GBH 135

“VR is short for virtual reality games… Um, it’s where the game feels vividly real, as if you’re inside the game.”

Wanting to impress the person she liked, Ji-soo explained particularly kindly. Her manner resembled someone explaining how to use a kiosk to an elderly person struggling in front of it.

“We need to choose a theme too. Let’s see. Space war, Western cowboy, jungle shooting, ocean city, zombie, racer, dance… That’s all. There are more at specialized cafes. What do you want to try?”

“Uh, well, th-that-“

Ji-soo scrolled through the screen connected to the VR game machine, listing the themes before asking. Peering over Ji-soo’s shoulder at the screen, Song Yi-heon’s mouth gaped open like someone seeing an alien world. Each diverse theme looked equally fun, making it impossible to choose.

The theme with laser beams crisscrossing vast space looked thrilling, and the gunslingers in the dusty West stirred a manly nostalgia. Unable to decide easily, wondering when he’d get another chance to experience an underwater ocean city, Ji-soo had a brilliant idea.

“Want to try them all?”

“You’re really such a nice kid.”

As if sorry for not realizing it before, Song Yi-heon looked at Ji-soo differently, exclaiming in admiration. Blushing shyly across the bridge of her nose, Ji-soo enthusiastically entered the VR zone.

In the end, they skipped the movie and conquered all the VR game themes.

After getting their movie tickets at the theater but not watching the film, they came out satisfied after blowing through several 50,000 won bills at the game center. As they emerged from the stuffy, dry interior where they’d been working up a sweat, the night breeze felt cool against their cheeks. Song Yi-heon, stiff from crouching during the final shooting game, stretched with a refreshed groan.

After playing so well together at the game center, they were reluctant to part. Their aimless steps in the same direction without a specific destination proved this. 

Ji-soo, reading the mood, quickly suggested, “Want to go for drinks?”

“Drinks?” Song Yi-heon, whose favor towards Ji-soo had increased dramatically at the game center, readily agreed. “Yeah, let’s eat gopchang.”

“Gop…chang?”

It was an unfamiliar menu item for Ji-soo, who had only been to trendy franchise pubs, but Song Yi-heon wasn’t sensitive enough to consider this.

“Do you drink soju? No, have beer. No, drink cider.”

Ji-soo has a weak stomach and doesn’t like strongly-scented foods. So she quickly sent an SOS to Se-kyung.

‘Se-kyung, help me!’

Se-kyung smiled, furrowing his brow as if troubled. He bent down to whisper in Ji-soo’s ear, as if they’d been exchanging whispered advice since they met today.

“Yi-heon likes innards.”

How else would Yi-heon have introduced Se-kyung, who couldn’t even eat sundae because of the smell, to the world of gopchang? The attempt to broaden Song Yi-heon’s culinary world had backfired, dragging Se-kyung into the world of gopchang instead.

“I, I like it!”

Seeing Se-kyung and Ji-soo whispering again, Song Yi-heon’s expression became strange. Thinking he was disappointed that she wouldn’t eat gopchang, Ji-soo hastily seized the opportunity. The menu wasn’t important. What mattered was drinking with Song Yi-heon.

“I love gopchang. I absolutely love it.”

“If you like it, you like it. What’s with the ‘absolutely’?”

Song Yi-heon had already recognized Ji-soo as a nice kid at the game center. If there was any flaw, it was with Choi Se-kyung, and Choi Se-kyung would be the one he’d fight like dogs with after parting from Shin Ji-soo.

“Looks like you know how to eat gopchang. Do you like daechang or makchang better?”

‘I don’t like either.’ But Ji-soo chose makchang with widened eyes. Not even knowing which animal’s innards rectum came from.

As soon as they sat down and ordered at a nearby gopchang restaurant, side dishes were prepared and a pre-grilled makchang arrived. The round-shaped makchang pieces, with their centers protruding like melon navels, sizzled as oil melted off them. Song Yi-heon piled the fully cooked makchang like a mountain on Ji-soo’s personal plate, who was breathing only through her mouth.

“Eat a lot. Should we order more?”

“No!” Afraid he might actually order more even as a joke, Ji-soo changed the subject seriously, “L-Let’s drink.”

As Ji-soo reached for the bottle, Song Yi-heon grabbed it first.

“Hey, toast?”

