-JY-

Thirty minutes in and Jeongyeon is still holding the same bottle she had since they settled at the little corner in the far end of the bar.

"You could at least pretend you're enjoying your time." Momo comments from the side, bumping her body to the beat of the music. Her eyes don't land on Jeongyeon, but are around looking for prey. 

Jeongyeon still hated this part of the day. Weeks in and she still couldn’t find herself getting accustomed to it. The blaring music, the muffled conversation, and the smell of sweat, cigarette and perfume rolled into one that lingered until the next day, things that she never really liked.

Then there's the drink too. 

“A $7 beer is hardly something to enjoy.” The tip resting on her lips as she speaks, the loud music drowning the petty loathing she has for overpriced cheap tasting beers. Something that accumulated overtime during their recent bar trips.

“Aren’t you as stingy as ever?” The snarky reply earns a glare, yet Momo teases back by winking.

Jeongyeon refrains herself from bantering something back knowing full well they were in this similar conversation and none ever got to her friend's thick skin. Momo has never treated her to a bottle or offered to buy one. None at all, even after multiple hints Jeongyeon made a few days back.

Her support for Momo's quest for nightly hookups always ends with her losing $16(she buys two plus a tip) and a friend who leaves her by the time that same friend finally pounces on a prey.

“Take it as an investment.” Momo says, her hand laid out as if offering Jeongyeon a business plan. Funnily enough, Momo sounded convincing too.

The spirit bites as Jeongyeon swallows the beverage at once, wincing as it trickles down , chuckling by the end, "My liver failing is hardly an investment.”

"You're terrible at comedy."

"My humor requires thinking, it's selective."

"No . I bet it doesn't have much selection."

"You'd know. You aren’t included." Jeongyeon's smile is smug yet Momo isn't even offended. Hardly even minded how Jeongyeon just implied she lacked that depth to understand her jokes.

“You really need to work on your humor.” Momo says, her voice is as neutral as her expression. She then lifts up her own drink, the edge resting on her lower lip, and adds before taking a sip, “Going back, you know what I mean.”

“I do know what you mean.” Jeongyeon takes another drink, remembering the whole speech Momo made the first time they went out. Something about hunting and keeping yourself fed, she recalls.

“You see all of these” Momo’s hand circles, drawing an imaginary line around women on the dance floor, eyes dead set on Jeongyeon, “is for our picking. You know that claw machine? That $10 is your token and you now get to pick among them.”

“I thought it was hunting in the wild.”

“That too. But we’re on this now.” Momo waves a hand then limps back to her side, the other landing on Jeongyeon’s shoulder, squeezing it with just the right amount of enthusiasm. “You get to play with it, then pick another for the next night. But once in a while you get lucky, and the claw happens to nab the golden prize.” 

The comparison doesn’t even make sense. They had been drinking alright, but not too many to spew this kind of nonsense. 

Then again Momo did have that speech about hunting. Now whether the recent Nat Geo subscription was at fault or the couple glasses of vodka was, Jeongyeon still wouldn't understand.

The hand on Jeongyeon's shoulder drops right after she smacks it. Momo takes the glass, her head now bobbing back to the beat, “But if you’re not up for playing, you can always take the backseat and enjoy the view. Not everyone’s up for driving."

“So it’s a race car now?”

Momo shrugs, her gaze landing elsewhere, most likely her attention too, “All I’m saying is there are plenty of beautiful women around. You could either admire them over a bottle of beer or catch one once the alcohol settles.”

Jeongyeon doesn’t disagree. It’s one of the few things her friend says that Jeongyeon won’t argue with and the only thing that made the overpriced drink somehow tolerable. And maybe a little more tonight as she follows the gaze where her friend lands at.

"Who knows, you might meet the right girl here."

The sneer that comes out of Jeongyeon is instant. It was not meant to offend but the idea was truly laughable, especially when it came from someone who never even found the right one at a place they swore you could. 

Jeongyeon has been around Momo long enough to know you don't get to meet someone looking for something serious here. The right girl doesn’t go to bars looking for their happily ever after. It certainly isn’t the right place to look for one either.

Whatever Momo has in mind, they’re all ridiculous just as the constantly changing analogy in her speech is. So much it has Jeongyeon rolling her eyes and muttering monotonously, "That's a sight to see." 

Jeongyeon drinks another round of her beer while taking a quick glance at the same spot where Momo is still looking, her lips curving up a little.

Rarely does she find anyone quite, well , breathtaking, like finding a gem among unpolished rocks, and it seems to only shine brighter as it gets closer, and closer, and closer .

“You like what you see?” The woman asks as soon as she reaches them, and Jeongyeon wonders whether it was to seduce or to intimidate. But seeing as the woman never even cracked a smile, Jeongyeon is betting on the latter. “Thinking about ing me?”

Jeongyeon chokes on her drink, she bet on the stranger to be intimidating but not this feisty. And by the looks of it, so did Momo. 

