There were many things that could make me hate these people with my whole life, many things that made me wish I hadn’t stumbled upon them and that I hadn’t screwed up as badly on different occasions. There were several things I regretted on a daily basis, but on some occasions, just on particular instances- I actually was glad that at least before getting into this mess I had been able to work on their other establishment, there were a few reasons why I was, but one stood out more than the others.

The harassment wasn’t as bad, I wasn’t as exposed as I was in my current ‘job’, for the lack of a better word—but it did bring something into my life that I would always feel grateful for, something special, someone special whose voice I can’t seem to forget even if more than a year has passed. That soft tune that would call out my name and make me feel at ease is one that I can’t seem to get out of my mind. Even if he probably has forgotten all about me, it is in nights like this one in which I feel lost while sitting on my bed with only the light of my lamp on that I can’t help but to remember him.

The way we met was nothing short of strange, but it seemed like a connection of events was meant to happen so that we met on that night. Fate? I wanted to think so as cheesy as it sounded. Was it fate that it never got anywhere other than a one-sided crush I failed to notice on time? It probably was fate too, after all—it really wasn’t good or safe being around me. I had to learn the hard way, first it was him, now the one in trouble was Hongbin—being near me really meant trouble. It was better not to have anyone close to me, or too close.

“Two martinis please” I remember that particular night so clearly. A customer had dropped by the bar area at one of the establishments that belonged to these people and it happened to be the one I worked at. It was around 2.00 AM and I had to work until 3.00 AM that night. My shift on weekends lasted more than the one during the weekdays. It wasn’t that bad, I had just started college and my schedules allowed me to work at that time during the weekend without messing with any of my classes. I really needed the money and this job didn't mess with my studies so it was alright, at least I thought so.

I remember quickly passing the order to the bartender that worked there and waiting for the drink to be prepared so I could give this client his order. Strangely enough, he was alone and had ordered two drinks -so in the back of my mind I wondered if he probably was waiting for someone. However, once I had carefully placed his drinks on the bar he stopped me, placing his hand over mine and looking into my eyes, “Don’t you want to join me by the way?” it truly was the most uncomfortable thing, I didn’t really like people that I didn’t know touching me and the dislike towards it had increased ever since working on that place. I was really different from my brother in that aspect, he would always be hugging people and would want to be close to everyone, especially me. I’m not sure how and why he had a sister like me, the total opposite of him when it came to physical contact.

“I’m alright, thank you” I had become used to turn men down on the bar, I didn’t like to socialize with anyone there because I thought it was better that way, but some people would insist and it would make for uncomfortable situations. And those moments were the ones that I really wanted to avoid as much as I could.

“Hey come on, I’m treating you, join me” I disliked it, I really hated when guys would try to force me into joining them drinking, when they would look into my eyes in a threatening way. As though they were going to harm me if I didn’t listen to them, if I didn’t do as they said. I was lucky that at times the bartender guy would step up for me, but that night he was busy and I was alone, so I tried my best to get out of the situation myself without being rude.

“I’m sorry I—“

“Give me a martini also” from the corner of my eye, I was able to see a young man sitting down next to the customer that was giving me a difficult time. He had dark brown hair and was wearing a leather jacket over a white shirt, some golden glasses to add style to his outfit. I looked at him and rapidly jumped back, finally freeing myself from the customer’s grasp, “Hey come on, fast” the young man insisted as he tilted his head to the side, and gazed at the area where the bartender was, “Fast” he indicated one last time. I picked on his actions rapidly after blinking a few times, he really wanted me to get out of the situation I was in.

I quickly went to the bartender and asked him to be quick in preparing the drink. The moment I came back to the bar, I found the customer who had been pestering me standing while looking at the guy who had arrived a few minutes ago, he was staring at him from above and I could tell he was mad from the tone in his voice and the mean look he had in his eyes. Uh-oh I said to myself, I was concerned that any sort of fight would start at any moment.

“Hey what are you? A college student or what? Why do you have to meddle in my business?” he was asking in a tone that was getting louder with every single question. It started to worry me that a fight could happen inside the nightclub and it would end up involving someone that had nothing to do with the situation that had been going on.

“Don’t try to force girls to drink if they don’t want anything to do with you” the guy said while fixing his glasses and giving him a smirk that confused the older man, he quickly grabbed the two cups of martini and gulped them down rapidly. It left the man startled and me as well, I blinked at the sight and at the smirk drawn across the young man’s face as I put the cup of martini I had just brought on the wooden surface and stared at the guy in shock, “And thanks for the drinks”

“Goddamn it…” the customer muttered as he stormed out of the place leaving me with this young man I had just met, I couldn’t help but to be surprised because of his bold actions that had made a man much older than him just leave the place in a rush. I took notice that he turned around and looked at me as he took the other cup in his hand, I really didn’t know what to say to him. His smile slowly turned into a more serious expression in the blink of an eye and he tilted his head to the side.