He wouldn’t let Ji-soo drink, but he shook the red-capped soju bottle at Se-kyung. The two must drink often, as Se-kyung nonchalantly held out his glass. 

Song Yi-heon poured soju for Se-kyung and then for Ji-soo, admonishing, “Just one glass. Call home and say you’re drinking before you go.”

“My family is really open-minded. It’s okay if I come home late after drinking.”

“What are you saying?”

As if watching a child’s bravado, Song Yi-heon stretched his lips into a smirk with the soju glass to his mouth. With his nose bridge flushed red as if cooked by the heat from the grilling gopchang, Song Yi-heon drained his soju glass in one go. Though it hadn’t even been two months since he became an adult, he drank like someone who had been drinking soju for 30 years.

He drinks really well. Ji-soo was stealing glances at Song Yi-heon while sipping her soju when she suddenly came to her senses. She hadn’t gone through the trouble of inviting Song Yi-heon out just to peek at him. 

Ji-soo spoke up to try and get closer to Song Yi-heon in a short time, “Shall we play a drinking game?”

“Drinking game?”

“Didn’t you go to the newcomers’ retreat? That’s where you learn drinking games first.”

“Not yet. I’m going next week.”

Song Yi-heon showed sudden interest when college talk came up. He pulled his chair closer to sit by Ji-soo.

“What about Se-kyung?”

“Me too, next week.”

Though Se-kyung wasn’t particularly interested, he leaned his upper body towards Ji-soo, pretending to be interested so as not to lose to Song Yi-heon, who had moved close to Ji-soo. Song Yi-heon bared his canines and scowled fiercely, but quickly hid them when Ji-soo looked.

“Then I’m the only one who’s been.”

Ji-soo, who had already attended the newcomers’ retreat, rolled up her sleeves to spread the games she had learned at drinking parties. Ahem, pretending to stroke a non-existent beard, Ji-soo recited exactly what a senior had said at the retreat.

“You have to learn the classics to build a foundation. Let’s start with ‘Public Seven Clap’.”

Intelligence, quick wit, and superior athletic ability were useless in drinking games. Even those who excelled at games would become equally foolish after getting caught and drinking a few times. Out of sync, mistakes, forgetfulness… As laughter grew louder, the caution about not exceeding one’s drinking limit disappeared.

None among Se-kyung, Ji-soo, and Song Yi-heon survived. At this point, it was unclear who the drinking games were even for. After the fierce “Orange Game” ended, silence fell over the table. During the game where they had to express “orange” with their whole bodies, they were warned by a part-time worker to keep it down, but once the game ended, the three slumped like toys with dead batteries.

“I’ll be back from the bathroom.” Se-kyung got up, rubbing his face with his palm. 

His cheeks, flushed beyond pink to red, didn’t look normal, and as soon as he stood up, he staggered and grabbed the chair for support. It seemed dangerous, but no one helped Se-kyung because the other two were in similar states.

At least Se-kyung had the presence of mind to go to the bathroom, while Song Yi-heon and Ji-soo were half-unconscious, slumped over the table. It was the aftermath of the drinking games.

Ji-soo rose, fishing out a long strand of hair that had fallen into the now-cold gopchang hotpot. After eating the grilled gopchang and falling for its charm, Ji-soo had ordered the hotpot too and eaten it especially with soju, getting completely drunk. She made drumming motions on the table, going “doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.”

“Then for the final game… the grand truth game!”

She picked up a soju bottle cap and rolled the metal strip that separates when opening soju into a stick-like shape, spinning it. The soju cap slowed down gradually and stopped with the stick pointing at Song Yi-heon. Ji-soo clapped her hands, saying it was perfect.

“I have something I’m curious about.”

“What is it?” Song Yi-heon replied with half-slurred speech and drowsy eyes.

“What’s your ideal type?”

“Pretty person.” Song Yi-heon answered immediately without needing to think. 

Ji-soo rounded her lips in surprise, as she had expected the genuine Song Yi-heon to say that looks were just superficial and that a person’s character was more important.

“What about their heart?”

“What’re you talking about? Face.” Song Yi-heon said seriously, as if he had heard something bizarre. 

He was a man after all. For the first time, Ji-soo felt Song Yi-heon was like other boys his age, and even though she learned this new side of him, her rose-colored glasses remained firmly in place.