They’ve gone fucking insane.
That was my impression after getting back the phone that Lee Hyeonseok had confiscated and looking at recent articles. It was overwhelming to keep up with the news after being cut off from society for just two weeks, but even so, I could tell just how insane society had become.
About two weeks ago, Lee Hyeonseok confiscated my phone, telling me to mind my own business, and even made me read only the newspapers he selected for me. It was around the time when problems caused by Alphas and Omegas were starting to emerge everywhere. In the end, I could only piece together the last news and newspapers I saw with what Lee Hyeonseok told me and guess, ‘Things must be pretty bad outside.’
But society had started going way more insane than I’d imagined. Perhaps because it was the early stages, excluding some cases, people generally started expressing their opinions one by one while reading the room. Pretending otherwise, Alphas began to develop a superiority complex, and Omegas not only became a vulnerable group for sex crimes but even suffered secondary victimization. If before there were many people who sided with victims, now people who sided with perpetrators were starting to increase.
The beginning was important. If the initial opinions started in a negative direction, it was obvious the current would flow that way. Even if correct opinions came out belatedly, by that time the conclusion would already be drawn and those opinions would be buried.
What I had been doing while my phone was confiscated until society became like that was baking. It was truly because I had disgustingly nothing to do.
Honestly, the lawyer and secretary that Lee Hyeonseok hired did all the work. My existence ended at best with explaining the situation at the beginning, and after that, there was nothing I did or could do. Yet Lee Hyeonseok confiscated my phone, telling me to focus on my own business. I couldn’t understand what exactly my business was. Others were doing the work, so I didn’t get why he confiscated my phone.
‘What? We’re working all night because of you, and you’re going to leisurely use your phone? There’s no master quite like you, huh?’
That was what I heard when I asked Lee Hyeonseok to return the phone he’d confiscated.
So all I had done during that time was baking. Since he prevented me from using electronic devices, what surprisingly came to mind was studying, but I just couldn’t bring myself to study. I thought about watching television, but there were people doing housework, so it felt awkward to leisurely enjoy cultural activities.
Even Lee Hyeonseok was busy. Something about successor education, trait research, whatever—anyway, he was incredibly busy. As things were like this, stuck in Lee Hyeonseok’s officetel doing nothing and becoming a shit-producing machine day by day, I began to be consumed by self-loathing.
Even setting aside the fact that I had made excuses that only criminals would make, or that I was using the very things I used to curse at when seeing people avoid the law and evade punishment, I couldn’t help but feel considerable self-loathing no matter how much I pretended otherwise. If only I were busy, I wouldn’t have any thoughts, but since I wasn’t doing anything, the self-loathing wouldn’t go away.
It’s not that I thought I was a bad bastard, but in a situation where self-loathing was already flooding in, the problem was that Lee Hyeonseok was busy and I had nothing to do. Thinking about it, Lee Hyeonseok was the successor of HW Group, so it made sense he’d be busy even without my business. There was no way someone like me, who was nothing, would be busier than Lee Hyeonseok. Still, I couldn’t help feeling self-loathing.
Eventually, I wandered around the house looking for something to do and found a book in the study titled “Baking: A Good Hobby Safe to Mention to Others,” tried it, and the results weren’t bad. Moreover, it was suitable as a gift for the people working because of me. By the time the task I started with ulterior motives became a hobby, Lee Hyeonseok ate an egg tart I made and without any compliment, told me to make it more delicious. Why should I make it for a bastard who won’t even say it’s delicious as an empty compliment? Of course I would. What choice did I have.
After eating my egg tart, Lee Hyeonseok demanded dessert every day without even offering empty compliments. Since it had come to this, beyond the gifts with ulterior motives, I had to get Lee Hyeonseok to say it was delicious. Around the time I made up my mind, the working people were secretly saying behind my back dirty things like “concubine” and “doing concubine work well.”
At least if I were actually doing that, I wouldn’t have felt wronged. It was a moment when I deeply felt what Lee Hyeonseok once said: ‘Being condemned for something you didn’t even do—I can’t believe how unjust this feels.’
I told Lee Hyeonseok about it in a roundabout way.
And when I said I wouldn’t bake anymore, he said, “Stop bullshitting and make some tomorrow too.” What choice did I have. I said, “Okay.”
Even after all the working people were replaced, I spent my time leisurely baking, but society didn’t.
“Is this for real….”
Yesterday, another person who raped an Omega was acquitted. They called the Omega’s heat period a “heat cycle” among themselves, and because that Omega was in a heat cycle, the person received a not guilty verdict.
“Are you making tteokguk?”
“Ah, Secretary-nim. Hello.”
“Yes, hello.”
While watching the news on my phone and preparing garnishes like egg garnish and scallions to make tteokguk, Lee Hyeonseok’s secretary came. The trial must be over by now, so I couldn’t guess why the person who should be by Lee Hyeonseok’s side would be looking for me.
