"How much for an hour?"

"Taeyeon, I know that most people don't understand the difference, but I'm an , not a e."

"I know the difference. I'm asking for your rate." Jessica took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "1,500 dollars. For two hours. That's the minimum and without tip."

The pink-haired girl rummaged her jean pocket then put up her hand with dollar bills. "I've got two thousand. So I get two hours?"

"Taeyeon", the brunette chuckled sardonically, "I don't know where you got that money, and besides, I don't take minors for—"

"I'm not a minor"

"You're seventeen."

"Not anymore."

Jessica stared at the young girl in front of her. "It's…it's your birthday?"

"Yeah", Taeyeon mumbled with her eyes firmly locked on the brunette's. "My parents gave me the money. So I can celebrate however I want to", she smiled and shook her head. "And this is how I want to celebrate it."

Frowning, Jessica stared at the wad of money gripped by Taeyeon. "You should be celebrating it with your parents and friends."

"Don't you get it?" the pseudo-punk girl exclaimed in frustration. "My parents don't care. My parents are participating in a wife-swapping event because that's what they do."

Jessica's eyes softened at the young girl in front of her. "That's…that's…"

"That's what?"

The brunette shook her head and sighed. "Nothing."

"I've lived in Las Vegas all my life, Jessica. How long have you been here?"

"Three."

"Long enough for you to realize everyone's a freak here. Freak is normal. No one even bothers to take a second glance at me because, guess what? This?” Taeyeon points at her heavily dyed hair. "This is nothing."

"What about Yuri?"

"What about her?"

"Why aren't you with her?"

"Because I told her I'm having dinner with you", Taeyeon mumbled and for the first time broke eye contact.

"Taeyeon…” Jessica sighed again. "I can't."

"When can you?” Taeyeon looked up and gazed at the woman expectantly. "I'll wait. You go by appointment, huh? So when? Do I have to call up that dude you call Taecyeon?"

"Taeyeon, no. You don't understand. I'm not taking you in as a customer. I refuse to."

"Why?" the younger girl asked in a broken voice. "I can pay."

"And I have the right to choose whom I want to transact with. Just because you can pay, doesn't mean I'll accept a deal."

"You'd rather go with erted Japanese businessmen than with me?"

When Jessica offered no answer, Taeyeon stuffed her money inside her pocket and slowly turned away.

"Taeyeon, please don't leave."

"Why?"

"We'll celebrate your birthday. You told Yuri you're having dinner with me? Then, let's have dinner. My treat. "

Taeyeon opened to say something but got distracted by a buzzing sound coming from a cellphone. She glanced to her right and saw Jessica's phone lit up on the table.

Jessica aped Taeyeon's actions and stared at her phone before turning to look back at the young girl. "Don't mind that."

"Customer?"

"Forget about that. Let's go." Jessica smiled. "Where do you want to eat?"

The pink-haired girl shook her head. "I don't want your pity", she whispered before running out of the brunette's apartment.

Jessica called out her name and tried to follow, but the young girl was fast. The brunette looked to her window and saw Taeyeon run inside her own apartment.

They were neighbors for about six months now in a posh apartment complex in Las Vegas. Jessica had established herself as a high-class around the Casino and hotel circles which meant she can pay the rent for a just few nights work. And because this was Las Vegas, it's in people's system not to care about their neighbor's business. Taeyeon was right, everyone's a freak here and everyone has a secret to keep. Rule of thumb to survive in locations like this is to not care where your neighbor goes at night, who they come home with and where they get the money to pay for a Benz. You want Pleasantville? It's not here.

Working for one man who considers her a business partner more than an employee, they started in her native New York since she was seventeen, and then slowly built a good reputation and a deep network through referrals. Three years ago, they finally moved to the big leagues. Being an meant you have an expiration date. She's twenty-seven and the clock was ticking. She gave herself one last year before she officially ditches her stilettos and move to some place nicer—Barbados, Hawaii—wherever else. Maybe put up a small pub beside the beach and spend the remaining days of her life in an idyllic way. She didn't mind being alone. If for anything, she abhorred having company because she had long associated it with fake smiles and interests.

For someone who played with the big boys almost every night, Jessica had simple dreams.

Well, maybe not that simple.

She wanted to be a singer, and had the voice and over-all star quality, but knew her chances of success were slim to none. Raised by a hard-working mother (by that we mean, she worked the streets every night) Jessica never cared much for her unknown millionaire father, Mr. Jung Woo Sung as far as her birth certificate is concerned. At least she thinks her father was a millionaire. It was what her mom always recounted when drunk. Her late mother may have been a hooker, but she was a damn good mother. So Jessica may have exercised discretion, but never felt shame for what her mom had to do in order to keep them alive.

