Chapter 19: His Descent (6)

Chapter 19: His Descent (6)

Choi Yeong-Su shuddered at that terrifying glare. It was scary. So scary! The pain in his body was nothing compared to the terror he felt from the ‘Kang Jin-Ho’ in front of him. So much so that he was ready to do anything just to escape from this suffocating terror.

"I, I'm sor—"

“Thanks to your grandfather, my father had to lower his head.”

“...?”

Kang Jin-Ho's expression darkened further and further. "He... I never really remembered much about him. If you ask me whether I feel any filial love or something like that about him, I'd have to say no. It's just that... I've been trying pretty hard to feel affection for him since he's my family and all."

Choi Yeong-Su's terrified mind couldn't process just what Kang Jin-Ho was trying to say here. But there was no mistaking the intense fury bubbling within his words. And this fury was amplifying Choi Yeong-Su's terror even more.

“But someone like that had to bow his head because of me. Did you know that when he bowed, it felt like my blood flow suddenly reversed? That emotion... I haven't felt like that in ages. Do you understand what I'm saying?”

“Y-yeah.”

“No, you don't.”

"W-wait! I do! I swear..."

“Doesn't matter. I'll make you understand soon enough.” Kang Jin-Ho smiled coldly as he glared into Choi Yeong-Su's eyes. “Let's take it slow, shall we? The night's long, after all. We shall continue until... Until you finally figure it out.”

The creepily-smiling Kang Jin-Ho reached out and grabbed Choi Yeong-Su's ribs. The latter pitifully whimpered, “P-please...!”

“You need to learn what it means to provoke me.”

“I, I'm sorry. Please...!”

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head. “What will you do if I stop now?”

“I... I'll apologize in public! And, and I'll do anything you want! T-that's why, please...!”

"Just make everything right again."

“I, I got it! I really do! I swear!” Choi Yeong-Su broke down in a flood of tears.

Kang Jin-Ho quietly growled, “I will be watching you. I will watch how you make everything right again. However, it'll be in your best interest not to do anything foolish.”

Choi Yeong-Su's vision suddenly grew blurry and dark. His fading consciousness meant that he didn't quite catch everything Kang Jin-Ho had said toward the end.

"Do not forget. This isn't over yet..."

Those parting words didn't register fully in Choi Yeong-Su's mind. And he only woke up with a start when someone began shaking him around.

"Heok?!" Choi Yeong-Su freaked out and flailed his arms around everywhere. "D-don't touch me!"

Lee Min-Sik cried out, “Hey, Yeong-Su! What's gotten into you, dude?!”

“Huh?! W-where... Where is that son of a b*tch?!”

“Who are you talking about?”

“K-Kang Jin-Ho...”

"What do you mean?! There's no one besides you here, dude. Why are you even lying on the ground anyway " Lee Min-Sik asked, sounding flustered and confused.

Choi Yeong-Su felt his body involuntarily shudder once again. This was proof that all the pain he felt wasn't part of some terrifying dream. He quietly asked his goon, "You... didn't see him "

“Dude, you're scaring me.”

“What.. what time is it?”

“The time? Huh?! How did it get this late already? It's three in the morning?!”

Choi Yeong-Su grit his teeth when Lee Min-Sik gasped in shock.

Kang Jin-Ho!

That was definitely not a dream. Without a shred of doubt, Kang Jin-Ho had shown up. Choi Yeong-Su had indeed thrown away his pride, begging and groveling before that bastard like some kind of an insect.

"You f*cking son of a...!" Choi Yeong-Su's clenched teeth creaked noisily. He couldn't let this go. He could never, ever let that bastard off the hook now!

***

The next morning...

“Hello? The police station, you say?” Kang Yu-Hwan answering the phone glanced at Kang Jin-Ho with narrowed eyes. “I see. Yes, we will be there.”

As he put the phone down, Kang Jin-Ho's mother, Baek Hyeon-Jeong, asked him with a worried voice, “What was that about, dear?”

“Mmmm, not sure. They want Jin-Ho to come to the station again.”

"But that detective said we don't have to, so why... "

"What can we do when they want him to come again? We don't have a choice but to do as we were told. Jin-Ho, get ready," said Kang Yu-Hwan to his son.

“Alright.” Kang Jin-Ho nodded, put on a jacket, then stepped outside the house.

“I wonder what they want this time...” Kang Yu-Hwan muttered as he started the car.

"If you don't, you might get hit with a counterclaim for forging medical records and lying in your victim's statement, sir. In my opinion, the winner’s too obvious. I already told you this a minute ago, but our offices have CCTV cameras, sir."

The chief director gasped in shock and hurriedly looked up at the cameras. He belatedly realized that he had made a mistake. Bad rumors doing the rounds could always be quashed, but extinguishing tangible evidence was a lot harder. Especially more so with visual proof like videos—those could end up in the hands of the media and cause something unmanageable in the blink of an eye.

