Countdown -- 9
Measure it out in inches; Jinki/Minho; PG-13
note: Hurrying...hurrying... And YES, another big cliche. Of course he has to go to a bar. As for what happens... *sweats a bucket* I'm not good at this stuff. TAT
prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Chapter nine
Curled up in a dark corner, I held a glass of something random that I had ordered out of courtesy, silently observing everything around me-the people who came and went, those meaningful glances, the sultry body language of some and the playful ease of others...
That I didn't drink from my glass wasn't because I didn't know how to drink and was thus hesitant. That I was so deeply engaged as a mere spectator wasn't because I found everything novel. In fact, while keeping a certain someone company, I'd once tested my limit. The experience had yielded an unexpected discovery: in contrast to our appearances, I could hold my alcohol far better than he could. I'd also followed him to a bar before, this bar to be exact. The only one that I knew of.
I chuckled to myself at the thought.
If only Kibum knew. He would probably be calling me an idiot right about now.
......
A good few hours passed by before a tall man came out of nowhere and sat beside me wordlessly. I kept my eyes trained on the arm wrestling match going on not too far away, refusing to spare him a single sideways glance. My only reaction to his sudden proximity was to instinctively shift over to the left. But to my alarm, not only did he not take the hint, he leaned in even closer.
Had the guy never heard of personal space? But then again, a bar was not exactly the right place to go looking for personal space.
The man sounded slightly amused when he finally decided to greet me.
"Hey, aren't you Mister Crybaby from the other day?"
His deep voice would have been pleasant under any other circumstance, but right now it only made my hair stand on end. And what the hell was with that moniker? Even though I'd never tried picking someone up before, I was sure there were more normal lines to use.
Swallowing to moisten my throat, I managed to sound unaffected. But in spite of the effort I put into my speaking, I was quite certain that I looked every bit as high-strung as I felt. "Excuse me? Sorry, I don't think I know you."
The man wasn't the least bit discouraged, laughing as if I had just told him a joke. "Well I suppose that does make sense. You were bawling your eyes out that other time; it would be a miracle if you had seen my face clearly."
I didn't know what to say.
Seeing that I was mute and petrified, helplessly stuck between him and the wall, he smiled graciously and continued. "Although my bite is worse than my bark, I promise you I save that for somewhere a little more private. So you can stop being all tense! I'm not going to hurt you. Look at me and then tell me I look like one of those desperate psychos who make it a sport hunting down virgins like you."
Psychos? Virgins?
Maybe he was high on something.
He did realize what was coming out of his mouth, right?
He laughed again when I remained frozen. "Fine, I'll stop teasing you. I was talking about what happened the other day-three days ago was it?-at the movie theater. I was the guy sitting on your right. Before you hightailed out of there, you stared at me for a long time. Does that jog a memory?"
Ah.
I remembered.
Of course I remembered.
Swirling the contents of my glass for the sake of having something to do, I smiled a little bitterly. "Oh, that was you? I... Sorry you had to see something so embarrassing."
The man shrugged dismissively, as if what had happened the other day was of no consequence to him. Perhaps it was deliberate or perhaps it was inadvertent but he saved me from further awkwardness by steering the topic in a whole new direction.
"How come you've only ordered one drink for the whole night and yet you haven't touch a single drop of it?"
I kept my silence.
"You know, when you let a drink sit for too long and swirl it around too much, it oxidizes and the temperature changes. That ruins the original taste and fragrance. It's such a waste of the bartender's efforts and of the drink itself."
I twisted my mouth.
He didn't go on lecturing me.
I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye.
Short black hair. A handsome face with flawless planes and angles. Large eyes, ever so slightly squinting at the world from behind his double eyelids. He was a pure-blooded carnivore, an aggressive and no doubt successful alpha-male. He was also the type that I normally avoided as much as possible.
And yet I did something I never thought I would do: I volunteered to speak to him.
"So where's your girlfriend?" I scanned the room.
"What?" He turned to look at me.
