This winery’s couples program starts at 7:00 PM.
It’s currently 4:00 PM.
Still three hours to go.
I followed Ms. Saya to what served as the winery’s front desk.
A woman dressed like an elegant manager greeted us with a bright smile.
“Welcome. Do you have a reservation?”
“No, we don’t have one. We’d like to join the Couples Experience Program.”
It was a line I’d practiced in my head dozens of times.
But it stuck to my tongue like glue and wouldn’t come out easily.
Me, in a Couples Experience Program.
And as a ‘Rental Boyfriend’ of all things?
If the me from a few days ago had heard this, I wouldn’t have believed it.
Either way, Ms. Saya was stunningly beautiful.
I could safely say she was the prettiest person I’d ever seen in my life.
That might be why everyone at the front desk couldn’t take their eyes off us.
Some women were even audibly clicking their tongues.
Just standing next to her made me feel a little proud.
If I were her real boyfriend, I’d be happy even if I had to skip meals every day.
“Room Chardonnay is on the second floor. I’ll charge you 780,000 won total, including the Couples Experience Program and the overnight stay.”
The female attendant smiled brightly.
780,000 won for one night. I felt my blood run cold.
Why is it so expensive?
Of course, if I let that show on my face, I wouldn’t be able to pull off being Ms. Saya’s boyfriend.
So I pulled out my card from my chest pocket and said,
“We’ll pay in full.”
And just like that, the payment was done.
Soon after, I heard women whispering.
“Is he some rich Chinese guy? I heard real rich people walk around in tracksuits.”
“His Korean sounds a bit off too.”
Off?!
I’m just so nervous I can’t speak properly!
Bearing their piercing stares, I left the front desk and headed up to the second floor where the room was.
I handed Ms. Saya back the card I’d taken for payment.
“Ms. Saya, are you really okay with this?”
“I’ve heard that in typical dates, the man pays more. If that weren’t the case, would it have been better for me to handle the payment myself?”
Ms. Saya remained expressionless.
In that moment, I realized my question and her answer were slightly out of sync.
I was asking if she was okay with me paying 780,000 won for one night just like that.
But she seemed to have understood it as me asking whether it was okay for the man, me, to pay.
“Ah, yes. Well… I guess guys usually do pay.”
The VIPs at our restaurant, mixed groups of men and women, also had the men covering the bill most of the time.
The men handing over the check always wore faces full of pride.
「Room Chardonnay 201」.
True to its name, named after a white grape wine, the room itself was bright with white and beige tones.
Summer sunlight poured through the large balcony window, and the curtains swayed gently.
A king-sized bed with two pillows, a rocking chair—the whole atmosphere was wonderfully leisurely.
‘Wait, staying overnight means we have to sleep in the same room today?’
A single bead of cold sweat trickled down the back of my neck.
Whether I was nervous or not, Boribori was spinning circles around Ms. Saya.
“Malka…? Nesikha…? Malka…. Nesikha….”
What on earth is she doing?
I reached out my hand, signaling her to stop because it was distracting—.
“Tembel…!”
She snapped at me for no reason, then scurried off to a corner and curled up.
Ever since I carried her earlier, she’d been acting like this.
I guess Boribori absolutely hates it when anyone touches her.
“The breeze is nice and cool.”
Ms. Saya hung her bag on the coat rack and tidied her hair.
With a soft rustle—.
Every time her hair caught the sunlight, it shifted to a reddish tint like wine or ruby. It was quite fascinating.
Did she dye it in two tones?
Maybe there’s some special dye that only rich families know about that I don’t.
With a quiet swish—.
Ms. Saya sat down in the rocking chair.
Then she ran her hand over the booklets nearby and flipped one open.
“We still have plenty of time until 7:00 PM. What do ordinary couples usually do at a time like this?”
About three hours left.
Even if we ate dinner at 6:00, that still meant we had two hours to fill with something.
What do normal couples do at times like this?
What am I supposed to do here?
“…Want to have some wine?”
We came all the way to a winery, after all.
But I couldn’t read any hint of interest in Ms. Saya’s eyes.
“The sun is still up. I don’t feel like drinking.”
Her eyes remained fixed on the booklet.
Feeling awkward, I glanced around the room until a flyer on the table caught my eye.
“Oh, there’s something called a Wine Foot Bath experience. Want to go together?”
Thump, thump—.
My heart pounded hard.
If I get rejected for this too, my self-esteem will plummet through the floor.
“Wine Foot Bath.”
Ms. Saya’s eyes lifted from the booklet and turned to me.
“Is that something ordinary?”
“…Pouring wine you could drink onto your feet. That’s not ordinary.”
“……”
“But! The very fact that couples come to a place like this is for that kind of unique experience, I think. To escape the everyday. In that case, isn’t it actually ordinary?”
“It’s ordinary because it’s not ordinary…. I’ve never thought of it that way.”
With a soft swish—.
Ms. Saya stood up.
“Lead the way.”
Yes! But why do I feel such a huge sense of accomplishment over something this small?
Is this how gentlemen feel when escorting wealthy madams?
And so we headed to what was called the foot bath area.
Unlike what I’d expected from something so grand, it was a shabby old warehouse.
There were a bunch of basket-like tubs for water, and large rubber basins filled with hot water.
I could see plastic bottles labeled ‘Foot Bath Wine.’
It seemed like you pour that into the basket of hot water and soak your feet in it.
Probably wine that was too old and about to be discarded, repurposed for a foot bath event.
“This is my first time doing a wine foot bath.”
