Phase 2. Hui-gyeong (10)
“Fuck, a guy’s talking and you don’t even answer. You retarded or what?”
One.
“Hey. This noona’s body’s insane and her face is fire—can I hit that once? Heard you treat guys right.”
“You crazy bastard! What the hell are you saying in front of my boyfriend?!”
“Oh, that so? Then it’s fine when the boyfriend’s not around, yeah? I’ll give you my number—hand over your phone.”
“Stop it, you psycho!”
“What’s the big deal? Your clothes already look like a whore’s—see-through as hell.”
Two.
“When the fuck did you even see me? Why would I take your number? Get lost, you thug piece of shit.”
“Ooh~ putting on airs ’cause your boyfriend’s here? Nah, fuck that—I already heard everything you did with my brother. Why play innocent? Your boyfriend knows you’re a slut too, so what’s the difference? Anyone in this neighborhood know that? Just slip your boyfriend a little hush money and we’re good.”
“…What?”
I felt bad for the guy, but a third count never came.
Anyone watching might curse me for counting numbers while my girlfriend—my little sister—was getting insulted.
But no.
The numbers I just counted were a countdown to actually killing that bastard.
Footsteps.
“Oh? Your boyfriend’s moving. Ooh~ little shit’s got some guts… looks like…?”
Any expression had vanished long ago.
Rage had climbed all the way to the top of my skull, and that flipped me into something ice-cold instead.
I calmly, thoroughly planned how I was going to tear him apart.
The scrawny fuck felt the killing intent; he couldn’t finish his sentence, swallowed dry spit, and stared at me.
I didn’t know how far or how badly the rumors about Hui-gyeong had spread around the neighborhood.
But she wasn’t the kind of woman who deserved filthy words from trash like him.
Working underworld side jobs had burned two lessons into my bones. First: never hesitate.
If you decide to do it, do it.
No half-assed mercy, no loyalty—just crush them completely.
In a world full of nothing but punks, only fear keeps even the smallest pieces of shit in line.
And the second:
Surprisingly enough, if you handle the incident quietly—if public opinion never catches fire—the law hits like a soft stick.
Most of all, just don’t get caught.
Better to be the perpetrator than the victim.
That was the second lesson.
The closer I got, the heavier the killing intent grew.
It might sound like fantasy bullshit, but people who’ve actually lived in that world carry a certain atmosphere.
A heavy, stifling feeling that says, I could actually die by this guy’s hand right now.
Besides, there was no one around.
Kill the man, shut the woman up.
Since Hui-gyeong was watching, I’d leave him able to walk for now—then beat him until internal bleeding or complications finished him later.
What if I couldn’t silence the woman?
What if the man’s body turned up?
It was fine.
Dad had already stacked five hundred billion for exactly this kind of cleanup.
I’d hand Taesik hyung a few billion—tens of billions if needed—and let him handle the aftermath. No loose ends.
Whatever money was left after that would buy us freedom.
Yeah.
That money had been piled up from the start to erase anyone who tried to hurt our family.
The tutoring job I’d been begged into had delayed things, but the moment it was over, that cash was the down payment to take Dad out first.
Slow footsteps.
I walked up unhurriedly and stopped right in front of him.
The scrawny fuck—far shorter than me—had frozen solid, so he had no choice but to meet my eyes looking down at him.
“…Gyaaaaah!”
I drove my thumb into the end of his collarbone right beside the neck and crushed the bone.
Hurt, didn’t it?
He clenched his teeth, but it still hurt.
And the longer I kept pressing, the faster the pain would shred his mind.
“Uwaaaaagh—!!!! Let go! I said let go! Le… gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!”
Pinching the bone while crushing the blood vessels at the same time sent pain and a crawling numbness that short-circuited the brain.
Any rational will to endure burned away; the second he abandoned patience, all that remained was thrashing to escape the agony and the instinctive, pleading screams.
“I-I’m sorry… sorry…! Guwaaaaaaaaaaaah—!!! P-please spare me….”
No.
When I simply lifted him by that grip, he followed because resisting only made it hurt worse.
I eased the pressure on his collarbone just a fraction; the scrawny body shook like a leaf in a gale.
Every fluid that could leak from his eyes, nose, and mouth already was.
“I… I’m sorry… please spare me….”
Even with the pressure slightly released, blood was still flowing; he trembled and begged for his life.
Thud.
“Ugh…!”
He opened his mouth, so I drove a fist into his solar plexus.
His upper body folded instantly.
Perfect. That posture let me land a clean shot to the side.
Crunch.
Some people might never have heard the sound before.
I buried a body blow into his ribs; for a bare-knuckle punch it produced a strangely heavy, snapping noise.
That was the sound of cracks spider-webbing through bone.
Multiple ribs at once.
“Grrk…! Grk…!”
His eyes rolled back and foam spilled from his lips.
Ah, this was my first time trying to kill someone, so I had no idea how many hits it took to leave someone dying later from internal bleeding.
I hadn’t even put my full weight behind it because I was still holding the collarbone—maybe one more?
I raised my arm again—
and Hui-gyeong caught it.
“Oppa…. It’s okay. It’s okay now. You can stop.”
I turned my head. When she saw my blank face, Hui-gyeong flinched.
I hated that I’d scared her.
