Taste Test - One, Two, Three

The Bartender
Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

 

▬ Final Chapter: Taste Test - One, Two, Three ▬

 

I flipped another page of the random book that I found - British Manor Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery) by Leslie Meier - before I quickly placed my cell phone on top of the page to hold it open. Then, I immediately shifted my hand back to where it once was, squishing it between the cold, wooden chair and my derrière before continuing to lazily read the printed words in front of me.

The hidden area of the small library was perfect minus the cold air conditioning and random bouts of noises from other visitors. Otherwise, it was a nice place to get some quiet time while I waited for my brother, Hyunwoo, to finish his conference. The one-person study cubby where I sat was meshed in between the wall on the right side and on the left, a small walkway separated the towering eight-feet steel bookshelf. Only one person could squeeze themselves between the small aisle so I was fortunate enough to not have come by gazing eyes and forced smiles of salutations.

This place was definitely better than where I stayed that morning. Since my brother was running late, I was forced to find a waiting spot for myself. I didn’t want to wander too far especially because it was my first time at that place. So once I turned a corner and found the cafeteria with an empty seat right by doors, I snagged the chance and took a seat before people flooded the place. However, the longer I stayed there, the more uncomfortable it became. For one, the icy cold winds kept inviting itself inside the already cold hallway every time someone opened the creaky double doors. But what bothered me was that there were a few people who eventually ‘got to know’ me for being in that same exact place for the whole day. It went from a simple “Good morning!” to a couple more nods of recognition then eventually the greeting became more playful to the point of giving me a half pity, half wondering expression of “Wow, you’re still there?”

Feeling a bit desperate to find a reclusive place to wait, I searched online for the building’s layout and lo and behold, a library was actually present on the fourth floor. Once my brother was dismissed for lunch, he bought us a meal to share and that’s when I described to him my flustered morning and newfound discovery. Although he only had a few minutes left until the second half of his conference began and I could have definitely found the library if I wandered the hallways long enough, I still urged him to accompany me to which he gladly agreed.

Once we found the library and my brother went back to his meeting place, I gave a small hello to the librarian. She then gave me a short tour of where to find which books, magazines, and such and once I was alone, I slowly read past numerous titles until I settled on a book that had two cartoon corgis on the front cover.

“Ooh, a mystery novel with two corgis,” a curt smile found its way to my face. Despite the fact that there were Stephen King books on the shelf not far from where I was standing, as a dog lover, I was still drawn to read about the two dogs on the cover.

How typical and simple-minded.

That’s where I am now, reading this book until I got word from my brother that he was done for the day. However, the more I read, the more I felt duped by the cover. ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ definitely applied to this particular book. I was already about halfway and the only mention of the adorable corgis was that they were prancing around the manor. They had no strong correlation to the mystery or the entire book at all! The only motivation I had to continue was to know who the perpetrator was (although I already had a hunch on who it might be) and because I was becoming tired to find and start on another book when my brother could come out at any moment.

“It’s already four,” I sighed as I double tapped my phone to turn off the screen after checking the time. Right this moment, my mind was barely registering what I read. I even had to reread sentences a few more times because I was not concentrating on the world that I voluntarily began a few hours before.

I looked up and down the small aisle, craned my neck to scan the whole room and in between the bookshelves only to find that I was alone. Relieved at the news, I took off my glasses, placed my now numb but still cold hands in my jacket pocket, and closed my eyes. A few minutes later, my phone vibrated and I finally received a Kakaotalk message from my brother.

“I’m almost done,” one speech bubble read, followed by another bigger speech bubble. “Are you coming down here or should I come up? There are free books in the hallway you might want.”

“Okay. I’ll come down in a bit,” I texted back.

Once I returned the unfinished book where I found it, I grabbed my backpack and after pushing the chair back under the table, went down to meet my brother.

 

══════

 

“So, how was your day?” Hyunwoo asked while he punched in the address of the hotel on the GPS.

“I read a mystery book in the library,” I replied while I fiddled with the seatbelt. After hearing a click, I straightened myself while I waited for Hyunwoo to drive to our new destination. “I didn’t get to finish though so I’ll continue it tomorrow.”

“Speaking of tomorrow,” he let out a low grunting noise as he stretched himself to place his folders at the back seat. “Did you get to contact your friends? Are you guys meeting up tomorrow?”

“Probably, if they can make time.” As the vehicle finally set out, I squinted my eyes once the blinding sunlight crossed my view. Being the short person that I was, pulling the sun visor down wouldn't have made any difference. “Mina said that they would arrive tomorrow late in the afternoon because Aejung still had things to do at home.”

“I see.” Hyunwoo glanced at my direction just in time to see me yawn. He chuckled and his eyes were slightly squinted into little crescents. “There’s still dinner when we get to the hotel. Don’t sleep on me yet.”

