episode_0052

Deltan walked down the street.

Following the scenery clearly engraved in my mind, I endured the chill that couldn’t be prevented by the thin clothes I was wearing.

‘… East Harlem.’

East Harlem, Manhattan, New York.

I could see the streets where he wandered as a child.

The night street was covered in pure white snow, but the colors were gloomy.

There was a desolation in the air that could not be prevented by the faint sound of carols.

Only the sound of snow being trampled on was the only thing that subtly made up the desolation.

The breath continues for a long time as you exhale ‘hu’.

Deltan knew where this place was, at this moment.

‘It’s Christmas for a 7-year-old.’

It was an unforgettable day.

That is why this day is the day when the life of Deltans plunged into the abyss.

It was a story that could be cliché.

The reason why an orphan from Korea was brought all this far away and adopted overseas, the parents who adopted him were not very healthy people, and as the discord between the couple worsened, the child who had no place to stand suffered from violence.

And, the day the couple was involved in a fight and was stabbed, they ran out into the street.

Sabak.

Deltan walked down the street ruminating on the past.

December 25, 1993.

I can’t help but laugh at the sight of the city looking at the end of the year so dark.

In fact, it would have been strange if it had come out as Christmas, given that it was a time when the sun was at its peak not long after the riots broke out.

The place I am currently walking is a back alley in the most remote part of East Harlem.

As he went deeper into the alley, there were eyes following him.

It was the cold gaze of the black people living here.

For the first time in a long time, Deltan felt like an outsider.

‘Did you cry here?’

I reflect on the past.

My 7-year-old self was trembling with fear, but couldn’t go home, so I wandered the streets, and at some point, I found myself wandering around in this alley.

I was cold and hungry, but it was those gazes that felt colder than those things at the time.

A 7-year-old Asian boy wearing thin clothes that did not suit the season.

It was an alien characteristic that could not be mixed into their community.

Sabak.

I go into a corner alley again.

And when he reached the rust-covered tin trash can, he stopped.

‘It stopped here.’

I was shivering from the cold and collapsed.

And I found someone’s leftover hot dog in a trash can that had fallen over as well.

Deltan remembered that and opened the trash can.

The first thing that greeted Deltans was the stench that made them feel nauseous.

He frowned slightly at that and looked down into the trash can.

A half-left hot dog was lying on top of all the trash.

Deltan picked it up and took a bite.

‘It still tastes like crap.’

The texture of spoiled pickles bothers the inside of my mouth.

Deltan thought.

I wonder if 90% of the reason I hate pickles is because of these hot dogs.

“Quew.”

Deltan spat out the hot dog he was chewing and shook his hands.

The previous one was an act that did not need to be repeated, but there was one reason why it was repeated.

Since coming here, he has not forgotten for a single moment that this is an illusion called ‘proof’.

Since I didn’t know what the sentence that appeared on the interface meant, I searched my memory and repeated what happened in the past.

The judgment was that by doing so, we could reduce the variables that might arise.

‘You don’t have to tell me what you want me to prove.’

Deltan clicked his tongue and started walking again.

And so, I continued my thoughts.

‘Magic cannot be used. ‘I can’t feel mana.’

My body had become smaller and trembling, as if I had returned to the day when I was 7 years old.

My stamina was already depleted, and for some reason I even felt sleepy.

Deltan pieced together the clues that came to mind and deduced what this ‘proof’ might be.

‘End winter.’

Like the explanation of the intuitive interface, isn’t it literally a story about passing this season?

‘I really won’t leave you stuck here for months… .’

I think it means to survive this Christmas night.

There was one reason for that inference.

‘Because that day was the most terrible thing in my life.’

The night I was first driven out onto the streets was terrible.

To the point where I still clearly remember every single thing that happened that day.

To the extent that the events of that day, the pain and despair within them all came to mind one by one.

To put it bluntly, it was like that.

This day was a day that should be called a trauma for Deltans.

‘I’ll just hold on for now.’

You may want to look back on the events that occurred that day one by one.

If you finish all the cases and wake up in the morning, you will be able to see the end of this quest.

Deltan finished his judgment and looked up at the sky.

Snowflakes were falling from the sky and hitting my cheek.

‘first… .’

What happened after eating a hot dog.

‘… ‘You damn little bastards.’

There were some beggar kids who came up to relieve me of my collapse.

Deltan chuckled as he remembered that.

‘Should I at least pretend to be dead?’

You will have to do that to bring it in.

After making his decision, Deltan lay down on the snow piled up in the back alley.

For a moment, he shivered from the cold so cold that he thought he might be freezing, but then he closed his eyes and began to wait for the nasty uninvited guests.

*

The guests arrived not too late.

The sound of snow being stepped on was heard, and Deltan could hear it.

That’s what he saw when he narrowed his eyes.

A group of four black kids in their early teens.

Even though their faces had raised breasts, they all had fierce expressions and did not look like children.

‘now… .’

They were going to hit themselves.

And when he opens his eyes, he will click his tongue and stomp on it with his foot.

They beat me up without even having a chance to say a word to save me, took off my clothes, and left this place.

There was only one reason why they took my clothes away.

‘Because this is a luxury product.’

Aside from their dirty tempers, the adoptive parents were people with a lot of money.

They were also people who were sensitive to losing face.

They even paid attention to the clothes they wore considering their image to the outside world.

While those thoughts continued, the boy who seemed to be the leader spoke.

“Hey.”

Tuk.

