The Power Struggle
Kim Namhu stepped outside, and the women had almost all already gone home.
The hosts were packing their bags and heading out to their own cars.
Shin Yong-geom was waiting for Kim Namhu.
He watched Kim Namhu exit and said, “You worked hard until the very end. Whew. You’re full of dark circles under your eyes.”
“Yeah, I did push myself a bit.”
But Kim Namhu smiled, thinking of the one hundred and fifty million won in his bag.
“Aunties are in a different league when it comes to sex. The young ladies might be a little gentler if you’re shy, but they really suck everything out of you.”
“Hyung Yong-geom must have suffered too.”
“He kept asking if I could do it one more time. They even made me take Viagra. I thought I was going to die.”
Shin Yong-geom must have had some trouble with his stamina.
“What about you?”
Kim Namhu had to have sex with four women to knock them out.
But he had solved every single one without using any drugs, just by his natural power.
Kim Namhu wasn’t the type to brag about his stamina, so he answered vaguely.
“I’m worn out too. I don’t even know how I’m standing right now.”
“Really? Then you probably can’t even do the aftercare.”
Shin Yong-geom had received a decent amount of money for participating in a three-day sex party.
A normal host would have wanted to spend that money immediately, since it was the amount an Ace host made in three days.
He had planned to have dinner with his colleague who had worked hardest alongside him, but seeing Kim Namhu’s condition made him think it would be too much.
“Do you want to go get some body nourishment? You need to eat properly when you’re run-down. I’ll treat you.”
“No. Just drop me off at any subway station when we reach Seoul. I just want to go home and rest.”
Kim Namhu turned down the suggestion again.
He was tired, but what mattered most was the cash in his bag— one hundred and fifty million won.
He couldn’t relax until he got it safely into his room.
If he followed Shin Yong-geom home and had a drink, he might do something he regretted if his mood turned up.
One hundred and fifty million won in cash was dangerous to even mention.
‘There was a time when someone won the second prize in the lottery and his friend stole it because he knew.’
A two-hundred-million-won second prize had enough power to cause trouble like that.
One hundred and fifty million could easily tempt even an honest man like Shin Yong-geom to do something bad.
Kim Namhu had no intention of telling anyone about today’s earnings.
While Kim Namhu and Shin Yong-geom were talking, another host approached them.
It was Choi Moon-ho.
Choi Moon-ho’s expression was terrible.
He had declared he would seduce Jo Ye-rin, who had spent two nights with Kim Namhu.
If he failed, he would leave The Queen.
Just from Choi Moon-ho’s expression, Kim Namhu could guess what had happened and what he would do.
First, he had failed to seduce Jo Ye-rin.
‘The situation wasn’t good.’
There was a right time and a wrong time to seduce a woman.
When a man’s sex drive was overflowing and he couldn’t even masturbate, he would drool over a woman.
The same applied to women.
When their sex drive was high, they were easy to seduce. After it was satisfied, they became hard to approach.
‘And Jo Ye-rin had intense sex with me for two straight days.’
Her sex drive had dropped to an all-time low.
It was like eating a full meal and then choosing dessert without thinking. She was past the point where anything would matter.
So when Choi Moon-ho approached and asked her to spend time with him, she would naturally find it annoying.
He would look like a waiter offering dessert after a heavy meal.
Only Kim Namhu knew exactly how Jo Ye-rin felt.
Choi Moon-ho had chosen the worst possible timing to approach.
And Kim Namhu read the determination in his expression.
Choi Moon-ho had already decided to leave The Queen.
That was a decision too big for Lee Sang-soo to stop.
“So how exactly did you seduce Jo Ye-rin?”
“I was lucky.”
“Don’t try to weasel out with words like that.”
Kim Namhu thought this might be the last time he would face Choi Moon-ho directly.
So he answered seriously.
“That word ‘lucky’ isn’t a lie. I only came because I thought Hyo-woon would cause trouble if he showed up. I didn’t want to deal with an old ugly woman. But if I only seduced young women, the older ones might choose me too. So I picked the prettiest one who seemed to have the most power first. That was Jo Ye-rin.”
