By Zephyria That guy must be sweating bullets. I told him not to report it if he wanted his son alive and to wait for my call. Of course. I heard the kid’s mom fainted. I’ll go to the village and contact you. The kid? We have to quietly get rid of him after we’re done. He saw our faces. Don’t worry. We’ll get as much as we can.
At the faint voices, Choi Won-joon forced his heavy eyelids open. How many days has it been…? He was waiting for the driver after school when someone approached him. It wasn’t Park, the driver who came every day, but he readily believed it was a new employee.
As soon as Won-joon got in the car, he fell asleep. And when he opened his eyes, he was tied up in an unfamiliar place. At first, he cried and begged for his life. The men didn’t even pretend to listen, and Won-joon gradually grew tired.
Afraid of dying in his sleep, he desperately held on, and he lost track of time. The lack of sleep slowed down his brain activity, leaving him with no energy to even think.
The warehouse door opened with a bizarre sound, and light poured in.
Won-joon quietly closed his eyes.
“Hey, kid.”
“What? Is he dead or what?”
“No. He’s breathing. Hey. Open your eyes.”
He barely managed to open his eyes and saw two burly men in front of him. One was wearing a black suit, and the other was wearing military pants and boots. From what he’d observed over the past few days, the man in the suit seemed to be the leader. The man in boots seemed a bit clumsy.
“Sit him up.”
The man in boots forcibly pulled the collapsed Won-joon up. Then the man in the suit turned on the camera.
“Choi Won-joon. From now on, do as I say. You see the camera? Look at it and say, ‘Father, please save me. I want to live. Please save me.’ Got it?”
Won-joon stared blankly with a dazed expression, and the man squatted down with a cigarette in his mouth. When there was no reaction even after waving his hand in front of his eyes, he slapped him across the face. With a smack, he fell limply to the side, and the man in boots fidgeted.
“Hyung…. He’s still just a kid….”
“Hey, Lee-eum. Don’t have any unnecessary thoughts. We’re going to get rid of him as soon as we get the money anyway. Now, get him up.”
Even after being pulled up again, there was no change in Won-joon’s expression. The man held the cigarette to Won-joon’s eyes and waved it around.
“This bastard’s eyes are completely gone. The first day, he was crying and clinging to my pants and even peed himself. Snap out of it, you little shit! Don’t you want to say a final goodbye to your mom and dad, huh?”
When he reacted to the words “mom and dad,” the man grabbed Won-joon’s chin and examined him from side to side.
“This little brat is surprisingly tough. Look at him holding on because he’s afraid he’ll die if he sleeps. That’s the survival instinct. But what a pity. Fate isn’t on your side. Come on, snap out of it. Just do what I tell you. Let me live too. Huh?”
Won-joon moved his lips. Mom, Dad. Please save me…. I’m here…. I want to live…. I want to go home…. His tears had long dried up, and his voice was hoarse and wouldn’t come out. While he was just gaping like a fish, blood trickled down his nose. The man smiled with satisfaction and captured the scene on camera.
“Okay. This isn’t bad either. If I were your parents, my heart would break and my blood would boil when I saw this. That means the amount of money we should get will increase, right? Good job, kid.”
The man in the suit took the camera and repeatedly told the man in boots to keep a close eye on the kid. As the man in the suit disappeared and the sound of the car faded away, Won-joon weakly dropped his head.
Then, the sound of a machine followed – drrr. The man in boots used wood for fuel and cut logs with a chainsaw whenever he had the chance. After a while, the sound stopped, and the man brought a bowl of rice. The rice, which contained beans, smelled strongly of rot.
The man who brought the bowl of rice tilted his head. Normally, the man in the suit would watch Choi Won-joon eat, but today he was alone, so he seemed to be wondering what to do.
“I’ll untie your hands, so don’t do anything stupid. Or you’re dead.”
Won-joon nodded obediently, and the man untied his hands and went outside. The warehouse door closed completely, and a thin ray of light seeped through the gap. Won-joon sat down on the floor and stared blankly at the rice.
Then, with trembling hands, he grabbed the rice and brought it to his mouth. The rice grains were rolling around, and it was hard to eat because of the smell, but he forced it down and mechanically moved his jaw. It must be the instinct to survive, as the man in the suit said. After swallowing the remaining rice, Won-joon staggered to his feet and went to the door.
