Chapter Text
“Noona!”
Woo Youngwoo startles from the loud cadence, flinching hard enough that the back of her head knocks against the brick wall she was leaning against. A reflex born from years upon years of learned behavior spurred Youngwoo into using the palms of her hands to protectively shield her ears from the noise.
With her eyes tightly squeezed together it takes a few muffled shouts for the voice to register. “Noona!” Sanghyeon calls out again, loud enough that it makes Youngwoo flutter her lashes and blink at his form. The majority of tension in her limbs starts to ebb and flow away as she drops her hands back to her side, anxiously fiddling with the hem of the ridiculous dress she was stuffed into.
It was just Sanghyeon. No one else, not Tae Sumi, not the dating coach that criticized every facet of her personality, and definitely not her blind date who nearly sent her into sensory overload from the amount of cologne he had on.
It was just Sanghyeon. Youngwoo’s namdongsaeng.
Sanghyeon took his time approaching to allow Youngwoo ample time to calm down. He mirrors her stance against the wall a few paces away as he too starts to pull at the taut string of the blazer he was forced to wear—out of all the things that occurred at this impromptu ‘family’ dinner slash ‘date’, it was the fact that Tae Sumi decided Sanghyeon should be just as meticulously dressed that Youngwoo couldn’t quite understand.
What was the point of dressing up Sanghyeon? Afterwards, was Tae Sumi planning on dragging Sangeyon to his own blind date? Or was she simply trying to…make up for Youngwoo’s defaults by showing off that their family was well endowed?
“I’m sorry…” Sanghyeon says, apologizing for something he had no fault in, “…about all of that.”
Sanghyeon was a innocent bystander but the words were nice nevertheless. It made something inside of her soften; and something inside her heart tightened as she took a glance at Sanghyeon downcasted eyes and the minuscule frown slowly morphing his features.
Youngwoo wished she was better at comforting people. What could she say or do to erase the guilt on his face?
Silence pervaded the air as the two of them fumbled for a conversation starter. The two of them might not share the same eyes or nose or chin but their personality is more similar than Tae Sumi likes to acknowledge. It was not unusual for the majority of the time they spent together to mostly be full of awkward pauses and rambling about each other’s respectively interests, but when it comes to something like this, the strife that always happens when the two half-siblings and the woman who gave birth to them got together, there were far more lapses in conversation.
“Do you know that male whales spend more time with their mother?” Is what Youngwoo finally decides to say, just as that frown on Sanghyeon’s lips start to flatten themselves out. He makes a noncommittal sound to urge her to continue.
“Unlike female whales, they spend around two-thirds of their time with their mothers before going off to form a new pod of their own.” Youngwoo was not entirely sure where she was going with this. “Female whales go off to create a pod of their own way sooner than males. The cycle repeats over and over as different whales start to birth new generations.”
“Male whales…they stick around longer? Why?”
“Males tend to die sooner because they are used to their mothers sharing and supplying food.”
Sanghyeon pushes his back further against the wall, eyes lifting up a fraction to stare at a glob of gum that was stuck on the wall close to where Youngwoo’s shoulder rested against the wall. “Are you trying to say I should stick with eomeoni because she shares her food? But why can’t she share her food with you, too? Why do you have to..” he trails off but the words are right at the precipice of the cliff they were teetering on. Why do you have to leave to a different family when we just became one?
The filter that Youngwoo uses seems to have a permanent off-switch but that bluntness is dimmed when she’s faced with Sanghyeon right next to her. She’s torn between letting it slip out, finally saying what both of them know in their hearts to be true, that Tae Sumi has never been a mother to Youngwoo, not in the same way she was a mother to Sanghyeon. Even if she did abandon Youngwoo and only show up in her life nearly two decades later, not because she craved a relationship but because she was worried Sanghyeon would lose out on an opportunity, so she figured she should keep the so called ‘enemy’ as close as possible.
It doesn’t hurt as bad as a harpoon to the chest but Youngwoo does ache. She aches, deep in her heart, always remembering the story of mother whales never being able to fully abandon their children.
