Chapter Text
Luka hated drinking, and everything associated with it: the bitter taste of alcohol on his tongue, the shattered beer glasses, the dazzling, colorful lights of the bar, the cheap side dishes, the drunken street vendors, the beer-bellied people who urged him to drink, and not to mention the vomit from unknown sources.
This wasn't an excuse for his inability to drink; he genuinely disliked it, and sometimes even took it upon himself to dislike those who enjoyed drinking.
So why he was here, with a drunk, was hard to explain——cuz he was drunk too.
Hyuna has many life mottoes, even switch it daily, but the ones she mentions most often are: "You only live once, enjoy it!" "Today we must get drunk!" "Ah, what do you mean it's too late? How can that be? Just relax!"
Her mottoes apply to many situations, like when she pushed Dewey who didn't want to go clubbing during a company offsite activitie and yelled, "You only live once!" Or when she was drinking, she always shouted, "Everyone, drink to death with me today!" Or when Jacob bluntly pressed her on work progress, she told her frantic colleague Isaac, "Don't worry, it will finish on time~"
This "live every day like it's your last" mentality permeates Hyuna's life.
She frequented the bar near her home so many times that the owner reflexively pulled out her bottle of whiskey whenever she saw her.
One night, while pouring a glass of wine, she jokingly said, "You've spent enough to open your own bar."
Hyuna was good with math, so she told she it was still too early. However, she had a firm idea in mind: "Opening a bar and get free drinks".
So, two months later, she became a co-owner and singer at a bar around the corner from her office building.
The name for her bar came up almost instantly, earning Dewey's approval, Jacob's shrug, and even a quip from her younger brother: "The name is just too vulgar."
Hyuna clarified that she hadn't meant it that way, and blamed it on those vulgar people for judging others through tinted glasses.
Isaac was more direct. "Why don't you just change it to 419? I think business will be booming.”
“And the cop will patrolling your area more often.”He addressed.
"That's fine," Hyuna thought for a moment, but finally decided to name her bar "Only 1 Night”. Just like Isaac predicted, business was booming, and even the boss herself sometimes have to made reservations beforehand just for a drink.
Jacob also got a stake in the bar, earning Hyuna's praise for his long-term vision.
The reason she co-founded Rebel Army was literally simple: Before her graduation, a senior who had quit his job to start his own business asked her, "Do you want to join?" Without a second thought, she said, "Sure, count me in."
During a company team-building event, a subordinate asked Hyuna, "Why did you believe the boss's promises?"
Even after drinking a bottle of foreign liquor, she eloquently recounted Jacob's strengths, including how he took care of her during college and how he'd traveled thousands of miles to bring her medicine when she was sick.
The subordinate was moved to tears.
Dewey couldn't help but lean over to Hyuna's ear and ask,
"No, Jacob just lent you his notes for a day before the final exam. Why are you making it sound like he tutored us for free for four years of college?"
"And that time you delivered the medicine? You were clearly drunk and called Jacob and me countless times, so we had to skip class to bring you the bean sprout soup you requested!"
Hyuna ignored him, lifted her glass to her lips, took a sip of the liquor, leaned forward, and winked at Dewey covertly.
She's always been so friendly with everyone. As a team leader, she remembers every team member's name and loves to treat everyone to dinner.
No one who's worked on a project with her hasn't been to her house for a party. The thing her employees love most about her is that Team Leader Hyuna is the quickest to approve casual leave, and she approves it for almost any reason.
A few days ago, a little girl on the project team ran into Hyuna's desk crying, saying she'd been rejected by a girl.
Hyuna waved her hand and said, "I'll take you for a drive after get off work tonight. Don't come tomorrow, just stay home and get some rest."
Isaac, who witnessed the whole thing, reacted to her behavior with a smile: “Could you replace Jacob so that I can lie every day about being heartbroken and take 360 days off a year.”
“Huh, seems like you are satisfied with my approach, aren’t you?” Hyuna keenly heard Isaac's desire for rest and patted his shoulder. "How about I go out and work on my own, and you can just come with me?"