He tapped Deltan’s temple with his foot.

Deltan thought for a moment.

‘Should I get up?’

Whether you open or close your eyes, your clothes are taken away the same.

Why bother opening your eyes and getting hit… .

‘… ‘Yes.’

Deltan let out a faint annoyance.

I had to be beaten and put to shame by these guys in order to experience the next incident.

‘Rotten.’

Deltan cursed under his breath and slowly opened his eyes.

Then the beggar boys trembled.

“Woke up.”

“Radish, mousse… .”

For a moment, the leader was taken aback.

Deltan chuckled at that expression.

Then the leader, who thought it was a joke, blushed and shouted.

“Step on it!”

puck!

The leader kicked the Deltan in the face.

It didn’t end there.

The other three boys started kicking after their leader, and Deltan’s whole body began to emit a pounding sound.

Deltan clenched his teeth and crouched down.

‘It hurts so bad.’

Should I at least praise him for his fierce kicks?

Well, considering that these people will join the gang in 4 years, it would be safe to say that they are already seeing their numbers.

“Kill! Kill me!”

It seemed as if the ridicule had touched his pride.

The leader’s kicks were more violent than I remembered.

Deltan clenched his teeth even more, feeling pain crushing his entire body.

The time of patience was not long.

Deltan’s body collapsed before his mind.

“Wow!”

The Delta man was disgusted after being hit squarely in the solar plexus.

Pieces of the hot dog I had just chewed came out along with gastric juice.

“Oh, it’s really dirty.”

The leader said nervously.

He then commanded his subordinates with a gesture of his chin.

The men dragged Deltan off the spot where he vomited and took off his t-shirt, pants, and shoes.

Deltan shuddered at the coldness that filled his eyes as his skin made contact with his eyes.

“Let’s go!”

When the leader shouted that, his subordinates followed him and left the place.

“Off… .”

Deltan stood up shakily.

Then I wrapped my arms around my body.

Deltan lowered his head and checked his body.

The body of the 7-year-old boy, wearing only a pair of underwear, was pale and dark red with bruises here and there.

‘You did it right.’

“K… Ugh… .”

As Deltan laughed, a painful groan came out.

‘What was next… .’

The thought was reliving how the next incident happened.

My body was shaking and my vision was blurry, but I had to move.

This is because if you stay here, you won’t be able to meet ‘that bastard’.

Sabak.

Bare feet stepped on the snow.

His feet were so sore that he lost all feeling, but Deltan endured it.

And so I repeated it.

‘It’s no big deal.’

I couldn’t break myself down with this kind of cold or pain.

It was a pain I had already experienced once, and I knew what the end of this pain would be.

‘Because I will overcome it.’

These were definitely moments that should be expressed as trauma, but that was it.

He was not a weak person to the point of collapsing due to trauma or anything like that.

Sabak.

The place where the steps are heading is deeper into the alley.

Common sense dictates that you should head out of the alley, but that was the situation at the time.

My 7-year-old self was so beaten that he was half out of his mind and unable to make rational decisions.

I just didn’t want to be beaten anymore, so I cried and looked for a place to hide.

And, we met at the end.

“Oh my god… Hey! Are you okay?!”

A man who will never be erased from my mind.

A white man with a skinny body, barely over 160cm tall, and a haggard face with sunken eyelids.

‘found.’

He was a drug addict who tried to rape his 7-year-old self.

*

White trash.

It is a term used to refer to white people living in the slums, and the man Deltan met that day was a man who fit the meaning of the word.

Not in the sense of being poor, but in the sense of being trash.

“Now, at least cover this for now.”

Deltan followed the man into his house.

A studio of about 5 pyeong with a warm atmosphere, unlike the cold outside.

There was an acrid stench that stung your nose.

It was the smell of uncleaned trash and drugs.

“Wait. I’ll bring you some warm milk right away.”

Deltan nodded at the warm words.

He was wearing the boy’s clothes the man had given him.

The man went to the front of the refrigerator, took out some milk, and began to heat it.

‘It still sucks to see it again.’

Deltan’s eyes were sunken.

Of course, because we know what will happen next.

That little junkie will say warm words to erase his boundaries.

And now I’m going to lay him down on the bed to rest.

If you think about it, it was suspicious that a boy’s clothes were in a house where a man lived alone, but the Deltans at the time were not suspicious enough to notice it.

I was just happy with the kindness shown to me and received his favor, but when the man climbed into bed with me and took off his clothes, I felt threatened and ran away.

‘I got hit in the groin with a stand.’

Even thinking about it again, it’s quite a dizzying moment.

Deltan was worried.

‘Should I recreate that?’

Not this time.

The reason he came into this house in the first place was to recreate ‘entering the room’, and the purpose has already been achieved.

I even bought new clothes.

The man’s coat was draped over the sofa he was currently sitting on.

Just leave like this.

After deciding that, Deltan reached out and picked up the fruit that was on the table.

And then I stood up, making as little noise as possible.

‘I got everything I got.’

The cold went away to some extent, and the pain in the area where I was hit became bearable.

So now let’s get justice.

Delta Inn is great! And started running.

The moment the man looked puzzled and turned around.

Sigh!

He stabbed the man in the groin with a sharp knife.

“Keu, ah… !”

The man’s eyes opened wide, as if they were about to pop out.

My body stiffened and began to tremble, and even moans began to come out of my mouth in a stifled form.

“Clothes are well received.”

Deltan said that and ran away.