NETIZEN

#Error 500

Seoul, Gimpo Airport

Domestic flights customs

Three years ago

"Shin Bo Ra Ssi, can I see your bag, please?"

"What for?" The idol replied, face shining as sweat surfaced from her pores.

Bo Ra slit openings in her bags lining where she kept spare pills just in case she experienced withdrawal symptoms.

Unlike the other girls, she suffered from being accustomed to Nirvana Blue pills. It started with the first client; the man wanted more than the two singles she had done with her group.

Marc gave her a pill to calm her nerves. The client, a businessman from Taipei, enjoyed his evening to the point he bought her a Porsche.

Every time Bo Ra said it was the last time she found herself in these private venues.

Bo Ra hated herself so much. She was always the first to say how dumb can a girl be? When she heard stories like hers or saw the situation played in TV dramas. Now there she was, a singer selling both voice and body for money.

If someone asked her what her biggest wish was at that moment, Bo Ra would have said to go home to Pusan and be a typical citizen of Korea.

Hooked on Nirvana Blue, Bo Ra flirted with Marc before she knew it they were a thing. It was not a healthy relationship, and they were a thing as undefined.

Kwon Jin held the Stable, Marc; the left-hand man did everything. Bo Ra hated Song Hi, who you could consider as the Stable's Bottom. She convinced the girls to go to the venues guaranteeing their safety.

Bo Ra and the girls were naïve; it was too late when they realized Song Hi rarely came to such venues.

When she was present, she clung to Kwon Jin who, let her sing but never turn a trick.

"Can you follow me, please, Shin Bo Ra Ssi?"

The idol sweated as she followed the customs officer. She didn't want the other passengers going through customs to see her. Yet, she observed a few flashes in her direction.

As Bo Ra sat down in what seemed to be an interrogation room, she prayed if God let her out of this once, she promised to square up.

Bo Ra thought about the headlines. Satellite's CEO Seo Gwan Gi already saved her once by bribing people here and there when they caught speeding in her Porsche and controlled positive. The guy from the narcotics didn't look invested with the Holy Spirit to let her off.

Would he help her this time?

The older man, possessed with the sprite of Charles Ingalls, would probably abandon her. He was only human how many more of her slip-ups could the man accept?

At first, Bo Ra didn't talk; the officers left her a few hours alone.

Was it hunger or thirst?

Bo Ra didn't know which of the two needs tormented her.

She became irritable, fidgeting; she needed a fix. The stress must have enticed the desire for her pills. She drank water again and again.

Why was she so thirsty?

Tap, tap, tap, both fingers and high heels tapped while her eyes darted like hunted prey. Bo Ra asked to go to the toilet; she didn't have her phone.

Would they let her make a call?

Bo Ra didn't care; she tried asking anyway. They let her call. Once the phone was in her hand, she didn't know who she needed to speak to or which number to dial.

The idol tried all the girls, but as soon as she got into the explanations, they hung up. Bo Ra tried Marc, like everyone, she didn't know Kwon Jin's number.

Insanity, the girl lost it.

"Shin Bo Ra Ssi, who gave you those pills?"

Bo Ra wanted to say they won't get hers, and she did not understand where they came from or how they got in her bag. And that's what she did, but the narcotics, which were now two, weren't buying her story.

Why didn't anyone come to help her?

She should have called old CEO Seo. Why didn't she?

Too ashamed, the older man was like a father, Bo Ra couldn't. He always looked out for every trainee, every employee.

No, she couldn't do this.

She couldn't embarrass Satellite again, but those other bitches, didn't deserve her pity.

Why should she go down alone?

Some had done things far worse. Bo Ra only accepted one client at a time; some girls accepted more.

Why should she be the only one tagged a whore?

Bo Ra's make-up looked like grease on her face, though the night was still young. The narcotics verbally tapped into the girl, who was now an emotional wreck.

In a moment of silence, when the humming in her head stopped, she said, "do you want to hear something interesting?"

Bo Ra talked, being careful not to mention details. She had been talking for 20 minutes when the door burst opened a lawyer summoned her to shut up. Fifteen minutes later, she was free.

Bo Ra knew it was the end of her career, and it was, but it was also the beginning of the descent in the flames of purgatory.

Seoul, Hannam-dong

"You bitch, how could you. The police summoned for interrogation. Couldn't you keep your mouth shut?" Ra Na, another band member, said as she slapped and hit the girl who fought back.

The girls gathered at Bo Ra's apartment; they were waiting for further instructions from Kwon Jin. The narcotics made a deal with Bo Ra, they canceled her passport, and they let her off free till her trial, hoping to catch a bigger fish while the idol roamed seeking help.

"Otoké, I can't go through this cried," Ye Jin, "my parents, they will die if they hear this. Why did you do it, Bo Ra? Why did you talk? Why didn't you leave us out? Waéyo Bo Ra?"

"How are people going to look at us? They'll see us like whores."

"What do you think we are?" Bo Ra said, "do you see yourself like a simple cute little virgin? We had to stop anyway. It's wrong; we were wrong. You guys should have helped me instead of hanging up?"

"Where's Song Hi? She said she'd come?" Ye Jin asked.

"Do you think she will? That kid doesn't give a damn about us," A Ra said. She was calm from the beginning; she stood arms crossed against the wall in the corner of Bo Ra's living room.

"I'm so scared; what's going to happen?"

The girls waited, and no one came; the band members left Bo Ra's house, who convinced them that telling the truth was better. She didn't believe they would tell the truth, they would probably deny it, but it didn't matter anymore.