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This was the first time Beidou had visited Ningguang’s club—one of them, anyway, but this was the primary one she worked at. She was told by her girlfriend that she wouldn’t be able to meet her until late, so Beidou decided to go there on her own and see what they had to offer.
In hindsight, it probably wasn’t a good idea, knowing how being alone at a club for an extended period of time was typically a bad idea.
When Beidou got inside the club, she headed straight for the bar.
The bartender spotted her immediately. Beidou could sense that she was being checked out. She did have some distinct features, one being her huge eyepatch. She was also a newcomer; bartenders were observant.
“You’re new here.”
“Yeah, I am.”
The bartender wasn’t very talkative. She just stared blankly at Beidou. It didn’t bother her much, as she was only here to be a well-behaved customer (as much as she could). It wouldn’t be nice of her to wreak havoc at an establishment Ningguang owned—or anywhere, really.
But she was a trouble magnet.
“Hey.” The hair on Beidou’s back stood up when someone got too close to her and practically whispered in her ear.
“Hey?” She greeted the woman in purple, who shot her a flirtatious smile.
Beidou couldn’t say this wasn’t a common occurrence for her, but this woman was particularly aggressive in her approach.
“Do you want to join me and my girlfriend? ”
Beidou’s jaw dropped. This woman was insane. She should refuse and leave before things could get even more out of hand.
“I promise it’ll be worth—oh!”
A blonde woman pulled her away before she could even finish her sentence.
“Lisa!”
Lisa—the woman who tried to proposition Beidou—only giggled. She was very, very drunk, Beidou realized.
“Oh, Jean! Don’t be jealous!”
“I’m… not.”
Jean—the blonde—wasn’t jealous, just like how Beidou didn’t like alcohol. She knew when someone was lying through their teeth.
“I’ll make it up to you. Don’t worry.”
Jean’s face lit up, but she immediately wiped it off her face and glared at Beidou, who only raised her arms in surrender.
Didn’t do anything. Beidou mouthed silently and only then Jean relaxed a bit.
“We’re going home.”
“But it’s so early! Jean, slow down!”
Beidou watched as Jean dragged Lisa out of the bar.
What the heck. She thought.
But that wasn’t the most outrageous thing that would happen tonight. It was only the beginning.
***
“Hey… Cool eyepatch.”
“Um, thanks.”
“You seem really cool.”
“Sure.”
“My family owns a funeral home.”
This would have been a pretty cool conversation, if this random girl wasn’t almost hovering and getting too close to Beidou. Some personal space would be nice.
The girl was dressed in all black and had a huge hat on her. Her eyes looked like she was wearing some special Halloween contact lenses, which made her eyes appear like flowers.
Flowers or not, Beidou was getting creeped out. She felt sudden breezes and chills through her body, and those were not due to the air conditioning.
“Beidou?”
“Xiangling?”
Imagine Beidou’s surprise when she saw someone familiar—someone she thought of as a little sister ever since she babysat her.
“You’re old enough to enter a bar?”
Xiangling laughed out loud at her question.
“Yes, I’m an adult now!”
“Dang. Has it been that long?”
“It has... Anyway, what’s Hu Tao doing?”
“Who?”
“Hu… Tao.” Xiangling poked at the girl on top of Beidou.
Hu Tao turned around and leapt from Beidou onto Xiangling.
“Babe!”
Xiangling almost fell backwards onto the not so sanitary floor of a club, if not for Beidou grabbing her arm to help her keep her balance.
“You smell so good.” Hu Tao nuzzled into the crook of Xiangling’s neck and wrapped herself around her like a koala. Quite an amusing sight since they were both petite and Xiangling could fall over any second.
“Girlfriend?”
“No! We’re just roommates!”
“Sure…”
Maybe Xiangling was too young to have known what roommates meant.
Also, Beidou totally didn’t see Hu Tao’s wandering hands on Xiangling. She didn’t. She couldn’t.
She missed when Xiangling was that cute, adorable little kid. How could she have grown so fast?
Someone should get her bleach for her eyes already.
“Don’t do anything I won’t do.” Beidou said when she spotted Hu Tao dragging Xiangling away.
That list was a short one.
Anyway, what was up with people here dragging away their significant others?
***
Beidou might have found someone normal in this forsaken bar, and but that, she meant quiet. This mysterious blue haired woman sat down next to her and didn’t attempt to talk to her at all. What a refreshing experience.
Her impression of this woman changed when this pinked hair woman with antlers (cosplay?) showed up.
“Hey, Eula, right?”
The blue haired woman—Eula—nodded, and there was no follow up. No greeting. No “nice to meet you, so and so.” Nothing.
Beidou felt physical pain from watching this. Eula was probably quiet because she was awkward like that.
“I’m Yanfei.”
The other woman, Yanfei, however, just continued the conversation like normal and introduced herself.
Beidou, since she was still waiting for Ningguang to be done with work, decided she would participate in a drinking game to ease the pain she felt from watching the two women. She would drink every time the conversation got awkward.
