April Loves Black Coffee: First Impressions (52 page)

My heart slams into my ribcage. What world am I walking into? “What are you talking about?”

Mayhem replies tersely, “A world where money powers morals, lies strike fear, and the pursuit of happiness is based on individual revolutions.” Mayhem leans forward, closing the gap between the two of us. “Everything that you think gangsters represent, and what our world encompasses, is the direct result of
social media fabrications. Choi Sangwoo has sugarcoated everything he’s shown you. I am talking about a world so dark and overbearing that even fallen government and ex-army shrivel up in fear and choose suicide rather than face the likes of me.”

He is just trying to freak you out May. Don’t let him.
“Why?” I sound like a mouse with her tail trapped.

Mayhem leans on his stool. The corners of his lips curl into that smile again. “Your ignorance protects you from fear.”

“I’m not afraid of you.” I am not about to be bullied.

Mayhem acknowledges my bold comment. “Good. Don’t be. I’m only one of many. If anything, I’m the dark Angel you’ll be calling on when this world comes for you.”

“No one’s coming for me,” I reply.

Mayhem scowls. “Let me just tell you this. When someone betrays me, I prefer to hold the gun to their heads. When someone betrays Choi Sangwoo, like the coward that he is, he stabs you in the back. So, you don’t know how he does it or where he does it. I think you are forgetting that when someone comes for you, there’s nothing you can do to stop them. All you can do is defend yourself.”

All the research I’ve done on gangsters and the underground world appears to be useless now. I am petrified of what reality brings. Mayhem is not making the situation any better.

Mayhem studies the look on my face. “You have no idea, do you?”

I swallow hard. Fear slowly seeps into my bones. I don’t even notice that the bartender already has our third round of drinks. With haste, I drink the remains of my second glass.

Mayhem smiles without teeth as he watches me.

“Y
OU REALLY ARE ONE OF
a kind. What zoo did you escape from, and are you planning to go back?” I ask, slurring my words. We are on our sixth, seventh, or eighth round of drinks–I don’t remember. The colors of the bar are dancing in front of my eyes. All this talk about the deep and dark underground world has gotten me faded. I am no longer feeling stressed, fear, or anxiety. I am just a bubble of happiness bantering with this hot gang lord who is reminding me every minute I am out of my element with him.

“You have a strange sense of humor,” states Yoon Jaewon–as  my drunken state prefers to call him as. My intuition adores his name as well. “May I remind you who you are talking to?”

I let out a laugh. I lean against him; he is all rock body and muscularly defined. “You think I’m afraid of you, but I’m not. I know who your uncle is. You’re not as intimidating as they say you are.”

“Then why did you run from me that night?” Jaewon smiles crookedly at me. He’s got me right where he wants me to be.

I frown at him. The memory of meeting Jaewon at my apartment unravels. “Because you said, ‘there’s nothing more valuable in a person than their ignorance’ and I took offense to that.”

Jaewon’s eyes harden. “Then what makes a person valuable?”

I scrunch up my nose. “Their heart.”

Jaewon scoffs. He looks away, shaking his head at me, clearly amused by my innocent answer. “You’re so legal it’s humbling.”

I gape at him. “And you’re so cruel.”

“You really have no clue, do you?” Jaewon’s voice is steady and taut.

“I’m supposed to?”

“You need a good dose of fear.”

I feel a thrill shoot down my spine. “You really do look down on us little people.” I marvel at the gigantic size of his ego.

The light in his dark and attractive eyes thins. “Once you experience the world the way I have, it’s hard to understand and relate to things like college and a nine-to-five job.”

I shake my head at Jaewon, letting out a disbelieving laugh. “I can’t believe this. Your ego is suffocating. College and a nine-to-five job is how we regular people live. You wouldn’t know what to do if your power was stripped away from you. I bet you don’t even know how to be poor.”

Jaewon’s calm and collected look suits his impressionable features. “I don’t. I inherited my throne.” The alcohol slurs in his tone.

