Royal Ace Lounge

⑫I Just Don't Think You Can Handle It

 
There was a quiver of eagerness in Taehyung’s steps as he scurried towards his best friend, who was standing outside of the Royal Ace Lounge.

“Hey, Chim.”

“Hey.”

They looped their arms around each other for scarcely a second before both lunged to the entrance. They slowed down their brash strides as they reached the lounge, nodding as a greeting to the people they passed by on their way to the changing room.

“Why is everyone here so early?” Jimin asked in a whisper.

“To check the list, obviously. We should have come earlier, too.”

“Earlier than a whole hour? I’m not that desperate.”

Taehyung snorted at his remark. He used his ID card to open the door, and they breezed into the room. They spotted a small cluster of hosts and hostesses clumped around the corkboard and approached them.

Taehyung craned his neck, tilting it left and right to peek at the desired paper. The hostess standing in front of him and blocking his view slouched away with a sigh, and he pitched forward to take her place. A little smile rippled about his face with traces of both dissatisfaction and content as he soaked in the renewed list.

“Ugh, I can’t believe you got a half-filled star,” Jimin grouched. “You should be at the top of that list.”

“It’s better than the dash, Chim. We should be satisfied with a half-filled star. It’s good enough.”

“For me, I get it. I didn’t get that many customers. But you did. And the customers loved you. Every single one. It doesn’t make sense.”

“The boss gives you a review as well,” Soojin, who was standing on the other side of the huddled group, jumped in the conversation. “Even if every customer you met gave you a star, you won’t get a full star if the boss gave you something else.”

Jimin stepped aside with Taehyung to give room to the others to analyze the list. He expected to detect fury, or at least a clue of frustration, in his countenance at the additional information Soojin provided them with, but he found nothing. “You seem... calm. Aren’t you curious about why he didn’t give you a full star?”

“No. And like I said, a half star is better than a dash.”

“Yeah, but he can control your ranking forever, Tae.”

“Then I guess I have to make him give me a full star.”

“Look how much you changed in about a week,” Honsu mocked, staring at him from the lengthy white couch where he was sitting. “How touching.”

Sparks of contempt deformed the pleased serenity in Taehyung’s face as he nailed him with a snarky view. “You know what I’m curious about, though? What the fuck does the boss see in you and gives you a full star every time?”

“I’m just that good, Taehyung.”

“I highly doubt that.”

Honsu shrugged his shoulders with a fleer, as if to slough off his useless opinion. “Be happy with the second place. That’s the best you can do.”

“Just don’t cry when he steals your place,” Kanjin, sitting on the edge of the couch, said and gave a sneering rise of his brows when Honsu glared at him.

Taehyung aimed a warm smile at the supportive host in a silent thank you. His ears pricked up when he heard a hostess call Soojin’s name from his right and zoned in on her voice, discarding the surrounding chatter.