Chapter 21 Part 2: Commission – Innocent

That day too, without fail, the young man was teaching at school.

A day like any other. A daily routine like any other.

The young man felt that the work he had chosen was rewarding, and he was also a very popular teacher with the students.

“Wow, I envy you. The students are all looking for only the teacher. What’s the secret?”

“Ah haha…. Isn’t it because the age range is similar? There are a lot of things that we can relate to.”

“What’s that? Aing, old people should just die.”

“Th, that’s not what I meant….”

“I’m just kidding, teacher. Please continue to take care of me.”

“…Yes!”

The young man was friendly with everyone to the point where older teachers, who had a strained relationship with the students, would come and ask for the secret.

He enjoyed every day. It wasn’t that the work wasn’t hard.

The job of a teacher wasn’t just teaching students and ending it. There was more work to be done than he thought, and it was hard.

But he was happy to have the job of a teacher. To him, who had dreamed of being a teacher since he was young, doing what he wanted to do was a very happy thing.

“Teacher.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

Today will be a day like any other.

A different incident happened to him, who was vaguely thinking that.

A female student in the class he was in charge of. She called him after school.

“Um…that’s…….”

She kept twisting her body and blurring the end of her words as if she had something to say.

As he was wondering what was going on, he suddenly remembered the articles about school violence that he often saw on the news.

I want to believe that it’s not true, but I can’t say that I know everything about the students.

Our children won’t be like that. I can’t just gloss over it like that and have an irreversible situation happen.

He thought that way, and decided to take time out for the student who seemed to have something to say.

“I don’t know what’s going on… Shall we go to the counseling room and finish talking?”

“Yes, yes!”

The school’s counseling room is sealed and the sound doesn’t leak out well.

It’s a space to say concerns that can’t be told to others, so it’s a natural thing in a way.

So, it was also a natural thing that he, who was suspecting that it might be a story about school violence, headed there to hear the rest of the story.

I shouldn’t have done that.

“Okay, tell the teacher. Is it school violence or bullying? Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone that you said it.”

“Yes, yes?”

I’ll listen to your story carefully.

With that meaning, he stared intently at the girl.

But, what the girl called him for wasn’t a sinister story like school violence.

“Th, that’s not it!”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. There’s nothing like that in our class.”

“Haa, that’s a relief….”

He was greatly relieved.

Yeah, that can’t be. Everyone is a good kid.

He was a little ashamed of the fact that he suspected that there might have been something like school violence.

But, he felt a sense of doubt only after feeling greatly relieved.

If it’s not school violence, why was she hesitating so much?

His question was resolved by her sudden action.

“Teacher, I like you. …Please go out with me.”

The girl hugged him.

Thinking about it now, it must have been an action she did impulsively, who hadn’t been in a relationship.

He was embarrassed, but on the other hand, he was happy.

He felt like his efforts to approach the students in a friendly manner had been rewarded by the fact that there was someone who liked him this much.

But he couldn’t accept her feelings.

“…I’m sorry, but let’s pretend I didn’t hear that confession.”

“Yes? Wh, why?! Is it because I’m a student?!”

“That’s right. You know it well.”

The girl was a student, and the young man was a teacher. So he couldn’t accept the girl’s confession even though he was happy.

The young man also liked the girl, but that was a feeling he liked her as a student, not as a woman.

“The teacher also doesn’t know well… There are times when you mistakenly confuse your feelings for the teacher as love. You’re also like that….”

“That’s not it! I really like the teacher!”

“…I’m sorry, but I can’t accept it.”

“Teacher!”

“Quench your feelings. Let’s pretend this never happened.”

Thinking about it now, there was also the thought that it would have been better to comfort her at this time.

It might have been better to reject her in a roundabout way, such as I’ll think about it when you become an adult.

It might have been better to let her out instead of leaving.

But the young man was inexperienced and embarrassed, so he left that place.

Without knowing that that was the worst choice.

He didn’t notice until the end that the girl, who had been betrayed by her feelings, was looking at him with anger.

And, the next day.

Towards the young man who entered the faculty room with a slightly disturbed heart, the teacher who asked how to approach the students strode up to him.

“Hello….”

Jjaak!

The head of the young man, who was bowing to greet him, turned to the side in an instant.

Towards him, who was making a dazed expression as if he was dumbfounded, the teacher, who had been smiling and talking until yesterday, started to scold him loudly.

“You crazy bastard! Are you even a teacher?!

“Ye, yes? Wait a moment. What’s…”

The voice of the teacher, who was angry like fire and sending a look of contempt, echoed in the faculty room.

A teacher touching his own student. What the heck….

