Page 32 of The Name Drop

“I needed an excuse. Isn’t that what these meetings between us are for? To get info to tell our dads what we’re supposed to be doing each day?”

“I thought I was just here to clear out your fridge to stock mine.” Elijah reaches his arm to his back and starts punching it. “Oh, and maybe work on that nervous habit of yours. You know, the pounding of your foot, the one that was squarely on my back.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Yeah, it drives my mom crazy when I do that. She thinks it’s so unladylike.”

“I don’t know about that. But it’s brutal, that’s for sure.”

I walk over to Elijah and grab him by the shoulders to turn him around so he’s facing away from me. Using my thumbs, I start applying pressure to his lower back.

“Ow,” he says, jumping away at my touch.

“Stay still,” I say, pulling him back toward me.

I start massaging again, adding additional pressure, but then switch to using the heel of my palm, rubbing circles where his muscles are.

Why is my throat so dry?

Elijah’s head drops forward and he lets out a groan. “God, that feels fantastic. Almost as good as the massage the merciless ajumma gives me at my favorite jjimjilbang back home.”

I find it hard to believe that the very rich Elijah Ri visits the very modest bathhouses in Korea. I can’t help it, I let out a huff in disbelief.

He turns his head to look at me over his shoulder. “There’s an old one down a side alley in Sinsa-dong that I stumbled upon a few summers ago. It’s kinda become my hideaway.” His voice sounds almost apologetic, like he’s admitting to something he shouldn’t. I immediately feel guilty for my errant huff.

The silence draws out and the air around us feels heavy. There’s something intimate about Elijah letting his guard down, and me, letting my overthinking brain shut off, giving him a back massage in the middle of a house that isn’t mine. I don’t realize it when my hands stop moving and instead mold themselves to hold Elijah at his waist, only a couple inches separating our bodies.

He lets out a deep, slow breath. I match it.

We both jump as the humongous grandfather clock in the room chimes.

Dong. Oh crap, what just happened?

Dong. Why is it so hot in here?

Dong. Is Elijah’s waist slimmer than mine?

Elijah suddenly steps out of my reach and clears his throat. “Um, so, your dad really hates Haneul, huh?” He walks over to the thermostat on the wall and pounds the down arrow a few times, cranking up the A/C.

“Oh, sorry about that. He tends to complain about his job a lot.” I cringe a little thinking of Elijah, the future CEO of this company, listening to my disgruntled father. Especially since Dad didn’t know he had an audience besides me.

“It’s fine. I don’t take it personally. What does he do for the company?” he asks.

“He’s a Finance Director. I don’t know much else about it, except that he says he doesn’t get paid nearly enough for what he does.”

“Yeah, I can relate,” Elijah says, a small smirk ghosting his mouth. “So, that’s why you can’t go to the school you want to?”

“There are a lot of reasons I can’t go to most of the schools I want to. We don’t have enough money for me to go without putting both my family and my future into debt. It just doesn’t seem worth it. I have to find a different path to success.” These are words I’ve repeated to myself over and over again for my own convincing.

“Like Operation Name Drop,” he says.

I nod. “Yeah, I guess so. I need connections to get recommendations.”

“By the way, your dad’s job sounds kind of like an awful one to have.” Elijah says it so matter-of-factly. I know he’s not trying to be a jerk about my dad. I actually appreciate that Elijah doesn’t always have a filter. I tend to be around people who are very careful about what they say depending on who is listening. It’s one of the things that frustrates my parents the most about me, that I’m not nearly careful enough with my words. I tend to speak my mind, unless I remember in time that my parents would prefer me not to. Maybe that’s what money buys you—the ability to not care.

“Well, he used to work at Microsoft, and so when he came over to Haneul, I think he thought it would be a lot more organized. But, I guess, well, it’s kind of a mess. So he gets frustrated.” I sneak another peek at Elijah, back in that habit of worrying what he might think of what I’ve just said.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks me.

“Well, I mean, you’re gonna take over the company one day, right? Don’t you wanna know what needs to be fixed and what can be improved? This is insider information. If it were me, I’d take this all and figure out how to make things better,” I say.

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