"What do you mean by working on your own?" The true boss Jacob appeared out of nowhere in Hyuna's office, glaring at them with a grin.
“Jacob Hyong!* your brother's trying to betray you~." Hyuna enjoying the chaos and stirring the spot.
Isaac didn't join Hyuna's usual drinking party that night.
Luka and Hyuna's first meeting owed to a contract neither of them initially cared about.
Before the contract's terms took effect, Luka and his colleagues had already moved into the new office Jacob rented. Due to a courier's mistake, they finished packing up well past seven, missing dinner altogether.
Everyone was a bit annoyed, and Luka was speechless.
The sudden notice had already put him in a bad mood. He'd barely started typing his resignation letter when a colleague rushed him into the car. The moment he stepped out, he was embraced by a white-haired man as solid as a refrigerator. He couldn't help but vomit. The peacemaker colleague quickly explained he suffered from severe motion sickness and it wasn't intentional.
Luka rolled his eyes. Even behind thick glasses, the gesture was unmistakable—malice practically oozed from his green frames.
The colleague shoved Luka away and shouted, “Oh my goddness, help poor Luka carry his stuff! Look, he's about to faint!”
So Luka ended up sitting in the brand-new office chair, typing an email to the lawyer on his laptop.
His lawyer replied promptly as to earn this big deal .
“Mr. Luka, If you sue your colleagues and the company together as defendants, I can offer you a special discount today. Offer expires tonight at 9 PM. Here's my payment card number:...”
Unfortunately, Luka never saw this message.
His new boss walked into the office with a warm smile.
“My sincere apologies for today. The sudden air conditioner failure made moving things even harder for everyone. How about grabbing a casual dinner together at the bar downstairs tonight? It'd be a great chance to get to know each other better?”
“-And everyone can take it easy tomorrow morning—no need to rush in too early.”
The office erupted in excitement as soon as the new boss finished speaking.
Luka had no desire to go. But he knew that if he announced his refusal now, several people would take turns “persuading” him.
He’d never agreed to join those stupid, time-wasting team-building activities before, and every time, his annoying colleagues would put on a mask on and try to show their kindness by persuading him continuously——which was wasting his time.
So he decided to stay silent for now. Once everyone else left, he’d find an opportunity to slip away.
Saving time and effort, Luka thought, taking off the mask he'd been wearing for so long. He took another elevator downstairs and was about to text the driver to pick him up when a women stopped him.
The women, tall and imposing from a distance, leaned against a heavy motorcycle on the side of the road. The light and the afterglow of the setting sun shone on her sunglasses, making it difficult to discern her expression.
The figure was perfectly positioned, blocking Luka's only planned path to another street to wait for the bus. He had no choice but to walk towards the black motorcycle.
When Luka was less than an arm's length away from the car, the woman suddenly spoke: "You're new here too, right?"
Her tone was so firm, it barely registers as a statement.
Luka paused, but continued to deny: "...I'm not..."
"Really? You're wearing the clothes of a programmer, right?" The woman approached him, almost overwhelming him.
Her sunglasses obscured her eyes, but her straight nose and thick eyebrows were still visible. "Don't be embarrassed. Our boss seems generous, but he's the one who pays the least! This opportunity is rare! Let's go and rip off him!"
"None of my business," Luka muttered to himself, "I'm quitting anyway, so you can't do anything to me."
He raised his foot to quickly walk away, but the clumsy glass on his nose, with his head lowered, suddenly disobeyed him and followed earth gravity.
His custom-made, thick-rimmed glasses were lifted by the other person's hand, so fast that Luka couldn't see clearly.
He followed the hand's movement upward, his gaze shifting upward. The streetlight overhead shone on the person's light orange lenses, allowing him to clearly see the corners of their eyes drooping.
Luka couldn't describe the feeling, but it wasn't the offense or disgust of being hugged by a white hair stranger.
The woman removed her sunglasses and tucked them into her lush hair, arching them slightly to reveal her full, smooth forehead.
