The Escort

Draining Itaewon

"Nicole..."

"It'll be fun, you'll have fun, I promise!" Nicole wasn't even looking back as she dragged Y/N towards the middle of the bar, waving at the group of people they'd met up with at the beginning of the night. Nicole was having a great time as the extrovert she is and Y/N was just trying to quietly endure tonight.

This was not her scene. She hated clubs. She hated club-hopping. She hated the questions guys would ask as they put their hands on you, just wanting you to talk so you'd feel interested in and give them what they wanted.

It was all so fake. Such a game. A waste of energy.

She really wished she hadn't agreed to come.

Having deposited her at the table, Nicole set her sights on the man she had been making out with earlier and was soon lost on the dance floor. Some of the guys at the table were hungrily eyeing other women, one had his eyes on her. Shit. As they broke off to go after their targets, Y/N suddenly felt an arm being thrown over her shoulders and a warm body against hers. The last guy at the table looked, looked slightly jealous and mad, and left her alone with whoever it was.

"Hey, gorgeous. Looks like your friends kinda abandoned you. Wanna join my table? I can show you a good time." Y/N turned and looked at him and attempted to resist shuddering. He was probably at least twice her age, so middle-aged. He had a buzzed haircut and was wearing a wife-beater tank top with a shirt casually thrown over it. He was shorter than her, like at least a good head shorter. But none of that made her want to laugh, what made her want to laugh was the cheap chains he had hanging around his neck.

She did think about it for a second. Maybe the other people at his table wouldn't be so bad. But....the problem was she knew what guys like him expected. Something she wasn't willing to give. It was just easier to avoid the drama by saying no.

So she did. Twice. Thanked him for his interest but pulled her phone out and let him know in no uncertain terms that he was dismissed.

She thought about going to the floor and dancing. But she'd been experiencing anxiety all night. Scratch that, she'd been experiencing anxiety since she'd agreed to go three weeks ago. Nicole thought it would be a good way to celebrate the remarkable achievements Y/N had made with her company recently.

Y/N remembered the one time she'd tried dancing, the first time she'd ever gone to a club. She'd enjoyed herself. Only to have her friends tell her later that some of the regular girls have been talking shit about her dancing.

She didn't know how to club dance, literally no experience. So she'd just done what made her happy. Y/N's friends assured her that the girls were just jealous. Y/N knew intellectually they were right. If she and they were compared, she was closer to most Western societal beauty standards than they were.

But still. She had no experience with this kind of stuff and now her lack of experience was embarrassing. She was old enough that she should have some. She was a successful businesswoman at the top of her game. It actually resulted in more anxiety and kept her from going out to these places more. Everything compounded. Even if the man had been respectful and attractive, she still would've turned him down. She wouldn't be able to handle the lack of understanding, the laughter as she made a fool of herself.

So she clutched her drink and watched her friend, secretly relieved that no one was pressuring her anymore.

Or they weren't until some of her party came back to the table. The guy was there again, scolding them for leaving her and trying to get them to make her go with them. The guys just looked at him weirdly. They had just met her tonight.

Her friend came over to sit, alternating between talking and making out. Eventually getting up and going back out to dance.

At this point, it was obvious who was getting laid tonight and who wasn't and Y/N felt like she was a drain on the group. She didn't want to dance. She was content to people watch. But it was weird to watch your friends/acquaintances make out.

She felt a presence hovering at the other end of the table.

That damn man again. She was sure by this point he was just desperately trying to reassure himself that he was irresistible. Get her attention somehow. She was sure her anxiety and insecurity was being mistaken as naivety, the type that predators were attracted to.

Fine. Two could play at this game. He knew she knew he was there.

And Y/N just stared at her phone.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes.

He stood there so long that even her friend on the dance floor noticed, frowned, and started to work her way back to intervene. But he finally realized that Y/N could go at this for as long as he could. And he slunked away, finally having met his match.

She couldn't help the brief smile that flicked across her features before the utter exhaustion hit her.

Tapping to the beat wasn't fun anymore.

Absorbing the desperate wishes to escape life's problems for the night wasn't fun anymore.

She wanted to leave.

"You okay?"

"I'm leaving. I need air." Y/N stood up, tossing her jacket over her arm and turning away.

"Are you coming back in?"

"I think I'm just gonna go home."

"Awww, c'mon, Y/N. Come dance. You really need to loosen up." Y/N froze as Nicole attempted to tug on her hand. If it was possible for muscles to radiate the amount of tension she was emitting, she would've turned into a rock.

"No, Nicole, I...."

"Stop being a spoilsport, you're making the rest of us feel guilty. Everyone in the whole club can see you sitting here, looking uncomfortable." Nicole hadn't meant anything by it. She had truly thought that applying a little extra pressure was what was needed to help Y/N loosen up and have a good time. But Y/N stopped.

She couldn't do it. She literally could not do it, even with the alcohol in her system she could not work her way up to exposing herself in that way in front of so many strangers. Or, at least to her, it felt like exposure. And why should she? Why did she have to do this? She didn't think like others, she wasn't like them, that was why she didn't need to work another day in her life and they did.

The sense of ostracization, the sense that she didn't belong, the sense that she prevented other people from enjoying their night just from her presence was too much. Y/N ripped her wrist out of Nicole's hand, not wanting to destroy anyone's fun any longer.

Before her friend could say anything more she was out the door and lost in the crowded streets of Itaewon.