Misfortune Strikes Twice
I think I finally understood a little why men in this world feared women.
After all, right now, a woman like a beast in heat was straddling on top of me.
Eyes devoured by raw lust. Sticky, groping hands roaming across my flesh. Panting, ragged breath. And the suffocating weight of her body pinning me down. Everything about her seemed to announce that she was about to commit an atrocity.
“Haaah... Jeongseo-ya. Raise your arms. Put them up.”
I obediently complied with her command.
Of course, it wasn't out of terror. Saying I understood a little was mere conjecture on my part. I was cooperating meekly solely to lull her into letting down her guard.
“Whew. Ah, you smell so good, Jeongseo. Driving me crazy... seriously.”
“Please don't do this. If you stop right now...”
“Stop what? At this point? Chuckle, chuckle... No way in hell. That's not happening.”
She lowered her posture and buried her nose into the crook of my neck. A foul, filthy breath washed over my skin. The more she acted like this, the less fear I felt. Instead, I only felt utterly disgusted.
The stench of sweat mingled with stale tobacco smoke, the coppery reek of blood, and the rank odor of mold lingering in the room—all of it continuously prodded at my darker impulses.
“I'm already screwed anyway. So I might as well get a taste of you, shouldn't I?”
If she stopped right now, there might have been a sliver of room for leniency. I had no idea how she planned to handle the aftermath. Why was she acting like someone who had completely thrown her life away?
One thing was certain: reasoning with her through words was an exercise in futility. Nor did I have any desire to. She had irrevocably crossed the line.
I couldn't forgive her for cutting my clothes to shreds as she pleased. Nor for tying my wrists together and touching my body however she wanted. Perhaps today, I would be the one crossing a line.
“Huuuh. Jeongseo-ya, be a good boy and hold still, okay? If you fight back too hard, noona might lose her temper.”
She pushed herself back upright.
Looking up at her from beneath, I realized anew just how extraordinary the women I had met so far truly were. The noonas in my life possessed exceptionally rare, magnificent beauty. I had known it before, of course, but looking at this woman's naked form threw the contrast into sharp relief.
Her facial features, to say nothing of her physique.
Even if they didn't align with this world's inverted aesthetic standards, to me, the noonas radiated unique, striking beauty.
“Oh, right. It'd make noona even happier if you called me by my name. You can do that for me, right?”
“What is your name?”
“What?”
Her brow twisted into a fierce scowl. I didn't understand why she was reacting like that when she was the one who had asked me to say it.
“Don't tell me you forgot? You forgot my name?”
“I didn't forget. I was never told it in the first place.”
“No... No... Don't you dare lie to me!”
She screamed, then froze in a daze.
A moment later, she shrieked again.
“Park Hyeji... Park Hyeji! Park Hyeji!”
The woman who had risen sat back down heavily onto my torso.
“How could you do that to me?! How! We were so good together!”
Thwack!
The woman—Park Hyeji—swung her hand. My head whipped sharply to the right.
“You're lying, aren't you?”
Park Hyeji began to work herself up in an entirely different way. She spoke as if she and I were lovers who shared deep, intimate bonds.
“You need to be punished. You have to be... Noona tried to treat you well.”
She began shifting her position. Lifting her hips off my torso, she rose onto her knees. Crawling farther up, she planted her knees on either side of my head. In effect, with my arms raised above me, I was trapped right beneath her crotch.
“You're doing this on purpose just to piss me off, aren't you? On purpose?!”
“...”
I chose silence.
I wasn't keeping quiet out of fear from being struck. Inwardly, I was calculating the fact that she was right-handed.
“Fine. You're just a slut anyway, Jeongseo. I'll treat you like the rag you are.”
Park Hyeji slowly lowered her pelvis toward my face. Her private parts drew closer and closer.
“From now on, Jeongseo, you're my wipe. A rag to clean my pussy. Stick out your tongue.”
My eyes caught sight of pubic hair matted with dried blood and unidentified bodily fluids. Small, white, balled-up clumps—likely dried bits of toilet paper—clung to the hairs. A foul, nauseating stench wafted from her.
Grit.
I couldn't let that touch my face.
I gave up on waiting for an opportunity. I would carve one out myself. Snapping my head aside, I sank my teeth viciously into the soft flesh of her inner thigh.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
Park Hyeji shrieked. Snapping my lower body upward like a coiled spring, I slammed my knee straight into her lower back.
Thud!
She lost her balance and banged her head against the wall adjacent to the bed. Rolling swiftly, I dropped off the edge of the mattress onto the floor.
“Guh.Fuckkkk!”
Driven wild with rage, she screamed again. Was this dilapidated building even soundproofed? If I had been in Park Hyeji's position, I wouldn't have acted so carelessly. Nor would I have left my captive's wrists bound with something as flimsy as simple tape.
“Get over here!”
She lunged toward me in a feral rush. Calmly, I waited for her to close the distance. I tracked her right hand leading forward.
The moment her fingers were about to reach me—
Thump!
“Urgh!”
Dropping my stance, I burrowed deep into her guard. I drove my shoulder straight into her pelvis while planting all the leverage into my legs. Had she possessed a powerhouse physique like Yeo-eun noona, the move would have failed miserably. But Park Hyeji had blinded herself with hysteria and charged recklessly. Putting every ounce of strength I possessed into the impact, I destroyed her center of gravity.
Crash, bang!
