The Informant
Right now, what I'm preparing isn't an escape—it's a successful exit.
Technically, it still is an escape, but in this line of work, the definition of escape is whatever keeps you breathing.
Ri Su-jin kept replaying the words in her mind. She had to, or she wouldn't be able to contain the fury that burned every time she thought of Joo Sung-hyun.
“Um, unnie! Chairman Choi Min-sik says he wants to see you right now. If you don’t go, he’s threatening to break into the company.”
“Send him in.”
“Are you really sending him in?”
“Yes. Quietly.”
While all that was going on, a client walked into the office.
The same guy who had burst in last time I was with Joo Sung-hyun, destroyed everything, and now, somewhere in Yanbian, was sulking like a loser—‘compatriot’ Jang Guk-cheol. He was no ordinary client.
A porn studio owner who ran things out of Siheung.
He kept forty-seven girls on the books. One of his favorite suppliers.
Of course, Ri Su-jin hadn’t allowed the meeting out of any kind of consideration for the client’s feelings.
“Ri Su-jin CEO. You said you were sending some girls…”
“Are you here for a consultation?”
“Uh? Ah… yeah.”
“Please, sit down.”
She placed the burly studio owner in the chair in front of her.
Before he could even finish clearing his throat, she cut him off.
“Fifteen girls, one after another, by next May.”
“Suddenly, what—”
“Five for the elite line, ten for the regular line. I’ll be sending them over.”
“Really?”
The porn studio owner’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
Ri Su-jin smiled softly and slid a pre-prepared pipeline proposal across the desk.
It was packed with profiles of the girls.
The elite line consisted of beautiful foreign girls who could match or even beat domestic girls in sales.
The regular line was cheap, easy-to-replace stock that could be rotated into any shop.
Together, fifteen girls. A big order.
“First, I’ll introduce you to the elite line. Let’s start with Arri from Yanbian.”
“Chosonjok…? Oh, I have no grudge against them!”
“Relax. She’s been working as a hotel concierge for two years. No Chosonjok accent, and she’s 172 centimeters.”
“Statuesque? Good.”
The owner was clearly interested. Ri Su-jin pushed him further.
“Next is Natalia. Ukrainian.”
“Ah… white girls are nice, but—”
“She speaks Korean.”
“Really?”
“She worked as a fit model for three years in Korea… look at her figure. You’ll be able to take her for six hundred dollars a month without any problems.”
“Premium, huh? Sounds good.”
A Ukrainian girl who spoke Korean and had a model body.
“Next is Pai from Thailand.”
“Is she elite too? Haha. Massage-friendly, and she can speak a little Korean.”
“She has one more big advantage. She’s tall.”
“Chest size?”
“Yes, here are the photos.”
“Wow. Nice rack.”
A cute, 162-centimeter Thai girl with a G-cup.
The owner swallowed hard as he stared at Ri Su-jin, desperate.
Why was she suddenly offering such high-end stock? Even though she had been rude, why the generous offer? He probably wondered the same thing.
Ri Su-jin smiled gently and explained.
“We need an advance payment.”
“Ri Su-jin CEO, you’re loaded, aren’t you?”
“Filthy rich. But lately the tax office has been poking around.”
“Ah, that. I’ve heard a bit about it.”
“A lot of Chosonjok have been suffering in the national tax market. When they tried to handle it, the broker fees got short on brokers… you know how it is?”
“Mm!”
He slapped his knee in agreement.
Seven years of trading together had made the conversation unusually smooth.
She had taken advance payments before, imported girls one after another, and delivered them. This time the amount was bigger because it was fifteen girls, but not outrageous.
“Chairman Choi, shall we conclude the deal on these terms?”
“Great!”
“Elite line will be handled with full support for at least three years. Regular line is standard. But the advance needs to be six hundred million won—into the electronic wallet I specify.”
“Stablecoin. Got it.”
“I’ll also give you the route.”
A perfectly reasonable advance, fast and concrete.
Ri Su-jin pocketed the six hundred million.
The advance payment she had received in exchange for sending fifteen girls one after another.
“Thanks, Ri Su-jin CEO! I made a good deal!”
But the porn studio owner, laughing like a fool as he left, would never receive any of the girls.
Arri from Yanbian, Natalia from Ukraine, and the Thai G-cup Pai.
Not one of the fifteen faces would be seen.
Because the first delivery date was still days away…
‘I’m sorry, Chairman Choi.’
Ri Su-jin was going to be somewhere in Korea—or rather, somewhere else.
The porn studio owner, who had been bled dry of six hundred million and would never see the girls, was in serious trouble.
But what of it? He was just another filthy porn studio owner anyway.
Ri Su-jin felt no guilt.
“Tae-pil.”
“Yes, unnie!”
“Did you send the wire?”
“Fifteen million each to six locations. I also placed ten million in the gold exchange you mentioned. I’ve prepared the packing separately so you can take it with you. The overseas account—you’ll handle it directly?”
“You’ve done well. I’ll take care of you separately.”
While she was at it, Ri Su-jin had been siphoning off money from her girl-importing business.
It had started as a small venture on the bottom line she had scraped together after two years of breaking her body in the industry… She had earned a lot over ten years, but if she had a little more time she could have safely pulled most of it out. But now the pressure was on.
If she was greedy, she would definitely get caught.
Fortunately, the naive clients had paid advance, so she wouldn’t run short.
