An Apology
Dohyeon pulled out the camera he had prepared and set it up in a spot where all three of them were clearly visible. From his vantage point, Ara, Hyemin, and Sujin were tied to their chairs in that exact order.
"From now on, we're going to take turns apologizing... but before that, it would be best if you actually understood what you did wrong, wouldn't it? One by one, tell me what you did to Min-ah. Let's start with you."
Dohyeon pointed his finger at Ara first.
Startled at being singled out first, Ara's mind went completely blank.
"T-that... I mean..."
She knew for a fact that she had done terrible things to Min-ah, but it had already been ten years. Put on the spot so suddenly, her memory failed her, and she couldn't answer Dohyeon's question.
"Okay, that's enough. Time for a little spark~"
"What? What do you m—AAAAAAHHH!!!"
Before Ara could even comprehend his words, she began to scream in agonizing pain. Though he had rigged the setup to look like a mechanical device delivering the shock, Dohyeon had actually used magic to run electricity through Ara's body for about two seconds.
Watching Ara from beside her, Sujin and Hyemin gasped in horror at her sudden, violent screaming.
After screaming for about two seconds, Ara fell silent, her head drooping weakly to the side as she panted heavily. The sight of her sent shivers down the other two girls' spines. When Ara had screamed, they had clearly heard a sharp, crackling static coming from her chair.
Crazy bastard... Is he actually electrocuting us?
Terrified that they would end up like Ara after seeing her tortured with electricity, the two decided they had to answer Dohyeon's questions no matter what.
"Now, you're next."
Dohyeon pointed at Hyemin, who was sitting next to Ara. Desperate to avoid Ara's fate, Hyemin blurted out an answer immediately.
"Y-yes! I used to hit Min-ah on the head and pick fights with her when she was just sitting quietly in the classroom!"
"Right, that's exactly what I'm looking for. Shall we keep going?"
Dohyeon turned his gaze to Sujin, who was tied to her chair. Feeling Dohyeon's eyes on her, Sujin realized it was her turn and quickly spoke up.
"I-I instigated the other kids to isolate Min-ah in the classroom so she would be completely left out!"
Dohyeon nodded at Sujin's words.
"From now on, keep going without me having to prompt you. If you can't speak like her, or if you lie... well, I don't need to explain what happens, do I?"
Excluding Ara, who was already exhausted from the immense pain, Sujin and Hyemin swallowed hard in sheer tension.
"Then let's keep going... start!"
At Dohyeon's command, Ara squeezed out her voice as if her life depended on it.
"I-I poured a bucket of water over the stall when Min-ah was in the restroom!"
"I twisted and pinched Min-ah's body, claiming it was a weight-loss massage!"
"I tripped Min-ah while she was walking down the hallway!"
The three of them desperately spat out whatever came to mind, terrified of the electric torture. And they were quite shocked by their own confessions. Since it had happened ten years ago, they had lived their lives forgetting all about it after graduating high school. But now that they were forced to recall it, they realized just how relentlessly they had tormented Min-ah.
"I... I sliced Min-ah's skin and sewed it back up with a needle and thread, claiming I was practicing to be a nurse."
"I forced Min-ah to eat weird diet concoctions I saw on the internet just to test them out!"
"I dragged her to a karaoke room and forced her to sing until she got a perfect score of 100. Every time she failed, I poured soda over her head for fun!"
The three of them continued to lay bare their past sins. As the rotation came back around to Sujin, she was on the verge of losing her mind.
Fuck... I can't think of anything else...
Among the three, Sujin had been the one who looked down on and bullied Min-ah the most under Eunji's influence. Consequently, she had discarded most of those memories, deeming any information about Min-ah useless. As a result, she was rapidly running out of things to confess. The few things she had managed to remember were only because Hyemin and Ara's confessions had jogged some dormant memories from the depths of her mind. But that was only temporary. Soon, her mind went completely dry.
I-I'll just make something up. There's no way this guy knows every single detail of what I did in the past anyway.
Unable to recall anything genuine, Sujin fabricated a typical school bullying scenario when her turn arrived, pretending she had actually done it.
"During our school trip, I slipped alcohol and cigarettes into Min-ah's bag and made sure she got caught so the teachers would look down on her!"
Hearing Sujin's words, Ara froze, even though it was now her turn. She had absolutely no recollection of what Sujin had just described. Hyemin's mind reacted the same way. However, avoiding the electric shock was far more important. Ara tried to quickly move on and confess another of her own past misdeeds.
"Hold on."
Dohyeon suddenly intervened, cutting Ara off. Dohyeon, who had been listening quietly, had suddenly reacted right after Sujin spoke. Anxiety began to claw at Sujin's chest. Dohyeon looked at Sujin with an absurd expression.
