"You're here by yourself?" The bartender asks filling up a glass of beer before pushing it on the table in front of you.
"I like to drink by myself," the person with short black hair replies.
"Wait a minute, you're a girl right?"
"Yes." she replies, a hint of annoyance in her tone.
"No way, you know when you first came here I thought you were totally a guy, I still can't believe I guessed right!"
"What, do you want me to lift up my shirt or something to prove I'm a girl?" she muttered quietly.
"Sorry? I couldn't quite hear."
"It's nothing."
Minhui was tired. She had just finished unpacking all of things into her new place and really was not in the mood to talk. Planning to drink a couple bottles of soju, she had found a nearby bar with good ratings and had barely sat down before the cheery guy behind the bar had decided to strike up a conversation. The place was relatively full today, all the tables having at least 1 or 2 people with a few parties going on near the karaoke machine.
"I'm guessing you go to Hankook university right? What department are you in? Do you know Kwon Daehyun?"
At this point Minhui was ready to move tables. She knew he had good intentions, but it really wasn't for the right person. He probably thought the she had nobody to talk to; he wasn't wrong but she really wasn't in the mood.
"Yes. Music. No."
Quickly downing her beer, she orders 2 bottles of soju, grabs them and walks to the other side of the room. Seeing a table for 4 with only 1 person, she pulls out the chair and sits diagonally from them.
Without sparing a glance, she begins pouring her first shot, ready to finally wash the stress of the day away. Minhui found drinking relaxing. Who doesn't love that burning sensation you get when you down a shot. She mostly liked how you never had to think. It wasn't necessary to think when you were drinking, you could drift into oblivion and daydream without a care in the world.
Minhui was having a particularly good daydream that night. Maybe it was the soju? Maybe it was the ambience? She'd definitely come back here again.
She had totally forgotten that there was somebody else on the table before she heard them mutter "Shit, not this again"
At first glance, nothing seemed too wrong with him, he looked like a regular student attending Hankook university, but there was a slight air of unhappiness surrounding him. Minhui found herself unconsciously observing him closely, from his facial features to his clothes. His hair was dyed a light blonde, styled into a side part which bad been messed up by now. On his right eyebrow, there was a diagonal scar and sat on top of his nose was a pair of thin, stylish glasses His features were quite soft, nothing was particularly prominent. The man wore a simple grey patterned suit jacket, alongside a white t-shirt and casual blue jeans.
After her analysis, she spoke up.
"Are you.. okay?" Minhui asked, tilting her head slightly the right. Normally, she found herself too shy to initiate conversations with people she didn't know but for some odd reason, with this attractive, yet seemingly very unhappy stranger, she felt quite comfortable asking first.
He hesitated for a moment, looking deep in thought, before asking,
"How do normal people recover after getting their hearts broken?
At first, she was surprised. The question was definitely a lot deeper than she had expected. How do people usually respond when they're asked this question? So she ended up blurting out the first thing that popped into her mind.
"Are you going through a breakup or something?"
"I got rejected straight away."
"That's harsh."
Minhui really had tried her best to sympathise with this lonely, good looking stranger, but she just wasn't that great when it came to words. On the other hand, when it came to listening, she was unparalleled. She always remembered the time where she had decided to go to a friend's sleepover party and had ended up listening to said friends life story for the entire night, only uttering a few barely coherent "unlucky" 's or "same" 's.
And this situation ended up perfect for Minhui because the alcohol looked like it had taken a toll on the blonde man, as words would not stop rolling off of his tongue. After getting a grip on her train of thought, Minhui began to listen in on his drunken ramble.
"Chaewon's a great person, really."
"It's not my fault I fell for her, right?"
"She looked like an angel that day"
"I can't believe I ended up confessing, what was I thinking? Somebody could've overheard"
At first, she really wasn't interested at all, but for some reason, over time, she began to really focus on his story. Sure, maybe it was because she found it funny that he couldn't handle alcohol, but she could really feel his sincerity through his words. The way his eyes would brighten thinking about 'Chaewon' and how his tone changed as soon as he started describing her was admirable. It seemed as if to you, this 'Chaewon' was missing out big time on this fine catch.
Finishing off her third and preparing to order her fourth bottle of the night, Minhui was just about to say something to the bartender before she heard the man opposite her softly murmur an "Impressive", before his eyes closed and an audible thunk could be heard as his head hit the table.
