The New Host is Too Good
16
The hosts clocked in around six in the evening and stayed until dawn, pouring their full energy into the hustle.
Any host who failed to land a choice or a jimyung was left drifting in the waiting room, mind blank.
Kim Namhu sat alone on one of the sofas, watching the others steal moments of rest.
From the way they moved, he could already guess who would surge ahead.
Some hosts snapped at customers who treated them badly, voices rising in frustration.
Others claimed every stolen second of sleep they could grab, even in the short breaks.
A few kept their phones glued to their ears, steadily texting their regular female clients.
And today the waiting room was packed tighter than usual.
Was business really that bad?
Even the bar in Gangbuk known for the highest earnings couldn't guarantee steady sales every single day.
Weekdays were generally slow; weekends were when the real money flowed.
The moment the door burst open, Lee Sang-soo strode in.
His usual playful smile was nowhere to be seen.
“Everyone, pay attention! This month's sales are dogshit! Look at all of you gathered here! You all know the other boxes at The Queen are outperforming yours, right? Then you’d better work twice as hard!”
He was the Main of one of the stronger boxes, yet at the end of the day he was just another host who earned his living from the same game.
When business slowed, he needed to create this raw, ugly atmosphere.
It wasn’t so different from any other company.
And in that cooling tension, Kim Namhu caught the faint scent of opportunity.
“Make the women feel good! Order more drinks! Bring them back more often! Is that so difficult?”
Lee Sang-soo was yelling, half acting, half sincere, trying to snap everyone out of it.
When the Main got angry, the hosts scrambled to move.
Some headed outside and called their regular customers.
Others slipped into the restroom to wipe off the oil on their faces and double-check their appearances.
Cha Ji-hoon walked straight up to Kim Namhu and said,
“Namhu-ya, don’t we have to do something too?”
“We should.”
“What? Do you have any regular customers you’re already texting?”
When a host got close to a woman client, he took her number and called her like a boyfriend—that was basic host etiquette.
Build up that kind of connection, and you could also receive a jimyung and invite her to a drink whenever you needed.
‘Of course, if you called too often the woman might block you thinking you were leeching off her money.’
Kim Namhu shook his head.
“No. I don’t have regular customers close enough for me to invite them out yet.”
If they were just average customers, he had collected a few numbers, but he never sent them boyfriend-style texts.
‘If this was a boys’ love novel, I’d have been told to give every single customer my all.’
The reality wasn’t like that.
There were customers with money and those without. Customers who were true pricks and those who actually healed you over drinks.
Kim Namhu was just like every other human being, living twenty-four hours a day, and in the end he had to calculate efficiency.
Pouring excessive affection into tiny clients right now would only bite him later.
If he wasted love on them now and then a real big spender came along, he’d just be discarding them.
Kim Namhu glanced at his phone.
‘Let’s see.’
Once, he had been Korea’s highest-earning host.
His phone was stuffed with numbers from the massive clients who paid him to come out from Korea.
He didn’t remember the details of the past very well, but he remembered every single number.
‘So even I’m just another host.’
The events of the past didn’t matter to the work, but regular-customer numbers had to be kept at all costs.
They were saved on the phone and in the cloud, yet the risk of losing them still existed.
That fear naturally made him remember every single one.
‘I wasn’t planning to contact them.’
Kim Namhu was enjoying the host life.
He took pride in his own skill.
With his ability unchanged, he figured he would naturally become the number-one host in the country again without even looking for new customers.
‘But he’s not earning that much money, and Sang-soo hyung seems tight on the budget.’
Even while saying things he clearly didn’t like, he was still the one responsible for every host.
He wasn’t doing it only for himself; he was doing it for the others as well.
The host bar’s atmosphere mattered.
If customers were lively, the place naturally did well and word-of-mouth brought more foot traffic.
Kim Namhu had once been high up himself and understood that feeling perfectly.
Kim Namhu first went looking for Jang Hyo-woon.
While Jang Hyo-woon was busy calling regulars, he still took a moment to chat with Kim Namhu.
“What’s up?”
“Mind if I step outside for a second?”
“What? Are you hunting outside? That’s not a good idea.”
The perception of host bars in Korea was terrible.
Female clients never spoke about working at them outside the bar.
And most women never even considered coming.
‘In Japan hosts hunt on the street and drag customers into the bar, but’
That almost never happened in Korea.
Trying hard outside usually meant more failure than success.
“But it’s not impossible, right?”
“Well…”
“If the Main asks where I went, can you tell him I stepped out?”
“Got it.”
Kim Namhu was still in Jang Hyo-woon’s faction.
Jang Hyo-woon seemed to expect nothing from the new host, yet he clearly respected the fact that Kim Namhu was at least trying.
“You two have similar builds, don’t you?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
He pulled up a map on his phone.
The address of a luxury officetel.
“What’s this?”
“The suit you’re wearing is quite expensive, but wearing it every day will wear it down.”
Kim Namhu looked at his own suit.
He sent it out for dry-cleaning every day, yet it already felt a little worn.
“And no accessories. That’s where I live. One watch, one suit. You like clothes so even if the sizes don’t match perfectly, it’ll look good.”
Kim Namhu had no choice but to smile at Jang Hyo-woon’s words.
Host bars that actually cared about their colleagues were almost nonexistent.
Most only worried about their own earnings and greeted each other with fake smiles.
Very few lent clothes and watches.
‘He really is a good person.’
Jang Hyo-woon said.
“Women can smell the difference between real luxury and fakes. Even if you talk to them outside, the watch on your wrist makes all the difference. Borrow something appropriate.”
“Thank you.”
“The watch I have is genuine and priceless—be careful.”
While speaking, Jang Hyo-woon shook the watch he was wearing.
Kim Namhu had received several of those watches as gifts and knew their value.
Jang Hyo-woon was teasing the maknae on purpose.
“Do you know how much this watch costs?”
“It’s a Rolex Submariner. Around three million won, right?”
“Haha. Look at you, big shot. I’m lending you a thirty-million-won watch and you don’t even blink.”
“When you’re an Ace, watches like that get rolled around on the floor, don’t they?”
“It’s not that bad! Hahaha!”
Jang Hyo-woon laughed loudly and patted Kim Namhu’s shoulder.
Kim Namhu headed to Jang Hyo-woon’s officetel.
On the way, memories from his previous life surfaced.
He had visited Jang Hyo-woon’s house back then too.
That was why so many past memories came flooding back.
‘Yeah. On days when business was slow, we’d come here, drink freely, and have fun.’
Then the future of Jang Hyo-woon appeared.
Just like the current Main Lee Sang-soo, Jang Hyo-woon’s future wasn’t bright either.
He had been steadily losing ground to Choi Moon-ho’s rising sales.
Of course, Jang Hyo-woon’s faction would be forced to drop.
And since Lee Sang-soo had personally mentored Jang Hyo-woon, he wouldn’t simply kick him out.
The entire box would start shaking and eventually split.
The remaining hosts, who valued personality over money, would naturally follow the hot-selling Choi Moon-ho.
Choi Moon-ho would go independent, form a new box, and become a Main.
The leftover host bar, The Queen, would slowly sink into decline.
It was a fate far too common in the host industry.
‘Of course, at this point I already planned to break into Gangnam and chase big money.’
But now, in this timeline, he could fix that future.
Kim Namhu deliberately chose the most expensive suit and watch from Jang Hyo-woon’s collection.
Just wearing what he had on would already let him rent a foreign car.
‘This time I might as well change the future a little?’