Was it wrong to appreciate another woman’s iness? I mean, this wasn’t a strip club or brothel or anything, but the bartender that started working a few minutes ago probably beat out most of the women there. Not only was she attractive, but she also looked foreign and had the body of an idol.

              I sighed, offing the rest of my drink. Becoming someone like her was unreachable for me; I was short, socially awkward, and average in appearance. She probably had a really attractive boyfriend or something. Unlike me, who has never been in an actual romantic relationship in my entire life.

              I watched the TV mounted to the ceiling, playing with my empty glass while stealing glances at the pretty bartender whenever I could.

              “Hey there, mind if I buy you a drink?”

              The deep, male voice came from my left. Startled, I turned around and came face to face with a handsome, fierce looking, cleanly shaven man. One thing that I couldn’t help noticing was that his eyes were really big.

              “Um, ok,” I replied hesitantly. Was he hitting on me?

              “Bartender! Please get this lady a drink; it’s on me,” he said, signaling to the lady behind the counter.

              “One second,” she said. Her voice was the kind that seemed to reverberate about the room; it was so cheerful that, paired with her smile and cheerful demeanor, just seemed to create a happier atmosphere.

              “Thank you,” I said, bowing to him.

              “No need to thank me,” he replied. I tapped my glass a few times before he continued again, “My name is Lee Jong Suk.”

              “I’m Kim Taeyeon,” I replied.

              “Kim Taeyeon … that name fits well on the tongue,” Jong Suk said. His gaze was warm and friendly, but the way he never broke eye contact uneased me.

              “Oh really?” I said, unsure of how to respond. Why would he say that? Does he know someone with my name?

              “So, what brings you here?” he inquired. I again felt his gaze bore into me, causing me to feel a mix of bashfulness and embarrassment.

              “Oh! I just wanted a drink,” I replied simply.

              “Is that so? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here—”

              “Hi, how are you?” the bartender said, cutting the man short, “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

              The man smiled at the bartender. “No problem,” he replied, “Taeyeon-ssi, what would you like?”

              “I’ll have what I just got,” I told her. The bartender stared at me, smiling warmly, as if she was expecting something. Was there something on my face? Did I do something wrong?

              I started to panic, resisting the urge to pat down my face and body. “There’s nothing on your face,” the bartender said, giggling. Her giggle, just like her smile, was something else; it was musical and extremely uplifting. I could feel my mood improve, not that I was in a bad mood before.

              “Oh,” I replied dumbly, my lips automatically curving into a smile.

              There was something about this woman. I felt it; despite how shy I usually was, I felt drawn to her. She seemed strangely … familiar. It was the sensation of a memory is standing on the brink of discovery; it felt within grasp, but no matter the effort, it dangled just outside my fingertips.

              “I’m sorry, but I just replaced the last bartender, so I don’t know what your previous drink was,” the woman said.

              I felt my ear tips burn with embarrassment. “Oh, of course!” I said, smiling sheepishly, internally scolding myself, “It was the Sunshine.”

              “Ah ok. One Sunshine coming up,” she said, giving me one last smile before turning around.

              “Continuing from before, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before,” Jong Suk said. I tried to meet his gaze, but its intensity caused me quickly to shy away.

              “Um, yeah, I’m on summer break from college right now,” I told him, fiddling with my empty glass.

              “Is that so? Which college?” he asked. His motives again fell flat to me. Was he just making conversation? Why with me?

              “A college in America called California Institute of Technology,” I told him. The name seemed to fall flat on him, though.

              Before Jong Suk had a chance to reply, the bartender came back around with the drink in hand. “Here’s your Sunshine!” she announced, placing the glass in front of me, “Enjoy!”

              “Thank you,” I said, taking the drink and taking a sip.

              “I can’t say I have heard of that college before,” he mused.

              “Oh really? It’s a pretty famous one.”

              The proximity of the bartender’s voice to me jarred me. It took only a second to regain my senses, and when I did, I all but confirmed that the bartender was indeed from America. Her Korean was almost flawless save for a few words that gave away her American accent, but her knowledge regarding the existence of CalTech was probably rooted in her American upbringing.

