Chapter 25
"Miss. Young master. We've arrived."
"Shall we get out, little brother?"
"Yeah, Noona."
Ayaka got out of the black sedan and took her brother's hand.
"Are you really sure you can exercise?"
"Yeah. Recent studies say that moderate exercise can be good for men's health too. And apparently Grandfather and Father exercised this much as well. I can do it too."
"I-I see…"
Ayaka took her brother's hand and began walking slowly.
"Huff, huff…"
At the sight of her younger brother Takuya already wheezing so hard that he seemed about to collapse, Ayaka nearly saw red.
For men, exercise was an activity that required risking one's life. That was an obvious fact, but…
Her brother was suffering like this because some scholars who probably had not even held a man's hand recently had published a trash paper claiming that moderate exercise was beneficial to men's health.
She felt like finding those scholars right away and tearing them apart, but Ayaka held herself back.
Thanks to it, she could at least come outside and go on a date with her younger brother like this.
Jingle-!
As the door opened, Ayaka and the bodyguards stopped breathing for a moment.
'A man?!'
A man was standing at the desk?
'She's a de-corseted woman.'
Their shock lasted only a moment.
They mistook Geum Taeyang, standing at the desk, for a 'de-corseted woman.'
Men had to risk their lives just to do light exercise, yet this person was standing at the desk, talking to countless women, taking payments, and even organizing supplies?!
There was no way such a thing was possible.
It was far more believable that the person before them was a 'de-corseted woman' preparing to become a celebrity.
"Welcome."
As soon as Ayaka recognized Geum Taeyang as a 'de-corseted woman,' disgust washed over her.
She came from the most prestigious family imaginable.
There couldn't be a family this prestigious anywhere in the world.
She had a grandfather and a father. She even had a younger brother…!!
Considering that most women were born using sperm from sperm banks, it was easy to see how perfect Ayaka's bloodline was.
Perhaps it was because she came from such a prestigious family.
In Ayaka's eyes, performers who pretended to be men and danced or sang just to collect money from other women were vulgar women.
Disgusting women who fawned over other women for money while secretly wanting to meet men.
In that sense, Geum Mari was a perfect example of a worthless woman to Ayaka.
She had built a muscular body like a man out of a history book, and had removed all the fat from her enormous tits, perhaps through surgery.
On top of that, whether it was magic or surgery, even her voice—!!
How manly she was!!
Thump♡
Without realizing it, Ayaka's womb briefly opened, and she found herself wishing to become pregnant.
'What the fuck kind of "de-corseted woman" is this…!!'
But no matter how perfectly she acted and dressed up as the man women dreamed of, she was still a woman in the end.
That meant she was an inferior existence even compared with the younger brother beside her.
And yet she had the nerve to act so shamelessly.
Ayaka was so irritated that her womb had briefly been fooled despite her younger brother being beside her because of a shameless bitch like this.
"Huh? Hey, what's with you? A woman dressed completely like a man? Are you an aspiring celebrity? No wonder you're one of those penniless losers."
Ayaka immediately hurled sharp words at Geum Taeyang.
She deliberately made them even more vicious, as though she would not spare this 'de-corseted woman' so much as a glance.
"I'm sorry."
"Tch… I don't like her."
"Noona. Stop and let's go inside quickly."
"Yeah. Sorry, little brother."
Unlike when she spoke sharply to Geum Taeyang, Ayaka was endlessly gentle with her younger brother.
"Give me a key to the men's changing room."
"Yes. Before that, could you tell me your name? It's my first day working here."
"Ha… How annoying."
"Noona. Hurry."
"Mm. Ayaka."
"And your younger brother's name?"
"What? You're asking for a man's name? Are you setting your sights on my younger brother?"
Ayaka shouted as if she could not believe it.
How dare she ask for a man's name without permission…!!
Geum Taeyang pressed a hand to his forehead. He had never seen customers this obnoxious.
It was the part-timer's first day. How could he possibly remember the names of every customer he met for the first time?
He had only asked for his name to check whether he was a registered member, yet the woman in front of him kept shouting.
His patience was about to run out.
Shove it into that insolent mouth…
"Noona. Stop bothering other people. My name is Takuya."
…but, seeing her younger brother beside her, he decided to let it go.
In a world where men could not help but feel privileged, it was astonishing to see one behave so politely.
His noona had received a terrible upbringing, but it seemed that her younger brother had been taught properly.
"Little brother! If you casually give your name to another woman like that, she'll get the wrong idea!!"
"Thank you for telling me."
Geum Taeyang immediately checked whether Takuya was a registered member and handed him the key to the men's changing room.
"Noona. Stop. Um… may I call you hyung? I know you're a woman, but… for some reason, I want to."
"Little brother!!! You can't do that, I-I told you…!!"
"That's right, young master. Don't you know how obsessed de-corseted women are with men? Half of them become 'de-corseted women' because they hate men and are lesbians, while the other half do it because they're so obsessed with men that they want to feel like they're living with one!!"
Ayaka and the bodyguards went into an uproar at the words of the man called Takuya.
Geum Taeyang—or rather, Geum Mari while working part-time—nodded.
"Do as you please."
Geum Mari was not a 'de-corseted woman' anyway. She was a real man.
He was only hiding the fact that he was a man and working part-time because of his circumstances.
