Eunhyung took the cigarette from between his lips, holding it between his fingers, and looked down at Hyungnam. His gaze settled on her long hair, twisted up and neatly secured in a single bundle, and he gave an incredulous chuckle.
“What grade are you in?”
The question made her laugh before she could stop herself. It was an unexpected burst of laughter, bright and clear as droplets of cold water splashing against a surface. Eunhyung's dark eyebrows twitched.
Hyungnam hurriedly suppressed her smile and answered with a lingering, sheepish grin.
“I finished middle school.”
“I asked what grade you're in.”
“I'm twenty.”
The moment he heard her answer, Choi Eunhyung irritably threw his unlit cigarette onto the ground.
“Seriously?”
“Pardon? Yes……”
“You should've told me sooner. Fuck, forget the sponge cake.”
“Follow me.”
Choi Eunhyung thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and strode off by himself.
Wait for me.
Hyungnam repeated the plea desperately in her head as she hurried after him.
He turned familiarly into a back alley lined with old, tightly packed restaurants. In the gathering dusk, the shadow of a leaning utility pole stretched ominously across the dim alley.
Hyungnam kept her feet moving briskly while her eyes darted about.
Despite having lived in Park Shineok's house for three years, she had never ventured into the streets below it.
Dirty signs with flickering lights stood alongside dazzling neon signs that looked as though they had only recently been installed.
Electric-roasted chicken. Blood sausage. Every kind of organ meat.
Thick clouds of steam billowed from the pots set out toward the alley, making it impossible to tell what was cooking inside them.
Choi Eunhyung, walking ahead, turned right and pulled open a glass door.
When Hyungnam saw the words advertising draft rice wine and warm sake pasted conspicuously across the glass, her steps faltered and slowed.
A bar?
She had never set foot in one, much less tasted alcohol.
What should I do?
Hesitating, Hyungnam lowered her head and took a couple of deep breaths.
Just go in. What's the big deal? I might as well try drinking.
And surely he wouldn't kill me just because I peeked into the study a few times.
***
The tavern was filled with warm air and delicious, savory aromas.
Choi Eunhyung took a seat, removed his suit jacket, and tossed it over the back of his chair.
Hyungnam hastily started to take off her own jacket, then stopped. For some reason, she worried that doing so might make her look like a sophisticated woman accustomed to frequenting establishments like this.
Her small hands, which had been fiddling with the snap buttons, dropped awkwardly into her lap.
“Know how to drink?”
He picked up a long, rectangular menu and casually flipped through its pages.
All Hyungnam could see was the black cover decorated with a gold tassel. Still, she didn't want to appear easily intimidated, so she stiffened her neck and answered confidently.
“It's not that I can't drink.”
Strictly speaking, it wasn't a lie.
All I have to do is swallow it, after all.
Perhaps he found her answer impertinent. Choi Eunhyung gave a dismissive snort.
He signaled to the proprietor behind the counter, and the man, who had been sunk in boredom, roused himself from his reverie and approached their table.
“Two warm sakes with grilled fish fin, and one order of grilled sparrows.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And an order of ginkgo nuts.”
At the end of his order, Eunhyung also asked for a lighter.
Hyungnam deliberately sat with her back perfectly straight so he wouldn't notice how intimidated she felt.
Even so, the tavern was full of strange and fascinating things.
The tabletop wasn't made of marble, yet its glossy surface was patterned to resemble it. Beneath a short curtain, the kitchen was completely visible.
Sparks flew, and the clatter of utensils carried an air of bustling activity unlike anything she had encountered in an ordinary restaurant.
The drinks arrived before the food.
A pale liquid resembling weak barley tea filled the plastic cups.
The proprietor held a lighter to the surface of the liquor and set it alight.
Blue flames flickered gently for a short while before dying away.
The proprietor handed the lighter to Choi Eunhyung and disappeared.
Eunhyung put a cigarette between his lips and lit it before even touching his drink.
The red ember at the tip of the slender cigarette lengthened slightly as he drew in a breath.
“If there's anything else you want to eat, order it.”
You could at least show me the menu before saying that.
But Hyungnam lacked the nerve to leaf through it in front of him.
She merely nodded quietly.
Only after Choi Eunhyung had thoroughly smoked his cigarette down did he wrap his hand around his cup.
Her gaze was drawn to his fingers.
They were white, straight, and elegant, without even prominent knuckles. Only faint traces remained where wounds had once marked them.
“What're you doing? Drink.”
“……”
“Didn't you say it wasn't that you couldn't drink?”
Eunhyung repeated her own words back to her.
The unmistakably teasing attitude made her press her small lips together.
Struggling to compose herself, Hyungnam carefully picked up her cup.
She brought it toward her mouth and secretly sniffed it first.
An odd, somewhat unpleasant smell rose from the liquid, immediately making her wrinkle her brow.
But she had already made her claim, and the truth was that she was a little curious.
Besides, while she had been hesitating, Eunhyung had already emptied half his cup.
She had heard that when drinking with someone, you were supposed to match their pace.
