Chapter Text
Seonghwa is on his knees getting rammed from behind by some panting alpha when he realizes he’s losing his passion for this job. He doesn’t even know what name to yell out when he comes, but it’s probably something stupid like Chad or Mark.
That’s if he even comes. The guy has no nuance, no rhythm or awareness of anything other than chasing his own high, pistoning in and out like a machine programmed to do just that. His dick isn’t big enough to hit Seonghwa’s prostate with such mindless thrusting, so he’s really just tolerating it to fulfill the contract.
Seonghwa uses all his skill to act like he’s being pleasured enough to lose his mind, moans spilling out of his mouth in a calculated cadence. Whispering how close he is and for the alpha to go faster, don’t stop. It works as he expected, the clueless dolt coming with a deep groan, spilling inside his condom and going immediately soft.
Why did Seonghwa expect anything else? He abandons hope of achieving release, smiling with practiced serenity as the client pulls away from him to lay at his side, breathing heavily as he stares up at the ceiling in a daze.
“Holy shit. That was… fuck. Amazing, Seonghwa.”
“Mmm.” Seonghwa replies, noncommittal. He resists the urge to roll over and grab his cellphone from the nightstand. It’s best to pretend to be completely enthralled post-sex, no matter how underwhelming it actually was.
He reaches out, fingers dancing over the bare chest of whatever-this-guy’s-name-is, drifting up until his palm rests on his shoulder. Seonghwa’s grip clamps down, giving him leverage to pull himself close and nuzzle briefly against the alpha’s neck.
“Dammit. I wish I had time to cuddle like this, but I’ve gotta get home before midnight or the babysitter will call the cops.” The alpha presses a light kiss to Seonghwa’s forehead, which he forces himself not to recoil from. One of Seonghwa’s only rules on the job is no kissing on the lips, but he really doesn’t appreciate it happening anywhere on his face. Neck and below is fine, though, since that always skews more sexual than sweet.
“Got a business card, sugar?” Seonghwa asks with an innocent batting of eyelashes. An underhanded way of trying to get the guy’s name without straight asking for it.
“Oh. Yeah.” The client pulls his clothes on, smoothing them down as best he can before fishing inside the pocket of his pants. He withdraws a small card, walking to the other side of the bed to hand it to Seonghwa politely. “Call me anytime if you need a lawyer. Or a good fuck.”
His last statement is accompanied by a sly wink. Seonghwa isn’t sure where that unfounded confidence is coming from, but he can’t be mad at it. He just pretended it was a godly experience, after all. Maybe his prior partners have all done the same.
“Sure,” he glances down at the card, “Mark. I’ll be sure to do that.” His voice is a low purr, eyelids purposefully heavy to maintain his sultry look.
It’s as effective as it always is; Mark practically melts in front of his eyes. “Ah, wait.” He digs inside his pockets again, pulling out his wallet and fumbling with the cash inside. “You’ll need a ride home.”
Seonghwa’s smile is frozen on his face. He hates wishy-washy shit like this. If a guy wants to throw money at him for being a good lay, he isn’t offended. It doesn’t make him feel used or cheap because he knows he isn’t either of those things. But this - this feels like pity. Like he can’t afford a cab or an Uber without some handout?
“I’m okay. We have a driver,” Seonghwa says, keeping his voice light. “Thanks, though. You’re sweet.”
Mark looks like a puppet whose master just left the building, holding the handful of bills awkwardly. He finally puts them back into his wallet with a nod, bidding Seonghwa another farewell before thankfully vacating.
Seonghwa gets his phone and sends two texts.
One to Mingi asking for a pickup.
One to Hongjoong telling him to add Mark to the blacklist.
Despite Seonghwa’s momentary disillusionment with his current path in life, he actually doesn’t hate his job. It’s leagues better than where he started as the whipping boy of a loan shark and his cronies.
When his mother died and left him with her crippling debt, they took him as payment at the tender age of twelve. The first few years weren’t terrible, though the labor they tasked him with was hard and exhausting. It wasn’t until he reached the age of eighteen that they graduated him to work in one of their gambling/whorehouses, though luckily as a server and not a prostitute. Being a beta had saved him in that regard, as most clients wanted either alphas or omegas depending on whether they wanted to dominate or be dominated.
