Jang Su-Young
Jang Su-young gazed at the man sleeping beside her and wondered what he was up to right now.
It was impossible to answer her question by saying he had slept with her mother.
“I’m working,” he replied. “Not that busy, though. Study done for today?”
“Yes, oppa. I finished studying and thought maybe oppa had some free time.”
She must have been fishing for the right moment to say something.
Jang Sun-young, hearing that he was free, immediately called.
Kim Namhu rushed to answer the phone and slipped into the bathroom.
He didn’t want Jang Sun-young to wake up and overhear their conversation.
“Oppa, I can’t sleep at all. Can I just see you for a moment?”
“It’s pretty late, isn’t it?”
“But during the day oppa sleeps and I can’t see you. At night you have to work.”
Kim Namhu spent the whole night working and slept during the day, so finding time for each other was never easy.
Moreover, they had already set a final date to end things.
It was best to meet whenever they could.
“Then wait just a little longer.”
Kim Namhu showered to wash away any traces of their earlier encounter, left the motel, and took a taxi to Jang Sun-young’s house.
Jang Su-young had come straight out of the shower; she wore only a comfortable pajama set and a jacket thrown over it.
At her age, even without makeup she was beautiful.
The moment she spotted Kim Namhu she waved her hands excitedly and beamed with a bright smile.
“You said tomorrow was an exam, right?”
“Even if I sleep now I can only get five hours. Five hours or four, it’s the same.”
“Really?”
“Can you believe what a medical student says?”
Jang Su-young spoke playfully and Kim Namhu had no choice but to believe her.
“And if a loving girlfriend wants to see you, shouldn’t you be even happier?”
Her words made Kim Namhu smile no matter what.
Even if it was a temporary love that was already ending, feeling loved by someone felt good.
It was no wonder people fell so hard for love.
Jang Sun-young was bold.
She acted as if she believed their time together was finite and left nothing to chance.
She wanted to do everything she could.
“We should take a midnight drive sometime.”
“I’ve already had a drink.”
“I know. I was just saying I feel sorry for you.”
“Next time you’re off work, let’s go for a midnight drive. Just the two of us on a road no one else is on.”
“Sounds good. Then we can try something fun.”
As she spoke, Jang Sun-young slipped her hand down and gave his butt a playful squeeze.
She seemed to be hinting at what she wanted to do on the drive.
Kim Namhu looked around.
It was fortunate that no one else was out this early.
“Where exactly are you studying?”
“Even a college student knows everything now. I know a lot, but I just haven’t had the chance to try it yet.”
Kim Namhu thought that a midnight drive with Jang Su-young could be quite dangerous.
But he wanted to try it too.
**
Some weeks had passed.
Just like mother and daughter had arranged, Jang Sun-young and Jang Su-young took turns visiting Kim Namhu.
Kim Namhu couldn’t leave either his regular clients or his girlfriend waiting.
And Jang Sun-young was the one who always drank with him.
The woman who normally spent every day lazily had shown a serious expression today.
Kim Namhu worried about what she might say.
Jang Sun-young opened her mouth.
“Your daughter’s mood has improved.”
“Has it?”
“She’s my daughter, but it feels a bit odd.”
Jang Sun-young told him everything about her daughter.
From a mother’s perspective she knew more about Jang Su-young than her own daughter would ever reveal.
“It’s fine that she wants to become a doctor because she doesn’t want to live like me. But she doesn’t have to pass every exam at once, right? She’s decided to retake the college entrance exam with her life on the line. I’ll support her however many times she needs—second or third try.”
“A proud daughter.”
“She’s proud, but she should enjoy life more. Even now, at university, I can support her for as many years as she wants to travel the world. But she only studies. She tried to say she’d work part-time to cover tuition, but I barely stopped her.”
In the end, everyone’s viewpoint changed according to their position.
Jang Sun-young saw her as a mother, and Jang Su-young saw herself as a daughter.
They could understand each other, yet they couldn’t act exactly as the other wanted.
