“Oh c’mon, (y/n)! You should come with me!” Your friend whines yet again. She had been spending the past ten minutes trying to convince you to get out of the house for a little while. You, on the other hand, didn’t feel compelled to go. You recently lost an important friend that once meant a whole lot to you due to, what you called, selfish behavior. Honestly, you cursed yourself for having such intense feelings for him, but that was all in the past now. You had to deal with the reality of being without your dear friend now; maybe that’s why it still hurt so badly. All the little things that didn’t matter to you suddenly did matter.

You missed the times when you would be so upset at whatever mishap you had that simply talking to him would cure the negative feeling. He had always been there for you to hear you out in all of your problems, telling you that it was absolutely fine; it didn’t bother him because this was what you really needed. You even spent the entire night talking to him until the wee hours of the morning, liking the feeling that you were really being heard. He made you feel like if you were worth something; someone special. He had once been the shining light in your bleak and dark life, but now that he was gone for good and never coming back to your life again after a misunderstanding…

You couldn’t even finish that thought.

“If I go, will it make you shut up?” You finally answered after a pregnant pause. You hoped your friend would simply agree so you wouldn’t hear her whining. If anything, all you wanted to do was lie down and sleep all day. Yeah. That seemed much better than trying to start anything new. That was the closest thing you could get to dying, pretend that you were dead. Life just wasn’t worth the trouble if your close friendship that lasted a good five years failed.

“Yes! Just this once please! I promise to leave you alone for the rest of the week.”

“Deal.” You got up from your bed, walking over to the bathroom. “Just give me a good thirty minutes. I’ll be ready by then.” When you closed the door, your friend was secretly squealing on the inside.

She was definitely ready to help you get over your first love friend.

The neon lights of downtown Osaka would normally cheer you up. You had always been such a night owl, enjoying the strolls down the various shopping areas. Once in a while, you would go inside restaurants and spend the night away looking out the window as life went on; watching the cars and people go by always entertained you for some odd reason. However, during your strolls, you did notice the occasional host club. You never enjoyed the idea of them, feeling that despite how attractive the men were, they were secretly preying on the lonely, single women. Which was why you scrunched your face up in disgust when you realized where your friend was taking you.

“Why are we here…?”

“Well…” Your friend trailed off, not looking at you. She obviously knew of your dislike for the host clubs. “I simply thought maybe it was time you met someone new.”

Club Cassieopeia; the most well-known host club in the district of Osaka. Not only was it good for its reputed attractive men, but for also the good service there. In fact, Japan’s top five host club members were all from this host club in particular. They were always together as a team, though; but due to their naturally attractive looks and singing talent that they so often used to entertain their clientele, they were collectively known as Tohoshinki. That name was very suiting for them… for if they didn’t have jobs as hosts, they would probably have done well as a JPop group. You only remembered this info back from the days you’d spend strolling into town; a lot of people didn’t really seem to keep their gossip to themselves.

“No. Absolutely not.” You stayed glued to your feet. Your friend raised an eyebrow at you, her hand on the handle of the door. She gave you one of her intense frowns. Oh yeah. You had done it now. This was her determination look when she wanted you to try something new. You were quite stubborn with trying out new things. You never were the type to actively explore or be adventurous; which now you wondered if that was why you felt so bored with your life.

“You’re going in. C’mon.” Your friend linked her arm to yours, gently dragging you in with her. Your pleas and protests were all in vain for you two went into the main lobby of the club. Plus, you didn’t already want to cause a disturbance.

“Hello, welcome to Club Cassiopeia! Is this your first time?” A surprisingly attractive blonde male greeted the both of you. If it wasn’t for the fact he was well dressed, you swear you could’ve mistaken him for an anime character due to his hair.

“It’s not my first time but this is my friend’s first time.” You glanced up at your friend in shock. When the heck did she start frequenting to host clubs? From the years that you’ve known her, you swore she seemed so happy in her relationships from what you remembered. Why would she need to start going to a host club? Your friend noticed your shocked expression, giving you a certain look that spoke volumes.

I’ll explain later.

“Ah! I remember you. You’re Yunho-ssi’s client. You want the usual seat, right?”

“Of course.”

The blonde male nodded. He then motioned for you two to follow him. As you went through the club, you couldn’t help but notice that the noise was pretty loud. In fact, it was a bit startling to notice all of the customers were pretty women; maybe even the type that tend to party a lot. You could tell who was a customer and who was a host. It seemed all the host club members wore a uniform of sorts; and not just any type of uniform either. Whoever designed it seemed to keep in mind how to accentuate their lean bodies.

The loud clinking of glass bottles together were intermixed with loud laughter coming from customers who were laughing at one of their host’s jokes. It was a bit too loud for you to even hear yourself think as the music was blaring from the various speakers through out the club. As you maneuvered your way more into the back, where it seemed it was a more private and quiet area from the rest of the host club, you and your friend finally plopped down into a booth. As you two were getting settled, the blonde male handed you a binder.

