Kill Your X Chapter 75

“Even if it’s a deserted mountain, there’s still a risk of being caught. I don’t know whether to call this audacious or foolish.”

“The Kumto gang bastards might have used that very point to their advantage. I only found out after tailing them, thinking ‘no way, no way.’ To think we were raiding their office day in and day out when things were like this. We couldn’t see what was right under our noses.”

One of the two voices was my father’s, the other was someone I’d never heard before. I could easily deduce that the person standing next to my father was Detective Choi.

Soon, a strong flashlight illuminated the cabin. My father took out a key and opened the door, and the two of them went inside together, coming out a long while later. Detective Choi looked somewhat flushed.

“My head is spinning. It seems the bastards moved quickly to keep Detective Kang in check when he got a lead on the drug trafficking. I wonder what the street value of everything in there is.”

“Exactly. Being too competent turned out to be a poison. I don’t think Detective Kang skipped his report to take all the credit for himself. They must have acted before he could.”

My father ground his teeth, vowing to make the bastards pay for their crimes. I didn’t know what was in that cabin, but after going in once, Detective Choi had completely let down his guard around my father. It seemed there really was solid evidence that could change his attitude.

I was flustered as the atmosphere unfolded quite differently from my expectations. It was just a strong sense of professional duty; there was nothing wrong with their conversation. How could I have dared to suspect my father, who was so passionately dedicated to his investigation, of being a murderer? I would have no excuse if I were caught in this situation and kicked out of the house. I felt a sense of self-loathing, wondering what kind of absurd delusion I had been caught up in.

Since I had come this far, the best thing to do was to wait in silence for the two of them to descend the mountain, then quickly go down and sneak back home.

“But Team Leader Song, there’s one thing that bothers me… Keoheok! Kkeuk!“

The incident happened in the blink of an eye.

When I looked down at the ground for a moment, drained of energy, and then lifted my head, Detective Choi was staggering, bent over at the waist. I was so startled that I froze, but my father roughly grabbed Detective Choi’s hair, pulled it up, and plunged a knife into his abdomen.

Detective Choi tried to grab his arm as best he could, but it only left a scratch, and it was not enough to stop my father. Was it because he had let his guard down after visiting the cabin? He was helpless against the unexpected attack. The merciless act was repeated dozens of time.

Stabbed repeatedly in vital spots, Detective Choi died without even being able to let out a proper scream. Even in the dark, I could clearly see the blood gushing out like a fountain. I was on the verge of fainting.

Dark red blood dripped, drip, drip, from the knife my father held in his hand. His eerie monologue blended with the ambient sounds of the mountain. In the distance, the cry of an unknown animal echoed.

“That damn Team Leader Song, Team Leader Song…”

Under the faint moonlight, my father’s eyes glinted with madness.

“Both Detective Kang and Detective Choi, the problem is they have no respect for people. How long has it been since I left the team leader position and got promoted? How long are they going to keep calling me by that outdated title? Do they know how much money I spent to get a new nameplate, fuck.”

Stab, stab! My father stabbed the person who had fallen and was no longer moving two or three more times. It was clearly an act of taking out his anger.

My father brought a shovel out of the cabin and began to dig in the nearby ground. His movements were quite skilled, as if he had done this more than once or twice.

About ten minutes passed. My father dragged Detective Choi and pushed him into the fairly deep pit he had dug. He didn’t forget to cover the blood-soaked ground with fresh dirt.

My breath quickened at the crime scene unfolding so graphically before my eyes. I had prayed it wasn’t true, but my fears had become a reality. The aftermath of the nightmare I had witnessed with my own eyes was severe.

Someone had died. In the midst of my utter confusion, a strong thought came to me that I had to leave some kind of evidence. I didn’t know if I could actually report it or not, but the past few days had taught me painfully how powerless a situation with only suspicion can make a person.

Taking a picture would make a ‘click’ sound, so instead, I lowered the screen brightness as much as possible and pressed the record button on the video recording app. With trembling hands, I tried to capture the scene in front of me, but it was so dark that it just looked like a lot of noise.

I tried to zoom in and film my father’s face, but my shaking fingers finally caused an accident. I accidentally touched the screen, and the rear flash turned on for a moment. I turned it off immediately, but it was already too late.

