Chapter 54
I said as I towel-dried my hair after getting out of the shower.
“Se-ri, can you do my hair for me?”
“Sure. Da-young, where’s the hair dryer? Who used it last?”
Hee-ju quietly raised her hand.
“Me.”
Min-seo raised her hand, too.
“Oh! Me, unnie! I showered early so I could spend some time with Oppa this morning. I’ll get it from my room.”
Hee-ju gave a small nod, a beat late.
“Oh.”
Since Hee-ju had been the last one to have sex with me yesterday, I guess I’d mixed them up.
“Hey, you guys still haven’t showered? Go wash up. Just because we’re staying home doesn’t mean you can be gross.”
“Seriously? You were the one who’d lie around without showering after sex until it was time to meet your friends.”
“All right, don’t get so worked up. Anyone would think you’d already hit menopause. You can’t get angry so easily if you’re going to be an idol.”
“You must’ve heard what I said outside.”
While they bickered for a bit, Seong Se-ri plugged in the hair dryer and gently dried my hair.
Normally, I dried it myself.
But today, I was going out for the first time in ages.
“What kind of hairstyle do you want?”
“Hmm. Just... something decent? Do whatever you want.”
“Then I’ll give you the most fashionable hairstyle around.”
“Okay.”
Se-ri nodded and fussed with my hair this way and that. Seeming to get a little excited, she asked,
“Should I pick out your clothes, too?”
“Yeah, pick out some clothes for me, too. I’ve been wearing a suit every time I go out lately.”
“That suit’s getting old. You said it was expensive, right?”
“Hye-eun bought it for me. It cost five million won. And I make sure to get it professionally cleaned whenever I get a break, so it’s still pristine.”
“Who’s Hye-eun? Oh, actress Han Hye-eun?”
The three girls sitting side by side on the sofa looked over at us.
“Unnie, have you never met Hye-eun?”
“No, never.”
“Oh. I guess I haven’t seen her that often, either. I thought she’d come by to see Team Leader pretty often.”
I’d thought so, too.
I figured she’d show up all the time during filming and pounce on me to have sex.
“We text sometimes, but really rarely. She seems focused on filming these days. No news is good news, right? I guess things are going well, so she’s quiet.”
“True. Oppa, I’m done with your hair. How does it look?”
When Se-ri held up a mirror and asked,
I nodded with satisfaction.
“Good. Who’d think I’m turning thirty next year? Damn, I’d definitely get carded.”
“What are you talking about, Oppa? Not that young. Still, if you dress neatly, you could pass for someone in their early twenties. And honestly, your skills in that department are in a league of their own.”
As she checked my closet, Se-ri spoke in disbelief.
“Whoa. What’s with all this? It’s all ancient. Awful. Maybe you should just wear your suit?”
“Wearing a suit to meet friends is ridiculous.”
“Buy some clothes! What do you spend your whole salary on?”
“I spend it taking care of you guys, you little punks! And I should send my parents some money once in a while, too.”
“Is your salary really that low, Team Leader?”
“It’s low! It’s tiny! This is basically exploitative, passion-driven pay!”
What do you think was the biggest reason people in the management industry worked for a year and then changed jobs or quit?
Obviously, the low pay.
I may have been promoted to team leader,
but I was still only an acting team leader, so my salary was meager.
“When the CEO wanted to give you something back then, you should’ve taken that foreign car and sold it.”
“Are you crazy? How could I sell a gift from someone? If I’d taken that foreign car, I’d have gone bankrupt from the maintenance costs.”
“That’s rough.”
“That’s why you guys need to make it big soon. Then we can leave this cramped dorm and move into one of those fancy penthouses or apartments.”
“We’ll still live together there, right?”
“Hmm. I don’t know.”
I really had no idea, so I told her I didn’t know.
At that moment,
the atmosphere turned ice-cold.
“I-I said I don’t know! I mean, if I don’t know, I don’t know. How am I supposed to know what’ll happen then? If you guys get famous, there could be paparazzi all over you. If I’m still coming and going from your dorm all the time—or never leaving at all—what will people think?”
“They’ll think we’re fuck buddies. We can just go public and say that’s what we are.”
“It would turn the whole country upside down. I’m not God. I can’t control that.”
[Who knows.]
As Se-ri carefully picked out clothes for me, she murmured softly in response to what I’d said.
“Maybe we shouldn’t make it big?”
The others seemed to nod slightly, too.
Seeing that, I shouted.
