Chapter 6
Chapter 6
"Let's see~ Would it be better to upload this video to your university bulletin board, Minji? Or maybe your friends' group chat? No. Sending it to the fish in your fishing pond would be really fun, wouldn't it?"
Jihwan shook his phone, threatening her and snickering mockingly.
"P-please, don't do that. If that spreads, I'm really dead. I'll do... I'll do anything, so please..."
The thought of videos of her peeing on the floor or drinking water on all fours like a dog being shared with her family and acquaintances was something she didn't even want to imagine.
Experiencing this firsthand, she immediately understood why women who are victims of leaked sexual videos make extreme choices.
'Why did I do that back then...'
She never imagined that the pranks she played as a student, swept up in the atmosphere without much thought, would come flying back like a boomerang.
If she had known, she would never have done it...
Just as spilled water cannot be gathered back up, Minji's regret was a belated one that could not be undone.
"Don't worry, as long as you listen to me well and don't act out like you just did, that won't happen."
"Yes, thank you. I'll listen well."
At his words that he wouldn't share it, she let out a sigh of relief inwardly and thanked him.
"Let's see if you wrote the Reflection letter well."
Jihwan picked up the Reflection letter lying on the desk and examined it.
A Reflection letter filled densely on one page.
As a Reflection letter written after agonizing over it all day, the wrongs she had committed against Jihwan were detailed, and both regret and repentance for her actions were well written.
'Please, please...'
Minji, still on all fours beside Jihwan, prayed and prayed that it would pass safely without any fault-finding.
'Not bad.'
Perhaps because he gave her enough time, she wrote it much better than Jihwan had expected.
"Hmm, you wrote it better than I thought, but there's only repentance and regret for your wrongs, not a single word about how you'll compensate? If you're sincere, how can there not be even a single line about how you'll compensate? Are you sincere?"
"I am sincere! It's a Reflection letter, so I focused on repentance... I just didn't know I had to write about compensation too."
She said she was sincere, but it was only half true.
While she did feel guilty while writing the Reflection letter, her resentment about being kidnapped and suffering such humiliation was greater than her guilt.
"Really? Then I'll give you one more hour, so think carefully about how you'll compensate. If the compensation is satisfactory, you pass. If I don't like it, fasting extended by 6 hours. Okay?"
"Yes..."
'Asshole, he's being fucking difficult.'
She was starving to death, and he should have just given her food, but he was nitpicking again and delaying the time, so annoyance surged, but she didn't show it on the outside.
She had barely resolved her thirst, but the hunger remained.
Her brain wasn't working well because of hunger, and having to worry about how to compensate made her head throb and her expression stiffen.
'Would money work? If it can be solved with money, how much should I give?'
While she was agonizing over the compensation for a while, Jihwan prepared a meal nearby.
He set up the portable burner and grill he had brought when he came down to the Basement on the desk, then started grilling pork belly.
Although there was a ventilation fan, because it was a Basement, the inside was quickly filled with the smell of grilling meat.
Gulp.
Minji swallowed her saliva without realizing it, and all her attention was focused on the meat.
'I think I'm going crazy.'
Having not eaten any food for almost two days, and with the smell of pork belly vibrating in the poorly ventilated Basement, she felt like she was going crazy.
"Mmm~ delicious. You look very hungry, want a piece?"
Jihwan expressed the taste exaggeratedly on purpose and spoke as if he were being generous.
It was childish, but there was no better way to stimulate the other person's appetite.
"Really? Yes! Please give me one piece."
"Here. Just taste one piece, if you want to eat more, think carefully about how to compensate."
When Jihwan said he'd give her a piece, she thought it was strange and quickly asked for it, but he didn't even give her that piece nicely; he threw it on the floor.
'He doesn't give anything properly. Dog-like bastard.'
Cursing Jihwan inwardly for throwing even a single piece of meat on the floor, she fell into an internal conflict.
'Should I eat that at least?'
'No, eating just that won't solve my hunger, and I have pride, how can I eat that.'
No matter how hungry she was, she was still reluctant to pick up and eat something thrown on the floor just for a single piece of meat.
'Ha~ how did I end up like this?'
She felt so miserable at the fact that she was having an internal conflict over whether or not to eat a single piece of meat dropped on the floor.
"Phew~ that was good. It's been about an hour, did you think carefully about how to compensate?"
"Yes."
"Okay, how will you compensate?"
"Money, I'll give you money. All the money I have, and I'll ask my parents..."
"Wow~ I gave you an hour, and all you could think of is money?"
Jihwan snorted and cut off her words about compensating with money.
"I'll spend my whole life repenting and paying you back. Please forgive me."
"Seeing that you didn't even eat the meat on the floor and are spouting nonsense, it seems you're not hungry enough yet. I'll be back in 6 hours, so think carefully again about what you have."
"Just tell me what you want."
Frustrated by Jihwan, who kept rejecting her and making her worry without saying what he wanted, she asked directly what he wanted.
"No, isn't agonizing over what to compensate with a form of repentance? Think carefully about what you have and what you can do, and decide."
"Ha~, yes."
After saying that, Jihwan fixed Minji's Leash back to the wall and left the Basement coldly without a moment's hesitation.
'Haa~ pervert bastard. What should I do?'
In fact, Minji herself knew what the answer was.
What would a woman in her early 20s have? A beautiful appearance and a young, well-proportioned body.
She could tell just by seeing that he was keeping her locked up like this and giving her all sorts of sexual insults.
The reason she didn't say it even though she knew the answer? It's very simple.
Because she hates it.