“What’s this…?” You opened it with curiosity.

“Our selection of hosts.”

You gaped at him.

“Um… I’m not going to eat them, though?”

The blonde doubled over in laughter at how naïve you were. He shook his head with a smile on his face. You blushed at how stupid you must’ve sounded like. Now you really wanted to get out of here.

“No. It’s for you to select the host that you want. So for example, if you want your host to have some humor then I can recommend you which host to go to or maybe your friend here can help since she’s been here for a good two years.” He then made a motion with his hand, indicating for you to take caution. “But be warned, though. Once you select a host, you can’t go back. You’re stuck with him, pretty much. Got it?”

“Y-yeah. Got it.” You stuttered, opening up the black binder and began scrolling through the pages. It was almost like you had forgotten that you were even upset earlier.

“I’ll go tell Yunho-ssi that you’re here, okay?” Your friend nodded as the blonde male went to go get whoever this host was. You two were left in almost complete silence if you could ignore the loud laughing, glass bottles clinking, and occasional drunk singing.

“So when did you start coming here?” You eyed your friend suspiciously as she was looking through a menu that showcased different glass sizes and various alcoholic drink brands. She flipped a page before replying nonchalantly, “I started coming here about a week after I found out my boyfriend had been cheating on me. I just didn’t really tell you anything about it since I know you don’t like drama. I felt it wasn’t your place to hear the story.”

“Ah. I see.” That explained why she hadn’t had a boyfriend for a while then. You nonchalantly continued flipping through the pages, finding the hosts to be a bit boring or average for your tastes. Once you flipped to the third page, your eyes couldn’t help but be fixated on a certain photo. It was of an attractive dirty blonde male who had his fringe to the right side. His eyes were what caught your attention; the gaze was so intense that you swore it felt like he could see through your soul. You had no idea if you were supposed to be scared about that. His unique tattoo, eyeliner and over all look caught your attention. [1] You didn’t know why, but you were so compelled to pick this man.

You were about to turn to your friend when you noticed a black haired male coming over to your friend. His pearly whites were definitely showing. Even though you had no idea who he was, you couldn’t help but feel a certain presence about him; very masculine, serious and professional. Those were the words that came to mind when describing his mannerisms. You could understand why your friend chose this guy as her host.

“Yunho! It’s good to see you again.” Your friend greeted. So this was the Yunho that guy mentioned, you noted. The dark haired male host immediately noticed you right away.

“Ah. So this must be your friend, right? I haven’t seen her here before.” He extended his hand out for you to shake.

“Yeah. It’s her first time here. Think you can help her pick out a host?”

“Of course. I’ll see what I can do.” He, however, noticed you had stopped at a certain page. Yunho, having years of experience, made him very aware of what women wanted. He pointed over to the exact picture you were just looking at. “So I’m going to assume the lady wants this host?”

“Um… yeah. I’m pretty sure. He looks really different from everyone else on here.”

Yunho nodded. “That’s exactly why he’s number two in the host ranking. He looks like a JRocker doesn’t he?”

You shyly agreed, not used to the change in environment or admitting your certain ideal type. Yunho chuckled at your innocent reaction before continuing, “That’s Kim Jaejoong. I’ll see if he has any clientele right now since he’s always had a huge waiting list. May I get you something to drink in the meantime?

“Um… maybe a juice? [2]”

Yunho raised an eyebrow at you, a little bit confused at your reaction. His facial expression lightened up, though, for he was shaking his head and smiling; the same smile that male blonde receptionist gave you. He turned to your friend before his eyes scanned over to you. “I won’t say anything since it’s her first time here.”

He motioned for your friend to pass over the menu she was looking through and placed it in front of you. Well, at least he was being nice about it. He pointed over to the various glass sizes, explaining the ropes in drinking; that every time you visited a host, it was required for you to get a glass size and alcoholic drink. You nodded, listening to each and every word he said.

“Now, what will you have?” You merely answered what you wanted, giving him the glass size. You honestly needed to get drunk to forget everything that happened to you for the past couple of months. After Yunho took your order and your friend’s, he promised he would introduce Jaejoong to you. He sauntered off towards the main area of the club, leaving you in an awkward silence.

“See! Yunho’s pretty nice.” Your friend grinned. “I don’t know about Jaejoong, though. I hear he’s a pretty intimidating guy in the looks department but there must be a reason why he’s number two in the ranking. Appearances can be deceiving, you know.”