Hongjoong found him there and bought him out, though the reasoning behind his charitable rescue is still a mystery to Seonghwa. The beta’s debt then became owed to Hongjoong, and he put him to work right away after a brief training period with more established workers at his company.
It’s a world that feels like living along the seedy undercurrents of society, hiding from the light of day and subsisting on the shadows. Like if vampires were real and lived alongside humans, only coming out at night to play. But they aren’t vampires, just a glorified brothel.
Escorts. Hongjoong is quick to correct anyone who calls them by the more derogatory terms. Seonghwa has heard it all. Whore, slut, prostitute, cunt, home wrecker. Though the latter was from a wife who caught him in bed with her husband, riding him into the mattress with fake moans pouring from his lips. What was he supposed to do? The guy had such a micropenis Seonghwa wasn’t even sure it was inside him as they “fucked.”
But it’s alright. Unlike his prior gig, he’s actually making gains on paying down his debt and much more quickly than any other line of work would afford. He never got to graduate high school, after all. Sex work was a natural progression for a beta like him that doesn’t form connections to other people. His encounters are meaningless, just work to do in exchange for money.
Well, there are a special few clients he’s come to genuinely like. A few men he’s encountered along the way who have charmed him enough that he’s accepted their flimsy excuses to hire him for a night out when he knows he’ll just end up in their beds getting fucked. Or in their cars. Or an alleyway, though that was only one time and he told San he’d better make it up to him with a luxury hotel room the next time he called or he’d reject him. To his credit, San delivered and then some, booking a top floor suite at a pricey hotel in the middle of downtown and fucking him every way possible on the glittering surfaces. That man has some crazy stamina for being a beta.
So all that is to say Seonghwa is satisfied with the way things are. Hongjoong is pretty decent as far as bosses go, though he can get scary when pissed off.
Hongjoong is one of those alphas you don’t expect to be as powerful and influential as he is. He’s not strikingly tall or muscular like most others of his secondary gender, but what he lacks in stature he makes up for in raw charisma. He’s magnetic, drawing others in with a glance and holding their attention effortlessly. He’s also ruthless. Seonghwa has seen him dead-eyed, gun to another man’s forehead, emotionless in the face of begging and pleading before pulling the trigger and ending a life like it’s just another boring daily routine.
Seonghwa laments the chill in the air and his decision to look sexy instead of being warm. He’s wearing a tight, silky blouse with sheer cut-outs along the midsection and leather pants that cling to his legs and ass like plastic wrap but don’t seem to keep the heat in worth a damn. He’s seconds away from going back into the hotel room and having Mingi text him when he arrives when he spots the shiny black Escalade pulling up to the curb.
Before Seonghwa can hurry into the SUV to warm up, the hazard lights flash and Mingi scurries out of the driver’s side. The alpha quickly wraps a thick wool coat around Seonghwa, taking time to adjust the shoulders so that it will stay put even after he breaks away. “I knew you’d be wearing nothing,” he grumbles, frowning.
“That’s the job,” Seonghwa replies with a smile, taking the coat’s lapels in his hands to hold it tightly closed. As warmth starts to come back to his freezing extremities, he leans in to kiss Mingi on the cheek, smiling at the red flush that follows his lips. “Thank you, Tiger.”
Mingi grunts in response, heading back to the car as Seonghwa follows suit, humming to himself. His disastrous job is mostly forgotten by now. The beta tends to compartmentalize the events of his life, shoving them into different boxes depending on whether they were good, bad, or meh. Mark goes into the ‘Meh’ box without a fuss, leaving Seonghwa in a pleasant mood again.
Well, for two seconds. “Hongjoong asked to see you,” Mingi says, starting the car and glancing over at Seonghwa to make sure he fastens his seatbelt.
Seonghwa sighs. Being summoned by the boss either means he has a new high-profile assignment or he fucked something up. Very rarely, it means Hongjoong wants to fuck him up, but that’s usually spontaneous or during Hongjoong’s ruts. And Hongjoong’s are so predictable, Seonghwa has them added to his calendar just in case it means he needs to clear his schedule to spend a day or two in bed with the alpha, lost in a haze of sex and pheromones he can’t even smell.