“Hey! Don’t be ridiculous. We came together to succeed in the first place. We’ve worked hard for it all this time.”
“……”
But the mood didn’t improve. I sighed deeply and said,
“If you really make it huge, I’ll live next door to you. Happy? Just make sure I have enough money for that.”
“Okay. Deal!”
“I recorded that just now. Team Leader never lies, so I believe you.”
“Me too!”
All I could do was laugh weakly.
Anyone would think they’d already made it.
And they hadn’t even debuted yet.
“Done. Looks good, right? Oh, show me your face. I’ll put on sunscreen, too.”
“Anyone would think you were my mom.”
“I did your hair and picked out your clothes. Might as well do everything while I’m at it.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
After carefully applying sunscreen all over my face, Se-ri tugged at my cheek and laughed.
“Whoever raised you did a good job—you’re so handsome! Our Hyun-woo! Who gave birth to such a pretty boy?”
“Your mom—your mom did! Hey! Don’t make me say it. Fuck, I’m too old for this.”
“Hehe. Oh, right. I have a luxury watch I don’t use. Want to wear it?”
“No. I’d feel too self-conscious to drink with that on.”
Having finished getting ready to go out, I stood by the front door and said,
“I’m off. I might be late, so don’t wait up.”
“Okay.”
“Have a good time, Team Leader.”
“Yeah, I will.”
Taking in the scent of the perfume Se-ri had sprayed on me, I headed for Sindae Station to meet my friends, feeling nervous and excited for the first time in ages.
They weren’t my high school friends.
They were friends from the materials engineering department at Shinryong University.
[Park Yeon-hee, B]
[Jeon Ju-yoon, C]
[Park Baeng-song, C]
As I rode the subway and looked at the people around me, it was obvious that young people looked young.
Clearly high schoolers.
Or maybe I should say, clearly college students.
They probably didn’t realize it themselves.
‘Damn. Twenty-nine isn’t old at all, so why do I feel so old?’
Still, living with idols, I took pretty good care of my skin.
I exercised every day, too.
And I even had the Blessing of Sex.
But I guess nothing beats the real thing.
“Did you get the item?”
“Not yet.”
When I looked in the mirror before leaving, I really thought I looked young.
But standing next to a high schooler playing a mobile game, I suddenly looked so damn old.
“Ahem!”
Back in my day, the most popular mobile game was Fruit Pang.
[Friendship Beer - Our Friendship♡Forever]
Still, when I met my friends at the bar we used to frequent in college, I realized I was practically the most respectable-looking one there.
The moment I saw my friends’ faces, already drinking beer with fries before I arrived,
I didn’t even recognize them.
“Oh! Kim Hyun-woo’s here. Kim Hyun-woo!”
“Hey, you dressed up really well. As expected of Kim Hyun-woo.”
“He works in the entertainment industry.”
As they welcomed me so enthusiastically, I sat down, bewildered.
“……”
I couldn’t speak for about thirty seconds. Then I finally managed to open my mouth.
“Did you guys take a time machine here separately or something? Why do you all look so old? Why is your skin so cracked? Jong-hak, where’d all your hair go? Why are you bald? I was so shocked I turned away at first.”
Anyone would think you were thirty-nine, not twenty-nine.
Why did they all look so worn out?
“We just don’t take care of ourselves much. Life’s so busy.”
“Still, you’re losing your hair?”
One of my friends had shaved his head completely.
I asked Seo Jong-hak,
and he smiled serenely, like someone you’d see at a temple, and chuckled.
“Well, I work at a food company, and it’s good. Makes hygiene management easier.”
“What kind of lunatic shaves his head for hygiene management?”
“It was all going to fall out anyway.”
“You could’ve taken Propecia or gone to a hair-loss clinic. I’m just worried about you. I’m not making fun of you or anything.”
“Forget it. I don’t have money for that.”
After ordering another draft beer and chatting with my friends, I realized once again that we were really on the verge of turning thirty.
“Hey, anyway, Hyun-woo, glad you came. It’s been a while. Has it been almost two years since we all got together like this?”
“It’s been two years since the four of us met up, right? Everyone’s been busy. Job hunting and all that.”
“Do you know what everyone’s doing?”
I shook my head.
“No, I don’t. But I know everyone’s working. We probably couldn’t have met otherwise. There were times we kept quiet because we didn’t want to make the job seekers feel awkward.”
“Right. I work at a fashion company.”
“Oh, a fashion company.”
