The Vile Ones Surrender Slowly
The middle-aged woman, who had been staring at me and my sister with questioning eyes, flushed red the moment my provocative words ended. It seemed she had finished identifying friend from foe.
“If you don’t want to get hit? Your mouth is filthy as hell.”
“No need to sugarcoat it. Your words are far filthier than mine. I’ll admit defeat.”
“…This little shit.”
Unable to contain her anger, the woman’s soft tofu-like cheeks trembled and quivered.
“Hey! Who the hell are you to butt in here?”
I gave a slight smile and placed my hand on Ga-eul’s shoulder. Then I spoke.
“I’m the guardian of Ga-eul you’ve been looking for.”
Ga-eul’s eyes, as she looked at me, were brimming with tears that looked ready to spill at any moment. I didn’t like that. There was no reason for that kind child to feel such emotions.
“Since I’ve appeared as you wished, feel free to say whatever you want.”
“Ha… whatever I want? Sure.”
The woman called Dae-su’s mother pointed at Ga-hyeon, Ga-eul’s younger brother, and said,
“I’m going to send that kid to jail! I’ll make him eat prison food and stamp a criminal record on him forever! You hear me?”
She snickered and added,
“Of course, since I’m such a kind person, I could let it slide. If there’s a sufficient show of apology.”
“You mean compensation, emotional damages, medical fees?”
“That’s obvious. But there also needs to be the right attitude.”
The corners of her mouth gleamed with greed as she spoke.
“Kneel. And beg. Like a worm: ‘I was wrong. I won’t do it again.’”
Ga-eul spoke indignantly.
“Team Leader Seon. It’s fine. I have money.”
“Didn’t I tell the kid not to butt into adult conversations?”
Ignoring the woman’s intimidation, Ga-eul said to me,
“There’s no need to follow Team Leader Seon’s words. In the end, what she wants is money, so we can just give her what she asks for.”
“This uneducated little bitch.”
I also ignored the middle-aged woman and spoke to Ga-eul.
“Ga-eul, that money is meant for Ga-hyeon.”
Ga-eul met my gaze with moist eyes and said,
“I can just earn more money later.”
Those eyes held a firm resolve. It seemed she wanted to protect me from humiliation even if it meant spending that money.
“Thank you, Ga-eul. But don’t worry too much.”
Ga-eul was a naive child. To think she would hand everything over to that kind of bitch just because she asked. Even if I had money to spare, I couldn’t do something like that. So I spoke with conviction.
“I’ll make sure not a single penny of that money gets spent.”
I stepped forward two paces, as if shielding Ga-eul and Ga-hyeon. From here on, it was the battlefield of seasoned adults.
“Not spending a single penny? I don’t know what you’re relying on to act so cocky. Who gave you permission?”
Dae-su’s mother quivered her cheeks and vented her spite. I ignored her words and said,
“You’re Dae-su, right?”
“…Y-yes? Me?”
Dae-su, who had been bowing his head while pressing a bandage to the wound on his forehead, answered in surprise at my words.
“Yes, I mean you, Dae-su.”
“Why me?”
“I’ll ask just one thing. Why did you fight with Ga-hyeon?”
Dae-su turned his head and answered.
“…I don’t know. I just charged at him by myself.”
“Don’t lie! You sexually harassed my sister after looking at her photo! You bastard!”
Ga-hyeon, hearing Dae-su’s words, shouted and lunged forward. I forcibly stopped him.
“Noona, cover your ears for a second.”
When Ga-eul covered her ears after seeing Ga-hyeon’s desperate expression, Ga-hyeon shouted.
“He said he wondered what kind of moans someone who looks so innocent would make if he fucked her! He said he wanted to find out, so introduce her to him! You son of a bitch!”
This… this little bastard. A hot rage boiled up in my head like wildfire. Honestly, instead of stopping Ga-hyeon, I wanted to rush out and beat Dae-su to a pulp.
“God, how noisy. The way you screech like that really shows what kind of household you come from.”
The middle-aged woman spoke while covering her ears with an exaggerated gesture.
“Kid. Do you have evidence? Do you know how terrifying a false accusation charge is? There’s no way my son would do something like that!”
“…There are plenty of people who saw it.”
“Fine, then who are they? Bring them here.”
“…”
Ga-hyeon couldn’t answer. I didn’t think the kid was lying. It seemed he believed that even if he brought so-called witnesses, they wouldn’t testify in his favor. After all, with a family that looked quite powerful and Dae-su who appeared to use his fists, it was rare for middle schoolers to openly oppose him and testify.
After roughly ruffling Ga-hyeon’s hair once, I said,
“If it’s evidence you want, we have it.”
“Evidence? …Pfft. Then show it.”
Dae-su’s mother snorted as if it were absurd and spoke. I turned on my smartphone, accessed the SNS that students these days used the most, logged into Dae-su’s account, and showed her the posts.
“…What is this.”
Dae-su’s account was mostly filled with posts showing off his thug friends and his wealth and status. But that wasn’t all. There were also several photos that appeared to be of female classmates. What stood out were the comments on those posts. They were filled with vulgar words harassing the girls, to the point where what Ga-hyeon had just said seemed tame. Among them was content mentioning Ga-eul.
