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It’s Valentine’s night and Nayeon finds herself nursing her third martini by the hotel bar.
(Not gonna lie, this isn’t her best moment)
Hushed whispers waft in the stuffy Cuban La Antigua Habana-like ambience, blending together with the subdued tones of saxophone jazz playing in the far corner of the bar, by a local band of merry old men whose lead saxophonist had been boring holes onto Nayeon’s back for the past ten minutes now.
(Again, not really her finest moment)
This isn’t exactly the kind of night Nayeon had been hoping for, to be honest. It proved quite obvious when she walked into the noir-like luxurious hotel bar and the servers didn’t even dare hide their shock seeing someone like her all alone on Valentine's night.
Nayeon couldn’t blame them. She’s wearing her favorite red strapped dress for tonight. Her hair flows down in simple waves, just an inch below her square shoulders. Her legs could go on forever with her stilettos.
Everything is perfect.
The only problem here is that she’s all alone.
“Do you want another martini, ma’am?” The same bartender slides in front of Nayeon, asking in a tone that sounds exasperated.
Nayeon scoffs. She feels the same. She isn’t exactly drunk. She’s just bored, waiting for the fun to begin.
“Yes, please.” Nayeon slides the glass over the counter. “Can I get a different one this time, though? Do you have a—”
“Mind if I join you?”
But she’s cut off by a woman’s voice, sultry and dripping with heavy undertones of playful invitation.
Something tells Nayeon whether she lets the woman join her or not, she wouldn’t just take no for an answer.
“Yeah. Take a seat.” Nayeon relents, alluring in her own accord. Two can play this game.
The bartender is nowhere in sight now, along with Nayeon’s empty glass.
“Hello. I’m Jeongyeon. Yoo Jeongyeon”, The woman says, in a less sexual, more casual tone. She holds her hand out for Nayeon, who can’t help but let amusement tug at the corners of her red lips.
A little too hurried, if you ask me...
When she turns to face Yoo Jeongyeon , Im Nayeon is greeted by the sight of sin incarnate.
Yoo Jeongyeon is a fine woman. Dressed in a blazer set and a sheer white blouse underneath, dipping perfectly in the middle, displaying more than enough , she looks absolutely ethereal and a little too evil for her own good.
It's just sad all Nayeon could focus on is the childish name tag on her breast pocket.
Hello! My name is… Yoo Jeongyeon!
“Are you in town for a convention, Ms. Jeongyeon? Or do you just...forget your name a lot?” Nayeon can’t stop the tight-lipped smile from breaking into a full toothy grin.
Jeongyeon falters in her act for a split second, brain short-circuiting. Why did I put a nametag again?
Still, she resumes, “Oooh...pretty bunny has nails.” Nayeon won’t be winning tonight . “I like it.”
The bartender arrives with Nayeon’s drink. Jeongyeon orders her own. “A Sazerac, please.”
“Strong drinker?” Nayeon tips her glass over to her lips, lightly, elegantly.
“What can I say?” Jeongyeon shrugs nonchalantly. Then, she winks, “I like it hard.”
A pause.
“Uhuh…” Nayeon trails off awkwardly. “Your convention must’ve been pretty boring seeing as you’re here.”
“It was. What would you expect from a convention all about electroacoustic transducers?”
Nayeon cocks a brow, waiting for more. (Because she did not understand a thing)
“It’s a fancy way of saying, I get things to make noise.” Jeongyeon winks playfully before grabbing a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of her blazer. Nayeon watches everything unfold like a movie in slow-motion.
“How about you? What’s your story?” Jeongyeon places a stick between her lips. “In town for a Miss Korea pageant?”
Nayeon takes another sip of her drink. “Smooth talker huh?”
“Not yet. You haven’t even introduced yourself.”
“Oh.” That captures Nayeon off guard. Right. “I’m Nayeon. Im Nayeon.”
“Hm…” Jeongyeon hums nonchalantly. Her drink arrives and she looks at the glass for a second, sporting a disgusted frown as if she had just been served the worst dish. Then, she snaps away from her stupor and turns back to Nayeon, “Do you have a lighter I could use—”
“Excuse me, Ma’am?” Both women’s heads turn to the third visitor of the night. A waitress.
“Yes?”
“No smoking in the bar.”
Jeongyeon immediately spits out the cigarette stick in her hands. “O-Oh…” she falters. “I don’t really smoke—”
But the waitress is already walking away.
Nayeon can’t help but chuckle. “Sorry. I don’t have a lighter. I don’t smoke as well.”
Under the red neon lights of the sign above them that says Sleep is the baby mama of Death , Nayeon could see the flush on Jeongyeon’s cheeks. Adorable.
“You’re quite a girl scout, Jeongyeon.” She indulges for now, because Jeongyeon still looks disoriented from the little staff chastising.