Because the moment she said this, Minji would be no different from a bitch who sold her body just because of hunger.
Even to Jihwan, whom she had thought of as no different from a bug.
There is no woman who wants to sell her body just because of hunger.
How much more would a woman with high self-esteem like Minji, who has lived beautifully and always been held up by men, hate it?
Since he had already kidnapped and imprisoned her, he could just force himself on her, but that was also the reason he didn't do so. He had to do it this way so that Minji would feel more despair in her humiliation, and her pride and self-esteem would hit rock bottom.
'I was forced, so I had no choice.'
'To think I sold my body to a bastard like Kim Jihwan just because of hunger.'
Both of these have the same result, but the psychological difference Minji feels is truly worlds apart.
If the former is psychological self-defense, the latter is self-blame, not defense.
'Why is time not passing?'
She was so hungry that her stomach lining felt like it was wearing away, and without a clock, 6 hours felt longer than a day.
Outside, it's time that passes by just by watching a movie and chatting with friends, but it was the first time it felt this long.
Growl, growl.
'I'm so hungry. It's my first time being this hungry, I never knew being hungry would be this painful...'
Having grown up pampered to the point where she had never gone without food for more than a day in her life, she felt like she was really going to go crazy.
If there had been no food in the first place, she would have endured it somehow, but the smell of pork belly vibrated inside the Basement, and the pork belly Jihwan had left over was sitting right in front of her, making it even harder to endure and driving her crazy.
Of course, all the remaining pork belly was left just outside the length of her Leash, making it a pie in the sky.
Jihwan had left it at a distance she couldn't reach on purpose to make her suffer more.
'Should I eat that at least?'
The piece of pork belly Jihwan had dropped on the floor earlier. It was just one piece, but its size was considerable.
It was the only food in the space allowed to her right now.
Normally, she wouldn't even have looked at it, but she was not in a rational state right now.
Eventually, after agonizing, she picked up the pork belly that had fallen on the floor, washed it in water, and brought it to her mouth.
'It's so delicious.'
Although it was cold and hardened pork belly, it felt more delicious than any pork belly she had ever eaten.
Wanting to feel the taste for even a little longer, she chewed and chewed until it was almost juice, then swallowed.
'Ha~ what have I done?'
However, there was no way her hunger would be resolved with just one piece of pork belly. After eating it all, she felt miserable and ashamed.
'I have no choice. If I'm going to do it anyway...'
Minji eventually succumbed to hunger, comforting herself that it was "unavoidable."
Unless she decided to starve to death, she had no choice but to give Jihwan what he wanted.
If she was going to do it anyway, her feeling was that she wanted to be freed from this pain as quickly as possible.
As those 6 hours of endurance passed, Jihwan returned exactly on time.
"How is it? Did you think about it?"
"Yes. I'll do anything. Anything you tell me to do."
"No, what is that 'anything'? I'm telling you to say what you will do, not what I tell you to do! Should I go again?"
Minji tried to beat around the bush out of shame, but it didn't work, and Jihwan wanted her to say it directly with her own mouth.
"N-no. I'll pay you back with my body."
Not wanting to starve for a few more hours by stalling for no reason, she ended up saying she would sell her body to pay him back.
Even though she had prepared for it in advance, her whole body burned red like an active volcano from shame, and her bowed head showed no signs of lifting.
"Your body? Do you think your body is worth that much?"
It was more than worth it, but he asked back sarcastically on purpose to give her a sense of insult and humiliation.
"If money doesn't work, and my body doesn't work, then there's nothing I have that can pay you back...."
"Right. If you don't have anything, you should pay with your body. How many years will you pay?"
"O-one year?"
"Ha, wow~ I'm speechless, it's ridiculous. I'll give you one more chance, think carefully and speak. If I don't like it this time either, the next chance is in 12 hours."
'I'm the one who's speechless!'
The period Jihwan was bullied was 1 year. She said it thinking of that, but when he snorted and refused like that, she really felt a murderous impulse.
'1 year is too long...'
She thought just paying with her body was overpaying, but to hear that even 1 year wasn't enough was absurd.
At Jihwan's words that it was her last chance, her worries deepened.
"10 years. Is 10 years enough?"
Thinking about it, 5 years or 10 years didn't seem to matter, so she just called out a generous 10 years because she wanted to end this wordplay quickly.
Anyway, if the police come, the situation ends that day regardless of the period.
Even if, by some real, real chance, she was unlucky and the police couldn't find her, 5 years or 10 years is the same hell.
Even if the period passes, if he lets her go, his crime will be exposed, so there's no guarantee he'll keep his promise and let her go.
Escape. Commit suicide. Or murder.
Anyway, before 10 years pass, she would do one of the three above, so she just said 10 years generously.
"10 years? Well, for a body like yours, Minji, you have to pay for about 10 years for it to balance out. Okay, passed."
He thought about 5 years, but since Minji said 10 years, which was longer than that, he passed it immediately.
'Ha~ seriously. A guy who looks like shit doesn't even know his place...'
Seeing him, who looked like he had pockmarks, not knowing his place and belittling her, made her so angry she wanted to kill him, but in reality, there was nothing she could do.
Unfortunately, the only action she could take right now was to take a deep breath and calm her anger.
"Then, can I eat now?"
Regardless of whether it was 10 years or 100 years, her mind was only filled with the thought of eating something to end this hungry pain quickly.
"I'll give it to you after we do the initiation ceremony that your body is now my property for 10 years, so wait a little."
"Yes."
Minji, not even dreaming of the humiliating initiation ceremony that was about to come, was only thinking about wanting to eat food quickly.