Unable to counteract her own momentum, she went airborne. Off-balance, she plummeted headfirst. With a thunderous crash, she slammed into the far corner of the room.
Rustle.
I quickly snatched up my bag resting beside the bed. Tearing away the tape wound around my wrists would take too much time. Instead, I reached into the bag and retrieved the self-defense device my mother had gifted me.
Bzzzzzzzt!
A stun gun. When I flicked the switch, electricity crackled across the prongs with a far louder buzz than expected.
“Aaargh!”
Approaching Park Hyeji as she squirmed to get up, I drove the electrical charge straight into her leg without a second thought. Agonized screams tore from her throat. Yet, despite the fearsome racket, its actual stopping power was underwhelming. She writhed in pain, but she was still very much capable of moving.
Bzzzt!
I jolted her several more times. She thrashed her legs before collapsing back down.
Evidently, the stun baton Mother had bought wasn't meant to incapacitate an assailant. Its purpose was merely to inflict sudden pain and buy a window of opportunity to flee while the attacker was disoriented. And I, too, was now fully capable of making my escape.
Click.
Yet I didn't run.
Flicking the switch off, I gripped the upper portion of the stun gun tightly with both hands.
Whoosh.
Its body was forged from hard, dense cylindrical polymer—with the bottom end noticeably thicker and heavier. Flipping it so the weighted base faced downward, I raised both arms high and brought it down with all my might.
Crack!
The blunt end of the baton struck Park Hyeji's skull dead-center.
Thud.
Her body collapsed entirely limp. She didn't twitch an inch.
“Ah. So that's how you're supposed to use it.”
Thump.
Just to be certain, I kicked her hard in the head. Partly to repay the slap she had delivered, and partly to verify she wasn't feigning unconsciousness. She remained motionless.
Thwack, thwack, thwack.
Next, I kicked her in the stomach several times. There was zero reaction. I considered striking more lethal vitals, but restrained myself.
“Phew.”
She was definitely out cold.
Clatter.
Only after making entirely sure did I set the stun baton down. Gripping the scissors she had brought earlier in reverse, I struggled through sawing off the duct tape wound around my wrists.
“Now for the tape...”
There was no time to rest. Glancing swiftly around the cramped room, I spotted a roll of heavy packing tape resting on the desk next to a laptop. I used up the entire roll, thoroughly binding all four of her limbs.
Clatter, scrape.
Next, I rummaged through the kitchenette. The only blade available was a single small paring knife. It would be better to use the scissors instead.
Now, it was time for revenge.
“Pardon? Where? Ah... Yes. Understood. Yes, ma'am.”
Inside what was once a quiet police substation, the female officer answering the phone stiffened in shock. Hanging up with a grim countenance, she turned around.
“Yeonsu.”
“Yes, Officer.”
“That report that came in earlier.”
“Yes?”
“Tell them to step on it. The Chief said a direct call just came down from the Eastern District Prosecutors' Office.”
“What? Why out of nowhere from the Eastern District?”
“Apparently, that... well, calling it kidnapping might be premature, but anyway. The boy is the nephew of the Chief Prosecutor of Criminal Division 3 over there.”
“Ah... Understood! I'll contact the dispatch team right away. They should be arriving on site just about now.”
Around the time Park Hyeji had carried Jeongseo toward her studio apartment, Jin Seohui had acted with blistering speed—phoning her elder sister first before filing the report with the police.
Jin Seohui's older sister, Jin Seook, was a prosecutor at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, presiding as Chief Prosecutor over Criminal Division 3, which handled violent crimes. Upon receiving her sister's frantic call, Jin Seook personally contacted a senior acquaintance within the police force—the chief of the very substation with jurisdiction over the neighborhood where Jeongseo lived.
“Team Leader...”
“Yeah. What did they find?”
“The team arrived at the bank... and it definitely looks like a kidnapping.”
“What? Are you certain?”
“The hallway CCTV caught footage of a woman following a boy into the restroom. The men's room, specifically.”
By the time Jeongseo had regained consciousness inside Park Hyeji's studio apartment, the police had mobilized in earnest.
Jin Seohui's prompt report and rapid response. Jin Seook's personal request, driven by her deep fondness for Jeongseo. Corroborating CCTV footage, paired with the testimony of the bank security guard who distinctly remembered Jeongseo. These factors merged together, kicking the police into high gear.
What had initially been a single patrol car dispatched to verify a routine report had escalated into an all-out incident requiring every officer in the district to scramble. Once deemed a kidnapping, it had transformed into a race against the clock.
The officers remaining at the substation contacted the municipal monitoring control center to trace the movement path of Park Hyeji and Jeongseo. Out in the field, all available patrol units congregated, narrowing the perimeter through door-to-door canvassing and street inquiries.
“Oh, right. What about male officers? Did you request male officer support?”
“Yes, request submitted.”
“How long will it take to track them down? You said she didn't leave by car, right?”
“Yes. We've confirmed she entered the alleyway, but after that...”
“Then check every exit route out of that alley! And if you can't, search every single building inside it!”
The cordon tightened at rapid speed.
The sight of a woman carrying a boy in broad daylight was quite conspicuous, meaning numerous pedestrians remembered catching a glimpse of them. Moreover, the monitoring control center successfully tracked their footsteps across intersecting street cameras.
It was only a matter of time before the police came battering down the door of Park Hyeji's studio apartment.