Cold Fire - BTS Gang AU

Chapter 1 - What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Minji was shivering.

Walking down the street, the late winter breeze nipping at her skin while the low hanging sun shone weakly through sharply contrasting dark clouds, she noted that most people seemed to have had the sense to stay inside. Then again, most people also had a car to drive to work in, rather than having to bundle up and trudge through the cold wind for a mile and a half.

I don't get paid enough for this, Minji thought to herself as another spasm of shivering racked her body. All the drunk people and bar fights she had to deal with weren't really worth her paycheck that she was barely scraping by on to begin with, but after having to drop out of medical school to care for her sick brother, she didn't really have a better option. At least the bar was close, and she was getting paid.

Minji waited at the crosswalk a few streets away from the bar she worked at, watching the streams of multicolored cars zip past, moving air from the force of them driving by buffeting her red dyed hair. A couple other people were out on the street as well, though not many. A teen blasting music Minji could hear even with his headphones on gave her a tired look when she nodded to him. An older man on the other side of the street smiled politely when Minji passed him on the crosswalk. Other than that, no one gave her a passing glance until she got to the bar.

Minji walked in, glancing up at the broken Taemin's Glass sign above the bar. Some hooligans had thrown rocks at the English spelling of it months ago, so now the first two letters of the second word were missing. Their idea of a practical joke, she guessed. In all truth, it was pretty funny, and Taemin, Minji's boss, was pretty sore about it as well, which in actuality just made it better. Of course no one would laugh about it with him around, but it was the running joke behind his back among the employees.

The second Minji stepped through the door, an attached bell ringing, the smell of alcohol and the sounds of laughter hit her along with the warm air inside. She gratefully removed her jacket as the door closed behind her with a soft twinkling sound.

Minji's coworker, Adam Park, a young Asian-American who had been living in Korea since childhood, waved at her as she entered the bar. She smiled at him as she hung her jacket on the coat rack beside the door, before turning and heading behind the bar to greet him.

"Cold out there?" He asks, wiping clean a shot glass in his hand. Minji nodded, and he added, "I have another jacket I can lend you if you need it."

"It's alright," Minji replied gratefully. "I don't want you to have to give up your jacket for me. I don't live too far from here, it's alright."

He nodded, about to reply but cut off by a drunken shout from the other end of the bar. He smiled apologetically and headed over to see what the trouble was, while Minji sighed and headed to the back of the room to clock in. Once she'd done so, she trudged back over to the bar and began to help Adam wipe down the glasses.

Nothing eventful happened for quite a while, and Minji found herself staring into space as the dim lighting and calming music playing somewhere in the room began to take her away from reality and into sleep. The only times she snapped back out of her trance were when a call for more alcohol rang out or Adam nudged her kindly to wake her up.

The bar wasn't usually too busy at this hour, and this particular night was no exception, only serving to increase Minji's exhaustion. She was about to nod off when the bell twinkled on the door again, signaling a new arrival, and woke her up.

A man Minji had never seen in the bar before, relatively short with dark hair falling in his eyes, pale skin and a dark grey hoodie, hood pulled up over his head, entered the room. He pulled himself up to the counter, and Adam saw to him. A moment later, he returned to the man with a small bottle of amber liquid and a glass, leaving both on the counter in front of him.