Chapter Text
1995, in the Bronx
"Wanna take a hit?"
It was a regular Friday afternoon, and like every other Friday afternoon, Jeongguk stood with his back against a tree, brown hair ruffled by the wind, eyeing cars pass by in the distance.
One would have stopped eventually.
His classmate Jimin was with him, donning an oversized, brick-red flannel coat. He knew how unhinged Johns on their side of town could be, cue the violaceous bruises blooming on Jeongguk's cheeks and knees. Prostituting himself at age nineteen wasn't exactly ideal, nevertheless, he had no intention to quit. He really needed the money. Plus, it was all he knew, along with the avalanche of shame, remorse, and hurt that came with it, used as he was to a life so dull, monotone. No pain. No joy. Just an endless present.
"Do you think there's a God up there?" Jeongguk asked, to himself more than anything, stealing his friend's lit cigarette and tucking it between chapped, cherry-hued lips. Lapping up religious crap wasn't for him, yet he still clung to the hope someone watched him from above, cursing him for his sins. Not that he cared anyway.
"I don't know, but if there really is one, he's not doing his job right," retorted Jimin to which Jeongguk nodded absently. All those years, he still couldn't fathom the other boy's fascination with him: he was a rich, straight A's student, yet liked to hang around with a prostitute. Love truly was blind or in this case, Jimin's all-consuming desire to screw him blind.
"I'm so fucking bored," Jeongguk slurred with the slowest drag off his nicotine stick, blowing a puff of thick smoke into the air.
He still remembered his very first client.
A middle-aged man with a wife and kids back at home, living just a few miles away from his apartment. He'd been gentle with him, contrary to what he expected, and despite him being a sixteen year old whore. What a sick, depraved thing for a young teenage boy to go through, some might say, hitching rides from strangers every other day of the week to lose himself for a night, on top of earning a little cash.
His mother left when he was only eight years old.
His dad was given full custody after the divorce, kicking her out of the house to go and try her luck on the streets, the last image Jeongguk had of her being one of a money-hungry leech with too much makeup on for a woman her age. Good thing she was gone and with her, Jeongguk's innocence as she never batted her fake eyelashes whenever her brother dared touching him in the dark loom of his bedroom. His dirty hands all over him haunt him to this day.
"Look! You've got yourself another one!" let out Jimin, gesturing at a tinted windowed car speeding up toward the two of them from afar. That was the third man in a row they'd encountered that day, was Jeongguk not mistaken. Only he'd turned down the first two as they weren't willing to pay enough for his pretty ass. Over time, he'd become selective of his clients, he wouldn't just go with anyone.
"Are you going to turn this one down as well?" asked Jimin, his eyebrow playfully quirked. "Cause judging by his car alone, he's got that sweet cash."
Now, for the first time in years, Jeongguk was curious. Never had he seen such a luxurious car in a place like that. A catty smirk rose to his lips. "I'm going," he said, heading towards the parked vehicle, its door slightly ajar. A subtle invite.
"Be careful, out there!" Jimin shouted to no avail, watching Jeongguk sway his chiselled hips from left to right as he walked away from him in such a sensual way. Wearing a basic pair of skinny jeans and a white t-shirt to enhance an almost feminine physique, he was candy to the eyes.
Jeongguk's steps came to a still as soon as he neared his new client's vintage car. The man inside it rolled down its tinted windows on cue upon spotting the dinky rent-boy, who took a rapid look around to make sure no cop was patroling the area.
Positive they were alone, Jeongguk lowered himself a bit to take a peek into the car window he was faced with, leaning his elbows on it with rehearsed confidence and a good dose of adrenaline pumping through his plagued veins.
"Hi there," he greeted the man before him without ceremony and keeping his chin up to assert the dominance he lacked. With that, he began subtly checking him out like he normally would with any other unassuming trick.
The bloke's hair was ebony black, poshly combed into a neat middle part that spoke of privilege, a pristine background. Middle class status. Through Jeongguk knew better than to get fooled by the man's apparent unpeccable looks. Truthfully, he was so flawless it came off as flashy. The ruggedness of his angular face and the shadow of a slight stubble, moreover, made Jeongguk think he was presumably in his thirties, as reinforced by the orderly outfit he had on. A haute couture pick, would you believe it? A half-burnt cigarette hung between those kissable, pulpy lips of his. The most lethal part of him.
