Standards (1)
With Song Hanna's first time, Duty Sex was over — for now.
I'd wondered, but she really had been a virgin. I never thought I'd end up sleeping with a woman who was still untouched at her age. Would there be more of that going forward?
I cleaned up so Song Hanna could rest comfortably, took a shower, and stepped out of the room.
"Are you finished?"
"Yes. There are two in the other room and one in here, so I'll leave them in your care."
Medical staff, standing by for more reliable pregnancy confirmation and aftercare. One of the various organizations that had attached themselves to men since the Bright Future Policy went into effect.
"Of course! And could you also record the number of times for us?"
That was a little embarrassing. A life where you had to log your sex life. What kind of life was that supposed to be?
Mine, apparently.
"Yes! Jeong Sujin twice, Park Yujin once, Song Hanna once. Confirmed."
"As you know, if we don't confirm the count, it will be treated as if Duty Sex didn't take place, so please make sure to verify."
"You still have one round of Duty Sex remaining. You look tired, so please make sure to hydrate, eat plenty of protein and fruit, and get some rest."
Okay — this was actually pretty embarrassing. I vaguely remembered hearing that stallions and bulls under ejaculation management were treated exactly like this. When I'd first heard that, I'd thought, Must be nice, being a stud horse. Sorry. Turns out it was a pretty humiliating life.
Leaving the medical staff as they filed into the room, I took the protein shake and banana they handed me and went into another room.
I'm dying.
I slumped down and mechanically shoved the food into my mouth, trying to replenish what little stamina I had left. I only had one body's worth of endurance, and there were multiple people. From the third one onward, it got rough.
The mental satisfaction, though, was enormous. The knowledge that I'd enjoyed a different kind of sex with each of those beautiful women was still detonating dopamine in my skull, ruling my emotions. Not bad. Not bad at all. Even if this became a repeating cycle, I had a feeling I'd be just fine with it.
Park Yujin had been surprisingly ordinary for someone who'd looked so grimly determined. Jeong Sujin was a woman who knew how to enjoy herself in bed. Song Hanna had simply been a first-timer. Same act. Completely different experiences. If they had anything in common, it was that all of them had been satisfying.
And in Song Hanna's case, the fact that I'd been her first man gave me a peculiar sense of conquest, which made it even more satisfying — and made me more careful with her.
Thinking this, the odd sweetness of the protein shake I'd shoved down, along with the banana, seemed to get my brain working again.
Three women of childbearing age. No condoms — just finishing inside. Pregnancy odds of twenty-five to thirty percent. And one of them, twice. If we kept this up for a week the way we had today, someone was bound to get pregnant. Then some of them would become my concubines, and others would just become sex partners chained to me. How the hell was I supposed to manage that?
Thinking back to this morning's fight between women who didn't even have a real relationship with me — yeah, I was not the kind of man who could put up with that. History said that emperors and kings in my position had established an empress or a queen as their principal wife to keep order. Should I just pick one too? But they and I lived in different worlds. Was naming a principal wife really the answer? And if I did, what would the criteria even be?
Even with my brain coming back online thanks to the sugar and nutrients, I couldn't find an answer. It wasn't that I had no ideas at all — nothing just felt like a clear, definitive one.
I'd have liked to keep turning it over, but a body that had been doing excessive cardio since morning kept pulling my eyelids shut. I shouldn't fall asleep like this... There was a bed right next to me, though.
......
I slept a little, and when I woke, my head felt clearer and my stamina had come back. I ate a late lunch, fixed my messy hair, brushed my teeth, and by the time I was ready again, it was past two.
Then I was told someone had come to see me. I went down to the hotel lobby and found the woman I'd seen this morning.
"Bae Suji? The writer?"
"Yes! I'm Bae Suji."
"What can I do for you?"
"Pardon?"
Oh, right. The broadcast.
"Ah. You're here about the show?"
"Yes, yes. I came about the filming... so you did it after all?"
"Ah... yeah. I did."
Why would you even ask that?
"Then you must be exhausted. When would you be able to resume filming?"
Park Yujin and Song Hanna were probably out. Jeong Sujin... might be okay.
"Ms. Lee Olivia came to us and said she was ready, so if you could just fill us in on the others and yourself, Seonghun."
She didn't leave?
