When You Are A Bad Guy | Choi Young Do

Chapter 21: A New Companion

Mr Seo opened the door for her and Ji Ah took in his ruffled appreance. He looked nothing like the person she had last seen when she met him. Untidy hair, unguarded face and an unconfident posture.

He widened his glazed eyes at her, as if touched. "Are you heree to drinkk withh me?"

"Ofcourse not," she said nervously. "I..I came to..to talk about school!"

"Sschool?" Mr Seo furrowed his brows, and looked away with a somber expression. "She wantss to build a sschool too."

"What?"

He didn't reply, but turned his back to her and moved inside the house. She followed him worriedly through the dark; he had the lights dimmed, maybe to make it feel like night. Ji Ah resisted trying to hold him when he stumbled.

They moved into the living room and he flopped down on a double sofa. Ji Ah looked for the switch board and turned on the lights one by one. He winced, placing a hand over his eyes, while Ji Ah grimaced at the soju bottles scattered on the table, along with a glass, too big for something like soju.

He moved, grabbed a fresh bottle and broke its seal clumsily. Ji Ah scowled at him. Just yesterday he had been reprimanding her for drinking and now he himself was drinking like a drunkard.

She snatched the bottle from his hands before he could pour the alcohol into the glass.

"What are you ddoing?" He tried to glare at her, but it lacked the usual intensity of his gaze, so it didn't effect Ji Ah.

"You were upset yesterday because I drank carelessly. And now you are drinking like this?" She felt quite brave because Mr Seo was drunk right now.

"You can jooin me." He offered, as though bribing, while greedily eyeing the bottle clutched in her hands.

She scowled again. "I am an underage. You can be jailed for providing alcohol to an underage."

"Jail can be bettter." He muttered, looking away, his eyes glazing over again.

Ji Ah softened. She placed the bottle on the far end of the table, away from him, and sat down on the sofa closer to him. "What is wrong with you Ahjussi?"

She knew she was crossing her limits, as she wasn't on that friendly or intimate terms with him, but she couldn't help herself. Here was a man who saved her from hell, could she not even comfort him?

"Exactly!" He suddenly cried, and Ji Ah jumped in her seat, moving away from him apprehensively.

"Exactly, what is wrrong withh me?!" He fixed her with a look that Ji Ah could only decribe as child like. "I have done wrongg thingss." He slurred, clutching his head between his hands.

"What have you done?" Ji Ah asked, remembering the wrong things she had done. Was he like this because of the things he had to do to cover up for her?

He picked a notebook from beside him and threw it at her. She caught it instantly. "Here is a lisst of things of what I have done and what I have nott done."

Ji Ah flipped open the notebook, and caught an elegant handwriting on the very first page.

1. You are too cold.