Prologue: A Chance Encounter
Meeting someone is a curious thing. And when that meeting comes after five years have passed, carrying with it an entirely different experience and meaning—well, that is stranger still. In the spring of 2022, after social distancing restrictions had finally been lifted, the encounter that day was pure chance. That this chance would open the door to such extraordinary experiences was something I never could have predicted.
"I'm gonna step out for a smoke."
I rose from among my coworkers, who were noisily trading office gossip, grabbed my e-cigarette, and left the private room. It was the first gathering of our hiring cohort since the ban on large assemblies had been eased. The five of us—myself included—were riding high on a rare evening free of our bosses, chasing Friday night drinks through the spring air.
"Heading to the bathroom?"
As I stepped out of the room, Dong-min hyung called over from behind the counter.
"Nah. Smoke."
"Just light up inside. The ventilation in here's solid."
"The others don't smoke. I'd feel weird about it."
Dong-min hyung grinned at that.
"I'd join you, but the owner can't exactly abandon the counter. Head downstairs—there's a spot between the buildings where people smoke."
"Got it. Thanks. Busy tonight?"
"Ever since they lifted the gathering ban and the curfew on late-night service… yeah, not bad."
"Glad to hear it. Killer timing, huh? Open the place and the restrictions drop right after."
"What can I say? Hyung's got luck on his side."
Dong-min hyung flashed that trademark, confidence-soaked smile of his. I smiled back, nodded, and started down the stairs from the second-floor bar.
I'd first met Dong-min hyung during a language program in Canada back in 2014. Word was his family had money, and even at the language school he carried himself with an easy self-assurance. Most of the students were in their early-to-mid twenties; Dong-min hyung, already twenty-nine at the time, wasn't the sort of person you approached first. But whether it was his natural temperament or the confidence that came with a comfortable upbringing, he came to us—and we hit it off almost immediately.
Especially the two of us. We were from the same hometown, and that sealed it. On weekends and during school breaks we'd rent a car and drive around together. Whenever we went out, Dong-min hyung always picked up the tab.
Hey, what money do a bunch of broke college kids have? Don't even think about paying.
Every time the bill came, he'd crack a joke with that easy, thick-skinned laugh of his and cover it himself. As it turned out, Dong-min hyung was the son of a local big shot—his family owned something like ten buildings in our hometown's downtown. The fact that we'd gone to the same high school made him look after me even more carefully. That connection held after the language program ended and we both returned to Korea, bound by the simple fact of being hometown alumni.
While I went back to my provincial university to finish my degree, Dong-min hyung—who'd already graduated—was living the idle life of a rich man's son, managing his father's properties.
You'll be fine. You went to a big-name school, didn't you? Don't stress. Let's just grab a drink.
I was dying of envy, watching him live like that. Whenever I brought up academic pressure or job-hunting worries, he'd brush it all off like it was nothing. Still, I never resented him for it. I liked his sunny, thick-skinned, no-nonsense personality—and hanging around him always meant a few crumbs fell my way.
His comfortable background meant he spent freely, but this playboy lived up to the title: he was wildly into women and nightlife. Thanks to him, through my broke college years and job-hunting days, I freeloaded my way through karaoke rooms, clubs, hostess bars, massage parlors—you name it. Because of that, from the language-program days onward, I never went hungry for female company even without a girlfriend of my own.
There's no pressure when I'm with you. That right amount of distance. Perfect, isn't it?
When I finally asked why he spent so much money on me, that was his answer. And he was right. The right amount of distance.
Even though we were high school alumni, the eight-year age gap meant we had no friends in common. Most of the people we'd met during the language program were from the capital region or other provinces, and eight years on, we were little more than Facebook acquaintances who occasionally hit "like" on each other's posts.
For enjoying the secret, sexual side of things—for pure play—that kind of distance was ideal.
Still, after I landed a job at a regional public corporation through the local-talent hiring track, I treated Dong-min hyung to some serious nights out at room salons and full-service parlors. I figured I'd paid back a fair share of the debt by then.
Man, this is great! You're different, you know that?
On the night we celebrated my first paycheck by tearing through a full salon, Dong-min hyung said that while stroking the hair of the woman going down on him. From those words, I caught a faint sense that for all his free-spending swagger, he'd taken his share of wounds from the people around him.
And when that same Dong-min hyung announced he was done with the playboy life and opening a bar, I honestly didn't know what to make of it.
The old man says I should start with a few storefronts. Especially once COVID wraps up—people are gonna go wild making up for all the fun they missed. He practically shoved me into opening a bar here. Check the location. Killer, right?
A few months earlier, Dong-min hyung had called me downtown late one night and shown me this very place. Don't they say money always calls to money? Just as his father had predicted, a few months later the gathering bans and late-night operating restrictions were lifted, and his bar exploded with business. During the lockdown period he'd renovated the second floor of a commercial building into a private-room-style bar. The location—right at the mouth of the club alley—was a perfect fit.
It gets later than early evening, right? No rooms left. When the kids are out hunting and looking for a second or third stop, they end up right here. And how great is that? Private rooms… you open the door to serve a drink and—boom. Jackpot!
The neighborhood was packed with clubs, pickup pubs, and trendy drinking spots. When couples who'd hooked up for the night got sufficiently drunk and needed a second or third venue, Dong-min hyung's place was tailor-made for them.
There were rooms for five or six people facing each other, rooms with karaoke machines, even larger rooms—a whole variety. Word was that the burning twenty-somethings would get each other good and worked up with heated foreplay here before heading off to a motel.
Tonight's coworker gathering had brought us downtown too, but every bar was overflowing. We'd been fretting over where to go when I called Dong-min hyung. The whole downtown was a sea of people, and after a recent scare when someone in our department had set off a cluster infection that turned the whole company upside down, my coworkers were second-guessing whether coming out had been a good idea. That was when Dong-min hyung's place popped into my head. I called, and he said he still had plenty of rooms free—come on over.
Thanks to him, we got to enjoy our first cohort reunion in years.