Still, I Am Innocent (2)
All four women who falsely accused me of being a rapist have now become celebrities wielding fame, power, strength, money, and influence.
Yujin became a top idol and gained popularity.
Minhui became the women's world champion in MMA and gained strength.
Jiyeong became the most promising startup CEO in the country right now and gained money.
Sua won the International Peace Prize and then became the youngest congresswoman, gaining power.
But that's all just their facade. I know their ugly true selves.
Yujin might be hailed as a genius idol, but most of her songs are plagiarized, and so are her performances. She has no real artistic talent to boast about. The secret to her popularity is just her seductive face, massive tits, and huge ass.
Minhui might be the world champion now, but any hardcore MMA fan knows she got there through rigged matches, controversial judging, and doping. She even deliberately wrecked her biggest rival's knee as a kid, forcing her into retirement.
Jiyeong's company gets hyped up with amazing PR, but it has no real tech prowess—or even mediocre tech, for that matter. She never had any entrepreneurial spirit to begin with. Her goal is to inflate the company's size through stock manipulation and cooked books, sell it off, and flee overseas.
And the worst of them all was Sua. She embezzles donations meant for the poor, exploits brainwashed cult followers until they drop dead, steals achievements from other religions and passes them off as her own to bask in international fame. And that's not enough—she's now trying to swallow up this whole country.
After the trial, I'd been constantly monitoring them to prove my innocence, so it wasn't that hard to track their movements.
Their individual schedules were kept under strict secrecy, but once I figured out when they all gathered together, I could reverse-engineer their paths and guess their destinations.
But it took so much time and effort that probably no one else but me—desperate to prove my innocence—would bother. So I was likely the only one who knew they were meeting today.
The only weird part was the meeting place. These bitches could rent out the top floor of a luxury hotel, yet they chose a creepy abandoned building on the outskirts of the city.
It was suspicious as hell, but that suspicion was exactly my opportunity. Proof they were plotting something again.
I fiddled with the knife in my pocket and stepped inside the building, scanning my surroundings carefully.
No matter how I looked at it, this wasn't a place for those bitches to hold a meeting. Last time, they'd gathered in a flashy, decadent party spot overflowing with drugs and strippers.
As I walked, puzzled and examining everything closely, something caught my eye.
A briefcase. Tucked inside a drawer cabinet. But maybe because of the fierce night wind today, the cabinet door was open, exposing what should have been hidden right in front of me.
It looked old, like it'd been abandoned with the building—covered in dust, casually shoved into a filthy drawer like trash. Nothing special, yet it strangely drew my attention.
It felt like fate. No real reason, and this wasn't the time, but I couldn't resist the bizarre urge to check it out.
They wouldn't arrive for a while anyway, and I had nothing better to do while waiting.
I double-checked that no one was around, then cautiously approached the briefcase and tried to lift it.
Clank! It made a noise but wouldn't come out. Now I saw it was chained inside the drawer with iron links.
I froze. Whatever this was, it must be valuable enough for all four of them to sneak out here together for it.
But messing with it further could trigger some trap. Continuing was stupid.
Still, I'd barely escaped the hospital with my broken body, and while I'd fallen into hell, they kept climbing higher. This might be my last chance to confront them.
So if this really was something precious to them, I'd use it as a hostage to force a face-to-face. Make them admit—even if it was a lie—that I was innocent.
I fiddled with the lock on the chain connected to the briefcase and, just in case, tried the code 3421.
3421 was the idiot Minhui's password she'd used unchanged since childhood. One of the many bits of info I'd obsessively gathered to prove my innocence.
Back then, it felt kinda pathetic collecting such trivial details—like some stalker—but now I was grateful for my past obsessive self. Because the lock actually clicked open.
They'd arrive soon, so no time to hesitate.
I immediately pulled out the contents of the briefcase.
"A... stone...?"
But it wasn't ordinary—with two horn-like antennae protruding like feelers, and its surface shimmering iridescently, it seemed like some precious gem.
Why leave something like that here?
What the hell is th—
Bang!
An unbelievable sound echoed. Even in this deserted night on the city outskirts, in an abandoned building where no one would hear a gunshot—but a gunshot in this country?
Did I hear wrong? Maybe a car accident? As I wondered, something even more unbelievable entered my sight.
A bullet hole through my heart. The pain hadn't hit yet. Instinctively, I drew the knife from my pocket.
But compared to the gun that shot me, it was pathetically useless. Just a 3,000-won utility knife from a convenience store on the way. And honestly, I hadn't even planned to stab them with it.
I'd just come here desperate to hear one simple thing: that I was innocent. That I'd never assaulted anyone...
Even now, when it wouldn't change my ruined life—even after vowing to become a devil—I realized too late, as the hole pierced my heart, that I'd clung to my humanity till the end.
I'm pissed.
More at myself for wanting to stay human than at the bitch who shot me.
Pain was creeping in slowly, but I stood straight, enduring it.
I'd die soon, but I wanted to face them proudly in my final moments.
Wash away the humiliation of kneeling before them, begging forgiveness for a crime I didn't commit.
"Long time no see? Here to assault us again?"
Yujin mocked me.
Blood filled my mouth the moment I tried to speak, so I just glared at her in silence.
"Here to whine about your innocence again? You're so annoying. Just admit it already."
Minhui spoke as if pitying me, like "What's wrong with you?"
But it wasn't comfort. It was the voice of someone far above looking down on the wretch below. She was pretending to console me while delivering worse humiliation than plain mockery.
