“Sounds like a lie, doesn’t it?”
He… no, she? asked with a bright smile.
I nodded fiercely, my face blank.
“Do you think you can believe me if I say it like this?”
In that instant, the tone of the voice changed completely.
This time, it was unmistakably the smooth voice of a woman.
Wondering if I was hearing things because I was too drunk, I hurriedly tossed the rest of my drink into my mouth.
My head rang.
I couldn’t tell whether I’d been drunkenly rambling at a handsome man, or making a disgrace of myself in front of a woman.
The bartender I’d thought was a man seemed surprised by my reaction.
“…By any chance, are you disappointed because I’m a woman?”
She asked cautiously, a somewhat worried look on her face.
At that, I smacked the table and shook my head hard.
My voice cracked from the alcohol, but I didn’t care.
“What’re you talking abouuut! You listened to me so well, and you’re such a good personnn! What does… gender even matterrr…”
At my booming shout, the employee finally seemed to relax, her expression relieved.
“Is that so… That’s a relief.”
“A relief…?”
The sight of her beneath the lights strangely tickled some corner of my chest.
I was definitely feeling something, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
“Do you usually enjoy drinking?”
“Nooo… I don’t really drink…”
“Pfft…”
Maybe I looked cute or something, because she let out a short laugh.
“Why’re you laughin’?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Ugh…”
“Are you all right?”
I couldn’t answer her.
In the end, I had reached my limit.
It was only natural, considering someone weak to alcohol had gone and drunk something strong.
As the alcohol surged through me explosively, my vision began to flicker.
Right before my consciousness cut out, I faintly heard the bartender’s voice.
“…Should I take her home? I should tell the manager.”
***
When I opened my eyes, bright sunlight was filling the room.
“…Ugh.”
I sat up with a splitting headache.
The familiar ceiling, the familiar smell. It was the bed in my studio apartment.
“What…?”
I definitely remembered drinking at the bar yesterday.
But I couldn’t recall at all how I’d gotten here.
Had I walked back myself? Or had someone called a driver for me?
I tried searching my memory again.
I had definitely gone to the bar, cursed out my ex-boyfriend, and then heard the bartender say she was a woman…
“…No way, was it a dream?”
At the completely unrealistic memory, I tore at my tangled hair and looked around.
Considering the way my stomach churned, it was a fact that I’d been somewhere drinking like there was no tomorrow.
But the thing about the bartender being a woman was obviously nonsense my alcohol-soaked brain had made up.
“Still… it’s bothering me for some reason.”
To check, I washed my face roughly and ran to the bar I’d gone to yesterday.
“I knew it.”
But the bar I’d gone to early in the morning was closed.
Standing in front of the darkened bar, I scratched my head in frustration.
Just as I was heading back, wondering what I should do to kill time until night, the phone in my pocket vibrated.
[Gaeul: Yeonseo, are you free today?]
It was my best friend, Park Gaeul, who’d had plans with her part-time job friends yesterday.
Since I was already outside and had nothing to do, I replied right away.
[Me: I’m free now. I’m already out.]
[Gaeul: Really? I’ll get ready and come out soon too.]
[Me: I’ll head toward your place, so let’s meet nearby.]
[Gaeul: Okay!]
With light steps, I walked in the direction of Gaeul’s house.
Then, from far away, I spotted blond hair that stood out at a glance.
Park Gaeul looked like she had “popular girl” plastered all over her.
Feeling a strange sense of pride that a loser like me was best friends with someone like her, we headed to a nearby café.
Jingle—
As soon as we sat down with two cool Oreo frappes, Gaeul’s interrogation began.
“All right, tell me now. What on earth happened? That bastard really said he wanted to break up? What was his reason?”
Gaeul fired off before she even put the straw in her mouth.
I began telling her, one by one, about the absurd and miserable scene I’d gone through under the cherry blossoms yesterday.
“Lately, that bastard had been giving me a ton of grief about my future.”
“What?”
“Saying things like, how long was I going to keep living like this, that I was frustrating…”
Before I could even finish, Gaeul smacked the table.
“Is that guy insane? He knows better than anyone how much you’ve struggled all this time, and he says that crap?”
“I wanted to earn money too, and I didn’t want to be a burden to him. The things I tried just didn’t work out the way I hoped.”
