╰─▸ ❝ @[chapter five] has

. . . . logged on

"I'M SUPPOSED TO BE AT HOME DOING MY FUCKING SCHOOL WORK." Rose kicked the brick wall on the corner they stand on. "But my asshole landlord is standing on my fucking neck for rent." It was either she coughed up the money or she pays in a different way and as low as Rose has gotten, she refused to go to hell.

"I'm supposed to be at home feeding my baby." Candy told her. "But we all can't have what we want. College is expensive and babies are even more expensive." She was the mother of her one-year-old son, DeAndre, a sweet little boy who constantly had to stay with his aunt so that his mother could work.

Candy wanted to spend more time with him, of course, she loved her son and it broke her heart that she couldn't be with him. If anyone of the wrong people caught wind of her being a prostitute, her son may be taken away from her, the only happiness in her life.

A lot of women on the corner had the same sob story. Either their parents kicked them out, they were struggling to make ends meet. They couldn't find jobs anywhere else or the jobs that they did have weren't paying enough.

So they risked abuse, rape, kidnapping, being killed or arrested just to survive in this cold, harsh world that cared for no one.

When people see them, they see disgraces to society, the scum of the earth, the dirt under their shoes. These women don't respect themselves, they say, they want to be treated as objects so that's how we'll treat them. No self-respecting woman would ever stup to low.

But they didn't know was that some of these women had lives, they had reasons to keep doing this. Like Candy who had a son to take care of and provide for. Or Tasha who was trying to get through med school and pay for her father's medication. Asia was trans and her parents threw her out after she came out to them. She was in debt, taking out loans for her reassignment surgery. Their lives were full of complications and complexities. No one cared to look deeper beyond the revealing clothes and promiscuous smiles to see real human beings.

"How's it going with your boy toy?" Candy asks, referring to Namjoon. She affectionately called him Rose's "boy toy" seeing as it seems he can't get enough of her. "Still hasn't asked you for anything?"

Rose shook her head, brushing her fingers through her straightened hair. She had it bone straight, with the front part tucked back under the rest of her hair and behind her ears, held down by lime green hairclips that match with her green outfit for the day. The ends were curled outward, bushing over shoulders wistfully. "Nope, but he pays me a hundred no matter how long I spent with him." On top of that, he had also bought her dinner.

Candy shook her head, a smile playing on her lips. "When can I have my turn?" Her voice is light and teasing. Rose knows she's just playing with her. She smiles softly and playfully bites at her. "Never."

"In all seriousness, you need to keep him around, Rose. He's paying you to do absolutely nothing but spend time with him. Not only that but he's fucking hot and not some sketchy weirdo. That's a game-changer." Candy could only think that Rose had it good. There was a handsome man who paid just for her to sit there and look pretty. She didn't have to put her lips anywhere near his groin and he didn't try to touch her inappropriately or get her to have sex with him. She had it made.

"It's not like he's giving me thousands of dollars a week. He's not my sugar daddy."

Candy scoffed. "Hell- he might as well be. Take advantage of this. Get as much as you can from him." Yes, using people was wrong but people like them didn't have much of a choice. It was about survival, even at the expense of others.

A car rolled up in front of them, an old, black 2000 Honda Civic, a regular of Rose. He's been coming around for a little bit over a year, some older guy in his forties. He always called Rose "his little flower" making a disturbed shiver run down her spine. But he paid well for a simple blowjob, so she kept her mouth shut about it and did what he asked.

"That me." She sighed softly, standing up straight to go along with him. A smile painted her lips, so convincing that it almost looked like she was happy to do her job. Her heels click softly against the cracked concrete as she makes her way to the sketchy car.

Through the tinted windows, she could see the smile spreading across his slightly cracked, wrinkled lips. Harold, his name was, always talked such big game, how big dick was when it was anything but. It wasn't really anything to gawk at. It didn't even touch the back of her throat.

Rose walked around the front of the car to get to the passenger seat. She opened the door and got inside with the older man.

