Flaming Glow (Sang Woo x Fem!OC)

Chapter 1

"Come on, come on, come on," she murmured under her breath. Beside her, Seong Gi-Hun was screaming, begging his horses to come in first. She looked down at her sheet, the dark circles beside the names of the two worst horses.

This wasn't the first time Y/N had gambled on the underdog and thus, she knew it was likely they wouldn't win. She'd put everything she had on the horses with the heaviest jockeys, the shortest legs, and smallest strides. Gi-Hun had arched a brow when she showed him her card. "Why would you waste your money on them?" he'd asked and it was possibly the most sensible thing she'd ever heard cross Gi-Hun's lips.

She did it for a foolish reason. It all seemed like a blur now, what happened a couple of weeks ago. A handsome man at the metro station, a game, a slap across the face that forced rage and pride through her bloodstream. A card, a phone number, a strange voice on the end of the line who wasn't shocked by her name or birthdate or that she would ever agree to such a thing.

The date was coming up. Competition, money, or so she assumed. And Y/N needed it because she understood why the man approached her in the subway. A foreign education, loans managed poorly, a degree that was now utterly meaningless. A temporary position that would lead nowhere, like so many others before it. Living under her mother's penetrating gaze and heavy disappointment.

So today was a gamble in more ways than one. Maybe she could back out if she called early enough, maybe she could prove to herself that she didn't need some rich man's money if she could get it on her own. But then, she'd filled in the bubbles for the underdog horses--the ones with nothing to their names. And when she woke up this morning, she swore to herself that this race would determine what she would do. If she won, she wouldn't go into the games. If she lost...

And she lost.

Gi-Hun yelled in triumph, punching the air. She looked at the screen almost in disbelief. Gi-Hun normally walked away from the tracks with no money left in his pockets. Y/N knew, deep down, she would lose and there was a dark part of her that clearly wanted to but Gi-Hun winning? He'd placed bets based on the date of his daughter's birthday, hoping some luck would be involved. She shrugged. She'd placed bets for worse reasons.

He clapped her on the shoulder and she was on edge enough to flinch. "Ah, come on, Y/N," he said. "We've all gambled on the wrong horse."

"True enough," she said, flipping the sheet through her fingers. She used to think she had a gift with the races. She could tell by looking at a horse or their jockey how they might run. Today, she blew it all because a handsome man had slapped across the face for losing a game. He'd slapped her only twice before she won and it wasn't through skill or luck that she did it. Her unbridled anger had flipped his card, cheeks flaming, teeth clenched. She remembered looking up at him and the way the corner of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. Like her rage was amusing. She almost slapped him in return.

"Want me to split some of the winnings with you?" Gi-Hun's voice pulled her from her thoughts and she shook her head. There was something in his tone that said how much he needed those won.

"No, go home and do something nice for your daughter. She's the reason you won, after all."

He grinned and Y/N was so charmed she forgot about the business card in her pocket and the number on the back. At least, Gi-Hun had no need to enter a competition for money. He got luckier today than he had in months.

She walked with him to stand in line and claim his winnings, feeling the burning hole in her wallet of money she blew on horses she knew couldn't race. How would she explain that to her mother? In a week, she supposed it wouldn't matter.

"In case I forget to tell you," she started tentatively, "I, uh, have a job interview in the States in a few days."

"What?" Gi-Hun asked. "That's amazing."

"Yeah, I'll be gone for at least a week. Maybe I'll get my windfall too," she said, nodding toward the cashier ahead of them. Gi-Hun grinned and for a second, she was sorry for lying. Of everyone she knew, Gi-Hun might be the only person who would understand. But it still felt like a secret, that card with the symbols, the handsome man illuminated by fluorescent lights in a metro station, his hand on her jaw. And would Gi-Hun understand that? The hunger, the pain, the drive?

Suddenly, lying to him seemed like the smartest decision she'd made all day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She walked home slowly, night already fallen. Her mother was thrilled about the possibility of a job interview, even in another country. Y/N felt the same pang of guilt she'd felt with Gi-Hun when she thought of the pride on her mother's face. It was rare enough that she coveted it, tried to remember her mother's expression on darker days when she felt useless. It wasn't so much that her mother ever conveyed true disappointment--Y/N just knew it was there. What could she say to her friends, whose children had great jobs and careers and little debt to speak of? What could she say to her family, who always expected something from Y/N that she clearly couldn't give?

Ahead of her, a man walked beneath a streetlamp, the dim light casting a golden glow on his shining hair, on the silhouette of his shoulders. He pushed his glasses up his nose and lit a cigarette.

Y/N knew him--the way that you know anyone who you regularly pass on the street. He was a friend of Gi-Hun's, supposedly. A friend she'd never met before. Her mother, on the evenings they walked together, always gestured at him, wearing his suit and smoking his cigarette. "Why can't you get a man like that?" her mother would ask and Y/N would sigh.

Because he's a businessman, she thought. Because he's doing something with his life and I'm a loser who can't even find a full time job. Because he's handsome and put together and I am a mess.

In reality, she always replied, "Because I can't stand the smell of cigarettes."

That made her mother laugh and shake her head. "One day, silly things like that won't matter to you."

Thinking about that card and the subway, Y/N agreed. After today, everything seemed silly. Cigarette smoke and racing horses and overwhelming debt. She couldn't back out now. She was going to play that game and her life was going to change. 

A/N: Thank you so much for reading this fic! As always, I own nothing except this OC. I just wanted to apologize upfront for any inaccuracies as I am not from South Korea. I hope you can be patient with me as I learn. Thanks again for reading!