By Zephyria 
On a night as black as ink, the moon hung aloof and eerie. Thin and long, as if poked by a fingernail, the moon looked unstable. Beneath it, his Noona approached.
“Eun-myeong, I thought something had happened to you.”
Limping, Noona stepped off the wooden porch barefoot and stood in the yard. With a voice thick with tears, she approached him, having escaped the wreckage of their home.
“You weren’t answering the phone, and when I got here, it was a disaster….”
Cold hands, devoid of warmth, gripped Eun-myeong’s cheeks. The soft flesh yielded easily, squishing under the pressure.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Noona’s pupils were wide. Eun-myeong imagined her calling the house repeatedly. She had probably been thinking only of preparing two tickets to flee quickly, and when he didn’t answer, she must have grown anxious and come home.
And she must have been shocked to see the house in shambles. Eun-myeong had felt the same way the entire time.
“Why are you with those people….”
She cast a wary glance over Eun-myeong’s shoulder. She was likely observing the man. The emotion clearly etched into her small eyes was readable. It resembled the emotion Eun-myeong held in his own heart; it was undoubtedly fear.
“Why are you with gangsters? Did something happen to you because of me….”
Eun-myeong quickly shook his head. All he had done was lay his body in a nice hotel, eat delicious food, and bathe in hot water. He had enjoyed luxuries he would never experience in a lifetime. Even if he died right now, it would be a good death.
“No, I was doing well. I ate well, I stayed somewhere warm….”
Seeing Noona’s scruffy appearance made him feel even more sorry and guilty, and his head bowed low.
“Thank goodness. I was so worried something might have happened to you. I kept blaming myself, over and over, for not coming with you….”
Their eye levels were nearly the same, but Noona looked up at Eun-myeong slightly. Looking into her eyes, brimming with tears, Eun-myeong’s own eyes began to moisten. He hadn’t known he would see her safe with his own eyes; seeing her intact felt like a dream.
“Why….”
Eun-myeong had so many things he wanted to say, so many things he wanted to ask. But.
“Did the Director bully you again?”
This was the first question Eun-myeong asked his Noona. He couldn’t describe how shocked he was to see the Director’s name sticking out of the notebook like a nail. How could a bad connection be this vicious and persistent?
Noona bit her lower lip.
“That bastard Director ordered it.”
The words that followed made his vision go dark.
“The Director told the sashimi restaurant owner to put drugs in the crab shells and bring them in.”
The Director’s face flashed before his eyes. Those hypocritical eyes, that cunning mouth. The orphanage director, known to be an ‘angel’ to the point of appearing on the news several times, was actually the embodiment of malice. Every chance he got, he starved the children, committed routine abuse, ran scams, and selected Omegas like him to sell for high prices.
“The sashimi restaurant owner told me that if I didn’t snap out of it, she’d sell both of us to a shrimp boat…!”
Step, step. He heard the sound of the man’s shoe heels approaching from behind.
“Noona, please, stop….”
Eun-myeong trailed off, fearing the man might hear, but the man’s forearm appeared from behind, separating him from Noona. Then, he pulled Eun-myeong toward his chest.
“Is this the sister?”
A hot, firm chest pressed against his back. Eun-myeong gasped.
“Fuck, I really worked my cock off looking for you.”
The cigarette smoke curling between the man’s fingers acted as a barrier between Noona and him.
“Thanks to that, I couldn’t sleep or eat, so I’m a total mess.”
Noona’s lips tightened. She tried to put strength in her eyes, but fear was actually dwelling in her pupils. She seemed terrified of the man, who was far larger than her.
“How do you even think of hiding drugs in a crab shell? Don’t you feel sorry for the crabs?”
Noona’s small chin trembled. Inwardly, Eun-myeong hoped she would say it wasn’t true, that she had been falsely accused.
“Just let Eun-myeong go. He didn’t know anything. I’m the one who did it, so just take the people involved. The sashimi restaurant owner, me, and the Director.”
Noona confessed everything. Since the situation had rolled this far, she had been pushed to the end with nowhere left to run. She seemed to believe that struggling any further would be useless. Eun-myeong’s heart ached as if someone were slicing it with a sashimi knife.
“Take her and the owner together?”
The man’s eyes narrowed. A pleased smile played across his sharp features. He leaned his head to the side and whispered to Eun-myeong.
“Your sister says to do that.”
