I Made Her a Wanted Fugitive and Made Her Mine
"I'm going to report this. You don't mind, do you?"
I asked in a cold, sarcastic tone.
"Th-that's..."
Minkyung still hadn't sorted through her thoughts. She didn't even seem to know what to say. Then again, her mind was probably a complete blank right now — she couldn't think straight if she tried.
"The reason I sent you downstairs to apologize wasn't for my sake. It was to give you a chance to apologize to the victim who died so unjustly, and to that person's family."
Minkyung's face was vacant, stunned. She didn't even seem to be listening.
"But you don't show the slightest hint of remorse. So I think I'll report this to the police right now and hand over the evidence video."
"..."
I picked up my phone and pretended to dial 112. That finally snapped her back to reality. She frantically grabbed my hand.
"Wait, wait! Please, please just look at me. Okay? Why are you doing this...!"
"Why am I doing this? That almost sounds like I'm the one in the wrong here. I'm trying to see justice done, you know? Unbelievable—"
I threw her own words right back at her.
Without even realizing it, Minkyung had become a drunk-driving hit-and-run murderer — and she believed it with absolute, unshakable certainty. She was in a complete mental collapse. She clung to my legs in a pathetic display, but it wasn't genuine remorse. It was obvious she was just trying to use me to weasel her way out of this, and that made her even more disgusting to look at.
"Don't do this, just once... just look the other way this once, okay? We're not strangers, you know...! I'll do whatever you want. Anything. Okayyy?"
She was hinting at it — no, she was outright offering her body in exchange for me looking the other way. It was a move that laid bare exactly how she'd been living her life. Unfortunately for her, I wasn't the old me anymore — the guy who'd lose his mind and throw himself at a woman's body.
"Hey. Minkyung. Are you insane? Are you asking me to harbor a criminal? You want to make me an accomplice too? This is complete fucking garbage!"
"Then what am I supposed to do?! Get arrested?! Are you even listening to yourself?!"
A person who could commit a crime and never feel a shred of guilt or remorse. I concluded that Minkyung was a sociopath. Which meant I wouldn't feel even the slightest bit of guilt about tormenting her.
Alright then. Time to destroy her life.
Everything I say is the truth. Believe it exactly as I say it.
"Did you know the police investigation is closing in?"
"What? Th-the police?!"
The mention of a police investigation made Minkyung's heart drop into her stomach. I started spinning a full-blown story, tightening the pressure on her. I had to squeeze her so hard she couldn't even breathe. That was the only way she'd listen.
"There were several security cameras at the scene of your accident. And they would've checked the dashcams of every car parked nearby, too. They just haven't been able to confirm the license plate yet, so they haven't come after you directly..."
"..."
"Today the detectives were going door to door in the building next door. I overheard them saying they'll start investigating this building tomorrow. They said they're certain the perpetrator's hiding somewhere around here."
"...!"
Of course it was all complete nonsense. But thanks to my suggestion, Minkyung believed every word of it as fact, and she was drowning in sheer terror. You could tell just by looking at her face — she looked like she was about to shit herself. Haha.
"The security cameras clearly captured your car model, so the second those detectives show up tomorrow, they'll kick down your door. That's why your mother abandoned you."
You have been abandoned by Kim Miyeon. You have been thoroughly, completely discarded.
The only person in this world you can rely on and receive help from now is me.
The person who holds the power of life and death over you is me.
"M-Mom..."
Minkyung muttered, her face a mask of disbelief.
"Your mother told you never to come home again, didn't she? She said she no longer considers you her daughter. She's cutting all ties."
"No... that's not...! Mom wouldn't... she wouldn't..."
"It's true. Your mother knows everything — that you ran someone over while drunk and fled the scene. I showed her the video I recorded."
"Y-you...! You...!!"
"I told her she should make you turn yourself in as soon as possible and face the consequences... but I guess a mother is still a mother. She just settled for throwing you out."
The moment Minkyung realized I'd ratted her out to her own mother, rage started boiling up in her. Of course... this bitch still couldn't grasp the situation. So this is how she was going to play it? Then I'd squeeze even harder. Until she couldn't breathe.
I was sick of watching her try to talk back when she didn't even understand her place, so I piled on an even more suffocating lie.
"Ah...! That's right...!! Earlier, when the detectives finished investigating the building next door, they spotted your car parked in front of ours. They started shouting that they'd finally found it, took pictures right then and there, and ran a search on the owner. And then they went... Ha Minkyung? It's Ha Minkyung! After that they said they'd come back first thing tomorrow morning with an arrest warrant and headed home..."
"N-no... nooo..."
"By tomorrow morning, you'll be in police custody. Even if you run somewhere starting right now, you'll become a wanted fugitive. And you'd still run? With no money? Where are you going to sleep tonight? What are you going to eat? Just turn yourself in. Heh heh heh."
I'd finally driven Minkyung into a dead end.
"Hey... could you... could you hide me, just a little...?"
Only now did she cling to me with a truly desperate look on her face. Judging by how genuine it was, her ass was finally on fire.
Our country's criminal penalties are famously severe. In particular, the sentences for drunk driving and murder are the harshest in the world.
I planted that suggestion, then immediately continued.
"Drunk driving... hit-and-run... murder... even with every possible leniency and mitigating circumstance, you're looking at fifty years minimum. And you'll have to compensate the victims, so this entire building will be seized too."
Minkyung's face turned ashen.
"I just feel sorry for your mother... decades of hard work, a fortune she spent her whole life building, all snatched away overnight because of you... tsk tsk tsk."
"F-fifty years? Th-that's how much I'd get?"
This bitch didn't even register the part about her mother losing everything.
"Of course! And that's assuming they even grant you leniency and consider mitigating circumstances — which they won't, because the nature of your crime is so heinous. You'll probably get seventy, eighty years."
"Please spare me...! Okay?! Please just spare me. If you just don't say anything..."
"I told you, you're a wanted fugitive. Do you even know what that means? Your face plastered all over the country. With a bounty on your head, too. Oh? Come to think of it, if I report you, I'd collect the reward money, wouldn't I?"
"Don't...! I'll do whatever you tell me, so please just don't report me... I'm begging you!"
Good. I was getting tired of the act, so I decided to lock her up in solitary confinement.
"Hahh..."
When I made a show of deliberating, Minkyung grabbed my legs and clung to me, pleading.
"I can't hide you. I'd be punished as an accomplice too. But... I can provide you with a place and time to reflect and repent, until you turn yourself in or they catch you."
"Really? So I can stay here?"
The face that had been on the verge of tears suddenly lit up, as if none of it had ever happened. God... I wanted to slap this bitch so badly.
"On one condition. If you fail to obey every single thing I tell you, no questions asked — I report you that instant."
"Yes! I'll do that! Just tell me whatever you want. Hehe."
This bitch thought I was saying all this just because I wanted her body. Stupid bitch. She didn't even realize she'd already fallen into hell.
"Then how about we record an evidence video? If the police catch you later, I don't want to get punished as an accomplice for harboring a wanted fugitive."
"O-okay..."
And just like that, the video recording began. I sat comfortably on the bed, filming Ha Minkyung as she sat across the table from me.
"Stand up. Who does a criminal think she is, sitting down like that."
"Ah, yes... okay."
"Start with your name, age, and address. Then state the crimes you've committed in detail. And swear that you'll reflect on and repent for your sins in the place I provide, until the detectives catch you or you turn yourself in."
Even now, Minkyung's pride was wounded. She let out heavy, frustrated sighs, then finally resigned herself and looked at the phone, opening her mouth.
"My name is Ha Minkyung, and I am twenty-two years old. I live at..."