By Zephyria 
However, I couldn’t sigh as there was tape over my mouth. I could only exhale a breath of futility through my nose.
Still, the fortunate thing was that I had regained consciousness before anything worse happened, and there was no one watching me. It seemed best to escape from here before the situation worsened.
After assessing the situation, I concluded that I needed to escape and checked my bound body.
Not only my mouth but also my wrists, ankles, arms, and torso were tightly wrapped with duct tape. I tried to exert force on my arms, but the several layers of duct tape, woven tightly warp and weft, didn’t budge, let alone break.
This time, I wriggled my whole body, twisting my lying position. Although my limbs were not free, I could create some movement by bending my entire body. That was enough.
I twisted the muscles of my stiff, aching body. Fortunately, whoever put me here had some conscience, as I was placed on a small, albeit old and worn, mattress, so my skin didn’t scrape against the concrete floor.
Stretching my bound arms as far down behind me as possible, I just managed to reach my shoes. I hooked my fingers around my heel and fiddled. It took all my effort just to take off one shoe.
After fiddling for a long time, I succeeded in taking off one shoe. Then, lying on my side, I used the momentum of my upper and lower body to shift my position. With my bound hands, I fumbled on the floor and grabbed the removed shoe.
It was a movement of only a few meters, yet beads of sweat formed on my forehead. It wasn’t easy doing this while bound, holding my breath, and paying attention to any outside sounds. I put my hand inside the shoe and moved my fingers like wriggling worms.
With effort, I managed to find the hairpin I had tucked under the shoe’s insole, repeatedly nudging the shoe with my heel to keep it in place as it kept trying to shift in odd directions.
‘Got it!’
I felt a surge of gratitude towards my past self. In fact, ever since I entered this world of internet novels and realized how rampant delinquents were, I had prepared something just in case, thinking it might be useful someday. That hairpin, hidden under the shoe’s insole, was it.
Because the world setting was so extreme, I had kept it as a precaution, hoping it would be an over-preparation. But the day came when I actually had to use it…
I never imagined it would be this useful, so even I, the one who put the hairpin there, had forgotten about it until I was kidnapped.
While the situation felt absurd, I also felt glad I had prepared. Indeed, the words of the ancient ancestors, that preparation is never a bad thing, were not wrong.
Holding the hairpin at an angle with one hand, I aimed the tip of the hairpin at the surface of the duct tape and pressed down hard. However, perhaps because my hands were bound behind me, I couldn’t exert enough force to pierce the duct tape. Only my fingers holding the sharp, thin hairpin ached. After trying a few more times, I stopped, feeling like I was just wasting my energy. It seemed impossible this way.
How to increase pressure when lacking strength…
I immediately got off the mattress and began grinding the hairpin on the concrete floor, which was full of concrete dust. In between, I pricked my fingers with the hairpin to check its sharpness. It wasn’t grinding as well as I imagined because it was rough, but with the spirit of a craftsman grinding an axe into a needle, I continued to apply consistent force.
The scraping sound was unusually loud. In my anxiety that someone might come to check on me, I repeatedly scraped the floor with the pin and then stopped. Cold sweat began to form on my hands, but in this situation, the best I could do was to untie the duct tape as quickly as possible and escape. I suppressed my impatience. That didn’t mean I had let down my guard against my surroundings. Someone might come at any moment.
Before long, I felt the sweat that had formed on my forehead trickling down my neck. My breathing through my nose became rough.
Sharpening the hairpin wasn’t as easy as it looked in movies. Along with the anxiety and fear of being discovered by the kidnapper at any moment, anger surged at the situation where I had to sharpen a hairpin to escape. Just thinking about what Ban Seo-yi had said made me dizzy…
I exhaled quietly through my nose, calming my excitement. Such emotions would be of no help in returning to a peaceful life. I had to stay calm.
I stopped moving only when I felt a sharp sting when I pricked my finger. I was confident that it was sharp enough now.
I reversed the sharpened hairpin, held it, and pressed it down onto the surface of the duct tape. I felt the sharpened hairpin dig into the duct tape. Moving the hairpin, I tore around it, widening the hole. Little by little, the threads of tape were ripped apart.
