Chapter 252: The Trap (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 252: The Trap (3)
About a ten-minute drive from the Haenam Surveillance Team base.
I could see a bar, built right in front of an area where commercial development had been blocked for safety reasons.
“It’s bigger than I thought…”
The building was quite large. Even for the countryside, the rent for a place this size couldn’t be cheap.
“I guess that means she earns enough to cover it.”
From what I’d heard, this place was something of a hideout for the members of the Haenam Surveillance Team.
Their greatest pleasure, apparently, was grabbing a drink here with the pretty waitresses and the madam after a long day’s work.
On top of that, all the nearby residents—especially the few young men and the middle-aged guys who could still get it up—were said to frequent this place and this place alone.
Thanks to the Haenam Surveillance Team, this area was more commercially active and densely populated than other places nearby.
Considering she had a monopoly on the customers in what was essentially a prime spot, I figured she was probably making a killing, thanks to the characteristically cheap countryside rent.
“Enough admiring the view…”
I opened the elaborately decorated door and stepped inside.
The lights were spaced far apart, creating a dim, dusky atmosphere bathed in a soft glow.
Sturdy tables and plush chairs that hugged your back.
And to top it off, sultry jazz music flowed at a perfect volume.
Seeing the interior, which was clearly designed with great care to create a specific mood, my opinion of the woman named Kim Ji-won began to change.
“…Looks like she didn’t make her money by chance.”
She didn’t seem like the type to just trade on her looks to make easy money.
Of course, she used her looks freely, as they were her greatest weapon, but I got the sense that, as a business owner, she put in the effort to back it up.
If she thought running a business was easy or planned to just coast, she wouldn’t have put this much work into the decor.
“I can see why they call it their hideout.”
The members of the Haenam Surveillance Team weren’t locals; they were all dispatched from elsewhere.
In a place where the only other options were rustic eateries and old pubs teeming with men, it was only natural that a stylish bar like this would become their go-to spot.
“A perfect alignment of interests.”
The surveillance team members’ salaries were higher than you’d think. The premium for taking on a provincial dispatch assignment—a post everyone else avoided—was much larger than one might imagine.
What people like that needed most was a place to spend the money piling up in their bank accounts.
And Kim Ji-won provided just such a place.
I didn’t know if it was by design or by chance, but their interests had aligned brilliantly.
“Ah, you’re here.”
Kim Ji-won emerged from the kitchen, which had been hidden behind a thick curtain that reached down to her waist.
First, the nape of her long, elegant neck, exposed because she’d tied her hair up.
Second, her enhanced beauty, her makeup perfectly accentuating her seductive aura.
And third, the red off-the-shoulder dress that revealed her shoulders and collarbones.
My eyes traveled down her body, pausing three times.
“I just finished preparing the food… Perfect timing, don’t you think?”
Her words about the food being ready brought a wry smile to my face.
I was sure I hadn’t replied to her, since I’d left right away.
Her casual demeanor, as if it were only natural for her predictions to be correct, was quite intriguing.
“How were you so sure I’d come?”
She replied with a light smile.
“It’s boring here, isn’t it?”
“…”
It sounded like she’d used the big data she’d accumulated on the surveillance team members to send me a message at the precise time when men around here would be most bored.
A smarter woman than I’d thought.
“Find a seat you like. I’ll bring out some good drinks and food. Is there any particular alcohol or dish you prefer?”
“No, not really.”
“I like a man who’s not picky.”
With that, Kim Ji-won slipped back into the kitchen.
The sound of something sizzling and frying on the stove, along with a delicious aroma, stimulated my stomach.
I felt myself getting hungry, even though I’d eaten dinner not long ago.
“She told me to find a seat I like…”
I glanced around and found a spot I quite liked.
A table situated right in the middle of the space between two distant lights.
I liked it because it was darker than the other seats.
In a place like this, you could be a little bolder about things that might otherwise draw attention.
Of course, there was no one here but the two of us, but that’s the power of atmosphere, isn’t it?
I leaned back in a chair spacious enough to fit a person and a half and looked toward the kitchen.
Just then, Kim Ji-won came out, holding a large tray laden with several dishes, and walked toward me.
Seeing me sitting in the dark spot, she curled one corner of her lip into a smirk.
“Your choice of seating is quite blatant.”
Her tone implied she knew exactly why I’d sat here.
A playful mood struck me, and I shook my head with an innocent expression, as if I didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Blatant…? I’m not sure what you mean…”
At that, she laughed.
“Ahahaha! Is it because you have such an innocent-looking face…? Or are you just a good actor?”
The deepening smile on her lips told me she was quite pleased with my act.
I shrugged and replied.
“Probably both.”
If there was one thing I was confident in, it was the acting I did in my day-to-day life.
Living as a show-window couple is no easy feat.
You have to know how to naturally fake physical affection you don’t normally share, and you have to look at your partner lovingly in those moments, even when you barely make eye contact otherwise.
In that sense, Han Ju-hee was the true master of acting.
Because unlike me, who still had lingering feelings while playing the part, she likely had none.
As I smiled bitterly at the fleeting memory, the food was placed on the table.
There was a spicy seafood soup packed with all kinds of fresh seafood, a savory pancake, grilled pollack roe with the subtle aroma of butter, and a steak made with thick-cut sirloin and grilled vegetables.
