

He felt great.

Yeonhoo tore past the central staircase and sprinted wildly down the hall until he reached the stairwell at the far left end of the building.

Most of the partygoers were gathered around the central area, leaving this part quiet and deserted.

Just as Yeonhoo started down the stairs, the man grabbed the back of his neck.

“How can someone... ugh!”

The man’s face had gone deathly pale.

Apparently the frantic chase had upset his stomach even more, and now his headache seemed to be worsening too. He hunched over awkwardly, curling in on himself.

Yeonhoo, swaying where he stood, stumbled closer.

“Huh...?”

Then abruptly started patting him on the back.

The man immediately twisted away.

“If you’re gonna puke... you gotta really get it out... ugh.”

Even though Yeonhoo himself was dry-heaving, he kept diligently patting the man’s back.

“...This is unbelievable. Who exactly is helping who here?”

At last, the man burst out laughing.

Yeonhoo lifted his head at the sound and stared blankly at his smiling face for a moment.

“You really are fucking crazy.”

His expression as he said it was completely different from the rigid one he’d worn before.

His face looked like it had never learned how to smile, yet now it softened easily.

Even through Yeonhoo’s haze, the sight registered with startling clarity.

“...Hey. What’s your name?”

“Kwon Mieon.”

“Never heard it before.”

“We’ve never met before.”

“Oh. Right.”

What kind of conversation was this?

Kwon Mieon stared at Yeonhoo, who had nodded along as if his answer made perfect sense, then asked in disbelief,

“What’s your name, then?”

“I’m Mo Yeonhoo. Twenty-five. You’re... what... thirty-five?”

“What?”

Kwon bristled instantly.

“I’m two years younger than you.”

“That’s weird. I’m twenty-five, not thirty-three.”

“I said I’m two years younger than you.”

“Why? I’m twenty-five. How can you be younger than me...?”

“You look old as hell,” Yeonhoo muttered.

Kwon squeezed his eyes shut as though he no longer had the will to respond.

“I’m saying you just look abnormally young for your—”

When he opened his eyes again, the rest of the sentence vanished.

Yeonhoo had somehow gotten to his feet and was now bent down one step below him, his face right in front of Kwon’s.

His eyes were obviously unfocused, unmistakably far from sober.

And yet Kwon couldn’t look away from them.

It was the same face from earlier.

Among all those people, he had been the only one staring at Kwon with such clear, guileless eyes.

Even while Kwon’s stomach churned from the alcohol he’d been forced to drink and his head swam with dizziness, that face had somehow kept drawing his attention.

Then Yeonhoo staggered.

As his precarious balance tipped backward, Kwon’s eyes widened and he instinctively threw out an arm, wrapping it around Yeonhoo’s waist.

Yeonhoo collapsed straight into him.

“Pfft.”

Seeing how close they suddenly were, Yeonhoo laughed.

“Hey.”

His hand came up without warning.

His fingertip landed on the tip of Kwon’s nose.

Kwon blinked.

Closed his eyes.

Opened them again.

He normally hated even being touched.

So why?

“Say something.”

Why was he standing here with one arm around the waist of a complete stranger, practically holding him against his chest?

And why was he letting that stranger touch his face?

“You want me to say something?”

“Yeah. Anything.”

Caught completely off guard by the demand, Kwon blinked as though unsure whether he had understood correctly.

Then he spoke.

“Why did you help me?”

This time, Yeonhoo seemed to lose his words.

He only blinked.

“Why did you drink that for me and get my watch back?”

Yeonhoo appeared to think hard about it.

Through the fog clouding his mind, he finally answered.

“It looked precious.”

The watch.

To you.

He spoke the words with little pauses between them.

Kwon’s eyes widened faintly.

Yeonhoo, oblivious, continued mumbling.

“And you talked to me.”

“When? I never—”

“I heard you.”

Yeonhoo looked straight at Kwon’s face.

“You told me to save you.”

His voice carried such certainty, as though he really had heard it.

Kwon froze.

His lips parted as if he were about to say something, then pressed firmly shut again.

“...You can’t just go around saving people however you feel like.”

“Why not?”

“If you save someone, you have to take responsibility for them.”

“Then I’ll take responsibility.”

Kwon’s gaze followed the slight tilt of Yeonhoo’s head.

The lights glittered.

The world spun.

His stomach churned.

Not a single one of Yeonhoo’s senses was working normally.

And still, he looked brightly at Kwon.

“I’ll take responsibility for you!”

A huge smile spread across his face.

Kwon turned scarlet.

And as though trying to burn the sight permanently into his memory, he could not take his eyes off Yeonhoo.

“...Yeonhoo? Mo Yeonhoo?”

“......”

“Hey! Mo Yeonhoo! Aren’t you gonna answer me? What the hell is wrong with you all of a sudden? You scared or something, huh?”

...The two of them went on to talk for countless hours that night.

Then, while Kwon stepped away for a moment to get water for the thirsty Yeonhoo, Yeonhoo found Park Taekyun and went home.

The moment he entered his apartment, he slammed his head hard against the floor in the entryway and ended up in the emergency room.

That was how every memory of that night had been wiped completely from his mind.

“Oh. Finally looking at me again. You gonna wake the hell up, Mo Yeonhoo?”

And because Kwon hadn’t had a Korean phone number, the two of them had exchanged StarGram accounts instead.

But later, when Yeonhoo deleted his entire account just to cut off Seunghwan, who kept throwing a fit about when he was getting that invitation, he unknowingly erased the only connection he had to Kwon as well.

Now, Yeonhoo remembered all of it perfectly.

Right. This asshole is the root of everything.

The timing, however, could not have been worse.

Seunghwan was standing right in front of him, grinning like an idiot.

And then another memory surfaced.

But what was that watch?

This? This is...

Not only had Seunghwan nearly killed someone by mixing all kinds of weird shit into a drink—

It’s a family keepsake.

A keepsake?

It was my brother’s watch.

—he had even messed with a keepsake from Kwon’s family.

“Seunghwan Lee.”

Yeonhoo had gone still while recovering the lost memory.

The moment he called his name, Seunghwan stepped closer.

“You blanked out so hard I thought your brain finally broke.”

Seunghwan laughed, reeking of alcohol.

The instant Yeonhoo saw that smiling face, rage shot straight to the top of his head.

He snatched the glass out of Seunghwan’s hand and swung it into him.

“You fucking bastard!”

Thwack!

The glass didn’t shatter.

It only made a dull impact.

“Agh! Are you fucking crazy?! What the hell is with you all of a sudd—agh!!”

Seunghwan had been hit over the head and drenched in alcohol.

Taekyun stared with his eyes wide.

Even the employees farther away stood there with their mouths hanging open.

Yeonhoo didn’t care.

He hurled the glass aside, grabbed a chair, and started beating Seunghwan with that instead.

“Grow the fuck up! You’re still getting wasted and dunking watches in alcohol?! You piece of shit! Fucking asshole!”

“Fuck—! You bastard!”

“Your ugly ass messed with my guy?! Die! Die!! Just looking at your face pisses me the fuck off!”

“Sir!! Calm down!! Sir!!!!”

“Get out of my way! I’m gonna fucking kill Seunghwan Lee!!! He needs every hair ripped off his head so he’ll be too embarrassed to ever leave the house again!”

“Fuck! Mo Yeonhoo!! Let go of me!”

“Not a fucking chance!”

By now, Yeonhoo had both hands buried in Seunghwan’s hair and was yanking with all his strength.

Only then did Taekyun and the employees finally rush in to drag him off.