Medical Student Lim Seong-bin (2)

Over the several days I spent observing Lim Seong-bin, one thought kept nagging at me: perhaps Park Min-jae, that bastard, had simply been spewing nonsense to get himself off the hook. From the reputation that surrounded the man to everything I had witnessed with my own eyes, he was, truly, a remarkably exemplary individual.

And now.

"Gotcha."

"Min-ju, I'm telling you this because I genuinely care about you. There's nothing to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gain from running around with trash like that, people so far beneath your level. Let the trash roll around in their own garbage cans where they belong. You should live the life that matches who you are—with me. Okay?"

Lim Seong-bin.

A fat, ghost-pale face—hard to reconcile with the flawlessly groomed good looks of the present. His voice carried real sincerity. The conviction that the girl before him belonged not with trash like those people, but with him.

"Oppa, how many times do I have to say it? My friends are perfectly good people, not the kind you get to talk about however you like."

"Good people? Good people skip class and drink on fake IDs? Min-ju, you know our dad's a police chief, right? One call to him and every last one of you gets hauled in."

"Ugh, fuck. Seriously, Oppa. Why are you like this with me?"

"Min-ju, no, that's not what I—. I'm honestly just worried about your life..."

Min-ju crossed her arms, looked at Seong-bin, and smirked. A sneer, far too obvious to miss.

"Worried? I think you've got it seriously twisted. Sure, you're good at studying. And sure, your dad's a big deal too. So what? At the end of the day he's a civil servant, and you're a loser who knows nothing but books. Am I wrong?"

"A l-loser?"

In that instant, the friendly smile hanging on Seong-bin's lips froze solid.

"You thought a little fooling around and a few laughs from me made you somebody?"

"Min-ju, what's gotten into you? You're not like this. Right?"

"Like hell I'm not. This is exactly who I am. I cut you some slack because your dad's a police chief, and now you cling to me like I'm some thousand-years' love. God, it's revolting. A pig that did nothing but pack on rolls of fat, acting all nice—also revolting. Stop pretending you know me. And know your place, you pasty pig."

Like Chunhyang beholding Mongryong, like Cinderella her prince—that was how she ought to have gazed at him, at the savior come to haul her out of the gutter. The words she spat instead blew Seong-bin's pride to pieces.

And Min-ju, having mercilessly demolished that pride, turned her back without a second's hesitation.

And so she never saw it—

—the moment the heart of a person who had believed himself superior his entire life shattered into fragments.

Nor the moment that broken heart transmuted into rage.

—BAM!!!

Lim Seong-bin's fist slammed into the back of Min-ju's head.

"AAAHH!"

It didn't end there. As Min-ju hit the cold corridor floor screaming, Seong-bin was on top of her before she'd even stopped rolling.

—SLAP!!!

A genuine rage bellowed up from the bottom of his lungs.

"Fucking gutter-rat bitch. What was that? Pasty pig? Revolting? I only spent time on you because your face was decent for bottom-of-the-barrel trash. How dare you. How dare you!! How dare a nothing like you—to ME!!"

Pain and shock. And those glazed, uncomprehending eyes staring up at him because of it. Yes. Those eyes—those were exactly it. The instant he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looked down at Min-ju's face, sprawled on the floor and paralyzed with terror, Seong-bin felt a skin-crawling euphoria race up his spine.

"Fuck. Guess that's what you get with a gutter bitch like her—plain vermin. She couldn't understand a single word when I was being civil."

"O-Oppa..."

"Who the hell are you calling Oppa?"

—SLAAAP!!!

The merciless blows kept falling. The more the light drained out of Min-ju's eyes, the hotter the fire in Seong-bin's chest burned. Yes. This was it. At long, long last, the order between them had been set right.

Still gripping the hair of the girl sliding into unconsciousness, he dragged her the few steps into the store building's bathroom. The floor was filthy and damp.

What he was committing in that moment was not the crude pursuit of pleasure born of lust. It was a procedure of confirmation—one more verification that he stood above his victim.

"Mmph... uhhh!! S-s-save me..."

How long had it been? Min-ju, who had passed out from the strange, foreign sensation, snapped her eyes open and began to thrash. The moment that tearing scream filled the bathroom, Seong-bin's hands crushed down hard over her mouth and throat.

"Shut up!! Shut up!!! SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!!!"

The wilder the act grew, the more insanely his grip tightened. And Min-ju's thrashing body lost its strength bit by bit, until at some point—wracked by violent convulsions—she went limp all at once, as if it had all been a lie.

Pupils fixed on the ceiling, blank of all focus.

"...Huh?"

Her breath had stopped.

Min-ju's cold body lay sprawled across the floor.

In that instant, the adrenaline drained away. And what remained in her place was nothing but a single pasty pig—one who, just as the girl now dead had said, couldn't even grasp his own place.

His whole body trembled like a leaf in the wind. I killed a person. My perfect life is over. Getting into medical school, the future of a professorship at a university hospital—all of it, blown to pieces because of one worthless trash bitch.

