❝TIMETOGO❞

“Well, we're here.”

The bar looked much more soothing than what Jinki thought it would be.  His mind had pictured the place looking as if it was a shack that had L.E.D. letters flickering on and off from lack of care.  However, the place in front of him now is a completely different story.  The bar looked nice, as if it was some apparel store on the outside.  Dirty white was the color of the bar's exterior, its name in bright white L.E.D. cursive letters on a black board.  The walls were glass, too, so the inside could be perfectly seen.

“I honestly did not expect it to be like this.”  Jinki marveled over the bar, even if he's just seen the outside of it.

Vickie chuckled, clutching onto her guitar a bit harder.  “I thought of the same thing when I applied for my job here.  Let's go this way.”

Instead of the proper entrance, Vickie took Jinki around the building to the right, where a really narrow pathway was located.  There were the flickering lights in purple and white above them.  The pathway itself was black and damp in the navy-blue-and-orange sunset sky.  There were algae on the wall, but the two disregarded them.

Once they had gone through that way, they arrived at the back entrance.  A sign in bright crimson letters was hung over the door that said:

EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE ONLY

An open gray road awaited them.  It was curved to follow the down-ramp going to the right.  A lone street light about five meters high shone a blue light, hitting the ground with a complete indigo color.  There were no cars at this time.  The flagpole waving the South Korean flag at the school could be seen if you looked up a little to the right from where the two stood.

“I've never seen a blue light for a street lamp before.”  Jinki pointed out, stopping in his tracks.

Vickie clucked her tongue as she briefly stopped walking as well.  She ruffled Jinki's hair.  “Wow, you seem like you're on a whole, new, different planet.”

“I can't believe this is the first time you're taking me here.”  Jinki looked to her.  Vickie just let out another chuckle before she led him inside the employees' entrance.

A tall security guard stood at the podium by the entrance.  He didn't look full Korean—or not even—for he had double-lidded and blue eyes.  “Good evening, Vickie.  I see you've brought someone.”

“Good evening, Rick.”  Vickie flashed a smile at the guard.  “Yes, he's a close friend of mine.  Jinki, can you sign in the log book, please?  Security reasons.”

“Alright.”  Jinki replied before he walked over to the podium and wrote his name and signature on the log book.  Rick gave him a little nod before he closed the log book.

Vickie led Jinki into another pathway once they had gotten in, but it was wider this time, and not damp and dark and full of algae.  It was right behind the stage, Jinki assumed, and more people were coming and going taking the same way they were.  People greeted Vickie and some did the same to Jinki as they walked.

They turned to the right and a short hallway with doors lined up on either side waited before them.  At the end of the hall, the fourth and last door on the right, Vickie's name on paper was plastered on the door.

“You have your own room?!  Wow!”  Jinki said, completely amazed as if it was his own room.

Vickie laughed as she placed a key inside the doorknob.  “It's not really that much, but I think it's alright.”

The door opened, and Vickie was right.  It wasn't really that much.  Her dressing room could be compared to the bathroom stall for the disabled, save for the small restroom at the corner.  And it was also alright, since there were plenty of room there.  Vickie's things were piled neatly so she could have room for a vanity table and another chair beside it.  Miraculously, there was also a bed.

“How did you even get a bed in here, Vic?  This room is like... so small.”  Jinki questioned her with a look that asked the same exact question.

Vickie couldn't help but giggle again.  She, herself, had been surprised she was actually able to get it inside the dressing room.  Sometimes, when she didn't feel like going back to the campus, she slept there.  She was not afraid of being locked in since the bar was opened twenty-four hours, seven days a week.

“I think I have time to practice.”  Vickie said, placing her backpack on the vanity table.  She slowly ped the guitar case, taking the guitar out of it carefully so the cloth wouldn't get stuck on the strings at the end of the guitar.

Jinki sat down the bed; it made a creaking sound at first, but not long later it had adjusted to his weight.  He fiddled with his phone inside his hoodie's front pocket.  He looked around, and then he stopped to look at Vickie who had begun to sing her song.

“I remember tears streaming down your face when you said 'I'll never let you go', when all those shadows almost killed your light.  I remember you said 'Don't leave me here alone', but all that's dead and gone and passed tonight...”

Something obvious was different once Vickie had seen herself sitting at the edge of the cliff.  It was so unusual that Vickie was able to look around to see it, when in reality she was only just singing.  It was night time, when usually it would always just be some time in the early afternoon and the sun would still be up.  The stars sparkled and the night sky lengthened, as if it was a huge dark blue blanket with sprinkles of white stars on it.  Those stars that were aligned shone brightly together, a haze of warm white around or behind them.  There was no moon, but the waves crashing against the cliff were strong.

