Choi Moon-ho's Wife
Jang Sun-young noticed her mother’s worry and said with a smile.
“Don’t worry. What kind of daughter do you think I am? If it comes to it, I’ll be a woman as sharp as a knife.”
“That’s right. I know. Just watching you study tells me how fierce a girl you are.”
“So for now, I just want to enjoy myself happily. I don’t know when I’ll be able to taste this kind of happiness again. Got it? Mom just wants to watch from the sidelines.”
“Alright.”
Jang Sun-young felt that living was truly difficult.
More difficult than money was love.
No words could express how hard it was to fall in love with the right person and nurture that love.
Even knowing that, she still wanted love, and the sudden arrival of that love was painful.
‘Experience enough right now. Laugh. Cry. Then it’ll make me stronger, and when another love comes, I’ll be able to judge more wisely.’
Jang Sun-young only thought these words to herself.
Her daughter would not take kindly to hearing such advice.
“By the way, Mom.”
“Hm?”
“If I become a doctor and support myself, will oppa Namhu follow me?”
Jang Sun-young let out a soft laugh.
She had worked as a Ten-Pro Ace and experienced many men, sharpening her eye for them.
Some men loved only one woman for life.
There were men who remained unshaken even in front of actresses from Ten-Pro.
And some men seemed born to love multiple women.
Men who lived like butterflies flitting from flower to flower.
For those men, love and marriage were chains, and meeting many women felt like a natural instinct.
Kim Namhu was undoubtedly the former type of man.
And he possessed the ability to match that type.
“That’s something only you can judge. I don’t know.”
“Then I should try seducing him harder. You never know.”
“Are you sure about this? A doctor husband who’s half-bakery and a former host—there’ll be plenty of rumors.”
“That’s the past. Just hide it well. Or I’ll open a café for you.”
Jang Sun-young knew her daughter was deeply attached to Kim Namhu.
She also knew how deeply Jang Su-young was attached to Kim Namhu, though she could not measure it exactly.
Only when the moment of separation came would she realize just how painful it would be.
But before that moment arrived, there was still much time left.
**
The atmosphere at The Queen was pleasant.
After Choi Moon-ho’s departure, the place had been a bit unsettled for a while, but the tension soon faded.
Kim Namhu had perfectly filled the empty seat left by Choi Moon-ho.
For that reason, the happiest person was Lee Sang-soo.
Choi Moon-ho, who had been on the verge of crossing the line, was gone, the waiting room felt good, and sales were stable, so Lee Sang-soo had nothing to worry about.
Before opening the store, they had gathered the hosts and repeatedly given the same speech.
“Everyone’s doing well lately. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.”
Lee Sang-soo glanced at Jang Hyo-woon and Kim Namhu while saying those words.
They were Aces who worked hard without any flaws.
With the Main in such a good mood, the hosts below him were also in high spirits.
Before starting work, Lee Sang-soo called Kim Namhu aside.
The two entered the Main’s office.
“Yes, hyung.”
“Namhu. Other kids start resting when their sales pick up a bit. You’re so consistent.”
“I enjoy working.”
As his fame grew and clients increased, he had finally reached the point where he could choose his clients.
He immediately avoided aunties who looked fierce or obviously problematic women he clearly could not get along with.
He accepted only women who had decent appearances, plenty of money, and seemed prepared to have fun.
Work was bound to be enjoyable.
And Lee Sang-soo’s face softened into a smile.
With an apologetic expression, he spoke.
“I knew you were working hard and tried to cover any bad things that might happen.”
Bad things tended to follow good times.
Kim Namhu knew Lee Sang-soo was a good person, so he realized it was not just talk.
Whenever something bad was about to happen, Lee Sang-soo would do everything he could to prevent it.
Though he could not always go beyond his abilities.
“What is it?”
“Right. There is. It seems a lot of rumors about you have spread. A special jimyung came from outside.”
If the client had moderate money and power, he could immediately refuse unreasonable requests.
