He’d been working behind the same bar counter for two years now, the job helped him pay for college and it also kept his mind out of the text books for a while. He studied hard all day long, after all, and a little distraction was always welcomed.

The people was more or less always the same, the usual hopeless drunk guys, the playboys, the group of girlfriends glued together that looked over their shoulders at the men in the other side of the room, the couples killing the time until they could go somewhere with a bed, and his personal favourites, the single ladies that asked for dry martinis and stuck in conversation with him.

The problem started in late January when one of the waiters quit his job and the owner of the place put some ads on the windows offering the job. Sunwoo didn’t give it a second thought, he didn’t give so much of a damn who the waiters were. Or so he thought.

He only met the new guy when he went to the bar counter to ask for some drinks. The place was half empty –not many people went drinking on Tuesday nights- so the boy stayed there while Sunwoo prepared them.

“I’m Sandeul” he said smiling “The new waiter”

“I know” Sunwoo said, focused mixing the liquids “I’m Baro” he said after a moment.

“Nice to meet you”

Baro put the drinks on his trail “Hand them with care”

“Copied”

Sunwoo didn’t think about him a lot more that day –why would he?-, they exchanged a few words when the people sitting at the tables ordered drinks and when the night was over they forgot about each other. This went on for a few nights; Baro would put his hands at work and Sandeul would come over to his bar counter to ask him for drinks, he sometimes would try and stuck in conversation with him, but they never had much time, and anyway, Baro wasn’t the talking type. Everything was good until Sunwoo started noticing things.

The first thing he noticed was his smile. It seemed to come so easily on him. Every evening at 6:30 he entered the bar with his earphones on, humming some pop song and with that damn wide smile on his face. The face was also something he noticed. It was ridiculously rounded, like a four years old face, and Sunwoo found himself wanting to touch it, just to make sure if it was as soft as it seemed. He had to stop looking when the boy approached his working area with a goofy smile and an enviable disposition.

“The ladies from the table near the window want three margaritas and a whiskey”

Baro didn’t look up, he just started mixing up the tequila and the lemon juice into the shaker like there was no tomorrow, he didn’t even had to think about what he was doing, he’d made enough margaritas to know the recipe by heart; it was always margaritas with ladies. Sandeul seemed to read his mind.

“What’s up with margaritas, anyway? I’ve noticed a pattern, every girl between twenty and twenty five asks for one of those”

“I guess I’m good at making them” Baro said, pouring the drinks into the glasses.

“Are you?”

“How am I supposed to know? It’s not my job to drink them”

It wasn’t supposed to come out as mean, but Sunwoo was not used at people being so chatty around him. Why wouldn’t that boy just focus on his work? He was a permanent distraction, something that Sunwoo surely didn’t appreciate.

Sandeul took the drinks and walked away without adding anything else and Baro felt a tug of guilt inside of him, but waved it off with not so much of a thought, cleaning glasses was certainly a better use of his time than feeling bad for some lame waiter, but his glare kept drifting apart from his hand to the window, where the group of girls were chatting happily with Sandeul who was laughing loudly and shamelessly, with the empty trail pressed to his pudding tummy. He seems to enjoy himself a lot, the bartender thought and an unnoticed smile appeared on his lips.

It was kind of annoying.

The way he burst out with laughter with every costumer like they were lifelong friends, the way he always said ‘thank you’ when Sunwoo handed him the drinks –it was his job, did he always have to thank him?- and that awfully disturbing gummy smile that at first seemed unpleasant but that Sunwoo had learned to love. It was king of annoying because it wasn’t the other’s boy fault, it was his. He was paying too much attention. He was too aware of the sound of that obnoxious, childish, stupid laugher. He noticed how he was nice to absolutely everyone, including him. Sandeul was staring to grow on him and it was starting to worry him.

The alarm went on one Friday afternoon when the bar was opening its doors to the employees, Baro saw him a few meters before they both reached the front door, walking towards him, he was focused on his jam and when he saw him he waved at him excitedly, like the happy go lucky person he was, that made Baro smile involuntarily.

“Baro-yah!” he set his hand for a high five, just like a ten years old would do “how are you doing?”

Baro sighed and highed fived him “Okay, how are you doing?”

Sandeul looked surprised “Oh, you’re asking me, Baro-yah? What happened to you?” he asked giggling

“Don’t push your luck”

The boy laughed openly at that “Okay, okay, I’m doing great, if you want to know”

Sandeul kept talking but Sunwoo wasn’t really listening anymore. There was something bothering him. He focused on his hair… it was okay, maybe a too bright orange color for his personal taste but there was surely nothing wrong with it. His eyes: too small. His cheeks: definitely too chubby. But it wasn’t any of this. He focused on his mouth… plump lips, white teeth… that was it.

“You have a stain on your lips” Sunwoo interrupted him

“What?”

