The Graffiti on the Door
That soft exclamation of surprise came from the delivery man. The man who had just handed me the package looked at the graffiti scrawled across my front door and suddenly sounded more concerned than necessary. “Um… are you okay, miss? Did someone harass you or threaten you? Should I call the school or the police for you?”
His lowered voice and careful tone made me realize he must have noticed the hateful words as he stood on the porch. I was too busy staring at the spray-painted insults to answer right away. In games I heard plenty of trash talk, sure—gamers had been calling me names for years—but these words were different. They were aimed at the disabled girl I had become. Someone had deliberately targeted me, a person who could no longer walk without a wheelchair, someone whose left eye had been damaged beyond repair and whose left foot was gone forever. The fact that they knew exactly where I lived only made it worse.
“I’m fine,” I said, my voice thin and polite even though the words felt like they were scraping the inside of my throat. “Thank you for asking, but I’ll take care of it myself.”
Still, the message stung. I quickly finished unpacking the new phone and called up the KakaoTalk app. My fingers moved on autopilot, sending the first photo of the graffiti straight to Kancho.
- Yoon Noeul: (photo) Can this be treated as an aggravating factor?
- Kancho: Noeul-nim
- Kancho: Do you have anyone nearby you can ask for help? A relative maybe?
- Kancho: Ah…
- Kancho: I’m sorry… I’ll try contacting Celesty-nim first
- Kancho: Did you call the police?
I had only wanted advice on how to handle the complaint, yet Kancho was already spinning off into practical steps. I understood why. Months ago he had taken on the harassment of the one who had bullied me, and now the fallout had landed on my doorstep. He was probably beating himself up right now. I replied quickly, trying to steer him back to the matter at hand.
- Yoon Noeul: Location doesn’t matter
- Yoon Noeul: If we find proof that the person who wrote this graffiti is the same one who harassed me before, can it count as an aggravating factor?
- Kancho: It can
- Kancho: Before, it was just defamation with a fine and compensation. This case could mean actual prison time
- Yoon Noeul: I see
- Kancho: So first, I’ll call the police and have them secure the security-camera footage from the guard post. Guard posts rarely show clear faces these days
- Yoon Noeul: Okay
Calling the police would add another layer of hassle, but I had to bite the bullet. The kind of top-laner who charged forward alone into the enemy turret line couldn’t afford to flinch now. I had already taken a hit; the only smart move was to prepare for the next wave. Besides, I was terrified of dying, but I was more terrified of letting the monsters who had done this feel satisfied that they had broken me.
So I ended the stream, called the police, and waited. The viewers who had been watching my match noticed something was wrong and started asking questions in the chat. The delivery man had been concerned, Kancho had been worried, and now strangers on the internet were too. It was strangely comforting that so many people cared even when I had nothing to do with them. Maybe the news had already reached Celesty.
The moment I closed the stream, my phone buzzed.
- Celesty: Noeul-nim!! ㅠㅠㅠ
- Celesty: I’m sorry… I was just worried so I sent an instant message instead of a real apology and accidentally revealed your address… ㅠㅠ
She wasn’t the one who had painted the graffiti. She couldn’t be. Yet she was apologizing like it was her fault. I stared at the message, then noticed the viewers who had been teasing her in the past had already jumped in.
- Shabsabhu-wqu: Is this a streamer who spilled another streamer’s address?
- guest3274: I screwed over a rival streamer haha
- guest23611: She was already disabled, opened her address so she could suffer even more~
- GoldenBechoo: You made Noel’s personal info public. You owe me for this
These were people I had never seen in my chat. They were pretending to care about me while tearing Celesty apart. I opened her stream immediately. Sure enough, several of her viewers were causing chaos, chatting the same nonsense. One of them had even posted in my chat:
- Tti-hwak-jjit: The victim of the graffiti attack
- Bangori-gwan: What the hell is this
I didn’t have time to argue with them. Someone had written a post in the League of Champions community explaining that the police had arrived right after the graffiti and that Celesty’s stream had accidentally revealed my address. Witch-hunt mode was on. The comment section was already full of people piling on. I decided to restore my old account—still within the recovery window—and post a direct explanation.
[How do I erase graffiti] - NoelNR1
(photo)
Someone painted it with lipstick. The words are so garbage I can’t even treat them as art. If they had written it coolly like modern graffiti, the museum would sell it for a hundred million won. But erasing it with a rag is hard. How do I erase it easily?
And the guy who stole my address and did this graffiti is the bad one. Celesty isn’t. The haters who go to her stream and cause trouble will go bald haha
The post went live the second I hit send. The police had already arrived at my door by then.
“Are you the complainant? This is the police.”
“Wow, you’re really ruthless. Who would graffiti like this…”
At least I hadn’t been writing the post when they knocked. That would have delayed the explanation even longer. I just hoped the post worked.
Meanwhile, the person behind the username Doremi-je-rable was already replying in KakaoTalk with the other accomplice, Kim Jihun.
- Bae Deuro: You wore a hat and mask?
- Bae Deuro: You changed clothes after leaving the building?
- Kim Jihun: Yeah
- Kim Jihun: Is this really not traceable?
- Bae Deuro: Exactly, that’s why we wore the hat and mask
- Bae Deuro: And disabled girls like her need to get hit even harder so they’ll drop the charges
- Kim Jihun: But you didn’t come up with me and suddenly disappeared
- Bae Deuro: I looked for evidence and found the camera locations for you. I even got the security guard involved
Jun-sik had returned home and was still clutching his chest, breathing hard. In the KakaoTalk group chat he shared with his friends, the same fear was showing on every face. A few months ago he had written a post that suddenly got a notification: “Doremi-je-rable replied, saying you haven’t been sued either, right?” The idea of uniting the community had tempted him. He had agreed to go along with the plan just to get the charges dropped, but the moment he saw the graffiti on my door, doubt had hit him like a truck.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have just pretended to apologize and left… like the others…”
Jun-sik regretted every word he had ever said. But the water had already been spilled; he couldn’t take it back. If his parents found out he had participated in the harassment, everything would be over. There was no other choice but to hope the cameras would catch the evidence. He didn’t know that South Korean security cameras covered every blind spot. He didn’t know that anyone who suddenly changed clothes and walked out would still be easy to identify. Those scenes from American movies where the hero swaps outfits and evades the police could only happen in movies.