At "adult entertainment facilities," young hostesses are ready to serve male guests in closed rooms, though Covid-19 has not disappeared.

Late on a Friday night in Seoul, the street near the bustling Gangnam area, famous for bars, nightclubs, suddenly became strangely deserted.

But when the new day was about to enter, another alley, which gathered karaoke bars, also known as a "room salon," began to bustle in and out, mostly men, still dressed in office clothes.

On the license, these salon rooms are identified as "adult entertainment facilities".

There are thousands of salon rooms in Korea.

The Korean salon rooms were closed for a month because of Covid-19, but faced opposition from business owners on the grounds that they would go bankrupt if they could not resume operations.

According to Eom Joong-sik, a professor of infectious diseases at Gachon University, South Korea, the decision to reopen the salon room was a mistake.

"Many places with high social needs need to reopen despite great risks because they are too important for a part of the people," he said.

In addition to commercial value, room salons have long been an integral part of Korean business culture, when many contracts and agreements were signed here, according to Joohee Kim, a professor at Sogang University.

"There's something called a 'social promise' in our community, where the two sides give each other gifts to keep invisible deals," she said, adding that the salon is popularly known.

"In the past, the salon was bribing police to do business without interference," said Professor Joohee Kim.

City officials still defended the decision to reopen the salon room, insisting they were not listed as high-risk places.

Since then, the government has regularly organized inspections to ensure adequate precautions have been taken, such as community isolation, contact tracking or restriction of the number of visitors.

A room salon facility called Byul, or "star" in Korean, is 500 m2 wide and has 19 service rooms.

"We clean the premises every day and even give masks to customers," says salon manager Byul.

Professor Eom from Gachon University remains skeptical about the decision to reopen the salon room, concerned about health risks.

"I disagree with relying on previous tracking data to decide which locations should open," he said.

The foothills of salon rooms in Korean society are also reflected in popular culture.

According to a 42-year-old construction site manager, the scene is not so different from reality.

"In my case, other companies would refuse to sign business contracts and the auditors would try to penalize us if I refused to request to have fun nights at their salon rooms," he said.

According to a 2016 report by the Korean Ministry of Gender and Family Equality, more than 50% of the country's men pay for prostitution services at least once in their lifetime.

However, according to Professor Kim from Sogang University, modern Korean women are tending to oppose salon rooms as well as the "use women as gifts" system at these facilities.

"Women are increasingly educated and successful in society," she said.