The Wandering Girl
(Sujeong's Point of View)
Seoul was impossibly dense, thronged with people every time she tried to move through it.
"God, why are there so many people…"
Still reeling from the shock, Sujeong had thrown on whatever clothes she could grab from her room and fled the house.
The woman who had been the emotional pillar of that home—doing that, right in front of her own daughter…
It wasn't normal. None of it was.
The slave contract. That was where everything had gone wrong. She had never imagined he would actually treat them like real slaves. Even if he had, she never dreamed her mother would submit so meekly, so completely.
Did he drug her or something…?
But that didn't track either. The first time Mom looked at her, her eyes had been clear. And more than that—Mom had been doing yoga. Nobody does yoga on drugs.
It had started after she sucked his cock. That was when Mom changed.
Even before that, the way Mom had already been acting in front of her had been bleak enough.
Forget it. The more I think about it, the more my head spins.
She dug through her pockets and came up with a few crumpled bills. All she had left was 18,000 won in cash.
She had once had a hundred thousand, but the move had wiped that out too. She owned a credit card, but her father had taken it without her knowing, run up loans, and blown the money on useless things—it had been blocked for ages.
Eighteen thousand won, the tracksuit she was wearing, a tank top, and a denim jacket. That was everything.
How did we end up like this…
Tears pricked at her eyes.
Sujeong had no one she could trust. In Seoul, a place as alien as the middle of nowhere to her, that was truer than ever.
Even Sua had looked so obediently compliant that Sujeong had been terrified she had already become like Mom—so she hadn't even dared speak to her before bolting.
She had lied to her university friends about going abroad to study; she couldn't contact them either.
It was a busy district, so even in the early evening people were out dressed up, wandering around.
I'm so jealous…
People with money lived in Seoul, busy having fun, all of them handsome and beautiful.
I look amazing when I dress up too…
She remembered her university days—guys asking for her number, the way the men around her would whisper and shove each other toward her.
"I used to be pretty popular…"
Her present reality felt unbearably pathetic. Sudden self-pity welled up, and the tears threatened to spill.
"Look at me… what a mess… hic… hic…"
Fat, ugly tears finally fell. Embarrassed that people might see, she ducked into a darker side alley.
She had nowhere to go.
She crouched against a stone wall and cried for a long time.
This won't do.
She stepped back out into a brighter alley, entered a convenience store, and bought a bottle of soju.
"That'll be 1,950 won."
"Fifty won change."
"It's fine."
Maybe because it was a Seoul convenience store, they didn't even check her ID.
I look old enough, I guess…
Crack. Snap~!
She squatted down again and twisted the cap off the soju; the cheerful sound rang out.
Just one bottle costs 1,950 won… seriously ridiculously expensive.
Glug—glug—
"Ahhh… huu… hits hard already."
She had downed it too fast; the buzz rushed straight to her head. She couldn't stand any of this sober.
Feeling the heat rise through her, Sujeong sat in that same dark alley, sipping soju with no side dishes at all.
She couldn't even picture the old version of her mother anymore. She didn't think she had ever been particularly loved growing up.
After Mom left, she and Sua had been raised under their father. Once Mom was gone, Dad went back to coming home late and sleeping until midday as if it were normal. Not that he failed to bring money home either.
Then, around the time she graduated middle school, Dad brought home a new wife—Han Mijeong.
Their stepmother had looked stunned when she saw them. She probably hadn't known he already had daughters.
They had been just as shocked. How had their father managed to bring home such a young, beautiful wife again? They were newly impressed by his abilities.
The first meeting was awkward, but their stepmother treated them extremely well. She washed and hung their school uniforms, came to the graduation ceremony and took pictures with them—she filled every empty place left by a mother who had been missing through their childhood.
And after Dad died, they heard that their stepmother had a hidden son. It must have been drunken talk on her part.
A boy somewhere between Sujeong and Sua in age. By now he would be in university. Hearing that he had grown up without a mother until then, Sujeong had felt sorry for him.
"Pwah… this is so fucked…"
And then the five-year sex-slave contract had bound them to that man.
Mom telling them not to worry about money and just study hard had felt reliable. Mom managed herself carefully and always kept her word—Sujeong had seen it many times.
"So that was the method… this?"
"Well… how else was she supposed to handle that mountain of debt alone…"
But then the image of Mom sucking Junwoo's cock rose up again.
She shook her head hard.
Glug—glug—
The soju made her body heavy and limp.
I'm sleepy… I want to sleep in a soft bed…
Her body swayed like a roly-poly toy.
