Halfway through their drinks, Gin abruptly stood and headed toward the restroom.
Watching him go, Vodka stole a glance at Hayato Masaki, tempted to follow but too awkward to do so.
The two sat quietly at the bar.
Under dim yellow lights, the bartender silently polished glasses. Hayato scanned the dazzling liquor cabinet with a smile, while Vodka, having finished his drink, still studied his empty glass.
What a glass-like glass, he thought.
"Vodka-san," Hayato said.
"Yeah?"
Vodka responded instantly, startling Hayato.
Realizing he'd overreacted, Vodka cleared his throat. "What's up?"
"Any drinks you'd recommend?"
"Drinks?"
Just about drinks? "I usually go for a Vodka Martini," Vodka answered.
"Using your codename's liquor?"
"Most folks in the Organization stick to drinks tied to their codenames."
Vodka explained, seizing the moment to order another from the bartender.
Hayato nodded.
The Organization's members took their codenames seriously. Drinking their namesake cocktails enough times made them grow fond of them.
The bartender soon slid a Vodka Martini to Vodka.
He took the glass.
Hayato noticed Vodka's gaze, hidden behind sunglasses, stayed fixed on his drink, never straying—especially not toward him.
Truth was, Vodka was a bit spooked by him.
Hayato—no, Cointreau—was too eerie.
His killing methods were unheard of.
His targets moved like puppets in his script, oblivious to how they died or who marked them.
Gin once said his observation skills were almost inhuman, especially how he used that college kid who crossed him. Maybe he could even manipulate people's minds to a degree.
The kicker? His heart was probably pitch-black.
Vodka agreed with Gin's take. Cointreau's constant smile might just mask a deeply twisted mind.
But he'd never dare say that out loud.
Think about it! That college kid just slightly ticked him off and got framed as a killer. Vodka didn't want to be cruising happily one day only for his steering to "fail," sending him headfirst into a steel pipe…
The thought made even a hardened killer like Vodka shiver.
"Vodka-san."
"…Just call me Vodka."
He wanted to stay quiet, not give Hayato too much to read, but he also feared Hayato might be petty.
"Why do you call Aniki just 'Gin' but add 'san' for me?"
"Gin's the type who doesn't care about honorifics, so I skip them."
So you think I care? Vodka wondered if Hayato was stirring trouble between him and Gin, since he got the honorific and Gin didn't.
"What's your real name, Vodka?"
"…Why ask?"
"I collect names," Hayato said, holding a notebook and pen, smiling. "A name's the first step to knowing someone. People introduce themselves with names, and you already know I'm Hayato Masaki."
"…"
"If it's sensitive, no worries."
"It's not that. Hand me the notebook and pen."
Vodka took them from Hayato.
As he wrote, he smirked inwardly. Cointreau thinks I haven't seen his Beika TV segment? Everyone knows he's fishing for side character names for his book.
He finished and handed it back.
Hayato glanced down.
Uozuka Saburo
His handwriting was surprisingly neat.
Hayato felt a spark of joy just seeing it and grinned. "Really, such an interesting name."
He'd expected it, but getting it so smoothly was delightful.
"What's interesting about a name?"
Vodka sipped his drink.
"I'm curious, though—if I used it as inspiration for a character, what names would you pick?"
"You saw my TV segment?" Hayato paused, thinking for two seconds. "Maybe Uozuka Dairo, Uozuka Jiro… something like that. Or how about Uozuka Kojiro?"
"…"
Vodka's jaw dropped.
Was Cointreau's brain so sharp it short-circuited when naming characters?
They fell silent.
Hayato passed the notebook and pen to the bartender, who wrote their name. He then asked for a drink recommendation.
The bartender suggested a Cosmopolitan.
Two parts vodka, one part Cointreau, one-and-a-half parts cranberry juice, and one part lime juice—shaken with ice in a cocktail shaker, then strained.
The result was a lovely peach-pink.
Hayato tried it. Not bad, with a sweet-tart fruitiness, though maybe more suited for women.
Vodka was on his phone.
Hayato noticed Gin had returned from the restroom but was now in a booth, smoking and on a call, likely discussing something important away from them.
It was past 11 p.m.
Workaholic's got it rough.
As Hayato finished his drink, ready to call it a night, he caught Vodka's expression shift subtly while staring at his phone.
Vodka noticed Hayato's gaze and quickly straightened up.
But then, out of nowhere, he asked, "Ahem… Cointreau, you ever been with a woman?"
"Hm?" Hayato wasn't sure he'd heard right.
"Like, I'm thinking of hitting a hostess club to unwind later. Wanna come?"
"??"
Hayato's smile faltered, his eyes widening at Vodka.
After a beat—
"Sorry, not my thing."
"…Fair enough."
Vodka wasn't surprised, sipping his drink quietly.
Inviting Cointreau was a spur-of-the-moment idea. He'd heard office workers bonded over hostess clubs after work—seemed like a way to get closer.
Too bad.
***
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