“Tell me,” Nayeon inches closer. What she’s about to say might just be the death of her soul. “Would you be interested in earning a merit badge tonight? Do you know anything about…tying knots?”
Jeongyeon blinks for a second, mind trying to comprehend what her wi–what Nayeon just said. When Nayeon empties her glass of martini in one go and dabs at the side of her lips, eyes never leaving Jeongyeon’s own, Jeongyeon thinks she might just go to hell for this.
She won’t.
“I probably shouldn’t…” Jeongyeon sighs, raising her left hand and revealing a stunning ornate wedding band glistening under the neon lights of the bar. “I’m a married woman, you see.”
“Ah…” Nayeon nods, a sliver of mischief from her smile. “I just so happen to like married women. Tell me about your wife.”
Jeongyeon isn’t surprised. “Well, she’s beautiful, of course.”
“If she’s beautiful then why are you here with me?”
Jeongyeon doesn’t think twice. “Because she’s always tired and making lists of things for me to do.”
“Maybe if you did them then she wouldn’t be so tired.”
She only realizes what she’s just said when Nayeon squares her jaw, unamused.
“O-Oh but back to you. Um...so…” But Jeongyeon’s already hanging on thin line. Her head easily short-circuits when Nayeon does that look. “Can we...can we start again?”
Nayeon rolls her eyes but relents. “Fine. Whatever.” She takes a deep inhale and then sighs. “If your wife is so beautiful then why are you here with me?”
“Because…” Jeongyeon racks her brain for something. “I respect her too much…” Something good to say. “...to do to her…” Something to seal the deal. “...what I’m about to do to you?”
“Oh, jackpot.” Nayeon swoons. She smiles for a second longer, heart a fluttering mess, before jumping off the seat and grabbing her coat from the rest, “I’ll be right back, Jeongyeon. Wait for me.”
A surge of pride swells in Jeongyeon’s chest. She feels like she just saved the universe now. The confidence is enough to push her to grab the glass of Sazerac before her, taking a small sip of the drink she’s never even tried before. It was just the first thing she saw on the menu mounted on the wall.
To her dismay, it tasted like rubbing alcohol clawing at her throat.
“Ugh. That’s disgusting. Why do people drink these?”
Realizing she’s talking to nobody, Jeongyeon shuts up.
Nayeon returns a little later, walking a little too bundled up in her long coat with her arms behind her back.
“Jeongyeon, I have a little something for you…” She grins cunningly when she reaches over.
Jeongyeon sits up properly, discreetly pushing away the Sazerac like it’s done her wrong. “What is it?”
Nayeon retracts her arms from behind and hands Jeongyeon a red folded fabric. “My dress…”
“What—"
She hands over a black satin piece, “My bra…”
“Oh my god—”
“And my underwear.”
Jeongyeon catches the flimsy black thing before someone else could see. “What in the world are you—”
“Why don't we take this upstairs, Jeongyeon?” Nayeon tightens the belt around her coat again, smiling at the shocked woman with pure amusement.
Jeongyeon, as much as she thinks the Sazerac has taken a toll on her, doesn’t make the wrong decision of disagreeing.
“Let’s go.”
“This is happening so, so fast, Nayeon…” Jeongyeon slurs with a playful grin, arm wrapped around Nayeon’s shoulders in a secured side-hug as they ascend the escalator. The hotel’s lobby plays witness to their growing love and the burn of passion’s flame between them.
“I know. And I have to be home to my husband before midnight.” Nayeon presses a lingering kiss on Jeongyeon’s lips, unable to hold her laughter that falls off a little after.
“Ooh. A twist.” Jeongyeon chuckles, head still a little hazy after that kiss.
Nayeon holds Jeongyeon’s hand with her own while the other makes sure the exaggeratingly long belt around her coat doesn't loosen up and fall off.
In an attempt to tighten the thing a little bit more, Nayeon crouches down and moves away from Jeongyeon’s hug. The belt dangles off and, as if punished by the gods of misfortune for their little act, gets stuck in the escalator.
The pulley makes a shrilling sound.
“Babe! Babe, my coat is stuck!”
Jeongyeon honestly couldn’t get anymore wrong. “‘Babe’ so soon, Nayeon?”
“No, not now!” Nayeon pulls at her belt while trying to make sure her coat remains closed. “Seriously! My coat is stuck!”
“Hm…” Jeongyeon is like drugged with love and devotion for the woman—until Nayeon hits her arm and she snaps her out of it. “Oh. OH! Babe, take off your coat!”
“Are you kidding me?! Pull it!”
“Oh god…” Jeongyeon rushes over to help her wife. The sheer panic is drilling at her head and she’s never been good at situations that required astute thinking.