At that moment, the memory of yesterday came to the young man’s head.

That girl’s confession. Did that spread in a strange way?

The young man, wanting to correct the scolding that came from a misunderstanding, said to him.

“Wait a moment. It’s a misunderstanding. I didn’t touch the student.”

“What? A misunderstanding?! What misunderstanding! The police confirmed it yesterday! The fact that you molested that kid!”

“…Yes?”

“They said that your DNA was detected on the student’s back and skirt. …You trashy bastard.”

“Wa, wait a moment! Teacher! Teacher!”

The moment he tried to grab him, who had turned his back as if he wouldn’t talk anymore.

Only then did the young man notice. The cold gazes that were felt all over the faculty room.

They had the expression of looking at a human trash.

Disgusting. Dirty. Trash. Unpleasant.

The distance between him and his colleagues, who had been smiling and greeting him and working together with him at the lectern until just a day ago, quickly grew.

Even so, the young man struggled. You know best that it wasn’t what I did.

I don’t understand what this situation is. Help me.

He appealed to the girl who was in the position of the victim.

But she turned her head.

And, the young man was arrested on the grounds that he was concerned about reoffending for finding the girl.

The young man realized the whole story of the incident only after standing in court.

I don’t know if it was because she was ashamed, or if it was because she felt betrayed.

It was a lie at first, but she might not have been able to tell the truth out of fear because the incident was too big.

I don’t know what the answer is. But, one thing was certain. The girl lied.

The young man insisted. It wasn’t me who hugged her. It was her. I just rejected her confession.

But no one listened. Not the prosecutor, not the judge.

They didn’t listen to his story, saying that it was just the perpetrator’s excuse.

The evidence was clear. His DNA was inquire on the back and back of the girl’s skirt. (I can’t think of the right verb in English, I’ll keep looking)

That was perfect evidence that he had molested her.

No, that’s not it. That kid suddenly hugged me, so I reflexively hugged her because I thought she would fall.

This time too, the young man’s excuse echoed emptily.

No one listened to the young man’s story, and no one believed in the young man’s innocence.

Even the lawyer.

He was silently defending him because it was his job, but his gaze was full of disgust.

There were no witnesses. It was because he entered the counseling room where there was no one to protect the girl’s identity.

There was also no evidence to represent his claim. Similarly, there was no CCTV in the counseling room.

The actions he had done for the students all came back like boomerangs, and at some point he had been transformed into someone who had molested a student.

That’s how the young man was found guilty and kicked out to prison.

“That young man wandered for a while. With the hatred in his heart that hadn’t healed even though he came out of prison, that had rotted “
away.
“

“”The young man finally came all the way here. I want to take revenge. I don’t want to know why she did it, reasons like that. I’m just bitterly hateful.”

“Will you help me with my revenge?”

The young man, who had lost his old gun and only had hatred left, asked me.

“I can’t go near her. Because of concerns that I’ll retaliate against the victim, I’m wearing something like this.”

“…An ankle bracelet.”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s a disgusting thing, and it’s shackles.”

Haran listened to all of his stories, and rolled her eyes as if she didn’t know what kind of words of comfort to say.

But he probably doesn’t need words of comfort.

What he wants isn’t warm words of comfort. Just to unravel the emotions that have settled in his heart.

“What do you want me to do?”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s literally that. It’s easy to kill that woman. I can do it right now.”

“Then…!”

“But, is that what you want, for her to just die?”

The client in front of me, no. The teacher who was betrayed by his student stared intently at me.

As if he had never even thought of those thoughts.

“You’re burning with revenge, but you haven’t thought about how to take revenge.”

“How, do I take revenge…?”

Should I kill her? Do you need torture? I can also make her a drug pickle. Electrocution, cremation, smash, just tell me. I try to respond to the client’s requests as much as possible.”

The client turned his wavering eyes towards me.

Joy, cheers. Anger. Passion. A lot of emotions were mixed together.

“…I don’t want anyone to believe the words of that liar.”

“You don’t want them to believe it?”

“I was going to kill her at first. But, after hearing the teacher’s words, my thoughts changed.”

Teacher, huh.

How much did my proposal impress him that he even changed his title?

“I don’t want to kill her. But, please make that woman commit a terrible crime.”

“Aha. I know what you want.”

“…Do you understand?”

“Of course.”

How many requests have I done so far.

I knew this kind of person’s psychology well.

An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. I want to return what I have suffered.

“You want to see her, who didn’t do anything, take the blame, right?”

“You’re accurate. You’re trustworthy.”

“Good. I’ll contact you when the time comes.”

The client’s requirements were not difficult.

There were so many ways to put the blame on someone.