“He was about to put something in your drink” I gasped at the mention of it, I was quite surprised that I would be target of something like that. I had heard mentions of that before but I was unaware that men would even target the waitresses at bars and nightclubs.

“Thank you so much” I said as I bowed, feeling really grateful that he had noticed the plans of that man and had prevented something bad from happening to me, “May I ask for your name sir? If it is okay…”

“Kim Wonshik” he casually said, as he took a sip from his own martini cup he had ordered, he looked around my age so I was surprised that he had the money to actually come to a place like this, but then again—even I would have been able to afford something like that had I not escaped from my home, “I see you around at times, you should really be careful” I normally tried to not pay attention to any of the customers but he surprisingly had noticed me, maybe it must have sparked his curiosity to see a girl around his age at a place like this at this time in the night.

It was a matter of seconds after he said his name that I saw him squinting and bringing a hand towards his face, “Oh my god are you alright?!” I asked while starting to feel alarmed at how he seemed to be really bothered.

“It is just the alcohol, don’t worry-I managed to drop by before he tried to put drugs or whatever in that drink” he replied, luckily the drinks didn’t contain any drugs or else it would have turned out to be worse. I hastily walked to the other side of the bar to be able to help him since he had aided me and I couldn’t just leave him that way.

“Do you want me to call a taxi so he can take you home safely? I will pay-will even help out if you need me to” I said as I sat down on a seat next to him while I prayed the supervisors wouldn’t take notice of this and wouldn’t just shout at me for getting so near to a customer.

“Call my hyung please-he is on speed dial, my car is outside” he said as he rested his head on the bar while taking out his phone from one of the pockets of his jacket. My gaze landed on it, as if studying it and pondering whether I should call or not or let him do the call. I really didn’t want whoever was on the other end of the line to get any wrong idea and I didn’t even know the name of the person I was supposed to call. When I tried to ask him for the name of his friend, he was already sleepy on the table.

“Wonshik-ssi? Kim Wonshik-ssi? Oh gosh what am I supposed to do…” and it didn’t matter how many times I called out to him, he still wouldn’t answer even though at times I could hear him mumble. I cautiously took the phone in my hands and luckily it didn’t have any sort of password so I was able to open the dial screen and look for the speed dial number he had mentioned. When I pressed it, the screen started blinking as the phone was making the call, the contact name read “Jung Taekwoon”, I really wasn’t sure whom I was going to talk to and how the person on the other end of the line was going to react because of this situation—but it was only logical and natural to do something to help Wonshik at the state he was and because of how he had helped me too.

At first there was no reply and I started to become worried, so I had to call once more and waited for a while until I was able to hear someone answering my call, “Hello? Why are you calling me so late?” was the answer I got immediately.

The sound of the voice that had answered me sort of surprised me, it was a really soft tune that was really low and quiet, I even wondered for a second if the phone’s volume had dropped but I started to become worried because of his answer, “H-hello… Jung Taekwoon-ssi….?”

There was a pause that followed my question, I bet this man was probably wondering why a girl had suddenly called him from his friend’s phone and I was quite at a loss on how to follow a conversation with him, especially when he began talking again, “Who are you? This is Wonshik’s number—who are you?” he asked in an insisting tone that while not loud or aggressive, I still could feel a serious aura coming from the sound of his voice, it was sharp in a way I hadn’t ever heard before.

“I am a waitress at this nightclub your friend is at and…” I decided to go with the truth about it all, there was no other way to go about this conversation. I tried to remain calm and not get nervous so I could calmly explain, “he is kind of drunk and it is my fault and…”, my voice started to become a bit faint as a sudden wave of nervousness attacked me, yes all of this was my fault and I couldn’t help but to feel guilty that someone had to end up like this because of me, “Could you please come by and pick him up? He is in no condition to drive”

“Get him a taxi, it is late” I heard him reply, of course, how couldn’t he be mad? After all, some stranger was calling him that his friend was in trouble because of her-an unknown person to him, how couldn’t he be angry?

“Please it is urgent” I insisted though, hoping that I could somehow make him change his mind. However, he still wouldn’t believe me.

“How do I know you aren’t lying?”

“I…” I grabbed the phone tightly in my hand and sighed, there was nothing I could do to prove I wasn’t just some random thief that was trying to lure him into a trap or something so the only thing that crossed my mind was to prove that where I was at the moment existed and that I wasn’t trying to harm him in any way, “I will send you the address through a text and…you can check if the place is legit… I offered to take him home but he is sort of sleepy and I don’t know his address and—“

“Text it, I’ll go”

My eyes opened wide in surprise at the simple yet meaningful reply, “Thank you so much sir! I’m sorry for the trouble I am causing you!”

