*This article contains a trigger warning.
Trigger Warning: A warning message that warns users to be careful because the content may contain unhealthy material that may cause or stimulate trauma.
"Thank you for your hard work. I'll go first."
5 a.m. is the beginning and end of the day for some. At that hour, Yeoju finished her part-time job at a convenience store and walked back to her studio apartment, exhausted. Yeoju has worked at a gas station, a cafe, a study room, a convenience store—every part-time job you can imagine. She has one wish: to live like everyone else.
The loan sharks' gambling and violence, reminiscent of dramas, are commonplace for the female protagonist. Her mother left home shortly after she was born, and her father, who was supposed to be her father, would come home drunk every night. Each time, bruises would appear on her body.If it weren't for you, it wouldn't have happened like thisMerciless violence and verbal abuse were poured out on the female protagonist.
When Yeo-ju was 16, her father, driven to massive debt by daily gambling, soon became unmanageable and committed suicide by hanging himself at home. Yeo-ju was left to shoulder the entire debt. Even though she had barely graduated from middle school, her father, as her only surviving relative, had no choice. As a result, a normal school life was out of the question.
The only sounds on the road were the wind and the growling of Yeoju's stomach. Perhaps it was because she'd only eaten one triangle kimbap from the convenience store that morning, but the sound was louder than usual. Of course, it wasn't much different from any other day. Maybe she'd just eaten one or two more triangle kimbap, sandwiches, and hamburgers?
In fact, the house where the female protagonist lived wasn't even a studio apartment, but a semi-basement apartment built just enough for someone to live in. In the winter, the taps in her one-room apartment, about 16 square meters (approximately 5 pyeong), froze, rendering the water inoperable. In the summer, flies hatched eggs and the bathroom was teeming with them. And the bathroom light always flickered.
I wish someone would fix the bathroom light, but the reality is that there's no one to fix it and I don't have money to buy a light. "Oh, right, the rent... I told you to vacate if you don't pay by tomorrow..." The woman sighed after seeing the text message from the landlady telling her to vacate if she didn't send the overdue rent by today, wondering why she was receiving such a high rent for a house that's only about 5 pyeong.
As she was trudging along with her thoughts wandering, the female protagonist's gaze stopped at a tall electronic billboard. The electronic billboard read, "Thank you for being born! ... You are our reason for living and our joy..." It was a billboard celebrating the birthday of a member of a girl group. "... You're so pathetic... It's hard enough to make a living, so why are you celebrating someone else's birthday..." The female protagonist looked at the billboard and couldn't remember when she had last received a proper birthday celebration. Was the last time she had seaweed soup, which was commonly eaten on other people's birthdays, during the school lunch in elementary school?
After climbing the seemingly endless stairs for several minutes, Yeoju entered an alley lined with houses that looked like they could collapse at any moment. As she followed the dim light from a distant streetlight, someone grabbed her arm.
"Why are you so late... I thought I'd lose my neck waiting."
I doubted it, but a man stood guard at the entrance to the apartment. His face was covered in scars and scratches. The man had a tattoo peeking out from under his shirt, and around his neck, he wore a gold necklace and bracelet. Anyone could tell he was a loan shark. The woman's face was pale, and his eyes were slightly fluttering.
"Hey... I said today was the last day I'd be looking after you... You didn't really not bring it, did you?"
Behind the man's hand was a baseball bat made of metal. Small, hardened bloodstains could be seen here and there on the bat. Just as the woman thought, "Ah... if I get hit with that, I'll really die...", the loan shark touched the bat a few times with his hand, then struck the woman's front door several times before completely destroying it.
"···············."
The female protagonist was so shocked that she couldn't say anything, and her hands just trembled. "··Just··one week. I'll definitely give you the money within this week···" The man who was listening to the female protagonist started to laugh as if he found the situation amusing.
