I discarded the food Lee Hyeonseok had given me and finished scanning every corner of the room with my eyes. As mentioned earlier, this room literally had many objects you’d see in a laboratory, so I couldn’t carelessly touch them. This unfamiliar place, a pure white room full of things I couldn’t handle at that, with even the lights bright enough to hurt my eyes, somehow made me feel overwhelmed.
I was about to sit in a chair and rest in case I made a mistake by touching something carelessly, when there was a document file placed on the lab table. The clean file without even a label attached was so thin it seemed like it might be new.
I knew I shouldn’t look at it without permission, but unable to resist the impulse, I opened the file. In fact, even as I opened it, I didn’t think much of it. If it was important, they wouldn’t have left it lying around carelessly like this, and if something important was written on it, that would be lucky in its own way, I thought.
“…Mm…”
I had no idea whether this was good or bad luck. The document file was as thin as it looked, not even containing ten sheets of paper. The ten or so sheets of paper were all profiles of specific individuals.
“Name: Seo Jiwoo 02xxxx―xxxxxx Age 20 (18 years old), Beta. Special notes: None. Remarks: Living together with a dominant alpha.”
Looking at the paper with my personal information written on it, my head started throbbing and I pressed my hand to my brow. I was confused whether I should think it was natural or not that there were documents with my profile written on them. Since they said it was research, it seemed plausible, but it kept bothering me.
Feeling uneasy, I looked through the other papers too. Next, I saw a familiar name as well. However, it wasn’t my profile.
Name: Cheon Jaekyung 02xxxx―xxxxxx Age 20 (18 years old), Beta. Special notes: Sexually impaired. Remarks: Attempting treatment for sexual impairment through stem cells or artificial testicles, living together with dominant alpha/beta.
‘Cheon Jaekyung… That bastard, he’s getting treatment…’
That bastard, he must be quite desperate. Suddenly I became newly worried whether my heart could be this big and still survive well in this harsh world. Even though Cheon Jaekyung deserved what he got, seeing this information made me feel sorry for him.
While pitying Cheon Jaekyung, when I turned to the next page, this time too it was without fail a familiar name.
Name: Lee Juwon 02xxxx―xxxxxx Age 20 (18 years old), Beta. Special notes: None. Remarks: Living together with dominant alpha/beta.
Name: Han Taeseok 02xxxx―xxxxxx Age 20 (19 years old), Dominant alpha. Special notes: None. Remarks: Living together with beta.
‘I guessed Han Taeseok would be an alpha, but Lee Juwon is a beta?’
I was surprised by the fact that Lee Juwon, who could be called the protagonist of this world, was a beta rather than an alpha or omega. True to the worldview called an omega-verse, I naturally thought it would be a trait related to that, but apparently this novel was a love story that overcame adversity.
Name: Jeong Seonghyeon 00xxxx―xxxxxx Age 22 (20 years old), Beta. Special notes: Twin sibling manifested as alpha. Remarks: Living together with alpha.
Name: Kim Hyeonsu 99xxxx―xxxxxx Age 23 (22 years old), Recessive alpha. Special notes:…
The following pages were names I didn’t know. The story that I wasn’t the only one participating in this research wasn’t a lie.
While I was concentrating and looking, suddenly the door opened with a knock.
“!”
Startled, I put the documents I was looking at back in the file and turned my head. Unlike what I expected, the person who appeared from outside the door wasn’t Lee Hyeonseok or the researcher.
“Secretary-nim?”
It was Lee Hyeonseok’s secretary. However, unlike what I saw at lunch, the secretary was wearing a mask. Since he hadn’t accompanied us during the day, I didn’t think I’d meet him here. Unlike me, the secretary seemed completely unfazed, as if he knew I would be here.
“The young master said something urgent came up and asked me to take Seo Jiwoo-ssi home.”
“Ah, yes. I see. You came quickly…?”
It took about 30 minutes by car from home to the center. It hadn’t even been 10 minutes since Lee Hyeonseok left, so unless the secretary used teleportation, it was impossible for him to be here.
“I followed from behind.”
“Why didn’t you come together…”
“I caught a cold so I couldn’t ride in the same car.”
“Ah, yes. I see.”
With those words, the secretary coughed. Someone who caught a cold and didn’t carpool wasn’t wearing a mask when we met during the day—I wished there was at least some consistency. He really couldn’t act.
Even though the secretary heard my sharp gaze and uneasy voice, he maintained an expressionless face throughout. Well, if you can’t act well, you should at least be shameless.
“Then let’s go.”
“Yes, the car is parked at the main entrance.”
Besides, earning someone else’s money was originally hard. Since it wasn’t Lee Hyeonseok and I couldn’t fight with the secretary asking if he was joking, I just decided to follow his words with a smiling face too. I went to the side to follow the secretary, but he smiled a business smile and wordlessly moved three steps away.
