I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 9
Thud.
Jaewoo hit his head on the bar. Just two cocktails had him ready to pass out.
“Are you okay?”
Sanghun asked in surprise. Jaewoo answered clearly.
“Yep, I’m okay.”
He didn’t sound like a drunk man just from listening to him.
“One more drink please.”
Then he wiggled his hands and raised a finger in the air.
“How about raising your face and then ordering?”
Sanghun asked just in case, and this time, too, the answer came back clearly.
“What do you mean? I am holding my face up?”
No, you’re banging your forehead against the bar. Sanghun laughed in embarrassment. Is this what he calls having a high tolerance? He looked at Jaewoo, wondering what he should do, before turning to where Hyunjin was dealing with a customer off to the side. The two of them had said that Jaewoo was his landlord, but it didn’t seem like such a simple relationship.
Sanghun gestured at Hyunjin.
“What do you need?”
“This person’s drunk and passed out.”
At those words, Hyunjin looked down at Jaewoo.
“I am not drunk.”
However, Jaewoo’s forehead was still firmly attached to the bar and didn’t seem like it was going to move anytime soon. Hyunjin placed his hand under Jaewoo’s forehead and gently raised his neck. He needed to touch Jaewoo’s skin in order to do that, but for some reason it didn’t feel as awful as it had before.
Jaewoo’s forehead was red from how hard it had hit the bar top. Hyunjin was about to call Jaewoo directly when he suddenly realized that he had no idea how to address him. He hesitated, then decided to call his name.
“Jaewoo-ssi1.”
Jaewoo’s name lingered on the tip of his tongue as Hyunjin spoke. Jaewoo-ssi. Jaewoo. Unfortunately, Jaewoo opened his puppy-like eyes wide and burst into anger at him.
“Who are you calling ‘Jaewoo-ssi, Jaewoo-ssi’!”
Did Jaewoo hate being called by his name? Jaewoo paused for a breath, then shouted.
“Call me hyung2!”
Hyunjin was taken aback. Wasn’t calling him hyung a little too friendly? That’s what Hyunjin thought. However, Jaewoo stubbornly insisted on being called hyung.
“Hyung! Hyung! Hyung!”
At Jaewoo’s voice, the other guests looked his way and laughed. He was obviously drunk, but his appearance was clean and his actions were cute, so luckily, none of the people watching seemed troubled.
“Alright, hyung.”
Hyunjin eventually gave in to Jaewoo’s stubbornness.
“Okay, then you call me that from now on.”
Jaewoo reached out and swept Hyunjin’s hair back from his face. Seeing this, Sanghun was taken aback, but Hyunjin acted as if nothing was wrong.
‘He usually hates being touched!’
Sanghun made a surprised expression. Seeing him like that, Hyunjin asked for his understanding.
“Can I take him to lie down in the break room for now?”
“Yeah, that would be better. But he’s your landlord. Do you need to take such good care of him?”
Sanghun realized it as soon as he spoke. He’s taking such good care of him BECAUSE he’s the landlord! Isn’t the landlord literally a god in this day and age? There was nothing wrong with sucking up to him a little. That’s why Hyunjin was so tolerant of being touched.
In the meantime, Hyunjin lifted Jaewoo off the stool and supported him.
‘He’s lighter than I thought.’
From afar Jaewoo looked skinny, but up close the reality was even worse. He was so light it felt like he had no muscles in his body. As Hyunjin was helping him to the breakroom, the alcohol got the better of him and he fell asleep. Hyunjin laid him down and covered him with a blanket, then left and continued working. He was kept busy throughout the rest of his shift, like always.
Jaewoo didn’t wake up until the bar was closing.
“Hey, what are we going to do with this person? Is he going to spend the night here? No matter what I try, he won’t wake up.”
“We live in the same house, I’ll take him home.”
“How are you going to manage that?”
“I’ll carry him.”
‘You’re going to carry a grown man on your back?’
Sanghun thought, and in a fright he blurted out.
“You’ll hurt your back!”
“He’s really light.”
“Even if he’s light, he’s still a grown man! There’s a limit to how little he can weigh.”
“It’ll be okay, I’m strong.”
Hyunjin refused to budge, and with the help of Sanghun, he lifted Jaewoo up onto his back.
“Thank you for your effort.”
“Yeah, you too. Get home safe.”
Hyunjin left the bar, walking slowly. It would’ve been nice to take a taxi, but a trip like that would cost a lot of money. So Hyunjin walked home, as usual. It was a chilly dawn, but Jaewoo’s body was warm against his back. Suddenly, something cold touched his cheek.
“Mmm.”
It seemed that Jaewoo had just woken up.
“Who is this?”
“Are you awake?”
As he said that, Hyunjin set Jaewoo back on his feet, but he just staggered and didn’t move.
“Hyunjin, it’s Hyunjin!”
Jaewoo shouted while pointing his finger at him.
“It’s barely dawn. Be quiet.”
“Okay. Quietly, quietly… By the way, Hyunjin, I have a good idea, listen.”
Jaewoo came closer and whispered in his ear. He smelled like the sweet cocktails that he’d been drinking, mixed with alcohol.
“I mean, I have some money. So, can I pay off your debt?”
If Jaewoo was sober, he would never have said it. But now he was drunk, and his brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
“Why?”
