If the color beige were an emotion, every waitress in that damn restaurant would have been feeling it. It wasn’t that they were unattractive or anything, Seungho just didn’t like the fact that between the uniforms and the hairstyles, they were all virtually copies spit from some industrial machine back in the kitchen. Gunmetal and ashen clouds cluttered the sky outside the cold glass. Everything about the evening just screamed at Seungho in a blunt, white noise of a lonely, solo drinker fallen into the gray monotony that was the educational system. The heat between his fingertips and the cup of chilled liquor felt deceiving, as the soft lighting in the facility expected a warmer atmosphere. His thoughts, which had been racing with mournful regrets and twisted all up in an air of irritation, ended suddenly with a glance off his shoulder.

“You know, sulking by yourself in a corner is supposed to be bad for your health. Rather than doing that, why not indulge in way too much alcohol for your liver to handle with a fellow student? Yes? Wonderful.” a voice inquired, as the belonging body comfortably sat across from him. 

With a scoff, Seungho replied, “Quite a bold introduction. You going to pay for said indulgence?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the arrogant individual said with a crooked look to his features, a look that would suggest he’d been around the block a few or more times. This guy obviously knew what he was talking about. To some degree, it pissed Seungho off to have to sit here and swallow up whatever he said. Sometimes he wished that if it went in one ear, it really did come out the other. After the pause, the face across from him continued, “Would you like me to try a different approach to introduce myself to you? My name is Jung Byunghee. Call me as you please, so as long as it doesn’t sound like a pet name between children or lovers, for that matter. Oh, and to answer your question, yeah, I could pay for our...date of sorts.”

Snickering and tossing his head slightly, Seungho sat up in his chair and rested his elbows on the table. “In that case, Byunghee, I’d love to join you. Just as long as you still love me in the morning,” he smirked and jokingly batted his eyelashes, letting a fake as hell smile crawl across his face.

Returning the smile, Byunghee rested his cheek on his fist and gasped, “My dearest, please! I would never even think to leave you with unreturned love-” he burst into laughter, before continuing with a sigh, “You’re alright. So, do I get the honor of knowing the name of my ‘dearest’?”

Chuckling a bit, “You’re not so bad yourself. Yang Seungho,” he suggested, “But if you’d prefer ‘dearest’, good luck with getting my response in public,” he added to their running joke.

“Ah, but that’s no fun, Seungho-dearest,” Byunghee insisted. As one of the copy-and-paste waitresses walked by, Seungho half expected his newfound lover to give her a good one across the , but instead he called, “Excuse me, miss, but could you bring my friend and I two more rounds?” with a nearly irritating tone, but she only nodded and strode away. Jokingly, Byunghee watched her walk away, leaning around the side of the table.

Watching his eyes watch the girl’s thighs, Seungho chuckled again, “Worthy target?” he mused. Seungho realized his assumption hadn't been too far off.

“A worthy target, yes, but the bullseye is a little off,” he reported, shaking his head.

“Shame,” Seungho complained with a roll of his eyes, just as the waitress with the shameful “bullseye” returned from the kitchen with their alcoholic refreshments. Within seconds, Seungho could already tell that Byunghee’s attention was no longer on the previous angel of a waitress, but the liquid gold she carried. His eyes widened to unmeasurable sizes and he bit his lip in anticipation. He looked like a kid in a candy store, however this was the rated R version of long-legged women and amber abstract. Maybe there were beads of sweat forming on his brow, but Seungho couldn’t tell. He was so damn worked up, it was a total sight. His breath was even slightly audible.

As the waitress set the glasses down with a chime, Seungho half expected to see Byunghee jump out of his seat or faint or something.

Taking a gulp of his first of many drinks to follow, Byunghee relaxed back in his chair, tipping it on its hind two legs in pure contentment. He nodded his head to some imaginary beat and concluded, “Now this, this is a bullseye.”

--

The cackling to banal humor ensued for an extended amount of time, and much to the delight of the employees, the disruptive pair were asked to leave once it hit around one in the morning. The joint was closing anyways, and all the paper dolls that worked as waitresses would get folded back up for the night until their next shifts.

“So tell me Seungho-dearest,” Byunghee started, slinging a heavy arm around Seungho’s shoulders, “What exactly got you in such a foul mood during the start of this night?”

Seungho rolled his shoulders back to feel less cramped under the gorilla arm compressing him. He thought for a moment before replying, “Oh, that? Well, I guess thinking back, it was a little trivial, but,” he paused, “I was hoping to get the top score on my last engineering exam, but that damn guy who sits in the corner with his ugly haircut and weird pants beat me to it,” he fumed.

“Wait, so you were mad because you weren’t the ultimate genius of the genius clan? My Seungho-dearest is not only a virtuoso in drinking, but also intelligence! Wow, you just get better and better!” he scanned over his walking armrest in disbelief.

“Shut up,” he grunted, getting slightly irritated thinking about it.

“I’m just giving you . Seriously, though, if you’re already awesome at something that difficult, why’s it matter if some guy with weird pants is good at it too? I don’t know, man, maybe it is the pants. Try wearing weirder pants,” Byunghee suggested, the sound of alcohol rolling through his lips to connect each word more than necessary.

“Or the hair,” Seungho added, his mood lightening slightly. Byunghee understood more than expected, or maybe Seungho just needed his feelings simplified by someone else for a change. Maybe it was the alcohol, but either way, it was much better than the dismal moping from earlier in the evening.

Pulling his arm away, Byunghee jabbed his thumb out, pointing to the fork on the path. “You headed to the dorms?” he asked, suppressing a belch into his chest.

“I could, but I don’t really feel like I would want to go. I just don’t really have that strong of motivation to stay in for the night just yet,” he corrected. After some thought, he added, “Or maybe I just don’t have the motivation to unpack yet,” and that one got a low chortle out of Byunghee.

“I see. Well, contrary to your plans, I am more than ready to near suffocate myself in the sheets of my bed,” Byunghee replied with an excited gleam in his bloodshot eyes, “I’ll see you soon."

Laughing and with a slight nod, Seungho responded, “Yeah, feel free to call me up sometime. I’ll see you in my dreams, Byunghee.”

With a grin, Byunghee drunkenly twirled around on the heel of his foot and dramatically spun his wrist while calling back as he walked away, “I’ll miss you, Seungho-dearest!”