The first cut was difficult, but after that, it wasn’t. Once I tore off the duct tape binding my ankles, my lower body was completely free. The hairpin wasn’t long enough to untie my wrists, but I had a plan.
I secured it firmly this time by inserting a hairpin into the sole of my shoe. Then, I wedged the shoe between my knees with the hairpin pointing upwards, and twisted my upper body to bend over it. I pushed the hairpin into the gap between my arm and ribs, under my armpit, and pierced through the duct tape wrapped around my forearm and chest. The hairpin slipped a few times, leading to failures, but I focused and punctured the duct tape repeatedly until it tore. After struggling, the duct tape had mostly come undone.
Even just doing this left me drenched in sweat. All that remained was the duct tape binding my wrists behind my back. However, it wasn’t easy to undo it in that position. This time, I used my heel to grip my shoe and jabbed the hairpin at the duct tape on my wrists.
The hairpin had barely held up when I cut through the tape binding my torso. I thought I could easily free my wrists, but perhaps due to my haste and overexertion, the worn-out hairpin snapped uselessly.
‘Ah, this is…’
Seeing the hairpin break into several short, straight pieces with a clear snap, I felt my strength drain, but I pulled myself together. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.
Now that I couldn’t use a tool…
After a moment of hesitation, I gritted my teeth and decided to use my body’s strength. Still, I had managed to tear some of the tape, so I had to be grateful for the use I got out of the hairpin.
Efforts like this only decrease in success rate with repeated attempts. I took a few breaths, clenched my fists tightly, and lifted my bound arms as high as I could. Then, I tensed my core muscles to keep my body steady and prevent the force from dispersing.
With the thought that this was my last chance, I violently brought my arms down towards my hips. Simultaneously, I accelerated and used the strength of my shoulders to forcefully spread my wrists apart, extending them forward.
Zzzzip.
The persistent duct tape binding my wrists tore away under the immense force. It was worth every ounce of strength I had!
‘It’s a good thing I’m rumored to be sickly…’
If I had been as physically developed as the Four Heavenly Kings or Do Yun-hyeok, or if I had a reputation for being a good fighter, I might not have ended up in such a simple predicament. So, that was one fortunate thing. Of course, they might have underestimated me because of that image and captured me. (And indeed, I was easy to underestimate.)
In any case, I had to be grateful for the flimsy restraints.
I carefully peeled off the duct tape covering my mouth. The sting made my eyes water reflexively. I then tore off the remaining duct tape from my torso, wrists, and ankles. Red marks remained where the tape had bound me.
I was free to move. I had thought I’d be able to move normally after freeing myself, but I had apparently used up all my energy just getting out, and I was already exhausted. But I couldn’t afford to relax. The escape was only just beginning.
There were no kidnappers in the immediate vicinity, but they might be guarding the area. I crouched down, peeking out to survey my surroundings, careful not to be seen through the large window.
Holding my breath, I crept around, looking at everything. It was clearly a building abandoned before construction was completed. The concrete walls, unfinished, had only the remnants of a doorframe where an entrance should be, and in the corners, various insulation materials and scrap lumber from the construction lay in heaps.
Lifting my heels, I moved cautiously and approached the gaping entrance, pressing my body against the wall. I peeked my face out and scanned with my eyes. There was no sign of anyone, not even the sound of breathing. The only things entering and leaving the empty building were the damp, lukewarm summer breeze. The humid, quiet wind brushed past my cheeks and ears.
After roughly surveying the dim corridor, I carefully moved towards the window. The clear sky was now completely covered with dark clouds. Confirming the view outside, I was certain it was an abandoned construction site. When I was lying down, the view outside didn’t seem like it was on the first floor, and looking at the height, it was the second floor.
‘Second floor… I guess I could jump from here.’
As I rolled my eyes to survey the outside for a place to jump, I saw several people sitting with their backs to me on a pile of stacked pipes. I covered my mouth and sank to the ground. Thinking about it again, since they had their backs to me, it wasn’t that surprising.
But just as they say, “You don’t steal unless you’ve stolen before,” it was more absurd that I, who found every element of this situation unfamiliar, was so calm.
Calming my anxious heart, I peeked out as much as possible to check the situation outside. The figures sitting on the pile of pipes were chatting casually. I couldn’t see their faces clearly, but they looked like strangers. I quietly crouched down again.