Life, Once Again!

ale students back in her school days, especially with her being the type that always turned the situation around so that she couldn’t be spoken badly about.

“What are you planning on doing for the first day, instructor?”

Maru switched the topic around, since he had no intentions of starting a fight with the woman.
He’d rather think about acting than about fighting.

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? It’s gotta be that!”

“That?”

“Orientation!”

* * *

“Orientation.”

Maru looked outside from the veranda, their venue for the orientation was Suyeon’s house near Suwon station.

“Ahaha, big sis, you’re so funny!”

“You know it! I’m quite the comedian!”

Maru could hear the group laughing inside despite just having closed the glass door.
Just how loud were they laughing? He took a bite out of the cracker in his hand.
He actually welcomed an event where they got together like this, Maru didn’t want to practice so hard from the first day either.
He flipped through his past memories as a businessman, looking at the cars parked in front of the station.
The night scenery was beautiful, but… It reminded him of a saying: ‘the beautiful night view of Seoul was created by countless tears of businessmen that couldn’t finish their work’.

“…Senior, what are you doing?”

It was Jiyoon, she had opened the door behind him.

“Meditating.”

“What?”

“I’m just breathing in some fresh air.
Why did you come out? It’s cold.”

“I-I wanted fresh air as well, I’m feeling a bit hot after laughing so much.”

Jiyoon fumbled around a bit behind her, there was a glass of beer in her hand.
Maru frowned as he looked into the living room, so they decided to drink after all.
He could see a big bottle of it in the midst of the boys.

“Don’t drink if you don’t want to.
You didn’t drink last time either.”

“That’s why I decided to try it today.
Here, this one’s yours, senior.”

Jiyoon slowly handed him a glass, he gladly took a sip from it since he was feeling pretty thirsty.
Jiyoon stepped closer to him.

“Ugh… So bitter.”

“That’s why people drink it.”

“Really?”

Of course not.
Korean beer only existed to fill the bellies of those who liked to eat all the food in company meals, it wasn’t something to drink for flavor.

“Don’t force yourself.
It’s not good for you at all.”

“But I was told it’d be good to learn it for when I enter society…”

“Is that what the Instructor said?”

Jiyoon nodded, Maru wanted to sarcastically say that the woman was teaching such nice things.
Unfortunately, he could only sigh at the fact that he had to agree.
Learning how to drink really was good for multiple things, because society still demanded that you had to drink if your superiors asked you to.
If you refuse? The superiors that were tamed by the Korean military culture wouldn’t let you get away with it, gender wouldn’t be a factor.
If you refused or even failed to drink at a superior’s command, you’d instantly be branded with a horrid reputation as an employee that refused to listen.

“Just try one glass at first, don’t drink a lot at once, and keep taking small sips.
Eat a lot of snacks in between each sip, talk a lot as well.
Get a good grip of how you feel before going for another glass.
Not quickly, but slowly.
You’ll slowly start to feel yourself getting drunk as you do so.”

“After that?”

“Again, measure how you feel before accepting another glass.
If you start feeling weird inside, stop right there.
A lot of kids throw up on their first time because they don’t have tolerance.”

“T-throw up?”

Jiyoon immediately put her glass down in fright.
How cute, she was the type that’d be popular between boys.
Innocence was incredibly powerful in that sense.

‘Girls like these suffer a lot after a bad boyfriend.’

“You should never drink with a boy before figuring out your limit.”

“Why not?”

“No girl is more in danger than one that drinks with an innocent face.
In a lot of ways.”

Jiyoon looked confused.
Hah, this was troublesome.
Maru would rather talk to Suyeon, it was hard to talk to kids.
In the end, he could only tell the girl to take it slow.

“Uhm, senior.”

“What?”

“Do you think I can do well?”

“In what?”

“The acting club.
It’s fun, but I’m pretty worried.
Am I too much of a drag?”

“We didn’t even start anything, start worrying later.
You won’t be able to get anything done otherwise.”

“How did you get so good at acting?”

“I’m not good at acting.”

“No, you are.
I saw you.
I saw you act in Anyang last year.
That’s what made me register for the club.
You were shining back then.
You were so cool.”

Jiyoon raised her arms to the sky and spun around.
She really didn’t seem like her normal self.

“…Are you drunk?”

“What?”

“You’re talking a lot better than usual.
You’re not embarrassed as well.” “Me?”

Jiyoon smiled widely.
Yup, she was drunk.
Did the cold air get to her?

“You really shouldn’t drink.
If you’re drunk after a glass, then you should just stay off of alcohol forever.”

“This is my fifth glass!”

“What?”

Maru widened his eyes as he looked into the living room.
Next to Aram, he could see five empty bottles of beer.
He couldn’t see Daemyung, Dowook, and Bangjoo either.
Where did they go?

“Senior! You’re so cool!”

Goodness, she was definitely the talkative drunk.
Maru dragged Jiyoon back inside.
Suyeon, who was just laughing with Aram, looked his way.

“Where are the boys?”

“Probably sleeping inside.”

Suyeon raised a bottle of soju as she spoke.
When did she sneak that in? She must’ve made them a soju bomb while he wasn’t looking.
Just then, Aram fell back onto the floor.
At the same time, a sound of someone throwing up came from the bathroom.
By the voice, it was probably Daemyung.

“Don’t worry.
I didn’t give it to the girls.”

Suyeon spoke with a very straight voice, Maru sighed as he scratched his eyebrow.

“Senior, can I really do well? Can I? Do you think so?”

Jiyoon started sticking closer to him.
Goodness, he’d probably have to take care of this one first.