After finishing dinner at the cafeteria following orientation, the crew gathered in the great hall again by teams.
Each team’s leader assigned rooms to the crew, then fastened bracelets that had to be worn 24 hours a day onto their wrists one by one. The bracelet, similar to ones seen at luxury brands, served as an ID tag while also functioning as a card key and bankbook.
“Is this real gold?”
“Crazy, would you use real gold if you were them?”
The bracelets, which came out fitted exactly to each crew member’s wrist circumference, supposedly couldn’t be removed unless they used a cutting machine or severed the wrist. Hearing that, everyone giggled saying it wasn’t a dog collar but a dog bracelet, but they seemed to secretly like the carefully crafted bracelet.
Jiwon, whose right arm hurt and had become practically left-handed, wore the bracelet on his left wrist.
Then they filled out contracts. The contract period was a total of 21 days. The salary they would pay was written as 50 million won per week during the two-week training period, and 50 million won per day for the remaining one week, just as they’d heard at the final interview. Since they’d received a special entry bonus, this week would amount to 60 million won.
And the so-called success bonus of 250 million would be deposited on the 22nd day.
All payments were scheduled to be made to coin accounts opened under each person’s name.
Items they’d heard about during orientation—hazard pay, bonuses, and so on—were also nicely packaged in ambiguous expressions, but the amounts were clearly written down.
The contract signing finished in an instant. It wasn’t just signing though. The young men gathered here, including Jiwon, provided all ten fingerprints and even let them scrape their DNA with cotton swabs.
“Now, move by teams. Crew Zero, stand!”
Starting with Crew Zero, they left the great hall with the Captain at the front.
They all took the elevator together to basement level 2. He wondered what they were going to do—it was to check their hair removal status.
Peeking over the Captain’s shoulder, as Department Head Kim had said, the button to basement level 1 was completely blocked, and the third floor and rooftop were marked in red. He was more curious about the third floor and rooftop, called restricted zones, than the prohibited zone.
As soon as they got off on basement level 2, there was a faint smell of chlorine.
Indeed, there was a swimming pool. The massive pool built across basement levels 3 and 2 was located right in the center of the building. The walls were glass, so the interior was completely visible; there were a total of eight lanes, and the overall width looked to be easily 50 meters. No one was swimming, but the facilities were good enough to hold a swimming competition right away.
“This is the pool you’ll be using soon.”
The Captain said proudly.
Jiwon, who liked swimming, felt excited even in this situation.
Then he recalled the fact that he hadn’t even been near a pool since the accident and smiled bitterly.
Will my arm hold up? There was no problem with his shoulder, so he figured it would work out somehow. Honestly, it seemed like just floating in the water would feel good.
After leaving the pool area, a long corridor appeared. Various recreational and convenience facilities that Department Head Kim had explained were lined up on both sides of the corridor. He could see a coin karaoke, billiards hall, bowling alley, and even an arcade marked as open 24 hours, and although the doors were closed, there were not only a massage shop and barber shop but even a nail shop.
The waxing shop was between the massage shop and barber shop. Since it could accommodate only four people at a time, only numbers 1 through 4 stripped completely and lay on beds separated by curtains. The rest waited in the waiting room inside the waxing shop.
The waxers were all male and wore black ski masks that only revealed their eyes and mouths. Thanks to the masks, it was fortunate he couldn’t see the waxers’ expressions. Moreover, soft classical music was playing, so it wasn’t awkward even if they stayed silent.
The waxer in charge of Jiwon first carefully examined his upper body areas—back, chest, armpits, and limbs. Then he started inspecting below the navel, around the cock, groin, and buttocks. He checked so carefully and spent so much time that cold sweat broke out. Occasionally when fingers brushed against him, he unconsciously moaned “hup” and flinched.
The inspection continued past the thighs to the knees, calves, and even toes.
The waxer, who finally raised his head after a long while, said this level would pass, but advised that the cock and anal areas needed more attention than now with sufficient moisturizing care, and exfoliation was also necessary. The waxer, who explained the care methods in detail, handed over a memo with precautions along with moisture cream, spray for ingrown hair care, and an exfoliator, saying he’d see him in a week.
From the next bed, moans of “Ah, ugh” could be heard—it seemed they were waxing again.
While Jiwon was getting dressed in the changing room, the next person took the bed.
After all seven members finished their checks and left the shop, the next eleven entered the shop like a baton pass.
“You must be tired, right? Let’s really go rest now.”
The Captain led the team members to the second floor.
Upon arriving at the lodging floor, he instructed the team members to stand in front of their assigned room doors. Crew Zero used rooms 201 to 207, and although it was the innermost left side, somehow the size didn’t match up.
The building seen from outside was definitely endlessly long…
Did they block it off with a partition?
Jiwon, who was assigned room 201, sneaked a knock on the wall when no one was looking. His knuckle hurt.
