Chapter 7: Harsh realities

Siren's POV:

He frowned when he saw me sitting, "You're still here?" He raised his brows at me.

Wow, the rudeness, this man astounds me. He'd expected me to see myself out, without a single word to him.

Of course, because he only had one use for me. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect or want cuddles or some shit from this man but a little decency would've been nice. Just a few seconds back, he was looking at me like I had just rocked this world. Now, he gave me the amount of attention he'd given to the used condom.

He leaned against his bed, giving me a look as if he was disgusted with me. "I'm pretty sure you're going to pretend like I'm the only one who does it for you or maybe offer me your phone number. Don't waste your time."

The nerve, bitch. I gave him my most sickeningly sweet smile,"Would it hurt your ego if I said I had no interest in doing that? And asblissfmy phone number, sorry to inform you that you, unfortunately don't make it to the list of people who I want to give my number to."

I gave him a sorry expression, "Don't worry too much, I'll see myself out after using the restroom."

As I walked to the restroom, I swayed my hips a little, just grazing him as I walked. The sound of the towel dropping had me curious to steal speak, but I resisted the temptation.

I could feel his eyes on my back. Keep staring, the last time you'll ever see this fine piece of ass.

Setting my purse on the counter, the warm water ran down the sank as I washed my hands. A stark contrast to the man outside. I cleaned myself up, looked at the shower wistfully, wanting one desperately but at the same time too proud to stay here more than needed.

I picked his hair brush, combing my hair, making sure I looked good. I'll leave as I came here. Fine as hell and with my head held high.

When I exited the bathroom, I saw him sitting on his bed, leaning against the headrest, on his phone. One arm behind his head, bicep flexing. He looked so calm and careless, not a single crease on his face, while I was so affected by what we had just done.

It hurt.

My phone rang and I picked it up when I saw it was Aria. Noah looked as disinterested as before.

"Hi," I kept my voice quiet, so he couldn't overhear.

"It's late, aren't you coming to the hospital? Mason's asking for you." She sighed

"I'm sorry, I'll be there soon. You weren't waiting for me to eat, were you?" I hated it when the kids did that. They shouldn't be staying hungry for that late. I checked the time. It was 10 p.m. Shit, I didn't have the time to stop by home before going to the hospital. I watched Noah as he flicked his eyes away from mine.

"No, I went home around 8, the boys and I had dinner before I came back here." She explained

"You should go home, its late. I'll be there shortly. Close the doors and don't let anyone in. Take care of yourself and the kids." I whispered to her.

"You too," With that, she hung up.

I looked up at Noah and he was looking at me, his jaw set in a hard line, "Are you going on another date?"

"None of your concern." I commented, picking up my coat. "Your concern is to tip me, which apparently I have to remind you to do."

He went back to his phone, his tone icy, "There's cash on the kitchen counter."

I walked over to the counter, an envelope with thirty grand. "How much?" I asked.

"Take whatever you think that litte show was worth."

This dick! Show? SHOW? I'd just been fucked out of my mind and so had he. Now he was calling it a freaking show. One day, I'm going to kick this motherfucker's ass.

"This doesn't compare. If I took what that show was worth, you'd be left penniless and then some. So just tell me." I called back to him.

There was silence for a second before he muttered, "Whatever."

The feeling of sweet, sweet victory.

I considered being petty, walking back to the bedroom and throwing the money on his face and walking out. I also considered taking the high road and slamming the door on my way out without taking the money.

It's not like I was going to seem this man ever again. No point in being petty or taking the high way.

I took the money, stopping by the bedroom door when he said, "I'm surprised you aren't trying harder, disappointed to be precise. I love a good show."

I spared him a glance, raising a brow in question.

"You're supposed to tell me how I rocked your world, how good it felt. You know, things like that to increase your probability of being booked again.'' He mocked me.

I scoffed at him. "Ya jagiya, seems like you didn't pay enough attention in school. The probability of an event can't be more than a 100℅. Jalga i gaejasig-a." (Goodbye, you son of a bitch)

As I slammed the door of his appartment,  I realised two things, my body felt well loved and my mind was telling me I should feel cheap. But I didn't. No matter how hard I tried to feel shame, I couldn't. I only felt anger and a bit of humiliation that he would say those things to me.

Anyway, doesn't matter now.

