The bus drops him off in front of a tiny bunsik restaurant and a café, but Wonwoo’s not going there. He watches the bus drive away, empty save for the few people who are making their way out of the city rather than in at this time of night. He curls his toes in his sneakers, hiking his backpack higher up his shoulder as he walks past the quiet restaurant and café to make his way towards where he can hear the loud bass of the nightclub he works in.

            Wonwoo has worked at Pledis Nightclub for just under a year now, but it still blows him away how packed the small, rundown club can get. It’s practically falling apart due to how old it is, despite how hard the owner insists that it’s fine. Wonwoo begs to differ, but he’s just a measly bartender there, so he doesn’t have the right to argue.

            He skips ahead of the already long line, nodding at the new bodyguard as he slips into the heated club. He makes a beeline towards the bar, jumping over the counter, using his palms as leverage to lift himself up and over. He lands softly on his feet, bending down to place his backpack underneath the bar. When he straightens up, he feels someone standing beside him.

            Wonwoo grins, pulling his long sweater off as he feels sweat start to drip down his back. He looks at the person beside him, his smile growing as he waves enthusiastically. “I’m not late today,” he quips in excitement.

            Just as he says this, Jun says, “You’re late.” He frowns at Wonwoo, eyeing him up and down. “And what, may I ask, are you wearing?” Before Wonwoo can respond, Jun reaches out and swats at the back of Wonwoo’s head. “And I told you not to jump over the bar anymore, idiot. It’s going to break one of these days.”

            Wonwoo rubs the back of his head, unfazed. “If it breaks, maybe the boss will finally replace it. And I’m wearing clothes, thank you very much. What are you wearing?”

            Jun has brown eyeliner smoked around his eyes, a red tint to the center of his lips, a tight fitting black button down shirt and tight jeans that fit snuggly against his thighs. He looks mysterious and absolutely dangerous – strongly contrasting Wonwoo in his wire-framed glasses, dusty pink shirt and light wash ripped jeans. Jun frowns at Wonwoo, reaching up to the top of his shirt, exposing golden skin.

            “I’m wearing the uniform, Wonwoo.” He sighs, running a hand to his hair and making it get tousled. “You know what the dress code here is. Why do you look like you belong in a music video as a cute boyfriend?”

            Wonwoo rolls his eyes. “Chill out, okay? I know what the dress code is.” He points at his backpack under the counter. “I have my clothes right there. I’ll change into it later. It’s too hot right now.”

            Jun looks stressed. “We open in ten minutes!” He points to a door behind him. “Go change! Before you give me a heart attack and cause us both to get fired.”

            “They won’t fire you,” Wonwoo says as he bends down to grab his backpack. “You’ve been working here for two years.”

            “Yeah,” Jun says, “and yet they fired Aron, who was working here for four years.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Will you please go get dressed? Take those glasses off! And put some makeup on!”

            Wonwoo walks past him and stick out his tongue. “You’re so stressed tonight. Chill out grandpa.” He pushes past the door, making his way to the backroom. The backroom is really just the room where they keep the good liquor – the expensive stuff that makes you drunk with just one drink. It’s bigger than Wonwoo had originally would have thought it to be, but it’s smaller than it should be. If Wonwoo stands up and extends his arms straight to his side, his fingers would brush both walls. Still, it’s where he gets changed. He slips out of his jeans and loose shirt, opting instead to put on an outfit similar to Jun’s. Wonwoo is at makeup, so he just smears some black shadow around his eyes until they look smoky.

            It’s a good look for him, apparently. Wonwoo’s not so sure.

            When he steps back out, things are already in motion and the bar is crowded with people trying to get Jun’s attention. As soon as they see Wonwoo, half of the customers slide over to Wonwoo’s side of the bar, holding bills in their hands as they yell for his attention. Wonwoo takes a deep breath, letting his lips form a flirty smile as he saunters forward.  He walks to the pretty girl with 20,000 won in her hand.

            “Babe,” he says in flirty tone, sliding his hand over the bill and dragging it towards him, “what’s your poison?”

