Minho remembered the first time he met Eunsook. Minho had agreed to go to a club with Jonghyun. Jonghyun immediately started talking to someone he met at the bar and Minho did the rounds, nursing a drink. Minho parked himself at the bar after he failed to find anyone he wanted to talk to, sitting a little ways from Jonghyun and the woman Jong was talking to when a loud noise behind him brought his attention to the VIP balcony on the second floor. There was a pair of people laughing up a storm, drinking, and yelling down to their friend who was the woman talking to Jong at the bar.

“Gwi, get another bottle of champagne too.” a man says.

“No, two please.” a woman says.

Gwi nods that she understands and then waves her hands to get them to pipe down.

“Gosh, you’re such a drunk, noona” he hears the man say more quietly to the woman next to him.

“No, Taem, I’m just free!” says the woman, whose voice was extremely pleasant to listen to.

“Yea, until midnight and then you turn back into a pumpkin.”

The man and woman laugh heartily before bringing their attention back to their friend down below.

“Gwi, who are you talking to?” the woman with the honeyed voice says sing-songly.

Gwi raises her eyebrows in shocked annoyance and puts her finger to her lips to shush them. The man and woman burst out laughing like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever seen. The pair are getting more and more attention from the people down below, but they didn’t seem to be paying anyone any attention, preferring their own company.

Minho walked closer to Jonghyun to order another drink at the bar.

“My friends are upstairs. I don’t think I can carry everything. Would you help me?” said the woman Minho now knew was called Gwi.

Gwi smiles coyly and then peeks back up at Jonghyun through her lashes.

Minho watched his friend look into the woman’s eyes and knew Jong was a goner.

“Sure.” Jonghyun said never taking his eyes off of her face.

Jonghyun and Gwi get her drink order and head upstairs. Jong catches Minho’s eyes, gesturing at his hands holding the drinks and then towards the balcony for Minho to join them. Minho shakes his head, nodding to his drink that he was fine where he was. Minho wanted to finish his drink and get out of there. Jong nods back, waving his hand goodbye, accidentally sloshing the drink on Gwi.

“Watch out, babe.” Gwi says looking down at her dress.

“I’m so sorry. Send me your dry cleaning bill, I’ll pay for it.”

“You bet I will.” Gwi says with a wink, but laughs good-humoredly. “Thank you, handsome.”

Minho watched the dazed look in Jong’s eyes and was pretty sure that if Gwi asked Jonghyun for his bank account numbers, he would have given them to her right there.

Minho laughs to himself watching them. He takes a sip of his drink and eyes the other patrons. More people come into the club, the bar gets more crowded. Minho is about to call it quits and pay his tab when he hears someone speak just next to him.

“Excuse me. Excuse me. Can I get the tab for the party up there?” Eunsook points up to the balcony.

The female voice sounds familiar and Minho recalls the pair on the VIP balcony. He looks at the hand suddenly in front of his face and follows it back to its owner. He looks at the woman’s face. The woman was pretty, not as exotically beautiful as her friend Gwi, but she had a kind face and beautiful lips.

The bartender comes back with the bill and Eunsook hands him her credit card to pay. The bartender asks her a lot of questions about the service, if they had everything they needed, etc. and Eunsook smiles brightly, laughing at something the bartender says.

She has a great laugh. Minho thinks to himself as he continues to look into his glass.

Eunsook only has compliments for this evening and is extremely polite to the the bartender, while he finishes running her credit card.

Minho finds himself intrigued, one that she is coolly paying her friends’ tab and two because of her interaction with the bartender. You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat others, especially those in service, when they think nobody is watching. Minho glances over to her as she animatedly explains something to the bartender, who was becoming more charmed by her by the minute. Eunsook smiles at the bartender as she signs the receipt, turning her head back to glance at her friends and finds herself meeting Minho’s eyes. Minho looks at the broad smile on her face and is completely stunned. Her smile falls in surprise to find him looking at her and she turns away to hand the receipt to the bartender.

Minho takes another sip of his whiskey.

“Thank you.” Eunsook says, smiling again to the bartender.

She’s about to step back from the bar when someone pushes her into Minho.

Minho automatically shifts his body behind her, moving her inside, next to the bar, shielding her from any further jostling. He puts his arm out, placing it on the bar next to her, partly out of chivalry, partly b