Without the obstruction of the sunglasses, Luka finally saw what she looked like.
She was taller than him, so he had to tilt his head slightly. Her thick eyebrows, the upward curve of her eyes, perfectly matched their growth trajectory. Her long, curled lashes, like natural eyeliner, framed her gray-blue eyes, deep as the night sea.
The other person smiled, as if finally seeing Luka clearly, and jokingly said, "Wow, you're very beautiful, aren't you?"
The woman readily replaced her glasses on Luka's nose, and after seeing that his eyes were still intact, she added, "Why are you wearing glasses if you're not nearsighted?"
"Because I hate people staring at me." Luka, for some reason, spilled the truth, like a broken toy that keeps running even without being wound.
Even after hearing this excuse, the woman didn't look away.
"When you see something beautiful, you always want to take a second look. Just like right now, I want to look at you a little longer."
After explain to “something beautiful”, she chuckled.
Luka didn't know what she was laughing at, but he knew his face was hot, like he'd been drinking, making him uncomfortable and itchy inside.
The woman pushed one leg onto the scooter next to her and sat firmly on it. She took out the black helmet she had been holding and handed it to Luka.
"Okay, pretty boy, let's go. Just for the glasses I saved."
Five minutes later, Luka, to the astonished gazes of his colleagues, sat down at his least favorite drinking table.
Colleague A nudged Colleague B's arm and whispered.
"Oh my god, is that Luka?”
"The sun's rising from the west..."
"Isn't he said his family's rich? That's why he never comes to team building. Could it be that his family's bankrupt..."
Luka has excellent hearing, but unfortunately, his facial expressions are limited, and he frequently ignores his boss's instructions. This leads his colleagues to mistakenly believe that they can whisper at a normal volume in front of him without getting noticed.
This only further arouses Luka's aversion to human interaction, convincing him that those who enjoy such activities are just sycophants, slaving away over a hollow "promise" and burdening their livers and stomachs with inferior industrial products and fried foods.
You too?
He looked at the woman sitting diagonally across from him.
As soon as she entered the bar, several people surrounded her. Some called her “Boss” “Chief” “noona*” “ onni*”and everything in between.
Of course, most people just called her by her name.
The rock music playing in the bar was quite loud, forcing everyone to crane their necks and shout. During a break in the drums in the middle of the bar, Luka finally made out her name over the bass in the background.
"Hyuna!"
"Hyuna, I've got the drinks ready! I'm waiting for you!"
"Really? Looks like you're all ready to max out Jacob's credit card!"
Hyuna's presence only intensified as she joined the crowd.
She greeted everyone effortlessly, offering hugs and banter. She was able to engage with everyone, and accepting drinks from the bartender between conversations.
"Would you like a drink?" Hyuna handed her glass of whisky to Luka, who was standing behind her.
Luka frowned almost unconsciously. Even though it was hidden by his golden curls, Hyuna could still see the slightly wrinkled tip of his nose, and she immediately moved the still dripping wine bowl away.
"Can't drink? Then don't. I'll have them bring you some juice later."
She didn't try to persuade him, nor did she offer any extra words. Luka was even a little surprised.
She winked at Luka with a quizzical smile, then said something that was swallowed by the sound waves.
Luka paused, then sat down in the seat a colleague had vacated for him before he finally understood what she had said.
He felt that this person was like the wine: pungent, strong, dizzying, even poisonous.
Otherwise, why did he feel so dizzy when he was just drinking orange juice?
Isaac was a bit worried about the current situation. Dewey was a real pushover, and Hyuna was the jerk who always got along with Dewey.
And this is her place, she can do anything she wants.
As Jacob put it, it was like putting cesium in water and adding some fluorine—just wait for her to blow up this place.
Everyone's tolerance for alcohol is different, and so are their drinking habits.
Jacob can drink a lot, but he never drink more than three. Isaac's tolerance is average in crowd——and he can drink more when he's happy, but less so when he's feeling down. Dewey, on the other hand, is actually the worst drinker of the four, but because he's usually a bit swoony (Isaac's assessment), so it’s hard to tell whether he is drunk or not.
