I was scrolling through Instagram on my phone, sitting by the window in this nice seaside restaurant. I looked outside for awhile, sighing at the fact that I've been waiting for this guy for about 10 minutes. I hate late people. But giving the thought that it was Ahn Daniel... I shouldn't be that surprised.

The iced tea that I ordered almost lost half of its content. I kept stirring its ice so it would melt and filled up again. I didn't know why I feel bit anxious about this. Is this a right thing to do? We just met at a party last night. I didn't expect him at all. But there he was, making cocktails behind the bar counter, serving me his world renowned drink. I was about to take a peek on Instagram again, looking through discover page, hoping to find something interesting, when finally a crisp voice greeted me.

"Byunghunnie-hyung", that voiced echoed nicely in my ears. Sounded bit hesitating, but still cheery. Typical Ahn Daniel.
"Ah... Niel. You're late", I sneered at him.
"Aigoo... it's been awhile since I last see your obnoxious sneer. I'm sorry, hyung-nim. It was all traffic up there", he pursed his lips inward and raised his eyebrows, released a big sigh. That was his way to mock me. Still, nothing changes.
"You stayed around Gangnam?", I asked.

"Yep. Ritz-Carlton", he gave me a smug face.
"Showing off as usual", I scoffed.
"Hahaha... no hyung, the bartender competition was held there, so the organization provided me a place", he smiled.
Then he looked at my iced tea while I slurped it diligently. He lit his cigarette and crossed his legs, leaning his elegant body backward against the rattan chair.
"Excuse me, I want sparkling water please. And um, a sandwich", he called the waiter and placed his order.

"You're smoking Camel now", I checked his cig pack on the table.
"Yeah, never looking back after I tasted Camel two years ago. I wondered why did I waste my time smoking Marlboro when you could have Camel instead", he stated.
"Well, I still smoked Marlboro", I chuckled.
"Menthol? God, you smoked it since forever", he laughed. We never shared cig, Niel hates Marlboro Menthol the most. But other than that, we shared almost everything, from clothes to bed.
"I still remember that you used to force me to smoke Marlboro Red instead. Why did we never try Camel, though?", I looked into his eyes and he smiled.

"Nostalgic reason? Seriously, hyung, this is how you brought our past back?", he chuckled and lit off his cig on the ashtray. We met each other after school hours one day. It was awesome to smoke back then, made you feel like you were a real badass or something. We kinda knew each other since our friends were mutual. That day when we just got off hiding our cigs from the teacher, we decided to walked home together. I didn't know why, but we just did. We then swapped each other's cigs. I had never smoke Marlboro Red before, nor he ever smoked Marlboro Menthol. From that time on, we hated each other's cig choice, but ended up liking each other's company.

He changed to Camel now, though. It said a lot.
"God, it was... 6 years ago, wasn't it?", he bit his sandwich.
"Yeah. I miss those times when we didn't have to think about anything, you know. Now everything is about paying bills", I my iced tea almost to the bottom of the glass, left just enough amount for the ice to melt.
"It gets you to the point when you need stronger cig indeed", he smiled.
"Obviously. Seems like you faced those times a lot?", I inspected his eyes.
"What could I say, climbing the ladder to become a world class bartender isn't the easiest thing in the world", he scratched his head while his lips still dangling from the spicy sandwich he ordered.

He took the napkin to wiped them and drank his sparkling water.
"Did you serve me your signature drink yesterday, what did you call it? Strained... Edge?"
"Strange Agony, hyung", he peeked from his glass, finished a half of it.
"Yes, that. Haha... why did you name it so weirdly", I chuckled and stared to my iced tea again, stirring it out of awkwardness.
"I made it while we had cold war one day. And it was popped out of my head, and I thought it sounds cool. It kinda represents the taste as well, it's sour but bubblegum-y at the same time. It's childish, but acid", he flashed his eyebrows at me, while his pretty fingers played on the glass' edge.
"Really, when was that?"
"You tell me. We had plenty of cold wars", he scoffed and drank his water again.

I went silent and my throat went dry, I finally drank the last drip of my iced tea and ordered another glass. He looked at me carefully and sighed;
"I think it was when I accidentally forgot our date. I remember I was brewing my new cocktail the night before until dawn, and I slept at my friend's instead"
"Was it our date to the zoo in the next morning?", I frowned to remember.
"YEAH. You were talking about pandas all week. And when we finally got the ticket, I forgot to show up", he sighed.
"You , Niel. What a ", I chuckled.

He scoffed and threw his gaze out of the window; "The brighter side is, I got my signature cocktail a name and it's world renowned now".
"Are you really that big now?", I asked casually.
"Well, you know whose party last night", he smiled.
"Yeah. G-Dragon didn't pay just a regular bartender for a party that big. I saw you went back and forth from New York to Seoul these days", I said.
"I work at PDT, hyung"
"Whoa. You're something, then", I sipped my second iced tea.

He just smiled again and watched the ground. He then chuckled; "We follow each other on Instagram, don't we"
"You followed me