When Sun Jin resolutely added her words, Seok Hoon also glanced at Na Eun as if in disbelief.

Na Eun, who had admitted that her cooking wasn’t particularly tasty after nearly three years of living alone, didn’t argue further.

She had belatedly realized through her independent life that she lacked talent in cooking, just like her father.

“Then Na Eun, just stay here with your friends. I’ll do the cooking.”

“No, elder brother. You have other things to do too…”

Na Eun felt like she was sitting on pins and needles, having observed Seok Hoon getting busier earlier as the arrival time of those who were supposed to help with kitchen duties in turns was delayed.

Even as Seok Hoon tried to dissuade her, saying it was fine, Na Eun felt she had to do something and started to get up, but Seung Joo and Sun Jin on either side stopped her.

It came with advice that only true friends could give – that if she went, things that could be done wouldn’t get done.

Amidst this commotion, Hee Won’s voice, who had been quietly sipping beer, interjected.

“Shall I do it?”

“What?”

“Huh?”

The gazes of the four who had been arguing among themselves all turned towards Hee Won, who was sitting down.

He put down the beer he was drinking and slowly rose from his seat.

“I’ll help for a bit. I’m good at cooking.”

“What are you saying?”

“Really?”

The endless skeptical gazes of his team members were directed at him.

Hee Won spoke with a smile that his ex-girlfriends found sexy, but his team members hated the most – (to borrow Seung Joo’s expression) ‘a smile that makes you want to punch him’.

“You know. I’m good at everything.”

And the expected reaction came.

“Get lost.”

“If it’s not tasty, you’re getting hit.”

Despite the 4-year age difference that should have made him quite junior in terms of school year or anything else, the criticism came naturally.

Rather, Seok Hoon who was listening was flustered, but Hee Won, as if used to it, just shrugged his shoulders and swiftly moved towards the front of the pub where the kitchen was.

“He’s so annoying.”

“This is irritating.”

These were the impressions Seung Joo and Sun Jin expressed after devouring several plates of side dishes, including stir-fried sausages, prepared by Hee Won’s hands.

Hee Won let out a hollow laugh at them deliberately saying such things while eating so well that the bottom of the plates was visible.

“If it’s delicious, just honestly say so.”

“I’ll definitely find something this guy can’t do someday. …Damn it, Sun Jin! What do you think you’re doing!”

Seung Joo, who had been picking on Hee Won despite eating well, turned serious at Sun Jin’s appalling act of pouring sauce all over the sweet and sour pork.

“What uncivilized thing are you doing! Are you a thug?”

“The essence of sweet and sour pork is eating it with sauce. You barbarians who dip wouldn’t understand.”

“…Are you good at fighting?”

“How could I not be? You know better yourself.”

Hee Won, who had been watching them bicker about eating with sauce or dipping while resting his chin on his hand, suddenly realized that Na Eun sitting next to him was quiet.

He turned his gaze towards her and asked.

“Which side are you on?”

To the question of whether she was for dipping or pouring, Na Eun, who had already stuffed her mouth full of sweet and sour pork, answered with puffy cheeks while chewing.

“I’m on the eating side.”

At her thoroughness of already picking up three pieces of sweet and sour pork with her chopsticks and placing them on her plate to eat more, Hee Won finally couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.

The drinking session ended a little past midnight.

Time flew by quickly as she mingled with her friends even after finishing the serving work they had originally planned to do.

Na Eun, who had left her car behind since they had planned to drink from the start, decided to share a taxi with Seung Joo and Sun Jin.

Usually, Hee Won would have been responsible for Na Eun’s journey home, but for some reason, her two friends flatly rejected their team leader, saying, ‘Why do you need to go with her when we’re here?’

Hee Won also stepped back willingly, believing that there wouldn’t be any major incidents with those two together, so Na Eun ended up taking a taxi huddled together with her friends after a long time.

Not wanting to sit in the passenger seat, the three sat close together in the back seat, with Na Eun taking the initiative to recite her home address.

Since it was too late at night, she planned to let her friends sleep in her room and send them off the next morning.

After the taxi that had received the address set off, Seung Joo, who seemed to be feeling the effects of alcohol belatedly, leaned back against the seat as if lying down in the car cutting through the night air.

The words she let out of her mouth seemed quite out of the blue to Na Eun.

“Na Eun, I’m going to introduce someone to you, so meet them.”

“All of a sudden?”

Na Eun, who hadn’t expected such direct help despite expressing her ambitious intention to try dating again, opened her eyes wide.

Hugging her bag in the middle seat and rolling her eyes for a moment, she nodded obediently.

“Okay. But why? Is there someone nice?”

“…Just because.”

Seung Joo trailed off. She didn’t want to answer that it was because she remembered the unfamiliar expression of their team leader who had quietly pushed plates of food Na Eun liked towards her at the drinking session earlier, smiling as he watched her eat excitedly.

Although she thought it unlikely, if it was sincere, Seung Joo really intended to eliminate all elements that could become the bud of that relationship and emotion from the beginning.

