Work Text:
Go Yeongeun stares down at the pen she just snapped in half. The blue ink leaks past her fingers, even as she attempts to cup her hands to keep it from staining her work shirt.
You see, Go Yeongeun has been a beta all her life. From the second she was born, to the day she abandoned medical school, to the moment she found herself on that accursed train Darkness.
She’s lived a scentless life, unattuned to the chaos of pheromones and ruts and whatever else her gendered peers have had to deal with. It was easy to look away when an alpha started on a rampage, especially as they’d never notice her in their heightened states. It’s been a peaceful existence.
“Tch, hey. Go Yeongeun. Are you seriously throwing a temper tantrum right now?”
Well. It’s been peaceful, for the most part.
“What’s going on here?"
When it’s convenient for them, that’s when they finally notice her. Only to cause her trouble.
“Goral bumped into me and made me drop my notes. I was just asking her to help me pick them up, but now she’s acting like she did nothing wrong—”
That wasn’t true. Go Yeongeun had deliberately moved to the edge of the corridor so that something like this wouldn’t happen. Her coworker had gone out of his way to run into her, then he’d thrown his file to the ground and demanded for her to pick it up.
“Don’t worry about it, Gecko. I’ll deal with her.” He approaches her, waving a hand in her face, as though she hadn’t been painfully aware of his presence since he entered the hallway. “Hey, Goral, I know you women can be emotional, but don’t you think this is ridiculous?”
All she did was hold her pen too tightly. It was already snapping, because the plastic had cracked earlier that week, when Squad Leader Salamander had stepped on it in front of her. She’d dropped it and had been in the process of picking it back up when he set his foot down on it, missing her fingers by a scarce few millimeters.
That was around the same time that Go Yeongeun had begun to feel… strange.
“Go. Yeongeun.”
“Hey, Chief, just leave her. She’s always zoning out—”
“No, her behaviour isn’t acceptable. She’s gotten away with it before, because I understand that this line of work can be stressful for people like her, but it’s no excuse for acting like this.”
Suddenly, it’s intolerable. His condescending tone, her frustration at being ignored, the ridicule in Gecko’s eyes—it all makes her sick to her stomach.
“Goral, why did we hire you? What makes you better than someone from the Y-squad, when you can’t even follow simple instructions?”
He laughs.
“Huh… Really, though. Maybe we need to get you demoted—”
She punches him.
She intends to aim for his chest, wanting to shut him up by inflicting the least damage possible, but it seems that she miscalculates.
Her fist goes straight through his torso.
“Ohmygodwhat—”
She thinks she hears someone scream.
A rush of scents hits her, then. Blood, of course, but there’s a faint floral smell that grows stronger with each passing moment. Citrus, campfire smoke, bubblegum sweetness—it’s all there, just like in the novels she used to read when she was young. Before her hopes died and she gave up on her dreams.
Go Yeongeun suddenly has a lot more to worry about than some simple ink stains.
Gender reclassification.
Something most children, and parents, could only dream of.
“Alright, I’ve got your results right here…”
Today, Go Yeongeun sits sideways on a patient bed. Her legs dangle off of it, but only barely; she doesn’t understand how she didn’t notice her growth spurt. She now stands at 6 feet, almost an entire foot taller than she was when she started at this company.
To be fair, most of this growth had occurred during her week of probation—apparently Daydream Inc. could give a rat’s ass about one of their employees murdering a Squad Leader when said employee was a scientific miracle.
The researcher’s words go in one ear and out the other. Go Yeongeun is too focused on the words on the paper he passes to her to care.
...Name, height, gender…
…Enigma.
She glances back up at the researcher. He’s stopped speaking to allow her to process her newly updated file, but it still doesn’t feel real.
“What… is an Enigma?”
The researcher claps his hands together, suddenly alight with excitement; the sulfur in his scent makes her nose twitch. He visibly reigns himself in when he meets her eyes. She doesn’t know what about her appearance gave her displeasure away—
Ah.
She takes a surreptitiously sniff of herself when he looks back at his clipboard.
“It’s, uh, a very special classification. You see, people aren’t born Engimas—they can’t be! However, when someone of any of the other genders undergoes… um, extreme duress, allegedly, there’s a very low chance that they can…” He moves his mouth silently. “Evolve, for lack of a more understandable term.”
And there it is. Yet another person questioning her intelligence. Go Yeongeun just stares at him.
