Crash!
The thunderous sound of plates shattering echoed through the house.
"God damn it!"
"You fucking bitch!"
The middle-aged couple's screaming fight filled the entire home.
...
The two of them fought every single day without fail.
The girl simply stared blankly at them, as if she had grown accustomed to it.
Did they never get tired of this?
She genuinely wondered how their arguments could renew themselves each day with topics that always seemed unavoidable.
The fight showed no signs of ending and only escalated in violence.
Finally, unable to contain his rage, the man tipped the heavy refrigerator over.
Clatter! Crash!
"Ahhh!"
The refrigerator toppled, denting the floor as its contents spilled everywhere.
The woman with striking foreign looks and silver hair—the girl—couldn't help but scream at the sight.
"Shut up!"
The man twisted his face in fury and slapped the woman across the cheek.
A sharp smack rang out as the woman crumpled to the ground.
The man loosed every conceivable insult at her and began kicking her body.
Instinctively, she curled up, wrapped her arms around her head, and sobbed while groaning in pain.
Heaving ragged breaths, he kept spewing curses without pause, never once stopping his feet.
...
The girl thought to herself.
It's going to take a very long time for the two of them to calm down today.
Or maybe they would never go back to normal, as always.
Bracing herself for the worst possible outcome, the girl pressed her bony legs together.
Her arms were so thin it would not be an exaggeration to say they were mere skin and bones, and she wrapped them around her scrawny legs before burying her face in them.
I'd rather... just let the worst happen already, she wished.
The reason was plain: unlike happy couples in other families, these two fought incessantly.
When her mother stormed out in anger and stayed away for days—hooking up with other men—the man she called father would turn his hands on the girl herself the moment the dam of her mother's presence vanished.
"I can't..."
She couldn't take it anymore.
She hated her father for hitting her.
She had been beaten so many times that the pain itself had become familiar, and the fact that she was starting to grow accustomed to this situation felt alien and unbearable.
Above all, she loathed her mother—the root cause of her father's violent transformation.
Her heart screamed to run away from this house, but she couldn't even do that.
Even if she left, the world outside teemed with people more demonic than her father—men who would lust after her stick-like frame, her body that was nothing but skin and bones because she never ate properly. That was the real reason.
The one time she had run away, she never left home again no matter how badly her father beat her or mistreated her, and she stubbornly endured it all.
Ding-dong~! Ding-dong-ding-dong!
"Ah, shit... Who's there!"
The doorbell rang unexpectedly.
Her father grumbled and shouted at whoever was ringing so late.
But even as he yelled, his eyes remained fixed on the figure of the girl's mother, who lay helplessly on the floor, groaning in pain.
"Sigh... It's me, sir. Just me."
A single voice came from outside, dripping with irritation.
"Tch... Why are you back again?!"
"Why again? I got a report and came, that's why."
The two men spoke to each other as if by habit.
Clicking his tongue, the girl's father opened the door.
Through the narrow gap, she spotted a police officer in a blue uniform.
"Sigh... Did you hit your wife again? You really need to behave yourself."
"What business is it of yours if I beat my own woman?!"
"No way. That kind of talk doesn't exist anywhere in this world. Open the door, please."
"Just piss off."
"I've witnessed this situation with my own eyes. How can I just leave? Open the door. Now."
"Fuck... seriously."
The girl's father, who was the strongest presence inside those walls, scowled and reluctantly opened the door.
"Damn, you really did a number on her."
The officer pulled out his smartphone and dialed 119.
"Why the hell are you calling 119! You son of a bitch!"
"Right, right. Sorry about that. Ah, but we still need to have a chat down at the station, so let's head over."
"Chat, my ass! This bitch cheated on me, and now I have to go there again?!"
"So you won't come?"
Did her father catch the look in the officer's eyes that said he would drag him there by force if he refused?
He bit his lower lip.
Then...
"Tch... Good-for-nothing bitch."
Thump!
"Ghkk!"
He kicked the mother in the abdomen while she still lay facedown on the floor, writhing.
"Hey! Stop that right in front of me!"
As he raised his foot to kick her again—once apparently not enough—the officer hastily managed to restrain him.
But his rage remained unquenched; he kept lunging past the officer, still set on beating her further.
Naturally, the officer was busy blocking him.
Time passed in this struggle between the man trying to break through and the officer trying to hold him back.
Soon, the wail of sirens approached from outside, and people in orange uniforms burst in.
"Tch," her father clicked his tongue as he watched the mother being carried out on a stretcher by the paramedics.
"Let's go now, you."
With that, her father followed the officer out of the house.
