The Pencil Scrawls
The police officers who understood my condition had gone off together to the security room to secure the evidence.
They said two people had scribbled on my house.
Both had come wearing hats and masks.
“It was deliberate,” I said.
“Yes, it was. Still, almost no spot in our country’s CCTV is blind. By tracing their path, we can figure out roughly where they live and who they are. Catching them will be a matter of time. You can rest easy.”
“Lock your doors tightly. If anyone comes again and causes trouble, report it right away. There are patrols within five minutes.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Even after giving such thorough warnings, the officers kept glancing back at me, clearly worried.
They must have thought I was so pathetic with only one leg and one eye.
It was understandable enough.
……I thought that for a moment.
Then I remembered the scrawls on the door.
Anyone could see them, so they must have noticed when I got up.
The things they said about my leg might have been just excuses.
I needed to be careful.
Police officers who neglected their duties often appeared in the news, but when I saw these ones speaking calmly and reliably, I felt a little reassured.
Most police officers probably carried the same sense of duty.
It was good that they didn’t just wave everything away.
Still, I had no intention of fully relying on them.
They said it would take five minutes to arrive.
If those who scrawled had come with more murderous intent, I would have to hold out alone for five minutes.
Even if I reported the instant the commotion started.
If they smashed through the front door with an axe.
Even if I locked the bedroom door, how long could I really last?
So after sending the police, I headed to the kitchen.
What weapon would be useful? Just a kitchen knife.
People usually call long-reach weapons good weapons.
That’s true in both games and real life.
Even without a gun, when choosing between a knife and a bow to kill a wild beast, most would pick the bow.
The problem was I lacked the strength and stamina to swing a big weapon.
I could barely lean on a crutch.
How could I use this as a weapon?
I wouldn’t even manage a few swings before collapsing.
No, before that, my body was weak. Maybe it had no stamina at all.
Tying a knife to a mop handle was the same.
I might get captured, and the intruder would be more likely to take the weapon.
So it would be better to just hold it in my hand and threaten.
I had to grip it tightly so it wouldn’t be taken.
……Was it fate that the kitchen knife came to mind the moment I saw the weapon?
The disgust I felt at the sight of blood, yet needing a weapon, made the kitchen knife stand out.
Or maybe the one my mother had used to kill my father.
In any case, I didn’t need to hold it now.
I didn’t need to keep it in my hand at all times.
I just needed to place it where I could reach it instantly if someone came.
I’d been so lost in choosing the right knife from the cabinet that I hadn’t noticed the footsteps of the woman from the next door.
“My goodness, Noel. Why are you taking out that kitchen knife?”
Thanks to the sound of her voice, I finally realized she had arrived.
Sometimes I wished she would knock and come up instead.
But maybe it was fine to think of this place as her home.
“Ah. You’re home already? Did you see the scrawls on the door outside?”
“I saw. My goodness, I wonder what kind of pathetic kid left that. Because you might come back, you’re keeping it out, right?”
I was glad the woman dismissed those kids so lightly.
Exactly. They only used crude, vulgar insults.
Or was it naive to begin with to scrawl and leave?
Of course, just because a needle thief becomes a cow thief, those kids might bring a club next time.
So I wanted to stock at least a knife in the room.
“Yes. I think they’re childish, but I’m still uneasy.”
“Mm…… Yeah, even if self-defense isn’t well recognized in our country, when your life is in danger, you don’t have time to think about that. Still, I’m worried. How about staying at my place for a while? I could stay with you for a while, but if bad kids come while I’m at work, there’s nothing I can do.”
The woman calmly offered me a tempting suggestion.
Living as a burden next door.
When Kancha mentioned family stories, I had thought the same.
But there was a debt attached to it.
And if I were a normal person, I wouldn’t have thought that.
How would people react if they saw a one-eyed, one-legged girl clumsily crawling around?
Without depth perception, such mistakes still happened sometimes.
At least crawling had reduced them a lot.
Still, seeing someone else crawl would be a real burden to others.
Besides, if I went to the next door out of kindness and the kids knew and broke in, it would be my fault.
