The next morning. Unlike yesterday, I woke up feeling quite refreshed.
The pain of parting that had been gouging at my chest had eased considerably, perhaps thanks to the warmth of Seohui’s embrace.
After making do with a cup ramen for breakfast, I sat on the edge of the bed and suddenly felt a strange sense of incongruity.
‘…What did I usually do at this time?’
Now that I thought about it, when I was dating that jerk, I would have been on the phone with him around this time, or meeting up with him to hang out.
The emptiness tried to creep back in.
But remembering the conversations I had with Seohui yesterday, I decided to overcome this helplessness on my own.
For the first time in a long while, I sat down at my desk and pressed the power button on my computer.
The tower hummed to life, and the light from the monitor shone on my face.
The first place I went was my Neotube channel.
The date of my last video upload was four months ago.
As my relationship with my ex-boyfriend had begun to fall apart in earnest, my creative work had come to a complete stop as well.
I had expected it to some extent, but when I opened the comment section, the viewers were pretty angry.
Wow Sans: Where the hell did this bastard go?
Kinggod123: Please make some new BGM
Vibration Explosion: Did you go on a 9-loss streak in Rule ranked? If that’s the reason, I’ll allow it
QuantumMechanicsTornadoPower: Guess they really died
67lover: Please come back
There were quite a few comments not only from Koreans, but from foreigners as well.
“What the…”
I felt terribly sorry to my viewers all over again.
The moment I steadied myself and checked my subscriber count, my eyes flew wide open and I almost screamed.
“No way!”
The subscriber count that had been nearing fifty thousand had plummeted to forty thousand before I knew it.
No, wait, I thought I’d only taken a short break. How does this make any sense?
Nearly ten thousand people had left. The number felt like proof of my laziness and wandering, and my heart sank.
If it had been before, I might have fallen apart, but now it was different.
What rose in me instead was stubborn determination.
‘Fine. I’ll prove to them I’m alive and perfectly well.’
Just as I was about to open my composing app with blazing motivation, the phone on my desk vibrated briefly.
When I checked, it was Seohui.
[Seohui: Are you awake? I wasn’t sure if you got home safely yesterday.]
I immediately typed a reply.
[Me: Yes, I’m awake! Yesterday was really… thank you for everything. Though I’m so embarrassed I could die.]
A reply came soon after.
Seohui said she was glad I seemed to have some energy and asked if I had any plans today. I replied that I didn’t have anything in particular, then casually asked back.
[Me: Are you going to work today, Seohui?]
[Seohui: I’m at another part-time job right now. The bar opens in the evening.]
[Me: You must be busy…]
[Seohui: It’s okay. It’s not that hard.]
So she did other work besides bartending. As expected, she was amazing. Without hesitation, I wrote the next sentence.
[Me: Then I’ll come to the bar tonight.]
[Seohui: Really? You’re welcome anytime. But today, don’t drink too much. Just something light, okay?]
[Me: Yes! I’ll see you later.]
After putting down my phone, a smile spread across my lips without me realizing it.
But this was no time to simply be happy.
Looking at the subscriber list that had fallen from fifty thousand to forty thousand, I took a deep breath.
“Okay, Han Yeonseo. Get a hold of yourself.”
Bbleton, opened for the first time in a very long while.
The familiar dark mode interface filled the monitor.
I added a track and first called up a virtual piano instrument.
After connecting the slightly dusty master keyboard to the computer, I carefully placed my hands on the keys.
At first, my fingers felt stiff and creaky, but as I tapped the keys according to where my heart led me, a fairly decent intro came out.
Once the intro was made, the work picked up speed.
The piece I would use this time was a wistful BGM track with piano as the main instrument.
I layered the drum beat, laid down the bassline, and refined the main melody.
As I lost myself clicking the mouse, clinging to that one song, the light outside the window had changed before I knew it.
The hiatus really had been long.
Even after working on it for six hours, my efficiency was only about half of what it had been in my prime.
“It’s already four?”
After checking the clock in the corner of the monitor, I jumped up in alarm.
I had been so focused that I hadn’t even realized I was hungry.
I ran to the kitchen, heated up a pack of instant rice, and shoved it into my mouth to stave off my hunger.
After finishing my meal without really chewing, I returned to the computer as if drawn by a magnet.
There were roughly five hours left until the time I’d agreed to meet her.
‘I’ll just get it to the point where I can finish it by tomorrow.’
I put my headset back on.
Strangely, crying yesterday seemed to have become fuel for creation, as if I had purged some poison from my system.
As I immersed myself in work again, the appointed time was suddenly right around the corner.
I still felt reluctant to stop, but I firmly saved the file and shut down the computer.
“I’m glad I decided to make it.”
Listening to the song I had made after so long gave me confidence.
Leaving the composing behind, I stepped outside, and the night air felt quite different from yesterday.
Unlike yesterday, when I had been soaked in misery and staggering, my steps today were much lighter.
Jingle.
With the sound of the bell, I opened the door and entered “hanjing Bar.”
But the atmosphere around the counter was unusual.
A female customer sitting at the bar table was resting her chin in her hand, openly flirting with Seohui, who was cross-dressing again today.
“Bartender, what are you doing after you get off today? How about one more light drink with me?”
As if this sort of thing happened all the time, Seohui handled it skillfully with a relaxed smile.
“Ma’am, I’m already making drinks here, so if I go out drinking, the manager will scold me.”
“Come on… just once…”
“…Would you like one more glass?”
“Yeah!”
It was a refusal that wasn’t quite a refusal, the practiced ease of keeping boundaries while still matching the other person’s mood.
A pro really was different.
Perhaps only now hearing the door open, Seohui turned her head and noticed me.
“Welcome, ma’am.”
I sat down at the bar table about two seats away from the female customer.
A little while later, when the woman who had been persistently talking to her finally succumbed to drunkenness and collapsed face-down on the table, Seohui quietly came over to me.
Seeing her bartender’s outfit, which I hadn’t been able to look at closely yesterday, and the subtly sexy shape of her eyes up close, I felt even more nervous now that I was sober.
“What would you like to order? As promised, shall I prepare something that isn’t too strong?”
“I don’t really know the menu…. Is there anything you’d recommend?”
“I’ll make you a Midori Sour, with an attractive fresh melon scent and a green color. It’s low in alcohol and carbonated, so you should be able to drink it comfortably, like a soft drink.”
“Ah, yes! I’ll have that.”
I nodded and waited for the cocktail to come out.
A short while later, I took a sip from the glass placed in front of me.
A sweet melon fragrance spread through my mouth, along with the sharp tartness of lemon and the pleasant pop of carbonation.
“Wow… it really is just like a soft drink. It’s delicious!”
“I’m glad it suits your taste.”
“I think you’re just good at making them, Seohui.”
“Thank you for saying that…”
As Seohui wiped a glass, she naturally continued the conversation.
“What did you do during the day today? You look much more lively than yesterday.”
“Ah… actually, I worked on composing a little. I didn’t get much done, though…”
At my words, Seohui’s eyes widened.
“Already? I think the fact that you started again is amazing enough.”
“Do you…?”
A corner of my heart tickled at her sincere praise.
In truth, all of this was thanks to Seohui embracing me and comforting me yesterday.
I wanted to express that gratitude somehow.
Since my allowance would come in tomorrow anyway, I thought I should repay her.
“Um, Seohui. Do you happen to have anything tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? No, I don’t.”
I took another sip of my Midori Sour and worked up my courage.
“If it’s okay with you, would you like to have a meal with me tomorrow? I’m so grateful for yesterday and today… I wanted to treat you to something good.”
At those words, Seohui’s expression visibly brightened.
“A meal? I’d love that. A meal from you, Yeonseo? I’m happy.”
“Then I’ll contact you tomorrow once we figure out a time.”
“Understood. Give me just a moment.”
As I sipped my cocktail and savored the taste, Seohui moved to the side.
The place she headed was the female customer who had been sprawled over the table since earlier.
Seohui carefully woke her, then hailed a taxi waiting outside and sent her off.
As I blankly watched her from behind, simply waking up a customer and sending them home, the memory from two days ago suddenly overlapped with the scene.
‘…She could have just woken me up and sent me off like that.’
Just how bad had I been back then?
Seeing her send a customer home in such a simple way made me realize just how special the trouble she had taken to carry me home herself had been.