Revenge

EP9

Myung-heon continues to receive texts from his brother. The home addresses of the teachers and directors of the nursery school are captured in the messages in real time.

The names are familiar and dirty.

One of them, Han-mi Jin, has changed her name, and she feels compelled to blackmail him.

The fact that she changed her name after the broadcast of the allegations against them shows that she is conscious of it.

I'd start by checking her family and friends, and then slowly tighten the screws.

From her car number to the time she leaves work and even the type of drink she buys when she leaves work.

I was lucky enough to catch her in the middle of the day when I was finishing up at the kickboxing gym and before she left for her delivery job.

Of course, there were many days when I had to make up for it with bowl noodles or cup noodles, but I was able to gather a lot of information.

Life comes alive.

Things start to fall into place.

I got everything ready and planned a surprise party. Wednesday. No courier day. Seven o'clock.

 The door opened. 

As expected, she came home alone and I switched on my mobile phone's recorder. 

She had the ironclad habit of washing herself as soon as she got home, and I waited in the master bedroom with a 20cm kitchen knife and a stun gun. 

The black short sleeves I was wearing made my scars and self-harm marks more visible. 

I wash my hands and come out. 

"Mijin-san, banga-banga."

He hesitates when he sees me. She rubs her hands together. I'm too stunned to say anything.

"Do you remember me?"

"No, I don't. Then let me introduce you. I'm Park Jung-min."

"Should I call you Park Se-hoon?"

He looked like he remembered. 

The voice sounded alive and she desperately tried to get out of the house. 

I grabbed her and cut off her long hair.

"Hey, you bitch, talk nice before I kill you right here and now."

"Answer me, don't you know I'm not?"

She stammered.

"I remembered, I'm so sorry, Jung-min."

"I don't know anything, I'm just saying that the director is the one who told me."

"It's not Jung-min, it's Se-hoon."

I hand over the documents and photos.

"My parents live in Baekbanjip. They don't mess around with the food there."

"I know your parents' address, your social security number, and even your ex's workplace."

"I'll kill you if you talk back, so get your shit together and answer so we can have a good conversation."

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you everything I know."

"Why did you change your name? You used to be Hee-Jin."

"I changed it after the nursery school abuse case aired, just in case anyone recognised me."

"When did you start this job?

"Since 2003. The director introduced me."

"So you've been doing it for a while?"

"No, I was going to quit, and I never will, and I will be punished."

"Tell me in detail what you did, or rather, what you did at that nursery."

"What's the latest update, new punishments and tortures?"

"Fake any of it, and your parents and sister will only see you in the mug shot."

"I don't care if I have to rip your head off here, you think I'm kidding?"

With that, he slashed the back of my hand with a knife. A little blood trickles out, but he smiles as he drinks it down.

"At first, the director said she'd let me make a lot of money."

"So, I thought I'd make it as a nursery school teacher, but then I found out that they make money from the kids in there."

"She'd make them do sex videos, or if they weren't doing it for her, she'd take money from their food allowance."

"So, how much money did they make?"

"Almost 15 million won a month."

"Then why did you abuse and bully the kids who weren't making money?"

"Why did you rape Ji-yeon? You didn't have to."

She was like my first love, and they raped her, filmed it, and distributed it for money. 

And when she was traumatised and became aphasic, they sent her to another childcare centre.

"I'm sorry, I'm stressed, I'm getting violent, I must have been blind."

"Please call the police, and I was only doing what the director told me to do."

"Please don't kill me, I'll give you everything, even money."

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

She begged, her hands shaking like flies, as if she was afraid.

"Are you afraid?"

"Do you realise what you've done now?"

He tapes her up and ties her to the chair. 

The next day, Thursday, is a non-working day anyway, so I don't think it will matter if I lose contact. Maybe 12 hours later.

"Wake up."

He stomps on my foot to wake me up, then points a knife at me.

"Can you leave?"

"Yes, I'll do it now."

"No, not that, but can you stab my man?"

"They're organised like a division, and if you leave, they need replacements, you know what I mean?"

"I'll see what I can do."

"So what I'm wondering is, what are some of the other heinous things that people in there have done?"

I switch the recorder back on. It's eerie, with just the sound of blood and breathing. All the lights are off. The curtains are closed.

"You were made to do this by the director, weren't you? That's why I came to you, Hee-Jin, because you were the youngest and the one with the new name, so I thought you might be the least guilty."

"If you behave yourself here, I'll give you another punishment. I promise."

"So let me know something I didn't know. It's like a plea bargain."

