“All is never fair in love and war. First you will smile, and then you will cry. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.”

French Vocabularies:

1 Quoi?: What?

2 Répétez s'il vous plaît, Monsieur…? : Can you please repeat that, Mr…?

 

“What are you doing tonight?” was the first question L asked when he called me one night.   “I’m playing Angry Birds on my laptop. What’s up?”   His answer made me fall backwards, along with my chair.   “Let’s go out, to the pub or the club.”   “Quoi?1” I shrieked as I regained my balance. “Répétez s'il vous plaît, Monsieur2 L?”   “Do you want to go clubbing?” he repeated slowly and firmly.   “Um... Okay,” I finally said after getting over my surprise. “I’ll get Woo Hyun hyung to come as well k?”   “Yeah. Invite whoever you want.”   My eyebrow cocked in amusement. What is he up to now?   Without further ado, I called up Woo Hyun hyung who said he would get Pierre and Martin, our French friends, to come along. It had been a long time since I saw these boys, so it would be good if they could come tonight.   We decided to go to Ice Bar of Kube Hotel, where everything in the bar from the bar itself to the interior decoration were designed by ice sculptor Michel Amann using 20 tonnes of ice. Amazing right? The room temperature was always set at -12°C, therefore we must prepare ourselves for Antarctica in Paris. It was a memorable experience despite the expensive entrance fee of €38 for a thirty-minute entry. It’s not exactly a club, but I wanted to go there and since I usually took the decision whenever we hung out, nobody really minded.   The place was fully crowded when we got there. I had not been here since it was renovated. The soft lighting of violet and blue, the mirrors, and the chairs all carved in ice were still as cool as ever. The decoration had left a deep impression on me even when I set foot for the first time here at my 18th. The staffs outside gave us hooded jackets made of Pyrenex before we entered to prepare us for the coldness we were about to greet. I entered first as the other four guys followed closely behind. As usual, the bartender was serving four cocktails, made of Grey Goose vodka, in ice glasses. A girl at the bar caught my attention. She had beautiful ebony eyes and long thick brown hair. She looked young, I assumed around 18. She was probably on a holiday or a gap year. I heard her friends cheering in Korean as she downed the first glass. I smirked at this discovery. Like I said, we only had a limited time of thirty minutes in the bar (who would want to stay longer to freeze?), but now that there was her, I suddenly felt tonight won't be a waste at all. We ordered our drink and I kept glancing at her, wondering how I could approach her. She was still chattering away with her three friends.   As L nudged me to go to our seat, I noticed the girl’s eyes shifted to me. She probably caught me looking at her. Nonchalantly, or rather shamelessly, I turned away from her and followed the boys to the ice seats. I observed the girl again as she laughed at her pink-haired friend's remarks, and then found her eyes sneaking coyly to me. When the staff came with our orders, I began to pay more attention to L, who was already gulping the first glass of Grey Goose. I couldn’t help but frown at his behaviour. L wasn’t a bad drinker, he came here for my 18th and we were the only two still sober when Pierre was drunk to the core and Woo Hyun hyung almost stripped on the spot, just after Martin passed out. But the reality was L rarely drunk. The only acceptable alcoholic drinks for him are champagne and wine for formal parties, the classy man he was.   Did something happen with Amber? Did he get rejected?   I scoffed at the thought. He wouldn’t have the guts to tell her, I bet. If she found out the fact about Uncle and him, she’d probably be on the phone to the police and L would be panicking right now.   Does Amber have another man?   This was possible. I looked at L, who glanced at me, sensing my gaze on