A few days later as he walked towards his penthouse elevator late in the evening, he heard “Hi Jihun.” It was Honeys’ voice that called out to him and she waved him over from one of the sofas in the lobby. He smiled and walked towards her.  

She looked different yet familiar with her hair now in long braids. She patted the place beside her for him to sit. He sat. She leaned towards him alluringly, tucked a few strands of her braids behind her ear, her eyes flirting with him outrageously and asked ‘will you like to go somewhere with me?’ 

Jihun started cracking up and said “wow that was so oily and suspicious and yes!”  

Honey laughing as well said “you said I tell you, instead of ask you.” 

“True but you can just ask normally without all that song and dance with your eyes and body.” 

 “Look I thought sprinkling a little bit of razzle dazzle with the ask might convince you and why would you wanna go if it’s suspicious?” 

“You don’t need to convince nor coerce me to hang out with you and you’re super sketchy so it will be fun, let’s go.” He gave her the thumbs up sign. 

She rolled her eyes and smiled playfully, “Aye whatever, go and change. I’ll be waiting.”  

Jihun didn’t retreat immediately. He looked at Honey appreciatively for a moment and said “I’m surprised to see you after a few short days. I’m happy about that since I don’t see you for a couple of weeks at a time.” 

“I’m usually gone for work.” 

“Are we still getting to know each other without the mundane social markers or should I ask what it is that you do?” 

“Yes, I’m having fun getting to know you without the markers. What about you?” 

“Same, even without the expected societal norm of a presentation of your personal curriculum vitae; I already know quite a bit about you.” 

“Oh... care to share what you’ve gleaned so far?” 

“Perhaps, after I’ve changed my clothes.”  

After his return he withheld his observations from her all the way to their destination and she didn’t prod nor badger. If anything, her attitude was serenely indifferent rather than the anxious inquisitiveness he had expected.    

After they arrived and were seated, she still didn't ask. They placed their drink orders and he looked around curiously. 

“Wow, definitely not a wine loft.” 

She smirked and said “I’m taking you out of your bourgeois environment and bringing you down to these plebeian streets.”  

“You can say that again,” he quipped of the aged rugged place. The bar was emblazoned with faded posters of famous mob icons, hip hop and sports stars, a mismatch of curios stuck in random places and ragged currencies from around the world glued haphazardly on the aged walls.  

“Do they even serve wine in this place?” he asked jokingly.  

“Of course, they do it’s called soju and don’t be a snob.” 

“Haha very funny you know the kind of wine I mean and I’m not being a snob. I’ve just never been to a dive bar before.” 

Honey eyed him with mock disdain and said “Why am I not surprised? Well, la di da bear with it Your Grace.” 

This got a chuckle out of him as he shrugged and spread his hands in a gesture that said ‘it is what it is.’ 

Their beers arrived.  

Cheers they both said clinking their bottles.

“So you know Hyumin and company?” 

“Yes, I do she replied.” 

“How did you meet them?” 

“I followed the scent of money.”  

“Followed the scent of money” Jihun echoed nodding in appreciation of her astuteness. “Rich people do tend to leave a scent of wealth behind; one only need to pick up on the smell and follow the trail.” 

Exactly! She exclaimed, making finger guns shooting at targets. Hyumin as you already know was via art."  

“So, you followed Hyumin’s trail which led you to Chloe Ho?” Piecing together the functions he’s seen her at.   

"Indubitably. Monied people tend to move like a school of fish. You meet one, you’ll eventually meet everyone in their circles just like a Venn diagram."  

“How come?”  

“What do you mean?” 

“How does a sketchy person like you get to know such upstanding people?”  

“Translation” she retorted holding up a hand, “what you’re really asking is how does a nobody like me get to know such incredibly cliquish wealthy people?”  

“Yes. It’s not enough to have money alone. To get accepted by other wealthy people, there are other qualifiers like pedigree, network, fame etc.” 

She snorted. “You really think I’m sketchy?”  

“Honey, you just took me through a dark ominous twisty alley to this bar, where a few of the customers look like they belong to the jo-pok.” He sighed with supreme exaggeration. “Only a sketchy person would even know this bar was here. I’m surprised there wasn’t a slot on the door where a face is asking us for the passcode.” 

Honey chortled and called him dramatic.   

