Strobe lights flash dizzyingly in every color imaginable, casting strange shadows on the moving bodies. The furniture is covered in red velvet upholstery like it's Christmas.

A lawyer and his assistant sit across from one another, exchanging looks through the erratic pulses of color. This isn’t the sort of place either of them would frequent but their client had insisted. Hypnotic dance music fills the club as half men in heels dance on the stage. Choi Seunghyun motions for his assistant Chaerin to move forward. She leans closer to him, feeling his hot breath on her cheek.

“That looks like something you would wear.” He tells her, nodding toward the stages.

Chaerin smacks him lightly on the arm and laughs, watching a perfectly sculpted model shimmy in gold hotpants.

“Stop flirting, you’ll make me jealous!” A voice whines in English and Chaerin looks up to see a blonde man in a leather jacket walking their way with a drink in his hand.

“Jeremy, thank you for inviting us out tonight.” Chaerin tells the tall American as he sits with them in the VIP suite. “I told my friends I would have Korean guests so they suggested this club.”

Jeremy says excitedly, looking back between the two Koreans and the main stage as if expecting something to appear. The DJ shouts out to the crowd, asking if they’re ready for the main event. Chaerin looks up over at her boss, laughing at his discomfort as he clings to his drink completely out of his element.

The lights begin to flicker and the music changes as the stage is illuminated in a bright light. Hideous red curtains are drawn and a figure emerges in a gold sequined suit with perfectly fluffed hair. Liberace's lovechild poses and starts to sing. Seunghyun watches in a trance as the crowd cheers, dancing along.

“A trot singer!” Chaerin exclaims in amused horror, the ice in her drink clinking around as she cackles.

Seunghyun meets Chaerin's eye with a chuckle, standing up from his seat and offering her a hand. She gets up and the two dance along with Jeremy, singing along with or without knowing any of the words.

As the performer's set comes to to a close and the curtains are drawn, Chaerin peeks at her watch.

"Ah, Jeremy, I'm so sorry but we have to get going." Chaerin tells the American designer with a hug. "We have a breakfast meeting early in the morning."

Seunghyun looks out in the crowd as Chaerin continues to say her farewells.

"I'm headed to the bathroom, Chae. I'll meet you outside at the valet." He shakes hands with Jeremy and disappears into the flickering lights.

He follows a glittering figure through the crowd, weaving through the moving bodies on the dance floor. Seunghyun gets to a poorly lit hall with bathrooms and dressing rooms. The man in front of him stops and turns around, his posture hulking and aggressive.

"Is there a reason you're following me?" The performer, introduced only as D-Lite, asks in Japanese. Seunghyun notices the slight accent in his speech, the nuance in the way the phonemes roll off his tongue that sound so similar to his own.

"Is this not the way to the bathrooms?" Seunghyun asks to test him. D-Lite raises a brow at the man's Korean, crossing his arms across his chest defensively.

"Are you a debtor?" The performer asks in Korean this time, looking him up and down. "No, a drug dealer? I don't wanna buy any."

"I'm not selling." Seunghyun chuckles at the younger man, putting his hands casually in his pockets. "I'm just a man."

"Ah." D-Lite nods his head and his expression changes. "Then that means you're the worst thing possible. A rich man who doesn't want anyone to know he's gay so he solicits younger men to gave with him."

"No, that's not it." Seunghyun steps back in shock at the spite in the young man's voice.

"Get lost, creep."

Chaerin lounges across her bed, Seunghyun by her side wearing a matching robe and collagen mask. The two take turns sticking their hands in a giant bag of kalbi chips they got from a corner store.

"Do you remember the client who invited us out for twelve course fugu meal?" Seunghyun muses out loud, crunching on a chip. "And the final dessert course was an empty bowl symbolizing the fragility of human existence. Did you know that meal was fifty-thousand yen for the both of us?"

"I was so hungry the entire time." Chaerin snorts, remembering that they were starving from not having eaten mich that day and ended up going to McDonald's afterward. "I prefer just being taken out for steak. Or meat in general."

"I still prefer that to whatever tonight was supposed to be." Seunghyun groans, turning to her with miserable puppy eyes. She laughs.

"It was kind of fun in its own bizarre way." Chaerin tries to reason lamely. "But I understand, I would have rather been taken out for sushi and wine."

"Do you think Jeremy noticed that the two of were drinking ginger ale the entire time?" Seunghyun wonders with a smirk.

"We hid it well, right?" Chaerin sighs. "We had no choice, we can't risk this meeting. We have to be fresh. And we both know what kind of drinker you are."

"Me?" The lawyer asks aghast. "I think you meant what kind of drinker you are, Miss Lee Chaerin."

"It doesn't matter." Chaerin whines in protest before repeating her mantra. "Fresh!"

"Then I better say goodnight and get my beauty rest." Seunghyun smirks, getting up from the bed like an old man. He takes his facial mask off and kisses Chaerin on the side of the head."Goodnight."

"Get a good rest, we have a full day tomorrow with Kwon Jiyong." She looks up at him dotingly and squeezes his hand.

"Oh, I can't wait." Seunghyun laughs. "It's always an adventure with Mr. Kwon."

Chaerin waves as Seunghyun goes back to his own room, leaving her to sit in silence.

She gets up quietly and moves to the bathroom to take off the mask and wash her face. She knows that Seunghyun was uncomfortable at the club and regrets her decision to not say anything or do more research. As she peels off the mask she stares at her reflection in the mirror, small eyes blinking back at her. In the morning she'll apologize to him for her mistake.

Seunghyun only took Jeremy Scott on as a client because the designer was her friend (and of course the incredible amount of money helped, too).

