Chapter 119
I’m translating the chapter directly into publication-style HTML, keeping dialogue separated by speaker and preserving the in-universe article headlines as styled blocks where needed.CHAPTER_TITLE: Dongdong's Revenge (2)
A security guard in plain clothes who had dashed out from near the alley took one look at the scene, then slipped back out of sight to keep watch. He was one of the extra men Won Hasin had stationed there out of excessive caution.
The woman who had struck Kim Ji-rok with a watermelon, Dongdong, checked the shopping basket and stepped on Kim Ji-rok’s hand, grinding it under her foot.
"Ugh!"
"Oh! Thank goodness it didn’t break! Mrs. Myeong, please go inside first! I’ll bind this scoundrel and come in shortly."
"Oh my goodness...!"
Myeong I-dam’s mother stared wide-eyed, her heart clearly pounding in fright, and clutched at her chest. She hurriedly reached for her smartphone.
"I’ll call the police! Dongdong, you’re in danger all by yourself!"
"Might you not call them?"
"Why? Why?"
In that moment, Kim Ji-rok tried to shove Dongdong’s foot away and rise. But Dongdong brought the watermelon down on his head once more with a solid thunk, and he collapsed again.
Her eyes flashing with a murderous glint, Dongdong untied the cord that had been looped around the watermelon and bound Kim Ji-rok’s wrists tightly.
"I’d like to have a private talk with this one."
Myeong I-dam’s mother flatly refused. After a brief struggle, Dongdong bought herself two minutes.
"Only two minutes! I’ll call 112 exactly two minutes from now!"
"Yes, ma’am!"
Even after granting her that much, Myeong I-dam’s mother could not go inside and instead watched the two of them from a distance.
Kim Ji-rok had been hit in the head twice, and he could not get up. He groaned through the pain, and in the midst of it all, he still had the mouth to spew curses.
"Fuck. Who the hell are you? Untie this, you bitch, you fu--"
"You there. Shut your mouth."
Dongdong stamped hard on his back and forced him flat. Kim Ji-rok’s breath hitched, and he could no longer speak; with his face turning red, he only opened and closed his mouth uselessly.
A voice cold as frost fell over his head.
"I’ll give you two choices. Lingchi or dismemberment. Which do you prefer?"
"...!"
Cold sweat ran down Kim Ji-rok’s spine. He had clearly crossed the wrong person, a woman who was utterly insane.
What did she just say? Lingchi? Dismemberment?
What century did she think this was? Why would I get that done to me? Has she lost her mind?
And yet it did not sound like empty nonsense. This strange woman seemed fully capable of actually carrying out such a brutal punishment.
Maybe he had taken a blow to the head and was seeing things, but for an instant it seemed as though the woman’s pupils were not round at all, but slitted horizontally like a fish’s.
Terrifying.
Kim Ji-rok flinched at the sensation of his blood turning ice-cold throughout his body and twisted weakly beneath her. But his vision swam and he had little strength left in him.
"No, that would be troublesome. Better to feed you to the fish without further fuss."
Dongdong grabbed the end of the watermelon cord tied around his wrists and began dragging him somewhere.
From the way she spoke, it sounded as though she meant to dump him in a river, the sea, or a gorge. If that was too far and therefore too bothersome, she looked like the sort who would simply open a manhole and stuff him into the sewer.
Kim Ji-rok, for once, was terrified of a woman much smaller than himself.
Fuck. Save me!
Then it happened. Police sirens blared as if an emergency dispatch had gone out. He could not tell whether the police had been called by the taxi driver or whether they had been chasing from the performance venue. Kim Ji-rok used every last bit of strength he had left to scream.
"Aaaagh! Over here! Here! Kim Ji-rok is here! Please, just arrest me! Save me!"
The police car came to a stop right at the mouth of the alley. Officers spilled out and seized Kim Ji-rok.
I’m saved!
Overjoyed, Kim Ji-rok clung to the police.
"Tch."
Dongdong clicked her tongue in disappointment and let go of the watermelon cord she had been dragging. Kim Ji-rok, now wearing handcuffs instead of the cord, howled in outrage.