I'd clearly told the woman making stupid choices to go, and she had gone... hadn't she?
"Didn't Lee Olivia go back?"
"Pardon? No, she didn't?"
What was going on?
"Well, I'm fine, and Jeong Sujin is probably the only one whose body will be up for it."
That was just my guess.
"The people who'd actually know are upstairs, so it'd be faster to go ask them yourself."
"Is that so? Well, the most important thing is that you're ready, Seonghun. Alright. Please get ready so we can resume filming from this evening."
Hah... I didn't want to do this.
"Yes. Understood."
"Of course! I'll get ready as well!"
Seeing her look so excited, I was starting to regret that impulsive decision.
"Then I'll see you this evening!"
Yeah, yeah. Go on in.
I got up to head back to the room I'd been resting in, when I heard footsteps approaching.
"Hello."
Lee Olivia. The woman who'd been stressing me out since this morning.
"Hello. I thought you'd gone back?"
"No, I haven't. I was just a little hesitant because the Three-Four Rule hasn't completely passed yet."
...The Three-Four Rule?
"What's that?"
"It's a rule in our Christian club. You're not allowed to date from the end of junior year through the beginning of senior year."
You're not supposed to date through freshman and sophomore year — and junior year too? Was that even a thing...
"Is that... a rule you still have to follow in a situation like this?"
"Rules must be followed no matter the circumstances."
I see...
Then why did you even apply?
"You look like you have a lot of questions."
"I do."
Not that I actually wanted the answers. Honestly, for someone like me who wasn't particularly religious, people who were deeply immersed in religion were a bit difficult. Their behavior was unpredictable, their thinking incomprehensible — I tended to avoid them. Anyway, I didn't particularly want her next to me. I didn't want to get involved, either.
"I'm aware that many people find brothers and sisters who believe in God, like us, rather difficult."
"So you do know. Everything you said this morning was hard to accept. It's not that I have a prejudice — it's just difficult."
"People outside the faith might see it that way. But for those of us who believe in God and feel His presence, it isn't a difficult matter at all."
This. This was what made it exhausting. How was I even supposed to understand that?
"Anyway. I think we need to talk about something."
I'd been thinking about this since morning. Time to make it clear.
"Look. I don't particularly have an opinion about whether God exists, or about believing in God."
Maybe He did, maybe He didn't. It wasn't like I could prove a god existed.
"But when it comes to religion, I have a very clear opinion."
I thought the reason ordinary religions and cults were only a hair's breadth apart was that they both offered people a way to live and a way to think. That was why every religion had its heresies and its cults.
"And I'm sorry, but in the particular situation I'm in right now, I have no intention of keeping a woman as deep in religion as you by my side."
The hardest thing about dealing with religious people was that if you pointed out a contradiction in their actions and thoughts, or suggested a different direction, they pushed you away. Why was that? Because those thoughts weren't their own. Because the basis and the reasons for what they thought and did came from their religion's bible and their religious leaders. That was why I couldn't keep her by my side.
"It's partly my fault for taking applications without setting a clear cutoff. I'll recommend you to another man — whoever you'd prefer."
"You're not interested in meeting anyone but me?"
Her face was pretty. Her figure was as charitable as if she'd taken love thy neighbor and rendered it in flesh. All those volunteer activities and religious events since childhood — her consideration for others, her character, those were probably genuinely good. But this was a woman who had God and religion sitting in the chair inside her heart, just as her faith described it. Which meant there was no room left for me, or for any child born between us.
"It might take some time, and it might not even work out, since you applied to me and got selected."
"But I think this would be a good choice for all of us. Don't you think?"
Fine. Even giving her the benefit of the doubt a hundred times over, maybe there was a corner of space in her heart we could squeeze into. But at the critical moment, this was a woman who would ultimately put God and religion at the center — not me, and not the child. That wasn't something that could change unless she wanted it to, and it wasn't something I could change for her. She probably didn't even know how to change it herself. Unless time and some special catalyst came together and she changed on her own, it simply wouldn't happen.
Anyway, enough complicated talk. What was certain was that this was a woman I couldn't handle, didn't want to handle, and didn't want.
I still hadn't decided on the criteria for a principal wife, or how to deal with women who only came for the money. But this one thing, I had already decided.
The woman who stood beside me and became the mother of my child had to be a woman who could make me and the child the center of her world.