“Yo! Narsha! How’s it been?” yelled Sooyoung as she opened the door to the interior of the bar. We walked in making the wooden floorboards creak with every step.

“Omo. Are guys actually here on time?” Narsha asked in mock surprise. She was in her usual spot, getting ready to get the bar open.

Besides Narsha, there was also someone else there sitting on one of the stools in front of the bar stand. It was a guy wearing a loose white T-shirt which clearly showed his well-defined arm muscles. He sported a short haircut with his bangs slightly gelled up. I don’t know why, but he looked like those really annoying people who flirt with everyone and everything. But I’ll admit, he was very attractive.

Tiffany peeked over my shoulder. She took her sunglasses off and made eye contact with the stranger. “S-Siwon?! Is that you?” she asked.

“You know this guy?” I pointed at the stranger.

“My name is Choi Siwon. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Siwon slightly bowed as he introduced himself. Then, he suddenly grabbed my hand and raised it to his lips. In one swift motion, he gently placed a kiss on the back of my hand. Now if I was straight, I might have fallen head over heels over him at that very instant. But I wasn’t. Instead, I got goose bumps for some reason or another. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to really like this guy.

“N-Nice to meet you,” I stiffly smiled.

He smiled back at me. He turned to Sooyoung and Yuri and introduced himself, planting a kiss on each of their hands. Yuri was completely unfazed but Sooyoung looked a bit shy at the sudden contact.

“Long time no see, Jessica, Sunny…Tiffany.” He placed a stronger emphasis on Tiffany’s name…which I didn’t like at all. What the hell was his relationship with Tiffany?

“Why are you here of all places?” asked Tiffany.

Siwon shrugged. “I got bored at home. So I decided to leave for a while and play with my groupmates. We’re called Super Junior by the way and we’re performing here tonight so you better watch. I’ll add a little something special just for you.” Siwon winked at Tiffany. Ugh, this guy was slowly getting on my nerves.

“You don’t have to. Umm…Siwon, I need to talk with you in private.” Tiffany carefully eyed Jessica and Sunny.

“Of course I wouldn’t mind,” Siwon smiled. He gently grabbed Tiffany’s hand.

Alright, this guy was too touchy with Tiffany. “You don’t mind if I join, do you?” I interjected as I grabbed Siwon’s arm and tore his hand away from Tiffany’s.

“Hmm…isn’t it a bit rude to suddenly barge in someone else’s conversation?” Siwon flashed a fake smile at me.

I returned with a fake smile and proceeded to tighten my hold on his wrist. “Isn’t it a bit rude to flirt with all of these girls?”

“Flirt? All I’ve ever done was hand out friendly gestures.” He grabbed my arm and slapped it away. “I just happen to like skinship, that’s all,” he added.  Well, he better stop all of this “skinship” with Tiffany before I pop a bullet up his .

“Siwon, I need to talk with you…outside. Now.” Tiffany turned to me and whispered in my ear, “Come with me.”

Suddenly, Jea opened the door. She took notice of me and yelled, “Yah! Narsha, why didn’t you tell me Taeyeon was here?! Taeyeon, come over here, there’s something important I need to tell you about.”

Hmm…go with Jea and listen to her very important talk or follow Tiffany and stop Siwon from trying any physical contact with her. …Why bother asking? “Maybe later, Jea unnie!” I hollered at the older woman. I gently pushed Tiffany toward the entrance of the bar leading to the outside and glared at Siwon to follow.

As we were walking outside, I whispered into Tiffany’s ear, “Hey. How do you know that guy?”

“I guess we were childhood friends…maybe. I only knew him because our parents were close business partners.”

I shivered as the cold air made contact with my skin. I guess Tiffany was feeling it too since she started to move a bit closer to me. I placed my back on the cold wall and Tiffany placed herself in front of me so her back was facing me. She was really close to me, about a few centimeters apart. Man, I tried really hard to not wrap my arms around her.

