In the end, I decided to quit studying for the college entrance exam that I’d been doing for nearly six months and look for a job I could do from home. Fortunately, there were many that came to mind—translator, developer, editing designer, and so on. As for university, well, there were cyber universities and online courses too. Long live the IT powerhouse.
Like that, after arriving home without saying a word as if I’d forgotten how to open my mouth after Lee Hyeonseok’s words at the center, I slept for a bit and woke up. Only then did Lee Hyeonseok, who heard me mutter that working from home was the answer, ask if that was all.
I thought for a moment about what else I needed to consider and thought of my parents. Actually, they were the first thing I worried about after manifesting as an omega, but I tried not to be conscious of it. Honestly, I wanted to hide it for the rest of my life if possible, but since that didn’t seem likely, I was going to tell them once I calmed down a bit.
‘Nothing else?’
‘I was thinking of telling my parents later.’
‘Besides that.’
‘…Keep it a secret…?’
‘…….’
‘…….’
When I spoke awkwardly since I couldn’t guess anything else, Lee Hyeonseok looked at me with strange eyes and asked back. Well, why would Lee Hyeonseok care about my parents? When I answered carefully, wondering if he wanted to catch some weakness of mine, Lee Hyeonseok looked at me like I was a strange person. It was embarrassing enough. But there was nothing else I could think of. Did he perhaps want me to go home now that I’d manifested? I exclaimed as if spitting out the correct answer.
‘…Ah, ah! Leave! Go to your house, that’s it, right?’
When I pointed at Lee Hyeonseok and made a proud expression, for some reason he even shook his head and wordlessly pressed a booklet into my hand.
I expected to hear him tell me to go home, but of course it wasn’t that.
“Damn bastard, if you’re going to give it, just hand it over.”
Actually, I didn’t completely not know what Lee Hyeonseok wanted to say. I felt this when I was bullied in the past—when faced with despair too hard to handle, it was better not to think deeply. Rather than thinking deeply and being consumed by emotions, going up to the rooftop or grabbing a cutter knife, it was much more productive to anticipate a future that would end someday or prepare for greater despair. Imagining a future that would end when I transferred schools or graduated, always being tense in preparation for sudden violence that would pour down, always assuming the worst. After Uncle’s service, I did learn that sometimes fists could be the answer, but right now, all I could do was prepare.
“Jiwoo-ssi, Teacher Yoo is here.”
“Ah, yes! I’ll be right out.”
“Jiwoo-ssi, take your time coming out!”
While steeling my resolve once more, I heard a knock and a voice calling me. It was the housekeeper. While surprised that she came earlier than usual, I thought it was fortunate I’d been up early.
After just washing my face and brushing my teeth in the bathroom attached to Lee Hyeonseok’s room, I came out to see the housekeeper serving fruit to the teacher sitting at the dining table in the living room.
“I’m sorry for being late.”
“Not at all. I’m the one who should apologize for coming so early.”
Teacher Yoo, Yoo Injeong, was a person who taught about pheromones, a male omega teacher like me that Lee Hyeonseok had assigned five days ago. They say alphas and omegas can emit pheromones that can seduce or subdue each other. If this isn’t really being a beast, what is it…
“How are you doing with pheromones?”
“Thanks to you, I think I’m okay. Since I’m recessive, I’m not that swayed by them.”
“That’s a relief.”
“And it wasn’t really just the pheromones that were hard…”
“Yes, I know.”
Teacher Yoo had been teaching me about pheromones and how to control them these past few days. I conversed with the teacher and answered awkwardly toward the end. I gained some comfort from the teacher’s hand that held mine as if he knew everything, being an omega himself.
After manifesting as an omega, even when I tried to pull myself together, my condition didn’t completely return to normal. I’d gotten into the habit of acting quite sharp with Lee Hyeonseok, but I couldn’t help feeling unsettled. The doctor, as well as the center, prescribed that I refrain from using the internet for the time being. They advised me to stay away from the internet, saying that seeing stimulating things would only make it harder, and told me to ask Lee Hyeonseok, the hospital, or the center if I had any questions. I agreed and was tired of searching anyway, so I decided to do so. I didn’t use the internet while studying, and now I can’t use it again in this way… I was disqualified as a modern person.
“I heard you’re moving soon?”
“Ah, yes.”
Perhaps thinking the atmosphere had become heavy, the teacher changed the subject. Since I’d never told him this fact, it seemed he’d heard it from Lee Hyeonseok or the housekeeper.