And through Kim Namhu, Jang Sun-young had managed to bring about some of the changes her daughter desired.
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t do much.”
“No. Thanks to you, my daughter has more free time and smiles more often. She still studies hard, but this… this is a different world.”
Jang Sun-young took out her wallet and pulled out a blank check.
“I was always told that gratitude should be expressed with money, not words.”
“The money you’ve already given me is more than enough.”
Jang Sun-young was one of his most generous regulars who boosted his sales enormously.
She alone covered what dozens of other clients paid.
When she added the tips from their second outings and the allowance he gave her for dates with her daughter, the amount he received from her was immense.
And she never once hesitated to accept his refusals.
She wrote a 1 at the top of the blank check and then began filling in zeros.
Kim Namhu had refused at first, but once the zeros kept coming he found it impossible to stop.
Only after eight zeros did her hand stop.
“Oh my!”
He had touched that much money before, but it was still a huge sum.
Jang Sun-young placed the check directly into his shirt pocket.
“Carrying cash around is troublesome. But Namhu, now that you’re making so much money, do you have any place that washes it?”
Once a host or Ace exceeded a certain level, the money he handled routinely ran into hundreds of millions.
And it was money the government never protected, so of course he paid no taxes.
If he put too much in the bank it might be seized during an audit and he could suffer greatly.
So he usually used cash and, when the amount became too large for that, he knew of places that cleaned it.
Kim Namhu was still an Ace handling hundreds of millions.
And most of that money came from honest investments.
Just the thought of losing tens of billions to taxes kept him awake at night.
He hadn’t found a place to wash money yet.
“Want me to introduce you to a good one?”
“If you recommend it, I’ll believe it.”
As a Ten-Pro Ace, Jang Sun-young knew several big spenders who did large-scale money laundering.
**
Even while studying hard, Jang Su-young always had breakfast with Jang Sun-young.
After all, you needed breakfast to think clearly and study better. Jang Sun-young’s argument was that eating one meal a day with your mother was important.
Their morning meals were simple.
Mostly toast or cereal.
On days Jang Sun-young had a hangover she added retort soup.
And with a smile, she said, “Oppa Namhu took me to the zoo last time. The pandas were so cute.”
“Really? Lucky you.”
“Mom doesn’t seem to like it that her daughter had fun on a date. She keeps saying I should live more carefree.”
“Yes. Live that way. Work hard, take breaks hard, and do everything hard.”
Jang Sun-young told her daughter exactly that.
She was happy her daughter had been able to enjoy life this much, but she was also a little jealous.
That feeling can only be felt during youth.
Jang Sun-young felt the same way.
In her childhood she had experienced love and felt as if the whole world was blessing her.
Even though the boyfriend she was dating at the time turned out to be a rather bad man later, she had felt that way.
She had fallen completely in love with him and even while sleeping she felt his presence.
She had gotten pregnant by him and he had run away.
Jang Sun-young raised her daughter while passing on her own strength.
She had no regrets about falling in love or raising her child.
The only thing she regretted was meeting a bad man.
If only I had met a good man.
Then she would have been able to experience the love that only youth can offer.
She would have been able to live her life in the light.
“What’s so good about it?”
“Nothing. Everything is good. He seems like a good person.”
“Of course.”
Jang Su-young had said she wouldn’t live the life her mother did, but she ended up looking a lot like her anyway.
Jang Sun-young feared that her daughter would meet a bad man and ruin her life.
So she had entrusted her to the man she knew who could teach her the most about love.
“Still, I’m worried about something else.”
“What?”
“That you might fall too deeply.”
Jang Sun-young had spent years working in the shadows and knew how difficult it was for someone from the shadows to date, fall in love with, or marry someone from the light.
Even among Ten-Pro hostesses there had been women who had seduced rich men and married them, but they had suffered from the harassment of their in-laws.
Even if the roles were reversed, it would be the same.
If a doctor fell in love with a host and married him, the couple might be fine, but the people around them would hate it and try to interfere.
Then the doctor would suffer far more than Kim Namhu, who had lower social status.