Chapter 51
Of course.
We're all grown adults gathered for a dignified occasion.
Even if we can quietly call someone out for doing something wrong, barbarically twisting someone's legs is something no adult should do.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, no actual leg-twisting would have happened.
“Aagh!”
If I hadn't been here, that is.
“Aaaagh!”
“I'm going harder!”
We sat the leaker in a chair and twisted his legs with a broom pulled from the cleaning-supplies closet.
Is this how you're supposed to do it? I have no idea.
Taejin, twisting them from the opposite side, was cackling.
That was one reason we could twist his legs.
What could he do when our sponsor was twisting them too?
“Ah, this is tiring. You do it.”
“Huh? Me?”
“What use is all that exercise if you can't use it?”
More importantly, I'd wanted to try it myself, but my arm hurt.
I handed it over to some guy beside me who looked reasonably fit.
“Aaaagh! Hey!”
“Uh, uh. Is this how you do it?”
You little punk, you were hesitant a moment ago, but you're good at this.
When would you ever get another chance to twist someone's legs?
I had it easy, so I sat back with my arms crossed and watched.
“I-I'm really sorry! It was an accident, an accident!”
“Getting a little high-pitched, aren't we?”
“That's because it hurts! Aagh!”
As a result of twisting his legs like that,
he claimed it had just slipped out.
Simple enough, isn't it?
He'd gotten drunk, felt good, and casually fired off a shout-out to the gathering without thinking.
“What's this?”
“I-I bought it because I was sorry!”
Hmm, really?
One glance told me it was expensive liquor.
He'd spent some money as an apology.
“What should we do?”
“Let him go for now.”
He'd apologized and brought a gift, so we stopped twisting his legs for now.
And now that I'd cooled down and thought it over, it wasn't that serious.
Who hears “A-chin Gathering” and thinks of an Ahyeon Friendship Gathering?
They'd just assume it was a gathering of very close friends. Or maybe a gathering for loners?
Anyway, all I had to do was claim that was the group's name from now on.
“Agh….”
“Hey, go easy on him. He's a celebrity too.”
“What? You were the one leading the charge, noona.”
“Oh, is that so?”
You all went along with it, so you're accomplices too.
Anyway.
“Let's clean up and drink the liquor he brought.”
“We're not doing more?”
“What, are we going to dismember him over one slip of the tongue?”
I gave him a decent scolding, so this should be enough.
“Well, then….”
So everyone began cleaning up the scene, looking a little disappointed.
I squatted down in front of the leaker—Jeon Jinhyeok, that is—who was lying face-down in pain.
“Are you okay?”
“N-no….”
Hmm, maybe I went too far?
He's an adult now, too… I handled him the way I used to because I was drunk.
They say kids these days are sensitive and get hurt by things like this.
“You little punk, that's what you get for letting it slip.”
“....”
Pat, pat.
I said as I stroked the head of the guy lying face-down.
It was just a loving bit of leg-twisting, so don't take it personally, okay?
“...Ah, okay.”
“Good. Oh, and one more thing.”
“Yes…?”
“If you tell anyone about what happened today, you're dead. Seriously.”
“....”
And from now on, I needed to keep a closer eye on him.
There's no upside to a celebrity having a loose tongue.
**
There'd been a brief commotion, but
the gathering's mood quickly returned to normal.
This is why punishments need to be harsh and cumbersome.
Once you give them a proper drubbing, no one says a word.
Jeon Jinhyeok had already returned to his faction and was chattering away.
“Am I staying here?”
“What's wrong with that?”
For the record, our bored Yujin was sitting beside me.
Afterward, I threw an arm around her again and brought her over next to me.
“Hmm, my glass is empty.”
Come to think of it, after drinking for a while, my glass had somehow emptied.
“What?”
“Come on.”
The bottle was a little far away, so when I held out my empty glass, Yujin narrowed her eyes.
“My arm hurts.”
When I urged her on,
“Huh!”
Glug, glug.
she filled the glass to the brim.
“What are you doing?”
“...So you'd drink more.”
“Really?”
Hmm, was that what she meant?
She was filling my glass with expensive liquor.
Yujin was finally learning how to show some respect.
“Hey, though.”
“Yeah?”
“Why am I always the one pouring the drinks?”
Hmm, was that true?
…Now that I thought about it, Yujin did seem to pour mine every time.
“Pour me one too.”
True to her feminine nature, Yujin had apparently been keeping that to herself.
She pouted and held out her glass.
“Sure.”
If she wanted me to pour one, she could've just asked. I poured her drink with both hands.
“W-wait?”
“Why?”
What was so surprising? It's not hard to pour a drink.
I chuckled and drank the wine from my glass.
Hmm~ Maybe it was because it was expensive?
It went down incredibly smoothly.
I eat sparingly, but I drink like water.
Keeping in shape is a model's basic responsibility, but… I was naturally not prone to gaining weight anyway.
Besides, since I normally took care of myself, the occasional binge didn't do much harm.
Sip, sip.
Unlike me, Yujin beside me was taking small sips.
“Mmm… tasty.”
Ah, so she wasn't drinking less for the sake of her figure?