Suddenly, strength drained from my body. Stumbling, I leaned against the drawer cabinet where the briefcase had been to avoid collapsing. Then I glared at the two bitches.
Unbelievable. Their attitudes—like they truly believed I'd assaulted them.
"Rapist fails to repent and commits suicide. Found in abandoned building near hospital. Suspected of lewd acts right up to death."
Jiyeong looked up from her phone, ignoring me as she typed.
I glared at her, demanding what the hell that meant. She met my eyes, flashed a bright smile, and showed me her phone text message.
It was a message to online tabloids and news outlets.
Realizing what it meant, I opened my mouth to curse her—but all that came out was my red blood.
Despair rooted in my pierced chest drank my blood and grew.
Even in death, I'd be remembered only as a rapist.
Lived as a rapist, died as a rapist.
That would be the conclusion of my life so far.
Jiyeong smiled again at my despairing face, now fresh and tangy like overripe lemon.
"Tomorrow's headline. Won't get many views. A pathetic male suicide isn't interesting news."
Furious, I lunged at Jiyeong but collapsed forward after a few steps. The pent-up pain crashed over me at once.
No, pain alone I could endure. I'd suffered worse before.
But my body wouldn't move anymore.
The knife I'd gripped so tightly clattered to the floor.
"Pathetic coward. Coming at us with a knife."
Minhui sneered, striking a boxing stance and throwing light punches into the air. Her form was sharp, befitting the recent world champ.
But I knew her sins. Unlike my false guilt, hers were real.
Minhui wasn't an undefeated, flawless fighter. She'd won a childhood match through fouls and bias.
And you're calling me cowardly? You?
Minhui sauntered over and squatted in front of me.
I tried to lift my head to glare, but could barely manage. Her fighter's thighs—toned and muscular—looked even more prominent in short biker shorts, and squatting made her pussy mound jut forward. That was all I could see.
Minhui chuckled and tapped my head on the floor with her fist.
"Don't bother us anymore. Just die already. I'm so sick of you creeps stalking us."
Yujin chimed in. She didn't even look properly at my dying face, just checked if her manicure was perfect.
But Sua—the one who'd actually shot me—didn't even glance my way.
Rage at their insect-treating attitudes squeezed out my last strength. I pushed off the floor and stood straight.
"Ooh."
Minhui mocked me with sarcastic applause, like "What grit."
Standing tall, I looked them in the faces one by one. And immediately grasped the horrific truth.
After over a decade of lies, they'd come to believe their own bullshit as truth!
Now I understood why they ignored my pleas of innocence. Truth and lies meant nothing to them from the start.
Knowing that horror, I tried to keep standing tall over them—but collapsed back into the filthy dirt.
Dust rose, wafting toward where they stood. Sua finally turned to look at me, with the contempt of someone eyeing a cockroach.
"But what're you holding—"
Yujin asked.
At that instant, Sua—who'd been utterly indifferent even right after shooting me—changed completely.
She stopped what she was doing, clenched her pistol as hard as her teeth, and charged at me.
Sua slammed the pistol grip into my dying head on the ground, screaming.
"Drop it! Drop that thing now!"
In my final moments before death, I saw unconsciously my blood seeping into the stone I gripped tight.
*
I knelt, slamming my head into the gym storage room floor, eyes squeezed shut. When I opened them again, those four were still there before me.
But now, I was looking down at them.
My mind was foggy, not fully awake. I turned to the window. The sunset glowed. It had been dawn just moments ago.
What the hell? I thought, turning back to look at them.
Their faces were younger. Just like back in the courtroom when they'd framed the innocent me as a rapist.
Instinctively, I understood.
This was the gym storage room—the day before I was reported for a crime I didn't commit and dragged to the station for questioning. I'd come begging them to drop the charges.
For some reason, I'd returned to the past. Or maybe not. Maybe I'd died and fallen into some hell or heaven illusion...
But it didn't matter. Even if it was an illusion, I didn't care.
There was no evidence, but my conviction wasn't just because of their fame, strength, money, and power.
I'd admitted guilt.
Admitted to a crime that never existed.
Back then, I thought I had to. Young and weak, I didn't know why they hated me so much, but figured if I begged forgiveness, they'd grant it.
But that wasn't forgiveness. It was groveling.
Groveling that ruined my entire life after.
But now it's different.
Back in time, I didn't know hidden martial arts manuals, crypto boom timings, or lotto numbers.
After the accusation, my life was chained to trials, unable to escape.
But there's one thing I do know for sure—
The lives of these four bitches right in front of me.
Their flashy successes.
And the ugly crimes hidden behind that success.
"Not gonna admit it?"
Yujin said with contempt.
"Hey! You wanna die? You touched us!"
Minhui swung her fist like she wanted to hit me.
"We already have all the evidence. Excuses won't help. Admitting it is your best shot at a lighter sentence."
Jiyeong pressured me coldly.
"Don't be too harsh... He came to apologize. Let's forgive him if he does."
And Sua spoke to me with the gentlest voice and face imaginable.
Like she genuinely cared, forcibly calming her angry friends.
But now I knew. She was the one who'd reported me, and those words were just to coax a confession.
I knew because back then, I'd fallen for that sweet voice and apologized.
I looked at the four again. Clenched my fists. But I wasn't planning to punch them right now.
I was planning the ultimate revenge—for me the best, for them the cruelest.
Compared to that, even a normal death would be a blessing for them.