DS 19

In the pitch-black night, the coldly floating moon looked strange. As though something pierced by a fingernail, the thin, long moon looked somehow unstable. Below it, Noona approached.

“Eun-myeong, I thought something had happened to you.”

Noona came down from the wooden floor barefoot, and limping, and stood in the yard. With a voice full of tears, she approached from the dishevelled house.

“You weren’t answering the phone, and when I came, everything was like this…”

Her cold hands without warmth grabbed both of Eun-myeong’s cheeks. The soft flesh crumpled miserably under the pressure.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Noona’s pupils were wide open. Eun-myeong imagined Noona repeatedly calling the house. She must have come home anxious when he didn’t answer, even though she had prepared two tickets planning to escape quickly. And she must have been shocked seeing the house in such chaos. Eun-myeong had felt the same way all along.

“Why are you with those people…”

She cast a wary glance over Eun-myeong’s shoulder,  looking at the man. He could read the emotion clearly embedded in her small eyes. It was definitely fear, similar to the emotion Eun-myeong held in his heart.

“Why are you with gangsters? Did something happen because of me…”

Eun-myeong quickly shook his head. All they had done was lie in a nice hotel, eat good food, and take a hot bath. He had enjoyed luxuries he would never experience in his lifetime. Even if he died right now, it would be a good death.

“No, I’ve been living well. Eating well, staying somewhere warm…”

Seeing his older sister’s dirty appearance made him feel more sorry and guilty, and their heads lowered.

“I’m so relieved, I was worried something bad had happened to you. I kept blaming myself for leaving you alone, over and over…”

Though they were almost the same height, his older sister looked up at him. Seeing her eyes brimming with tears made Eun-myeong’s eyes grow red. He never imagined that he would see that she was safe like this; seeing her fine safe and sound like a dream.

“Why…”

Eun-myeong had a lot of things he wanted to ask. But….

“Did the director bother you again?”

This was the first question Eun-myeong asked Noona. He had been so shocked seeing the director’s name jutting out like a nail in the notebook. How could bad fate be so cruel and persistent? Noona bit her lips.

“That bastard director ordered it.”

The words that followed made everything seem to go dark.

“The director told the restaurant owner to bring in drugs hidden in crab shells.”

The director’s face flashed before his eyes. Those hypocritical eyes, that cunning mouth. The orphanage director known as ‘Angel’s Mark,’ appearing on the news several times, was actually pure evil. He starved children at every chance, abused them, committed fraud, and sold Omegas like him for high prices.

“The restaurant owner said if I didn’t shape up, he’d sell us both to a shrimp boat…!”

Behind them came the sound of the man’s shoe heels approaching.

“Noona, st-stop…”

As Eun-myeong whispered, worried the man might hear, his arm appeared from behind and separated them. Then he pulled Eun-myeong toward his chest.

“You’re his Noona?”

A hot, firm chest pressed against their back. Eun-myeong gasped.

“Fuck, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

The cigarette smoke curling between his fingers separated Eun-myeong from his Noona.

“Thanks to you, I couldn’t sleep or eat, and now I look like hell.”

His Noona pressed her lips together. Though her eyes were fierce, fear lurked in them. She seemed frightened seeing the man who was much bigger than her.

“How could you think of hiding drugs in crab shells, don’t you feel sorry for the little crabs?”

Noona’s small chin trembled. Eun-myeong secretly hoped she would say it wasn’t true, that she had been falsely accused.

“Just let Eun-myeong go. He didn’t know anything, it was my mistake so you should just take the people involved. The restaurant owner, me, and the director.”

Noona confessed everything. The situation had come this far, and there was nowhere left to run, pushed to the end. She seemed to think there was no use struggling anymore. Eun-myeong’s chest hurt as if someone was slicing his heart with a sashimi knife.

“Take you with the boss?”

The man’s eyes narrowed. A pleased smile crossed his sharp features. He leaned his head to the side and whispered to Eun-myeong.

“Your Noona says so; what do you think?”

What should we do, his hot breath pooled by Eun-myeong’s ears. Noona didn’t know that the restaurant owner had already died at this man’s hands. Right here, in this yard.

