Resolve
The workout wrapped up without incident. I'd managed to calm Seo-yeon noona down once she realized she'd completely lost her composure, accepted her apology, and we'd even exchanged numbers. Now, showered and changed, I was on my way home.
"How was... the workout?"
"Hmm? It was good. Guess people really do need to move their bodies."
Se-a noona asked for my impressions in a strangely cautious tone. It was probably because of what she'd asked the Seo-yeon and Seo-ha sisters to do. But that itself didn't bother me. More accurately, I didn't have the bandwidth to be bothered.
If I don't sleep with other women... noona gets fired?
The secret Seo-ha noona had told me at the gym was nothing short of shocking.
Three years ago, a change in government had brought a wave of reforms. Among them were measures related to Escort Officers — or more precisely, to the Ministry of Male Protection, the agency under which Escort Officers served.
The one causing problems between us now was the Monopoly Act.
A clause newly added during those reforms three years ago. In short: if an Escort Officer attempted to monopolize the man in her charge, she could be dismissed regardless of his wishes. It was one of the few laws that overrode a man's own will.
So that's why she'd begged me so desperately.
She'd kept it a secret from me, dressing it up with some strange excuse, all because she was thinking of me. If she'd told me the truth, I might have forced myself to sleep with other women just for her sake. And without knowing any of that, I'd either laughed it off or refused to take it seriously.
If I'd found out a little sooner — no, if I'd just done even a moment's research — I never would have made her worry like this.
It's fine. It's not too late.
There were several conditions that constituted a monopoly, but the one with the shortest timeline was this: if an Escort Officer became a lover or spouse of the man in her charge and failed to engage in even a single pregnancy activity with another woman within three months. Everything else carried a window of six months to a year.
Of course, if the man already had another lover or wife besides his Escort Officer, the Monopoly Act wouldn't apply. The whole point of the law was to prevent an Escort Officer from "monopolizing" him.
The provision was so heavy-handed that there'd been considerable resistance at first. But most of the opposition came from men and Escort Officers themselves, while ordinary women — though they kept quiet about it in public — were broadly in favor. Faced with that overwhelming majority, the clause was formally adopted in less than a year.
That was a long tangent, but the point was this: we still had three months.
"Noona."
"What is it?"
She flinched, her voice tight with tension.
"You were right."
"Huh? About... about what?"
The words that came out of my mouth were the last thing she'd expected, and she was thrown completely off. I looked over at Se-a noona, who could no longer keep her eyes on the road.
"I think I need to do it with other women too... Wait— noona!!"
At my words, she yanked the wheel and pulled over onto the shoulder. If the road hadn't been empty, it would have been dangerous.
"W-why so suddenly?"
Her voice trembled as she asked.
"I realized it while working out today. There's something wrong with my sex drive."
"Dan-woo..."
The truth was, I didn't think that at all. By old-world standards, my stamina was perfectly average. Two or three times a day — couldn't anyone manage that?
But noona didn't know that, so this was how she'd take it. He's saying this because I told him it was hard on me. He's offering to sleep with other women out of consideration.
I had no intention of correcting her. Whatever the reason, the decision itself was the same — I was doing this for her.
"But I want you to know just one thing."
"What?"
It was barely perceptible, but the rims of her eyes had gone red.
"...I'm sorry, Dan-woo. Noona is so, so sorry..."
The tears finally broke through. She unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled me into her arms. I unbuckled mine as well so she could hold me properly, and patted her back.
"Don't cry. Why are you crying?"
"I just... I'm just sorry for everything... Noona will do better...!"
The back of the woman crying in my arms felt so terribly small.
Afterward, once the tears had stopped, noona drove with her face flushed in embarrassment. I didn't tell her there was no need to be embarrassed. That would only have made it worse.
"Want to come over for dinner?"
"I'm sorry. I've got some really important work today. Once I finish this, there won't be anything major left to deal with."
I'd seen online that men often mistook their Escort Officers for secretaries or servants. But they existed to prevent the dangers that arose when a man went out — not to make his life more convenient. Work unrelated to protection, like this, was something they could refuse as a matter of course.
Noona and I are a couple, and that work is a necessary step for us to start living together, so I'm not really upset about it.
