The Hundred-Won Reaction
I was wearing women’s clothes.
“Seon-il, stand up straight. Don’t cover yourself.”
The clothes were so small they barely covered my body, but the real humiliation was being forced to wear women’s clothing in front of other people. I wanted to die from shame.
“Tae-man… Do I really have to do this?”
Jo Tae-man, who had been adjusting the smartphone stand, frowned and glared at me.
“This challenge is blowing up right now. Why the hell should we be the only ones not doing it? If my channel tanks because of you, are you gonna take responsibility? Huh?”
“……”
“Look at this little shit. No sense of responsibility at all.”
Smack!
A burning pain spread across my cheek as it flushed red.
“You memorized the choreography, right? Ten slaps every time you mess up. Answer me.”
“Y-yeah… I’ll do it right.”
A moment later, a loud electronic melody began to play.
In the back of the classroom filled with our classmates, I had to perform a ridiculous dance in ill-fitting women’s clothes.
Some kids turned around, struggling to hold back laughter, while others secretly filmed me with their phones.
“Alright, everyone quiet down. Ugh, what’s that smell? Open the windows and air the place out.”
The homeroom teacher walked in.
She clearly saw Jo Tae-man and me, but only clicked her tongue and scolded us.
“Jo Tae-man. Yang Seon-il. Class started ages ago. How long are you two going to keep playing around?”
“Teacher, we’re not playing~ This is today’s challenge video. Wanna join in?”
“That’s enough. You’re third-years now. Third-years. YouTube is fine, but get your heads straight and prepare for the CSAT…”
Neither our classmates nor the teacher tried to stop Jo Tae-man.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t stop him—they simply chose to look the other way even though they knew.
I felt like I was the only one in the world who wasn’t being treated as a human being.
I sat at my desk and opened my textbook.
Between the densely packed lines of text, fragments of my life as Yang Seon-il flashed by.
The bullying started in my first year of high school.
I had left my hometown chasing a dream and transferred here—to Gangnam Video High School, or Gangyeong High for short.
In an era where becoming a YouTuber or influencer was the number-one dream funeral wish for teenagers, Gangyeong High was one of the most prestigious specialized media schools.
Over two hundred alumni had already made names for themselves as influencers and broadcasters, and quite a few current students already ran their own channels.
Yang Seon-il had also worked hard to get into Gangyeong High with the goal of becoming a YouTuber.
But even a school like this had school violence.
In fact, some students turned bullying itself into content, running so-called “delinquent YouTube” channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
They bullied others in ways that cleverly stayed just within the law, sometimes fabricating excuses to “educate” their victims with violence.
Among them, Jo Tae-man was the most vicious.
His parents were local big shots, and his own channel had over 100,000 subscribers, earning him a Silver Button.
People always said that bullies eventually get what’s coming to them. But that wasn’t true.
Humans had always been drawn to shocking, horrific, and cruel content.
Jo Tae-man’s subscribers were no different from people who enjoyed snuff films.
His main content revolved around “loser friends.”
Videos like “Loser Friend Challenge,” “Helping My Loser Friend Confess on Valentine’s Day,” and “Loser Friend Ideal Type World Cup” exploded in views and became a series.
And the loser in those videos was always me.
The reason he targeted me so obsessively was simple: money.
Jo Tae-man, already notorious as a vicious delinquent in middle school, realized after transferring to Gangyeong High that tormenting someone could make him real money.
He forced me into all kinds of humiliating acts to grow his channel.
After school ended, I was called out to the schoolyard.
That was when the real hell began.
Thud—
A dull kick sent me rolling across the empty lot in front of the school.
My vision flashed white, and the sensation of my brain rattling made it impossible to breathe.
Even as my head rang, that demonic voice drilled into my ears.
“Seon-il, we’re filming content. Stand up straight.”
My body moved reflexively at Jo Tae-man’s voice, like Pavlov’s dog.
I knew from painful experience what would happen if I hesitated.
“I put a lot of thought into today’s mission. Wanna know what it is? This.”
Jo Tae-man grinned and held out a crumpled 100-won coin.
He turned on his phone camera and started a Starstagram live broadcast like always.
“Alright, viewers! Today’s content is ‘The Joy of 100 Won’! If you donate 100 won to our poor BJ Yang Seon-il here, he’ll give you an absolutely legendary reaction!”
Jo Tae-man shoved the phone toward me as if this were a normal broadcast.
The lackeys standing behind him burst out laughing, clutching their stomachs.
He forced the pathetic 100-won coin into my hand and smirked.
“What are you waiting for? React. You got a donation, so shouldn’t you at least dance?”
I clenched my fists.
The hard, cold feel of the coin in my palm felt painfully real.
If I hesitated, the beating would start.
But my body wouldn’t move. Shame had paralyzed every muscle.
“This little shit still doesn’t get it, huh?”
Jo Tae-man adjusted the camera angle to a hidden position.
At the same time, a heavy impact slammed into my solar plexus.
Before I could even gasp, kicks rained down on my sides.
I swallowed the groan that escaped and collapsed to the ground.
His lackeys swarmed in and stomped on me.
They carefully avoided my face—they still needed it for the video.
The bruises and cuts were always hidden under my uniform.
The fresh bruise on my side from yesterday was being crushed again, sending waves of agony through me.
