Why would he feed me this? I wanted to vomit knowing this powder was in all the alcohol I’d drunk until now.
“It’s to make you get drunk a bit faster.”
“So why, to me, something like this…”
“Well, because I have business.”
Jueon’s legs stood upright where his face had been. He’d stood up. My vision shook left and right, but reason began to return. I could figure out what his purpose was. Alcohol, drugs. Isn’t it obvious? It was a plan to get me drunk and rape me. Why is everyone desperate to touch me? With spinning eyes, I looked for my phone. I felt an object in my back pocket. First, I have to open the door and run away. I threw various utensils hanging on the wall toward Jueon. While Jueon dodged them, I quickly ran to the door. Unexpectedly, the door opened easily.
I ran down the hallway. My feet wearing only socks kept slipping. The stiff body couldn’t make the best of a bad situation like in movies. I quickly passed other front doors. At that end, I could see the stairway railing. White person. It was an emergency exit!
When I reached there, with trembling hands I groped my back pocket. Police station or whatever, what came to mind right away was number 1. It was the speed dial number Cheon Jaerim forcibly saved. I pressed it long. Hheok, hheok. Breath overflowed. The ringtone was cut off at once. Before Cheon Jaerim’s voice could be heard, I opened my mouth. But before I could say anything, I felt strong force on my scalp.
Aaaak! Jueon, who had followed close behind me, grabbed a fistful of my hair and slammed me to the floor. The phone left my hand and flew helplessly. Tok, toreureureuk, it rolled down the stairs.
“Aak!”
It was a scream for survival. Though I’d passed numerous front doors, the firmly closed front doors didn’t budge. My entire scalp ached as if it would be torn off, and I was dragged with my knees scraping the hallway floor. When the strength of me trying not to follow by putting strength in my body and the strength of Jueon gripping his hands and approaching the open door compromised, I could hear the sound of hair breaking tuk, tuk in my ears. Ah, ah, it hurts too much. I had no choice but to surrender to the pain like thousands of needles strongly pricking my scalp.
With a kwang! sound, the door closed violently. I returned to that place where we’d been drinking. Inside the room was a mess with things I’d thrown. I touched the back of my head to check if my head was safely attached.
“Wh, why are you doing this to me? What did I, what did I do…”
“You know Cheon Jaerim?”
He’s treating me like this because of Cheon Jaerim? Then the bruise on my wrist? That shy face that said not to hit even with flowers? Thinking it was all fabricated was unbelievable. How can a person be like that?
“Resent that bastard, not me.”
He was too brazen and shameless for a criminal. Seeing me stammering unable to find words, Jueon kept blabbering.
“S-so you’re doing this to me? What does it have to do with me…”
“If he finds out you suffered like this because of him, won’t he take a hit too?”
I know those eyes. The same eyes as the orphanage friend who was bullied, burning with murderous intent saying he’d pay back revenge. In the end, that murderous intent didn’t materialize, but now is a completely different situation. Jueon, who approached in an instant, rolled up a thin, long handkerchief and shoved it into my mouth. The handkerchief was tied in a knot behind my head. Both cheeks were squeezed tight. My wrists were then tied, and Jueon laid my body flat with his foot. I wriggled my body like a larva from under his foot. I tried to escape his range, but it was useless.
The handkerchief crossing my mouth got soaked with saliva. Every time I turned my head making uhp uhp sounds, my hungover head rang. There was no way to stop Jueon, whose eyes had rolled back.
“It’s a back hole that Cheon Jaerim eats, so I’m curious. What that bastard’s taste is like.”
“Uhk, uuhp!”
I turned my body, bent my knees and crawled forward. One ankle was grabbed and my body collapsed. Kung! My forehead hit the floor. I was dazed. The entire head tingled from the sudden pain. Uuuhk… While rubbing my face on the floor, trying to lessen the pain even a little, Jueon’s hand attacked my waist. I thrashed my legs madly. But the pants connected only by weak elastic were easily removed without much force.
“Do you get hard too when Cheon Jaerim touches you like this? Filthy bastards.”
“Uuh! Uhk!”
Jueon’s hand groping the center looked like filthy filth. Jueon lowered the handkerchief below my lips saying ‘Got anything to say?’
“You’re more, more filthy, hhp!”
The words I spat out without thinking seemed to have touched Jueon’s nerves. His face turned reddish and he shoved the handkerchief back into my mouth.
“This fucking bastard.”
Fire blazed in my head. Even when hit by Cheon Jaerim, it didn’t tingle like this. The head that turned sideways couldn’t return to its place. It kept tilting toward the struck direction as if a weight was attached.
“Say that again. Hey, am I filthy, you bitch? A fucking slut who offers his asshole to a man, where do you get off calling someone filthy? Fuck.”
Every time Jueon opened his mouth, my head spun sharply as if drilling into the floor.
“How much do you get each time you get your ass fucked? What does Cheon Jaerim give you?”
Below my eyes, I could see red bloodstains on the thick handkerchief. I’d felt a fishy taste in my mouth—blood had burst. Jueon pulled up the sweatshirt I was wearing. The sweatshirt that passed through my head couldn’t come off due to the tied wrists.
“It’s my first time with a man… how do I do this? Do I just put it down there and penetrate?”
Jueon kept muttering and explored my body. I’ll be victimized. How much time has passed so far? How much is left until it ends? The head that was severely beaten absorbed the shock intact. Did Cheon Jaerim hear my voice? Did he even answer the phone? Thoughts were all jumbled and I couldn’t think. Jueon was taking out his cock when he suddenly stood up.
“Who is it!”
