Itaewon.
A bar located in the basement of a hotel.
In a private room, Charlie Park was drinking heavily with his juniors.
“Big Brother Charlie. Let me pour you a drink.”
“Sure. Let’s have our youngest pour me one today.”
The youngest, wearing a tightly fitted designer T-shirt, carefully poured the liquor, and Charlie watched him with a satisfied expression.
This moment was extremely important to Charlie Park.
Today was the day the 27th Street gang would be resurrected.
The day they would fire the starting shot of their revival.
Until the Daehun-pa seized control of Seoul, the 27th Street gang had been a thriving organization even in Itaewon.
They were famous for having a lot of money.
That was because Charlie, the organization’s boss, smuggled drugs.
He made a fortune by distributing drugs throughout Itaewon’s clubs and bars, as well as among foreigners.
When word spread that Charlie Park was making a lot of money, people flocked to him.
That was how the 27th Street gang came into being.
Charlie thought that this happiness would last forever.
He thought it would never end.
But his golden years were shorter than expected.
For Charlie, who had walked nothing but flower-strewn paths and lived through an endless spring, a winter called the Daehun-pa descended upon him.
When the Daehun-pa took control of all of Seoul, the 27th Street gang was absorbed into them as well.
The 27th Street gang was merely a gathering of punks who sold drugs. They weren’t fighters.
They knew how to shout loudly wherever they went and throw chairs around, but they had never engaged in a real fight.
Compared to them, the Daehun-pa’s forces were far too strong and sharp.
The 27th Street gang entered the Daehun-pa without even barking once, like a bunch of obedient mutts.
Charlie Park had no qualms about joining the Daehun-pa.
He actually thought it was for the best.
He believed they could receive the Daehun-pa’s protection.
He would smuggle drugs as usual,
and receive protection in return.
But that was where the trouble began.
The Daehun-pa completely banned the distribution of drugs.
They warned that anyone caught selling drugs could not count on keeping his life.
But Charlie was not the type to stop distributing drugs just because he had been warned.
He had distributed drugs while evading the police’s pursuit.
Secretly distributing drugs under the Daehun-pa’s nose was a piece of cake.
There was no way the Daehun-pa could find out if he moved the drugs secretly.
Drugs were consumable, after all.
Once they were used, no one knew anything.
He could simply deny it.
He could insist that someone else had done it.
Most importantly, without drugs, the 27th Street gang had no source of income.
They had built their organization by selling drugs. If they couldn’t sell drugs, it would be difficult to keep the organization alive.
Drugs were the identity of the 27th Street gang.
So he tried to continue distributing them in secret.
But then.
The smuggling routes disappeared entirely.
There had been several smuggling routes, but every last one of them vanished.
No matter how hard he tried to find a new route, none appeared.
Then he heard the news that the Daehun-pa had blocked every smuggling route.
‘Goddammit…’
There were people willing to buy the drugs and people willing to send them, but there was no one to deliver them.
That was why he couldn’t sell the drugs.
From Charlie’s perspective, nothing could have been more unfair.
The men who had joined the 27th Street gang for the money left.
It had not been long since the Daehun-pa seized control of Seoul, but the 27th Street gang had shrunk for certain.
Not much more time passed before there was no one left in the 27th Street gang.
Only Charlie remained.
Then one day, he heard some welcome news.
A new route had opened up in the East Sea region.
A cargo ship would be passing through, unloading some goods in the East Sea before continuing on its way.
It was the most welcome news he had heard in a long time.
He immediately opened negotiations.
He had to pay far more than usual, but he had no choice.
He was that desperate.
And the drugs had to start circulating quickly.
That was the only way the 27th Street gang could survive.
Smuggling required organization members.
He brought in men whose faces he knew from working with them.
He told them they would make a lot of money.
Today was their first company dinner.
Normally, they would never have come to a hotel bar like this, but he needed to show off a little.
They had not had any income for a while, so they really shouldn’t be spending money in a place like this—but today was a special day.
“But, Big Brother, how do you speak English so well?”
The youngest asked.
“Me? Wasn’t I educated abroad?”
“Really?”
“I studied English during a six-month language program in the Philippines.”
“How did your English improve so much in just six months?”
“You’ll never improve if you just sit around. You have to make friends and keep talking and listening. And what’s the fastest way to do that?”
“What is it?”
“You need to get a girlfriend. Make one and stay glued to her twenty-four hours a day. Your English will improve right away.”
“Oh~ That’s incredible.”
“Ahh. Those were the days. It was really something over there. What a shame.”
That was when it happened.
The door burst open, and a group of men entered.
“If you liked it that much, should I send you back? Park Ducheol.”
“Who the fuck is Park Ducheol? I’m Charlie! Charlie!”
Charlie rose and approached the other man as if he intended to kill him.
But when he confirmed the man’s face, Charlie immediately became as meek as a well-trained dog and bowed at the waist.