Clearing his throat, the researcher continues, “WIth regards to our established gender hierarchy, Enigmas are so very special because they sit at the very top. Above Alphas, even!”
His jovial tone grates on her nerves. The egginess of the sulfur intensifies.
“What does that mean for me?”
“Well… nothing? As stated in your employee contract, the Research Team may request your assistance with projects related to you. Upper management may also need help with—um, I shouldn’t say. Director Cheong will contact you later this week about… that.” He claps his hands again. A bead of sweat trickles down from his temple. Go Yeongeun watches it until it reaches his jaw, then nods and pushes off of the bed.
The thing is, Go Yeongeun doesn’t have enough time for this. ‘Later this week’? If she’s as much of a scientific marvel as this guy is making her out to be, Go Yeongeun’s schedule takes precedence above all else—Director Cheong will meet with her.
It seems that her squad wasn’t prepared for her reappearance; they’d grown complacent in her absence.
She follows their now-familiar scents to her squad’s break room.
She goes for one of the randos first, crushing his windpipe with one hand and his skull with the other. The light in his eyes blinks out before his body hits the ground. The other guy suffers the same fate.
When she reaches Gecko, her new shirt is sodden with blood.
“Stay away from me!” He cries, the shrillness of voice making her ears ring. His flowery scent is riddled with sour notes—fear, she thinks—and it worsens her headache. She captures him by the arm and reels him in.
“This is personal,” she promises.
Then, she sticks an arm through him.
That day, Yeongeun kills a total of four people. And for that, she gets sent home without pay for the day, and is then told to come back into the office at 8 AM the next morning.
Sitting alone in her apartment, arm drenched in blood, Yeongeun feels strangely calm, actually. That restless energy in her ever since she shot up to the height of 6’1” (she grew another inch within the day) has been seemingly dissipated in the bloodbath. Yeongeun almost feels rejuvenated, reborn.
“...”
It’s time to get her revenge on this black company.
Swinging open the front door, Kang Yihak walks into the apartment only to see Yeongeun, 6’1.7”, covered in blood, sitting calmly on the living room sofa.
As she always does, Yihak smiles and raises a hand. “Hey, how’s it going?”
Yeongeun doesn’t respond, just slowly turning her head to stare at her roommate. As she does so, however, the fabric at her shoulders rips apart, exposing her bulging shoulders.
“Oh, I can mend that for you,” Yihak offers. “It’ll cost 10,000 won.”
Yeongeun doesn’t respond. There’s still blood on her face from when she tried licking it off of her hands.
After a few seconds of silence, Yihak shrugs and sets her groceries down on the kitchen table. “Suit yourself. The offer’s always there, though. How was your day at the office? Do anything special?”
Once again, Yeoungeun doesn’t respond.
“...Hey, do you smell anything off in here? I could’ve sworn—
“I’m an Enigma,” Yeoungeun interrupts.
As she speaks, however, her voice shocks her. Even to her own ears, it carries a more violent tone, a powerful timbre… even a sexy one?
Was that a flush on Yihak’s face? She can see the gears turning in Yihak’s head about it.
“O-Oh. I see… Well, congratulations! Don’t forget to make a post about it on ChainedIn. Hey, how does it feel—”
“Also, I killed my team,” Yeoungeun says.
Yihak stares at her. “Well, are you getting new team members?”
Yeoungeun is faintly aware that she’s clenching her fist way too hard. Her bones creak. “No. I won’t allow it.” She licks her lips. They’re salty, of course, due to the blood.
“I see,” Yihak says. She’s silent for a few more seconds. “Hey, you want to take over the company, right?"
“I’m going to take over the—Wait, what?” Yeoungeun couldn’t believe her ears. “How did you know?”
Yihak sits down in the armchair right across from her. “Isn’t that right, though? I understand. It’s a noble prospect, a proper ambition for a being with such strength such as yourself. And as your roommate, I’m honoured to be sharing this journey with you. You know I’ll be with you every step along the way, right? Of course, you can consider me a friend, a confidante, a silly pony—” a silly pony? “—I’m honestly just here for you and your needs. And, you know, I’ve got a lot of experience in this aspect of life. Navigating gender changes, conquering the corporate hierarchy…”
Yeoungeun shifts slightly on the couch, and the blood-stained fabric on her back shifts apart. Her rhomboids must have swelled to twice their previous size within this very conversation.
“...Go on.”