That meant it was only natural for Takuya to call him hyung.
"This bitch is really going too far. Hey, don't get the wrong idea. My younger brother is only being kind, so…"
"Noona! Stop it! I'm going to exercise now!"
"Ah, all right…"
Ayaka had been about to start yelling at Geum Taeyang again, but at Takuya's loud voice, she lowered her head and headed for the men's changing room.
"Phew…"
With the storm finally past, Geum Taeyang let out a sigh.
In his previous world, he had often faced situations like this simply because he had a dick… and now he was going through this because he did not have one.
He thought that making one's own living was difficult no matter where one was.
"Kraaaagh-!! Add 100 kg!!"
"Ha… shit, my underwear isn't very good today."
"Today, I will break through to the next level…!!"
With Takuya out of sight, a strange tension began to fill the gym.
The countless members had become even more passionate than they had been when they saw Geum Taeyang—or rather, Geum Mari—the 'de-corseted woman.'
Could it be that a 'de-corseted woman' was only a substitute for a man, and could never become one?
Perhaps intending to begin even more fervent courtship activities at the appearance of a real man, the women began focusing even harder on their workouts.
*
"I really can't believe it."
"Indeed."
"A woman saying a man could call her hyung…! And asking for his name so casually, too."
"Noona, stop! Why do you keep doing this to someone who hasn't even done anything?"
"B-but she asked for your name as though she was hitting on you…"
"I don't think hyung is that kind of person."
"Y-you're calling a woman hyung…!!"
Ayaka felt like she was going crazy because of her younger brother's behavior.
Takuya had been different from other men since he was young.
While other men took the things women did for them completely for granted, Takuya always said thank you.
It was admirable, but a man should not behave that way.
Such behavior inevitably caused the woman in question to get the wrong idea.
This was a world where, when a man who had received donations on a broadcast withdrew the money, women sometimes proudly called themselves his maternal-side wives.
Women who caused such misunderstandings sometimes went on to do terrible things.
To call herself a maternal-side wife without the man's permission… How horrifying was that?!
With the world so frightening, did Takuya not understand that?
As his older sister, Ayaka was sincerely worried about him.
Even now, wasn't he being far too kind to a performer like that 'de-corseted woman'…!
"Ah… Noona, please! I'm an adult now. I told you to stop!"
"Uh… yeah. S-sorry."
Takuya, a somewhat forward-thinking man, finally exploded in anger at this overprotectiveness.
But women in this world were not frightened when men got angry.
They might back off for a moment, but that was all. They never believed that a man could ultimately defeat them.
They only backed down because they were worried the man might suffer emotional wounds.
They were not truly frightened by the other person's anger.
"B-but wouldn't it be better to keep a little distance?"
"Phew… All right, Noona."
Because of the absolute difference in strength, men could not be forceful with women in the end.
Without all the laws and the checks women placed on one another, they might have become nothing more than living biological dildos.
Men did not cross the line either.
Of course, Geum Taeyang was different.
The enforcers had stopped bothering him whenever he went out after that one visit to the gym.
Geum Taeyang possessed a strength of an entirely different level from other men.
*
Once Ayaka and Takuya came out after changing clothes, the members who had been coming to the desk disappeared as if by magic.
Even those who had bought expensive elixirs just to speak once with Geum Taeyang no longer looked toward the desk, wanting only to mix their sweat with that of a real man.
Thanks to that, Geum Taeyang was able to enjoy an extremely comfortable part-time job.
-The police have announced that they ultimately found no grounds to charge Ninav, the godmother of the criminal underworld.
The job was so uneventful that he could even space out while listening to the news playing in the background.
'But does that count as exercise?'
Since things were so easy that he had grown bored, Geum Taeyang watched Takuya exercise.
"You're doing great!!"
"Haaah, haaah…"
Ayaka and the bodyguards were making fools of themselves, clapping and cheering as they watched Takuya pant heavily.
Takuya was merely repeating the motion of lifting and lowering a 500-gram dumbbell.
To be panting that hard from something so minor…
Twitch…
It was not Geum Taeyang's instinct, but the instinct of a gym rat, that began to stir.
He wanted to hammer his knowledge into that guy who did not know how to exercise and turn him into a gym rat like himself…!!
But he held himself back.
Geum Taeyang was not the PT instructor here. He was only a part-timer.
He had to restrain himself from going too far.
"Little brother… Can't you stop now?"
"No, just a little longer…"
Even so, seeing Takuya make a genuine effort made Geum Taeyang think well of him.
Geum Taeyang had thought that the men in this world were all trash, but he realized that there were still some who had their heads screwed on straight.
"Mari. It's time to clock out, so you can go. Here! This is today's pay! You seemed to do a good job showing the male customer around while I was gone, so I added a little extra."
"Thank you."
Geum Taeyang accepted the money Darae had handed him and went straight home.
"300,000 won…"
Geum Taeyang had worked only five hours that day, yet he smiled at the 300,000 won in his hand.
It was an unbelievably good part-time job.
"With this, I wouldn't need to work more than a week."
"You're only going to work for a week? Where?"
"N-Noona?"
Without realizing it, Geum Taeyang opened the door to the house and muttered those words, only to come face-to-face with Park Hana, who was frowning angrily.