Irresponsibility Chapter 5.5

Then what should I do? Thinking about it, he reached the conclusion that he should go to sleep. He figured the feeling of sinking into depression would calm down after a nap.

As he entered his room and lay on the bed, he worried that he might have a nightmare.

Still, Baek Geonhyuk will come in the afternoon. It’s okay.

Pushing the worry aside, Joo Yeoun closed his eyes.

And just as he expected, he had a nightmare. Meanwhile, a nasty pain continued to flare in his fingers. It carried on even in his dream.

[You die next time]

The hand holding the phone hurt so much. His fingers wouldn’t move at all, so he couldn’t send a message.

I can’t. I have to tell them I’ll do everything they say, so don’t touch my family. What do I do? What do I do? As he struggled, clutching the phone, his gaze suddenly fell to his own hand.

His fingers were twisted in every direction.

“Hngh… ugh.”

[Seoim Park south exit green bag]

This is bad. With my hand this messed up, I can’t do the job properly…

“Haaah…!”

Joo Yeoun’s eyes flew open. His gaze went straight to his hand. It was fine, with nothing out of place.

Even after confirming this, he kept fumbling with his fingers, thinking. Why? Why does it hurt? It’s not broken. My hand is fine. I can send a message. No, but it hurts. Joo Yeoun panted, bringing his faintly trembling hands together and rubbing them.

Suddenly, a trivial noise entered his ears, which had been filled with only his own anxious breathing. When he lifted his head, he saw thin streaks marking the gray sky outside the window.

It must have been raining.

“…”

His gaze went to his own clasped hands. Soon, plop, his hands fell limply onto the bed.

His whole body was sticky. It seemed he had broken out in a cold sweat, and the air felt humid because of the rain.

Joo Yeoun pushed back the hair stuck to his cheek and rolled his eyes. His surroundings were dim. He blinked consciously, in case he fell asleep again.

The nightmares had started last year, when the strange messages began to arrive.

[Joo Yeoun, you’re going to do some work for us from now on]

The sender was his own number. It was unsettling that his name was written, but Joo Yeoun regarded it as a type of voice phishing and ignored it.

But then one day, pictures came. A picture of him taken a long time ago, posts he had made on social media, or even photos he had never taken himself.

From that point on, he couldn’t treat it as a trivial matter.

Besides, the messages sent from his number were quickly deleted. Even though he hadn’t touched them.

Naturally, he intended to report it. Joo Yeoun immediately searched for how to report a cybercrime. While he was searching to see if there were any cases like this, a new message arrived.

[Are you going to report it?]

The message was deleted right away.

Thump. Feeling a surge of anxiety, he pressed the keypad to report it to 112. But just before he pressed the call button, a message popped up at the top of his phone.

[If you report it now, your dad dies]

His family’s home address, his dad’s work address, and his dad’s car license plate number. The messages came one after another.

It was surely hacking, and the talk of killing him was all part of their method, but his hands trembled faintly.

Thinking he needed to gather evidence, he tried to screenshot the messages, but the pictures were deleted one by one. He needed another way.

It seemed his phone had been hacked, so he thought he should go directly to the police station to report it. Since the threats against his family were also happening in real-time, they would be able to take immediate action.

Joo Yeoun hurriedly put on a padded jacket, grabbed some cash, and left his studio apartment. After going out to the main road and getting in a taxi, he kept his eyes on his phone. He didn’t use it, only watching to see if any messages came.

It was quiet.

Joo Yeoun bit his lip hard and clutched his head. I should have collected evidence from the moment the first message came. At this rate, I’ll just look like a crazy person when I go to the police station.

He was glancing at his quiet phone and looking out the window when a call came from his dad.

No, he was calling his dad. Goosebumps spread all over his body.

— Hello?

The call connected, and a faint voice came through. Yeoun, who had been frozen, carefully brought the phone to his ear and opened his dry lips.

“Hello?”

What came back was an unfamiliar voice.

— Ah. Are you the phone owner’s son? Your father has been injured.

“…What?”

— His life isn’t in danger, so please rest assured for now. The patient is currently being transported to the hospital.

The color drained from Joo Yeoun’s face. Frozen, he belatedly poured out questions.

“How was he hurt? Are you in an ambulance now? Which hospital… which hospital should I go to?”

As his voice grew louder, the taxi driver looked at him through the rearview mirror, but he was in no state to pay attention to that. All his nerves were waiting only for the voice on the other end of the line.

