She was a crazy woman who soothed her drunkenness and washed her mouth with beer. It didn’t seem to be a joke when she said she needed vodka if she wanted to get drunk.

“Drink some more.”

“I’d collapse if I want to drink as much as you do.”

“You’re so weak with alcohol despite being a man.”

It’s not that I’m weak, but you’re hella strong. - thought Dongwook to himself.

Something sour came up to his throat. Dongwook tried to soothe his stomach with some cold water. Just then, Miyeon abruptly raised her hand. It looked like she was about to order another bottle of soju. Dongwook quickly talked to her.

“Why don’t we start now? I need to make a living too.”

“Start what?”

“That’s how you wanna do this? I’m leaving now.”

Miyeon then put her arm on the table and rested her chin against the back of her hand.

“My company decided to look into what actresses who are not active nowadays are doing and create a special edition. You know, it’s one of those ideas when you’re running out of content. It was supposed to be an easy piece of work where I had to just chat and ask about recent matters with the actresses that replied to us, but….”

She paused for a moment before making a bitter smile.

“While I was talking to one, something uninteresting came up. I just lightly asked what she was up to nowadays, but that had to come up.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Senior. Have you seen the news on RBS a while ago about sexual service? That they’re bringing new actresses to hotels using debut as a lure?”

“I did. It became quite controversial back then.”

“It was noisy only back then. Nobody’s talking about it now.”

Dongwook crossed his arms. The reaction was definitely small compared to the seriousness of the situation. The press department that sounded like they would get to the roots of the sexual service problem had become silent as well. Some of the small to mid-sized media outlets seemed to be touching on that topic as well for a while, but that didn’t last long either. Although some articles were popping up in the news regarding sexual slavery, there was only a brief section. Nothing went into detail.

“So?”

“I talked to her over lunch and she talked about sexual service. She seemed incredibly troubled.”

“You mean she received an offer as well?”

“Rather than being offered one, she was probably forced to. She told me that she still remembers that day even though it happened quite a long time ago. She told me a few things saying that she could only say them because she left that world, but those stories made me a little angry.”

“What happened?”

Miyeon raised her hand and ordered more soju. Dongwook didn’t stop her.

“I thought sexual service was a very special, rare case, right? But I was wrong. It’s quite frequent. They just aren’t visible on the surface. From what she said, the number of times she got ‘gentle offers’ is simply beyond imagination. She got tired of hearing ‘let’s just have a light drink together’ from up there all the time.”

“By up there, do you mean CEOs and people like that?”

“Well, yes, those kinds of people. The ones with the authority to decide the fates of rookies. Directors, scriptwriters, producers, CEOs, et cetera.”

“The reason it never became public is because she was afraid of the consequences, right?”

Miyeon nodded. The store owner gave them some soju and some ppeongtwigi[1]. Dongwook shook the soju bottle once to create a swirl before pouring a glass for Miyeon.

“That’s unfortunate, but it isn’t of interest to me.”

Dongwook spoke as he drank a sip. Miyeon glared at him before chuckling and leaning back against her chair.

“Right. This is just an uninteresting fact, and not good enough to write articles about. But aren’t they going too far? If they have any sense of journalism, they should get angry at things like this and make it public.”

“I traded that for my rent. Talk more if you want, or let’s end things here. I don’t want to get burned by talking about something sensitive.”

She quit her job at the TV station. There was no way the TV station was not aware of something that even a mere magazine journalist could find out with a brief interview. It was an issue that would attract huge attention if it was brought to the public. However, no one touched the topic. From this, it was clear that no one was willing to touch the goblet with poison in it.

The journalists that picked up their pens for the sake of justice and morals died lonely deaths on top of yellowed-out newspapers.

“I want to talk more about it though,” Miyeon spoke as she offered him to drink.

Dongwook tapped on the table for a while before receiving the glass.

“I’m listening and I’m only listening.”

“Yes. I’m also thinking that I’m shouting ‘the king has donkey ears!’ into the empty bamboo forest, so you don’t need to listen to me in such detail.”

