After texting Junhyeok that he’d be late, Junho went with Kang Baekho and two of his attendants to a nearby bar.
It was still early evening, but with the aftermath of the pandemic, most bars were starting business around this ti anyway.
“Welco!”
At the sight of Kang Baekho, who was openly dripping money, the bar manager greeted the group with a smile just as bright as the woman who ran the beef restaurant.
“Do you have a private room here?”
“Yes, right this way.”
Wearing a tight one-piece dress that showed off her figure clearly, the manager led them inside.
“But the bartenders who work the floor haven’t co in yet. I can take care of you for now, but if you wait about thirty minutes—”
“Oh, we don’t need table service. For now, Macallan... just the eighteen-year, and Guinness? Is Guinness the most expensive beer you’ve got here? Bring us a few bottles of that.”
“Yes!”
Thrilled by the arrival of a big-spending group right after opening, the manager hurried off with a flushed face and a beaming smile.
Kang Baekho took off his coat, tossed it carelessly over one side of the sofa, and said,
“How about it, managers? Want a drink too?”
The male attendant, a solidly built man with a rugged, heavy-featured face who looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties, shook his head.
“I can’t. Manager Yoon Seolhee should be fine, though, since she’s off tomorrow.”
“No, I also...”
“Co on, have one. I just sent my girlfriend ho, and it’d be a little weird if I sat here drinking with the lady bartenders instead. Besides, once this is over, both of you will be off the clock anyway.”
“...Then I’ll just have one beer. Lightly.”
As if she were used to situations like this, Manager Yoon Seolhee sat down.
Only then, sitting across from her, could Junho really get a good look at her.
And he felt it imdiately.
‘This person...’
Honestly, he had already sensed sothing back at the gym.
Her walk and the way she carried herself were controlled without being excessive, and the way she kept watch on the surroundings beside Kang Baekho didn’t feel like that of an ordinary attendant.
As soone who had regressed from the apocalypse, Junho could be certain.
Not only the male manager, but Yoon Seolhee sitting across from him now was no ordinary attendant or bodyguard.
There was a clear edge to them—a presence unique to people who had experienced combat that decided life and death under extre conditions.
“Oh! Looks like you picked up on sothing, Mr. Junho?”
Kang Baekho made a show of looking surprised.
“Huh? Ah, yes. Now that I’m seeing her up close... I got the sense she’s not an ordinary person. She feels different from the fighters at the gym too.”
“I knew it. So Yuchan wasn’t just talking. You’re good at reading people, Mr. Junho.”
“Ah, am I?”
When Junho laughed awkwardly, Kang Baekho shot a proud look toward Yoon Seolhee, who was sitting straighter now and studying Junho with renewed interest.
“Manager Seolhee here is ex-special forces. Manager Park Cheolwoo over there too. Manager, you really not drinking?”
“No. I’ll wait outside and have sothing nonalcoholic here at the bar. Manager Yoon, take good care of the boss.”
“Yes, Manager.”
Yoon Seolhee answered crisply, and Park Cheolwoo gave Kang Baekho a light bow before leaving the room.
“Whew, Manager Cheolwoo’s way too stiff. Then again, that’s what makes him reliable.”
Kang Baekho gave a faint chuckle.
By then, the manager had returned with the drinks and so simple appetizers.
Realizing at once that this was one of those rare, wealthy, well-mannered custors who wanted to drink quietly, she slipped back out without a sound.
After pouring whiskey into rocks glasses and Guinness stout for Yoon Seolhee, Kang Baekho lightly raised his glass.
“All right, let’s have a drink.”
Junho had tried liquor a few tis before, but this was his first ti having high-end whiskey. At the rich, sharp taste, he found himself nodding without thinking.
“This is really good.”
“Right? Out of what they’ve got here, I figured this would suit your taste best. The twelve-year is a little too standard, and the twenty-one- or thirty-year stuff is probably too heavy for soone your age. At least, that’s how it was for when I was younger.”
For all that he was third-generation chaebol, there was no way he didn’t know pricier, fancier whiskey. This bar alone had things like Blue 30 and the like.
But Kang Baekho had ordered this with Junho in mind.
“Just because soone’s rich doesn’t an they only drink Royal Salute 62 or Park Glass 50 or whatever. Personally, this guy’s my favorite. It’s good.”
Unlike Junho, who had only taken a sip, Kang Baekho drained his glass in one go. When he reached to pour himself another, Junho quickly stood and reached for the bottle.
“I’ll pour it for you.”
“No, it’s fine. Back there was a group setting, so that was different. Here we’re drinking a little more comfortably. I was the one buying the first round and the oldest one here, so I poured it. You drink however you like.”
“Yes, thank you. But Representative Kang, you can speak more casually. I’m much younger than you...”
“Much younger? Muuch younger? I am turning forty before long... Ah, now I feel even less like speaking casually.”
“Ah.”
“Haha, I’m kidding. Not today, but next ti we et, I’ll talk more casually. I really hate people who act rude just because they’re older and have so money. That’s why I can’t stand my brother and sisters. Bunch of assholes, the lot of them.”
After trash-talking his family for a mont, Kang Baekho smiled again.
“In that respect, you pass. Ah, don’t go saying, ‘Who are you to decide who passes and fails?’ Everybody’s got their own standards, right? Though I guess putting it out there like that does sound kind of obnoxious.”
Junho shook his head.
