"Then why did such a moral, well-behaved gentleman come to a club? You look like someone who has no business with a place like this."
Despite the words, there was none of the earlier sniping. He was asking out of genuine curiosity.
Given the question, Kanghyeon considered for a moment.
He could answer only what was necessary and wall off the rest, as he always had. Or he could ignore it.
But Kanghyeon wasn’t so dull he couldn’t tell favor from hostility. The man had helped him in some form, clearly; he didn’t want to coldly brush him off.
That said, he couldn’t recite confidential work matters, so he glossed it.
"At night, the lights here stand out especially well. So I was curious."
From the top floor of Palace Skytower where the two of them lived, the view he always saw was a quiet firmament and far-distant buildings.
By day, it felt like the finest comfort, as if floating above the clouds. By night, his eyes were stolen by the nightscape of the buildings spread below.
Among them, club WAVE’s lights were particularly distinct. As with its interior, they were dazzling and flashy; sometimes the colored lights shook as if dancing. No wonder people called it a Gangnam landmark.
So what Kanghyeon said sounded plausible.
Haeil let his gaze travel lazily up and down him. His eyes stopped on the yellow paper band around Kanghyeon’s wrist. It was one of club WAVE’s admission "bandings," with yellow indicating a regular guest who’d waited in line to get in. It also bore the "α" that marked an Alpha.
"So—so curious you waited in line for an hour just to come in?"
Haeil’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Kanghyeon.
"And for someone’s first time at a club? Alone?"
Kanghyeon didn’t answer right away. He kept his mouth shut like he was choosing words.
"Is it that obvious?"
After a beat, what he let out was an out-of-left-field counterquestion.
"How did you know it was my first time? I did study up before coming."
"Study?"
Head tilted, Haeil abruptly laughed in earnest. His voice was so delighted that several people at the nearby standing section and tables turned this way. Some of them even whispered to each other in surprise at his reaction.
Haeil covered his twitching mouth with a hand.
"Who studies to go to a club? You just come with friends and have fun."
At Haeil’s words, swallowing his laughter, Kanghyeon closed his mouth again.
Amid the racket on all sides, a plain silence flowed only between them.
Once he’d smoothed away the mirth, Haeil lowered the hand that had covered his mouth and asked,
"…Don’t tell me you don’t have friends?"
"Do I need them?"
There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in Kanghyeon’s tone. The nuance was that he genuinely had no need for anything like friends.
Even Haeil—whose social circle was very wide but extremely shallow—agreed with him on that point. Still, it was the first time he’d seen someone so unflappably, earnestly throw the question back.
With a breath of incredulous laughter, Haeil took Kanghyeon’s hand. The sudden move made Kanghyeon flinch.
"Come on. I’ll be your friend for today."
"I don’t need that."
"You will. Don’t you have studying to finish?"
Haeil clutched the moving hand tighter and drew him out of the standing section.
"Don’t lose my hand. There are so many people that if we get separated once, it’ll be hard to find you again."
He said it like he was giving a child a reminder at a kids’ park.
Kanghyeon wasn’t thrilled, but he couldn’t help conceding the point. Outside the standing section where he’d been alone, there were just too many people.
Watching Kanghyeon get led along, unwilling but compliant, Haeil added brightly,
"Take the chance and repay me for the housewarming rice cakes."
For some reason, a guileless smile like a child’s rose on his face.
***
Before they knew it, an hour had passed since Kanghyeon let himself be led by Kwon Haeil around the club.
Maybe because of the crowds, maybe because of the dizzying heat, time slipped away far too quickly. Perhaps it was because the club was more wondrous and intoxicating than what he’d "studied."
For an hour, thanks to Haeil, Kanghyeon was able to calmly observe club WAVE’s atmosphere and layout.
Sometimes from a standing section set well back, sometimes from a table right in front of the dance floor, sometimes from the VIP lounge.
Good thing I followed.
He couldn’t help being grateful to Haeil.
He’d thought the plan was to drag him around and ditch him, but contrary to that, Haeil guided him with care from place to place and showed him around.
Maybe his claim of being WAVE’s resident club rat wasn’t nonsense; he knew quite a lot. From the interior layout to the events that ran by day of the week, even to the full catalog of liquor sold.
As they made the rounds, someone greeted Haeil warmly every other person. Among them were several he presumed had a relationship beyond just playing at the club. Even so, Haeil cut down their invitations to hang out and stuck by Kanghyeon’s side no matter what. Batting away those who approached Kanghyeon was a bonus.
Also, though he lacked an admission band called a banding, Haeil could go anywhere freely. When asked why he had no band, he said VVIPs didn’t have them to begin with. Every employee in the club was trained to remember all the VVIPs, no exceptions.
Glancing back at the guard who’d just bowed politely and gone by, Haeil said to Kanghyeon,
"VVIPs like that kind of thing. In a world where banding sorts you by rank, they get ninety-degree bows even without that crap."
He pointed downward with his finger, as if to show him.
"In the end, in any world, money is king. …As shitty as that is."
A quiet keenness drifted in his eyes as he gave a crooked smile.
Kanghyeon didn’t particularly deny it. If anything, he agreed.
That’s what he’d always seen.
Money, status, and honor decided everything in this world. He knew the arcs traced by their fingertips could knead not just his life but others’ as well.
Having grown up in the thick of it, Baek Kanghyeon could grasp all the more deeply the sight of this club—a miniature caste society.
Even after that, the two kept moving through the vast club, taking in this and that.
To catch their breath, they stopped at a spot in the 2F VIP lounge where the music was comparatively less loud. "Less loud" still meant ear-stuffing clamor, but this much, they could talk without whispering.
Not as bad as I thought.
Leaning lightly against the 2F railing, Kanghyeon looked out over the whole club, including the main hall.
Seen from a variety of places without settling in one, the club’s visage was more brilliant and alluring than he’d imagined.
In the darkness raked by lasers, it looked like a deep sea where phosphorescent coral glittered. At the same time, like a cluster of stars gaily trailing after all sorts of neon. If one let oneself be intoxicated by the heat they gave off, anyone would end up falling in deep.
"You’re really studying hard. Maybe I should’ve shoved you onto the floor to just dance."
Haeil, who’d briefly stepped away, came back quickly. In the hand he held out to Kanghyeon was a glass with liquor.
Inside the old-fashioned glass was a cocktail of clear, deep red. Resting on the undulating surface was an ornament: orange peel sliced thin and long, elegantly twisted. Thanks to it, a faint brightness threaded through the bitter aroma.
Kanghyeon took the red cocktail—obviously made by a skilled bartender.
"Negroni."
Standing side by side at the railing, Haeil asked with a smile,
"Know your stuff. Had it before?"
"I’ve had it a few times. It suited me better than I expected."
"Of course. It’s like you."
After looking back and forth between Kanghyeon and the Negroni in his hand, Haeil looked a little regretful.
"I’ll make you one next time. There was something I wanted to put in, but they say they don’t have it."
As he brought the Negroni to his lips, Kanghyeon gave him a suspicious look. More than the fact that Kwon Haeil could make cocktails, what snagged him was the "something he wanted to put in."
"What were you going to add?"
"There is such a thing."
Feigning a look elsewhere, Haeil kept his gaze on the nape of Kanghyeon’s neck.
Even half hidden by his shirt collar, his neck was strikingly straight and white at a glance. It made him want to undo the stiflingly fastened buttons and yank the collar wide, to study that bared nape from up close.
He has no idea.
What kind of sweet note lingers around him.