"Hello, little flower. Did you miss daddy?" It took everything within Rose to maintain her smile and not cringe at his words. He called himself fucking daddy. It made her sick to her stomach. She only nodded.

Harold reached out for her with his left hand, the one with the silver band on his ring finger. He was married, with kids. But his wife wasn't putting out and he figured that he could get a little bit of young "dark chocolate" as he liked to say.

He pushed her hair out of her face before reaching down towards his pants. "You need to hurry, I gotta get home, but I couldn't go without seeing my favorite little girl."

Rose's lip twitched. This man had a daughter. A 7-year-old. And he's sitting here, sexually calling Rose his little girl. It disgusted her to her very core, but if she wanted to get paid, she'd just suck him and keep quiet.

Harold undid his belt, the metal of the buckle jangling in the silence. He was just about to unbutton and unzip his pants when there was a knock on the window right beside Rose's head. They both jump, turning to see Namjoon's familiar figure standing beside the door.

The man beside her grumbled. "Wait your fucking turn, man!" He hollered through the window, making Rose flinch slightly. She put out her hands to him to make him calm down. "I'll handle this." She grumbled softly before grabbing the handle of the door to pop it open and talk to Namjoon. She was pissed.

He backed up as she opened the door and stepped out of the car, slamming the door shut behind her. Rose's eyes stared at the tall brunette hard with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "What are you doing? I'm with a customer." She hissed at him.

Namjoon honestly didn't know. He saw her getting in the car with the man, an obviously false smile displayed on her lips. He had come to pick her up to take her out to eat again.

He knew this was her job, to literally have sex with people, but that didn't stop his jealousy. It's only natural to get jealous when the person you like performs sexual acts on others. But he has to remind himself that this isn't for leisure, she does it because she has to.

"How much is he paying you?" Namjoon asked, pulling out his wallet to give her the money that Harold would have given her for her services. Rose was almost insulted. Of course, she didn't want to such his fucking dick but who was he to come in with his stupid fucking savior complex?

Rose marched closer to him and pushed on his shoulders. "What the fuck is wrong with you? I don't need you swooping in trying to save me. I'm not some damsel in distress." She didn't need a man coming in playing her knight in shining armor. This was no fairytale, she was no princess. No one was coming to save her.

"If you want to pay me to spend time with you, fine, whatever, but don't come in thinking that you're just going to whisk me away, okay?" Rose didn't need his pity money. If he was going to pay her, he was going to pay her to do something. Even if it was something as small as sitting in his car with him.

Namjoon hadn't meant to come off that way, but of course, he could see the way it did appear to her. He put his wallet away and apologized quietly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disrespect you." He told her, his deep voice turning soft.

Rose knew that he meant well, but she couldn't rely on anyone to take care of her financially. There was no such thing as a stable source of income for her and anything stable could be snatched right out from under her at any moment.

Rose didn't say anything more. She turned around and got back into the car. She had a job to do, no matter how much she hated it.

Namjoon stood on the sidewalk, watching as the car started up, and soon, drove away to another location for more privacy. He had really stepped off on a bad foot already. She thought he was a dumbass with a savior complex and he doesn't blame her.

"Fuck." He murmured softly, brushing his fingers through his hair. Namjoon turned around to see the other three women on the corner curiously examining him. He smiled awkwardly at the women and nodded at them. "Hello, ladies."

"Lookin' for company tonight, handsome?" Candy asked him with a smile, taking a cigarette out of her bag and placing it between her lips. Namjoon shook his head, his smile turning friendly. "Maybe some other time."

He turned back around and walked down to his car with a heavy sigh. He'd have to apologize again another day.

*.✧ Kᴀʏs Eɴᴅɪɴɢ Nᴏᴛᴇs

I personally like writing my characters with imperfections, like any good writer does. I like to this Namjoon has the imperfection of ignorance. He doesn't know anything about Rose or her job so he's doing the best he can. Of course he's gonna slip up and make mistakes, that's just human.

Thank you all for reading. I hope you guys enjoyed and I wish you all a wonderful day/night.

사랑해

~Kay ⊂(´･◡･⊂ )∘˚˳°