As I’m getting ready for work, I don’t know what to wear today. I want to go straight to the bar where the birthday party is kept and not have to change. My club attire can be very crazy. I usually wear an oversized hoodie and change my shoes to boots when I leave work in order to ride the subway and not look too insane. Most times, what I wear is not an issue. However, on special nights I have to wear some insane stuff, so that’s when I hide under the hoodie. Some clothing elements are bought by management from the sex shop. So, imagine…

However, I don’t want to dim my spark, or risk not getting enough tips today. So, I chose to let my hair down like always and wear a thank top with cleavage. The cleavage is a more westernized cheongsam with a diamond-shaped cutout neckline. The motive accentuates my collar bones and because it’s tighter around the armpit area, my shoulders are more exposed, giving me a nice figure beneath. My favorite black pants with silver beaded belt. I use a lot of accessories. I love having jingling sounds follow me as I check for my keys and slam the door shut, leaving for work.

Sometimes, I walk in the building from the front. However, wanting to smoke, I decided to walk between the narrow path making my way to the outdoors, where the emergency exit is. My boots crunch the snow as I walk slowly. However, I noticed a large figure walking behind me. I get a rush of adrenaline and out of irrational fear, I sped up my steps. The person stops in their tracks, and I put distance between us, trying to look back but not having the courage to fully turn my head, so I just give 35° glances slightly above my shoulder. My pace increased suddenly after a rush of fear wiped over me.

After I rush in through the door, I catch my breath and chuckle. Poor guy, maybe he was not even following me. Better safe than sorry. I do not use pheromone blockers. I am, of course, also very sensitized to such problems, given my work. You would not believe the types of people you can encounter here.

“What’s with you? You look pale.” Min proclaims.

“I thought I was being followed in the alley, but the person stopped so I don’t know for sure. Be careful when going smoking today, okay?”

“Oh, yes, yes. I’ll let the others know.”

I do my shift as normal. I make small talk, recommend drinks based on my clients’ vibes, although I don’t know how that is supposed to work. If they are arrogant, I usually give them the most expensive ones. Sometimes I bring a whole bottle, some of which may cost $480 to the table if their behavior is trash. If they looked puzzled and ask why I brought it over, I just say: “Oh, I’m so sorry, sir! Usually, with such high-class looking guests I think of some specific regulars of mine who never skip this bottle. I’ll bring the cocktails and get rid of this. I’m so sorry, I even opened it… silly me.”. They usually take and pay for the bottle, no drama, because they want to fit in with the “high-class guests” I made up.

Nothing out of the ordinary happens today either. It’s rather slow and repetitive. Even though it is Saturday, there are not many customers. Something like this happens every year, as Christmas approaches, people spend their money on family and friends, so less money for clubs. January is also a slow month.

I was heading outside to smoke when I saw the red blanket on one of the make-up stools. I grabbed it and went outside. I didn’t know who gave it to me, I didn’t know his name nor his face. I approached the kitchen door and opened it slightly. Someone was close to the door picking something from a top shelf. They saw me.

“Hi, I’m sorry to bust in here. I received this blanket from someone working here the day before yesterday. I wanted to return it.”

The guy stared at me for a bit, turned his back to me, turned back to me and glanced behind him 3 more times.

“Ye… yeah. Give it here, I’ll take it. Who gave you this?” He crossed his eyebrows and put a devious smile on his lips.

“I don’t know. Somone tall and… I don’t know. Here. Thanks for the blanket. Gave a great day.”

I gave him the blanket and closed the door. I went closer to the club door and scrolled on my phone while smoking. Someone opened the kitchen door. Two people seemed to also smoke. I didn’t feel the need to linger longer than I needed to and after I finished my cigarette I turned around and went inside.

I get off at 10:15 pm, to attend the birthday party. I make my way through the alley and get my phone out to check the location for the meeting point. As I stop to check my phone, a big figure walks behind me again, in my direction. I was too far ahead to turn back and wait inside the club or ask for security, and I was also not going to be able to walk past this person. They were very buff and were walking at mid pace. I sprinted out of there and ran 3 blocks. Why was I so on edge today? Luckly, I ran towards the bar where I was supposed to meet the birthday girl and Romina. I walked inside huffing, opening my jacket and looking for their table. Romina waved extatically at me and her friend just glanced at me.

A very pretty girl. She looked young, around my age. Had styled curtain bangs, a pink pullover with small bows and pearls here and there and deep dimples as she shyly smiled at me, shaking my hand and introducing herself.

“Hello, my name is Nari. Thank you for accepting the invitation!”

“Hi, I’m Kento! Oh, I didn’t know it was a formal invitation, Romina kind of made it seem I was a party crasher.”

I smiled sideways, trying to make light of the fact that I was some random guy, disturbing the peace of two girls celebrating. At least, that’s how it sounded to me. I was an outsider to her.

“I brought something for you. Here, I hope it’s to your liking.”

I bought rose shaped chocolates, airbrushed with pink and red to make them look as realistic as possible. Almond in the middle as well, as Romina recommended. As she thanked me and held the chocolate box in her hands, her cheeks flushed so hard, her make-up blush intensified from underneath her foundation.

“You didn’t tell him what I told you to tell him?” then looking at me she says “You are not crashing anything! I don’t know a lot of people, so having someone close to Romina become my friend makes me happy.”

“It was all a jest. I’m sorry. How old are you going to be?”

“I turn 25 at midnight.”

