Hayan Night

⑬At Least Now It's Even

 
"Booth twenty-seven, one whiskey, and your company, sweetie," Solji chirped and minced away.

Just as Jeongguk thought that day couldn't get any worse, Solji appeared. Fucking sickening Solji. He was already so, so drained with everything that happened, and honestly, he didn't know how he was supposed to handle Solji too. All he wanted was to fling himself into his warm bed, curl up into a ball, and sleep for hours and hours.

He stood outside her booth and entered after she let him in. He set the drink on the table and perched on the couch, a fog of gloom cloaking his features as he gazed at the table in a haze.

"Don't have that face, baby. Entertain me." She giggled and sipped her drink.

"You know, I thought about it." Jeongguk fixed his gaze on her, giving her a slightly haughty look. "You can ask and talk about whatever you want, but I can talk about whatever I want too. So come on, Solji, let's talk."

"Excuse me? Where's your respect, kid?"

"I don't have any for you."

She made a sonorous noise that sounded crossed between surprise and fury. "V's beating wasn't enough to make you realize I can do whatever I want and get away with it?"

Jeongguk flickered an eyelid at the unexpected question and furrowed his brows. "What? You did it?"

"No, hun," she sneered, her distinctive sly smile creeping over her lips. "His boss did because he had the audacity to tell me what to do. No one tells me what to do. And I'm really disappointed that you complained about me. But on the other hand, it's so fun. You complained, and what happened? You gave V a beating from his boss. You caused it with your pretty little mouth."

Jeongguk wasn't sure if he understood what she just said. V told her off, she went to complain about it to his boss, and then his boss beat him up? And all of this because V wanted to help him?

"I tried." V's words from that day slammed into his head, and just like that, everything clicked. He tried to help me and he got himself so badly beaten because of... me. No, no, that can't be true.

"But everyone hates you. He did it for all of us, not only because of me," he spluttered, and oh how much he wished he was right. He wanted to believe with all his heart he wasn't the one who put V in danger.

"If you hadn't complained, I wouldn't have talked to his boss, sweetie. The kids here are used to me, but you being the new kid had to be a bad boy and make him ask me to not harass his employees. It's not harassment. I'm not even touching you!" A mischievous laugh sprawled through the air around them as she took hold of her drink and sand back, her cunning eyes gawking at the distressed boy across from her.

"I only asked him to not let you page me again," Jeongguk whispered in a maze. "And do you really think what you're doing is right? It is harassment if you're making us talk about things we don't want!"

"Oh, why are you so whiny? Why can't you just do your job and not ruin my night?"

"My job is to keep you company, not fulfill your sickening fantasies," he spat out, his voice heavy with hatred, as he scowled at her.

An aggravated, shocked expression burst onto her face as she couldn't believe that kid just disrespected her like that. "What makes you think I'll tolerate this behavior of yours? If you can't do what a customer asks, you're not doing your job properly, and that means you should get fired. Do you want to get fired?"

Did he want to get fired? He had to think about that for a while. Why was he putting up with everything when even V told him many times to leave? Why was he so determined to keep that job after everything that happened to him and V because of him? Was it really about the money anymore?