Big Life

"Welcome."

When they entered the karaoke room, the lady boss, seemingly in her late 30s, greeted them with a tender smile. The thick makeup on her face couldn’t conceal her tired look.

Park Jung-Jin stumbled toward the counter and asked the lady boss, "You can call them, right?"

"Yes, of course."

"There are only the two of us, we'll only be staying for two hours, and please give us four bottles of beer. How much will it be?"

"That'll be 156,000 won," replied the lady boss.

Park Jung-Jin handed her the card in his hand and paid for the bill upfront.

"..." Ha Jae-Gun didn’t know what to say and could only watch them in a daze. He didn't even react in time to stop Park Jung-Jin.

"Go on into Room 2 and start singing first."

Park Jung-Jin dragged Ha Jae-Gun toward the room assigned to them.

Ha Jae-Gun stood in the room in a daze. He still hadn’t grasped what was going on. He turned his pale face to Park Jung-Jin and half shouted, "Hey! Park Jung-Jin! What are you doing!?"

"What do you mean? Of course, I'm suggesting that we play hard today."

"What? How can a karaoke burn us 150,000 won? Just what is this place?"

Ha Jae-Gun's eyes darted across the room. He spotted a huge LED screen attached to some sort of machine, two microphones, and a huge C-shaped sofa surrounding a coffee table.

"You frustrating idiot. You're a writer yourself, and yet you're lacking so much common knowledge? I called in NoDos[1]."

"What's that?"

Park Jung-Jin grinned. As he took off his coat, he replied, "Karaoke Helpers."

"What?" Ha Jae-Gun frowned at Park Jung-Jin's answer. Ha Jae-Gun had never experienced such services, but he had briefly read about them on the Internet before.

"Don't be nervous. They're just here to join us in the singing. I'm not sure what you're drawing up in your head, but it's not going to turn into some hanky panky situation, so don't worry about it."

"Where did you learn all this from?"

"I once followed our section chief here. We talked about business and sang some songs before going home. The atmosphere is much better than just having two grown men singing by ourselves."

"I can't understand what’s going on with you." Ha Jae-Gun shook his head. He didn't like Park Jung-Jin’s current attitude.

However, Ha Jae-Gun was already an adult, so he had no intention of rejecting this idea just because it was adult entertainment. He still had some level of flexibility, after all.

Of course, he was still upset, but he was upset for a different reason.

"You’re upset over Hyo-Jin, so you thought of consoling yourself in this way?"

"Gosh, I'm not going to do whatever you're thinking. And I know I'm not destined to be with Hyo-Jin, anyway."

Park Jung-Jin shook his head and laughed at himself in self-pity. At the sight, Ha Jae-Gun knew that Park Jung-Jin was already drunk.

He didn't expect Park Jung-Jin to get drunk so quickly.

Ha Jae-Gun sat down next to Park Jung-Jin and asked, "Have you been working overtime often these days?"

"How did you know that?"

"Just by looking at your face. You look like you’ll collapse if I shoved you lightly. Let's go over to my place and sleep for the night."

"I'm not sleepy, you punk. And we've already ordered our stuff."

"I'll cancel them, so let's go…"

Creaak!

The lady boss suddenly opened the door to their room. She carried with her four cans of beer, a few dried side dishes, and plastic cups on a tray. She then started setting them out on the table.

Ha Jae-Gun shook his hands at her and said, "Sorry, we'll be going."

"What?"

"Hey, Ha Jae-Gun. What are you saying?" Park Jung-Jin butted in.

"You, stay put. I'm sorry, I'll pay for the beers."

With a sour look, the lady boss signaled behind her with her thumb and said, "But the ladies are already here."

"What?"

Ha Jae-Gun peered behind her and saw two other ladies standing outside as if they were hesitating. The two of them seemed to be in their early 20s, and they were wearing see-through clothes, short hot pants, black stockings, and stilettos that accentuated their legs.

“So, do we just go?” the lady on the left asked casually. She looked cute with features reminiscent of a cat. The thick makeup and elegantly tied-up brown hair of the two ladies made them look as if they were sisters.

“No, please come in.” Park Jung-Jin stood up and pulled the two ladies into the room. Then, he retrieved 30,000 won from his wallet and handed it over to the lady boss.

“Please bring us more beer with this amount.”

