I Said, Don't Mess With Me.
I Said, Don't Mess With Me.
Grandfather frequently went to see Lee Gi-seok while he was staying at our house,
which meant Lee Gi-seok ended up spending more time at Da-yeon's place to accommodate him.
Grandmother seemed busy playing with Alpha and Beta, who'd gotten old.
Thanks to that, looking after Roy and Rosa became my and Dad's job.
I enjoyed taking Roy and Rosa for walks along the Han River with Da-yeon.
Was it because they're large breeds... or because they'd been eating well since coming to our house?
Roy and Rosa shit like crazy all over the street...
As if marking their territory, the second they spotted a post or something while walking, they'd crudely hike a leg...
As expected, elegant cats are the best.
At home, Da-yeon, Dad, and I bathed Roy and Rosa together. Their tails wouldn't stop wagging, as if they absolutely loved water.
Dad smiled at the sight of us completely covered in suds because of Roy and Rosa, then tried to dab more bubbles onto my nose, and I dodged lightly.
I glared at him, and Dad started wiping Rosa's face, pretending he hadn't seen.
This time, he switched targets to Da-yeon and dabbed bubbles right onto her nose.
"Eep!"
As if bent on revenge, Da-yeon smeared bubbles back onto Dad's face.
Watching the two of them laughing brightly, I kind of wished I'd just let him do it.
Yoon Hyeong-seop punched Jeong I-su, the business administration department's general manager, in the face.
Wham!
"Aaaaagh!!!"
"Kyaaak!"
"Is this something you can do? Do you... I asked if you were capable. Don't you ever think!?"
Yoon Hyeong-seop began kicking Jeong I-su, who'd fallen to the ground.
Having screamed, Hwang Ji-seon belatedly tried to stop Yoon Hyeong-seop, seeing him this emotional for the first time.
"Hyeong-seop!!! Calm down!"
But Yoon Hyeong-seop shoved the woman aside and glared at Jeong I-su as if he meant to kill him.
"You're asking that? This fucking moron... You... Can you do it!? Answer me, you motherfucker!!!"
"Sorry... Sorry... I... I wanted to live too..."
"If we fail!!! If we faaail!!! We can't even run and we all die, you goddamn bastard."
Yoon Hyeong-seop swept everything off the desk to vent his rage.
Crash!!!
"Hyeong-seop! Get a hold of yourself!"
"What do we do... What do we do? Let's stay calm... Haah. If this fails, we're all headed for the shredder... Face reality..."
""......""
"Ji-seon, that goes for you too."
Yoon Hyeong-seop slumped into a seat, took a few deep breaths, then sat in a chair and began to think.
"Two weeks... two weeks... ah..."
Then, calm once more, Yoon Hyeong-seop picked up a pen and started writing something.
"That Young-hwan kid from Na Yoon-seo's side is working it, right?"
"Right...?"
"Tell him not to upload anything he's shot so far, absolutely not, and to bring all the materials... We'll use them as bait."
"".....""
"Even if... what takes the bait turns out to be a whale... we still have to reel it in."
"Ah... got it."
"Na Yoon-seo... must not... under absolutely no circumstances must she commit suicide. Tell him to proceed with more caution than usual."
"Uh..."
At that moment, Hwang Ji-seon took a call, then called out to Yoon Hyeong-seop.
"Hyeong-seop!!!"
"What?"
"They... they sent 30 billion won...?"
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean..."
Just then, a phone on the floor beneath the desk rang.
"H... hello...?"
—"Oh, picked up fast? You're pretty relaxed. Our Boss says he likes your guts and your ability, says to join the family."
"Join the family...?"
—"Yeah, dumbass. You got the money, right? That's thirty percent of the total payment. You crazy bastard, how the hell were you planning to hit Kim Si-yoon?"
"Ah... ah, yes."
—"He says once this job succeeds, he'll send you the remaining seventy percent. You know you've grabbed a fucking insane lifeline, you little shit?"
"...?"
—"Thrilled out of your mind, huh? Why so quiet?"
"I'll do my very best!"
—"Good, good. The Boss has high hopes too. But, if you fail, you know what happens."
Yoon Hyeong-seop swallowed and answered.
"Yes..."
—"Huh? Why's your voice like that? Your buddy swore it's a guaranteed success, said there's zero chance of failure."
"I'll do my very best..."
—"Your very best...? What's that? What're you talking about, very best?"
"I will stake my life on it."
—"Oh!? Yeah, dumbass! You bet your life on it. Kyah. Truly awe-inspiring guts, Boss. We'll be looking forward to it, then?"
"Yes!!!"
—"They say every Korean goes through the military. Good answer."
The large man waited with violently trembling hands for the phone to disconnect.
And Yoon Hyeong-seop, once he confirmed the call had ended, dropped the phone.
"... Fuck..."
Once we arrived at school, we called Yoon-seo out to the library and ate together.
Yoon-seo's expression was even darker than before, to the point where I genuinely wondered if I ought to pay closer attention to her.
"Is something wrong...?"