He carefully pushed the door with force, but it wouldn’t budge. Won-joon’s eyes fell on the window as he looked around. He stacked the plastic boxes nearby and climbed up, but he couldn’t reach it.
When he brought a chair and stacked it precariously, he could finally see outside the window. On one side, the man in boots was playing loud music and chopping wood with an ax.
He carefully pushed the window, and it creaked, creating a gap. Fortunately, the man didn’t hear it because it was drowned out by the music. This time, he stuck his hand through the gap and pushed it to the side with all his might.
Creak – the sound of metal scraping, and finally the window opened. The man didn’t notice, and Won-joon climbed onto the windowsill. It was narrow, but he judged that it was big enough to escape.
He straddled the windowsill and wiggled to get out, but he lost his balance and leaned forward. Unfortunately, he fell onto the haphazardly stacked furniture, and the man chopping firewood realized something was wrong at the sound of the crash and turned around.
He found Won-joon rolling around under the window, and his face turned fierce. The man stuck the ax he was holding into the log, turned off the music, and strode towards him.
“You, you little rat!”
Won-joon staggered to his feet, but the man was one step faster. He grabbed him by the collar and dragged him like a dog, shouting. That’s why Hyung told me not to be nice to you! That’s why! Because humans betray you!
As he tried to throw him into the warehouse, Won-joon desperately clung to the man’s arm and bit his fingers until they cracked. “Aaaagh!” The man screamed and threw Won-joon to the ground, and blood dripped from his fingers.
“You really! You won’t come to your senses unless you get beaten!”
The man rushed at him and reached out, but the short Won-joon quickly ducked and ran to the other side. But unfortunately, he tripped over the cut logs and fell, and in that gap, the man came closer, breathing heavily like a bull.
“You’re going to get beaten today. You need to get some mental education from me before Hyung comes!”
Won-joon, terrified at the sight of the man rolling up his sleeves, turned his head. Then he found the chainsaw and his eyes widened. He had watched the man holding the saw and cutting wood several times when the door was open. The chainsaw was powerful enough to cut through logs in an instant.
When he came to his senses, the saw was already in Won-joon’s hand. Before the man rushing at him could stop, the saw blade mangled the back of his arm. Papapap! Blood splattered in an instant, and the surprised man lost his balance and fell backward.
“Uaaagh! My arm! My arm! Aaaagh!”
At the ear-splitting scream, Won-joon momentarily picked up the chainsaw and ran at the man. The man reached out to defend himself. Black eyes, terrified, not befitting his large frame. An infant smiling, reflected in his pupils. And then, his two arms being cut off….
Don’t resent me.
Just as you kidnapped me to live, I did that to live too.
In the darkness, Won-joon slowly lifted his eyelids. He stared blankly at the air, then got up, turned on the light, and checked the time. It was 3 a.m. He had barely taken his medicine and fallen asleep at midnight.
Damn it. Even though he increased the dosage, his sleeping time had shortened, and the grogginess lasted until noon. As the vicious cycle repeated, he wondered if it would ever be fixed. And to top it off, he had a shitty dream today.
Won-joon tried to go back to sleep. He repeatedly put on and took off his eye mask and changed his position several times. But as time passed, he couldn’t fall asleep, and his mind remained awake in a drowsy and sleepy state.
“Damn it.”
He finally jumped out of bed. He was supposed to take an early morning flight to a construction site in the provinces, but if he went like this, he would pass out as soon as he sat in the airplane seat.
When he came out to the living room, the outside of the window had already turned bluish. Won-joon sat on the sofa with a tired face and tilted his head back as far as he could. As soon as he closed his eyes, he strangely thought of Kim Yi-eum, whom he had met last night.
He felt good when he recalled the image of him kicking the bouquet of flowers in anger. How could a grown adult, a burly man, be cute when he was angry and trembling? Had he ever felt anyone was cute in his life?
He had gained pleasure from tormenting people, but tormenting Kim Yi-eum was a different feeling. Because of Kim Yi-eum, who wouldn’t leave his head, Won-joon frowned and chuckled quietly.
“Shit, this is a bit dangerous.”