Summoning her courage, Hyungnam took a large swallow.
“Your sparrows are here.”
The proprietor's brusque announcement, delivered in a tone that was neither quite polite nor familiar, conveniently allowed her to conceal the peculiar expression on her face.
The liquor was sweet, certainly, but it was a strange, almost fermented sweetness. And what was that unpleasant, fishy smell?
Eunhyung immediately noticed her less-than-enthusiastic reaction and put a second cigarette between his lips.
“You've never had a drink before, have you?”
“……”
“Give it here.”
Choi Eunhyung stretched his long arm toward her practically untouched cup.
Afraid he would take it away, Hyungnam swiftly lifted it and gulped down another generous mouthful.
The same unpleasant, fishy warmth flowed down her throat, leaving a tingling sensation behind.
Before the maid could even lower the cup from her lips, she was grimacing.
He promptly scolded her.
“You're twenty years old. What the hell have you been doing all this time if you've never even had a drink?”
I'd like to know that myself.
She wanted to answer, but the unfamiliar heat spreading across her face left her barely able to move her lips.
Choi Eunhyung smoked leisurely and gestured toward the grilled sparrows with his chin.
Pairs of strangely shaped pieces of meat were threaded onto pointed skewers.
Hyungnam picked up one of the skewers and placed it on Eunhyung's small plate.
“Here, have some.”
The man staring down at the plate looked as though something inside him had stopped working.
Cigarette smoke drifted quietly from between his slightly parted lips.
After a moment, he exhaled sharply, as though coming back to himself, and crushed his half-smoked cigarette into the ashtray.
“How long are you going to keep hovering around?”
“Pardon?”
Oh, no. He told me not to make him repeat himself.
Hyungnam was drawing a skewer of ginkgo nuts toward herself when she dropped it with a clatter.
“Did the chairman tell you to keep an eye on me?”
Hyungnam shook her head rapidly.
Eunhyung leaned back in his chair with his arms folded.
Even a quick sideways glance was enough to tell that he was irritated.
“If that's not it……”
“……”
“Then why the hell are you getting on my nerves so much?”
The front of Hyungnam's face burned fiercely.
She hesitated for a moment, then, instead of answering, gulped down the rest of her liquor.
If it's possible to get drunk on this little, I wish I could just pass out.
Haaah.
Her long exhalation carried a strong, fermented sweetness.
When she set her cup on the table, she felt her senses beginning to drift gently upward.
Along with that floating sensation came a sense of resignation.
Well, what's done is done.
And a reckless courage to let whatever happened happen.
Hyungnam bowed her head deeply, like a gangster.
Just as Chilgu habitually did before Park Shineok.
“I'm sorry.”
“……”
“It's the first time anyone from outside has stayed in the house this long.”
Hyungnam couldn't bring herself to raise her head.
She couldn't imagine what expression Choi Eunhyung might be wearing.
In truth, she didn't even want to know, much less meet his eyes.
If there had been a mouse hole nearby, she would gladly have crawled into it and disappeared.
“Someone from outside.”
Eunhyung murmured the words softly as he raised his cup to his lips.
Realizing her mistake, Hyungnam hastily waved her hands.
“N-no, that's not, I mean, when I said someone from outside, I didn't mean it like that.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“I—I trust the chairman. And of course I trust you too, Manager Choi. Of course I do.”
What she had meant was that Park Shineok would never let just anyone into his home.
That by an outsider, she meant anyone other than Park Shineok and herself.
And therefore, she wasn't specifically suspicious of Eunhyung.
There was no conceivable way such a complicated message could have been conveyed by the idiotic things she had just said.
Sure enough, the corners of Choi Eunhyung's mouth had tightened slightly.
Of course he must think it's ridiculous. Who the hell does a mere maid think she is, deciding whom she trusts and whom she doesn't?
Hyungnam buried her face in her two small hands.
If Choi Eunhyung would simply refrain from reporting her insolent remarks to Park Shineok, she thought she might actually grow to like him a little.
No. If he really did keep them to himself, Hyungnam privately resolved that she would definitely like him.
Fortunately, Choi Eunhyung didn't pursue the matter.
If anything, he seemed to have lost interest in the subject altogether.
He ordered a bottle of distilled liquor and used a spoon to pry off the cap with a loud pop.
The red toad emblem flew briefly through the air.
“Having an outsider around must've been quite a nuisance for you.”
“No? Not at all! I was just—”
“Just what?”
Hyungnam lowered her head and fidgeted with her hands.
Can I ask him this?
Will he get angry?
There was a question she had been curious about since morning, but she had kept it to herself for fear of being rude.
Now, borrowing a little courage from the liquor burning through her body, she carefully ventured it aloud.
“The chairman ran away, didn't he?”
“He's on a business trip to Japan.”
“A busi— Well, anyway.”
Apparently, Eunhyung simply could not bring himself to use a word that might diminish his boss's dignity, even if his life depended on it.
Hyungnam nodded with perfunctory understanding.
“Don't you have to go with him, Manager Choi? I mean……”
“……”
“…On the business trip.”