A Desperate Cry
The call cut off after a single scream-like plea: Help me……! Woojin’s mind went blank. That had been the most desperate SOS Ihwa could ever utter. Had his relief at her silence these past few days been the fatal mistake?
Cold sweat slicked his palm and seeped into the phone. Just then he spotted Semin walking toward him, popcorn bucket in hand, smiling brightly. Woojin bit down on his lip and ran to her.
“Semin, I’m so sorry. Something urgent came up—I have to go.”
“What? The movie’s about to start. What’s going on?”
The bewilderment on Semin’s face pressed a heavy weight of guilt against his chest. But even now, Ihwa’s ragged breathing from the other end of the line hammered in his ears. Woojin gave her shoulder a brief, urgent squeeze.
“...I’m truly sorry. Later—later I’ll explain everything and apologize properly. I’m sorry.”
Before she could stop him, Woojin spun around and sprinted for the theater exit. Semin’s stunned voice chased after him, but he didn’t have a second to look back.
Please. Please let nothing have happened.
Bursting out of the theater, Woojin dialed Ihwa again while gasping for air. Only a cold automated tone answered. He raked a hand through his hair and frantically retraced every memory: the route to her apartment, the places she usually stopped on her way home from work.
He dashed into the street and practically threw himself in front of a passing taxi.
“SI Officetel main entrance—please, as fast as you can!”
The moment he collapsed into the back seat, his heart slammed against his ribs like it wanted to explode. The fragile wall of resolve he had spent the past week building to erase Ihwa from his life was already crumbling from one single scream.
The endless ringing in his ear stretched on mercilessly. No answer came from the other side. The burning dread in his chest made Woojin bite his lip until he tasted blood.
The taxi screeched to a halt in front of SI Officetel. Woojin was out before the door had fully opened. He jabbed the call button again, muttering through the crowded plaza like a curse.
“Pick up, damn it. Fuck—please just pick up…!”
As he shoved his bangs back with a trembling hand and scanned the area, the line that had stayed connected suddenly crackled with static. A voice broke through.
—…Woojin!
“Where are you? Where are you right now?!”
—SI Officetel… back door, the alley behind the back entrance… Aaaah!
The call died completely with her short scream. Woojin didn’t even glance at the screen—he simply ran on instinct toward the dark alley behind the building. His heart felt ready to burst, but he couldn’t stop his legs.
The moment he rounded the corner, he collided hard with someone lunging out of the shadows.
“Ah, sorry—!”
He reflexively apologized and tried to regain his balance, but the other person clung to him with desperate strength, burying themselves against his chest. The breathing against him was violently shaky, and a familiar perfume brushed his nose.
“Seo Ihwa…?”
At the sound of her name in his trembling voice, Ihwa lifted her tear-streaked, terror-filled face. She was shaking like an aspen leaf. With one trembling finger she pointed toward a silhouette standing alone in the unlit part of the alley, far from the streetlamp’s reach.
A grotesque figure in a black hoodie, mask pulled low over the face.
“That… that’s the one… the stalker who’s been following me all week…”
Woojin gripped her ice-cold hand tightly and instinctively pulled her behind his back. He glared at the silhouette with a voice sharp as a blade.
“I’ve already called the police. They’ll be here in five minutes. If you don’t want to get fucked, disappear right now.”
But the stalker didn’t run. Instead, he began walking toward them with eerily slow, deliberate steps. When he finally stepped into the light and ripped off the mask and hood, both Woojin and Ihwa drew in a sharp breath.
“Assistant Manager Choi…!”
It was the man who had been fired—Choi Juim. His eyes were unfocused, his hair matted and greasy, his face gaunt as if he hadn’t slept in days. He was clearly no longer sane. Twisting his facial muscles grotesquely, he jabbed a finger at Woojin.
“Kim Woojin… you fucking bastard, it’s you again?! My life is completely ruined because of you, you know that?!”
“…Pardon?”
Woojin genuinely doubted his own ears. Choi’s veins bulged as he spat.
“You got me blacklisted at the company!! You interfered and now Ihwa hates me! I was a full-time employee at Daehyeop! My future was set! But because of a worthless piece of shit like you, I lost my job, the woman I love despises me…! You destroyed my entire life, you son of a bitch!!!”
