A Hell Called Orphanage - 2
An orphanage lives and dies by its image.
The welfare budget the government hands out is never enough, so they have to pad the operating funds with donations.
Swish—
The deputy director checked the finger that had just swept the window frame, wiped it on a wet tissue, and behind her a little girl stood with her head bowed low.
To me now, she was an older sister still in elementary school.
And that child was trembling so hard her whole body shook with terror.
"Oh my? There's this much dust here. I told you to clean properly, didn't I?"
"I-I'm sorry.."
"No, no~ There's nothing to be sorry for."
"Deputy Director..."
Crack!!!
A merciless hand cracked across the girl's cheek.
"There's nothing to be sorry for. If you do something worth apologizing for, you just take the punishment. Right?"
"I-I'll wipe it again..! Until there's not a single speck of dust.. Kyaah!!"
"Talking like that makes me sound like the bad guy. You fucking bitch."
"Ugh..!"
The deputy director grabbed a fistful of the little girl's hair as she crumpled to the floor and raised her hand again.
Crack!!! Slap-slap!!! Crack!!!!
Blow after blow split her lip; blood dripped steadily, staining the floor red.
The director stood nearby watching the whole thing, and he showed no intention of stopping it.
Or did he?
He rose from his seat, walked over to the deputy director, and caught the hand she was about to swing again.
"How can you hit her like that?"
"What?!"
"You'll hurt your hand."
"Ah.. You're right."
That word—"you."
The director and deputy director were husband and wife.
"Hit her with this. The rod of love."
"Got it. Hey, you. Get up."
She jabbed the cane the director had given her into the girl who was curled up on the floor like a shrimp.
But the girl could not rise.
It hurt too much, and she was too scared.
"I-I'm sorry.. Please forgive me... sob.."
"Aaaah... What did I say I hate the most?"
"Sob.. You said you hate whining... sob.."
"And yet you're crying? While you're talking?"
"I'm sorry..."
"Mmm~ There's nothing to be sorry for, I keep telling you. You just have to get hit."
"Aaah!! Aaah!!"
The thin, whip-like cane stuck to her body with every lash.
I knew how much it hurt. I had taken it myself.
But the deputy director, who gave not a single thought to the pain of the one being beaten, kept swinging until her anger was spent, and only then did she stop.
"Haa.. haa.. Go to your room. You know you're not allowed to come out, right?"
"Ah..! Yes..."
Her whole body must have been burning and stinging as if it had been set on fire.
She barely managed to push herself up and walk toward her room.
The strange part was that she left the perfectly fine orphanage building behind and headed for the storage shed in the back courtyard.
Yes. That was our house and our room.
No air conditioning or fans in summer, no boiler in winter.
When winter came they at least put a heater in each room so we wouldn't freeze to death.
But those were coal briquette stoves that pumped out enough carbon monoxide that it wouldn't have been strange for someone to die at any moment—one per room, assigned by age group.
So what about the clean, comfortable orphanage facilities?
They were a model house.
No one actually lived there. Just the director and deputy director's offices, a family-style kitchen that served as a dining hall, spotless rooms no one slept in, a playroom and classrooms no one used.
Those spaces were cleaned every day, but they were only used on days like today—when volunteers came, or when reporters and TV crews showed up for coverage.
"Oh my goodness~ Welcome!"
"My! You brought all this again? Just coming is more than enough for us to be grateful."
The director and deputy director greeted the volunteers with exaggerated warmth.
The people unloading boxes from the car were the university student volunteers who came often.
"It's nothing special. We saved up a little from our part-time jobs. We wanted to do a barbecue with the kids today. Last time we asked, they said they wanted barbecue."
"Ah..."
"What's wrong, Deputy Director?"
"Well, actually.. It's a bit cold to barbecue outside today.. And since we knew you were coming, the children prepared dumplings they made with their own hands."
"Really??"
A lie.
Today we had done nothing but clean all day.
The dumplings piled high in the kitchen were something the director couple had brought from somewhere that morning.
"Then I'll steam those dumplings separately for you, so today we can barbecue with the kids.."
"No! If the children made them, of course we should eat the dumplings~ Save the barbecue for when the weather's warmer and you can do it for the kids yourselves."
"Shall we?"
"Everyone okay with that?"
"Sure~"
"Unnie loves dumplings so much, I'll eat well today~"
"Wow~ You made dumplings with these little hands? Amazing~ Hahahaha"
Not a shred of suspicion.
But every last scrap of the barbecue ingredients those volunteers had bought would be moved to the director's house without exception.
And this was only the tip of the iceberg.
Embezzlement of tens of millions, even hundreds of millions in donations.
Embezzlement of sponsorship money from individual patrons.
Embezzlement of government support funds and subsidies.
That director couple took anything that could turn into money.
Even when some organization sent decent brand-name clothes, they would leave one set each for show and sell the rest at secondhand markets.
That was how obsessively they clung to money.
"Sunwoo, hi?"
One of the volunteers came over and greeted me.
And by pure coincidence, she was exactly the person I had been planning to approach.
Jeong Suyeon.
Until this year she came once or twice a month without fail, but starting next year she would disappear.
The reason was that she would pass the bar exam, go through the Judicial Research and Training Institute, and be appointed as a prosecutor right away, becoming too busy.
Today was December 18th. It might be the last day Jeong Suyeon ever visited this place as a volunteer.
That was why I had to seize this chance no matter what.