But there were too many women in the world who could make a request that even a Main of a host bar could not refuse.
“Who is it?”
“The wife of the Prosecutor at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office.”
Kim Namhu immediately understood.
If the wife of an ordinary prosecutor was causing trouble, a host bar could do nothing about it.
A host bar that engaged in shady business was weak against state power.
But it was not an ordinary prosecutor’s wife—it was the wife of the Prosecutor.
Kim Namhu checked the news every day these days and knew who ran the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office.
‘A legendary figure who rose to the top through years at Yonsei University.’
Even an ordinary prosecutor needed excellent grades.
To advance as a prosecutor, academic background was essential.
Without graduating from Seoul National University, clear limits existed on promotion.
But if it was the Prosecutor at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office, it was close to the core of the prosecution.
Later, after the Prosecutor General, it could lead to politics.
‘And the current Prosecutor did not reach that position just by her own ability.’
Kim Namhu now received many clients related to high-ranking civil servants or politics.
One by one, he gathered facts that were not clear from the news.
The reason the Prosecutor could become Prosecutor was because of her wife.
‘She is a former Ten-Pro Ace.’
During her ordinary prosecutor days, she received hospitality from the Prosecutor and met a woman from Ten-Pro.
They fell in love and married.
And the woman was not satisfied with marrying a prosecutor.
She mobilized her underworld connections to assist her husband.
She helped him solve difficult cases and arranged meetings with difficult high-ranking officials for golf.
In this way, the ordinary prosecutor gradually rose through the core of power.
This story was a topic of conversation among the higher-ups.
Some people sneered that since the wife was from Ten-Pro, she must be good at sex.
There was also jealousy that the marriage between a prosecutor and a Ten-Pro woman was real love.
There were curses that their union would not last long.
There was also the talk that by making an ordinary prosecutor into a Prosecutor, the woman was controlling the household.
‘If she can directly call a host, it seems her husband is really under her control.’
Jang Ha-yeon, one of Kim Namhu’s existing regular clients, was also a prosecutor’s wife who used her husband’s power to keep him in check.
The Prosecutor’s wife was doing the same in her own way.
If a woman like that was calling, there was no way a normal host bar could refuse.
Unless it was a famous host bar in Gangnam that hosted several even higher clients, there was no way to refuse.
“As you know, it might be even harder than the private party I attended before.”
It was not a place that made everyone laugh like the Ministry of Gender Equality.
The Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office had far greater power than the Ministry of Gender Equality.
Although the rank of Prosecutor was lower than that of Minister, no one said the Prosecutor was inferior to the Minister of Gender Equality.
What you could do mattered more than the rank you held, and the stronger the power, the heavier the burden on the person you faced.
That was why Lee Sang-soo felt sorry for Kim Namhu.
“It’s fine. If you think about it, this happened because of the rumors about me.”
Raising your name inevitably led to such things.
To avoid this, he would have to bring stronger regular clients so that even the Prosecutor’s wife could not do as she pleased.
“When and where should we go?”
“Today, the car is coming. And it won’t be a simple jimyung.”
“What else is there?”
If it was just about facing one woman with power, Lee Sang-soo would not have felt this sorry.
Kim Namhu could easily handle that much, so Lee Sang-soo had faith.
But this time was different.
Even as a Main of a host bar, Lee Sang-soo had gathered information on the reputation.
And he knew how twisted the Prosecutor’s wife’s hobbies were.
“That woman enjoys calling two successful hosts at the same time and making them compete.”
This kind of thing did not happen in normal host bars.
Having two hosts compete over one woman was like ruining the atmosphere of the waiting room.
And as a female client, spending twice as much money meant she was not a normal woman who would do such a thing.
“Does she want to play princess?”
“Well, something like that.”
She would set two men against each other and enjoy the scene as the heroine.
The host who claimed the woman would receive attention, while the other would be left as a screen and suffer a wound to his pride.
Since they were bottom-of-the-barrel hosts, pride was especially important.
No matter the outcome, it was not a pleasant feeling.