Chapter 41
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: You Brought This on Yourself
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I was born in a shithole.
A cramped corner of hell overflowing with suffocating poverty, violence, and contempt.
The man called Dad was a tattooed thug who got drunk at the drop of a hat and laid into Mom and me with his fists.
The woman called Mom didn't resist—instead, she fawned over him and clung desperately.
"You bitch! Don't you take care of your hole? Why's it so damn loose?"
"Aang! I'm sorry, honey! I'll squeeze... tighter! So please, harder...!"
As if they couldn't care less that their young daughter was in the next room, those two beasts tangled up every night, belting out their vulgar cries.
Sometimes Dad, still flushed with the heat of lust, would use Mom's naked body as a pillow and send me on errands.
That nauseating sight and fishy stench still haunt my nightmares, lingering at the tip of my nose.
"I'm sorry, my baby girl. Mommy's so sorry."
Mom would often whisper those words through sobs at my bedside while I pretended to sleep, but I felt no pity whatsoever.
The sight of a weakling groveling pathetically before the strong just filled me with disgust.
At the very least, I vowed deep in my bones from a young age that I would never become someone like Mom.
Maybe that's when I, Park Mi-na, was already fully formed.
To survive this hell, I had to become ruthless.
Before I got hurt.
Before I got trampled.
I had to crush my opponent under my heel first.
Dominate or be dominated. Those were the only choices in this world.
And fortunately, I had the talent for it.
Was it thanks to the looks I was born with? From childhood, a single smile or a coquettish word was enough to mesmerize boys my age like fools.
I quickly realized this was my greatest weapon.
By middle school, I had already become the queen of my little kingdom.
Boys vied for my favor.
Girls banded together, watching my every mood.
When I saw how one word from me could shift the whole class's atmosphere or make or break someone's reputation...
A thrilling shiver ran through my entire body.
Even as I realized I was doing the exact same things I hated my dad for, I couldn't stop.
But playing queen within the sheltered walls of school didn't change the reality that I had to return to the sewer every day.
If I didn't escape this cursed home, I was doomed to flounder in the shit forever.
I had to get out. As far away as possible, to a place where no one knew me.
"Use this money toward your college tuition."
As high school graduation approached, Mom suddenly handed me an envelope of cash from who-knows-where.
Did she have even a shred of maternal love or guilt left in her?
That night, she hugged me and bawled her eyes out, but I didn't shed a single tear.
The first day I escaped the hell that had bound me for over a decade...
I buried my face in the unfamiliar dorm bed and wept soundlessly through the night.
I still don't know if those tears were from joy, sorrow, or sheer relief at surviving.
Having escaped that horrific hell, my life would surely change now.
If only it had been that simple...
The values ingrained since childhood don't just vanish when the environment changes.
If anything, they grew even more twisted.
I loathed men, yet craved the love and attention I'd never gotten from my parents—a contradictory desire raging endlessly inside me.
Relationships I stumbled into to fill that void always ended in disaster.
The men who approached me lusted only after my looks, and I could sense their dark intentions lurking behind their kindness.
I was already too warped to form anything pure.
After graduating college and entering society, I despaired at how little I'd changed.
A new environment, but people were the same everywhere.
Coy mind games, invisible power struggles.
I got chills seeing myself sniff out weaknesses and manipulate others, just like before.
It felt like a curse I couldn't escape, no matter how much I wanted to.
So when I joined Travel Wiz Agency, I swore this time I'd start fresh.
Forget the nauseating past, the stained dating history.
Live as an ordinary office worker, Park Mi-na.
I wonder if I chose a travel agency because deep down I wanted to whisk myself away somewhere.
Or maybe I just desperately needed a stable job.
But my first foray into working life was far from what I'd imagined.
No free-spirited travels—just glued to a desk, with dull, repetitive work.
Playing the sweet, bubbly youngest was utterly exhausting.
Still, I told myself that if I could just maintain this level of peace...
But even that peace didn't last long.
"Heard about Park Mi-na from Marketing? Total man-eater, they say."
"No wonder she flirts so much with the guys. She's got that tail-wagging down to an art."
They say the past is an indelible stigma.
My history—who knows where it started leaking from—had grown all sorts of ugly flesh and circulated as scandalous rumors.
I was sick of it.
All I wanted was to do well.
I'd finally escaped hell, or so I thought.
'I have to shake off this label somehow...'
In my growing anxiety, the first person who caught my eye was none other than Lee Hyun-seong.
Ordinary, a bit bumbling, the kind of guy you'd call nice or maybe just spineless.
Exactly the type from school days who hovered around me, grinning like idiots at a smile or a bit of kindness—easy to handle.
Ridiculously, the moment I saw him, a plan snapped into place in my head.
How to seduce him. How to use him.
Making a mockery of my fresh-start resolution, I slipped right back into my old self.
The process went so smoothly it made all my agonizing feel pointless.
I approached him while he was down after getting chewed out by Team Leader, pretended to console and worry with a few words, set up drinks, and he fell hook, line, and sinker.
Men are all the same, after all.
-"How could you do that to a precious junior?"
-"I don't believe it."
At the bar, facing his earnest gaze, for a fleeting moment—just a split second—something in me wavered, and disgust welled up at myself.
'Snap out of it, Park Mi-na. It's empty words. Pity!'
'Get ruthless. Bite first before you get devoured.'
Surprisingly, sex with him wasn't bad.
Honestly? Pretty damn good.
Unlike his average looks, his body was firm enough to make you greedy.