"This crazy bitch hit me with a watermelon! Arrest her too! She’s caught in the act! She hit me, damn it! I’m dizzy! I think I have a concussion, so get me to a hospital first!"
Dongdong gave a derisive snort and pointed at the brick rolling on the ground.
"That one approached first with a brick in hand!"
"Secure the CCTV here and take the brick in for fingerprint analysis."
"Yes, sir!"
The police moved with practiced efficiency. One officer was about to put Kim Ji-rok into the patrol car when Dongdong stopped him.
"Wait a moment."
"And why is that?" the officer asked.
"There was something I absolutely had to pass on to him. I nearly forgot."
Dongdong stepped closer to them. Then, as if she were about to place something into Kim Ji-rok’s hand, she seized his arm.
"W-what are you--"
Crunch.
"Aaaaagh!"
Dongdong bit down hard on Kim Ji-rok’s arm. Teeth strong enough to bite through a diving suit pierced his clothing and sank into his flesh.
An eye for an eye, poison for poison. Dongdong let her hostility and murderous intent toward Kim Ji-rok flood into him as venom through her body.
"H-hey! You can’t do this!"
By the time the officers managed to pry Dongdong away, Kim Ji-rok had already been exposed to the terrible toxin of the blue-ringed octopus. White-faced and reeling, he staggered into the police car as if fleeing for his life, then collapsed completely the moment he sat down.
* * *
As the person who had fought Kim Ji-rok directly, Dongdong also accompanied them to the police station. With Kim Ji-rok having collapsed and been taken to the hospital, there was some suspicion that Dongdong had used excessive force.
But the suspicion was quickly cleared. After emergency treatment and tests at the hospital, tetrodotoxin, the poison commonly known as pufferfish toxin, was found in Kim Ji-rok’s body.
Who could have imagined that such a lethal poison was hidden inside the body of a primly pretty woman? Humans who did not know Dongdong’s true identity could not draw any connection between Kim Ji-rok’s poisoning and Dongdong’s actions.
There was room to argue that hitting him once more after he had been knocked down by the watermelon and could not resist, or biting his arm, constituted assault.
But Kim Ji-rok’s father expressed his wish to let the matter pass as quietly as possible.
He came to the police station in place of his collapsed son, embarrassed that the boy had been beaten by a girl far smaller than himself.
After reviewing the CCTV footage, that feeling only deepened. He had seen his son attacking Myeong I-dam’s mother.
"Useless bastard."
Kim Ji-rok’s father cursed his son in the footage and let out a heavy sigh.
Legally, Dongdong’s actions were wrong, but morally, they could hardly be called wrong. If Kim Ji-rok had not attacked first, nothing would have happened in the first place.
"My wife and I are often overseas on business, so we haven’t been able to pay enough attention to our son. We’ve given him more than enough allowance, so I thought he was growing up and doing well on his own... I’m sorry. It’s my fault for failing to raise him properly."
With a troubled expression, Kim Ji-rok’s father offered an apology mixed with excuses.
Just then, a ringing phone interrupted him, and he excused himself to answer. It was his wife, calling from the hospital where Kim Ji-rok had been admitted.
"A loan shark came to the hospital...? So the idiot even took out private loans?"
Kim Ji-rok’s father looked even more devastated. Kim Ji-rok had survived thanks to emergency treatment, but once he recovered, prison would be waiting for him. Veins stood out on his father’s forehead.
Won Hasin could not bear to watch any longer, so he took Dongdong out of the police station. Once outside, he finally exploded.
"Hey! You completely deranged Dongdong!"
He raked his eyes over her from head to toe, scolding her and worrying over her in the same breath.
"Let the humans punish other humans themselves! Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Hmph! Not at all."
"What about I-dam’s mother? She must have been terrified. She didn’t pass out or anything, did she?"
"It wasn’t that bad, so stop exaggerating, landfish! I went to make sure she got home safely!"
Won Hasin let out a relieved breath and rubbed his chest.
