PHUW 91

“Ho, then someone you met in society?”

“The company is still part of society.”

The executives exchanged the remark and laughed.

It was a joke about the love affair that Choi Sangeon had stirred up at headquarters ten years ago. A young employee who had gotten hired as a contract secretary had caught the heir to the group, so how could it not become a widely told story.

The exact beginning was that the real lunatic, Choi Sangeon, had fallen in love with Lee Myeongeun at first sight. Jeong Mok had heard the details from Choi Jieon at the time.

Lee Myeongeun, leaving aside Choi Sangeon himself, found the chairwoman behind him a heavy burden. From the start she had drawn a clear line, and when that did not work, she even went as far as resigning. But Choi Sangeon, at the level of a crazed stalker, kept chasing after her and in the end managed to win her over. The repeated encounters and small incidents that happened after her resignation were in truth a thoroughly calculated scenario, something Lee Myeongeun still did not know.

‘If it hadn’t been for the chairwoman, that man would have been in handcuffs long ago. It’s truly creepy.’

Choi Jieon shuddered at her older brother, but the way she had ‘caught’ her husband was not much different. She had singled out Baek Seunghyeon, a fresh junior she met at a university club gathering, and quietly cut off anyone who tried to approach him, isolating him. Then she reached out to him while he struggled with human relationships, carried out delicate gaslighting, and devoured him once he became a senior-obsessed fool.

However you thought about it, they were lunatics of the same kind. On top of already having chairwoman’s eyes constantly on him because of Jeong Yeongil, thanks to the reputation spread by the Choi siblings Jeong Mok had to endure suspicious looks even within the company.

Would his wish to live an ordinary life and leave an ordinary life ever come true. Once the case involving Lee Sangjin was settled, he would throw in my resignation immediately.

“Let’s stop with the irrelevant talk and continue the report.”

Jeong Mok cut it off since he had no intention of letting his private life be brought up further. The president and executives who had been chatting with interest quickly focused on the meeting again.

When the report and meeting ended and he was left alone, Jeong Mok took out his personal phone and opened the app he had installed at dawn.

As soon as it was decided that Haeri and Gom-i would move in, he had bought the latest ultra-small pet cams, but out of worry that an accident like yesterday’s, where Haeri had not been able to answer the phone, might happen again, he had hurriedly set them up at dawn. The security team’s cameras only showed the private elevator entrance and the front hallways, and for the sake of privacy protection as well, the secret pet cams were an indispensable choice. After updating the firmware and checking that everything worked, all he had to do was open the app to see the house in real time.

In the morning, Haeri and Gom-i played busily in the living room with a ball and tug toys, then ate the delivered hotel lunch boxes for lunch and sprawled out. Gom-i seemed to like the marble floor, lying belly down and falling asleep, while Haeri lay on the sofa fiddling with his phone the whole time.

It was not only the pet cams that had been installed at dawn. Jeong Mok had also put a ghost app, the kind industrial spies used, on Haeri’s phone. It was a program that copied and transmitted the entire phone usage process. Someone sharp-eyed or someone in a field sensitive to technology leaks might have noticed quickly, but just as he expected, Haeri had no inkling at all.

Everything Ahn Haeri saw and heard through his phone was delivered to Jeong Mok.

He started normally with portal searches, then went to a famous online shopping mall. With the card that Jeong Mok had newly issued him, Ahn Haeri happily swiped for trendy hoodies and pants he did not know why they were popular, an apple logo tablet and watch, and a headset.

Then suddenly he searched ‘Jeong Mok’ in portal news and began reading articles based on the press release about his appointment as vice president. Since it was portal news, there were many negative comments about chaebol succession practices, and Ahn Haeri clicked ‘dislike’ and ‘report’ on each malicious comment. On the favorable comments clearly written by the PR team, he clicked ‘like.’

He unconsciously smiled. Come to think of it, once at the cafe when someone took Jeong Mok’s photo, Haeri had stepped in like a manager to stop them. It had felt quite reassuring.

‘Reliable.’

After checking comments on every article, Haeri then moved on to Neotube and started watching dog videos. Just then documents for approval arrived, so Jeong Mok also put his phone aside.

After carefully reviewing and signing papers involving hundreds of billions in business, a report text from the security team came in.

Since they said Haeri had not moved from the bedroom, like a pet owner checking a pet cam while working, he casually checked the bedroom camera. Seeing Haeri still holding the phone, he absentmindedly opened the spy app, curious like a parent about a child’s interests.

By then, Ahn Haeri had opened a famous search engine and was looking something up.

