Chapter 29
Chapter 29
29. Kim Seolhee
What Jihwan handed to Minji was a container filled with small cockroaches.
'Crazy, devil...'
Minji shuddered at Jihwan's cruelty.
'I can't disobey...'
Thinking that if she rebelled against that devil, she would be the one suffering like this, not Taesu, she felt a sense of repulsion, but fear left her with no choice but to follow his words unconditionally.
If she didn't follow his words, this cruelty would be directed at her, not Taesu.
"When I give the signal, you just need to put this in."
Jihwan put his ring finger to his lips, gesturing for silence so Taesu wouldn't hear.
"Yes... Master."
Minji's weak voice trembled thinly.
No matter how hurt she was by Taesu, she didn't want to do something like this to her boyfriend herself.
"Taesu-ya, it's been 3 hours now, are you going to keep going?"
"What are you asking, fuck. Do you think I can't even endure this much?"
Taesu was in so much pain he wanted to leave right now, but he suppressed that feeling and spoke with bravado.
It was hard, but Taesu thought he could still endure it on his own for now.
"It's been 4 hours now, are you going to keep going, Taesu-ya?"
Jihwan deliberately told him the time at 1-hour intervals, testing Taesu's will to continue and checking his reaction.
Jihwan's goal was to let Taesu endure and suffer as long as possible, and if it looked like he was about to give up on his own after seeing his reaction, he would deploy Minji to make him give up, blaming Minji instead of him giving up on his own.
"What? Only 1 hour has passed?"
Taesu, who was inside, was in so much pain that he felt like at least 2 hours had passed, so he couldn't believe that only 1 hour had passed.
"I'm not lying about the time, so don't worry. When you come out, I'll make sure to show you the clock."
'Can I endure for 6 more hours?'
Taesu realized for the first time that standing still was such a difficult task.
Even when working, he had often worked for over 10 hours without sitting down.
He thought it was hard, but not impossible.
But standing without being able to move even a little bit in a fixed posture was on a completely different level of difficulty than just standing and walking around.
'No, I have to endure! I have to protect Seolhee, and I can't just be dragged around by that guy's intentions forever.'
He didn't want to give up at all, because of the feeling that he had to protect his younger sister by enduring for 10 hours, and the feeling that if he gave up here, he would be losing to that loser.
If he got out of here, he would just be dragged around by Jihwan's intentions again.
He wanted to show his will not to be dragged around by Jihwan's intentions by enduring even this.
He didn't want to show his weak side in front of that loser and his girlfriend, of all people.
However, unlike his strong will, as time passed, he was hitting his physical limits.
4 hours, 5 hours...
"Taesu-ya, it's exactly halfway now. There are still 5 hours left, can you do it?"
"..."
Unlike before, when the answer came immediately, this time there was no immediate answer to Jihwan's words.
As he approached his limit, he began to seriously consider getting out in response to Jihwan's words.
'Should I just get out?'
It was hard, too hard.
He wasn't seriously injured because he wasn't stabbed deeply.
But his legs and arms were already stabbed in several places, and he had lost quite a bit of blood.
It was hard enough to just endure, but with the bleeding, even if it was a little, it was so hard he wanted to get out right now.
Yet, the reason he hadn't been able to get out yet was his desire to protect his younger sister.
And he couldn't bring himself to leave because the time he had endured so far would be a waste.
If he left now, the pain he had endured so far would become meaningless.
Taesu was literally enduring this torture with nothing but his mental strength.
'I can do it. I can endure!'
'I have to protect Seolhee, if I can't even stand this much, I'm not a brother.'
Taesu exerted extreme mental strength and steeled his weakening heart.
Even though it was hard enough to die, Taesu didn't think it was impossible for a human body to stand for 10 hours.
He intended to endure with mental strength somehow, even if he died standing.
"I'm not going to give up, so stop asking. You asshole!"
Taesu shouted even more aggressively on purpose to hide his weakening heart.
Every time Jihwan told him the time, his heart seemed to waver and become weak, so he told him not to even tell him the time.
'Tough bastard, he's still enduring this?'
Jihwan clicked his tongue as he watched Taesu still enduring this.
He thought he would give up and come out within 5 hours at the longest, but he was enduring it too well.