“So you really think upstanding people can’t be sketchy?”  

“Of course not. There wouldn’t be scandals otherwise.” 

“What about can sketchy people be upstanding?” 

He took a sip of his beer, rubbed his forefinger with its well-manicured nail under his lower lip as he pondered the question.  

“No,” he finally answered.  

“Why?” She asked. 

“It’s possible for morally dubious people to do good things from time to time but let’s not get it twisted; if they weren’t morally compromised then why not do good most of the time?”  

“Hmmm I see. Your philosophy doesn’t change.” 

“Meaning?” 

She replied. “It’s related to what you’ve already said before. Acts of benevolence versus the malevolence at the core of the person.” 

“Yup! Exactly!” Jihun agreed snapping his fingers for emphasis. “There is a difference between ignorant careless cruelty and intentional savage nefariousness.”  

The bartender brought them soju bombs. 

“How dare you decide for me that I’m not going to work tomorrow?” he admonished with fake outrage as he gleefully grabbed a glass and took a huge swig.  

Honey matched his glee and took an enthusiastic mouthful too, “perhaps I’m trying to get you drunk so I can take advantage of you.”  

 Jihun laughed and dabbed the beer foam from his lips with a napkin and beckoned Honey over so he could get her beer mustache. “I doubt that you’d bring me all the way to this part of town, to a bar like this, just to rape me later. It’s more likely there’s an illegal clinic in the back of the kitchen waiting to harvest an organ. You’re probably aiming for something I won’t miss like a kidney or something.” 

“Actually, I’m aiming for your heart” she said dead pan, drank her beer and peered at him over the rim of the glass. 

Jihun put down his beer glass, cocked his head to the side and grinned. Then he leaned forward pulled Honey's barstool closer to him. “What do you think your chances are of being able to get this said heart?” He asked whispering in her ear. 

She looked at him with speculative humor. “Of course, it would be foolish to try to hijack your heart while you’re judiciously on guard but I believe my chances of securing said heart will be very high indeed, in time.” 

He clicked his glass with hers and said “I wish you the best of luck. It’s good to have confidence.” 

She winked mischievously and blew him a kiss.  

As vestiges of the evening left and deep night fell, people flooded into the place and the bar turned into a bonafide club. The seats descended into the floor, which surprised Jihun as he was not expecting the rough spot to have such state-of-the-art technology. Honey pulled him on the dance floor and he went with no resistance. With exhilaration coursing through him as he spun around, shimmied and dropped low with her, matching her energy. He has always been a really good dancer. Even though he hadn’t danced in more than a decade, he still moved with rhythmic fluidity and flexibility. Here he was on a Thursday night in some back-alley club filled to brim with all kinds of people from different walks of life, getting lit and busting moves on the dance floor. It’s been years since he's had this type of fun. Right before he completely gave him himself to the moment, the fleeting question that passed through his mind was why had he shut all this fun out of his life?  

A phone was ringing. It was loud and insistent and it woke Jihun up. The sound was coming not too far from the vicinity of his head and he opened his eyes groggily, located the object and fumbled for the receiver. 

“Hello” he said. 

“Hello” a bright automated voice responded. “This is your requested checkup call. If you would like to order food, please press 1. For beverages, please press 2. For anti-nausea, headache or dizziness medicine please press 3. Please press 4 to be left undisturbed. Please press 5 to schedule another checkup or wake up call.”  

Jihun pressed 4, hung up and fell back asleep. He woke up around one o’clock feeling hungover but not miserably so. His throat parched, he spied the refreshments on the bedside table and reached for the bottle of water. He drank deeply and felt slightly better. Along with the water were sports drinks, packets of danish and aspirin tablets. God bless her he thought as he popped a couple of tablets in his mouths, chased it with more water and a couple bites of danish. He probably would have felt a lot worse for wear if she hadn’t been doing an angel's work last night of keeping him hydrated, fed and apparently making him take some aspirin before he fell asleep as there were tablets missing from their homes.  

He layed back and reminisced about last night. He distinctly remembers Honey dragging him to a pojangmacha to eat, two other clubs and the last one was so suspect it did not disappoint with a slot in the door and everything. He remembered shrieking in drunken delight about how her sketchiness was so on brand that she fell down laughing. He also remembered asking her how many of these illegal clubs were around and she answered quite a few and then asking her how she knew about them and then told her never mind I don’t want to know, when she leveled him with a it’s better not to ask gaze.  