Hyunjin’s eyes were steely blue as he asked him. An unpleasant sensation crept in. It seems like people really can’t change. What was he expecting? Hyunjin’s head was dizzy. He could guess what he wanted and what he was offering.
“You want me to sell you my body?”
It was a filthy thing to even consider, but it was also what Jaewoo had been aiming for all along. However, the reaction that came back was different from what Hyunjin was expecting.
“Who’s trying to sell you!”
Jaewoo slapped Hyunjin on the back with a scary expression. He was hitting him so hard that Hyunjin’s back hurt.
“You need! To cherish! Your body!”
Despite the pain, Jaewoo’s slaps felt almost friendly.
“Then why?”
Hyunjin asked with a genuinely puzzled expression. There was nothing Jaewoo could want him for other than his body. And even then, Hyunjin wasn’t sure why he’d even want that.
His palms had thick calluses from working all the time, and he couldn’t afford to go to a hairdresser. He tried to dress as neatly as possible, but his clothes were always old. He’d never thought that he’d actually appeal to anyone.
Sanghun always told Hyunjin to be confident in his appearance, but it was hard to do so. Then why was Jaewoo doing this?
“Is this out of pity?”
That was an unpleasant feeling. Oddly, he didn’t want Jaewoo to pity him.
“Pity?”
Jaewoo desperately shook his drunken head. Was this just pity? Hyunjin was acting affectionate and pitiable, so maybe that wasn’t too far off the mark.
“If that’s the case, that’s enough.”
The familiarity that they had been building seemed to have vanished.
“It’s not necessary.”
Hyunjin spoke one last time and then walked away silently. Jaewoo watched him leave before slowly sinking down to his heels, covering his mouth with his hand. He’d fucked up.
As he crouched there, staring down at the floor blankly, Hyunjin, who’d continued down the road, returned.
“Wake up.”
“Uh?”
“Are you going to spend the night on the floor?”
Hyunjin grabbed Jaewoo’s hand and pulled him up. Seeing as he was willingly touching him, it seemed like Jaewoo hadn’t completely ruined things between them, thank God. Jaewoo counted his blessings and started staggering forward in a zigzag line.
Thud. Then a softer thud. Hyunjin, who just saw Jaewoo almost headbutt a telephone pole, grabbed Jaewoo’s hand and guided him down the street. Once he did that, Jaewoo managed to follow along behind him obediently.
It took longer than usual to arrive home. Hyunjin saw Jaewoo stumble into his room, then sat down on the floor himself to rest. However, as soon as he did so the door, which Jaewoo had closed behind himself, slammed back open.
“Spend the night with me.”
What was this person talking about now? Jaewoo clung to the door and tried to beckon Hyunjin inside as he gaped at him.
“Quickly!”
Hyunjin got up, pushed Jaewoo back into the room, and closed the door. Next time, he won’t let Jaewoo have a drop of alcohol. Only two glasses of strong liquor, and he was already this irritating. He needed to know his limits when drinking.
“I’m going to use the kitchen for a while.”
Jaewoo answered quickly.
“Yes, use it, use it.”
Hyunjin let out a small sigh and hesitated before going into the kitchen. He’d lived here for a long time, but this was the first time he’d been inside. Luckily he had some time before he needed to go back to work.
There were bean sprouts in the refrigerator, and anchovies for making soup in the freezer. He checked to see if there was anything else, but the only other things he could find were some dried side dishes, vegetables, and frozen pork.
He wasn’t as good at cooking as Jaewoo was, but Hyunjin was capable of doing most things that he put his mind to. First, he cleaned the anchovies and then added them to some boiling water. Once the soup had thickened a little, he carefully added the trimmed bean sprouts. As he watched the soup boil, he thought about what had happened that night.
Jaewoo had said enough unpleasant things to him that when he thought back over the past, he wanted nothing to do with him. But if that was the case, what was he doing now? He couldn’t figure it out himself.
Hyunjin seasoned the boiling soup with salt for the finishing touch. It tasted a bit bland, but it wasn’t bad. The bean sprout soup was successfully completed. Thanks to everything that had happened, he’d never actually gotten to eat dinner, and he was starving.
The current Jaewoo probably wouldn’t mind if he opened up the rice cooker and ate some of the rice. But Hyunjin didn’t. Instead, he had some of the soup before heading outside and washing his hair and face in the cold water.
It was time to go back to work.
“Aauuugh.”
Jaewoo grabbed his head and groaned. He never thought that his new body would be so weak to alcohol. He couldn’t have imagined it. He was like this after just two cocktails. This was such bullshit!
“Ugh, save me…”
Crawling like a tortoise, he opened the door and just lay there. One of the boys came over.
“Uncle, what are you doing?”
“I’m pretending I’m dead.”
“Is there anything to eat?”
Woohee asked.
Even if he felt terrible, he had to feed the children. Jaewoo crawled out of the door.
Footnotes
씨 – An honorific used to refer to someone of the same or higher social status as yourself. It’s generally used for strangers or acquaintances, people you aren’t very close to. The closest similarity in English would be ‘Mr. Jaewoo’
As mentioned in chapter 8, hyung is more familiar and is usually used for relatives or friends. Jaewoo is basically saying that he wants to be ‘Brother Jaewoo’ instead of ‘Mr. Jaewoo’