Just as he was about to speak again into the anxious silence, a familiar voice came through.

— Oh, son. Dad’s okay.

“Dad!”

-Some guy on a motorcycle hit me in the head and took off, but I dodged to the side so it just grazed me a little.

“Th-then are you okay?”

— Yeah. But they say I should still go to the hospital and get checked out. I’ve also filed a police report, so don’t worry too much.

“The police…”

He stopped mid-sentence, a chill running down his spine. As if sensing something, he took the phone from his ear and looked at the screen. A new message had appeared on the black screen.

[Your dad is fast, huh?]

Joo Yeoun’s eyes widened.

— Oh, and Yeoun. I’ll call Mom after I get the situation sorted out, so don’t tell her yet. Oh, I have to go now.

“…”

— Don’t worry. I’ll call you again.

“Okay…”

Yeoun, who had let out his reply like a groan, stared at his phone without even blinking his wide-open eyes. Even after the call ended and the screen went black, he stared at the phone, motionless.

Soon, letters were clearly imprinted on his dark pupils.

[Get out]

“Hey, student. If I make a right turn here, the police station is right there. Should I keep going, or turn around? Is someone hurt?”

“No! Here. I’ll get out here.”

Joo Yeoun shook his head at the taxi driver’s words, who was glancing at him in the rearview mirror. He handed over the cash with a cold hand and stepped out of the car door.

“Student! You have to take your change.”

“Ah… I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry. The white hand that received the change trembled as he mumbled the words repeatedly.

After he got out of the taxi and stood on the sidewalk, the coins fell, clatter clatter, from between his fists. Startled, Joo Yeoun looked at his feet and then quickly lifted his head again.

The cars on the road drove by busily, and people passed by him, standing in the middle of the street, without a glance. Joo Yeoun looked around like a lost child.

It was the beginning of a cold nightmare.

He was aware that he was completely trapped. There must be a way out, and if he consulted his parents, they might be able to find it together.

But.

[You die next time]

[Try reporting it again]

[We have nothing to lose]

[Even if we go to jail, we’ll kill your family one way or another]

[We won’t kill you lol]

He was scared.

The blackmailer, just as they said, really seemed to have nothing to lose. They were cruel and bold.

The person who had attacked his dad was caught quickly. Committing such an act in broad daylight on a main street, it was only a matter of time before he was caught.

The motive for the crime was said to be robbery. The case was closed as such, but Yeoun alone knew that wasn’t it.

He couldn’t be sure, but he had a feeling that person wasn’t part of the blackmailer’s group. Perhaps he had been blackmailed too.

Before long, Yeoun confirmed for himself that there were many victims like him. People who lived as their hands and feet, their puppets.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out why this had happened to him of all people. Who on earth should he resent?

“You don’t need to come down. Don’t worry about us. Son, just make sure you eat well and study hard at school.”

He cried for a long time in his studio apartment. Until he collapsed from exhaustion.

After that, he slept as if he were dead. He spent a very long night, as if gathering all the sleepless nights he had endured.

And after that, he did what he had to do.

He emptied a bottle of water and took out the phone he had kept in a drawer. And he sent a message to himself.

[I’ll do as you say. Please don’t touch my family]

[If you touch my family one more time]

[I will too]

[get my revenge one way or another]

Joo Yeoun grit his teeth as he watched the messages get deleted one by one. After the last message was deleted, a new one appeared.

[Cocky, aren’t you]

[Okay]

And so, he began to do the work they ordered.

He couldn’t throw away the phone that held his life in its grip. He was always on edge, checking it, in case he missed a message from them.

He received instructions via message. Sometimes it was to find an item, and other times it was to leave it somewhere.

Joo Yeoun was aware that what he was delivering was drugs.

When he stored the items in his studio apartment and talked to his parents on the phone, his lips would sometimes twitch. But at times like that, he made his head colder.

He couldn’t drag his parents into this. His family had to know nothing.

The blackmailer’s reach extended far into the provinces. In a situation like this, what the police could do was catch the blackmailer, not protect his family. It wasn’t as if the police could arrest them at once just because he reported it.

Besides, what if there was a puppet of theirs among the police?

Joo Yeoun’s imagination had grown recently. Even while walking down the street or at a convenience store, he felt as if there were eyes watching him. The blackmailers must have their limits, but the fear that they could do anything would not leave him.

The best he could do for now was to move according to the blackmailer’s will and gather evidence little by little. He had to endure until an opportunity came.

And so, a year passed.