Chapter 7: Traditional

Walking back into my Mistress's home I breathed a sigh of relief. I despise doctor's offices, nothing good ever comes of them today was no different. Even though I appreciated Mistress's attempt to protect Yoongi and me it's clear she is ill-equipped to detect and react to the more subtle sexism and attempts to undermine her authority.

She seemed uncomfortable with the flirtatious attitude of the secretary but took no action. There was no reprimand for the secretary nor did she try to take a stronger claim on us to deter any more disrespectful behavior.

In fact, she doesn't want to claim us anyway. I am not clear on whether it is because of my flaws of me and my companions or she is inherently submissive.

Women need to prove their dominance over males, the only reason she would bother to see our mistreatment would be if unlike the rest of the women she does not find having power over males attractive. If that is the case, it can become a boon or our doom.

For example, she was well within her rights to call out the secretary for her behavior. As a member of high society and our mistress, no one would think twice about it. However, the lack of action caused us to get disgusted looks from quite a few women and lewd gestures from a few others.

When we were in the car she talked to us about our limits, I never expected her to follow them and neither did Yoongi. They were outrageous requests coming from those beneath her in every way possible. The consideration was appreciated, but she seemed to be stepping on eggshells the entire time, glancing at us every time someone addressed questions about us to her. This was picked up by the doctor, she gave us several scathing looks.

Of course, our Mistress didn't notice, she appeared happy about how the trip had gone. She even talked excitedly about the vitamins the doctor gave us and how she would make a list of meals that would help too. It was cute sure, but it wasn't what we needed from our mistress. Not in this world.

Walking into my room I noticed someone was tailing me. Jungkook stood a few paces from the door rocking back and forth on his feet.

"What do you need Jungkook?" his gaze shoot to my eyes, shocked that I was addressing him. It had been a week since we go here, but since the first day with room assignments, we had mostly kept out of each other's way the exception being the youngest three.

"How did it go?" I saw the anxiousness in his body. From what I could pick up the muscular teenager was shy and socially awkward: this topic was important enough for him to bravely talk to me.

"It went fine, stares, comments, nothing we all haven't dealt with before." I expected to find relief on his face after my declaration, it was blank. What could cause that response? Could it be?

"Jungkook, you have every right to tell me to buzz off. But is there any chance you are a Ward?" If that was the case it made a lot of sense. Jungkook's extreme shyness around Mistress and his horror at his roommates' bold actions.

Wards was the abbreviation for male orphans taken in by the state. The Houses for the Wards were run by religious monks, with no female presence allowed on the premises. They highly valued purity and submissiveness to the stronger sex.

Jungkook looked paler as he rubbed his hand on his bicep trying to self-soothe. "Kind of." An eyebrow raise from Hoseok had him continuing his explanation. "I'm not technically a Ward now. I belong to Mistress. Even before she claimed me I wasn't technically a Ward the Monastery had placed me in an outside program so I could have more real-world experience to better understand and aide my Mistress."

"But you are an orphan and until the program, you were considered a Ward?" Hoseok clarified.

There was a moment of hesitation before he responded, "Yes." And Hoseok understood why he was hesitant to admit it. In some environments, his upbringing would be advantageous making it easier for him to become a pet. He was "pure" untainted by the teachings of independent men and he grew up in an environment where his submission to the opposite sex was seen as a glorious purpose.

However, that was not the case in his current environment. His mistress displayed an obvious dislike for the worshipfulness, naivety, and lack of morals or opinions valued in a man. This meant he was more dependent on his fellow men, but that again was a problem. He didn't know how to connect with them, a lot of the trauma and dislike they displayed was towards the sex he had little interaction with. In fact, if the stories he heard about Houses were true Junkook had had more to fear from the men in power he may have even viewed females as his salvation.

"Ok, I guess you aren't used to the whole staring and rude gestures then. My best advice is to ignore them as much as you can and stick close to Mistress, that deters forward more than anything else. Mistress never punished us for anything they did either so that's not a concern. Your appointment is at the same time as Jin, so you can watch him or ask him questions." That seemed. to bring some color back to Jungkook maybe even a cute blush.

"Not that you can't ask me questions, but he will be there when more questions pop up inevitably at the appointment." Hoseok politely tacked on. And strangely he meant it. Hoseok's bubbly personality was real, but that didn't mean that was all he was. He was smart enough to know that offering to help could put him in danger, so he hadn't done it before. He helped but he kept himself in check making sure not to form attachments to the men in his life they ended up leaving one way or another he wasn't selfless enough to volunteer himself to that kind of pain.

This felt different though. He needed to help Jungkook, maybe his subconscious was hinting that this is more permanent. Or maybe he knew Jungkook was a good ally to have when he would have to talk about Teddy performing her duty more traditionally.