“Sure is cold today,” Siwon commented. No , Sherlock. I don’t understand how he thought it was a bright idea to wear a T-shirt during this time of the year. It was freaking September, do you expect sunshine? “So what do you need me for?”

“Ah…it’s a bit complicated,” said Tiffany. I shifted from my current position so I could take a better look at both of their faces. And honestly, I didn’t want to stare at Siwon’s face all day. Tiffany bit her lip. “You see, I made a dare with Jessica that I could go for a few months without talking to my dad. Well, seems like I can’t really do that. And I don’t want to admit it to Jessica so I need your help.”

“How so?” Siwon grinned.

“Do you still have contact with my dad?”

“Well, I haven’t visited in a long time but I’m pretty sure I can get in contact with him easily.”

“Great. Let’s meet up here later this week. I have some letters you can give him. And don’t you dare read them,” Tiffany ordered. Uh oh. I was ordered to not allow Tiffany any contact with her dad but I couldn’t just tell her she couldn’t. There’s no problem with letters and there’s no way anybody could track letters especially hand delivered ones…could they?

Siwon chuckled. “I won’t read them. But what do I get?”

“Umm…a compliment?”

Siwon laughed. He gently raised Tiffany’s chin and moved his face closer to hers. “How about a kiss?” OH, HELL NO.

I lunged myself at Siwon causing both of us to fall on the ground with me landing on top of him. “My bad. I tripped,” I apologized. I pressed the palm of my hand into his chest hard just to make him feel some pain.

“T-Tae, are you okay?” Tiffany grabbed my arm and helped me pull myself off of the ground or Siwon in this case.

“Perfectly fine,” I smirked.

Siwon slowly stood up and smiled knowingly at me. “Taeyeon, right?”

I glared at him. “That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.”

Siwon chuckled. “Ah, Tiffany, you don’t mind if I talk to your friend alone, do you?”

“What? Well…if Taeyeon doesn’t mind, I’m fine with it,” she mumbled.

“I’d like to hear what he wants to say,” I said.

Tiffany stared at me in surprise. “Oh…well okay, then. I guess I should leave then.” She waved goodbye and started to walk back into the bar.

As soon as Tiffany was gone, Siwon started to move closer to me. Obviously, I didn’t want to be near 100 meters around this guy so I started to back up away from him. Before I knew it, my back touched the wall and Siwon placed his arm above me, looking down at me. Basically, we were really close to each other. I could smell his ty cologne.

“W-what do you want?” I looked up at him.

“You know, you’re pretty cute when you’re jealous.”

“J-Jealous?! Of what?!”

He chuckled…again. , everything this guy does makes me want to break his nose. “You don’t have to pretend. I know you like me. Why else would you always interrupt every time I make a move on Tiffany?”

I scoffed. “The last thing in the world I would want to happen is to like you.” I crossed my arms and turned my face away from him.

He grabbed my chin and forced me too look at his damn face. Bastard. “Really? Then why would you interrupt Tiffany’s conversation with me?”

“Did it ever cross your mind that I like Tiffany?” I hissed.

Siwon stared at me in disbelief. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it. He backed away from me. “…That’s dirty.”

“Dirty?”

“Yes, you’re dirty.”

“Excuse me? I took a shower before I got here.” I sniffed myself, just in case. This guy was nuts, I smelled great.

“Homouality is a sin,” he bluntly stated.

, a homophobe to top off with the fact that he was trying to steal Tiffany from me. I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Whatever. I’m leaving.” I did not want to deal with this.

As I turned to leave, I noticed something peeking out from the door. Squinting, I was able to figure out that the figure was Tiffany. I stared at her, wondering what the hell she was doing. She noticed that I was looking at her and hid back into the bar. Weird but still cute.  

Siwon grabbed my arm. I stared at his hand and then at his face. “Let go,” I commanded.

“I suggest you stay away with Tiffany,” he said with straight face.

“Are you telling me what to do?” I slapped his arm away from me. 

