Substitute-Chapter 3: Coincidence and Inevitability (2)
It was that same client from earlier.
Considering the hour, he hadn’t come for drinks — probably had business with the madam.
With his height and build, the guy stood out easily.
If he hadn’t been nervously bouncing his leg while chain-smoking, Jiwon might’ve thought he looked cool — like Han.
Jiwon approached and bowed.
The man didn’t nod, didn’t speak — just glanced at him.
He sucked on his cigarette until his cheeks hollowed out, then spat on the ground.
Kim pulled the car around to the front.
“Thank you, come again!”
Kim bent at the waist and shouted with his usual exaggerated sales pitch.
The man pulled out a 50,000-won bill and handed it to him.
“Much appreciated!”
Kim bowed again, this time with a real smile on his face.
As Jiwon took the keys from Kim ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) and moved to get in the driver’s seat, the man held out a card.
“Grab some water. Get one for yourself, too.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jiwon took the card and jogged over to the same convenience store from before.
Han was still sitting by the window, staring out.
When Jiwon walked in, Han turned his head and silently mouthed, Why?
Jiwon mouthed back, Water, and headed for the drinks section.
By the time he came back outside, Han was standing face-to-face with the client, chatting.
No doubt about it — good-looking Han and that tall, broad-shouldered man drew people’s attention.
Han was smiling up at him, and the smile was so sweet that even Jiwon, another man, felt a flutter.
Something passed from the client’s hand to Han’s.
A business card.
If he was handing Han a business card, he must’ve been smiling too — or so Jiwon thought.
He deliberately slowed down, hoping to avoid disrupting the moment.
Tried to play ghost until the client turned his head.
But the moment he saw the man’s scowling face, he started running.
He shoved the water bottle into the man’s hand with an unnecessary apology.
The man snatched it out of Jiwon’s hand with such force that water splashed.
Should’ve hurried back.
Jiwon had let Han’s “he’s gay” comment mess with his head and ended up doing something stupid.
He clutched his own bottle tightly and looked over at Han.
Han was still smiling, utterly dreamy.
He even gave Jiwon a little wink.
Jiwon had no idea what the hell was going on.
Was it actually going well, despite how it looked?
Is this how gay guys test each other out?
Jiwon pushed away the stupid thoughts and watched for the right moment to open the back door.
But when the man approached the car, he surprised him by opening the passenger side instead.
Guess he wanted to ride up front.
Jiwon hurried to close the back door and got into the driver’s seat.
Then he finally checked the destination — and grimaced.
In this weather, it’d take at least an hour to get there.
Two hours round trip.
Being late was a given.
Still, it was a room salon client, and both Kim and Han had seen him working as a designated driver — someone would cover for him if anyone came asking.
He’d worry about it later.
For now, he started driving.
The client sitting beside him reeked of perfume — the exact scent the madam always wore.
Expensive, apparently, but Jiwon always found it overwhelming.
The AC spread the smell through the car.
“Fuck, this smell is fucking awful. What the hell kind of perfume is that?”
The man scowled and rolled down the window.
The warm, humid air and rain slowly diluted the overpowering perfume.
“You know him?”
The man asked abruptly, no subject given.
Jiwon figured who he meant.
“Ah, yes. I work as a driver around there late nights.”
He phrased it vaguely — didn’t mention being the exclusive driver.
The man didn’t respond.
Just sniffed the air.
“Ugh, piss smells better than this.”
He muttered.
After that, the car went silent.
He’d been on the phone nonstop earlier — guess there was no one left to call now.
Makes sense. It was past midnight.
There had been a time when silence made Jiwon nervous.
Now, he just focused on driving.
Safe driving, safe driving — he repeated in his head.
The more expensive the car, the smoother it handled, but letting your guard down was fatal.
A vibration buzzed.
Not his.
The man didn’t reach for his phone until it buzzed several more times, then pulled it from his jacket pocket.
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.
“Yes, go ahead,” he said aloud — voice suddenly polite.
Jiwon peeked and saw him smiling.
But no matter how polite the man sounded, the voice coming from the other end was sharp — a woman’s voice, barking rapid-fire.
She went on without pause.
The man tried to settle it with just two lines:
“I understand. Let’s talk tomorrow.”
Didn’t work. freewēbnoveℓ.com
The woman kept firing back, machine-gun fast.
“I said I got it. I’ll take care of everything. Why the hell are you calling over something like this?”
His tone, which had been smooth and accommodating, turned slightly curt — maybe his patience was wearing thin.
Apparently, that set the woman off.
She started screaming — loud enough for even Jiwon to hear it clearly.
The man held the phone away from his ear.
“Hello? You fucking bastard. Why aren’t you answering? Can’t you hear me?!”
It sounded like she was on speaker.
The man winced and brought the phone back to his ear.
“Yes, yes. I heard you. I understand, okay? I’ll handle it, so don’t worry. I’ll take care of it tomorrow, and I’ll come see you right after.”
He babbled in a flustered tone, trying to calm her down.
As soon as he hung up, he made another call.
“Hey! That bitch still not taken care of?”
The politeness was gone.
