The Story of Those Left Behind (3)
Mina remembered the day Yurin and Seona had come to her house to talk about marriage.
Filled with worry at the change in Seona, she had asked Yurin to take good care of him, and Yurin had answered that she would.
The day they began filming the videos was the very day they received permission for the marriage.
That was when they started making those recordings—of freely violating him, toying with him, and ruthlessly ravaging him without mercy.
Mina trembled with betrayal.
The Yurin she had trusted to protect her son had instead treated Seona like a sex slave, like a toy to be played with.
The moment the thought struck her, the house she stood in now began to look monstrously repulsive.
What she had first believed was a place filled with Yurin and Seona’s shared memories must have been hell itself for Seona.
The image of him being violated again and again on the very bed where her unconscious husband now slept sent a chill crawling down her spine.
She wanted to take her husband and get out of this house at once. All she felt was the desperate urge to flee.
Yet considering Hyuntae’s condition, forcing him awake while he was still unconscious and dragging him out seemed too much. She decided to wait until he woke on his own. They could leave once he regained his senses.
With that thought she looked around the house again, reexamining the place that had first seemed so tender.
She went into the master bedroom and closed the door.
Things she had missed while the door stood open now became visible. The moment it shut, the marks Seona had clawed into it over and over with his nails stood out in full.
How much pain must he have been in?
She could picture him screaming, frantically raking the door, not even noticing his nails tearing free.
She could never forgive Yurin.
The girl was already gone, yet she had carved such immense suffering into their lives that Mina wanted to tear that bitch apart.
It would never happen, of course. But if she ever saw Yurin’s face again… even she herself could not say what she might do.
Yura remained in a wretched state of mind, forehead pressed to the floor toward Mina, who had slammed the master bedroom door shut behind her.
She had already lost so much blood that her entire body felt heavy; she could not lift her head. Even so, she had to apologize.
Her own daughter had ruthlessly violated that frail boy not once, but dozens of times. Even without raising her eyes to watch the video, she could grasp the horror from Seona’s screams pouring out of it and from her daughter’s laughter—bright and delighted, as if it were pure fun.
During the month the two had been missing, while cleaning her daughter’s room at home and checking the files on the computer, she had learned of Yurin’s twisted sexual desires. But she had never once imagined, even in a nightmare, that her child would actually act on them. She truly had not known her daughter was capable of something so unimaginable.
Though her child was already beyond return, anger settled deep in Yura’s heart.
Seona had come over to play since childhood, grown closest with Yurin, and approached their couple with such warmth that it felt as if they had gained a son. They had treated him exactly like their own child.
She could not understand how her daughter, as a human being, could commit something so cruel. The guilt and regret that she had failed to raise her properly—and that Seona had suffered because of it—weighed on her unbearably.
This was a debt their couple would carry to Mina’s couple until the day they died. The crushing weight of living with constant apology began to feel real.
Though the chance was vanishingly small, if her daughter and Seona ever came back alive… she doubted she could still think of her own child, Yurin, as family.
Until moments ago Hyuntae had been trapped in a nightmare.
A nightmare in which the woman who had promised a lifetime with his son ruthlessly violated him. A dream of collapsing under the weight of rage while living through that horror…
He should not be sleeping now. Today was the day Yura’s couple and their own were supposed to come to the house where Seona and Yurin had lived, to settle their hearts.
With that thought he steeled himself, urging his body to rise and escape the nightmare at once.
When Hyuntae sat up, he realized where he was—and that the nightmare had been real. This was not the familiar view their couple saw upon waking. The strange ceiling and the room around him drove home the truth of what he had witnessed.
He tried to scream, forcing out the air that filled his lungs. No sound came.
Bewildered by whatever had happened to his body, he felt his wife Mina gently pull him into her arms the moment she knew he was awake. Neither of them spoke, yet Mina tried to comfort him.
When Hyuntae could only make choked, wordless sounds, Mina began to understand. Her husband, shattered by the sight of Seona being ruthlessly violated by Yurin, could no longer speak.
With a grave expression she kept asking if he was all right, but Hyuntae had no voice left. The shock had left him with aphasia.
Urgently Mina led him out of the master bedroom. She had to get him to a hospital at once.
When the door swung wide she saw Yura still prostrate on the floor and Yura’s husband staring blankly, head bowed. She glanced at them only briefly; she could not spare them any attention now.
She opened the front door, took Hyuntae out of that hellish house, and headed for the hospital.
After the examination Hyuntae was admitted.
He had barely eaten for so long, fatigue piled upon fatigue, leaving him malnourished and overworked; on top of that the mental shock had broken something inside him. The doctor’s diagnosis was clear: aphasia caused by psychological trauma. Because it was rooted in trauma, there was no treatment unless he himself found a way to overcome it.
Perhaps… he would have to live the rest of his life without a voice.
It had been a hair-raising moment when she nearly lost even her husband. The hunger to tear apart Yurin—the one who had caused it all—only burned hotter.
The front door of the house where Yurin and Seona had lived stood wide open. The cold late-autumn dawn wind kept pushing into the living room, yet Yura had no intention of closing it. The pain Seona must have felt was greater than any cold.
Long after Mina’s couple left, Yura remained on the floor with her forehead pressed to the ground. But worry for her husband finally forced her to rise and check on him.
Dizziness hit her as she stood; she staggered, yet still walked toward him. He sat vacant-eyed, not even noticing her approach.
“Honey… are you okay?”
Yura asked, but he gave no answer.
“Let’s leave for now… I’m worried about your condition.”
Her own heart was in tatters, yet she still had to look after him. Unlike her, he had always been fragile; the shock he had taken must have been dozens of times worse than her own.
Supporting him to his feet, Yura moved slowly, settled him into the passenger seat of the car she had driven, and sat behind the wheel. She tried to insert the key to start the engine, but her hands shook so violently it would not go in.
When it refused to obey her, she slammed her fist hard against the steering wheel.
And then the image rose unbidden—exactly like the video Mina’s couple had first watched with them. The moment Yurin tried to force Seona inside her and he thrashed wildly. The way she slammed his belly until he went still, then pushed his cock into her hole.
The scene overlapped with what she was doing now; nausea surged and she could not push the key in.
Tears burst out without warning. Yura gripped the steering wheel and wept for a long time. For hours… without stopping…
How much time had passed?
Her husband, having somewhat come back to himself, shook her awake.
“Honey… are you okay?… Please come to your senses…”
His voice was weak, yet he was worried about her; with the feeblest strength he shook her body, fretting over her state. At some point she must have fallen asleep.
Outside, the sun was already fully risen; morning had come.
She could not collapse like this. First they both had to recover—body and mind. After that, keep apologizing to Mina’s couple. There was no other path.
Now she knew clearly what she had to do. The tears and sorrow that had poured out endlessly began to change into something else—feelings directed at her daughter. Not worry, but anger and betrayal…