Brick by Brick (Bxb)

Chapter 40: The After-party

"Cheers!"

The sound of shot glasses clanked noisily. Two empty bottles of Tequilas sat in the centre of the circular table, and the third was already more than half finished. Ming Kai wondered if they would open the fourth.

Other than Choi Mei Lin, Ming Kai wasn't familiar with the rest of the people from the other departments. The group itself wasn't big, but the alcohol seemed to have impaired his cognitive functions and ability to remember new names.

"To our interns!" She raised her glass, and the rest followed suit.

"Our interns!"

Ming Kai flinched a little when the glasses collided, certain that one would eventually break from the drunken impact if this continued. His boss seemed to have no problems when it came to holding her liquor, but the same couldn't be said of Terry, and Chen Yu Lin, much to his surprise. Terry was ranting incoherently about something that wasn't exactly appropriate for sober audiences, but it wasn't a big problem. Nobody was sober; not in this room anyway.

The sight of Chen Yu Lin laughing at his crude comments was impossible to imagine. Scary what alcohol could do to people.

Ming Kai had decided to refrain from excessive consumption of the potentially dangerous stuff. Someone had to keep an eye out for the drunkards, and it seemed like tonight, that someone was him.

"Let's hit the dance floor." One of the ladies said, dragging Terry and a few other guys along with her. Her heels clacked against the hard floor as she struggled to keep herself from falling over and making an embarrassing scene. Stilettos worn by a drunk woman on the dance floor were no different from a weapon; a fancy, really fashionable weapon.

Ming Kai cringed at the thought of the poor fellow unlucky enough to get stepped on by those killer heels. And then there was Terry, walking down together with her arms around him.

Around him...

Immediately, Ming Kai left his seat and caught Terry by his other arm. Terry turned to face him, wearing a stupid grin. His pupils were dilated; his expression hazy. And Ming Kai clearly knew what that meant.

"You intend to dance in that state?"

"Trustzz me," he slurred. "I can daaanzzzze."

Ming Kai let out a harrumph, "Yeah, and that's the Tequila talking." He tried pulling Terry back up the stairs, but Terry used his free hand to anchor himself onto the railings. That was a surprise. He didn't think that alcohol could make people stronger.

Terry's fingers curled possessively around Ming Kai's collar and pulled him close, then playfully smirked and asked. "Jealous?"

Ming Kai wanted to slap some sense into the guy who had zero situational awareness at the moment. But then again, the rest of the group were equally lacking in that respect. They had apparently left them behind, and Ming Kai thought he spotted Chen Yu Lin already on the dance floor somewhere.

"Nope," he said. "Just making sure you aren't doing anything stupid by yourself."

"Then how about doin' something stupid together?" Terry continued pulling Ming Kai down to the lower platform, eyes fixed on him. Heavens...he was so out of it. But Ming Kai liked him like that.

They pushed past the crowd and managed to find a small space by the dance floor that was unoccupied. The patrons were clearly high on their drinks, or drugs, or perhaps both. Everybody was losing themselves to the blast of deafening music and the beating of the bass drums. The alcohol ensured that nobody paid close attention to the two guys dancing flirtatiously in the corner.