‘Jessica’ was never exactly the hottest spot in Daehak-ro, but after Sunday evening, customers became scarce in a flash.
Honestly, weekdays were better.
That’s why they closed at 10 o’clock only on Sundays.
On a Sunday night, about an hour before closing, ‘Jessica’ was nearly empty.
There was only one table of guests.
Just a college couple who’d each ordered a single cocktail and had been glued to their seats for three hours now.
I understood their desire to spend as much time together as possible on a tight budget.
Most of ‘Jessica’s’ regulars were couples just like them.
“There are more staff than customers tonight. Wouldn’t it be better to just close up?”
Chaeyoung, fiddling with her phone on a stool in front of the bar, finally got bored and flopped down on the bar, grumbling.
The bar manager had left early for a family gathering that included ‘Jessica’s’ owner, so only the staff and part-timers were left, enduring the boredom together.
“Want me to make you each a cocktail?”
Stretching as he stood up, Song Hyunsoo looked at Chaeyoung and Jung Ho and asked.
“Oh, do you have a new menu?”
“Come on, you’re busy these days. Do you even have time for that?”
Jung Ho replied with a yawn to Chaeyoung’s sparkling-eyed question.
“Oh, right. Oppa, now you’re doing script readings and going to Superstar Yoon Jooho’s birthday party… You’re a real actor now. I keep forgetting because you still come to ‘Jessica’ just like before.”
“Don’t worry. I’m still a long way from being a real actor. Chaeyoung, Blue Hawaii?”
Chaeyoung smiled at Song Hyunsoo and nodded.
Picking up the Rum to make a Blue Hawaii, Song Hyunsoo then asked Jung Ho.
“And you?”
“Balentain. No, Johnnie Walker. Double Black. Do you have it?”
“……”
Song Hyunsoo hunched his shoulders and bent forward as if he’d been punched in the gut.
“What’s wrong, Oppa?”
“That jerk… trying to imitate Yoon Jooho for no reason… I’m just speechless.”
Wiping his face with his arm, Song Hyunsoo mumbled.
“Your face is red. Are you really okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine. My face… it’s just because I’m feeling angry.”
“Is it something worth getting angry over?”
Jung Ho, the culprit behind the situation, muttered in a wounded tone, and Song Hyunsoo glared at him as he set the Rum bottle down on the counter.
“Try hearing the same line from a different face after seeing Yoon Jooho in person every day. It’s a real shock.”
That’s what he told Jung Ho, but honestly, the reason was a bit different.
Just hearing something Yoon Jooho once said at an unexpected moment had hit him this hard.
My symptoms are worse than I thought.
Have I ever liked someone this much before?
I can’t really remember.
My twenties— supposedly the best time of life— were a total dark age when it came to romance.
Not that any other area was full of bright light, either.
“What do you mean, ‘every day’? You only see him once a week, during script readings.”
“It feels like every day… That’s how much impact his face has.”
As he added Rum, Blue Curaçao, Pineapple Juice, and Lemon Juice to the shaker for the Blue Hawaii, Song Hyunsoo made an excuse.
The fact that, with script practice and all, he actually saw Yoon Jooho at least four times a week was still a secret.
“So. Do you really want Double Black?”
“I was just saying. I’ll have Aviation, since it’s been a while.”
“Okay.”
Aviation.
That was the cocktail he’d made for Shin Hyojin at Yoon Jooho’s birthday party.
Come to think of it, he still hadn’t made a cocktail for Yoon Jooho himself.
If he hadn’t been kicked out so suddenly on Thursday, after eating Jjamppong he could’ve made cocktails and the mood might have been nice.
Skillfully making two cocktails with Gin and Rum, Song Hyunsoo glanced at the younger ones across the bar.
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
“We’re bored, so anything’s welcome.”
“It’s not about me, it’s about my friend.”
When he made a point of saying it was about his friend, Chaeyoung and Jung Ho exchanged glances, then leaned in closer to the bar, more interested than before.
“So, if a group is drinking and two people sneak off together for a second round… What do you think that means?”
“That’s totally a thing! Oppa… wait, is your friend clueless about dating?”
“Is it really that obvious?”
Not quite convinced by Chaeyoung’s answer, Song Hyunsoo looked at Jung Ho this time.
“Well, if they have something to talk about, it could happen even if it’s not a thing, right?”
“That only applies if they’re the same gender. Trust me, Oppa. If it’s a guy and a girl, it’s a hundred percent.”