His character was trash, but his guts and mental strength were worth acknowledging.
'Yeah, let's see how far you can endure.'
Jihwan originally intended to deploy Minji around this time to make him give up, but since Taesu was enduring so well, he postponed Minji's deployment time to see how long he could actually endure.
"Hoo~ haa~"
'I am a stone. I am a stone that does not move. I am a rock. I am a rock that does not move.'
Taesu took deep breaths to calm his anxious heart and endured by self-hypnotizing.
As time passed, his body grew weary, but his mental strength and stubbornness became even stronger.
The time Taesu endured was already past the halfway point and heading toward 7 hours.
His body had reached its limit to the point where it wouldn't be strange if he collapsed right now.
However, as time passed, he learned tricks to endure beyond the physical hardship, and developed a tolerance to the pain.
Rather, he felt that this was less painful and more endurable than at 3-4 hours.
'Crazy, tough bastard... is he really enduring?'
Contrary to Jihwan's expectations, Taesu was really on the verge of enduring for 10 hours.
Jihwan felt jealous that a punk like Taesu possessed such guts and mental strength that he lacked, and burned even more with a desire for revenge.
'This is even better.'
The longer Taesu endures, the greater the despair and frustration when he gives up.
"Minji-ya, get ready, it's time to end this."
When 9 hours had passed, he thought it was time to end it, so he prepared Minji.
"Yes, Master."
She answered, but Minji's eyes trembled with anxiety and nervousness.
It is not easy to inflict pain on someone, just as it is to receive it.
Especially if the target of that pain is your boyfriend.
"Do you see that small lid-like thing over there?"
"Yes, Master."
Jihwan said, pointing to a lid on one side of the coffin.
It was an input port that he had prepared from the time he designed it for this purpose.
"Open that and put all the cockroaches in there."
"Yes... haa..."
Minji had no choice but to pick up the cockroach container as Jihwan ordered.
"Listen carefully, Minji-ya. I didn't force you to do this."
"You chose to punish Taesu, who made you suffer, because you didn't want to be punished yourself. Right?"
"Yes... that's right."
Minji wanted to say no, but the fear of corporal punishment made her answer like that.
Kkii-ik
Minji opened the lid of the input port with trembling hands.
'Ugh... gross.'
Then she opened the lid of the cockroach container and shook them all into the input port.
'I'm sorry, Taesu-ya. That's why you shouldn't have talked to me yesterday...'
Minji blamed her actions on Taesu until the end.
Because it was an action she could never do if she didn't rationalize it like that.
'Is it finally over? Fuck, I endured! I won!'
Taesu, who was enduring while closing his eyes and meditating, mistook it for being over when light entered slightly along with the sound of something opening.
However, it didn't take long for him to open his eyes and realize something was wrong.
The hole where the light was coming in was too small, and something was coming in through that hole.
"Fuck! Argh!"
Taesu, feeling the strange sensation of bugs crawling on his body, moved his body, which he had been enduring well, without realizing it.
As he moved his body, the thorns on the wall slashed his body.
The fortunate thing was that he didn't move much, so he wasn't stabbed deeply and didn't suffer a major injury.
"Th... This is a foul, you asshole."
"Why is this a foul?"
"Fuck, you asshole! You didn't say you would put bugs in, how am I supposed to endure if you put bugs in!"
Taesu wanted to get out right now as more and more bugs crawled on his body.
However, he couldn't get out because he felt it was a waste to have endured until now, and he gritted his teeth and barely endured it.
"I didn't intend to put them in, but what do you want me to do when Minji put them in."
"What? Minji... what, you must have forced her again."
At those words, Minji looked at Jihwan, and Jihwan signaled Minji to speak quickly.
"No, I did it myself... I was punished because of you, so you should suffer like me too."
Minji had no choice but to answer while acting as Jihwan wanted.
Because she knew that if she didn't do that, the torture and corporal punishment currently being inflicted on Taesu would be directed at her.
Minji didn't have the confidence to endure such pain like Taesu.
No, even if she could endure it.
She knew too well that Jihwan would bring in even worse means and torture her so she couldn't endure it.
Just like he did to Taesu now.
So Minji comforted herself by rationalizing it as an inevitable choice.