"First of all, the director is the one who bought all the ideas and the land, he was abused as a child, so he's doing this to get revenge. He's probably worth over 8 billion. It's black money."

"He deliberately recruits children from other centres and sexually exploits them, or rapes them himself if they are good-looking boys. He is like a cult leader, preaching doctrine and strictly managing them."

"As you can imagine, Jung Nam-yong is a very powerful man, and if the children rebel, or if there's any outside coverage or other work to be done, he usually does it. He especially likes to rape girls, and he's done the most videos."

I remember. What a perverted looking bastard. The one who beat me up for rebelling.

"Kubonhoe and I are usually the ones who help organise the funding, come up with the ideas and push through the evil things, and make sure that the orphanage can at least survive by preparing food and doing laundry."

"Finally, Lee Ki-chan and Lee Myung-jae are the brothers of the director, and they're pedophiles and gay, so they just do things like sodomy and hold the children down with force, but they're more sadistic because they're more brutal, and Anne is in charge of organ trafficking and supplying the children."

"Sometimes he tortures the kids with iron rods, waterboarding, and all the weird ideas."

"What a bunch of fucking cunts. Don't talk about it like it's a small sin, Hee-Jin. It's disgusting."

Their memories are vivid in my head. How could I forget that after years of preparing for it, but I just ask for information and things I didn't know.

"How much money do you have in your bank account?"

"A little over 700 million, all I've saved since kindergarten."

"You're frugal. You've been saving almost 100 million a year. You must be a millionaire."

"Honestly, I want to kill you right here, right now, because when I'm hungry and wringing my hands, I picture you standing next to me, mocking me, eating something delicious."

"I'm sorry, I really am."

"You know what's funny."

"I recorded everything you said. I'm..."

"Report it, report it, and I'll take it to the nursery and play it for you."

"It doesn't matter if you think you can hack it and get rid of it, I leave it on autosend every day and wake up and cancel it, so it doesn't matter."

"You're not the only one who's going to be chasing me."

"Eventually, all those torturers you giggled at from the sidelines will be yours. You know how cruel they are, don't you?"

I switch off the recorder.

"From now on, you're my soldier, and if you act up, your parents will be beheaded first, do you understand?"

"And I'll take a video of you as evidence."

"What?"

"And if you do anything stupid and I get captured or betray me, it will be posted on the internet."

"Please don't do that."

"Shameful?"

"It's nothing compared to what you've done to me.

"You're going to live in hell from now on, it's only fair."

I untie her from the tape and begin to forcibly ravish her.

I unbuckle her belt and pull down her panties. Surprisingly, she complies without much resistance. 

The pleasure of revenge, combined with the pleasure of sex, gave me a great tingling sensation. I didn't ask her to give me oral sex. It would have resulted in her genitals being cut off.

"Mijin, are you angry?"

She lay quietly with teary eyes and spread her legs. I didn't feel comfortable enough to try many positions, so I just rotated a few.

"Mijin, look at this, Kimchi."

"V, and your affiliation and name birth."

My hands shake and I hold up my ring and middle fingers.

"My name is Kim Mi-jin, I work at the Sky Nursery School, born in the 88th year."

"Why are you being raped right now?"

"Because I helped the director, Choi Sun-mi, commit a crime at the nursery."

I raped her three times and ejaculated on her with the camera I had brought with me. I'll send the video to Myung Heon and use it as blackmail. 

I'll give her a recorder and make her listen in on all their conversations before she leaves. I got it. I know Han Jin can't play games. She could never betray me.

They're just a bunch of shitheads who like to do what they're told. It's like ugly goods. 

Often, ugly or cheap items are simple and straightforward in their purpose and use, but that doesn't mean they're inferior. 

They're just not as independent and not as strong. I took all her money, but I don't feel guilty about it at all. I gave back some of what they took, and I gave back their threats.

There are many preachers of forgiveness and reconciliation. 'Revenge is mean and petty'. 

They say that revenge is empty and will come back to haunt you one day, but that is the cry of the cowardly. 

What happens when society is flooded with people who are really vengeful and only think about revenge? It collapses. 

In fact, revenge is the best digestive of all. 

A real man would fight back or pay back those who insulted or tried to kill him. 

I don't have much faith in the three-judge system and the law in this country.

So, after the threat, I was walking home.

"You know what?"

"What?"

I was suddenly on the ground. It was terror. I hear something blurry. A voice.

"You fucking cunt."

People are shouting in the distance and I feel something red and thick running down my head. 

I hear tinnitus. 

Cicadas are crying in my ears. Are they really crying because it's summer? 

Was it near a big pine tree where I fell? 

I wonder if I was walking near it.