Kim Min-jung's Rage [The Human Scum Who Sold His Own Daughter]
"Yeah, looks that way, Ajumma. She's not over at the warehouse house either."
Geum Tae-yang answered as he came back inside once more, responding to Kim Min-jung who had turned around to ask him.
Standing at the front gate, Tae-yang tried calling Park A-young after she had ignored every text he had sent. She still did not pick up. So he used the emergency security card himself, opened the main gate and the outer barrier, and went in. When they reached the bunker, the door was already half open. Startled, Tae-yang and Kim Min-jung rushed inside—only for the rising dread to prove itself completely justified. Park A-young was nowhere to be found inside the bunker.
"Something's happened. No matter how much A-young likes to pull stunts, she would never leave without telling me in a situation like this. That girl frets way too much about how worried I get over her."
He had still clung to the faint hope that she might have gone over to his rented room. That hope collapsed just as thoroughly. The moment it became certain that Park A-young had left the bunker, Kim Min-jung's face drained paper-white.
"Look, Ajumma—we already cleared out every zombie around here. That means there's nothing nearby that could threaten A-young for a while."
"You remember, right? Yu-mi did a patrol and said there wasn't even a hint of Do Min-chul's crew."
"And from what I can tell, A-young only left the bunker a short while ago. If she'd been gone longer, we definitely would have run into her on the way to the incinerator. This neighborhood isn't that complicated, and all three of us have the Acute Senses trait."
Tae-yang laid out the logical analysis piece by piece, trying to calm Kim Min-jung. There were no traces of an intruder. Nothing inside the bunker looked ransacked or disturbed. A-young had left of her own free will. If she had gone out on some errand, then whatever might have posed an immediate threat to her had already been wiped out thanks to the quests Tae-yang and Min-jung had completed.
"Yu-mi and I will go outside and look for her, Ajumma. Someone has to stay in the bunker anyway. She might come back while we're out."
Having finished assessing the situation, Tae-yang immediately moved to search for Park A-young. He judged it best to leave Kim Min-jung waiting inside. She was doing her best to stay composed, but to Tae-yang's eyes she was in no mental state to go wandering the streets looking for her daughter.
"Alright... I understand, Tae-yang. I should also take a closer look at whatever made A-young leave in the first place... So I'll wait here in the bunker..."
She nodded again and again. Even Min-jung could see how carefully Tae-yang was looking after her. The urge to bolt outside right that second was almost unbearable, yet she forced herself to give a slow, steady nod and accept his decision.
A heavy hydraulic hiss filled the air as the front gate and barrier opened once more. Kim Tae-sik and Jo Yu-mi stepped outside. Yu-mi glanced left and right, then spoke to Tae-yang.
"I've got her photo on my phone. One look and I'll know her the second I spot her."
Tae-yang dug out his phone and showed her the picture.
"Whoa—A-young still looks exactly like she did back then! And with that yellow dye job on top of it? No way anyone could miss her."
Yu-mi's eyes went round as she stared at the photo Tae-yang had pulled up. It was peak Park A-young, the absolute final boss of beauty.
"Anything special I should watch out for? I don't know the full story, but this whole thing feels off."
Yu-mi asked about any extra precautions for handling the situation. She already knew, in a roundabout way, that A-young had gone through a full storm-and-stress phase during her teenage years. For a girl like that to suddenly pull something like this, something pretty sensitive had to be involved. So Yu-mi wanted to know in advance if there was anything she should keep in mind if she found A-young first—especially if the girl was in a volatile state of mind.
"Do you know about A-young's father? Park Do-chul?"
Tae-yang brought up the infamous local celebrity of Hanseong Metropolitan City.
"Yeah, I know Park Do-chul. He even came and raised hell at Hope Shelter once. From what I heard, that's the reason Min-jung Ajumma stopped coming around after that."
Park Do-chul truly was a local legend—the kind of human garbage who stuck his nose into every place he could find. Even Yu-mi had a vivid impression of him.
"Perfect, then this'll be easy to explain. Once you've seen Park Do-chul, you never forget that vibe."
Of course the man cleaned up well enough on the surface. But the pure, concentrated assholery that radiated off him whenever he threw a tantrum left a savage, unforgettable mark.
"If A-young suddenly bolted like this, it has to be trouble involving Park Do-chul. Realistically there's no way they could have contacted each other directly, but somehow, some way, it's him."
"So if you find her first, Yu-mi, and she looks like she's in a really bad headspace—just tail her for now. Then text me separately."
From the moment he confirmed A-young had left the bunker, Tae-yang had already sensed Park Do-chul's involvement. He simply could not say it out loud while Kim Min-jung was still within earshot.
"Okay, I'll do it that way. I'll take this direction, Tae-yang. I know these streets pretty well."