"You... I clearly told you earlier that I have a lie detector hooked up. And yet you lie to my face?"
"Wh-what? N-no! I didn't lie!"
Though she panicked when Dohyeon immediately saw through her fabrication, Sujin desperately shook her head, trying to deny it.
"Like hell you didn't. Well, I keep my word."
"Ah, wait! Just a m—AAAAAAHHH!!!"
Ignoring Sujin's desperate pleas, Dohyeon unleashed the current. Sujin learned firsthand just how agonizing it was to have electricity course through her body. Watching from the side, Hyemin and Ara realized with absolute certainty that they could never lie to him. He caught every single falsehood instantly.
Just like with Ara, the current stopped after about two seconds. However, the sheer agony was too much for Sujin; she blacked out, her head slumping forward lifelessly. To make matters worse, her muscles relaxed as she lost consciousness, causing her to wet herself.
"What, passing out already? You still have plenty of things to apologize for."
Dohyeon sent another jolt of electricity through the unconscious Sujin. The excruciating pain instantly snapped Sujin back to consciousness. Since he only let it run for less than a second this time, Sujin didn't even have time to scream. She was simply forced awake by the sheer, blinding agony.
"Now, let's keep going."
"W-wait a minute!"
As Dohyeon prepared to resume, Hyemin quickly cut in to stop him.
"Hmm? What is it now? Are you saying you want to quit?"
"No, it's not that... I was just wondering... how long we have to keep doing this..."
Dohyeon let out a dry chuckle at Hyemin's question.
"Until you've confessed every single wrong you've done."
"What?"
"If you want to reflect on your actions, you need to properly understand what you did wrong first. Before you were dragged here, you probably didn't even remember what you did, did you? I'm just helping you bring out some genuine sincerity from the bottom of your hearts."
Dohyeon wasn't lying in the slightest. He was doing this because he truly wanted to see these three offer a sincere apology to Min-ah. Even if his own life was bound to end in chains of the past because he could never forgive his abusers, he wanted Min-ah, who still had a bright future ahead of her, to break free from the ghosts of her past. Of course, whether the three girls found his reasoning absurd or not was none of Dohyeon's concern.
"Shall we continue?"
With the relay of confessing past sins resuming, the three girls squeezed their brains dry, pouring out every single misdeed they could recall. In the process, some tasted the electricity because they couldn't speak in time, while others were shocked for repeating something already said. Eventually, not a single one of them remained unscathed; each had experienced the torture at least three times.
By the time the three were thoroughly exhausted, Dohyeon decided it was about time.
"I think you should have a pretty good idea of what you did wrong by now. Or do we need to do more?"
At the threat of falling back into the abyss of electric torture, the three girls, barely holding onto consciousness, jolted awake and screamed frantically.
"N-no, we're good!"
"We know what we did wrong! We really do!"
"We don't need to do any more!!"
Naturally, desperate to escape this living hell, they screamed with everything they had.
"Is that so? Then let's start with you."
Dohyeon pointed his finger at Sujin this time. The moment she was singled out, Sujin shrieked before Dohyeon could change his mind.
"Min-ah! I did things to you that I should have never done! I was such a piece of trash for only realizing it today and apologizing! I'm so, so sorry! Please accept my apology!!"
Dohyeon quietly read Sujin's mind as she screamed. And immediately triggered the electricity.
"AAAAAAHHH!!!"
"You still haven't learned your lesson. You're not reflecting at all. Next!"
Seeing Sujin get shocked despite her apology—as if caught by a lie detector—Hyemin spoke in a trembling voice.
"M-Min-ah? I'm so sorry for being young and foolish, treating you like a lab rat and forcing you into all those weird experiments... I only did it because I wanted to look pretty, but I shouldn't have done that. I'm so sorry... I-I was such a piece of trash!! I'm so sorry!!"
Hyemin screamed, genuinely believing she was apologizing from the bottom of her heart. But all she received in return was Dohyeon's electric shock.
"AAAAAAHHH!!!"
Dohyeon sighed as he read deep into Sujin and Hyemin's minds during their apologies, only to find that they felt no remorse. They were merely apologizing out of a desperate desire to go home.
Of course... There's no way trash like them would ever offer a proper apology...
Dohyeon gestured to the remaining girl, Ara, prompting her to apologize.
Ara stammered, her voice cracking with tears.
"I... I'm sorry... Min-ah, what I did to you was absolutely insane... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
Dohyeon prepared to deliver another shock, expecting the exact same result. But he couldn't.
Huh? What's this?
Because when Dohyeon read Ara's mind with his magic, he found that she was actually, truly reflecting on her actions.