The chief director surreptitiously scanned his surroundings. His brief but loud roaring seemed to have attracted quite a lot of attention coming from every corner of the station. The old man was smart enough to know what was hanging around their necks.

The detective continued. "And according to the statement your grandson made, it sounds like torture rather than your standard assault. So, can you explain why your grandson looks so... unhurt, sir? It's pretty difficult to think that he was attacked last night at all. Does he have any external injuries? If you haven't brought the doctor's written diagnosis, we also can't move forward with the prosecution, sir. Actually, it seems that we should re-investigate the previous accusation as well."

The chief director calmly replied, “...We'll do as you say and withdraw our complaints.”

Choi Yeong-Su cried out in exasperation, “But, grandfather!”

“For now, you must keep quiet.”

“...!”

The chief director addressed the cop, "Detective, we'll be dropping charges for both matters. Help us do that."

“Of course, sir.”

The chief director gritted his teeth while turning around to leave. “Then, I'll be going.”

"But, sir. You must complete the form for withdrawal of complaints first..."

“Can't you deal with that yourself?!” The chief director roughly yanked Choi Yeong-Su and headed straight outside the police station. Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly observed that spectacle, his eyes gleaming softly.

Detective Park bowed his head a little. “I must apologize to you both about this mess.”

“No, it's fine.” Kang Yu-Hwan sighed and shook his head.

“We're also trying to put food on our tables, you see... Please do try to understand where we're coming from.”

“No, I do understand,” Kang Yu-Hwan calmly replied.

Detective Park groaned and scratched the back of his head. "Both of you can go now. I'll handle the rest, so please don't worry."

"Thank you. We'll leave it to you, then." The Kang father and son duo said farewell to the detective, then walked outside the station. Kang Yu-Hwan shook his head and muttered, "What a cruel and persistent old man he was."

Kang Jin-Ho agreed with his father by wordlessly nodding. But the glare in his eyes indicated that he was thinking about something else.

***

Later that night...

Choi Yeong-Su was lying on his bed, the sheets covering him from top to bottom. He was shivering and whimpering in fear like a little child.

“He... He'll come for me tonight!”

When he first accused Kang Jin-Ho of assault, he was full of arrogance and pride. But right afterward, he kept on remembering the light burning in Kang Jin-Ho's eyes.

At first, Choi Yeong-Su thought it was just a figment of his imagination. If Kang Jin-Ho was really at a convenience store when it happened, the two of them couldn't have met last night. The event itself was so outrageous that even Choi Yeong-Su himself began wondering if it really had been a dream all along.

But he saw the truth earlier in the day. He saw Kang Jin-Ho's eyes glaring at him just as he was leaving the police station with his grandfather. Those eyes... They were exactly the same as the ones Choi Yeong-Su had seen last night!

“W-what should I do?!”

Should he apologize profusely and beg for forgiveness now? Choi Yeong-Su might never get to leave the house unless he did that. The fear of running into Kang Jin-Ho outside was consuming him.

“What... what am I supposed to do?!”

His grandfather tried to calm Choi Yeong-Su down by saying that he would take care of everything, but such an assurance would never work in his current status.

"For now, it should be... fine. I should... just stay in the house until my grandfather takes care of everything... Yes, I'll be fine here. Our walls are tall, we have cameras everywhere and, and... Even if you're a monster, Kang Jin-Ho, you can never..."

“I can never enter here? Is that it?”

“...?” Choi Yeong-Su slowly, so agonizingly slowly, raised his head. He found a familiar face standing in the darkened corner of the room, staring right back at him.

It was Kang Jin-Ho. He was smiling coldly like a devil licking his lips in front of its prey. Choi Yeong-Su was instantly creeped out, terror shooting down his spine. He tried to scream, but just like the night before, no sound would come out of his mouth.

Kang Jin-Ho leaned in closer and whispered quietly into Choi Yeong-Su's ear, “Is that what you thought?”

Choi Yeong-Su began trembling again. Kang Jin-Ho's voice rekindled the memories of the brutal pain from the night before.

Kang Jin-Ho continued to speak in a subdued voice, "Why do you think I didn't kill you last night "

“...?!”

"You see, this is what I wanted all along. You'll be subjected to immense pain every single day. And when you try to tell others what’s going on with you, people will initially believe you. But when the same thing keeps repeating... They will stop believing you sooner or later even though it's all true. No matter how cruel the torture gets for you, people will one day start insulting you instead. Do you understand what I'm saying to you "

“...!”

"Experience what it feels like to go insane and ask yourself this—will you still be in one piece when it ends "

Choi Yeong-Su desperately shook his head, trying to plead and beg.

“Well, then...” Kang Jin-Ho bared his fangs in a fierce grin. “Let's begin.”

Choi Yeong-Su's eyes turned bloodshot. He finally realized that he should have never gotten into Kang Jin-Ho's bad books.

1. "-Gun" is a Korean honorific reserved for boys/young men younger than you. It has the same function as the Japanese '-kun'.