164. Reversal (3)

A full circle, and it’s Saturday night again.

Soon it’ll be Sunday morning.

Whether engrossed in self-improvement, or at the very least busy having fun.

During precious time that should have been spent doing something, I spent all day holed up in my room clutching my phone.

Because I thought that man might call me anytime.

He had called me out once last Saturday under the pretense of returning my clothes, so I figured he’d definitely pick a fight this week too.

But even as midnight approached, there was no sign of contact.

While thinking it was a relief, I felt pathetic for wasting a precious Saturday on a guy like that.

…Not that I had anything to do if I went out anyway.

Before I knew it, I was playing games half out of habit.

Ever since Soo-ah unnie started logging in less, there wasn’t really anyone to chat with, and I’d already consumed most of the content worth consuming.

In the end, instead of even playing games all Sunday, I just wasted my time ego-surfing.

Every time I saw those idiots leaving hateful comments, instead of feeling anger, I felt relieved that I was more normal than them.

And seeing comments praising me boosted my self-esteem in its own way.

It was like a drug.

I never thought about this when I was busy.

Even after midnight, I lay on my bed scrolling through all sorts of communities, but there was still no end.

Just searching my name alone yielded more posts than I could ever read, and more were piling up even now.

If I changed the search term to my group, the volume would obviously multiply several times over.

Now, if I included the names of the unnies who had a few tabloid articles out, that would probably be a decent amount too.

And that’s just the visible stuff I could find through searches.

I have no idea what kind of things are being said in the abyss that isn’t visible to the eye.

There are so many people openly discussing my thighs and chest on real-name sites, so many people trying to read my mind based on my expressions.

What could they possibly be saying about me on anonymous sites, where they’re confident they won’t get caught, even if it’s not perfectly foolproof?

Ah, I’ve seen enough photos of my face photoshopped onto naked bodies to last a lifetime.

They were all low-quality and crude, and honestly, not even as bad as what Kang Joo-hyuk did to me, so I wasn’t even that angry.

“…Ah.”

While spacing out, looking for my own edited photos, and reporting one to the company email using a throwaway account.

Just as I was usually about to fall asleep, a message arrived on Twitter.

The sender, needless to say, was that man.

There was no one else rude enough to contact me at this hour, and specifically via DM on Twitter, but him.

I quickly checked the DM, instinctively frowned, and changed my clothes.

Taking off my pajamas for something more practical and less revealing.

Wearing a short-sleeved shirt, long pants, a cardigan, and sandals, I skipped the sunglasses today, just putting on a mask and hat before heading straight down to the parking lot.

Then, getting off the elevator, I walked towards where Kang Joo-hyuk had summoned me,

“You don’t have any plans tomorrow, right?”

“…Why?”

“If you don’t, get in.”

“I asked why.”

“…Just get in for now.”

He was sitting in the driver’s seat, waiting for me.

His hair was styled impeccably, unsuited for this late hour.

…Even with all that effort, I’ll never feel favorably towards him.

It was truly pathetic.

“Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll find out when we get there.”

I couldn’t even imagine where he intended to drag me off to on this late night, but I couldn’t refuse either.

That man becomes more proactive when I vehemently refuse him than when I’m compliant.

I thought it was a truly perverse hobby, but since I’d been bitten by such a man, pretending to be a boring woman was my second-best option.

Of course, the best option would be… leaving it to the law.

Seeing how the news about the manager who drugged me suddenly stopped, I realized relying solely on the law within this company was foolish.

It’s not that I don’t trust the team leader, but the company itself is hard to trust.

If I told the company about Kang Joo-hyuk, wouldn’t they meticulously ‘review’ whether it’s more beneficial to put him in jail than to chase him out of the country or threaten him into silence?

There’s no way the higher-ups wouldn’t consider thoughts I’ve already had.

And if something happened to Kang Joo-hyuk, it’s obvious my unnies and Hinami would hate me.

“Buckle up. Don’t take off your hat and just sit quietly.”

“….”

Even answering ‘yes’ felt irritating, so I leaned back against the seat, closed my eyes, and let him lead me.

After all, this man had too much to lose by giving up everything because of me.

At best, he’d probably just take me somewhere secluded and chip away at my self-esteem.

Like that time he forced beer on me and played around.

“Hoo….”

Hearing him sigh deeply while driving, despite the tense situation, sleepiness crept in.

Should I call it a relationship of hostile trust?

Was it because a strange belief had formed that if I didn’t resist, he wouldn’t cross the line first?

Even that time he forced beer on me, if he’d wanted to be truly cruel, he could have held me down until I felt humiliated on the side of the road, but he didn’t go that far.