“Don’t take this the wrong way.”
“The moment you say that, it already sounds wrong.”
“I suppose so.”
Unlike Lee Hyeonseok, the secretary who treated me kindly—having seen his face many times throughout the trial, our relationship wasn’t bad. Enough that I could speak playfully. The secretary responded to my playful words and laughed lightly. The atmosphere was quite amicable.
“What is it?”
“May I take a blood sample from you?”
Though it was phrased as asking permission, it was no different from a notification. The amicable atmosphere cracked. There were too many things I could guess to stupidly ask why he needed my blood. Since his superior was Lee Hyeonseok, it would be used for trait testing, and the fact that he didn’t state the reason meant it would be used for something not above board.
“Yeah, sure. I don’t mind.”
“Thank you.”
I meekly extended my arm and gave permission, since I’d received favors so I couldn’t refuse. Even if I didn’t give permission, he would somehow draw blood anyway. Rather than an uncomfortable relationship, it was better to cooperate obediently. As soon as I extended my arm, the secretary took out blood drawing equipment as if he’d been waiting.
“Ugh.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
When a short groan involuntarily escaped as my arm was compressed with a rubber band, the secretary offered a perfunctory apology. Since we both knew it wasn’t significant pain, it was an apology without a speck of concern but full of courtesy and consideration. Yet I couldn’t shake the strangely businesslike and mechanical feeling. It was oddly awkward.
“…You’re taking a lot.”
“I’m sorry, just one more tube and we’ll be done.”
The oddly awkward situation became blatantly awkward when, contrary to my expectation that he’d draw at most two or three tubes, he was just finishing the fourth tube. At my lukewarm voice, the secretary finally seemed slightly embarrassed but showed no hesitation, and said he’d draw one more tube.
“Where are you taking this blood to use it?”
“Well, you’ve only been staying at home recently and must have accumulated stress from the trial. It’s like a health checkup.”
It was an excuse that even someone living beautifully, clearly, and cleanly in a flower garden would find suspicious. I must have seemed like a pushover since I’d been so compliant until now. It was true.
“Thank you so much for caring this much. I hope the results come out really well.”
“Of course. They’ll come out well. All done.”
Still, I was quite offended, so I spoke curtly, but the secretary seemed more comfortable with me being like that. At my age, being so petty. In the few exchanges we had, the blood draw was completed.
“Yes…. Ah, the tteokguk will be done if I just add the garnish—would you like to eat before you go?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I have other things to do.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Yes. Then I’ll be going now.”
“Yes, goodbye.”
Still, it felt wrong to just send him off, so I offered him a bowl of tteokguk, but the secretary, as if blood collection was truly his only purpose, declined my offer and gathered the blood drawing equipment and the bottles containing blood. As I saw him off to the inner door, remembering something I hadn’t said yet, I belatedly greeted him.
“Oh right. Secretary-nim, have a blessed new year.”
“…Jiwoo-ssi, you too. Have a blessed new year.”
At my New Year’s greeting, the secretary was silent for a moment, then soon wished me a happy new year in a gentle voice. There was also a bit of pity in his voice, so it seemed I looked a bit pitiful being alone in this officetel. Even to me, it seemed reasonable.
The reason I was in Lee Hyeonseok’s apartment instead of spending New Year’s Day with my parents was for two reasons. First, before things got complicated in earnest, he told me to stay for a while since it was bothersome to go back and forth, and second, since things had become prolonged like this, he told me to think of it as staying anyway and kept me there.
When I said I’d go spend the new year with my parents now that everything was resolved, he told me not to even think about leaving, asking if I knew what kind of shit Cheon Jaekyung’s people might pull. When I countered that my parents would be in danger then, he said that if we’re at the edge of a cliff now, touching the entire family would be no different from just jumping off the cliff after that—essentially a suicidal act—so it wouldn’t happen.
While making me stay in this house, he himself went to the main house for a family gathering. There was no bastard quite like him.
So I was boiling tteokguk alone on New Year’s Day, which made the secretary feel sorry for me, but wasn’t he working from New Year’s Day himself? To me, the secretary seemed more pitiful.
“Goodbye.”
“Yes, take care.”
Still, there was no hesitation in his actions. Though the secretary pitied me, he opened the front door without looking back.
“Oh, and I’ll be taking the phone with me.”
“Yes…. What? No, why!”
“I’m sorry. The young master told me to bring it.”
The secretary, who I thought would just leave, held up my phone before closing the front door and spoke. I, who had been responding without thinking, came to my senses as soon as I saw my phone and moved toward the front door.
“Then I’ll really be going now.”
Before I could catch him, the secretary quickly said goodbye and closed the front door. Without even putting on shoes, I stared forlornly at the front door that had closed right in front of me in my bare feet. It was so absurd that I couldn’t even speak properly.
“What…. No, what…!”
What the hell, give me back my phone…!
