Power
Lee Sang-soo called four hosts into his office and laid out the situation in plain terms.
"A cabinet minister put out a call to the top host bars in every district. She's throwing a party and wants Ace hosts sent out on assignment."
A cabinet minister meant someone at the very core of the South Korean government. The scale of that power was nothing to take lightly. It was not a request a single host bar could refuse.
Jang Hyo-woon knew full well they had no choice, but he asked anyway.
"Hyung-nim. Which ministry are we talking about?"
"There's only one place that would haul in hosts for a group free-for-all. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family."
Everyone understood at once. That ministry was packed with women, and calling in hosts to play was entirely in character. It was already infamous as a department that did little real work and siphoned off plenty on the side. A secret host party would not have been strange in the slightest.
Lee Sang-soo kept going.
"They say the pay will be solid. Blind national money goes to whoever's shameless enough to grab it, right? Anyway, every well-known host bar in each district is supposed to send three hosts. You don't all have to go. They won't have a full roster of every Ace anyway. I'll take volunteers first, and if we're short, I'll fill the rest with the better-looking kids."
Even under pressure, Lee Sang-soo was doing everything he could to look out for his hosts. Getting caught could land them in serious trouble, but he did not seem to care.
The four hosts each sank into their own thoughts.
A party thrown by women with real power. Showing up had both upsides and downsides.
The biggest downside was having to smile and play along with older, greedy women. Everyone knew that the more power someone held, the more brazenly they behaved like nightmares. The hosts gathered here already had enough clients that they had no need to put up with difficult or unpleasant customers.
The upside was that a single rough night would pay well enough, and with a little luck they might meet a genuine high-value client of the kind you almost never saw in Gangbuk. Even the best clients north of the river tended to top out at rich-but-not-chaebol money, or maybe a female prosecutor or judge. A minister's party could draw not only people from her own ministry, but female chaebol heirs or women in politics.
Jang Hyo-woon spoke up first.
"You've got it rough too, hyung-nim. If you're short on people, I'll fill one slot."
He had no real desire to walk into a filthy setup like that, but if Lee Sang-soo needed him, he was willing to take the hit.
"Okay. Thanks."
Oh Chang-won went next.
"It's fine if I sit this out, right? Then I'm out."
Oh Chang-won was not hurting for money, and he hated watching other people's faces. He said flat-out that he did not want to go.
"Yeah? Can't force you."
Choi Moon-ho stepped up after that.
Kim Namhu watched Choi Moon-ho's eyes. Something like raw hunger seemed to be boiling in them.
For some people it was dirty work you did out of loyalty. For others it was something you dodged if you could. And for someone else, it looked like another shot at life.
If I go, every host who's supposed to be big in Seoul right now will be there.
That was what Kim Namhu was thinking. Choi Moon-ho, for his part, seemed convinced he would crush it no matter where he went.
"Hyung-nim. I'm going too."
"Yeah?"
"Good. Then we've basically locked down two spots already."
Jang Hyo-woon pulled a sour face the moment he heard that Choi Moon-ho—his near-rival—was coming along.
The only one who had not answered yet was Kim Namhu.
He had no particular wish to go. In his previous life, plenty of powerful women had wanted to see him, but only a tiny handful ever got the chance. Kim Namhu had taken as regulars only the women he actually liked, and used those regulars' influence to shut out the ones he did not.
But Hyo-woon's hanging over this.
Jang Hyo-woon had moved for him in more ways than one. He did not want to watch a man like that get stuck in a bad spot.
"Hyung-nim. I'll go too."
"Oh? Really? Thanks."
"And there might be other hosts who'd actually want to go, right? What if we just ask a few people who might be interested?"
Lee Sang-soo seemed to read Jang Hyo-woon's mind and nodded. Unlike Choi Moon-ho, who was eager to go, Jang Hyo-woon looked ready to duck out if he could. He had only stepped forward for Lee Sang-soo's sake.
"Yeah. No need to put it out in the open, but I can ask a few more hosts."
Choi Moon-ho spoke up again.
