Misfortune Strikes Twice

My consciousness drifted back into focus.

I was about to open my eyes immediately when the memory of what happened right before I blacked out flashed through my mind. Keeping my body perfectly still, I gathered my thoughts first.

Did I lose consciousness?

I quickly assessed my physical condition. A dull ache throbbed in my temple, and my shoulder felt stiff and sore—likely the lingering impact from when I hit the pavement.

"Hrnngh."

From above my head came the strained groan of a woman exerting herself, accompanied by the dry rustle of something being handled. Every time she shifted her weight, the mattress beneath me dipped and wobbled. Even with my eyes shut, I pieced together the scene from the sounds and sensations around me.

First, I was lying flat on a bed. Second, a woman was standing right on top of the mattress, occupied with something overhead.

The ceiling?

It was hard to say for sure, but faint creaks echoed from higher up than her grunting breaths, sounding remarkably like someone twisting a lightbulb into place.

"Up we go..."

A moment later, whatever she had been doing seemed finished. Footsteps padded off the mattress as she stepped down, retreating across the room. Only then did I crack my eyelids open, carefully surveying my surroundings.

Where am I? A studio apartment?

I had awakened inside a filthy, cluttered bedsit. I lay sprawled on a cramped single bed, my wrists bound firmly together before me. My clothes were still intact. Glancing up at the ceiling, I noticed portions of the wallpaper had yellowed with age, but nothing looked particularly out of the ordinary at a casual glance. Yet she had definitely set something up there.

It couldn't have been that long since I passed out.

Daylight still poured through the curtained window, keeping the room fairly bright. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Slowly turning my head, I caught sight of the woman pulling a water bottle from a miniature refrigerator and taking a long swig.

"Right, the camera."

After slaking her thirst, she pulled up a chair before a compact desk and fired up a laptop. The low, steady hum of the cooling fan soon filled the quiet room.

Click. Click.

She leaned forward, scrutinizing something with intense focus. Held in her fingers was a lighter—the very lighter she had snatched from my pocket.

"Let's see here..."

She pried something tiny from the casing and slotted it into a card reader connected to her machine. Evidently, an SD card had been nestled inside. For several moments, she stared unblinkingly at the screen.

"Dammit!"

She shot up from her chair, venting her frustration with a sharp hiss before wheeling around. I instantly shut my eyes again, resuming the guise of an unconscious hostage.

Her footsteps drew near, stopping right beside the edge of the mattress.

"Jeongseo... why on earth did you walk toward the police substation? This is all your fault."

She addressed me with startling familiarity, completely misconstruing my intentions. I hadn't been heading to the substation at all.

Maybe I can talk some sense into her.

That kick had likely been an impulsive reaction on her part. Had she premeditated an abduction from the start, she wouldn't have bungled things this sloppily. She had probably taken an irrational gamble simply to retrieve the hidden spycam disguised as a lighter. The situation was grim, but to prevent it from degenerating into a total catastrophe, attempting a dialogue seemed the wisest course.

One false step, and either she or I would end up dead before the day was out.

My plan was to coax her guard down through conversation, then overpower her. If things went smoothly, I could enact my payback within reasonable boundaries without leaving permanent, crippling damage on her body.

Gulp.

While I was contemplating mercy, the woman's thoughts were taking an entirely darker turn. She swallowed hard, and her hands crept toward my body. First, she slipped off my mask; next, her fingers moved down to my trousers.

What do I do here?

Did this woman have any inkling that I was currently negotiating with my own inner impulses just to keep from killing her? Naturally, I didn't believe her misconduct warranted a death sentence. The real danger lay in my innate compulsion. In the process of giving her an eye for an eye, those dormant urges would inevitably surge to the surface. If she compounded her offenses and forced my hand into a more brutal retaliation, the odds of me losing control would skyrocket.

I had been actively persuading myself to keep my retribution tempered, but then—

"Ahem. Haaah... So this is Jeongseo's cock..."

While I fought my internal battle, she had stripped my trousers completely off. Why she hadn't bothered to bind my legs was a mystery. Perhaps she simply deemed me too puny to be any real threat. Leaving me clad only in my underwear, she lowered her head right over my lap, burying her face into my crotch to inhale deeply.

"Excuse me."