What should he do? Hot breath pooled in Eun-myeong’s ear. Noona didn’t know. She didn’t know that the sashimi restaurant owner had already died by this man’s hand. Right here, in this very yard.
“Is the baby going to go wash the jars?”
The moment he first met this man flashed through his mind. The yard stained crimson, the fishy smell of blood filling his nostrils, the hand spilling out from the jars, and the mysterious man standing in the yard like a telephone pole.
As his thought process veered toward the horrific, his mind suddenly settled. He realized that everything was the same as then. Only the target was different. Back then it was the sashimi restaurant owner, and now it was Noona….
“Actually, I ordered it.”
Before he could organize his thoughts, the words burst hastily from his lips. Noona’s eyes grew wide as saucers.
“What does that mean? You, what are you saying…!”
“I coaxed Noona into making money together at the sashimi restaurant. Noona did nothing wrong.”
The man’s eyebrow twitched and arched upward. His mouth twisted strangely. The grey, burnt cigarette butt lengthened for a moment, then snap, he broke off the unnecessary half like a lizard’s tail.
“What do you mean by that! Why are you lying, you….”
Noona grabbed onto Eun-myeong’s clothes. She reached up to cover Eun-myeong’s mouth, but the man tilted his chin and pointed at Noona.
“Take her.”
Bear approached from behind with heavy steps and grabbed Noona’s shoulders with both hands. Eun-myeong feared he might strike her, but fortunately, he simply lifted her like a piece of luggage and moved her inside the house.
“Let me go! I’ll report you to the police! You bastards, you scum, it’s because of people like you that this society is rotting!”
Noona flailed her arms and legs wildly, striking Bear’s shoulders and abdomen with her elbows. She seemed to be using all her strength, as thumping sounds echoed, but Bear only looked bored to death.
“Go ahead and try! Do you know what I had to see to get here, you sons of bitches!”
Ptui! Spitting as well, Noona made a desperate scene. Eun-myeong looked at her with a worried face. He feared she might get hurt.
Bear simply dumped Noona inside the house, slammed the door shut, and blocked it with his back. Bang, bang! Noona pounded on the door as if she wanted to break it.
“Eun-myeong, don’t listen to these bastards! Just run away quickly!”
While Eun-myeong was staring at the door, the man’s hand grabbed Eun-myeong’s face. He fixed his head, as if demanding he look at him.
“Interesting.”
The man’s face came close to Eun-myeong’s.
“Hmm? Keep going.”
Noona’s loud shouting continued from behind, but Eun-myeong continued speaking, trembling. Due to the tension, sweat soaked his neckline. It glistened with a smooth sheen under the moonlight.
“The sashimi restaurant owner told me… that if I hid drugs in crab shells and sold them, I could make a lot of money, so I did it. The notebook isn’t Noona’s, it’s mine.”
To the children of the orphanage, the director’s office was a literal object of terror. Once inside, all sorts of things became weapons that crushed their bodies. One day it was a golf club, another day a hanger from the closet, and another day a special commendation plaque.
Whenever someone entered the director’s office, every child in the orphanage knew. It was because of the groans heard from inside. It was unimaginably terrifying. It was like a thick wall of fear that had to be broken through.
When it was revealed that Eun-myeong was not an Omega, and he was being beaten indiscriminately without eating or sleeping, it was Noona who broke the window and came in for him.
“…….”
Because of that, both Noona and Eun-myeong had to go without food for five whole meals.
And they left the orphanage after receiving 1 million won, the money provided by the state. The orphanage, which forced them into grueling labor, wouldn’t let the children go even after they became adults, but they were able to escape on the condition that they only received 1 million won each from the 5 million won independence support fund.
He thought he had escaped the Director. But Noona was still tied to the Director. What fault could such a Noona possibly have?
“I’ll pay back the debt, I’ll do anything.”
The man asked in a voice as deep as a swamp.
“Even dangerous things?”
“Yes, da-dangerous things too….”
Eun-myeong’s imagination wasn’t very good. The only dangerous thing he could think of was climbing a tall building to clean windows. Since it was a job that risked one’s life, he heard the pay was very high.
Although Eun-myeong was afraid of heights, he could do such a job. Since he had nothing, this was the only way he could pay back the debt he owed his Noona.
However, the words that followed made Eun-myeong imagine something entirely different.
“Something where your hole gets torn to shreds.”
Gulp. Eun-myeong swallowed hard.
“Something incredibly dirty and painful, where you have to crawl on all fours?”