“So what happened to you today? Why are you drinking hard liquor at this hour?” Bomi asks the unknown girl sitting on the other side of the bar. Bomi was a bartender in Seoul, just trying to get by in life. Kicked out when she was 16 and charged for grand theft when she was 18. Now 22, just trying to get a job and not live, but survive.

She gets another drink going for the woman to who is sitting on the left of the bar. She was never experienced in bartending, or alcohol alone, but she needed a job. There was only one person who was willing to hire a former thief and that was crap bar owner, Chen.

“What’s it to you, detective?” Chorong disregards Bomi’s interest in talking to her. The younger of the two pours some vodka and lime juice into the cocktail shaker and picks it up, swaying it up and down.

“Feisty one, you are.” The young bartender breathes out and Chorong glares at her, taking another small sip of her lone whisky. Chorong was a student, 23 years old, at Seoul University. She lived away from her parents because she had to live near her school for convenience. She just had her last exam, confident that she failed, she picked up a drink.

Bomi pours the cocktail into a martini glass, garnishing with lime and and some lemon zest. She does it swiftly like she’s done it 1000 times before, which she probably did. It’s been two years at Leo’s Club.

“Here you are.” She serves the blonde lady a drink. She grabs it from her, taking her previous martini and pouring the rest of it in her new one. “That’s the last one, I’m cutting you off Ma’am.” Bomi says and takes the empty glass, throwing it in the sink.

She hands the tipsy lady her credit card back and her tab receipt. “Why are you cutting me off?” The drunk asks roughly throwing the card back at her. Bomi has experienced this too many times before, drunk wants to get drunker and throws a fit in the process.

She picks the card up off the ground. “It’s 5pm and you’ve had 6 lime martinis, I think you know why.” Bomi slides it back to her on the table, being as friendly as she could to the aggravated woman.   

“ this . I’ll go to the expensive- bar across the street.” The woman says calmly, getting up. Her voice sounding like she’s been eating cigars, ting them out, and eating them again. She decides to take the rest of her undrank martini with her.

“You’re welcome to drink the rest of your drink but please leave the glass.” The brunette yells at her from behind the bar, she’s already half across the joint though. Bomi smiles nervously at the lady.

She turns around and looks at her blankly. “You want your damn glass? HERE’S YOUR GLASS!” She screams and throws the cup at Bomi. Chorong flinched and closes her eyes tight, eyelid to eyelid.

It misses and hits the wall behind the small girl, shattering into a whole bunch of pieces. Some on the counter, some on the floor.

Bomi remains unaffected, shaking her head at the violent woman.  She sighs out and starts picking up the glass, “Crazy .” She mutters under her breath.

“Does that happen often?” Chorong’s curiosity of her increases as she didn’t seem frightened by the lady or the broken glass.

Bomi just shrugs nonchalantly. “The yelling customers, yes. The throwing of glasses, not that much.”

She threw the collected shards in her hand into the garbage bin. “Why’d you cut her off anyways? Don’t you get tips when you serve more drinks?” Chorong sips at her whisky again.

“Yeah... I get tips.” She says pouring herself some water. She rounds the bar counter and takes a seat beside the skinny girl.

“So why’d you cut her off?” Chorong angles her body so she can conversate with Bomi more comfortably. Bomi internally smiles at the girl’s sudden interest in her as she has been throwing questions at Chorong the whole evening to no avail.

“Because I like looking out for people. She doesn’t look like she’s in a good place, better to let her sober up, eh?” Bomi has always been like that, others before herself. She always liked keeping others safe and happy, she always wanted to be a hero.  

She took a drink of her water. Chorong hands Bomi her glass of whiskey and Bomi declines it. “Why water?” Chorong raises her eyebrows at Bomi.

“It’s 5pm.” She her head at the analog clock above the shelves of alcohol. Truth was, time didn’t matter to Bomi; she didn’t drink at anytime of the day, month, or year. Her parents played a big part in why she didn’t drink.

Suddenly a 20-or-so year old girl walks into the bar wearing a leather jacket. She had either a tattoo, piercing, or both on literally every part of her body. She looked sleezy, but somehow attractive under the ego.

“Hey! Get me a 2-ounce vodka on the rocks.” She shouts to Bomi and Bomi whips behind the bar pouring the 40% alcohol into a glass of ice.

She grabs the glass out of her hand as soon as she’s done pouring it which Bomi was use to. She chugs it all in one shot and squints as it burns down her bruised throat.