‘Penetrative sex’ ‘How gay men feel’ ‘Preparations for gay penetration’

His eyes went wide at the search terms. At first he thought he had seen wrong. He closed his eyes and opened them again. He had seen correctly. And that was not all. More terms were added in real time.

‘Prostate’ ‘Prostate massage’ ‘Anal sex’ ‘Anal intercourse’ They grew more and more explicit until finally even words like ‘anal sex’ and ‘gay sex’ in English appeared.

His mind went blank. The fountain pen in his hand rolled and fell with a thud.

The search terms grew more and more outrageous. He even went as far as finding an adult product site, sorted the listed items by recommendation count, and then began checking each one carefully. From the standard colorless and odorless lubricants that most people bought, he quickly moved on to lubricants with warming and light numbing effects. Ahn Haeri put both in his cart, then started choosing beginner dildos and vibrators.

“Crazy.”

He was so startled that the the word slipped out.

Brrring.

The extension phone rang.

“Ugh!”

Jeong Mok flinched as if doused in ice water. He jumped from his seat and dropped his personal phone in the process.

Brrring, brrring.

The extension kept ringing. Jeong Mok hurriedly picked up the fallen phone, shoved it into the desk drawer, and pressed the extension button.

–Vice Chairman?

It was his secretary. He let out the long breath he had been holding without realizing. Of course it would be the secretary, since she handled connecting extension calls. He could not understand why he felt relieved. It was like being caught by the discipline teacher while secretly smoking in a school corner.

–I just heard a loud noise inside, sir. Did something happen?

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. What is it?”

The matter was trivial. She simply asked how she should respond to a business inquiry. She also reconfirmed the afternoon schedule. He gave short answers and hung up.

As he brushed down his frozen chest, his shoulders sagged. His upper body felt weary, but his lower body was strangely tense with strength.

***

Bzz, bzz.

While lying on the sofa, absorbed in shopping, the phone suddenly rang. Startled, Haeri dropped it on his face.

“Ah!”

It hit his nose bridge, and it hurt quite a bit. Why did someone have to call at a time like this. Grumbling, Haeri picked up the phone and pressed the call button.

“Hello?”

–……What are you doing?

“Just here.”

–You really didn’t do anything?

He seems to be questioning something.

“I did some shopping. With your card. Did you get the text?”

Was he going to complain about using the card he had given him, saying he spent too much? Could the Vice Chairman really be the kind to make a fuss over just a few million won… hard to tell. People with money could be worse.

–Did you… buy something strange?

So he was going to nitpick about the shopping after all. Petty.

“It’s not strange. Just clothes and electronics. Since looking only on the phone hurts my eyes, I ordered a tablet and a watch because they looked nice… should I cancel the order?”

–No. Clothes or electronics, buy as much as you like. I mean something else.

“There isn’t anything else.”

–Really nothing?

“Why, am I supposed to buy something? Are we out of anything at home?”

This time he asked back.

–No. The regular home manager will handle all the daily necessities. If you need anything else, just say. I’ll pick it up on my way back from work.

“No, it’s easier for me to look and buy online.”

–……Alright.

The reason for the call seemed to be over, but Jeong Mok did not hang up.

“Do you have something else to say?”

–……No.

“Then should I hang up?”

–……Yes.

“I’ll hang up first then. If you think of something, call me again later.”

After reminding him, Haeri pressed the end call button. Then he returned to the online shopping mall he had been browsing. He kept tossing every item that seemed decent into the cart until the list went over twenty. He would need to sort through it later.

‘For lube, I’ll get both the basic one and the warming one. For dildos, I’ll buy everything from beginner small to large all at once. Ordering multiple times would be troublesome. For condoms, my size is fine with this, but what about hyung-nim’s size?’

There were diameter sizes listed, but he had no sense of what they meant. After some thought, he came up with an idea. He tore off some toilet paper, measured the circumference of a shampoo bottle he guessed to be similar to Jeong Mok’s size, marked the length on the paper, then used a measuring app to get the exact numbers. Fortunately, the size left only a narrow range of brands to choose from. He just put the most famous product into the cart.

Just in case, he also checked condom reviews.

One woman wrote that her boyfriend was that size, and every time it hurt like hell, yet at the same time the satisfaction was good. Others bragged, it wasn’t really worth bragging, that their girlfriends struggled because of their size. Among them were even detailed explanations on how to manage intercourse without pain when the partner was that size. He read those twice, then searched for the specially recommended preparatory vibrator, added it to the cart, and paid with his own card.