11. Married Woman
Han Chae-kyung managed to avoid being late for the plenary session. I attended as an observer, as a member of the legislative support team.
"Mr. Mayor. Do you know how much the education expense support project amounts to this year?"
"Yes, Councilor Han Chae-kyung. It's 21 billion won."
"I'd like to ask about the criteria for allocation. Right now, in the field of education..."
Throughout her questioning, I half-expected the smell of my own semen to waft from her mouth.
Right after the plenary session ended, I sent her a message.
There was no chance of Han Chae-kyung's whoring being exposed through my mouth. I had no intention of exposing it through writing either, nor of finding a patsy to do the exposing for me.
'A promise is a promise.'
But taking her down through means other than exposing her past — that wasn't a violation of the promise.
***
As I was figuring out how to dispose of her, two words came to mind.
Whore. And marriage.
If you only looked at the internet, you'd think whores spent their whole lives unable to escape the cycle of degeneracy — working at motel brothels, or running nail shops until they snagged a sucker and got married. But reality wasn't always like that.
There were surprisingly many women who lived as ordinary housewives.
"Deputy Director Park Joong-hyun."
"Yeah?" (11 / 14 / 2 days ago)
During lunch. Park Joong-hyun from the budget team, who'd recently visited an office-tel brothel, turned to me with a puzzled look.
Last time it had been 10 / 12 / 2 months ago...
He must have splurged on the two-shot option. Since there was no such thing as an office-tel girl who'd let you finish twice without charging extra. If anyone would entertain what I was about to say, it was this guy.
"They say there are 9.5 million married couples in Korea."
"If you count only couples whose marriages are still intact... yeah, that sounds about right. But why do you ask?"
"That means there are 9.5 million married women. And of those, an estimated 250,000 to 350,000 are former prostitutes. Could be more, but it can't be less."
"Whoa."
Park Joong-hyun let out an impressed exclamation.
At least 250,000.
No matter how low you set the bar, it was hard to go below that. Unless there was some grand alliance like the National Association of Former Office-Tel Girls or the Korean Federation of Arrangement Women, all vowing to stay lifelong singles.
"About 60 percent of married women with a prostitution background are probably hiding their past from their husbands."
"Well... but is hiding it that easy? Deputy Director Joo Sung-hyun?"
"Finding out is the harder part."
"Those bitches have no conscience."
Park Joong-hyun muttered with a hollow laugh. I kept talking, unfazed.
"And about 25 percent — their husbands either have a rough idea of the past, or they're living under tacit approval while harboring suspicions."
"That makes sense? That'd be disgusting... I don't get it?"
"There must be reasons for it. Maybe the husband came from the same entertainment industry, or maybe he's the type who doesn't care whether she was a whore or not."
Concealment. Tacit approval. And the final type...
"There's the dysfunctional type. The ones who know everything but force themselves to endure it. That's probably about 15 percent."
"That one... I can actually understand that, Deputy Director Joo Sung-hyun."
"Is that so?"
"If they have kids, they don't want to hurt them... *sigh*. And they don't want to get stuck with the 'divorced man' or 'divorced woman' label either... so they just live with their guts rotting, right? This is why you should do a full background check before getting married."
That was exactly the dysfunctional type.
Knowing your wife was a whore, being furious about it, but still forcing yourself to endure it.
Park Joong-hyun from the budget team, completely absorbed in the topics I'd brought up — concealment, tacit approval, dysfunction — started rambling on his own.
How could you live off an allowance from a whore, he'd rather live alone forever than that...
"A whore is a dealbreaker." (11 / 14 / 2 days ago)
Park Joong-hyun clutched his water cup with a solemn expression.
It had been worth bringing up the topic after all.
Park Joong-hyun was a man whose entire experience count was presumed to be office-tel girls or prostitutes of other varieties. He was also the kind of idiot who spent work hours browsing entertainment community sites — DdalDdalTour, OfficeTelJoah — searching for reviews of super-friendly girls with great vibes.
And even he said a whore was absolutely a dealbreaker.
Fair enough. I didn't care about his life anyway.
But it did feel like a productive conversation.
Because Park Joong-hyun's one line — "A whore is a dealbreaker" — confirmed that the direction I'd chosen was the right one.
'Right. The husband.'
Han Chae-kyung must have been breathing a sigh of relief by now.
She was one of those 250,000 married women with a prostitution background.
Not just some woman who'd managed to snag a decent, hardworking guy,
but a woman whose life had been dramatically transformed by her spouse. Apart from having decent looks and a strong mentality, she was a woman of extremely ordinary career background — and her becoming a prominent city councilor was entirely thanks to her husband's support.
'From the moment she started in politics, it felt like her husband had paved a path of roses for her.'
If she'd married a different man instead of her current husband?
She'd probably have lived better than her friend Kwak Min-sun, but she could never have become a politician aiming for the mayor's seat. She'd probably just be a housewife in some decent new town apartment.
That's why the husband came to mind.
If I could somehow block that whore from receiving her husband's support, and furthermore, make sure she was abandoned in a way that wasn't an amicable settlement —
that alone would be a critical blow. She was a woman who was nothing without her husband.
Now that I'd set the direction, it was all about the details.
The approach would differ depending on whether the Han Chae-kyung couple fell under concealment, tacit approval, or dysfunction...
"But, Deputy Director Joo Sung-hyun?" (11 / 14 / 2 days ago)
The office-tel regular, who'd been rambling to himself, suddenly called out to me.