If I were a whale, would Tae Sumi still abandon me? Besides the ache that sometimes hits her full force when Tae Sumi fusses over Sanghyeon like mothers are supposed to do, Youngwoo doesn’t feel any hatred or anger toward the woman who gave her up. It’s hard to say what Youngwoo would do in a situation like that; would she stay by her child and protect them from hunters, allowing them to capture her just for a slight chance that her child would be able to escape, or would she swim away without a trace?
“Noona… ” The term still sounds weird coming out of Youngwoo’s mouth, although it shouldn’t, “noona is saying that you have a mother whale willing to let you stay in the pod. I have to go out and find my own.”
“But do you have to date that guy inside? He’s ten years your senior,” Sanghyeon says, “and he stinks.” He adds on. Both of those statements were true.
“Aniyo.” Youngwoo’s words were swift and certain. “I will not be dating him.”
“Then who?” He asks. Who will you date?
That’s a good question; one that Woo Youngwoo has no clue how to answer.
Finding someone to date shouldn’t be too hard, it never was, even if she rarely felt any affection. It was always harder trying to get them to stay around. Her first and only boyfriend was clear proof of that. She didn’t need more variables to prove that theory.
Maybe if… maybe if she improved in one area everything else will all fall into place too?
Staring down at the paper she had printed out earlier that evening before she left the house, Youngwoo squints at the slightly smudged ink.
Maybe stuffing it into her pocket as soon as it popped out from the printer was a bad idea. It was semi-legible, but even if the words were unrecognizable she would have known what it said anyways. It had less to do with her immaculate memory and more to do with the fact that she read the email over and over until every single period mark and letter was permanently imprinted inside her mind.
The folded up piece of paper felt as if it weighed a ton.
She was doing this. She was really doing this. Woo Youngwoo: self-proclaimed law abiding citizen hired a supposedly high quality escort for the evening. Admittedly, she would have never thought of it herself, but that’s why having Guerami as a best friend was a good idea. She always gave excellent advice (even if Suyeon, Min-shik, and the general public would agree otherwise).
In the empty hotel hallway, underneath the fluorescent lights hanging from above, Youngwoo looks down at her attire and wonders if maybe she should have worn something more daring than the beige blazer and matching skirt set she had on now.
All the pictures on the company website showed scantily clad individuals embracing. When she scoured the internet in search of a guide on societal etiquette for this particular situation, she read that the less clothes were for the better but ultimately it didn’t matter what you had on.
The clothes would not stay on long, anyways.
Youngwoo shifts from one foot to the other on the pristine paper welcome mat.
The original plan was to grab dinner at the hotel bar downstairs and then come back to the room but Youngwoo had to stay late and finish up a last minute assignment at her internship.
He had sent her an email, the one that she had in one hand now, and told her to just come up to the room. He had asked her what she wanted to eat and although she knew the menu at the bar did not have gimbap (she checked last night) Youngwoo still sent that as her reply.
Minutes ticked by as she debated on whether this was a good idea. It wasn’t a great one, according to Suyeon, but it was not a horrendous one either. Right?
Youngwoo folded the paper once and then twice until it was in a neat little square. She smooths the creases down with her finger as her heart continues to jackhammer in her chest.
She knocks. She waits. Tugging at her collar of her blazer, she knocks again, wondering if the man on the other side couldn’t hear it.
But loud footsteps and the sound of something rustling inside the room makes the base of her spine tingle as she stands up a little straighter, waiting in bated breath for the door to open.
And when it does swing up to reveal who on the other side of the door, Youngwoo mouth falls open just so, throat suddenly dry and her eyes widen bigger than she did the first time she first saw dolphins jumping in and out of the ocean at Jeju-do.
Social etiquette was sitting there right there on her shoulder, urging her say something, anything, but the lessons she underwent as a child never quite covered ‘what one should say to an stranger they hired to have sex with.’ What would or would not be appropriate in a moment like this?
But she doesn’t have to think too hard about it because the strange man decides to take the initiative instead. His strong cheekbones are pulled taught as he flashes a pearly-white smile that was not perfectly straight but still had Youngwoo’s heart doing weird, mysterious things inside her chest.
She briefly remembers Suyeon drunkenly rambling that there’s nothing sexier than a man leaning against a doorframe with their arms crossed on night at Harry’s Pub. Youngwoo always thought the alcohol clouded her impairment because she has seen plenty of men take that stance and it never was remotely attractive.
