The Loan
The moment the poorly dressed girls drew closer, the stench of cigarettes hit me.
The damp, unpleasant odor made me instinctively step back, but they glared at me, shoved my shoulder aside, and strode straight into the house.
I couldn’t even block them. All I could do was stare at their torn, chain-adorned magical girl uniforms.
The room had already been cramped, but with so many people inside it felt even smaller.
“Wh-what is this?”
“You’re Lee Sujung, right? Your little sister borrowed our money for gambling and then ran off with it.”
“…Excuse me?”
I blinked rapidly, completely unable to process what they were saying. One of the girls gave me a look of pure disgust.
“She ran off, I said. Are you deaf? Lee Heeju took the cash and bolted. So what are you going to do about our hard-earned money?”
“I-I don’t know anything about this. Where is my sister?”
“Ugh, fuck, you’re so frustrating. If we knew where she was, why the hell would we come all the way here? You really don’t have a single thought in that head, do you?”
The girl raised her hand threateningly with a sharp voice, then lowered it again.
Terrified, I shrank my shoulders and clamped my mouth shut.
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t been able to reach Heeju for several days. I’d assumed she was just out having fun again and left her alone, figuring she’d get annoyed if I kept calling. I never imagined it would come to this.
They didn’t even bother taking off their shoes. Black footprints stained the floor mats as they stomped around.
One girl leaned crookedly against the wall near the entrance and flicked her cigarette ash onto the floor without a care.
The ash is falling everywhere.
Even though I saw it clearly, I couldn’t say a word.
Their threatening tattoos and outfits made my gaze drop to the floor on its own.
I clasped my hands in front of my stomach, fingers twisting nervously.
I prayed desperately that nothing bad would happen and they would just leave.
I kept wishing inside my head that they would realize they had the wrong person and walk out.
But no such miracle occurred.
“She swore she’d win it back, but of course she couldn’t pay it off. Still cracks me up that she said she’d gamble her way out of debt.”
The woman with the cigarette clenched between her teeth shoved her face right up to mine. Every breath she exhaled blasted foul smoke across my face.
“So obviously, you, the older sister, are going to pay it back.”
My throat burned as if it had been scorched dry.
“My sister’s loan… has nothing to do with me.”
My voice came out pathetically small.
My legs felt like they might give out at any second.
The women in front of me didn’t look like ordinary loan sharks or thugs.
They were wearing crudely modified magical girl outfits.
Magical Girl Capital. It had to be them.
I was already struggling to handle everything with Soyeon unnie and Kim Dayoung. I’d thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, but the world always finds a way to kick you down one more time.
“You really don’t know? Your sister took out a full loan under your name.”
The woman stared down at me with a murderous glare. Her gaze alone felt like it was crushing me from the top of my head to the soles of my feet.
“She seriously doesn’t know anything.”
“I-I didn’t borrow anything, so it has nothing to do with me. L-legally… Ahh!”
Slap!
My head snapped to the side and my body flew backward. My cheek burned as if it had been set on fire.
A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, and everything went muffled. The metallic taste of blood spread across my tongue—my mouth must have split open.
One of them stood with her legs apart, another watched me with a cigarette still in her mouth.
“Legally?”
The woman twisted her lips into a smirk.
“Do we look like we’re fucking around right now?”
Thud! A foot slammed into my stomach.
“Ack! Hngh…!”
The breath was knocked clean out of me.
Thump!
“Ugh… it hurts…”
“If it was borrowed in your name, then it’s your debt. You’re really pissing me off.”
The repeated kicks folded my body in half. One hand clutched my stomach, the other shielded my face.
I couldn’t even block properly. I just curled up as small as I could. My insides twisted violently.
It felt like my organs were being torn apart from the inside.
Why do I have to be beaten like this?
I don’t know anything.
I was just at home.
Why does everyone do this only to me?
My eyes grew hot. My throat tightened.
“I-I’ll pay it back!”
With my face pressed to the floor, gasping for air, I barely managed to force the words out.
“Good. And how exactly are you going to pay it? We’re busy people. If you waste our time with nonsense, you’ll get hit again.”
“J-just a moment… How much is it?”
The amount the girl named was absurdly huge.
For a second I thought I must have misheard and almost jumped up to ask if she was serious.
I had some savings set aside after living expenses, but it was nowhere near enough.
Still, I had to at least pretend to check.
My blood-stained hands trembled as I turned on my phone.
I opened the banking app and entered my password. My fingers shook so badly I kept pressing the wrong numbers.
The moment I saw the balance, I couldn’t believe it.
“Huh…?”
It was gone.
Every single won I had saved was missing.
It had definitely been there.
It should have been there…
I tapped on the transaction history.
A massive withdrawal had drained the account.
Without me knowing, my account had already been emptied.
No way.
Did Heeju take it?
“Hey, I said we’re busy. Are you sleeping?”
“Aaaah! It hurts!”
Suddenly someone grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked upward. My body was dragged across the floor.
The pain felt like my scalp was being ripped off. I flailed wildly, hitting the woman’s arm with my phone and clawing at her with my nails.
She ignored my struggles completely, glanced at the phone screen, and snorted.
“Hah. No money, huh?”
“N-no… I mean, when is the due date? If you show up like this out of nowhere, how am I supposed to pay?”
“Then we should only come when it’s time to collect, right? We’re not that much of a bunch of scumbags.”
I dropped to my knees on the floor and begged.
“Please, just give me a little more time…”
I grabbed the hem of the woman’s clothes, pleading that I would contact my sister and figure something out.
Tears streamed down my face from the endless string of misfortunes.
Nothing ever went right. Not a single thing.
