Chapter 16

Minji and Yena had caught on to my lack of potential boyfriend material talk this past week. I had to come clean to them that things were not going to work out for Woojin and me. And the opportunity came with Minji’s direct acknowledgement.

“Let me take a wild guess and say Woojin wasn’t it for you?”

If Yena were with us right now instead of class, she probably would have given her two cents on the matter as well, though in a much more indirect and sympathetic way.

I took a long sip of my iced tea, staring out at the traffic in front of the café. “Being single isn’t too bad though…”

Minji shook her head in pity. “Oh, no. You’re going through single’s denial! If I had known things would get like this, I should’ve just taken you to the club last weekend.”

I sighed at both the thought of giving up on Woojin and the lost chance of getting a proper first kiss with a hot stranger at a nightclub. Although, it was aimed more towards the former than the latter.

“What happened anyway? It seemed like everything was going great for you two.”

I thought back to the comic book café. To Eun. “I just don’t think I’m the right kind of person for him.” The right kind of gender.

Minji put down her tall glass of tea. “What the hell are you talking about, Song Yura? You practically had him in the palm of your hands!”

“I doubt that…”

She looked at me in total disapproval. “Alright, if that’s your only reason for putting things off with Woojin, I’m going to hold onto hope for you guys.”

I shook my head. “No, Minji. It’s really for the better—”

“What you need is a confidence boost.”

I caught myself looking down rather unconfidently at my hands.

“We are going to a club this weekend, and there’s no backing out this time. I’m going to pull you out of your comfort zone and hopefully break that hard shell of yours for good. What you need the most right now is the confidence to go up and grab the guy you like without being trapped in your own self-doubt!”

But this wasn’t an issue of self-doubt, I wanted to say out loud. Woojin simply wasn’t attracted to girls, and I was a girl! Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell any of this to Minji. It would be a major invasion of Woojin’s private life to put his sexual orientation out there to someone he barely even knew. That wouldn’t be fair to him. And there was the slight chance that Minji wouldn’t stay quiet about it afterward…

In the end, I could only let out a sigh.

“Don’t worry though, Yura. I know you still like Woojin, so I won’t be taking you to just any club.”

“Hm? Then, where are we going?”

Minji smirked. “It’s single’s night at one of my favorite all-women’s nightclubs.”

“An all-women’s nightclub?”

I had never heard of such a thing before. I always assumed every nightclub was opened to both men and women. Wasn’t that the point of going to clubs in the first place? To meet a lot of new people and perhaps even a potential love interest…?

“Fine, might as well get the truth out now,” Minji started. “It’s a lesbian club, hence the strict women-only aspect. Men aren’t allowed in, so you won’t have the risk of losing Woojin as the sole boy in your heart.”

I brushed over the last sentence because I was still caught up on the one before it. I looked at Minji in shock. “A…lesbian club?”

She put her hands up in defense. “Woah, before you get the wrong idea, I’m not gay. I may have a few gay friends, but I’m pretty sure I’m straight. I go to lesbian clubs for the atmosphere and friends. Everyone I met there is super chill. Plus, there are no men in their thirties and forties trying to grope your ass on the dancefloor.”

“Um…”

“It’s fun. You’ll see.”

. . .

The weekend arrived much sooner than I expected. Perhaps it was due to the anticipation. My first ever night out at a club! This would have never been possible when I lived with my parents. My curfew had been at ten p.m.

It was currently nine-thirty. I tried my best to put on a dress revealing enough to be club-worthy but also still dignifying. Then, I did my makeup much darker than usual, which was actually just the everyday look for Minji. I stared at myself in the mirror. I rarely ever wore eyeliner. Although it did make my eyes pop, I wasn’t sure if I had done a decent enough job on them. Was it natural for my eyes to appear this big? They were the only things I could notice on my face. I really hoped they were okay. Passible, at the very least.

I couldn’t even ask Elsie for a second opinion right now. She wasn’t home. She said she was going out for a few drinks with her college friends. I wasn’t surprised to learn she had already made a lot of new friends at school. She seemed like she would be the popular type. She probably was so in high school as well.