His clumsy but rough movements brought unexpected pleasure.
If only.
If I'd just grown up in a proper environment.
If I'd learned how to love and be loved right.
Things might have been different.
But that's all pointless fantasy.
I'm too broken to live any other way.
I never really intended to take it to court.
If I could just quash the rumors, that was enough.
So sorry, senpai?
Thanks for being nice until now, but be my sacrifice.
"No need to apologize."
...Huh?
Whose voice was that just now?
More importantly, what the hell have I been thinking up until now...?
"I'll collect my apology from now on, nice and thoroughly, in other ways."
[Suggestion has been turned OFF.]
In an instant, my consciousness rocketed to the surface.
It felt like I'd been submerged deep underwater, only for someone to grab my hair and yank me up by force—a wave of revulsion hit me.
As my blurry vision sharpened, the scene before me was utterly unfamiliar—not my studio apartment.
Tacky patterns on the wallpaper.
Dreamy orange light pouring from the ceiling.
The faint sting of air freshener and disinfectant in my nose.
"Wha... what?"
My head was a whirlwind of confusion.
The artificial leather of the sofa against my back felt creepily alien.
I'd clearly planned to blackmail Lee Hyun-seong at the café as scripted, demand money, and leave.
What happened after that...?
Wherever this was, it sure as hell wasn't home.
Yet strangely, it felt faintly familiar.
This lighting, this smell...
"Forgot already? Where this is."
My heart plummeted at the sickeningly familiar voice from behind me.
"...Senpai?"
Hyun-seong, who must have been standing there unnoticed, strolled leisurely to stand before me.
His gaze looking down was chillingly unlike anything I'd seen before.
"We had such a blast here last week. It was that hot—forgetting already would hurt my feelings."
"..."
At his words, I frantically scanned my surroundings, eyes darting.
Only then did I realize: this was the motel where I'd seduced him last Friday night and spent the night.
"Ring any bells now? Where we are."
The instant he said it, I reflexively kicked back the chair and shot to my feet.
I had no idea why I was alone here with this guy right now.
But my instincts screamed: get the hell out.
But...
"Huh?"
My body wouldn't move.
Like it was set in transparent cement—no matter how I willed my limbs to move, not even a twitch.
It wasn't heaviness or numbness; my body simply didn't feel like mine anymore.
The weirdest part? I wasn't tied up or anything.
"Ugh! Ngh...!"
"No use, so just stay put. Don't waste your energy."
As I strained desperately to break free, his cold voice settled back into my ear.
"D-did you do this to me, senpai? What the hell did you do?!"
"And if I did?"
He snorted amusedly at my frantic outburst.
"Th-this is straight-up kidnapping, false imprisonment! Not content with raping your junior—you're insane!"
He shrugged nonchalantly at my outburst.
"I'm perfectly sane. And kidnapping? Imprisonment? What are you talking about? You walked in here on your own two feet."
"Wh-what? Liar!"
"It's true. Don't believe me? Ask the motel owner later for the CCTV footage."
His tone mixed mockery and utter certainty—his eyes unwavering.
I really walked here myself?
But I had zero memory after he pulled out his smartphone at the café.
Still, his rock-solid confidence planted a ominous seed: maybe it was true.
"So, what now? Dragging me to a place like this."
I spat it out, clinging to my last shred of pride.
"Nothing much. Just thought we'd have a frank little chat."
As he spoke, he pulled out his smartphone from his pocket.
Then held it horizontally, like he was filming a video.
The lens pointed straight at me.
"Now, Miss Park Mi-na."
His crisp voice, mimicking a news anchor, grated on my nerves.
"Last Friday, did I really drag you to this motel against your will and force you into sex?"
"Don't lie—tell us clearly and honestly."
"Ha."
That's all he has to ask after bringing me here?
Did he think I'd get scared and confess?
What an utter moron.
My answer was obvious, no thinking required...
"What are you talking about? That night, I lured you here with lies. Get your facts straight."
...Huh?
What did I just say?
"I see~."
Ignoring my shock, he smirked in satisfaction.
"Why'd you lure me? Be honest, no lies."
"To bury the rumors about me at the company with a scandal involving you. Oh, and squeeze some cash out of it."
No, stop!
I screamed internally, but my mouth moved on its own.
"Y-you seemed like a gullible pushover. Easy mark. Plus, you're so low-profile at work, barely anyone would side with you."
Hyun-seong let out an impressed whistle and glanced at me while lowering his phone.
"Damn. I knew it, but hearing it straight from your mouth makes it even more repulsive."
"Wh-what did you do to me?"
Terror began creeping into my heart.
I couldn't even guess what this man had done.
"What? You just confessed everything."
No.
I didn't mean to confess.
Those words weren't my will.
"Your backstory tugs at the heartstrings enough. I get how your personality got so warped—it's not incomprehensible."
Backstory? Past?
What the hell is he talking about?
What does he even know about me?
"But that's that, and this is this. Bottom line: you tried to ruin someone else's life."
All I could do was stare up at him blankly in confusion.
"So don't feel too hard done by or hold grudges. You brought this all on yourself."
Before I could even process his words, his voice pierced my ears again.
Colder, sharper than before—beyond comparison.
"Stand up and strip."
A stabbing pain like a drill through my chest made goosebumps erupt across my skin.
No matter how I screamed profanities and resistance in my head, nothing changed.
Defying my will, my body slowly rose from the chair and reached for the zipper of my jacket.