escort | njm

twenty-three.

"Then explain why you were with Jaeyun earlier, are you keeping something from me, or any of us?"

There was silence from the other side of her apartment, where she stood awkwardly in the enclosed area by the counters in her kitchen, she now felt as if it was suffocating her. "I wasn't." Areum lied through her gritted teeth, with a few deep breaths taken in, her figure so close to shivering right on the spot from the tension and fury in his pupils displayed from the couch. "Really? I don't really like liars, Areum, and you, yourself, know it too well." He throws a shot, way too sharp at her, taking every ounce of breath away from the teenager who was already struggling.

"Yeah, why would I be lying? It doesn't matter who I'm with anyways." She has no idea where the bits of confidence she had to let such a harsh sentence leave her lips, letting out a gasp and palm running to cover her mouth when she realised what she said. "Doesn't matter? Of course it matters, you're my best-friend and your safety is mine to be concern of." Jaemin sits up from the couch, head peeking over the cushion to catch a glimpse at her. Areum watches his movements, his hands lurking in his pocket of the navy blazer. "Would you perhaps mind explaining this?"

His phone in his grasp, a finger pointing at the screen he's stopped at. A close friend's story on instagram with a face too familiar to her, Areum's eyes squinting to catch a sight of the username, @simjaeyun. "Give me that." Her feet made their way towards the couch, snatching the phone right off his hold, staring right at the picture of her and Jaeyun in the park earlier. "What the, when did he even take this?" She questions herself aloud, leaving a confused yet amused Jaemin by the side, maybe he was slightly mad at her for lying.

"Tsk, and you said you weren't with him, what a lie." He lets out a scoff, giving back the phone to who it actually belongs to. "I was with him for a short while, nothing more." Areum shrugs her shoulders, taking a sip out of the mug of green tea she made earlier when she reached home. "Are you sure you weren't, you know, sleeping over with him?" Jaemin questions as if she was his to begin with, as if she was his object to possess, and that's all she hoped for, but it's just a mere concern for a best-friend.

"Does it really matter?" She challenges in a way, but she never wanted it to sound rude, after all she's that one girl with her heart made of pure gold, mainly willing to give up anything for anyone's happiness. "Of course it matters, you're mine to begin with." His to begin with? Hilarious. She bits at the bottom of her lips, the last bits of skin torn apart from the part of her, Jaemin's bambi eyes travelling to meet at the sight of her, rather fucked up lips. "Yours to begin with? We're just best-friends Jae, what has gotten into you?"

"I just don't like the thought of you being with someone else, a male specifically." He makes himself clear, but at the same time thoughts rang in his head, who was he to restrict her when her parents didn't even give two fucks and any restrictions to her. Jaemin just thinks it's for the better and safety of her, or it's just his way to keep her safe with him, and all to himself only, he's being selfish and he knows. "What, this doesn't make sense at all, I have the flexibility of making friends, why am I being restricted to females only?"

Areum lets out a huge scoff, arms over her chest, staring right at him with enlarged pupils, they say one's pupils dilate at the thought of their loved one, but hers, it's dilating through love and anger she has for him. It's pure nonsensical, what was he thinking? "Jaemin, if you think that your position as my best-friend and one of my favourite human beings in the world gives you the right to restrict me, I strongly suggest that you get yourself out of here."

"No, I apologise, I don't know what got to me. I just hated the sight of seeing you with someone else who's a male and none other than me. I just, I don't know, care for you a lot, I don't want things happening to you?" She could tell he's trying to contain the anger in him, refusing to let it unleash. "Appreciate the thought Jae, I know exactly who are the bad and good guys as you label them. Are you staying over for the night?" Areum takes one last sip of green tea before placing the mug in her sink.

"If you want me to." Jaemin practically flops back onto the dinky couch, his arms covering his eyes, all ready to fall asleep already. "This place, it always welcomes you. The guest bedroom or the usual?" And the usual refers to them being in her bedroom with the legs entangled with each other and she's in his embrace with her face tucked in the crook of his neck, taking in the scent she has missed since forever. "The usual, unless you want me in the guest room."

"Never." It was just a one word reply, but it held so much potential, so much meaning to it. Potentially indirectly confessing in a way, but that will never get to his atom sized brain of his, with his quite a failed love life, being as dense as one could ever be. It's just a word, but it could bring out such desperation in her, showing how much she missed him, how much she wanted him in a good way, how much she has longed for him to sleepover just like the good old days when he wasn't busy on a nightly basis.

"Want a loaf of bread? Nutella spread, of course." She held up the loaf of bread on her palm, bringing it up to his vision, it's like they're already making breakfasts and skipping the sleeping part. "Thanks." He makes his way towards her, taking a bite off the bread with her still holding on to it. "You know, even if this shit is cheap as fuck, it's still way better than those dishes out there." Jaemin states with bits of crumbs leaving through a small opening of his mouth as he munches on it. Areum turns to him, skeptical, even the single night she spent with Eun-Yi, in a penthouse amongst the stars, drinking champagne and eating dishes of food way out of her league and she can ever afford, was more than she could ever dream of. It was addicting. How could Jaemin ever prefer what he has right now to what he had last night?

"Really? Don't say that just to make me feel better." Areum chuckles at him. Jaemin has every right and reason to prefer the fancy meals, the penthouses, the suits and ties compared to her janky little apartment and old clothes from high school. The two aren't at all on the same level, neither are they even in the same game. If Areum was given a choice to drop everything to have what Eun-Yi has, what the other girls who pay for his company have, she would, without any thoughts as long as she's able to 'buy' Jaemin as accompaniance.

"I'm not lying, why would I lie when I hate liars myself, that's equivalent to hating myself." He tells you seriously. "I mean it with my heart that I would rather sit in your room, hunched over your small petite figure because you're an idiot and don't know how games function, teaching you and playing VALORANT than being out there, pretending to be someone I'm not." He rambles, it's as if it's all a dread for him to attend work when it's just relaxing and having fun, just what she wanted to experience. "But it was fun in the beginning, wasn't it? Getting to be rich without the moral ambiguity that comes along with being part of the upper class?"

It must have been, Jaemin looked so happy when he first started doing these gigs, coming back to her apartment in a state of bliss, a little tipsy from the expensive champagne and steak, a smile so happy on his instagram feed where he took a picture at every other gig. He'd knock on her door and ramble to her all about the night, from how older businessmen handed him their business cards and offered him jobs with a high pay, to the hundreds of parties he has attended and she could only dream of. Everything seemed so wonderful to him, all at the start.

He shrugs, pouring himself a cup of icy cool water to quench his thirst. "Yeah, I guess, but it gets so old and boring after a while. Like, no wonder Eun was so desperate for me to go with her that first time. It sucks the damn life and energy out of you. You walk around and mingle and pretend that you're the greatest person on Earth, talking about yourself and kissing up to the other people for an entire night. Honestly, sometimes it's worse than written homework and lectures itself, you know how much I detest those." There's only a soft giggle leaving Areum's lips knowing she'd never once understand the pain and energy draining event he has gone through.

Another thick blanket of awkward silence engulfs the apartment again, and that's exactly why Areum understood how some disliked silence. The ring from her phone was the only thing breaking the silence when the screen of her phone lit up with a notification, more like countless messages from Jaeyun. "Why is he texting you?" Jaemin questions, a side of an eyebrow raised just as he caught a glimpse of the contact name before she could snatch it out of his sight. "No idea."

"Does he like you, or are you dating him behind my back?"