***
“Your pictures didn’t do you justice.”
“You were exactly as I expected.” Eula responded.
Beidou ordered a shot.
“I’m a lawyer. Eula, what do you do?”
“I have had bad experiences with lawyers.”
The bartender fumbled the glass in her hands.
Another shot for Beidou.
“Do you have a favorite quote?”
“Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick.”
Beidou would admit that was very Eula, and she picked a quote from a popular show.
“Cool! Mine is What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class…”
Yanfei recited the entire copypasta.
Beidou couldn’t believe this betrayal from Yanfei, even though she didn’t know her. She hoped she felt a sense of pride and accomplishment for memorizing the entire passage at least.
After that, Yanfei talked about her family. Talk about a turn of events...
“See my antlers? My father is an adeptus.”
“My family was notori—”
The bartender cleared her throat loudly, slammed a shot glass in front of Beidou, and glared at Eula, halting her in the middle of her sentence.
(Beidou had a feeling that she would have thrown the glass across the room if she were allowed to.)
“What was that about your family?”
“Just normal humans.”
Yanfei nodded.
“Can I touch your antlers?”
Beidou just heard a huge sigh—she could hear disappointment in it—and another shot glass pushed towards her.
Beidou didn’t expect things to spiral so quickly. She really didn’t know what she got herself into. She could barely think, after—well, she lost count—so many shots. The bartender didn’t even stop her. In fact, she poured Beidou her shots at the precise timing.
The only fortunate thing was that, at the end of the day, Eula and Yanfei left together, so they were into each other enough to continue their conversation elsewhere. Good for them.
Although Beidou would recommend that they forgo the entire talking thing.
***
Ningguang had finally completed her work and was ready to meet Beidou, before she was called to deal with a situation at the bar. She just didn’t expect the “situation” to be her giggling drunk girlfriend.
“Explain.”
“Drunk customer.”
“I can see that, Rosaria. You’re supposed to cut her off.”
The bartender—Rosaria—shrugged.
“Just… Don’t do it again.”
“Fine.” A typical Rosaria response.
“And I’ll deal with her.”
Everyone at the bar went through several emotions in the next few moments.
Curiosity, when Ningguang carefully woke up the woman in red.
Horror, when the woman in red called Ningguang “babe” and draped herself all over her.
Confusion, when Ningguang didn't immediately throw the woman off, but instead secured her hold around her.
Amazement, when Ningguang walked off carrying the woman in her arms.
“I see. Arm days do pay off.” Rosaria nodded to herself.
***
Ningguang took Beidou home.
Contrary to popular belief, Beidou was a well-behaved and disciplined drunk person. Ningguang liked to think that she had contributed to that.
It was a shame that Beidou was drunk, or else they would be doing some fun things. They hadn’t seen each other in a while, since Beidou was out of town. Ningguang had planned lots of activities.
“How did you get so drunk?” AKA what caused the delay in my plans?
Beidou recounted all the strange events at the bar. Ningguang wasn’t happy about any of them, even though she knew none of them were serious about hitting on her. They were just drunk and curious (eyepatch, remember).
“That woman in purple gave me goosebumps.”
Somehow, Ningguang knew it was Lisa. That woman lived to flirt, or flirted to live.
“I cannot believe Xiangling is all grown up now!”
Ningguang truly felt old. Xiangling was the kid Beidou used to babysit when she was in high school.
“Is touching someone’s antlers a sexual innuendo?”
Ningguang’s secretary had horns. Perhaps she could ask.
“Your bartender was pretty cool though.”
Except not doing her job properly and causing the delays in Ningguang’s plans.
Beidou yawned when she finished telling her stories.
“Tired?”
“Hmm.” Beidou mumbled in response and buried her face in the pillow.
“Sweet dreams.”
“Love you…”
“I love you, too. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Although Ningguang was sure there wouldn’t be much time for talking.
***
The next morning, Xiangling called Beidou to discuss dinner plans with her. It had been so long since she had spent time with her, and she owed her an explanation about her relationship with Hu Tao.
Beidou had sounded quite dead, probably due to her hangover, but happily accepted the dinner invitation, which Xiangling promised to cook, with no slimes or experimental ingredients.
Then, a few hours later, Beidou called to cancel the plans. Xiangling noticed that she sounded slightly out of breath. Perhaps she suddenly got sick?
“Are you alright, Beidou?”
“Yes, I am… Just, I can’t—I can’t come anymore—”
Then Beidou hung up.
Xiangling later told Hu Tao of the phone call and how she felt dejected that the call ended so abruptly.
“I just really missed Beidou.”
“Aww, poor baby. Maybe she had an emergency.”
Xiangling humphed, and Hu Tao couldn’t help but pet her on the head.
“I wonder what service provider she was using. There was some signal interference during the phone call.”
“Like what?”
“Like, some constant, rhythmic tapping? Kinda loud, actually.”
Hu Tao looked disgusted and Xiangling didn’t understand why she reacted in such a way.
“Just be glad that you got hung up on.”