She was just a lightweight. Right.
Anyway.
As Yujin's drunken face grew redder,
the others were getting pleasantly drunk too.
The mood was starting to heat up,
and everyone's conversations gradually grew more risqué.
“Producer Jeong and Senior Kim Yeongji….”
“Really? No wonder Kim Yeongji became a regular….”
They started with industry scandals that would make a reporter lose their mind,
“That old fossil is so damn conservative, just skip him no matter what!”
“But aren't the terms good?”
There was a wide variety: which director had what kind of personality, where the terms were good, and so on.
“No, this old man keeps butting in at every little thing….”
“Don't call the director an old man, you punk.”
Whack!
“Ow!”
More importantly, now that everyone was drunk,
I made the rounds, punching them in the shoulder whenever it seemed like they were about to cross a line.
Even if this was a private gathering, there were twenty people here.
No good could come of saying things like that and causing trouble.
“Ah, noona, why do you only come after me….”
“Your mouth gets you in trouble.”
This punk.
I raised my palm, and he hurriedly covered his mouth.
He seemed to remember getting smacked in the mouth last time.
Tsk, if he remembered that, how could he call someone an old man?
In the Land of Eastern Courtesy, no less.
“Ah, but is that really something you can say, noona….”
“What the hell.”
Anyway, just like that,
I joined conversations here and there while pleasantly drunk myself.
“Are you guys going somewhere?”
“We're going on a group photoshoot this time!”
“What? Really?”
“It was posted in the group chat. You didn't see it?”
They'd been talking about a group photoshoot for quite a while.
Had something like that really been posted in the group chat while I was away?
Well, I probably wouldn't have joined anyway, but honestly, it sounded interesting.
“I don't really check the group chat.”
“Of course you don't, unnie….”
Hey, the chat gets 300 messages a day. It's weird to read every single one, isn't it?
“Then at least make an effort to come to the gatherings! You'll come next time too, right?”
“Next time? I don't know.”
“What? It's not like we get to see each other that often.”
Well, that's true.
We can hardly all get together whenever we want because everyone has to rearrange their schedules.
So was that why they'd been hounding me to come?
We only met a few times a year, and I kept skipping out.
“Unnie, aren't we going on trips together anymore?”
“That's right~ We should have a group meetup like we did back when we were students~”
“Let's go to the beach, the beach~”
“Hey, hey, we don't do that anymore.”
Anyway, maybe because they were drunk, I barely managed to shake off the increasingly clingy ones and returned to my seat.
“Where did you go?”
“Keeping them in line.”
At my seat, Yujin was still emptying her glass sip by sip.
Yujin's manager was going to have a rough time tonight.
Whenever Yujin got completely drunk, her manager would come over whining and take her away.
“Hey, you~ Are you their mother or something? What are you policing them for?”
“I'll be their mother, so gather around and give me some allowance.”
“Why would someone who earns so much need that….”
Yujin giggled, apparently dumbfounded by my words.
Yep, she was properly drunk.
It was about time to wrap things up and make my escape.
“But why haven't you been coming all this time?”
“I told you earlier, I've been busy.”
“You weren't busy last year.”
“Hmm.”
Right? I wasn't busy, was I?
But I couldn't exactly say I'd been doing something else.
Naturally, apart from my family, Roselia was the only person who knew about my broadcast.
It wasn't that broadcasting embarrassed me.
…It was my viewers who were a little embarrassing.
You'd think they'd at least act like viewers I could proudly mention somewhere.
“I just had something come up.”
Anyway.
Since I couldn't mention the broadcast, I gave her a vague answer, and Yujin narrowed her eyes.
“Were you seeing someone~?”
“As if.”
“Yeah, figured….”
Yujin immediately accepted my curt answer.
Yeah, romance probably wasn't my thing, right?
I might end up following Teacher Han Seonghwa's example and staying single.
“Oh, right.”
More importantly, speaking of dating reminded me of something.
“Do you like Taejin?”
“U-uh? Y-yeah… Why?”
Yujin, you little shit. Don't tell me you like Taejin.
I turned to look for Taejin.
“Hey, what do you mean….”
“Ah, hyung~ It's not like that….”
And there he was, hanging out among the other guys.
As befitted his sociable nature, he was laughing and chatting away.
Other people might have seen a third-generation chaebol heir who was easygoing and the perfect son, but…
Knowing the truth, it gave me chills to see him roughhousing with someone in a headlock.
That bastard, bringing his personal feelings to this gathering.
“Yujin, that guy is absolutely not for you.”
No matter how I looked at it, Yujin was too good for him.
She was only a little short; otherwise, what was not to like?
She earned good money and was popular, too.
She even had enough leadership and goodwill to head her own faction.
It broke my heart to see her wasting her feelings on that gay Taejin.
“You understand, right?”
So I made it abundantly clear that, whoever else it was, it couldn't be Taejin, but
“Don't tell me… No, right?”
Yujin's face was flushed from drink, and she looked like she was about to cry.
“W-what? What's wrong?”
“No, if you do that, I don't think I can win….”
Win? Against whom?
Ah…!
Hey, that's not what I mean.
I really don't!