Chapter 81
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 81
A sickening snap echoed, sending a chill down his entire spine.
For a moment, all thought ceased.
Dokyun’s body froze, paralyzed by what had happened in the blink of an eye.
His eyes, wide with shock, stared at the end of his line of sight, where a leg was bent at an angle it should never bend.
The next instant, his body began to back away on its own, betraying his will.
Realizing what he was doing, he tried to force himself forward, but his mind, shattered by the shock, had lost all function. He took less than three steps before grinding to a halt.
His vacant mind couldn't find the words he needed to say; his lips just gaped open and closed.
His heart hammered against his eardrums, a frantic testament to his terror.
“Kkeu-hik…!”
A small, trembling laugh.
At the sound, Dokyun stiffly raised his head. Through a curtain of long hair, he saw her, her eyes curved into crescents as she smiled.
Once again, terror surged.
His paralyzed mind jolted back to life in a twisted, malformed shape and let out a piercing scream.
Just as Eun-seol had said, this girl was a fucking lunatic.
A monster that couldn't be measured by any sane logic.
His instincts screamed at him.
Run.
Don't get involved.
His heart rate spiked, and his thoughts flickered. His breath came in ragged gasps, his lungs tightening painfully.
As he stood there trembling, reason finally reasserted itself, fighting back.
Upon the wreckage of his thoughts, it painted a picture of the body’s true owner.
It reminded him whose body this monster was devouring, and who he was here for in the first place.
Then, as his mind cleared, Dokyun remembered what he had to do.
911!
He had to call an ambulance.
Eun-ah’s body was hurt. That slender leg was broken.
He had to get her medical attention. Fast. As fast as possible.
But as his thoughts raced and he whipped his head around, Dokyun realized with dawning horror that he had no way to contact the outside world. A blank despair escaped his lips.
“Ah, ah…”
A wave of hopelessness threatened to pull him under.
As he floundered for a moment, unsure of what to do, reason slapped him across the cheek and commanded him to go to the girl in front of him.
Without knowing what he was even supposed to do, Dokyun staggered forward on trembling legs and knelt. Eun-chae immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him.
“Kkeu-hik, kkeuk…!”
A groan, twisted with a mixture of pain and ecstasy, escaped her lips. Dokyun flinched, and she whispered into his ear, her voice a cracked, airy rasp.
“Now… prai, se me-hahaha!”
She broke off mid-sentence, her shoulders shaking with laughter.
Startled, Dokyun jerked back and pushed her away. He saw her face crumple as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Terrified, Dokyun started to scramble backward again.
“…Hey.”
A heavily suppressed voice reached him.
He flinched.
Hearing that voice, he looked at her face again and saw her biting her lip, her expression deeply furrowed.
“Dressing room… left side… bo-ttom… shelf…”
The words were broken and halting.
“Call… 911…!”
But the meaning was perfectly clear.
Eun-seol was out.
Realizing this, Dokyun shot to his feet. Eun-seol squeezed her eyes shut and added one more word.
“Hurry…!”
Her voice was thick with pain.
His mind finally kicking into gear, Dokyun scrambled to move, shouting frantically.
“Just a second! Just wait a second!”
Thump, thump. He sprinted into the dressing room, his footsteps so heavy they seemed to shake the floor. Just as she’d said, he rummaged through the bottom-left shelf and pulled out his smartphone, which had been hidden there.
He didn’t remember much of what happened after that.
Only the vague memory of making a call with tears streaming down his face, and of following the paramedics as they loaded her into the ambulance and headed for the hospital.
Those were the only things that surfaced from the blur.
*
She was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery.
Fortunately, the treatment was swift, and she wouldn't have to live with a permanent limp or anything of the sort.
The doctor said she just needed to stay in the hospital for a while and focus on her recovery.
Dokyun’s gaze fell to her leg, which was encased in a cast.
It was immobilized on the bed, as even the slightest movement could cause a shock, and the sight of it made his stomach churn.
“...I’m sorry,” he said, after she had finally woken up.
“It’s fine. It wasn’t something you could have controlled. Even I didn’t expect that bitch to act like that.”
Eun-seol’s words were meant to soothe him.