Still, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Maybe she picked up on that, because she offered gently:
"Just eat a little for dinner. Noona will bring late-night snacks. How's that?"
"...Sounds good. Let's get fried chicken."
"Okay, okay."
The car stopped at a red light. In the brief windows between signal changes, she stroked my hair. It felt like she'd been doing that more and more lately. At this rate, she might start petting me even when we weren't in the car.
She parked in the apartment building's lot and we got out. I'd told her any number of times that she didn't need to walk me to the front door, but she never listened. Of course, I liked getting to see her a little longer, so I never tried all that hard to stop her.
We kissed at the door, and I went inside.
"Today I'm actually going to buy a sofa."
The male living stipend had come in, and in two days I'd be able to cash out my Twitch earnings. So I browsed furniture sites without any real financial pressure.
If it were just me, I wouldn't need anything too big. But since someone would be using it with me, I prioritized size as I narrowed down the options.
"No waterproofing, huh."
Well, who puts a waterproof function on a sofa? They did sell waterproof covers separately, though, so I screenshot those as well.
I was working through the sofa candidates one by one when a message came in from Manager noona.
Hadn't something like this happened a few days ago too? Had she actually installed something in my house? It was uncanny how she always messaged me the moment I got back from going out.
"Ah, the editor candidates."
I opened my email to find a list of editor candidates and their videos, sent by noona. Tomorrow was the day I'd be picking a NewTube editor. She'd sent this as a mid-process check-in.
Noona had sent five candidates in total. Seeing them for the first time on stream wouldn't have been a bad idea, but I couldn't contain my curiosity. Plus, she'd told me to check them out.
"Twenty-five videos?"
More than I'd expected. It was only the second day, so I'd figured they'd send the minimum of three.
I started from the top and worked my way through. Sure enough, the eye she'd developed managing multiple streamers showed — the shortlisted candidates' videos were all good. None of the five were cookie-cutter; each had a distinct personality.
"Who is this person?"
One of them stood out in particular. Their username was GOFuD. They'd sent a full seven videos, and they were the only one Manager noona had left a comment on.
When Manager noona called someone a lunatic, it meant one of two things: they were actually insane, or they were that good. Hae-myo noona fell into the former category. GOFuD fell into the latter.
They'd edited that day's stream by dawn of the day I announced I was recruiting an editor. That meant they'd been watching my stream live, picking out the key moments, and working on it in real time.
"But this quality... she's actually insane."
Even I found myself wondering if my stream had really been this entertaining. Each video had a clearly defined theme, and the buildup leading into the highlights was rock-solid. Using even the parts I hadn't intended as setup, stretching out the entertainment value — it was close to witchcraft.
"Someone like this applied to be my editor?"
At this level, even a major corporate streamer would take them in a heartbeat. And even that was underselling it. Honestly, they felt far more skilled than other streamers' editors.
That was a relief. I'd been worried they might jump to another streamer.
Noona didn't reply for a moment. She was probably getting embarrassed again.
"Pfft!"
She always had to talk around it instead of just being honest. It was like watching a kid who couldn't admit their feelings, and I couldn't help laughing.
The message looked snippy, and I chuckled again as I tapped at my phone.
It was a question I'd asked any number of times, and been turned down every single one. I'd brought it up since the day she first became my manager, and she hadn't accepted even once. So I stopped asking, figuring she'd bring it up herself someday. But seeing her work this hard to help me, I really wanted to meet her.
Every word of that was true. Not everyone who approached me would have good intentions. I'd had more than my fill of clingy, messy relationships. I knew how ugly people could be. But that was exactly why I could tell when someone approached with genuine goodwill. Those people had a completely different energy about them.
Manager noona is fine.
She had a way of drawing lines, of operating by a set of rules she'd decided on. But underneath all of that, I could tell there was genuine goodwill.
No reply again. But this time the gap was longer.
"Okay, this is getting a little too long."
Five minutes had already passed since my last message, and still nothing. At this point, I could probably assume the conversation was over. She'd be back to normal once the stream started anyway.
"Looking forward to picking an editor tomorrow. GOFuD... I wonder what kind of person they are."
I was planning to do a surprise Discord call with whoever made the final cut on stream. There'd be more candidates selected over today and tomorrow, too. I had a feeling it was going to be a really fun broadcast.