Because in her opinion, her friend needed to meet a really good person. Really, a good person.

“…But, um, the person you’re going to introduce me to, they’re not in the same industry as you, right?”

Na Eun asked carefully, expressing it indirectly out of consideration for the taxi driver who was driving.

Seung Joo frowned.

“Of course not.”

“Then that’s fine.”

“…Do you absolutely hate people who do similar work to us?”

Sun Jin, who had been quietly listening to her friends’ conversation from the left side, suddenly asked.

It was actually a question that was painful to ask because it was so obvious.

Since she had to go through a tragedy once that she wouldn’t have had to experience if she wasn’t their friend, it was clear as day that Na Eun would be averse to such a partner.

Sure enough. Na Eun nodded in affirmation.

“It’s not that I dislike you guys, it’s just that that’s as far as the weight I’ve agreed to bear goes. I don’t want any more than this.”

“…”

Seung Joo and Sun Jin’s gazes intertwined once, with Na Eun in between them.

The two agreed with each other’s thoughts without exchanging words and felt somewhat relieved.

A moment of silence fell in the taxi, but it was quickly broken by the naturally changing topic.

“I’m dying. Did I drink too much?”

Seung Joo, whose head was foggy from drinking as much as she was sincere about the side dishes, smacked her parched lips.

Her throat felt like it was burning due to the effects of alcohol.

“If you’re struggling, drink this.”

Na Eun took out two small bottles from her bag and handed one each to her friends sitting on either side. It was a hangover cure drink.

“Oh, as expected. This preparedness. Very Yoon Na Eun-like.”

“Thanks.”

Sun Jin, who didn’t seem as struggling compared to Seung Joo, received the bottle and put it in her bag, while Seung Joo opened the cap right away, saying it was perfect.

Instead of drinking the beverage, Sun Jin took out a foundation compact from her bag and fixed her makeup state using the mirror.

She was bothered by her eye makeup smudging and lips being completely wiped off from playing and drinking.

She was about to wipe off the smudged eye makeup with a cotton swab and take out her lipstick to reapply it when…

“Huh…?”

A voice filled with doubt escaped from Na Eun’s mouth next to her.

Sun Jin turned to her friend as if asking what was wrong.

Why? Unable to answer due to the current situation being so perplexing, Na Eun asked the driver sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Driver, this isn’t the way to my house.”

Na Eun, who had been carefully watching the road the taxi was taking through the front windshield while sitting in the middle seat, had seen the driver not inputting the address into the navigation when she first told him, but she thought nothing of it.

She knew that some drivers were so familiar with the roads that they chose shortcuts they knew rather than relying on navigation.

So she additionally told him that he could just go towards a large commercial building near her house that he could understand.

Yet, she tilted her head at the driver’s actions of turning the steering wheel away from the road to her house and going somewhere else.

Is he intentionally taking a detour? To make the taxi fare higher.

Although it seemed a bit transparent, she was going to let that slide too, but she gradually became suspicious of the taxi that was now only going on secluded roads completely opposite to her house.

“Driver.”

Na Eun called out again to the taxi driver who didn’t answer even to her pointing out.

As expected. No answer again.

While Na Eun was starting to get nervous and biting her lips, after a few minutes, the car stopped on a back road away from the city center where there were few people around.

The taxi driver, who hadn’t said a word until now, got out of the driver’s seat, and soon he walked heavily to the back of the car.

Throughout all this, the three sitting in the back seat didn’t say anything to each other.

Na Eun rolled her eyes in anxiety.

Soon, the sound of the trunk opening was heard, and there was a sense of someone crawling out from inside.

Slam. The back door on Seung Joo’s side was opened by a man who had been hiding in the trunk.

“Hey, get out.”

A large man with a rough appearance threatened in a low voice.

The taxi driver standing behind had a menacing blade in his hand.

Why is everything around me like this these days? Am I under some curse? Na Eun let out a deep sigh inwardly.

Meanwhile, the man who had opened the car door and threatened them frowned deeply when he saw that none of the three people were getting out, pretending not to hear his words.

“Hey, didn’t you hear me say get out?”

These bitches. A vulgar curse sprang from the man’s mouth with the purpose of intimidation.

Nevertheless, none of the three moved.

Are they crazy from fear?

What’s going on here? Even the driver who had brought them looked dumbfounded as he threateningly shook his wrist holding the knife.

Na Eun just looked straight ahead with a sigh.

Eventually, Sun Jin, who had been calmly fixing her makeup on Na Eun’s left, closed the compact she had been using as a mirror after applying lipstick and asked towards Na Eun’s right side.

“Should you do it, or should I?”

Seung Joo, who had gulped down all of the hangover cure drink Na Eun had given her as if gargling on the right side, swallowed the remaining drink and answered.

“I’ll do it.”

And Seung Joo got out through the already open door.

Na Eun sighed again as if the ground would sink.

Soon, unidentified impact sounds and muffled screams of men were heard from outside.

Na Eun called out weakly towards the open right door with concern.

Seung Joo, take it easy. Take it easy!