escort | njm

three.

When Jaemin doesn't have a clue what to do, in the next step of his life, he stress-eats. Most often, Areum would go through to the torture of witnessing him eat while she contemplated on joining him or keeping to her diet. And that one session literally has no body mass effect on him considering his rather high metabolism, he'll burn the calories off with just a series of episodes over him losing his mind over money.

That is precisely why she is sitting in the second-best dining hall on campus eating a pretty measly salad and french fries, while Jaemin returns from the serve-yourself cafeteria with his eighth plate of food. Next to Areum is their mutual friend Eun Yi, a filthy rich international student from America who is probably the kindest international student she has ever met.

"I've called every cafe, bubble tea shop, clothing store, and paid internship or anything else possible within a five-mile radius of this place and nothing at all." Jaemin complains with a sigh, keeping Eun Yi updated with his job-search antics. It's been several days since he was fired, and while being keenly cognizant of her bank account isn't necessarily a bad thing, when it means that Jaemin refuses to leave campus because he is in hyper-saving mode, it sort of rustles Areum's jimmies.

"Have you tried babysitting, or a part-time job at the café to sing or play the guitar?" Eun Yi supplies helpfully, Areum laughs aloud at the mere thought of him stuck in some middle-aged parent's house with their toddler for hours on a night where he could be living it up on campus. "Please he's Na Jaemin with the lowest anger tolerance and lack of energy."

"Wow, what the hell is wrong with me being a babysitter? Besides, what does my anger management have to do with this? " He questions, offended, furrowing his eyebrows. "First of all, you don't even let me beat you in Valorant 1v1 whenever you come over and I am your bestest of the best-friend, and you dare speak of yourself being uncompetitive." Areum pauses for a moment, ready to ramble out all the other reasons he would do a bad job at being a babysitter.

"Besides If you ended up gaming with a four-year-old boy, the 'uncompetitive' ass you speak of would take over you and you'd crush the poor kid and his spirit. Asides, would you have the energy to play hide-and-seek with the toddler? Also I bet a hundred bucks you'd lose your tantrums over a baby crying." She reminded him pointedly, his jaws clenched together, he was already losing his shit even before he became a babysitter. "Are you done?"

"In fact, I am not done. Let's mention how you can cook for sake but that's at the risk of you burning the kitchen down." Jaemin pouts, knowing the fact that every word she said was nothing but the truth. "It's not like you were even going to look into babysitting, I was just trying to tease you." She says with a shove, nudging his shoulder with her own.

He sighs, and despite all of the shit she gave him on a daily basis, which was her responsibility to being his best-friend, she does genuinely feel bad for him. Even if his job at the call center wasn't the most intellectually stimulating nor morally rewarding, he didn't absolutely hate it and he made a pretty decent earning off of it, or it's the place which caused his poor anger management issues with the elitist's presence.

He unzips his backpack and fumbles for his laptop, opening it up to reveal a Google Chrome window with approximately twenty-nine tabs open of places to work on and around campus, or job searching websites. Meanwhile, Eun Yi's phone buzzes on the table, and she heaves out a great, exasperated exhale before picking up and immediately launching off into incredibly speedy English which no one could utterly understand a single word besides hello.

"If only the bubble tea place was hiring," Areum lamented, kissing goodbye to all of the free bubble tea she had been dreaming about if Jemin got hired, even the free or discounted price of bubble tea. "Thank god they aren't hiring, or I would have to see you everyday begging for free bubble tea with those weird puppy eyes of yours."

"What do you mean, you already see me everyday!" She probably should have backed down before he burst into an active volcano, but it's not like Jaemin doesn't know that already. He's the one always barging into her apartment or sitting down next to her in the library when she's trying to study in peace without his presence annoying the hell out of her.

"But maybe you should try drinking less bubble tea, otherwise you're gonna blow up like a tapioca pearl like that one girl from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. What was her name again? Nevermind doesn't matter, you should just cut down on it or even worse you'd become an Oompa Loompa." He warns, pinching her cheeks and stretching it a little as if to make her face round like a tapioca bubble.

"I would rather be a tapioca pearl than being stuck in this torturous place or in other words I would call it Hell." She states simply, she'd rather be eaten and recarnish as a tapioca pearl than being a student. "If you were a tapioca pearl, I'd savour you!" Jaemin exclaims, and she, out of the security of both her head and her heart, chooses not to think too much into it.

As he teases Areum about her slight obsession with bubble tea, perhaps not slight obsession anymore, Eun Yi finally puts the phone down after what very well was several minutes of angry speaking of English and exasperated sighs. She lets out this deep, long sigh, like all of the pent-up rage within her is exiting through her exhale after that one phone call. "You alright there, Eun?" Areum questioned her, a little concerned. Even after knowing her since the beginning of Areum's freshman year, she's never once seen her get mad, though she looks pretty close to it now.

"With all honesty, absolutely not." She replies, infuriated. "My dad is having this stupid company ball here and she really-really-really wants me to attend." It is obvious that Eun Yi does not, in fact, want to attend, being that introverted yet extroverted her. Areum has seen Eun Yi almost nearly every day for over a year, and she has never even seen her wear a dress, she was more of the baggy hoodies and jeans. Areum couldn't imagine her joy at having to dress up in a ballgown.

"But fancy free food, they must be yummy." She pointed out, slight drool forming at the tip of her lips. Even if she does have to be trapped in a penthouse ballroom with her parents' stuffy business friends, the catering company will probably be god-tier.

Eun Yi pretty much bangs her head on the dining hall table repeatedly while letting out the nth time of her sighs. "Wow, I didn't know someone could hate catered food so much, I thought they would taste great." She says, a little un-alarmed at what was going on. "It's not that. The food tastes good but it's something else." Eun Yi replies, rubbing her forehead, with a red mark already forming on it. The salad on the plate in front of her has remained untouched for nearly ten minutes now. Areum wonders if she's even hungry anymore.

"My parents wants me to bring a plus-one, and I have no one."

"I'll go with you."