Someone knocking on the front door of the house startles me, but I do not move, Sookyung does and heads towards it to check who is here while I am continuing what I started.

"Hello," Sookyung opens the door, but as soon as I hear the voice of the other person, my body reacts to it, and my heart skips a beat. "Hello, may I talk to y/n?" Mister Jeon asks for me, and he proves me wrong. I would not have expected him to do this only for me. "She's not here today, why?"

I turn my head to look for Jun, making sure he is hiding as his father told us both to do, and I see him stare at me while holding his plushie against his body, staying right in front of the sofa of which the back is turned towards the door.

This pains me so much to see him like this.

"She's not here? Where is she then? Cherry told me she hasn't gone to work for more than a week which is unusual from her," he persists, not believing what he is hearing from my boyfriend. "She's in Hawaii. Why are being so obsessed with her? She's my girlfriend, so you mind your own fucking business and stop prying into our life and harassing her."

"Harassing her?" he chuckles, not wavering in front of him. "I'm just making sure she's alright because I know what type of guy you are, so I will pry into your life if I want to."

"Listen, either you leave us alone, or I fucking make you do it. Alright?" he starts to lose his patience in front of Mister Jeon who does not keep quiet. "She doesn't give a fuck about you, and you should get that in your head, motherfucker. If you think she ever gave a shit about you as if you were a special client, you're the most naive guy, and you're a dumbfuck for believing that a sex worker would feel any emotion for an asshole who comes and gets drunk while watching half naked girls walk around all night long," he emphasizes all his words to hurt him, and I feel the pain inside of me. None of that is true.

"Sure," he replies. "I'll come back, and I can assure you that you'll regret this," he walks away, and Sookyung does not wait before slamming the door. I take the bowl filled with a mashed banana and cookies made for babies, and I get the bottle to turn around to move towards Jun. "You must be happy, aren't you?" Sookyung makes me stop myself and look up at him. "This asshole came here just to see and save one of his sluts," he does not care about Jun who hears all those words that a child should not even hear.

I do not let this affect me but move forward, and I head to Jun. I sit down on the sofa, and he stands up to come close and climbs onto my lap. Knowing Sookyung is eating the rest of his meal, I take Jun's pacifier out of his mouth and feed him while he is cuddling me. "Tell me if you want something else, okay?" I speak in a low voice to him, and he nods but eats what I prepared for him. He seems to like it, so I am happy.

I press a kiss on his head, his small body never letting go of me, I hold him close and give him another spoon.

•••

6 pm.

The silence filling the entire room, I look at my baby playing with his toy, sitting on my lap as we are both being soothed by the rocking chair we are on. He snuggles up against me with his head on my chest, sucking on his pacifier.

I never stop the movement of the chair but enjoy this moment with him, feeling like everything in my head is trying to fight against the peacefulness of this. I bring my eyes down to Jun once he rubs my hand with his tiny fingers, and he gazes up at me. He turns and directs his body towards mine, and he hugs me. He takes his pacifier out of his mouth and holds it against his lips to toy with it.  "Was daddy angry with you?" he confirms my worst fear. He has not forgotten after sleeping. He still remembers what he saw last night.

I do not even know what to say. I cannot find any excuse at all. "No, honey. He wasn't," I move my hand up to his hair to comb it, and he stares at me as if, with no word, he was telling me that he knows I am lying. I force a smile to show no negative emotion, but he lowers his attention and touches my throat, and he pays a lot of attention to it. "What is that?"

I touch this spot, not knowing what he is talking about. "Nothing, my baby."

"It's a boo boo," he barely keeps his skin against mine as if he was scared to hurt me, and I understand he must have noticed the slight red marks Sookyung leaves on it when he holds it too tightly. "It's just some pencil because I was drawing earlier," I reassure him so that he never believes this is something bad, and he smiles, taking this lie with innocence. "I wanna draw too."

"Do you want mommy to bring some pencils and your book?" I run my fingers through his hair to comb them back, and he nods, happily. "Alright, I'm coming back with it so that you can draw pretty things," I kindly stand up with him in my arms and put him down, and I get out of the room but close the door behind me to head to the cabinet where the stuff for him is.

I hurry to not have to face Sookyung, and I make my way back to Jun's bedroom with his pencils and book where he draws a lot. I never leave the door open behind me, and I walk up to my excited baby who cannot wait to be able to express himself on the paper. "Here it is," I place the book and box of pencils down on his small desk, and he squeezes his plushie while smiling from ear to ear. "Thank you, mommy," he opens the book, and I sit down on the floor to remain close to him.

•••

10:50 pm.

My baby now asleep again after I stayed near him so that he can feel safe while going back to sleep, I stand up and quietly go out of the room. I close the door, but I set my eyes on Sookyung, who is lying down on the sofa, which barely happens. He turns his head towards me in a lazy manner, and he runs his fingers through his hair. "Come here, babe," he lays his arm over the side of the sofa, and I move up to him, wondering when what I have given him will be effective.