Now she was left all alone.
The house was in shambles.
Outside, she could hear the neighbors gossiping about her family's affairs.
The girl hated every single bit of this. Everything about it.
She hated her mother for continuing to cheat even after being beaten so badly.
She hated her father for raging and hitting her every single day because of her mother's infidelity.
Above all, she hated the police officer—a cop—who hadn't offered her any help at all.
It felt as if no one in the world was on her side, leaving her alone and stranded in the middle of it all.
As the noise in her ears gradually faded away...
Sleep crept up on her.
Still curled up, face buried in her knees, her eyes closed.
As she drifted off, she prayed fervently for one small wish.
She wished with all her heart that when she woke up, she could live a normal life, like everyone else.
.
...
......
"Ugh!"
A sharp kick sent her sprawling, and she woke with a jolt.
"Ah... nng..."
Groaning, she clutched her side and looked up.
There stood her father, breathing heavily through his nose, a half-empty bottle of liquor in his hand.
Probably—no, definitely—he had just kicked her.
"Fuck. Fuck. Bitch! Fucking hell!"
He seemed angrier than usual—maybe the police station had said something he didn't like.
The girl squeezed her eyes shut.
She knew the violence was coming, something she had almost gotten used to but never truly did.
But this time, things were slightly different.
"Hey. Hey!"
He nudged the girl, who was groaning and clutching her side on the floor, with his foot.
"Take off your clothes."
"...?"
She opened her eyes slightly and tilted her head in confusion.
Suddenly telling her to strip?
She couldn't help but feel bewildered by this incomprehensible demand.
"What are you doing, you bitch? I said take off your clothes. Or do you want me to do it myself?"
...
Finally, he began to rush her.
The girl trembled all over and scrambled backward.
She was the one who had withstood every kind of violence with her skeletal body.
Now she stumbled back, a pitiful look of terror on her face, crawling weakly.
But her father let out a hollow laugh, as if the very word "pity" was foreign to him.
"Still, she's pretty, isn't she? Just like that bitch."
He spoke.
At the police station today, they said they wouldn't let it slide this time. They brought up lawyers.
So the man's new lover—the bitch who had boasted about bringing in a lawyer—had given birth to this girl, and fuck if she wasn't gorgeous.
He clenched his fist and muttered the name of the woman he had once loved madly.
Probably right now, that bitch is spreading her legs for that fucking lawyer to save her own skin—the same body she only ever showed and gave to me, now being used to throw me into the abyss.
The more he thought about it, the more furious he became.
So...
"Fine. Don't take them off. I'll do it myself."
He decided to have a woman tonight.
And that woman was his own daughter—the child of him and that damned bitch.
"N-no...!"
The girl fought back violently as he tried to force her clothes off.
"Stay! Still! You fucking bitch!"
When his fists came out, the resistance crumbled.
A few punches were enough to stop her movements.
Unlike before, he stripped her with ease.
"Tch."
Her body was skeletal from lack of food.
Even so, her large chest and her tear-streaked face—still beautiful—were more than enough to make his pants tighten.
He lowered both hands to undo his belt.
The girl saw her chance. With a desperate burst of strength, she kicked the bulging crotch of her father—the rapist.
He let out a strangled cry and crumpled. Without a second thought, she fled, not even bothering to put on shoes, forgetting every resolve she'd ever made never to leave the house again.
The winter season, filled with knife-like cold wind, was a living hell for a girl who had run out without shoes and clad only in thin clothes.
"Huu... huu..."
The terrible cold, coupled with all the parts of her body that had been beaten, began to scream in agony.
She staggered forward unsteadily, then collapsed onto the ground.
Even though she could feel her skin freezing against the asphalt, her consciousness slowly faded.
This... is it, she thought.
Her short life had been one of wanting to die but not being able to.
Now, she felt she couldn't hold on any longer—maybe this was for the best.
Because now she could escape this place filled only with pain, where surviving meant nothing.
That's what she told herself, but she still didn't understand why she kept wanting to live.
She clung to the faintest thread of hope and glanced around.
There were many people watching from a distance as she sat dying on the ground.
Some didn't hesitate to pull out their phones and film, but no one—no one at all—offered her a helping hand.
Only then did she finally let go of the last thread she had been holding.
As she closed her eyes, the tears pooled there trickled down her cheeks.
"Jihoon! Jihoon!"
"Holy shit!"
Just before her consciousness went completely dark, she heard the urgent voices of a girl and a boy.
The girl didn't know it yet.
That because of those two people, she would finally live the ordinary life she had yearned for so desperately.