FILTHY || J.JK

15| Smoke it off

12 AM

"Damn," Kang finally meets me, getting me to smile instantly, "I finally saw your face." He wiggles his brows, "pink suits you so much. You look like an angel or a little fairy, dude..."

"Shut up," I refuse the soft compliment he gave to me, taking some time to smoke away my stress, using the cigarettes I bought recently. "Oh, please....you shut up, and damn, is that a lighter? So cool! Woah-" my eyes widen, I put my hand on his mouth to shut his scream, "don't be loud. If Kazuha gets to know, I'm a dead girl."

He looks at me with amazed eyes, grasping the strawberry lighter from my lap. I take one more exhale of the cigarette, cooling down in my head. This helps, I should've started smoking long ago.

"This is so freaking cute, awh...." He lights it again and again, but I gently snatch the lighter back, "it will get over. And I'm broke so please don't." Finding this funny because I meant it to be, he laughs, "that's sad. I hope you become rich soon." I tap the ashes down on the dusty pavement, both of us sitting on the porch of the parlour, "I hope so too. I wanna give my sister a good life. So I'll do anything for that."

He gazes at me, takes the cigarette from my hand, smiling. "You may find this exaggerated, but I'd die to have a sister like you. You're such a strong, dedicated and hardworking person, literally. Like you're only eighteen. And look at the amount of selfless you got for yourself. Man, it's actually not fair. God ain't did a right thing with you." His soft words heal a part of my wounded heart, I shrug, raising my eyes at the starry sky, "but it's up to me now. I can write my own story. Right?"

Kang gives me my cigarette back, after he took two or three puffs from it, "hmm. You're a determiner. I aspire to look up to you. But for now, I'm so sleepy and I'm gonna sleep if mister Jeon doesn't come in ten seconds...."

He yawns, shifting closer to me to rest his head over my shoulder, "dude...I can't, I'm passing o-" the car which apparently he was awaiting for comes by, making him wince. "Oh how I wished I could go early and have a good fucking sleep....now, he's here." I smile but push him to make him stand up on his feet, "go, your client is here, Kang. Go home and sleep." I take some last quick puffs, but once mister Jeon gets closer to the door, I move my head and don't let him notice me but I'm under the shade of darkness, anyways.

"You're here, goodness. I was almost gonna text you asking if you would come tonight or not." Kang goes to attend his customer, and since my break is almost over now, I also decide to leave. "Cherry! Where are you?!"

Kazuha's voice scares me like anything, and I jump on my spot but almost drop my expensive lighter down. I hurry and stub the cigarette, and throw it on the ground before rushing upstairs from the backdoor of the building, almost stumbling. Just then, Kang gets in my way. "Cherry, watch out, there's a cat!" The last thing I see before colliding with a rocky structure was a small cat who almost got squashed under my feet. But unfortunately, I knock down one of the flower pots.

A warm pair of veiny hands enclosed around me to catch me and hold me still before I fall and break my legs, and even worse, hurt the poor kitty. "Aw....thank goodness, it's alive!" Kang doesn't even care about me.

Scared to open my eyes, I turn my hand into a fist while attempting to do so, and then I come across the most intimidating pair of eyes that I'll ever see. This is bad, this is so awkward. I'm such a dumb girl. "Are you alright?" Mister Jeon's features soften, he retreats his gentle hands from my waist, giving me some space to breathe, properly. I struggle, trying not to hyperventilate, "yeah...I'm okay, I'm sorry....really sorry, I didn't mean to cause trouble. I apologise, mister Jeon."