The Last Choice
…………… A few more days passed. I had no idea what the date was or what day of the week it was. Ever since I'd come to Senior Seori's house, my sense of time had vanished. There were no clocks or electronic devices in the bedroom. The only indicator was the sun rising and setting outside the window.
Still, my condition had improved a lot today. At least enough that I could sit up on the bed by myself. It was thanks to the porridge and soup Senior Seori brought me every day. She'd set the food down without a word and leave, and I'd eat it without a word. It was truly bizarre nursing.
There hadn't been any conversation between us at all during that time. At least not until now.
Today, I heard the door open again. Senior Seori came in. In her hands was a tray, just like yesterday, the day before, and the day before that. But today's contents were different from usual. Instead of a bowl of porridge or soup, there was a steaming teacup.
She set the tray down but didn't leave. Instead, she sat in the chair by the head of the bed.
"You look much better."
It had been a while since I'd heard Senior Seori's voice. It sounded gentle and merciful. I didn't respond. Even if she called me petty, I had nothing to say to that. But I still wasn't in the mood to talk to her.
Senior Seori held out the teacup.
"It's chamomile tea. It has a calming effect. It's hot, so sip it slowly, just a little at a time."
I took the teacup with trembling hands. Warm steam brushed my face.
"Minseo."
She called my name in a voice that carried an oddly warm affection.
"You've been through a lot... haven't you?"
'Through a lot? Is she mocking me?'
I might have been overthinking it. But to me right now, her words sounded like ridicule: 'You must be suffering in the hell I created.'
Anger boiled up inside me, but I didn't even have the strength to show it.
"It's all over now. Let's forget the hard times."
Senior Seori continued, as if all the pain I'd endured was just a dream.
"Trying to meet up with that old female friend you were close to, applying to other companies, getting friendly with that tail-wagging bitch, trying to leave me."
She listed out my past actions one by one, as if they were all crimes I'd committed.
"I'll forgive you for... all the wrongs you've done to me up until now."
'Wrongs?'
She was saying I was the one who'd done wrong? Wanting an independent life, wanting a normal relationship—that was wrong?
"You can't move into the future if you're stuck on the past. So let's forget all that old stuff and live together from now on. Right here."
Senior Seori smiled. It was an angelic, beautiful smile, but chilling like a demon's.
"Let's start over, you and me."
……………
I moistened my lips with the chamomile tea. It was too hot to drink much. Senior Seori didn't stop talking.
"I've done a lot of thinking on my own too, after you tried to leave me. Minseo, you've always been trying to run away, haven't you? No matter how well I treated you, no matter how much I apologized, no matter how much I adjusted to you. So enough with the methods that keep failing. From now on, it'll be most reasonable if I manage you."
'Manage?'
"From the time you wake up in the morning to when you go to bed at night. You're free to move around the house. But outings require my permission. And I'll accompany you as a rule."
She spoke as if granting me great leniency.
"But it's best not to use your phone or computer. Contact with the outside is dangerous."
Senior Seori leaned forward toward me. Her hand stroked my cheek.
"We don't need anyone else between us, right? Just Choi Seori for Han Minseo, and Han Minseo for Choi Seori."
Her cold hand slid down to the nape of my neck.
"It might be good for your mental health if you can choose your own meals, assuming they meet nutritional standards. But to keep your physical health, you'll have to do the exercises I set. We can't have you getting lifestyle diseases."
'This is just breeding...'
"We'll go for walks or shopping sometimes. Together. No leash if you don't run away."
I saw her eyes when she said "leash." They weren't the eyes of someone joking.
"What do you think? Perfect, right? To celebrate making up, we'll live together. Forever. Kids... we'll think about it a bit."
She took my hand. Unlike my bony one, hers was soft. But cold, like it wasn't human.
……………
'Making up, living together.'
Those were words for humans. But the conditions she offered were closer to raising a pet than cohabiting with a person.
Seori seemed to take my silence as agreement and continued with a satisfied expression.
"It might feel uncomfortable at first. But you'll get used to it soon. Humans are animals of adaptation, after all."
"………."
"We'll get married when you're ready to propose. But I want it within five years."
"………."
Senior Seori wasn't content with just ruining me—she wanted to own me completely now. Like an animal or an attachment doll, not a human.
Realizing that, something bubbled up inside me. Rage.
The rage I'd suppressed and endured up to now finally hit its breaking point.
'This crazy bitch... really...!'
Something surged from deep in my throat. It was the first time in ages I'd felt this runaway emotion, like an erupting volcano.
"Minseo?"
Senior Seori tilted her head, noticing my change.
"What's wrong? Are you hurting somewhere?"
At that moment, the last spark of fury blazed in my eyes.
"Ha...."
It started like a small sigh. But it wasn't a sigh. It was laughter.
"Haha... hahaha...."
Senior Seori's expression shifted subtly.
"Minseo, what—"
"Breeding... you're telling me to let myself be bred like a pet. Right now."
I set the teacup down. My hands shook, spilling a bit of tea. I staggered to my feet. My legs had no strength, so I gripped the bedpost. But I didn't give up on staring her straight in the eye.
She reached out to support me, but I roughly shook her off.
"Don't touch me."
She flinched at the venom in my voice.
"Are you really... really insane?"
All the words I'd held back poured out of my throat. I couldn't stop them anymore. I didn't want to.
"You couldn't even make a proper friend, with social skills smaller than an ant's booger...."
I was out of breath but didn't stop.
"A psychopath who can't even see other women as people!"
For months—maybe since becoming Han Minseo—everything that had built up exploded.
"That's why you were so lonely, right? No one stayed by your side. Everyone figured out what a twisted person you are and ran away!"
Laughter burst out again. This time, laced with contempt.
"Go to a mental hospital. Or jail! If you can't do that, just die, you crazy bitch!"
……………
Once my curse-filled scream ended, silence fell over the room. Senior Seori said nothing. She didn't get angry, cry, or even grimace. She just stared at me with a blank face.
'What... what's this? Why no reaction?'
Her dead eyes pierced through me. It was like her emotions had vanished entirely; she just gazed.
This was wrong. Too wrong. She didn't seem human.
'Ah...'
In that instant, instinct told me. I'd crossed an irreversible line. I'd shattered something beyond repair.
Deep in Senior Seori's eyes, something... something cold and dark... flicked on like a switch.
'Ugh.'
Suddenly, strength drained from my whole body. With the adrenaline of rage gone, my skeletal frame couldn't hold me up. My knees buckled. I barely slumped against the edge of the bed.
Senior Seori was still sitting in the chair, watching me. With an expressionless face. Like a broken ball-jointed doll, not a person.
'No... maybe she was never human, more like a doll from the start.'
And maybe I'd just severed the strings on that doll's back.
As that absurd thought crossed my mind, Senior Seori, who had been frozen like a stone statue, slowly stood.
Just moments ago, I'd half-jokingly thought she didn't seem human, but now her movements were truly mechanical.
"I see."
Her voice was astonishingly calm. You couldn't believe she'd just heard such a harsh personal insult.
"If that's how you feel, Minseo."
She turned her back to me and walked toward the door. Her retreating figure wasn't the Senior Seori I knew.
For some reason, I felt it. If I let her go like this, something terrible would happen.
I thought maybe I should kneel and beg forgiveness right now. Like when Senior Seori had shown up naked at my place and begged on all fours.
'No, don't.'
But I suppressed the thought. I had pride too. After everything she'd done to me—to Choi Seori—why should I apologize? I gritted my teeth, holding back the body that wanted to grovel.
I said nothing until Senior Seori left the room. Finally, she stepped out. The door closed with a click.