Chaeyoung declared with shining eyes, but Jung Ho had a different opinion.
“Says who? I have female friends I drink with one-on-one. You do too.”
“But would you sneak off from a group just to do that?”
“Well, that’s… true, but…”
It seemed like Chaeyoung had won this round.
But for it to be a definite thing, like Chaeyoung said, the premise had to be that both people saw each other as the opposite sex.
“What was the mood like when they were drinking?”
“They talked seriously, listened to each other’s worries… offered comfort… The mood was good, apparently. And, crucially, the other person took my friend home and let them sleep over. My friend… was drunk enough to black out.”
“Whoa, they drank and slept together? I mean, actually slept together?”
Chaeyoung shot up from her stool, exclaiming.
Even trying to keep her voice down, her excitement was clear.
“No, they slept separately. In different rooms.”
“Aw, what? I thought Oppa was finally getting a thing after a hundred years.”
This time, Chaeyoung plopped back down on her stool, looking disappointed.
She didn’t even bother pretending it was about ‘Song Hyunsoo’s friend’ anymore.
“Hey, Shin Chaeyoung. I said it’s about my friend.”
Jung Ho asked Song Hyunsoo, who was pouring crushed ice into a rounded glass, in a tone of disbelief.
“Who’s your friend?”
“I have one. Someone I’m doing a movie with…”
He tried to dodge the question, but just then, Song Hyunsoo’s phone, left on the bar, buzzed briefly.
Perfect timing.
After quickly washing his hands and drying them on his apron, Song Hyunsoo walked over to his phone.
He picked it up without thinking— then his eyes went wide.
It was a message from Yoon Jooho.
《Myeonghaeri location decided》
The contents surprised him even more.
Song Hyunsoo immediately typed a reply.
《Huh, really?? Where are you from? Where??》
No sooner had he put his phone down than— buzz— a link to a map app arrived.
It was a tiny fishing village on the west coast.
A place he’d never even heard of.
So there really was a place like this?
Good thing it wasn’t too far from Seoul.
“Hey, bartender. Aren’t you giving us our cocktails?”
Examining the map, Song Hyunsoo was badgered by the two and stuffed his phone into his apron pocket before returning to his spot.
Pouring the blue drink from the shaker into the ice-filled glass, he finished Chaeyoung’s cocktail.
Chaeyoung propped her arm on the bar and sipped her cocktail through a straw, digging deeper into the story.
“They’re not even dating yet, so even if there’s interest, they might not sleep together. Just because you drink doesn’t mean you have to do something stupid. What was the mood like the next morning?”
“They joked around, said the mood was good? Ordered Jjamppong for hangover soup… But.”
“But?”
“But it seemed like the other person was trying to send them home quickly, as if expecting someone to come over. That’s what my friend said.”
“So the mood was good, but they tried to send them home fast?”
Shaking the shaker with Gin, Crème de Violette, Liqueur, Lemon Juice, and Syrup, Song Hyunsoo nodded.
Jung Ho, stroking his chin in thought, tilted his head.
“That’s really ambiguous. Maybe that person’s just playing with your… your friend?”
“They might’ve had other plans that day. Something they couldn’t cancel. If it were me, I wouldn’t bother bringing someone home if I didn’t care. Oppa, would you?”
“Ah, I’d hate it too. Are you crazy? It’s so annoying. But there are people out there who go to that trouble just to keep options open.”
Is it a thing, or just stringing along?
While Chaeyoung and Jung Ho debated, buzz, Song Hyunsoo’s phone vibrated again in his apron pocket.
Handing the violet drink from the shaker to Jung Ho, Song Hyunsoo quickly checked his phone.
《Do you want to go?》
《Now??》
《I’m going to go now. Do you have any thoughts?》
《There is! It’s total!》
Again, it was a message he hadn’t expected.
When he looked up without thinking, he met the expectant gazes of Chaeyoung and Jung Ho.
Song Hyunsoo asked them,
“If someone asks you to go to the sea together, just the two of you…”
“It’s a thing.”
“It’s a thing.”
This time, Jung Ho and Chaeyoung reached the same conclusion.
《What time are you off work? I’ll pick you up on time.》
From the moment he got that text from Yoon Jooho until closing time— the less-than-thirty minutes felt like three hours.
He said goodbye to Jung Ho and Chaeyoung, who were going to cook some ramen in the kitchen before heading home, and left ‘Jessica’.
“……”
Parked diagonally across the street was Yoon Jooho’s car.
An Escalade.