When they eventually locked gazes, Jeongguk's brazen grin was quickly erased. He now struggled to breathe. To speak. The John did it for him.
"Hop in, princess," hushed the man inside the car in an unexpectedly deep voice tethered with soulful undertones, but it had been his caramelized skin and eyes in the colour of jade to catch Jeongguk's attention first. Fuck, was he handsome.
"Uhm... okay," the rent-boy let out embarrassedly, nearly stuttering, something that rarely happened, if ever, given his clients were more often than not the definition of unfuckable.
When Jeongguk plopped down the leather passenger seat of his client's car, he was met with his probing stare. The older man kept eyeing him throughly through the rear-view mirror, nigh on undressing him with his eyes, pools of emerald. A flattering gesture his was, yet also disquieting to some degree. The hustler ignored it.
The enclosed space of the jet-black, vintage Impala he was stuck in by choice was cluttered by a stinging smell of nicotine mixed with strongly scented air freshener to concoct an absolute sickening combination of contrasting odors, much to his dislike.
"Age." Was the first thing his client asked him, his gaze adamantly fixed on the road ahead. Tobacco smoke haloed around the man's shapely nose in a cloud-shaped puff, its scent as pricking as it was tantalizing.
"Nineteen," replied the conniving hustler at a low, and unnecessarily sultry voice, before letting his nimble hand tentatively slip onto his client's thigh, the thickness of which made him squirm. The older man let out a small, panicked gasp at that unprovoked solicitation, visibly freaking out at the suddenness of the Jeongguk's touch. Playing innocent. But of course.
"It's okay, you can fuck me, homeboy," Jeongguk flirted openly, a frenzied grin on him making the other man's cheeks grow cherry red. It was all part of his dirty little plan after all, making him painfully aroused, aching for him. Which is way he was adamant on keeping eye-contact with him at all times, contrary to how the John won't even dare looking at him, not even by mistake.
Indeed, the man coughed his nervousness away, big, veiny hands gripping the steering wheel with only one thing in mind: leaving that place as fast as possible. Last thing he wanted was for the police to catch him red-handed with a fucking prostitute in his car.
"Oh, don't worry about it. The cops know what's up. Now they don't even bother to come near this park..." Jeongguk reassured him in a sassy tone, trailing his tongue over his fuller bottom lip oh-so seductively. "Unless they miss me... and my tongue."
A tension-filled pause. It seemed like the John was just beginning to realize he didn't link up with any ordinary rent-boy, but a mouthy, troublesome one at that. Nothing more fortuitous to spruce up a dull workday, in retrospect.
For a brief moment, he darted a glance Jeongguk's way, only to masterfully regret it and blush even more intensely than before. The rent-boy's eyes were exceptionally dark, pulling him in like a vortex. But they were also quite beautiful, full of sparks, almost childlike in their hidden brilliance. They way they lit up whenever he spoke was as endearing as it was preoccupying. The hell was he getting all hyped up for?
"You're quite the feisty type, ain't ya?" the John boldly brought up against his better judgement, even when his cheeks were flushed like some virgin's by then and he was sweating cold.
Jeongguk chuckled amusedly, requiting the man's conspicuous look of awe mixed with concern with impressive nerve. "Very," he cooed, noting the dent in the stranger's pants caused by his growing erection and eyeing it needily. Swiftly, his small hand reached the clothed protuberance that was the man's member, throbbing from underneath his palm. Jeongguk smoothly palmed it to size him up. He had to have been roughly six inches, give or take. Good to know.
"What's your name?" brought up the trick to disguise a cracking voice. He was heating up and unable to keep his deranged brain from picturing the ways in which he wanted to use Jeongguk's body for his own sick pleasure.
The boy was caught off guard, his brown, doe-like eyes growing big in surprise. "Uhm?" he hummed cluelessly, giggling shortly afterwards.