“It’s partly your fault I’m still sleepy. I woke up at five this morning so that we could head out quarter to six because your meeting starts at seven thirty. Why is the venue so far away anyway?”

“Because this is their headquarters and they wanted us to train here.”

“But you’re not even assigned to this area,” I mumbled.

He probably didn’t hear me or just chose to ignore my comment because he continued, “You wanted to come though.”

“Only because I had nothing to do and mom wanted to make sure you’re able to wake yourself up in time for your meetings. It’s hard to keep you stay up after you’ve been woken up.”

After about a twenty-minute drive to the hotel, Hyunwoo and I checked in, confirmed the dinner schedule, then settled into our single two-bed room as we waited for the hotel’s complimentary dinner to start.

 

“Broccoli soup with what looks like cheese?” I read and analyzed the little name tag that introduced the contents of the huge, steaming pot. “Interesting.”

I noticed that my brother scooped himself some of that very soup so I decided to serve myself another type - sweet and sour, a more familiar label - and we could just share and taste test each other’s soup. We found ourselves a table and sat near the middle of the dining area. Hyunwoo sat across from me and faced the entrance while I faced what seemed like a mini bar.

“They have a bar?”

“Yeah, they serve free complimentary alcoholic drinks during dinner hours.” Hyunwoo took out a card that the concierge gave both of us after we checked in a while ago and showed me the back side. It had three tiny checkboxes for every day of the week, the times when the bar is opened, and some information about the complimentary drinks.

“Oh,” I nodded my head as a sign that I finished examining the card. Instead of putting it back in his pocket, he just left it beside him on the table.

“It’s free if you want to try it.”

“You must be playing,” I laughed. We both knew none of us liked to drink alcohol. I admit, we haven’t tried all of the drinks out there but judging from our little sips from taste tasting alcoholic beverages long ago, we surmised that we weren’t fans of the taste.

I would honestly be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about why others liked it though. I kind of wanted to have another taste too and make use of those free passes.

“But we’re already here,” he countered. “Might as well try it, right? If we don’t like it, we won’t have to pay for it nor do we need to finish it.”

“I’d feel bad for the bartender though for whipping up those drinks when we won’t even drink them.”

“Hey,” he shrugged then took a sip of his root beer, “at least we tried.”

A man clad in black walked out of the swinging door right behind the bar from what I assumed was the kitchen. He took off his black and white patched jacket and straightened out the black formal dress shirt underneath it. He then proceeded to fold both the dress sleeves to reveal slightly muscular forearms. Finally, he tilted his head a bit upward and inserted his gold chain necklace underneath his shirt then finished off with arranging his slightly tousled hair.

After he finished making himself presentable, he opened the lights at the counter, prepared the wine and beer bottles, then smiled at his first customer as he flipped the ‘closed’ sign leaning by the ledge to ‘open’.

I diverted my attention back to my barely eaten plate of food and casually talked to my brother about the most random things. And for a moment, I forgot about the bartender.

“This broccoli cheese soup is actually good.” Hyunwoo slid the small bowl over to me and tapped the rim with his spoon. “Here, try some.”

“You practically say that about almost everything you eat,” I snorted then dipped my spoon and scooped out a small sample to taste. “This does taste good though.”

“Can I take any of your finished plates for you?”

My eyes immediately darted to the voice and I practically shoved another spoonful of soup in my mouth to quickly give a response. The bartender from earlier left his post and was now standing by our table with a smile. He motioned with his free hand to the empty plates by my brother who was busy chewing his food while he stared at the new face.

“N-no thank you,” I returned his smile and managed to say after swallowing the contents in my mouth. “We can do it ourselves.”

“Okay! Please feel free to grab more food and even order something from the bar if you’d like.”

Both of our eyes darted to where the bartender placed the empty plates and I internally took note of where we should place ours after we finished. Noticing another customer heading towards the bar, the smiling bartender hastened his steps and lightly jogged back in place to take his order.

“Whoa, these guys work everywhere.” I glanced at how the bartender easily whipped up two drinks and the thought about ordering some for me increased a few notches. “I wonder if he gives out recommendations? Like for light or sweet drinks for first timers? You should try asking.”

“You should do it yourself.”

“But I know nothing about alcoholic drinks and you know how I am with people. Plus,

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
luv_kero
2415 streak #1
Chapter 1: Wow, what a cute and fun story! :D I definitely learned a lot about bartending, which isn't something people really detail in fics, since I also don't drink. XD And I do like how it was left open-ended a bit, since it would've been too unrealistic if Kihyun and the OC had miraculously fallen in love with each other in just one encounter. And Hyunwoo seems like a cool brother, haha. :P
Reader25
144 streak #2
Chapter 1: Cute story! It sounds fun :)
samii07
#3
Chapter 1: So exactly like me I say some pretty stupid things when I'm nervous mainly as ice breakers though doesnt always work and girl ditto I cant find anything to like
Reader25
144 streak #4
Seems interesting, looking forward to more!