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Wrong Side of the Tracks

VampireMadonna
Summary:
Jeonghan doesn't like serving drinks in the sketchiest part of town but the pay's good and a man's
gotta do what a man's gotta do. He'll put in his time and get on with his life as soon as he graduates.
When Seungcheol walks in and immediately becomes smitten, he takes one look at him and decides
that he isn't worth his time.

It's funny how quickly your mind changes when someone saves your life...

Notes:
Here I am, giving into temptation once again. Jeongcheol needs to leave me be dammit!

I didn't know what the hell to call this thing. The title fits but I still don't like it.

Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Chapter Text

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

He needed money so when his best-friend Jun had offered to get him a job at the bar he worked at, he
quickly accepted.

He knew the kind of place it was – Jun often told him stories and he’d visited with other friends a
couple of times – so he was prepared well in advance. If it were up to him, he would finish his degree
without any distractions. Work, in his mind, was a big one. However, since his parents refused to pay
for his graduate degree – wanting him to go straight into the work-force after completing his
Bachelors’ – he had no other choice. He could’ve worked and returned later when he could afford to
pay it all himself but everyone seemed to agree that it was better to get it over and done with before
seeking permanent employment. Once you stop studying for a while, it’s harder to get back into the
swing of things. So they say, anyway.

So here he was, slinging drinks in a bar in the seediest part of town. The bar itself wasn’t so bad: not
at all. It actually looked out of place compared to the rest of businesses in the area. That was what
made it special…and what made people like him and Jun – or people who looked like them, rather –
a hot commodity.

The owner and manager, Hyesung, had seen an opportunity to explore a new market and had sunk his
savings into the place. Lucky for him, it had paid off.
The clientele weren’t what one might consider the most “upstanding” citizens that society had to
offer but Hyesung didn’t judge, asked no questions, and so long as they treated his boys, girls and
property well, he had no beef with anyone. On the off chance that someone did get out of hand, the
security took care of it. The entrepreneurs in the area respected Hyesung and his establishment and
he extended them the same courtesy.

“I think you have an admirer,” Jun sing-songed as he walked over, that insufferable smirk that
Jeonghan detested curving his lips. “He’s been staring at you for the past hour. I’m not sure he’s even
blinked.”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes. He was used to being stared at: his looks were what had gotten him the job
in the first place, after all. Diamond Cove had been set up in one of the ugliest places in the city but
that was what made it stand out: Hyesung had brought beauty and class to the area. The entire staff,
from the waiters and waitresses to the bartenders to the bouncers to Hyesung himself, was
extraordinarily attractive. You had to be at least a 9.5/10 to get a job there. It was an unspoken rule.

Jeonghan didn’t care much about the way he looked, which wasn’t to say that he didn’t use his looks
to his advantage when it suited him. It was a useful tool at times; a weapon even. A romantic
entanglement was the last thing on his mind, though, and he didn’t think it professional to consort
with customers so he had no interest in whoever fancied him that night. Whoever he was was just one
among many admirers. Hopefully he tipped well.

“I don’t care,” he said huffily. “As you very well know.”

“Maybe you should,” Jun taunted. “He’s kind of cute.”

Jeonghan scoffed. “I doubt it.”

Now it was Jun’s turn to roll his eyes. “How would you know when you haven’t even looked at
him?”

Jeonghan cocked a brow. “Because the only attractive people in here are the people who work here
and I have no interest in any of them?” He posed it as a question but they both knew that it was just
as much a statement. He’d said it many times before.

“The feeling’s quite mutual, I’m sure,” Jun replied, scowling slightly. “But seriously, it wouldn’t hurt
you to flirt with the customers a bit. You’d get bigger tips.”

When Jeonghan’s other brow raised, because they both knew that he had no trouble in that area, Jun
threw up his hands in exasperation and walked off.

Smiling to himself, Jeonghan returned to the task at hand: drying newly washed glasses.

It was about an hour later when a nervous voice hailed him.

“Hey, uh…You’re new here, aren’t you?”

Jeonghan glanced over. He’d been there for almost two months so he didn’t really consider himself
new but Hyesung didn’t like it when he sassed the customers so he simply said, “Relatively.”

The guy nodded. He had dark hair, black really, with long bangs that fell into his eyes. He wore a
black turtle neck beneath a black leather jacket. Jeonghan was sure that if the guy stood, he would
see black denims and black boots.

Black, black, black. The colour of his soul, perhaps?

“Can I get you anything?” he asked politely, setting down his drying cloth.

“Um…sure.” Jeonghan reached for a glass. “If you have a drink with me.”