It would become a nuisance to someone else’s house.
And I preferred my own house.
When you go to someone else’s house, you have to watch every breath you take.
Since becoming a woman, I had lived by holding my breath in the room.
Of course, other people’s families wouldn’t rough me up like my father……
It was uncomfortable because the thought arose on its own.
So the only choice was to stay alone at home.
“Thank you for the offer, but my house is comfortable.”
“Mm, yeah. If your mind changes, let me know anytime. I’ll prepare a spot at my house right away.”
“Yes, I will.”
Either way, staying at my house would remain the same.
To prepare for the uncertain future, I had also prepared a weapon.
Now it was time to resume the broadcast I had paused.
Losing my joy because of this was still a loss.
So when I turned the screen back to the waiting screen, I saw the post I had written earlier and left behind.
Roughly a post asking not to insult Celesty and what to use to erase the scrawls on the door.
The replies were wild.
- PboPboMonster: It’s oil-based, so rub it with gasoline to erase.
- FireLover4Stack: Arson?
- PboPboMonster: Are you crazy? No, it’s originally written on the wall with lipstick, so they erase it with gasoline.
- Tti-hwak-jjit: What the hell are you doing to erase scrawls on the wall with lipstick? lol
- PboPboMonster: Our daughter doodles on the wall with her mom’s lipstick when she’s bored… She’s only three now…
- Tti-hwak-jjit: A lol
- SuperSizeMe: As you said, wallpaper should be erased with gasoline, but since it’s a door, you can just use acetone.
- SuperSizeMe: I’ll use acetone to erase mom’s makeup, so borrow that to erase.
- SilverPanthea: uuuuuu
- InkCoffee: uuuu total garbage
- SuperSizeMe: ?? Why all of a sudden…
- SuperSizeMe: Ah
- SuperSizeMe: I’m sorry…
There were also comments that gave appropriate responses.
- qwer1234: lol. The kids who aren’t even watching the stream are causing chaos now lol
- Buddha’sBirthday: But Celesty must be really shaken up… She went there to do something good, and it had to be this…
- LuxiaQueen: It’s not because of Celesty, stop forcing it.
- Buddha’sBirthday: Why is it forcing? lol The self-report just came out lol
Some people were chatting while watching the broadcast.
There were also plenty of insults hurled at the scrawlers.
But among them, the comments saying “self-report” stood out.
Was this behavior sincerely admitting guilt?
So did they go to the police station because they would receive a lighter sentence?
I searched, and it turned out the most recommended post recently was exactly that.
A photo of someone doing handstands and bowing.
[Noel-nim, I apologize.] – Gathering
(Photo)
I thought Noel-nim was a hacker and insulted her until now.
I didn’t accept the hacker explanation and kept insulting her while still thinking she was a hacker.
But because I hated the hacker so much, I got carried away and said too many words that crossed the line.
Then I was sued, and my parents found out, so I couldn’t stand it and went to the other online accounts to scrawl.
The Doremizirab post said that person had the same situation when sued.
They said if I was scared, I would withdraw the lawsuit.
So it was something I did, but now I think I went too far.
So I apologize.
“Um.”
Of course, endless vulgarities were attached underneath.
But it didn’t make me feel better to have others insult me in my place.
It was like they knew they were wrong but still resented it.
They had already done all the insults and now wanted to avoid paying the price.
If I was going to do something bad, I should have remained a bad guy to the end.
Apologizing like this made me feel uneasy that forgiveness would still be denied.
The world turns out to be so twisted that someone who accepts an apology gets insulted in return.
“That pathetic kid. He definitely plans to get a lighter sentence by writing an apology.”
“I agree.”
Since the police had already declared the culprits guilty, it was none of my business whether they got fined or sentenced.
But I wasn’t satisfied with that at all.
It felt like I was the one losing out in a trade.
Then a good idea came to me.
A perfectly legal way to really punish those kids.
- NoelFarmer: Read all the insults you said to my parents, record them saying it, and upload it so they can accept.
With this, they might accept the settlement.
Thinking about how uncomfortable they would feel, I thought erasing the scrawls would be easy.