At first glance, Ara, a stylist who is obsessed with K-Pop boy groups, would not stand out as someone involved in juvenile violence when she was younger. Unfortunately, one serious fight near the Big House left her badly injured and even lost the ability to speak. Her parents were working and serving the Big House and that it was impossible for them to move out from the little annex on the Big House especially after they had spent all of their fortune on treating Ara's injury. “…I will arrive at the conclusion that I didn't want to walk past the site of my injury. You see, there is only one road to the Big House and there is no way to avoid it.” Through the way from returning home after three years of leaving, the readers would find out how contradicting Ara was to the Big House. Ara was guilty and could not bear to see her parents living in the small annex for the rest of their lives. Despite working her own head off, Ara is unable to afford any property in Seoul.
Kyuri, a pretty room salon girl who had once gone through many plastic surgeries to the extent of growing an addiction to it which had caused her a pile of debts and had to work as a room salon girl to earn lots and lots of money. Room salon was a place where the men would bring their clients there to discuss business. It might seem offensive for me to say that the room salon is kind of like a brothel, but men going to that place are willing to pay a lot to have girls sit next to them for a drink and even sex. Kyuri had seen so many married men frequenting the room salon, and readers could see how hard it is for her to trust in men. The men who visit her workplace (which was known to be one of the high-class ones) usually are from chaebol family and the rich people, some of them would just pay for a sex partner, some would want girls to become their mistresses. I was shocked when it is revealed that Kyuri had a crush on Bruce, the man who had a girlfriend but always pay for sex with Kyuri. Their relationship took a turn for the worse (had was never even good to begin, she was just one out of many sex partners for him) when Kyuri tried to snoop on Bruce and her girlfriend's families gathering. Bruce felt offended and humiliated. As an act of retaliation, he punished Kyuri by reporting to the police on the dirty jobs happening at Kyuri's workplace. Readers could feel how overwhelmed Kyuri was for a long time until the police had came. She even decided to take it on her own as she believed the Madam of room salon would not let her off easily. "If they (customers) see the police here, the entire night's business will be lost and men might stay away for good. And I have no doubt that Madam will put this all on my tab. My debt will run to several tens of millions of won before the night is over. I feel like I am about to faint... Pulling myself together, I take a breath and step forward."
Miho, a naive artist in the girls' eyes, is also the one had once mingled with the “rich gang” when she was studying in America, she even had one as her boyfriend. Miho from a poor and broken family was raised by her aunt and uncle when her parents decided to escape and abandon her. She was later sent to the Loring Center, an orphanage where she grew up there. She is talented in art and had the opportunity to get a full scholarship for her degree at the United States. While studying, she worked in Ruby's studio and met Ruby's then boyfriend Hanbin, who later became Miho's own boyfriend. Unfortunately, Ruby committed suicide which made Miho depressed and felt guilty for a long time. Miho and Hanbin returned to Seoul after their graduating and Miho began working at a new studio. She had always refused the Hanbin's offer in aiding her career such as suggesting taking advantage of his family's reputation especially when his mother already dislike her due to her lowly background. Even though Miho had always felt unconfident and insecure in their relationship, she still loves him very much and always tried hard to reach him, his level and status. However, as what Kyuri had suspected on every other men, Hanbin was also cheating unbeknownst to Miho. Their relationship was never equal from the get-go, as even Hanbin did not know the deepest fears of Miho and was willing to hurt her that much.
Woona, the only married woman among them, has a story different from the others too. Besides the hot issues that the other girls had gone through, the biggest issue in Woona's story puts an emphasis on her childhood trauma. Woona had experienced a serious childhood trauma living with her grandmother who was a total “mad woman”. Her grandmother was an "expert" in verbal abuse which also caused all her children trying to escape from her, as the family was always shrouded with pressure and depression. Woona's parents had divorced early in their marriage, so she grew up with her grandmother and had to endure all those worst abuse from her grandmother until her father came to raise her back. Once she grew up, she got into a marriage and had her own mind on the idea of a "family". However, Woona was believed to have been suffering from prenatal depression as she had experienced three miscarriages. Due to the past miscarriages, she worried about having it the fourth time and did not even prepare anything for the child on her halfway into the pregnancy. She was escaping as much as she can, but this was also her expression of how much she wanted the child to be saved. From her story, we could see the author was setting a contrast on Woona’s childhood trauma and her strong desire to have her own children. And readers would believe that she will fill up all of her deficiencies from childhood through giving her love to her girl (she had assumed that it is a girl) whole-heartedly. She will be the mother that she never had to her child, filling her with unconditional love.
The fifth girl, Sujin was the special one since she had no any self-storytelling, but readers could find out her story through Ara, Kyuri and Miho’s storylines. Sujin had spent her childhood with Miho at the Loring Center. She was precocious and pessimistic as she knew that the Loring Center was only interested in developing the talented kids, but somehow the center also had its limitation in it. Sujin was the one who told the person in charge about the opportunity of the scholarship when she heard of it and asking the Center to help with Miho. When Miho was busy training her art skill, Sujin joined a school and became acquainted with Ara. As both of them involved with juvenile violence, Sujin felt that she should take responsibility on Ara. She wanted to be a room salon girl just like Kyuri was to earn as much as she can to make Ara and her lives much easier and better. She also followed Kyuri's steps by undergoing different plastic surgeries to have a perfect and pretty face. When Kyuri had a hard time at her room salon job, Sujin suggested her to change a new job at a plastic surgery clinic.
Anyways, five of them were living in the same office-tel, the place where their story begins. The book shows how these five girls were working hard to find success in their lives. As what the book said, “You have to grow up with parents whose lives become better as time goes by, so you learn that you must invest effort for life to improve. But if you grow up around people who situations become worse as time goes on, then you think that you have to just live for today. And when I ask young people, What about the future? What did you do when tomorrow comes and you have spent everything already? They say they will just die.” There are the things we should think about. What happen to the girls? Why did they have to go through all of these hardships? And why is it that their lives only seem to be harder as if there is no hope at all even though they have given all they had in chasing their successes? The ending of the book sees the five girls had finally gathered together for once which kind of brings some positivity to the readers seeing as the girls' stories are full of downs. I find Kyuri's thought to herself while looking at the 3D ultrasound photo of Woona's baby interesting: "For a fleeting moment, as Sujin passes me the photograph and I hold this flimsy, curling image in my hand, I understand what it would be like to think only about tomorrow, instead of just today." The budding of a new life seems very brightly, isn’t it? However, think deeply. The beginning of a new life is not always filled with rainbows and butterflies, seeing as the new-born would be raised in a tough environment. Bright lives are only for the richer ones, isn't it?
by Lay Foon
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