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Chapter 6
“Don’t drink too much? Don’t worry, Jerome! I’m still perfectly fine. I think you’re more drunk than me.”
Yulia grinned and lightly poked Jerome’s cheek with her index finger.
Jerome’s already red cheeks turned even darker.
“Then… come here, Lily!”
Yulia turned around and opened both arms toward Lily.
“Daisy! Yulia started again!”
Evan shouted excitedly.
Yulia immediately rushed at Lily and jumped right into her arms.
“Lily… my favorite friend… my one and only Lily…”
“I think Yulia is kind of cute when she’s like this.”
Lily laughed as she hugged Yulia back.
After rubbing against Lily for a while, Yulia lifted her head and suddenly grabbed both of Lily’s cheeks.
Then she immediately lunged toward her face.
“Come here!”
Yulia showered Lily’s cheeks with nonstop kisses.
Lily laughed as if it tickled and pushed her away.
“Hahaha, stop it, Yulia! Guys, don’t give Yulia any more alcohol.”
“Huh? That’s Yulia’s drinking habit?”
“Yeah, she grabs random people and hugs them tightly. Like some kind of free-hug event… Usually she only hugs with both arms, but today the skinship level got stronger.”
“Still, that’s pretty cute though.”
Daisy smiled while looking at Yulia.
Yulia was still clinging tightly to Lily’s waist in her arms.
“…Cute? Last time she stuck to Lily and refused to let go, and after we barely separated them, she started hugging complete strangers and rubbing against them. It was a total disaster.”
“That’s right! I barely stopped her from getting reported as a creep.”
“Really? Then let’s stop giving Yulia drinks now…!”
“Evan… now it’s your turn! I’ll give you a hug!”
Yulia lifted her unfocused eyes from Lily’s arms and looked at Evan.
She looked ready to charge at him any second.
Evan spread his palm wide and answered firmly.
“Sorry, I recently started liking someone. I’m really thankful, but I’ll pass.”
How many hours passed…?
Yulia suddenly lifted her head.
At some point, she must have fallen asleep sitting there.
Blinking her eyes, she looked around. Most of the people at the table were already completely drunk.
“I can’t see well…”
Yulia muttered softly and rubbed her eyes with one hand.
The eye drops she had used to improve her vision after removing her glasses must have completely worn off, because everything looked blurry.
“Guys! Go sleep in your rooms! You all started drinking like amateurs from the beginning, and now the party’s still going strong while you’ve already collapsed?”
Compared to the others, Lily and Chloe were still relatively sober as they shook Evan, Dwin, and Christine, who had completely passed out.
But no matter how loudly they shouted, the fallen group showed no signs of waking up.
“Ugh… more… I want more to drink… Fill my glass…”
Evan, leaning against the back of his chair with his mouth hanging open, suddenly held out his glass toward Lily.
Lily looked down at him like he was pathetic.
“Chloe, let’s dump the dead ones in their rooms and go enjoy ourselves. Honestly, I want to join that table over there.”
“Sounds good! Oh? Yulia, when did you wake up? Feeling a bit better now?”
“Mhm…”
“Hmm… But Jerome doesn’t seem okay either. Yulia, can you take Jerome to his room?”
Still rubbing her eyes, Yulia turned toward Jerome beside her.
Even through her blurry vision, she could see that his entire face and even his ears had turned red, and he was nodding off with his head lowered.
“Jerome! Wake up, I’ll take you back.”
Yulia turned to support Jerome.
Still not fully sober, she pulled Jerome toward her and tightly hugged his face.
“My best friend Jerome… Jerome who’s basically family… Let’s go to the room now…!”
“……”
Jerome, slightly regaining consciousness at Yulia’s voice, slowly raised his arms and hugged her back.
Before they knew it, the two were tightly embracing each other and leaning against one another.
They slowly swayed back and forth, looking exactly like two drunk people happily clinging to each other.
“Let’s go, Jerome…”
“Yu… Yu… li…”
At that moment, someone approached and forcefully pulled Jerome away from Yulia.
“Ah… Yu… Yuri…”
Jerome muttered briefly before tilting his head again and falling back asleep.
Yulia looked down at her suddenly empty arms.
“Hm?”
“You look very drunk. I’ll take you to your rooms.”
“Who…? I can’t see well…”
Yulia narrowed her eyes, trying to identify the sudden stranger.
The voice sounded familiar somehow, but his face was too blurry to recognize from a distance.
Maybe because he was tall…
“Can you walk alone? What room number are you staying in?”
“You’re… taking us there?”
Yulia let go of Jerome for a moment and tried to think.
Because of all the mixed alcohol she drank, her normally quick mind was working slowly and sluggishly.
She couldn’t see properly because the eye drops had worn off.
Jerome was heavily drunk and needed to return to his room.
And this man was offering to help.
“Okay.”
After finishing her thoughts, Yulia opened her small handbag.
Inside were the two room keys the hotel doorman had given her earlier.
Yulia took out the keys and placed them on her palm, and the man picked up both keys.
Soon after, Jerome’s body, still nodding off where the man had pushed him aside, was lifted upright.
“Thank you so much… I’ll follow behind on my own.”
Yulia pushed strength into her legs and stood up from the chair.
She managed to stand, but the way out of the banquet hall looked blurry and hard to see.
Seriously, without my glasses I can’t see anything. I should buy permanent vision-improvement eye drops soon. Even if they’re expensive, it can’t be helped.
Thinking she had to stay close behind the tall man so she wouldn’t lose him, Yulia started walking.
But the man’s pace was far too fast.
The distance between Yulia and the man supporting Jerome gradually widened.
As she blindly guessed where to step, her arms and knees kept bumping painfully into things.
“Ow!”
“Oh dear! Lady, please be careful.”
“Ah… s-sorry.”
Yulia grabbed her aching arm after crashing into a table she failed to see again.
At the small commotion, the tall man walking ahead turned back toward her.
“Are you so drunk you can’t even walk properly?”
“No, it’s not that… My eyesight is bad, and the eye drops I used… their effect wore off, so I can’t see very well…”
“……Then I’ll come back quickly, so sit and wait.”
“No! I think we’re almost outside anyway, so I can manage on my own.”
“Don’t be stubborn over something pointless—”
“No!!”
“……”
Drunk Yulia was extremely stubborn.
The tall man seemed to realize there was no use persuading her further, so he turned around and left the banquet hall with Jerome.
Yulia hurried after him so she wouldn’t lose sight of him.
As soon as they stepped out of the noisy banquet hall and into the outside air, Yulia felt like her blurry vision became slightly clearer.
I think I can walk like this.
She could vaguely make out the carpeted hotel lobby and the wide staircase on the opposite side leading to the guest rooms.
Carefully stepping one stair at a time, Yulia slowly climbed upward.
“I’ll be right back, so come up slowly.”
The man glanced back at Yulia briefly. He probably decided it would be better to quickly leave Jerome in his room and come back down, because he tucked Jerome under one arm and rapidly climbed the stairs.
Soon, he disappeared from sight.
Yulia continued moving her feet little by little until she finally stepped onto the last stair connected to the second floor.
“I made it all the way up!”
After hesitating at the split hallway for a moment, Yulia began searching for the door with her room number.
Room 207… 207…
The numbers were hard to see, so she had to move close to each door.
What room was Jerome’s again? I think it was on a completely different floor… That tall man probably took him there safely, right?
Passing rooms 205 and 206, Yulia finally stood in front of room 207 and happily grabbed the doorknob.
But she had no key.
Oh right… I gave both room keys to that tall man…
Feeling like an idiot, Yulia leaned her forehead against the door of room 207 and quietly caught her breath.
The cold metal door felt nice against her heated forehead.
When the tall man came back, she decided she would ask his name and properly repay him later. Jerome would probably be the one paying him, though. He had money.
And as for herself, she would repay him with a hug. Because she had no money.
Yulia continued thinking useless thoughts while waiting for the man.
Now that she was right in front of the room, maybe because she felt relieved knowing the bed was just beyond this door, the mental strength she had stubbornly held onto began weakening.
Maybe she was sleepy.
Or maybe tired.
Or perhaps the alcohol was finally hitting her late, making her dizzy.
“Mmm…”
The moment her thoughts blanked out for a second, both of Yulia’s knees suddenly lost strength.
Her knees buckled deeply.
“Uh…?”
The door she had been leaning against tilted away in her narrowing vision, and the hotel wall seemed to flip upward.
In an instant, she lost her balance and began collapsing toward the floor.
I’m falling!
Yulia reflexively squeezed her eyes shut.
A quick thought flashed through her head that the thick carpet on the luxurious hotel hallway floor would probably make it hurt less than expected.
“……!”
The impact of falling was not as painful as she expected.
No, there was barely any impact at all.
Slowly opening her eyes, Yulia realized a moment later that a thick, firm arm had suddenly appeared and pulled her against someone’s chest before she hit the ground.
“You okay?”
Yulia simply blinked while leaning against the man who had suddenly appeared and caught her.
