You're Beyond Saving
What happens when someone slaps you out of nowhere?
You get pissed the fuck off, obviously. It was so self-evident it barely needed explaining.
And I wasn't even a masochist who got off on being hit. On top of that, the one who'd slapped me was a guy I'd never particularly liked to begin with. Of course I was pissed.
"You fucking bastard."
That was probably why the curse flew out of my mouth on its own. It was practically a conditioned reflex — an inevitable physiological response, the irritation boiling up from inside me with nowhere else to go.
A sudden slap to the face was more than enough to make the body move before the brain could catch up.
The silver lining, I supposed, was that I hadn't thrown a punch. Not yet.
"Wh-what did you just say?"
He looked startled by the swearing. Guess he hadn't expected to get cussed out like that.
When someone who'd been acting scared shitless suddenly snaps, of course you'd be thrown off. But that scared act had been a performance. This — this was how I actually felt.
Han Ho-cheol stood there blankly for a second, then his face twisted into something vicious as he glared at me.
"You crazy son of a bitch… what? Hey. Can you not see who's around you right now?"
He glanced around. Five women in tight delinquent fashion were staring me down.
I had no idea how he'd rounded them up, but they were definitely on Han Ho-cheol's side.
Seeing that, I had no choice but to swallow my anger.
Hmm.
Me. Lee Se-won. Certified loner, certified loser. The classic type who picks on the weak and folds to the strong — tough against the few, spineless against the many.
That particular brand of cowardice kicked in no matter the situation, and this alley was no exception. Sure, everyone in front of me happened to be a woman, but they outnumbered me. That was enough to make me flinch.
Thump, thump. My heart was pounding harder than usual, and a thin thread of anxiety started climbing up my throat. But it didn't quite tip over into panic.
I took a light breath first.
In… out…
With every long, drawn-out breath, the heat in my head cooled by degrees. I shoved the panic and the rage down as far as they'd go and reached for reason instead.
Stay calm. Choose your head over your feelings. No matter how fucked the situation was, as long as my brain was working I could still make the right call.
"You're fucked, you know that?"
While Han Ho-cheol kept running his mouth up front, I worked through the situation as fast as I could. His yapping scraped at my nerves, but I could still think through it.
Okay. This definitely isn't some act.
The gap between this and the scenario Good-for-nothing Me had told me about, plus the lingering sting in my cheek, proved that much.
Looks like Lee Eun-byul got used too. He'd taken the information she'd passed along and used it to set up an ambush in this alley ahead of time.
For a second I was almost impressed by how easily she'd been played — but I was in the same boat, so I let that one go. This fucking idiot… waltzing into a place like this because I thought it'd be fun. I wasn't exactly in a position to lecture Eun-byul.
Anyway. This was the real thing. That much was clear.
Spilled water doesn't go back in the cup. Now that I was here, walking home like none of this had happened wasn't an option. From here on out, I had to think my way out.
The first idea that came to mind was a frontal breakthrough. The women had every exit blocked, sure… but if I put some force into it, I could punch through one of them. It didn't even require brains. Just enough physicality. I had to be stronger than a bunch of girls, right?
"Pfft. Yo, Ho-cheol's pissed."
"Hey, hey, don't get too mad. A guy's allowed to swear a little."
So I went for it. I spun toward the gap between the two women snickering at me.
"Hah! An opening!!"
My body shot forward like a bolt of lightning, slipping through a crack in their awareness. The physical force of the collision wasn't something they could just ignore. That sloppy stance of theirs would collapse in an instant, and I'd burst out onto the glorious open street!
"Wha—?! Hey, where do you think you're going?"
"Heh heh. This guy's hilarious."
"Kh…!"
But my brilliant attempt got shut down way easier than I'd expected. These bastards were a lot stronger than they looked.
The second one of them grabbed my arm, my feet stopped dead. And in that split second, the other four piled on.
I was stunned. Why the hell were these people so strong?
The moment that question formed, I heard Lee Se-won's voice.
Women have always been stronger than men.
Could you maybe tell me the important world-building shit a little earlier? This is foundational lore. Would it have killed you to mention it at the start?
Fuck.
So I got dragged right back to the center of the encirclement. The delinquents had felt the threat in my resistance, apparently, because their guard went up another notch — complimentary service. And Han Ho-cheol's ranting ratcheted up another level on top of that, courtesy of the management's generous hospitality.
It was depressing. I'd wanted to pull off a cool escape on my own power, and now that door was slammed shut. All I'd done was add another risk to the pile.
Now what?
I asked myself the question again. If I just sat here, Han Ho-cheol was going to wreck me — that much was obvious. Looking at the state of him, he was dead serious about it. I had no idea how he planned to wreck me, exactly, but violence was definitely going to be involved. And unlike a masochist like Eun-byul, I preferred to avoid pain whenever possible.
"Haaah… so just quit showing off and come along quietly. Unless you feel like getting hit."
While I was still turning it over, his voice came at me again. The hysterical edge had died down some; Ho-cheol was demanding, in a much calmer tone, that I shut up and follow him.
