Make It Work.

Karaoke.

"He is such a flirt!" Karina squealed. 

I laughed and took a sip of my iced tea.

"Wait, so he's rich, sweet, and he's most definitely interested- what's the problem?" She asked, referring to Minhyuk.

I looked down, still smiling as I stirred my drink with my straw. 

"I just...I don't want to be that kind of girl, you know?" I said, taking another sip as I looked around at the other tables. 

Karina scoffed, "You mean the kind that gets to ride in expensive cars and gets taken out to fancy dinners at pretentious restaurants?" 

I rolled my eyes, "I mean the kind of girl that just uses men for their resources," I said.

Karina sighed, "Then I need to go make friends with those kinds of girls because I'm ready to be rich by association," she said.

I laughed and playfully nudged her leg with my foot, "Shut up."

A short, heavyset man stepped onto the platform in front of our table and took the mic off of the stand, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a performer who goes by the name of... Kirange?" 

I looked over at Karina, "Oh boy... I can't wait to see what poor fool makes an idiot of himself," I said as I took a long drink of my iced tea. I was starting to feel the alcohol.

After a moment, a different man walked onto the platform, mic in hand. The crowd cheered, and you could hear a few whistles and catcalls from the women in the audience.

He was wearing an oversized black t-shirt, and black jeans. You could tell he had been sweating, since the front of his hair was wet-looking and a little matted. The lights were bright and took some adjusting to, but once my eyes finally focused, the guy looked familiar...

"Oh my God..." I said.

Karina looked over at me, "He's hot, right?" she said, clapping her hands and cheering along with the rest of the women.

"Hello, everyone. I wouldn't normally do this but I lost a bet and now, here we are," The guy said with a sigh. His speech was slurred ever so slightly. 

A table full of guys at the other end of the platform cheered loudly, some of them were laughing hysterically, others were holding their index finger and thumb together to form little hearts.

"Thank you for that, guys...alright, I'm gonna be singing 'Hyeya', by a Korean singer named Jonghyun." He said.

As I was about to tell Karina that we needed to leave, a soft piano melody started playing, and he was holding the mic up to his mouth. If I got up now, he'd see me for sure.

I stayed put in my seat, but II lowered my head a bit to hide my face as much as I could.

"Hyeya mianhadan mareun marya..." His voice was soft, smooth, soothing...

What the hell?

I looked over at Karina, wh was in just as much of a trance as the rest of the women behind us.

My mouth hung open in awe. I couldn't believe my ears or my eyes. 

His face was solemn, and yet, full of passion as he sang.

When he reached the end of the song, it was like a switch had flipped within him and he perked back up, a smile spreading across his face as he heard everyone clap and scream for an encore. 

"Thank you," He bowed before walking off of the platform and to the group of guys from before. 

They all playfully hit him on his arms and back, and one guy slung his arm around his shoulder.

I sat in complete shock, unable to make sense of the scene that had just unfolded.

Karina looked at me, and her smiling expression turned to concern, "Y/N, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." 

I slowly shook my head, "Not a ghost..."

Worse.

I just witnessed Kihyun sing drunken karaoke.

And if he sees me here...he'll make sure I never see the light of day again.

"We have to go," I say, downing the last of my iced tea and then grabbing my purse from the seat next to me.

Karina was confused, "Go? Why? We like, just got here," She said, though she also stood up with me.

"I'll explain outside," I said, rushing to get to the door.

Once we were outside, I exhaled in relief. Karina crossed her arms and looked at me, waiting for me to explain myself.

I glanced once more at the door, not fully trusting that we were fully out of the danger zone, but decided to just explain.

"Okay, Mr.Karaoke back there? That's my boss." I said.

It took a moment, but once Karina processed the information, her eyes widened in horror.

"That was him!?" She asked.

I nodded, suddenly feeling really buzzed.

"When you talked about Kihyun, I always imagined someone...different? That guy was so...so..." She struggled to finish her sentence, "Hot."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, well, I'm almost convinced he is the devil reincarnated," I said exaggeratedly.

"Well, why didn't you say anything when you realized it was him?" She asked.

I shook my head, "I couldn't risk him seeing me," I said exasperatedly, "He holds power. He literally holds it over my head every single day. If he finds out II saw him like this..." I say, not even wanting to think about how fired I'd be.

"What a jerk...," She said, shaking her head as she reached into her purse and took out a vape pen, "What a...handsome, beautiful-voice-having...jerk," She said with a laugh.

I glared at her, "It's not funny... he embarrassed me in front of Shownu today..." I said, looking down at my phone to track our Uber. 

Karina took a drag of her vape and smiled, "You mean the 'sexy-back', hot, coffee guy?"

I smiled, "Yeah...him," I said.

"Big deal. It's not like you have the balls to talk to the guy anyway," she said with a shrug.

I glared at her once more, "Actually, I was literally in the middle of asking him out on a date when Kihyun rudely interrupted me," I said, snarling at the memory.

"Wait, you were asking him out?" She asked.

I nodded, shivering as we stood outside of the Karaoke bar. Our car drove up and we both got in on either side. 

We buckled up and settled in.

"Well, if you ask me, Kihyun did you a favor," Karina said, taking her phone out.

I looked at her, a confused expression on my face, "How?" I asked, once again remembering Kihyun staring me down. 

"It's embarrassing to ask the guy out," she said. 

I scoffed, "What are we, ten? It's 2019, a woman should be able to ask a man out without it being a huge social taboo," I said. 

Karina shrugged, "Hey, I don't make the rules."

The drive was only about fifteen minutes, and we were finally at my apartment. 

Karina grabbed blankets out from my hall closet and settled on my couch- something that had become very routine was her sleeping over on the weekends, since we'd usually spend Friday nights getting wasted, either at the house or at trashy bars.

"Night," I said, tiredly walking over to my bedroom.

"Mm..." She grunted, seeming to already be half asleep.

I didn't even bother changing out of my clothes before falling into my bed. I simply kicked off my shoes and before I knew it, I drifted off into the deepest sleep I'd had all week.