A Guest in the Basement
"Alright... then... text me when you're on your way..."
"Okay..."
Eom In-soo stared at Ji Hye-in as she stepped out of the taxi, his face gone slack with shock.
"Oh my god... it's really you... Hye-in..."
"You and I were together for three years," he went on, still looking at her as if she might vanish. "And this is the first time we've ever met down here in the provinces. Right?"
Ji Hye-in let out a small, dry laugh and nodded.
"I'm sorry. Now that you mention it... I really never came down even once."
"It's fine. It's not like it's an hour or two away."
"You used to take the KTX up to see me every few months without fail. And I just always let you come to me, didn't I."
"Come inside. The place is pretty shabby. You remember I went under, right?"
Ji Hye-in nodded.
"I'm sorry. Come to think of it... I still owe you quite a bit of money."
"No. I told you so many times — it wasn't a loan. I was just giving it to you."
"You didn't even love me. So why did you help me out with that kind of money?"
"I don't know. It wasn't even my money, really. It was allowance I got from the chairman of the association where I work. I just... saved it up. Let's not talk about money. I still look at your site, you know. The posts are all frozen on that day a year ago."
"Yeah, well..."
Eom In-soo led her into the semi-basement room where he lived. It was a studio — one room with the kitchen built right in. Mold crept along the walls in patches. The whole place was gloomy, close, and damp.
"First time here, right?"
"Not just here. This whole city is a first for me."
Ji Hye-in smiled and nodded.
"How have you been?"
"I'm working as a public sub at a netori cafe."
"You're still doing that. Back then I thought it was all a lie."
"When I was seeing you, I was only pretending. It's not like that now. Now my heart is just... going deeper into it."
"Thanks for getting in touch. Honestly, once a person goes completely under, you stop thinking about women. All you think about is surviving. And then that bastard had to go and pull that shit..."
He trailed off, and his expression shifted as if something had just come back to him. He looked at her.
"Hye-in. I saw that bastard. The one who drove a wedge between you and me. The one who said he had a master-slave thing going with you. Yeom... something-or-other."
"You mean Yeom Seong-bong?"
"Yeah. That's him. Yeom Seong-bong. There's a township about fifty minutes from here. I went out there for a demolition job, and there were a few Koreans mixed in with the foreign workers. I'm pretty sure it was him. It's like a farm, that place — where illegal immigrants and wanted criminals from our country hide out and make money. I went there for the demolition, and I'm pretty sure I saw him. But I just let it go. I'd completely erased you from my mind by then."
"Do you still go on that site?"
"No. I haven't gone on it even once in the past year."
"You said there were people who paid monthly dues to come in and look at the photos and posts."
"There weren't even two hundred of them. Twenty thousand won a month a head. And once the photos and posts stopped being updated, everyone just let it go. Almost all the people on my site went over to that guy's — Yeom Seong-bong's site."
"He closed the site. Even when he told my husband, he didn't mention it. He just quietly shut it down without saying a word. My husband doesn't know anything about it."
"Ah. I see. But what happened? Did you get divorced?"
"No. I don't want a divorce. My husband says he'll forgive me this once."
"How much does your husband know?"
"Just that I had an affair with Yeom Seong-bong. And that before that, there were probably one or two other men. That's about it."
"Hye-in. I'm really grateful you reached out to me. But maybe we should just stop here. Before your husband finds out about your past — just leave it as one affair, and end it there. That public sub thing at the cafe too. Quit it. It's too dangerous. Someday your face is going to get exposed."
Color rose in Ji Hye-in's face.
"I'm staying here tonight and going back up tomorrow."
"Alright. Let's have a drink and talk it through slowly."
"Take pictures of me too. And video."
"Stop that. There's no site to upload to anymore. I even deleted the mosaic editing program I used to hide your face. Seeing your photos on Yeom Seong-bong's site — that was really hard on me. Looks like he put you through some pretty brutal training."
She said nothing for a moment.
"That's all in the past. Talking about the old days... I'm completely wet down there."
Ji Hye-in began to undress in the semi-basement studio where Eom In-soo lived alone. Within moments she had stripped down to nothing but a thong.
"Anyway, nobody here knows me. Could you invite a man? You watch, like you used to... and I'll do it with a complete stranger. How about it?"
"Not someone too young. Call someone a bit older. More mature. Young men remind me of my son. I don't like that."
At her words, Eom In-soo's breathing grew a little heavier.
"Hye-in. I killed off that side of myself too. I was living without it. I've got almost five hundred million won left in debt. I wanted to file for bankruptcy, but they don't accept everyone, so I can't even do that. That's the situation I'm in. How am I supposed to find a guest male?"
"Still. Try looking. It's been so long — watch tonight. I'll take care of you first. I'll get one out of you now."
She yanked his pants and underwear down in one motion, then took his unwashed cock — reeking of stale urine — into her mouth and began to suck. With her other hand she reached down beneath her thong and started rubbing herself.
"He'll be here in about ten minutes. He's a worker we sometimes call in on demolition sites. He's the tight-lipped type — that's why I called him."
"That's fine. Anyway, nobody here knows me. And nobody who'd recognize my face."
Ji Hye-in was completely naked except for one of Eom In-soo's T-shirts, which she wore like a dress. She and Eom In-soo had already had intense sex, and she had taken one load from him inside her.
The doorbell rang in the basement studio.
"Yeah. I'll get it."
Eom In-soo went to the door. A man who looked to be in his mid-to-late fifties, with a scruffy beard, walked in wearing work safety boots.
"Boss Eom. What's this about? Callin' me outta nowhere..."
Then the man saw her — standing in the room in a man's T-shirt worn like a dress, her pale white legs almost fully exposed — and his face registered genuine shock.
"Listen. Remember when I was telling you those old stories, and I mentioned guest males, and you asked if that was a real thing? Said you wanted to try it once. Today you actually get to try it."
"F-for real?"
"Of course. Hye-in. Let's start right now."
Eom In-soo turned his head toward her as he spoke. Ji Hye-in stood up from the floor and pulled the T-shirt up and off. Her completely naked body was revealed, and Mr. Kim — the construction worker a few years older than Eom In-soo — stared at her, unable to even move.
She walked over to him and pulled his pants and underwear down to his ankles. He clearly hadn't changed his underwear in a long time — the sour, stale smell was overpowering. It wasn't just the underwear. His cock, too, hadn't been washed regularly; it smelled like an old-fashioned outhouse.
But Ji Hye-in took it into her mouth anyway, and began to service him with careful, devoted attention.
"I'm headin' out, Boss Eom. Haa... you live long enough, you see a day like this. This here... I'm takin' it with me."
Mr. Kim crumpled Ji Hye-in's white thong into his pocket as he spoke. After saying goodbye to Eom In-soo, he glanced one last time at Ji Hye-in, who lay face-down in a corner of the room, completely naked. The construction worker in his mid-fifties looked once more at her ass, then opened the front door and stepped out of the studio of the man who gave him work.