Chapter 4

Gimcheon Juvenile Prison (3)

The terrible stench of mold assaulted my nose.

It was a dark, enclosed studio apartment, filled on all sides with discarded takeout containers.

Emaciated arms.

A girl who had not yet turned twenty was there.

—BANG!!

The door flew open as though it might break apart, and a large figure strode inside.

Bulging muscles beneath a sleeveless shirt, covered in elaborate tattoos.

It was Bae Do-hyeon.

And the mere sight of him made the girl's body tremble like a leaf.

“Eunji. Have you ever heard of that saying about being ungrate... what was it again? Ah, there's a saying, right? No, wait. We're Korean, so we should use Korean sayings. Never take in a black-haired beast. Have you ever heard that one?”

“O-Oppa. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that.”

“Right. Our Eunji wouldn't have meant to do that.”

An expression of kindness that didn't suit him at all.

But Eunji knew what followed that expression.

Her face twisted with terror.

—AAAAAGH!!!

Bae Do-hyeon's enormous hand seized Eunji by the hair.

The incongruous look of kindness had vanished from his face.

Now he looked so vicious that he seemed ready to tear her apart.

“You fucking bitch. Fuck. I went out of my way to run an escort service, giving you penniless little beggars with nowhere to go food and a place to sleep, even going without meals myself. And now that you've got a full belly, you go to the police station? And what? I'm exploiting you?”

“Oppa, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”

As pain tore through her scalp, Eunji begged pitifully. The fear of Bae Do-hyeon, etched into the very depths of her soul, controlled her completely.

Bae Do-hyeon did not stop. Still gripping her hair, he slammed Eunji's body against the hard floor of the studio apartment.

—THUD.

With a dull impact, her lip split open, and blood with a metallic tang trickled from her mouth.

She was a child who had fled barefoot after she could no longer endure the domestic violence inflicted by her alcoholic father.

When that child had wandered aimlessly with nowhere to go, Bae Do-hyeon had extended a hand, promising, “I'll find you a room, and I'll be your family.”

Eunji hadn't known.

She hadn't known what taking that outstretched hand would lead to.

That place was truly hell.

Confinement, violence, sexual exploitation.

Unable to endure it any longer, Eunji seized an opportunity to escape and fled to a police substation, crying out desperately.

“Please save me. The older guy from my runaway group locks me up and forces me to do terrible things.”

From time to time, we see heartwarming stories about the police on the internet and elsewhere.

But why are such stories considered heartwarming?

Because they describe things that do not ordinarily happen. If they were common occurrences in everyday life, they would never qualify as remarkable stories. They are remarkable precisely because they are exceptional.

“A runaway group? What's this? You ran away from home?”

And unfortunately, the police officer at the substation Eunji had reached was not the sort of person who appeared in those heartwarming stories.

“Th-that's because my dad keeps drinking and beating me at home······.”

“Right, so your father drinks at home, and that's why you joined a runaway group. But we'll have to contact your parents first. That's standard procedure. And you said someone in that runaway group was making you do terrible things?”

“Bae Do-hyeon!! Bae Do-hyeon oppa.”

“Right, Bae Do-hyeon. Got it. But did the two of you get into a fight or something? Eunji, you know this, don't you? Making a false accusation is a serious crime, you know? These days, kids in those runaway groups or whatever they're called keep falsely accusing each other of pimping and all sorts of things over money disputes. Even the prosecutors higher up are having a real headache over it.”

“A false accusation?”

“It means reporting someone for something they didn't do.”

“No!! I'm seriously not lying. Bae Do-hyeon oppa really does beat me whenever I say I don't want to work, and even when I go on paid dates, he doesn't pay me properly······.”

“Okay, okay. I understand. I get it, so just sit over there until your parents arrive.”

The police officer turned his head away as though he couldn't be bothered and began leafing through some documents.

Watching his indifferent attitude, Eunji's eyes trembled. She had risked her life to reach this police substation. But in the eyes of the adults, she was nothing more than an ordinary juvenile delinquent, or a cunning runaway criminal who told lies for money.

The laws and public security of the Republic of Korea had never intended to save her in the first place.

“······Fuck. Seriously.”

Eunji clenched her fists and muttered a curse under her breath. Before the startled police officer could even raise his head, she sprang from her chair and began running desperately toward the substation door.

“Hey! Where are you going! Stop right there!”

The damn voice of the police officer shouting behind her grew distant. Without looking back, Eunji fled into the dark streets. Her lungs burned, and somewhere along the way, she lost one of her shoes. Sharp stones cut into her bare foot, drawing blood, but she couldn't stop.

If she couldn't trust the police, then she truly was alone. Somehow, she had to hide somewhere beyond Bae Do-hyeon's reach.

But the world was far too small and cruel for a sixteen-year-old runaway.

She hadn't even made it three blocks down the alley when a van with its headlights turned off silently slid out of the darkness and blocked her path.

—SCREECH.

“Why is our Eunji out jogging so hard at this hour of the night?”

“D-Do-hyeon oppa.”

“Listen to this fucking bitch, going 'D-Do-hyeon oppa' and all that shit. Hey, I don't feel like wasting my breath, so hurry up and get in the car, you bitch.”

Bae Do-hyeon roughly threw open the sliding door and seized Eunji's slender wrist. Before she could even scream from his crushing grip, her body was violently thrown into the dark interior of the van.

—BANG.

The door shut, and the vehicle drove away.

Across the alley, the blue letters on the police substation sign, [Reliable Police Protecting Citizens' Safety], continued to shine quietly and motionlessly, just as they did every day.

_____________

“Eunji. What the hell were you thinking? I know your head's completely empty, but I'm asking because I genuinely, seriously can't understand.”

“Oppa, I'm sorry. I really did something wrong.”

