Simanjeong
She did something she never did, which surprised me a little, so I asked her.
"Wait… why are you taking your clothes off?"
Miryeong looked at me with a cold face as she stripped.
"Myeongsuk suggested it, and we all agreed. I'm not sure about Yongjin, though…"
For a moment I pictured Yongjin walking into my room and peeling off his clothes. I nearly threw up. Miryeong finished undressing and climbed onto the bed where I lay. She nestled against me and said,
"What did you call me for?"
I lightly held her lean but firm body and told her why I had summoned her, and we kept talking while our hands wandered over each other. Miryeong wrote down everything I said in her diary while I, from behind her, stroked her abs and her sex. Before long she was soaked, and conversation by mouth became impossible. She tossed the diary aside and lunged at me with a flushed face.
Myeongsuk was a woman of swift action. She had already scouted candidates and even sorted them by their spheres of activity, then laid it all out at our meeting. Naturally no one objected. She said she would prepare something like an inauguration ceremony for them soon, and the meeting ended.
Afterward Yongjin wanted a private word. The image of him entering my room and stripping flashed through my mind again. It was awkward, but I agreed, and we dispersed. Miryeong and Yunchae went to their rooms while Myeongsuk talked with the two ajummas who prepared the food.
My door opened and Yongjin came in carrying soju bottles in both hands. A bag of snacks hung from his wrist. We spread the food and soju on the table. I had not had much chance to drink lately, and already my mouth and stomach were clamoring for it.
"You wanted a drink, right? So did I."
I was insanely grateful to him. We drank almost without talking until one bottle was empty. Yongjin opened a fresh bottle, filled two glasses, leaned back in his chair, and looked at me.
"Hard, isn't it? Gathering people several times a week and talking to them…"
I leaned back too and smiled.
"You know me, hyung. I like that kind of thing. It doesn't feel hard."
Yongjin nodded.
"I know. I know well. That's why we started this in the first place."
He wet his lips with the glass and continued.
"Well, money's starting to come in properly. The number of believers hasn't grown, but once the construction finished the cash started piling up."
I raised my glass.
"You handle the finances, hyung. If we need emergency funds… not that I think we'll need them, but tell me."
Yongjin's expression grew a little serious. I leaned forward.
"Hyung… you've got something to say, right? Or is it a worry?"
He did not look at me.
"Not a worry, exactly…"
After a pause he lifted his head.
"I took a leave of absence from school yesterday."
I stared at him in surprise.
"And Yunchae did too, apparently."
"What?"
I was surprised, and a little hurt. Yunchae lived under the same roof as me, after all. Hearing this from someone else's mouth stung.
"Yunchae says she has no intention of going back to school."
I was speechless. She was even quitting entirely…
"I'm seriously considering doing the same. I'm thinking of this as my lifelong career."
I had never planned on treating it as a temporary joke either, but seeing everyone throw themselves into it so earnestly sobered me a little. Yongjin drank again and went on.
"There's endless work for me here. Plenty of things I want to do and can do. And the people around me make those things possible. I think it's time to dive in for real. But the most important thing for me to keep doing this…"
He pointed at me.
"Is you. Anyone else can be replaced, but you can't. So until a successor appears much later, you have to hold that seat. Can you do that?"
I neither answered nor refused. Honestly I had no grand alternative or other ambitions. Yongjin continued.
"Of course there has to be compensation for you holding that seat. Everything the order owns will be put in your name. And we'll create a separate foundation so that I, Yunchae, Myeongsuk, and Miryeong receive salaries from it. Of course we don't have the financial scale for that yet, so once more money comes in. Naturally we'll talk about it whenever needed."
I waved my hand.
"You handle it, hyung. Even if you took it all I wouldn't care. Three meals a day like now is enough for me."
Yongjin smiled.
"I knew you'd say that. But I won't abandon you. Like I said, none of this works without you in the first place… Anyway, thanks for trusting me. I'll do my best too."
We toasted and downed a few more glasses.
"I talked with Myeongsuk. We need to deify you a bit more. Miryeong agreed too. But if we show that kind of image all of a sudden people will feel resistance. We'll proceed step by step, so don't reject it too much. Think of it all as business."
Business… So Yongjin thought of this as business. Myeongsuk seemed the same. Honestly I knew those two had started this for the money. With Yunchae and Miryeong I still wasn't sure. I asked carefully.
"Hyung, if money comes in through this, what do you plan to do with it?"
Yongjin pressed his lips into a line, thought a moment, then spoke.
"If the order gets money I'll reinvest it and grow it. When there's more I'll reinvest again… In a capitalist society that's power and influence. I want to become someone who has that kind of power."
I did not disagree entirely. Looking into his eyes I said seriously,
"Still, let's not do anything illegal. Promise me we'll never make people shed tears of blood."
Yongjin set down his glass and took my hand.
"Never… absolutely never. Once we have power, let's help people like us who are struggling. Let's become a real light for them."
I believed without a doubt that this single sentence of Yongjin's would become the fate of me and this order. The drinking continued, and as the alcohol started to hit him a little he said,
"Soon I'm going to make this third floor a sacred place. Of course later I plan to give you a somewhat independent living space. But let's always have private moments like this as the old Yongjin and Donghyun. Human to human."
My tongue was a little thick as I answered.
"Is that a promise? I have no friends, no one. All I have is you, hyung."
Yongjin snorted a laugh.
"Well. From now on I don't know if you'll even have time to feel that lonely."
At the time I let his words wash over me without realizing they would become my daily life.
After the drinking session I fell asleep on the bed, and Yongjin, drinking alone, woke me to say he was leaving, then left the room. The next day rustling sounds woke me. Yunchae was cleaning the room. Naturally she was naked. I tried to force my body up. She came over and said,
"Sleep a little more. I'll clean up here and leave."
If she was just cleaning and leaving, why naked…? I still had a hangover and my head hurt, so I fell back asleep. When I opened my eyes again I was sleeping in a clean room. I struggled up, showered, and cleared my head. When I came out of the bathroom, naked Yunchae was there again. She dried my body with the towel I was holding and said,
"I'll prepare a meal. Rest a bit."
After drying me she went out. I sat there naked for a moment, and this time Myeongsuk came in with a tray of food. She set the tray on the table and, as I started eating, began undressing. I was starting to get a little used to situations like this.
While I ate she spoke in front of me.
"A few things to let you know. After discussing with Yongjin, Yunchae, and Miryeong, we decided to call this building Simanjeong. Yongjin will have a sign and such made soon. And the Seongyodan I mentioned last time…"
My stomach was empty and sour, so I ate while listening. Chewing the food and drinking the soup, I nodded at Myeongsuk. With her fuller figure sitting demurely curled up, her breasts gathered and looked even larger, and the flesh of her hips rounded out. Honestly, even though Myeongsuk was older, her body seemed better than most women her age. I found it funny that I was thinking that while eating.