Lee Jinki just got fired from work that day. It wasn’t his fault, his boss says, they just needed to do an excess reduction, a layoff, which, Jinki thinks, is a euphemism for permanent termination.

He wasn’t prepared for this, to hear those words from his boss as Jinki keeps begging not to dismiss him from his job. “I’m sorry; I can’t do anything about it, Jinki!” He frowns and stands up, wiping the gruesome spat of saliva from his boss on his cheek, and out he went.

He stayed at the bar that night, binge drinking, and trying to forget all his worries by the wonders of liquor. It took him a lot of bottles to get drunk since he can hold his alcohol pretty well.

He slouches his way back to his apartment, stumbling on a crack on the road, laughing while going in circles on fire hydrants, breathing on the glass walls of a convenient store and tracing the word “boss” and a languid drawing of a on his fog of breath. The man who works at the convenient store was more than appalled.

He was a block away from his apartment when he remembered he still needed to pay the month’s rent. Great, he thinks. He shouldn’t have spent so much money on drinking. He was feeling drowsy and dizzy from all those walking in circles. He wanted to puke but he restrains himself from doing so, I mean, not until he reaches the toilet, because that’s where every damn blitzed person ends up anyway.

Jinki leans on the wall, tired of all the walking he just did. He was almost near his apartment when he noticed a weird, old-fashioned, vending machine standing near a bench.

He blinks, he doesn’t remember seeing this before, but he rummages for some coins in his pocket anyway, suddenly craving for water. He was drunk and pretty much subliminal to think he actually has a pitcher of water in his own fridge.

Jinki’s vision clouds as he looks at the number of coins he has on his hand. 5? 50? No, 500 won. He burps before bending over so he’s face-to-face with the coin passage. He squints his eyes as he notices the small words printed in a fancy font near the slot, “One drop of a coin from the person’s hand, and the magic shall yield to your command?” He frowns, “Like, what the heck does that mean?”

He inserts a coin and blinks when he couldn’t find any buttons to push for his order. He watches as the dispenser glows even brighter, and Jinki has to cover his eyes when it was bright enough to blind.

Jinki peeks through his fingers when he hears a light thump and the light didn’t blaze anymore. He kneels down and scowls when his hand draws a granola bar from the compartment.

He stands up, practically shaking the vending box; “Hey, I asked for a bottle of water!” It’s 5 shakes after hearing footsteps and a passing shadow that Jinki gulps and looks around with narrowed eyes. He sees no one but feels a presence that leaves his skin crawling.

Jinki shrugs and stops abusing the antiquated machine, believing that if he resumes shaking, some alarm will go off and a nearby police might lock him in jail and condemn him for violently and physically hacking all the snacks and beverages inside.

“,” He takes his last coin from his pocket and eyes the coin slot before dropping the coin in. “Give me wa-terrr.” He slurs and shuts his eyes because he’s not feeling quite well.

There is that glowing again but Jinki wasn’t fazed by it anymore. He sits on the bench, resting his head on the side of the machine as he waits for his bottle of water. He hears the sound of something rolling down and stopping, he reaches for the compartment and smiles when he feels a bottle of cold water.

“That’s more like i—” Jinki glowers at the bottle, sobbing lightly because he didn’t ask for a bottle of soda.

Jinki kicked the vending machine, groaning when he deems the machine at fault for hitting him hard in the toe. He hears clanking and out came a ₩10; he blinks and picks his change out before sniffing sadly at the granola bar and the soda in his hands like a kicked puppy.

Jinki walked back to his apartment and slept near the toilet that night.

When he woke up… Well it’s a good thing he woke up near his chamber pot because he feels so sick and intoxicated and he pukes and it feels like he’s spewing all the liquid from his kidney. When he was done being intimate with the toilet, he pants and flushes all those gross internal liquid away.

“I am never drinking ever again.” He says before standing up, deciding he wanted to fry some eggs for breakfast. Wait, what time is it anyway? It’s almost noon, actually. As he made his way to the kitchen, he accidentally steps on something, hearing it crackle underneath his foot.

Jinki looks down and sees the granola bar lying on the floor, “Strange, I thought that whole thing last night was just a part of my dreams.” He his head before picking up the bar and opening it. He smells and observes the piece of granola bar before giving it a bite.

He munches as he resumes walking to the kitchen and suddenly, he doesn’t feel so sick anymore. “I actually feel… ecstatic.” He says, feeling weird about the chime in his voice and the surge of energy radiating through his body.

Jinki sits near the counter and scans for the nutrient facts around the wrap. Nothing. Nothing else is written in there. But he takes another bite and he blinks in wonder as he feels the same outburst of energy once again.

“This could be poison,” He furrows his eyebrows, “A good poison, I think. But a poison is a poison.” And he throws the remnants in the bin.

“Jinki?” He hears Kibum, his best friend through the phone. “I heard you got fired yesterday, why didn’t you tell me right away? Are you alright? I know you’re undergoing a distressful phase in your life but please, don’t do something stupid.”

“I’m not like you, Kibum. I don’t have suicidal tendencies.”

“ you, I don’t have any suicidal tendencies.” Kibum’s tone is threatening, “Anyway, you’re not drunk are you? You cross-dressed into a fashionably disastrous girl the last time and I don’t know if I should feel glad that someone’s trying to hit you despite how deflated your bra looks, or sad because he’s looking at you like he’s going to make your sore.”

