escort | njm

eighteen.

"What the fuck, I'm extra virgin olive oil what is this doing here." Areum snatches the silverish box out of her friend's hand, hiding it behind her back defensively with an awkward smile curved upon her lips. "Oh, so you and Jaemin, did that you know?" Eun's teasing her with the raising of both eyebrows and a sly smile imprinted all over on her face.

"We didn't, he probably kept it here for, I don't know man just go ask him." A sigh left Areum's lips, casting the box aside somewhere on her bed where she continued shuffling through the hangers with Eun beside her. "Ah, I found it, a dress!" Eun grabs the dress hanging from her closet, displaying it out to Areum. "Go try it on, I wonder if you can still fit in it considering how tall you've gotten..." She pushes Areum into the bathroom, slamming the door shut on her face before Areum got the chance to even utter a word.

It hasn't even been a minute where Areum steps out of the bathroom, already struggling to walk with her two bare feet, it's clear she hasn't worn heels nor has she worn dresses in a good while. It's a floor length Alaïa's velvet midnight blue, almost black, gown, the seams of which hug her body and curves in all the right places. It's a slightly off-the-shoulder dress, with a heart-shaped scoop neckline and a slit on one side of the dress that runs far up the smooth expanse of her leg to end mid-thigh.

That's the dress Areum picked when she brought Jaemin out on a shopping spree from a year or two years back and that was the only gown which managed to garner such reaction from him. It's one where he forgets his words momentarily, gazing at Areum as if she was made of pure gold, because, holy shit, he's never seen anything so beautiful before. It's one where he can't speak whilst Areum models the dress for him, twirling around and around in front of the mirrors to admire her own figure, because he doesn't want to miss a single thing about just how gorgeous she looked in it.

"Did you like, perhaps, rob a bank to get this?" Eun's jaw dropped to the ground, clicking the inner of her mouth with her tongue, the gown was a good two to three thousand United States dollar, which is an estimate of about three hundred thousand korean won, it's quite a lot for a university student like her. "No, it isn't even that expensive...?" Areum states as if it doesn't affect her at all with Eun roaming her hands all over her body, admiring the perfect curves of Areum's. "It isn't expensive? Sweetheart it's a good few hundred thousand won, are you secretly a daughter of some successful business man... Even I do not have any piece of Alaïa clothing sitting to collect dusts." She shakes her head side to side, responding to Eun's question before collapsing on the bed with her eyes shut, ready to fall asleep any moment. "I do not want to go..."

A good afternoon later finds Areum one makeup and hair session later, standing in the lobby of a magnificent skyscraper wearing a dress which probably costs more than half her school fees. Asides the fact that her curves were hug perfectly fine, it's the hem of her dress bothering her, the gown felt way small as thought it shrinked in size, or she just grew taller. "I'm a complete nobody here, let me go from this hellhole." Areum hissed as Eun bats her eyelashes and gets directed to the private elevator that will lead them both to the top floor. "A jobless, nerdy and somehow rich nobody. At least you're honest with your status and actually not clueless about yourself, good job!"

"Fuck you with much love Eun." She murmurs back as they step foot into the elevator. Despite being nearly an hour late, with reasonable explanations of dressing up fashionably and dolling up. Areum's currently crowded into the back corner, several other couples stepping inside to join her, all of them wearing clothes that cost more than what she'll ever have. When the elevator doors open, Areum and her  are the last group to step out, milling about in the corner until the path is free. When she tears her eyes away from Eun-Yi and gazes at the settings, the buffet delicacy she has presented right before her eyes, Areum finally understands. Understood why Jaemin would never turn down any offer whenever the screen of his phone is lit with a new message

In movies, rich people flaunt their wealth so extravagantly that it almost looks fake. From high hanging chandeliers to ice sculptures, entire orchestras and dresses worth thousands of dollars, it makes anyone wonder if rich people really do see those items as necessities when throwing a party. To Areum, it looks contrived, unrealistic. Even if rich people have enough money to sustain the bottom ninety-nine percent of the future upcoming years, her question has never been answered. Why would they spend such an amount of money on such worthless stuff? All just for decoration or the reputation, or did they truly admire it?

At this gala, the hosts have spared no budgets on expenditure. The entire apartment, or she would rather call it a penthouse, is made purely of glass, from the ceiling, to the floor, to the walls in between, giving others an absolutely breathtaking view of the city lights hundreds of feet below them from the sixtieth level. It felt as if she's trapped in a floating bubble, the world frozen around her but it continued sparkling and twinkling and shimmering around her. Areum didn't even know a place like this existed on Earth, the price to book it must be astronomical, it felt like heaven up here, heaven on Earth. The view, even more so, and she's glad she at least showed up to this even today.

"Holy fuck, is that —? No way it isn't right?"