“Who is it!”

My father reacted instantly to the sudden beam of light. He threw down the shovel and came straight towards where I was. I tried to hide behind the bushes, under the leather jacket, but there was no way that would work.

“Ugh, heok!”

“What the fuck. Song Gyujin?”

My father, shining a flashlight on me, was flustered. All I could do was tremble, curled up like a caterpillar. There was a long scratch on one of my father’s forearms, perhaps from when Detective Choi had grabbed his arm earlier.

“What are you doing here? Explain yourself so I can understand.”

“Uh… uh uh…”

“Hurry up! Speak properly, will you?”

When my father shouted, my reason was paralyzed by fear. My meager survival instinct was of little help in concocting a plausible excuse.

“I, I was stressed from studying, so I just left the neighborhood and was wandering around, and I accidentally came into the mountain, and I, I got los –eok!“

My rambling words were cut off there. It was because my father’s gaze had moved to the cell phone in my hand.

I was powerless as the device was snatched away. My father, who confirmed that it was recording a video in real-time, let out a grotesque, hollow laugh.

“This… you son of a bitch, you dare to try and backstab me? There’s a limit to being ungrateful for raising you, Song Gyujin. Do you even know who you’re trying to defy right now? Answer me, you bastard who can’t tell right from wrong!”

“No, no, Father. It’s all a misunderstanding. I was absolutely not trying to film anything, I just couldn’t see well, so I was trying to turn on the light, ahhh!”

At that moment, my father kicked me in the stomach with all his might. Tears streamed down my face from the violence I was experiencing for the first time in my life.

“Just because you have a mouth, fuck… huh… this bastard, really won’t do.”

My father, who continued to look at my cell phone, spewed out a string of harsh words. It seemed he had seen the text message records I had tried to send to Seo Seunghan earlier, which had failed. Each one was short, but it was enough for him to realize that I had come here intentionally.

“I’ll say it again. Don’t try to be clever, and speak properly. I’m giving you a chance to talk now because you’re my flesh and blood. Now, how did you know to come here?”

If I told the truth here, would I be safe? As I was contemplating, my father raised his hand high and pretended to hit me. In the end, I squeezed my eyes shut and confessed the situation.

“I heard you talking on the phone in your study, Father, sob. And another detective went missing in the same pattern a while ago, so I had a bad feeling and followed you out of curiosity… keuk!“

My father suddenly slammed my head into the ground. Damp earth entered my nose and mouth. The scent of nature had never been so creepy.

“Fuck, you should have just focused on your studies like you’re supposed to. Do you have nothing better to do than to eavesdrop on phone calls like a little rat? Did I teach you to do that?”

“Father, I was wrong! I won’t say a word to anyone. I really had no intention of doing so. I’ll forget everything I saw today, so please, please forgive me… okay?”

I groveled on the ground, begging and begging shamelessly. My father was silent for a moment, as if lost in thought.

Even up to this point, I had my doubts. No matter how cold-blooded and a real murderer he was, would he really lay a hand on his own child?

“…….”

The silence stretched on, so I cautiously looked up. My father was staring intently at the cell phone he had taken from me earlier. His face, illuminated by the light from the small screen, looked like a being devoid of emotion. The unfamiliar sight of my father, which I had encountered repeatedly, gave me the chills.

“Fa… ther?”

When I called out in a small voice, my father shoved the cell phone in front of my face. On the screen was one of the text messages I had tried to send to Si Yeonho a few hours ago.

[But what if the thing I’m worried about really happens? My father is a police officer, so would it be meaningful to report it to the police station?]

I felt as if all the blood was draining from my body. My father sneered at me as I froze, unable to breathe.

“You ungrateful bastard. What, you have no intention of saying anything to anyone?”

“Ack! Keuheuk! Wait, wait a minute, Father. Ugh! Aahh!”

Indiscriminate assault followed. My father, who had been kicking me around like a soccer ball, turned his body and came back with the weapon he had used to harm Detective Choi earlier. I tried to crawl away on the ground, but thwack! my head was stepped on. After easily subduing me as I struggled for my life, my father swung the knife, stained with another person’s blood, at me without hesitation.

“Know that this is all your karma.”

That was the last thing I heard before I lost consciousness.