The House of Three Chapter 1.1

The night of the alley, after the sun had set, was exceptionally gaudy and vulgar.

Venus Noraebang. Dream Palace. Eun Ha. Rose Room Norae Bar.

The buildings packed tightly along the alley were hung with countless signs, every single one either fitted with tacky light bulbs or wrapped in dazzling neon lights of garish colors.

Fitting for the chaotic street, those who stomped on the dirty asphalt ground were not in their right minds either.

Alphas, tipsy from alcohol, gathered like a swarm of rats and shouted at the top of their lungs. The occasional Omegas in sight were busy grabbing the arms of only the ones with the reddest faces.

Heeyoung expertly navigated through the crowd of witless people and arrived at the center of the alley.

[Ignis]

Ignis. A sign crafted in a luxurious font was plastered onto the largest building in the alley.

Unlike the cheap, glittering light bulbs, the sign for Ignis emanated only a gentle, classical light. The building itself was just like that. Unlike the other buildings, which were filthy and seemed to reek of a foul smell just by looking at them, even its exterior walls were sleek and polished.

Into that place, a place where an ordinary office worker could not dare to even set foot with their salary, Heeyoung slipped his body out of sight.

Finding and entering the deeply hidden entrance revealed an interior that was just as lavish as its exterior suggested. The marble laid on the floor was so shiny it looked as though it had been oiled, and from the high ceiling hung not white fluorescent lights but a heavy chandelier.

“Hello, Manager.”

“Oh, Heeyoung, you’re here? Go get ready and do some cleaning.”

Heeyoung, who crossed the establishment’s interior with familiarity, bowed his head and greeted every person he saw. The manager who was the first to greet him, the players sitting in the waiting room looking at their phones, the employees hastily eating dinner in the kitchen, and those who had just arrived for their shift and were changing their clothes. It was a place composed entirely of men, and male Omegas.

Of course, Heeyoung was not much different. He was a man just like them, and an Omega, and a worker ant barely getting by while saddled with debt.

Heeyoung, who had hurried to the locker room and changed into a white shirt and black trousers, began to move busily.

After sweeping and wiping the already gleaming floor once more, he went into each room lined up along the hallway in order and emptied the trash cans. Then, holding the bursting standard-sized trash bags in both hands, he flung them into the garbage area and returned.

After washing his hands once, he washed a rag and frantically wiped here and there around the establishment, and before he knew it, it was 8 o’clock.

The time when customers would start flooding in was around 9 p.m. Heeyoung, who had vigorously finished his tasks, hung the cleanly washed rag in the corner of the employee restroom and came out.

As he headed to the waiting room, he neatened his clothes. The work Heeyoung was in charge of here was cleaning, and serving, that was all.

On the day he was dragged here by a brute’s hand, the gangster and the manager had suggested he become a player, but Heeyoung had refused, saying he would rather have a knife at his throat.

At the time, the gangster had spouted this.

‘Hey punk, we don’t normally make offers like this to Recessive Omegas, but we’re giving you special consideration because your face is decent enough to look at.’

He couldn’t describe how disgusting that face, spouting words condescendingly as if doing a great favor, had been.

Heeyoung rejected that ‘gracious offer’ to the very end. It was because no matter what happened with the debt, he did not want to resort to selling smiles. Perhaps that was the first and last time he had ever asserted his pride.

After managing to remain as a waiter, he worked harder than anyone else. To regain a normal life even a day sooner, there was no other way but to work diligently and pay off the debt, so even if his situation, thrown to the very bottom, was sorrowful, he had to live his life with fortitude.

Probably everyone working here was living with the same feelings as him.

Heeyoung opened the waiting room door and sat in the seat closest to the door to catch his breath. The players who had come to work early were sitting sparsely, looking at their phones, or occasionally gathered in groups of three or four, sharing meaningless chatter.

Since it was the same scene as usual, Heeyoung was also thinking of taking out his phone to read through some uninteresting news articles. But for some reason today, there were people who strangely caught his eye.

“Heeu, fuck, those fucking bastards keep touching me! It’s so disgusting, how am I supposed to humor them. I really hate it……”

A manager, his face scrunched up in annoyance, stood in front of the sniffling, tear-wiping employee. Heeyoung carefully scanned the crying man’s face.

Where have I seen him. As he retraced his memory, a face that had been dragged in by a gangster a week ago came to mind.

He was a newcomer who had been working here for only a short time, and his duties were the same as Heeyoung’s. The image of him busily pulling a serving cart loaded with expensive liquor and snacks, or rushing out with a broom whenever the sound of glass shattering came from somewhere, was stuck somewhere in Heeyoung’s mind.

He had thought the newcomer was adapting well because he worked quite capably, but it seemed that wasn’t the case after all. The newcomer was complaining that even though he wasn’t a player, customers kept touching him here and there.

At that, the manager, who had been standing with his legs crossed, scrunched his face as if it was a headache and shouted.

“Hey, do those bastards only touch you? Why do you keep whining. Did I tell you to offer your body to the customers, did I tell you to do anything? To put it bluntly, in this neighborhood, our place is the cleanest, Juseong.”

“Heuk, kkeuk……”

“Don’t you know that all the customers who frequent this place are for the most part gentlemen with class? So just endure it a little when a hand brushes against you. Please, huh? As long as you’re not a player, they won’t go all the way. We even forbid second rounds for the players, so do you think they’d knock up a waiter?”

After spitting out his words sharply, he finally pounded on his tight chest and caught his breath. Even while he did so, the newcomer did not stop crying.

Heung, heuk, how sorrowfully he wept. Unfortunately, the manager, who did not know how to console people, was busy wounding the newcomer’s heart.

