Desire.
The most well-known adult club in town.
The most frequented adult club in town.
The most desirable adult club in town.
And some say... even the most deadly.
Blood splatters on the filthy concrete behind the club. The sound of skull cracking penetrates the night air, and the series of painful groans that follow only underline the severity of the situation. Chay is pissed off. He is fucking raging. One simple rule. How come it is so hard for some bastards to follow one simple fucking rule?
Chay swings his fist, and with one harsh hit, he rearranges a couple of bones in the man's face. "Everyone who works here—women or men—are fucking untouchable, you bastard! How many times do you need to hear that? Is there really nothing in your damn fucking skull?"
"I'll pay you the fucking money," the man chuckles as if Chay didn't hear that man's skull cracking just moments ago. "She wanted it... I saw it in her pretty blue eyes."
"Yeah?" Chay chuckles scornfully, "and what are my eyes saying right now if you are such a mind reader, huh?"
The man opens his mouth to say something, but Chay doesn't let him. He grabs the man by his collar and pins him to the wall of the club, "I'll tell you what they are saying—you step your filthy foot in my club one more time and you'll disappear the same way many before you," Chay leans to the man's ear and drops his voice lower, "no one ever heard from them again." When he lets go of the man's collar he makes sure to brush off an invisible dust of the man's shoulder and smile at him politely. "Do we have an understanding, khun Lee?"
The man wipes away blood from under his nose and puts a hand on the back of his head, sporting a grotesque grimace of pain as he glares at Chay, "I'll go to the police! They'll have this fucking club closed immediately!"
Chay smirks, pulling out a cigarette, he really needs nicotine right now, "police, huh? Well, please do tell General Rang that he had forgotten his sunglasses when he was here last night."
The man's face gets drained from all the colours before it gains a dark shade of red from the anger. He points his finger adorned with a golden ring at Chay, "I'm going to get you, one day, you bastard! No one disrespects me like this. No one!"
"You grope a woman without her consent," Chay says with terrifying coldness in his voice, "if there's someone who deserves to be caught then it's you. Just because she works here as a dancer does not mean that she shouldn't be respected. I'm warning you, don't taste my patience. Now, leave!"
Chay steps into the corner where the club's wall is meeting with another building and takes the first drag of his cigarette. His knuckles are bloody, but he'll deal with it later. When he looks up, the man is still there glaring daggers at him. Oh, how much Chay wants to snap this man's neck right here right now, but he doesn't do it instead he just yells, "fuck off!"
The man finally listens and leaves. Chay closes his eyes and takes another drag of his cigarette. Wonderful night. He sighs. Fucking perfect. He wasn't even supposed to be here tonight, but they are running short on bouncers and it's fucking obvious. Chay runs his hair through his messy hair, the hair tie which was holding his hair in a man bun is now lying a couple of meters in front of him covered in dirt. There goes another one. Chay keeps losing his hair ties at the speed of light. At this point, it's his superpower. He should start wearing a spare one on his wrist.
He feels partly responsible for what happened tonight and he feels fully like shit for what happened tonight. He has promised Mia that this job will be safe for her. She really needs money and this job pays handsomely well. But it hasn't been even a week since she had started and this happened. Mia has been one of a few Chay's close friends for six years now. They met in their first year at university both of them studying business. When he saw that fucker earlier sliding his hand over her bare tight and squeezing her ass even though she repeatedly pushed him away the blood in him boiled. First of all—how did he fucking dare? And second of all—where were all the bouncers?
He has to apologise to Mia, that's for sure. And maybe even find her a different job if she wants to.
"Porchay?" Porsche's voice carries itself from the back door to where Chay is standing.
"In here," Chay calls out, blowing out the smoke into a humid April night.
"Alone?" Porsche cocks his eyebrow as he leans on the wall right next to Chay. "Where's the guy?"
"Gone. And he better stay gone if he doesn't want me to organise his funeral."
"You know that Mia isn't blaming you, right? She knew that there was a chance that this could happen when she took this job."
