The Trouble by Daria Defore

Author:Daria Defore [Defore, Daria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gay, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Less Than Three Press, LLC
Published: 2016-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The Oak Barrel was an old-looking bar inside a new-looking building. Very Seattle, with its polished high-rises and insistence on clinging to the vintage. Danny's scuffed sneakers squeaked on the dark wood floor, and he wasn't sure if he felt like a cool hipster or just underdressed. Jiyoon, on the other hand, was immaculate in a grey button down with a dressy vest over it, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

He held a wine glass between his fingers, swirled it gently, then took a sip. Danny carefully watched the play of emotions across his face: confusion very smoothly masked with a pleasant, thoughtful look. Then Danny realized he had devolved into staring at Jiyoon's mouth and tore himself away.

"How's it taste?"

"Ah… I'm still looking for the hint of blackberry." Jiyoon picked up the tasting sheet and pored over it, the corners of his mouth turned down. "I'm not… finding…"

"Anything?"

"Shh!" Jiyoon sidled up close to him, and Danny played along with the conspiracy. "Maybe if we really imagine—"

"So we pretend to taste it, and then when we leave, all the fancy wine people will laugh at us because we tasted blackberries in something that's obviously made out of grapes. This is grapes, right?"

"Yes," Jiyoon said, sounding certain for the first time that night. "It's definitely grapes." He picked up a slice of cheese from the plate that he had guilt-ordered to make up for the free glasses (or sips) of wine they were getting. "I like this cheese."

"The cheese is really good." Danny had helped himself to a lot of it when Jiyoon was frowning at wine. "Free booze is also good."

"It certainly does go down sweeter, doesn't it? Oh—" His phone set off with the most obnoxious shrill ring Danny had ever heard. "I should get this, sorry."

Jiyoon snatched the phone to his ear and Danny caught "Dad, hi," in Korean and then something about a sink before Jiyoon excused himself from their little standing table and went to stand by the door. It didn't look like a fun phone call. Jiyoon's shoulders were hunched, and he had one arm slung over his stomach. Danny made sure there was another sample of wine (the red one, the one he liked best) waiting when he came back.

"Sorry," Jiyoon said again, and Danny waved him off.

"That was your dad, right?"

Jiyoon let out a slow hiss of air that turned into a yes. "It was nothing awful, just that they're having horrible plumbing problems in their horrible house, again." He said the final words into his hands with a groan.

"I thought I heard something about a sink."

Jiyoon laughed. "How much did you catch?"

"Uhh, not a lot. Honestly, you talk kinda fast for me." Danny felt a prick of embarrassment, and he wasn't sure why he had even brought up that he was listening. It wasn't like he wanted Jiyoon to know he was trying to eavesdrop on him, and there was no point in showing off his shitty Korean.

"You didn't speak

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