"Did you hear? I can't do anything about Minji's own actions."
"You should have treated Minji better. You're leaving Minji in pain to save your younger sister, so Minji is angry and doing this."
"What kind of dog-like..."
Even if he wanted to refute it, he didn't have the mental capacity to refute it.
With dozens, hundreds of cockroaches crawling on his body, it was impossible to endure that and have a logical conversation.
"Fuck! I get it, so open the door first! I can't endure anymore, open the door!"
Taesu tried to endure somehow.
However, he couldn't endure the unique, terrible feeling of hundreds of bugs crawling on his body.
His vision was blocked, so he could feel that sensation even better.
"What, are you giving up? There's not even an hour left?"
"You crazy bastard, how... how am I supposed to endure this! Fuck, open it, open it quickly!"
As more and more cockroaches crawled on his body, and now that a few more were sticking to his face, he reached his limit.
"Okay, then I'll take it as you giving up and open the door."
Jihwan opened the door of the coffin.
As soon as the door opened, Taesu ran out, lay on the floor, and rolled around, shaking off the bugs.
Taesu's anger, having caught his breath while shaking off the bugs, was directed at Minji, not Jihwan.
"Minji, you... how could you do that? Fuck! Is that pain really that hard to endure? Enough to do this to me, your boyfriend?"
Taesu also knows 100% that Minji didn't make that choice on her own.
Of course, he knew she did it forcibly because of Jihwan's semi-coercion and pressure.
However! The fact that she couldn't stand the pain he was trying to endure somehow, and did this to him, her boyfriend, did not change.
He knew Jihwan was a guy who did this kind of thing, but he didn't know Minji would go this far.
It hurts more when you get stabbed in the foot by the axe you trusted.
"What about you? You only care about your younger sister, and I'm not even on your mind? Because of you... because of you! I was the one who got punished, you ignored everything I said, and you're the one who didn't care whether I was in pain or not!"
Minji sobbed and poured all her emotions out to Taesu.
The acting she started inevitably because of Jihwan became sincere as she spoke, with the emotions from earlier welling up.
If she just admitted this as her own fault and ended it, she would be the only trashy bitch.
Minji wanted to deny that.
"Fuck! Are you saying that now? Why is it my fault that you got punished? It's Kim Jihwan's fault, why is it my fault? And Seolhee is about to be kidnapped, so should I just stay still?"
"It was obvious this would happen anyway... I told you from the beginning, it would happen anyway! You could have just, just come out quickly!"
"Why, why on earth! Why are you being so stubborn for nothing, why are you making me the bad guy! Why! Why!"
Taesu couldn't understand Minji being swayed by a loser like Jihwan.
And Minji couldn't understand Taesu, who was being stubborn without knowing that this would happen, which was so obvious from her experience so far.
Due to the difference in their positions, the relationship between the two was crossing a river of no return.
-3-
From the perspective of the Joseonjok hitmen, Jihwan was an S-class client.
The payment of the down payment and the balance was certain.
And since he planned everything himself, including the information and plans needed for the kidnapping, they wondered where there could be a more perfect client than this.
This time, too, they just had to move according to the plan Jihwan made, so they came out to carry out the request with a comfortable mind.
They entered the password Jihwan gave them and infiltrated Seolhee's house in advance.
They hid in the room and waited until Seolhee came, and when Seolhee opened the door and entered the room.
They attacked from behind the door and strangled her carotid artery, knocking her unconscious.
After perfectly binding Seolhee who was knocked out like that, they put her in Taesu's car, which was used for the kidnapping last time.
Because Jihwan had done a good job through the messenger, Taesu's disappearance had not even been reported yet.
So there was no problem using Taesu's car, so Jihwan instructed them to recover Taesu's vehicle and use it for the kidnapping.
They moved Seolhee to the warehouse just like when they kidnapped Taesu last time, and Jihwan received her at the warehouse.
'She's even prettier in person.'
The real thing was much better than the photo.
Jihwan couldn't help but admire her beauty when he saw Seolhee in person.
Unlike Minji and Taesu, she wasn't a direct target of revenge, so he intended to use her only for the purpose of taking revenge on Taesu.
But once he saw her appearance, Jihwan's twisted desire for possession and dominance was ignited.