Asking a Man for a Favor?
Shinwoo arrived at the apartment accompanied by a National Intelligence Service agent. It was an action taken only after securing the family's prior consent. Under normal circumstances, leaving the police station before the interrogation concluded would have been impossible. But Yoo Han-kyung, the team leader of the Male Development Department at the NIS, had insisted on speaking with Shinwoo. Thanks to her authority, the four of them—including the family—were able to return home that very day.
"...So what exactly do you want with my older brother?"
By the time they stepped inside the house, night had already fallen. Mijin, who had just gotten home after finishing elementary school, had no idea what had happened. Once she finally heard the full story, she immediately glared at Yoo Han-kyung with eyes full of distrust and shouted.
"It's obvious the other side was in the wrong!"
"That's right!"
"I agree completely."
The three women of the household—mother, Chaewon, and Mijin—were seated at the dining table in the living room, facing the NIS team leader. As if to back up Mijin's words, both Mom and older sister Chaewon launched fierce protests.
"Haha..."
Faced with the scene, Yoo Han-kyung could only offer a bitter smile. The situation was already this hostile before they'd even begun. It was proving quite troublesome. She had known in advance from her research that families raising sons tended to be overly protective. But this was beyond reasonable levels.
"Um, I simply wish to have a light conversation with Mr. Shinwoo..."
Yoo Han-kyung tried to speak as pleasantly as possible, forcing a bright expression onto her face. But—
"Then you'll have to get through us, his family, first!"
"Exactly!"
"Try convincing all of us first."
It was hopeless. Anyone listening might have thought she'd come armed with a knife to fight. Mijin waved both hands wildly with overflowing energy. Older sister Chaewon stared straight ahead with a silent, stony face. And finally, Mom—unlike her usual self—was lost in thought with a strangely systematic gleam in her eyes. The triple-layered barrier left Yoo Han-kyung opening and closing her mouth without finding a single gap. It was an impenetrable iron wall.
Meanwhile, Shinwoo stood beside the dining table, merely watching. After several hours of no progress, he finally let out a sigh and spoke up first.
"Just talk to me directly. I'll hear you out quickly, then we can head back to the police station."
"Is that really okay?"
"Son!"
"S-Shinwoo!"
"Oppa. You can't just casually get close to a woman like her!"
The three women, who had been boldly standing up to the NIS, all tried to stop him at once. But Shinwoo was already gazing steadily at Yoo Han-kyung.
"What exactly is it that you want to say to me?"
Shinwoo still didn't fully trust her. His tone came out somewhat sharp as a result. Even though the long-awaited chance had arrived, Yoo Han-kyung could only scratch the side of her head, struggling to speak.
"Hello?"
"Ah, yes... Haha. It's just that actually trying to say it makes me a little nervous."
"Nervous?"
Should they call it anxious? Or awkward? The family stared at Yoo Han-kyung with uneasy expressions. And then—
Finally seeming to steel herself, Yoo Han-kyung slapped both her own cheeks as if to psych herself up. Then she made her request to Shinwoo.
"Mr. Han Shinwoo. Have you ever considered attending 'school'?"
"School?"
"Sch..."
"Schoooool?!"
"Oppa didn't even go to elementary school?!"
Shinwoo reacted with indifference to what seemed like a trivial suggestion. But the three women's reactions were worlds apart.
"Yes. To be precise, I'm referring to the basic social systems that ordinary women all participate in—including school. In other words, would you be interested in experiencing a normal social life?"
"W-wait a moment! What on earth are you talking about?"
Mom, unable to listen any longer, shot up from her seat with a furious expression. The suggestion was simply to stop staying cooped up at home and go outside sometimes. But as everyone knew, this was a world where the male-to-female ratio had completely collapsed. Protecting a man by keeping him inside the house for his entire life was already overwhelming enough. The family reacted with fierce opposition.
"Do you want to get sued?!"
"I'm sorry. This is exactly why I wanted to explain things one by one, step by step..."
"As expected! You're exactly the kind of weirdo I thought you'd be!"
"Do you think Shinwoo's the son of some chaebol chairman?! He's just an ordinary boy!"
An ordinary boy couldn't go to school. He might die for any reason at all if he did. That was the women's opinion—they viewed Shinwoo as fragile as a glass cannon.
"If I lose my son, will you take responsibility?!"
"Will you take responsibility for my oppa?"
"Will you take responsibility for my younger brother?"
Sweat was now pouring down Yoo Han-kyung's forehead. Being attacked simultaneously by three people was no easy feat, even for an NIS agent. Especially since she wasn't in a position to threaten them as usual, but rather to make a request. She first took a moment to steady her breathing. Then she logically addressed the highly agitated trio.
"...I'll be frank. Mr. Shinwoo is not an ordinary man."
"Not ordinary?"
"Well... the thing is... this is technically a state secret, but since it's come to this, I'll tell you. Just like every other international society, the Republic of Korea is secretly monitoring all males across the country."
From the moment a man is born until the day he dies. An international legal framework created in secret to protect their personal safety. Its name: Male Control Right. It was a law kept hidden from the general public under the pretext of privacy invasion, but Yoo Han-kyung revealed it to the family. Their reactions, as expected, were utterly shocked.
"S-so you're saying..."
"All the men in our country, including my older brother..."
"You've been secretly observing every man living in Korea?"
"Yes. That's correct."
All three looked like they couldn't believe it.
"Besides, we're in the internet age these days, aren't we? There's no need for physical tailing. Hacking into the computers or phones they're using to eavesdrop or monitor them isn't particularly difficult."