For the rest of her life.
‘That’s enough. Money’s safe.’
Just as she was finally breathing a sigh of relief.
“Unnie. Sorry, I have to step out for a bit. The girls are causing a ruckus saying the boss won’t let them work.”
“That’s your problem to handle.”
“They’re screaming that if they don’t work right away, the debt collectors in their home country will come for them. They want you to send them out immediately, or they’ll report everything. What do I do?”
“Report?”
The story of the fellow girls in standby causing a scene had reached her.
Girls who had crossed from Yanbian and Shenyang.
They were supposed to be introduced to clients a few days ago, but it had been delayed.
She had delayed it so she wouldn’t give the immigration office, the police, or the National Intelligence Service any excuse. Chosonjok girls always got caught at the very beginning.
They weren’t locked in a warehouse; they were in a decent office, being looked after with extra pocket money. Still, they were screaming to sell their bodies…
Up to this point she could understand. She had been a girl herself once.
But reporting?
“Pien-ran… the little bitches are going too far.”
“Unnie…?”
“Send the small ones to me. Handle them.”
“Unnie, I think I understand.”
“You understood exactly what I meant. Step on one of the ringleaders, and the rest I’ll deal with later. Pay each of them five hundred and send them back to China.”
The ringleader was half-witted. The others just needed to be calmed down so they could go home.
It wasn’t her usual way of doing business.
She wasn’t a gangster; she was a broker. The small girls she had brought from China usually did simple errands—running messages, driving, collecting money. Occasionally the owners would use violence when they were angry, but she had never hit the girls herself.
But this wasn’t the time to quibble.
“Should I handle it myself?”
“No, unnie, please let me do it. I’ll watch.”
“Do it properly.”
She didn’t want to get scolded herself.
Ri Su-jin’s orders were carried out immediately.
That afternoon…
A report came in: one Chosonjok girl with a face that had been thoroughly chewed up, and three others with terrified expressions, had been sent to Incheon Airport.
Ri Su-jin paid no attention and kept focusing on business arrangements.
She knew what was coming.
If she suddenly vanished like this, abandoned her base, and fled with only the money, a lot of people would be in trouble.
The men who used her as a marriage-visa shuttle.
The legal employees of K-International Marriage beyond the closest circle.
The girls and clients who relied on her completely.
Even if she minimized it, more than five hundred people’s lives would be thrown into chaos. Half of them might even collapse completely.
‘Still, there’s nothing I can do about it.’
Ri Su-jin didn’t have the ability to save everyone.
The only two people she had to save right now were herself.
And her younger sister Ri Su-min, whom she had backed up while selling her body.
A few close allies who already knew about the escape plan would definitely be taken care of, but if she had to cut them loose, she would do it at an appropriate price.
“CEO, the tax office keeps asking for cash receipts. What do I do?”
“Tell them you’ve already paid.”
“Ye~”
Ri Su-jin closed her eyes, knowing there wasn’t much time left.
And she pictured the life after the successful exit.
A newly built condominium in Chiang Mai with strict entry controls.
Mornings spent wandering cafés, afternoons at spas.
Weekends in a short trip to Chiang Rai or Lamphun…
Once she found a good spot, starting a small business of her own wouldn’t be so bad, right?
Not for money, but for fun.
At the right time she wanted to introduce Su-min to a nice man.
Ri Su-jin herself despised breadz, but Su-min wasn’t quite as bad, and Korean-Chinese could make compromises.
Thinking about it, she also wanted to see her future niece.
‘Of course she’d be cute, right? Whose niece would she be?’
To live safely, Ri Su-jin decided to become even colder.
Excluding herself and her sister, everyone else was already a bullet to be dodged.
****
At the same time, in the Southern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Headquarters’ Counter-Intelligence Investigation Division.
Ri Su-min, summoned under the pretense of a meeting, was at the breaking point.
“Please answer without holding back, Officer Ri Su-min.”
It was the uncomfortable questions from the counter-intelligence agent.
Probably some National Intelligence Service uncle or auntie watching from somewhere. Originally, the counter-intelligence division was supervised by the National Intelligence Service.
“Officer Ri Su-min. Do you see this? The man next to your sister in the photo.”
“I don’t know who he is.”
“You don’t know? He’s a Chinese man who runs a hotpot restaurant in Paldal-gu. Actually, that restaurant is one of the overseas bases for the National Security Bureau’s overseas secret police.”
“You’re saying… you don’t know anything either?”
“Really? Not close with your sister?”
In front of Ri Su-min lay the photo.
“A photo from the Gyeonggi-Hong Kong Small Business Exchange Night event— a Chinese man and your sister Ri Su-jin.”
Ri Su-jin had Chinese nationality at the time, and because she was known as a multicultural enterprise, she attended such events often.
Of course, it could have been coincidence.
But there had been far too many coincidences.
The local broker Ri Su-jin had arrested in Jilin Province and released after just a few days—he had been brought to handle girls, and he worked as a staff member at a Confucius Institute…
It was possible she had simply turned a blind eye instead of actively cooperating, but who would believe that excuse?
“Were you encouraged by unnie to apply for naturalization or take the police exam?”
“Ah.”
The net was tightening. Ri Su-min, unable to withstand the pressure, closed her eyes.
And muttered to herself.
‘Unnie, I’m sorry.’
Ri Su-min didn’t want to die with her sister.
So she had decided to find a way out.