Hostel (2024)

Hostel was a member of the Four Major Crews. It is centered in Gangdong, east of the Han river. Their leader is Eli Jang.

History

Hostel was founded by Eli Jang as a nickname for the family he created out of his orphaned friends.^[1]The name is in English and each letter represents the Korean name of his friends:

• H for Hyun (Eli)
• O for Onseok (Warren)
• S for Serim (Sally)
• T for Taenggu (Max)
• E for Eunggoo (Derrick)
• L for Lyon (Ryan the cat)

He gave each of the members of Hostel a role in the family: Eli was the father, Sally was the mother, Warren/Max/Derrick were uncles. Heather and Olly were friends of Sally, but they were not given letters because they were not orphans.

The original purpose of Hostel was to give a home to kids without one. However, when Eli defeated the leader of Backdoor he created a power vacuum in the region. Jerry Kwon of Big Deal and Johan Seong of God Dog quarreled over the rights to the region, but Gun rejected both of their cases and made Hostel into one of the 4 big crews.^[2] Eli Jang established the runaway family to collect money for Gun to maintain their position, but quit his job when he realized he had neglected to care for his girlfriend Heather. He then disappeared with his child and left Hostel void of leadership.

Organization

Hostel A follows a point organization where higher members contact lower members of the gang and not vice versa.^[3] At the bottom of the hierarchy are the runaway fams, groups of homeless children who earn money for Hostel. They usually earn it through illegal means like prostitution scams or petty theft. The use of children and teenagers to pay for Hostel's dues is why other gangs call Hostel the "worst criminal organization."

Leaders of runaway fams are called "Dads" or "Moms". They have a tattoo of a lowercase 'h' to signify their status in Hostel, and they report to executives to pay their membership fees. Leaders cannot contact their higher ups easily, so it is easy for executives to cut them off.

The main branch of Hostel is centered in Seoul, and has the same structure as the original Hostel. The Cheongliang branch joined Hostel A later on to earn money.^[4] The Cheongliang fam also joined Hostel A as mercenaries to get revenge on Vin Jin.^[5]

Hostel B consists of the remaining members of the original Hostel. Max and Derrick left to earn money for a time period^[6] and Ryan was adopted by Jerry Kwon.^[7] Warren chose to stay to keep his promise to protect Sally and keep her company. Their motto is to give a home to the lost children of the Gangdong region and fulfill Eli Jang's original goal. There is no sophisticated organization. Instead, they refer to themselves as family members: Eli is the father (Big Daddy), Warren, Max and Derrick are uncles, Sally is the mother (Big Mama). Following the Runaway Fam Arc, Amy Lee and Natalie Cho were taken in by Hostel B, where they have jobs at a local food truck.^[8] They are treated like the children of Hostel B.

Members

Synopsis

After his departure Hostel split into two different parties: Hostel A run by Olly Wang and Hostel B run by Sally Park. Hostel A continues to earn money for the 4 big crews using the runaway fams, while Hostel B continued its original goal of taking care of abandoned kids in Gangdong.

The Cheongliang Branch of Hostel was added to Hostel A later on. It was initially established by Seth Lee as an attempt to expand Hostel A's reach in Seoul and earn money for his brothers. Prior to that, they were members of the now defunct K-House gang. They had two main operations at the time: a tea house which employed girls, and a gambling house that was rigged. They originally employed Jin Jang's girlfriend to begin prostitution scams in Cheongliang. However, their efforts were thwarted by Jace Park and Johan Seong in their attempts to rescue the girl, who was also Jace's crush. They were since sent by Olly Wang to fight the J High kids who were on their way to Gangdong.

When Sally and Warren informed Eli about Olly Wang's abuse of children, he rejoined Hostel B as their leader to take down Olly Wang.^[9] Hostel B accompanied J High during the battle at Gangdong, and declared war against Hostel A. Hostel A's leader ended up committing suicide during his fight with Eli Jang. Afterwards Hostel A disbanded, and their members went their separate ways. Hostel B is the only remaining faction using their original name, and maintaining their original goal.

Trivia

• The O in Hostel is a misspelling of Warren's original name, "Wonseok"
• Naming the leaders 'Dad' in the runaway fam is reflective of Olly's desire to be like Eli Jang, the original Dad of Hostel. He also gave himself a similar tattoo despite never being in the original Hostel
• Gun and Goo have a point system for the four crews similar to Hostel's
• Some of members of Big Deal deemed that Hostel's members are fighters who use a dirty method, the polar opposite of Big Deal's tradition which favors fair and square fights.
• Warren got an acknowledgement from Jerry that the former will fit well in Big Deal.
• Gun has ranked Hostel B as the best of the best.^[10]
• The Runaway Fams make reference in Episode 11 of Park Taejun's other work, My Life as a Loser.

Gallery

References