Chapter Text
The lights of the club usually weren't a bother for Nam-gyu. Their flashiness and obnoxiousness brought a sense of normalcy to him, even in his shitty life. However, this time, he seemed out of place from the start. He was not a believer of fate, coincidences and all of that crazed religious talk people would bring up to him whenever he felt like this.
Sluggishly making his way towards the drinks cabinet, he poured himself a glass and downed it, before he inevitably had to face the aggressive customers slamming their hands on the bar, wanting more drinks. Running a sweaty palm down his face, he reluctantly asked the patrons what they wanted. 'This pays the bills. This pays the bills...' He reminded himself as the fat greasy man in front of him spat his order at him.
Music booming so loudly you could feel the vibrations in your veins, lights glaring at their highest luminosity, the stench of sweat and god knows what else began to surround him. The unstable wooden poles sticking out from the middle of the bar wobbled for the 4th time today, which caught Nam-gyu's attention, as it was the only out of place thing so far. It seemed off with its movements, although he didn't question it much and carried on shaking and mixing the drinks.
More customers swooped in to the club like clockwork. Faces blurred together, some he recognised as regulars and some he didn't. There was a lot more people in Pentagon than what was normal, and he wondered for a bit what was so special about this place on this specific day. Thinking it was some odd event, he wiped down the counter, coated in beer and some other shit he didn't want to know about. Grimacing at the thought of whatever the fuck was on that counter, he slammed the washcloth into the bin as if it were a hazardous item being removed from a testing facility.
Sighing as he looked at the clock, realising he had an inhumane amount of time left on the shift, he dug around in his jacket for some pills. He kept them in a little plastic baggie and took one every time the club reached its 'annoying hours' as he would refer to it as. Popping the brightly colored pill in his mouth, he let it rest on his tongue like he usually did, taking in the sourness of it, before swallowing it like a shot. After taking the pill, he awkwardly scratched at his zipper, irritated at the fact it kept breaking.
Hearing that damned wooden support pole creak and wobble for the 5th time now made him want to punch something. He dozed off almost for a minute, before being rudely awakened and snapped back into reality by the screams of excitement coming from the performance room.
'That's weird. We don't normally have people over there.' Nam-gyu thought to himself, running his fingers through his jet black, greasy hair. He was convinced that even though he did wash it, contrary to popular belief, it could hold enough grease to deep fry a box of chicken legs.
The bar around him was nothing special really, your old run of the mill, woodened out bar, with half of the lights not working, and almost a quarter of the beer taps not running. The wood wasn't special either. Plain old oak with stains no one could get out, and the fumes of alcohol clinging to it and the air around like a parasite. The lights that did work, however, were either abhorrently bright or dim as anything. Nam-gyu didn't know what ones ticked him off more.
The air of the club always smelled horrid, whether that be by the alcohol, sweat, drugs or sex it didn't matter, it would never be clean and Nam-gyu knew that. It doesn't bother him now, but when he first began working here it made it almost impossible to complete even one drink order.
The pill now finally kicking in, he waltzed over through the herd of people and pushed his way into the performance room. Every other room in the club aside from the bar where Nam-gyu worked had at least some sort of classy interior designer working on it, and most definitely had a lot more money poured into it, and certainly a hell of a lot of time and care into assembling them.
The performance room had a small stage, that was big enough to fit a band of 4 people and their equipement. Every other square meter of that room was covered in hard floor, with stone pillars climbing to the ceiling in the corners, eloquent stripes and curves carved into them, giving this shitty club at least a little bit of class. With the average crowds following the average and mid ass bands, you didn't have that much commotion over here, it was all packed into the main floor where the bar was, mainly due to the fact it had an actual dance floor and people payed attention to it, whereas this room didn't.
However, this night wasn't normal, and Nam-gyu knew it from the start. The amount of people shoving into each other today was absurd. He's used to rowdy herds of people, but this one was insanely erratic, seemingly all screaming at the stage. On the mediocre stage, Nam-gyu actually somehow caught a glimpse of it. The purple and rainbow lighting illuminating the mass of people in front of the stage made his vision horrendous, but from what he saw was a strangely dressed man with designer limited edition sneakers, you know, the type with chunky and wavy bottoms and bizarre designs on them. Not to mention his extremely obvious, bright and obnoxiously purple colored hair. You definitely wouldn't have difficulty finding this guy in the dark.
