"Do you guys do this after every concert?" Lay asked. He surveyed the scene. His band mates, Super Junior and a melange of managers and male crew members were crammed into a Korean restaurant in Jakarta. Laughter and the clinking of cups filled the alcohol-infused air.

"Pretty much," Eunhyuk shrugged, taking a sip of his coke. As the self-appointed designated driver, Eunhyuk was the only one who bore any semblance of normalcy. Donghae had already collapsed and was sleeping with his head beside a plate of kimchi. Siwon too, was well on his way to oblivion with a lopsided smile pasted on his crimson face. "It's our way of...destressing. Kind of like how businessmen hang out at the bar after work." Lay was pretty sure regular businessmen were incapable of downing seven straight shots of soju like Shindong had done-on an empty stomach, no less.

As impressive as they were on stage, his sunbaes were much more interesting after booze had obliterated their inhibition. It was like watching behind-the-scenes footage, the real kind. From just one hour of casual observation, he had seen things that ELFs would sell their souls to know. Things like Leeteuk's slurred rants about MC-ing and Donghae's pathetic alcohol tolerance (worse than a high school freshman's, in case anyone was wondering).

", Yesung's coming. Better run and hide before he starts talking about his turtles again." But it was too late; Yesung had spotted them. The man who approached them looked nothing like the elegant singer whose voice had left thousands of fans in awe. In one hand, he held a bottle of soju and in the other, a half-eaten pork skewer.

"Lay, my good friend!" Yesung said as flopped down on the seat beside Lay's. "You like turtles, don't you?" Beside him, Eunhyuk let out a low groan. And for the next half hour, Yesung regaled them with tales of Ttangkkoming and Ttangkkomi ("they're land turtles, you know, which means they don't live in water, but I tried to teach them how to swim anyway and they almost died on me...")

Hoots and cheers suddenly sounded from the table beside theirs, stopping Yesung in mid-sentence. Half the room had gathered around the table, which had been cleared of plates and dishes. A few bottle caps were scattered across the surface, no doubt for a game of cap-ball.

"Ha! Take that!" Ryeowook was grinning at Kyuhyun triumphantly, his eyes bright with drunken excitement. He had just sent one of Kyuhyun's pieces flying off the table with a well-aimed flick of his own cap. However, Kyuhyun remained unruffled and began circling the table, muttering about angles with a look of concentration on his pink face.

"Seems like an intense game," Lay mused. The showdown had drawn quite a crowd.

Eunhyuk nodded towards Ryeowook. "He might not look it, but he's damn ferocious for a pretty boy. And that one there," he pointed at Kyuhyun. "He's a little bundle of pure evil, especially when he's tipsy. Both of them are competitive drunks and have been battling out for the title of 'Soju King' ever since Kangin left for the army."   

After much swearing and taunting from both sides, the game had come down to a one-on-one: Ryeowook's single red Lotte cap against Kyuhyun's green Jinro. Kyuhyun's finger was poised above his cap.

"You can do it, Hyunnie!" Sungmin slurred as he stumbled towards Kyuhyun. "Here, I'll do a cheer just for you!" Ignoring Kyuhyun's refusal, he dragged himself on to the table, scattering both caps in the process.

"Noooo!"

Somehow, Sungmin managed to climb to his feet. "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oppa saranghae!" The off-key chorus was accompanied by a valiant attempt at a sassy hair flip. If he had been wearing his Marilyn Monroe costume, his moves would have done SNSD proud.

Judging by his livid face, Kyuhyun was less than amused. He let out a battle cry and jumped onto the table. A tousle ensued, with Ryeowook joining in the fray when Sungmin managed to roll away.

"Should we, um, maybe stop them?" Lay asked.

Eunhyuk's lips widened into a gleeful smile. "Why? The fun's just begun." 

Words of Wisdom

| Posted on Apr 30, 2012  | 3:22 am |

Sunbaes are a wealth of knowledge and if they're intoxicated enough, they just might share a few tips. Given the late hour, I shall leave you with a few choice quotes from a few of my esteemed colleagues. Unfortunately, DH and SW were unavailable for comment, but I'm sure their words of wisdom would have been equally enlightening had they been conscious.

"PD's are a bunch of s, but you still gotta up to them if you wanna stay in the business. Always get them a cup of coffee for them if you're recording in the morning." - LT

"When you drink, skip the entree and just fill up on desert. Trust me, your taste buds will thank you when you start puking everything up." - SD

"Turtles...blah...blah...blah...more turtles..." - YS

" this sh*t!" - KH

"That's right, b*tch, you got owned." - RW

"Dance, dance, dance till we run this town. Oppa, oppa, I'll be, I'll be down, down, down~" - SM

"Remember, kid, stay sober, sit back and enjoy the show." - EH

Tags: soju, sunbaes

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