Hongjoong seems to prefer Seonghwa to help take care of him over the many omegas in his charge, with the exception of Wooyoung. Hongjoong has a soft spot for that fiery omega, probably because he does more than just lay there and moan.
“Did he say why?” Seonghwa asks, shifting in the large seat to get more comfortable, stretching his legs out in the space beneath the glove compartment.
“Never does,” Mingi replies dryly, keeping his eyes on the road as he eases them back into traffic.
Their company is probably a good thirty minute drive from the downtown hotel Mark took him to. Seonghwa pulls out his phone and begins to scroll his social media, staring intently at the new posts of some of his favorite fashion influencers. There’s one in particular that’s been very inspiring to him lately, blending traditionally feminine silhouettes with an overall masculine aesthetic.
Mingi is a man of few words, so he seems content to let the silence drag between them, radio playing softly, stuck on some oldies station. Seonghwa doesn’t question the choice in music, figuring he doesn’t get a say if he’s not the one driving. Instead, he puts his phone away to stare at Mingi’s strong profile.
“What?” The alpha breaks the tension with a sharp inquiry, glancing sideways just briefly before fixing his eyes forward again.
“Just admiring the view,” Seonghwa says playfully, lifting his legs so that he’s curled in the seat, leaning over the center console as much as the seatbelt will allow. He reaches out, tracing the defined muscles beneath the long sleeves of Mingi’s shirt before resting his hand on a strong bicep.
Eyebrow raised, Mingi looks over again quickly. “Client didn’t satisfy you?”
“They rarely do,” Seonghwa says with a long-suffering sigh, tilting his head down and hiding his face behind a curtain of dark bangs. He closes his eyes, mouth twisting into a frown when he realizes his flippant answer is painfully true. Most men who hire escorts aren’t exactly gifted with sexual prowess. Sometimes it’s just inexperience but mostly it’s selfishness, a lack of care for the pleasure of their partner, consumed with the need to get themselves off above all else.
Despite his rough demeanor, Mingi is actually very generous in bed. The first time he connected with Seonghwa was after a particularly horrendous job. The client had gotten rough and persisted even after Seonghwa told him to fuck off, leading to a heated confrontation where the beta clobbered him over the head with a lamp. Then immediately started crying, convinced he had killed the guy, calling Mingi for help as Hongjoong had told him to do if he was ever in a sticky situation.
Mingi came, checked for a pulse, shrugged, and took Seonghwa to the car, practically carrying the beta who was still stiff with shock.
When they got to the car, Seonghwa asked Mingi to hold him. Whimpered it, tears threatening to fall. And the alpha did, moving them to the backseat. After Seonghwa calmed down, he noticed Mingi was half hard in his jeans and teased him about it. Mingi muttered something about Seonghwa feeling good in his arms, one thing led to another and that was that.
Since then, they’ve fucked around lots of times. Not super often, though, because Mingi is usually helping the omegas get through their heats. Hongjoong restricts the use of suppressants and inhibitors, convinced the drugs are detrimental to long-term health and that it’s best to stick with natural remedies. So, wild fucking, pretty much.
“If I suck you off while you’re driving, will you crash the car?” Seonghwa asks bluntly, biting his lower lip between his teeth.
“If you deep throat me like you usually do, probably, yeah.”
“Hmm.” Seonghwa whines with disappointment, withdrawing. “It’s not fun if you’re not choking me with your cock.”
“Fuck, Seonghwa.” Mingi curses, sparing another glance and then slamming on the brakes when the car in front of him abruptly stops at a yellow light turning red.
Seonghwa laughs behind his hand, snuggling further into the coat and closing his eyes. “We can do that, too,” he says cheerfully. “Though not while you’re driving.”
“Don’t tempt me.” Mingi taps his fingers on the steering wheel as he waits impatiently for the light to turn. “I’ve got a heat to deal with when I get back.”
“Oh? Whose?”
“The new guy. The one we’re calling Rabbit.”
“Ah.” Seonghwa met the new employee a few weeks ago, a mousy little omega with blond hair and an angelic face. Lord knows where Hongjoong found him. “I’m sure that’ll be fun.”