I felt a bit sore as I walked but the rest of me was as good as new. I'd had a good time in general, except for the part the entitled asshole was rude to me. I sighed as I walked to my reality. With each step, I could feel the weight of my responsibilities.

And now that I had gotten my family in trouble, I felt more conflicted than ever. It would have been okay if it had been just me but I couldn't take a risk with them.

My original plan seemed to be going farther and farther away.

The elevators descended and so did my spirits. The bell boy at the door gave me a sleazy smile as he opened the door for me. I gave him a disgusted look and he backed away.

I hailed a cab to the hospital, I had wanted to take my car but even I knew I'd be kicked out of the hotel if I came in that piece of junk. I should probably sell it now that we're moving.

I'd have around sixty grands after that. That much money should be enough to move to a new apartment in Ohio, pay for Aria's tuition and living expenses. I still have to worry about getting a fake ID that would hold under scrutiny and that costs a lot. I should know, I have already paid for five of those.

I have one more shift at the club this weekend, so that could help.

I wonder what my mom would say about my new job. I could imagine her exact words.

Being dirt poor doing clean deeds is better than filthy rich doing dirty deeds is no good, my dear.

But I don't have the time to worry about that. I have more on my plate than I could handle.

The cab stopped in front of the hospital and I stepped out. Walking down the hallways, the smell of sanitizers and phenol made me lightheaded. The bright lights threatened to blind me. I stopped in front of Mason's hospital room, hearing the doctors rush past me. The sound of shoes hitting the tiles was drowned by my raging heartbeat. Placing my head against the door, the full force of the past few hours hitting me.

My little brother was sick, I was being chased by criminals for committing a criminal offense, I just had sex for money and now I had to be worried about getting a fake ID.

This isn't the life I had imagined myself living. If it hadn't been for that old fucker, I could have given my siblings a better life. I curse myself for being this naive.

I wiped a tear that slipped down my face before forcing a huge smile on my face. I opened the door to see Mason holding a book. He scratched his head as he tried reading the words aloud.

He looked at me when I sat beside his bed on a chair before he fixed his eyes on the book again.

"Do you want me to read it to you?" I asked him quietly, stroking his hair.

"No, I can do this myself," He glared at the book as if he could will the words to speak for themselves.

I smiled at his efforts before I took the book from his hands, "No, I can read it myself. You don't need to do everything."

He snatched the book away from me, shouting as a tear slipped down his small face. I was surprised at his outburst. Mason had never been an aggressive child.

I wiped the tear away, my heart aching as I watched all the tubes attached to him. He sniffed before pushing my hand away. I sat up from my chair, hugging him close to me and this time, he let me. It made me feel empty inside whenever the kids were angry with me. I had basically raised these children on my own. Mom and dad had passed away when I was seventeen, the twins hadn't even been a year old at the time, Liam was barely two. Aria and I had taken care of them, the kids didn't have a single memory of our parents klm, especially the twins.

"What's wrong? Did Noona do something wrong? Are you angry with me?" I asked him as I held onto him, being careful with the wires.

"Please don't leave me. Please, I don't want to live with anyone else but Noona and Hyung. I promise. You are keeping me at this place because you don't love me anymore, aren't you? You just come see me a few times and then you away again. It's all because I'm too weak. The kids at school said you'd leave me for apodtion since it was too hard to take care of a weak baby. I promise I'll be strong from now on. I'll do everything on my own. I won't be a trouble to you. Please take me back home with you. I don't want to live in this place." He was sobbing his little heart out at this point.

"Who told you that? You're the strongest baby I know. And you don't have to do everything on your own. I could never leave you. I would never leave you. Just get well soon so that we could go home again. Just a few days and we'd go back home. We're here because you feel tired all the time, when you feel less tired, we'd go back home. Shh." I wiped his tears away lightly. It broke my heart that he would think this way. I hadn't been present in the kids life lately, didn't spent too much time with them.

"Shh, if you stop crying, I'll read you a story and then we can watch some TV. Is that good?" He nodded his head.

After a while, when his lids started drooping, I closed the TV, covering him with blankets.

I quietly slipped out of the room, walking down the hallways once again.

I asked the cab driver to stop a few blocks away from home. I can not be tracked right now.

"You want me to drop you off in this dump?" He raised a brow at me, taking in the surroundings as I handed him the cash.