"That day, weren't you-"
"Ah, that wasn't my girlfriend. Just a coworker. I owed her a favor and she said if I would take her out to a movie, then we'd be even. I'm not much of a movie person but I had no plans that day anyway so I just went along with it."
I didn't know what gave me the courage. "You're lying, right?"
At my accusation, he arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow, intrigued. "And what makes you say that?"
I avoided his questioning gaze.
"If she wanted you to return a favor by watching a movie with her, why would she choose a sci-fi action flick of all things? It doesn't make any sense..."
He laughed aloud without reserve.
"What, are you saying that you know women better than I do?"
This kind of conceit was really suffocating.
Except I had no means to fight back against the slight.
Twenty-four and a half years.
In that time, I had never confessed to a single person and not a single person had ever confessed to me. But I was sure that this man sitting beside me was someone who was born to stand at the center of a crowd, born already standing there. Despite us being strangers, it was something I would have no problems swearing by.
He, who stood at the center.
Me, who stood at the edge.
We were of two completely different species.
Just as I was about to take a sip from my drink for lack of anything else to do, he leaned towards me again. Before my mouth met the edge of the glass, he easily stole it from my grasp and replaced it with the one he had been holding all along. Then without hesitation, he lightly brushed his lips over my right cheek and breathed down my neck. I shrank back reflexively and pulled up my shoulders, but it did me little good.
His voiced still echoed in my ear even after he pulled away with an undecipherable look in his dark eyes.
My choice, he had exhaled.
My choice.
It meant too many things.
Was he saying that the movie was his choice?
Or was he was referring to the drink that now rested in my hands?
Or perhaps...
One minute.
He smiled at me with the radiance of the sun for an entire minute.
My eyelids drooped by a fraction and the corners of my mouth tightened.
This kind of self-assurance was absolutely despicable.
As if equality had always been an empty word created just for show.
As if from beginning to end, the other party never possessed the right to refuse...
Fuck it all.
Under his watchful gaze, I emptied that glass in one single breath.
......
chapter 10.1
note: Hurrying...hurrying... And YES, another big cliche. Of course he has to go to a bar. As for what happens... *sweats a bucket* I'm not good at this stuff. TAT
prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Chapter nine
Curled up in a dark corner, I held a glass of something random that I had ordered out of courtesy, silently observing everything around me-the people who came and went, those meaningful glances, the sultry body language of some and the playful ease of others...
That I didn't drink from my glass wasn't because I didn't know how to drink and was thus hesitant. That I was so deeply engaged as a mere spectator wasn't because I found everything novel. In fact, while keeping a certain someone company, I'd once tested my limit. The experience had yielded an unexpected discovery: in contrast to our appearances, I could hold my alcohol far better than he could. I'd also followed him to a bar before, this bar to be exact. The only one that I knew of.
I chuckled to myself at the thought.
If only Kibum knew. He would probably be calling me an idiot right about now.
......
A good few hours passed by before a tall man came out of nowhere and sat beside me wordlessly. I kept my eyes trained on the arm wrestling match going on not too far away, refusing to spare him a single sideways glance. My only reaction to his sudden proximity was to instinctively shift over to the left. But to my alarm, not only did he not take the hint, he leaned in even closer.
Had the guy never heard of personal space? But then again, a bar was not exactly the right place to go looking for personal space.
The man sounded slightly amused when he finally decided to greet me.
"Hey, aren't you Mister Crybaby from the other day?"
His deep voice would have been pleasant under any other circumstance, but right now it only made my hair stand on end. And what the hell was with that moniker? Even though I'd never tried picking someone up before, I was sure there were more normal lines to use.
Swallowing to moisten my throat, I managed to sound unaffected. But in spite of the effort I put into my speaking, I was quite certain that I looked every bit as high-strung as I felt. "Excuse me? Sorry, I don't think I know you."
The man wasn't the least bit discouraged, laughing as if I had just told him a joke. "Well I suppose that does make sense. You were bawling your eyes out that other time; it would be a miracle if you had seen my face clearly."