What?
I gawk at Jaewon. Our banter comes to standstill. The alarming truth knocks my alcoholic state down another notch. At this point, I have to keep drinking or I will snap back into sobriety–vomit and all.

“You inherited your gang lord position? Your throne?” I ask him meekly.
Choi Sangwoo said you worked your way up.

Realization causes Jaewon to look down at the granite bar top with a chuckle. Jaewon’s stunning profile disarms me. “Let me guess, Choi Sangwoo said he was the one blessed-in. He also told you I shot his brother. He said I’m blah blah blah.”

I squirm on the bar stool, slightly uncomfortable as I realize the height of Sangwoo’s lies.

“Everything is the other way, sweetie. I was blessed-in the gang after my father was killed. My uncle, Mr. Im to you, took me in and sent me to America in hopes of keeping me away from my father’s business. Instead of following my uncle’s instructions, I followed my father’s footsteps anyway. Long story short, Choi Sangwoo was ordered by his Boss to kill me as his initiation requirement. Being the idiot that he is, Sangwoo mistook my younger brother for me, and you get the gist of the history.”

I blink uncontrollably, swallowing hard. I am numb and astounded. Without thinking, I wave to the bartender again.

“I
THINK YOU SHOULD STOP
drinking.” Yoon Jaewon reaches for my glass, officially separating me from my companion. He’s nursing a black cup of coffee now.

“I’m fine. Last one.” I hold a finger to my lips. Breaking into a large smile, I start to giggle. “I’m really drunk.”
More like beyond intoxicated. Don’t be so sloppy.
My intuition has that motherly nag going on.

“You act like you’ve been locked in a cage and only now do you get to run.”
Jaewon’s voice barely registers over the ringing in my ears.

“You have no idea,” I slur as my eyes droop. I can hardly keep them open. “How can you? You’re a dark, tall, handsome, and attractive gang lord with issues. How can you possibly understand someone like me?”

“You think I’m dark, tall, handsome, and attractive?” Deep humor travels in Jaewon’s response. His expression is unsurprising and just as haughty.

“No.” I shake my head. “Nope. No. Never.”

Jaewon laughs. He throws his head back and laughs freely. I never knew he had such a straight, bright white smile.

“W
HATEVER, GET OFF MY PLANET,”
I mumble. The lights behind the bar are starting to appear as hanging rainbow icicles. I am beyond intoxicated. I don’t know what we are bickering about. In fact, I don’t know how long we’ve been here. Many things were said, including facial features being compared to zoo animals.

“And what planet would that be?” How can Jaewon make this strange banter so interesting?

“This one.” I point to my drink’s murky liquid.

Mayhem leans in. He smells yummy–a dangerous concoction night, charm, and allure. “You’re right. I see planet Mayhem.”

Why is he so full of himself? “You know, I’m half expecting you to introduce yourselves to me.”

“Well, there’s me and then there’s myself, and then there’s I,” Jaewon replies with a snicker.

“Wow. And explain to me how do you live with yourselves?” I ask with a fresh, entertained grin.

“I have people who tend to my every needs.” There goes that King complex again.

“Wow. And where are they?” I point around the bar, showing Mayhem that he is here alone. “If you’re so popular, why are you sitting here on a Wednesday afternoon getting drunk with me?”

“Because I am a businessman and right now, there’s a deal Mayhem wants to close with you.”
Oh em gee.
Jaewon’s eyes smolder in that hot way as he watches me. By now, my eyes are seeing stars dance around him. His lips are moving, but I cannot hear him.
Snap out of it May!

Jaewon’s voice comes back into my ears. “It is better to have people know you than to be nameless until your very last breath,” Jaewon offers his perceptive advice. He points to himself. “I am Mayhem. You are–” he pauses. His eyebrows come together in question. Realization dawns on me that Jaewon has no idea who I am.

I gape at him, pausing in my drunken world. “You don’t know my name?”