After setting down what looked like more than enough food for two, she took a pale, sky-blue ceramic bottle from a shelf and showed it to me.
“The alcohol is a distilled soju, a gift from the owner of a nearby distillery. It’s quite strong… will that be a problem?”
I shook my head at her concerned tone, telling her not to worry.
“I don’t get wasted before important business, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, my.”
Kim Ji-won’s eyes widened as if slightly surprised by my blunt words, and she covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed.
It was strange.
Sometimes she seemed like a worldly woman who’d seen it all, and at other times, she didn’t seem that way at all.
Holding the bottle, she walked over and sat down not across from me, but right beside me.
Pop!
She uncorked the bottle with a firm tug, leaned forward to fill both my glass and her own to the brim, and then raised her glass.
“It’s a cliché, but… a toast to our meeting.”
We clinked our glasses to the toast—clichéd, yet perfect for heightening the mood.
I tilted the glass to my lips, and the distinct, fragrant aroma and potent taste of the distilled soju flowed down my throat.
“Here, have some food.”
I soothed my stomach with the piece of rich beef she offered me with her chopsticks, then watched her for a moment before asking.
“The service is excellent. I can see why the men around here only come to this place.”
Giving them a bite of food like this… the middle-aged guys must go crazy for it.
Just as I was convincing myself of this, she shook her head.
“Not at all. Do you think I’d offer this level of service to other customers?”
With a gentle smile, Kim Ji-won refilled my empty glass.
“Among the men who live here, there’s no one I’d want to treat this lavishly. Unfortunately.”
She had a talent for saying that this service was only for me in a way that was incredibly flattering.
Without another word, we faced each other and drained our glasses.
The food we picked up with our chopsticks was not for ourselves, but for the other.
Then, a question popped into my head.
“What did you do before you came here?”
“Something similar. I worked at a private bar in Seoul that only catered to VIPs. I used the money and know-how I saved up there to open my own place.”
“Then why not open it in Seoul?”
“Because Seoul is already a Red Ocean. You need an insane amount of capital to succeed there.”
“True.”
After the dawn of the Hunter society, the population density of the capital, Seoul, became even more extreme.
This was because, in the early days when the first-generation Hunters were active, provincial cities suffered heavy damage from monsters and villains.
Those who lost their homes in an instant flocked to Seoul.
Even sleeping on the streets of Seoul was safer than staying in the monster-infested provinces.
Decades have passed, and with a proper system now in place, the provinces are slowly being recognized as livable cities again, but it will likely take much longer for them to match the dominance of Seoul.
Anyway.
It was only natural for commerce to develop where people gathered.
To succeed in Seoul, which was already packed to the brim with businesses, was difficult unless you had a unique feature that existing establishments lacked, or the capital to launch an aggressive marketing campaign to surpass them.
Draining her glass once more, she continued her story.
“After I quit my job, I took a break and traveled around. I was just wandering aimlessly when I ended up here… and the moment I saw it, I thought, ‘This is the Blue Ocean I’ve been looking for.’”
I pictured what this town must have been like without her bar.
Unlike other regions with an overwhelming lack of young people, this place was full of vigorous young men, thanks to the Haenam Surveillance Team.
And the only things here were a simple convenience store, some eateries, and old pubs.
“Fortunately, it was more successful than I expected, so now I’m living quite comfortably.”
“Comfortably…”
But as she said those happy words, her expression didn’t look very happy at all.
To be precise… she looked a little bored.
She had fulfilled the needs of the civil servants working at the Haenam Surveillance Team.
Thanks to that, she was probably earning more than most bars in Seoul.
However, a thought occurred to me.
In this place, where there seemed to be nothing to do but make money, wasn’t she feeling the same boredom that the surveillance team members had felt before her bar existed?
“People are fickle creatures, aren’t they?” I said, downing the strong liquor.
Humans are truly fickle.
When you’re standing, you want to sit. When you’re sitting, you want to lie down.
And once you’re lying down?
You want to sleep.
Even after you get to sleep, you just keep wanting more, and more, and more.
Humans never settle.
You rejoice in what you have now, but with time, even that becomes unsatisfying.
And she was no different.
At first, her only goal must have been to succeed with the money she’d worked so hard to save.
While the business was going well, she must have been delighted to see her bank balance grow beyond her initial investment.
And now that things were cruising along smoothly…
“You’re bored, aren’t you? With a life like this.”
Someone completely obsessed with money might have been perfectly happy.
But for someone who wasn’t, this was the time when they’d start wanting something more.
And I suspected that was the case for her.
Running the business, making money, taking short breaks.
She must want to create a small crack in the smooth, peaceful, hamster-wheel-like routine.
She smiled.
“Ahaha! Yes, that’s it. You’re exactly right.”
As if refreshed at being seen so clearly, the smile that bloomed on her lips was brighter and more beautiful than any I had seen from her today.
She asked me in a suggestive tone.
“Your diagnosis was spot on… so what’s your prescription, Doctor?”
A prescription.
That wouldn’t be difficult.
“You’re a lucky woman.”
“Hehe… why is that?”
“Because the prescription just walked right in front of you on its own two feet.”
The atmosphere, carefully built over glasses of alcohol, had finally reached its peak.