Chapter 39 - Chapter 37: Episode 36 - Story of Those Left Behind (3)
Min-ah remembered the day Yu-rin and Seon-ah came to her house to bring up the topic of marriage.
Worried about how much Seon-ah had changed, Min-ah had asked Yu-rin to take good care of him, and Yu-rin had promised she would.
The date the video recording began was the very same day they were granted permission to marry.
It meant that the day they started filming those videos—where they wantonly abused, harassed, and brutally violated Seon-ah—was that same day.
Min-ah trembled with a sense of betrayal.
Yu-rin, whom she had trusted to protect her son, had instead treated Seon-ah like a sex slave, playing with him like a toy.
As that thought crossed her mind, the house she was in suddenly began to look monstrous.
This place, which she had initially thought was filled with memories of Yu-rin and Seon-ah, must have been hell itself to Seon-ah.
Thinking of Seon-ah being violated over and over again on that bed where her husband was now sleeping, unconscious, made her skin crawl.
She wanted to take her husband and get out of this house immediately.
She just wanted to run away as fast as she could.
However, considering the condition of her husband, Hyeon-tae, she realized it would be too much to force him awake and drag him out.
She decided to wait until Hyeon-tae woke up.
They could leave once he came to his senses.
With that in mind, she looked around the house, beginning to re-examine the place that had initially felt so sentimental.
She went to the master bedroom and closed the door.
She saw things she hadn't noticed when the door was open.
Once the door was shut, the marks where Seon-ah had scratched at it over and over again were clearly etched into the wood.
How painful it must have been.
She imagined Seon-ah screaming and clawing at the door, not even realizing his fingernails were being torn off.
She could not forgive Yu-rin at all.
Even though the child was already gone, she wanted to tear that bitch to pieces for inflicting such immense pain on the two of them.
Though that would never happen.
If she were to see Yu-rin's face again...
She didn't even know how she would act.
Yu-ra was currently keeping her head pressed to the ground, facing Min-ah, who had slammed the master bedroom door shut in a state of devastation.
She couldn't lift her head, feeling as if her whole body had become heavy, perhaps from having already shed too much blood.
Even so, she had to apologize.
Her daughter had brutally violated that fragile boy not just once, but dozens of times.
She knew the horror of it from the sound of Seon-ah's screams and her daughter's laughter—as if she were having fun and enjoying it—coming from the video, even without having to lift her head to watch it.
During the month the two of them had disappeared, she had cleaned her daughter's room and checked the videos on the computer, which had revealed her daughter's twisted sexual desires.
But she had never in her wildest dreams imagined that she would actually put them into action.
She truly hadn't known she would commit acts that were hard for her to even imagine.
Although her child was already beyond saving, anger welled up in Yu-ra's heart.
Seon-ah was a child who had been close friends with Yu-rin since he was young, coming over to play at her house, and he had approached her and her husband warmly, as if they had gained a son.
They had treated Seon-ah like their own child, to the point where they actually thought they had gained a son.
She couldn't understand how her daughter could do such a cruel thing as a human being.
Her guilt and regret over the fact that Seon-ah had suffered such things because she hadn't educated her properly were immense.
She felt this was a debt that she and her husband would never be able to repay to Min-ah's couple for as long as they lived.
And so, the weight of having to live with that constant apology began to feel real.
It was a truly slim possibility, but if her daughter and Seon-ah were to return alive...
She felt it would be difficult to think of her daughter, Yu-rin...
as family anymore.
Hyeon-tae had been having a nightmare until just a moment ago.
A nightmare where the woman who had promised her life to his son was brutally violating him.
A dream where he collapsed, unable to contain his resentment while experiencing that nightmare...
This was not a situation where he should be sleeping.
Today was the day Yu-ra's couple and his own couple were supposed to go to the house where Seon-ah and Yu-rin lived to find some closure.
With that thought, he tried to steel his mind and force his body to rise, telling himself to wake up from this nightmare quickly.
As Hyeon-tae got up, he realized where he was and that the nightmare from earlier was actually reality.
This was not the scenery his couple would usually see when they opened their eyes.
