An honest lie | Kim Taehyung (editing*)

- A drunken oath -

XXIX

Namjoon witnessed the man drinking about six glasses over the past few minutes, while still keeping the emotionless expression on his zombie-like face. By the 8th glass he started to wonder whether he should stop him or not, but only then did the man start blabbing things under his breath.

The words and phrases became louder by the second and shortly after, he found himself conversing with Namjoon on pointless things. Uttering absolute rubbish and nonsensical words. But then somehow he started whining about his life and that led him to lose his rationality completely, alarming Namjoon, as well as Eda, who had been listening for a while without looking up from her food, that he had undeniably gotten himself completely drunk.

"You know what?" He asked while looking at the glass filled yet again. "I applied for this job because a liked it. I know right? Most people don't even like their jobs! But I do! I REALLY DO!" He shouted while laughing nervously.

"That's good, that's... good.." Namjoon nodded while trying to keep him calm.

"YET! Now I hate it because of people! And my job evolves people! It's a people job! PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!" He continued with a wholehearted tone, but seemed to distort at the thought.

"What is your job?.. may I ask?" Namjoon engaged him in the conversation, now genuinely curious.

"I'm a newspaper." He answered shortly.

"Ugh?" Namjoon stuttered.

The man's eyes squinted and wandered upwards as his brain slowly realized the wrong phrase. "I mean.." he cleared his throat aggressively. "I'm. A. Journalist." He stated every word with a bang on the counter to get it right from his fuzzy mind.

Eda finally looked up from her plate and glanced at the man seated not too far away from her. Her eyes squinted at the sight of him, somehow looking kind of familiar to her.

"And why do you hate it now? Are you being treated unfairly?" Namjoon asked him while glancing between him and his work.

The man sighed and sipped his drink. "Unfair. I like that word. Especially when it comes from someone else other than me." He laughed choking in between his hiccups. "But yeah! That's one of the reasons." He pointed at him circling his index finger around Namjoon's aura.

The bartender chuckled. "What's the top reason then?"

That's when finally the man's expression dropped as he stared on the wooden counter while pressing his lips. Clearly overwhelmed by the thought running through his mind only after a couple of long seconds did he finally find his voice and answer with a low tone, audible enough for Namjoon and Eda.

"Because that's how I met her." He gulped hard. "That's where I met Ellen..."

Eda's eyes looked up from her plate upon hearing the said name and she slowly turned to the man hiccuping loudly. Her gaze narrowed as the realization hit her like a trunk.

It's him.

The young man sniffed and pressed his fingers on his temple to ease the pain that had been caused just by the mention of her name. He shook his head and slapped himself a couple of times to get back to his senses. Even though it was clearly too late after gulping down a fair amount of alcohol to fog his rationality.

"Who's Ellen?" Namjoon asked, now being able to guess his situation.

He laughed bitterly. "Who is she? Who?" He rhetorically asked with a louder tone. But then his actions stopped as he suddenly frowned. "Right... who is-? She? Eh?" Amnesia suddenly taking over, had with no warning befuddled him.