She knows she has to bear the major burden of their acquaintance when others ask. Men in slick suits that smell like tobacco and million dollar cologne ask about the flamboyant foreigner.

"Our Chaerin's friend from college." Seunghyun will laugh so deeply it shakes off any and all suspicions.

She knows her job extends beyond assistant in many ways.

Wrapping the robe closer around her body, she teps out of the bathroom looking at the view out the window. She decides to spend some time out on the balcony before going to sleep. She looks out at the view over the bay with the glittering skyscrapers on the horizon. Each glittering light represents a window with someone going on with their night. Mothers sending their children to bed, examinees studying, couples making love.

She wonders if she's a light for someone else, looking out forlorn across the waters.

Through her peripheral vision she sees a form in the balcony next to her. With graceful slight movements she'd think it were a cat if not for the gentle puffs of smoke flowing into the night air. Chaerin adjusts so that she can watch the woman on the balcony without catching her attention. She's dressed in lace and moonlight, her sharp black hair moving like the tide across her shoulders.

Not a woman but a force of nature, Chaerin decides as large eyes outlined in black suddenly meet her own.

The lawyer's assistant watches enchanted as the woman brings a cigarette sensually to her plump red lips. She exhales and the smoke trickles from her curving lips, her eyes trained on Chaerin.

"Can I help you?" The woman asks in Japanese, her eyes flickering with curiosity rather than annoyance.

"I'm sorry for staring, you just startled me." Chaerin apologizes quickly, snapping out of a strange reverie.

"I startled you?" The woman asks, raising a flawlessly groomed brow.

"I must be tired from work I didn't even notice you there until you moved around." Chaerin explains lamely.

"I understand." The woman nods. "Are you staying here on business?"

"Yes," Chaerin accidentally replies in Korean and then immediately corrects herself. "Yes, I am."

"You're Korean?" The woman asks with a gleeful laugh.

"Yes." Chaerin admits, embarrassed at being laughed at by the chic woman when she's not wearing makeup and is wrapped in nothing but a hotel bathrobe. "Are you here on vacation or are you doing business as well?"

"Both." The woman answers after a while before extending her hand across the balcony. "My name is Audrie Daniel."

"Chaerin Lee." She replies, moving to shake the woman's slender hand.

"Your hands are soft." Audrie says with a sweet smile on those red red red lips, her fingers caressing Chaerin's palm.

Chaerin pulls her hand back, surprised by the intimacy of the gesture and hating her cheeks for feeling so hot.

"You have beautiful skin," Audrie purrs. "You must take care of it very diligently."

"Thank you." Chaerin gives her an awkward smile and feels like a jerk for being so self-conscious.

"Koreans have the best skincare." The woman declares and Chaerin nods with a laugh. "But you'd be beautiful no matter where you're from."

Chaerin's breath catches in as Audrie looks at her, reminding her again of a rueful cat.

Audrie is close enough Chaerin could reach out and touch her but the woman feels world's away in her red lips and lace negligée. Chaerin feels flustered for the first time in a long time under the Japanese girl's gaze. Her heart hammers painfully in her chest and she's torn between running away or letting Audrie drag her to the bottom of the ocean.

"I need to go to bed now." Chaerin announces suddenly, bowing to her neighbor. "It was nice to meet you, Audrie."

"Likewise. Goodnight, Chaerin." Audrie tells her as she goes back into her room. The last image of the woman's satisfied smirk, as if she had just caught a mouse, burns in her mind.

"You don't look very fresh." Seunghyun remarks into her ear, playing with the coffee cup in front of him. She glares at him as she sips her cappuccino with as many espresso shots as the law allows.

"I had trouble sleeping." Chaerin mumbles back while the man across the table from them watches in amusement. Seunghyun laughs and she realizes how her comment sounded to their client.

She blushes.

"Jiyong, where is your girlfriend?" Seunghyun changes the subject after Chaerin kicks him under the table. "You said she'd be meeting us. Is she even real, I wonder?"

"I'm real. Mostly." A feminine voice answers from behind, her heels clicking against the tile as she joins them at the table in the cozy cafe.

Tall, slender, strikingly beautiful. The young woman is everything Jiyong said she would be. And so much, much more. Chaerin tries to hide her shock at the familiar red lips and the woman who unraveled her like a ball of yarn.

"This is Kiko!" Jiyong announces proudly. "And she's actually not my girlfriend anymore."

Chaerin's brow furrows at the statement until she notices the sparkling rock on her left hand the size of China. Seunghyun can't control his widening grin. Kiko (or Audrie or whatever her name is) hasn't mentioned recognizing her and she'll assume that's for the best. Because the only name that now matters is Kwon.

"So you called me because we're sharing assets?" Seunghyun asks with a joyful laugh. In the years Chaerin has worked with him she'll never get over his love of weddings. "I'll draw up the contract as soon as possible but now is the time for celebration!"

"It's eight in the morning." Chaerin reminds him in exasperation but he's already calling for the nearest server.

"But I'm sure they have mimosas." Seunghyun reasons while the newly engaged couple can only watch in fascination.

"Good morning, my name is Daesung. I'll be your server this morning, what can I offer you to drink?"

"Do you have mimosas?" Seunghyun starts to ask as he looks up at the server, his eyes widening in horror. He feels Chaerin's death-like grip on his thigh as a reminder to stay calm and an unnatural smile forms on his face.

"Yes, we do." The man replies in a similar state of shock. "But it's eight in the morning."

"Delightful." Seunghyun exclaims in English with a smirk as Chaerin's grip tightens. "We'll take four mimosas, hold the orange juice."

A/N: I'll edit this later I just had to post because I was so excited. Look forward to lots of daytime drinking and midnight snacks. Thank you for reading!