'Why are these people so excited for this guy? All he's doing is wobbling his legs around on stage. Not even singing...?' Nam-gyu wondered, his face twisting into an expression which can only be described as extreme confusion and a mixture of disgust and... to his surprise, fascination. For once in his lonely life, he'd been intrigued by something. The crowd turned into a blur of rainbow as the main lights dimmed down, the stage lights flashing up and down with excitement almost, the crowd jumping in sync with them, as they moved to the sound of the bass-boosted drums in the speakers.
Music shot out through the enormous speakers, at an alarmingly loud decibel level. He was certain it could deafen everybody in here, but to his surprise, they didn't seem to care. The music could be heard outside of the performance room by the seem of things, as the crowd outside of the door was bouncing up and down to the tune of the beginning of the sound. It seemed almost intoxicating, the way the beat was, it made him feel dizzy. Or it could be the fact his high was wearing off already. Biting down on his tongue to prevent him from vomiting, he almost bit through it when the performer's voice started booming through the speakers and over the music.
He nearly fainted too, it was the unmistakable voice of the 'Legend Thanos.' He'd been a super fan of his when he was in college, feeling discouraged that someone of his age was already accomplishing a music career and he was struggling to get by. Regardless of the jealousy, he found Thanos' songs appeared on his playlists from time to time whilst he was studying, it did get him through some of the exams, not all. And he became an avid listener of his music over time, before drifting away from it when he graduated.
'No wonder the crowds are massive. He's a well known rapper. I can't believe he'd choose this club over all the others. Maybe someone has connections?' Nam-gyu thought to himself, as he found himself shuffling along awkwardly to the song. It was one of his newer songs, although he was still sticking to the classic theme of girls, booze and anything in between. Thanos was also widely recognised as the king of bad desicions. Always in the newspapers and articles for some drug scandal, cheating situation, drunk driving or another criminal charge or other.
He was also in and out of prison a lot before he climbed his way up the rapping ladder of sorts. Still, after all of that, Nam-gyu wondered how he chose Pentagon. Club Enfys had way better connections and had much more to offer than Pentagon. He chose not to think of it too much, and let his mind wander as he moved to the beat of the songs. He felt like his shitty teenage self again, and was in his own world, no, Thanos' world, before he was abruptly interrupted by someone pouring a drink over him on accident.
They had collided, and he hadn't been looking where he was going. The other man profusely apologised, scrubbing at Nam-gyu's jacket like it was even worth anything. Nam-gyu looked up and faced the man who was excessively rubbing at his jacket with his sleeve that probably cost more than the jacket itself. "Look man, don't worry about it!" Nam-gyu shouted over the music. "My jacket's worth nothing, I don't care about the stain." He continued, in a slightly bothered but mostly empathetic tone. "Oh, don't say that. I'm sure its worth something at least! I'm Gyeong-su, by the way." Gyeong-su called out, attempting to get Nam-gyu to hear what he was saying. It was half useful, as he nodded to him; "Cool." Was all of a response he got, but he was grateful nonetheless.
After wiping down the jacket once more, Gyeong-su ran off in the sea of people, leaving Nam-gyu on his own again. Remembering he had some sort of a job, he dragged his ass unwillingly out of the mass of people with great difficulty, and squished his way back into the bar. Having had no one cover him whilst he was busy dancing, a considerable line had formed at the bar, with overtly pissed off club patrons and even VIPs waiting to get their drinks.
"We've been waiting here for fourty minutes! Where the fuck were you?' One of the customers screeched, her voice scratchy and high. As if she inhaled helium that was riddled with knives before she entered the club. That extra irritating, jabbing voice was instantly recognisable. Mi-nyeo. Or more formally, his mother. She was just a piece of trash who quite literally concieved him in a fucking toilet. Seems fitting, as her taste in men was about as shit as it could possibly get.
"Oh. No wonder we were waiting so long. It's my bastard son. I forgot you worked here." She sneered, cigarette in hand, tapping the ashes onto the shoulder of a random man sat next to her. "That's quite considerate of you, given the fact you barely remember I exist, Mi-nyeo." Nam-gyu responded, his voice laced with venom. He wasn't dealing with her shit throughout his childhood, he certainly wasn't now, not here of all places.