“You’re here.”
Jeong Geunsu had appeared.
.
.
.
A short while later.
Charlie and Park Ducheol had their heads pressed against the long table in the room, while his organization members knelt on the floor without knowing what was going on.
Park Ducheol kept groaning, apparently in pain.
But that was all he could do.
He could not openly ask what was going on or why they had come.
The Daehun-pa had been the sort to follow without even barking once when the 27th Street gang was absorbed into them.
Charlie Park Ducheol was the kind of man who could scheme behind someone’s back, but could not utter a peep to his face.
“Park Ducheol, do you know why I came here?”
At Jeong Geunsu’s question, cold sweat broke out all over Park Ducheol’s body.
Had they already found out about the smuggling deal?
He hadn’t even made a single deal yet.
He was terrified.
“I-I don’t know.”
“How can you be so blind to what’s happening in the world? Shouldn’t you watch the news every now and then?”
Jeong Geunsu held out a newspaper.
When Park Ducheol tried to get up to look at it—
“Who told you to get up? Put your head back down.”
Park Ducheol had no choice but to press his head against the table again.
Having lifted his head and then slammed it down again made the pain feel twice as intense.
The newspaper slid beneath his face, which was pressed against the table.
“Read it aloud. Begin.”
“Yes, sir.”
He answered, but he couldn’t read it.
Could he possibly see the newspaper beneath his face while his head was pressed against the table?
“Can’t you read Korean because you studied abroad? Should I bring you an English newspaper?”
“No, sir. I can read it.”
Park Ducheol sweated profusely as he combined the letters through sheer, superhuman effort.
“Ko…pino’s… tears… Do… Korean… fathers… know…?”
“Continue.”
“Be…tween… a Filipino… woman… and… a Korean… man…”
Park Ducheol struggled through the article, while Jeong Geunsu listened impassively.
After quite a long time, Park Ducheol finally finished reading the article.
His entire body was already drenched in sweat.
Jeong Geunsu pulled Park Ducheol to his feet, and Park Ducheol knelt on the table.
“Park Ducheol. Don’t you feel anything after reading this news?”
Jeong Geunsu spoke, but the blood that had rushed to Park Ducheol’s head suddenly began circulating again, leaving him dizzy.
He felt as though he might collapse at any moment.
He could not think about anything.
“What?”
“I’m asking if anything came to mind while you were reading the article.”
“I-I’m not sure.”
“I thought only your head was defective, but your memory’s pathetic too. Maybe you’ll understand if I show you this as well?”
Jeong Geunsu showed Park Ducheol a photograph of Charlie with a local Filipino woman.
Still dizzy, Park Ducheol did not recognize the picture at first.
But after a little time passed, he could clearly see his own face in it.
“Gasp… Where did you get this picture…?”
“Will it be easier for you to understand if I show you this too?”
Jeong Geunsu held out a photograph of a still-small girl.
Park Ducheol stared at the picture for a long while. Only then did he seem to understand the situation.
The newspaper article about a kopino. The photograph of him with a Filipino woman. And the picture of the little girl.
They were probably saying that she was his daughter.
Park Ducheol could not believe what was happening.
He had not even known he had a child.
If he had a child, he should have kept in touch.
Of course, he had never given her his contact information.
He had even discarded the number he used in the Philippines before leaving.
But shouldn’t he have found some way to contact them?
“Ducheol.”
“Yes, Big Brother.”
“No matter how much trash we do or how much like punks we live, shouldn’t we still live like human beings?”
“That’s right.”
“From now on, I’m going to help you fulfill that basic human duty.”
“How?”
“The easiest way in the world. With money.”
“What? Money?”
“The child support you should have paid until now. Send it to the account written there.”
Jeong Geunsu pointed to the numbers written on the tablet.
Park Ducheol checked the number and asked in shock,
“Is this number wrong? It’s far too much to call child support…”
Smack!
In an instant, Park Ducheol’s jaw was knocked sideways.
“I’m trying to make you act like a human being, and you’re already starting to bark? If you think there’s something wrong with the number, bring me the correct one. We’ll calculate it together. If you have no objections, send that amount by the end of this week.”
“……”
“And the amount written there is the overdue child support. You’ll have to keep paying child support from now on too, right? Send two million won every month. The kid has to go to school, doesn’t she? With the money you spend on designer clothes that don’t even fit your body, she shouldn’t have to survive by picking through garbage over there. Reflect on what you’ve done. Got it?”
“……”
“Answer me.”
“…Yes.”
“And I eliminated the new route you opened this time. I told you not to sell drugs, but you still don’t understand. I’d like to cut something off, but you need to work and make money, so I’ll let you go. But if you fall behind on child support, I’ll cut off whatever isn’t essential first. I’ll start with your tongue, then your ears. I’ll cut off your fingers and toes too, and eventually I suppose I’ll cut that off as well, right? So while we can still talk things out like this, let’s both do our best to fulfill our respective roles. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“If you happen to have no work? If you think you can’t make the money? Contact me anytime. We’ll create a job for you. We’ll have you work while maintaining a healthy diet, so we can take your organs whenever we want. So don’t hesitate to call.”
