episode_0012

Mira grumbled to herself, her tongue twisted from alcohol, self-blaming.

“I’m a ba-bad woman. A woman, I tell you. That kind of woman.”

“You’re not bad.”

“Nooo. I’m bad. Bad, I tell you. Why can’t you just honestly say I’m bad?”

Mira shot Minho a dissatisfied look, then began pouring alcohol into her glass. Unable to just watch, Minho grabbed the bottle to stop her.

“You’re very drunk. Stop drinking.”

“Wh-what? Drunk? What are you talking about? Besides, you’re the one who told me to drink… to ease my mind, Minho-ssi!”

“Lower your voice.”

Minho quietly warned her, feeling the gazes from around them. Other customers had been glancing their way for a while.

It wasn’t even late at night yet, just early evening, but she was already drunk and causing a ruckus, so it was obvious how people would see them. They certainly wouldn’t look favorably upon it.

Whether she knew it or not, Mira spoke curtly.

“That’s enough.”

And then, she defiantly poured and drank the alcohol. Looking at her now, it seemed like she was always drinking, but Mira rarely drank at all.

Even after Yunyoung’s death, she hadn’t thought of consoling herself with alcohol. Knowing Yunyoung disliked alcohol and cigarettes, Mira naturally came to dislike them too. She hadn’t done them before, but she developed a negative image of them because of her lover’s preferences.

But when Minho offered her a drink today, it was as if some tether that had bound her heart had come loose, and she was drinking herself into this state.

Around the time snowflakes slowly began to fall at the columbarium, Minho drove Mira to the city. Normally, an hour would have been enough, but unexpected heavy snow caused traffic jams, and it took at least two hours.

Mira didn’t initiate a single word in the car. Even when Minho occasionally brought up a topic, she answered in monosyllables, so the conversation rarely continued.

Minho, who had driven to Mira’s neighborhood, felt uneasy about letting her go home alone.

He wanted to comfort Mira, who remained constantly depressed, somehow. Since she had come out after a long time, he wanted to give her at least a small opportunity to shift her gloomy, sunken mood.

Minho, pondering what excuse to use to keep Mira with him, realized it was evening, even if a bit early, and suggested they have dinner together.

Mira refused once or twice at first, but then accepted Minho’s repeated requests as if she couldn’t help it.

She secretly felt sorry for having yelled at Minho and treated him sharply at the columbarium, so she decided to go along with the suggestion.

Minho parked his car near the restaurant district and went into a nearby meat restaurant with Mira. While they could have simply had something like gukbap, his desire to feed Mira some meat to help her regain even a little energy was strong, given how exhausted she looked.

Moreover, it was a setting where he could naturally offer her a drink.

He wanted to know what Mira was thinking, perhaps by borrowing the power of alcohol so she might open up to him, and if he could help her, he genuinely wanted to.

Minho had expected Mira to refuse the alcohol, but he was relieved when she accepted it surprisingly easily.

At first, Mira made a strange expression, scrunching up her face at the bitter taste of soju, but she quickly adapted and soon drank so well that Minho was surprised.

Once the alcohol set in, Mira’s mind seemed to loosen, and unlike before, she began to speak first. Even if it was just self-blaming words, Minho preferred that Mira initiated the conversation.

However, the more she emptied her glass, the stronger Mira’s self-blame became, and the conversation flowed unilaterally, with only her speaking.

Minho had to stop Mira.

“If you keep drinking like that, you’ll be miserable tomorrow.”

“D-don’t int… interfere. I’m gonna drink more.”

“Do you know how many bottles that is?”

“D-do I need to know? It’ll be on the bill, won’t it?”

Her already stubborn resolve seemed to become even more unyielding with the alcohol. As Mira tried to pour the remaining alcohol from the bottle, Minho snatched it away.

Then he put the bottle to his lips and drank it all. Mira, perhaps not expecting this, just blinked, dumbfounded.

Minho frowned at the intensely bitter taste lingering in his mouth, then took Mira’s arm and stood up. A flustered Mira frowned and asked.

“W-wait, what are you doing?”

“Let’s leave now.”

They hadn’t even walked a few steps out of the restaurant before Mira crumpled to the ground.

“Mira-ssi? Mira-ssi, try to wake up.”