              “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not that familiar with American schools,” he said apologetically.

              “You must be really smart to have gotten into there, huh?” the bartender continued, making eye contact with me.

              “Ah, I’m not that smart,” I quickly said, “I just … um, I was actually born in America and moved to Korea around 3^rd grade, so I had an advantage over everyone else,” I explained to her.

              She nodded, not the least bit surprised. Then again, why would she be? It’s not like that’s an absolutely ridiculous thing have happen to someone.

              “I enjoyed talking to you Taeyeon-ssi, but unfortunately, I have to go meet with my sister now. I hope to see you again!” Jong Suk said, setting a few bills on the counter and getting up out of the seat.

              “Oh, ok. Bye!” I turned around to wave at him. He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it, causing me to freeze up. He gave me one last grin before heading out of the bar.

              I sat there, staring blankly at the door, the tips of my ears radiating heat. Did that just happen? “Wow, that’s a first,” the bartender said.

              I snapped out of it and turned around to see her standing right in front of me, separated only by the bar’s counter. She had rested her arm on it, leaning forward slightly.

              “Hm? What is?” I inquired, grabbing my drink.

              “That JongSuk is a regular here, and he almost always leaves with the woman he flirts with,” she said, staring at the door.

              “Oh,” I replied. After taking a sip, I fully realized what the bartender lady had said; was he flirting with me? Someone as attractive as him?

              The bartender giggled again. “You’re special, huh?” she said, making eye contact with me again.

              I blinked, diverting my gaze. No, there really isn’t that much that’s special about me, I wanted to say. However, all that came out of my mouth was, “I don’t know.”

              I took another sip of my drink as I felt her gaze trained onto me. Why was she staring at me now? “Well, one thing I like about him is that he always leaves a very generous tip,” she said, collecting the money left on the counter.

              “Hey, Tippany!”

              Another male voice, a few seats to my right, called out. The bartender stood back up straight, removing her arm from the counter. “Don’t discredit yourself,” she said, smiling once again at me, this time in conjunction with her eyes, before heading off.

              Tiffany, huh? Once again, the familiar sensation returned; however, I still couldn’t quite place my finger on it. “Tiffany … Tiffany … Tiffany … why does that sound familiar? Tiffany … Tiffany …” I murmured to myself, staring intently at the counter.

              “Yes?”

              Tiffany’s voice disrupted my thoughts. I blinked in surprise, looking up to see Tiffany standing right in front of me again, cleaning out a cocktail shaker. “Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about something,” I admitted sheepishly.

              She smiled. Wow, she really smiled a lot, huh? Was she acting because it was her job? Or was she actually just a generally happy person? “And what’s that?” she inquired.

              “Uh …” I pondered, stalling for time as I wondered whether or not to tell her the truth, “It’s just … I thought it sounded familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why,” I ended up saying.

              She nodded empathetically. “Your pronunciation is really good though; I guess I should expect nothing less from someone who goes to an American college,” she noted.

              I nodded and smiled, staring back down at my drink. It was times like this I really disliked the part of me that was socially inept; I racked my brain for something else to say, and after what felt like an eternity, all that came out of my mouth was, “This drink is really good.”

              Tiffany laughed. “I would hope so; I was trained for a month on how to make this stuff,” she said. I fell into a silence as I admired her; she was clad in a button-up black vest with a tan-colored undershirt, a sleek red tie running down her sternum, dark red gloves covering each hand, and a matching pair of shining, jet-black pants. The outfit formed well over her body; it wasn’t too tight, but wrinkles were almost nonexistent. She really did suit this bar’s uniform extremely well.

              “Oh, thank you!” Tiffany said, giggling to the point that her eyes disappeared into a pair of dark black crescent moons.

              I was confused at first, but quickly realized that I must have been talking out loud again. I buried my face in my hands, feeling my ears burn from embarrassment; when was I ever going to learn to control it? “How much did I say?” I fearfully inquired.

              “I couldn’t catch everything, but the only thing I heard clearly was you saying that I suit this bar’s uniform well,” she revealed to me.