They’ve been together for years and Jeongyeon has seen each and every face Momo wears in front of women she’s trying to sleep with but she hasn’t seen her this quiet and this helpless against a woman- prettiest woman Jeongyeon laid eyes on. 

“I---...” Momo stammers. She isn’t equipped for this. Momo’s isn’t a prey, she hasn’t been. This is new. She has never been good with confrontation when sober, more so when drunk. 

“You were pretty daring sending signals from afar. Where did that spunk go?”

Helping out would be an option, and Jeongyeon would have, almost dropping her beer on the table and cutting the thick tension with a joke. But she decides to gulp the earthy taste down instead, seeing as her friend could use someone to set her on her ways.

Then there’s also because the woman looks kind of cute with furrowed brows and pointed lips that Jeongyeon couldn’t help but appreciate the other side of this view in peace. 

“Is that it? Is that how you see me, someone to get by, someone to scratch that itch?”

“I wasn’t-” The woman’s arms cross against her chest, and Momo feels her own tightening. 

“Wasn’t what?” Her patience sounded thin, Jeongyeon assumes, and her friend’s voice drying in the middle isn’t helping the situation.

Momo’s mind is fuzzy, blindly scrambling around to pick the best answer. The panic is evident in her eyes, glancing back at Jeongyeon and asking desperately for help. 

“Well?”

But Jeongyeon watches in amusement, tilting her head as she raises her beer as if to toast then mentally sending a signal back, ‘You got this.’ 

Momo doesn’t have it. The pressure is piling up. It also doesn’t help that her cheeks are flaring, her heart pounding crazily, and that unexplainable churn in the pit of her stomach acting all at once. 

“I’m waiting.”

There’s also the woman’s intense gaze that challenges Momo further- Momo who isn’t willing to get into battle.

It only took another second when Momo finally burst out, “I was looking at your friend! I’m sorry!”

The unexpected admission causes Jeongyeon to gag on her drink but she forces it all down in one gulp, the spirit stinging down . She has to admit, for someone who isn’t ready to fight her own battle, Momo is quite remarkable swinging out her sword.

“I wasn’t looking at you. I was looking at your friend. I’m sorry, I thought she knew. So I-” Momo continued and Jeongyeon could only try her best not to let a snicker out.

Momo is still swinging out her counterattack one after the other, completely oblivious to how each word sends the woman shrinking on her spot. Jeongyeon felt sorry, so sorry she almost came to the stranger’s defense. 

Almost .

Their eyes meet and Jeongyeon feels her knees trembling at the intensity. Too intense, she had to look away and nervously drink from her almost empty beer bottle.

The woman’s confidence never wavered, but the reddish tint painting her cheeks is obvious, and deepening every second spent in silence. And strangely, Jeongyeon found that flushed face adorable.

“You should be.” The woman interjects, still intimidating as before, like the little revelation never squashed her confidence down. She turns around, proud and poised, muttering before walking away “what an .”

The music is still loud, and the place is still packed. But it all seems to fade away in the background, even the conversation between Momo and the woman’s friend doesn’t seem to register any longer. All Jeongyeon could focus on is that saffron colored dress slowly diminishing among the crowds and the image of the woman’s fuming face that had settled in her memory.

Jeongyeon smiles, the feeling of enjoyment finally creeping in. Sure bars aren’t the place to find true love, but even then, that was indeed a sight to see.

-MN-

‘Relax. We’re gonna have fun tonight.’

Mina recalls the very words her friend swore as they left her apartment. Fun, she said. And for some reason, Mina believed her, ditching writing an essay due tomorrow in exchange of a night full of, well , questionable definition of fun,

“I thought you said it would be fun.”

It was supposed to be fun. That was Nayeon’s intention to begin with; to bring her friend to a new surrounding other than the four walls of their shared apartment and have a good time. The same walls Mina kept herself in when her ex broke up with her a few days back.

“I did say to relax , Mina.” Nayeon says, placing two glasses of cosmo to drink.

Minutes into the bar and Mina haven’t had any fun nor found the time to relax. The place is too noisy, cramped and full of intoxicated people she can barely have a decent conversation with. The last place Mina would be ecstatic to be in.

Then there’s also a handful of overbearing men looking to hook up.

“A man grinding up against me is not my definition of fun.” Mina takes a sip as she throws a quick glance at the same man standing too closely against her minutes before they had this conversation groping another woman. She drops her gaze back at Nayeon, raising the same glass, “I take that this is your apology?”

“The cosmo, yes.” Nayeon nods, raising her voice as she explains further, “The grinding was not in any way part of it. It’s a Tuesday for Christ's sake! It should be a women only night.” 

“Like an 8x11 note on the door would stop men from trying..”

Nayeon groans exasperatedly, her shoulders slumping, “But you’d think they’d give up after you insulted his tiny .”

“Well, his ego seems just fine.” Mina tilts her head a bit into his direction. 

“Forget about