“How am I supposed to remember? You don’t matter,” Jaewon answers casually with a fresh boyish smile on his lips.

“You’re kidding.” I’m hurt in a strange way. In my alcoholic state, I feel neglected and rejected.

“Everyone knows my name. I don’t need to know theirs.”

“Guess Yoon Jaewon. I am sure in your drunken state, you can recall something.”

“Don’t say my name.”

“I think I’m allowed to since you don’t know mine.”

“You can leave now.” His jaw clenches together. How does he get the galls to be mad at me when he’s the one who doesn’t know my name? Besides, what’s so special about his birth name that I can’t say? Mercurial gang lord.

“Fine. I’m leaving.” I don’t have to put up with this shit. Why should I talk to someone who doesn’t even remember my name? I deserve better than this. I get up too quickly and end up tripping on my . . . feet? “Shit!”

Mayhem catches me seconds away from eating the floor. I lock eyes with him once again.
God, he really is good-looking.
I am a mix bag of emotions as I look at him. “Thank you,” I mumble. I break out of Jaewon’s hold and head for the entrance dramatically.

The wind hits my hot skin as I run from the bar. The air smells humid, but the fresh air feels refreshing. There are dark clouds hanging above, a clear indication that summer rain is imminent. I continue my gait down the desolate streets. I make my way back towards The Trax’s direction to the bus stop.

With alcohol in my system, I am fearless. I spin around to see if the infamous Mayhem has followed me, but he is nowhere in sight. All the streetlights blend and I stumble again. Maybe I really am breeching the fine line between drunk and blackout. I cannot hear my intuition anymore. Where’s that crazy girl when I need her? I need to figure out how to get home fast.

“Hey!”

“Shit!”

Just as I turn again, Yoon Jaewon coalesces in front me like a ghost. Where did he come from? He didn’t run after me when I left the club.
Or did he?
My conscience surfaces with a scarf covering the bottom half of her face.

I look at Jaewon as he looms over me. “Come on. I’ll take you home.” He’s completely sober, I think.

“No, thank you. I can take care of myself.” Why is he trying to be such a gentleman?

“You either let me take you home or I will carry you,” he threatens me quickly. The firmness in Jaewon’s voice is indicative of his persona.

Surprise grips me. Talk about bossiness. Before I can respond, Jaewon’s shoulders hunch over the lower half of my body and he lifts me off the ground.

“What are you doing?!” I squeal as my feet dangle.

Jaewon lets out a rare, genuine laugh. Through blurry eyes, I like the gentle crease his mouth forms just before his perfect white teeth reveal themselves; his dark eyes finally light up like gems. Even though I am drunk, my attraction for him spikes tenfold. Regardless of his infamous reputation, there is a truth to Yoon Jaewon. Behind the mystifying exterior and rampant misconceptions, an intriguing man exists at the core.

“I know I’m beautiful, but could you please stop looking at me like that,” he says, bringing me back into reality. Jaewon sets me back down on the ground.

“You’re so full of yourself!” I stick my tongue out at him. Somehow being drunk justifies it. I feel free and silly, caught up in the moment. “You are a terrible flirt.”

“I’m not flirting with you. You are not immune to my charms. You’re blushing even in the dark.” Slowly, Jaewon draws himself to me and wraps an arm over my shoulder. I try to push away his sudden need to be my best friend, but Jaewon has his hand firmly around me. He is forward and pushy, daring and attractive. A thrill shoots through my entire being.

There is something wanton about him. The effect Yoon Jaewon has on me is telling; it all comes naturally with him. With Choi Sangwoo, everything was forced and formal. With Yoon Jaewon, the emotions ringing inside of me are different. Alcohol really is the miracle substance.

“So you’re telling me pickup lines don’t work on you?”

“What lines are you talking about?”

Jaewon leans in close. His voice becomes husky and intoxicating with temptation. “So, you want to go back to my place?”

I smirk, rolling my eyes in the dark. “I don’t know. Can two people fit in a box?”