“You think I should be getting calls from that cunt at this hour? Are you kidding me? What the fuck are you even doing? You useless shit—”
As if returning the humiliation he’d just suffered, the man started raging.
Throwing around “that bitch,” “this bitch,” even hinting at killing someone — without hesitation.
That clinched it.
Jiwon was sure now — he was a gangster.
Even after ending the call, the man didn’t calm down.
He forgot Jiwon was even there and started shouting at empty space.
Stomping his feet, flailing his limbs, spewing curses.
Jiwon tensed — not because he was afraid of getting hit.
If it came down to just blocking a blow, that’d be fine.
What he was scared of... was that he might hit back.
That could never happen.
He had to stay in control.
His palms were soaked with sweat on the wheel.
And the client’s brief, burning glance at him felt like a needle prick against his skin.
Thankfully, nothing bad happened.
But Jiwon couldn’t remember the drive itself.
If not for the navigation voice announcing the destination, he might’ve just kept going for hours.
He finally parked the car.
Only then did he exhale fully.
“Let’s have a smoke before you go.”
A cigarette was suddenly held out in front of him.
“I’m okay.”
“Smoke it, fucker.”
No choice but to take it.
“Thank you.”
Jiwon took the cigarette with both hands and bowed slightly.
The man lit it for him, bringing his big, veined hand close — even lighting the one in Jiwon’s mouth himself.
He took a long, deep drag, cheeks sinking in, and then exhaled slowly.
Jiwon sat beside him, hunched over, puffing awkwardly.
He knew he looked pitiful but couldn’t straighten his back.
When he glanced over, the client was leaning back with his eyes closed, cigarette dangling.
“Goddamn, that’s good. How the hell are you supposed to quit this?”
He chuckled to himself.
About halfway through the cigarette—
"Cigarette butt."
When Jiwon turned, the client naturally dropped what was left of his still-burning cigarette into Jiwon’s palm — not so much handed as tossed.
Jiwon hurried to catch it with both hands before it could fall and burn the car’s carpet.
The client got out of the car first, and Jiwon followed quickly behind.
He snuffed out both his own cigarette and the client's, then bowed respectfully.
“Thank you. Please get home safely.”
He politely extended the car key.
Instead of taking it, the man placed a 50,000-won bill into his hand.
“Thank you.”
The moment the man turned around, the heavy front gate opened as if it had been waiting.
Through the gate, a well-dressed middle-aged woman appeared.
The client didn’t spare Jiwon a glance and passed right by her without a word, disappearing inside.
The gate closed immediately after.
Whew.
Cold sweat trickled down Jiwon’s forehead.
He wiped it with the back of his hand and bent to pick up the two discarded cigarette butts.
He stowed them in the portable ashtray attached to the sling bag that never left his side.
He was about to leave when the gate reopened.
“Excuse me, sir.”
It was the middle-aged woman from earlier.
“Yes?”
Jiwon flinched like someone who had been caught doing something wrong.
“Please take this. Our boss asked me to give it to you.”
From the way she was dressed, he had assumed she was a family member — but she was the housekeeper.
She held out two more 50,000-won bills and a business card.
Jiwon rushed over and accepted both with polite hands.
“Thank you very much.”
He bowed low, and by the time he straightened up, the gate had already closed.
He looked up at the tall wall.
Let’s never see each other again.
He gave it the finger with defiant flair.
Then he shoved the business card into the front pocket of his shirt and carefully tucked the money into his wallet.
Just from this one client tonight, he had received a total of 150,000 won in tips.
Not bad for human trash.
Add the round-trip fare on top of that — how much was it now?
A smile slowly spread across Jiwon’s face.
But only for a moment.
The moment passed, and he was faced again with the long, miserable walk back toward the room salon.
He was already late and needed to hurry.
Still, with this much cash in hand, he figured there was no need to wait for the designated driver shuttle or one of the pick-up vehicles.
He pulled his phone out from his bag to call a cab.
Four missed calls.
Two unread messages.
All from the room salon.
He quickly called back and explained what had happened, but all he got in return was the manager yelling in his ear.
“Kim Gisa, if you're going to keep taking side jobs, why the hell did you sign an exclusive contract? You think this is a joke? Huh?”
“I’m sorry. I’m on my way now.”
He apologized over and over.
The client had come from the salon, and both Han and Kim had clearly seen Jiwon drive him — so he’d foolishly assumed someone would at least give the manager a heads-up.
It wasn’t that he blamed them, but... he couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
After hanging up, he felt completely drained.
Never in his life had he imagined he’d end up like this — doing designated driving and getting chewed out by a room salon manager.
The reality didn’t feel real.
It was like he had been dropped into a virtual world designed entirely out of the worst-case scenarios.
But not once had he doubted it.
Not once had he regretted it.
This was simply Kim Jiwon’s life, in the gutter.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Whenever the exhaustion made him feel especially depressed, he relied on his one strength — the ability to quickly separate feelings from facts.
He picked up his pace and stepped out onto the main road.
The rain was still coming down, and there wasn’t a soul in sight.
He belatedly opened his umbrella and launched the taxi app.
Then he stood at the curb, retracing his steps down the same empty street.