“Okay, I will bring more.” The lady boss left the room and closed the door behind her.

Ha Jae-Gun knew that he couldn’t stop things anymore and resigned to fate, busying himself deep into the sofa. The two ladies each took a seat beside Ha Jae-Gun and Park Jung-Jin, respectively and opened a can of beer for each of them.

“Should I pour it into a cup?”

“I’ll just drink from the can.” Ha Jae-Gun took the can of beer and took a sip. He felt uncomfortable and strange, and his heart was pounding harder than usual.

“How should we address you, ladies?” Park Jung-Jin asked.

The two ladies looked at each other and answered one after the other.

“I’m Da-Seul.”

“I’m Seul-Gi.”

Their names gave off the impression that they were made up on the spot.

However, their names didn’t really matter.

The lady beside Ha Jae-Gun, who had introduced herself as Da-Seul, picked up the remote control and asked, “Can I start with a song first?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Da-Seul chose a song and took the microphone before standing up. Park Jung-Jin picked up the tambourine as if he had been waiting for it, and then he started tapping to the music and cheering loudly.

Ha Jae-Gun looked at the screen and smirked.

‘Huh, so it’s only going to be like this?’ thought Ha Jae-Gun as time went on.

As Park Jung-Jin had said earlier, it seemed that no hanky-panky would happen here. They took turns singing and dancing whenever the music hyped them up, and there were also some small talks here and there amidst the drinks and toasts.

That was all...

After tonight, they would never meet again, so there was no need for any deep conversations in the first place.

‘Just how much alcohol do these ladies drink in a day? Can their bodies even take it?’

Ha Jae-Gun rolled his tongue as he looked at the empty cans of beer rolling around one end of the table. The ladies would be serving and drinking with another group of customers after entertaining them. He most likely couldn’t drink as much as them, even if he were promised a ton of money.

“Hey, Ha Jae-Gun. You should sing some too!” Park Jung-Jin yelled. He was drenched in sweat after playing around for quite a while now.

Ha Jae-Gun smiled bitterly and shook his head, rejecting the offer. He wasn’t the type to let himself go and play freely in front of strangers.

‘Yeah, Park Jung-Jin. You punk. Thank you for giving me such a great experience.’

As a writer, he had to accumulate more life experience, so all this was a good thing.

While thinking that he might write tonight’s experience into words someday, he started clapping along to the rhythm of the song that Park Jung-Jin was currently singing.

All of a sudden, one of the ladies wrapped her hand around his arm and asked, “Are you angry, oppa?”

Ha Jae-Gun frowned. He couldn’t quite hear her, so the girl leaned in and raised her voice slightly. “Are you angry?! Why are you so quiet!”

“It’s not that. I’m just not good at singing.”

“But you haven’t even said anything! Do you not like me?”

“No, it’s just that it’s my first time coming to a place like this, so I’m feeling awkward.”

“Sigh, you’re no fun. Oppa, what’s your job? You don’t look like the type to use your strength.”

Ha Jae-Gun pondered for a moment. He didn’t want to reveal that he was a writer, so the job of the main character in his debut novel came to mind.

“I go around markets selling electric pads.”

“Electric pads? So you travel all around the country in a truck?”

“I have a Lamborghini.”

“What? A Lamborghini? I don’t believe you.” exclaimed the lady, but she was smiling, seemingly amused.

Ha Jae-Gun also chuckled. They both knew that they weren’t having a genuine conversation, so there was no need for anyone to feel apologetic for the lies said here.

“Cheer up, oppa. Making money has always been difficult. The fact that you’re working every day already deserves high praise.” she murmured just as the music died down.

Ha Jae-Gun thought about her words, which seemed incongruous with her young age.

‘Yeah, I guess everyone is having a hard time,’ Ha Jae-Gun inwardly said before stealing a glance at her.

She wore thick makeup, but her makeup couldn’t hide her sad, glistening eyes. Her jawline was also trembling ever so slightly as she sighed. For some reason, Ha Jae-Gun felt like he could feel all the hardship she was currently going through.

“Do you want a glass?”

“Yes, please.” Ha Jae-Gun’s heart turned solemn as they toasted. He started blaming himself for being overly sensitive as he downed the entire can of beer.

Time quickly passed along with the mirrorball up above. Two hours soon passed, and the machine in the room alerted them that their session was up.

