Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 39
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As Kyung-wan was returning to his solitary cell, he saw an inmate walking from the opposite side, making a sleazy face and picking a fight with a correctional officer.
“Hey. When’s the last time you had sex?”
“···.”
“You still a virgin?”
“···.”
“Looks like you are, you son of a bitch. Wanna lose your dick? Should I tear it off for you?”
“···.”
“If a man’s got a dick, he’s supposed to use it. Go around screwing people like me.”
“···.”
It must not have been the first time he’d thrown such taunts, because the correctional officer ignored him and led the guy toward the open yard Kyung-wan had just come from.
Seeing that scene, Kyung-wan clicked his tongue.
“Being a correctional officer really is an extreme job, an extreme job. Isn’t that right, officer?”
When Kyung-wan said that to the officer behind him, the correctional officer replied with a blank face.
“Face forward, six-nine-eight-eight.”
He smirked bitterly as Kyung-wan obediently turned his head forward. The very man who makes correctional officers’ lives an extreme-job hell was saying that, and it was absurd. If he wanted to say that, he shouldn’t have broken out of prison in the first place.
Incidents inside the prison could be handled to an extent. But a prison break? That was impossible to just cover up.
With his head facing forward, Kyung-wan opened his mouth.
“That bastard who walked by just now, he’s a lifer, right?”
“···.”
“Talking about sex and women like that, he’s a rapist. Probably rape and murder?”
“···.”
The correctional officer didn’t answer, but a chill ran down his back. Six-nine-eight-eight’s sharp insight was frightening. The widespread rumor in the prison, that he could tell if someone was lying through physical contact, might not be just a wild story after all.
“Officer. How about adjusting the schedule so I run into that bastard more often?”
“···.”
“He’s acting out like that because he thinks his life’s already over, so he’s giving up and going wild.”
“···.”
“But if he realizes there’s an even lower bottom beneath the bottom, he’ll calm down real fast.”
“···.”
“I’m saying I’ll show him that lower bottom, just a little. Once he sees reality, he’ll be a lot easier to manage.”
The officer opened the solitary door without answering. As Kyung-wan stepped in, he continued speaking.
“How could I not do at least that much for the hardworking officers?”
“Six-nine, ”
“Oh, no need to answer. I don’t want to make you feel pressured. Just, when I happen to run into that bastard and he acts like a shithead? Then I’ll say I got pissed off and did it.”
“···.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Kyung-wan closed the solitary door himself instead of waiting for the conflicted officer.
= = = = =
An arrest warrant had been requested for Chairman Oh Tae-gwang, and the trial date was set. The public was focused on the case, but Kyung-wan, of course, had no way of knowing that.
What he could notice was that his outdoor-walk schedule had shifted slightly, and he was running into that foul-mouthed lifer more and more.
Was it the fifth time? Or the sixth?
Kyung-wan smiled at the guy he’d been seeing often and gave him a friendly wave.
The guy’s response was exactly what Kyung-wan expected.
“What the fuck are you looking at, you bastard?”
Wow! Cursing right off the bat! Truly fitting for a guy whose life was in the gutter.
Kyung-wan responded by smiling brightly and raising both middle fingers, as if saying, “Trash is just trash.”
“You little fucker!”
“Three-five-seven-seven! Stop!”
The officer tried to stop him, but if he listened well, he wouldn’t be the nasty lifer he was.
The bastard shoved the officer aside and charged at Kyung-wan, eyes glaring like a beast, no, like someone who’d given up on being human.
Kyung-wan lowered his head toward the charging man. Not even a speck of intention to apologize, he simply wanted to smash the guy’s mouth with a headbutt.
“Mmfp!”
Hit in the philtrum, the guy grabbed his mouth and stepped back. But Kyung-wan wasn’t about to stop at one hit. He closed in, shoved his chest hard, slipped his foot between the man’s legs, and hooked his ankle.
Then, as the man fell, Kyung-wan jumped up and shot his leg down toward his crotch.
“Hectopascal screech!”
“Aaarrrgh!”
“Six-nine-eight-eight!”
Unfortunately, because he was grabbed by an officer before all his weight landed, the balls didn’t fully burst. If the full weight had come down, the guy wouldn’t have had the luxury to scream while holding his crotch.
As he was dragged away, Kyung-wan shouted at him.
“You think your life’s over so you’re acting out? It’s not over! It starts now!”
On the surface, it sounded like he was giving hope to a despairing man. But the meaning was the opposite.
“Keep acting like a fuckhead! I’ll make you even more fucked than you are now!”
After that, Kyung-wan often ran into him. Later, he learned the guy’s name was Lee Chang-yong, a lifer convicted of rape and murder, exactly as Kyung-wan had guessed.
Every time they crossed paths, Lee glared at him with killing intent, and Kyung-wan responded with a cheerful smile.
A second clash was inevitable. And of course, Lee lost again.
“Let’s make your chin fold, fold!”
His heel smashed down toward the man’s jaw. He didn’t aim for the jawbone, he aimed for the teeth, knocking out every molar.
“Graaagh!”
Yellowish-white corn-like teeth, soaked in blood, spilled from his mouth.