“You going to keep crying? Hey, you’re blessed. Is it right to make a fuss over just a little groping? Look at other places. They break liquor bottles all the time, go for second rounds and beat up innocent players, they’re not even human. The customers who come here are on the genteel side, I’m telling you.”

In truth, the manager’s words were not wrong. This place was clean compared to other establishments. However, that absolutely could not make it a first-grade stream. One way or another, an adult entertainment business is an adult entertainment business. Whether the establishment was small or large, whether there were second rounds or not, wasn’t it all the same muddy water?

Besides, the newcomer was in a position where he, like himself, had been dragged here by a gangster’s hand and was forced to work. It must be hard enough to get through each day, yet the manager’s words, persecuting him to endure the customers’ rudeness as well, sounded cruel even to his own ears.

Couldn’t he just pat him on the shoulder while offering some empty words, like, I’m sorry I can’t do anything for you, I’ll try to manage the customers better.

Seeing the newcomer’s youthful face, his chest heaving as he shed tears, made his heart ache. Every time he heard the sound of weeping, which was saturated with his wretched feelings, his limply hanging hands tensed and his eyebrows twitched.

“Juseong, you bastard. Don’t whine about how hard it is every day and just give up. It’s easier if you give up.”

And when the manager finally uttered words to the newcomer that were like a death sentence, Heeyoung cautiously pushed back from his seat, rose, and gently took hold of the manager’s arm.

“Manager, please don’t be too hard on him. I think Juseong-ssi was very startled. Wouldn’t it be better to give him some time to quietly compose himself……”

At the unexpected meddling, everyone’s gaze shot this way before quickly dispersing. Among them, only one person, the manager with a fed-up expression, was glaring at Heeyoung who was standing upright.

Ha, how absurd. The manager, who coolly muttered the words to himself, swept his hair back once and then retorted.

“Lee Heeyoung, you’re always like this, aren’t you? You’re a guy who usually just meekly says yes, yes, to whatever I ask, so why do you always react so sensitively only to other people’s business? It’s not like you’re a pushover. Did I scold you just now?”

“No… It’s just, I was bothered by Juseong-ssi crying so sorrowfully. He’s still a newcomer, you know.”

It had been a long time since Heeyoung had gotten used to being called a pushover, so he was not greatly affected by the manager’s words. Rather, after he replied in a gentle tone, the manager, who had even wiped the annoyance from his face, stepped back as if he was sick of it.

“Then you try to console him properly. Juseong, you, stop your tears before you start work. If you serve with that face, you’ll just get singled out by the customers even more, got it? And don’t you come running to me again whining about who touched you, what they did.”

The manager, who had finally given up on consoling the newcomer, said that and then left the waiting room. The players who had been watching the two while pretending not to, seemed to have lost interest now that the matter had ended anticlimactically.

The only one who was genuinely worried about the newcomer, left alone and sniffling, was Heeyoung.

He still looked young, would he be okay. As he was stealthily glancing sideways, he heard a mumbling, sobbing voice.

“Heeu, Dad……”

It was a voice thoroughly buried in sorrow and longing. Heeyoung, who was about to pat his shoulder, froze at the single word ‘Dad’.

It seemed the newcomer believed his father would get him out of this place. Even though he was likely the one who sold his own son to a trashy entertainment establishment like this to save himself. It was just pitiful to see the newcomer, who had not yet let go of the string of hope.

Of course, Heeyoung too had once believed in the sanctuary that was family. Until his father passed on his debt to him…….

After being betrayed by the father he trusted and dragged to this place, what actions had Heeyoung taken? Did he cry his eyes out like the newcomer? Did he call for his father endlessly?

No. He did not cry, nor call for his father, nor resent him. Because that man who had passed the debt onto him had attempted a midnight escape and died futilely along with his younger sibling.

Only belatedly could Heeyoung realize it. The wretched truth that the sanctuary of family had long since collapsed, and that there was no one in this world who would save him.

Recalling the bitter memory made his stomach churn, and a lump of suppressed sorrow surged up. Even during that, the newcomer’s sobs did not subside.

Heeyoung swallowed the sorrow that had risen to the tip of his throat along with a sigh. Then, he patted the newcomer’s thin, pitifully trembling shoulders. As if to say, I too understand your pain. Very cautiously and warmly.

He offered no words of comfort separately. He knew that no words he uttered would be of any consolation, so he deliberately kept his lips sealed and only offered a gesture so that he could cry comfortably.

At that, the newcomer, who was crying while gasping for breath, slapped away Heeyoung’s hand that was resting on his shoulder.

“That’s enough, so go. Getting comforted feels like shit, so I said, go.”

“……I’m sorry.”

It seemed his touch had felt unpleasant. It was a situation where that could very well be the case.

Heeyoung chose not to meddle further and turned away. Just then, he saw one of the players who had been glancing this way shrug his shoulders with an expression that seemed to say, ‘That sucks for you, hyung’.

Heeyoung, who substituted a reply by giving a formal and awkward smile, pushed open the waiting room door. It was now the time when customers would start flocking in.

“Now that you’re out, let’s hurry. Heeyoung, you go and set up room 4 quickly.”

“Yes, Manager.”

With the manager’s instruction, the arduous day began. The male Omegas clad in white shirts and black trousers moved in perfect order, as if they had never been enjoying their leisure. Heeyoung, and the newcomer who had by now stopped his tears, also diligently threw themselves into the mix.

Among the shells bound together by loneliness and resignation, Heeyoung, who carried the same loneliness, blended in.

There were so many people who held the same pain, yet not a single one was granted salvation.