Da-yeon asked carefully, but Yoon-seo just shook her head awkwardly.
I took hold of Yoon-seo's faintly trembling hand.
"There's a lot I can do for you, far more than you think. Yoon-seo."
"...."
She looked as if she was carrying some enormous weight on her shoulders, Yoon-seo did.
Even so, she still seemed reluctant to ask me for another favor.
"Just like the money that was too much for you to handle was nothing to me."
"Yeah..."
"If—and I mean really if—it's something so hopeless you can't see ahead of you, you can come to me anytime."
"... Yeah..."
"You know, right? You said you'd pay me back twice over, so we'll say payment is deferred."
Yoon-seo nodded hard, tears plinking down.
Seeing her like that, it was obvious something was going on.
I figured it was most likely Yoon-seo's existing family troubles.
Asking me for yet another favor was probably harder than I imagined.
If it wasn't that... maybe it involved Yoon-seo's boyfriend...
We ate quietly for Yoon-seo's sake while she cried.
After the meal, I went into the bathroom and called Jong-hyeon.
"Can you look into the people around Yoon-seo for me?"
—"Understood."
Si-yoon, who'd only had morning classes today, came home and fell asleep as if she meant to take a nap.
With nothing else to do, I switched my stream on for the first time in a while and filmed myself making lunch.
I didn't have any particular song I wanted to make, either.
"For lunch today, I'm going to make sandwiches."
I put some chunky shrimp into the steamer, filled a pot with water, added salt and vinegar, and boiled some eggs.
Just then, someone made a huge donation and told me to pull a hidden-camera prank on Si-yoon.
"Huh? Prank Si-yoon with a hidden camera? Hmm..."
I paused while shredding cabbage and rested my chin on my hand.
"I've never actually tried it, but maybe best not to..."
"Why not? Well, if I pull a prank on Si-yoon and her switch gets flipped, the prank war never ends. But if I don't prank her and instead make her sulk, she won't talk to me for exactly twelve hours. If I were going to do it, I'd have to do it before bed, so not right now."
Once the cabbage was fully shredded, I set it aside on the cutting board.
The twelve-minute alarm went off, so I scooped out the eggs, peeled them in cold water, put them back in the pot, and mashed the eggs.
"Hmm, more than anything, I don't even know what to do."
I handed one yolk each to Alpha and Beta, whose tails were wagging.
""Nyamnyamnyamnyam.""
Into the mashed egg I added mayonnaise and mixed; into the cabbage I added salt, sugar, and vinegar and tossed.
"Hmm... Seems like Si-yoon's had something on her mind lately... Well then, tell me what kind of hidden-camera prank I should pull."
I trimmed the crusts off the bread, laid cheese on one side, and lightly toasted it in the oven.
After combining the prepared ingredients, I peeled the fully cooked shrimp.
"Put lemon juice in her mouth while she's sleeping? Wow... I could genuinely get smacked for that. But her expression would probably be adorable. Only I get to see that."
I spread mustard on the bread, added the cabbage-egg mixture, then laid the shrimp on top one by one.
Then, just as a viewer suggested, I got out a lemon, put it through the juicer, and extracted the liquid.
I took one bite and immediately scrunched up my face.
It's the sort of taste that startles you wide awake.
"Wow... I could actually get in trouble for this. On second thought, I'm not doing it."
"If I do it, you'll donate ten million won? Hah... Don't worry about it."
But then I thought about it for a moment.
If somebody told Si-yoon they'd pay her ten million won to put lemon in my mouth, Si-yoon would without a doubt shove a whole lemon straight into my mouth.
"On second thought... maybe I'll just give it a try."
I swallowed hard and carefully opened Si-yoon's door to check inside.
She'd said it felt stifling before bed, so she'd taken off her underwear and was wearing just thin sleep clothes; if she'd ended up on stream, it would've been a disaster.
I confirmed she was properly covered by the blanket.
She was still sleeping defenselessly all the same.
Si-yoon's mouth was slightly open, so I carefully filmed while squeezing lemon juice inside.
"Ckgh!"
Si-yoon's face twisted dramatically as she thrashed awake.
"Dad? Water... throat hurts..."
"Huh? Okay, just a sec."
Seeing Si-yoon's reaction, I hurried off to get water.
In the middle of a dream, my mouth felt like it was shriveling up, and I woke up with a horrified jolt.
The filming equipment lay toppled beside me.
I sized up the situation, pulled out a tissue, and spat out the saliva that had pooled in my mouth.
"Dad wouldn't pull something like this on his own... Let's hear how much you sold me out for before you get banned."
The chat cheerfully told me how much they'd paid to sell me out.
I drank the water Dad had brought, eyed the pale lemon juice, and nodded.
"Another ten million if I down this in one shot, deal?"
As if I couldn't stomach this for ten million won. Honestly, for ten million won, I could manage a hundred lemons over the course of a day.
Two days had passed since I'd tasked Jong-hyeon with the job.
Today, Yoon-seo didn't come to school.
Normally he'd report the current progress within a day, so something serious must have come up.