His client quickly looked away for the abashment, wondering what did he do wrong this time around. Only then did Jeongguk realize just how dashing the man he was to hook up with truly was, yet he was much more tantalized by the lenght of his manly attributes. Looking at the bulge in his pants, he just knew... he was capital b big. He sighed with content. Hopefully, he would have bagged a nice, rough fuck by the end of the night.
"Hello?"
Too busy daydreaming, Jeongguk forgot he'd been asked a very important question. The client's calling briskly broke him out of his trance.
"Oh, my name, r-right," the boy stammered, cheeks rendered adorably flushed. His heartbeat was out of control for how tensed and jittery he was. "The name's Jeongguk, pretty," he purred in the brattiest way possible despite the whirlwind of confused emotions in him.
For one, he'd completely forgot to request payment for his services upfront, as he usually did to avoid having to deal with stingy clients. And more, he was trusting the John with his real name this time, instead of presenting himself with the customary moniker of "Nancy Boy". To ease himself out of his conflicting emotional state, he unwrapped a strawberry lollipop pulled from the back pocket of his ripped denim jeans.
Engulfing its round-shaped, reddish end with his mouth, he swirled the tip of his tongue around it, sensually, staining his lips with the candy's sugary coating. His client's lusty stare was onto him still, boring holes into his skin, turned on as he was by the way Jeongguk sucked on the damn thing like it was something else entirely and wondering just how good he must have been at giving head.
"What about you, playboy? How did your mom call ya?" inquired the pesky hustler, pretty pink lips still wrapped around his fruit-flavored treat. He was having fun, so much fun already.
The stranger hissed through his whitened teeth, "Why would you care?"
A low chuckle was heard, coming from an oh-so entertained Jeongguk. Oh, he loved the show so far. Flicking his chin up and clicking his tongue in spite, he trailed off in a velvety voice, "Just want to know whose name I gotta scream tonight." His tongue was then used to fill one side of his cheek in a suggestive manner, making his client jolt again. The way sexual frustration was building up in him was starting to become unbearable. God knew how much he needed some sort of release. Any sort would have done.
The John looked even more uncomfortable now, yet it was as clear as day he was pitifully turned on by Jeongguk's cheap gimmicks at messing with his mind, his body, his everything. "Taehyung," he mumbled at last, testy and circumspect. "Happy?"
"I am," Jeongguk confirmed and even let out a faint giggle to decompress, his breathing getting ragged, labored by the minute as all sorts of wild fantasies took over his frazzled head. Taehyung on top of him, doing him on the floor, then against a wall, then some window. What a view.
"Want me to give you one, uh? Someone's lookin' a little tight." That being said, Jeongguk's shaky hand was extended to reach the older man's belt where he began fumbling with its holes to unbuckle it. Usually, it worked. Whenever his brain drowned in pure havoc, that is. Pleasure would take place of his abrasive thoughts, if for a brief moment (or longer, depending on his clients' stamina), and he'd be savoring a sliver of peace.
"Don't," Taehyung berated him with a whimsical flick of his wrist to scare him away. Jeongguk swallowed his arousal, whisked his hand away in shame feeling like he'd overstepped the man's boundaries. Though it was his job to seduce him, now was it? He had no fault. No fault.
"Let's get out of here first," Taehyung muttered briefly and with that started up his car, feeling paranoiac like he was being watched. Perhaps by the skies above, he was. Jeongguk nodded in laggard understanding. They better not do stuff in public, and especially not in St. James Park.
And so as it usually went, Taehyung sped up to a place unknown, probably his apartment or some cheap, outskirts motel in the middle of nowhere, Jeongguk thought. Usually it was that.
"So..." murmured the teen, his unruly, brown locks falling unkempt on the headrest, no seat belt on. Taehyung was driving fast, almost too fast for his liking. But of course. He was on the clock, like most of his clients. Probably had a business meeting scheduled for later or a family dinner, set on saving merely thirty minutes of his precious time to get it on with a whore like him.
How typical. How utterly repulsing.
"What is it that you're into?" Jeongguk asked Taehyung with no qualms whatsoever, uncoughtly wiping his sticky mouth with the back of his hand as he finally let go of his lolly.
