Chapter 75: I Returned as a University Girl (1)

Kang Ra-Eun was dizzy. She was already all too acquainted with the headache that followed.

‘Am I like this just because I had one soju bomb?’

It was impossible. She firmly believed that a dinner party could only begin after downing at least three consecutive shots of soju bombs. However, the current Kang Ra-Eun was different.

‘Why?’

It was not like she couldn’t completely accept it. She used to drink like a fish in her past life, but that was back in her male body, as Park Geon-Woo. Compared to Geon-Woo, who had very high alcohol tolerance, Ra-Eun had extremely low alcohol tolerance. She had simply not realized it because she had not drunk until now. Come to think of it, her father and brother both could not drink much, and she was born with the same lightweight gene.

‘No wonder...!’

She had finally come to terms with reality somewhat. On the other hand, Seo Yi-Seo, who was sitting right next to her, helped her stay upright.

“Are you okay, Ra-Eun?”

“Aren’t you acting a bit too strong? You didn’t have to down your first glass.”

“Yeah. Drink slower, Ra-Eun. Isn’t this your first time drinking?”

Her friends’ worries only sounded like mockery to her. There were a few phrases that Ra-Eun did not want to hear in life, and one of them was that she was a lightweight. Park Geon-Woo used to pride himself on his high alcohol tolerance. Ra-Eun could endure hearing that she was a bad gamer, but not that she was a lightweight. She did not want to accept the harsh reality that had befallen her.

“I just drank a little too fast. I can still drink a few more glasses,” Ra-Eun claimed.

She set ablaze with a competitive spirit. The others tried to get her to drink moderately, but they could not change her obstinate mind. The glass ended up being refilled.

Gulp, gulp, gulp!

She felt nauseous with each gulp.

‘Your drinking capacity only increases by drinking more!’

Ra-Eun continued her headstrong charge. Gyu-Rin lightly sighed as she watched Ra-Eun across from her.

“This isn’t good.”

***

Things went exactly as Gyu-Rin expected. It had not even been ten minutes since the party started, but Ra-Eun could no longer support herself after not even finishing half of her third glass. Yi-Seo decided to carry Ra-Eun to her room.

“Help me, Ro-Mi.”

“Okay.”

Yi-Seo grabbed Ra-Eun’s left arm and Ro-Mi her right to help her up. They barely managed to lay her down on her bed. Ra-Eun spouted gibberish as soon as she laid down. Ro-Mi listened to what Ra-Eun was saying.

“I think Ra-Eun is trying to say something.”

There wasn’t much to listen to; it was nothing more than a drunken frenzy. Ra-Eun’s face was flushed red. It was a relief that she was wearing jeans; if she had worn a skirt, she would have exposed her bare legs and panties to the boys.

Yi-Seo said to Ro-Mi, “I’ll keep an eye on Ra-Eun for a bit, so you go drink with the others.”

“Okay. Call me if Ra-Eun looks like she’s about to puke, okay?”

“Yeah, I will.”

After Ro-Mi left, Yi-Seo took off strands of hair that were stuck on Ra-Eun’s face one by one with great care. Ra-Eun exhibited a very strong personality on the outside, but she unexpectedly had a fair number of weaknesses, such as her fear of horror movies and her low alcohol tolerance.

But in fact, Ra-Eun’s true weakness was something else entirely. Tears seeped out between her eyelids.

“Huh...?”

Yi-Seo was bewildered to see her friend cry for the first time. As she was wiping Ra-Eun’s tears with a handkerchief, Ra-Eun said something.

“I... worked my ass off... Fuck... Noona, Mom, Dad. How could you all treat me like you’d abandoned me...?”

Ra-Eun had a father, but as far as Yi-Seo knew, her mother had passed away long ago. And not just that...

“Not Ra-Hyuk oppa, but noona?”

Yi-Seo could not understand Ra-Eun’s drunken gibberish. Ra-Eun finally fell into a deep sleep after crying for a while. Yi-Seo went through what her friend had said while stroking her small back.

“Is it just drunken gibberish?”

Or was there some family circumstance that Yi-Seo was unaware of? If she had to choose...

“She’s probably just too drunk.”

She decided not to think much of it.

***

When Ra-Eun slowly opened her eyes, the first thing that welcomed her was not the morning sun nor her phone alarm, but a hangover.

“Urp.”

She was queasy, but fortunately not enough to throw up.

“Urgh... I’m dying.”

Ra-Eun used to experience a hangover of this level in her past life only after her fifth round of drinking spree with her colleagues. But in reality, she had only drunk two soju bombs. She had put up a very good fight considering her terrible alcoholic tolerance, but there was no way that she was satisfied with that.

“My head’s splitting apart...”

