Ghoul's Life

Color Me in Love

Gunshots and screams are heard from inside the house, tormenting the once peaceful neighborhood. The two ghoul investigators walk in, their silver suitcases glinting sinisterly in the moonlight as they step past broken furniture and shattered picture frames. Bullet holes and large inhuman marks scar the walls, bodies flung in odd places left and right, the smell of ghoul lining the floorboards. What was once a family home, was now a war zone.

One of the investigators stops to look at a height chart carved into one of the entrance ways, the colorful writing catching his eye. Two sets of irregularly spaced lines followed by annual dates ran up the wall labeled under "정" and "진".

Suddenly, a burst of blinding light sears from the adjacent room and two more of his men are thrown out, impaled by crystalized RC shards.

It was them. It was the ghouls.

:{---}:

Seokjin is strung up to say the least. He hasn't seen Namjoon in a few days and while he isn't anywhere close to owning him, those sharp eyes and cute laughs have Seokjin's heart wrapped around his fingers. Yes, he's developed an undeniable crush on a man he's only met once. And yes, he's worried about never seeing him again like some lovestruck fool- which he knows he is.

At the moment, however, the poor server is being stretched thin between cleaning tables, mixing drinks, serving customers, washing glasses- all of it. It's Saturday and all his co-workers, other than the sweet new girl who is also being run ragged, are either late or dead. And they better be dead, because Seokjin feels like his patience is about to be wiped off the face of the earth.

"Yi Jae! Do we need more clean glasses?" Seokjin yells over the commotion and dodges a hand coming straight for his ass systematically, "When I'm done with this round, I'll go help back there!"

The girl finishes mixing a small batch of drinks and slides them down the counter to their owners with ease, "Yeah, Jin-oppa! Thank you!"

Seokjin makes his way through the bar, taking orders, clearing tables, and unabashedly paying no attention to a few hooligans cursing him out for ignoring them. It makes him smile, completely amused.

Contrary to his attitude, it's not like he didn't care about how these people treated him. Seokjin simply learned how to block it out- a definite improvement from his first day where he was on the verge of crying practically his entire shift. Of course, he could get a better job, but it was hard enough finding a good paying company that wanted to hire anyone without a GED. Not to mention, he already heavily depended on his current paycheck and the generous tips that came with it. He needed this job.

However, that won't stop the waiter from passive-aggressively telling off a few customers here and there.

"Oppa, can you take this outside for me. You know how creepy it is behind the building." Yi Jae asks, handing Seokjin a full trash bag.

"YAh! So you send me out there instead?!" The older employee exclaims.

The girl giggles with fake sweetness before going back to rinsing a few more cups off. Seokjin just shakes his head and makes his way to the dumpster outside.

Right when the server opens the back door, cool wind brushes his skin soothingly and instant relief washes over him. Due to the overwhelming crowd inside, the bar grew uncomfortably hot since its opening time, even with the AC on blast. The cool night being all but therapeutic in comparison, fresh air permeating his surroundings while evening birds drowsily sing for him. He'll make sure his apprentice takes a little break outside next time the trash needed to be put out.