The Price of Spinelessness
Han Chae-kyung. Could she come back as a serving councilor?
The edge she’d once held… honestly, it had been real.
Not just bragging. She had actually possessed it.
Compete with the twenties? Tough. She wasn’t in her early thirties anymore; she was late thirties.
But in a single local district, she had been an ace. The clientele ran older, so she could win with emotional power. More second customers than one-off, people who would spend a drink to ease loneliness and finish with her before heading home. Plenty of them.
Her service skills had long since become muscle memory from years of practice; adaptation time wasn’t an issue.
Two teams a day. Second rounds with a customer, three times a week at most.
Just that would have covered a decent salary for most salarymen. A few lonely regulars alone could have kept her afloat. And done so well.
Han Chae-kyung had never officially announced her return.
But I hadn’t brought up those thoughts for nothing.
“Ms. Kwak Min-sun, what brings you here?”
“That… Ms. Han Chae-kyung asked me to come.” (19 / 318 / 3 hours ago)
Kwak Min-sun, once Han Chae-kyung’s college friend, had turned up because she had contributed quite a bit during the process of sending Han Chae-kyung away.
She had even accepted the commission from Han Chae-kyung herself, and she was smiling as if uneasy.
“Yesterday I called her, and she went on for two hours saying how unfair it was that she had committed such a huge sin she shouldn’t have to suffer like this, how she couldn’t stand it. At first I thought, why is she doing this? We were estranged for good, but then Ms. Han started crying so hard…”
“Estranged. I haven’t heard that word in a long time. Were you feeling sorry for her, so you came all the way here?”
“Yes. Truth be told.”
They could summon vultures when it suited them, but now they were patching things up.
I had no intention of blaming her for taking what I had given, but I did find it strange.
That was exactly how fast Han Chae-kyung’s fall had been. Even Kwak Min-sun, who had helped push her down, now felt sympathy.
“Understood. What is your purpose?”
“I have something I want to know.”
“What is it?”
“No matter how I think about it, I don’t think she should have been treated like this; it’s too much, she said.”
Han Chae-kyung seemed to believe she was paying a harsher price than the sins she had committed (though she had probably never seen them as sins).
I looked at Kwak Min-sun, but she had nothing worth answering.
“Hmph.” (19 / 318 / 3 hours ago)
Kwak Min-sun shrank her shoulders and looked away.
She didn’t seem to be trying to deal with me now by recording a call…
That made sense. It had to be that the call was still connected.
By now Han Chae-kyung was probably listening to our conversation. She must have had me ask Kwak Min-sun to come because she couldn’t bear to look me in the face, or perhaps because I had implied something like “If you meet me one more time, I can make you return to active duty.” I couldn’t tell which.
‘I know exactly how unfair it is.’
A politician who had been a sponsor girl and thought she could dodge consequences?
Honestly, it sounded ridiculous.
I decided to roll with it after thinking about the effort she had sent a woman who had once been my enemy to deliver this message.
“Ms. Kwak Min-sun, just put it on speakerphone. Smartphones with noise-cancelling are surprisingly good these days. She’ll probably only hear a muffled mess by now.”
“Indeed… you already knew.” (19 / 318 / 3 hours ago)
“Yes. And I know why she feels so unfair.”
Seventy sponsors. Tremendous whore skill. If she had been caught back when she was selling her body, she would have gotten off with a two-hundred-thousand-won fine and a mandatory education course at best. Or maybe no fine and a suspended prosecution. A suspended prosecution would have meant no criminal record.
If that had happened back then, I wouldn’t have had to deal with her at all.
“I honestly can’t erase Ms. Han Chae-kyung’s victimhood, but I can tell you this.”
“…?” (19 / 318 / 3 hours ago)
“Imagine two former prostitutes from the 1988 birth year who are the same age as you two. Their names are Mina and Jinhee.”
Suddenly brought into the hypothetical, Kwak Min-sun blinked with her eyes wide in surprise. Han Chae-kyung would have been the same, but there was no time to explain in detail.
“Of those two, Mina was a condition-sponsor type just like you. She sold her body for three years, then worked a regular job after graduating from university and opened a guesthouse. She married at thirty, and they have one daughter.”
“Real person…?” (19 / 318 / 3 hours ago)
“Feel free to think whatever you like. And Jinhee, sadly, started in a brothel. She never realized the market had collapsed and kept pouring in. She worked two years in Pyeongtaek taking ten clients a day, then moved to Siheung and specialized in villa oil massage.”
“…”
“These days she’s doing fine. She’s the head of a massage parlor. She takes five hundred thousand won a month while taking care of her siblings, and she has a younger boyfriend.”
Mina and Jinhee. Prostitutes who weren’t as good as Han Chae-kyung but had made their lives remarkably stable. Of course they were fictional women I had created on the spot.
“What if these two women had their pasts exposed like Ms. Han Chae-kyung?”
A faint curse came from Kwak Min-sun’s smartphone on speaker. A sigh followed.
She had understood, or not. It didn’t matter either way.
“Probably nothing much would happen to either of them.”
At worst, Mina, who is married, would take some hits, but her life wouldn’t break completely.