She winks at Chorong and paints a greasy smirk on her face. “Impressed?” Chorong turns away in disgust and ignores the nuisance.

“Leave the girl alone, Eunji.” Eunji was a regular at the bar, she came by for beer occasionally with her friends and often alone, hoping to snatch a random girl on a date.

“Slow day.” Eunji says to Bomi lying on the couch at the side of the club. “It’s a bar, always slow days. They start pouring in at 11pm.” Bomi explains absentmindedly as Chorong sits awkwardly, checking her phone.

“I meant slower day than usual...” Eunji trails off her sentence and closes her eyes, the alcohol was seeping it’s way into her nervous system now.

“Wake up, don’t want you choking on your own vomit.” Bomi says to Eunji, looking out for her. Chorong looks at the clock, feeling awkward stuck between the two girls.

“I’m gonna get going. Nice meeting you, Bomi.” Chorong reads Bomi’s name off of her name tag. She gathers her stuff and leaves an 20 dollar bill on the table.

“Wait, we were just getting to know each other.” Bomi says when Chorong was about to exit the door. Chorong turns around, now viewing a cute girl, biting her lip.

“Why are you interested?” Chorong asks cocking an eyebrow. She was never the type to make friends out of the blue. She always met them through school and has only collected zero close friends in her 23 years. She believed that all close friends eventually betray you. And the closer they are to you, the more likely for them to talk about you. She didn’t need that in her life, especially with her mom gone and her dad seeming like he couldn’t work to support anymore.

“I can’t be single forever.” Bomi says and smirks, itching her nape. Chorong rolls her eyes, turning right back around to the door. Chorong was not in favour of dating someone, especially someone who looks at her as a ‘can’t-be-single-forever-so-might-as-well-choose-her’ girl.

“With that attitude, you’re gonna be.” Chorong says and Bomi shrugs, another day another rejection. Who would want a girl with no intelligence, past criminal and works in a bar or $11 dollars an hour; yeah, nobody.

“You got no game.” Eunji rubs her temples, finally sitting up. “I don’t need ‘game’ to score a girl, you just watch. Plus who are you to talk when you yourself don’t even have a girl?”

Eunji scoffs . “I get a bunch of girls, you see me everyday getting one.” Now Bomi scoffs at Eunji, “Yeah, but do any one of them stay with you? 22 going on 50 then 60 then 80; life passes by Eunji. Stop wasting it on doing random girls in your rented basement.”

It was weird, Bomi wasn’t living a great life, infact it was a horrible life of waste and disappointment. But great things came out of that girls mouth, she was an expert therapist without a degree.

“Coming from you.” Eunji shakes her head in her hands, thinking about what she would do if she wasn’t doing what she was doing.

“Yeah, it is coming from me. The day your parents stop sending your lazy money, you will remember what Yoon Bomi said and you will regret not listening to it. At least I’m working. Here clean a table.” Bomi tosses a rag to Eunji, it lands on her head as she’s still hanging her head into her knees.

“Get up lazy bum.” Bomi takes another sip of water and starts to clean the tables.

“Don’t you get tired of it? Working to survive, survive to keep working?” Bomi thinks of all the times she actually did work to survive, and survive to work. It was not moments she was trying to count, it was her life.

“I not allowed to be tired of it, it’s my life. And now a habit.” Eunji shakes her head at the answer Bomi gave her, wondering why Bomi just didn’t let go of it all for once. Have some alcohol and have some bad .

“It’s your life, but you have a say in whether it changes.” Eunji tries to mimic Bomi’s therapist state.

“Give up working hard and earning money for relying on other people, drugs, alcohol, and ing s? No thanks, Eun, you can have that life.” Bomi looks at all the scars on her wrists. It was the result of her parents abusing drugs, alcohol and her, why would she want to become her parents?

Giving Eunji advice was one thing, actually caring was another. Eunji was Bomi’s friend but she was practically nothing to her. Everything was nothing to Yoon Bomi but she still gave more effort than most people would to guide people’s lives into the better direction.

“Don’t say I never told you so... When you come to me crying about no more money and parents hating you.” Bomi says seriously. Maybe going on about someone’s parents was disrespectful and over the boundaries, but sometimes it was the only way to get someone to listen.

Eunji sighed out, her heart knew it was true and it was going to happen someday. Her mind, trying to block out all these feelings that would lead to her not having her ‘fun’. “Whatever. You’re giving me $5 for wiping this table.” Bomi rolls her eyes at Eunji.

“Anything for you to show some initiative.”