“No. Honestly, wouldn’t it be worse to keep testing the waters and sizing soone up through the whole drinking session? I’d rather you say it openly, like you do.”
“What? Hahaha! Mr. Junho, I really like you.”
Junho and Kang Baekho raised their glasses again.
At that mont, Yoon Seolhee, who had been sitting quietly, barely drinking her beer, spoke to Junho.
“Lee Junho. Excuse , but may I ask you sothing?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you serve in the military, by any chance?”
Kang Baekho’s eyes widened slightly.
“Well now, Manager Seolhee’s taking an interest in a guy her age? First ti I’ve ever seen this.”
“It’s not like that.”
After denying it firmly, Yoon Seolhee turned her gaze back to Junho.
“I was just in an Army reconnaissance unit.”
“Reconnaissance... Did you ever have an overseas deploynt?”
“No.”
“...I see. Thank you for answering.”
“Not at all.”
Watching the two of them with interest, Kang Baekho spoke up.
“Why? Did he look to you like he’d done a deploynt or sothing?”
After taking a sip of beer, Yoon Seolhee set down her glass and nodded.
“Yes. To be honest, at first I thought he was either still active-duty or had only recently gotten out. And not just that—more like Marine special reconnaissance.”
“Ohhh.”
“? No way.”
When Junho shook his head, Yoon Seolhee looked at him with that sa detached yet sharp gaze and added,
“No. Actually, Manager Park Cheolwoo was the one who said it first. He ntioned it earlier. Said it looked like you hadn’t been out long. That you slled like ‘our side.’”
“......”
Junho closed his mouth, and even Kang Baekho’s expression shifted into mild surprise.
He had hired Yoon Seolhee a little over a year ago, but Park Cheolwoo, who had stepped outside earlier, had been by his side for five years.
Having retired as a master sergeant from the special forces, the odds of him misreading soone from a similar background were low.
“But if that’s not the case, then I guess we were mistaken. In any case, sorry for the intrusion.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ve been a little on edge lately, so maybe sothing like that showed through.”
“That’s not it... no. It’s nothing.”
She seed like she had more to say, but Yoon Seolhee swallowed it.
Then she downed the rest of her stout in one bold pull and said to Kang Baekho,
“Boss, I’ll wait outside too. If Manager Park’s out there by himself, he’ll probably be bored.”
“All right, then.”
Yoon Seolhee gave a light farewell to Junho and Kang Baekho and rose from her seat.
***
Watching Yoon Seolhee’s back disappear outside—the woman was over 170 centiters tall, with a solid, powerful build—Junho spoke in a low voice.
“That manager is impressive. Feels like she’s probably seen real action too.”
It was phrased like a question, but it was certainty.
The atmosphere he felt from Yoon Seolhee was the sa one he had seen in soldiers and survivors who had stayed alive for more than six months after the apocalypse began by fighting.
“She told she couldn’t say because of a confidentiality agreent, so probably, right? Pretty impressive, huh? Manager Seolhee.”
Kang Baekho said it with confidence.
“No matter how strongly our Manager Cheolwoo recomnded her, I didn’t hire her based on that alone. I’ve got a good eye too.”
He shot Junho a sly, smiling glance.
“Anyway, the more I look at you, the more charm you’ve got. You’re solid. Really decent.”
“It’s nothing. I think maybe it’s because there’s a decent age gap between and my younger brother. Maybe I just co off that way because I started acting like a little grown-up when I was young.”
“Ha! If that were enough, the people in my family should’ve turned into Buddha or Jesus a long ti ago. They’re years older than . Ah, you didn’t know I was the youngest, did you? There’s a ten-year gap between and my oldest brother, and five years between and my older sister.”
“No, not at all. Before you ntioned it earlier, I thought you were the eldest son, like .”
That was sincere.
Kang Baekho didn’t have even a trace of the usual youngest-child vibe.
“The youngest son of a chaebol family—that’s . Ah, you don’t read webtoons or webnovels? That chaebol-family one is fun. You should check it out soti. They’re supposed to start making it into a drama soon. Or maybe they already did? Anyway, it’s fun.”
“Yes. I’ll definitely look it up.”
A third-generation chaebol who liked mixed martial arts enough to sponsor it, and on top of that enjoyed popular culture bordering on subculture.
He really was an unusual person in all kinds of ways.
But there was sothing Junho really wanted to ask him.
At first he had joined this gathering by accident, and then before he knew it he had followed him here.
There was a fundantal question behind this whole situation.
“But Representative Kang.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“It’s kind of funny to ask this at this point, but... I’m a younger unemployed guy, and at the gym I’m just a new mber, aren’t I? So why did you specifically want to have a separate drink with ?”
Junho truly was curious.
Because honestly, this situation made no sense.
It was one thing to say he had ended up at the group dinner by chance, and then the two of them had a couple bottles together because nobody else was left to drink with him.
But no matter how he thought about it, there was no reason for a third-generation chaebol like Kang Baekho to go out of his way to drink expensive liquor alone with an unemployed punk like him.
“Ah, that...”
Kang Baekho took a long pull of whiskey and set his glass down with a sharp clack.
Then he stared at Junho for a while with a serious, settled gaze.
“This is sothing I really don’t tell just anybody... so listen carefully. The reason I brought you all the way here to drink with is—”
“......”
His expression growing even more cautious, he continued.
“Because of my instinct. My gut feeling.”
“...What?”
Caught completely off guard by the answer, Junho let out a stupidly blank response without aning to.
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