Because my plan was to use Jeong Suyeon to tear down this hell—this kingdom of the director couple.
"Hello."
"Sunwoo's looking super cool again today~ Hehe"
"Ah, thank you. Noona looks pretty today too."
"Huh??"
"I said you look pretty."
"Uh.. Th-thanks... But Sunwoo seems to have gotten a lot more mature since I last saw him..?"
"......"
Crap. The way I talk.
I'm still seven years old.
"Hehe~ Noona's super pretty too!!"
"R-really..?"
"Noona! Draw with Sunwoo! Okay??"
"Shall we? But Noona's terrible at drawing.. Will Sunwoo teach me a little?"
"Yeah! Sunwoo draws good!"
Damn it.. At this age I'm still talking with a baby lisp..
No. I have to get used to it.
If I don't want to spend the years growing up drowning in self-loathing, I have to get used to this younger body.
"Wow~ That bear looks so brave~"
"It's a cat."
"Huh..? Ah! A c-cat~ Hehe.. Sunwoo draws so well~ It looks like it's about to meow any second!"
"......"
I knew it too.
My drawing skills were pathetic.
But right now drawing skill wasn't what mattered.
"The tiger Noona drew looks like it's about to roar too!"
"......"
"Noona, what's wrong?"
"This is a rabbit.. The one Noona drew..."
"This is.. a rabbit..."
"Sorry.."
This noona wasn't any better.
Had she always been this bad at drawing?
"S-Sunwoo! How about we stop drawing and play something else?"
What was this all of a sudden?
No. I still hadn't done anything.
"Noona! I'll teach you how to draw a rabbit!"
"Sunwoo will..?"
Her eyes were full of distrust.
But what I was drawing wasn't a rabbit.
"For a rabbit you draw the ears big like this..."
"......"
Noona's expression as she watched my drawing grew more and more serious.
Because while my right hand drew the rabbit's ears, my left hand was writing letters in the corner of the sketchbook.
Please help me.
After confirming the finished letters one stroke at a time, Noona carefully tore that part off and slipped it into her pocket.
And I, dodging the eyes of the director and deputy director who watched us like CCTV cameras, casually tugged up the T-shirt covering my stomach.
The bruise marks stood out clearly.
The bruises carved into my body during the week after I came out of the Room of Atonement were far more than just these.
"Sunwoo, want to play hide-and-seek with Noona?"
"Huh?"
Hide-and-seek all of a sudden?
"Sunwoo."
"......"
I got it.
That was her intention.
"Yeah... Yes! Let's all play together with the other friends~"
"Shall we? Who wants to play hide-and-seek with Noona~~"
"Me!!"
"I want to too!"
"I'm good at hide-and-seek!"
The kids who were enjoying a rare peaceful, happy time all crowded around to play hide-and-seek.
The volunteers would be the seekers, and the kids would hide.
Perfect.
This way we could naturally slip past the director and deputy director's surveillance, and even if they saw us together it wouldn't raise any real suspicion.
As expected of a smart person—her mind worked fast.
"Who's hiding over here..."
"This way."
"......"
I suddenly popped out from behind Jeong Suyeon as she passed and went into the bathroom.
Startled, Jeong Suyeon followed me in right away, and without wasting a second I stripped off my clothes.
"Ah..."
Jeong Suyeon froze solid at the sight of the bruises covering my body.
But there was no time to stand there shocked.
"Hurry and take pictures."
"Huh?? Uh..!"
With a phone camera that was barely 300,000 pixels, Jeong Suyeon photographed every corner of my body and was about to call the police on the spot.
"You can't report it."
"What are you talking about??"
"I'm not ready yet."
"Ready...?"
"The director couple's crimes aren't just simple child abuse. At minimum hundreds of millions, at most billions in embezzlement and child abuse. And child sexual assault is happening too."
"That's impossible..."
It sounded impossible, but it was the reality that was actually taking place.
And over the past week I had learned even more horrific and brutal truths about what went on here.
"Is that... really true..?"
"Yes. The director couple uses the physical disabilities the abused kids end up with as an excuse to milk extra subsidies from the government. And they collect the insurance money taken out in the kids' names too. There are kids who died for that money-making scheme. Of course the director couple collected the death benefits as well."
"They're insane..."
This wasn't something a human should do.
It wasn't something a human should have done to them either.
But the director couple committed these atrocities without batting an eye while posing to everyone else as kind people who sacrificed their own lives for others.
"To prove murder, you have to show it wasn't illness or accident but planned killing."
"How are you going to prove that..?"
"I'll handle that part. I might fail, but I'll try once."
"Isn't that dangerous..?"
"I have to take that much risk."
"Sunwoo... Are you really.. the Sunwoo I know..."
Click—
The sound of the handle going down.
The bathroom door opened.
If it was another volunteer it would be fine, but if the director or deputy director walked in while I was naked with bruises covering my whole body, it was over.
They would try to destroy the evidence by any means, and if that didn't work they might grab the fortune they had piled up and run.
In the worst case they might even attack Jeong Suyeon.
Of course that would eventually come out in an investigation, but if they claimed she slipped in the bathroom and hit her head, they could buy themselves the bare minimum of time.
The bare minimum of time to escape.
I had to stop that at all costs.
I had to stop Jeong Suyeon from getting hurt, and I had to make those monstrous demons pay the price they deserved.
But if things stayed like this...
"Suyeon, what are you doing in here?"
"......"
Fuck.... It was the director.