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Go Youngeun 2026 26 Mar 18:21
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Have you ever felt powerless in life? Ever felt beaten and abused by coworkers, friends, acquaintances? Look no further than my newest course on awakening as an Enigma. In eight easy steps, I can teach you the … [Read More]
“This is unacceptable.”
Cheong Dallae laces her fingers together, violet hair falling over her eyes.
“Killing her team members, I can understand. I, too, have been there before. But Daydream employees are expressly not allowed to have side hustles. I won’t stand for it. Go Youngeun… I will take you down.”
Youngeun runs her hand over her hair. Ever since she awakened as an Enigma, her hair has become luscious and long, nothing like the split ends she used to have as a Beta. She’s 6’11”, now, and still growing. She’s had to change out most of her wardrobe, but luckily for her, the local shopkeepers in the area were all very understanding and gave her new designer clothes for free.
“How many participants do we have enrolled?”
Seemingly out of nowhere, Yihak materialises at her elbow. From this height, Yihak almost seems small, like a Falabella horse. “We have 397 people and counting, ma’am!”
“Good, good.” Youngeun is silent for a moment. “And has Cheong Dallae taken the bait?”
“Out of the 397 people, 342 are her bots, ma’am!”
“Excellent.” Youngeun starts laughing darkly. “Everything is all going according to gyehoeg*…”
*gyehoeg means plan.
One week later, Youngeun strolls into the Daydream Inc. lobby wearing a white Valencia suit, a Patek Philippe watch, and snake leather boots.
“Oh, it’s you, Goral,” a random beta with black hair and red-tinted eyes greets. He’s standing near the scan-in gate, and oddly enough, he has a pink rabbit keychain sticking out of his blazer pocket. “Uh, you’ve… grown.”
Youngeun walks right past him. She has no time for nobodies. Not when she has a company to take.
Youngeun takes the elevator all the way up to the 66th floor. The elevator buttons nearly didn’t let her, for a moment; in fact, there was not even the option for a 66th floor. But it was pathetically easy to intimidate the elevator into submission.
“You wanted to see me, Miss Goral?”
Youngeun stands across from her final enemy, now. Cheong Dallae
“Yeah,” Youngeun says simply. She takes off her Dior sunglasses. “I wish to purchase Daydream Incorporated.”
Cheong Dallae ignores her, standing up as well. The Director is a measly 5’9”, even with heels. Youngeun feels a burst of confidence, all of a sudden, that the gyehoeg will be smooth sailing.
“Hahahahaha…”
Hair shadowing her eyes, Cheong Dallae starts laughing under her breath.
“Hahah… hahahahaha…! Wow, that smell! I haven’t smelled bloodlust like this in a long, long time.”
Go Youngeun stays silent.
Eventually, Cheong Dallae stops laughing. “So, is that it? Do you want to kill me, Miss Goral?”
“...”
“Haha… You really think you can take me on? You’re not the only Enigma here, miss—uegh—!”
Youngeun’s arm is already through Cheong Dallae’s cheek. Cheong Dallae gasps, blood erupting from her mouth. Blood is erupting everywhere, even. It coats the wall in thick arterial splatters, artfully decorating Youngeun’s Valencia suit.
“You talk too much, Director,” Youngeun says softly. “Or should I say… Former Director?”
Cheong Dallae spits blood onto Youngeun’s face. The mixture of saliva and blood drips slowly down her cheek. “You… How—!?”
Youngeun is unphased. She opens her mouth and deliberately licks the blood off. It tastes disgusting, actually, but she learned from Gecko that it was a good intimidation tactic. Fear is radiating off of Cheong Dallae in waves, now. And the scent is delicious.
“I just told you you talk too much. Wow, maybe women really don’t listen…”
Go Yeongeun’s thoughts suddenly freeze, “What did I just say?” she wonders to herself. Weren’t those the same words that her misogynistic fuck co-workers had once said to her?
…By killing Cheong Dallae, had Go Yeongeun… inadvertently perpetuated the systemic oppression many women continue to face to this day…?
Could she have also fallen victim to her lust for power, throwing her morals to the wayside…?
No… There was no way.
Go Yeongeun is doing the right thing.
She takes her rightful seat on the throne, the grand leather office chair, stepping on Cheong Dallae’s body to reach it.
It turns out it's an ergonomic chair. After flicking a few levers, her body sits in it comfortably.
And yet…
Unbeknownst to Go Yeongeun…
The cycle continues.