mark me in your heart ↷ mark lee

one

"Hey Renjun, pass me that glass" you said as you wiped the thick tall glass completely dry before you put it back on the shelf behind you. You were moving mechanically at this point, the exhaustion of the long night at the bar taking over your entire body. It was 5 in the morning and you had just barely managed to kick out some of the remaining drunk nobodies who were so wasted, that their toxic-infused brains couldn't even give them the signals to move their own bodies.

Working at the bar wasn't your dream job but it's not as if you had a better choice. It was either a bartender or a stripper. Both of them sounded equally bad, so you decided to opt for the slightly better one. If you could even say it like that.

It wasn't a particularly ideal job but it was enough to get you by. It earned you enough money to buy you food and pay the rent at the motel you were staying at, it got you as many free drinks as you needed to help your mind escape from all your worries and you also got to meet some relatively cool people, so that was somewhat good. The working hours weren't such a big of an issue either, you couldn't really sleep anyway. So you were fine with it.

Most nights, the bar usually closed at around 3 am. There wasn't a set rule on this; it usually depended on how many customers there were and how much they were drinking. Your boss had suggested that you shouldn't keep the bar open all night long, so you kinda decided that it was best to close a few hours after midnight. You weren't complaining about this though; the sooner it closed, the more time you'd have to get high with your co-worker Renjun at the alleyway behind the bar.

Unfortunately, tonight luck wasn't on your side, as a group of friends kept on drinking more and more as the hours passed by, which meant that you and Renjun had to keep the bar open until later. You weren't opposed to this idea, it only meant that you would earn a little bit more money. It was Renjun who started complaining, so he decided to take action into his own hands and practically dragged the drunks out of the bar.

This is how you ended up cleaning up the place this late, rather this early in the morning, with your co-worker. The two of you were too tired to speak, so neither of you made any efforts to spark up a conversation. You both just attended to your respective tasks, waiting for a specific somebody to show up.

Luck surely wasn't on your side tonight. He would usually show up at around 3:30 am, right after the bar closed, and he would have all the stuff ready, just at the exact moment you needed it. Why was he late today?

It didn't take a genius to understand that Renjun was clearly affected by the lack of the stuff. He moved around the place nervously, tugging at his hair and stomping his foot rhythmically. He was in a desperate need of it, and you would honestly lie to yourself if you said you didn't need it half as much as Renjun did.

You put the last clean glass on the shelf behind you and went over to the storage room to grab a broom, so that you could clean the floor a bit while Renjun was still wiping the bar counters. As soon as you closed the door of the storage room, the little bell that hung above the bar's front door rang with a tinkle and soon after it followed the sound of the so familiar footsteps you were waiting for all night.

"Hey kids, Santa's here," his voice resonated in the empty room as he waved a small transparent plastic bag that looked white because of its content. Renjun threw the handkerchief he was holding to the other side of the counter and dramatically jumped over it to go and hug the male who just entered. All of that just at the sight of the clear plastic bag with the snowy content.

"Mark, what took you so long my guy, I'm literally a dead man walking! Give this beauty to me," Renjun exclaimed and snatched the plastic bag straight out of Mark's hand. Mark smirked at what Renjun said and immediately started grinning at the sight of the boy's eagerness.

Renjun went to sit on the bar stool closer to him and placed the bag on top of the counter he had just wiped clean. With slender fingers, he opened the plastic bag and dredged some of the content on the counter. With nervousness in his movements, he set the bag aside and shuffled through his back pocket to find his ID card. He started scattering the white dust all over the counter before he gathered all of it in a straight line with the help of his ID card. When he was satisfied with the result, he put his ID card back into his pocket, lowered his head to the level that his nose touched the cold surface of the counter, took a deep breath and snorted the entire line of crack, the product going straight up into his nostrils.

Renjun blinked several times before he slowly lifted his head. He scrunched his nose and wiped it with the back of his hand, his drowsy eyes looking surprisingly bright considering his state. "Man, whoever hasn't done crack, never, they haven't known the beauty of life yet" he chuckled. Mark smirked at Renjun's comment and you couldn't help but shake your head amusingly, a small smile creeping up at your face.

Renjun took the plastic bag with the rest of the cocaine and put it in his pocket. "This baby's for me, thank you," he amused and turned his heel towards the storage room. "Don't come look for me, I'll be right here. If I take too long to come out, then you should be concerned," he said and closed the storage room door behind him; a scene that was surprisingly quite familiar to you.

You then set the broom down and walked towards Mark. "Hey" you whispered and Mark greeted you back in a low husky voice. "What took you so long? We were expecting you to come earlier" you asked him.

Mark shrugged and leaned his elbow against the counter. "I came by at our usual meeting hour and saw that you guys were still open. I couldn't risk anyone seeing me so I decided to drop by later," he said and you nodded in understanding.

"You do have more of those plastic bags on you, don't you?" you asked him and he chuckled. "Of course I do, pretty. Let's go outside and treat ourselves a bit, shall we?" he suggested and you nodded again, walking beside him towards the alleyway behind the bar.