            It’s close to one in the morning when things start to calm down a bit. Wonwoo feels his shirt stick to his back with sweat and he’s sure that his eyeliner is smeared like Jun’s. His lips feel dry from the numerous of times he’s run his tongue over them in his attempt at flirting. Wonwoo is pretty sure that he at anything y, but the wad of money in his front pocket begs to differ. It’s why he stays at Pledis; the tips are good. Plus, his best friend is there.

            Jun walks over to where Wonwoo is leaning against the bar, watching the people dance to the band playing on stage. Jun groans loudly, causing Wonwoo to slide his eyes towards him. Jun falls against the counter, planting his head in his hands. Wonwoo smiles at the dejected look in Jun’s eyes. He pats Jun’s head to try to comfort the other boy.

            “Does Seungcheol have the day off?” Wonwoo asks in regards to the other bartender.  

            Jun nods against his hands. He lets out a sigh and straightens back up. He runs a finger under his eyes, cleaning up his makeup fallout and wipes his finger on his shirt. “Yeah, he said he had something to do with his boyfriend.”

            Just then, a short boy with soft blonde hair comes up to the bar and leans against the counter. Jun grins as soon as he sees him, sliding over so he can be in front of him. Wonwoo rolls his eyes at Jun, but he doesn’t do anything to stop the other boy. Instead, Wonwoo plops his heads in his hands and turns to watch the two boys.

            “Jihoonie,” Jun coos in an overly flirty tone. It makes Wonwoo snort and roll his eyes. “What can I get you?”

            Jihoon blinks at him slowly. “Surprise me,” he says. “But no whiskey. It gives me a hangover.”

            Jun nods, placing a tall glass on the counter and reaching underneath the bar to pull a clear bottle from under it. He mixes Jihoon’s drink for him and Wonwoo realizes that he’s making him a vodka cranberry. Jun knows it’s Jihoon’s favorite drink, even if Jihoon won’t admit to it because he thinks it’s embarrassing. When Jun is finished, he slides the drink towards Jihoon.

            Jihoon presses a card on the counter but Jun shakes his head, smiling widely. “It’s on the house,” Jun says. He raises a brow. “If you give me your number, of course.”

            Jihoon grins, sliding the drink towards himself. “I have a boyfriend, you know that,” he says and he pushes the card towards Jun. “Open a tab. My boyfriend is coming.”

            Jun raises his brow. “Do we finally get to meet the mysterious boyfriend? I was starting to think you’d just invented him to get rid of me.”

            Jihoon raises a brow. “I don’t need to invent a boyfriend to reject you, Jun.”

            Wonwoo snorts and Jun cuts him off with a glare, walking off with Jihoon’s card. It just makes Wonwoo smile wider. Jihoon seems to finally take notice of him, because he leans more against the counter and smiles at Wonwoo. Wonwoo smiles back, sliding over so he’s not at the other side of the bar anymore and is instead standing in front of Jihoon.

            Jihoon, of course, is one of Wonwoo’s old clients.

            Now, Wonwoo never expected to make a business out of flirting with other people’s boyfriends to see if they’ll cheat, but he had done it for Minghao, and the Chinese boy had told some of his friends, who in turn told their friends, who told their friends… In no time, Wonwoo found his phone ringing off the hook with people offering him money to find out if their boyfriends or girlfriends were faithful. Wonwoo did it for Minghao for free, but he charges now. It’s easy, really, but he never expected his only acting job to be, well, this.

            He’s totally, completely not bitter at all.

            Wonwoo grins at Jihoon, planting his palms on the bar. Jihoon reaches out to swipe at Wonwoo’s cheek and his thumb comes back black. Jihoon wipes his thumb on Wonwoo’s shirt. “You had eyeliner on your cheek,” Jihoon says.

            “Figures,” Wonwoo replies, “I’m a mess.” Wonwoo looks behind Jihoon, where he has just spotted two familiar figures making their way towards the bar. Wonwoo straightens up and waves his hand, catching the attention of the shorter male. They both amble over, standing beside Jihoon.