"Mom… Sua…"
She didn't want to go back into that house. In truth she had nowhere else and would have to return soon enough—but she hated that bastard so much.
"How can you do that to familyyyyy~!!!"
People passing the dark alley glanced at her the way people look at animals in a zoo. Those looks made her sick.
"What are you looking aaat~!!"
"Uwaaang~"
She cried like a child. She just wanted to sob without restraint. She had nowhere to return to, no strength to live alone, and no one around her.
What the hell is a dick, anyway…
Still a virgin, Sujeong thought of the cocks she had only ever seen a few times in porn. Junwoo's had definitely been big. But was big better?
In porn, women went crazy for big ones, but her own fingers were plenty, so she figured size didn't matter.
Probably the same concept as a woman's chest…?
People said a woman's confidence was proportional to her breasts. Sujeong had a small complex about hers being the smallest. Stepmom was one thing, but Sua was superior too—so why had she stopped at an A-cup?
"This is so annoyinggg…"
She rambled nonsense for a while, then lay down using a nearby rock as a pillow. The angles dug in and hurt, but it hurt less than the ache in her chest right now.
I can just sleep like this…
Thoughts kept spinning through her head, but her body was already asleep.
Maybe an hour later, someone spoke to her.
"Excuse me."
"…Y…yeah…?"
"Hey, you don't have anyone with you? Want to drink with us?"
Two solidly built men were talking to her.
She rubbed her eyes and sat up; the world spun.
Ah… I'm drunk…
"No………"
Even her pronunciation was slurring. She hadn't even finished the whole bottle, yet the alcohol had flooded her entire body.
"Yo, she's got a nice body. Pretty face too~ We play this right, we can hit that tonight."
"Dude, shut up, I can hear you, fuck, heh heh."
The moment they realized how wasted she was, the two men started saying horrifying things out loud.
"So what? Fuck her once and dump her back on the street. She's wasted as hell, kekeke."
"Motel money's a waste—should we just drag her into the woods, blow our loads, and leave her?"
Saying that with a person right in front of them…
Sujeong could hear them, but speaking was hard. The words wouldn't come out.
Trash…
Was Junwoo better than scum who talked like this? Or were all men just like this? The thought drifted through her.
"Come on, let's go somewhere. We'll take good care of you."
"No…"
"I said let's go, why are you being such a fucking pain."
One of the men forcibly threw an arm around her shoulders and tried to haul her away.
"Ooh… nice little softies~!"
Squeeze—
A disgusting hand touched her. The man carrying her used his other hand to knead her breast.
"Whoa, she's just taking it? Guess she likes it too, hehe~"
"What~ She said no but she's getting off on it~?"
She had no strength in her body.
Ah… if this keeps going…
She was going to be raped. Just like they said—forced in the woods and abandoned.
No more words came out.
How stupid of her, drowning her sadness in booze in the middle of Seoul and crouching in a dark place with zero plan.
"Hey, she's not talking."
Help me… anyone… please…
It was a dark roadside, but people still passed by in ones and twos. Not a single person stopped the men hauling her away.
Please… help me…
Slung over a man's back, her feet not even touching the ground, Sujeong trembled with pure terror.
Mister… please look at me… please… please…
A fat, balding man in a suit glanced at her, then pretended to check his phone and hurried past.
"Damn, her face is so fucking pretty. Let's get her there fast."
"Yo, I call first. Last time you went first and didn't clean up, I didn't even get any~"
"Fuck off, dude, kekeke. I carried her, so I go first. Right, miss?"
Ah… I'm screwed…
"Where? That patch of grass over there, go go?"
"Dude, I was just saying that—there's a ton of bugs, why the hell would we do it in the grass, heh heh~"
"Yeah? Ah, motels are so damn expensive these days."
"Miss, mind if we borrow some money~"
The man with his arm around her shoulders slipped a hand into her pocket and found the cash.
"Oh~ poorer than I thought, tsk tsk. Still, twelve thousand, nice~!!!"
He pulled out her precious twelve thousand won with a disgusting laugh.
"Anything in the back pockets~?"
He didn't stop, rummaging through her tracksuit.
Squeeze—
Under the pretense of checking her back pockets, he groped her ass in a nauseating way.
Right now she cared less about the disgust than about staying alive.
"No………"
"Oh, she talks!"
"For real?"
He pressed his ear to her chest and performed every perverted stunt he could think of.
"…ngh…"
She tried to put force into her voice, but no sound came out.
"Ohhh, she says a threesome with the two of us is fine!"
"Nice, sex approved~!"
Fuck…
Everything went black. Sujeong couldn't hold on any longer; the harsh alcohol finally dragged her under into unconsciousness.