The Bartender

Byulyi paces behind the counter, holding a delicate piece of wine glass in her hand. Just like that glass, hearts are just as delicate. If you're careless, it might slip off your hand and break it. If you let it go, you'll still break it. But she wonders, why do people find it really important to keep a mere wine glass always clean, shiny, and safe when they can break hearts too easily? Why do people treat hearts as if they're worth less than a wine glass?

“Hey idiot, you're wandering off again with your little mind.”

Hwasa.

Byulyi puts down the wine glass and turns to her co-worker. “Little minds don't exist on humans, Ahn. Human brains are all similar in size. So if mine is little, so as yours.”

Silence. The sound of the busy kitchen filled in the empty air between Hwasa and Byulyi.

“Nerd.” Hwasa puffs out, shaking her head as she walks back to the kitchen.

“Mind your own business, chef Ahn!” Byulyi shouts as she smiles victoriously. It's not every day someone gets to win over Ahn Hyejin.

Now, back to the wine glass.

–

It's service time. As usual, the bar is packed. One reason why Byulyi likes being a bartender is because she gets to observe different kinds of people with different kinds of stories. Most of them though, specifically by the name of Ahn Hyejin always call her weird for staring. But what's wrong with staring? It's not like she's undressing them with their eyes like a ert. She's just simply observing.

That man in the far left counter is broken-hearted. Is it 2 months? 3 months? He's been going to the bar every day without a miss. His wife broke up with him, taking their three children with her. And of course being depressed, that man tries to drown his misery with alcohol. Byulyi feels bad for him, but from observing that man, his wife may have had good reasons why she left him. One, alcohol. Two, drugs. Three, he can't keep his junior inside his pants. He tried to score with Byulyi before, thinking just because she works in this environment, she's an easy catch. But wrong girl, mister. Byulyi is the gayest out of the gayest – she just doesn't like .

That woman one seat away from him. She went to the bar twice last week, and came back again today. She is a man hunter. Byulyi's quite not sure if it's what she does for a living, but every time she goes out of this bar, there's always a man with his hand on her . It's a wonder why that man still hasn't approached her. It's about time.

From observing the woman, she doesn't like what she's doing. Her eyes never look happy. Her lips are always droopy, dry, under her bold red lipstick. Byulyi's not surpised, it's not a wonderful job to do. Selling your body isn't just that – it's selling your soul, your pride, your dignity as a woman. But who is she to judge? Everyone has a reason. We do things not because we want to, sometimes it might be the only option.

Next, a new person. New face, new story. So what do we have in the bag?

Byulyi smiles and approaches the woman, walking towards her Byulyi already knows that she's been crying for a long time. Sadness just pours out of her gaze, desperate. Her heart is desperate for a glass of liquor to temporarily fix the damage.

“Can I have a bottle of tequila please?” Husky voice, as if hasn't had water in a while.

Byulyi nods, going back to take a bottle of the clear, intoxicating liquid. She then slices a piece of lime and pour down salt on a small platter. After picking out a shot glass, she puts everything down on the tray and gives it to the customer.

The woman quickly opens the bottle and tries to dunk it, but as soon as the liquid meets her tongue, she immediately puts it down and bites on a sliced lime.

Byulyi shakes her head. A first timer in the alcohol world, no wonder.

She clears , leaning down on the counter. “Miss, you know what, you can die if you drank that whole bottle in one go.” She informs, a little smile forming on her lips as she watches the woman bting her lip, probably regretting what she just tried to do. “Alcohol, it's not always the solution to your problem. It's just a temporary relief away from it.”

The woman puts down the lime. Taking the bottle of tequila again, she pours it down on the shot glass. Byulyi just watches – she's a stubborn one, geez.

The woman dunks the tequila in her glass, her face controrting immediately as she blindly searches for the salt and the lime. Seeing her hand is nowhere near them, Byulyi pushes them in the direction of her hand.

“Thanks.” The woman whispers, looking down again as her face drastically changed from pale to beet red.

“If you want to talk, you can talk with me, miss. Actually in this bar, that's part of my job description.” She smiles, charming her.

And it works, gods, when did it actually fail? The woman nods her head, looking unfocusedly at Byulyi. “You know... I'm sad.”

“I can see that.” Byulyi agrees. She continues to watch the woman and being exposed to the same scenario almost every night, this woman won't last ten minutes until she's knocked down. And yes, she's only had one shot of tequila.

“My fiance... he ran away. The day of our wed-hic-ding.” She frowns, probably playing that memory again in her head. Tears welled up her eyes and Byulyi's heart felt a stab. This is why she wonders how people can break someone's heart so easily. This woman is the best example of the effects of it. If you break a wine glass, you just have to pay for it, or just clean it. But breaking a heart? It's ruining someone's life; wrecking their emotions. “I looked like a fool. I looked pa-hic-thetic.”

Byulyi notices the woman's knuckles have already become white from balling her fist too much. She touches her hand, and the woman finally eases the tension on her hand. She looks at Byulyi, and as expected her red face is already drenched with tears. “I know you're probably wondering why he left you. And I know that must be the hardest part for you right now. Looking left and right, trying to find out what you've done wrong. But you just couldn't find the answer.”

The woman nods her head, Byulyi's words seemed to have struck a nerve as the woman started sobbing, holding Byulyi's hand tighter. “But you know miss, if you can't find the answer, don't find it. Don't dwell on things you can do nothing about. Because at the e