I drew on my vape in a corner of campus.
Ffffff... whoooooosh...
And Jong-hyeon approached me from behind.
"Young miss..."
His manner was graver than I'd expected, so I followed him into a security vehicle.
And the tablet he handed me.
I slowly scanned the contents.
"Miss Yoon-seo... is being blackmailed by a man named Im Yeong-hwan. With various videos... and photos..."
"Haah..."
So the reason for her awful expression... wasn't her family situation, but that boyfriend, Im Yeong-hwan...
And to find out she's been blackmailed on top of that is outright absurd.
I flicked quickly through the materials, then stopped at one photo and message among many.
(Yeong-hwan): You think if we blackmail Kim Si-yoon with this she'll cave?
(Yoon-seo): We agreed not to touch Si-yoon!!! You piece of trash.
(Yeong-hwan): Oh? That how you're gonna talk?
(Yeong-hwan): (photo)
(Yeong-hwan): Like I said, I just posted this pic on the site. Lucky there was one left without her face showing.
(Yoon-seo): Don't... touch Si-yoon. Please... I'm begging you...
(Yeong-hwan): Yeah? Then come somewhere with me tomorrow?
A few minutes passed before an emoji popped up.
A cute-looking bunny winking...
(Yeong-hwan): I'll take that as a yes.
When I checked the date, it was yesterday's conversation.
My mood sinking, I pointed at the building where they were gathered and spoke quietly.
"This place... don't touch it."
"... Pardon?"
"I want to... handle this myself. Call Tae-oh for me."
As I moved to get out of the car, Jong-hyeon stopped me.
"Would you like to look a little further...?"
My head was already heating up with rage, but I turned the page just as he suggested.
They were making money through a paid adult site, and their targets were female college students at various universities.
They'd also run operations aimed at political and business circles—these bastards had been operating on a way bigger scale than I'd imagined...
Plenty of celebrities were tangled up in it, too.
And the ringleader was Yoon Hyeong-seop... with Jeong I-su and Hwang Ji-seon underneath him...
Especially Hwang Ji-seon—that was the same woman who'd played piano at the MT trip. Just how two-faced a person could be honestly gave me chills.
The shit these school executives get up to is truly revolting.
'What? What kind of business? I only just found out today that this even counts as business... These crazy bastards...'
Then I turned to the next page and stopped short.
My mind began cooling rapidly. I even felt hollow.
Taebaek.
About one month ago, Taebaek's Japan branch had inserted itself into this racket.
"Ahaha... Should I just wipe them out, then...?"
"I will leave that to the young miss's judgment."
"Every single person... involved here will pay for their crime."
"... Kill them?"
"That's not for me—or, well, for us—to decide, is it...?"
Jong-hyeon must have been quite angry too; he'd looked like he found it hard to wait for my permission.
"Yoon Hyeong-seop... So that's why you haven't been at school lately... cute..."
I got out of the security vehicle and walked toward the house, calling Yoon-seo.
Time passed, but Yoon-seo didn't pick up.
I called again.
Thankfully, she picked up this time.
"Si... Si-yoon... hic."
"I told you to tell me..."
"I'm sorry... hic... sorry... so sorry."
A cold sensation prickled through me at the sound of the fierce wind over the phone and her repeated apologies.
"Yoon-seo."
I thought this might be my last chance, so I quickly continued.
"You said you'd pay me back."
"...."
"You said you wouldn't run. So where are you trying to go? You have to pay me back by staying by my side."
"...."
"Who... am I...?"
"... Genie."
Looks like I managed to avert a tragedy, at least.
Right now, even just breathing is probably even harder for Yoon-seo, but...
"I... I..."
Yoon-seo's voice sounded slurred, muffled by tears and snot.
"What do I... hic... what do I do...?"
With a voice more relaxed than ever before, as if it were the simplest thing in the world, as easy as breathing, I spoke.
"When the genie appears, you have to make a wish."
"Do you know... what's going on...?"
"Yeah."
"... Can you... get revenge for me?"
"Be more specific..."
Yoon-seo's pitiful voice sounded as if she was placing her last hope on a thin lifeline.
"Can you... get rid of everything... all of it...?"
"Be more specific."
"Get revenge for me... all of them..."
"That's easier for me than any wish you could make... I'll contact you again. Wait."
"... Okay."
When I got home to pick up Tae-oh, a text from Im Yeong-hwan came through on my phone.
I was staring at the phone when Tae-oh got out of his car and came to my side.
"They said all of Team 7 is mobilizing. The plan is to hand everyone over to the police except the people you specifically named."
My eyes still on the phone, I gave Tae-oh's words a vague nod.
On the screen, Yoon-seo's nude photos kept endlessly appearing.
Tae-oh, who glimpsed my phone for a moment, went rigid with intensity.
Finally, photos appeared of Yoon-seo crying, her body covered in graffiti.
The vulgar phrases scrawled there for the sake of humiliation...
Graffiti... Graffiti, huh...
It began to overlap with Amy Allen in my mind... and goosebumps broke out all over my body.
Graffiti...