Chapter 62: Hide-and-seek Championship: Park Ji-yeon
“It’s so strange. Sitting here, it always feels like it’s still 2013, and I haven’t realized it’s already 2025 at all.”
In the tavern.
On the sofa, Ji-yeon suddenly burst out laughing, “Oppa, are you deliberately creating this feeling, or are you just too lazy to change the decoration blueprints?”
“You’ve already said it, so why ask me?”
Over at the bar counter, Lin Xiuyuan casually grabbed a bottle of drink for Ji-yeon, too lazy even to bartend.
Ji-yeon, taking the drink, looked up at the television diagonally above.
Gazing at some real-time news playing inside, she spoke thoughtfully, “Actually, I kind of want to go out and stroll around, to see what this time-space has turned into.”
“If you want to, then just go out now. Drive around, get out of the car if you want, as long as you don’t go to places with too many people.”
Looking at Lin Xiuyuan who sat down beside her and spoke, Ji-yeon shook her head.
“Forget it. I love to play, but I also know what a crisis is. If I really want to stroll, I’ll wait until I go back to 2013. Over there, at worst I’ll be surrounded by fans; if I’m exposed here, it probably won’t be that simple.”
“Indeed.” Lin Xiuyuan nodded in agreement.
Just as they were talking, “Ding dong~”
A doorbell rang, interrupting their conversation.
This sudden sound startled Ji-yeon, nearly spilling the drink in her hand, but she grabbed it steady again.
Then she turned her gaze to Lin Xiuyuan and quietly asked, “Who is it?”
“Probably some passerby again.”
Lin Xiuyuan said as he walked toward the bar counter, preparing to check the surveillance.
But when he glanced at the monitor screen, his whole body instantly froze.
In just one breath’s time, he waved fiercely at Ji-yeon, “What the fck, big trouble’s coming. Ji-yeon, find a place to hide quick. This is bad, we’re done for.”
Ji-yeon hurriedly stood up and walked over to look at the monitor screen, immediately struck as if by lightning.
Because under the monitor’s shot, there was a woman almost exactly like her standing outside the door, accompanied on both sides by Hyo Min and Lee Ji-eun whom she had seen that morning.
And that woman who looked exactly like her—wasn’t she the “old woman” she had been complaining about lately?
So Ji-yeon immediately panicked a bit, “What do we do, oppa? Where should I hide?”
The bathroom? No, anyone going in would spot her.
But aside from the bathroom, this small tavern of just a few dozen square meters had no place to hide at all.
In the heat of the moment, Lin Xiuyuan thought of something.
He pulled Ji-yeon and headed that way.
Outside the door.
After a moment, looking at Big Dragon Cub pressing the doorbell again, Hyo Min recalled what she had said before, “Didn’t you and Eun-jung say before that this place has a membership system? It won’t really not let non-members in, right?”
“It shouldn’t be that strict.” Big Dragon Cub thought back; there had indeed been such a statement that day.
“I told you to call first.” Lee Ji-eun teased from the side.
“I…”
Before she could finish, the wooden door creaked open. Lin Xiuyuan stood inside, with a “just busy” appearance, water stains dripping from his hands explaining everything.
“Sorry about that, I was busy just now.”
Big Dragon Cub outside smiled, “It’s fine. We’re the ones disturbing you. No problem, right?”
“No problem at all. Your visit lights up my small tavern. Welcome, welcome, please come in, please come in.”
As he spoke, Lin Xiuyuan welcomed the three inside, but after looking up at the sky, he slightly frowned.
But when he turned back to face the three, his face switched to a standard smile again.
And as he closed the door, Big Dragon Cub, now inside, proactively said, “Didn’t I say before? Next time I’d bring people to help your business. How about it? You know these two, right?”
“Hyo Min and Qiu Li—basically no fans of Korean waves back home don’t know them.”
After sighing, Lin Xiuyuan politely and warmly went up to greet the two and introduced his own name and identity.
After a few pleasantries, he planned to have the three sit on the sofa side to chat.
But Hyo Min walked to the front of the bar counter with a smile, patted the high stool, “Coming to a tavern to drink and sitting on the sofa is no fun. High stools are better.”
Behind her, Lin Xiuyuan grimaced.
The next second, he recovered with a normal smile, “It’s fine, sit here then. Whatever works, sit wherever.”
Then he stepped behind the bar counter, stood in front of them, and asked, “What would you like to drink?”
“Is there a menu?” Hyo Min raised an eyebrow with a smile, the charm of a newlywed wife unintentionally showing.
Though Lin Xiuyuan’s mind swayed for an instant, his panic far outweighed any enjoyment at the moment, so he quickly shook his head, “Unfortunately, not yet.”
“Then just whatever. Ji-yeon said your bartending skills are pretty good. Don’t disappoint your idol.”
At Hyo Min’s words, Big Dragon Cub quickly tugged her arm, “Oppa, don’t tease anymore. That was just her being young and vigorous.”
Lee Ji-eun, who had been silent for a while, chimed in with a smile at this moment, “You still like it the same, right, Lin Xiuyuan?”
But this time Lin Xiuyuan couldn’t respond well, only dryly chuckled twice, forced a smile and nodded, then lowered his head to start bartending.
But to mix one drink, he needed to keep moving, grab alcohol, use the measuring cup, shake the shaker…
This left Ji-yeon hiding under the bar counter utterly embarrassed.
Her knees pressed tight to her chest, shrinking herself to the smallest volume possible, not even daring to breathe too hard.
Watching this guy walk back and forth right in front of her, stopping right in front of her from time to time.
The proximity and perfect height match made her face flush hot.
Feeling him stop right in front of her several times, the gap between them so close she could almost sense the faint sound of fabric brushing air.
This situation scared her into instinctively holding her breath, afraid her aura would “puff” onto him and create some unspeakable misunderstanding.
But as her heartbeat quickened and breathing grew heavier, unable to hold it, she finally exhaled a long breath of hot air, hitting a wall.
And then…
When Lin Xiuyuan above handed a cocktail to Hyo Min and stood still at some spot at the bar counter, he suddenly felt a rhythmic hot breath hit him, the incoming aura nearly breaking his young and vigorous composure.
Startled, he quickly straightened up, reached into the nearby ice cabinet, grabbed a handful of ice cubes with his bare hand, and played with them.
This action stunned Hyo Min and the others, “What? What’s this for?”
“Oh, this is to get the alcoholic beverages to the best taste. A bartender’s hand temperature can’t be too high, so it needs ice cubes to cool it down, or else it affects the drink’s temperature and appearance when touching the glass.”
Quick-witted Lin Xiuyuan, upon being asked, immediately launched into his deadpan nonsense.
These words sounded so convincing that even Hyo Min and the others were fooled into a daze.
Of course, that’s what Lin Xiuyuan thought.
Actually, in Hyo Min and the others’ thoughts: Where did this silly boy come from, spouting such nonsense?
I’m dumbfounded, this can even pass review~
（PS: Scheduled it before, but it got reviewed）
