Elysia

“I need a job,” Jakyung told the man sitting behind the desk. He blinked at her, once, twice, three times. A wry laugh escaped his throat as he tapped the cigarette against the side of the ashtray.

“A doll like you, working in a place like this,” he rasped. “Wouldn’t mommy and daddy be proud of that?” He shook his head and picked up the paper Jakyung had placed in front of him.

“What my mother and father don’t know won’t hurt them,” she deadpanned. They had sent her here to finish up her schooling, but they never were clear about what she was to do in her free time. The man arched an eyebrow at her. “I’m a quick study, and I have a bit of experience behind the bar.”

“You? No kidding.” He scanned the basic CV he held in his hands and sighed. “Look kid, you’re only what? 20? That’s barely legal. You’ve got quite the rap sheet for someone so young, but do you really think that this is the place for a girl like you?”

“And what kind of girl would that be?” Jakyung shot back. She didn’t have time for this. If this man wasn’t going to give her a job, she’d just have to look someplace else. “If you’re going to give me a lecture, save it; that’s what school’s for.” She stood and headed for the door. Before she could twist the doorknob, however, he called out to her.

“Jakyung, was it? Fine. I’ll give you a chance,” he sighed. “You’re feisty, I’ll give you that. You’ve got a week. Make it through the week and I’ll hire you on permanently.” The corner of Jakyung’s lips twitched up into a smirk.

“When do I start?”

+++++++

The twelve men waltzed into the club like they owned the place. On a technicality they did, but that was of little consequence. For a Friday night at 9PM, the club was already packed. Bodies moving in time with the music, drinks being passed out at the bar in quick succession; things were just how they liked them.

The group headed towards their usual booth, off to the right of the dance floor, but in clear view of all the action. Within only a few minutes, girls started to stop by, some familiar, some new. It didn’t matter to them – it never did. They were here on business, like usual.

“You would think that if they wanted this alliance, they would at least show up to the meeting on time,” Suho murmured into his drink. Luhan shrugged.

“It’s their loss, not ours.” He scanned their surroundings, trying to find someone to bring them more drinks. Finally, he spotted a girl headed towards the bar, balancing trays of empty glasses on either hand. He nudged Xiumin who looked up from his conversation with Kyungsoo.

“Looks like Yungmin decided to hire someone new finally,” he said. Kyungsoo glanced at the girl and furrowed his brows.

“She looks familiar, doesn’t she?” He asked, trying to peer around the trays to see her face. He grabbed the arm of the nearest club goer and shoved a $50 into his hand. “Tell that bartender to come over here.” The man scurried off and found the requested woman, who barely glanced over her shoulder, but nodded her understanding.

Jakyung was in her element. While she wasn’t happy to have been forced to come to Seoul, she was at least a little pleased that she could find an outlet for the free time she had when not in classes. She had worked in bars before back in Anyang; not legally of course, but it gave her the chops she needed to handle all sorts of rowdy folk. She had a couple hundred cocktails memorized, and despite being underage, she could hold her liquor with the best of them.

Since Yungmin had told her three hours before, that she was on a weeklong probation, she got right to work. Of course the club wasn’t busy at 5 in the afternoon, but by the time 9 rolled around, it was packed, and she was kept on her toes. The money didn’t hurt either. She had already racked up about two hundred dollars in tips, and that wasn’t counting the pay check Yungmin had promised her at the end of the probation period.

“Hey lady.” She felt a tap on her shoulder, and suddenly the face of a man who had clearly had his fair share of booze was shoved into her line of sight. She raised an eyebrow at him and he continued. “A guy at that fancy table in the back wants you to go over there. He gave me $50 bucks just to get you, so it must be important.”

Jakyung rolled her eyes, but nodded anyway. Of course, in a place like this, there would be people throwing their money around like it was nothing. Hell, she’d be doing the same thing if it wasn’t playing into the hands of the people she wasn’t too happy with right now. She set one of the trays down on the bar and tucked the other under her arm, before weaving through the crowd to the table that had requested her. As she drew closer, her breath hitched in her chest, and she let out a groan.

“Well, well, well,” Kris said. He grinned at the look on her face. “If it isn’t Park Jakyung. Fancy meeting you here.” At hearing her name, the rest of the table’s conversations stopped and the remaining 11 faces fixed her with looks ranging from surprise to curiosity.

“You work here?” Chen asked stupidly. Jakyung glanced at him before removing the notepad from the back pocket of her shorts and taking the pen from behind her ear.

