4am in the morning, and Nam-gyu’s out smoking, by the club’s backdoor. The rave inside was still at its peak, deafening music buzzing too loud, and he wonders how do the partygoers never get tired, after all, he sees some of these people every week. He takes a drag of his cheap cigarette in sync with the back door opening, and he tenses for a second, thinking it was the manager coming to yell at him again for lazing around. Oh, it’s just you.

“My shift’s over”, you announce him pointlessly- he knows. The club’s closing in two hours anyway. “I’m closing today”, he tells you, also pointlessly- you know. You’ve gotten employed about the same time as him, and your shifts overlapped, usually. However, he was too cranky when sober to make friends.

“I can wait with you,” you offer, “A lot of people are already leaving anyway.” Nam-gyu nods and hands you a cig, which you happily take. Your work uniform was a little messy- it had been a rough night, with irrascible clients trying to get in without a reservation, and Nam-gyu’s really glad you’re staying too. He damn hated this job.