“Well… I hope I picked the right one.” You mumbled to yourself. Yunho came back with your drinks and with the same blonde male that you had seen from the photo. He wore a matching black suit and tie. His tattoo was barely prominent due to the black jacket covering it up. However, his intense aura that seemed to surround him in the photo didn’t seem to go away in person either. It made you gulp; you swore you felt some tension in the air but you didn’t know why.

“Here you go.” Yunho took his seat by your friend, handing you the drinks while Jaejoong sat in front of you. “It seems Jaejoong’s having a bit of a slow day; so you’re in luck. Isn’t that right, Jaejoong?”

“Pretty much. It’s nice to not have so many customers at once.” He brushed a hand through his hair. You noticed your friend and Yunho had an easy time making a conversation but you didn’t understand why you couldn’t talk to Jaejoong so easily. You awkwardly took a sip of your drink. Maybe it was you feeling nervous being at this place. You weren’t entirely sure.

“So I… normally don’t come to these kind of places.” You awkwardly started. This didn’t seem to faze Jaejoong, though.

“I could tell as soon as I saw you. Yunho was right. You are innocent.” He winked at you, causing you to turn red. You mentally scolded yourself at that reaction. “Yunho-ssi told me about you. Mentioned the new clientele being pretty innocent and shy. It’s a breath of fresh air from the typical customers I get.” Jaejoong leaned over to you, “Besides, I’ve always liked my women to be innocent.” Jaejoong gave you a teasing smile, causing you to almost choke on your drink.

Who does he think he is?! Gah. He’s probably just saying that to make his job easier. You inwardly fumed. Still caught off guard from his remark, you coughed heavily into a napkin. However, your awkward mannerisms caused the blonde host to laugh. However, you couldn’t see his adorable smile for long for he was covering his mouth with his hand.

“Ah. You’re going to be an interesting one.” He couldn’t help but keep laughing, handing you more napkins just in case. You shook your head. However, you noticed in the distance there was some other room that wasn’t being used but you swore you saw a stage of sorts.

“Um… what is that over there?” You motioned with your head, not wanting to point. Jaejoong turned back before turning to you again.

“You mean that stage? That’s where Yunho, Junsu, Changmin, Yoochun and I perform for our clientele together.” He nonchalantly replied as if it wasn’t such a big deal. This piqued your interest. Now you really wanted to know how well these guys could sing. “And actually…” He trailed off, noticing the time on the clock nearest to the table.

“We should get going to the stage soon.” Yunho got up from his seat, allowing Jaejoong to also climb out of the booth. “You two are allowed to come with your drinks.” He motioned for you two to follow him. Sure enough, you noticed every single customer was heading for that area which you now nicknamed the party room. It looked like if it was meant to be used as a club area; there was a dancing floor in the center.

Your friend squealed in excitement. “I always come here a lot just to hear them sing. Trust me, you’ll like it.” 

“Right…” You awkwardly replied. A part of you was quite curious, but you weren’t sure why you felt afraid. Oh well. You were stuck here, anyways.

You both ended up taking a seat somewhere a good distance from the stage but near enough to get a good look. The lights immediately dimmed, causing the girls in attendance to applaud when the curtain was raised from the stage. The five hosts were currently standing on the stage, each holding a microphone.

The song started with Yoochun speaking his lines while the other four began their harmony. However, what caught your attention was when Jaejoong began singing his lines. It was from that moment that you felt that tension from earlier ease up. You didn’t see him anymore as a guy that was probably arrogant and a show off. As the song continued, it was like you could actually see each one’s personality shine; getting an idea of how they were like on stage. Now you understood why this club was frequented so much.

“What’s this song called…?” You whispered to your friend.

“My Little Princess. It’s very fitting.” She was still swaying along to the slow beat of the song.[3]

The song came to a close as Changmin sang the last notes as the boys harmonized together in the background. They had such an amazing chemistry when singing together; you couldn’t deny that. A loud applause greeted the boys as they bowed in thanks. Then it turned out, later on, there was an actual use for the dance floor for they performed more songs that they had made choreographies to. That surprised you so much because you didn’t know they could sing and dance so well either.

Eventually, their little performance hour was up and everyone had gone back to their previous seats. You and your friend bought a few more round of drinks before Jaejoong and Yunho came back to the table. Obviously, you commended their performances, feeling that they should definitely just start an actual group together.

“The customers always say that to us,” Yunho chuckled at that comment. “But I think we’re alright with just giving our own performances to our customers. If it makes them smile, then we’ve clearly done our job right. That’s what matters to use the most.”

Eventually, you made small talk with Yunho and Jaejoong, easing up on their personalities. In fact, you had gotten along enough with Jaejoong that you were actually making him laugh at your little quirks. Even the little stories you talked about actually made him smile; but you weren’t always sure if it was a fake smile. Damn him.

You grew to like him so much; everything was just… adorable about him. From the way how he smiled whenever he found something you said amusing, to the little glint in his eyes that would come out when he’d tease you, to how relaxing his presence was when you were explaining your problems to him.