Ms. Saya spoke softly in her flat tone.
She took off her heels and socks, revealing her pale white feet, and slowly submerged them from the tips into the basket.
Plip, splash—.
Even her toes are pretty, I thought, when Ms. Saya looked at me.
“You should soak your feet too, Mr. Yuseong.”
This basket is for couples.
Meaning both of us had to put our feet in the same basket.
At that moment, a dizzying shock ran through the back of my head.
‘Am I doing something completely ridiculous right now?’
But I couldn’t just stand there, so I took off my socks and dipped my feet in too.
Putting my feet in wine made me feel like a ridiculously rich man.
Also, since my skin was touching Ms. Saya’s, all my nerves were focused right there.
With the slightest movement, our ankles would brush against each other.
So, to escape the awkwardness and embarrassment, I kept my eyes darting around busily.
That’s when I noticed something written on the bottom of the wooden basket.
‘A foreign language?’
As I frowned, Ms. Saya spoke up.
“Ekstasis. It’s a Greek word for ecstasy. And also Entusiasmos. Oinos. Katharsis. Mania—each one is written on a different pillar of this warehouse.”
“Ah… So you know Greek well, Ms. Saya?”
“Isn’t Greek just basic knowledge?”
“I… wouldn’t exactly call that basic.”
“…Then is it not ordinary?”
Ms. Saya’s expression was mostly blank.
—Or so I thought.
I was wrong.
It was incredibly subtle, but it was slowly changing.
And it was ever so ever so ever so subtle.
So subtle that you wouldn’t notice unless you were as close as I was.
Lately I’d been studying Boribori’s tail and face to figure out what she meant, so I could pick up on the changes to some degree.
Ms. Saya seemed slightly deflated about the fact that she wasn’t ordinary.
At this point, I couldn’t help but be curious.
“Ms. Saya, do you like being ordinary?”
“Because of my constitution, I’ve spent a long time indoors only. I envied the ordinary days of people walking around outside.”
Spent indoors only because of her constitution…
Was she in and out of hospitals or something?
Suddenly, my younger sister, who had been very sick, came to mind.
She’s healthy now, but as a child, she was at the hospital every day.
At that point, the trembling and tension faded somewhere, and a pang of sympathy filled my heart.
“Ms. Saya, I may not be able to give you anything special, but I can show you an ordinary day anytime. I mean, I’m the most ordinary guy out there.”
“Urrrrrr….”
Just then, Boribori, who had been watching us from the corner with wary eyes, shot her tail up like an antenna.
Is she still mad about me carrying her earlier?
Or did she get pissed off because I said something cringey?
RUMBLE—.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE—.
Thunder roared.
“Huh? The weather forecast said it’d be clear today.”
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter—.
I heard the sound of rain falling.
I thought we were in trouble since we didn’t have an umbrella, and just as I stuck my head outside—.
“What is this.”
The rain.
Is red.
Red.
Everything in the world is red.
Seriously, what is this?
What is it? Red rain?
“Eww, what is this! What kind of rain is this!”
“Min-young! Get over here, now!”
“Oppa, this is so weird! The rain tastes like wine!”
“I think it’s a wine splash event!”
The women looked up at the cloudy sky, mouths hanging open.
Was it really some wine-wasting splash event the winery had prepared, like they said?
Maybe somewhere, a machine was spraying wine everywhere.
That thought lasted only a moment.
“Wow, it’s pretty now that it’s red. Red…”
“Ugh, I’m getting drunk… I’m thirsty… thirsty…”
“……”
The look in the women’s eyes as they stared at the men changed.
Fiercer than I’d ever seen.
They lunged at the men, shoving them down and biting their shoulders.
“Aaaah! Min-young! What, what are you doing?!”
“Honey, Min-seon’s mom! What is this! Aaaah!”
The men must have thought it was a joke.
That the women were just drunk on the sweet, tangy scent of wine in the air.
But when their teeth sank into the men’s necks and they started smashing their heads with nearby rocks, no one was laughing.
“Aaaah! Aaaaah! Let go of me!”
The men thrashed around.
But the women’s arms and legs wrapped around their bodies with practiced ease, and they shoved their fingers into the men’s eye sockets or bit down on their foreheads with their teeth.
GRRRRR—.
Then, a sound like an enraged beast echoed.
I turned my head to see Boribori, staring at the red rain falling from the sky and at the women, shouting something.
“Bacchan-tes!”
Bacchan—what?
Whatever it was, one thing was certain: this situation was clearly wrong.
This is absolutely not ordinary.
The women are going mad.
Madness.
The meaning of that word as I knew it was being redefined right before my eyes.
That is what it means to be mad.
That is irrationality.
Irrationality.
Not everyday.
Absurdity.
That is what madness is.
The women…
Who were hit by that red rain…
As that thought struck me, I remembered there was a woman right behind me.
I was almost afraid to turn my head.
My shoulders and neck felt stiff as if they’d become rusty machinery.
Then, from behind me, a soft, emotionless voice spoke.
“It’s already started. I suppose there’s no need to wait until 7:00. It’s probably because it noticed I’m here.”
“Huh? Ms. Saya, what do you—.”
I turned my head.
Ms. Saya, rising from the foot bath basket, walked toward me, leaving red footprints behind.
Then she stood beside me and looked up at the sky.
“I came here to put an end to this.”
Her voice was calm, yet somehow languid.
She moved into the red rain as if gliding.
Reflexively, I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and pulled her back.
“Whoa, that’s dangerous!”
“Gek—.”