I spoke before any involuntary physiological response could occur. Startled, the woman jerked upright.

"Do you realize how terribly wrong this is?"

I maintained an even, tranquil tone, projecting neither fury nor terror. To keep from agitating her, I kept my cadence slow and my voice hushed.

"Stop right here. Whatever your reasons are, let's just talk."

"Stop right here?"

"Yes. Things can still be salvaged. Before it's too late..."

Evidently, I had chosen the worst possible words.

"How am I supposed to stop now? It's already too late!"

"It isn't too late. If we stop now, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it's just simple assault—"

"No! I told you, it's over! You found the lighter!"

"What about the lighter?"

She jabbed a trembling finger at the laptop screen. Displayed across the monitor was a painfully familiar view of the cafe's restroom interior.

"Look at it! Inside that lighter was a micro-camera! That means I'm already past the point of no return!"

She readily confessed to the illicit filming with her own lips. I had deliberately omitted the hidden camera in an attempt to frame this purely as an assault case, subtly giving her an exit ramp. Without uttering an outright lie, I had hoped to induce the illusion that she could still turn back the clock. But the moment she blurted out the truth herself, that gambit crumbled into dust.

"Everything was fine until yesterday... No, even up until a little while ago..."

"Please, calm down first. Taking this any further will only aggravate your crime."

Muttering like a lunatic, the woman began peeling off her clothes, spouting words that made no rational sense while listening only to her own voice.

"Why did you ignore what I said to you?"

"What did I ever ignore?"

"I gathered all my courage to approach you... and you just brushed me aside! So this is entirely your fault, Jeongseo!"

The only person ignoring the other in this room was the woman standing before me. Furthermore, what struck me as exceedingly bizarre was how she repeatedly glanced up at the ceiling between sentences. She disguised it as a casual neck stretch, but there was no mistaking that her gaze deliberately lingered overhead. From where I lay, all I could see was a fluorescent light fixture and a smoke detector.

"Carrying on with that vile bitch right in front of my eyes..."

"That bitch? Who are you talking about?"

"The cafe boss! You just lay there letting that slut grope your body, doing nothing to stop her!"

Having shed her outerwear, she approached the bed once more. As her tossed garments hit the floor, a faint odor of stale tobacco drifted through the air. She was working herself up into an uncanny, solitary frenzy.

"And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that woman who drove you home in that black car—who the hell was she?!"

It was around this moment that I finally realized this woman was far more than an opportunistic peeping tom. I had no idea how long it had been going on, but she had been stalking and observing me for quite some time.

"I was planning on treating you so well... How dare you betray me?!"

Her words tumbled out in a frantic torrent, her pitch climbing to a shrill, manic crescendo.

"You smiled at me! You gave me presents! You told me every single day that you missed me!"

Not a single word she uttered matched any memory I possessed. The protest almost rose to my lips—When did I ever do that?—but I held it back. Attempting to reason with a raving psychotic had been a fundamentally flawed approach from the very beginning.

"So you see? You brought this all on yourself, Jeongseo. Yes... It's all your fault."

She stripped away her remaining undergarments, baring an unsightly physique. Her breasts had some volume, but they hung limp and flat against her ribcage. While not obese, she carried a prominent layer of flab around her midriff, her long, thick waist giving her torso a blocky, shapeless look. Her legs were stubby and appeared frail in contrast to her upper body. Even so, her height and overall mass were nothing to sneeze at; while she lacked Yeo-eun's overwhelming athletic build, she clearly possessed some degree of physical conditioning.

"Our Jeongseo is just an easy slut anyway, isn't he? Am I right?"

Stark naked, she climbed onto the mattress, straddling the space on either side of my head. Glancing up at the ceiling once more, she adjusted her posture slightly.

There was definitely something up there.

The smoke detector?

Lowering her chin, she stared straight down at me, bending her knees slightly until her legs bowed out into an 'O' shape. Her crotch hovered directly in my line of sight, though the thick, overgrown thatch of pubic hair obscured her opening.

"Since you're a slut, this is fine, right? Don't worry, Noona will be gentle."

She pinched a white string dangling between the folds of her labia and slowly pulled. With a wet suction, a sodden cotton wad steeped in menstrual blood slid free.

Plop.

