Ch.51Chapter 51. Ppeek

Bang! Baaang!

“Are you crazy, woman! Stop honking that horn!”

In the middle of the road.

The horn kept blaring from a car stopped in front of a crosswalk.

‘I must be crazy! I must be crazy! I must be crazy!’

Repeatedly banging her head against the steering wheel, Juliane had already lost her grip on sanity.

‘Saying I’ll do anything for him! I really must have gone insane!’

Recalling what had just happened, she couldn’t possibly remain in her right mind.

She knew exactly what kind of person Jinsoo Kim was.

A man who adopted an orphan out of kindness but couldn’t control his lust, rubbing her chest daily and getting aroused while having her sit on his thighs.

He was nothing but a ball of sexual desire.

To tell such a person that he could do anything he wanted…

That was practically giving consent to rape.

‘I can’t face Jinsoo today…!’

At least not today.

Not today of all days.

She had seen that look on his face, licking his lips.

He was restraining himself only because it was work hours, but that face seemed to say he would ravage her once they got home, whether Subject 001 was in the room or not.

Once his sexual urges cooled down a bit, she would need to talk to him again slowly.

Tell him that what she said wasn’t sincere.

“Damn it…”

That seemed pathetic too.

Having to take back words she had already spoken.

Besides, if she did that, she would lose any justification for keeping her superior at bay.

“This is all because of that person!”

Why was her superior suddenly trying to interfere with her mission when he had been keeping his distance until now?

It was because of her senior that she had made such an absurd promise in the first place.

He didn’t help at all with opening the gate, and he only interfered with her mission.

These days, she could hardly tell if he was her superior or her enemy.

Ring ring…

“What now.”

She looked at the hologram panel in irritation.

Mother…

Juliane took a deep breath and tapped below her ear.

“Yes, Mom. What is it?”

“Heehee! Juliane! I have good news!”

“What is it?”

Her voice sounded very excited.

Of course, her mother was always energetic, but even considering that, her tone was especially high.

“Your father! He made it to the runoff election!”

“Ah… Please tell him congratulations.”

It was about the House of Representatives election.

California had a somewhat unique election system.

Multiple candidates from each party competed in a primary election, and then the winners from that election faced off in a runoff to elect the House representative.

Since the candidates from other parties were so unremarkable, making it to the runoff was practically equivalent to winning the election.

“Tell him yourself! Your father’s right here!”

“Hello, Juliane. How have you been?”

“Oh, Father!”

Her voice trembled with surprise.

She hadn’t expected the conversation with her father to happen so suddenly.

Her father, who had been busy with politics since Juliane was young, was still someone she found difficult to face.

“Yes! Yes! I’m doing well! Congratulations! You’ve practically won the election!”

“Hahaha. We don’t know that yet. The Flying Spaghetti Monster Party candidate is looking quite formidable these days.”

“…You’re joking, right?”

“I’m not joking.”

“…”

Since her father always spoke in a serious tone, it was sometimes difficult to distinguish between jokes and serious statements.

“How’s that flower shop going?”

“I told you, that was just a cover provided by the Justice Department…”

“I know. So you’re not even touching it at all?”

“Right. I hired employees to take care of it. It’s not necessary anymore.”

The flower shop was a cover business she had set up to approach Jinsoo Kim.

Now that she had revealed everything to Jinsoo Kim, it was no longer needed.

Of course, since the Justice Department didn’t know that fact yet, she couldn’t close the shop.

“Hehe. Instead of being cooped up in your office all day, why don’t you manage the flower shop as an excuse to work? Women who run flower shops are popular, you know.”

“Father, please…”

“Hahaha! I’m not trying to pressure you about when you’re getting married! Just curious! Are you seeing anyone these days?”

“…”

Here we go again.

Juliane rested her throbbing head against the steering wheel with a thud.

“Come on, you can tell me! Even if it’s not serious yet, you never know when things might develop.”

“That’s right! Your father is correct. Though you’re still young, getting married early isn’t a bad idea. I was only twenty-one when I met your father, fell in love at first sight, and got pregnant with you that very day…”

“Hey now. Why do you keep bringing that up? Anyway. Marriage is just as important as your career. If you keep putting it off because of work, you might regret it later.”

“Your father is right! It’s better to have children early too. This is absolutely not because I want to see grandchildren soon…”

“Ah! Mom! Dad! Please stop it!”

Unable to bear it any longer, Juliane finally lost her temper.

This wasn’t the first time.

Even a simple congratulatory call had turned into this subtle pressure, and she had reached her limit of patience.

“I am seeing someone! I am! It’s quite serious! Happy now? I’m hanging up!”

“What? Juliane! What are you saying?”

“Let me see what this man looks li—”

Click.

The call ended.

“Sigh…”

She’d done it now.

Juliane banged her head against the steering wheel again and sighed.

And so, the first lane in front of the crosswalk remained blocked for the fifth minute.

***

“What’s up? What are you thinking about?”

“Please don’t talk to me, manager. I’m concentrating.”

“Wh-what! The way you talk!”

“Manager, please be patient! This bastard is always like this!”

Somehow things got noisy around me, but I decided to ignore it.

I was in the middle of making an important decision.