“If it is a trap I’ll call the cops, Wonshik better be safe”

“Sir I swear—“ I was saying but he hung up on me, I ended up placing the phone on the table and thinking that this guy, really, this guy was something else—even threatening to call the cops on me. Sure he had every right to doubt my words but even going ahead to threaten to call the police was a bit too much, but I couldn’t complain—the time at the moment and the fact that he had to go out of his house to pick up his friend must have angered him so I could sort of understand the tone he was using with me. I checked on Wonshik after the called came to an abrupt end, he still seemed to be really sleepy due to the liquor, “Kim Wonshik-ssi? Your friend is going to drop by soon, please try to be awake”

“He is difficult to deal with at times, but he is nice” I could hear him mumble, ‘difficult’ he said. He sounded something more than difficult to be quite honest. And almost an hour passed without hearing from his friend at all, I actually started to become really worried about the situation.

“Will he actually drop by? Kim Wonshik-ssi?” I called out to him but he still seemed to be drowsy and sleepy, “Oh gosh it has been so long what if he just doesn’t show up…”

I thought that it had been enough of waiting for his friend to show up and that made me decide to take him home on my own as an apology, so I took his arm and put it around my shoulder and placed my arm on his waist while trying to get him to stand, “Omo I hope he doesn’t fall”

I started walking, trying to head towards the exit. The nightclub hadn’t seemed so big in a long while, and he was a little heavy to carry so I couldn’t make that much progress either, I almost tripped even but then, I heard the same voice that I had listened to on the other end of the line, “Hey careful” it was softer than on the phone, way softer and when I turned my head to the side to see who it was, my eyes landed on a really ethereal looking guy, he was wearing a black coat and black jeans, his bangs were sort of long and his skin tone quite pale, his eyes had a sort of sharp look in them and for a second there- I was a bit at a loss of words. This guy didn’t look real, he didn’t look real in the slightest and it made for me to not be able to say anything to him, “Wonshik? Are you alright?” he asked softly as he helped me support the guy who had saved me, “Hey what happened to—“

He turned around and looked straight into my eyes which opened wide in response when his gaze landed on me, “Who are you…?”

“I-I… I just…” I stuttered, I wasn’t quite sure how to respond and then I remembered that this was the same person who had threatened to call the police because of being skeptical regarding the situation I had mentioned, I remembered he had been the one to speak harshly to me but with all reason, it was late, his friend was in this condition because of me, a total stranger. Embarrassment took over me at that moment,   “I am the …waitress who called you sir”

“Oh…” his gaze landed on the floor as he tried his best to help me carry Wonshik, “Wait, let me help” we started walking towards the exit and for some minutes he didn’t say anything, that until we reached the door of the establishment,  “What happened to him?”

“He took three martinis in a row…” I began explaining, “Actually he helped me out because he saw a man approaching me and apparently he noticed that he wanted to drug me so…” I couldn’t even look at him, because the more I explained, the worse I felt, “I’m sorry… it is my fault your friend is like this”

“So you are to blame for this?” he suddenly said and it sort of felt like it stung a bit, but he was right, that is exactly what it was and there was no other way to describe this situation. I was to blame and he was right in expressing himself that way, “I mean…” he tried to avoid meeting my eyes while seeming like he was lost regarding what to say next.

“Don’t worry, it is my fault I got him in trouble” I quickly responded since I wasn’t going to make a scene, he was correct in everything he had said and so the only thing left to do was to speed this up so there weren’t any other troubles because of me, “I’ll help you carry him to his car or I’ll help you get him home”

“It’s late for a girl to be out this late,” he unexpectedly said as we were getting near the door and were about to exit, clearly this wasn’t the first time that I was out this late but it sort of felt nice to at least believe he was worried about me even if he was even more of a stranger than Kim Wonshik, “You’ve already done enough”

“I'm sorry…” I bowed my head to quickly apologize as I looked everywhere but at Taekwoon’s eyes. We walked towards a car that was nearby and once we had managed to get Wonshik inside the car, at the backseat, I handed Taekwoon his friend’s phone. He hesitatingly stretched out his hand and took the phone as he bowed.

“I…” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck and gazed at the phone’s screen, “Thank you for taking care of him” and that day, I saw him leave on the car and I headed back to my place. I wasn’t expecting to ever see him again. Neither of them to be quite honest, I was under the idea that after what had happened Wonshik was going to be convinced by Taekwoon to never set foot in this nightclub ever again. However, something unexpected happened; something I really wouldn’t have thought to be plausible.

The day after, during my afternoon shift, someone visited me. Someone I really wasn’t expecting, “Good afternoon, welcome to—“ it really took me by surprise so much that I was even at a loss of words when I saw him right in front of me. Jung Taekwoon had dropped by the bar out of nowhere, during afternoon and was standing there, looking a