Hyuna is definitely not the best drinker, after all, she's the one who blacks out the most.
However, she's the one most favored by the god of alcohol. Even when she's completely drunk, she doesn't suffer from any adverse hangover symptoms. She's still full of energy the next day, even waking up to train at the gym.
Luka had rarely drunk since he passed out after accidentally consuming a bottle of liquor his parents had left on the table as a child.
All that lingered in his mind was the memory of waking up with a splitting headache and vomiting. That must have been the first time in his life that Luka hated his own mouth, because it was filled with a taste he hates most.
The glass in front of him was empty. Luka looked diagonally across the table: the seat there was also empty, nowhere to be found.
She had been drinking heavily, almost non-stop. A man with a scarred face whispered something to her. She shook her head, smiled, and refilled her glass, his words inaudible.
He thought for a moment and decided to leave. There was nothing particularly worth lingering about.
Just as he put the straw back into the glass, intense music suddenly ceased, and even the chatter that had been buried beneath the drumbeats stopped.
Everyone's eyes were like headless flies, unsure where to turn.
The drumbeats and piano keys vibrated in Luka's eardrums once again, the strings' melody overwhelming his hearing. Most of the female employees who had been sitting at the table next to him had scurried out, and the impolite white-haired man had taken the chair in front of him, obscuring most of his view.
He tilted his head slightly, finally taking in the scene on the stage piled high with bottles.
Her motorcycle jacket had been removed somewhere, leaving only a form-fitting black tank top. The straps, emblazoned with fluorescent lettering, were perfectly cinched around her neck and shoulders. The red guitar shone brightly in the dim bar lights, like a flame igniting her body.
Hyuna's tanned skin was already covered in sweat, likely from drinking too much, as if she'd just been sunbathing on a golden beach.
There was no singing, just a fitting guitar lick. Her canine teeth were caught in the long necklace on her chest, preventing it from interfering with her performance. Hyuna allowed her saliva to desecrate the silver cross.
One hand gripped the guitar neck, the other's slender, powerful fingers rapidly plucking the metal wire. Waves of sound surged into the minds of everyone present. Hyuna practically teased the audience, toying with her dazzling technique.
It was almost impossible to predict her next move, just like when she had just dangled the guitar by the tremolo arm, almost parallel to the ground. Everyone's ears were filled with a vibrato as hot as magma. And some eerie, even piercing, notes escaped from her fingers.
Seeing some people unconsciously covering their ears, she burst into laughter.
Amidst the intense piano music, there were screams, mostly from female colleagues, joyfully cheering, "Hyuna-san is so cool," "I'm so happy I'm going to faint," and from old employees, contentedly remarking, "I'm so lucky today, the boss's here!" There were also worried, "Oh my god, is she drunk?" "Definitely not!...right?"
"^^ We'll just have to wait and see."
Luka watched Hyuna put down her guitar and swiftly skip off the stage. She unashamedly tilted her head back and drank the wine the others had poured her from the bottle. Everyone was a little tipsy, so the hand holding the bottle was trembling.
The bottle tilted to the curve of Hyuna's lips, and the dark brown liquid flowed from her jaw, down her neck, then suddenly changed direction, along her collarbone, and into the edge of her tank top.
Even with blue-light-blocking lenses, Luka’s golden eyes caught the entire scene.
Hyuna's friends soon realized whether she was drunk or not.
She made her way through the crowd and grabbed the new resident programmer, who was standing there in a daze.
And gave Luka a rather deep kiss.
Luka felt a bitter, pungent taste fill his mouth, but more than that, an indescribable tactile sensation: the sting of canine teeth against his upper lip, the softness of his tongue, and a warmth rising from nowhere.
He felt dizzy.
Dewey burst into laughter, nearly throwing up his stomach. Jacob smiled and took pictures, thinking, "Oops, another good show!" Isaac continued to play with his boomerang.
"Look, I knew this place should be called 419!!!”