Now, he better clear things up from the beginning: he was fine with taking it up his ass as always, no need for switching things up. Anything else, from bondage practices to extreme kinks, he was down to try out at least once.
"We'll get to that later," his client curtly wrapped up, his voice deepened of a few octaves, his tone stern.
Jeongguk felt somewhat disturbed by the way the man purposefully avoided his question. "Damn... 'K big boy, I won't nag," he snapped, eyes glued to his worn-out converse shoes. Taehyung had zero chill, alright. Though it was fine, as long as he was willing to pay him accordingly to his services.
The John was driving a bit slower now, thank God, the only sounds to be heard those of the monotone buzzing of the AC mixed with the rattling of raindrops against the car window, prelude to a heavy downpour. An ephemeral mist danced into the cold, autumn air, wafting its icy breath onto the glass in the form of white fog. Jeongguk drew circles in it, moving his slim index finger in a spiralling motion, hypnotized by the way those transparent lines coiled into nothingness.
"You looked surprised earlier," Taehyung took the floor again, recalling the look of pure shock on Jeongguk's face the moment he asked for his name.
"Well, I mean..." the younger boy chuckled bitterly, fidgeting with a lighter that belonged to his friend Jimin which he wasn't going to give back, of course. "My clients usually never ask that." A curt pause ensued. Jeongguk took a deep breath, exhaled tensely. "All they care about is my age... and how far down my throat I can take 'em," he confessed in a tone filled with disgust as much as he tried to sound provoking. Still, his burning gaze was fixed on Taehyung's button-up animal print shirt. Not going to lie, he was getting hard at the mere thought of ripping that damn thing off his chest.
A few minutes later, the John's gravely voice was heard again. "We've arrived," he coldly announced, all the while his car came to a sudden halt with an ear-bleeding sound of brakes.
Seemed like they'd made it to a sumptuous building not that far away from Jeongguk's borough, considering how short their trip had been and by how familiar the street signs scattered all around the place looked. That meant, Taehyung's house must have been located not more than a few blocks away from his own.
In hindsight, Jeongguk seriously couldn't wait for the day he kissed his stupid, bigoted town goodbye. He literally knew every house, bench, tree, down to every fucking dog's snout by heart. Thus, the idea of leaving for somewhere distant, far from the mouldy four walls he'd grown up in, was entrancing, intoxicating almost. It was especially cool to fantasize about it after hitting a blunt or two with Jimin, or even better, during one of his coke-induced hallucinations.
"Quick, we don't have much time," Taehyung warned Jeongguk in a somewhat scolding manner, urging him to get out of his car with a brisk gesture of his hand. The teen nodded, leaving the vehicle in a rush, and shivering at the nasty wind nipping at his exposed skin.
It was getting dark, and the air was growing colder as Jeongguk could tell by the mantle of gooseflesh coating his frail arms. He probably should have worn something warmer than a pair of skin-tight jeans and a matching white tee, typical rent-boy attire, clothes he'd don even with zero degrees outside just to turn heads. Some prettier than others, that was for sure, though money always smelled the same even if lent by different hands. Some wrinkled, others smooth to the touch or even gloved. But the most peculiar kind were those with a ringed fourth digit. Like Taehyung's, for instance. Despite Jeongguk pretending not to notice it, there was indeed a shiny, golden band wrapped around his wedding finger.
He was married.
**
It took them a few minutes to get to the elevator, once inside Taehyung's magnificent apartment complex. They remained stuck inside it for roughly thirty seconds of interminable, awkward silence, something that thoroughly irked Jeongguk. Admittedly, he found it really hard not to start up a conversation as he was a naturally talkative person and really couldn't shut up at times.
Taehyung kept silent the whole time instead, merely glancing at his Rolex watch every once in a while. Jeongguk won't lie, at first glance the John did struck him as a pimp, or at the very least someone who was up to illicit fumblings. Besides, his thought-out clothing choice—a leopard-print shirt and ink-black coat matched with a pair of dark trousers, had to be by some famous clothing brand. Jeongguk couldn't tell which one though as Jimin was the one with a discrete knowledge in fashion, meanwhile he was fine with thrifting most of his clothes, being as broke as he was.