But I had no time to be wondering about Elsie’s past. I was going to be late. I grabbed my small handbag and headed out.

. . .

“The first shot is on me!” Minji said, to which a bartender slid us two shots of tequila across the bar counter.

The club music was progressively getting louder and the beat harder, rumbling both the dance floor and my heart. Quite a few women were already packed together, dancing, laughing, having fun. Some were even kissing in the corner. Just one girl’s mouth to the other’s…

Had Elsie and I been like that—

I hit my glass with Minji’s and downed all of my tequila shot. The bitter burn on my throat was soon soothed by the lightness that befell my head. Complicated thoughts were beginning to go away. It wasn’t long until I ordered another shot, followed by a lime margarita. It was going to be a tequila kind of night.

Minji grabbed me by the arm. “Enough drinking, Song Yura! Let’s dance!”

Nameless songs with catchy beats blasted the speakers, sending a wave of energy to all who listened. The DJ stood on an elevated platform on the stage, a small group of people surrounding her feet. One of them was talking to her. Maybe flirting would have been a better word judging by the smirk on both of the women’s faces.

I looked away. There were lesbians everywhere. Although Minji and I weren’t one of them, it was impossible to differentiate us from the girls grinding against each other a few steps away.

“Minji!” I called out, losing her within the crowd during my short moment of distraction.

I soon found her, only to realize she was at a place I dared not go. Minji was at a pole, working at it rather skillfully to the mesmerized eyes of several women. One of them bravely joined her.

I had to remind myself again that Minji was straight. However, that did not stop her from leaning her head back onto the chest of the taller woman, who smiled before licking Minji’s lips. I turned my back on them, not having it in me to watch my tipsy friend share tongues with a stranger. I had drastically underestimated the wild side of Minji.

With my thoughts elsewhere, my body had no trouble giving in entirely to the rhythm of the music. My hips were swinging in ways I did not know I was capable of. I closed my eyes, forgetting about my busy friend, and simply immersed myself within this lively atmosphere. When the song ended, I found myself shouting along with the crowd for the next one. I felt I had become a different person. It was absolutely liberating!

Amidst my hypnotic state of dancing, I hadn’t noticed my body was moving in near-perfect sync with the woman next to me. She was Korean too, a little shorter than me even with her heels. She had very short black hair, too many piercings on her ears, and dangerously red-tinted lips. She was the type of person who immediately instilled a sense of mischief upon first glance. Had this been school or anywhere else besides a club, the idea of approaching her wouldn’t have even crossed my mind. But tonight, I was willing to take a step forward and humor myself a little.

I leaned closer to her face and said, “Hey.”

“Hello.” As she strung the greeting out, my eyes couldn’t stop staring at how full her red lips were. She must have noticed. “You know, you’re really hot.”

I blinked a few times in bewilderment. “Um, thank you. You, too…?”

She giggled, most likely at the awkwardness of my response. “What’s your name?”

“Yura.”

“Yura,” she repeated, situating herself behind me. She whispered my name once more so close to my ear that her minty breath sent chills down my neck. She had herself grinding against me.

I was blushing like crazy, though it was hard to tell with the heat the tequila had already brought to my cheeks. Having the most provocative part of someone’s body rubbing against my butt like this… I did not know what I was supposed to do, so I just let the music command me. I moved with her.

A tingling sensation ran throughout my entire body. It turned electric at the touch of this woman. Her hands, which had been at my waist, were now moving in opposite directions. One made its way up towards my chest. The other went down. They kept on going—slowly—with the buildup of the song’s climax.

And as the beat dropped, her lower hand got between my legs.

I gasped, jerking myself forward. I did not have time to look at the reaction on that woman’s face as I made a dash for the exit. I needed to breathe some real air. It was too suffocating in there.

The introvert in me was calling then. Screaming in full panic. I sat on a street curb, suddenly wondering what the hell I was doing here.