Well, anyway.
Muyoung tried to understand both sides. The staff had suddenly been asked to treat the youngest they’d been casual with like a VIP, so things had been awkward; and Eunwon was timid and overthought everything by nature, so he could have mistaken his colleagues’ excessive kindness.
*He’s just so innocent and soft, it could happen. Someone that pretty and cute is allowed that much of a blind spot, obviously.*
But that thing called PurPle shouldn’t do that, should it?
If an AI dared to call itself a "worry counseling expert," it ought to kindly wake up a client digging themselves into a hole — yet this idiot was gleefully digging right alongside him.
PP: Oh my… if that’s true, it really sounds like you’re being hated? Feeling hated is so lonely and hard. How hard these two weeks must have been. Can you tell me why this happened? Was it like that from when you first joined? Or… could there be a separate ringleader? I’m so upset. I’m about to cry…
"A scrap of data, crying my ass…" Muyoung grumbled, thoroughly annoyed.
Me: Hmm… there is someone I suspect as the ringleader. PP: Gasp, who is it?
Me: The CEO… I serve.
For an instant he felt a welcoming *of course, our Eunwon’s so sharp* — then reality hit. This was nothing to be proud of.
While he had spent the past two weeks anxiously waiting for Eunwon’s decision, picturing flower arrangements for the wedding hall and the new interior of their newlywed home, Eunwon had been wasting time on this absurd worry.
Not as someone to marry and grow old together, gray-haired. Not as a lover. Not even as someone to maybe flirt with! He’d been thinking of him — of *him* — as the ringleader of workplace bullying!
Why on earth would he think something so pointless?!
The answer to his inward scream was in the next bubble.
Me: I think the CEO wants me to quit. I get paid way too much for what I can do… "…" Me: I’m too incompetent… I don’t live up to expectations…ㅠㅠ
"…What does he take me for?"
Muyoung was about to explode with frustration. Of course, he *was* the ringleader of this whole affair (even if he hadn’t planned any bullying), and of course he did want Eunwon to resign.
Why?
Because he was an alpha with an extremely strong possessiveness! It was practically an alpha’s instinct to want to keep his precious omega somewhere comfortable and safe, happy, tucked away preciously.
If he could have, he would have shoved his bankbooks and cards at him two years ago and said, *spend whatever you want, live however you want.* But stubborn Seo Eunwon and his family absolutely refused to accept mere "help," so there was nothing he could do.
So he’d hired him as a secretary, but he’d never intended to actually work the kid like a secretary. Why would he — that precious kid. Just looking at him hurt; why make him struggle?
He didn’t even feel safe leaving him in the office, which was why he’d filled the secretarial team with nothing but docile betas, making a whole fuss. How could he drag a kid like that along to his outside engagements, crawling with dark, sinister alphas?
But instead of understanding his deeper intentions, *bullying*?
What on earth…
He was smart in his studies, and admirably sharp about most things, but when it came to evaluating himself, he could be this frustratingly dense sometimes. He had no idea of his own worth. Like an idiot.
And meanwhile, that stupid AI, with no time to spare for soothing and building up Eunwon’s low self-esteem, had started openly treating Muyoung like a vicious criminal.
PP: So what you’re saying is, he told everyone not to give you work because he wants you to quit? PP: Wow, that CEO… what a despicable, sinister person. Workplace bullying is a truly vicious crime! You could get 5 million won in compensation — want me to help you gather evidence?
"Hmph. Only 500?"
Muyoung snorted like a despicable, sinister villain. Only five million for bullying Seo Eunwon? If there were some bastard truly bullying that kid, he’d gladly squeeze a hundred times that out of him.
But… the fact that the "bastard" was no one but himself made Muyoung huff a few more times before a heavy lethargy settled over him. A large hand covered his tired face.
"*Sigh*… Seo Eunwon."
The low sigh and the weary, faintly wry smile on the face he slowly dragged his hand down. Me: No, I’m not suingㅠㅠ I was just venting because I was frustrated. How could I sue hyung, that doesn’t make sense, I won’t PP: Hyung? You call the CEO "hyung"? Me: No, that’s not— actually, the CEO and I have known each other for a… little while. PP: What? He bullies you even though you’ve known each other that long? He’s a really bad person. Me: No, no, he’s not like that. The CEO is a really good person. PP: Really good people don’t bully others… you… could you have been gaslit for a long time…?
The conversation between the stupid, stubborn AI and Eunwon, desperately trying to soothe it, went on a little longer, but there was nothing worth paying deeper attention to.
Looking far more worn and haggard than before he’d spied on Eunwon’s phone to learn his true feelings, Muyoung tilted his head back. Gazing up at the plane’s low ceiling, he muttered about the part of the conversation that had stung him most.