Her business would stay intact, and with luck her family could be kept too. Sponsors don’t leave proof; unless there’s sex video and she hasn’t seen dozens of men, it’s only circumstantial evidence.
As for Jinhee, the brothel head, the impact would be zero.
“Jinhee was already a prostitute, and she still is; she’s just changed positions.”
Exposing the truth wouldn’t work. In fact, even if the exposer got shamed for being an idiot.
Mina and Jinhee.
These were the perfect examples of 1988-born prostitutes who had recovered normally.
Women who had lived the life of a prostitute like Han Chae-kyung but built a fairly solid life,
or who, if they ran into someone like me and their past was exposed, could minimize the damage. The secret was simple.
“By being less greedy.”
They knew they could be caught one day. Mina opened a guesthouse, Jinhee stayed in the shadows.
Han Chae-kyung had not done the same.
If she felt she was being punished more than her crimes deserved, that was the only reason.
If she had only restrained her greed, she might have lived even better than prostitutes with similar skills. Much better.
“Ah…” (19 / 318 / 3 hours ago)
Kwak Min-sun, who had come instead of Han Chae-kyung, had a regretful expression, perhaps because she had once been a condition-sponsor girl herself.
From beyond the smartphone came a choked sob.
But I had no more words to say, nothing I wanted to say anymore.
***
After Kwak Min-sun left.
Han Chae-kyung no longer pestered me. She didn’t even show her face.
Only rumors reached me.
That Han Chae-kyung had been abusive toward her ailing husband and elderly mother-in-law.
That she had begged the council chairman and local member of parliament to resolve everything quickly.
The direction was clear enough.
And four days later.
At last, Han Chae-kyung’s press conference was held.
[Breaking News] Annam City Councilor Han Chae-kyung to hold press conference
[Live on Site] Live from the city council briefing room
[Live] Sixty journalists gather… to make an announcement about her future
The location was the city council briefing room. Interest was intense.
All three terrestrial networks and four cable channels were broadcasting live. Real-time viewers had just broken thirty thousand.
“Ms. Han Chae-kyung, when are you coming? You’re taking forever!” (6 / 379 / 15 hours ago)
“Dear reporters? I’m sorry, but the space is limited. For smooth progress, could you please tidy the seats…” (1 / 24 / 5 years 8 months ago)
“Ah, when are you coming?!” (0 / 0 / -)
Sixty journalists were bustling in the narrow room. Journalists and YouTubers who couldn’t even enter the briefing room numbered more than fifty…
I, on the political team, was helping with crowd control.
Watching the number of sexual experiences of the humans gathered here.
Because so many people were gathered, there were quite a few prostitutes. Because the waiting time was long, couples who had gone out for one round and come back in were also present.
After about an hour of waiting.
“Ah, here she comes!” (0 / 0 / -)
“……” (73 / 887 / 1 year 7 months ago)
The owner of the familiar number finally stood in front of the press table.
Han Chae-kyung. At this moment, the most famous junior councilor in South Korea.
The textbook example of a political has-been.
Black jacket, flat shoes instead of high heels. Accessories: none. Her face looked pale as if little foundation had been used, and dark circles were visible.
She held neither script nor tablet in her hand.
‘She probably wants to finish quickly. Naturally.’
That was her wish, but the reporters were unlikely to let her go so easily.
Flashes exploded from every direction, and high voices and curses followed. “Move!” “Fuck, don’t move, Han Chae-kyung councilor, look at me!” “Are you going to release the list of sponsor men?!” The voices of the journalists jostling at the narrow press table grew louder and louder.
If not for the cover provided by me and the other staff, Han Chae-kyung would have been surrounded long ago…
She did not look like she would be allowed to leave quietly after only reading the press statement.
“Ms. Han Chae-kyung! Do you admit your sponsor history?!”
Han Chae-kyung creaked as if she couldn’t bear to look straight ahead.
When I stole a glance, she looked like she was right before collapse.
No matter how you looked at it, the reporters’ voices only grew louder.
I thought a normal press conference was impossible.
“I… am…”
The words Han Chae-kyung mumbled came out. The reporters shouted to make her speak louder.
But they soon fell silent.
“I was a prostitute.”
With clearer tone, she repeated what she had said.
By her own mouth. Not a sponsor girl, but a prostitute.
For a moment the air in the briefing room froze in confusion.
I had never expected her to open with a confession as a prostitute. Normally it started with something like “I deeply apologize for troubling citizens over personal matters.”
If that was her intention, she had succeeded.
“…I am resigning from my position as city councilor today. I will also completely abandon the asset division lawsuit with my husband. I know I cannot cover up my mistakes with any words. I will carry that responsibility alone and leave this place.”
She cut short her words with “I will leave,” then descended the stage.
A roar erupted afterward, but she ignored it and left.
Just before leaving, our eyes met…
Looking at the face carved with cracks, I was certain.
“……” (73 / 887 / 1 year 7 months ago)
That woman was not just leaving the briefing room.
She was leaving.
She was leaving far away.
In my eyes, this was the first wise judgment Han Chae-kyung had ever made.