Without a shred of hesitation, she let it drop straight onto my face. A rancid, coppery stench assaulted my nostrils, making me grimace in pure disgust. The foul odor wafting into my nose carried a rot so foul it made me wonder if she was harboring some severe reproductive infection.

"Oh, that's right! I need the scissors. Just wait right there, okay?"

Even with no response from me, she continued her ceaseless babble. After lingering for a moment to admire my helpless state, she climbed down and bustled toward the kitchen area.

Watching her retreating back, I ran the calculations in my head. With both hands bound, could I take her in a fight?

My raw strength probably won't be enough.

Conventional tactics offered miserable odds. Even if I ambushed her with a surprise strike, her bulk and pain tolerance would likely absorb the brunt of it.

"You must feel so suffocated, Jeongseo. Just bear with it a second, I'll strip you bare in no time."

She returned clutching a pair of kitchen shears, intending to shred what was left of my clothing. Seeing that, I couldn't remain silent.

"I'll behave. I'll take them off myself, so—"

"I'd love that, truly. But sorry, I can't trust you."

With a dull snip, she took the blades to my clothes. The outer jacket required nothing more than unbuttoning, yet she mercilessly severed the threads anyway. The shirt beneath was split right down the center, exposing the bare expanse of my chest and stomach to the chilly air.

"Haaah... so pretty. Look at this skin..."

Slide.

Her sweaty palms roamed across my bare flesh. A clammy, revolting stickiness dragged across my skin.

"Your nipples are pink... Truly gorgeous. Jeongseo, why are you so damn pretty?"

She lowered her pelvis, grinding her hairy mound right against my stomach. Every time her hips undulated, fresh streaks of blood smeared across my flesh.

"Mmh... haaah. I'm sorry about the blood, but it can't be helped. I know I don't have much time left either."

Her demeanor carried the fatalistic reckless abandon of someone who had already thrown her future away. Straddling my waist, her deadweight pinned me firmly against the mattress.

It was clear that taking her down would require waiting for an opening that offered absolute certainty.

Meanwhile, back when Jeongseo had stopped by the bank, Jin Seohui was wrestling with an unsettling premonition at the cafe.

The customer wearing the low-brimmed cap had bolted out the door in a manic rush, almost as if deliberately tailing Jeongseo. Perhaps it was baseless paranoia—after all, that particular regular often departed around the time Jeongseo finished his shift. Normally, one would dismiss it as someone having an urgent personal errand to attend to. But the endless barrage of sexual assault reports plastered across the daily news had frayed her nerves. Once unease took root, it proved impossible to shake.

Though loath to pester Jeongseo during his off-hours, she ultimately picked up her phone and dialed his number.

Fortunately, he picked up almost immediately.

—Oh, I'm totally fine— THWACK! THUD! Cl-cl-clatter!

Just as Seohui began to breathe a sigh of relief, chiding herself for being overly anxious, Jeongseo's response abruptly cut off. A chaotic flurry of bizarre, violent sounds echoed from the speaker.

"Huh? What was that noise? Jeongseo?"

Seohui called out his name into the receiver several times, her voice rising in pitch.

"Jeongseo! Are you okay? Did something happen?!"

No matter how long she listened, not a single sound answered from the other end. The relief that had briefly washed over her evaporated, replaced by cold dread clawing at her throat.

"Can't you hear me? That's strange... Is the connection bad?"

Ending the call, Seohui immediately redialed.

Once, twice, three times.

Click.

"Excuse me? Ah... by any chance, was there anyone around? I was just on the phone with the owner a moment ago!"

It was an unfamiliar male voice.

"The owner of that phone is a man! Did you see a man anywhere nearby?!"

Chills raced down Jin Seohui's spine. Something had gone catastrophically wrong. Confirming that the man holding the phone was a bank employee, she hung up the call.

Without wasting another second, she dashed out of the cafe.

Chime—

"Huh? Boss, where are you going?"

"I'm so sorry! An urgent emergency came up! My apologies!"

Bowing hastily to the bewildered patrons attempting to enter, Seohui pulled the door shut and locked it behind her. Breaking into a full sprint down the pavement, she whipped out her phone and punched ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in a familiar number on the run.

The person Jin Seohui called was her older sister.