#lee hyeonju: stage three; bargaining

[its-max-okay]

Friday, 5 March 2021; late evening Hearts Territory; a bar @kadeuxhyeonju​​

It’d been months since she’d seen Hyeonju last -- a busy handful of months, and what scant free time Max had in the interim had been devoted to the exact reason why she was here to drink tonight. She supposed she’d be looking at an uptick of unoccupied free time in the months to come, time she hoped to fill with nights like this one.

The two of them never skipped a beat when they were apart, falling back into the same comfortable habits and conversations they always did when reunited. Gossip and smalltalk came easily with the first couple rounds of drinks, parked in the dim corner of a highranker bar -- one that seemed to suit Hyeonju’s elegance far more than Max’s brashness, but one that they both always enjoyed all the same.

Despite the ease of company there was still a distinct melancholy in the air between them tonight, and they each appeared to have independent reasons to drink that they were happy to indulge together. Whatever the reasons were they’d both kept dancing around them for the past couple of hours, and only as Max slammed another shot glass face-down on the table did she point an unsteady finger across the table at her old friend.

“Hyeonju. Darling. My sweetheart.” That pun was just for him, considering the last time he’d made so stupid a joke and Max had called him out for it.

“Are you finally drunk enough to tell me what the fuck is bothering you, or do I need to buy another round or three?”