Mingi shrugs. Another look at Seonghwa seems to say he wishes he could spend the night with the beta instead, but maybe that’s just Seonghwa imagining things. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t like Mingi a lot. Not in a dating/exclusivity way, of course, but enough to become regular sex partners. And who knows, maybe from there, it could blossom into more.
Seonghwa has to laugh at himself for that last thought. He’s already come to terms with the fact that he’s too broken to ever truly care about another person beyond the basic affection that comes with mind-blowing sex. That’s all he’s ever known, after all.
Probably all he ever will.
Seonghwa goes straight to Hongjoong’s office when they get back to the company. It’s a modest two-story building on the outskirts of town. No signage outside, just a building number above the doors. 302.
The second story is filled with apartments where the escorts live. It’s not mandatory to reside there, but Hongjoong doesn’t charge rent so it makes the most sense to do so. Seonghwa has been there long enough to have his own corner suite, one of the largest available with its own en-suite bathroom. Hell will freeze over before he gives that shit up.
Seonghwa knocks and enters before Hongjoong responds. He sees the annoyance on the alpha’s face from his abrupt entrance, glancing up from a pile of papers on his large mahogany desk.
“Mingi said you rang,” Seonghwa says in a low drawl, shucking the coat off and hanging it on the rack near the door. He walks with deliberate sway in his hips to the desk, pushing papers from the corner without hesitation to perch there, crossing his long legs right next to Hongjoong.
Hongjoong sighs, looking at the disarray from Seonghwa’s careless swipe of his work with a frown before fixing it on the beta. “Don’t you think you’re getting a little too comfortable with your boss?”
Seonghwa laughs. “You’ve fucked me for 36 hours straight before, Joongie. I don’t know how we can get more comfortable than that.” He plants his elbows on top of his thighs so he can rest his chin on his upturned palms. “So what can I help you with?”
“New client,” Hongjoong says, shuffling through the papers on his desk as though he’s looking for something in particular.
Seonghwa follows his movements with tepid curiosity. “Did he fill out my form?” he asks.
The intake form is something Seonghwa asked Hongjoong to implement a few months ago, just a small ‘getting to know you’ thing for clients to fill out that will allow him to prepare better for their date. It’s been useful- so much so that he asked Hongjoong to make it a requirement to hire him.
“No.”
“Why not?” Seonghwa frowns, tensing. No one has refused to fill out the form since he started it. It’s not like he even asks super invasive questions on it.
Hongjoong is quick to answer. “Because he wired me 10k not to ask any fucking questions, that’s why. So yeah, I don’t know what you’re walking into.”
There’s not much out there that fazes Seonghwa. He feels like he’s pretty much seen, heard, and done it all when it comes to this line of work. So why a chill decides to worm its way up his spine is beyond him.
He tries to distract himself by poking Hongjoong, knowing exactly how to get a rise out of the alpha. “Oh, 10k? What’s my cut?”
Hongjoong’s face ices over along with his voice. “You know better.”
Unafraid, Seonghwa’s grin widens. “Do I?” He nudges Hongjoong’s arm with his ankle. “C’mon, what does a millionaire like you need with a measly ten thousand dollars?”
Hongjoong cracks as usual, sighing. His hand leaves the desk to circle Seonghwa’s ankle, fingers digging into the soft flesh with a possession that makes Seonghwa’s breath catch in his throat. He loves being adored like that. “It’s been spoken for, Seonghwa. But this guy must be loaded. If you hook him, I’ll give you a bonus.”
Seonghwa swings his leg slightly, tongue peeking out between his teeth as his eyebrows raise with intrigue. “Bonus, huh? Money or sex?”
Hongjoong’s hand trails up, leaving fire in its wake. “Whichever you want, baby.”
“Money.” Seonghwa has no hesitation, the choice coming out deadpan. It brings just the exact reaction he wanted, Hongjoong looking offended.
“Shit, you could have pretended to think about it.”
“Why?” Seonghwa asks in a soft drawl. He spreads his legs to make it easier for Hongjoong’s hand to travel even higher. “If I want to fuck, I’ll just walk in here in one of those pretty lingerie sets you bought and wait for you to jump me.”