"Would it be all right if I recommended someone?"
"Who?"
"Shin Yong-geom. His sales have been climbing lately, and he's close with Kim Namhu. He's close with me too. If the three of us move together, the synergy should be solid."
Choi Moon-ho and Kim Namhu were still only on polite, distant terms. Shin Yong-geom was a sensible bridge between them. He still belonged to Choi Moon-ho's faction, but he had also grown considerably closer to Kim Namhu.
"Makes sense. Let's ask Shin Yong-geom separately, then."
Lee Sang-soo called Shin Yong-geom into the Main's office and gave him the short version. Shin Yong-geom accepted on the spot.
A few days passed.
By chance, Kim Namhu and Shin Yong-geom found themselves alone in the host waiting room. Kim Namhu tossed him a casual question.
"You said yes right away without even thinking it over?"
"You said you were going."
"What?"
"I've got this conviction that if I just stick with you, something good will fall my way."
Shin Yong-geom said it with a clean, easy laugh. Kim Namhu could feel how much the man had changed. This was not the Shin Yong-geom who used to trail after Choi Moon-ho and no one else.
"I just picked the wrong person to follow for a while. But it's fine. I found the right one, even if it took me this long."
Hearing praise like that to his face made Kim Namhu's cheeks heat a little. When a woman complimented him, he could simply enjoy it. Praise from a man still felt unfamiliar.
Shin Yong-geom laughed and steered the conversation elsewhere.
"Ji-hoon was jealous as hell. Said if he'd had the chance, he would've gone with us."
Shin Yong-geom had told Cha Ji-hoon, whom he had grown close to, the whole story. Cha Ji-hoon had no idea what was coming—he was just envious that Shin Yong-geom got to move with Kim Namhu.
Shin Yong-geom glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall.
"This weekend, right?"
The minister's party was set to run from Friday evening through Sunday. The fact that it would not end in a single night said plenty about how hard they planned to play.
Kim Namhu spoke to him.
"It won't be an easy room. They won't be as manageable as the clients here. Figure at least three times worse than our worst nightmares and get ready."
"Ugh. I'm scared already. But ready how? What kind of prep?"
"Load up on stuff that's good for your body ahead of time. Skipping alcohol for a couple of days wouldn't hurt either. Treat it like an athlete getting his body right before a match."
Shin Yong-geom wondered if it really needed to go that far, but he did not bother asking. Right now, anything Kim Namhu told him might as well have been the correct answer.
"Got it. Then I'll take Thursday off. Rest hard at home and eat well."
"That works."
Shin Yong-geom asked something else.
"But this is your first party like this too, right? How do you know all that? Did Choi Moon-ho tip you off or something? No—wait. That guy's not the type."
Kim Namhu could not say he had lived through something similar in a previous life, so he worked the angle.
"It's a two-night, three-day schedule. And these will be women with their noses in the air. Take the alcohol away from a host and of course they'll lose it. Not just lose it—full-on meltdown territory."
"See, people who are good at this stuff really do think differently. I need to learn that."
Shin Yong-geom swallowed the excuse whole.
Kim Namhu, for his part, started turning over what he might actually gain by going to this party. The first goal was keeping Jang Hyo-woon from spending an uncomfortable stretch of time stuck with Choi Moon-ho. But burning two nights and three days on nothing but that felt like a waste.
Now that I think about it, there might be other angles I can work.
He was not planning to hunt for a regular. In Kim Namhu's experience, women who held power and money past a certain level had a high chance of being unhinged. When everyone around you spent their lives kissing your ass, even a halfway normal person went rotten. Taking a woman like that as a regular only drained him over the long haul.
But hosts who are supposed to be killing it all over Seoul are coming? I might build some unexpected connections.
Kim Namhu's skill had always been high enough that he rarely needed a network. Even so, he knew connections could be useful from time to time. Getting faces and names from hosts gathered from across Seoul would not hurt him at all.
I wonder what the hell is actually going to happen.
Time moved on, and Friday night arrived.