Since I retaliated by making him put his penis in my mouth after I cut his shoulder, he probably wouldn’t do anything worse unless I did something comparable again.

“….”

Right now, there’s no sign he’s trying to grope me.

He could naturally be groping my thighs or chest, and it wouldn’t be strange.

Seeing him intensely focused on driving with his eyes wide open seemed foolish, so I closed my eyes again, leaned my head back, and stopped thinking.

After all, the deeper I thought, the more I’d hate him.

And the more I hated him,

It was too obvious that he would become more interested in me.

So there I was, in the heart of the tiger’s den, calmly lying down to try and sleep.

…On this late night.

With no idea when I’d wake up.

**

“Mmm… Ah.”

I vaguely came to my senses after tossing and turning, bumping my head against the window with a ‘kung’.

…Where am I?

How long did I sleep?

I looked outside, but it was so dark, pitch black, that I couldn’t tell anything.

There wasn’t even anyone in the driver’s seat, so I took out my phone and opened the map.

“…What the heck, where is this.”

…I was definitely in Seoul when I closed my eyes.

Now, somewhere on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.

A place I’d never been in my life.

“Wait, Kang Joo-hyuk…”

But more importantly, there was no one near me.

Under the truly dark, pitch-black night sky, there was only me.

Thinking I was alone with the abandoned car in this pitch-black air, the remaining sleepiness vanished, and cold sweat started trickling down my back.

“…He’s here, right?”

Maybe he just stepped out for a moment.

He probably went to a convenience store or something.

Convincing myself, I unbuckled my seatbelt, opened the car door, and stepped outside.

As I put my weight down, the sound of gravel and dirt crunching underfoot, ‘basaek’, broke the silence. The pitch-black night sky brightened slightly, dimly illuminating the surroundings.

A creepy-looking mansion stood there, surrounded by a dense forest.

If I hadn’t found a signpost behind me, it would have been perfectly believable to say I was stranded in the middle of the mountains.

…So there are pensions even in places like this.

I never imagined it.

“Where did he go?”

But I still had no idea where that man had gone, leaving me in a mountain pension.

A convenience store? Could there be one within walking distance?

Even if there was, did he walk there in this pitch-black night without the car?

Or maybe he went into that pension first?

…Why would he?

Without waking me up, alone?

Either way, I couldn’t understand, and while wandering around the car in considerable panic.

“Ah.”

…Right in front of me.

With white hair and wearing a white traditional burial robe.

As soon as my eyes met those of a white-clad girl staring at me with bright eyes.

My breath hitched, ‘heup’, and feeling the terror of death, I scrambled back to the passenger seat as quickly as possible.

Without even time to doubt if I’d seen something wrong.

Without time to judge whether it was human or ghost.

I hastily shut the car door, locked it, ducked my head down, and peeked through the window.

“…Uh, uh.”

Teobeok teobeok.

Teobeok teobeok.

The white-clad girl slowly walked towards me.

“…Ayah. Ji…ah…”

…Even calling my name.

The echo reverberating eerily in the mountains sent shivers down my spine, so I squeezed my eyes shut and hid.

…Should I run?

But can I run?

How, how do I escape….

Ah, it’s a car, so if I step on the gas, it’ll go forward….

“Jia-ah.”

“Hieek…”

As I trembled uncontrollably, trying to somehow get over to the driver’s seat.

…I saw the ghost plastered against the window, staring intently at me.

I was about to lose consciousness…

“…What are you doing?”

It was obvious.

…The ghost’s face looked strangely familiar.

My head went ice-cold for a moment.

“Hey, you. Why are you here…?”

“Why am I here? We rode here together earlier.”

“…What?”

White hair.

Not a white burial robe, just a white pajama set.

Hinami, whose skin was naturally fair.

Looked at me like I was an idiot and flung open the driver’s side door.

“I left you alone because you were sleeping, so get out now that you’re awake. Oppa went to buy some food.”

“…What?”

“He walked to a nearby place to buy food. I told him to come pick you up, so get out.”

“…Why?”

Then she grabbed my wrist, pulled me out, and patted my head despite being only a month older, saying:

“You’ve been acting weird lately. Slacking off in practice. You looked like you needed a refresh, so I asked Oppa to bring you here?”

“….”

…This idiot.

Does she even realize who caused me to slack off in practice and break down mentally?

“Ah, since unnie isn’t here, you don’t have to think about her. …Let’s go get some late-night snacks.”

It’s definitely not just because of unnie.

…If he was going to take me somewhere.

He should have taken me without that guy.