Shaking, Seong-bin fumbled his smartphone out of his pocket. Blood-slick fingers left the screen refusing to respond. Wiping the stains against his sleeve, he pressed the one name sitting at the top of his recent calls.

The phantom of the past that had filled my sight burst apart, and the dark, damp slope of the hillside slum swam back into view. Beyond my mask, Lim Seong-bin's face looked up at me, gone bone-white with fear.

"W-who are you? Money? Is that what this is about—money? If so, there's a card behind my phone in my pocket. You can withdraw up to three million won without any trouble—take it, go ahead. I promise. I will never report you."

"And you won't go whining to that precious father of yours?"

The bastard's eyes shook violently. But there was still composure left on his face.

"W-who the hell even are you? You know who my father is, and you're still pulling this stunt?"

"I know him very well. Lim Ki-man, Superintendent General, Chief of the Bucheon Police Station."

"Then why are you doing this to me?! Don't tell me you've got some grudge against my father?"

"A grudge? Sure. Let's call it that. Only it isn't with your father. Remember? The third-floor bathroom of that arcade."

And just like that, the last of his composure vanished.

"W-what is that supposed to..."

"People strike out all the time—they live with it. Someone turns you down, so you kill her? Min-ju had you dead to rights. A loser playing nice. So what's changed—the lard you packed on is finally gone? The face, well, you clearly had major renovation done, so of course it's looking decent now."

"Bullshit, don't you spew bullshit!! What would bottom-feeders like you—you—know about anything?! I sat at that desk twelve hours a day, every single day. O-of course I gained weight—there was no helping it. The moment I passed the exam, I started training. And this—this perfect body is the real me. The me I was born with!!"

—BAM!!

With a dull, splitting crack, the bastard's head snapped sideways.

"AAAHH!!! My nose!! MY NOSE!!"

Nose gushing blood, he crumpled onto the cement floor, clutching his face and shrieking.

"Oh, sorry. You seemed so fond of perfect that I figured touching up just the tip of your nose would make it even more perfect—my hand came down a little harder than I intended."

Damn this Resonance of Sin. Once again, I'd let my emotions run away with me without even noticing.

"W-what do you actually want from me? If it isn't money, then what—a sense of justice? Don't tell me you're really doing all this because of Min-ju, that gutter-rat whore—"

Blood soaking his face red, Lim Seong-bin carried on as though screaming.

"That was nothing but an accident!! I never meant for it to happen. And look—even setting that aside, I do feel terrible about it. I regret it. I've repented, and I'm trying to live as a completely different, better person!!"

"A different person?"

"Yes! Every single weekend I hiked up to this godforsaken slum and did volunteer work, cleaning up old folks' piss and shit. I swore I'd become a great doctor and spend my life saving people. A doctor who'd be the light and salt of the world. So I made a mistake and killed one person—in exchange, I'm going to save hundreds, no, thousands of lives going forward. That's real remorse. Real redemption. Isn't it?"

Astonishing logic. But the face of the bastard spewing those words was, at least, one that truly believed them. Disgusting. Fine, though. I hadn't come here today to talk him around anyway.

"Oh—and sorry again. From the way you were talking, one of your teeth looked a little crooked too, so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I tried adjusting that one, and this time as well my touch ran a bit heavy."

Spitting his broken molar out in a mouthful of blood, the bastard stared at me in disbelief—and beneath the disbelief, the first real threads of fear.

"Y-you fucking maniac."

"Well, good—repentance is a fine thing. But what about Jin-hwan?"

"Jin-hwan?"

He reacted as though he had never once heard the name in his life. Then, a beat of silence.

As I raised my fist again, he screamed out in desperation.

"No, no—I know him!! The one who went to prison. I've thought that through plenty too. I was going to pay it all back. I swear."

"Pay it back how, exactly?"

"He's trash anyway—bottom-of-the-barrel trash that was always going to scrape by as some delivery boy until the end. Once he got out, I was going to find him a job, help him live like an actual human being. For a few years behind bars, that's generous compensation. Y-yeah!! Think of it like gangsters paying their dues. It's basically the same thing. And he's the same kind of trash anyway."

I nodded.

"Right. What deep, thoughtful thinking."

"Y-yeah!!"

Hope.

—CRUNCH

And despair.

My foot came down on his right shin and broke it.

"So, how shall I repay you now, I wonder? From today on, whenever I see someone with a bad leg, I'll push their wheelchair for them. Surely that would count as adequate compensation—don't you think?"

"My leg!! MY LEEEG!!"

I dug through the bastard's jacket pocket and fished out his smartphone.

"Yes, yes—there's a card behind the phone. Take it, withdraw whatever you want. No—just keep the card, spend as much as you like. I swear I will never report you. I swear!!"

"Pattern."

Shaking uncontrollably, the bastard traced his finger across the screen and unlocked it.

Battery: sixty percent. Plenty.

I opened the camera app.

"You said you wanted to be the light and the salt of this world, didn't you? Good. I'll help you get there. The world may never know—but let's see you remain somebody's light and salt, just once."

— End of Medical Student Lim Seong-bin (2) —

Author's Note

Thank you!!