“We’ll come back next week, so you’d better have the money ready by then.”
One of the women hawked loudly and spat a yellowish glob of phlegm onto the floor.
Another walked over to the sink, pressed the burning end of her cigarette hard into a white plate, and ground it out.
A short hiss sounded as it burned.
Black ash and a cigarette butt were left on the pure white plate like trash. Then she pulled out a fresh cigarette, lit it, and left the apartment laughing with the others.
Even after the door closed, all that remained in the room were shoe prints, the smell of cigarettes, and the phlegm slowly drying on the floor.
I sat there for a long time. I stared blankly at the spit on the floor.
The thought that I should clean it up kept circling in my head, but my body refused to move.
This had been my home, my only sanctuary. Now it no longer felt like my space.
My life was collapsing at a terrifying speed. Ever since the day Soyeon unnie disappeared, everything had been falling apart.
No. Maybe I had already hit rock bottom and been crushed long ago.
I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts.
[Lee Heeju]
My hand shook violently. I pressed the call button and held the phone to my ear. The ringing went on for a long time.
She didn’t answer.
Had something happened to my sister? Or had she really just run away? Either possibility was devastating.
“Please pick up… Please, Heeju… just answer…”
I begged with my busted, swollen lips.
The ringing continued for a while before it cut off abruptly.
I stared down at the phone.
At least let me know if you’re alive or dead.
Since you took the money, you’re probably living better than me…
“I hate this… I don’t want to struggle anymore…”
I dropped the phone and hugged my knees. In the darkening room, I cried silently for a long time.
“It’s morning already.”
I had no idea how I’d spent the night.
My eyes closed when they closed, opened when they opened. Before I knew it, morning had come.
Still, I had to go to work.
I opened the closet, grabbed any dress, put it on, and threw a thin, long beige coat over it.
It was still too warm for autumn, but I just wanted to cover my body.
I also wore a large mask that hid half my face.
In the mirror stood a powerless woman with long, limp pink hair. Only her sharply upturned eyes were visible above the mask, looking hollow.
“Let’s cheer up!”
The autumn scenery I faced as soon as I left the house was so beautiful and emotional that it almost seemed to mock my miserable situation.
The trees dyed in vivid colors, the scent of fallen leaves in the air. Under the brilliant sunlight, the only dark thing was me.
It would have been so nice to walk this path with Soyeon unnie.
Amid the mountain of misfortunes piling up, her absence felt heavier than ever.
“I miss you. So much.”
Calling out to the lover who had left me behind, I walked until I found myself in the company lobby.
I scanned my access card out of habit and passed through the gate. The beep of the machine sounded unusually cold today.
I stood in front of the elevator.
My reflection appeared faintly on the closed doors. Long pink hair, a carelessly chosen dress, a long coat. Standing there clutching my bag tightly with both hands.
I looked like an ordinary office worker.
But the pink eyes visible above the mask were empty and dead.
Ding. The elevator arrived. As soon as I stepped in, I pressed my floor, pressed myself into the corner, and lowered my head.
It was rush hour, yet strangely no one else got on. Were they avoiding me because I looked weird?
No. Who was I to think that?
Had I really developed some kind of paranoia?
I laughed bitterly at myself and tapped the tip of my shoe against the floor. If I could keep a steady rhythm, maybe my anxious heart would calm down a little.
That was when purple hair entered my downward gaze.
“Hey there. Good morning?”
My heart plummeted.
The moment I saw the hair color, Soyeon unnie reflexively came to mind, but the woman standing before me was not Kim Soyeon.
Cruelly, it was Kim Dayoung—who possessed the exact same face as Soyeon unnie.
Dayoung was smiling shamelessly. She looked as if nothing had happened.
What kind of magical girl was this woman?
She was a real villain who dragged people down into the abyss.
The employees who had been waiting outside the elevator hesitated strangely, then all turned their eyes away at once.
Even though people were clearly waiting, no one stepped into this elevator.
I couldn’t blame them.
Who would want to be trapped in a small elevator with this woman?
As the doors closed, only Dayoung and I remained inside the narrow space.
I was stunned by the face that smiled so brazenly and greeted me.
I instantly understood why the other employees had avoided this elevator.
“Can’t you hear me? I said good morning. Hm? Are your ears blocked?”
She had held back somewhat when others were around, but the moment we were alone her tone changed completely, dripping with mockery.
“No… I’m just not in a good mood.”
“Ha, not in a good mood?”
She let out a dry, incredulous laugh and nodded to herself. Then she walked right up to me where I was huddled in the corner and shoved her face so close I could feel her breath.
The purple eyes that shared the exact same face as Soyeon unnie but possessed a completely different personality pierced straight through me.
That gaze made my blood freeze. The knuckles of my fingers gripping the bag strap turned bone-white from lack of circulation.
Swish.
Her hand rose toward my face.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Sujung.”
When her hand approached, I turned my eyes away.
My shoulders curled inward on their own as I shrank against the wall. Dayoung’s fingers caught the strap of my mask.
“……Please don’t.”
Dayoung ignored me completely.
She pulled the mask down.
My hidden face was completely exposed.
Her eyes landed on my swollen cheek and split lip.
“The only thing even remotely worth looking at was your face. And now you’re walking around beaten up. It’s ruined.”
Tap. Tap.
She lightly patted my swollen cheek with her hand, the corner of her mouth curling up in a cruel smirk.
At the sight of her mocking me, I bit down hard on my trembling lip.
The torn membrane inside my mouth split open again. I tasted blood on the tip of my tongue.
The reality that I could not resist made my teeth clench in fury.
“Leave your bag and come straight to my office.”