However, Mira, who had already exceeded her drinking limit, couldn’t get up. Minho sighed and carried Mira on his back.

It was impossible to wait for her to come to her senses in the middle of the street like this.

“Mira-ssi. Can you hear me?”

She was mumbling something in response, but it was incomprehensible. It was a headache. He wanted to take Mira home, but he didn’t even know where she lived.

All he knew was that she lived somewhere in this neighborhood, so he couldn’t just blindly start walking.

If he knew where she lived, he could search for the address on his phone and go there, but there was no way he could get an answer by asking for her address when she was so deeply passed out.

“Should I take her to my place…?”

Minho soon abandoned that thought.

If he did something like that when their relationship was so ambiguous, it could lead to an irreversible misunderstanding. Mira was already wary of people, so if she found out Minho had taken her to his home, nothing good would come of it.

It was obvious she would become even more defensive, and she might even try to close off the mind that had barely opened a little.

There was no reason to choose a path that carried the risk of blowing up into a major problem. But he couldn’t just leave her there either…

“What should I do…?”

Minho looked up at the snowy sky, mumbling with a sigh. In the end, having no other choice, Minho took Mira to a nearby motel.

After laying Mira down in the room, Minho intended to quickly leave and return home. He absolutely hated the idea of misunderstandings, and he certainly wasn’t harboring any lewd intentions. Everything he did for Mira was merely on behalf of Yunyoung, who had been his closest friend.

After unlocking and entering the room assigned at the motel, Minho gently placed Mira, who he had been carrying on his back, onto the bed. Completely passed out, Mira was sleeping soundly, her arms stretched out on the mattress.

Minho, exhausted from carrying her, sat down on the edge of the bed for a moment.

“Haah…”

Minho exhaled wearily.

Even a woman with a small build weighs at least 40kg, usually in the 50kg range. Even for a healthy man, carrying that weight for several hundred meters would naturally cause back pain and exhaustion.

“Don’t misunderstand. I had no choice.”

Minho said, as if making an excuse to the sleeping Mira, and gazed at her face.

It wasn’t an exceedingly beautiful face, but it was certainly a rather cute and charming appearance. Of course, if he were to say that to her, she would absolutely deny it.

Mira’s cheeks, flushed crimson with alcohol, looked very appealing. She always acted tough, but now, seeing her sleeping peacefully and defenselessly, gave him a strange feeling.

Minho had never seen such an expression on her face before. Unthinkingly, he gently placed a finger on her cheek. The soft, squishy sensation was incredibly delicate. Each time he pressed lightly, her cheek would slightly indent, then return to its original state when he lifted his finger.

“You’re really sleeping soundly.”

A faint smile appeared on Minho’s face.

It was cold outside, but warm inside the motel. The sudden change in environmental temperature made Minho increasingly drowsy.

Even though he thought he should hurry home, his will to resist was weakly yielding to the warmth and comfort that gently crept over him.

Minho’s body was gradually relaxing on its own, due to the long drive and post-meal drowsiness. His eyelids slowly closed, and his consciousness sank into darkness.

How much time had passed──.

Minho, who had fallen asleep, opened his eyes under the pressure of something pressing down on him.

The dark room was completely black, with thick curtains blocking out all outside light and the indoor lights turned off.

‘What’s happening?’

Before Minho could fully grasp the situation, a soft voice came from beside him.

“Yunyoung. Where have you been?”

He quickly recognized the owner of the voice.

‘Mira-ssi?’

Minho’s hazy mind instantly jolted awake. It wasn’t hard to realize what situation he was in. He had come to take Mira to the motel and had ended up falling asleep there himself.

The pressure Minho felt was due to Mira’s posture: she had his head cradled in her hands, holding him pressed against her chest.

“Yunyoung…”

She was still talking in her sleep.

Minho felt relieved that Mira hadn’t opened her eyes, yet at the same time, he felt a tender affection for Mira, who couldn’t forget her love for her deceased lover even in her dreams. He intended to slip out of the room before she woke up, but…

“You… you left me alone and went somewhere? Hmm?”

Mira said that, unwilling to let go of Minho, whom she was hugging.

“Yunyoung… Yunyoung…”

She called out her lover’s name in a sorrowful voice. It seemed she had no idea that the person she was with was Minho.

It seemed she was dreaming of reuniting with Yunyoung.