“You have chocolate on your lips”

“Oh”

Baro didn’t even try to refrain his impulse, he just let his finger reach for the dirty spot on the other’s face and wiped it off. Sandeul froze for a second, but immediately smiled.

“You’re such a kid” Baro said as if he was pissed off, and walked away before someone could tell he was blushing.

WHY. WOULD. YOU. DO. THAT. CHA. SUNWOO. His face was burning so he went to the restrooms to refresh it with a splash of cold water, he didn’t think he’d look specially red –he never really blushed-, but his face was hot and he probably looked messed up. What was he thinking about? Was he becoming a ? He wasn’t going to deny it, he did like Sandeul a little bit, but he was a manly man, there was no way he was like that. Wasn’t it? He let out a groan and washed his face one more time before leaving the restroom, with a little luck, the place will be crowded with people that night and he wouldn’t have to see much of that kid.

He found Sandeul sitting on a stool next to the bar, he had three chocolate bar envelopes next to him and was eating a fourth, he gave Baro a shy smile when he went behind the bar.

“You ate all three?” Baro felt like he had to say something, he was the one who made things uncomfortable in the first place.

“Yeah” Sandeul looked at him “you want some? This is my last one but we can share”

Baro remembered the chocolate stain on his lips “No, finish it, I get the feel that you enjoy them a lot” he said raising an eyebrow.

He meant to make fun of him but Sandeul didn’t seem to notice because he just said ‘thank you’ and kept eating. Baro watched him for a while but turned around before it was obvious he was staring. 7 o’clock came and as Baro had hoped, the place was bursting with people just half an hour after the place opened to the public, but his problems didn’t go away.

His mind didn’t stop picturing the kid –that’s it, he was a kid- munching the candy earlier, high fiving him, smiling at him, clueless of the stain in his cheek. He couldn’t stop looking up from the liquors from then to then just to check on him; he wanted to know what he was doing and if he was laughing. Baro shook his head. This wasn’t happening. He wasn’t going to let it happen.

(He wanted it to happen)

Sunwoo was pouring a glass of scotch when he heard all the glasses hit the floor at once. He –as well as everyone else in the place- turned around to look at the source of the disaster.

Sandeul was standing next to a table with a tray tilted to the ground, his expression was pure fear, and sitting right under his arm was a big man wet in sticky beer. He stood up with a jump and took the little waiter by the shirt.

“WHAT THE IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

“I’m sorry!” Sandeul hurried “It was an accident, I’m sorry!”

“YOU DUMB EMBARASSED ME IN FRONT OF MY GIRLFRIEND”

The man lifted Sandeul from the floor, and Sunwoo thought he must’ve been very strong because the boy didn’t appeared to be particularly light. The other guys at the table stood up too, ready to do anything the other man told them to.

Sunwoo clenched his fists in frustration. Luckily the owner of the bar came out of his office in the back, probably attracted by the fuss.

“Hey, hey, what’s going on here?”

“This useless waiter of yours covered me in beer! That’s going on!” shouted the man

“I understand, please sir, put him down. We’ll fix this a gentlemen”

The man let go of Sandeul, whose eyes were wide open, he was probably going to lose his job. The boss told him something and he disappeared into the back store, people stopped paying attention.

Baro didn’t see Sandeul anymore that day.

Or the next.

Baro stayed awake that night. He didn’t think he would notice his absence as much as he did; he had worked in that place for years before he came there and he had survived just fine, but now it just wasn’t the same.

They probably fired him. He wasn’t going to see him anymore. Not that it mattered. It was probably better that way, he would go back to his normal self, he would start thinking straight again, he wouldn’t bother himself talking to people.

Three days later, Baro was changing his clothes in the bar’s restroom before starting his shift when someone opened the door. He couldn’t believe who he was looking at.

“Sandeul”

“Baro-yah!” Sandeul smiled “I’m sorry I didn’t know you were changing”

“It’s okay but hey, what happened to you? I thought they had fired you” he said and then he noticed a horrible bruise around one of the kid’s eye “Hey, what’s that? What happened to your eye?”

“Oh, it’s nothing” Sandeul waved him off “I just knocked myself with a cupboard and couldn’t come because my eye was swallow”

“You knocked yourself with a cupboard?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty silly but…”

“Of course it would happen to you, after covering that guy in cold beer I would expect anything” Baro teased

But Sandeul didn’t laughed, he just smiled weakly “sure”

Sandeul didn’t talk to him in the whole night, at least not more than what was extremely necessary. He didn’t make jokes with customers either, and he was about to drop the trail a few more times without noticing. He seemed done and the blue eye didn’t help to improve the picture.

That’s why Baro went after him when Sandeul went out to take out the trash when they were about to close.

“Yah, Sandeul” he called him “come here”

“Baro-yah, why aren’t you going home? It’s two in the morning”

He chose to ignore him “You didn’t knock yourself with a cupboard”

“I did”

Sandeul tried to sneak out back to the bar but Sunwoo grabbed his hand.