              “Aahh,” I groaned, laying my arms flat against the table and pushing my head into them.

              “Is that a habit of yours?” I slowly nodded. “Don’t think too much of it, it’s cute,” she told me.

              “Tippany!”

              “Be there in a second!” Tiffany rubbed my elbow, saying “I’ll be right back,” before attending to the other customer. I slowly lifted my head, looking in Tiffany’s direction.

              With her back turned to me, I couldn’t help but notice how nice her figure was; she seemed to have close to perfect body proportions, not to mention how y her was.

              I pinched myself and took a sip of my drink. What am I thinking? I just met her today, and yet here I was, treating her like she was my best friend. Not that I looked at and judged my friends’ butts often.

              When I snuck another peek at her, Tiffany was already looking in my direction. She shot me a smile as we made eye contact, but I, for whatever reason, immediately averted my gaze. Was she aware that I was staring at her? There’s no way that she would know that I was looking at her earlier, right?

              I finished the rest of my drink and sighed. How lonely must I be to be sitting in a random bar, chatting up the bartender who happened to be a woman?

              “Hey, I like to think that I’m good company,” Tiffany’s voice suddenly appeared, disrupting my thoughts again.

              “Ah—…oh,” I replied dumbly, internally smacking myself for speaking out loud again.

              She giggled again. “Do you want a refill on your Sunshine?” she asked, motioning to my drink, “it’s on the house, since you’re so cute.”

              I blinked once; after debating if my ears were functioning properly, I chose to disregard it and slowly nodded. “Thank you,” I said as she whisked away to make the drink.

              Did Tiffany say I was cute? I huffed to myself. I’m 22 years old already, why would I be ‘cute’? There was nothing adorable about such a large double-digit number.

              “Here it is,” Tiffany said as she placed another glass in front of me. “How long are you going to stay here?” she inquired.

              “When’s your shift over?” I asked before I had a chance to think. After I realized what I said, I smacked myself. What did I just say? Why would I ask that? Maybe it was just the alcohol.

              Tiffany smiled at that. “Well, I just started, so my shift ends pretty late. If you come back tomorrow, my shift will be done at a reasonable time then. Maybe then you can take me on a date,” she boldly stated.

              I squinted my eyes at her. “Date?” I said, as if having trouble remembering the word’s definition.

              “Oh, were you not asking to take me on a date afterwards?”

              “Wh-Wha—…um, I’m not—I didn’t…I’m straight,” I ended with, stammering all the way. Wow, that was pretty convincing, huh. For some reason, Tiffany’s sudden question was like a jolt, quickly bringing me to a state of sharp focus—it was the same sensation of suddenly feeling freshly awake after nodding off for a couple of minutes.

              Tiffany laughed at this. “I’m sure,” she replied playfully, “Well Ms. Straight, can I expect to see you again tomorrow?”

              I shrugged. However, the next day, I was at the bar again, this time being greeted by the sight of Tiffany behind the bar in her nice uniform. She was chatting with another customer, but when I sat down, she turned to me and gave me a quick smile before resuming her conversation.

              “My shift’s done in half an hour; afterwards, you can take me out on that date,” Tiffany said.

              “Wha—I said it wasn’t a date, right?” I whined in response.

              Tiffany giggled. “Ok ok I got it,” she replied, “No need to pout, I don’t want to be tempted.”

              I opened my mouth to complain, but seeing Tiffany laugh at my reaction closed my mouth. Instead, I just sighed. I’ve had my fair share of experiences with people like Tiffany; why was I reacting differently? It was times like these where I cursed my overactive mind; maybe, in the end, it’s simpler than I thought it to be.

First chapter down whoo

Hi to all new readers; thanks for taking the time and checking out my story!

To all old readers: thanks for coming back! I know you’ve waited a long time (like … 3 years? More?), but I’ve finally reworked the story! I’m in my summer break right now, so I plan on updating once a week MINIMUM (I plan on writing more than one chapter a week, but we’ll see if I want to increase my upload frequency or not).

I’m sorta trying out a new style of writing, giving the narrator a voice different than my own. Hopefully I can be consistent … hehheh …

Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed!