2.10 ARTIFICIAL LOVE: Backed into a wall

The music is loud, vibrating through his bones at the beat of flashing lights and Beomseok remembers why he doesn't go to clubs. It's the crowd and the noise and too many bodies grinding on each other. He feels oddly alone, cramped in such a small space with so many people.

But he's drunk. Someone hands him another drink and Beomseok is weak to alcohol, especially when it's being fed to him for free. It explains why he hasn't left.

"I'm going to help you out," Dayoung's voice pulls at the edge of his conscious, sharp and scolding, "That's what friends are for, dammit." If Beomseok was sober he would chide her on her toxic behavior because getting a person drunk to get them to go along with your crazy plans isn't how friends operate. No scratch that, it's not how normal people operate but Dayoung is a chaebol who grew up in a different world with different rules. It's no wonder she's got a few screws loose. It's also no wonder how she can just toss absurd amounts of money around with little to no consequence.

Beomseok snarls at her, but he doesn't find the energy in himself to string together a cohesive sentence. Still, he snatches the Mystery Drink from her hands and downs in one gulp.

His recollections of that night end there.

When he wakes up his entire body aches and he has no idea how he jumped over the sea of beer cans in his bedroom to reach his bed. He's horrified to find the month's rent had been paid for because he sure as hell didn't have the money to do so. Dayoung's good work no doubt.

The waves of nausea are monumental obstacles that impede his every second of existence but Beomseok supposes it's retribution for his own damned recklessness. Beomseok's a warrior and braves it regardless, wrestling with his sheets for access to his phone lodged under the pillow.

He's both shocked and unsurprised to see 99+ unread messages and at least 99% of them are from one person. The rest are random messages that show him glimmers of his embarrassing night, friends of friends asking if he's okay and if he made it home safe.

Beomseok forgoes his embarrassment and decides to check out his chat history with his one mysterious Hyung; a faceless and nameless entity that has somehow, in a very short amount of time, wormed his way into Beomseok's life.

Beomseok cringes and ruffles his hair, only to grumble at the pain of the minor movements. He squints at the offending light coming from his phone and reaches for a bottle of water that sits conveniently on the counter next to the bed. The messages that start the night off are at at least coherent. He had enough brain cells to properly articulate his plans to his mysterious Hyung.

But it doesn't take long for the messages to take a drastic turn. Gone are any vestiges of legibility and Beomseok spots a few parts of pure gibberish. He's even horrified at the few calls that sit in his history because he can't, for the life of him, recall any of them.

Guilt begins to build alongside the terrible headache between his temple as his eyes skim over the messages.

[ are you ok? Did you finally leave the club? ]

[ I swear I will punch your dumb friend in the face when I meet her ]

[ how could she do this to you !?? ]

[ omg beomseok ar you okay?? I'm seriously worried. Please let me know ]

[ did you get water? ]

[ if you need a lift I can get someone to come pick you up. ]

[ wait there don't move ]

[ I'll come pick you up ]

[ when you wake up let me know, I left some supplies for you ]

"…"

Beomseok blinks at the last messages.

What?

He tries to make sense of them but between the awful blare of hangover clouding his thoughts, there's nothing he can do to reprimand the blanks in his memory.

With a frustrated groan, he takes one more sip of water before collapsing back into bed.

There's still so much he needs to do and deal with but Beomseok presses the proverbial snooze button on life and drifts off into slumber despite it already being midday.

With the last of his energy he sends a message:

[ thanks Hyung but ngl youre kinda creeping me out lol ]

He doesn't see the response because he's dead to the world for about five hours.

When Beomseok finally revives, it's evening and he forces himself to crawl off his mattress because everything's getting out of hand. The list of things to do is terribly large and he's not even sure how to start tackling it.

The logical thing is to take care of his most immediate needs. And that's water and food.

Water he has, thank fuck.

Food, he doesn't have, or at least that what he thinks. Because there is, in fact, a plastic bag at the foot of his bed that has an array of snacks and several bags of his favorite brand of noodles.

Deja vu hits Beomseok with the force of a thousand stampeding bulls and he doesn't know what twisted book plot he just fell into but for a moment reality stops feeling real.

Huh?

Cautiously, he peels open the bag and stares at all the packaged goods. Can't be poisoned right?

Then he remembers the slew of text messages. Shit does that mean Hyung was really over?

Beomseok goes into his phone and sees new messages from Hyung.

[ ; w ; im sorry beomseok I was just really worried about you ]

[ I swear I didn't do anything untoward! Ahem… ]

[ maybe I took a few cute pictures but I promise that's it… ]

Beomseok stares. He doesn't know if he should feel thrilled or terrified. The feeling that churns in his belly might possibly be a mixture of both. Maybe something else entirely.

His fingers shake and he runs a hand through his hair, trying to calm down.

[ dude wtf haahaha thanks for helping me out but how tf did you know where to find me and where I live? ]

[ >. <; ]

Beomseok stares at the [ … ] symbol and waits impatiently for Hyung's response.

[ you probably don't remember but… you called me, beomseokie! ]

Beomseok blinks. Oh. He's an idiot. He slaps his face with his palm with a bit too much force and his nose aches in complaint. That's right. There are a few outgoing calls to Hyung's number as proof in his phone's history.

[ you gave me ur location and address lol, I even had to carry you! Ehehehehe wanna see the cute pics I took? ]

[ please no. ]

But Hyung is merciless and sends him ridiculous shots of him drooling and curled up in the middle of the street. There's even one where he's giving the middle finger to the camera. There's a picture with the two of them but Hyung's face is disappointedly censored with a large emoji. Judging from his frame and his clothes, he seems to be a young man with good proportions and taste in casual style.

[ wtf ] Beomseok types furiously and sends a slew of messages. [ how dare you do me dirty like this? Are you really my Hyung? ]

[ eheheheh <3 Hyung thinks youre cute! Plus I got some really good ones too ]

The next few photos that Hyung sends are of Beomseok who sits on the side of the road. Some of them he's smoking or glaring at the camera. He looks like a mess, hair tousled and under eyes dark but there's a particular aesthetic to the photos, like the photographer had been committed to capturing only Beomseok's best angles.

But Beomseok only wishes that he could see Hyung instead and laments the giant blank in his memory.

[ why tf did you censor your face? I mean I already saw it so its fine right? ]

The message he receives in response is a bit obnoxious:

[ I bet beomseokie doesn't remember hehehe and plus, my face looks really cheap next to your handsome one ; w ;" ]

Beomseok responds: [ :| ]

The two of them continue chatting and somehow, Beomseok finds the willpower to tidy up his living space, at least a little bit. He spends the rest of the night with only a few cans of beer and more Oasis videos, turning down another party invitation Dayoung sends his way. He has no idea how she keeps it up but it might have something to do with the fact that she has her life together and he doesn't.

Beomseok finally receives a response to the hundreds of job applications he sent out but he's a realist and knows that a simple waiter job in a little restaurant isn't enough to tide him over. He's too prideful to ask for help, not even from Dayoung who he knows has more than enough pocket change to support his basic living expenses. He's not even about to consider Hyung, whose real name and face he still doesn't know, despite the two of them chatting on the regular.

Just when Beomseok feels like he's completely backed into a wall, he gets a call.

It's from his mother.