"hello?"
4. They're on a game show!
sally’s is dead—something severely short of being surprising considering the fact it’s another soaked, dreary tuesday night; what is surprising is the fact that there’s three hours until the end of jinri’s shift and she already finds herself a wee bit drunk. if anyone were to ask, she’d weakly argue that her slight lack of sobriety is totally valid—she’s playing a skewed hybrid of ‘who wants to be a millionaire?’ and ‘jeopardy,’ with her coworkers, where there’s no money to be offered, just punishment shots at incorrect answers; and unfortunately, she seems to be taking a majority of the shots, her fellow servers finding amusement in sabotaging the group’s maknae by asking questions like ‘what genus was rediscovered in 1994 by david noble?’(to which she sputters, “what does that even mean? none of you know what it means,” and is thusly made to take two punishment shots).
eventually, she’s had it, digging for phone the moment sunhee gets to pass with the simple question of ‘where is the eiffel tower?’, declaring, “i’m using a lifeline!” their bewildered expressions draw a giggle from the girl, and stumbling fingers tap out what should’ve been a familiar number—but is actually a misdial—tapping for speakerphone mode and then shoving the phone in the face of the current question master (a very bemused lee shinjoon), who reads the next question, voice heavy with drunken mirth:
“what comes after ‘a, b, c?’”
the closest one can get to describing choi jinri’s face at that moment is by describing it as an encapsulation of caesar’s iconic, last words, “et tu brute?”; a portrait of total, unexpected betrayal.
the room booms with laughter.