After staring at that shocking string of words, Dae-su’s mother asked stupidly,
“Isn’t this a fake account? There’s no way my son would leave comments like this.”
“Looking at the personal information on the posts, it seems certain it’s your son, but it’s not impossible that it’s fake. So would you like to confirm?”
“…Confirm?”
I smiled, recalling the smile Cheon A-ram had shown me, and said,
“From now on, I’m going to gather these victim students and file a lawsuit together. If it’s not Dae-su, then I’ll have pointed to the wrong culprit, so there won’t be any harm to him, right?”
The middle-aged woman turned her head to look at Dae-su. Dae-su’s pupils were trembling uncontrollably. He looked like a thief whose guilt was written all over his face no matter how you looked at it. He glanced at his mother and said,
“…Isn’t that a scam?”
As Dae-su spoke, he seemed to gain confidence and raised his voice.
“My account is a private account! How did you see it, mister?”
That point had been possible thanks to good luck, even in my opinion.
“I sent a follow request and you accepted.”
“…What?”
Dae-su picked up his smartphone and hurriedly checked the list, then said,
“There’s no one like you here.”
“Ah, of course I didn’t send it with my own face. I used a profile picture of a woman in a swimsuit.”
By the way, that woman’s photo was our sister’s. Of course, I hadn’t gotten permission to use it.
“After seeing the profile picture and saying she was so pretty that he let his guard down, then saying he wanted to get close, he accepted right away.”
It was the carelessness typical of a middle schooler driven by lust.
“…”
Dae-su’s face hardened, as if a suspicious account had come to mind.
“A word of advice, mister—avoid people you don’t know messaging you on SNS asking to get close. Do you know how scary dating scams are these days?”
Dae-su couldn’t even make excuses and only glanced at his mother. Seeing that sight, the woman’s face turned bright red as if her anger had reached its peak, and she breathed heavily.
“Judging from Dae-su’s reaction, it seems that really was his account. This is quite dangerous. If proper education had been given, something like this wouldn’t have happened. I’m worried about the level of this household.”
I spoke excitedly while looking at the middle-aged woman, whose face was even more distorted and deeply wrinkled.
“It seems like the one who has to go to jail is Dae-su, isn’t it?”
After huffing and puffing for a while, Dae-su’s mother took a deep breath and said,
“But the fact that that uncouth, barbaric kid used violence hasn’t changed. I’ll promise you this. I’ll definitely put that kid in jail!”
“Setting aside the fact that you’re talking about sending a middle schooler to jail over a minor injury, let’s sort one thing out first. …This wasn’t a one-sided assault.”
After briefly apologizing to Ga-hyeon and asking for his cooperation, I lifted his shirt. As expected, there was a large bruise on his chest.
“It was mutual assault.”
I had guessed there was an injury when I saw his reaction to grabbing his left chest while stopping Ga-hyeon from lunging earlier. It matched perfectly as expected.
Ga-hyeon whispered to me in confusion.
“This wasn’t from that bastard hitting me, though?”
“No, this is definitely from Dae-su hitting you.”
It didn’t matter how the injury had actually been sustained. From this moment on, Ga-hyeon had been hit by Dae-su.
Dae-su shouted with a sense of injustice.
“I didn’t do that!”
I shouted back angrily.
“If you didn’t do it, then who did? Do you have evidence?”
Ah, whatever. This is mutual.
“You’re the one who needs to provide evidence! What the hell are you doing?”
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled as if it were absurd.
“Evidence is good. So we’ll also prepare our evidence and get ready for a court battle. Ah, and we’ll also proceed with charges for the harassment left on that SNS, so keep that in mind.”
I stepped slightly aside as if introducing my sister behind me and said,
“From now on, I’d appreciate it if you’d discuss anything related to this through my representative.”
My sister, with a tired face, explained to the homeroom teacher and the woman how the related procedures would proceed. It was a very natural movement. Dae-su was watching the situation, and the mother and teacher stared blankly at my sister. It seemed their minds couldn’t keep up with the rapidly changing situation.
I didn’t miss this moment.
“However! We need to think about this at this point!”
I spoke in a firm voice like a politician giving a speech.
“How ugly is it for adults to get involved in kids’ fights like this? So how about we put out the sparks here and handle it as a small quarrel between kids?”
The teacher, hearing my words, started clapping with a blank expression. I added in a low, deep voice.
“…Or we could have that ugly, dirty adult fight you mentioned.”
I erased the friendly smile from my lips and glared at Dae-su’s mother. She seemed intimidated by my gaze and words and averted her eyes. After avoiding my gaze for about thirty seconds, as if she felt humiliated by having been intimidated, Dae-su’s mother trembled violently in her cheeks and shouted.
“An adult fight? Ha! Fine, let’s do it! You think I’m scared?”
She forced out a laugh and said,
“Dae-su’s dad is a congressman! Are you confident?”
I already know that. You stupid auntie.