Lightening from the street lamps blinked rapidly, the smell of cheap wine and dirt covered the whole street as I took a different route back home. Broken bottles scattered across the streets, the doors to houses closed shut. I dodged the puddles, making sure not to get my only pair of heels dirty. I could see shady people doing their business, selling weed while others snorted around a van.

Even as I walked down the shadiest part of city, I felt safer than I ever did in the 10,000 square feet mansion back in Seoul.

My breath halted and I stopped dead in my tracks as I came face to face with my landlord standing on the steps to my apartment. Brody was a middle-aged drunkard with a rotund belly, an ugly moustache and short curly hair which I'm pretty sure are infested by at least a million lice who also happened to lawyer. He had seized this property illegally from a lovely woman who had been too old and too weak to do anything about it before she passed away.

Tenants who had occupied the apartment before had been replaced by drug dealers, prostitutes, illegal immigrants and undocumented workers, basically people who had no where to run from the law.

Brody had almost quadrupled the rent just a month after moving, adding a "protection deposit" specially for women. I was basically paying him not to ****/ kill/ kidnap me and my siblings like he did to countless women. Which was partly the reason I didn't have enough money to move right now.

The last conversation we had was him trying to convince me to buy 'medicine' from him. Bloody junkie. Aish.

My need for anonymity was the reason I couldn't afford to move to an actually good place.

Smiling creepily at me, he took a step forward. I pulled my jacket closer to me, feeling shivers run down my back at the prospect of him doing something.

"You're late for the rent. The kids have been running around the apartment way too much. It's not safe for kids to be outside too much, is it?" His foul words made me vomit more than his disgustingly yellow teeth on full show. I could've busted his jaw right then and there when he talked about my brothers but I resisted.

"You're never late. But I guess it's finally a chance for me to finally get my payment another way. You know what I mean, right?"

He kept walking closer until he was right in front of me,"Aria is looking really pretty nowadays. Seventeen now, is she? That's when they're the prettiest." He gave me a sleazy wink, his breath foul with all the alcohol he had.

The hairs at the nape of my neck as I dug my nails into my palms, telling myself it's just two more weeks at most. If I were to hit him right now, it would lead me straight to the police station which was the last place on earth I needed to go right now.

"I'll pay the rent soon," I muttered quietly as I slid past him, careful to stay away so he couldn't touch me.

"You better or we'll be meeting real soon," He rubbed himself through his pants and I could've died from the disgust I was feeling for this man.

I literally ran up the stairs, unlocking the door. I struggled with it for a bit before I rested by back against the door. I locked the door, stacking chairs and the couch against it.

This isn't a warning I could afford to ignore. Last time I ignored the warnings turned out to be my doomsday.

My spirits took a nosedive as I walked around the apartment, the floors were worn, feeling like they'd give out if I so much as took another step. Our windows were duct taped, the vines creeping along it like a monster's tentacles, giving it the appearance of a horror house.

The roof leaking in the corner. The only thing stopping it from flooding the appartment was my pathetic attempt of cementing and a huge bucket.

The kitchen was rusted, the appliances too old. The refrigerator barely worked, the stove looked like something from an 80s movie and a second hand microwave that still worked, impressively. I quickly checked the shelves and the fridge.

Seems like it's time for a little grocery shopping.

Entering this place after having spent a night in the finest hotels of Vegas felt like a slap to the face. But then again, so is turning into a criminal from a computer science major.

My footsteps thudded against the floor as I walked to the kids room. Liam was sleeping with his mouth open while Aaron had kicked his blanket to the farthest corner of the room. I retrieved it and adjusted the blankets to make sure the kids won't catch a cold.

Walking into the shower, I tried not to think about everything that had happened today. It was almost like a bitter repeat of what had happened four years ago. I'm on the run. Again.

After a change of clothes, I sat on the floor with my legs crossed as I dug into the reheated mac and cheese. As I was doing the dishes my eyes fell on my purse. Dirty money.

Ugh, don't think. Don't think. I repeated to myself as I grabbed a pair of earphones and plugged it in.

Walking in my room, I saw Aria sleeping beside her open books on the bed. I placed the books aside before slipping in beside her.

As soon as my eyes closed, I saw blood splattering across the face of the man I'd once admired flooded my mind but I shook it away. Not now, not today please. I held my head in my hands as I repeated to myself. I imagined how my life would've been without that incident. Happy place, think about a happy place, I urged myself. After a few moments of blissful scenarios playing through my head, I fell asleep.