Miyeon was smiling, but it looked somewhat in vain. When living as a journalist, there were multiple occasions where one’s own justice, the justice of society, and the justice of the company clashed with each other. There was only one realization after such a process: The pen is actually not mightier than the sword.

Dongwook understood why Miyeon asked him out for a drink, and why she wanted to talk about something on her mind to someone she wasn’t even that close to. There were secrets that could be revealed precisely because they weren’t close.

“So, what comes after that? I don’t think you’re here to just rant about the fact that there are a lot of women in sexual service.”

“When I heard up to that point, I just felt a little angry. But what can I do about it? There was nothing I could do for that actress. It’s not like my editor would like it even if I write about it. Yes, I know. If a willing spirit could solve all problems, why would we need to worry about anything? We all have to make compromises in life one way or the other. I also planned to just ignore it. But….”

“But?”

“You should know about it as well, senior. That there are times when you simply can’t ignore it; that you become absorbed in it knowing full well that it’s a stupid thing to do.”

She poured soju into a beer glass before putting it against her mouth. Dongwook reached out and grabbed her wrist.

“You should really drink moderately.”

“Let me drink this one.”

“Are you going to pass out after drinking, or are you going to pass out after telling your story?”

Miyeon bit her lower lip before putting down the glass. She turned around to the side and took out something from her bag. It was a piece of newspaper that was folded neatly. Dongwook received that newspaper and opened it. It was about a suicide case. The contents were simple. A woman in her forties committed suicide together with her 10 year-old daughter because of everyday struggles. It started off with ‘former actress A’.

“This woman is that actress?”

“Yes. I came across that news about a month after the interview. She wasn’t anyone famous, and we’re in a country where several people commit suicide because of the hardships of life, so that news never garnered a lot of attention. But when I read it, my heart….”

Her fists were clenched tight. Miyeon was looking down at her fists.

“I tried to ignore it, but I just couldn’t. It felt so stifling. What would have happened to her if I was just a little more willing to listen to her story? Wouldn’t something have changed if I consulted her afterwards?”

Miyeon made a self-loathing smile.

“I get that you feel a sense of responsibility, but don’t get yourself mixed up. Like it says in the article, she committed suicide because of her hardships in life. It was not a problem you could’ve done something about.”

“I know. I know that, but that’s just how people’s hearts work. They don’t follow reason. I felt sorry. I wanted to do something for her. That’s why I brought up my old habits again and hung around here and there.”

“That’s not the course of action I’d recommend.”

“That’s true.”

“So, did you find out that the king’s ears were donkey ears?”

He shouldn’t have asked that question. He should’ve ended the conversation by telling her that it was okay; that she should forget about it; that it was fine as long as she wished her well in the afterlife. The story that was about to follow was bound to be heavy, and his junior was clearly trying to share the burden by telling him the story. Call him cold-hearted, but he didn’t have any leisure to spend his passion on something tiring and non-profitable. He had to write more necessary and profitable articles if he had any time.

Yet, he ended up urging her to talk about it. It was just as she said. Journalists were innately adamant about digging into something pointless despite knowing full well that it was a stupid thing to do. Only such people could become journalists. If they could restrain those foolish actions, they’d get promoted, and if they could not, they would either be given the journalism award or give up being a journalist altogether.

Dongwook once thought that he was the former; that it was just a hasty mistake that he quit his job at the TV station. He resolved that he would not make the same mistake ever again. He swore to bury his sense of justice into his memories and write articles as a salaryman that needed to survive this industry.

However, they say old habits die hard. His sense of journalism that he supposedly threw away into the trash slowly poked its head up. He was making an excuse to himself thinking that he should just create the issue by saying just the generic things and pull out immediately, but he was well aware that he would hang onto it until the very end the moment he listened to her story.

“It was such an old story, so it was hard to get anything about it. In fact, I didn’t know how to go about it. Then, I saw the news about sexual service and decided to start from there.”

“Did you go and listen to her story?”

