It was just a few months ago, wasn’t it? When my ex and I took that trip to Gangwon-do. We decided to check out Kangwon Land¹ just for fun. We tried out a few games, and somehow, 20,000 won turned into 2 million won. She lost her mind over it. That night, we spent all 2 million won playing baccarat and came back empty-handed. But after that, she ghosted me. I heard a few months later that she’d been going back to Kangwon Land ever since. I felt a bit responsible since I was the one who took her there in the first place, so I asked some mutual friends and tracked her down. It turns out she’d gotten herself into some pretty serious trouble. They told me she was now a “Jjokbak girl²”, selling her body to gamble away everything on baccarat. It was absurd, so I asked her why she couldn’t stop, and she told me she was already close to owing hundreds of millions. Then, with empty eyes, she said to me: “No one is stupid enough to bet on despair in a 50:50 game.” I couldn’t understand what the fuck she was talking about, no matter how hard I tried, so I just left her there. Everyone knows that rooms where people have died are the cheapest, but the idea of her staying in a place like that made me uneasy. I heard she’d hang around nearby, and as soon as she got a little money, she’d go straight back to Kangwon Land. It was hopeless, so I washed my hands of the whole thing. After that, some time passed—I don’t know how long. Word was that she’d lost her family’s entire fortune, maxed out loans, credit cards, and gone to loan sharks, borrowed money from friends, and got cut off by everyone. Eventually, even the rumors about her completely stopped. It was terrifying to see how someone could lose their mind so quickly, and I was anxious. But today, I got a message from my ex.
[Funeral Notice]
LEE Eun-jin has passed away.
Wake: Taebaek Funeral Hall, Room 201
Funeral Service: October 31, 12:00 PM
1. Kangwon Land: A casino located in Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do, South Korea. It is the only casino in Korea that allows domestic visitors.
2.Jjokbak Girl: 쪽박걸. Slang used in Kangwon Land to refer to women who are addicted to gambling in Kangwon Land, and who wander around the complex, sleep with strangers for money so they can try to win back their losses.