But. Suddenly it was.
It was very, extraordinarily, attractive.
This man was nothing and everything like the picture she saw on the website. The quality of the picture was grainy, hindering his features, clearly obscuring his true appearance.
His short brown hair was mussed up like he spent the last few hours carding his fingers through it and then smoothing it down. She doesn’t lock gazes with him head on but her eyes do momentarily flicker to the tiny little crease in between his eyebrows as he watches her stand there frozen. Just the little glimpse of her eyes immediately alerts Youngwoo that when he smiles wide his eyes curve into near crescents. They look soft and round and welcoming and not at all oppressive.
In all the years Youngwoo has been alive she never thought to pay attention to another’s lips but considering they were to be on hers shortly, she unabashedly stole a glance.
Needles prickled at the base of her spine when she realized that they were pink and full and…possibly skilled? They had to be. There was a reason he was one of the highest paying escorts in town. Even Geurami had noted that for someone to be that good they had to use more than just what’s inside their pants and underwear.
“Woo Youngwoo?” The escort’s voice has this slightly husky tembre to it but it’s not overly grating. When he clears his throat and speaks again, it’s less husky, but it’s going to take a lot to make Youngwoo forget the sound of his voice. “Flipped or straight, right?”
He sends another grin in her direction and she has no choice but to subconsciously take a step back; not in fear but in surprise. He was…pretty. Maybe that was not the best descriptor to use but it was the only word that her brain would supply as he stood there smiling at her.
The smile falters when she takes a step back and, to make her feel at ease, he stands up straighter and moves back, holding the edge of the door with one hand instead. “I’m…” he pauses as the crease between his eyebrows deepen, “…Lee Junho. It’s not flipped or straight, though.”
Youngwoo’s own eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. Junho? That was not his name he provided on his advertisement. Was this his real name or just another alias he goes by? Youngwoo did not have any right to question him about it though; bowing in his direction, she greets him. “ Hello. Even though your name is not read straight or flipped, it is still a nice name.”
When she comes back up from her bow he’s smiling again. It was so infectious that her lips stretched into a smile too. “Kayak. Deed. Rotator. Noon. Racecar. Woo Youngwoo. All of these words can be read flipped or straight. Lee Junho cannot.”
“It’s a shame.” Her eyes flicker to the hand holding the door. His fingers looked long. Were they skilled? More than her own? “It would be nice to match with you, Youngwoo.”
Youngwoo hums to herself. It would be nice if more people’s names could also be read flipped or straight.
“Would you like to come in?” Junho asks as she stands there pondering over flipped-or-straight names.
Youngwoo knows that if she wants to back out now would be the perfect time. She had every right to call things off when they were inside the hotel room but she did not want to waste anyone’s time tonight.
a few days ago…
Woo Youngwoo blinks against the harsh light of her computer screen. The abrasive slamming of the tree branches against the window mixes in with melodious whooshing on waves that flowed from the sound machine on the bedside table.
The best Premium and Elite Escort Service in Seoul, the webpage reads, Call now!
This was the fourth website that had made such a bold claim. Youngwoo had deduced that nearly all of these claims were untrue because not every escort service could be the #1 in Seoul but she supposed at least one of these companies truly was the best of the best.
Youngwoo continued to scroll down the webpage as her eyes bounced from one personal statement to the next. It was always the same thing; always the same vulgar innuendo about the sexual prowess and stamina of the individuals who work there. How was she supposed to differentiate and determine who would be the best fit for this job?
Should she pick based on aesthetics? No…physical appearance was something she only acknowledged in passing, she lacked the general ability to take one look at someone and determine if they were a good or bad person, especially when it comes to dating. If all of their testimonies nearly said the same thing with just a variation of different prose, how was she supposed to find a solution to this problem?
But her plan of not picking off of appearance goes out the door when she continues to scroll down the page, only pausing when her eyes lock onto the image and brief description listed below said image.
Lee Jinwoo. 24.
Okay.
Woo Youngwoo decides, just like that, immediately scrolling back up to the top of the page in search of a way to contact this Lee Jinwoo.