“What’s with the long face?” A tall, handsome man with short dark hair, dressed in slim jeans and a well-fitted navy shirt asked the y yet solemn woman sat at the bar, mindlessly stirring her strawberry daiquiri with her pinky finger, staring through the drink in deep thought. 

The y brunette, dressed in a stunning, tight red dress barely turned to the man, “not interested.”

“Oh come on. Maybe I can cheer you up. Do you want another drink?” The man continued, with an agenda present in his eyes.

The woman rolled her eyes, not in the mood to be hit on right now, and sighed deeply, before picking up her daiquiri and taking a long, slow sip, purposefully keeping her gaze dead ahead of her, avoiding looking at the man to her side. The man scanned her and saw her wearing a wedding ring on her left hand, and accepted it as a challenge. 

“Come on. I’ll get you another drink, and then maybe we can have a dance. I’m determined to see a smile on your face by the end of the night.”

The woman put her hand up to catch the attention of the bartender, making the man next to her smirk, thinking he’d won her over with the offer of a drink. The bartender came over with a nod of his head to the woman. 

“Hi. Can you get me another strawberry daiquiri and tell this creep next to me to leave me alone?”

The bartender raised his eyebrows and scanned the man. “Sorry man. She doesn’t want you here. You better go back to your friends,” nodding his head to the side, to emphasise how much the man should get lost. 

“I only want to buy her a drink and see her smile. What’s wrong with that?”

Sensing the discomfort from the woman and hearing the deep, frustrated sigh from , “I’ll call security if you keep bothering her. Your choice.”

“Fine, fine.” The man stepped back with hands up in surrender. “Enjoy your drink,” he half-spat at the woman with a disgusted smirk, before walking away. 

A beautiful, blonde girl sitting at the other end of the bar saw and heard the entire interaction between the woman, the sleeze, and the bartender. Her eyes checked out the woman, up and down, smirking to herself as she devised a plan. 

Getting up from her seat and grabbing her bottle of beer, she walked over to the woman, curious about her state of mind. After all, she’s the only woman in the whole bar looking heart-broken and bitter. Maybe the blonde just wanted to give the woman a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen.

“What’s with the long face?” The blonde woman said, with her voice filled with worry, placing her beer beside the woman. 

The woman turned to look at the blonde woman, knowing that that was the exact opening line the sleeze used before. But this time, hearing the feminine voice, and seeing the seemingly-innocent beautiful blonde girl next to her, she gave a half-smile and decided to open up. 

“Oh, just…men!” She scoffed before sipping her drink.

The blonde girl smiled affectionately, “tsk, tell me about it. So who’s the man that ruined your night?”

“My husband,” she sighed, looking down in disappointment. 

“Yeah? Well, my boyfriend cheated on me last week,” the blonde lied. “I caught him ing his co-worker in his apartment. I went round to surprise him, thinking he’d be alone and wanting some company. But...you know. he already had some,” she lied again, taking a swig of beer, making sure her eyes displayed a convincing look of anguish. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” the brunette commiserated, extending her hand towards the blonde’s, with the tips of her fingers barely a centimeter from the blonde’s hand. 

The blonde leaned against the bar, on her forearm, and looked expectantly at the brunette. “Do you wanna tell me what he did?”

The brunette looked down again, building up the courage to tell her story to the caring blonde. “This is my birthday weekend. We were supposed to meet at Alejandro’s, the Italian restaurant, for dinner. He was working late, so we planned to meet each other at the restaurant. I arrived there on time, and waited for over an hour before he bothered to ring me to tell me that he couldn’t make it because he has another emergency meeting with a client.”

“What an idiot. If he saw how hot you look tonight, he’d be kicking himself.”

The woman let out a suppressed giggle at the blonde’s compliment, but not really believing it, which the blonde picked up on. 

“What? You don’t think you’re hot?” The blonde challenged.

“Well, I can’t remember the last time my husband called me hot, or beautiful, or anything other than nice.”  The hot brunette shook her head. 

The blonde put her hand on top of the brunette’s, which was resting on the bar, moving closer. 

“If I was your husband, I’d tell you how hot and y you are every god damn day,” the blonde admitted, deepening her voice, which gave the brunette goosebumps, and an unexpected feeling of warmth in her stomach. Timidly, the brunette looked at the blonde, smiling and gulping, nervously excited about what might happen next. 

“What’s your name?”

“Chaeyoung…and you?” The blonde said keeping her fixed on the brunette. 

"Irene,” the brunette breathed out, aware of the minimal distance between the two. She saw the lust in the blonde’s eyes, a sight that she hadn’t seen in a long time. She had never felt more wanted in years since her husband started working late and having too many emergency client meetings. The blonde’s fixed eyes on hers made her feel like prey, and she wanted the blonde predator to take her and devour her. But she was confused. She had never been with another woman before. She thought she was straight. But now she could feel her body and warmth turning on because of Chaeyoung, the stunning, mysterious, blonde enigma in front of her, who was making her question her uality. 

Chaeyoung held her eye contact with hers for a couple of seconds after sharing their names, waiting for a signal. That’s all she needed to know that she would get what she wanted. A signal that she was so well-trained in receiving from women over the past year, who wanted a willing shoulder to lean on or cry on. 