“Let’s stop, okay? If that guy dies, you’ll go to prison. I don’t want that.”
Even while trembling she spoke bravely; she was a far better person than this scrawny piece of shit.
I had no choice. I lowered my arm and let him go.
“Ghhk! Hah… hah… hah… Thank…! Thank you!”
To the bastard bobbing his head in frantic gratitude for still being alive, I said exactly one thing.
“Don’t make me come looking for you.”
“Y-yes! I’ll stay quiet…!”
I flicked a glance at the girl named Hyeon-ju as well. She collapsed onto her ass, skirt riding up, and nodded so hard her head might fall off, promising to keep her mouth shut.
Only then could I smile at Hui-gyeong.
“Let’s go.”
I draped an arm around her shoulders.
She leaned into me and we walked away together.
Was it really okay to leave those two like this?
Of course it was.
I’d branded them with fear; that bastard couldn’t do a thing.
Same way I couldn’t do a thing against Taesik hyung.
Watching Gyeong-hun and Hui-gyeong’s backs recede as if nothing had happened, the scrawny bastard grinned through the pain.
“Heh… hehehehehe… hehe…!”
“What’s wrong with you…? You’re scaring me. Is it just because it hurts?”
In front of the terrified Hyeon-ju, the scrawny fuck never stopped his filthy smile.
“You see that? Dude’s fucking strong. Completely different from my brother…!”
“What are you even talking about…?”
“Nice… nice… I was just gonna fuck her ’cause she looked tasty, but now I’m rock-hard as hell, heh heh heh heh….”
“You—don’t tell me…!”
Hyeon-ju noticed the bulging crotch and shuddered at the madness in him.
“What kind of face would a guy that strong make when he watches his own woman get fucked and corrupted…? Heh heh heh heh, nice, ni—khuh!”
He tried to cackle with glee, but the cracked ribs forced a painful cough out of him.
Hyeon-ju desperately tried to stop him; it was useless.
“Don’t do it—both of us will die!”
“Kilkilkilkil… khuh! Cough cough!”
“Fucking stop it, Choi Jun-hyeok!”
“Can’t… right now…! Once my body heals… I’m doing it… hehehehehe!”
The one thing half-moon Gyeong-hun had missed:
the pure pleasure shining in those eyes even while the bastard was being held down and beaten.
We walked very slowly, matching each other’s strides.
We stayed quiet for a long time.
Then Hui-gyeong, who had been following me without trouble, stopped.
“Oppa.”
“Yeah.”
“You were really scary earlier.”
“Sorry.”
Hui-gyeong shook her head.
“It’s the first time. Someone getting angry for my sake.”
“Anyone would get angry in that situation.”
She shook her head again.
“Not as bad as just now, but whenever someone called me an easy girl, my ex-boyfriends would join in and laugh too. I’d just pretend to be cool and laugh along so I wouldn’t ruin the mood.”
I felt my arm tighten around her shoulders; Hui-gyeong patted my back as if to say it was fine.
“It was terrifying, but it was just as reassuring.”
“That so.”
I was relieved.
I’d been worried she would be so scared she’d pull away from me.
Showing her the side of me from that world—the side I never wanted her to see—still hurt, but I didn’t regret it for a second.
From the moment that scrawny bastard insulted Hui-gyeong, there had been no other choice.
“Hey… did the clothes I wore today really look that slutty?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Or is it just because I’m a slutty girl myself?”
“Not even a little, Hui-gyeong. Don’t say that.”
“Thinking about it now, it’s funny. I put up such thick walls with you. But you’re my real older brother. There was a wall in my heart… and like I told you last time, the second we crossed that last line I decided we would definitely become husband and wife.”
“I get it.”
“No, I was the one in the wrong. You held back for two whole weeks for my sake, and all I did was tease you. Of course you wanted to jump me.”
The calm way she spoke with that faint smile felt unfamiliar.
The quiet, settled look in my little sister’s eyes felt unfamiliar.
“I don’t have any right to complain after the huge wound I gave you back then… but selfishly, I’m glad I stopped you that day?”
…That day had left massive scars on both of us.
Even now, just remembering it made a corner of my chest ache.
“Because I got to see my oppa get truly angry for me.”
“Anyone would get angry, I keep telling you.”
“There was only you, okay?”
When the person who lived it denied it with her own experience, I couldn’t really argue.
“Oppa….”
Hui-gyeong hesitated, took a deep breath, then asked me.
“Even with someone like me… is it still okay? When people whisper about me right to my face….”
Our eyes met.
I read the anxiety inside those calm irises.
Yeah, someone would definitely say it to me someday.
That I was the sucker who got played by his slutty little sister.
“From now on, just look at me. Then it’s okay.”
Pretending it didn’t bother me would be a lie.
But I didn’t want to lose Hui-gyeong over something like that.
The desire to have her had already become something I couldn’t control.
I wanted to make it so she couldn’t live without me.
“Okay. I will.”
For a moment the whole world felt brighter.
Hui-gyeong gave a shy little nod and rested her head on my shoulder.
“I’m really lacking in so many ways, but if I can just stay by your side….”
“…?”
Her last words carried a dark note, but before I could ask she smiled softly and whispered against me.
“Should we… take a break? Somewhere just the two of us can be alone.”