Chapter 8: 7-1

I groan as my eyes squint in reaction to the light peeking through my small window. I stretch out my body and then collapse again, my mind numb. I sigh and force myself out of bed. I should eat something. Zen is somehow already awake—although his hair is an absolute mess of fuzzy curls atop his head—and is downing breakfast. Podo rubs against my leg and trills, asking me for food since apparently my brother forgot. With a groan, I feed the fluffy cat whilst glaring at Zen. "What?" He asks with his mouth full. "Nice of you to remember to feed yourself but not Podo." "Hey, it's not my cat." "Idiot, your ex left him here and hasn't come back. It's been two years. The cat is yours." He merely shrugs his shoulders. "Good to see you got home safely." I freeze with a scoop of cat food in my hand. Podo climbs up onto his hind legs to try and get to it. "What do you mean?" I feel sweat start to build on my forehead. "I didn't bring you home," he says nonchalantly. I drop the scoop out of fear and Podo meows in approval as the cat food pellets spread over the floor. "What?!" I walk over to him, prepared to hurt him in any way. "I had a shift and you were absolutely legless but I couldn't bring you home. So Jaewook did." "WHAT?!" My shrill scream causes him to cover his ears. "Geez, relax. Clearly he did a good job." I take a seat at the table and hold my head in my hands. "What happened last night," I grumble to myself. "I don't know. He said you forgot the code so I had to tell him. Which reminds me, I need to change that..." "When did you two become friends?" "I wouldn't say we're friends, more like I'm his mentor." "Mentor? What the heck?" "The bloke needs a good brotherly figure in his life so I offered him some advice one day." "What, when? Where?" "At the bar," he says while scrolling through his phone. That little— "The bar?! You know as a bartender you have a responsibility to not serve minors!" "What? He's a high school senior he's bound to be of age now if not soon." "I'm getting a headache." I wish I could remember what happened, but all my memories are blurred over like a foggy window. "I can't believe you let a stranger take me home." "What do you mean a stranger? He's been our neighbour for like three years and you've become close to him." "What do you mean I've become close to him?!" "I noticed you've started to put effort into looking like a fully functional human being when going to meet him. No more workout shorts and sweats." I grit my teeth in embarrassment. "Besides, the kid has a huge crush on you. I knew he was eager to score brownie points with me—being your brother and all. So I gave him a chance." "Can you stop insisting that he has a crush on me?!" I say a bit too loudly. He stares at me with wide eyes at my overreaction. "Sounds like it isn't one-sided anymore," he mumbles. I hit his head with my hand and stomp to my room. . . . Many hours later, I'm opening the door and getting ready to take over a shift at the karaoke house. I say goodbye to the previous staff member and lean my elbows on the desk. I can hear the thumping of music carry into the lobby from the hall. It's a dead night tonight, which always sucks since it makes time draw out even longer. Finally, over an hour later, someone leaves their room to come to the desk. "We need more drinks in room 2B," a man around my age says. "It will cost extra, is that okay?" He momentarily seems shocked, eyes slightly widening when he hears me speak in fluent Korean. "Yeah, yeah that's fine. It's a birthday celebration." He pays me for the extra drinks. "I'll be right there with the drinks." The man leaves and I fill a tray with the alcohol he ordered. With an unenthusiastic gait and bored expression on my face, I carry the tray and lean my back against the door to 2B. A pop song from five years ago plays as someone belts out the lyrics very badly. "Here are your drinks, enjoy," I robotically say my lines and place the tray down. When looking back up my eyes catch something vaguely familiar. However, I'm not able to get a good enough look before the figure turns away. The room is dark and lit with ridiculous purple flashing lights, so it's easy to see things wrong. "You have 30 minutes remaining. Would you like to add more time?" I ask the man that ordered the drinks since he seems to be in charge. "What do you say guys? One more hour?" A few guys and a girl shout out in agreeance. I squint to get a better look at the group. They look like high school students? "Okay, one more hour," the older guy smiles at me and takes money out from his wallet. My mind jumbles with thoughts as I try to get a look at the guy in the corner of the room again. He's slouched on the couch, looking disinterested, but his head is turned away from me. The guy who's paying gets my attention. He shows me his straight teeth as he smiles again, his eyelids covering part of his eyes now as he looks at me. He's giving me the look. The I'm interested look. He looks my age, and he is kinda cute. Plus it's been a long time since I've snogged anyone, I guess he could be good enough. I smile back at him before leaving. I can feel his gaze on me as I leave, or is it someone else's? Leaning on the front desk again for another hour proves to be just as bland and boring as the previous hours. I'm beginning to doze off, my eyes closing and head getting closer to the surface when noise blasts from the hallway. The guy from before comes around, that same charming smile on his face as the others follow. He heads to the desk and leans on it. "When is your shift over?" He asks. "Uh," I look at a clock on the table. "10 minutes if Dooyoung arrives on time for once." He smirks a bit before speaking again. His posy is waiting in the background, very loud, very rowdy, and probably a bit tipsy. They pause and look back to the hallway as they question each other. The girl leaves to go back to the room. "Maybe we can hang out after? I hosted my brother's friend's birthday outing but I'm a free man now. I've never met a foreigner that can speak Korean so well." I ignore his assumption of me being a foreigner. The corner of my lips turn up as I pretend to think this over.