LET'S PISS OFF THE NEIGHBOURS

34 | bitter-sweet

"One strawberry vodka please... no just a little bit of lemonade. Thanks."

Taehyung paid for his drink and went to sit at one of the tables in the back of the bar. It wasn't as lively at this hour since it was only about 9pm and it only usually got busier just before midnight, but it felt less suffocating that way. The music wasn't playing as loud either, so he could actually hear his own thoughts still.

Taehyung has spent countless nights at this exact same bar, in the exact same seat pondering his shitty life choices and drinking himself away to forget or ignore things.. at least for a while. It wasn't the best coping mechanism, but sadly he never knew better. Well that is if you don't count sleeping around with random people, which frankly, isn't any better.

He knew all of the in's and out's of that bar by heart, from the times it got the most busy, to all of the bartenders and what hours they worked on. Although he never tried getting to know any of them personally, he knew everyone recognised him by now and probably pitied him more than anything. They would occasionally try to make small talk but that was about it.

Today though, was different. One of the bartenders, whom Taehyung surprisingly didn't recognise immediately like he usually did (must be a new guy), decided to sit with him for some reason. At first he was simply scrolling through his phone, eyebrows furrowed as if deep in thought over something, but eventually he looked up.. or to be more exact: he scanned Taehyung from head to toe.

Is he checking me out right now or am I imagining things?

"Hey. You're Taehyung right?" He finally spoke up after vandalising him with his dark orbs for a solid minute. The mentioned gulped a little and nodded silently, not really in the mood to make an acquaintance. He took another sip of his drink, scrunching up his eyebrows slightly from the bitter-sweetness. He used to hate drinking a couple years ago, but he grew more and more used to it as time went by from how much he did it anyway.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna bite you." He chuckled. "I just have some time to spare until my shift starts." He shoved his phone in his pocket and crossed his arms while resting one leg on the other. There was a long pause before he looked at him again.

"Anyways.. I heard a lot of stories about you and was eager to find out myself if they were true. So, you're here quite often huh? Going through a rough relationship? A breakup maybe?" The guy who Taehyung almost forgot was sat next to him spoke up once again. Not a very good way to start conversation and make someone like you, but Taehyung guessed he had nothing better to do anyway so he shrugged instead of trying to get rid of him.

"Something like that.. you're new here right? Haven't seen you around much before." He finally looked over at him to get a better image of what he looked like. The guy seemed around his age – maybe just slightly younger – he had a distinctive beauty to him that wasn't very commonly seen, his hair was cherry red and parted in the middle with an undercut and his ears were decorated with various shiny earrings. He carried himself well and Taehyung would be stupid to say that he wasn't attractive – but this wasn't the right moment to think about that.

"Yeah, something like that." He smirked, clearly mocking his earlier response. He stretched his arm out towards him. "I'm Yeonjun." He said so quickly the older almost missed it. They interlocked hands in a handshake for a second before pulling away.

"So.. what boy has been making you come down here so often so that you can forget him hm?" He rested his cheek on his fist and asked like it was a genuine question he was curious about. At first Taehyung thought he was joking but as more time passed he widened his eyes more.

Is he always this blunt?

"What makes you think it's a boy?"

"Oh, well I just assumed to be honest, I'm usually right about these things but if not then I'm sorry hah.." he scratched the back of his neck.