What to do with Juliane…!

It all started when I ran into that married woman again by chance at the park.

No, not married.

She said she was divorced.

We unexpectedly got along well, and I thought I might be able to seduce her.

That’s when Juliane appeared.

How did she find me anyway?

‘Wait, could she have put a tracker on me?’

Feeling creeped out, I patted myself down to check.

Anyway, thanks to being caught in that situation, I was able to get a promise.

A promise that Juliane would do anything for me.

That certainly gave me a lot to think about.

Because there are countless things I want to do.

“Ah! I can just do everything!”

“Do what, you bastard! Work! How many days have you been slacking off!”

I can do everything. Everything.

So the only remaining question is the order.

What should I do first?

First, I’ll tie her up…

Should I start by tickling her feet?

I have an unused toothbrush at home that I can use to tickle her until she’s crying and snotting.

Next is the motorcycle.

Then I’ll show her around Seoul.

And after that…

“Hehehe…”

This is going to be fun.

Just thinking about getting revenge for all my frustrations made my balls tingle.

“Manager! Can I leave early?”

“Do you have any conscience, you bastard?!”

“Since I’m not working anyway, removing a heat source like me will reduce air conditioning energy consumption!”

“Hmm… That makes sense… Alright! Go home! You energy-consuming bug!”

“Thank you!”

With the manager’s permission granted.

I happily packed my things and left the company.

Or tried to.

“Hey! Jinsoo!”

“Yes?”

“Work tomorrow. You know we have the new engine test coming up soon, right? Some higher-ups will be there, so we absolutely need to make it successful.”

“Isn’t it unreasonable to expect success on the first test?”

“We need to be unreasonable if we want government funding! You’re the only one slacking off here!”

“Yes. I understand. I’ll work hard starting tomorrow!”

“…”

It was the manager’s warm consideration, telling me to play today and work from tomorrow.

I left the office without looking back.

By the way, this new engine…

It’s definitely going to fail in my opinion.

They’re being too greedy.

They should focus on one project, but they’re trying to meet various requirements for multiple projects, making the design too complicated.

It will probably only pass inspection around the seventh test.

The problem is that by then, all the projects will have already ended.

“Well, not my problem.”

I don’t care if the company goes to hell.

Thanks to our ion engine that we supply as reliably as a bowl of soup, the company might stumble but will never collapse.

Which means I can be a goldbricker pretty much my entire career until retirement.

This really is the best workplace ever.

Ring ring…

A call came in while I was driving home.

Unknown number.

I quickly put on my wireless earbuds and answered.

“Hello?”

“Father of Subject 001. This is Jinsoo Kim, correct?”

“Ugh…”

That voice.

I couldn’t forget it even if I tried.

The wife of that former senator, Slide or Snyder or whatever his name was.

“Your name is… Sarah, right?”

“Who’s that? I’m Charlotte Prime. Tom’s mother.”

“Yes, yes. Mrs. Charlotte. I remembered.”

“I never told you my name, so what did you remember?”

“…”

Well.

Still a neurotic woman, I see.

“So what brings you to call me?”

“Well! It’s nothing else, but my son came home with a dark blue bruise on his stomach!”

Oh for fuck’s sake.

Did someone knee that little kid Tom in the stomach again?

“And why are you telling me this?”

“Why? You hit him, didn’t you!”

“Excuse me?”

What is this woman saying?

Subject 001, not me?

Unless I want to go back to that den of homosexuals, why would I do such a thing?

“Don’t talk nonsense, ma’am.”

“Well it couldn’t have been Subject 001! My eldest child is in this condition!”

“Your eldest?”

“Yes! My oldest child! Jake, I mean!”

After slowly searching through my memories, I recalled.

There was a kid who had been harassing Subject 001 and picking fights.

That was Tom’s older brother, Jake.

“Well, what does the kid say happened?”

“He, he just said he fell… But that doesn’t make sense! You hit him, didn’t you? Right?”

“Sigh… I was at work all day today. If you’re certain, file a police report. I’m hanging up now.”

“W-wait!”

My mood improved.

If anyone would beat up that Jake kid, it would be Subject 001.

It seemed that after saying she might have been discovered with her tentacles, she had beaten him up to silence him.

I felt oddly proud that she had hit him in the stomach just as I had taught her.

The only reason it was discovered was because his mother was the type to obsessively check her grown son’s stomach; normally it shouldn’t have been noticed.

And that mother probably couldn’t imagine that her son had been beaten up by a smaller girl.

Maybe I should treat Subject 001 to some meat today as a reward.

“I’m home.”

I opened the door when I arrived home.

But the lights weren’t on, suggesting no one was home.

Perhaps Juliane and Subject 001 were out somewhere.

“Hmm?”

That wasn’t it.

I could hear water sounds coming from the master bathroom, suggesting someone was washing up.

The intermittent splashing sound meant it was Subject 001.

So where was Juliane?

I crept up quietly and peeked into the master bedroom…

“Hehe. Hehehe…”

“What the hell.”

I discovered Juliane slowly opening the bathroom door while drooling like a pervert.

I quickly threw my phone while blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

“Ahhh! A mosquito!”

“Bwah!”