“You gonna order or what?” She asked. They stared at her for a moment, and she stared right back.

“You know, I almost thought you were mute,” Xiumin said. “I’ve got four classes with you, and you didn’t say a peep all day.”

“I didn’t have anything to say,” she responded, a bored look on her face. She scanned the table and the various states of the drinks present. “Four whiskey sours, a Jameson on the rocks, two vodka cranberries, three yorsch’s and, what’s that? Three Jaeger and coke. Is that all?”

“Well, I’ll be damned. The little girl knows what she’s talking about,” Luhan scoffed, downing the rest of his Jameson. “How’d you end up in a place like this?” Jakyung ignored him and gathered the empty glasses onto the tray.

“He asked you a question,” Baekhyun said, grabbing her wrist as she went to reach for his glass. She fixed him with a cold glare and then turned her gaze to Luhan.

“That’s really none of your business,” she told him, and twisted her arm out of Baekhyun’s hand. He seemed a bit surprised, leaving her a chance to gather the rest of the glasses. “Aecha will be over in a minute or two to bring you your drinks.”

“Hey wait, don’t mind them.” Chen seemed to have regained his voice and flashed a charming smile. “They really aren’t the best conversationalists.”

“Yeah, well, neither am I,” she said and turned on her heel back to the bar. As soon as she was out of earshot, Kris let out a loud laugh.

“Well isn’t she just a field of daisies,” he said through his laughter. “Drives a Camaro, works at a nightclub, talks smack to Lulu. This girl just keeps getting more and more interesting.”

“She’s rude,” Baekhyun grumbled, not pleased that she hadn’t given him the reaction she wanted. “And she isn’t as pretty as you said, Kai.”

Kai shrugged. “I have thing for girls who can appreciate a nice car.”

“Oh, look. I guess they decided to show up after all,” Kyungsoo pointed out the group of six men headed towards them. They looked cocky, as if they owned the place, though it was clear to anyone who cared to pay attention that their bravado was going to be short lived.

“Look who decided to show their stupid faces,” Xiumin drawled from his position at the end of the booth. “Pull up some chairs, gentlemen. Relax, get comfortable. Drinks are on us tonight.”

The leader of the new group of men noted the glint of challenge in the eyes of the one who’d spoken, and motioned for one of his own to get some chairs. He took his seat first and the others followed suit. It was a stare-down between the two groups of men by the time Jakyung returned to the table, reluctantly bearing the drinks Aecha couldn’t leave the bar to deliver.

“I thought you said Aecha would deliver the drinks,” Chen smiled at her, noticing her look of displeasure. Jakyung merely glanced at him before distributing the drinks amongst the twelve she’d taken the orders for. She turned her blank stare to the newcomers and took out the notepad and pen.

“Are you drinking anything tonight?” she asked, as the men eyed her up and down. The leader grinned and reached out a hand to run a finger down her arm.

“I’ll take a tall glass of you, sweetness,” he said in what Jakyung assumed was supposed to be a sexy voice. She brushed away his hand and met his eyes with her own.

“Fresh out, I’m afraid. I recommend the Bitch Beer; seems a bit fitting with your personality,” she retorted. Kai slapped a hand over his mouth to prevent his drink from spewing out, and the rest hid their smiles and snickers behind their hands. Even the friends of the man she had spoken to looked pretty amused.

“You’d better watch your pretty little mouth, or you might find it doing unpleasant things, you stupid woman,” The man growled at her. Jakyung raised one eyebrow at him and scribbled something down on the notepad before turning away and heading back to the bar.

“A round of Bitch Beers for the wannabe boy band. Got it,” she called over her shoulder. The man started out of his seat, but one of his friends pulled him back into the chair.

“Fellas, fellas, it’s just a waitress,” Kris said, folding his hands on the table and leaning forward. “Given your tardiness to this meeting, I’d say she was in the clear with the insult, don’t you think?” That shut up the grumbling of the leader, who glared at Kris.

“We don’t want to do this anymore than you do,” another of the newcomers spoke. “But we’re in a tight spot, and you’re the only ones with enough influence to get us what we want.”

Suho swirled the ice in his glass before looking at the six men. “The compliment is well appreciated, gentlemen. However, this isn’t a matter of what we can do for you. It’s a matter of what you can do for us. So enlighten me, Shim Doohyun. How does EXO benefit from an alliance with the Firestarter gang?”

