[You worthless bastard. Do you think you’re here to study abroad? You’re in a position where you need to sell your body like your father to earn money for hospital bills and living expenses.]
[Call me back as soon as you see this. If not, I don’t know what I might do.]
[Do you think being an Omega is some kind of medal? Who are you to have an arranged meeting with the Ho Group? Just wait, I’ll find some pig-like old Alpha to hand you over to, you damn…]
There was no need to check the rest.
Yeonwoo put down his phone and let out a long sigh.
“…”
When he first received the text filled with insults, he was scared. But it seemed he had developed immunity to this, as now he felt nothing. Calmly deleting the messages, Yeonwoo checked his call log. From Friday evening until this morning, there were over 10 calls from Lee Jonghoon’s number.
He knew he should call back now, but he didn’t feel like it.
Because he was hungry. He was so hungry that he felt he needed to put something in his mouth, so Yeonwoo took out two packets of ramen.
With an expressionless face, he added two eggs, placed the entire pot on the table, and inhaled the food without taking a breath. Though his lips and tongue felt scalded, he emptied the broth completely and drank a glass of water, which made him feel better.
His body still ached and he wanted to lie down and sleep, but he opened all the windows and started cleaning thoroughly. This led to him vomiting everything he’d eaten. While lying down afterward, he received a call from Lee Jonghoon’s secretary.
The stiff voice asked why his phone had been turned off since Friday. Though the secretary didn’t immediately curse or call him useless like Lee Jonghoon would, Yeonwoo felt the rebuke was similar and responded in a hoarse voice.
‘I was sick.’
‘…’
‘I was quite ill.’
Saying that he seemed to have caught a cold due to the temperature fluctuations, he received silence from the other end. After a while, the secretary briefly said, “I understand,” and hung up. Even after ending the call, Yeonwoo couldn’t relax his hand holding the phone.
Only after more than ten minutes could Yeonwoo finally close his eyes.
As they say, words become reality. With a mild case of body aches, Yeonwoo suffered until Monday dawn before having to go to work.
The atmosphere at the mart was unsettled.
Despite working at the mart for several months, Yeonwoo never initiated conversations with others. But this time, the atmosphere suggested he shouldn’t maintain that habit, so during his morning shift, he caught a fellow employee and asked:
“Did something happen over the weekend?”
“Yeonwoo, did you have the weekend off?”
Yeonwoo nodded, having been fortunate enough to have two consecutive weekends off. The employee then looked around, grabbed Yeonwoo’s arm, and led him to a secluded spot.
“Director Park is always sexually harassing people. It seems the newly hired girl was an Omega. He suddenly stood next to her saying things like Omegas are ‘wet,’ that she should prepare extra underwear while working, and asking what style she liked because he would buy them for her. Ugh, it’s disgusting.”
“…”
“But that girl ran out in the middle of her shift and reported it to the Omega Association. You know how foul-mouthed the director is, right? Apparently, she recorded everything. She’s an orphan who’s becoming independent with support funds from the Association. And this happened at her first workplace…”
In the afternoon, people from the Association suddenly arrived with police, during a major promotional event for the mart’s products. The employee folded their arms, saying this made the atmosphere even more tense.
“When people asked what was happening, someone from the Association announced that an employee at this mart had sexually harassed a new employee. You know bad news travels fast. There were already many people due to the event, so what about our mart’s image?”
Letting out deep sighs, the employee then criticized today’s Omegas for being bold and not enduring such treatment.
“Who doesn’t know what kind of person Director Park is? Just endure it a bit. Then you can get used to…”
“That’s not something anyone should get used to.”
“…”
The employee, who had been implying the girl who reported was rash, closed their mouth. Seeing the round, surprised eyes, Yeonwoo continued calmly:
“It must have been really scary for her, experiencing that as soon as she was hired.”
