Time: 7:20PM

Location: Puzzle’s Bar, Seoul

Date: 4/16/2012

Woohyun, Hyomin, and Dongwoo sat in silence. Ideas ran through their heads. Images of high-class women, strippers, and weird mixes of alcoholic beverages were a few of the many odd ideas. But, even with the odd mixture of Hoya’s favorite things, no solid plan for his happiness could be formed.

“Why is this so hard?” pouted Hyomin.

Dongwoo sighed, “It's because the only things we can associate with Hoya’s happiness are partially illegal.”

All three sighed. Time passed. Ridiculous suggestions were thrown out. Beers were ordered. Plates and plates of nachos were eaten.

Woohyun grabbed another nacho. “You know what he needs? His mother. His mother solved all his problems before. She was the queen of fixing Hoya,” sighed Woohyun. He remembered all the things Hoya told him about his mother: the kindness, the homemade food, and her will power.

“That’s it!” cried Woohyun, “His mom!”

Time: 8:20PM

Location: Puzzle’s Bar, Seoul

Date: 4/16/2012

At 8:19, Hoya received a text from Woohyun. It was a rather detailed text, which included pictures, of a rather interesting person at Puzzle’s.

Bro, come to Puzzle’s. Desperate chick at the bar. Alone.

Sent to Lee Howon from Nam Woohyun.

This version of the text was the clean basic, because the vulgar words would only appeal to someone like Hoya. It only took Hoya a minute to get to the first floor of his building. A cab waited for Hoya right outside of the building. Without a word from Hoya, the taxi zoomed off in the direction of Puzzle’s. It just goes to show how desperate Hoya really was.

Time: 8:40PM

Location: Puzzle’s Bar, Seoul

Date: 4/16/2012

The taxi pulled up to Puzzle’s. The hole-in-the-wall bar welcomed its customers with an ‘OPEN’ sign that flashed in a bright green. Hoya handed cash to the driver, not bothering to get his change, and walked into the bar, joining the group of strangers that happened to walk in at the same time.

It took him a minute to get past the bar, but after he made it through the crowd he found his friends. They sat in their usual booth on the opposite side of the bar. By the stacks of emptied plates, they had already eaten.

“Wow, you guys didn’t even bother to wait for me? You just went ahead and ate?” asked Hoya as he took the seat next to Dongwoo.

Dongwoo scooted over, to make room from Hoya. Once his friend was settle, Dongwoo placed his hand on Hoya's shoulder. “Bro, we need to talk to you,” stated Dongwoo, “It’s about your prob—“

“Hold that thought. I need nachos, since you guys ate all of them,” replied Hoya, “Pass me the menu.”

No one passed Hoya the menu. Instead, they stared at him. Serious expressions sat on their faces that made Hoya feel almost… unwelcomed. Hoya could feel the cold atmosphere around him, and for the first time in his life, he didn’t want to be at this bar. “You guys, what’s with the scary faces? All I asked was for the menu.”

Hyomin shook her head, “It’s not about that Hoya.”

“It’s about your problem,” added Woohyun, “We’re having an intervention.”

Hoya sat quietly for a second. He looked at each one of his friends and sighed. After a moment Hoya pulled out his leather wallet from his back pocket and emptied its contents. Hoya counted his cash then asked, “Okay, how much do I owe you guys?”

“What?!” Dongwoo asked.

Hoya stared at his friends with confused expressions, “You found out that I was secretly taking money from you guys, right? This is why you held this intervention.”

“No!” cried Woohyun. Woohyun, in particular, was already tired of everyone around him. After several hours of thinking about his best friend, his troubles, and the stress of work, all Woohyun wanted to do was go home. He wanted to help his friend out, but this was taking more effort than he thought it would. “We’re talking about your fling addiction!”

“Fling… addiction?” asked Hoya, “Come on you guys, I don’t have a problem. I just love the presence of women.” Hoya couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew that his friends didn’t approve of his one-night stands, but Hoya was sure that his friends knew that he had himself under control.

“We know you do,” Hyomin calmly replied, “We’ve just noticed that lately, you’ve been taking it to the extreme! We know something is up.”

Hoya’s eyes shifted to Woohyun. Woohyun was the only one he told about his meeting with Eunji. And Hoya made sure Woohyun was the only one that would know. With glare at his best friend, Hoya assured Hyomin that he was perfectly fine. 

“Come on, you met EunJi,” Dongwoo suggested, “You only get like this when things start to remind you of her!”

Hoya stole Dongwoo's drink out of his hands and swallowed its remains. He couldn't hold back his disbelief, “Aren’t you guys getting too into my personal life? I’m just going to go home. This little ‘intervention’ you planned is absolutely ridiculous.” 

Hyomin reached her hand out to her friend. "Wait, Hoya. We were only saying this cause we think it would be a prime time for you to go back to Busan! You need to find yourself," assured Hyomin, "We care about you and we think you need to go back to your roots."

"My roots are just going to make me crazier!" yelled Hoya. His voice began to rise and heat rushed to his cheeks. Quickly, sweat dropped from his forehead. He slowly became more and more passionate as the minutes passed. Soon, he forgot what he was saying and instead got ready to leave.

Hoya stood up and looked at his friends one last time. They looked at Hoya with anticipation, watching his every moment with strange, stiff eyes. Hoya rolled his eyes at his friends and picked up his coat. But, as Hoya reached down to pick up his suit jacket, the ground began to shake. His vision blurred and his head began to spin. The images of his friends were no longer in front of him, but on top of him. They hovered him and watched as he collapsed to the ground. The last sight Hoya saw was Woohyun highfiving Dongwoo. 

"Dongwoo, what did you let me drink?" Hoya muttered as he knocked out.