            Wonwoo flicks his eyebrows towards his hairline, addressing his two friends. “Did you guys just close?”

            Minghao is holding a tray to his chest and he plants it on the counter, smiling tiredly at Wonwoo. There’s a sleepy slump to his shoulders that makes Wonwoo worried. He blinks adorably at Wonwoo, sliding the tray towards his chest and cuddling with it, looking on the verge of sleep. “Yeah,” he says in response to Wonwoo’s question. “Mrs. Lee needed our help to close.”

            Chan, looking just as tired, plants his elbows on the counter and uses his hands to prop his head up. He lets out a big yawn, making Minghao yawn as well. “Ever since Ma decided to close the restaurant at twelve, we’ve been going home really late.” He blinks at Wonwoo, pointing at the tray that Minghao has. “Oh, Ma told me to give you guys this. It’s your favorite.”

            Wonwoo takes the tray from Minghao, putting it underneath the counter. He smiles at the young boy. “Tell her I said thanks.”

            Chan waves him off. “She loves you guys, it’s no big deal.” He rises on his toes, peeking behind the bar. “Hey, can I have a coke? I’m practically dead on my feet here.”

            “Me too, please,” Minghao says.

            Wonwoo is just pouring them their drinks when Jun comes back, sliding Jihoon’s card back to him. His eyes light up at the sight of Minghao, even if the other boy doesn’t notice because he’s too busy blinking sleepily at the counter. Jihoon, however, notices and he nudges Minghao with his elbow. Minghao frowns, looking at Jihoon, who gestures to Jun. Minghao looks up and smiles. Wonwoo rolls his eyes at the entire thing.

            Jun reaches out to flick Chan’s forehead. “Yah, you’re not old enough to be here.”

            “I’m eighteen,” Chan counters.

            Jun raises a brow, peeking over Wonwoo’s shoulder to see what Wonwoo is making. “That’s still not legal,” he says. “Legal in Korea is 20. You have two years left, Channie.” Jun points at the drink that Wonwoo slides over to him. “I hope that’s coke.”

            Wonwoo rolls his eyes, sliding Minghao his own drink. “It is, you old man. Calm down a little bit, yeah?” Wonwoo’s eyes cut to Minghao, who is happily sipping his coke as he looks around the bar. Wonwoo feels a protectiveness come over him when he notices people giving him lustful looks. “Hey, I almost get off my shift. Don’t wander around anywhere, alright Hao?”

            Jihoon, who has stayed quiet until now, says, “You’re leaving? But you won’t get to meet my boyfriend.”

            “Well,” Wonwoo flutters his eyes shut, grinning. He makes sure to add an extra sweet tone to his voice when he says, “You can just introduce us later, right? He has to meet your best friend at one point.”

            Just like Wonwoo expected, Jihoon rolls his eyes and walks away, clutching his drink as he grumbles under his breath.

            Jun reaches out to steal Chan’s drink, causing Chan to whine. Jun ignores this, sticking the straw in his mouth and taking a huge sip of the drink. He finishes it all and then he lifts the cup up and shakes it around, causing the ice to clink on the glass. “You need a refill, Channie.” He starts to fill it up with more coke and he glances up at Chan as he says, “Do you need me to take you home tonight?” He slides the glass over to the young boy.

            Chan sighs, playing with his straw. “Yeah, I just came to make sure that Minghao got here safely.”

            Minghao blinks, his lips tugging into a frown. “Hey,” he whines, reaching out to tug at Chan’s ear, “I’m not a baby. I can take care of myself.”

            Chan grins. “Of course you’re not,” he replies. “You’re just a really cute hyung.”

            Minghao frowns at this and Wonwoo reaches out to tap his roommate’s hand. “Don’t listen to him,” he says. He stands up straight and puffs his chest up. “You’re a great, big man. A real man. Manly man. Minghao the manly man, not a baby.”

            Jun throws him a look. “You’re a goddamn idiot.”