“Tiffany will never love you back.”

I didn’t say anything. Instead, I gave him the meanest glare I could possibly give him. He was lucky I was in a good mood before I met him. Otherwise, I’d probably start landing punches on him. I clenched my fist and started to grind my teeth to hold in my anger. What the hell was his problem? Did he think I didn’t know that? Does he know how hard it is to be a lesbian? Does he know what I’ve been through? Does he know how hard I tried to deny the fact that Tiffany might be as straight as the straightest thing in the world?  you, Siwon. you for making me more depressed than I had to be. Get the out of my sight.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I dragged myself into the bar leaving Siwon outside. He didn’t follow me, probably because he knew how angry I was at him. I noticed that everyone was already in their uniform, a dress shirt and a tight, long black skirt. Sunny stepped in front of me and posed. “How do I look?” she asked me.

“Great,” I replied. I wasn’t in the mood to joke around with her.

“Aww. That’s all you have to say?” Sunny pouted.

“T-TaeTae. H-How about me?” Tiffany butted in. She had appeared out of nowhere wearing the same monochrome outfit as Sunny.

“Amazing,” I smiled.

“Hey! Why does Tiffany get a smile?!” complained Sunny.

“Don’t be jealous,” Tiffany giggled. Ah, Tiffany was definitely my stress reliever. She was too cute for words.

“So you guys are hired?” I asked them.

“Yup,” answered Sunny. “This place is great! You guys are so lucky to find this job.”

“It’s only nice when Narsha and Jea aren’t bothering you,” said Sooyoung.

“I heard that!” yelled Narsha. “Did you hear that, Miryo? Lower her pay, alright?”

Sooyoung snickered. She slapped my back. “Go get ready.”

I walked into the back room, grabbed my uniform from the closet, and walked into the staff bathroom to change. Jea suddenly burst into the bathroom. “Taeyeon! I need to talk to you!”

“WOAH! I’M CHANGING!” I yelled. I had barely put the dress shirt on. I took my remaining clothes and placed them in front of my chest.

“Why are you so bothered?” said Jea who was completely unfazed seeing me practically half-. “It’s your fault anyway. Why didn’t you change in the bathroom stall?”

“Because I didn’t think someone would randomly come in!”

“I still have to talk to you, Taeyeon. Don’t try to avoid me!”

“GET OUT!” I threw my sneaker at her which Jea barely dodged. I completely forgot that Jea moved like a woman in her eighties. Nevertheless, Jea finally walked out of the bathroom leaving me to finally put the dress shirt on.

I stepped out of the bathroom. “Writeup,” said Jea who was waiting in front of the door for me.

“W-writeup? I still have to do that?”

“Mhm. I have to send it to the higher ups.”

I sighed. “Aww. Come on. Give me a break.”

“You also have another mission,” Jea added.

“…WHAT?! B-but aren’t we on a mission right now?”

Jea looked at me. “You’re not watching over that girl 24/7 are you? I’m sure you can spare her a few hours.”

“W-well…” I tried to think up of a good excuse but I only came up with blanks.

Jea walked over to the wooden table and grabbed the lone manila folder. “Here you go.” She handed me the folder. “All the information is in there.”

I opened the folder:

Client: Shin Jiseok

Background: Male. 37 years of age. Unmarried. Owner of a large number of factories. He has recently decided to contact us after receiving anonymous death threats. A few days ago, he received an anonymous note stating that he close his factories or face death. Paranoid, he has not stepped out of his house for the past few days. However, he must attend a meeting on October 1.

Objective: Protect Shin Jiseok on October 1. If possible, catch the perpetrator: dead or alive.

Pay: 1 million won. Tripled if perpetrator is caught/killed.

Another typical mission. The pay wasn’t too great either. There was some mystery surrounding the mission but there probably wouldn’t be anything interesting happening anyway. Even if we were forced to start investigating, Seohyun would probably be the only one excited about it.

