The Innermost Room
"B-Boss... you were rich?"
He had come home with Sally and her daughter. Through the car window the great wall of the property rose into view, and Sally's voice shook a little as she spoke.
"Yes. I'm rich. Once we're inside, start with the cooking. We still haven't had lunch. Trying your best matters, but you also have to be good. If it tastes bad, I'll send you back."
"I-I'll work hard!"
The door to the underground garage, set into the base of the wall, opened on its own. Kim Taeyoung parked and went in through the passage that led up into the house. Hauling the groceries and household supplies was Sally's job. The bags looked heavy, but he saw no reason to help. He paid a high hourly wage. In his book, that meant she was going to work for it.
"Whoa..."
Sally's daughter, Jennifer, let the gasp out of her. In her short life she had never seen a place like this. Back in the Philippines, ten people in the family had crowded into a house with two rooms. After they came to Korea looking for her father, even that had disappeared. Every night she and her mother slept in a jjimjilbang, a public sauna that doubled as a cheap place to bed down.
This was far bigger than any sauna. It looked like a palace off the television.
"Jennifer. Come here."
Sally drew her daughter over in Filipino. She could not afford a single mistake. She didn't know Korea well, but she knew exactly how good this chance was: a job at twenty-five thousand won an hour. She had to hold on to it. No matter what.
"Don't cause any trouble. Stay quiet. You can do that, can't you?"
At her mother's desperate plea, Jennifer nodded. Sitting still was one of the things she did best. Poverty made children grow up fast, and if you added the habit of reading a room for the next scrap of goodwill, they grew up faster still.
"Okay. I'll be quiet."
"Thank you. If Mommy works here, she can make a lot of money. Then we'll have a house of our own, and we can find Daddy too. Just wait a little. Mommy's so sorry."
"No. It's okay."
Mother and daughter finished their talk in Filipino and set to cooking in the kitchen. Whether she truly knew Korean food or not, a smell better than he had expected began to spread through the house. Kim Taeyoung drifted in for a look. A good smell meant nothing if the hygiene failed. That would be an automatic fail.
Clean. He didn't know much about cooking, but he could tell her hands were sure, and her standards looked strict. A pass, for now. If the cleaning was this good as well, she could keep working here.
Sally gave it everything, because she needed this. So they would have nothing to catch her on, she washed dishes while she cooked and wiped the sink dry with a towel. The experience she had scraped together wandering Korea was paying off. Those bosses had been exploiters, from where she stood, but their nagging had forged a perfect housekeeping machine.
"Mm."
"H-how is it?"
"It's good. Tasty."
The passing grade left Kim Taeyoung's mouth, and Sally's face and Jennifer's lit up together.
"But why is there only one serving? If we're eating, we might as well eat together."
"What? I-is that all right?"
"I'm not that bad a person. A child has to eat if she's going to grow. She must be starving. Bring rice and soup. Eat with me."
"Yes, yes! Boss! Thank you!"
At his words Sally bent at the waist. Jennifer said something in Filipino too, though he couldn't really follow it. Thanks, probably. Whatever.
After that he pretended not to watch while he supervised Sally's cleaning. Unlike the two housekeepers before her, she cleaned hard and she cleaned carefully. Hiring someone desperate had been the right call after all. Some of the extra fire was first-day nerves, sure, but if she kept up even half of this, they could go a long way together.
"Sally. Come here."
He called her over to the sofa in the living room.
"Yes, Boss."
"Keep coming in from now on. Hours are nine in the morning until eight at night, with one hour in the middle for lunch. You can keep bringing Jennifer. But look after her properly, so she doesn't get into trouble."
Her face brightened even more.
"And this is today's pay. I put in a little extra. Buy clothes first. I'm not asking for a maid's uniform, but if you work in my house, I'd like you dressed neatly."
Kim Taeyoung took out his wallet and counted the cash. Ten fifty-thousand-won bills. Five hundred thousand won.
"Th-thank you! Boss!"
Sally shot up from her seat and folded into another ninety-degree bow.
"If you're happy, so am I. We'll be seeing a lot of each other, so I'll speak casually from now on. That's all right, isn't it?"
"Yes, yes! Whatever Boss wants!"
"Good. Sally, I've got an appointment, so I'm heading out. When the work's done and it's time, clock out. Don't forget to show up on time tomorrow."
Finished, he started to rise. Tonight Heo Myangmyang was supposed to treat him to dinner. But Sally hesitated, and no answer came.
"Something else you wanted to say?"
"Th-that is... Boss... may we sleep here? I have no house. The sauna is far from here. Money to come and go is a waste. I don't need a good room. May we sleep in the storeroom downstairs?"
A live-in helper. Not bad. A housekeeper who worked well, offering to be here twenty-four hours—if anything, he welcomed it. Still, there were a few problems.
"Even if you live in, I can't raise the hourly rate or the monthly pay."
"Th-that's fine! I already receive so much!"
"And I don't think it'd be good for raising a kid. I've got a lot of women. I plan to call them over to the house whenever I feel like it. You know what I mean?"
Kim Taeyoung closed his right hand into a fist and smacked it against his left palm. A sex gesture that worked anywhere in the world. At the blunt motion, Sally's eyes went wide.