“No, I'm not asking whether you did something wrong. I'm asking what the hell you were thinking.”

“Well, you see······.”

“Look here. I know your Instagram, right? And I know what comes up when someone searches your name on your school's Everytime forum. Photos and videos of you spreading your legs for old men outside. I've got every last one of them.”

Bae Do-hyeon continued speaking, tapping the fingers holding his phone. The pale light from the screen cast a grotesque glow over Eunji's swollen, battered face.

“If you run away like that, what choice do I have but to send all of these to your friends? Oh, right. And your dad. I've definitely got to send them to your dad too. Now, that would be something worth seeing. Eunji, didn't you say you wanted revenge on your father? Seems to me like this would be the perfect revenge. Huh?”

“N-no······ Please, please, oppa, I'm sorry. I'll do everything you tell me to do······.”

Eunji crawled across the floor and clung to Bae Do-hyeon's pant leg.

She struck her forehead against the cold cement floor, begging desperately.

“That's why you should've behaved yourself from the beginning, you fucking bitch. If you act like this, what happens to my reputation among the others? Huh? Suppose I forgive you now. What do you think the other kids will think? They'll think, 'That Bae Do-hyeon bastard is such a pushover. You can run away, get caught later, grab his pant leg, bawl your eyes out, and he'll forgive you for everything.'”

“N-no!! They'd never think that. If any bitches think that way, I'll beat the shit out of all of them. So please, oppa!! I'll really behave from now on. Okay?”

Bae Do-hyeon showed Eunji a benevolent smile that looked utterly out of place on his face.

Then he tapped his smartphone.

“Too late.”

At that moment, Park Eunji felt as though she had fallen into a pit from which she could never escape. A scream that made no sound tore through her entire being.

And so, when she jumped from the roof of that hideous building, which had been abandoned in a half-constructed state for years, it probably wasn't suicide. It was merely a formality, her wretched body belatedly following the soul that had already fallen into a place from which it could never return.

And at the very moment Eunji's body shattered,

the darkness vanished, and the stale smell of reality struck my nose.

[Resonance of Sin: Synchronized with the remnant of target 'Bae Do-hyeon's' deepest sin.]

It felt as though I had experienced Eunji's life more vividly than even the most realistic film could portray. Bae Do-hyeon's hand resting on my shoulder now felt like something utterly nauseating.

“Hey, Sniper. I'm talking to you. What the hell are you spacing out for?”

Bae Do-hyeon frowned and tightened his grip on my shoulder.

But with a Strength stat of 50, my body had already surpassed human limits and didn't budge an inch.

“Well, look at this bastard. Hey, this fucker's tensing up? You little shit. Hey, aren't you going to relax?”

Bae Do-hyeon's eyes narrowed. Apparently, he was offended that my shoulder wouldn't bend the way he wanted.

—SMACK!!!

Bae Do-hyeon's palm struck my face.

A Strength stat of 50.

But my Durability was only 6.

In an instant, the metallic taste of blood burst inside my mouth.

“Hey, Sniper. Aren't you going to lower those fucking eyes?”

Should I crush him right now?

Was it because of the Resonance of Sin skill I'd just experienced? My fists clenched before I even realized it. But then I remembered the seven pairs of eyes watching us.

“I-I'm sorry!! I was just really nervous!!”

—THUD!!!

Bae Do-hyeon's foot slammed into my abdomen.

Pain so intense it made my hair stand on end.

“Fuck, you pathetic little bitch. If you're scared, then act like you're scared. Ah, I'm in a seriously shitty mood now. You fucking bastard. You're dead. I swear I'll make you kill yourself before I get released. What? Fuck. You think I can't do it?”

“Hyung, calm down. You've got your review coming up soon.”

“That's right, boss. Don't waste your precious time on a bastard like this. Let's just break him down slowly, like you always do. Remember what you said, boss? Making someone commit suicide is way more cost-effective than killing them yourself.”

“That's right, hyung. You said that back then. That bitch nearly fucked everything up by reporting you, but once you made her commit suicide, what was it? No right of prosecution? Anyway, you said it all worked out because of that. You said the best way to kill someone was to make them commit suicide without getting your own hands dirty.”

No right of prosecution?

Those words, which those ignorant bastards were throwing around without even understanding their actual meaning, struck me more painfully than the kick to my stomach.

“Fuck, when that bitch went into the police station back then, I really thought my whole life was about to go to shit. But the dumb bitch came crawling right back out on her own. I saw it in some drama. If a bastard under investigation dies, the case ends because there's no right of prosecution or something, right? Well, that wasn't exactly what happened in my case. Anyway, I got off cheap with just a couple of years when my whole life could've been ruined. Ah, fuck, just thinking about it pisses me off again. If that crazy bitch hadn't gone to the police station, I wouldn't have had to rot in prison for two whole years. Fuck.”

Bae Do-hyeon's mocking words echoed throughout Cell Number 7.

Lying facedown on the floor, I swallowed the blood trickling between my lips.

Two years.

That's right. A mere two years.

Then was that really a just price for the life of a sixteen-year-old girl?

I didn't know. But at the very least, that was what the laws of the Republic of Korea, watched over by blind Justice, had decided.

But I thought differently.

And so, Bae Do-hyeon, the evildoer upon whom the laws of the Republic of Korea had arbitrarily bestowed mercy in place of his victim.

Now it was my turn to judge him as I saw fit.

© Myoyeop#12ipk

Author's Note

The title will be changed tomorrow.

I realized I'd chosen a title that was far too removed from current trends. I'll be changing it to a single sentence that captures the entire story.

The new title will be

'The Law Wouldn't Kill Them, So I Just Killed Them'

.

I hope the new title manages to attract a little more attention.

Thank you!!