Her long locks of hair drooped down in tandem with her movements. The sun was already high up in the sky as she looked out the window. She looked for her phone as she pressed down on her temple. The time was...

‘12:35 PM. I sure slept long.’

No, fainted would have been a more suitable word to use. She noticed that her eyelids were more stiff than usual as she blinked. She checked her face with a handheld mirror.

“What the hell? Are these tear streaks?”

Did she cry in her sleep? A wave of embarrassment belatedly washed over her. As she carefully opened her door and went out to the living room, Yi-Seo greeted her while making something in the kitchen with an apron on.

“Did you sleep well? Is your stomach all right?”

“Yeah... it’s not bad. What about the others?”

“The boys all went home by taxi a little past midnight. Ro-Mi and Gyu-Rin slept over and went home in the morning. They wanted to greet you before going home, but they said they couldn't bear to wake you up when you were sleeping so soundly.”

“...”

A mixture of sorriness and embarrassment swirled inside her head like the soju bomb that she had made last night.

“Go wash up. I made hangover soup for you.”

Ra-Eun could tell that it was spicy just from looking at it. She decided to get rid of the tear streaks on her face in the bathroom while Yi-Seo prepared lunch.

“Why the hell did you cry, you idiot?” she said to herself.

Did she have a bad dream? She could not remember; that was how most dreams were like. She washed her face and went out to the living room to have a late meal with Yi-Seo. She was extremely hungry because she had not eaten breakfast, and her hunger only grew with all the delicious-looking food in front of her that Yi-Seo had prepared.

Sip!

Ra-Eun tasted the soup and gave her remarks with an unsurprised expression.

“It’s delicious.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“But Yi-Seo,” Ra-Eun decided to ask what had happened last night just in case. “Did I say anything in my sleep last night?”

Ra-Eun had no particular habits when drunk. She simply fell asleep once she got tired after talking some gibberish. She had done the same this time as well.

“You just slept soundly. Although, you did say something in the middle...” Yi-Seo mentioned.

“What did I say?”

“It’s a bit...”

Yi-Seo looked like she did not want to say, but people were wired to want to hear it even more if they were given such a response.

“What is it? Tell me.”

Yi-Seo gave in to Ra-Eun’s pressing and told her about what she had said last night.

“Your dad, mom, and... noona? You were crying about how they didn’t acknowledge you even when you did your best.”

Ra-Eun now understood the reason for the tear streaks on her face.

“But noona? Not unnie? Ra-Eun, you had an older sibling aside from Ra-Hyuk oppa?” Yi-Seo asked.

She did. To be exact, her real family. However, Ra-Eun did not consider that bitch her noona.

“No, it was just gibberish.”

Hence, she did not really want to get into it.

***

Ra-Eun’s conversation yesterday with Yi-Seo came across her mind again while she was heading to the drama shoot meeting in the car driven by her manager Shin Yu-Bin.

‘You goddamn moron.’

Ra-Eun never expected herself to mention her real family while drunk. She brushed it off as gibberish to Yi-Seo yesterday, but she could no longer tolerate further mistakes. Now that she was born in a different household, she was now a complete stranger to her real family. Hence, she did not want any ties whatsoever to them. That was how much she despised them.

Yu-Bin looked at Ra-Eun through the rearview mirror while stopped by a traffic light.

“Did something bad happen, Ra-Eun?” Yu-Bin asked.

“To me?”

“Yeah. You haven’t been looking too good since earlier.”

Something bad did indeed happen. Not only had she found out about her terribly low alcohol tolerance, but she had even mentioned her real family, which she did not even want to recall, out loud. She felt like she had been hit by a double whammy. But her low alcohol tolerance aside, she did not want to tell Yu-Bin about family matters.

“I think it’s because I drank alcohol for the first time in my life.”

“Oh, that? I heard from your roommate. You’re a super lightweight drinker, right?”

“...”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s not like people are set for success in the entertainment industry for being good drinkers. Don’t worry too much about it.”

Yu-Bin’s words of consolement didn’t really console Ra-Eun.

***

Hwang Yun-Seong was the program director of the drama that Ra-Eun had decided to star in. He expressed his emotion filled with gratitude to Ra-Eun as soon as he saw her.

“Thank you, Ra-Eun! Thank you so much!”

“What are you thankful for, exactly?”

Ra-Eun did not quite understand why Director Hwang was thanking her.

“For deciding to star in a drama directed by a newbie director like me! I honestly didn’t have my hopes up, but... you have no idea how happy I was when you agreed!”

The reason why she decided to star in the drama of a program director who had never been a main director was simple. Director Hwang’s drama, Waitress, had not garnered much expectations from the public yet, but...

‘I know that this drama will be the most popular production of the season.’

One could call it a privilege of someone who knew the future.