Because she doesn’t have any clue of what to do and her wife’s beautiful legs are coming to view because the coat is getting chewed up by the escalator gears like a paper shredder, Jeongyeon runs over to the landing and steps on the emergency stop button.
The deafening emergency buzzer resounds, immediately catching attention.
Jeongyeon feels her heartbeat trying to rip apart her ribcage. Nayeon thinks her soul just left her body then and there.
“Um...yes, everyone, just go up naturally.” Jeongyeon announces sheepishly as she walks back down to her wife, assisting the grunting Nayeon as the people behind them walk past, muttering complaints under their breaths.
Jeongyeon entertains each passerby with a shake of her hand and a quick apology for the inconvenience while Nayeon continues trying to pull her coat’s belt out.
“How the hell did you get your belt stuck in there?!” Jeongyeon asks frantically once she sends off the last person down their escalator. She immediately crouches down beside her wife and tries to discreetly pull out the fabric.
Nayeon hisses at her wife. “I don’t know! I was just trying to—"
“Nayeon? Jeongyeon?”
Both women’s heads snap up.
Oh shit.
Jeongyeon immediately jumps up to a stand. Nayeon tugs at her coat.
“Mr. and Mrs. Lee! So nice to meet you here!” Jeongyeon plasters on her widest smile possible at this given moment. She has clammy hands from the cold sweat and it’s pretty obvious her boss felt it when they shook hands and he wiped his hand on his blazer.
Fucker.
“What brings you two here? Where’s your little girl?” The old geezer asks. Honestly, Nayeon doesn’t know why her wife still works for the misogynistic man. He’s been nothing but a pain in the ass.
“Oh, hahaha.” Jeongyeon chuckles sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. “She’s at home. Just me and the wife for now. Celebrating Valentine’s night.”
Nayeon just nods behind Jeongyeon.
Eventually, the old couple realizes what’s happening and the ingenuine smile on Mr. Lee’s face is replaced by a confused frown.
“What happened there?”
His wife looks over as well.
“O-OH. Nothing! Just…” Jeongyeon trails off, unable to think of anything to say that wouldn’t make the situation any worse than it is.
“Did your coat get stuck in the escalator?” Mr. Lee queries, pushing past Jeongyeon to see with his wife.
Nayeon forces a timid smile. “Ah, unfortunately…” She holds on to her coat tightly. Underneath this thing is her bare self. She’s literally this close to getting imprisoned for indecent exposure.
“Why don’t you just take it off then?”
“Um…” Nayeon scours her brain for a reasonable lie. “I’m freezing cold!”
Good enough.
“Oh. Then maybe I can get a check on what’s going on down there and…”
“No need, Mr. Lee.” But Jeongyeon’s words are left hanging in the air. Much to Nayeon’s discomfort over a man so near her bare lower body, Mr. Lee’s already crouched down by the escalator gear, trying to inspect the situation.
“Miss Im?”
Nayeon looks over the other direction. As if the universe couldn’t get even more fucked, she meets eyes with Mr. Yang, Chaeyoung’s old Principal.
“Mr. Yang!” She greets with an uneasy smile. Jeongyeon immediately freezes beside her. Oh shit.
Mr. Yang walks over to the scene. Before he could even greet his former student’s parents, he sees the situation. “What’s wrong with the—”
“Belt got stuck in the escalator.” Jeongyeon quips. She never liked Mr. Yang.
“Why don’t you just take off your coat then?
“NO!” Jeongyeon and Nayeon simultaneously counter, much to the surprise of the old man before them.
“Oh. Um...maybe I can help with the--”
“Nayeon? Jeongyeon?”
Nayeon doesn’t even hold back the exasperated sigh that leaves her lips. Is it really a perfect time for reunions right now?!
“You know what, babe?” Jeongyeon smiles through gritted teeth. “I’ll just call the maintenance and—”
“No. Don’t leave me here, you little stupid—”
“OKAY! I’LL CALL THE MAINTENANCE GUYS!” Jeongyeon announces before Nayeon could even finish. Mr. Yang’s already bent on one knee, trying to help out Mr. Lee pull the belt from the escalator gears.
Nayeon desperately holds on to her coat for dear life.
“I GOT THE MAINTENANCE!”
Jeongyeon takes about a minute before she returns with no maintenance. In spite of this, she immediately rushes over to tell everyone it’s going to be okay (it’s not) and that they can all resume their activities for the night.
“Thank you. For helping out. The maintenance guys will be over in a bit.” She shakes hands with Mr. Lee and Mr. Yang, smiling her way right through it.
Thankfully, everyone leaves them be and Nayeon, for the first time since boarding the escalator with her wife in their little Valentine’s Night role-play, finally feels like she’s been saved.
Unfortunately.