Once the elevator reached the fifth floor of Taehyung's lavish condo, its doors automatically opened, giving Jeongguk a glimpse of a wooden front door with a golden plaque on it reading the surname "Kim" in bold, black letters.
Stepping out of the elevator, Taehyung began rummaging in the pocket of his pants to fish out a set of polished metallic keys, then asked Jeongguk to follow him in a hushed voice.
As soon as the door to his upscale home flung open with an expected creaking noise, Jeongguk was welcomed by luxury at its finest. His mouth dropped open at the sight of white marble interiors, crystal chandeliers, fancy granite floors and golden door handles. The atmosphere he was drinking in was ravishing, to the point he felt like diving into some fairy-tale realm, one completely detached from his everyday drab reality.
"This man must be filthy rich," Jeongguk thought to himself, naively fantasizing about being wealthy enough to afford all that's lux and opulent in the world. But a boy like him could only dream. People like him were lucky enough they didn't end up begging on the streets, disowned by their homophobic parents. Perhaps he could have waited for Taehyung to doze off after rearranging his guts and steal some money from his fat wallet to even things out a bit.
It wouldn't have been the first time he did that, except in the past he nearly got killed by this one psychotic client, a thug with a murderous past and lots of unresolved issues. Hopefully, Taehyung wasn't as unhinged as the men he'd encountered before. As heartless.
At present, Jeongguk had to hold in a gasp for how stainless everything around him looked, from the perfectly arranged furniture of Taehyung's house to its sophisticated decorations adding nuanced flair to a neoclassical-type architecture. But the epitome of that picture-perfect splendour had to be the framed image of a gorgeous woman hung right above a majestic piano. Next to her, was Taehyung.
"She's very pretty," pondered Jeongguk, squinting his eyes to take a better look at the picture on the wall. Sadly, he wasn't able to say anything else that his client forcibly pinned him against it, his large hands hooked around his smaller waist to limit his movements.
Then came a spark, sudden and untamable, leading the two men to link their mouths into a heated kiss. It all started when the older man's gaze fell onto Jeongguk's lips, his throat suddenly turned dry. Then, he grabbed him by the chin to latch his fleshy lips onto his, tongue delving into the boy's warm mouth. Taehyung tasted bliss. Nectarine juice and cotton candy might have as well appalled at the sweetness of Jeongguk's candied lips, and turned sour out of shame. One thing was sure: Taehyung chose his doll well.
Jeongguk couldn't be any more perfect.
"Someone's bricked up," the teen panted against Taehyung's wet lips, briefly parting from them only to catch his breath.
Taehyung abruptly wrapped a hand around his throat, keeping him still. "Keep your pretty mouth shut, dollie," he growled into the boy's ear, eyes turning darker, hooded. "Only speak when I say so," he added, to which Jeongguk could only nod hesitantly.
Taehyung was the dominant type, which he liked, though perhaps a little too aggressive of manners. But that wasn't even the strangest thing about him, that being, he dared to kiss him. Clients always strayed away from giving in such act of intimacy. Rule number one of being a hooker: no kisses allowed, only intercourse. But really, how could Jeongguk say no to those, when Taehyung got him that good?
His mouth was once again violated by Taehyung's tongue, his clothed member rubbing against his lower stomach, making him whine and heave. The strawberry and nicotine aftertaste of their lips collided into a smothering, intoxicating mix. And so Jeongguk subdued to Taehyung's whims first to last, eyes shut, letting the male do whatever he wanted to his body. As he kept kissing him, he completely lost his train of thought, utterly drowning in pleasure. He was there to please him, not to question him. It was all part of his job.
Speaking of which, it was rather unusual for him to get turned on that fast by one of his clients. But this one man, damn, he was just so impossibly hot with his ebony locks, jade-coloured eyes, soft lips, tanned skin, veiny arms... all things that made him crave to get on all fours and get screwed by him till he could no longer walk.
A breathy whimper exited Jeongguk's lips once the kiss broke and he mannerlessly cleaned his mouth with the back of his hand, waiting for more. Frankly, he was hoping to reward Taehyung with a nice blowjob, but the older man had other plans and led him to his bedroom instead.