She shifted her gaze to look at the teary-eyed Dokyun and continued.
“Stop blubbering. It’s pathetic.”
At her words, Dokyun flinched. Seeing this, she let out a small smirk and added another comment.
“I’m used to it, so it’s fine. Looks like I’ll be around for a while this time. I’ll just take it easy and read some books.”
As he watched her close her eyes again, Dokyun felt his fists clench. He asked her a question.
“…Why did she come out? I was watching Eun-ah constantly, but there were no signs. It was so sudden.”
“A last-ditch struggle.”
“…What?”
The reply was curt.
When Dokyun asked blankly for clarification, she explained with her eyes still closed.
“She forced her way out through a crack that formed in the process of making Go Eun-ah face reality. That’s why I said it wasn’t your fault.”
Then, Eun-seol slowly opened her eyes and looked at him again.
“If things kept going as they were, her death was guaranteed, with nothing to show for it. So she pulled this shit just to say, ‘fuck you.’”
As she spoke, the corners of her mouth twisted up into a smirk, and she offered Dokyun a word of praise.
“You did well. You did the best you could.”
Dokyun stared silently at the girl praising him.
He knew she was trying to comfort him.
But honestly, he hadn’t done well.
He had acted rashly based on insufficient evidence and caused this disaster.
If he had thought it through more carefully, if he had observed more closely before acting, he could have achieved a much better outcome.
His stomach twisted. It must have been from the self-loathing.
He wanted to ask why she didn’t resent him.
He wanted to ask why she didn’t blame him.
But even as he thought this, her words of comfort soothed him.
Coward that he was, he was taking solace in her words.
“…Thank you.”
And so, the only thing he could manage to say was a word of thanks.
He felt a thick layer of self-loathing cling to him, for hiding behind her words to appease his own guilt.
As Dokyun wrestled with his churning stomach, her reply came.
“It’s nothing…”
The casual smile she gave him only fueled his self-disgust.
He kept his head bowed, unable to look at her for a long time.
“Ignore everything Go Eun-chae says.”
She spoke again.
At her words, Dokyun looked up. She met his gaze steadily and continued.
“Like I said before, Go Eun-chae can’t say anything that contradicts Go Eun-ah’s thoughts. So think of everything she says as nonsense, just her mimicking Go Eun-ah.”
Her words brought back the events of a few days ago.
That chilling voice whispering words of love to him.
She must be talking about that.
“The only thing that matters to Go Eun-chae is unleashing her impulses. Mimicking Go Eun-ah, devouring the rest of us—she only does those things because they’re necessary for her goal.”
“I don’t care. About what a psycho like that says.”
“Good.”
He watched her close her eyes for a moment. An awkward silence settled between them, and Dokyun’s eyes fell on a fruit basket on the bedside table. He opened his mouth.
“Should I peel an apple for you?”
“Just a little.”
Dokyun nodded, and the sound of a knife peeling fruit—shhk, shhk—began to fill the silence they had created.
*
A week had passed since she was admitted.
The doctor had prescribed a month and a half in the hospital.
There was still a month and a week left until her discharge, but she had recovered enough that the critical period was over, and all she had to do was wait for the bone to mend.
The doctor had marveled at her phenomenal recovery rate, but she had simply nodded with an air of indifference.
Dokyun stared blankly at Eun-seol, who was lying in the hospital bed reading a book.
Did she never get tired of it? Ever since he’d brought her the books, she’d spent all day, every day, just staring at them.
They were the kind of books that made his head hurt just looking at the titles.
His curiosity piqued, Dokyun ventured a question.
“Is that interesting?”
At his question, her gaze, which had been fixed on the book, shifted to him.
“I’m just reading it.”
Just reading it. As she said this and turned back to her book, Dokyun’s mouth opened once more.
“What’s it about?”
“Would you even understand if I told you?”
Her tone was dismissive.
A surge of indignation rose in him, and Dokyun straightened his shoulders to reply.
“For your information, I graduated from a university in Seoul, you know?”
His friends from back home always said it didn't matter since he acted like an idiot, but he had graduated from a university that would at least make people go, “Oh,” when they heard the name.
Meaning, he wasn’t someone who could be looked down on for his education.