“Oh, I thought you were a little younger than me. You look very young.”

“Hahaha. It’s the pink bubble gum pullover! I told you!” Romina pointed at her laughing and nudging her.

My laugh was cut short when a large figure approached the table and slumped over the booth. For a split second, I had a déjà vu moment and thought to myself, what is up today with large guys following me around?

He takes the beanie and scarf off, opens the jacket and all in a quick motion, hugs Nari. Almost immediately, he lets go of her, makes a hand cleaning motion over his shirt and makes an ugly face at her.

“Happy birthday or whatever, sis.”

“Thank you, brother!” both start smiling seconds after just making the most hideous face toward each other.

First thing that I noticed is the dimples. Not as strong as Nari’s, his dimples were fading and blending in at the sides of the mouth with superficial wrinkles, stacked lightly and getting thinner as I glanced along his face moving to his long jawline. His jaw looked well defined but showed signs of teeth clenching from stress, pushing out a bit of muscle, unsymmetrically. His lips were stretched, with a prominent arched cupid’s bow. His nose was strong and the bridge was wavy. As he exchanged greetings with Romina, his Adam’s apple was moving slightly, but always remained prominent, even when not speaking. His neck was muscular and cast shadows from side to side. As I glanced at him more and moved my eyes upwards, his eyebrows looked rather plain and straight, on the right side a superficial cut in the brow stopped the hair from growing. On the right side of the temple, there were 2 moles. Light strands of hair hovered over his forehead, where some horizontal wrinkles could be seen as he moved his eyebrows, especially the right side. His monolid eyes were brown and fast moving.

He turned towards me and extended his hand, slightly raising his right eyebrow and inducing a friendly business smile. He didn’t look me in the eyes for long though.

“Hi, I’m Nari’s older brother. My name is Geonsu.”

Before he extended his hand, he took the jacket off and was holding it in his left hand. His arms were veiny and very well sculpted. Starting from his mid right forearm, he was covered in small cuts and pigmented spots. His hand had deeper cuts around the thumb, pointer and middle finger. As I reached for his hand and looked upwards to exchange pleasantries, I stopped for half a second in my tracks and did a double take at his biceps and pecks. His T-shirt was not sticking to his body nor was it a light summer T-shirt, but you could see they were well built. He shook my hand rather mildly.

“Hi, I’m Kento. You seem to know Romina already. I’m her best friend. Nice to meet you.”

He again broke eye contact and sat down, putting his jacket down from his left hand. His left arm was blacked out in ink from elbow to wrist, blending the bicep and part of his hand in a marble style to not break flow and make the black out sleeve not awkward looking. It was very well structured and showed off his strong arm even more. His left fingers had no cuts.

“Oh, and I want to apologize.” He said, putting his elbows on the table and both his hands under his chin.

I thought he was talking to someone else, but after I didn’t acknowledge his apology, his hands dropped on the table lightly. I must have looked at him with a big question mark on my forehead, because he continued.

“I think I scared you today in the alley between Bella-Donna and Toscana, right?”

He didn’t smile or smirk, only raised his eyebrows slightly as if questioning himself if he had mistaken the identity of the person. He seemed genuine.

“That was you?! How did you recognize me? It was pitch black there.” I chuckled.

“I don’t know, I think your hair…”

“What? What happened?” Nari asked.

“I was on my way to work, and you know I take the alley way to enter the side door of the restaurant. As I walk, in front of me is someone who took the same route. I’m like okay, cool. But then I see this person do multiple turns of their head above the shoulders and after a short pause in leg movement, they just start galloping. I stopped dead in my tracks, I knew I frightened them. And that person was him.”

“Oh my God, I would have cried. Could you imagine having this thing follow you in the dark?” Nari said.

“What the fu… Hey!” He squeezed his brows and lifted his chin in protest, laughing.

“Man, I was pretty scared. Can I be honest? I didn’t even see who it was. I just saw the build of the person and was too afraid to glance back fully, I just sped up and slammed the door behind after I stormed into the club.”

Everyone was laughing. I felt relieved, he seems like a good guy. I was taken aback by how quickly he wanted to clear the misunderstanding. Even if I were a stranger, he wanted to validate me and apologize. Just then, he continued, pointing at me, but talking towards the girls.

“But you know what’s funny? As I left work, walked through the same alley, yeah…? He stands there, phone in hand. I’m like, okay I’m just gonna walk past him. He looks up, takes 3 steps back, turns around and this time he sprints. He sprinted out of there. He was gone!”

Everyone started laughing even harder. I protested.

“Walk past me? You think you can squeeze past me in that tiny alley? I bet you walk in through doors sideways and you wanna squeeze past?”

The girls laughed hysterically now. He scratched his neck twice, crossed his arms, looked at them and put his head slightly down, smiling and lightly biting the right side of his lower lip with his teeth. The atmosphere seemed light and fun, even though we only met around 5 minutes ago. It felt as if the banter over my scare helped build some sort of help line that connected us instantly. Just then, I realized he was the same guy who offered me the red blanket and the lighter.

“Did you also give me the blanket?” I asked him directly.

“Y…Yes.” His voice cracked a bit and he dismissed Nari and Romina questioning what the story was about.

“Thank you. I left the blanket to one of your coworkers.”

“Yeah, he told me.” Now he lowered his head and looked at the table, shaking his head. Should I not have mentioned the blanket? And more importantly, was he hot? He got a bit red in the face.