Page 39 of The Cuffing Game
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he finally said. “I can’t speak on the Texas part, but it’s definitely a traditional Korean thing, too. My brother’s gay, and my father made his life—all our lives, honestly—a living hell.”
“That’s rough,” Mia replied. “Is that whyyou’rehere?”
“Part of it. My brother’s two years older, and after he moved out, I became the next target. I’m straight, but Father Dearest found other things to pick on me about. Unfortunately for him, I fought back. And when I told him I wanted to go to college abroad, he funded my educationjustto get me out of his hair.”
“Wow,” Mia said. “Good for you, though. I’m glad you could get away.”
“Yeah. He’s the reason I go by Noah.”
“Noah isn’t your real name?”
“Noahcanbe a Korean name. But it’s my English nickname. My real name is Dae-hyun.”
A shiver went down his spine as he realized this was the first time he’d told anyone why he went by Noah. Every day, he posted content that millions of people watched. He danced in front of crowds shirtless. But somehow, in this one moment, he felt more naked and vulnerable than ever before.
Mia could easily take him down at this very moment,attack him while he was at his most exposed. He held his breath against the thumping of his pulse in his ears.
But instead, she simply asked, “Why Noah, out of all names?” And then she scrunched up her face as if she was trying to solve a perplexing puzzle.
Noah’s shoulders relaxed. He’d never thought he’d be grateful for Mia’s usual scrutiny, butthisat least was familiar. He’d seen this same expression many times before while they debated everything from cinematic techniques to artistic authenticity.
“I had a flare for the dramatic,” he said, and then, at Mia’s eyebrow raise, he clarified, “Okay, I still do. But just like the biblical Noah starts over again after the destruction of the Flood... I felt like I was restarting my life when I came here. It was liberating, to name myself. To not go by the name my father gave me and to live a whole ocean away from everyone I knew back home.”
Everything had tumbled out of Noah like he’d been under some spell. He searched Mia’s face, anxiously watching for a reaction.
Her slightly widened eyes reflected the warm light of the fire. For once, there was no judgment. Just interest. And, surprisingly, the faint hint of understanding.
I guess we have more in common than I thought,Noah realized.
Even so, he’d reached his limit. He had shared too much of himself and was desperate to divert the attention awayfrom himself. “Is Mia your Korean name or English?” he asked.
“Korean. It’s actually Mi-ah, but they spelled it the English way to make things easier for me. I do also have an American name, but it’s my middle name, Elizabeth. It’s funny becausemi-ahhas a negative meaning.”
“‘Lost child,’ right? That’s why I wasn’t sure.”
“Yeah.” Mia let out a small laugh. “Despite the meaning, my parents liked how the name sounded, and after giving my sister an old-fashioned name, they felt creative and put their own positive spin to the word. I’m ‘lost,’ but only because I’m forging my own path. They regretted it later when I told them I was going to film school.”
A laugh burst out of Noah, free and uncontrollable.
“That’s clever,” he said, feeling his lips twitch up in a smile. “And you really are forging your own path. Or at least, that’s what it sounds like from what you’ve told me. It’s great.”
Mia stared at him with her mouth slightly open, taken aback. Silence stretched between them again, dampened by the snow and the late hour.
Suddenly Mia’s phone buzzed and lit up with a notification. Before it went dark again, Noah got a glimpse of the lock screen.4 a.m.Somehow,an hour and a half had already passed since he first got up from bed. And he’d barely noticed the time go by.
When he looked up from her phone, there was a peculiarexpression on Mia’s face that he’d never seen before. Her cheeks were flushed, but he wasn’t sure if that was because of their conversation or the heat of the fire. What he did know was that he couldn’t stop staring at her rosy cheeks, or the way she nervously bit her lip when she noticed him staring.
Mia hurriedly got to her feet. “We should probably get to bed.” Without so much as a second glance, she said, “Bye!” and ran back into the lodge.
Noah remained seated for a long moment before going inside himself.
This time, as he walked through the lodge, he didn’t think about the creepy darkness. Instead, he thought about Mia and howconfusingshe was. She supposedly hated his guts. And yet she’d just completely opened up to him and had somehow gotten him to do the same.
Talking doesn’t mean anything though, does it?he thought.This was ouronegood conversation in several months. And we’re both in film school, so of course we have more in common than we want to admit.
Back when Noah was a first year who didn’t have any friends in the entire United States of America, and even before he’d gotten close with his fraternity brothers, he’d volunteered to work on student production sets so he could meet more people. Even though the hours were long and he got paid only through craft services that were of questionable nutritional value, he made his first nonfraternity friends through those student films.
These friendships had been intense but short lived, since he’d spent twelve-hour days with these strangers and gotten to intimately know everyone before they all went their separate ways when the project wrapped, never to speak to each other again.