I didn't know what to say.
Seeing that I was mute and petrified, helplessly stuck between him and the wall, he smiled graciously and continued. "Although my bite is worse than my bark, I promise you I save that for somewhere a little more private. So you can stop being all tense! I'm not going to hurt you. Look at me and then tell me I look like one of those desperate psychos who make it a sport hunting down virgins like you."
Psychos? Virgins?
Maybe he was high on something.
He did realize what was coming out of his mouth, right?
He laughed again when I remained frozen. "Fine, I'll stop teasing you. I was talking about what happened the other day-three days ago was it?-at the movie theater. I was the guy sitting on your right. Before you hightailed out of there, you stared at me for a long time. Does that jog a memory?"
Ah.
I remembered.
Of course I remembered.
Swirling the contents of my glass for the sake of having something to do, I smiled a little bitterly. "Oh, that was you? I... Sorry you had to see something so embarrassing."
The man shrugged dismissively, as if what had happened the other day was of no consequence to him. Perhaps it was deliberate or perhaps it was inadvertent but he saved me from further awkwardness by steering the topic in a whole new direction.
"How come you've only ordered one drink for the whole night and yet you haven't touch a single drop of it?"
I kept my silence.
"You know, when you let a drink sit for too long and swirl it around too much, it oxidizes and the temperature changes. That ruins the original taste and fragrance. It's such a waste of the bartender's efforts and of the drink itself."
I twisted my mouth.
He didn't go on lecturing me.
I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye.
Short black hair. A handsome face with flawless planes and angles. Large eyes, ever so slightly squinting at the world from behind his double eyelids. He was a pure-blooded carnivore, an aggressive and no doubt successful alpha-male. He was also the type that I normally avoided as much as possible.
And yet I did something I never thought I would do: I volunteered to speak to him.
"So where's your girlfriend?" I scanned the room.
"What?" He turned to look at me.
"That day, weren't you-"
"Ah, that wasn't my girlfriend. Just a coworker. I owed her a favor and she said if I would take her out to a movie, then we'd be even. I'm not much of a movie person but I had no plans that day anyway so I just went along with it."
I didn't know what gave me the courage. "You're lying, right?"
At my accusation, he arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow, intrigued. "And what makes you say that?"
I avoided his questioning gaze.
"If she wanted you to return a favor by watching a movie with her, why would she choose a sci-fi action flick of all things? It doesn't make any sense..."
He laughed aloud without reserve.
"What, are you saying that you know women better than I do?"
This kind of conceit was really suffocating.
Except I had no means to fight back against the slight.
Twenty-four and a half years.
In that time, I had never confessed to a single person and not a single person had ever confessed to me. But I was sure that this man sitting beside me was someone who was born to stand at the center of a crowd, born already standing there. Despite us being strangers, it was something I would have no problems swearing by.
He, who stood at the center.
Me, who stood at the edge.
We were of two completely different species.
Just as I was about to take a sip from my drink for lack of anything else to do, he leaned towards me again. Before my mouth met the edge of the glass, he easily stole it from my grasp and replaced it with the one he had been holding all along. Then without hesitation, he lightly brushed his lips over my right cheek and breathed down my neck. I shrank back reflexively and pulled up my shoulders, but it did me little good.
His voiced still echoed in my ear even after he pulled away with an undecipherable look in his dark eyes.
My choice, he had exhaled.
My choice.
It meant too many things.
Was he saying that the movie was his choice?
Or was he was referring to the drink that now rested in my hands?
Or perhaps...
One minute.
He smiled at me with the radiance of the sun for an entire minute.
My eyelids drooped by a fraction and the corners of my mouth tightened.
This kind of self-assurance was absolutely despicable.
As if equality had always been an empty word created just for show.
As if from beginning to end, the other party never possessed the right to refuse...
Fuck it all.
Under his watchful gaze, I emptied that glass in one single breath.
......
chapter 10.1