“I was just lying. I just needed them to get out of here.” Jeongyeon catches her breath. She feels like her heart is ready to run a marathon with how fast it’s beating.
“What?!” Nayeon, on the hand, feels like she’s this close to tying her wife to the bed posts and just leaving her there. “Go get them, dumbo! This night has been the most embarrassing night ever and I don’t want the situation to get any worse! If you’ve forgotten, I’m not wearing anything underneath this thing!”
“I know, I know. I was going to get--”
“Nayeon and Jeongyeon?”
Ugh. Who could it be now?! Nayeon groans. She makes sure she’s holding Jeongyeon down just in case her wife attempts to run and leave her again to the pack of wolves.
“Irene unnie! Seulgi unnie!” Jeongyeon greets first.
Wait. Nayeon freezes at the sight of the two older women before them, clad in formal attires and looking beautiful. There’s a light that reflects behind them as they walk over, and Nayeon thinks this might just be the nearest they’ve gotten to divine intervention.
“Oh thank god.” She sighs in relief. “Unnie!”
“What happened there?” Irene frowns at the sight of Nayeon’s belt all chewed up in the escalator gear.
“Her belt got stuck.”
“Why don’t you just take off your coat then?” Seulgi chuckles a little, eyes forming crescents at her wife as she glances at Irene. As if the torture of having to repeat the same suggestion for the hundredth time now wasn’t enough, Seulgi jokes, “It’s not like you’re naked under there, right?”
Nayeon wants to cry, really.
The trail of silence that follows has both Irene and Seulgi gaping.
Jeongyeon nervously chuckles. “Um...about that…”
“Oh my god.” Seulgi gasps, horrified.
Irene, however, doesn’t even flinch the slightest bit at the unfortunate situation. “It’s okay. I got this.”
Of course, expect it for the omniscient woman to know. Nayeon feels like crying at the prospect of Irene finally saving her from humiliation.
Irene takes off her oversized coat draped over her shoulders, revealing a beautiful off-shoulder dress underneath. Jeongyeon and Seulgi watch by the side as the miracle of scarier-Mrs-Kang unfolds.
“Just take your coat off while I hold this up and cover you. And then slide your arms into here…”
Nayeon does what she’s told to do diligently, keeping her eyes up cautiously for the people around them.
With a few grunts here and there (thankfully, Seulgi’s size is the same as hers), Nayeon finally gets herself in the oversized coat.
“There you go.” Irene smiles, walking Nayeon out of the escalator.
“Thank you so, so much, unnie!” Nayeon embraces the life out of the smaller woman who only chuckles back. God even her laugh sounds beautiful what the hell.
Irene pulls away with a warm smile. “It’s the least I could do. Thank you for letting Yerim stay over too, by the way. It was a breather for us tonight not having her around.”
Jeongyeon and Seulgi join their wives, holding their hands.
“Yeah. Thank you. Sleepover’s at ours next time!” Seulgi suggests to which Jeongyeon easily agrees to with a too excited Hell yeah!
Nayeon and Irene both roll their eyes at their wives.
They don’t stay with each other for long. Seulgi and Irene are planning to head to the Casino for some free drinks (“Seul said she didn’t want to spend a single bit on the expensive cocktails at the bar.” “Yeah! Cause they’re expensive as hell!”) and Nayeon and Jeongyeon still have reservations for the honeymoon suite on the 29th floor.
“Thank you again, unnie! Have a nice night!” Nayeon waves the Kangs goodbye before walking with Jeongyeon to the opposite direction.
Finally left alone with her wife and in their daughter’s best friend’s mom’s coat, Nayeon jabs Jeongyeon on the arm hard.
“Ow! What was that for!?” Jeongyeon winces.
Nayeon holds her chewed-up coat in her arms. “I am never doing this role-play shit with you again.”
“Noted, pretty bunny—OW! YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO HIT ME AGAIN!”
(Nayeon presses the answer button on the car’s bluetooth speaker. “Hi, babe.”
“Hey, bunny. I just wanted to tell you how great you were last night—”
Eyes wide open. “Uh...Jeong—”
“Sorry I got the uh...oil everywhere but, hey, they’re not our sheets, right?”
“Babe. No. Don’t—"
“Anyways, do you remember where I left the strap—”
“Jeong!” Nayeon blurts out. The whole car stills in awkward silence. “Remember when I told you...um... I was heading over to Irene’s to return the coat?”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, well, I’m driving Chaeng and Yerim over to their dorm. The whole family just heard that.”
“Oh.” Jeongyeon hangs up.
Nayeon makes a mental note to hit her wife when she gets back home. She glances over at her daughter on the passenger’s seat.
Yerim stops filming her IG live at the back. “Mrs. Yoo…”
The mother and daughter panic.
"Dare I ask why you guys were using oil—"
“Yeri, no!”)