HIM.

i.

i. BLACK PEARL

MARI was an average, disinterested, existentialist college student. She didn't like much, didn't dislike much at the same time. She enjoyed eating egg rolls, drinking coffee, and watching television in her apartment, alone.

She used to live with her close friend, Yi Lina, but that was until Lina found herself a boyfriend. Mari found it better she move out and have more air to herself rather than hearing Lina's constant jabber about how she was doing this and that with her wonderful partner.

No, Mari wasn't jealous. She wasn't the type to get her emotions swayed so easily. In turn, people would call her a bitch. She didn't care much about that either.

Mari was a Chinese girl, originally called Kei Xiaoling. She changed her name upon moving to Seoul, deciding that she needed a new start. A better start.

Restart. Refresh.

Yes, for a young 25 year-old, she needed a new start. Mari felt so, so old though.

1 NEW MESSAGE FROM:
yi lina

yi lina
are you working today?

kei xiaoling
yes

yi lina
dang ok

yi lina
think i could stop by for
a drink?

kei xiaoling
could care less

Among her Chinese friends, she always went by her birth name. Around others, she was always known as Mari. It also helped, since she worked at a high-end bar.

Most of the waitresses there carried simple names, pretty names at that like, Julie, Anna, Rachel. She liked the sound of Mari, it kept the simplicity in her nature which her real name did not.

Mari glanced up at the time, then clicked her tongue. It was getting late.

🍷

CALLED the Black Pearl, the bar was known to host rich people. It had expensive wine, drinks of which Mari originally had trouble pronouncing the names of, with prices higher than what she spent in a month.

She was lucky to have received a position there, the paycheck was higher than other places despite doing minimum-wage work. Mari had been smart when applying.

Of course being a waitress and a bartender was still no easy task. But she kept her own low profile, kept her head bent down to avoid any problems, and stayed quiet. She wasn't friends with really anyone there asides from knowing her boss on an acquaintance level.

Her brown hair swept past her shoulder, it's waviness reminding her that she needed to tie it up. While she did so behind a counter, a soft pair of burning eyes latched onto her side profile as she pushed back her long hair.

Xiaoling turned, hair tied up, and offered a small translucent smile. "How can I help you sir?"

"I'll have a 39." She recognized the voice of this man, he always came here every other day. Around this time too. Seems like visiting this place was a part of his schedule.

Most of the times he would drink. Some days he would sit at the bar, wait for a pretty woman working at Black Pearl to approach him, and whisk him away with her intoxicating sultry perfume.

Or maybe like others, he was here for business.

"A tall glass of Domaine G. Roumier Amoureuses," Mari flashed a flirtatious smile at him for a moment, whilst taking out the tall wine bottle from the shelf. "Premier Cru. Coming up."

"Most don't bother to pronounce the whole name." He voiced, his low baritone voice resounded strangely in her ears.

Mari didn't respond to that, resting a palm on the counter, while the other hand skillfully poured the wine from a tall distance into the glass. Once again, this part of the job wasn't necessarily difficult, but Mari wasn't complaining.

It happened like this every night he came in. She'd recognize his sharpened features, the chiseled jawline. Unappreciated looks, matured and dark. His eyes held a darkness to them which reminded Mari a lot of hers. If not darker. The rich man was handsome, she knew he came back to the bar for her drinks.

Mari wasn't a fool. She knew it wasn't outright attraction, but intrigue. She would be too; someone by the likes of her working here? Most expected her to be done with school now and at a job, but here she was.

Xiaoling didn't mind. She never minded. His eyes were sharp and always moving, watched her from his side of the table as she worked. For a little while at least, then he would randomly disappear. Maybe for work.

The Black Pearl had many secrets about its customers. A lot went down in here, and yet there was Kei Mari, in the middle of its mess.

She wouldn't realize how much of a mess she'd get entangled into until much later.