Jeonghan paused. “Employees aren’t allowed to drink with customers,” he said crisply. That was a
blatant lie, and the guy probably knew it. Hyesung warned them about knowing their limits and not
going overboard but he absolutely allowed drinking with customers. In fact, he encouraged it. If a
customer thought that they had a shot with an employee, they’d likely spend even more money. The
trick was in knowing how to pace one’s self. Hyesung advised them to pour smaller drinks for
themselves than they did for the customers and sip slowly if possible.

The guy’s forehead wrinkled. “They aren't? I’ve seen bartenders drinking with customers before so I
assumed it was fine.”

Jeonghan shrugged. “Maybe it is for them. I prefer not to drink on the job.”

“Come on. Just one, little drink.” He flashed what Jeonghan was sure he intended to be a charismatic
smile, and it was but Jeonghan found himself wondering what sort of business the guy was involved
in. Only the sordid types frequented or inhabited that area, mostly because they worked in or around
it. The guy was young, about Jeonghan’s age, and didn’t look worn out or street hardened like a lot
of their regular customers did but the fact that he was even there and that other customers left him
alone meant that he was familiar to the area, and comfortable in it.

Jeonghan had never seen him before, though. He had a thing for faces. He would’ve definitely
remembered this guy.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” he said firmly. Raising the glass in his hand, he asked politely, “What can I
get you?”

The guy practically pouted but he gave his order and Jeonghan set about making it.

As Jeonghan placed the drink on the counter in front of him, he smiled and said, “My name’s
Seungcheol. Choi Seungcheol. You are?”

For a minute he considered not replying but that would be rude and if it helped him get a better tip…

“Jeonghan.”
“Jeonghan,” Seungcheol repeated. “Pretty name.”

“I know,” Jeonghan acknowledged, though he did smile slightly to soften his tone.

“Do you live around here, Jeonghan?” he, Seungcheol, asked, taking a sip of his drink.

“No.”

“Where do you live, then?” Seungcheol pried.

“Not around here,” Jeonghan replied, turning his head to hide a smirk.

Seungcheol frowned slightly, dark eyes boring into the side of Jeonghan’s face for a few seconds
before the clouds cleared and his lips tilted into a silly smile once more.

“Are you a university student like the others?”

“Yes.”

“What are you studying?”

Seungcheol seemed genuinely interested but Jeonghan wasn’t in the mood and he’d had enough with
the Q&A.

Eyes hardening, Jeonghan turned fully towards Seungcheol. “Look…”

“Jeonghan!”

Jeonghan glanced in the direction of the voice to find Hyesung’s head poking out of the door to his
office.

“A moment, please.”

Sighing inwardly, Jeonghan threw a “sorry, gotta go” over his shoulder to Seungcheol and hurried
off to see what his boss wanted.
It was probably for the best. He was pretty sure he’d been about to be very rude.

And so it began…

After that first day, Seungcheol – and his boys – became a permanent fixture at the bar, particularly
in Jeonghan’s corner.
The first day Seungcheol showed up with company, Jeonghan had just assumed that they were
friends of his. It was their demeanor, the way they seemed to look to him for guidance – or
instruction – that tipped him off that there was more going on. So one day, unable to ignore his
curiosity, he gave in and asked Jun.

Apparently, Seungcheol was the leader of a gang.

Jeonghan had burst out laughing at first, unable to picture the silly guy who drooled over him every
shift as some kind of evil crime-lord. Was he the leader of a group of high-schoolers or something?
And what did they do: steal their classmates’ lunch money? Jeonghan was only twenty-two so if
Seungcheol was his age, and his friends even younger, he couldn’t imagine what nefarious activities
he could possibly get up to.

It was only when he registered the serious expression on Jun’s face that he stopped laughing.

“Uh…what is he into exactly?” he’d asked, his curiosity getting the better of him yet again.
Jun had shrugged. “I don’t know and I don’t want to know. The first thing Hyesung told me when he
hired me was to keep a smile on my face and my eyes and questions to myself. The less you know, the
better. They may like us, lust after us, hell they might even fall in love with us. Use that to your
advantage as best you can. But at the end of the day, they are them and we are us and never the two
shall meet. We don’t belong in their world and we never will. You’d do well to remember that.”
It had been on the tip of Jeonghan’s tongue to remind Jun that he was the one who’d told him to open
himself up to the customers, flirt and maybe meet someone, but he’d swallowed the words. Jun
wasn’t often serious so on the rare occasion that he was, Jeonghan took him at his word.

With that in mind, he continued rejecting Seungcheol’s advances, not that it deterred him in any way.
By the end of the third week of their acquaintance, Jeonghan was positive that Seungcheol knew his
schedule by heart.

Every night Seungcheol would sit at the bar, order the same drink and watch Jeonghan work. He
would try to engage him in conversation, which Jeonghan usually ignored, and at the end of his shift,
he would offer to see him home, which Jeonghan always declined.

