Yeonni 🧡💜

different last name than the one SN had given. They seemed very surprised WY was looking for him, but gave him a phone number, also different. Thinking SN might run, WY had his friend call him and ask for directions for delivery. Those took WY to a basement door of an old movie

theater. Starting to think he'd get stabbed and harvested for parts, WY knocked on the door, and found SN. SN was in blue overalls, dirt smudged on his cheek, wiping his hands on a rag. The initial surprise was replaced by resignation and "How did you find me?" In a small,

dirty back room, WY found a bed and desk. A few pieces of high fashion clothing were hung on the wall, absurdly out of place. This was an office, but SN was clearly living out of it. Cheeks filled with pink, SN showed him around and explained the machinery, and got a proud look

on his face saying he'd managed to restore some old movie contraption that WY didn't understand. When WY asked if he owned the place, SN laughed. "No, my boss pretends to not notice I live here, and I pretend the movies and equipment he sends my way aren't illegal."

They were back in SN's office. WY was cursing himself, because he'd wondered at how SN seemed impossibly untouched by his wealth, not vain and preoccupied with it as most other people he'd dated. He should have known. He asked where the fashion came from, and SN said he had a

friend from high school who made them from leaked designs. High quality, but copies. Through that friend, SN had ended up modeling for that one show - the only one of his life. WY would ask how SN had seemed so confident, but looked at the calm pose and faint smile and knew

SN was nervous out of his mind but it didn't show one bit now either. SN had chosen dates that just coincidentally hadn't cost money. "How did you pay for the dinners?" "I had a little bit of savings." "Savings?" WY echoed. Had, in past tense. The sheepish smile

and helpless shrug was devastating. "I'm sorry. I saw you at the show and I know it was wrong, but... But then you talked about marriage and your parents, and I realized..." "That your adventure fucking some idiot in expensive hotels was over?" WY spit out.

SN reached to touch his cheek, but saw his own hands smudged with dirt and oil, and instead shoved them in his pockets. "That it was selfish, loving you, and keeping you from finding someone you actually have a future with." // I'm out of time! I'll continue later!

What Money Can't Buy Sfw Chapter 2 // WY yelled for a while, but he didn't feel any better calling SN out on all this bullshit, if anything he felt worse. It felt like SN was calling him shallow, and saying some grease meant more than the time they'd spent together.

SN barely said a word, just let him rage, and his resignation made him furious. Every time SN averted his eyes or chose to not yell back he burned hotter, desperation making him clench his hands. "How can you just disappear!"

"I hoped you'd have a good memory of a fling, not... a loser tricking you," SN said. "How stupid are you? How many people named SN do you think there are in this city???" "I didn't really think any of this through," SN said with a grim smile. His regret was worse.

WY yelled and yelled until he ran out of air, and finally, in the deafening silence that followed, said, "You don't even want to try?" Finally SN met his eyes. His closed expression softened, he got red around the eyes. With a gesture to the cramped room, the scratched desk and

rickety metal frame bed, he said, "I have nothing to offer you." Are you insane, WY wanted to yell; wanted to howl and wail like a madman because, "Expensive dinners? I can buy those for myself! What I really want is what money can't buy, SN. And I know, if I said I'd pay you

to date me, you'd say..." He felt better, seeing SN scowl. The man's pride lay in tatters at his feet, but still rumbled a warning like a growling dog. "I want to try, SN." SN crying was both a relief and heartbreaking. "Okay," SN said, with a sniff and a fateful nod.

"Are you going to be okay? If I pay for dinner, if I take you along to parties, if we visit my parents...? I don't care, but can you do it?" SN smiled, finally; cheeks rounding under the tears. "I thought you'd hate me if you knew who I was. If I can be with you,

I can do anything." The fight went out of WY. He felt like he'd been holding his breath, terrified SN wouldn't let him forgive him, and would be too worried about feeling like a kept boy to want to try. He felt himself tear up. "I thought something happened to you! When you

vanished, I thought something terrible had happened and you were dying somewhere, and I couldn't find you, and..." "I'm sorry. WY, shh, I'm sorry." SN came to embrace him, a gentle hand on the back of his head guiding him in against SN's warm neck, where he could hide and cry.

"The thing with me... I'm not in this situation for no reason. I'm really stupid," SN said, with a quiet chuckle. "Really not much good for anything." "Stop saying that about my boyfriend, you asshole!" They laughed, but WY thought, SN had moved like a natural in a completely

new world to him. SN didn't understand, not the very valuable skills he had, nor how handsome he was. WY's fortune was built on him knowing how to monetize and make use of skills. At WY's insistence they spent the day in the old movie theater. SN talked himself blue in the face

about what drama had gone down there in the past, an opera diva dying on stage, a mafia showdown, you could still see the bullet holes, look, here, and the chandelier that used to be over there... WY listened, and looked, but most of all saw SN's real personality. He'd sensed it

before, but it had been smoothed down to fit into WY's world of understated excess. Now all his passion bubbled out of him; a different kind of excess, the very opposite of understated but never vulgar. They slept in SN's rickety bed, cuddled close because it barely fit them,

and in the morning, over cheap bagels and coffee, SN told him about himself. What had led to his situation was a chain of misfortunes. "It's not bad luck," SN said sheepishly. "I have a tendency to think everything will work out for the best, but reality usually doesn't agree.

But I just want to see the world at its best, you know? Like the theater. It's gone through a lot and is in a bad state now, but it also gave people a lot along the way, and it's still showing people wonderful dreams every Wednesday and Saturday." Really, WY thought,

this genuine romantic innocence was the thing no money in the world could ever buy, rarer than flawless diamonds. "But can we go to my place now? No offense to your office, but I really need AC and the luxury of a couch to make out on." SN agreed that couches had their uses.

For a few days, they were in a kind of honeymoon high, giggling sharing shy glances behind people's backs. SN had some fake brand clothes still, but eventually WY couldn't put it off anymore. "Will you hate me if I ask to buy you some clothes, so we can go see my

parents? You look fine as you are but just to spare us the bullshit." Trying on outfits that cost more than SN's net worth, WY caught him smiling in the mirrors, but by the time they left WY's parents, that confidence was gone. "You know I don't care about all that." "I know,"

SN said, "but... I wanted to be someone for you, a type of someone I mean, and what your parents said was true. I can't ever be." "Forget about them." SN searched his face for a long moment, before he said, "You don't think I can either." "I don't know what you mean."

WY's response was too slow, his voice not certain enough. SN quietly looked out the car window the rest of the trip back. WY felt like he was being called shallow again, and sulked on his own. Perhaps thinking love conquered all was as naive as SN's disastrous career choices?

// chapter end! Uhhh interact with this post if you want me to tag you for the next chapter? Maybe? Is that a thing people do? https://curiouscat.live/Y30NN1