The paranoid delusions pouring out of Choi’s mouth were so absurd that Woojin couldn’t even laugh. Beside him, Ihwa let out a hollow “Ha,” equally stunned. After committing assault and stalking, the man was now blaming everyone else. The sheer shameless madness left them both speechless.
Woojin pressed two fingers to his temple, exhausted. “Assistant Manager Choi. You were fired because of what you did. The reason Ihwa dislikes you is simply because you’re disgusting and repulsive. Please, come to your senses.”
“What the hell do you know?! Ihwa wants me too! You ruined my life—so now you’re going to be destroyed the same way!!”
That was when Ihwa, unable to stay silent any longer, delivered the killing blow in a voice thick with venom.
“Stop deluding yourself! A stalker like you is the most disgusting filth in my entire life! So stop blaming Mr. Kim and get the hell out of here!!!”
That single sentence severed the last thread of Choi’s sanity.
“U… uwaaaaaaaaaa—!!!”
He clawed at his own scalp while letting out an inhuman roar, then yanked something shiny from his pocket. A knife with a viciously sharp edge.
Eyes rolled back, Choi raised the blade and charged at them with terrifying speed.
“…!”
Woojin seized Ihwa’s hand and bolted down the narrow alley. But after more than a week of terror and sleepless nights, her stamina was already gone. To make matters worse, the ankle she had twisted earlier gave out completely, sending her body pitching forward.
“Ah…!”
“Ihwa!”
Behind them came the sound of Choi’s ragged breathing and the blade slicing through the air, closing in fast. If that madman caught them, it was over. Woojin didn’t hesitate. He dropped to one knee, slid one arm under her waist and the other beneath her thighs, and lifted her in a single smooth motion.
The sudden weightlessness made Ihwa’s pale face flush crimson. Even in the middle of this nightmare, the unfamiliar closeness flustered her. She clutched the back of his neck and cried out.
“…! Are you insane?! I can run—put me down…!”
“Stop worrying about pride in a situation like this and just stay still!”
Woojin tightened his grip around her waist and tore through the darkness like a man possessed. In the distance, the police siren he had been praying for finally began to wail, sharp and piercing. Red and blue lights raked violently across the dark walls.
Woojin poured every ounce of strength into running toward the main road where the siren grew louder. Choi, eyes wild with fear, seemed to regain some shred of reason at the sound of approaching police. He turned tail and fled into the opposite shadows.
The moment the stalker’s footsteps faded completely, the taut string holding Woojin’s mind together snapped. He collapsed onto the pavement, unable to take another step. Ihwa’s body slumped against him.
Breathing hard, Woojin unconsciously buried his face in the curve of her neck. The breath that left him was a chaotic mix of relief and lingering terror, brushing against her skin.
Only then did he notice how unnaturally quiet she had become. Drained by extreme tension and exhaustion, Ihwa had lost consciousness in his arms.
Woojin shook her thin shoulders desperately. “Seo Ihwa! Wake up!”
A police car slammed on its brakes right in front of them.
...
Woojin helped load the unconscious Ihwa into the flashing police car and rushed her to the nearest hospital. In the emergency room, only the steady mechanical beeps beyond the curtain disturbed the silence.
The thorough examination revealed no broken bones. The diagnosis was that accumulated severe stress and chronic sleep deprivation had finally caught up with her, causing her to faint. Watching Ihwa lie motionless with a cold IV needle in her arm, Woojin muttered bitterly.
“…You really have no intention of letting me go, do you?”
The harder he tried to erase her, the harder he tried to pull away, the more desperately she crashed back into the center of his life. It felt like being trapped in a snare with no escape.
Woojin sat on the chair beside the bed and gently touched the small fingers of the hand without the IV. As he traced her delicate, cold fingertips, a tangle of questions twisted through his mind.
Should he never have approached her in the first place? Where would their relationship finally end?
He watched her unconscious face and agonized through the deepening night, but no answer came. Overwhelmed by mental fatigue, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. In the end, still holding her hand, he rested his forehead against the edge of her bed and sank into a deep, exhausted sleep.