The brunette couldn’t take her eyes off the blonde throughout the seconds after sharing their names. Chaeyoung looked too damn seductive. Her eyes screamed predatory lust, and even though she never thought she’d be so much by a woman, her body and mind proved her wrong. She her top lip and then bit her lower lip, making Chaeyoung smirk in victory. That was it. That was the signal. That’s when she knew she would be feasting tonight. 

—

6:00 AM the next morning, Chaeyoung unlocked her front door and strolled into her house. Her hair looked like it was recently disheveled, only brushed with her fingers, and she looked tired as if she didn’t get much sleep last night. 

Her house wasn’t big but wasn’t small either. It was a four-bedroom detached house with two floors. The outside of the house was covered in beams of wood painted white, with the roof covered with dark grey slate. She opened the front magnolia door and entered into the spacious living room, furnished with a huge brown corner couch, which looked a few years old, but well kept, and a 42” flat screen on the wall. 

She couldn’t be bothered to go to bed because she knew she had to be up in an hour to get ready to help her mum at the café, so instead of risking sleeping through her alarm in her big cozy bed, she decided to sit and doze on the sofa, leaning her head on her hand, which leant on the armrest. 

—

Making her way to the kitchen, after having a shower, wearing slim jeans, a black t-shirt, and white slip-on shoes, she saw her mother making breakfast. 

“Morning,” Chaeyoung greeted her mother, Ms. Park, in monotone. 

“Morning, Chaeyoung. Where were you last night? I checked your room at 3 AM, and you still weren’t home.”

“I was at some girl's house,” Chaeyoung shrugged, instantly confessing as if it was no big deal. 

“When’s this gonna stop, Chaeyoung?!” Her mother raised her voice, obviously concerned for the blonde. 

“Me liking girls is never gonna stop,” the blonde laughed, purposefully misunderstanding the question. 

“I don’t mean that. I mean you sleeping with strangers. It’s getting too much, Chaeyoung!” Her mother berated her. “Who was it this time?”

“Irene Bae.”

Her mother closed the fridge door and glared at Chaeyoung in shock and disgust. “Irene Bae?! Your maths teacher at high school?! She yelled in anger. “What were you thinking, Chaeyoung?! She’s married!!” Her mother glared at her with hands out, with one hand holding a carton of juice, which she was about to spill with the erratic gestures she was making out of anger. 

“I was thinking I wanted to sleep with her,” Chaeyoung shrugged, smirking to herself as she recalled last night. “And yeah, she’s married, but not happily. So I thought I’d give her something to be happy about.” Chaeyoung smirked again, leaning on the kitchen counter, before popping a grape into . 

“Chaeyoung, this has got to stop. You might wreck her marriage. I don’t care if she’s not happily married. She’s still married. You’re gonna end up wrecking homes and tearing families apart if you continue.” Her mother’s tone had fallen and was laced with sincere concern.  But all Chaeyoung replied with was another shrug and the sound of her chewing on another grape. 

“We’ll talk about this again, tonight. But right now, we need to get to the café,” her mother said, looking at her watch and rushing to the front door, putting a hand through her hair. 

Outside of the house. Chaeyoung walked towards her mother’s car but was distracted by movement from their neighbour's front garden. 

A moving truck was parked on the driveway, with two members of the moving team carrying a sofa into the house. The blonde continued watching, and then saw a short brunette woman walk out from the house towards the truck. 

“Oh, be careful with that please,” the brunette said to one of the moving men carrying a wall mirror, “just put it in the master bedroom.” She instructed and the moving man just nodded as he carried the mirror towards the house. 

The brunette clearly looked flustered, running her hand through her hair, probably stressed from moving day. She was wearing long black sweat pants, and a light blue hoodie, although it was a blisteringly hot summer’s morning. 

“Oh hey!” Chaeyoung heard her mother shout, catching the brunette’s attention next door. 

As Chaeyoung reached the car door, she kept her focus on the brunette as she turned to look at her and her mother, who was stood on the other side of the car. 

“Oh hi!” The brunette shouted back, timidly waving her hand.

“So you’re our new neighbour!” Ms. Park replied with volume.

“Yeah! I guess so!” The brunette replied timidly again, admiring the Parks' house and garden.

“Well, if you don’t have plans tonight, you should come round tonight for dinner, if you’d like? It could be our way of welcoming our new neighbours.” Ms. Park offered, being the generous woman that she is. 

“Yeah, that sounds nice, if I’m not too busy!”

“Great! Come round at 7. Have a nice day, and don’t strain yourself!” Ms. Park giggled as she opened the car door, referring to the carrying of objects, which she knew the brunette wasn't helping with. Chaeyoung, with her gaze on the brunette, entered the car too, before they both closed the doors at almost the same time. 

Putting on her seat belt, the blonde looked back at the brunette next door, who was now telling two moving men to be careful with a glass coffee table, rubbing her neck in nervousness. 

The blonde smirked to herself and turned to look ahead at the road, as her mother pulled the car off the driveway. Her mother looked over at her daughter and saw the devilish look in her eyes and the wicked grin on her lips. 

“Hey. Don’t get any ideas,” Ms. Park warned her daughter, who just giggled through her nose. 

“Me? No, never.” Chaeyoung continued smirking as she thought about what she was going to do to her new neighbor, as her mother looked at her with her seemingly permanent look of concern. 

A/N - this is a new story that I'm really excited to write. I love writing about damaged characters, which I think was the main problem with A Forbidden Flame; the characters aren't damaged enough. I'll finish A Forbidden Flame, but it's on hiatus at the moment, because I'm so excited about this new story.