Speaking of Seohyun, she suddenly entered the back room alongside Hyoyeon and Yoona. I quickly closed the folder and greeted them. “Hey! Where were you guys?”

“I thought I told you already,” said Hyoyeon.

“I forgot.”

“Yoona unnie invited me to watch a Keroro movie with her. I invited Hyoyeon unnie to come with us,” explained Seohyun.

“Yup,” said Yoona. It was pretty easy to tell Yoona was disappointed that Hyoyeon came along. It was even more obvious that Yoona liked Seohyun. Poor Yoona. If you wanted to know something about Seohyun, it would have to be the fact that Seohyun is as oblivious as a blind person.

Jea clapped her hands to get our attention. “Enough chit-chat. Seohyun, Hyoyeon, go get ready.” Jea turned to Yoona. “And you must be another new worker.”

“Sorry.” Yoona looked down at the floor. “It must be annoying to suddenly get a bunch of new workers.”

“What’s there to be sorry about?” Jea smiled, “You guys seem much better than our current employees. Honestly, they’re more of a bother than anything else.”

“You do know that I’m right here, right?” I asked.

“You do know it’s the truth, right?” Jea imitated.

Touché.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After a few busy hours of serving customers their drinks, I was finally able to take a breather. I plopped myself on a stool in front of the bar stand. Tiffany was forced to become a bartender thanks to Jessica’s pleading. Tiffany was also forced to wear her sunglasses and a hooded vest that we were lucky enough to have. I think we did a pretty good job. It was pretty difficult to tell it was Tiffany especially due to the bar’s dim lighting.

As of right now, Super Junior was performing “It’s you”. It was pretty good song to listen to since the bar doubled up as a club too. What was more impressive about them was that they actually danced well enough for 13 guys cramped together on a small stage. Maybe I underestimated the stage since it always seemed too small for me. Or it was that huge piano in the way.

Oh when you tell me you love me
When you tell me thousands and millions of times
Even when my heart sets on fire, my dry lips wear out
Even when I’m born again, it’s still only you
(Still Still) Even as time goes by

It’s you

As they reached the end of their song, Siwon slowly took of his T-shirt for all of the ladies in the bar. I swear, the place went crazy once Siwon showed off his stomach abs. They were nice, I’ll admit, but they weren’t at the cheese grater level. Narsha was screaming like crazy. Gain was hiding behind the stand to save herself from Narsha’s embarrassing antics. And Sooyoung was liking it…too much. Way too much.

I turned my body just to see if Tiffany was drooling over Siwon as much as Sooyoung was. Thankfully, she wasn’t. I turned back facing the stage and sighed in relief. Their performance was done. They stepped off the stage and began to mingle with the crowd. Siwon, however, was walking toward my directions. Next thing I knew, something flew straight in my face. It was pitch black for a second…that ing bastard. He threw his sweaty, dirty, stinky shirt at me. As I stared at the horrendous shirt, Siwon smirked. “My bad. It slipped out of my hand.”

This bastard. “Oh really? You better put it back on before you catch dumbitis.” I threw the shirt back at him.

Siwon frowned. He left me alone and started to walk into the crowd of fangirls. Thank god he was out of my sight.

Tiffany leaned over the bar stand. She looked at me and then Siwon. “…You guys look cute together,” she said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

…EXCUSE ME? Oh no. No. No. NO. This misunderstanding did not need to happen at all. I thought I made it obvious enough that I wanted Siwon to fall off a cliff. “I-I think you got the wrong idea here. I don’t like him,” I told Tiffany.

“Really?! Oh…I mean, you guys just seemed really friendly to each other. Especially when you two were outside. And I’m sorry for trying to eavesdrop at your conversation. I-I was just curious.”

“Oh. That’s okay. You don’t need to apologize. Just make sure you remember that I don’t like Siwon…in that way,” I reassured her. Tiffany smiled at me and left to find Jessica. I sighed. Choi Siwon. That ing bastard.