           The thing about Wonwoo is that he dropped out of college when he was twenty years old. It doesn’t bother him too much; he’s okay with being labeled a college dropout. He didn’t like the classes that much anyway. The thing that bothers him is that Wonwoo now has to walk around with the fact that he’s a failed actor, just another statistic that turned out to be true. He didn’t want to keep wasting his parents’ money for a dream that was never going to be a reality.

            So Wonwoo quits acting, which is fine, because he wasn’t that great to begin with.

            But when he sees what could have been – when he bumps into people from his acting class (or worse – when he bumps into Luhan) – and he hears about how they’re getting by doing odd jobs here and there and Wonwoo has been stuck in the same ty job for a year, it makes him a little bitter. He bumped into Joohyun just last week and she had excitedly told him that she got cast in a music video. Wonwoo had congratulated her with a warm hug, but he went home and got drunk, crying over his failed future until Minghao got home and had to drag him into his bed.

            Wonwoo feels something hit the bottom of his shoe and Wonwoo shakes his head, clearing his mind of the memories. He curls the tip of his sneakers, keeping them propped from where they rest. It’s a long table with a wide mirror and Wonwoo sits back in one of the cast chairs, his feet propped up and pushing the makeup around with his feet. He looks up to where Mingming is sitting beside him, holding a makeup brush in his hands.

            Mingming smacks the bottom of Wonwoo’s feet again with the brush. “Get your feet off the table. It’s unsanitary.” He’s not looking at Wonwoo. He’s looking in the mirror, sitting almost perfectly still as a small woman brushes eye shadow at the corner of his eyes.

            Wonwoo grins. He has a book in his hands, but if he were to turn the pages, he would find them empty. It’s just a prop. “I can’t believe you’re being so rude to your hyung.” The woman looks at Wonwoo briefly and he raises his brow at her, saying, “Can you believe this kid, noona?”

            She snickers, but she doesn’t say anything. She continues working on Mingming’s makeup before she moves onto his hair. There’s clips it in and he’s had them on for over an hour so that his hair can stay perfectly swooped. Mingming’s hair is blonde now, which Wonwoo thinks is funny. He remembers Mingming being in acting class and saying he’d never color his hair.

            “What’s wrong with black hair?” He had said. “Everyone has black hair.”

            Look at him now – all blonde headed and loving it.

            Mingming rolls his eyes at Wonwoo, swatting at his feet again. “Off,” he repeats and Wonwoo lets out a loud sigh as he lets his feet drop to the floor. “Thank you,” Mingming says. His phone dings and before Mingming can move (he probably couldn’t have moved anyway – the coordi-nonna was still working on his hair), Wonwoo reaches out to grab it. Mingming’s wallpaper is a movie poster, the first one that Mingming starred in a little over a year ago. Mingming had been wrong; apparently, people liked movies about soulmates. His movie ended up being a box office hit, and everyone found themselves rooting for the actor who played the second lead. Before Mingming knew it, the movie offers came flooding in.

            Out of all of Wonwoo’s ex-classmates, Mingming is the one that Wonwoo envies the most.

            Wonwoo looks at the text Mingming just received. “It’s Minseok-hyung,” Wonwoo says, scrolling up. “He says you got offered a part in that new drama with Park Shin Hye.” Wonwoo raises his brows, looking at Mingming. “Wow, she’s hot.”

            Mingming laughs. “She’s also seven years older than me.” He clears his throat and the coordi-noona steps back. He reaches for his phone, tapping at the screen. He lets out a big sigh. “Man, I don’t know if I can do that. I have that other drama to film at around the same time.” He looks up at Wonwoo, who is conveniently acting like he’s not paying attention. “Hey, how’s your business going?”

            Wonwoo points a finger at himself, looking surprised. “Me?”

            Mingming rolls his eyes. “Yes you, idiot.”

            “It’s good,” he stretches his hands up high, enjoying the feeling and sound of his muscles and bones popping. He knows Mingming isn’t talking about the bar, so he drops his hands and says, “I haven’t had any new clients in a while, so things have been kind of slow.”

            Mingming bites his lip but the woman gasps, slapping his arm. “Your lipstick!” she screams and then she fusses over reapplying the red tint to the center of his mouth. It makes Mingming’s lips look fuller, nice and soft.