“Kibum!” Jinki splutters, feeling all the red in his cheeks at the memory of it, “Ugh, okay, I was drunk but I’m pretty sure I did not do something as stupid as that.”

“That’s good because I wasn’t there last night to save your . What are you planning to do now?” He asks and Jinki pauses to look up the ceiling.

“I’m going to find a job.” Jinki chirps.

“You sound pretty upbeat.” Kibum says, “Weirdly upbeat. It must be the aftereffect of drinking.” Jinki tosses a side-glance at the trash can and wonders if the granola bar really did intoxicated him and made him weird.

“I’m not uhh—I’m actually feeling okay. Listen, I need to go fry my eggs… Eggs. For breakfast. Okay. I’ll talk to you later then, bye!” Jinki hangs up just when he hears Kibum shouting “Promise me you won’t do—“

“Something stupid. Right.” Jinki smiles.

Jinki finds a job that day and he’s not so sure how he did it but he’s just glad he did. It was all a coincidence, actually. He was on the verge of giving up because he spent the whole afternoon looking for a job.

It happened by the time he was tired, so tired he’s apparently feeling dizzy again. He sat on a bench and went to his backpack to get that bottle of water he fished out from his fridge. Surprisingly, it was that soda he got from the weird vending machine last night that was in his backpack all along. Even when he’s pretty sure he grabbed the bottle of water.

But Jinki was too tired and too thirsty to care.

He can’t uncap the bottle for some reason though, he gave up after a few tries, sighing and letting his shoulders slacken down. Someone sat at the other end of the bench and Jinki looks up to see a man looking as tired as him.

They met eyes and Jinki smiled politely, a bit embarrassed for getting caught staring.

“Hard day, isn’t?” The young man spoke, panting like he just ran around the park for 5 laps.

“Yea,” Jinki smiled sadly, his fingers playing with the drops of moisture around the cold bottle. “Need a drink?” He offered.

“You sure?” Jinki nods dumbly.

“Well, don’t mind if I do!” The man reaches for the bottle and uncaps it easily. He wonders how a boy with a thin figure could easily uncap that damn soda; Jinki thinks his jaw just dropped to the second layer of the Earth.

“Looking for a job, I see.” Jinki followed the man’s gaze down to his clear folder, showing his resume.

“Yes, I am.”  Jinki says, watching the other gulp down.

“I can help you. I have a friend who works at the HR department, I think they’re recruiting.” Jinki’s eyes just sparkled.

“Really? Where?”

“I can take you to him. He can get you hired once I use my charm on him.” He can see the man almost wiggling his eyebrows.

“Your… charm?”

“It’s a talent,” The boy shrugs. “I’m Taemin, by the way.”

“Jinki,” He says, shaking the other’s hand.

And that’s how Jinki finds a job with the help of this miracle boy named Lee Taemin. He met his friend, Choi Minho, who screens all of the resumes and directs it to their boss. Apparently, their manager liked him and gets hired immediately after the interview.

“You can start tomorrow,” His new manager says.

Jinki has never been happier.

“Thanks, I owe you, by the way.” Jinki beams at Taemin as they walked out of the building.

“Hey, you don’t have to. Think of it as a token of gratitude for that drink you gave me.”

Yeah about that, “Did you…” Jinki fumbled with his fingers, “Did you feel anything after drinking that?” Taemin wondered why but he answered his question anyway.

“Refreshed!” He beams. And the way he said it doesn’t seem like something out of the norm happened, nothing like a surge of energy, or feeling hyper, or something weird occurred.

When Jinki went home that night, he wondered about the vending machine as he tossed and played with the ₩10 he got as a change. He thought of thanking the machine, for some odd and inexplicable reason. Jinki’s starting to think that Kibum might be right about him being weird, I mean, who’s sane enough to talk, and owe all the luck you just got, to a vending machine?

Jinki chuckles but gawks at the next second because the thing wasn’t there anymore. “Strange, I know I was drunk but I know it was here last night.” He pouts.

“Looking for something?” Jinki gasps, obviously startled.

“I swear I didn’t abuse the machine last night!” Jinki instantly drops the coin and shots his two hands up, as if surrendering for a crime he just did.

He turned around to follow where the voice came from and blinks when he sees the vending machine. It was behind him all along, glowing brighter than the last time he remembers.

There was a man, leaning beside the machine with his arms crossed. He was wearing something old-fashioned, but elegant, and Jinki wonders what would Kibum say if he sees this whole ensemble.

Jinki can see the gold chains of a pocket watch shining by his vest, but he can’t see his face because the top hat he’s wearing was casting a shadow down half of his face. He can see his lopsided smile, nonetheless. He looks pretty cocky in it, too, Jinki thinks.

“So you’re Jinki,” The stranger says, dropping his arms to his sides. Jinki blinks and let’s his arms fall down slowly, wondering how he knows (thinking if he accidentally dropped one of his resumes somewhere), but he was more attentive to the goose bumps he’s getting by the utter of his name.

“H-how…” He choked out, watching the other man’s smile grow wider.

He steps out of the shadows, picking the coin that rolled off a while ago and tossing it with his fingers. Jinki was now a foot closer to the man who was grinning widely at him. Jinki claims he looks dangerous, he wanted to run away, but it’s one of those situations where you can’t will yourself to move. It’s nerve-racking, and Jinki feels his body perspiring.

As the man lifted his head up, the vending machine grew brighter, letting Jinki see his face clearer.

“I’m Jonghyun, by the way.”

A/N: (c) vanillatinks for the image. comments would be lovely. unbeta'd.