With that thought in mind, he spoke confidently, his tone conveying a clear message: don’t dismiss me again.
“Good for you.”
The reply was dismissive.
An awkward feeling washed over him as she spoke without even glancing his way. Dokyun scratched the back of his head and muttered a stupid response.
“Uhm… thank you…?”
“Right.”
Silence followed.
Feeling his lips begin to itch with the need to speak again, Dokyun kept sneaking glances at her. She finally let out a deep sigh at his fidgeting and shot him an annoyed look.
“What is it you want to say?”
Her face was plastered with irritation.
Looking at her, Dokyun wondered, ‘Did I bother her for no reason?’ before shaking the thought off and speaking.
“Well, I’m just bored sitting around…”
That was it.
The reason he kept trying to talk to her was, frankly, because he was bored.
Anyone who has ever kept a vigil at a hospital would understand.
In reality, nursing a patient mostly consists of running errands and helping them out, but unless the patient is constantly asking for things, most of the time is spent just sitting there, bored to the point of agony.
It was a feeling similar to being at reserve forces training.
He was bored to death, but with nothing to do, he desperately needed something, anything, to pass the time.
That’s why he had tried to start a conversation, but her annoyed response made him feel a little dejected.
“Never mind. Please, read your book.”
As Dokyun spoke in a slightly downcast voice, she sighed again and tossed her smartphone to him with an irritated tone.
“Stop being annoying and go look at whatever it is you like.”
The smartphone landed in his hands.
Understanding what she meant, Dokyun’s face broke into a wide grin as he expressed his gratitude.
“Thank you!”
“Whatever. Just don’t talk to me. It’s annoying.”
“Yup.”
Dokyun looked down at the smartphone in his hands for the first time in a long while.
A moment of joy washed over him, but it was quickly replaced by curiosity as he saw the missed call notifications on the screen. He tilted his head and checked them.
‘Mom?’
The calls were from his mother.
It was only then that he remembered he hadn’t called his parents once since the New Year had passed. Feeling sheepish, Dokyun stood up and spoke to Eun-seol.
“I’m just going to step out to make a call.”
He saw her nod, her eyes still fixed on her book, and left the room to call his mother.
The line rang, and then she picked up.
—Hello?
“Hey, Mom, it’s me. Why’d you call?”
—What kind of son doesn’t even call to wish his parents a happy new year?
She landed a critical hit right from the start.
Feeling sheepish all over again, Dokyun scratched the back of his head and mumbled a reply.
“Uh… I forgot…”
—Aigoo, you ungrateful brat.
“…I’m sorry…”
There was nothing he could say.
He could make excuses, but they would just be excuses.
—Worse than an animal. I raised you with such care, and what do you do? Stare at weird stories online and fiddle with your thing…
“Ah, why are you bringing that up again?!”
Here we go again.
Whenever he did something she didn’t like, she would always dig up his darkest history to shame him.
What was there to say? During his hormonal school days, he’d been caught by his mother getting off to some erotic fiction.
That was thirteen years ago. A story she had been milking for thirteen whole years.
You’d think she’d let it go by now, but unfortunately, beloved classics are beloved for a reason.
—You need to stop fiddling with that thing of yours. It hasn’t turned black from all the rubbing, has it? Take it easy, son. You’ll wear your bones down.
“Ah, Mom, come on!”
This was driving him crazy.
That story never failed to trigger his sense of shame.
—Aigoo, I’m so worried. How are you ever going to get married? Is there even a single young lady out there who likes you?
The talk of marriage followed without giving him a moment to breathe.
His head started to throb.
She was probably going to go on about this for another thirty minutes.
The thought made the back of his neck ache, and Dokyun finally snapped.
“There is! I’m seeing someone!”
He blurted it out.
The next instant.
—Really? Then bring her over for the holidays.
The voice that came back was that of a hyena that had spotted its prey.
—Let’s see… that’s in a month and a half, right? I’ll see you both then.
Click.
The call ended. As the conversation he’d just had finally registered, Dokyun’s body trembled.
‘Uh…?’
He’d said he was seeing someone, and his mother had told him to bring her over.
A cold sweat trickled down his back.
‘…Shit.’
He was fucked.