“No, sir. I’ll definitely send it by the due date.”
Park Ducheol’s crisp reply resounded through the room.
His subordinates, who had come in for their first day of work, were watching him.
With looks of contempt.
It was humiliating for Park Ducheol, but he could not defy him.
In corporate terms, the Daehun-pa was a conglomerate.
If Seo Daehun was the chairman, Jeong Geunsu was the chief secretary who served at his side.
Park Ducheol, on the other hand, wore the company’s sign but had no real power—something like a manager at one of its dealerships.
They were on levels where he could not even sit at the same table with them.
Once today was over, rumors about Park Ducheol would spread throughout Itaewon.
How much of a punk he had been. How much of a piece of trash he was.
How filthy he had lived.
He would probably have a hard time working in this field anymore.
It was a place where human garbage gathered,
but crossing the line was another matter.
Even if someone was trash, people could gather around him if he had money.
But Park Ducheol was different.
He would have to give most of the money he currently had as child support, and pay two million won every month without fail.
When he was smuggling drugs and making good money, two million won was nothing. But when he had to earn it through honest work, two million won was a large sum.
Outside, Jeong Geunsu put a cigarette between his lips.
The smoke sinking deep into his lungs tasted only bitter.
It was a shame he had only slapped those bastards once.
He should have torn them to pieces.
It was a shame, but he was confident.
Confident that he could keep them by his side and make them suffer for the rest of their lives.
It would be fair to say that Park Ducheol’s life had now become hell.
Jeong Geunsu stubbed out his cigarette, handed his subordinates a list, and said one thing.
“Collect every last one.”
“Yes, sir.”
*****
‘With a single pill, your head clears, your thoughts fall into order, and your senses become sharper. Answers that are normally blurred and invisible suddenly appear when you take Eosend.’
That was what everyone who had tried Eosend said.
“The artist’s companion.”
“Programmers’ secret weapon.”
“A necessity for college students who study.”
Those were other names for Eosend.
Despite its steep price of twenty yuan per packet, Eosand is selling like hotcakes.
To get hold of Eosand, people have to endure the trouble of standing in long lines.
But as popular as the product has become, so too have the voices of suspicion grown louder.
Some people who consumed Eosand are said to have developed insomnia and anxiety disorders and received treatment at hospitals.
The Consumer Protection Association called for the manufacturer to disclose Eosand’s exact ingredients and quantities, but the manufacturer refused.
Their reason was that the recipe was a corporate asset entitled to legal protection.
That is where the problem lies.
Eosand is only just beginning.
No one can even estimate how much larger the Eosand market—which is still in its infancy—might become, yet its ingredients have not even been verified.
Where it is made and what ingredients it contains have not been revealed at all.
Even so, people do nothing but praise Eosand’s effects. No one pays any attention to the basis for those effects or their potential side effects.
An individual’s potential cannot be developed through drugs.
Nevertheless, many people believe that eating Eosand can unlock their potential.
They believe it can awaken senses they have never managed to realize until now.
They think that with Eosand, they can achieve dreams that once seemed impossible.
Eosand’s popularity is not a product success story.
It is the last resort chosen by people driven to the extreme in order to survive.
The sense of achievement brought by improved concentration may appear to be advancing society, but in reality, it more starkly reveals the anxiety and competition born from the fear of falling behind, as well as the invisible pressure bearing down on people.
It is a glimpse of how people must work more and produce better results simply to survive.
It is evidence that Chinese society is being pushed to its limits in the name of efficiency.
One cannot help but suspect that the government is turning a blind eye to this product in order to encourage workers to overwork themselves.
Even so, Eosand’s popularity does not wane.
No one knows whether Eosand will truly become a functional food that makes dreams come true or a nightmare.
Our questions continue to grow, but everything about Eosand remains hidden in secrecy.
There is nothing about Eosand that we can know.
.
.
.
An article expressing doubts about Eosand appeared in an online publication.
It was a small internet outlet that few people ever visited, but it was the first time anyone had written a negative article about Eosand.
The article was deleted just ten minutes after being posted online.
Leaving behind only two views.
And Zhou Tingwei, the person who had written the article, disappeared that evening without anyone knowing.
He had left work, but he never returned home.
There was nowhere Zhou Tingwei could be found.
The next day, every newspaper ran feature articles completely unrelated to Eosand—“The Global Economy” or “Self-Management Habits Among the Younger Generation.”
But separate reporting guidelines were delivered to the editorial desks.
Eosand had already spread widely throughout the media industry.
Everyone nodded and followed the guidelines.