"Good. And if anything else goes wrong while you're looking for A-young, call me right away, Yu-mi. I'll come running."
After the brief briefing, Geum Tae-yang and Jo Yu-mi split up and headed out in different directions to search for Park A-young.
She's gone... She's gone... And she won't even answer the phone...
The moment Tae-yang and Yu-mi left the house, Kim Min-jung began searching the bunker all over again—every corner, the main house, even Tae-yang's rented room. All the while she kept sending texts and placing call after call. Sitting still on the sofa and simply waiting was impossible.
Then her eyes landed on the stairs leading up to the bunker's second floor.
"....."
She stared at them in silence for several long seconds. She had already checked the second floor multiple times. What she was looking at now was something else entirely.
A-young was working in the main computer room right up until she left...
The main computer room kept nagging at her thoughts. Min-jung herself was feeling a powerful sense of déjà vu. A-young had clearly taken a massive shock, and the only person who could hit her that hard was her husband, Park Do-chul. In other words, the picture forming in Min-jung's mind was that A-young had been handling the main computer and then run into something horrible involving Park Do-chul. The main control-room computer had already been powered on from the moment Min-jung first entered the bunker.
I have to look. I'm her mother. I have to know exactly what hurt my daughter.
Her footsteps thudded steadily as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. Ever since they had moved into the bunker, her daughter had poured so much effort into cracking open her father Park Do-chul's secret cabinet. Min-jung had simply left her to it. No—looking back now, she realized she had neglected her. And the price of that neglect had come due today. Even if it was late, she would share the burden. The moment her daughter returned, she would take half of that pain onto herself.
This is it—the file A-young was analyzing right before she left.
For all her seeming indifference, A-young had always been quick to teach her mother how to operate the bunker's equipment. Thanks to that, Min-jung had no trouble launching the programs.
It was still running. So the section of the file A-young was listening to right before she ran out would be...
When she activated the program, she found that it had only gone into sleep mode; the analysis of the working file itself had continued the entire time. That let Min-jung pinpoint the exact time stamp of the audio A-young had been listening to just before she fled the house. And what she heard next was devastating.
Park Do-chul: "Yeah, it's me, Park Do-chul. How are you carrying out the orders I gave you, Do Min-chul??"
It was her husband's voice.
That's my husband's voice... And Do Min-chul? Isn't that the name of the nasty kid Tae-yang has been watching out for???
Kim Min-jung's eyes flew wide open. She had already heard from Tae-yang that he had asked A-young to recover the data from Kim Man-bok's phone. Now her own husband was on a call with the very people Tae-yang and A-young were treating as major threats. The realization hit her so hard that the crack in her composure showed plainly on her face. And then the conversation that followed between Park Do-chul and Do Min-chul made her mental state lurch even harder.
Do Min-chul: "I've been trying my best to accommodate the boss's request, but that Geum Tae-yang bastard who's dug in over there seems to have become an Awakened too, so it's not easy."
Do Min-chul: "My ability doesn't work directly on Awakened, you see."
Park Do-chul: "Then just overwhelm them with numbers!! You said you swallowed up a bunch of those gangster bastards! Once things get a little better on my end, I'll make sure to fully support all the supplies your side is asking for, Min-chul!!!"
Do Min-chul: "We've only just stabilized over here. There are still too many forces around we have to watch out for, so I can't just dump manpower on Geum Tae-yang's side without thinking."
Park Do-chul: "Okay, fine. I get what you're saying, Do Min-chul. Meaning a frontal assault is tough right now, right?"
Park Do-chul: "Then just use my daughter A-young. Your mind control might work on that bitch."
Do Min-chul: "Well, unless someone's pretty twisted in the head, meaningful mind control isn't easy to pull off. That's why I only deal with the obvious trash types as much as possible, Boss Park Do-chul."
Park Do-chul: "Then that's perfect! Who's more twisted than my own daughter?! This time she's a complete unfilial bitch who even abandoned her own dad!!"
The recording laid bare how Park Do-chul was goading Do Min-chul into attacking the bunker where Kim Min-jung and Park A-young lived. The two men had already been connected before the apocalypse. Right after his conversation with Choi Sung-jun, Park Do-chul had immediately called Do Min-chul and started cutting deals. But the scheme went far beyond a simple raid. Rather than a direct fight, taking a hostage for leverage looked easier—and the hostage Park Do-chul offered up was his own blood, Park A-young. In the process he casually labeled his daughter a complete unfilial monster and a broken human being.
"Park Do-chul... Park Do-chul... you son of a bitch..."
Her entire body began to tremble. Now that she knew the full truth, raw fury flooded Kim Min-jung's face. Both of her tightly clenched fists shook as if they were seizing.