Mystic Messenger: Life After

Chapter 14

Before

The door alert song played on the keypad, Ha Eun rushed to the keypad to check on the incoming guest.

"Who is it?", she said to the intercom.
"It's Jumin."

Jumin's face was seen on the screen. He was carrying a box of sorts, so Ha Eun pressed the button to allow him to come up.
Soon, the doorbell rang and Ha Eun opened the door for Jumin, and he was carrying a gift basket and a wine bottle with a ribbon wrapped around it.

"Oh, Jumin, what is this?", asked Ha Eun.
"To congratulate you on moving here."
"It's just for 2 months. Besides, you didn't give me wine when I moved in with Zen."
"That's because I didn't agree to that.", replied Jumin.
"Jumin, I hate you."

---

Now

Zen emerged from the main bedroom, turned off the lights but left the door open.

"She'll be fine. It's not that bad.", said Zen.
"She didn't drink much. Just a couple of glass, I don't know she gets drunk easily."
"I didn't know either."

Zen opened the refrigerator looking for something to drink. Of course, Ha Eun would not keep any beer there.

"No more wine for us, of course. Coffee? Juice? There's no beer here.", said Zen.
"I'll just stay here with the wine."

The two men sat at the living room, Zen occasionally glanced at the bedroom to see if anything happens to Ha Eun.

"She rarely drinks, like I can count the times with one hand. And getting drunk.... I think it was one time."

Zen reminisces the one time and probably the last time Ha Eun drank that much beer.

It was a night when they decided to grab some street food, people were busy chatting with each other, drinking, so no one bothered with them and thankfully, no one noticed Zen. Being in that loud place, people laughing, talking loudly, couples fighting, it was a special experience. Ha Eun had permitted Zen to drink just one bottle that night.
When suddenly, a woman sat on the empty seat of their table.

"Oh! It's Zen!", she said.

Zen gave a look of detest to the woman. She was one of the woman that had chased after him long time ago, trying hard to win his heart, but he would never fall for such woman. Ha Eun was even more surprised.

"Ah, are you the girlfriend? Aren't you going to introduce us?", she asked.

Ha Eun looked at Zen, confused and surprised at the same time. Zen sighed.

"Ha Eun, this is an old acquaintance of mine, this is Ha Eun.", Zen said flatly.
"Haha! So you're after the plain type now. What a surprise. And look at this, just one bottle! Don't you usually drink piles of bottles?"

Zen wanted to drive the woman away, but he's sure, very sure, that she'll make a commotion if he were to do that.

"I didn't drink that much now.", he answered.

The woman replied with a loud laugh. Ha Eun clearly looks uncomfortable.

"Can you guess what Ha Eun did afterwards?"

Jumin shook his head, listening attentively with his wine glass in his hand.

"She was so annoyed, she said she would drink for me. She called for another bottle and both of them drink. Drink and drink, that woman was already drunk but Ha Eun wasn't. She even called for one last bottle. I was clearly worried, but she was as normal as she could be. In the end, the woman was so drunk, we called the taxi for her and left her. And the second the taxi left, she fell on my arms. Turns out she had used all her energy just to stay sober. That whole night she emptied her stomach and the next morning she kept saying she's going to die. I'm not letting her drink that much again.", explained Zen.
"That was beer-drunk, this is wine-drunk, it's different.", said Jumin.
"Maybe. That's why she was just disoriented. Oh, how was she when drunk?"