“At least give me a chance and get to know me before you write me off completely.”

It was a bit too late for that, to be honest. Besides, while the bar might not be located in the safest
part of the city, Hyesung was a good boss and ensured their safety both in and out of the bar, hiring
taxis to see them home if they wanted so Jeonghan didn’t need Seungcheol’s protection. And what
was even better was that he didn’t dock the taxi fee from their salary, which officially made him the
best boss ever.

There was one night that Seungcheol never came in, though.

He hadn’t thought anything of it the first time he’d noticed, nor the second, but by the third he
couldn’t help but wonder what the significance of it was. For some reason, Seungcheol never came to
the bar on a Friday: the second busiest night after Saturday. Whenever Jeonghan worked on a
Saturday, Seungcheol was there so it definitely wasn’t the crowd.
It was intriguing but keeping Jun’s advice in mind, he never put his thoughts into words.

On one such Friday, he was waiting outside the bar for Jun after their shift. They’d declined
Hyesung’s offer of a taxi in lieu of walking to the bus stop. Jun had said that he’d walked out before
with other employees and that so long as they weren’t alone, once there was a group that the locals
could easily recognize as being Hyesung’s kids, they would be left alone.
“Everyone should have the experience at least once,” he’d told him.

It was a bit chilly and the street seemed unusually quiet. It was 3:00am and the only things scuttling
about in the open were probably rats but still: the street was devoid of cars and the sidewalks were
deserted. It didn’t help that the lighting in the area was shitty on a good day.

Tightening his arms around himself, he hunched inward, trying to stimulate more warmth.

Suddenly, he heard a loud clang from one dark end of the street.

Almost immediately after that, a voice from the opposite direction called, “Hey, pretty thing.”

Unlike the first noise, he discovered as he swung around, the owner of the voice was a lot closer.

“If it’s money you’re after, you picked the wrong pretty thing to rob,” Jeonghan bit out through
clenched teeth. “This one’s broke.”

He should be terrified but he strangely wasn’t. He’d never been the type to get scared easily. If
anything, he was insulted that this idiot and his hidden accomplices assumed that he or his friends
were easy prey because of the way they looked. Well, little did they know that Jeonghan had taken
self-defense classes to prevent such fuckery.

“Trust me, sweet thing: your money is the last thing I want.” When the man – because he was a man,
obviously older than Jeonghan with a bigger, stockier build to boot – trailed his eyes over Jeonghan’s
body from head to toe and back, a shiver of apprehension raced up his spine and he took an
instinctive step backward.

The grin that spread across the man’s face told Jeonghan that he’d made a huge mistake. That was
exactly what he’d been hoping for.

He kept coming and Jeonghan kept moving back, trying to keep some distance between them.
Unfortunately, that took him away from the door to the bar and deeper into the darkness.

He should’ve just waited inside, he angrily scolded himself. He shouldn’t have sent the bouncer away
when he’d offered to keep him company while he waited for Jun. Speaking of: where the fuck was
Jun anyway?

Gathering his courage, Jeonghan forced his feet to stop moving, steeling himself for the assault to
come. If the man didn’t want money then a physical altercation was inevitable no matter what he did.
“What do you want then?” he snapped, his training racing through his mind as he moved into a
defensive stance.

The man paused for a moment, cocking his head to the side while he perused Jeonghan before
crooning, “Why don’t I show you?”

Then, he lunged.

Jeonghan sent a prayer up to the heavens that his mother was paranoid by nature and had forced him
to take those self-defense classes back in high-school. His movements would probably have been
clumsy otherwise.

As it was, he was able to side-step his attacker and, seeing the surprise on his face, follow it with an
elbow-jab to the ribs.

The man swore and listed to the side and Jeonghan took the opportunity to run back to the door to the
bar. It would be unwise to continue attacking the man when he didn’t know if he carried a weapon,
not to mention that he was 100% certain that there were others lurking in the shadows. It was better
to get to safety at the earliest opportunity.

He’d taken about three steps, the ghost of the door-knob already within his mental grasp, when a
heavy body landed on his back. He landed with an oomph, the wind completely knocked out of him.
Coming to his senses, he opened his mouth to cry out but an arm wound tightly around his throat
before he could utter a sound, cutting off his air supply. His voice came out in strangled croaks.

He thought he heard his attacker say something but he might be imagining things. Concentration was
impossible with his brain being deprived of oxygen.

As his mind grew hazier, just before he succumbed to the darkness creeping in at the edges of his
consciousness, he realized that he’d made the number one, damsel-in-a-movie mistake.

He should’ve just called for help in the first place.

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