At this point he was so drunk that he didn’t even care if the place got raided. He vaguely remembered someone being introduced to him and the person including their entourage hanging out with them at the last place. Then someone sat on his lap? Straddled him? Did he kiss someone? Was it Honey? Oh god he hoped it was Honey. Was he drunkenly making out with another woman in front of Honey? Wait was she also locking lips with someone else other than him? Were they both doing this with other people rather than each other??? What the fuck???! Wait calm down he thought, it has to be Honey or better yet perhaps no one kissed anyone; perhaps the last place was a strip club? He faintly remembered touching bare skin. A back?  Boobs? Yeah, he thought it’s probably a strip club. Having that bout of neurosis made him hungry. He reached for the phone and ordered some food. He went to the bathroom and came back to the rest of the danish. As he ate, he saw the note on the table, picked it up and read it. 

Hey Gorgeous hope you’re not feeling too bad. There’s some pudding in the fridge if you can’t stomach any solid food. Hope you already took some more aspirin and hydrated. Even though you’re naked don’t worry your chastity is intact. See you soon mwah.  

But I don’t want it intact he grumbled and chuckled. He laid the note back on the table thinking that he must have blacked out at some point because he didn’t remember coming to this hotel nor being stripped. Speaking of naked where were his clothes? At that moment there was a knock on the door. He hastily put on the hotel supplied fluffy white robe and answered. It was his food being delivered as well as his clothes freshly laundered including his underwear.  

Oh god he thought in alarm after he collected the deliveries. Did he vomit? Piss on himself? What did he do after he blacked out? It's been a very long time since he had gotten that drunk. Then he saw the post-it attached to the plastic.  

Nothing happened I thought you might want fresh clothes after the sweaty adventures of last night. She signed it with a winking smiley face.  

He smelled ink. The note was fresh, very fresh. That little imp was still in the very same hotel with him! On the same floor probably in a room adjacent or across from his.  He wasn’t surprised though, he thought as he removed the cover from the bowl of gamjatang and spooned the restorative broth into his mouth. He felt life sprout in him again with every spoonful. Yeah, he thought as he ate, this aligns with her MO. Within all of the flirtatious and semi-intimate moments was also distance. She was open just the right amount for an interested party to want to take a peek. She maintains the right amount of distance for an engaging pursuit by a suitor and leaves it up to the person how hard or fast they want to close the distance. Everything she does seems to be with intention right down to not badgering him last night about what he knew about her was on purpose. She affected an aura of placid indifference yesterday even though he could tell she was dying to know. He could see the burning curiosity in her eyes. To badger however was to imply that another person’s perspective of her had great importance. Humans generally care about what others think of them and there are people who use this knowledge to wield malicious power over others. All it takes is for a person to show that they are sensitive to other people's opinions or criticisms. Honey maintains her position of control by being insouciant and cagey; thereby denying the other party any leverage of any kind. If he had told her his opinions about her character and personality, she would have said ‘is that so?’ with jovial casual indifference. He was sure of it. 

He scraped the last of the soup into his belly and dug into the thermal bag for his tea. He closed up the flap to keep his coffee hot and climbed back into bed to relax and savor his tea. He didn’t bother to turn on the tv because he assumed 80% of the content would be porn and he didn’t want to sift through all that just to find something to watch that won’t raise his heart rate. He opted for surfing lazily on his phone and then checked his emails. No fires to put out. This too was also due to Honey who reminded him before he got too drunk to send an email to his PA about is impending absence. Green tea over, he picked up the phone and asked the front desk to fetch him a taxicab in half an hour. Feeling fresh and alive after his shower he made his way out of the hotel, coffee in hand. As the taxi drove away, he looked back at the love hotel noting its’ pleasant yet discreet façade. You wouldn’t even know it was there if you weren’t looking for it. Yet again, he wondered how Honey knew of all these underground avenues including this unobtrusive hotel in Daerim of all places. Which is the complete opposite of and as far from all the glitz and glamor of Cheongdamdong as it gets. What is he getting himself involved in this time by courting an omega who had all these shadowy Alphas around her, who knew all these sketchy places, in shady areas of town and spoke no secrets?