NINE

“Your face is seriously starting to turn red, Taeyeon-ah.”

I dismissed her with a wave of my hand. “Of course, I’m ok, I’m fine, yeah.”

“Let me word this another way. Are you feeling warmer than usual?”

I looked at her, my eyes wide in surprise. “Wow Fany, how did you know?” I asked, lifting my head to look at her, “Wait … did you read my mind?” I accused, squinting my eyes at her in suspicion while covering my forehead with my hands.

“See? You are drunk,” she giggled, cleaning the shaker she used to make the drink I was having.

“I’m not! How could you say that?” I said, appalled.

“You’re so cute TaeTae, even more so than usual,” she said, patting the back of my hand.

I stared at it. Wait, that was my hand, right? I made a clenching motion with my fist, and sure enough, the hand on the counter closed as well. I smiled, satisfied with the result.

“If you get drunk enough, will you finally—”

I reached over the counter, firmly placing a finger over Tiffany’s lips. She paused, looking at me with a surprised expression.

“Alcohol doesn’t make you do stuff you normally wouldn’t,” I told her, removing my finger and wrapping the hand back around the base of my cup, “You know, when you get drunk … when you get drunk, the thing, you know—ethanol, that one.” I giggled at myself. Silly me, how could I forget the name of that? “Ethanol gets absorbed into your bloodstream and the reaction it has with your brain is that it makes it slower. It also slows down your prefrontal cortex and affects your libido, but that’s all.”

I took another swing of the drink. My head hurt. Maybe I shouldn’t be drinking … but it tasted so good. It was all Tiffany’s fault for making such good-tasting drinks. I’ll have to punish her later or something.

“Hm? You’ll have to punish me? How are you going to do that?”

“What? How did you know I was thinking that?” I asked, squinting at her again, carefully observing her. My eyes widened as I came to a realization, “So you can read my mind! Don’t do that!” I told her, covering my forehead with one hand while making a shoo-ing gesture at her.

Tiffany giggled even more at this. That was suspicious. What was so funny about this? “No you cutie-pie, you were speaking your thoughts out loud again,” she replied casually, “Ah, you’re just too cute, Taeyeon!”

“No I’m not!” I retorted, “I’m 22, you know! How could a 22-year-old be cute?”

Tiffany reached over the counter and placed her palm against my cheek. My discontentment immediately vanished and was replaced with a satisfied, complacent feeling. My eyes closed and I smiled, leaning against her soft, warm hand.

“Oh my gosh, Taeyeon-ah you’re so cute I wish I could just climb over the counter and hug you!” Tiffany squealed, using her other hand to cup my face.

“You have to work Fany, don’t—don’t do that,” I replied, enjoying the warm feeling against my cheeks. After some time, Tiffany retracted her hand and I found myself looking at my cup. The drink’s color was pretty as well; a nice, calming red color.

Just as Tiffany opened her mouth, she stopped herself and turned around. I swung my head towards the source of the sound: a single man wearing a white suit beckoning to Tiffany. “What does he think he’s doing? Tiffany, don’t listen to him, you don’t have to follow a man’s orders.”

Tiffany giggled again, patting my hands in a comforting manner. “He’s a customer, TaeTae. I’ll be back, ok? Don’t miss me too much,” she said, walking off.

That confused me for a few seconds. Customer? What did she mean?

I closely watched her head over to the man, the rather attractive man, and start talking to him. When she turned around, our gazes briefly met, I quickly turned my attention back to my cup. My face started feeling hotter. Why did I look away? Why was I looking at her?

Feeling self-conscious, I started counting in my head. I originally intended to wait until I reached 100 but stopped at 91, I cautiously looking up. Fortunately, Tiffany wasn’t looking my direction anymore, but unfortunately, she was back to talking with that man again.

“Aah, it’s not faair,” I whined, taking another swing at the drink, “Why can’t I not be single?…” I paused, confused. “Huh?” What did I say? “Can’t I … Why can’t I not …” This was so confusing … all I said were a couple of words, but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. What was it? “Why do I have to be single?” I ended up settling for that, foregoing any other confusing, complex manners of speech.

“Would you like me to help with that?”

Some kind of nice, warm voice came from my left—no, my right.

I turned around to see a man taking the seat next to me. “Oh! I know you!” I exclaimed, delighted at this discovery, “You’re … you’re …” I found myself struggling excessively. It was on the tip of my tongue; I’ve definitely seen him before. “Wait, I know your name…” I said, holding a finger up, interrupting him as he opened his mouth, trying to concentrate. However, the more I thought about it, the harder it became to think. My head started to hurt again, so I just conceded. “Never mind, I forgot it,” I admitted, looking back at him, smiling apologetically.

“Trust me, if I met someone as beautiful as you, I would have remembered,” he said, grinning. He had a really attractive smile. Now that I looked carefully at him, he was pretty handsome: he had striking eyes, really well-defined cheekbones, an almost square-shaped jaw, and very broad shoulders.

“Haha, nice one,” I said, hitting his arm playfully.

“I’m serious,” he replied. He started looking at me with this kind of burning gaze, like he wanted me to understand his seriousness through his eyes.

I stared back, trying to understand his thinking. Even as unclear as my mind was right now, I knew what to expect from people that were too straightforward like him. Then, suddenly, the thought hit me. “Aah, ok, I got it,” I said, “You thought I was lonely, sitting here by myself, right? Don’t worry, I was talking to the bartender,” I told him, turning my head to her.

I met Tiffany’s eyes for just a second, but the second I met them, she turned away, staring back at her cup. That was strange. She was looking at me, right? Why did she avoid my eyes?

“Oh. I was talking to her, I guess,” I finished sheepishly.

“I was being completely serious. You’re beautiful.”

There it was again. Those burning eyes, filled with intent. It made me want to squirm, but it was a good feeling. Does that even make sense?

Unsure of how to respond, I finished the rest of my drink, deciding to check on Tiffany again. This time, she was talking to that man again, the same rather attractive man that she was talking to before for too long. Was he harassing Tiffany? Well, she was laughing, so it didn’t look like it … then again, wasn’t it her job to laugh around her customers?

“I never got your name,” the man said.

“Oh! Sorry,” I said, turning back around, “I’m Kim Taeyeon,” I introduced myself, bowing slightly.

“Kim Taeyeon! Such a pretty name to match a pretty face; I’m Lee YongGuk,” he replied, “I would ask to buy you another drink, but it seems like you’ve had enough.”

“You would do that? You know, because I’m a college student, I don’t really have much money, soo…” I told him, meeting his gaze. His eyes were still burning, and I started to think that maybe his eyes were just always like that.

“Are you sure you can handle another drink? You look pretty drunk right now,” he said, laughing. This time, his eyes stopping doing its burning thing, but turned more into like a smaller, cozy flame.

“I’m not drunk!” I complained, frowning, “Tiffany said that too!”

“I heard my name~”

Tiffany’s voice came out of nowhere, drifting through the air.

“Tiffany! Tell him I’m not drunk!” I whined, gesturing to the man next to me.

“Hm, I don’t know, I’d say you’re pretty drunk,” she said, giggling.

“What’s your assessment? Are you willing to make her another drink?” the man asked her.

“Depends on how much alcohol, I guess.”

That was weird. Tiffany’s voice usually carried happiness, but this time, there wasn’t that. Did Tiffany dislike that man? Why? He seemed nice.