With my head lowered, I only tapped the bottom of my cup with my straw.
“In the end, I got thrown away because I had no ability. Once I became useless, he cut me off without mercy.”
I felt Gaeul’s warm hand on my drooping shoulder.
“Yeonseo, it’s not like you just started this yesterday. Do you know how incredible it is that you’ve held on to piano for eleven years and made it this far?”
Gaeul placed her hand over the back of mine and continued seriously.
“That bastard didn’t understand the value of all those hours you spent working hard, playing the keys all night. Results? They’re not everything in life.”
At Gaeul’s words, my throat tightened.
I wondered if I had been this desperate for someone to acknowledge my efforts.
My ex-boyfriend had always been busy belittling my studio as “a hobby that doesn’t make money.”
I stirred the ice with my straw and barely managed to answer.
“I know… I do, but when I actually faced reality, I looked so small to myself. The whole world is changing so fast, but it felt like I was the only one stopped inside that cramped room.”
“No, absolutely not.”
Gaeul gripped my shoulder tightly and looked at me with serious eyes.
The comfort from my friend, who usually seemed so carefree, sank especially deep into my chest today.
“…Thanks. Really.”
“Come on, what for? So stop being down now! We came all the way out here, so you should cheer up.”
“…Yeah, I should.”
“Drink this nice and cold, then let’s eat something delicious for dinner and have a proper good time before we go. Okay?”
“Yeah.”
At Gaeul’s lively voice, I found myself smiling a little without realizing it.
For the first time in a while, I followed Gaeul around the shopping mall.
We looked at all kinds of clothes, but there wasn’t really anything I wanted to buy.
Even so, just walking around and looking at the clothes on display helped lift my mood.
After that, we went to a coin karaoke room, then polished off sizzling samgyeopsal, and before I knew it, night had fallen.
“Sleep well, and don’t think weird thoughts like you’re not good enough!”
“Yeah, thank you so much for today.”
“Call me again if things get hard!”
After saying goodbye to Gaeul, I headed home.
Thanks to Gaeul, there hadn’t been a moment today when I didn’t laugh, but once I was alone, the resolution I’d made during the day suddenly came back to me.
‘I said I’d go back tonight.’
But after running around all day, my body felt like lead.
I’d eaten plenty for dinner too, and drinking on top of that in this state was impossible no matter how I thought about it.
“…Should I just go home?”
My steps slowed.
My curiosity about wanting to check collided head-on with my exhaustion and desire to bury myself in bed.
The road leading to my studio apartment.
If I turned left, I’d get home. If I went right, I’d arrive at yesterday’s bar.
I stood under a streetlamp for a moment, lost in thought.
Right now, the balance in my bank account was exactly thirty thousand won.
I would get my allowance in a few days, but blowing it at a bar right now would hurt.
To be honest, I didn’t live only off my allowance.
I made a little pocket money by uploading songs I’d started making as a hobby onto a site.
But ever since my relationship with my ex-boyfriend had begun to creak, I hadn’t been able to put my hands on any work at all.
It had already been quite a while since I’d been half-forced to stop uploading.
“Haa… What am I supposed to do from now on?”
What a life. A sigh escaped me on its own.
“You look like you have a lot on your mind today too.”
That was when it happened. Through the streetlamp light above my head came a clear woman’s voice.
Startled, I turned around.
There stood a woman with short black hair.
She was a beauty who could have been a model or celebrity.
The orange glow of the streetlamp spilled softly over her shoulders.
She wore a thin cardigan and comfortable slacks, and even that simple outfit looked refined on her.
But what had she just said? “Today too”?
“…Um, who are you? Do you know me?”
It was a face I had never seen before.
There was no way my brain, which was good at remembering pretty and handsome people, wouldn’t remember her.
Seeing my confusion, she smiled, her eyes gently curving.
“You really don’t know? So you don’t remember any of it…”
“…Pardon?”
I tried searching my memory, but my mind was blank.
Still, her voice alone felt strangely familiar.
The voice I’d heard yesterday while I was drunk.
I looked at her, thinking, No way.
Then she took one step toward me and opened her mouth.
“You were the customer who passed out at the bar yesterday. Carrying you home on my back was quite a lot of work, you know.”