Hongjoong removes his hand in an instant, bringing an immediate pout to Seonghwa’s lips. “You think I’m that easy, huh? Maybe I need to start saying no to you.”
“You’d say no to me, Joongie?” Seonghwa shifts so that both of his legs are on either side of Hongjoong’s chair, trapping the alpha between them.
“You make it hard, Starshine. Fuck.” Hongjoong lifts himself up, drawing forward until his hips are flush with Seonghwa’s. They’re both hard, which is typical when they’re trying to antagonize each other. Which is most of the time.
Hongjoong is aware of Seonghwa’s dislike of kissing, so he goes straight for the beta’s neck, pulling the silky shirt collar aside to suck the delicate skin beneath. Seonghwa buries his hands in Hongjoong’s hair, trapping him where he is with his legs now crossed behind him.
“I can’t start anything. I have a meeting in like ten minutes.” Hongjoong mutters, eyes shining with frustration as he grinds his erection into Seonghwa. “But I’m going to fuck you through the bedframe tonight.”
“Please,” Seonghwa whispers back, chasing the friction with his own hips. The hard wooden desktop is almost painful against his ass with how hard he’s gyrating, but he doesn’t care. Doesn’t care about anything but chasing that high he always gets when Hongjoong is solely focused on him like he’s a goddess made flesh.
Hongjoong, ever the master of self-control, unwraps Seonghwa’s legs so he can sit back down. “I’m pretty sure you’re sitting on the papers I need for this thing.”
Huffing, Seonghwa hops down and stands off to the side, crossing his arms. “So this new job is when?”
“Wednesday night. Details are in your email.” Hongjoong returns to business, running his hands through his mussed hair quickly before methodically flipping through his papers again.
A sense of disquiet fills Seonghwa at the thought of this strange assignment. “I don’t like walking into a job blind like this. What if he’s a psycho that wants to cut me up into little pieces?”
Hongjoong snorts. “He’s been vetted through the normal process. And a psycho would just lie on your little form anyway, don’t you think?”
It’s annoying when Hongjoong is so effortlessly correct. “You’re probably right. Fuck.” Seonghwa glances at his phone. The days are easy to blur together when he doesn’t have a calendar in front of him. Wednesday is in three days.
“You want Mingi to tail?” Hongjoong stops what he’s doing to look at Seonghwa in that oddly penetrating way, like he’s trying to see the gears in the beta’s brain turning to know exactly what he’s thinking.
Good luck with that. Seonghwa doesn’t even know what he’s thinking half the time, existing as a creature of pure impulse. But this time, he is pondering, trying to decide if he wants Mingi following him for safety. There’s pros and cons.
Ultimately, he doesn’t want to appear that weak, so he declines. “No, it’s fine. As long as he’s on standby if I need an out.”
“Of course.”
“Alright then. Good luck with your meeting.” Seonghwa tucks his hair behind his ears and flashes Hongjoong a seductive smile. “See you later?”
Hongjoong matches the smile with a promising grin of his own. “You know you will.”
After shutting Hongjoong’s office door closed behind him, Seonghwa walks down the hall slowly, loading his email on his phone so he can see whatever paltry details he has for this assignment.
Preliminary Meet: Pre-Hire
Wednesday 10/22, 7:30pm
Howling Wolf - dress code [link]
Message from client:
Hi Seonghwa. I’m Jeong Yunho. I look forward to meeting you soon.
Seonghwa reads it three more times but is no closer to making sense of it after doing so. Most initial messages from clients are demands: what to wear, how to act, what to do in bed to get them off. Sometimes it’s informational instead, giving background to the event or situation so he’ll know what to expect. But this? Tells him nothing.
Well, actually… it may tell him a little something.
Howling Wolf is an upscale steakhouse.
Seonghwa is vegan. It’s all over his profile.
So this Jeong Yunho is either deliberately thoughtless or a total space cadet. But either way, he’s a big fish, so Seonghwa needs to pull out all the stops to charm him when they meet.
Since Yunho gave him nothing, he’ll need to turn to the good old internet to try and find out more about him. Friends. Likes and dislikes. Sexual proclivities. Whatever will give him an edge to win the guy over.
Three days is plenty of time.