Jo Tae-man’s shoe pressed down hard on my wrist.
The cigarette burn he’d given me for fun a while ago throbbed painfully.
“I’ll ask again. What are you supposed to do after getting 100 won?”
“…Dance… I’ll dance.”
I barely managed to answer and staggered to my feet.
Jo Tae-man nodded in satisfaction and turned the camera back toward me.
Like a marionette with its strings cut, I flailed my limbs awkwardly.
Hundreds of people were watching me through that black camera lens.
Some were spamming lol, while others left mocking comments saying it wasn’t funny.
When the 100-won reaction ended, Jo Tae-man grabbed my uniform shirt.
“Hey, that reaction was way too boring. We need something more stimulating, don’t you think?”
He tapped my cheek mockingly, then pulled out a 10,000-won bill and threw it in my face.
“If 100 won gets you a dance, what should 10,000 won get? Yeah, how about a soy sauce shower? Sound good?”
One of his lackeys brought over a large container of soy sauce.
Knowing that refusing would only bring worse violence, I gave up and squeezed my eyes shut.
Cold, sticky liquid poured over my head.
The salty smell stung my nose, and soy sauce got in my eyes, but I couldn’t even scream.
The entire horrific scene was uploaded live to Jo Tae-man’s channel.
Titled something like “Today’s Classic BJ Yang Seon-il Legendary Reaction lol lol lol.”
Students from school and countless strangers watched the video, laughing and mocking me.
I want to die.
The thought of dying never left my mind.
I believed death was the only way to escape this hellish daily life.
But I didn’t have the courage to actually do it.
Because I kept seeing my parents’ faces—working at a restaurant back home, scraping together every last penny to pay for my expensive tuition, rent, and living expenses.
Knowing they had poured everything they had into me, I couldn’t bring myself to give up.
I kept telling myself that once I graduated, it would all be over.
Then one day, when I was nearing my limit, an end finally came to Jo Tae-man’s hellish content.
While the horrific bullying continued day after day, school violence suddenly became a major social issue nationwide.
The news was flooded with reports, and public anger boiled over.
Luckily, one spark of that anger landed on Jo Tae-man’s social media.
A viewer who had been watching his atrocities couldn’t hold back their rage and reported him to the police.
The report quickly led to an investigation, and the police came to the school.
Jo Tae-man and his gang were suspended.
For Jo Tae-man, a third-year student just months away from the CSAT, the suspension and police investigation were devastating.
Not wanting the situation to escalate, Jo Tae-man cleverly hired an expensive lawyer with the money he’d made from tormenting me.
A few days later, the lawyer showed up at my studio apartment.
Wearing a sharp suit, he held out a thick envelope of cash.
“I know you’ve been through a lot. Jo Tae-man deeply regrets his actions. Take this money and let’s quietly put this behind us.”
Without even opening the envelope, I lowered my head in silence.
I felt like I was the one who had committed a crime.
“Think rationally, Seon-il. Even if you push this all the way and he gets punished, he’s still a minor. He’ll spend a little time in juvenile detention and that’ll be it.”
The lawyer stared at my bowed head with cold eyes and continued quietly.
“But what happens after that is the real problem. In cases like this, the perpetrator often holds a grudge and comes after the victim again.”
I felt the blood drain from my body.
“This might be your only chance to completely escape from someone like Jo Tae-man.”
I knew he was right.
Jo Tae-man would definitely seek revenge—using even more horrific methods than before.
Paralyzed by that fear, I signed the settlement agreement with trembling hands.
That was how I escaped from hell.
Time passed, and graduation day arrived.
I felt nothing.
The dream I thought I could achieve just by graduating from Gangyeong High had already been shattered long ago.
The lively, outgoing version of me who once dreamed of becoming a broadcaster was gone, replaced by crushing self-doubt and social anxiety.
I just wanted to be forgotten by everyone and live quietly.
So when I turned twenty and became an adult, I chose to cut myself off from the world.
I locked the door of my basement studio and became a perfect hikikomori, imprisoning myself.
I let my time rot away like spoiled food waste, barely surviving each day.
The only light in that dark room came from my phone screen, which still showed Jo Tae-man and his gang.
Even after graduation, they were still active as YouTubers.
They weren’t as popular as in high school, but they kept their channel afloat with increasingly extreme and depraved content.
They were still laughing, talking, mocking people, and turning it into money.
I want to die.
I still spent every night haunted by thoughts of death.
There was no paradise waiting for me after I escaped.
Experience Terminated.
“Hah… hah… hah!”
Kang Tae-san gasped for breath as he returned to reality, the horrifying synchronization finally broken.
His entire body was drenched in cold sweat, and his heart pounded like it was about to burst.
He ran to the bathroom, clutching the toilet as he retched, but only stomach acid came up.
Neither the twisted obsession of stalker Yoo Pil-joo nor the cold-blooded madness of serial killer Seo Chae-hyuk had been this bad.
What Yang Seon-il had endured was violence more cruel than murder.
When Tae-san staggered to his feet, the usual warmth and positivity in his eyes had completely vanished.
As he left Yang Seon-il’s house and trudged home, only one thought filled his mind.
“Jo Tae-man… that bastard. I’ll make sure he pays for what he’s done.”