If the night hadn't been so fucking off already, the fact his own mother was here should certainly be the wake up call. That damned pole creaked again, and Nam-gyu was about to rip it off of its stand, sending splinter sized pieces of wood into everyone's eyes, slashing them and leaving a fresh coat of crimson over the old oak bar table. He hissed as he prepared their drinks, and was tempted to spit in them as he handed them over with hatred seeping out of every pore.
After 5 excruciatingly long hours, his shift was almost over. 'Make it to 3:45.' He kept repeating to himself, staring up at the boring clock every 5 minutes. The cheering had died down, he had noticed, as that purple haired man known as Thanos had seemingly finished up his show. People filtered through the doors, some considerably calmer than before, and some leaving more shit faced than when tney came in. Dramatically reaching for the baggie that held his pills, he took it out in disdain to only realise he had two left. Popping one in his mouth, he prepared for finishing up his shift.
He rubbed a nervous hand over the silver ring which sat on his left hand, he played with it for a while until he heard a voice which brought him back to reality.
"Yo! Can I get a drink?" It said, clear as day, deep and annoying. It was Thanos. He had finished up his show for the night and was sat right in front of him. His entire college life depended on that man. The man who was gleefully staring at him with a raised eyebrow, and his pupils blown out like saucers. "Yeah. What do you want?" Nam-gyu responded, dryly, but inside he was giggling and kicking his feet in the air like a lovesick teenage girl. He was standing face to face with one of his biggest idols, mind you.
"Hmm.. Whatever you think is best for me, Thanos, señorita." He purred, in a flirtatious way. 'Oh my fucking god he thinks I'm a girl.' Nam-gyu thought, almost heavily face palming right then and there. He wished desperately that he wouldn't have to speak to this man ever again. He was his idol, yet he somehow pissed him off a great deal when he was sat right in front of him, instead of a quick voice over his airpods. Meeting him in real life felt like a slap to the face.. Good god he was insufferable and he did not want to speak to him any further.
Without saying a word, he got a glass and poured him the shittiest drink he could find. He handed it over to him and fumbled around with another baggie in his left pocket, filled with weed. He traced his finger along the broken seam of the pocket and cursed himself out as he realised he hadn't yet fixed it. Given the hole appearing bigger by the nanosecond, the baggie fell to the floor.
Embarrassed, he picked it up and shoved it into his right pocket, and begged to everything, anything that was out there, that Thanos didn't notice it. He knew he was a junkie like him right off the bat, because his pupils weren't even considered pupils anymore, they'd swallowed up his irises like a black hole, leaving only a sliver of blue to peek through. Unfortunately, much to his despair, he did notice.
"Fucking junkie." He whispered, in between gulps of his drink. Nam-gyu rolled his eyes drastically, and kept his vision close on the time. His shift was almost over. He could nearly go home. He didn't respond to Thanos' snarky ass comment, he kept his lips sealed. He didn't need trouble, especially not with one of Seoul's most influential people.
"Give me some then. Roll a joint with me." He barked, brushing his hands through his radioactively colored hair. Nam-gyu was sure he'd done that himself, the job looked so abhorrently bad it was almost laughable. "Fine." Nam-gyu hissed, slamming the baggie on the bar.
They smoked some, and kept on talking as Nam-gyu kept focusing on the time. Thankfully, the conversation was cut short, as his shift ended. Picking up his bag and collecting up his shit, he abruptly got stopped by Thanos, who grabbed his arm. "Woah. Where you going boy?" He questioned, his tone seemingly extra annoying. "Home." Nam-gyu said, stomping through the back door near the bar, and not letting Thanos say another word.
"Cunt didn't even have the decency to tell The Thanos his name." Thanos cursed, finishing the blunt and slamming it down on the floor without a care. Pissed off, he exited the club.
Huffing as he got into the limo, he scrolled on his phone dramatically, like a toddler who got told off for something stupid. He was quite childish, and absolutely self centered. He despised not having people cling off of him like lost dogs. He loved the attention. However, he knew that bartender boy.. girl..? Whatever..had drugs, so there was more a reason than any to keep coming back, performing, and then bugging him for any supply he had on him that day.
And with that, he ordered the chauffer to drive off, smirking to himself with glee that he had successfully managed to concoct an idea, one of which would benefit and harm him in ways he had no way of knowing how.
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