Seeing him shout and go, it seemed someone had come. The narrow studio was a densely packed space where even footsteps walking down the hallway could be heard. Only to me who’d been slapped did it not allow that sound.
“What is it?”
Jueon’s voice changed to surprisingly normal. A faint sound was heard from outside. Jueon looked outside through the door peephole. Muttering curses, Jueon approached and stood still thinking about something. After gauging the distance between the front door and where I was lying, he shouted ‘Just a moment!’ and grabbed my ankle. He dragged my ankle and brought me under the bed. My head entered first, then my body. I was hidden under the bed full of dust. Exhausted, I had no strength to resist. Like baggage being put in storage, I went in as is.
Should I try screaming now? But thinking of the place where people who wouldn’t come out even if I screamed at the top of my lungs had gathered, even that was possible to give up on. The swollen cheek pressed to the floor hurt. My whole body hurt so I couldn’t move a finger.
“You know what happens if you make a sound, right?”
Jueon threatened and stood up. My view lowered enough to only see people’s ankles. I watched Jueon’s ankles moving away and closed my eyes. No sound of the door opening either. What if my ears are really broken? While worrying, with a ‘wudangtang!’ sound, I heard someone falling to the floor. Did he hit the person who interfered with his plan? If that’s really it, he’s truly insane.
The sound of slashing flesh was heard several times, then a familiar back fell to the floor. A different picture from what I expected. The back visible through the gap under the bed was Jueon’s back, who’d inflicted violence on me. The feet standing upright beside him were wearing black shoes. The owner of the shoes kicked the face of the fallen Jueon, pressed on his stomach, and grabbed him by the collar. A hand wearing a round watch on the wrist slammed down onto Jueon’s face in the air. The scene with not a single word exchanged was silent like a silent film, but the sound effects were tremendous. The sound of flesh tearing.
Jueon’s face turned toward my side was completely crushed. Whether his nose had burst, the shape of his nose wasn’t even visible. How much would you have to beat someone to make them like that? He wouldn’t be an ordinary person. Did he borrow from loan sharks or something?
I’d completely forgotten the existence of someone filling my surroundings like dust. The black shoes that had prodded the motionless Jueon like a corpse several times walked toward the bed. The heel sound was loud enough to be imposing. I couldn’t understand why the unidentified man was walking this way. When I lowered my eyes, a few toes were sticking out a little bit under the bed. I hurriedly pulled my feet in. If caught wrong, I wouldn’t even be able to collect my bones. But my existence had already been discovered by the man. Knees bent under the bed, and a white hand approached. Before I could pull my body back, the hand grabbing the dangling sweatshirt sleeves was faster.
I was sucked out from under the bed as if sliding.
The towel that had been in my mouth came down. Meeting familiar eyes, the fear that had filled me to the top of my head unwound like turning a screw.
“Because… of you, like this… kkeuk, it’s all you…!”
Sorrow burst like a storm blowing. Words didn’t connect and came out in pieces. Cheon Jaerim stayed still until I screamed at him and poured all the blame on him. When I roared and poured it out on him, emotions abruptly calmed down. As if Cheon Jaerim had only been waiting for me to quiet down, he took off the sweatshirt from my wrists and dressed me again. The wrists tightly bound with a soft towel didn’t hurt much. What hurt was the cheek that got hit by Jueon and the forehead that hit the floor. After Cheon Jaerim touched my forehead once, he lowered his gaze to my stripped lower body. His jaw muscles briefly stiffened then released.
“Lean on me for a bit.”
I leaned my head on Cheon Jaerim’s shoulder. I wanted to drink a cup of warm cocoa, pull the blanket up to the top of my head, and fall asleep. After supporting my tilted body, Cheon Jaerim grabbed the underwear and pants that had gone down to my calves and pulled them up. I swayed back and forth like a doll with strings attached to its joints as Cheon Jaerim handled me.
“Where did you meet?”
“Convenience store.”
“Was the reason you went to the convenience store because of him?”
Though the voice was full of anger, it seemed like he was trying to accept this situation with superhuman patience. When I answered ‘Alcohol…’ to the question of how I got here, a cold gaze cut through me. Cold and sharp. I wanted Cheon Jaerim to let me escape from here. It had been too horrible for such a short time. If he was going to punish me, wasn’t this enough? But Cheon Jaerim didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving right away as I wished.
“Why do you keep touching your head?”
I kept touching the back of my head because of the tingling scalp. My pride was hurt to tell what happened, and resentment arose wanting to question him, thinking this incident had originated from Cheon Jaerim himself. When someone appeared to listen to my sorrowful heart and began to ask one by one, I had no choice but to report Jueon’s actions in detail.
“At first, first I ran away to the stairs, uhk, uh…”
“Speak slowly.”
I breathed ‘hheuu…’ and continued speaking.
“And to you, hheu, uhp, I called, got grabbed by the hair, and was dragged…”
“He grabbed your hair and dragged you here?”
“…”
“You must have felt wronged.”
Cheon Jaerim stood up, grabbed Jueon’s collar who wasn’t even moving, and lifted his body. The drooping body began to thrash as if having a seizure as soon as Cheon Jaerim’s hand touched it.
“It’s been a while for us. Right?”
“Uhk!”
Cheon Jaerim just let go of his hand. The upper body that had been away from the floor planted its face on the floor like a puppet with cut strings. Kuuuuhk! Jueon crawled on the floor with his nails and scraped the floor that his face had collided with head-on. Jueon bent his legs and raised his feet, but failed every time.
“Since we have old ties, I’ll give you 3 seconds. Try running away.”
“Kheut, crazy bastard.”
“If you don’t go, you’re the only one who loses.”
“That unlucky face…”
“Three, two, one. Is it over?”