Lee Hyeonseok bragged that he had no intention of continuing to stay in a small 32-pyeong officetel with three rooms and would be moving soon. I thought, ‘What the fuck do you want me to do about it, get lost.’ But I was going too. He said he didn’t like strangers coming and going at the place he’d move to, and told me to learn to control my pheromones while we were in this officetel. Yeah, you bastard. Why would my opinion matter to you? Anyway, until my energy returned, all I could do was just eat and sleep. In this sense and that sense. So now I just focused on learning diligently.
“The CEO takes good care of you.”
“Uhehehe…”
The teacher focused on the fact that ‘Lee Hyeonseok was taking me along when he moved’ rather than the move itself. My neck tensed up at how he was acting foolishly as if talking about some romance story. My cause of death would definitely be high blood pressure or hwabyeong. It was too bothersome to refute, and I couldn’t spit on a smiling face to show displeasure. In the end, I went along with it by laughing emptily, and the teacher sang sweetly with even his eyes curving, saying it was very good.
“Eolleri kkolleri~”
Good heavens, I’m being teased even without receiving a confession attack.
While flustered by the teasing that was long past its season, I didn’t respond or make excuses. When words didn’t get through, ignoring was best. Anyway, quickly realizing he wasn’t someone who would seriously listen to my words, I appropriately went “yes, yes. uhehehe, ahaha” and only filtered out the necessary words. My behavior, which I thought I’d handled wisely in my own way, seemed to have unintentionally planted a misconception in the housekeeper who was beside me too.
They say rumors are the fastest words. Whether it was the teacher, the housekeeper, or both, somehow they opened their mouths—the gazes of the guards who took care of errands and the researchers I saw when stopping by the center for examinations changed. Originally they treated me as Lee Hyeonseok’s mistress, or at best a hidden lover, but what they had in common was the feeling that they had no intention of seeing me for long.
I could tell by the attitude of guards who mocked me even knowing I’d overhear at the hospital, and the researchers who didn’t pay attention to me. They just thought I was someone Lee Hyeonseok was playing with for a bit. Though it pissed me off, I agreed so I just left it alone.
Of course, unlike them, the housekeeper and secretary did treat me as someone they’d be seeing for a long time, but in any case, they weren’t people who would listen even if I corrected them. But recently, everyone’s attitude changed completely. To put it simply, there was a strong feeling that they treated me more courteously.
Unless they were idiots, they couldn’t not know what words had circulated among the working people and that they were collectively mistaken because of it, but I just decided to pretend not to know about all of it.
Grown adults being dragged around by groundless rumors… It was utterly embarrassing as fellow adults. That was momentary too—I remembered when I worked at a company and believed the rumor that a superior who coughed up red spit after choking in the morning supposedly had a serious illness by quitting time. It turned out to be simply an incident of choking while drinking tomato juice.
Anyway, everyone except me and Lee Hyeonseok was acting as if we were having the love of the century, but the important Lee Hyeonseok himself said nothing. In a situation where I didn’t know if they’d believe me even if we corrected them together carefully, crying out ‘no’ alone would rather be like adding firewood, saying ‘there’s no smoke without fire.’
Honestly, Lee Hyeonseok probably knew about those misconceptions too. Obviously, it was clear he was just ignoring it because it was bothersome to explain in detail. Paradoxically, Lee Hyeonseok’s such attitude gave me more certainty. If we were going to last long, he would have taken some kind of action. Formally introducing me to those around him, or his attitude toward me changing. Some kind of change in the relationship would have occurred, but there was nothing particularly like that. If anything, just that we’d gotten closer than before.
In the end, to Lee Hyeonseok, I was a human who didn’t really matter, and it meant he’d say goodbye when he got tired.
Yeah. You guys will get in trouble later, not me.
“Know your place!”
I’m the one getting in trouble…?
* * *
As soon as I sent a text to my parents saying that the environment at Lee Hyeonseok’s house was good for studying for the college entrance exam so I decided to just do it here, unable to face them, a call came. It was natural.
Even to the earnest request asking what was going on and to please show my face once, I forcibly ended the call, making dirty excuses about the college entrance exam—that I’d visit later, that I wanted to prioritize studying for the entrance exam now… and so on. For some reason, I didn’t want to see their faces right now. As I was endlessly depressed after hanging up, at bad timing, the front door opened.
With noise surging in from outside saying things like ‘you can’t do this’ and ‘get out of the way, do you know who I am?’, I noticed that if I stayed like this, I’d get tired. Seeing the housekeeper fidgeting anxiously beside me, it seemed someone from Lee Hyeonseok’s family had come.
I sighed and peeked toward the front door to see someone I didn’t know. At least it wasn’t Lee Hyeonseok’s father who had slapped my cheek when he almost ended Lee Hyeonseok’s life with an allergy. Through the front door that seemed like it would open or not, six burly men in black suits were entangled in the middle, while only a middle-aged man and what appeared to be his secretary watched the chaos and added a word or two.
