❝𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗧𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘. ── 𝗞.𝗡𝗝✔️

v

╰─▸ ❝ @[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."