Wait…

That was odd.

Were you falling for this guy already…?

You were over thinking so much, though, that you had ended up losing your grip on your drink. You gave a small yelp as the glass tipped over to the other side of the booth, away from you, Jaejoong, Yunho and your friend.

“Oh no.” Your friend covered over with her hand. Her remark caused your face to turn red the entire time. How stupid of you to spill a glass. As Yunho quickly excused himself to get some napkins to clean up the mess, your eyes were beginning to water. Despite muttering more than enough apologizes, you felt that you had accidentally caused some trouble for the hosts.

“Don’t cry. It’s not like if it’s the first time I’ve had to clean up something.” You glanced over and noticed Jaejoong was handing you a napkin. Giving him a nod of thanks, you wiped your eyes. It seemed that your little commotion didn’t really cause him to be upset. It was like if he really… didn’t mind. Once the mess was cleaned up, he sat back in his seat, acting like if the spill didn’t happen.

You were secretly grateful about it.

Eventually, time passed by so fast that you hardly realized you had to go home.

“Ah! What do you know. As much as I’ve enjoyed the conversation that I had with you ladies, I am afraid it’s closing time already.” Yunho announced. Your friend nodded, getting up from her seat. Honestly, you tried your best not to frown in front of the two hosts.

As you and your friend got your things to leave, you couldn’t help but be bothered by something. As much as you didn’t hate host clubs now, you couldn’t help but hope that what you talked about and went through wasn’t just an act from Jaejoong.

At least the logical side of your brain was still functioning properly.

As Yunho and your friend said their goodbyes, you turned to Jaejoong, “Would you… mind if I saw you again?”

He seemed to be quite pleased with that reaction, giving you a smirk that clearly said he found it very amusing. His expression caused you to be a bit startled. “I don’t mind at all. You were a very good customer today; very well behaved and didn’t give me trouble at all.”

“Ah. R-right…” You stammered as your face turned red once again for probably the hundredth time. Jaejoong gently ruffled your hair, having found your mannerisms cute. You huffed, mumbling something about not wanting your hair to get messed up.

He simply laughed, using the same gesture from earlier; you had picked up that it was a quirky habit of his. Maybe you’d ask him why he did that. You were about to open the door to let yourself out when you felt a hand on your shoulder. You turned to look at Jaejoong; his eyes softened.

“I really look forward to your visits.” He admitted. The closeness between the two of you was a bit overwhelming. There were all sorts of feelings going to through the both of you; the electricity was simply there, but it wasn’t a bad feeling either. Your breath hitched out of nervousness. You almost couldn’t breath because of how consuming the feeling was.

“I…” You struggled to say anything. You did admit that you both clicked so well that it was almost insane. You flushed at the thought that one of the hosts really did want you back to visit, but then again you did spend a huge amount of money in one day…

No! That’s bad! Stop doubting yourself. He wouldn’t like you because of the money, right…? 

He’s just going to use you! Don’t you remember why you don’t like host clubs?That ugly voice in your head scolded you for being so foolish.

You shook your head. You ended up leaving him awkwardly by himself, not really knowing what to say. This prompted the blonde haired male to shake his head and smile at your retreating form. He went back inside. However, he was met with a certain look from Yunho; it was the look that he gave to his fellow host club members if they were acting out of their host duties.

“I hope you do remember that feelings aren’t allowed in the host club, Jaejoong.” Yunho’s voice held a subtle warning. One that Jaejoong had constantly been aware of and observed since he began working at this club years ago.

Don’t fall in love with your clients. Yunho’s voice echoed in Jaejoong’s mind; the same stern tone that he heard during his first work day when he was hired. That was the number one rule that the hosts had to abide by or else they would be fired.

“I know, hyung. I know.” The blonde nodded. Yunho gave him a quick glance, doubting Jaejoong’s answer, before continuing to lock up the rest of the club.

When Jaejoong went back inside the dressing room to change out of his uniform, he could only sigh. Something about you was definitely different from his ordinary customers, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

As much as he liked you, in this type of life that he lived, there was no room for love. However, there was a mutual feeling that the both of you could only contemplate on. There was no way you both could easily ignore it.

Tell me it’s madness; I barely know you…

Ending Notes: I clearly at romance. Lol. Well, just leave a note or something if you’d like to see this evolve into a series. Also, when a host club member is chosen, it is a rule that you cannot change your host at all. So if you hate them, then tough . That’s a legit rule; not even kidding.

[1]: Jaejoong’s picture in the “menu.”:

[2]: In Japan, a soda or non alcoholic beverage is called juice. Just a heads up.

[3]: The song the boys sing.

The uniform the boys use (and also how Yunho looks like in this universe):