It wasn’t a partition. He tilted his head.
“Now, sailors. Grab the doorknob with the hand wearing the bracelet. Execute!”
When they grabbed the doorknob following the Captain’s command, a blue light flashed.
“Good work. See you tomorrow.”
With the Captain’s final words, everyone entered their respective rooms.
Finally alone.
The room Jiwon would use was a bedroom with a double bed and garden view, spacious enough to fit another queen-size bed.
Facing the window was a small living room with a small table and two sofas facing each other, and a simple structure with a desk against the living room wall. On the desk was a tablet PC with a cover engraved “Sailor 1.” Neither WiFi nor mobile network was detected, and naturally, access to all external sites was impossible.
They’d said they prepared a separate place to convert coins to cash, so whether that was really true was something to check tomorrow.
After closing the tablet’s cover, he looked at the rest.
The bathroom was unexpectedly simple. A rather cramped space with just shower facilities, a sink, and toilet without a bathtub; the bathrobe was folded and placed on a shelf along with towels.
Lastly, he opened the wardrobe with a full-length mirror. The civilian clothes he’d worn had to be returned to the clothing collection box placed in the second-floor lobby by 9 PM, and from now on, he had to wear and use only products provided here.
In the wardrobe hung two white sailor uniforms he’d have to wear from tomorrow. The sailor uniform was an ordinary form with separated top and bottom, with a large rectangular neckerchief collar accented in sky blue and navy blue. The shoes and sneakers neatly placed at the bottom of the wardrobe were also white. There was no cumbersome hat.
That was all. Besides the sailor uniform, no pajamas or casual clothes to wear comfortably were visible.
Underwear and socks were inside a three-drawer mini chest placed where a safe would normally be in a hotel.
The top drawer contained three black T-panties, and the drawer below had two pairs each of black fishnet stockings that came up to the thighs and white ankle-length stocking socks. Making them wear black T-panties under white bottoms—the intention was so obvious he burst into a bitter laugh. The fishnet stockings didn’t even need mentioning.
Perverted bastards.
Wasn’t he a sturdy man even if he’d gotten hair removal? Tsk.
He clicked his tongue.
When he opened the last drawer, bottles of oil, condoms, and an electric masturbation device came into view. They’d prohibited even masturbation for a week, yet deliberately put those in—their intention felt truly despicable.
Leaving the wardrobe, he looked at the picture-like night view again. Jiwon, who’d lived in a 1.5-pyeong goshiwon until just yesterday, felt dazed at being treated this well.
Honestly, there were plenty of people who would come here and offer their asses without them going this far. Yet still, what was the motive for deliberately paying huge prize money and treating them so lavishly?
No, because they’d treated people this way all along, they’d been able to continue this crazy behavior without any problems until now. That was the causal relationship.
Those who recruit consumables called crew for their own pleasure and pay large sums to silence them.
He vowed that this would absolutely be the last party, that he would make it so.
Fatigue washed over him.
Jiwon showered in lukewarm water as the waxer instructed while exfoliating, and after the shower, sprayed the spray supposedly good for ingrown hairs or whatever, and when he felt the spray had sufficiently soaked in, finally applied gel-type moisture lotion meticulously.
It was also his first time devoting this much care to his cock and buttocks, so it felt strange, and his bare lower area felt unfamiliar and funny.
Is all this being transmitted via CCTV?
He’d heard there were cameras even in the bathroom, but he couldn’t find them at all. Knowing he wouldn’t feel free if cameras were visible, they seemed to have embedded them very cleverly.
Thinking someone might be watching, far from getting aroused, only deflating laughter came out. It probably didn’t look very good to see a grown man just slathering lotion on his lower parts.
He went out to the lobby in his bathrobe to return the clothes he’d worn. The cheap jeans, definitely fake Nike cotton T-shirt, underwear, and socks disappeared into the collection box. The sneakers he’d worn so much the soles were on the verge of falling off were also discarded.
He distanced himself from daily life like that. He bid farewell to society.
Jiwon went to bed naked.
The bed was cloud-like and comfortable, and the blanket smelled good. He rubbed his face against the fluffy, soft cotton sheets. The indoor air was so pleasant that it was amazing every time he breathed.
Unfortunately, the joy didn’t last long. His arm, which he hadn’t been conscious of because he’d been spending time frantically since waking up on the bus and coming here, now ached unbearably. Perhaps earlier he hadn’t hurt because of the medicine he’d taken in the van, but now all the medicine’s effects had worn off.
No matter how much he tried to sleep, he couldn’t fall asleep easily because of the arm numbness and elbow pain.
He needed painkillers.
Should I ask them to just take out the medicine from the sling bag I brought?
He recalled the Captain’s room number across the lobby, then gave up.
He didn’t want to get on someone’s bad side unnecessarily.
He decided to wait until tomorrow and talk when he had a chance, then forced himself to sleep.