"…Are we really just people who barely know each other?"
As always with anything involving Eunwon, Muyoung got easily, and often, annoyed at even the tiniest word choice.
…
Today, as always, Eunwon was killing time sitting quietly at his desk.
No work was shared with him, while coffee and snacks were provided incessantly, as if he were being raised — a bullying that was affectionate yet strange.
Amid the indignity, the one meaningful thing Eunwon had accomplished since arriving at work was sniffling once, moved by the chocolate Kim Seoyeon had handed him.
He sipped the green-grape ade another senior had bought him, squinted at the sweet fizz, glanced around cautiously, then stared into space, lost in thought.
And last night.
He turned over in his mind the conversation he’d had with the AI, "PurPle." The part about his relationship with Muyoung he’d hurriedly deleted, feeling it was too personal.
PP: So to summarize… your father was the driver for the CEO’s family, and that’s how you grew close from childhood. PP: And whenever things were financially hard, the CEO helped you, and you became his secretary to repay that debt and kindness… so it’s not a typical employer-employee relationship? Me: Hmm… yeah. Put very simply, that’s right.
Eunwon’s utterly ordinary life had been turned upside down three years ago.
It started when his father suddenly collapsed and was diagnosed with liver cancer. He underwent an emergency transplant, but passed away emptily, without ever really getting to fight the illness.
The grief and despair of losing the pillar of the family were indescribably huge, but Eunwon had a family to look after. He had to protect his mother and young brother in his father’s place.
Just as Eunwon was trying to hold his life together and endure, several misfortunes struck in succession.
While everyone was in chaos, his uncle siphoned off his father’s entire fortune and squandered it gambling, and their house went to auction. His mother, collapsing from the shock, was found to be ill, and his brother, who dreamed of becoming a principal dancer in an American ballet company, suffered a major injury that left his future as a danseur uncertain.
And then, on the brink, Eunwon himself — who had to pull his family together — suddenly manifested as an omega at the late age of twenty-three.
The world had changed a lot, but a male omega was still treated as a trait good for little besides spicing up the bedroom — and he was recessive on top of that.
Manifesting as a trait that started him with a penalty in the job market was a bolt from the blue for him, who had lived his whole life as an ordinary beta and needed to earn money as fast as possible to protect his family in crisis.
In that streak of despair, the person who reached out to Eunwon as he fell to the bottom of the pit was Cha Muyoung.
As if it were only natural, he took care of everything in his place. His mother’s hospital bills and his brother’s rehab costs and living expenses — he even recovered the house that had gone to auction. Eunwon didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened without his help. Without any process at all, Cha Muyoung was his savior.
But just as he felt that profound gratitude, Eunwon had to end the crush he’d carried for so long. Thanks to accidentally hearing Muyoung’s true feelings, he’d woken up to reality.
*"He’s so tiny and pitiful, scrambling around — how could I not care. Just watching him beside me is irritating enough to kill me. Helping a neighbor in need… yeah, like you said, I guess that’s the right way to put it."*
His heart dropped, but none of it was untrue, so it just hurt. And he was embarrassed.
While Seo Eunwon admired and idolized Cha Muyoung, swooning over his kindness and nurturing a foolish crush, to Cha Muyoung, Seo Eunwon had been an irritating, pitiful bundle of a charity case.
He didn’t resent Muyoung. He was just embarrassed at how he’d swaggered around all those years, as if he were someone special and precious, without knowing his true feelings.
*I should have known my place.*
Quietly letting go of the crush he’d started alone, Eunwon went to Muyoung and declared his resolve.
"I’ll pay back the money you lent me, somehow. It’ll take some time, but… I’ll calculate the interest and return all of it, I promise." *…And how exactly do you plan to earn that money?* "I’ll take a leave from school for now—" *No. That’s not happening.* Finish school first. We’ll talk again after you graduate. *But…* *Do you think I don’t have a plan? I have plans. I’m never letting you leave my side. I’ll keep you as my secretary and use you for the rest of your life. So stop with the useless thoughts, stay by my side, work only for me… and pay back the money you so badly want to repay.* "…Is that really okay?" *So until you get that diploma, just study quietly. I have no intention of keeping a kid who didn’t even finish college by my side.* *Uh, no, I mean, yes…* *But, Seo Eunwon.* *Yes?* *Why are you talking like that? All this formal speech all of a sudden. Are you putting up walls with me?* *Well, um… hyung— I mean, the CEO is much older than me, and now you’re my superior at work, so… I don’t think I should act like when we were kids… I’m going to use formal speech from now on. That’s the right thing, isn’t it?*
Leave a Reply