“We had a great time.” Ha Jae-Gun was the first to stand up and fix himself up.

Ha Jae-Gun then supported Park Jung-Jin, who was staggering because he was drunk. Of course, he was also certainly exhausted from the fun and the fuss he had been kicking up during their session.

“Goodbye, oppa.”

“It was nice to meet you.”

The two ladies waved and bade their goodbyes. The two ladies stayed in the room to see if there was anything that was still unpaid, Ha Jae-Gun and Park Jung-Jin had already left the building.

As they stepped out of the building, they were greeted by the strong cold winds of the night.

Park Jung-Jin started stretching while yawning.

Ha Jae-Gun tapped him on the waist and said, “Are you feeling better?”

“Uh, mm…”

Park Jung-Jin scratched his nose and turned to look at the building before shaking his head.

“Now that I’m more sober, I honestly find it to be a waste of money.”

“How did you get drunk so fast?”

“I must have been exhausted. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted, but it was just too expensive. The next time I suggest coming here again, you better stop me.”

“You crazy… Anyway, let’s have some ox bone soup[2] before heading back.”

“Sounds good. Can I stay over at your place tonight?”

“Yeah, I’ll just lay out a blanket for you.”

The two of them had a piping hot bowl of ox bone soup before taking a taxi over to Ha Jae-Gun’s place.

When Ha Jae-Gun opened the door, Rika jumped down from the cat tower and rushed to greet him at the door.

“Rika, I’m Jung-Jin oppa. Come here.” Park Jung-Jin reached out to her with both hands. However, Rika stared at him for a while with sharp eyes. Then, she returned to her cat tower to avoid Park Jung-Jin.

“What? Are you discriminating against me?”

“She’s just shy. Go and shower first.” Ha Jae-Gun grabbed some clothes for him.

Park Jung-Jin took the fresh clothes and looked around before asking, “Aren’t you earning a lot of money recently? Why don’t you move to a bigger place?”

“Why should I? This place is a pretty conducive workplace for me.”

“Isn’t it quite small? I mean, you’re also raising a cat. Plus, this place is so remote. How about moving to a place five minutes away from the subway station?”

“I like it here because it’s quiet.”

Seo Gun-Woo’s resting place was also nearby. If Ha Jae-Gun ever decided to move to a bigger place, he would only move to a bigger place in this area. He had no intentions of leaving this neighborhood.

Park Jung-Jin looked like he couldn’t understand Ha Jae-Gun at all as he shook his head and entered the bathroom.

Ha Jae-Gun took the chance to secretly stash 100,000 won in Park Jung-Jin’s wallet, which was close to half the amount that they had spent at the karaoke earlier.

‘I want to pay for it in full, but he would kick up a fuss later on when he finds out. Anyway, shall I start writing my diary for today?’

Ha Jae-Gun sat at his desk and turned on the laptop.

He hadn’t been writing his diary for quite some time now. He had just started going back to it recently. He thought that perhaps writing his diary might give him the inspiration to create his new work.

I wrote Sword Master of Pezellon today… then went on a drive with Rika… paid a visit to Senior’s grave… then had pig’s trotters for dinner with Ha Jae-Gun, and went for karaoke after…

It had been a while since he had so much to write in his diary.

The number of things he could write in his diary had doubled thanks to the addition of Park Jung-Jin today. Ha Jae-Gun was always alone with Rika, after all. Today, Ha Jae-Gun enjoyed writing his diary.

Meanwhile, Rika’s temperature seemed to be rising as she sat on his lap.

‘What did that girl say again?’ Ha Jae-Gun suddenly thought of the lady from the karaoke room just as he finished writing his diary. Ha Jae-Gun crawled through his memory for a while, and then he quickly typed what she said on the screen.

“Cheer up, oppa. Making money has always been difficult. The fact that you’re working every day already deserves high praise.”

‘This feels good.’ Her words felt plain, crude, and common, but they were warm. He replayed that sentence in his head and engraved it on his heart.

Ha Jae-Gun got so engrossed in writing his diary that he didn’t even notice that Park Jung-Jin had already stepped out of the shower and was now standing right behind him.

1. Short form of Noraebang Dowoomi, aka Karaoke Helpers ☜

2. A Korean broth soup made from ox bones, brisket and other cuts. ☜