Choi Moon-ho looked at Kim Namhu with a complicated expression.
In the end, it was the result of Kim Namhu’s skill.
And the simple reason Choi Moon-ho couldn’t do it was because his skill was inferior to Kim Namhu’s.
Choi Moon-ho’s pride had completely shattered at the fact that there was a host better than him.
With the last scraps of his pride, he said, “Then do you observe every woman like that?”
It was never easy.
Choi Moon-ho had observed female clients, but not as carefully as Kim Namhu.
He only used his own charm to charm female clients.
He was a man with his own unique charm, and that alone had made him The Queen’s Ace.
Kim Namhu’s method looked hard and tiring.
“That’s right. That’s the most effective way.”
“Even now, when you don’t have any regulars, maybe you could do it. But when you have more than ten regulars, could you still do it?”
Kim Namhu understood exactly what Choi Moon-ho was saying.
Kim Namhu had also lived a life with countless regulars.
It was clearly harder the more women he had to be attentive to.
It felt impossible sometimes.
But Kim Namhu had stuck to his method and created a skill to keep using it.
“I can do it. I will do it.”
Choi Moon-ho couldn’t tell whether Kim Namhu’s confidence was just rookie arrogance or real skill.
His words were filled with absolute certainty.
“I’ve had that kind of time too. At the beginning, when I had just gotten my first regular, I treated them like a girlfriend out of gratitude. But in the end, the host’s body is only one. You can’t be the lover of everyone.”
“That’s something to watch and see.”
Choi Moon-ho had realized it was impossible to convince Kim Namhu right now.
“Yeah. That’s something to watch and see. I probably won’t get to see it myself. But I’ll wait for the rumors about what kind of ending it will have.”
He turned away.
His slumped shoulders seemed to show today’s defeat.
**
Kim Namhu took two days off.
He used vacation days on Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday was already his regular day off, so he ended up with three full days.
During that time, he didn’t meet any regulars and quietly recovered in his studio.
Eating nutritious food at every meal, his stamina from the sex he had done for three days returned as if he had died and been resurrected.
‘Better to recover early.’
A man’s stamina also needed to be managed carefully from the start.
Some hosts who went all out when they were young later suffered from erectile dysfunction.
Just like muscles, stamina was best managed while young to keep it in old age.
‘It’s not just women who have to be careful when they’re in their prime.’
When Thursday came, Kim Namhu went to work in excellent condition.
Choi Moon-ho was nowhere to be seen in the host waiting room.
His name had even been erased from the whiteboard.
Jang Hyo-woon approached Kim Namhu first and said, “Namhu-ya. Let’s go get a coffee or something.”
“Yeah, hyung.”
They left The Queen and went to a nearby cafe.
There they each ordered an Americano.
“Since we’re about to start work, I’ll ask only one thing.”
“Yeah.”
“Choi Moon-ho suddenly quit. What happened?”
Choi Moon-ho had told Lee Sang-soo on Monday that he was quitting right away.
Hosts didn’t have four insurances or anything like normal companies.
He didn’t need to stay another month and do handover.
If a host said he didn’t want to come out, there was no way to force him.
“He said he would seduce the woman he first charmed himself. If he failed, he would leave The Queen.”
Jang Hyo-woon knew Choi Moon-ho’s personality, so he guessed what had happened.
“He was showing off and kept his word because of his pride.”
“That’s how it is.”
Kim Namhu took a sip of coffee and asked, “What’s the atmosphere in the waiting room like?”
Even so, Choi Moon-ho had been one of the Aces and had many juniors following him.
If he suddenly quit, the impact couldn’t be zero.
“It’s not great, but the other kids are all still here, so from the bar’s perspective, it probably won’t be a big blow.”
Jang Hyo-woon had fought with Choi Moon-ho over pride many times, but the situation didn’t feel as refreshing as he expected.
“I never thought it would turn out like this. I was going to poke at you a little when you got bigger and make you leave on your own. But it seems your existence has touched Choi Moon-ho’s pride even more than I thought.”