“Enjoying the whisky?” Jinyoung quipped, leaning towards the counter. “It’s quite a rare one. Got it from a friend.”

Sitting at her usual spot in the speakeasy, Baram lifted the curved glass to her nose and inhaled the aroma. Taking another sip of the whisky, she felt the smokey taste of the whisky light a trail of fire from her tongue and down .

“It definitely has a strong kick to it,” Baram nodded to herself. “Not to drink on an empty stomach for sure.”

“Is this your way of telling me that you want to order food?” Jinyoung questioned raising a playful eyebrow.

“Are you offering to buy?” Baram responded, tilting her head to the side and batting her lashes at the young bartender.

“That depends,” Jinyoung pondered thoughtfully. “The bag of ice cream you had me put away, does it have a portion for me as well?”

Baram's eyes trailed towards the mini freezer behind Jinyoung, a nostalgic smile gracing her face as she recalled a distant memory. Then snapping back to reality, she placed her arms on the counter and leaned closer towards the bartender.

“I bought enough for everyone.”

“How generous,” Jinyoung chortled.

“Gotta show appreciation to my favourite drinking place once in a while,” Baram responded, her fingers grazing the rim of her glass. “Also an apology for the inconvenience I caused yesterday.”

“I hear it was quite a dramatic affair. Kinda bummed out I missed out on the action.”

“You didn’t really miss on anything,” Baram murmured softly, smacking her lips in the process. “How much did Bambam freak out?”

“He went into full fanboy mode so I kept myself safe by staying down here,” Jinyoung recounted. “Though Mark looked like he was ready to behead someone when he came down. Pretty sure I heard Jackson growl at Bambam when we closed up.”

“How cute,” Baram cooed in a mocking tone, glad that she had left before getting caught by Bambam.

A comfortable silence fell between them. Baram was uncertain on whether the male in front of her could be classified as a friend just yet; however, it appeared that they had reached a delicate equilibrium between them. They were fully aware of the line dividing them, and neither were careless enough to cross it. It was not too hard really, for Baram was a girl of few questions, preferring to remain silent, while for Jinyoung it was in his job description to know the boundaries when in the company of someone else.

Tonight however, Jinyoung was feeling a relentless itch of curiosity in his gut refusing to leave him alone. The male could almost touch the fog of nonchalance lingering around Baram, clinging in the air like a protective barrier. He eyed the girl, taking note of the lack of tension in her shoulders, how she slowly closed her eyes to fully indulge her senses in the whisky. In that moment of utter relaxation, Jinyoung  felt like he saw the fog lift ever so slightly, showing the line that they were both so careful to not cross. Inhaling deeply, Jinyoung cracked his neck and mentally took a step over the metaphorical line.

“What’s the story behind the ice cream?”

Lifting her eyes away from her drink, Baram threw Jinyoung a questioning look.

“What do you mean?”

“Mark said you owe him ice cream,” Jinyoung stated matter-of-factly, then pointing towards the freezer he continued. “I’m assuming that’s why you bought ice cream.”

“Aren’t you being a curious lad today.”

Jinyoung tensed at the subtle edge he sensed in the girl’s tone. He felt her sharp gaze gauging his expression as she finished the last drops of her whisky. Then letting out a low chuckle, Baram ruffled her hair before giving Jinyoung a blank smile.

“It’s nothing interesting really,” Baram mused, her eyes gazing into the distance as she dug up the memory. “It was high school graduation day, I was in a bad mood. You could literally see dark clouds looming around me so I purposely isolated myself. The cheers of joy and congratulatory chatter simply made me feel suffocated. For everyone else it was a day of achievement and celebration, but for me… It was a day of loss, a turning point in my life.”

Jinyoung frowned, not expecting the tale to go down such a route. But then again, was he really surprised? This was Ryu Baram after all, and if there was one thing that he knew for certain about the girl was that she was perpetually trapped in a fog of melancholy veiled as nonchalance.

“I managed to keep my emotions in check pretty well. But then some idiot just had to pull a really idiotic prank and almost set the gown of another girl on fire. Someone had gone to call the teachers already but seeing the smug expression on the idiot’s face and the lack of apology for going overboard… I kinda snapped.”

“You… snapped.” Jinyoung carefully echoed her words.

“I kicked a chair over and grabbed his collar. Then took the lighter that he had used for the prank and was this close to lighting his hair on fire.”

Baram bit