“When society feeds and houses a piece of human trash like you, you should bow and say thank you. What are you so proud of, acting like a big shot?”
As he was being dragged away again, Kyung-wan shouted that, and Lee broke down crying. It seemed the combination of helplessness and pain had finally made reality hit him.
And indeed, the “extreme remedy” named Kyung-wan was 100% effective. Lee completely lost his spirit and became obedient.
When he seemed to regain a bit of confidence? They made him run into Kyung-wan again. That was plenty.
“You listening to the officers properly? At the very least, listen to the people who give you food. If you don’t, what happens? Heeheehee.”
His laugh was creepy, his smile filled with madness. Even a third-party officer felt chills, imagine facing it head-on like Lee did.
“S-six-nine-eight-eight! Stop doing unnecessary things and let’s go!”
The officer gently pushed Kyung-wan’s back, and Kyung-wan left the pale, terrified Lee behind.
Anyway, one troublesome inmate becoming docile made life physically and mentally easier for the officers. The biggest reason the job felt so extreme was inmates who refused to listen.
A serious criminal refusing to obey instructions meant he felt zero remorse for his crimes.
So every time a lifer or long-sentence inmate mocked them or disobeyed them, acting like the officers’ instructions were dog barks, the officers suffered existential dread. Why should taxpayers’ money feed these bastards?
Then came the extreme remedy: Kyung-wan.
He was worrisome, but the fact that the media had combed through his entire life actually reassured the officers. At least this criminal never harmed an innocent person. His attitude toward officers was always polite and respectful.
Yes, he’d broken out and violated rules and used violence, but his consistent respect earned the officers’ trust.
The belief that he’d never harm an innocent person.
Because of that trust, the officers couldn’t help being drawn to the effectiveness of this “extreme remedy.”
He had already tamed one problem inmate. What about others?
They were quietly hopeful, but hesitant, because the issue was Kyung-wan’s consent. Was it right to make him interact with other troublesome inmates without consulting him?
But the concern vanished when Kyung-wan brought it up first.
“That bastard listens better now, right?”
“···.”
“But he’s not the only one acting out, you know?”
“···.”
“Eating with taxpayer money but not reflecting at all? I kinda want to see their faces. Is that okay?”
“.. Go inside.”
“Thank you for your hard work today.”
After that, Kyung-wan met various killers, rapists, robbers, drug offenders, scam artists, lifer, death-row, long-sentence inmates with ridiculous nicknames like the Bulkwang-dong Hound, Gang-dori, Heung-teok, and more.
These were people who believed their lives were ruined beyond repair. They didn’t know the meaning of reflection, and they refused to obey officers, classic anger-management disasters.
But that was before meeting Kyung-wan.
Once they encountered him, they learned there was darkness below rock bottom, and beneath anger-management issues, there was madness wearing a calm mask.
Some had nerve damage so bad they couldn’t make a proper fist anymore; others walked with a lifelong limp because their broken ankles still ached after the cast came off. That was simply karma for their arrogance, karma from a time when they didn’t understand consequences.
They all became obedient lambs, and whenever they showed suspicious signs, they were made to encounter Kyung-wan again. Then, like magic, they became docile.
The officers had never managed long-sentence inmates so easily.
Work got easier, their minds became lighter, and as their minds relaxed, they began giving small conveniences to Kyung-wan, within their legal authority. Truly, a living example of the saying, “Generosity comes from a full storeroom.”
And Kyung-wan wasn’t a fool who mistook kindness for entitlement. He expressed gratitude and enjoyed the conveniences just appropriately.
Slightly longer library and internet time, more book loans, small comforts that made a monotonous cell life less tedious. Officers and Kyung-wan became mutually beneficial.
Eventually, this extended to mid-level offenders, not long-term but not petty criminals either.
“I heard you’ve been acting up lately.”
“Who the hell are you?”
Convicted of rape and murder but given 15 years thanks to ‘diminished capacity from alcohol’ and ‘sincere remorse’, nonsense from his lawyer accepted by some ivory-tower judge, Mr. Lee So-and-so frowned as a young guy approached him during outdoor time.
Kyung-wan answered:
“Have you heard of Lee Kyung-wan? The guy who turned a congressman into a cripple. That’s me.”
“You’re him?”
Lee So-and-so squinted suspiciously, unable to believe the culprit was this young man before him.
“I get it’s hard to believe. But more importantly, what matters is why that guy came to see you. Right?”
“Why are you here?”
“What did I say first?”
Lee So-and-so recalled the earlier words and frowned deeply.
“You little punk…”
His eyes flashed with murderous intent, as if he'd forgotten this was prison.
“I heard you don’t reflect on what you did and you’re acting up. I understand, you got only 15 years for what you did, so you don’t really grasp the weight of your crime. Shitty sentences aren’t exactly new. But this is a society where we all live together, right? Not listening to officers, kicking them, picking fights, that’s a problem. Damn those human rights groups. If it weren’t for those dimwits with no sense of reality, whenever someone like you acted up, they’d just zap you with a stun gun and you wouldn’t be able to cause trouble.”