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"Hey, move the body already. If we leave it here, this kid's going to cause trouble at the scene."
"Aaaah! Let go! Let go of me!!!! She's my mom!"
"Will you be quiet? We've already finished background checks on those people! They're a couple with no children—where did you come up with that lie?!"
The girl screamed until her throat felt like it was tearing apart, then lunged toward the people carrying the corpse out.
"Move! I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes!"
"Hey, hey!"
As if drawing on superhuman strength, the child managed to shove aside a grown man several times stronger than herself.
She yanked away the cloth covering the body, and the moment the face beneath was revealed, her own froze stiff.
"Ah… ah…"
The girl clearly recognized the face instantly.
Yoon Doyoon did too.
Even from a distance, he knew right away.
It was the woman who had been his only hope, the live-in helper who had once promised him, pinky swear, that she would take him away with her someday when he became an adult.
"…."
"Feel better now? Hah. Normally we don't show bodies to unrelated people. What school do you go to? What grade and class are you in? You're going to get into serious trouble for what you did today. Now that you've seen enough, can you move aside?"
The girl's face turned so pale it looked as though all the blood had drained from her body. She staggered, as if she might collapse at any moment.
But to the people busily moving around the crime scene, she was nothing more than an inconvenient obstruction.
"Uh… ah…"
As the police carried the body away, the girl stood frozen in place, as though nailed to the ground.
Her lips trembled and parted again and again, but not a single word came out.
Yoon Doyoon realized something without much difficulty.
She was someone who had never once been able to call that woman "Mom."
How utterly miserable must it feel to lose a mother you never even got to call by that name.
"…Ha."
Overcome with emptiness, Yoon Doyoon sank down where he stood.
The intellect that made him a so-called genius, the filthy, under-the-table work his family did to rake in money, none of it mattered anymore.
'If your mom starts acting suspicious, could you let me know quietly?'
He couldn't even keep this one small promise.
A crushing sense of helplessness pressed down on his entire body.
All he had ever wanted was the peaceful life the live-in helper had shown him.
A chance to live the way he wanted.
That was all, nothing more.
His injured arm throbbed as if it might tear itself off.
"There's something here."
The girl, who had been standing there blankly, muttered under her breath.
"Suicide? Ha… haha. Don't make me laugh. Don't make me laugh…"
With eyes brimming with hatred and rage that had nowhere to go, she stared at the crime scene, the place that had almost become her home.
"I'll kill them. No matter what, I'll kill them the same way."
Murderous intent poured from her voice, so thick that it made one's skin crawl even from a distance.
Yoon Doyoon felt as though he would never be able to forget that expression on her face.
"Young master! Ah, there you are! We've been looking everywhere. This place is-"
Dragged away by the people his mother had sent to find him, Yoon Doyoon kept his eyes on the girl's face for as long as he could.
The next time he saw her was years later, after he had skipped high school entirely and been accepted into the university his mother had chosen for him.
"This should make you useful enough. Join the assemblyman's campaign immediately."
The moment he passed the exam, his mother sent him off to Ahn Hyeongsik, as if selling him away. His residence, and even those assigned to watch over him, were all replaced with Ahn Hyeongsik's people.
"It's perfect timing, since you're not legally an adult yet. You'll need to play the role of a high school student for a while."
As soon as Yoon Doyoon entered the camp, Ahn Hyeongsik issued orders to him as if he had been waiting.
"There were a few sly foxes I took care of, tch. Seems they were planning to adopt a girl. That brat's got no fear; she keeps tipping off the broadcasting stations about the incident. Go check whether she's going to become a headache."
"…Yes."
Yoon Doyoon immediately realized that the person being referred to was the girl he had seen that day.
'Fearless, huh. More like ignorance. Courage born from not knowing who was really behind the woman's death.'
Wearing a school uniform he never thought he'd wear in his lifetime, he entered the school grounds. Since he wasn't a real student, he naturally couldn't attend classes.
Instead, during the evening self-study hours, Yoon Doyoon took a seat in the corner of the study room.
The spot was secluded, even partitioned off, perfect for observing the girl without being noticed himself.
According to what he had investigated, from that day onward the girl had studied obsessively, aiming for the National Police University.
Her reason was obvious.
She intended to become a police officer and reopen the case.
But that wasn't what Ahn Hyeongsik cared about at all.
'It still irritates me that I never got my hands on their research. If the daughter they were planning to adopt knows anything about it, that would be ideal.'
What they wanted to know was whether the girl possessed the research the woman had been involved in.
That was the real question.
And that was the only reason the girl was still alive, despite having already caught Ahn Hyeongsik's attention.