"Well, it is my fault!" Chay throws the cigarette away and looks at his brother. "I told her, she'll be fine if she decides to dance in our club. This rarely happens here. But I guess since we are lacking bouncers, some guys think they can try their luck. I'm telling you... we need more bouncers!"
"I know," Porsche nods. "I got ten guys to come tomorrow so you can evaluate them. Please pick at least half of them."
"If they are good—I will," Chay replies and walks back into the club, leaving his brother out alone.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Mia isn't on stage, nor at the bar which is understandable. Chay knocks at the artist's room, hoping he finds her there. After a while, he hears a faint "come in" and when he steps inside, he finds Mia sitting on the couch in her normal clothes, talking to someone on her phone.
"I'll be home in thirty minutes, sweetie. Want some pizza?"
Oh, Chay nods for himself. She is talking to her younger sister, Bella. They only have each other since their parents died, ten years ago when Bella was only two.
Mia's smile gets wider when her sister says something funny, and she waves at Chay to sit down next to her on the couch.
Chay sits down next to her and grabs a pillow covered in rhinestones for no reason just to hold something because he is nervous. He doesn't want Mia to be mad at him, but he also knows that she has every right to be.
When Mia finally ends the call, Chay speaks before she can say anything, "are you alright? I'm so sorry for what happened. I know that I promised you that nothing like this would happen. And you aren't here even for a week—but don't worry, I already beat the shit out of that guy, and—"
Mia's hand lands on Chay's knee, stopping his rambling, "Chay, I'm not mad at you. It isn't your fault. I didn't like what happened. I felt like shit when it happened, but I know it's not your fault. You have nothing to apologise for."
"But—"
"Chay..."
Chay nods, smiling a little, "okay, but you have to swear to me that you are alright."
Mia laughs, "I'm alright, I really am... you can retract your claws."
"I'm glad then," Chay finally fully smiles. He stands up from the couch and looks down and Mia, "we are recruiting new bouncers tomorrow. I thought that you should know."
"That sounds good," Mia says.
"I gotta go," Chay opens the door. "Say hi to Bella for me."
"She misses you."
"Not as much as I miss her," Chay calls out as he makes his way through the club away from the artist's room.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•
The next day Chay's up shortly after 10 am. He should be at the club at 10:30. Good thing that he lives in the apartment right above the club. Not so good during nighttime, but at times he wakes up late it is a very welcomed bonus.
Shoving a piece of toast into his mouth and putting on a washed-out jean jacket, Chay locks the door behind himself and skips down the stairs into Desire. The club is closed until 3 pm so right now there's only his brother, leaning on the bar, a couple of dancers who came to try on a new collection of costumes which arrived this morning, and ten guys who apparently want to get a job at the best strip club in town. Well, let's see what's in them.
Chay casually strolls towards his brother, giving a group of ten guys who are staring at him intently, one single nod.
"Finally, I was about to call you," Porsche greets his brother and cocks his head towards the group of guys. "They are all yours. I just have one favour to ask."
"What is it?" Chay asks, his eyes stopping on a man standing far behind anyone else in that group. His shoulders are hunched down, dark chocolate hair is falling into his face as he is looking everywhere but not at his possible future employer. He looks like he shouldn't be here at all.
"Do you see that boy all the way at the back—"
"The one who isn't even looking at us?" Chay chuckles, "yeah. Why?"
"You have to hire him."
"If he is any good," Chay shrugs.
"It doesn't matter if he is good or not. You have to hire him."
"What are you talking about?" Chay frowns.
Porsche turns fully to Chay, "he needs money."
"A lot of people need money," Chay argues.
Porsche groans, "alright fine... you know that I have recently started dating—"
"Yeah, that mafia guy," Chay nods.
"Well, that's his brother."
Chay looks at Porsche entirely confused, "so if that's another mafia prince then why does he need money?"
"His father disowned him when he said that he doesn't want to be part of the mafia and he thinks that killing people is unethical."
"Well, he is right—killing people is unethical but," Chay smirks, "sometimes it has to be done."
"My point is," Porsche keeps explaining, "he has no money, he was kicked out of the family compound, he has to keep paying for his university, and now he has a rent to pay for the apartment he had found for himself. Plus obviously the usual things like food..."
