Chapter 4.2

Chapter 4.2

Miran and Jieun mouthed the words, mimicking the gesture of rain with their hands and swaying their bodies. Sweat had already formed on their foreheads.

Miran had been reluctantly dragged to the nightclub by Jieun, who insisted that a beer and some dancing would cheer her up. But once on stage, dancing to the ear-splitting music really did lift her mood. Her short-lived temper also played a part in this.

As the series of dance tracks ended, a slow pop song began to play. It was the dreaded “Blues Time” that no one wanted. As soon as the young people who had filled the stage scattered like the receding tide, a hissing sound was followed by musty-smelling smoke that filled the stage like fog. This signaled the start of the busy “booking time” for waiters.

“How do you feel now after dancing a bit?”

Jieun filled a transparent plastic bowl with fruit punch from their appetizer platter and pushed it toward Miran, gauging her mood. Miran picked out sweet canned fruit jelly and fruit pieces, nodding.

“Yeah. Fortune-telling and horoscopes are total scams. I’ll just think of it as stepping in crap.”

“Yeah, that’s the right attitude. I went there because an Unni I know had a great match made by Yeondam and got married really well, but I’m sorry you had to hear such nonsense.”

“It’s not your fault, it’s that quack’s… Oh? Wait, wait a minute! I’m not going to a booking. No, seriously, I’m not going! Stop pulling me!”

A waiter passing by their table backtracked to check Miran’s face before grabbing her arm.

“Come on, don’t pull away, cutie! I’m taking you to a real catch this time.”

The chubby waiter, with a name tag that read “Free Spirit,” ignored Miran’s resistance and dragged her along.

“Have fun! See you later!”

As Miran looked back in distress, even Jieun, who was giggling and waving, got caught by another waiter and was pulled in the opposite direction. This was always the problem when they went to nightclubs together. If they got separated for a booking, they never knew when they’d see each other again.

Free Spirit dragged Miran up to the second floor and peered through the small windows of several rooms before opening one door and ushering her inside. Six men and two women who were already booked were sitting at the table.

The table featured two bottles of 30-year-old Ballantine’s whiskey and dozens of beer bottles. Besides a platter of assorted appetizers, including a red lobster, there were also tteokbokki and fish cakes, which the waiter had brought from outside.

It was clear they were wealthy and from the Orange Group, who often treated women poorly and partied promiscuously.

At that moment, a man sitting at the far end of the table jumped up. He wore a shiny silver suit with no shirt underneath, exposing his bare chest. His hair, heavily gelled into spiky hedgehog-like points and ending in a greasy ponytail down his back, made him look extremely sleazy.

The man suddenly put on black oval sunglasses stuck a cigarette in his mouth and gave Miran a standing ovation.

“Da!mn! Ultra-cool and beautiful glamor! I love you! Come on, baby!”

What nonsense. Miran furrowed her brow and swallowed the curses rising to her tongue.

Retreat. Full speed retreat.

“Sorry, but my friend is waiting for me.”

As Miran mumbled and stepped back, the others at the table threw comments at the man.

“Damn, that ba*stard embarrasses me to death.”

“Ya, ya! You’re killing the mood!”

“Crazy idiot. He’s acting like this after just six months of language study.”

Miran quickly turned to run away, but a familiar voice calling her name stopped her in her tracks.

“Kang? Kang Miran!”

Halfway out the door, Miran turned around, startled.

“Oh…!”

A familiar man sitting at the innermost part of the table looked at her in surprise. It was Nam Seunghyuk, the legendary senior from their university’s joint film club and the subject of Miran’s lukewarm crush over the past four years.

Among the rough-looking seniors in the directing department, Seunghyuk stood out with his fair skin and clean-cut appearance. People who met him for the first time often assumed he was an acting major.