Older sister Chaewon urgently stood up from her seat. She approached Shinwoo and rummaged through his pockets. Pulling out her younger brother's phone, she looked ready to smash it to the floor in disgust. But—
"Ah, just so you know, smashing the phone won't do any good. Our NIS program is installed on every SIM card in every phone nationwide. Unless Mr. Shinwoo stops using a phone entirely, evading our tracking will be nearly impossible."
Yoo Han-kyung calmly met Chaewon's purple eyes, which were blazing with murderous intent. When the entire family glared at her as if they wanted to kill her, she forced a smile even as one of her legs trembled. Yet in the midst of all this, Shinwoo alone showed almost no reaction. Yoo Han-kyung, growing suspicious of the man's attitude, cautiously asked.
"Um, Mr. Shinwoo, you don't have anything to say?"
"About what?"
"The fact that we've been monitoring you all this time. To be honest, I also came here because you're useful as a bullet sponge."
"Bullet sponge?"
Soldiers who charged first into battle, fully aware they would likely die. The so-called bullet sponges. Knowing exactly what the term meant, Shinwoo frowned and looked back at Yoo Han-kyung.
"Yes. Now that you know this truth, you could kill me right here simply because it displeases you. Because you're a man."
At those words, even the family members who had been fuming turned to Shinwoo with worried faces. Of course, this woman named Yoo Han-kyung was despicable. No matter what the law said, she had likely seen every part of Shinwoo that even his family hadn't. She was someone they could tear apart without it seeming strange. But even so, the idea of Shinwoo flying into a rage and committing murder over that fact alone... Killing someone, for any reason, would leave behind unpleasant memories. The whole family hoped he wouldn't do it.
And for Shinwoo, that was simply common sense.
"Don't worry. I won't kill her. And honestly, I've had some idea about it for the past few days."
"Y-you had an idea?!"
"Yes."
While everyone stared in shock, Shinwoo glanced up toward his room on the upper floor. The truth was, during the past month of dieting, he had sensed something suspicious. When he turned on his phone to look up workout methods, exercise-related videos would appear on their own. The moment he powered on the computer, a protein purchase checkout window would pop up. Frankly, it would have been stranger if he hadn't noticed. The men of this world were so dull that they probably just accepted it, but to Shinwoo, these were obviously abnormal occurrences.
"Now that I think about it, several of the exercise machines had hidden surveillance cameras installed, right?"
"How did you...?"
"There was something strange attached to the end of the bar during bench presses. Just in case, I pulled it off, and sure enough, it was a surveillance camera."
"Ah! We were certain Mr. Shinwoo would think they were chocolate chip crumbs... so we assumed you'd just picked them off and eaten them. The shapes were so similar..."
If they couldn't even distinguish between a camera and a chocolate chip, just how single-mindedly obsessed with food must their brains be? Shinwoo, who had never particularly liked sweet things to begin with, spoke without much thought.
"That can't be. Besides, I don't really like chocolate."
But at those words, not only Yoo Han-kyung but the three women listening as well all had question marks floating above their heads.
"My son hated chocolate?"
"Oppa. You used to love things like chocolate so much that if I took one bite you'd hit me right away, remember?"
"Wasn't chocolate one of those foods that men absolutely had to eat or they couldn't survive?"
The more they dug into the past Shinwoo, the more horror stories emerged. The current Shinwoo found himself at a loss for where to even begin unraveling it all. But that story could be set aside for now.
"As I thought, my eyes weren't wrong!"
He disliked fast food. He worked out to lose weight. He treated women like human beings! Yoo Han-kyung believed she had completely figured out the current Shinwoo, from whom only good stories emerged no matter how deep you dug. She stepped forward boldly, enduring the family's backlash, and firmly grasped both of Shinwoo's hands.
Then she finally spoke the real main point.
"Mr. Shinwoo. Won't you help us with the NIS's work?"
"Hey, wait a second! So what exactly have you been trying to get my son to do all this time..."
"Not just us—the biggest headache for nations around the world! The pathetically low standards of men. I'm certain you could raise them, Mr. Shinwoo! If you would become a direct promotional ambassador!"
Yoo Han-kyung dropped to her knees and looked up at Shinwoo with earnest eyes. Then she explained why she had come.
"Please become an idol for men around the world."
"An idol...?"
"Yes. If a man like you, Mr. Shinwoo, were to attend school normally like other women, play with them, laugh and cry together, and the world saw that—then surely men who want to come outside and become like you would start appearing one by one."
But these words caused the family to explode with indignation. Essentially, she was asking him to become a bullet sponge for the growth of other men. All three family members grabbed Yoo Han-kyung's hair, one arm, and torso—intending to drag her outside and throw her out. But enduring the pain, Yoo Han-kyung offered one more line.
"Ah, o-of course! If you agree, we'll provide appropriate compensation!"
"Compensation?"
"Yes! From now on, whenever trouble arises with men like today, our NIS can secretly smooth things over from behind the scenes! At least within the country, we can handle it that way!"
Yoo Han-kyung had already been dragged nearly to the front door. But upon hearing those words, Shinwoo stopped her just before she could be thrown out.
"S-son?"
"Oppa?"
"Shinwoo... you can't be thinking..."
And then, for the first time in this world, he wore the wicked smile he used to show on the battlefield as he asked:
"Then, if strange men like today ever bother our family again, does that mean I can beat them up as much as I want?"
"Pardon? Ah, well... as long as they don't die like today, somehow...?"
"Very well. Then I'll do it. That 'promotional ambassador' thing."