When I asked what it was.
"How do you know that kind of stuff...? 60 percent concealment, 25 percent tacit approval... that. Did you read it somewhere?"
He said he was curious about the source of the information. Sounded like he wanted to look it up himself.
"I estimated it. There's no paper or anything."
"Ah. Right."
"There's not going to be a researcher studying the married lives of prostitutes."
Just a simulation I'd run on my own while thinking about how to deal with Han Chae-kyung.
"But man, it does sound plausible."
Still, I was confident it was close to reality.
***
Kim Ho-chang. 52 years old.
A man who'd poured money and influence into a wife who was a former whore, turning her into a politician.
Looking at his asset portfolio, he was the kind of local bigwig you'd find one or two of in every city and county in Gyeonggi Province.
1. Taehwa Industrial Development (real estate development / primarily Siheung and Annam) 2. Taehwa ENG (automation equipment parts manufacturing) 3. Taehwa Transport (operates 4 village bus routes in Annam City)
Just the corporations alone were at this level.
Among them, Taehwa Transport was the company my father worked for.
The biggest chunk of his assets was real estate.
Two buildings in Annam City, two parcels of land in the Sihwa MTV development zone, a pre-sale rights to a mixed-use development in Gwangmyeong City, and three residential-commercial officetels in Seoul...
Plus liquid assets of roughly 8 billion won.
And two foreign cars and two golf club memberships.
50 billion won.
Kim Ho-chang was a rich man with a total of 50 billion won in assets.
Han Chae-kyung also had about 400 million won in her own name, presumably from the money she'd earned selling her pussy.
That was by no means a small amount, but compared to her husband, it was just cute. The age gap was sixteen years, but the wealth gap was over 120 times.
And it wasn't just about the money.
When you listened to the city councilors talking behind the scenes, Kim Ho-chang's name often came up.
— "That bastard's going to make at least 2 billion more from that little tweak to the district unit plan." — "Are you talking about Chairman Kim Ho-chang?" — "I feel like I got played a bit, but bringing it up now would just make me look petty..." — "Then just let it go. Councilor Han might have been pulling strings for her husband." — "Got it. That makes sense."
A businessman that councilors, even when they realized they'd been used, would just let it slide.
That was the level of influence he wielded. As a land baron, he had a wide network and held numerous titles.
Of course, the councilors tended to cut him slack out of consideration for his wife, Han Chae-kyung, but...
Kim Ho-chang's standing was fundamentally higher than his wife's. He was at a level where, if he spent a bit more money, he could maintain "smooth" relations with public officials and politicians without even needing to go through his whore wife. Han Chae-kyung really had married well.
That's why it was the husband.
To get rid of Han Chae-kyung, I had to use her husband, Kim Ho-chang.
To save time and effort, I first needed to figure out which type their marriage fell into...
'Concealment?'
Honestly, that was the most likely.
First, Kim Ho-chang had 50 billion won in assets.
And... was it last year? When I saw him at an event, he looked decent for his age. Maybe it wasn't all his own hair, but he had a full head of it, and he was above average height. A man with that much money and a healthy body had no reason to keep a whore wife.
But I couldn't rule out tacit approval — "I'm suspicious but I'll endure it" — or dysfunction — "It sucks but I'll live with it."
Because Kim Ho-chang was, after all, a businessman.
And a purely local one at that.
Maybe he tolerated his wife's whoring past as a kind of investment, maintaining the marriage as if he were keeping a political pet.
It was true that Kim Ho-chang actually benefited from Han Chae-kyung. If money mattered more to him than pride, there was a chance he'd put up with it.
Or, with a very slim probability, he might genuinely love her despite her past.
I couldn't tell which it was.
"I'll have to see him in person to know."
I needed to see the numbers floating above the head of Kim Ho-chang, CEO of Taehwa Industrial Development.
Partner count, encounter count, most recent encounter.
This combination provided more information than I'd thought.
I had to see the numbers.
***
The next morning.
I was at the headquarters of Taehwa Industrial Development, Kim Ho-chang's main base. I'd even taken a half-day off to come here.
The company was modest in size, probably because it was in the land business. Though the building itself was owned by Kim Ho-chang.
After waiting about two hours at a café on the first floor, Kim Ho-chang finally appeared.
A charcoal gray double-breasted suit, mother-of-pearl buttons... both hands in his pockets.
He'd bulked up considerably since I'd seen him last year.
Thick neck, broad shoulders.
He was about my height, but his torso was thick as a log. A classic muscle pig. His protruding belly fat was pushing up against his jacket. Had he become a gym rat late in life? Something felt off.
The appearance mattered, of course.
But not as much as the numbers.
As he brushed past me without even a glance, I saw the numbers floating above his head — and let out an involuntary sigh.
(117 / 2,223 / 1 year 7 months ago)
A truly striking set of numbers. And at the same time, they gave me a crucial hint.
117 partners, 2,223 encounters.
A man for whom sex had been an integral part of life.
And yet, his most recent encounter was a whopping 1 year and 7 months ago — identical to Han Chae-kyung.
Add to that the overdeveloped upper body, abdominal obesity, the reddened nape of his neck, the acne that didn't suit his age... combine all of this information and...
'Impotent.'
Even if not completely impotent, he had erectile dysfunction that made natural erections nearly impossible. I could guess the cause too.
If Kim Ho-chang really was impotent —
then attacking Han Chae-kyung through a proxy wouldn't be difficult at all.