“Will the baby go and  wash the sauce jars?”

The moment they first met this man flashed through their mind. The yard was stained red, the sharp smell of blood filling their nostrils, the hand hanging from the sauce jars, and the mysterious man standing like a telephone pole in the yard.

As his thoughts raced to the worst-case scenario, suddenly everything clicked. The realization that everything was exactly the same as back then. Only the target was different. Then it was the restaurant owner, and now it was Noona…

“Actually, I told her to do it.”

The words burst out hastily from my lips before I could organize my thoughts. 

Noona’s eyes grew wide in shock.

“What are you saying? You, what are you…!”

“I was the one who persuaded Noona to make money at the sushi restaurant. Noona did nothing wrong.”

The man’s eyebrows twitched. His mouth twisted strangely. The ashen cigarette butt stretched long before suddenly breaking off its unnecessary waist like a lizard’s tail.

“What are you talking about! Why are you lying, you…”

Noona grabbed Eun-myeong’s clothes. She tried to raise her hand to cover Eun-myeong’s mouth, but the man lifted his chin and pointed at her.

“Take her away.”

From behind, Bear lunged forward and grabbed Noona’s shoulders with both hands. Eun-myeong was afraid he might strike Noona, but fortunately, he just lifted her like a package and carried her into the house.

“Let go! I’m going to report you to the police! You bastards, scum of the earth, trash like you are what’s tai ting this society!”

Noona frantically swung her arms and legs, striking Bear’s shoulders and abdomen with her elbows. Though the impacts made thudding sounds as she used all her strength, Bear just looked annoyed.

“Go ahead and try whatever you want! You have no idea what I’ve been through to get here, you sons of bitches!”

Noona caused a commotion, even spitting. Eun-myeong watched her with a worried expression, concerned she might get hurt. Bear took Noona inside the house, slammed the door shut, and blocked it with his back. Bang bang! Noona pounded on the door furiously.

“Eun-myeong, don’t listen to these bastards! Just run away quickly!”

As Eun-myeong was watching the door, the man’s hand grabbed his face. He turned Eun-myeong’s head to face him, as if demanding attention.

“Interesting.”

The man’s face came very close to Eun-myeong’s.

“Hmm? Keep going.”

Though Noona’s voice continued shouting something from behind, Eun-myeong continued speaking while trembling. Sweat dripped down nape from nervousness, gleaming with a smooth sheen in the moonlight.

“The sushi restaurant owner told me… if I hid drugs in crab shells and sold them, I could make a lot of money. The notebook isn’t Noona’s, it’s mine.”

To the orphanage children, the director’s office was truly an object of terror. Everything in there became a weapon to crush their bodies. One day it was a golf club, another day a hangar from the closet, and another day a special commendation certificate.

When someone went into the director’s office, every child in the orphanage knew. It was because of the groans coming from inside. It couldn’t have been more terrifying. It was like a thick wall of fear they had to break through. When it was revealed that Eun-myeong wasn’t an Omega, he couldn’t eat or sleep, just getting beaten indiscriminately. It was Noona who broke through the window to help him.

“……”

Because of this, my Noona also had to starve for five days. She got out of the orphanage with 1 million won, the money the government gave her. The orphanage, which forced them to work as slaves, did not let them go until they were adults, but they could only get out on the condition that they received a self-support grant of 5 million won to 1 million won.I thought I was free from the director, but my sister was still tied to him. What could I do wrong to her?

“I’ll pay you back, I’ll do anything.”

The man said in a voice that sounded like a bottomless abyss.

“Even something dangerous?”

“Yes, above, even dangerous things….”

Eun-myeong didn’t have a very good imagination, and the most dangerous thing he could think of was climbing a tall building to wash windows. It’s a job that puts your life on the line, so they pay very well.

I hid my fear of heights, but I was willing to do the job. I have nothing, and this is the only way I can repay the debt I owe to my sister.

But the next words had Eun-myeong imagining something completely different.

“The hole is ragged and tattered.”

Eun-myeong swallowed hard.

“Something so dirty and painful that you have to crawl on all fours?”