“Please stop. If you continue any further, we’ll have no choice but to contact the CEO.”
“I’m the person who’ll be that CEO’s father-in-law, father-in-law!”
At the words ‘person who’ll be father-in-law,’ my body froze. Did I just sleep with someone who has a partner? Affairs or adultery aren’t one person’s responsibility alone. Then is it my fault too?
While I was receiving my own shock, the housekeeper behind me muttered, “The young master doesn’t have a fiancée yet though…?” Thanks to the housekeeper’s gaze looking at the middle-aged man claiming to be the future father-in-law as if he were strange, I could easily guess that this middle-aged man was drinking kimchi soup.
“Hey, you!”
“Seo Jiwoo-nim? Please stay inside!”
“Ah, wait a moment, you can’t!”
“Uh, uh. Block him!”
The moment I concluded it would be better to crumple up inside the room before being discovered and moved my body, the self-proclaimed father-in-law spotted me. The guards turned their heads too. Though the gap was brief, in that brief moment he pushed his body inside the house.
The guards who had tried so hard to prevent the self-proclaimed father-in-law from entering didn’t seem to dare think of dragging him out once he was inside the house. All they did was stand in front of me to block him. It seemed something big would happen if they touched the father-in-law’s body. The employees, busy watching their employer’s mood, were also busy watching the mood of a high-ranking person from someone else’s house.
“Life…”
“If you have something to say, speak up!”
The self-proclaimed father-in-law, who somehow heard the mutter that came out emptily in the troublesome situation, said irritably. Even if he were a real father-in-law, he was too rude in someone else’s house. One guard carefully opened his mouth saying to stop, but was cursed at for daring to order someone around. Thinking that quickly soothing and sending him off would be able to end the situation faster, I crafted the most polite voice possible.
“Ah, yes. That’s not what I meant…”
“How dare you open your mouth in front of me!”
“?”
He told me to speak up? A person who was rude beyond rude. Still, I equipped Confucianism and treated him as if he were older than me, but he even raised his voice to block my words. I wanted to argue whether he was telling me to speak or not to speak, but anyway, the father-in-law’s purpose was to step on me. Whatever I said, he had an attitude that wouldn’t listen. The fortunate thing was that since there were guards, at least I wouldn’t get beaten.
“When you should be prostrating and begging on the spot, you dare stand upright and look at my face—how shameless!”
“Oh, ah. …I’m sorry?”
“Shameless. So shameless.”
After I bothered to apologize when told to… He must be someone who would be truly satisfied only if I prostrated and begged. Perhaps feeling a bit better at my appearance of watching his mood over whether to kneel or not, the self-proclaimed father-in-law said with contempt.
“You’d better enjoy it now.”
“Pardon?”
“Kids like you. Do you think I, as well as Hyeonseok-gun, don’t know what schemes you’re plotting?”
This is a scene I’ve seen in morning dramas. That scene where wealthy parents give the other party water or money while criticizing and warning them, and I’m the protagonist of it. Should I perform a gut ritual? Should I do a gut ritual?
“Even now Hyeonseok-gun is momentarily distracted by something novel, but that’s really momentary, just a game.”
Though the father-in-law’s words crossed the line, I personally agreed with the meaning. Do you think the saying ‘birds of a feather’ exists for nothing? I felt a bit relieved inside. Actually, even while pretending otherwise, others’ misunderstandings and misconceptions had been stressful deep down.
“People have to match their class.”
No, that’s too discriminatory a statement though. As expected of someone so rude, he didn’t just barely cross the line but crossed it boldly. Unlike him, polite me thought that even if we’re not birds of a feather, we could become close if we wanted to hang out together, but Lee Hyeonseok and I had no such thoughts. We’re just a temporary relationship…
“I heard you manifested as an omega, don’t act above your station.”
After that, Lee Hyeonseok’s self-proclaimed father-in-law was long-tongued anyway—how long do you think you’ll last doing that, I came here all for your sake, it’s natural you’ll disappear someday but still I came to give you advice, know your place, and so on.
“Got it?”
“Thank you for such precious words.”
“…….”
I was half out of it listening absentmindedly when I heard someone calling me and roughly humored him, but for some reason silence fell. Even the guards looked at me with surprised faces. I wondered why, then only then realized that my sarcasm had unconsciously been hurt so I’d added unnecessary words.
The self-proclaimed father-in-law, whose face had become as red as it could get, began to tremble. The guards tensed their bodies to prepare for the situation, and the moment I backed away to scram to my room, the father-in-law tried to rush at me… but a voice heard from behind stopped him.
“You…!”
“You mean ‘thank you for such shitty words,’ right?”
Lee Hyeonseok, holding a golf club, stretched out my words and twisted them.