The unfamiliar ceiling and the room's landscape were reminding Hyeon-tae that the nightmare was true.
He used the air filling his lungs to let out a scream.
But no words came out.
Just as he was bewildered about what had happened to his body, his wife, Min-ah, realized he had woken up and affectionately hugged him.
They didn't say anything to each other, but Min-ah tried to comfort Hyeon-tae.
As Hyeon-tae made choking sounds, unable to speak, Min-ah began to realize what had happened to his body.
She realized that her husband, Hyeon-tae, had been so shocked by seeing Seon-ah being brutally violated by Yu-rin that he had lost his voice.
She kept asking if he was okay with a serious expression, but Hyeon-tae could not speak.
He had developed aphasia from the shock.
Min-ah hurriedly took Hyeon-tae out of the master bedroom.
She had to take Hyeon-tae to the hospital quickly.
As the master bedroom door swung wide open, she saw Yu-ra, who was still prostrate, and Yu-ra's husband, who was hanging his head in a daze.
She glanced at them for a moment, but she was in no position to care about them right now.
Thus, she opened the front door, took Hyeon-tae out of that hellish house, and headed to the hospital.
After the examination, Hyeon-tae was hospitalized.
Because he hadn't been able to eat properly and fatigue had kept piling up, he was suffering from malnutrition and overwork, and on top of that, he had developed problems due to the massive mental shock.
According to the doctor's diagnosis, Hyeon-tae had developed aphasia due to the mental shock.
Because it was a problem caused by trauma, they said there was no way to solve it unless he overcame it himself.
Perhaps... he might have to live the rest of his life unable to speak.
It was such a dizzying moment where she almost lost her husband as well.
Yu-rin, who had caused all of this.
The longing to tear that bitch to pieces grew even stronger.
The front door of the house where Yu-rin and Seon-ah lived was wide open.
The cold, late-autumn dawn wind kept pushing into the living room, but Yu-ra had no intention of closing it.
The pain Seon-ah must have felt was surely greater than this cold.
Yu-ra had kept her head pressed to the ground for a long time even after Min-ah's couple had left.
However, she had to lift herself up to check on her husband's condition, as she was worried about him.
She felt dizzy and staggered as she stood up, but she walked toward her husband.
Her husband was looking blank, not even realizing she had approached him.
"Honey, are you okay?..."
Yu-ra asked her husband if he was okay, but her husband gave no answer.
"Let's just leave for now... I'm worried about your condition."
Her own heart was in tatters, but she still had to take care of her husband.
Unlike her, her husband had a weak heart, so it was clear that he had received a shock dozens of times greater than the shock she had experienced.
Yu-ra, who had helped her husband stand up, moved slowly, put her husband in the passenger seat of the car she had driven, and sat in the driver's seat.
She tried to insert the key to start the engine, but her hands were trembling so much that it wouldn't go in.
Unable to get it to go in as she wanted, she hit the steering wheel hard with her fist.
But suddenly, it came to mind.
Just like the video she had watched with Min-ah's couple at the beginning.
The sight of Seon-ah struggling as Yu-rin tried to insert his thing into her.
The sight of her inserting Seon-ah's genitals into her hole after Seon-ah stopped moving because she had hit his stomach hard.
The situation overlapped with what she was doing right now, and she felt like vomiting, so she couldn't insert the key.
Suddenly, tears began to burst out.
Yu-ra grabbed the steering wheel and cried for a long time.
For hours... continuously...
How much time had passed?
Her husband, perhaps having regained some of his senses, shook her awake.
"Honey... are you okay?... Please, try to pull yourself together..."
Her husband's voice was also weak, but he had shaken her body with his frail strength, worried about her condition.
It seemed she had fallen asleep at some point.
Outside, the sun was already fully up, and she felt that the morning had dawned.
She couldn't fall apart like this.
The first thing they had to do was for both of them to recover their bodies and minds.
After that, they had to continue to apologize to Min-ah's couple.
There was no other way.
Now she knew well what she had to do.
She felt the tears and sadness that had been flowing continuously changing into feelings toward her daughter.
It was changing not into a worried heart, but into anger and betrayal...