            “Sorry,” he says. She gives him a withering look and leaves the small room. To Wonwoo, he says, “How would you like a new client?”

            He raises a brow, curious. “Who?”

            Mingming grins. “Me.”

            Wonwoo feels the surprise coating his features. Mingming has always been like this other being – unattainable, but wanted by everyone. The last person Mingming dated, to Wonwoo’s knowledge, had been a boy named Junmyeon, who starred beside Mingming in his first film and was so pretty he made Wonwoo want to cry. He had a kind smile and handsome features and, despite his age, Wonwoo had found him endearing. He was perfect, Wonwoo had said. Too perfect, Mingming had countered, and he broke up with him that same day. That had been six months ago.

            “You date?”

            “Of course I do,” Mingming says. “I have needs, after all.”

            Wonwoo shudders. “Gross.” He straightens up, sitting higher in his seat. “You want me to work for you? Isn’t that weird?”

            “No, it’s not weird. And I want you to do something different than what you usually do. I want you to make someone fall in love with you and I want you to pretend to be in love with him.”

            He feels his mouth go dry. “What?”

            Mingming levels him with a steady gaze. “I want you,” he starts, “to pretend to be in love with someone.”

            “Why?”

            He sighs. “Because. Look, you don’t know this, but for the past six months, I’ve been dating someone.” He lifts up a hand just as Wonwoo gasps. “We were very private, okay? And I found out he was cheating on me basically the whole time. I want you to pretend to love him so you can break his heart and he can learn a lesson.” He takes a deep breath, whispering, “I also may still kind of love him.”

            “M&M,” Wonwoo blinks. This is way too complicated for Wonwoo. The most he’s done is make someone invite him home. He’s never made someone fall in love with him before. He doesn’t even know if he’s the type of person that people fall in love with. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

            Mingming slumps his shoulders, looking dejected. “Look, I know everything about him, so I can make you into his perfect person!” Wonwoo says nothing and Mingming sighs. “Honestly, I just haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since we broke up. Wonwoo-hyung, I love him. But he needs to learn his lesson. So I was thinking, if you break his heart, it’ll make him mature, you know? And then I can swoop in and help him heal his broken heart.”

            “This sounds like the plot of a very bad drama with a very bad ending.”

            Mingming juts his lip out. “Please? I’ll pay you five million won. I’ll tell Minseok to get you a part in the drama with Shin Hye. I’ll do anything you want.”

            The money makes Wonwoo choke. Five million won? “That’s a lot of money,” Wonwoo blinks and Mingming nods. Focusing on the rest of his statement, he says, “He can do that?”

            “He can do anything. He’s Kim Minseok.” Mingming gives Wonwoo a look. It’s pleading and sincere, his eyes soft and he actually looks his age for once as he looks at the older boy with heartbroken eyes. “Please, Wonwoo-hyung, do this for me.”

            And Wonwoo gets the same feeling he got one year ago – when Minghao had asked him to date his boyfriend. It’s a crushing feeling on his chest, like he just has to help his friend. And, hey, this time, he’ll actually get something out of it. Wonwoo looks at Mingming, deciding that he might as well tattoo the word er on his forehead so everyone he meets will know what he is.

            “Fine,” he says reluctantly. He points a finger at Mingming. “You better tell that little manager of yours to get me a good part. I’ve been practicing in front of people. I can say a whole sentence without stuttering now.”

            “Hyung, I’ll tell him to give you the ing lead.” Mingming reaches out and grabs onto Wonwoo’s hand, squeezing it gently. His smile is sincere and grateful. “Thank you. Really.” He stands up but pauses just before he’s out the door. “Oh, hyung, really quickly.” He waits until Wonwoo looks up at him and smiles. “Try not to fall in love with him, okay?”

            Wonwoo snorts, standing up as well. He reaches out and bumps his hip against Mingming’s, rolling his eyes. “That’ll be no problem.” He grins, flicking his brows. “I’m an actor, remember?”