"If you're still all right with it, forget the storeroom. Use the innermost room on the first floor. I set it up for guests, so the basics are all there. If you need anything, buy it and use it."
"Ah—th-thank you! Boss! Thank you!"
She bowed yet again. How many times had he heard it today alone? Used to her gratitude by now, Kim Taeyoung waved her off and went up to his own room. It was on the third floor: the largest room in the house, and the one with the best view.
Gyeonggi Province. Kim Taeyoung stood at Heo Myangmyang's door with a bottle of women's perfume for a gift. He had chosen it because of her build—the petite, childlike frame people treated like a little girl's. On stream and in ordinary life, that was how she got handled. An adult sort of present, at a moment like this, would score him a great many points.
"Yes? Who is it?"
"It's me. Coin God."
To think he had to say his Corea TV handle out loud in real life. A flicker of embarrassment went through him. Nothing to be done about it.
"Ah! You're here. Please, come in!"
From beyond the door came a light, scurrying patter. It opened at once, and there was Heo Myangmyang—much smaller than she had looked on screen. She dug in and claimed a hundred and fifty centimeters, barely five feet, but to his eye she sat in the middle of the one-forties. Kim Taeyoung had spent years on a department-store floor, and he was sure of it.
"Thank you for inviting me today."
"Not at all. I'm the one who should be grateful. Wow, but... ahem... you're much more handsome than I expected..."
Heo Myangmyang offered the praise in a voice as small as a mosquito's. She had been planning, the moment Coin God arrived, to flatter him and win his favor no matter what. Then she saw the real thing, and he was far finer-looking than she had prepared for.
In truth she had been picturing a potbellied middle-aged man. Her core viewers were men and women in their forties and fifties, which was part of why she had invited him without much worry. The Coin God who actually showed up was a tall, good-looking oppa.
Tossing a compliment at an oppa like that sent a wave of embarrassment through her. For Heo Myangmyang, with zero experience of dating, praising a man around her own age was a high hurdle. She cleared it anyway. She was the sort who could not rest until she had done what she planned.
"Hahaha. Thank you. Seeing you in person, Myangmyang, you're even cuter."
"Aaah, that's just a roundabout way of saying I'm short!"
"Huh? Is that how it sounded? No. I meant you're prettier than on screen."
"Really? You're not teasing me for being small?"
"Ahaha, no."
The mood between them was warm. Until another woman appeared.
"Hello."
It was Song Jihye, who lived with Heo Myangmyang. She stood taller than Kim Taeyoung, and he was already a hundred and seventy-eight centimeters. At that height, wasn't she around a hundred and eighty-five? Even so, the shoulders and lats a frame like hers might have made famous as a bruiser's were as trim as any other woman's.
Song Jihye offered Kim Taeyoung a greeting that was closer to a growl.
"Oh, Jihye. You came out? Feeling any better?"
"No. Still not great."
"Ahaha. I'm sorry, Coin God. Her cramps are really bad. She usually gets through them fine, but today they're especially rough."
"Right... cramps. They seem pretty severe, so sit quietly today and then be on your way."
"Heh..."
Kim Taeyoung let out a hollow laugh. He had no idea why that woman had suddenly turned hostile. Because he'd put her through eight personal-training sessions yesterday? But later the two of them had enjoyed it. He'd fired off a hundred and twenty thousand balloons, after all.
Ignore it for now. Today's target was Heo Myangmyang.
"You two seem very close, though. You were in yesterday's video together, and here you are together again."
"Ah, so Coin God doesn't know. Jihye and I are housemates."
"Housemates? You live together?"
"Ahaha, yes. You could put it that way."
"I'm the one who looks after this cute little unni. Understand?"
Song Jihye picked another fight. What the hell was wrong with that bitch? He had let it go twice. Swallow it a third time and he wouldn't be kind. He'd be a damn fool.
"First things first, Myangmyang. Let's introduce ourselves properly. I'm Kim Taeyoung. I'm thirty."
"Ah, I knew it. So you are older than me. I'm Heo Minji. My age... I never tell anyone, but since it's Coin God, I will. I'm twenty-eight. Please speak comfortably. Coin God... no. Taeyoung oppa."
A sharp grind of teeth. The sound came from Song Jihye.
Ah. So that's it.
He got the picture. Kim Taeyoung had caught on to what the two of them were to each other, and to why Song Jihye was picking fights. One corner of his mouth curled.
"Shall I? I'll call you Minji."
"Ah! Yes, yes. Oppa..."
"Haha. Sorry. Did I startle you? I'm a friendly type. I touch people a lot."
Kim Taeyoung laid a hand on her shoulder. Heo Myangmyang flinched in surprise, but he didn't take the hand away. If anything he patted her shoulder and went on about how he had always been free with touch, then glanced over at Song Jihye. Her fists were clenched tight, and she was shaking.
"Are you uncomfortable, by any chance?"
"Ah, n-no. I-I'm fine. I just haven't been touched by men very much, so I was a little startled, that's all."
He said it with his hand still resting on Heo Myangmyang's shoulder, staring straight at Song Jihye. The meaning was naked. Song Jihye's face twisted.