escort | njm

seventeen.

She peels her eyes open to the steady patter of rain upon the window, droplets yet to scatter the nascent rays of rising sun. The sound brings a calmness to mind, a soothing melody, a natural lullaby. The song of the rain becomes a fusion, birds bringing sweet high notes. Her eyes glances at the already made bed beside her with a yellow sticky note sitting at the very top of the white covers.

"Good morning angel, you fell asleep on me yesterday which is why I carried you in. I hoped you had a good rest, you were sleeping so soundly and sweetly haha." Areum mutters under her breath and she reads it off the sticky note, with Jaemin's name right at the bottom right corner with a small 'love you' and a heart beside it. She grabs her phone off her night stand, finding ten notifications from the messages app and three of them were from Eun-Yi.

Imessage
11 November 2020, 03:29.

Eun😐⁉️:
Are you free tonight?

Wait doesn't matter, I'm coming over
later in the morning.

Alright, goodnight.

Imessage
11 November 2020, 08:53.

Areum:
Wait what?

I just woke up, why are
you coming over?

Anyways, no I'm not free tonight.

Eun😐⁉️:
Good morning.

No you're making yourself free
tonight, I don't care.

Get yourself ready, I'll be there in
like five minutes with breakfast.

Also rude of you, not even a
'good morning' to me?

Areum:
Yeah no.

Wait what? What's the special occasion?

You're treating me like royalty today, hm?
read, 08:55.

There's a sigh escaping her lips, one out of boredom and fatigue. The doorbell sound radiated with a cherry tune through the house but it felt like hell to hear such ringing in the morning. Areum thrusts her phone into the pockets of her grey sweats, groggily making her way towards the door. On the other side is Eun-Yi who has her favourite bagels in the brown paper bags and two cups of americano.

"Good morning to my lovely Areum, I've got you bagels and a cup of americano!" Eun-Yi barges through the door, kicking off her heels at the side. "And you're here so early for what?" Areum takes a bite off the bagel, chewing at it annoyed. "Well there's no special reason. I'm just here because I missed you...?" A smile crept upon Eun-Yi's face with the ends of her cherry lips lifted up.

Areum gazes at her with a quizzical look written all over her face, sticking her palm out against the woman's forehead. "You're not having a fever though, did you take the wrong medication or did you skip it?" Her eyebrows rose in confusion at the sudden act of her friend, it's not like she has ever been treated badly but this was something the normal Eun-Yi would never do unless she has a motive behind it. "I'm fine, Areum, come with me."

And with that, Areum's being dragged by her hand as she followed behind Eun-Yi like a lost puppy, still munching on her bagel. "Do you own any fancy apparels?" She's going through Areum's closet, while Areum stood behind the closet doors, still gobbling down the two bagels she has on her hand. "Mmm... I'm not sure, look for it yourself?" Areum's words are muffled as she grins in delight at the taste of the freshly baked bagel, a smile just as sweet as honey with her eyebrows furrowed at such an abrupt question.

"Well, I think I do have some dress suits." She tells the woman next to her who's currently fishing through her closet. "How about a dress? I'm sure you have that right?" Areum steps forward suspiciously, eyeing Eun as she rummages through the wooden box and acts like she isn't plotting something nefarious. "Don't you think you should at least tell me what you're up to before asking me if I have any appropriate clothing?"

"There's a gala tonight to celebrate some big and worthy business deal my dad closed and I want you to come with me." Eun explains as if it's a chore even to be talked about as a conversation subject. "Why me?" The ends of Areum's lips curved down, clearly not interested in that topic either. "Why not ask Jaemin..." Eun shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly, plopping herself down on Areum's bed. "He has some other plans with Min Rae or something and partially because I love you more."

"Oh right, that slipped my mind." Eun-Yi stretches her hands out to pinch at Areum's naturally rosy cheeks, stretching it a little. The topic clearly is not at the forefront of Eun's mind. "Besides, mom and dad didn't give me any date restrictions probably because they're in a good mood and that's why I'm bringing you along." Areum's cheeks are stuffed with the last portion of the bagel, eyes drooping at her words. "But I want to stay home and play Valorant..." She negotiates, hoping Eun would let her off the hook and find someone else.

"Not happening, you're not staying cooped up in your room. Today's a Friday and it's a very good reason for you to dress up and have fun. Please just accompany me this one time?" She pleads, eyes filled with hope, platonic stars in the charcoal pupils of hers. "It's going to be a huge and fun party, there's like a two hundred or more people attending it with their plus ones, you don't want to see me alone right? Asides that, you won't be the only person who doesn't know anything about business."

"Right, you totally convinced me to attend the gala with you." Areum deadpan, flopping on her bed. "When was the last time you even stepped out of the house on a Friday."Eun questions, staring at the closet blankly."Hm, not that long ago?" It's been half a year since she had left her house on a Friday considering it would mostly be a gaming night with Jaemin or duet night on a typical Friday but not so much after his almost daily escorting service. "Yeah, totally. Don't think I don't see your ass lazing on your couch in Jaemin's instagram story like almost every other Friday when he's here."

"That's. The last time he was here on a Friday was like more than three months ago." She fumbles on her words, knowing what Eun stated was true even if Jaemin was here or not, that's a routine for her already on a Friday when no one else there to entertain her boredom. "No excuses, you're coming with me to the gala and it's not like you don't spend your Friday's the same way when Jaemin is here." Eun stood up from her bed and once again digs through the closet.

"None of them screams fancy, wait, let's not talk about screaming when your clothes don't even talk." Eun complains as she shuffles through each cloth hung on its hanger. Areum backs up and lets her do her thing with the hangers squeaking as she shoves them along the rail.

"Why do you have a box of condoms in your closet and not a single dress...?"