“...Just close your eyes, the sun is going down.  You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now.  Come, morning light—”

“You and I'll be safe and sound.”

Once Jinki interrupted Vickie's singing, she stopped to take a look at him while still strumming her guitar.  He had his eyes closed, so she went back to singing with him.

As Vickie sat at the cliff's edge, she felt a weird vibe around her.  Her instincts said it wasn't a bad one, but rather a new one.  Someone was there with her.  The Vickie in reality couldn't manage to open her eyes while the Vickie that quietly sat down at the edge of the cliff didn't care.  That someone sat down beside her, and she could feel his or her stare on her.  The Vickie at the edge of the cliff opened her eyes, looking at the person beside her.

The person was male.  Both Vickie's gasped, and the scene rapidly changed in one snap.  Vickie placed a hand on her forehead as pain struck her.  Jinki stood up quickly from the bed and to Vickie.  He sat down on the empty chair right beside her.

“Vickie, are you okay?!  Do you need some water or—”

“N- No, I'm fine, thank you.”  Vickie waved her other hand at Jinki.  She tightened her grip on her guitar pick, burying a fist on her leg as she tried to fight the pain off.

Jinki searched around the room for something to hydrate Vickie.  There was a half-empty water bottle at the end of bed.  He stood up out of the chair to grab the water bottle.  He offered it to Vickie to which she gladly accepted even when she hesitated not long before.

A knock on the door interrupted the two.  Jinki went ahead to get it.

“Vic— Oh, sorry.  Is this Vickie's dressing room?”  The lady, somewhere around her thirty's, asked.  She looked at Jinki as if he was an alien from another galaxy.

Jinki opened the door a little widely for the lady to see Vickie inside.  “It is; she's here.”

“Oh, thank you.”  She said to Jinki.  “Vickie, you're up in five minutes.”

Vickie turned around to face the lady.  She was cherry red.  “Alright, I'll be there in a second.”

The lady gasped loudly.  She bombarded into the room, brushing past Jinki.  “Vickie, sweetie, are you okay?  I can cancel your performance tonight.  Oh, dear!  You look bad!”

“I'm alright, Unni, I am.  Don't worry, okay?”  Vickie tried to force a laugh.  It came out as a cough.

“You completely aren't!  Come on, pack up your stuff again and I'll go tell Vince—”

“Unni?  Unni, I'm alright; don't worry.  I'm still alive.  I'll be out there like any Saturday night.”  Vickie reassured the lady.

“Are you sure?  Because if you aren't then it's ok—”

“Unni,”  Vickie let out a successful laugh, “I'm alright.  Now go and hurry off the others while I prepare.”

The lady sighed.  “If Vincent kills me, it is your fault!”

“I know, I know.”  Vickie giggled.  “Now, go on and proceed to your job.”

The lady grinned and walked out the door.  She nodded at Jinki, telling him to take care of Vickie before she walked away.  Jinki closed the door behind him.

“Who's Vincent and that lady?”  He asked, curious.

“Vincent is the bar's manager and co-owner.  He's been living here for fifteen years after marrying her, Eunjung, that lady.  She's the performance coordinator here.”  Vickie explained to Jinki as she stood up out of her seat.

“Wait, so this Vincent guy is not Korean?  And who's that guard?”

“He isn't, yes.  He's from Canada, and Rick is his nephew.  Rick's half-Korean, half-Canadian, which explains why he has colored eyes.”  Vickie continued on, walking towards the door.

“So, it's basically their whole family in control of this place?”  Jinki asked, opening the door for her.

“Not exactly.  The other co-owner is Vincent's college friend.”  Vickie said.

The two exited the dressing room.  She locked the room and they started walking towards the main bar where the audience were.  Everybody was in a hurry which surprised Vickie.  Her performance wasn't the last one, but here they were, running around like little rats being chased by a broom.

“Vickie!”  A voice shouted quite loudly.

Vickie turned to where the voice came from.  She smiled.  “Dad!”

“Vickie, darling, I missed you!”  Wu Zheng said, pulling his daughter into a tight embrace.

“I missed you, too, Dad.”  Vickie replied before her father let go of her to hug her best friend as well.

“Hello, Mr. Song,"  Jinki grinned widely.

“Oh, dear.  How many times do I have to tell you to just call me ‘Uncle’?”  Wu Zheng said as he pulled him into a friendly hug.  He patted Jinki's back, laughing with Jinki and Vickie.

“What brought you here, Dad?  I thought you had work today,”  Vickie asked her father after he'd pulled away from Jinki.

“Yeah, well, I finished early.  And I'm here to tell you some news I don't know whether you would like or not.”  He said.  Once he had said that, Vickie got nervous.

“Tell me about it after my song?”  Vickie asked him, an unemotional face on her.

Wu Zheng nodded his head slowly.  “I will.”

