Except she's reserved not in a shy way. And nowhere did I say anything about her being reserved being telling of her occupation. I guess I coulda worded it better, but I had meant that it made her claim of being a prostitute more plausible the more you talked to her. She says certain things, acts certain ways, etc. And while those alone don't indicate "Oh hey look, a prostitute!"(That would be a very odd way to look at things), that stuff paired with the fact that she even mentioned it in the first place should be enough for you to consider that as a possible truth.
In fact if a character themselves says something about themself, occupational, personal, social, etc. the best thing to do is treat it as true, or as a huge possibility, until proven false. Not the other way around.
Then you can use that along with certain social cues, behaviors and anything else in order to further your reasoning to prove or disprove whether or not it might be true. And do that until you get to a point where you see the character in the act(So you wouldn't be so surprised) or they flat out just tell you and perhaps even present some proof. For example, her talking about her father. She's done that. Did that way before you talk to her after you see her leaving the hotel.
The information she gives you, about how she lives, what her dad does, etc. should've been even more of a reason to believe that it may be true. So yeah, there was a ton of buildup, cues, hints and her flat out saying it to let you know that maybe she really is a prostitute.
Cus obviously she's not just a prostitute cus she likes it. She kind of has to in her situation. Unless you thought she was lying to you about her dad? (Which can't even be a possibility since you literally see first-hand how her dad treats her in that scene right before she sees that the cat followed her home and you offer to let her walk under your umbrella). That being said, as I've said before, tons of cues and hints to the fact she could be a prostitute.
We have:
- Rumors (Not hard proof but that's a start.)
- Behavioral Cues
- Situational Cues
- Circumstantial Cues
- Her literally saying it
And more. To say there was no buildup is just.. incorrect. It wasn't sudden. It was a "show, don't tell" kinda situation.