"Hey, hey wake up"
"At least tell me your phone password, I don't know where you live"
"... he's long gone" she sighed in annoyance, scrunching up her eyes in frustration.
Searching his pockets, she attempted to find his phone but was unsuccessful.
"Who doesn't carry their phone on them when they're drinking, especially by themselves?" She thought, trying to figure out a way to get herself out of this situation.
Walking over to the counter and speaking to the bartender was of no help either, he simply told her that he'd never seen the blonde man before.
The bar was now almost empty, with only a couple drunk sophomore sitting by themselves, the tables littered with mess from the freshmen's parties earlier.
"God, what sin did I commit that I've ended up in this situation" she complained, looking towards the ceiling in desperation.
Bending her legs a little, she put her arm under his shoulders and then straightened out her legs. He would not budge.
Time for her last resort.
She rotated his body so he was sitting to the side and crouched down, then proceeded to put his limp arms around her neck. Minhui then carried his legs using her arms and bended forward a little so he was balanced on her back.Thankfully, he wasn't too heavy and she had to thank the weekly YouTube yoga sessions she had been watching for the past couple months.
"When I went out drinking today, I sure did not expect myself to be piggy backing somebody home at 12:30am"
Minhui thought, readjusting him on her back.
All throughout the journey, she was either shouting, complaining, swearing, or asking where he lived, to which there was either no response or an unintelligible murmur of some sort.
She had never realised her place was so far away from the bar until she was piggy backing somebody at the same time. Minhui had sworn that it had only been a 5 minute walk when she had initially came here, so why did it feel like she had just aged ten years and her place was still nowhere to be seen?
And there came her worst nightmare. Stairs. Minhui had totally forgotten about the stairs leading up to where her apartment block would be. And it wasn't just a few small steps either. To her current exhausted state, it looked identical to the Great Wall of China.
Her back was aching. Her arms were in pain. Her legs felt like they were on fire. Minhui had made about 4 steps before her body gave out and she crouched before dropping his body on the concrete steps. Looking a little like a starfish of some sort, she lay on the stairs, unbothered that her clothes were probably very dusty now, and attempted to regain a normal breathing rate of some sort.
Minhui must've been exhausted because she didn't realise that there was a person standing about a metre in front of her, leaning over and looking very concerned, until she heard an unfamiliar voice.
"Hey, are you guys good- Wait a second, is that Kibum?"
The girl in the grey hoodie looked up and a man of stunning visuals greeted her. His hair was slightly longer than the blonde man's, was black and styled into a wavy side part. He was very tall, probably about 5'11 or 6'0, she couldn't quite tell as she was still on the floor. The black haired man stood to her left, looking down with a confused facial expression, eyeing the man lying unconscious on the floor.
"Who are you?" she asked, quickly sitting up before gathering all the strength remaining in her legs to stand up.
"Oh, sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Choi Minho, Kibum's roommate, nice to meet you" He said, politely holding out his hand, to which she shook.
"This guy's name is Kibum?" the girl asked, pointing at the unconcious blonde on the floor next to her.
"Wait, you aren't his friend?"
"It's complicated. Can you take him home though? These stairs are going to be the death of me." Minhui brushed off some of the dirt on the back of her hoodie and jeans.
"Yeah sure thing, thanks so much for keeping him safe though, he and I both owe you."
"Oh wait a second," she stuffed her hand into her right pocket and took out what looked like some sort of sachet, "It's for his hangover, give it to him when he wakes up"
Minho gave his thanks an uncountable number of times before leaving, waving goodbye and hoisting the blonde man, or Kibum, over his shoulder, making his way up the stairs in no time.
Minhui would've been more concerned about whether she had just given the body of an unconscious man to a random serial killer if she wasn't on the verge of fainting.
"I should start working out.."
Finally making it back to her place, she flung herself onto the bed, taking in it's warm and comfortable embrace immediately. Minhui was just about to reach into her right pocket to take out her hangover relief, but after realising it wasn't there she recalled how she had given it away earlier.
"Why did I do that?" It wasn't like Minhui to make kind gestures like that, especially not to strangers who hadn't done her an especially good deed beforehand.
"I'm sure it was just a spur of the moment sort of thing."
"He needs it more than me anyways"
"It's probably something like, World Kindness day today right?"
"It's not like I'll ever see them again"
Whilst making up excuses after another, she found herself being taken into Dreamland by the soft and bouncy cushions which contrasted the cold and hard concrete she was sitting on not even half an hour ago.
"What a tiring day."