"…She's working hard."
Whether she knew or not that Ahn Hyeongsik's black hand was already reaching for her throat, the girl was always diligent.
What struck him was how her eyes, even as she immersed herself in her studies, never lost the anger and hatred born that day.
During the daytime, Yoon Doyoon worked at Ahn Hyeongsik's election camp, drafting strategies on his behalf.
Some of the dirty work his mother used to handle also fell onto his shoulders.
He knew all too well what happened to those who refused. Escaping wasn't something he could even imagine.
In the afternoon, he put on a school uniform and went to the school to keep an eye on the girl. Given the nature of the school, none of Ahn Hyeongsik's people could enter without arousing suspicion—except Yoon Doyoon, who was still a minor.
And so, it was only when he went to watch over the girl that Yoon Doyoon could barely breathe.
'Before, it was the helper who let me breathe. Now it's her daughter.'
Did the girl know how deeply the woman who had tried to adopt her had loved her? How her eyes used to light up whenever she spoke of her?
If he could, he wanted to tell her.
That she had been loved enough to make him want to protect her from Ahn Hyeongsik—all because of those memories.
"Hey."
"…?"
That was when the girl spoke to him first.
"How do you manage to keep sitting in that seat?"
Yoon Doyoon had never believed the saying that your mind goes blank when you're flustered.
But at that moment, his thoughts truly went white.
"…If I tell you, you'll take it from me. So I won't."
"That makes it sound like there really is some kind of secret."
"Of course there is."
Was that even an answer?
Overwhelmed by self-loathing, Yoon Doyoon buried his face into the desk. His heart pounded wildly.
"I'm sitting there tomorrow, so clear your books out."
After throwing him into a storm of confusion, the girl returned to her seat.
He hadn't expected her to talk to him. The feeling lingered, strange and unfamiliar.
"…Sorry, but I can't give up the seat."
If she saw his face properly, things would get complicated. As long as Ahn Hyeongsik knew of her existence, the less she knew, the higher her chances of survival.
'She'll give up eventually.'
Yoon Doyoon thought that after a few back-and-forths like this, the girl would relent.
But she was far more persistent than he had expected.
"When do you go home?"
"Want to get tteokbokki after this?"
"Hey. What do you think about the Gabo Reform?"*
"Which university are you aiming for?"
Once a day, without fail, she struck up a conversation with him.
And after each brief exchange, she went right back to studying, as if checking a task off a list.
It was strange.
He had seen her nearly consumed by hatred, and yet—even now—there was a darkness flickering in her eyes that she couldn't fully hide.*
And still, how was it that she remained so strong, refusing to let herself go, managing to preserve her purity to this extent?
Before he realized it, Yoon Doyoon found himself quietly looking forward to their brief conversations.
Exchanging just a few words with her made him feel like an ordinary high school student.
But it was as though Ahn Hyeongsik sensed even that small happiness, and snatched it away.
"I've pushed things this far and still gotten nothing. That means the girl really doesn't know anything. Tch. They say you shouldn't raise a black-haired beast in the first place. There's no way they'd entrust something that important to her."*
"Then I-"
"That place is done. Clean it up. And deal with that little girl yourself."
"Yes."
From now on, there must never be any reason for him and the girl to become entangled again.
"Seriously, you're still not going to tell me your name?"
"There's no reason I need to. And keep it down. This is a study hall."
"Then at least tell me what class you're in. I want to see your face."
"I don't want to show you."
"Why not?"
"Because it's ugly."
"Doesn't sound like it, judging by your voice."
"You only think that because you've only heard my voice."
"You're really cold, you know that?"
"I'll tell you later."
"Later when?"
"When we graduate."
"Really?"
"Yeah. So can we stop chatting and get back to studying?"
Yoon Doyoon lied with ease.
The girl would never know who he really was.
Even if, far in the future, he stood before her face to face, they would never be able to share the memory of talking through a partition in the study hall.
'When you become an adult, you'll have a way to escape your parents.'
As he listened to the girl grumble in disappointment, Yoon Doyoon made a decision.
When he became an adult, he would break free from Ahn Hyeongsik and from his damned mother.
And when the day came, he would take the girl, who kept moving forward step by step toward that darkness, and run far away with her.
To the place the woman had once planned to take both of them.
🍓; *The Gabo Reform was when Korea tried to quickly become more modern, Korea tried to fix many old problems and modernize all at once, but it happened under foreign pressure and caused a lot of conflict.
*Even though she may look composed or normal now, the hatred and darkness inside her haven't disappeared, they still surface subtly, and he notices.
*This was a mistake from the start. Someone like her could never be trusted with something that important.
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