Hearing that, I couldn't help but wonder.
Okay, but why does he keep telling me to come with him?
At first I'd just refused because I was pissed, but at this point I had to figure out the reason. If he wanted to wreck me, he could just do it right here. Why go to the trouble of changing locations? As long as it was somewhere deserted, the spot itself shouldn't matter.
What the hell was he after…
…Ah.
I only had to sit with it for a second before his intent clicked into place.
Eun-byul's going to show up soon.
Right. There was still one person who hadn't taken the stage yet. Lee Eun-byul. She'd fed Han Ho-cheol the information, so in exchange he would have cooked up a scenario for her — fake or not — and passed it along. At the very least, he would have had to give her the right place and time.
The moment he did that, Lee Eun-byul became a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later she was going to come looking for this alley, and a guy who'd been showing interest in her all this time would naturally want to be somewhere else when she did.
That was why he was trying to move me.
Huh.
Once I'd gotten that far, I smiled a little. A new way out had just come into view.
So I just have to hold out right here, don't I?
If I stalled long enough, the situation would resolve itself. Time would pass and Eun-byul would show up — or someone might even call the cops. Good-for-nothing Me had said today was the day, so she was definitely coming. There was no way she'd gotten that part mixed up too.
So I decided to bet on sheer nerve.
"I said no."
"You little—!"
Han Ho-cheol's arm swung again. It traced a brief arc through the air and connected with my face.
Crack!
The sound of impact rang out a second time. A searing pain flared across my cheek, and my head snapped to the side. A slap with real weight behind it hurt more than you'd think. In the movies they always catch the arm before it lands… hands were faster than I gave them credit for.
The pain brought the irritation surging back up, but I forced the anger down again.
"Hey."
I stared him down instead.
"Do I look like an idiot to you?"
Just quietly follow along because he told me to?
His approach wasn't bad. The plan even had a certain logic to it. Dominate the atmosphere, threaten me, and drag me off somewhere — half by my own feet, half by force. Throw in a little violence and scaring someone was easy. Human reason is a fragile thing; back someone into a corner even slightly and they stop making decent decisions. He figured I'd walk into the crocodile's mouth myself just to avoid getting hit right now.
From his point of view, no ordinary "man" would just stand there in front of five delinquent "women" and be fine. That was common sense in this world.
"You think I don't know I'll get wrecked if I go with you?"
But I wasn't a "man." I was a man. Which put me a long way from the ordinary he thought he understood.
And besides, I had a decent amount of immunity to ugly situations like this. These unnecessarily vicious-looking eyes of mine had a talent for getting me misunderstood. People had been picking fights with me my whole life.
Back when I was waiting tables, there was this Hongdae tough guy who lost his mind because he thought I'd glared at him — I was just taking his order. Back when I was doing construction, there was a Joseonjok guy named Zhang Ziwei who dropped his rebar and shoved me hard enough to rattle my teeth, just because our shoulders had bumped. School, everyday life — I'd been getting into trouble for as long as I could remember. You build up a tolerance.
"Y-you…!"
And now it was five women who looked a little intimidating? He should have brought more. Even if I got a little scared, I wasn't about to freeze up so badly I couldn't think.
"…Ha."
I kept staring him down, and Ho-cheol let out a short, ugly laugh.
"Then you are an idiot, aren't you?"
It wasn't the kind of laugh that came from anything positive. Irritation, disbelief, the rage of a plan that wasn't going his way — all of it came spilling out of his mouth. The guy who'd been trying to control my emotions had fallen for his own act and let his emotions take over instead.
Honestly, it was pretty satisfying to watch. But people in that state usually cross a line.
"You were prepping for art school originally, right? Failed twice, and now you're stuck at a place like this."
A conversation I'd had with Eun-byul in the classroom once. Anyone could have overheard it. And now it was coming out of his mouth like a fingernail, digging in — words chosen for no reason except to make himself feel better, to make me feel even a little bit worse.
My expression tightened.
"That's what an idiot looks like, isn't it? It's obvious just looking at you!"
He kept going.
"You probably just holed up at home, using 'exam prep' as an excuse to fuck around all day. Gaming, drinking, living like a total shut-in waste of space!"
"……"
My gaze went colder by degrees. Heat was starting to crawl through my skull.
But.
Hoo. Hold it…
Even then, I tried to hold back. Violence was a last resort. Using it here would only make my situation worse — that much was obvious. It was incredibly shitty and incredibly infuriating, but it was still within what I could tolerate.
But then.
"It's obvious how your parents raised you, you piece of shit."
The moment I heard that.
A snap.
Somewhere in my head. Somewhere along a nerve. I heard something break.
"Ha."
My thoughts stopped. A hollow laugh slipped out of the corner of my mouth.
I grinned, and I called his name.
"Hey."
"What!"
He was glaring at me with that vicious look still plastered on his face.
I said it.
And then I threw the punch. Without a shred of hesitation. With everything I had.
People who cross the line have always needed a proper lesson.
CRACK!!!!!!
And then, the next instant—
"AAAAAGH!!!!"
His face caved in.