“Vickie?  You're up.”  The same lady back in Vickie's dressing room called her.

Vickie held a thumbs up to her and said goodbye to her father and Jinki.  The two men found an empty three-seat table and sat down.  A waiter walked over to them quickly with a pad and a pen in hand.

That feeling washed over Vickie again, back in her dorm room.  She felt like her head was being squeezed in some machinery, and what made it worse was that Vincent and his wife Eunjung were watching.  Many customers also had their eyes on her as she sat quietly on the stage.

The band members in charge of the drums and the electric guitars began walking up the stage.  Vickie shook her head at them, then they hesitantly walked back down from the stage.  Vickie arranged the microphone stand in front of her, a painful echo coming out of the speakers all around the bar.  Vincent was skeptical.

“What is she doing?”  Vickie heard Vincent whisper to Eunjung.  Eunjung placed her hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

“Good evening, everybody,”  Vickie began.  There was no reply other than strong stares from the audience and the swishing of liquid in their distinct glasses.  “Tonight's performance will be a bit different.  More than a bit since I'm going to inch away from my usual rock and original-songs performances.”

“What?!”  Vincent was angry.  Eunjung tried to calm him down more with reassuring words and touches.

Vickie looked down at her guitar, forgetting that Vincent was agitated at her at the moment.  She began strumming and finger-playing, and the audience was amazed.  Vincent had quieted down for a little bit, though a couple of loud sighs could be heard from him.  Nevertheless, she continued playing her guitar.  Her song began, and the gentle evening breeze blew on her hair.

“I remember tears streaming down your face when you said 'I'll never let you go', when all those shadows almost killed your light.  I remember you said 'Don't leave me here alone', but all that's dead and gone and passed tonight.  Just close your eyes, the sun is going down.  You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now...”

“I know this song,”  Wu Zheng stopped on sipping his apple cider,  “This wasn't how the song originally went.  Vickie's amazing.”

“Yes,”  Jinki quietly whispered, “She is.”

“You and I'll be safe and sound.”  Vickie paused to begin another line of the song.  “Don't you dare look out your window; darling, everything's on fire.  The war outside our door keeps raging on...”

The audience was shocked.  All of them, even Vincent, did not expect Vickie to inch away that far from her usual performances.  A little amount of the audience were new, but they were surprised as well.  All of their mouths were hanging open in bewilderment.  Most of them were starting to close their eyes with a smile as they felt the song with Vickie.

Vickie was alone this time, once again at the edge of the same old cliff.  It was still night time; the sky had not gotten darker even if minutes had passed when sunset came at that place.  Suddenly, Vickie heard wind blowing against trees.  In the other place, Vickie looked around to see if she had gotten away from the cliff.  She had not, but there was a shore not quite far from the cliff.  The trees lined up a couple meters away from the shore.

The song ended, and the bar seemed to break from the audience's applause.  Some whistled while some were spontaneous enough to shout “Woohoo!”.  Vincent couldn't help but smile as Vickie walked down from the stage.

She got to where her father and Jinki sat, and the two were cheering for her loudly even when almost everyone had quieted down.  Those who were around them complimented her.  Vincent and Eunjung walked over to their table.

“I have to admit, that was good, Vickie.  I never thought you could sing songs like that.”  Vincent said.  Eunjung giggled.

Vickie joined Eunjung as she chuckled lightly.  “Thank you, Mr. Domenski.”

Wu Zheng stood up abruptly, a somewhat accusing look on his face.  “Hey, Vincent.  I heard you over there with all that sighing and stuff.”

“Wu Zheng!”  Vincent's eyes grew wide as he laughed loudly, bringing Wu Zheng into a bear hug.  “It's been a long time!  I didn't even notice you there!”

“The same Vincent I know,”  Wu Zheng laughed along as he patted Vincent's back.

“Well, we got to go back to work to check on people.  It was nice seeing you around, Wu-Wu.”  Vincent said.

“Oh, no, brother.”  Wu Zheng's accusing face came back.  “Do not call me ‘Wu-Wu’ ever again.”

Vincent laughed.  “Well, we gotta get rolling.  See you, Song.”

“Alright, that's a good boy.”  Wu Zheng chuckled.  “You, too, Big D.”

Vickie pulled herself forward so she was lined up with the round table.  “What were you going to tell me about, dad?”

Wu Zheng sat back down and so did Jinki.  Wu Zheng breathed in, and for some reason, Vickie knew what he was going to say.

“Oh, no, dad.  We can't.”  Vickie was shaking her head.  She didn't want this to happen so early.  She never thought it would be about that at all.  There was something wrong about all this.

Wu Zheng switched from Korean to Taiwanese.  “Yes, we do.  We have to go back to Taiwan.”