"So why your boyfriend doesn't help him then?"
"No one from his family can help him or they will end up," Porsche stops and gulps down, "I don't even want to know how would they end up. But I'm not part of the family so I thought..."
"Alright, I get it. What's his name?"
"Kim."
Chay steps in front of Porsche, covering his view of all the guys, "so let me tell you this—if Kimmy is good at fighting then there will be no problem, but if he isn't—"
"Then you'll have a new sparring partner, right? You said you wanted one. You can train him," Porsche quickly finishes Chay's words.
"You know what, hia?" Chay sighs. "You are lucky I love you."
"I love you too, nong," Porsche winks and goes behind the bar as Chay turns around and approaches the group of guys.
"Alright everybody," Chay grins, "I'm Porchay—the head of the bouncers at this club, and right now your biggest nightmare. We'll take this to the gym. I'll give each one of you five minutes to take me down. The five... maybe six best of you will be hired... the rest... well, I'm sorry. Follow me."
Chay doesn't wait for anyone's reaction. He just turns left and heads down into the basement where the spacious, modern gym is located. He takes off his jean jacket and runs his fingers through his hair. Great, he had forgotten the hair tie. Well, he'll gotta do without it for now.
He looks at the group of men waiting for his instructions. Slowly, he glides his eyes over them, until he finally lands on one bulky guy with a buzz cut and bored expression.
"Alright, you come here. You have the privilege to go first. What's your name?"
"Mik."
"Okay, Mik. Show me what you got."
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•
Forty minutes later Chay has only one man left to test—the apparent mafia prince. The other men were alright. Some Chay knows that he'll hire for sure, but the others...
"Alright," Chay says, adjusting his white t-shirt that got a little bit sweaty from trying to fight all those guys. "Everyone who is standing at my right, you can go find my brother at the bar and sign a contract. Everyone on my left—I'm sorry. I wish you better luck in the future. And Kim," Chay looks at the man standing in the corner, a sad expression painted on his face. The fact that he didn't even ask Chay why Chay didn't test him as well, before telling them the results... it makes no sense to Chay. If anything—it makes things suspicious. "Come here."
Kim does, slowly, nervously, in his hand a hair tie.
Chay cocks his eyebrow in a question.
"For you," Kim speaks for the first time; it's a soft, melodic voice, just a bit more high-pitched than Chay's. "I saw you struggling with your hair going into your face during the fight so I thought that..."
"Thank you," Chay says, truly meaning it, and takes the hair tie, making a quick and messy man bun. "So, how good are you at fighting?"
"Not very good," Kim admits, and if Chay isn't mistaken, there's a slight blush creeping at Kim's cheeks. This man can't be a bouncer, Chay thinks, he is gonna run away or cry the moment someone raises his voice at him. Is he even really the son of a mob boss? Chay is starting to question the entire story Porsche told him.
"How can you be a bouncer in the strip club if you are not good at fighting, hmm?" Chay looks Kim over, "you are pretty... have you considered dancing instead?"
Kim's eyes go wide and he frantically shakes his head, "no dancing... no... I can't..."
"Alright, alright," Chay raises his hands up in defence, "no dancing then. Let's see how bad those fighting skills of yours actually are and then we'll see what we can do, okay?" Chay is going to need a lot of patience with this one—he can already feel it. Porsche will owe him big time.
"Really? Uhmm... okay," Kim nods and his fits fly towards Chay's face, but it's slow and weak, Chay doesn't even need to move much to avoid it.
Kim tries again, he grabs Chay's shoulders and tries to tackle him to the ground, but Chay is taller and clearly stronger than him so that doesn't work either, instead, it's Kim who is tackled to the ground and Chay is hovering over him, a strand of hair that escaped the man bun, falling into his handsome face.
"So, here's the deal, Kimmy, hired you will be, but if you miss one training session with me you are out, get it?"
Kim nods, eyes wide and pretty looking at Chay, "yes, sir."
To be continued...
P.S. how did you like the first chapter? 🫣🤍