“Jong-hak works at a food company, like he said.”
“Yeah.”
“And Kang-gyu here opened a cafe. He’s a cafe owner now.”
“Ooh, a cafe owner. I drink coffee all the time. Oh, right. I never told you guys I got promoted to team leader.”
“What?! Team leader?!”
They were all surprised, but gave me heartfelt applause and congratulations.
“Congratulations. Seriously.”
“Hyun-woo’s the most successful one here. So are you buying tonight?”
“Even as a team leader, my salary’s still peanuts. This industry pays like shit.”
“Hey, being salaried is still easier. Running a business is like riding a roller coaster every day.”
“Oh, because of sales?”
“Yeah.”
It was definitely fun to meet my friends again after so long.
We had endless things to talk about after being apart for so long.
‘In dramas and novels, people always fight at reunions. Guess that doesn’t happen.’
Then again, none of my friends were the sort of people you’d see in a novel.
Like a chaebol heir,
or the school beauty.
I wasn’t accomplished enough to be friends with people like that.
“Hey, shit. Still, it’s nice seeing you after so long. Let’s meet up more often if we can.”
“Sure, when we have time.”
“By the way, how come not one of the guys who graduated from Shinryong University’s materials engineering department has a job related to it?”
Food company.
Cafe owner.
Fashion company.
And I was a team leader in management.
My friends laughed and said,
“Hey, did you hear? Shinryong University shut down completely.”
“Huh? Seriously? Fuck, that’s wild. How long has it been since we graduated, and it’s already gone?”
“Guess there weren’t any new students.”
“Wow, shit. There were way too many universities in Korea to begin with.”
“Hey! At least that university let us graduate.”
“Idiot. What good is graduating if we all ended up in jobs completely unrelated to our majors?”
“That’s true.”
Without even knowing who was saying what, we started talking excitedly.
The alcohol was kicking in, too.
Getting together with this group after so long brought back our college days, so of course the mood was getting lively.
“Wow. Jong-hak, your head is so damn smooth.”
Smack—
When I slapped my now-bald friend’s head with my palm,
Seo Jong-hak happily let me.
“Hit it as much as you want! Fuck, a bald guy ought to have at least this going for him.”
“Pwahahahaha!”
We were all cracking up and slapping Seo Jong-hak’s bald head with our palms.
“Hey, you old guys.”
“Yes?”
“Could you keep it down? Please.”
When a guy who looked like a college student, sitting at the table right beside us, said that,
we immediately bowed our heads.
“Yes, sir. Sorry.”
Keep it down.
We weren’t at an age where we’d get offended, surprised, or flustered just because someone said that.
It happens.
We’d served in the military,
and experienced working life.
The only thing that was a little ridiculous was that we knew we were being a bit loud.
We’d deliberately come to a college district, figuring it’d be okay to make some noise.
That was the only thing that bothered us a bit.
We lowered our voices and started talking again.
“Guess we’re getting old.”
“The times changed in just a few years. Back in our day, college bars were full of drinking games and chaos. You could hear them from the street.”
“The university itself disappeared, so of course things can change. Heh heh.”
But looking around, there were places even louder than our table.
They didn’t tell those people anything.
‘Well, they’re at the next table. Could be.’
Still, we let it go.
There was nothing to gain by starting a fight.
We’d reunited with friends after a long time, so it was better to keep things pleasant.
But then.
“Did you see that? They told them to shut up and they immediately folded. That’s fucking hilarious.”
“Hey, don’t. They’re obviously just a bunch of old losers who came together. Don’t you feel sorry for them? It’s kind of pathetic seeing them drink without any women. They say you shouldn’t make fun of bald people.”
They seemed to think we wouldn’t hear them, covering their mouths with one hand as they spoke.
But their voices were so fucking loud, we heard every word.
They chuckled as if they were proud of themselves.
“Ignore them. Ignore them.”
“Yeah, ignore them. Let’s just drink a little longer and go somewhere else.”
My friends, kind to a fault, said that and raised their glasses again, but—
“Hey. Kim Hyun-woo?”
I kept my empty glass raised and stared steadily at the table next to us.
“What are you staring at, old man?”
At that moment,
I was seriously considering throwing the glass in my hand right in that bastard’s face.
Suddenly, the world lit up before my eyes.
“Oppa! We’re here.”
At the unexpected arrival of the Always girls, I quickly set down my glass and put on a smile.
“Oh, good timing. Sit here.”