"··A week? Why should I listen to you? ···I told you that if I didn't have money, I could sell my body or do manual labor.··"
"···Okay, just give me a week and I'll figure out how to get the money within that time!!!! ···"
As the female protagonist continued speaking, the man kicked her in the stomach. She gasped for breath, perhaps because his foot hit her dead center. The man kicked her leg as if nothing had happened, as she lay hugging her stomach. “Where’s the money? Money… I told you I’d leave right away if you just gave me the money?” As the female protagonist gasped for breath and couldn’t say anything, the man shouted at her, clearly angry, demanding an answer. He picked up a baseball bat that had fallen on the floor and struck her in the leg.
"···j··please··."
The woman grabbed the man's leg and pleaded, "I'll do anything to save you." The man smiled and said, "Really? Really? Anything?" He crouched down toward her. She looked around, saw a broken soju bottle lying there, and reached out.
"...Oh my god, are you trying to kill me with this?" The man noticed the woman trying to take the shard of glass and trampled on her hand with his foot. The alleyway, filled with the dawn air, was filled with her screams. She had often thought about wanting to die, but when the moment came when she could actually die, she desperately wanted to live. Using all her strength, she grabbed the man's head with her other hand and pushed him back. The loan shark fell, tripped on a rock, and twisted his ankle.
"··ㅇ·Oh shit···You really lost···."
The heroine barely managed to get up from her staggering body, grabbed a half-broken soju bottle that had fallen to the floor, and slammed it into the man's head. "··Ahhh!!! ···" The heroine looked around and discovered the baseball bat the man had been holding earlier, limping over to pick it up. The man shouted at her as she walked towards him, covered in blood and the bat in one hand. "N··You··If you kill me with that, you know you'll go to jail, right···?"
Tears fell from the heroine's eyes. But she soon smiled as if it was okay, saying, "... If we're going to live like this, wouldn't it be better if we both died?"
The alley was now filled with the man's deep voice, not the woman's screams. She kept hitting him, hitting him, and hitting him again until the man's screams faded. As if she were releasing all the accumulated resentment, her face was filled with madness, and her appearance was no different from that of a demon.
Now, perhaps exhausted, Yeoju put down her baseball bat and leaned against the wall. With her bloody hands, she wiped away the tears that flowed endlessly, making it look as if she were shedding tears of blood. Suddenly, a phone began ringing from somewhere. It was the loan shark's cell phone. Yeoju seemed to snap back to her senses at the sound.
Everything was wrong: a bloody, trembling hand, a man's blood on a baseball bat, a corpse with an unrecognizable face and a bottle of soju stuck in the corpse.
Yeoju picked up her phone, which had fallen to the ground, and started running. She ran, ran, and kept running. As people passed by, one by one, they all looked at her strangely. Her hair was almost completely undone, half her face was covered in blood, and it was impossible to tell what color her pants had originally been. The sun was beginning to rise, and the pitch-black night was turning into an orange sky.
"··This is crazy, really···."
Yeoju went into the public restroom and locked the door. Looking in the mirror, she saw that the white T-shirt she was wearing, with its loose collar, and the navy checkered shirt she was wearing underneath were stained with blood. Her face was covered in tear stains and bloodstains. She washed her hands and face thoroughly with the soap in the sink. As she washed her hands and face, tears began to fall from her eyes again. She finally collapsed and burst into tears like a child.
As she wiped away her tears and tried to calm herself, someone called with her caller ID blocked. Why at this hour? Yeo-ju thought it was really strange. She'd never received a call from a caller ID before, so it was really strange that she would get a call after killing someone. She swallowed hard and answered the phone. "··hello? ··" When Yeo-ju asked who it was, silence fell.
- "···So what if I kill you?···Do you feel a little better now?"
"··Who are you····."
-"·····You'll find out soon···but it was more unexpected than I thought? ··I thought you wouldn't be able to kill him··."
"··What the... Are you a police officer? ··."
-"··If I were a police officer, wouldn't you have been caught by now? ···Don't worry, I have no intention of reporting you."
"···If I hadn't killed him, I would have died···."
-"Yes, when the moment of death comes, everyone wants to live..."
"I really had no choice... I just wanted to live..."
-"···Then do you want to make a deal with me? ···."