"Well, that was good. But still! I’ve been hounding the lawyers and prosecutors so much to get Kim Ji-rok charged with attempted murder, and now you’re telling me they’ll send him to the hospital before the prison? What am I supposed to do?"
"That’s what I’m saying! Why did the humans take that bastard to the hospital and save him? The stubborn bastard lived after all! We should have killed him more thoroughly! If he shows up in my sight again, I’ll just--!"
"Agh! That’s not what I mean!"
Won Hasin hastily clapped a hand over Dongdong’s mouth and looked around. Murder threats in front of the police station? What if someone heard?
"Get in the car first! Quickly! Tell me when we get home!"
Won Hasin shoved Dongdong into the passenger seat and shut the door in a hurry. Then he climbed into the driver’s seat, looked down at his hands as if checking them from every angle, and fussed aloud.
"Aaaagh! Poison! Poison! I didn’t get any poison on me, did I?"
"Would you stop making such a racket when I’ve already washed my mouth clean?"
Hit by Dongdong’s dry stare, Won Hasin sheepishly lowered his hands.
"Home! Let’s go home! Ah, right, let’s put on your seat belt, Dongdong!"
"Who are you calling your Dongdong?"
"That snappy attitude means you’re well and truly back to life. So I-dam’s revenge was a success, then?"
"It was as much Prince I-dam’s revenge as it was the prince’s! That rotten bastard dared to covet the treasure of the Dragon Palace, of all things! Damn him!"
Won Hasin checked that Dongdong’s seat belt was fastened properly, then put on his own and started the car. The vehicle glided smoothly away from the police station.
As he turned the wheel, Won Hasin muttered, "Still, that’s a weight off my shoulders. Kim Ji-rok’s still hooked up to a ventilator, so he won’t be running around causing trouble. The police are watching him too."
Then he glanced at Dongdong and said, "Dongdong. This is really only a just-in-case thing, but..."
"What is it?"
Won Hasin thought back on how he had tugged at her hair and teased her, or called her insolent Dongdong.
He had been far too bold. He had not really grasped how dangerous this tiny woman was. Cold sweat seemed to break out all over him.
Besides, from here on he would have to interfere with Gal Neoul on the Sea Witch’s instructions. He had to keep at it until Gal Neoul came to hate humans and grow so fed up that he wanted to leave the land.
It could not be helped if it was to save Gal Neoul, but that did not change the fact that he would be tormenting an innocent person.
It was already stressful and unfair enough to do something he did not want to do, and when he thought that one day he might be struck down out of nowhere by Dongdong for obstructing her prince, he felt a chill run down his spine.
"If you ever feel like killing me, tell me first. Don’t just fire poison at me without warning."
"And if I do tell you? What scheme are you planning then?"
"I’ll think of something. If I bought up every crustacean in the world and brought them to you, would you spare my life?"
"No need!"
Dongdong answered absently and leaned back deeply against the seat. Her eyes slowly fluttered shut.
"Huh? Why not? You like crustaceans, don’t you! Are you going to kill me? Dong... "
Won Hasin was about to protest that this was unfair, but when he saw Dongdong asleep, he shut his mouth abruptly.
...
Recently, she had been guarding Myeong I-dam’s mother at close range.
Kim Ji-rok had been filming and would not be leaving in the middle, and the antifreeze incident would only be revealed after the program ended, so she should have been safe until then... But Dongdong had started the protection in advance just in case.
If Myeong I-dam and his agency were preparing a exposé article and had already reported the matter to the police, then there was no telling what Kim Ji-rok might do if he found out midway through.
Yet contrary to her worries, the days remained peaceful throughout the entire watch. Dongdong spent pleasant time with Myeong I-dam’s mother. They went out together, learned how to knit, and ate a clear, delicious blue crab soup.
Even so, Dongdong never let her guard down, keeping herself sharp the whole time. She was protecting her bias’s mother and preserving her bias’s smile.
After spending such a long stretch in that tense state, she must have been exhausted. Once Kim Ji-rok had been caught, the tension that had been choking her all that time finally loosened as well.
"Yes. Sleep."
Won Hasin muttered softly, then drove on a little more slowly and gently.