Ice Cream Bar, Book 1: Keep Lucky (🔥🔞 Spicy Version)

Introductions

Setting: Ice Cream Bar

a gay bar in Homo Hill, a historically gay-friendly community in Itaewon in Seoul, South Korea

Cake & Mint: The old queens, #relationshipgoals. Well-respected leaders in the LGBTQ+ community. They met in college in Thailand but moved to Korea after a vacation in 2006. They opened a gay bar in Homo Hill called Ice Cream Bar. They live in an apartment above the bar. They own the building and the apartment building right across the alleyway. Many of the full-time staff live in the apartments. Ice Cream Bar had been very popular for years but business has started to wane since a big-name chain bar recently moved in a few doors down. The couple will have to band together with their trusted employee family to re-invigorate the bar's image to drum up more business before they are forced to declare bankruptcy and close.

Keep: Half Korean, half Thai. He grew up in Korea and has a Korean name 김유진 but his Thai mom still wanted him to have a Thai nickname. Koreans think his name is actually 깊 because he was raised by his mother so it's all they ever heard him being called. His younger sister 김단비 has been missing since 2012 (age 15). She had always been rebellious and strong-willed. It caused his parents' marriage to fall apart. He is estranged from his father and has an unhealthy relationship with codependent mother. A detective who feels guilty for not being able to solve his sister's disappearance calls him in to check bodies whenever they find an unidentified female. He works at Ice Cream Bar, mostly as a DJ but sometimes as a bouncer. He is close with Cake and Mint and very loyal to them. He lives in the top floor apartment above the bar and above Came and Mint for cheap. He frequents the gym to destress. He is a heavy drinker and an insomniac.

Lucky: Half Korean/half Korean American. His parents picked a name that could be said the same in Korean and English. He works as a barback at the bar. He lives in the apartment building across the alley from the bar on the top floor. He has PTSD. He has a beautiful singing voice and good dancer. More about his past is revealed in the story but cannot be revealed here due to SPOILERS!

JiHoon: Cake and Mint's oldest friend. He is also very close with Keep. He started working at the bar after his parents threw him out for being gay. He is a bouncer. He has only had one serious relationship and had his heart broken. Since then, he has just had a long string of one night stands and has earned a reputation for being a player. He lives in the building owned by Cake and Mint across the alley from the Ice Cream Bar, on the first floor. He is cold and stoic but a loyal friend. He goes to the gym with Keep. He is half Korean, half Thai.

ChaMin: Korean, He only recently got kicked out of his house for being gay. He had been couch-surfing, depressed, and frequenting the bar to get belligerently drunk and forget his problems. Cake and Mint take him under their wing, give him a job as a barback, and offer for him to live in the apartment that they own across the alley from Ice Cream Bar for cheap. He lives in the second floor,  below Lucky and next to Bank, Title, and JangMi. He becomes fast friends with Lucky. He is sweet, gentle, and a good dancer. He is an alcoholic who loves spicy food. He is skilled in Taekwondo.

Title (1st generation Thai immigrant) and JangMi (Korean) are childhood friends. They grew up in the same neighborhood. They both work at the bar as bartenders and are roommates in an apartment in the building owned by Came and Mint, across the alleyway from Ice Cream Bar, below Lucky and next to ChaMin. JangMi is pan, Title is gay. JangMi started dating Bank (1st generation Thai immigrant) about 6 months ago when he started working at the bar, also as a bartender. Bank moves into their apartment after only 3 months. Title unwittingly falls in love with Bank. They get along really well and everyone sees them as best buds. JangMi and Banks' relationship becomes rocky but neither wants to admit it. When JangMi suggests something to help spice up their relationship, it backfires in a big way.