The Weight of Unspoken Words
Eun-geon shot up from his seat and stormed straight into his room.
The door slammed shut, the sound reverberating heavily through the spacious living room.
A frigid silence settled. Gang-bin and Teo exchanged awkward glances.
Gang-bin fidgeted, his eyes darting between Yusom and Eun-geon’s closed door, while Teo silently drained the last of his beer.
Yusom, head bowed, downed the rest of her highball in one gulp.
Her stomach churned and her throat burned. Alcohol, embarrassment, and guilt swirled together, sending heat flooding through her body. As her temperature climbed, she felt even more intoxicated.
“Ah, I really need to go home. Guys, I’m gonna head out.”
Yusom couldn’t bear to stay in this suffocating space any longer. She staggered to her feet.
“Yusom, you’re completely wasted. It’s already past midnight.”
Startled, Gang-bin caught the staggering Yusom. Her body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton, making her sway unsteadily.
“Right. If you go out like this, you’ll definitely get into an accident. It’s dangerous. Absolutely not.”
Teo also rose, grabbing Yusom’s other arm, and said firmly.
“No, I’m fine. I’m really fine. If I take a taxi… it’ll be okay.”
Before she could finish, Yusom’s head spun, her vision blurred, and her legs gave out.
“No. I can’t let you go. What if you fall asleep on the street?”
“Sleep here. There’s a guest room.”
Gang-bin and Teo were unyielding.
In the end, Yusom, completely drunk, was nearly dragged by the two of them toward the guest room.
Thud. After laying the unconscious Yusom on the bed, Teo and Gang-bin disappeared.
Her ears rang and her stomach churned. And… Eun-geon’s last words kept echoing loudly in her mind.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
What does that oppa know about me? Yusom, groggily getting up, rummaged through her pocket.
“Ah, my back hurts. Can’t sleep.”
Because of her drawing work, Yusom had been suffering from severe disc issues lately.
When she focused for hours with her head bowed and shoulders hunched, a tingling electric sensation would shoot from her lower back down to her legs.
“I guess I need to take some medicine and sleep.”
Normally, she would never mix medicine with alcohol, but being so drunk, she didn’t have the energy to worry about it.
Yusom popped the disc medicine she always kept in her pocket into her mouth. Fortunately, there was a water bottle and glass that Teo and Gang-bin had left on the desk.
“…Sleepy.”
Sleep came quickly. Yusom tried hard to keep her eyes shut to forget the face of Eun-geon that kept coming to mind.
Slam! Eun-geon, having slammed the door shut, leaned against it, breathing heavily.
Damn it. Whether it was the alcohol or Lee Yusom, his heart was racing wildly.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
His own words echoed in his ears. He remembered the confusion and hurt on Yusom’s face when he said it.
He should have felt relieved, but instead, he felt worse.
Yusom, whom he hadn’t seen in four years, had changed in some way. She was still clumsy and seemed somewhat withdrawn, but she didn’t fumble around him as she used to.
She argued back properly, and even misunderstood and criticized him.
Traitor.
The word came to mind again.
Yes, Lee Yusom was a traitor. She judged him without knowing him properly and suddenly cut off contact four years ago.
But he couldn’t understand why that traitor kept bothering him.
The way she looked flustered in her pink uniform with a tiny apron, her cheeks flushed red from alcohol, her big eyes looking up at him.
Every little detail about Yusom wouldn’t leave his mind.
“Fuck…”
Eun-geon cursed and walked toward the bed.
Thump. He threw himself onto the top-of-the-line mattress, softer than a sofa.
He lay staring at the ceiling, but instead of sleep, his mind felt even more scattered.
Insomnia.
The damn insomnia had returned. It was because he was on edge before an important competition. Plus, Lee Yusom had shown up today, so his usual condition wasn’t there.
“I’m getting weak.”
Eun-geon mocked himself.
Selected as a national athlete at sixteen, now in his tenth year, he was feeling a stronger sense of routine than ever.
He had to always be strong, show no weakness. The expectations of those around him, media attention, competition with rival athletes.
Amid all that pressure, Baek Eun-geon had to always be the best. Weakness wasn’t tolerated.
“There’s not much time left until the Asian Games.”
He needed to adjust his condition urgently. If he tossed and turned all night like this, it would affect tomorrow’s training.
But he had already drunk alcohol, so taking medicine would be a big problem. Helplessly, Eun-geon decided to just drink more.
When he went to the living room, the 30-year-old Valentine’s whiskey he’d been given as a gift was empty.
Thinking of his friends who had gotten excited about celebrating Yusom’s return, he couldn’t get angry.
Anyway, he always had plenty of alcohol, so it didn’t matter much. He didn’t know why people gave him such expensive liquor, but he had a lot.
Eun-geon looked at the whiskey cabinet on one wall of the kitchen. In the end, he took out the bottle with elaborate embossing from the bottom shelf.
About 30 minutes must have passed.
Eun-geon emptied the strong liquor over 40% without any snacks.
“Now I can sleep a bit.”
Before long, his eyelids grew heavy as lead.
The thoughts that had been clouding his mind gradually faded. Eun-geon sank into deep sleep.
He wanted to escape these damn emotions, even in his dreams.
“Ugh… thirsty…”
In the early morning, Yusom woke up from a deep sleep due to extreme thirst. She had only dozed off on the unfamiliar bed in the guest room.
Her head throbbed and her stomach churned from the alcohol she drank last night. Her mouth was completely dry, and the thirst was killing her.
“Water… I want to drink water…”
The water bottle on the desk was already empty. Yusom staggered off the bed. In the pitch-black darkness, she completely lost her sense of direction.
Was this the living room? Which way was the kitchen?
The alcohol and medicine mixed, and her mind wasn’t working properly.
Yusom opened the refrigerator. There was a cup with water sitting there, so she drank it right away.
But.
“Cough, cough cough!”
…It wasn’t water.
What the hell, it was a very high-proof alcohol. Yusom had already drunk more than half, and her throat was burning.
“Ah, who put alcohol in here?”
Maybe Teo and Gang-bin poured vodka after moving her. They were both so drunk they probably played a prank with the leftover alcohol to see how she’d react.
“…Ugh, my head hurts.”
Already drunk, she had taken medicine and then chugged vodka, so Yusom started swaying again.
“Where was the room again?”
Yusom walked down the hallway, following the faint fragments of memory of Gang-bin and Teo taking her to the room.
Her steps felt unsteady, like walking on clouds.
Then, at the end of the hallway, she stopped in front of a door that felt familiar. She didn’t know why it felt familiar.
She just felt a strong pull and turned the doorknob.