Her mom got promoted to pimp status when Jessica reached high school. The brunette's ual awakening revolved around discussing men's sizes and the kinks they had to fulfil. Her mom never wanted her to be exposed to those things; but if you lived in the gutters of Hunts Point, Bronx, where else can you go? It was a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. So Jennifer, that's Jessica's late mother, by the way, decided that at least in her whorehouse, she and the rest of her girls can watch over her baby.

Jessica didn't care and didn't know any better. Because her mom was the "boss", she was treated nicely by everyone. Even the police looked after her because they were earning from her mother's enterprise. Two things she loved the most in those years in her mother's brothel:

She never felt hunger unlike when her mom worked the streets.

And she was always surrounded by people who educated her in ways that would become useful later on in life.

Only the strong and wise survive. And by that logic, those hookers that worked for her mother were the strongest and wisest people she knew.

Lindsay Price. Jessica would always remember that name. Because she was the one who unwittingly inspired the brunette to reach her current career.

Women with bruises were familiar for the brunette. Hazards of work. But there was this one time when her mother asked her to visit Lindsay in her room because she was apparently sick and needed some company and comfort. There was that ugly feeling of being punched in the stomach when she was informed that Lindsay was indisposed. That wily e was one of Jessica's favorites. She was young, cool, had spunk and always took time and talk to Jessica. She was the closest thing Jessica had to a sister. The young brunette knew instinctively (and braced herself) that it would be an ugly scene.

She could barely recognize Lindsay's face, and she was bed-ridden, but the older girl was still feisty as ever. "Ji Ah sent you?” she grinned with a cigarette stuck in . "Is that food? Oh dear god almighty. Your momma's an angel."

"Do you want me to heat it up?"

", no need. I'm so hungry I don't care if it's frozen. Lemme at it.”, Lindsay said as she grabbed the Tupperware and spoon from Jessica.

"Is there…is there anything else I can do?" the younger girl asked while watching in amazement how the hooker gobbled up the food.

Lindsay shook her head but motioned the other girl to sit with her, which Jessica dutifully did.

"You", the older girl pointed. "You're a good girl, Jessica."

The brunette smiled. "I try to be."

"Then you need to do whatever you can to get out of this cesspool."

Jessica looked scandalized.  "But my mother's here. And so are you."

"Jesus, your mother's rooted here. She has nowhere else to go. We have nowhere else to go. But you. I've heard you sing. You're good."

"Thank you."

"Thank me nothing. What I'm saying is try not to end up like your momma. Or me. D'ya want your face slapped while being ed? Now, some es might find that kink something that will wet their dirty , but not me. You? You want that kind of ?"

Jessica shook her head slowly.

"So, you need to get the out of here. Maybe some hotshot producer will notice ya."

"Maybe."

Lindsay looked at her and sighed."If you are gonna sell some fantasy, Jessica, make sure you get more in return. get crap. But, man. It's too late for me. You? Whatever you do, make sure you leave this ing place."

That was the last time she saw Lindsay.

The girl was found dead the next morning.

Cause of death: Suicide.

Jessica was the last person she probably had spoken to.

Jessica was fifteen that time. Lindsay just turned nineteen. The brunette had never forgotten that moment and everything Lindsay said.

By the time Jessica turned seventeen, she had lost her mother to a rehearsed raid gone awry when a trigger-happy newbie from the police force failed to read the memo and started shooting as soon as the girls began to scramble away. Ji Ah tried to stop the officer.

But there was no time to grieve because she needed to survive.

Jessica was an orphan but she was smart. She had a natural intelligence that absorbed knowledge and information like a sponge.

She stopped going to school and started looking for a job. Lindsay's advice haunted her day and night. She won't be like her mother or any of the girls in the whorehouse.

She got in a nightclub as a singer. Despite being underage, it was easy for Jessica to find someone who could forge documents and ID's. And thanks to her e guardians, she knew the proper way to make herself look older than her age. Every night she hoped that Lindsay's words were prophetic. Every night for three months, she hoped a hotshot producer would really spot her.

The person who spotted her wasn't what she expected, but would soon be instrumental to her journey.

Ok Taecyeon, the bouncer.

He worked three jobs and constantly discussed with Jessica business plans that both knew would never take off.

He liked Jessica right away and became her only source of security. For someone who might be mistaken for a criminal, Taecyeon was nothing but a gentleman to her—except when he tries to proposition —and would always walk Jessica home at night.

He became her first, and perhaps, only normal relationship with a man. By that she also meant, her bodyguard/manager the moment he introduced her to the world of high-class escorting.

"Sup", the young man nodded as he walked across the stage while Jessica was rehearsing.

"Hey", the brunette grinned.

"Got a minute? I've got, ah," he paused then looked a