“……”
I felt embarrassed for a moment. I retraced whether I had made some mistake, but no matter how much I thought about it, there was only the time I acted a bit gruff when the secretary saw me as a freeloader, or the incident of sending his employer Lee Hyeonseok to the hospital.
“Haha. Shall we go?”
“Hahaha. Yes.”
When I felt embarrassed, the secretary tried to lighten the mood by laughing. That made it even more awkward. Still, being a considerate person, I laughed along as if nothing happened and walked while maintaining a three-step distance.
Looking at the car in front of the main entrance, I tried to open the passenger seat door, but the secretary opened the back seat door first and sent silent pressure.
“…Thank you.”
“Not at all. It’s only natural.”
How on earth did Lee Hyeonseok tell the secretary to treat me? Had I really become Lee Hyeonseok’s mistress without knowing it? Had I ended up becoming a concubine?
“I’m not really sure how I’m being seen in Lee Hyeonseok’s household right now.”
“……”
“Lee Hyeonseok and I really aren’t in that kind of relationship, you know?”
It felt too unfair to just keep my mouth shut until we got home, so I seriously protested, but the secretary’s expression remained unchanged. Though he couldn’t act, he was good at poker faces. The secretary looked at me once through the rearview mirror, then this time smiled with his eyes curving up. He seemed to be trying his best to look as harmless as possible.
“I’m the young master’s person, so you don’t need to be that wary.”
I wondered what kind of nonsense the secretary was going to spout by pretending to be harmless, and he was a person with more serious misunderstandings than I imagined. I could see him trying hard to produce the most caring and gentle voice, and my blood pressure shot up instantly. Without realizing it, I grabbed the back of my neck and shouted irritably.
“I’m really going crazy!”
However, whether my frustration and irritation didn’t reach the secretary, he nodded as if he understood everything in my heart. I could tell he thought I was being conscious of Lee Hyeonseok’s household. At this rate, it seemed like curses would come out, so when I took a deep breath, the secretary smiled kindly.
“I know everything.”
A secretary who not only carefully folded away his perceptiveness but burned it in fire until not even ashes remained—could he do his job properly being like that? Shouldn’t Lee Hyeonseok rehire someone? I had now reached the point of doubting his abilities.
“You don’t need to worry because in my view, the young master sufficiently toward Jiwoo-ssi…”
“Secretary-nim, are you the type who thinks about marriage if someone smiles kindly at you?”
“…No.”
“Or like, if someone says let’s eat together sometime later, you think about grandchildren?”
“No.”
“If not that either, are you someone who’s never dated? Ah, it’s okay. I’ve never dated either.”
He’s not even my employee, and if I pointed out his incompetence, it would only worsen our relationship, so I tried to keep my mouth shut, but the secretary spouted nonsense again. Unable to endure any longer, as my questions I blurted out grew longer, the secretary’s expression slowly hardened. I didn’t mean to tease him, but he seemed to have gotten offended.
“…Jiwoo-ssi. To others, you two are already, what’s commonly called ‘the real deal.’ Honestly, the young master just letting what you do to him slide too… And the young master overlooking Jiwoo-ssi’s mistakes toward him too.”
This time the secretary spoke as if aggrieved. Right. Hearing the secretary’s words, it was understandable he’d misunderstand. I let out a long sigh once and stared at the secretary’s face through the rearview mirror. Since the secretary was also looking at me, our gazes met.
“Since ancient times, people tend to do more of what they’re told not to do.”
“Pardon?”
My serious words seemed to be out of the blue for the secretary as he asked back stupidly.
“If told not to press, they press; go to places they’re told not to go; the more forbidden, the more it burns.”
“I didn’t do what I was told not to do.”
“Not that there aren’t such people, but don’t you even know about Prohibition that was implemented in America? The law that ultimately failed because people drank more than ever, and even people who didn’t drink started drinking.”
Whether he asked back or not, as I continued my words, the secretary, though uneasy, faithfully responded. I could see him racking his brain trying to find meaning in my words.
“Words like the Streisand effect or the Caligula effect don’t exist for nothing, you know?”
“…So you’re saying you just let him do as he pleases?”
When I explained with examples of the contrary psychology where what you’re told not to do makes you want to do it, the secretary finally asked as if he understood. Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t scattered the perceptiveness he’d burned to ash but was still holding onto it.
“They say even love has an expiration date, let alone…”
“Let alone?”
I almost said that our relationship, neither lovers nor friends, couldn’t last long. He’s a bastard full of that contrary spirit that even the secretary couldn’t deny. Just in case, he might hear about this conversation and throw an unnecessary tantrum.
“Let alone if I try to stop it before getting tired of it, only I’ll have a hard time.”
“What if you don’t see any signs of getting tired?”
“…I’ll think about that when the time comes.”
Looking closely, the secretary was quite naive. What made him trust Lee Hyeonseok’s close associate enough to tell everything in detail? A truly successful plan is said to be a plan not revealed even to allies.
“What can I do about it?”
I have no choice but to watch and move while lying flat saying ‘yes yes’ and going back.
