As Giju Wishes Chapter 2.9

Choi Geon grabbed the sluggish Giju’s arm and left the bar. Then he went down the stairs and stopped between two buildings.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

Drunk and unfocused, Giju’s eyes looked at Choi Geon.

“Wanna go to a pool hall or an arcade? For the record, I vote pool hall. If you pick the childish arcade, I won’t let you off easy-”

“Wow, look at this!”

Before he could even finish, Giju, as if sensing it, had already gone into the arcade and was shouting as he looked at a large stuffed doll.

“…I’ll let it slide. It’s fucking hard to pretend to be nice.”

With a look that screamed ‘how childish’, Choi Geon entered the colorful arcade and glanced condescendingly at a few guys wearing other schools’ uniforms. They were enthusiastically playing Tekken.

“Hah, seriously, what’s so fun about that crap to come here. Hey, let’s just go to the pool hall.”

“Let’s play this.”

Giju sat down in front of a game machine with princesses drawn on it, and Choi Geon looked down at him with dead-fish eyes. His gaze clearly said, ‘Why the hell would you play this?’

“It’s a princess.”

“……”

“Let’s be the princes.”

“What the fuck?”

At the childish nonsense, Choi Geon’s expression turned extremely grim.

“He’s fucking wasted.”

Smack! Smack! Smack!

His fingers rapidly mashed the buttons. Choi Geon, his eyes bloodshot like a gambling addict, stared intently at his own princess character.

“Go, go, go, you fucker, Ariana Sophia, run like hell, run!!”

Having stood up from his chair at some point, Choi Geon, with veins bulging on the back of his hand, mashed the buttons even faster.

“Oh, oh, oh, I won!”

SLAM!

“You piece of shit, Sophia!!”

Unable to contain his anger, Choi Geon slammed his fist on top of the game machine and cried out Sophia’s name pathetically. The students who were playing Tekken stared at Choi Geon like he was a madman.

“I keep winning. I feel so bad, hehehet.”

Giju, feeling good from the alcohol, giggled and unintentionally mocked Choi Geon.

“I guess the deity doesn’t give his protection for things like this, hehehet.”

Choi Geon glared at Giju as if he wanted to tear him to shreds.

“Let’s do that, that one.”

Giju grabbed Choi Geon, who was on the verge of dying from high blood pressure, and led him to the basketball hoop game. Then he took a coin out of his fortune pouch and inserted it. The game started immediately, and basketballs came tumbling down.

Giju, who wasn’t very athletic, couldn’t get the ball into the hoop. In contrast, Choi Geon, who had dabbled in all sorts of ball sports, sank every basketball he threw. Suddenly feeling better, Choi Geon shot the ball with a relaxed air.

“You can’t even make one, Shin Giju. Aim for the hoop, like this, like this.”

Giju was purely impressed by Choi Geon, who was showing off as he made his shots.

“Ooh, you keep making them!”

“Hah, who needs protection anyway, is what I’m saying.”

Choi Geon, striking a pose as he made his last shot, nodded to himself in self-praise. He didn’t even need to look at the score to know he had won.

“By the way, what time is it, mmph!”

As the word ‘time’ left his mouth, Choi Geon covered it. Then he checked how drunk Giju was.

“Hey, how many is this.”

He waved four fingers in front of Giju’s eyes, and Giju squinted, trying to focus.

“Three…?”

“Looks like we can head to round two soon.”

He had said two earlier, so it seemed he was slowly sobering up.

“Let’s go.”

Choi Geon grabbed the swaying Giju and left the arcade. Then he caught a taxi that was passing by and got in instantly.

“The biggest house behind OO Hall.”

It was a small neighborhood, so the taxi driver understood immediately and started driving. Not long after, Choi Geon turned his head and looked down at Giju, whose eyes were half-closed. It was funny how he was clutching his bag tightly in his hands despite being drunk. His cheeks, flushed red like a little kid’s, too.

He wondered what the hell he was doing with Shin Giju, but there was a strange sense of catharsis in having broken that goddamn mealtime routine. He also wondered if this elated feeling was because he, too, was drunk. His languid gaze, as if stretching out, followed the lights and turned to the window.

Thud.

Just then, Giju’s head rested on his shoulder. He had the illusion that he could smell incense. Choi Geon, who was staring out the window, felt his body relax even more. Strangely, the contact with another person didn’t feel unpleasant.

To Choi Geon, Shin Giju was something on the verge of a ghost, on the verge of a shaman, a human being like the scent of incense that swayed with the slightest gesture. As strange and elusive as a phantom, but unable to escape the ancestral altar, a scent without even any weight.

“Hey.”

“Hnng.”

Giju’s reply was slow.

“How do you feel.”

“…Like I’m riding on top of a ghost.”

A small, silly laugh escaped him.

“You’re fucking wasted. I’ll make you stand on the very top of a ghost’s head so you won’t even think about home.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the taxi stopped in front of a traditional, elegant gate.

“Keep the change.”

After getting out of the taxi, Choi Geon roughly pulled the stumbling Giju along as he pleased.

“Whoa, where are we?”

“My house.”

Choi Geon replied as they were just about to enter the gate.

“Wow, we’re at round two?”

Just then, the staggering Giju suddenly overtook Choi Geon and ran across the yard.

“I was really looking forward to round two!”

The smile that spread across his face held the anticipation and excitement of someone receiving an invitation for the first time. As he was running across the wide yard like that, Giju suddenly stopped, crashing face-first into a tree. Choi Geon, who was following leisurely behind, ran towards Giju, wondering what the hell that bastard was doing now.

“Hey! Are you possessed by a ghost again-”

At his shout, Giju turned around, and what Choi Geon saw was that damn nosebleed.

“Ah, fuck.”

Wrinkles instinctively formed on his brow. For some time now, Choi Geon had hated nosebleeds.

“Let’s hurry to round two.”

Unaware of his bleeding nose, Giju just kept smiling and pestering him to hurry to round two.

“Your goddamn nosebleed is blocking our sacred round two.”

Choi Geon, muttering murderously, roughly grabbed Giju’s arm and dragged him to the entrance of the palace-like house. Striding forward, Choi Geon threw open the front door, kicked off his shoes haphazardly, and went inside.

“Whoa.”

Giju, who was following behind, stumbled as he hurriedly took off his shoes, but he couldn’t even fall because of the grip on his arm. After being dragged along while staggering, he came to his senses and found himself in a room. And when he blinked a few times, a murderous-looking Choi Geon was approaching him, holding something white in his hand.

“What’s that?”

“It’s fucking tissue, tissue.”

Choi Geon used the tissue to wipe under Giju’s nose, more vigorously than necessary.

“Ow, it stings.”

“Then who told you to run and crash into something like a damn dog?”

“I was just so happy thinking about round two.”

Giju giggled, his nose now red. Of course, his cheeks were still red from the alcohol.

“Anyone would think you’re crazy for alcohol. Is your drunken habit pestering for round two?”

“You invited me. I like that.”

“You little shit, you were secretly sick of the ancestral rite food, weren’t you?”

Still interpreting things his own way, Choi Geon brainwashed the drunk Giju, telling him that for today only, he was not on the verge of a ghost, but a human.

“Wait here quietly.”

“Where are you going?”

Choi Geon, who was about to leave the room, turned back.

“To get the thing you wanted so badly.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Choi Geon left the room and, a short while later, re-entered with an armful of alcohol and snacks.

“Round two starts now, Shin Giju.”

A smirk spread across Choi Geon’s lips. And Giju, who was blinking blankly at the magnificent spread of drinks, no longer checked the time.