“Ah, well, is that how it is? But seeing how she reported it right away, she doesn’t seem to have been that scared…”
The employee, speaking without thinking, closed their mouth at Yeonwoo’s gaze. After stammering, they shrugged saying “I guess so,” but clearly felt uncomfortable. Watching the employee walk away saying they needed to get back to work, Yeonwoo relaxed his expression.
Someone who would talk so much to him would predictably talk elsewhere too. It would be troublesome if they spread what he said with their own twist. He should have kept quiet. But it was already too late.
Yeonwoo took off his hat, ruffled his hair, and turned to finish his remaining work. That evening, he was called to the HR department.
This was his second time visiting HR, the first being when he interviewed for the part-time job.
The basement floor of the mart housed offices for HR, A/S centers, card issuance, consultation, event management, and more—a place Yeonwoo had no reason to visit. Yet now, he was sitting alone in an office inside the HR department.
Though the call was sudden, Yeonwoo wasn’t nervous and just looked down at the vending machine coffee placed in front of him. After about five minutes, there was a knock and a man entered.
“Lee Yeonwoo? I tried to come quickly, but I got a sudden call from a vendor.”
The man was neatly dressed in a suit with glasses. Looking more suited for a corporate office than a mart, he sat across from Yeonwoo and apologized.
Though Yeonwoo had waited, it was only about 10 minutes. Thinking it would be strange to say it was fine, he just lowered his head. The man pointed to the cup in front of Yeonwoo, noting he hadn’t taken a single sip.
“As an employee, you must have been surprised to be suddenly called here.”
It was indeed sudden, so Yeonwoo answered with a small “yes.”
“I see you had the weekend off. So you might not know about the incident yesterday. Did you hear anything during your shift today?”
“…”
If it was about Director Park, he already knew.
Before knowing, it wasn’t an issue, but once he learned the truth, that’s all he heard everywhere. Whenever employees gathered, that’s all they talked about. Some said today’s young people are scary, but others rightly stated, “It’s not scary, it’s what should be done.” They questioned why anyone should tolerate such dirty talk, saying Director Park needed to straighten up from this incident.
“I naturally came to know about it as there was a lot of talk everywhere.”
“I see.”
Though he omitted the subject, the man seemed to understand what Yeonwoo had heard.
The man wore an ID card around his neck labeled “HR Manager.” With a report filed the previous day, the mart must have needed to investigate Director Park.
Director Park had a notorious reputation for a long time. From shortly after starting his part-time job, the most common advice Yeonwoo received was, “Be careful of Director Park. Don’t catch his eye.” Yeonwoo had wondered then why, if people talked about it so much, no action was taken.
He soon found out why.
Director Park was the son-in-law of a director at the parent company managing the mart. Using the director’s influence, he had been sent to manage the mart as punishment for causing problems at headquarters, but he hadn’t changed his behavior even here.
Well, he probably looked down on the mart from the beginning. Perhaps he thought he could do anything here without consequences.
Yeonwoo could guess what the HR manager would say, and the man spoke exactly as Yeonwoo predicted.
“From our inquiries, it seems you’ve experienced many uncomfortable situations while working here.”
“…”
“Well, Director Park tends to be very… casual with people around him.”
The manager’s awkward smile, with hands clasped together, was clear evidence of his desire to somehow positively resolve the situation. Seeing this, Yeonwoo thought:
Director Park would behave selfishly anywhere, not just here. The mart’s approach suggested they wanted to dismiss the young Omega’s report as a mere “communication error.” A sexual harassment case involving an Omega circulating among people would greatly damage the mart’s image.
“Our mart has been open for over 20 years, and we’ve never had such an incident. We were planning a big 20th anniversary event this year, but with issues like workplace sexual harassment suddenly circulating, it’s concerning. As you know, we have over 200 employees working at this mart. So…”
“If you care so much about the mart, you should have resolved this before an incident occurred.”
“…”
The previously smiling manager’s lips visibly stiffened.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