I sit down by his side, and he puts his hand down on my bare thigh, nothing but the short nightie, which he forced me to wear, covering the most important parts of my body. "I'm feeling so fucking tired tonight," he closes his eyes and bends his head back, but his fingers run up my inner thigh.

"Have you worked a lot in front of your screen again?" I pretend to not know, and he sets his eyes on me. "Hm. Yeah, but I don't have a choice, and on top of that, one of the V.I.Ps fucking pissed me off earlier."

"Why? What did he say?" I do not move or feel any emotion as he is continuously caressing my inner thigh. "He's complaining because you're not there and that he's not satisfied with the other girls."

"He'll be there tomorrow then?" I assume this complain to be one of the reasons why he is making me go back to work. He knows he might lose one of his most important clients. "Yeah," he confirms, and I bring my eyes to the television. I am not surprised. He does not mind seeing men sexually use me as long as they pay and do not feel anything for me.

"Ugh..." he takes his hand off of me and tangles both hands in his hair to keep them away from his face. "Right now, a blow job would really help to wake me up," he smiles and looks into my eyes. "What's wrong about being sleepy? I can do it tomorrow in the morning if you want."

He shakes his head, not okay with this. "Now is better. I don't wanna sleep yet, and it always hits different when I'm sleepy and feel you suck me. That feels so much better."

I stare at him, knowing he will not give up on wanting this. "Come on...baby," he believes this is what I want and places his hand on mine, and he drifts it to his crotch. "You can start with some rubbing first."

I do as he wants and please him.

50 minutes later...

Feeling physically too tired after coming back from the bathroom, I go slowly and move to the dining table, but I discreetly check up on my boyfriend again.

He seems asleep, but I am not sure the pills are working.

I tidy up and take all the dirty dishes, walk up to the kitchen, and I put everything down but think about the time the instructions indicated it would take for the sleeping pills to work.

My heart rushing at the realization, I glance down at my hands but notice how shaky they are. With fear, I decide to make my way back to Sookyung and lean over the side of the back of the sofa to make sure he is not simply resting. I say his name, snap my fingers to make some noise, but he does not react, he seems deeply asleep.

What I have done is horrible, and I will never forgive myself for doing such a thing to him, but Jun means more to me than he does, so I need to protect him, no matter what it takes. I have to do it.

With acute pain in my chest that is caused by the anxiety, I walk to my bedroom and delicately close the door, and I hurry to pack my stuff, without caring about how messy it is, how I stuff what comes first in the bag. I do not close the zipper but keep it with myself, and I get out of the room, stick my eyes on him to never miss a single move of his body, and I go back to my son's bedroom to grab some stuff he will need.

Then, I put everything in the bag and close the zipper, not thinking whether I forgot something or not, I lose my breath in suffocating dread, and I peek outside of the room once again so that I am sure at one hundred percent that he is not going to wake up. He is still on the same position, so I step towards the front door and take Jun's jacket and shoes, go back to him, and as soon as I feel like it is the right time to not doubt anymore, I pick Jun up and kindly wake him up. "Baby, hold your arms up," I whisper and put the jacket on him, his sleepy face exposing some confusion. "Where are we going?"

"Shh," I hold my finger up against my lips so that he does not speak too loudly, and I put his shoes on his feet. "We're going somewhere else," I take him in my arms and seize my bag, and I leave the room without closing the door, I feel myself being close to fainting while heading to the front door that seems so far away from me.

I quickly put in the first pair of shoes that I see, and I open the door, which is, for the first time, unlocked since he did not have time to lock it for the night. This is the only opportunity I will have, so I grasp it, no matter how dangerous it is, I step out of the house, close the door behind us as slowly as I can to not make too much noise, and when I finally breathe the outside's air, I make fast to walk away and leave. I lose no time.

This is for my child's life, so I will not go back to him. I do not want him to go to the next level and lay a hand on our child, so I am preventing worse from happening.

"Am I punished?" he asks me, in a innocent voice, my tears rolling down my cheeks. I shake my head and press a kiss on his forehead, and I do my best to carry him and the heavy bag, despite the strain it requires. "No, my baby. We're going to meet a friend. Don't worry," I walk through the dark streets and do not think about the time it will take for me to reach Mister Jeon's house. I have no money, no phone, no contact with anyone, so I do not have a choice but to walk all the way there.

50 minutes later...

The familiar house finally coming within sight, I heave a sigh full of pain and process to the front door. The shutters are closed, and I see no light coming from it, so I hope he is here and not at the nightclub.

I drop my bag on the floor, my body barely responding anymore, I knock on the door and hold Jun, who is sleeping with his plushie against him, with both of my arms.

Crossing my fingers for the door to open, I try as hard as I can to not collapse, and to my greatest relief, it only takes a few minutes for Mister Jeon to appear.