Jakyung surveyed the group of men from the bar as she mixed the drinks. She was very tempted to pull several hard lemonades (or Bitch Beer, as she liked to call it) and hand them over, but she wasn’t in the mood to start a fight on her first day. She could clearly see the faces of her classmates from this vantage point. Why they were in the club was none of her business, though she was admittedly as curious about their reasons as they were about hers.

She knew it was going to be next to impossible to avoid them now that they shared both classes and after-hours activities. She didn’t know many teenagers who had guts enough to waltz into a nightclub and drop the cash for a VIP table at a place a popular as this, so she knew that they were either rich or into some shady business. Judging by the company they kept, she had a feeling it was a bit of both.

As she put the finish touches on the drinks, she looked up and caught the eye of the one who had grabber her hand before. She didn’t know his name, but the smoldering glare he gave her before, and the one he was giving her now made her want to laugh. They may have been in there to conduct some risky business, but to her, they just looked like a bunch of kids trying too hard. She cut her eyes at him before loading up the drinks on a tray and navigating the crowd back to the table.

“Two pink ladies, an apple-tini, two vodka with lime, and a Unicorn,” she listed off as she set the tray down. “I’d hand them out, but I wouldn’t want to offend your delicate egos.”

“I think I liked it better when you didn’t talk,” Baekhyun sneered. Jakyung ignored him and cleared some of the now empty glasses.

“Oh no, I find her highly amusing,” Chanyeol laughed. He flashed Jakyung a smile, and she let a glimmer of amusement show on her face before she schooled it back to a neutral expression.

“Gentlemen,” she said to EXO before heading back to the bar. Several of them shook their heads while Doohyun and his group eyed the drinks. After a moment of silence, one guy grabbed the drink nearest to him, a pink lady, and took a tentative sip.

“It’s not bad, actually.”

Doohyun had half a mind to shoot him.

++++++++

Jakyung’s shift was over at 1AM. She was glad for the weekend, and she didn’t have to be back at the bar until 7PM. That left her more than enough time to sleep, eat and finish up the little bit of homework she’d been assigned.

“Do you need a ride home?” Aecha asked her as they finished wiping down the counters.

“I drove here, so I’ll be good,” Jakyung told her. Aecha was a 26 year old grad student who was working in the bar to help fund some of her education. She was nice enough, and didn’t talk much to Jakyung, which she liked.

After they were done and Aecha had locked the staff door, they headed to their respective cars. Jakyung wasn’t surprised to find a group of guys loitering around her Camaro, clearly waiting for her to get finished.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than bug me?” She asked as she pressed the button on the remote car starter. The engine roared to life, startling some of the men, but they quickly recovered.

“Nope,” Chen grinned. “It’s the weekend. No one ever has anything better to do.”

“I could think of a few things,” Baekhyun muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets. Jakyung cut her eyes at him before attempting to push aside Chen to get to the door of her car.

“Not so fast, Jakyung,” he said, refusing to move. “My feelings are hurt. I’ve been trying to talk to you all day and you just keep ignoring me.” The pout on his face was almost enough to make her laugh.

“Is that the face you give every girl that won’t give you the time of day, Chen? Has it worked yet?”

“See, I told you she was running away from you earlier,” Kai piped up, earning a shove from Luhan to shut up. Jakyung finally succeeded in pushing Chen out of the way to get to the door, and leaned her back against it, facing the twelve guys.

“Tell me, gentlemen,” she drawled, crossing her arms over her chest. “Don’t you think it’s a little maudlin to wait in a dark parking lot for a woman to walk out to her car?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Suho said. He had taken a liking to this girl who wanted nothing to do with him or his friends. It was refreshing. “In reality, we just wanted to see if you were interested in coming to a party tomorrow. You know, as a way of saying welcome to Seoul.” Jakyung didn’t miss the look of confusion that passed between the rest of them.

“Just for little ol’ me? How sweet,” she deadpanned. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve got things to do.” She began to turn around to open the car door when a hand reached out and grabbed her wrist for the second time that night. She immediately twisted her arm and smacked the hand away, much to the surprise of Suho who had grabbed her. She glared at him before getting in the car and slamming the door shut. There was a pause before she lowered the window just enough so that they could hear her speak.

“Don’t ever touch me again.” She slammed her foot down on the gas and tore out of the parking lot, leaving them staring after her for the second time.

“Well that went about as well as expected.”

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