“Tell me how it happened then?”

“It just happened okay? I’m dumb, remember?” he didn’t say it especially mean, but it surprised Baro anyway, Sandeul noticed “I’m sorry”

“I’m sorry I said that”

“They beat me” the boy muttered

“What?”

“The man and his friends came after me when I left the bar and they beat me. That’s with my blue eye”

Baro felt the anger rising from his chest to his throat, he felt it burning inside of him. Sandeul was staring at his feet, and he looked so innocent and pure, why would anyone want to beat him? The only aggression he provoked was to pinch his fat all over.

He embraced him in a hug. Tight.

Sandeul buried his face in his chest.

Baro shut all the thoughts asking for normality in his head and took a risk. “I’m free tomorrow, are you free tomorrow?”

“I’m free tomorrow”

“Perfect”

***

Baro haven’t had a date since high school, and the last time he checked, it was a girl he asked out. He figured out this wouldn’t be so much different, he would take Sandeul some place nice and then they would chat and he would try to take his hand and… god, he had such bad ideas. He was a cheesy bastard and he knew it. He had no experience and he knew it. Sandeul made him nervous and, god, did he knew it.

“Are you always eating?” Baro asked Sandeul when he found him sitting on a bench in the park munching a bag of chips. He was glad he had something to say, because after the hug last night, he wasn’t sure about how he had to act around the kid.

“Not when I’m working” the boy stood up and hugged him, causing Baro to straighten up a little bit “how are you doing?”

Sunwoo relaxed a bit, he didn’t imagine Sandeul to be this clingy, but he could get used to it “Fine. How do you feel about ice skating?”

It was the best idea Sunwoo could come up with; Sandeul was a total disaster with the skates and after letting him fall on his –that, he didn’t fail to notice, was really rounded- a couple times Baro decided to help him a little bit. It was awkard at first, probably just for him, because Sandeul kept smiling and talking and talking and laughing –he was very chatty now that he didn’t have to work-, but he started to feel easy after a while.

“I just don’t understand how you do it” Sandeul whined, leaning on the handrail “I just so slippery”

“It’s pretty easy, really, I don’t understand how you can’t do it”

“Shut up”

Baro found himself smiling “C’mere, let’s skate around, I’ll help you”

Sandeul skated the few feet that separated him from Sunwoo and hung on his shoulders before falling off again, Baro put a hand on his waist, rounding it so he wouldn’t lose his balance and started skating.

He had to hold Sandeul closer a few times for prevent him from falling, but he didn’t mind one bit. They rounded the icerink a couple of times before it started to get really cold outside.

“Do you wanna eat something?” Baro asked him when they were taking their skates off “I could hear your stomach growl back there”

Sandeul blushed immediately

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody that you’re an eating monster”

“I’m not an eating monster” Sandeul defended himself

“And your sides are especially soft, even under a lot of fabric”

“Yah! Cha Baro!”

“Are you hungry or not?” Baro offered one last time.

It didn’t matter what Sandeul had to say, he was an eating monster. Sunwoo swore he never saw anyone asking for so many things on the menu and actually eating them all like it was no business. He was glad he brought enough money.

“Say ‘ah’” Baro said, taking a pastry from one of the plates and stuffing Sandeul with it. Immediately Sandeul asked for more.

“You’re greedy”

“I know what I want”

Baro kept feeding him until there was nothing else to put on his mouth, he found it amusing, how happy he looked whenever he swallowed something, how his cheeks widened even more from all the food he put in there.

Sandeul looked at him with sleepy eyes “you have cookie crumbles on your lips”

“Oh, give me a napkin would you?”

“No”

Sunwoo surely had mistaken Sandeul for someone shyer, but maybe it was the sugar rush, the boost of energy from all the cokes he drank, maybe it was just an impulse like the one he got when he wiped the chocolate out of his lips, whatever it was, Baro was glad it happened.

“No” Sandeul said, and leaned in to kiss him. He just peeked a small kiss and then started to put some distance between them, like maybe he regretted it, but Sunwoo took him by the head and deepened the kiss, introduced his tongue inside him and started playing. Sandeul tasted like a sugar overdose and Baro loved every part of it. He moved his hands to the other’s cheeks and started massaging them, making him giggle, he started laughing, too.

“You’re cute, Cha Baro”

“I guess you’re not that bad either”

Sandeul punched him on the shoulder

Baro ruffled his hair “okay, you’re kinda cute, too” he took a sip of his drink “it’s a pity that I don’t know what you taste like”

Sandeul looked at him confused “but… we just kissed”

“Yes but you tasted like a five years old birthday party” Sandeul looked devastated, Baro got closer to him to whisper in his ear “I guess we should try again later, do you want to come to my house?”