Don't Remember Saying "I Do"

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭 - 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟭

..

She locked her phone. Slammed the rest of her drink. The soju burned, going down, sweet and sharp, and exactly what she deserved.

"Another," she said to no one. Then louder, to the passing server,

"Unni! Han jan deo, juseyo."

("Miss! One more glass, please.")

The server—a tired-looking woman with silver hair and a nose ring—nodded and disappeared into the fog. Soo-jin slumped back against the booth. The leather was cracked, the stuffing lumpy. Just like her heart. Poetic. She was becoming poetic. Drunk and poetic. What a combination.

She was not crying. She was not crying. Her eyes were just... sweating. From the strobe lights. It was very bright in here. Very bright and very loud and very full of happy people who hadn't been dumped for a sunbae with perfect eyeliner. I am fine, she told herself firmly. I am thriving. I am a strong, independent woman who does not need a man who—

Her phone buzzed.

She grabbed it, heart leaping like a traitor. A notification. Not i********:. A text. From Jun-ho.

( Jun-ho: "Hey. Saw you viewed my story. Hope you're doing okay. No hard feelings, right? ;)" )

The smiley face. The smiley face. He had sent her a smiley face. From the VIP booth. With the sunbae. While she sat alone in a sticky Hongdae club drinking soju sunrises and pretending her eyes were sweating. No hard feelings? Something inside Soo-jin snapped. It wasn't a loud snap. It was quiet. Like the sound of a lock clicking open. A door she'd kept firmly shut swinging wide.

No hard feelings? NO HARD FEELINGS?!

She wanted to throw her phone. She wanted to scream. She wanted to type a paragraph of pure, unfiltered rage that would make him block her forever. She wanted to march to Gangnam and pour this next drink directly onto his stupid, perfectly-styled hair. But she was Shin Soo-jin. She didn't do scenes. She didn't do drama. She was the understanding one. The patient one. The one who swallowed her feelings and smiled and said, "I'm fine," even when she was drowning. Not tonight. Tonight, she was going to do something reckless. Something stupid. Something that would make Jun-ho's "no hard feelings" choke in his lying throat.

She stood up. The room tilted. She grabbed the edge of the table, knuckles white, and waited for the world to stop spinning. The server arrived with her fresh soju sunrise.

"Keep it," Soo-jin said. "I'm moving." And then, with all the grace of a baby deer on an ice rink, she walked toward the bar.

The bar at Club Vício was a long slab of polished concrete, lit from beneath by a violet glow that made everyone look like they were in a cyberpunk drama. Most of the stools were occupied by couples leaning into each other, groups of friends shouting over the music, and one very drunk man attempting to explain the plot of Parasite to an uninterested bartender. But at the far end, there was a space. And in that space, there was a man.

Soo-jin noticed him the way you notice a storm cloud on the horizon—something in the air shifted. He wasn't doing anything. Just sitting. One elbow on the bar, a short glass of clear liquid in front of him, his body angled slightly away from the crowd like he was physically rejecting the concept of human interaction. But he commanded the space anyway. It was the suit, maybe. Dark, impeccably cut, the kind of suit that whispered money without screaming it. The tie was loosened, the top button of his shirt undone, revealing a sliver of pale skin and the shadow of a collarbone. His hair was blonde, pushed back from a face that looked like it had been carved by someone who understood angles. Sharp jaw. High cheekbones. A mouth that seemed to default to a faint, unimpressed line. And his eyes. Even from across the bar, even through the fog and the strobes, Soo-jin could see them. Pale. Almost colorless. Gray like a winter sky, or ice on a river.

They were scanning the crowd with the detached interest of a predator who wasn't hungry—just... observing. Cataloging. Waiting for something worth his attention.

...

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏 - 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏

𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗘𝗗!