Chapter 5
Chapter 5
However, my expectation was spectacularly wrong.
Wham-!
"Waaah!!! Hey, you bad bastard!!!"
"......Huh? *Gasp!*"
Instead of a cheek that should have felt an impact, something heavy and hot collided with my entire upper body. My sister had thrown herself onto the bed and hugged me as if pouncing on me.
"Si-sister?"
"I really thought you were going to die! Why didn't you answer your phone! They said the PoXsche was crushed, and I was so afraid something bad had happened to you, I... how much I... Waaah!!!"
The cool, career woman aura she had just moments ago was nowhere to be found. The woman in my arms was just a sister on the verge of going crazy with worry for her younger brother, a sister covered in tears and snot.
"Si-sister. I'm suffocating...."
"Shut up! What if you suffocate a little! It's enough that you're alive! Sob, sob... You're really not hurt anywhere, right? Let me see, tell me quickly!"
She released the arms that had been hugging me and with urgent hands, began to grope my face and body. The problem was that her touch was as blatant as Mother's.
"Your head? Doesn't it hurt? Are your limbs okay?"
"Minseo, stop it. You'll make the kid have a fit."
Mother's voice was calm, but within it was a strange sense of victory and composure. Perhaps it was the generosity of someone who had just enjoyed deep skinship with her son.
"You're composed right now?! The kid almost died!"
"You can check later. Because there's a bigger problem than that."
"A bigger problem? What is it? Did he break something?"
My sister's eyes were once again filled with fear. Mother gently tidied my messy hair and opened her mouth with a feigned sad expression (but her eyes were smiling).
"Our Minho... seems to have hurt his head a bit."
"Head?"
"Yes. He can't remember anything. Who he is, who we are.... He's forgotten everything."
"......What?"
My sister's movements stopped abruptly as if a pause button had been pressed. She stared blankly at Mother, then slowly turned her head to look at me again.
"Minho.... Is it true? Sister... you don't remember?"
I made the most pitiful and sorrowful expression possible and nodded.
"I'm sorry, sister. When I see your face, something tugs at my heart, but... my mind is blank, and I can't remember anything."
At my answer, my sister's mouth dropped open. Shock, fear, and despair at the unbelievable swept across her face.
"That's impossible.... How could you... me...."
My sister stared intently at me and swallowed hard. In the face of the tragic news that I had lost my memory, her gaze was one of pity as she looked at me.
"Right. So Minseo, don't push him too hard. Right now, Minho is no different from a newborn baby. We have to teach him everything from scratch."
"Have to teach him?"
"Minseo... let's go out and talk for a bit. I have something to hear from the doctor-nim."
"Now? Leaving Minho alone?"
"It's okay. I'll be back soon. Minho, just rest for a bit. Okay?"
Mother lightly kissed my cheek and took my reluctant sister out of the hospital room.
*Creak- Slam.*
The door closed, and as I was left alone in the hospital room, I exhaled all the breath I had been holding at once.
"*Phew*...."
As the tension eased, I flopped down onto the bed. The luxurious light fixture on the ceiling caught my eye.
"Wow, this is really awesome. Is this for real?"
I chuckled and punched the air. This is super sweet. It's the very definition of a jackpot. The tiresome poverty was over. When I opened my eyes, I had become a second-generation chaebol living in X-gu X-dong. And the wealth to treat a 200-million-won PoXsche like a piece of paper.
(And what about my family's visuals?)
A beautiful mother who could pass for her twenties, and a cold beauty of a sister who could rival a top star. Although the skinship was a bit excessive and burdensome, honestly, as a man, there was nothing bad about it. No, rather, it was a thank you.
"Kim Minho of my previous life, thank you. I'm reaping all the benefits of the good deeds you accumulated."
I buried my face in the pillow and spread my wings of happy imagination. Dreaming of the luxurious and elegant chaebol family life that would unfold, while running my happiness circuit, the morning newspaper placed on the bedside table caught my eye.
"A paper newspaper in this day and age. As expected, a rich person's hospital room is different."
Normally, I would have looked at my smartphone, but since my smartphone was also smashed, with a light heart, thinking I might get some information about this world, I picked up the newspaper out of curiosity. However, the moment I unfolded the newspaper, my eyes couldn't help but widen like saucers.
[ Congratulations! Republic of Korea's Male-Female Ratio Finally Enters '1:10'! Enters Stabilization Phase ]
"......Huh?"
I doubted my eyes. 1 to 10? Stabilization? Thinking I might have seen it wrong, I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but the text hadn't changed.
[ Escaped the Fear of 'Male Extinction'... After the 'Dark Ages' When the Worst Sex Ratio Hit 1:50, OECD Recommended Standards Met ][ Government, "Now an Era of 10 Women Per 1 Man... Expectation of Easing Extreme Marriage Competition Rates" ]
"......Wh-what did you say?"
I sat up abruptly and began to read the article carefully.
[ ...20 years ago, due to an unknown phenomenon of Y-chromosome disappearance, male birth rates worldwide plummeted, and the Republic of Korea, where the sex ratio had widened to 1:50, has finally recovered the golden ratio of 'male-female ratio 1:10'. Experts evaluated that it has now finally reached a level where minimal social order can be maintained... ]
The CPU in my head creaked under overload. The Republic of Korea I knew, whether female-dominated or male-dominated, was a country that roughly maintained a 1:1 ratio. But here, 50 women clinging to 1 man was the 'past', and now, with 10 women clinging, it's 'normalization' and a 'blessing'.
The article continued.
[ Citizen Interview: "It's really fortunate. In the past, you could only see a man during holidays, but now, if you're lucky, you can see one once a month, right? My daughter now has hope of getting married... no, even becoming a concubine." (Ms. A, a woman in her 40s) ]
(So that's why Mother and sister were like that...)
Why they tried to keep their grown son in their arms and not let go, why my sister was so anxious to check my physical condition... Only then, with all my questions resolved, I suddenly felt a chilling doubt run down my spine.
(Wait a minute. Something's strange, isn't it?)
I raised my head and stared at the ceiling. The logical circuits in my head spun rapidly.
Premise 1. In this world, men are more precious than diamonds.
Premise 2. The state even created the 'Male Special Protection Act' to protect men with ironclad security.
Premise 3. My family is a chaebol family that treats a PoXsche like a piece of paper.
But... I got into a car accident? This doesn't make sense, does it?
Who would transport a national treasure-level cultural asset on a handcart? At the very least, it should be transported in a vibration-free, temperature and humidity controlled vehicle. A young master of a chaebol family, in a world where men are precious, driving alone without an escort and getting hit by a dump truck?
Then I felt a chilling sensation. However, while I was deep in thought, I didn't know that my new family members were conspiring outside the door.
*Creak- Click.*
The hospital room door closed, and a heavy silence fell between the two women. Mother Shin Hye-jeong's face, revealed under the fluorescent light of the hallway, was not the image of a benevolent Madonna she had shown her son just moments ago.
"*Haa*.... *Haa*...."
"Must've been nice? Your son even touched your chest?"
"It was nice~ *Haa*... How long has it been since someone touched me like this..."
At Mother Hye-jeong's words, her daughter Minseo, as if dumbfounded, crossed her arms and asked. Hye-jeong leaned her back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling with unfocused eyes.
"Minseo... did you see it too? Our Minho's gaze."
"Gaze?"
"Yes. It wasn't the rebellious and prickly eyes he used to have. While touching my chest... he was excited like a child holding a toy for the first time."
"Really? Minho?"
"Yes... The kid who used to say our chests were big and disgusting has completely changed!"
Minseo, hearing the unexpected information, couldn't help but be surprised. However, Hye-jeong, whose chest Minho had just touched, still seemed to feel a tingling sensation in her chest.
"He's definitely changed... He's not the Minho we knew..."
Hye-jeong licked her lips with a flushed face. Her son's touch she had felt in the hospital room just now, that rough yet hot grip, still remained in her chest, giving her a tingling pleasure.
"Minseo. This is an opportunity. A golden opportunity that God has thrown our way, one that won't come again."
"Opportunity?"
"You know. How much the old Minho put up a wall. After puberty, he locked his door, avoided skinship.... How anxious were we?"
"*Haa*.... Don't even mention it. When I think about how I used to loiter in front of his door every night, I kick off my blanket even in my sleep."
Minseo took off her glasses and let out an exasperated sigh. A world where men are precious. And having a younger brother with top-tier genes, the past days where they had to just suck their thumbs were nothing short of torture for them.
"But now it's different. He's a blank slate. He knows nothing. Moreover... he reacted while touching my chest. That wasn't rejection. It was clear 'excitement'."
Hye-jeong tightly gripped Minseo's hand and spoke as if pleading, with teary eyes.
"Minseo, do you know something? When I go to my friends' gatherings, do you know what the mothers talk about?"
"What do they talk about?"
"They're all busy boasting about how hot the nights they spent with their sons were. Among the Cheongdam-dong Ladies... I'm the only one who hasn't had 'relations' with my son yet! Do you know how humiliating that is? Other people get their sons' vital essence and their skin becomes firm, but I feel like I'm the only one getting old!"