“Yes. That woman was tired. When I told her that I came to interview her, she said she didn’t need one. She seemed fed up with the media. Even I would be fed up if I was in her position. They all spoke like they would help her solve the problem, but they never did.”

“Her face became known, and her life in the industry was over. She should have been in a tough spot.”

“I barely got her to talk. But nothing too deep. She said that she was no longer in a position where she could talk about the incident.”

“So she negotiated.”

“Probably. But I was able to hear more than what was revealed to the media.”

Miyeon made a suspicious expression.

“Senior. Do you know the agency she belonged to?”

“No.”

“It’s MH. That rings a bell, doesn’t it?”

“It’s The Five’s former agency.”

“Yes. It’s the company that’s under hot fire due to unfair contracts.”

“So? How are those two related?”

“Senior. Do you know that The Five’s incident was being spread around on the internet the moment the sexual service news went live?”

“So, you mean that they brought The Five’s incident to the surface in order to put wraps around the sexual service incident? I don’t think that’s right. The unfair contract news is not big enough to put out the fire.”

“But what happened in reality? People switched interests immediately.”

“That’s true, but I think you’re still overthinking things. Also, the sexual service incident is one that’s bound to die down even without The Five’s incident. It never made it to mainstream news either. Don’t you think it’s just a coincidence?”

“I thought that too. But when I looked into it, I found out a few more things.”

Miyeon lowered her voice.

“What I’m about to say now is me talking about random stuff because I’m drunk, alright?”

“Random stuff because you’re drunk, huh.”

“Yes. So forget about it after you listen to it.”

“If I can, I will.”

Miyeon raised her head to scan the restaurant once before speaking in a careful manner.

“They can’t do anything about what’s already happened. They had the confidence to cover it up, but people will remember the things that already leaked. In the end, it means that they have to take care of it before it leaks out.”

“Take care of it?”

“I told you that there are numerous sexual service incidents, right?”

“Yes.”

Miyeon tightly grabbed the empty glass before speaking.

“What’s interesting is that when people hear ‘sexual service’, they always think about women giving service to men.”

* * *

He was on his way to the apartment that Gwak Joon had told him. Looking outside the bus window, Daemyung thought about what happened yesterday and sighed. They heard that they passed the preliminaries and went to instructor Suyeon’s house. They were originally planning to go home after visiting the noraebang, but Suyeon said that it was such a pity to go separate ways like that and said that they should continue the afterparty, and so everyone followed her willingly.

As soon as they arrived, booze poured out of the refrigerator. There were beer and soju. They ordered some gamja-tang and drank alcohol like they did once before. The alcohol was as bitter as ever, but when he drank a few cups in joy from passing the preliminaries, he felt that the drinks were a little sweet. That was when the games began. Everyone joyfully laughed and drank alcohol.

That was good and all. They were moderately refraining themselves from drinking too much. The problem began when Jiyoon lost all the games. He couldn’t bear to look at Jiyoon’s bright red face any longer and volunteered himself to drink instead and ended up drinking a few cups of mixed drinks.

Suyeon told him that he could stop drinking, but when he thought that Jiyoon was watching him from the side, he felt a strange sense of confidence. Like that, after around 40 minutes, Daemyung collapsed and spitted out everything that went in. On top of that, he was on the carpet.

What was fortunate was that everyone had passed out because they were drunk. It was mind-numbing to think about what would have happened if Jiyoon saw him. Like that, he woke up at noon the next day, which was today. They were going to begin practicing again starting Wednesday, so it didn’t matter even if he was in a horrible condition.

He woke up with a hangover wanting something to drink, but his phone started ringing, and only did he realize that he had missed calls. They were from Gwak Joon and Maru.

‘I’m soooo not drinking next time.’

Daemyung called Gwak Joon as he got off the bus. When he picked up, Gwak Joon told him to wait where he was. Just as he was waiting while looking around, he saw Gwak Joon waving at him from the other side of the road.

[1] Popped grains, usually made from rice or corn.