The dorms were divided by rank. I received a sweatshirt marked C and entered the room. I looked over the three bunk beds. The lower bunk would be better. Without saying a single word to the bastards who came in with me, I unpacked my things on the lower bunk by the door. The ones staring at me like I pissed them off quickly looked away when I glanced at them. Kang Yejun pretended not to notice and read the notice posted in the room.
“It says phone use and going out are prohibited outside set times. Practice hours are flexible, and there are two training outfits per person in the drawers attached to the beds?”
“Phones are prohibited too? Wow, what the hell….”
Im Something-or-other fussed. I thought he was the youngest one. Kang Yejun started talking to him like they were close. You said you were sixteen? I can speak casually, right? Starting with that, the bastards gathered among themselves and started bonding. They introduced their names and ages to one another, then sorted out how they should address each other. I sat on the bed and stared blankly at them. Im Something-or-other glanced at me and spoke.
“Um… you’re Yuha, right? Your individual-evaluation stage was really impressive.”
“What was impressive about it?”
“Your singing was so good… Ah, um, you can talk casually to me! I’m way younger!”
After glancing briefly at the camera installed in the dorm, I smiled gently.
“It’s all right. Speaking casually to someone I just met feels a little wrong.”
“Still….”
“We can get there gradually. I’m going to wash up first.”
I shrugged and gathered my toiletries. Behind me as I left the room, I heard voices full of shock. Among them, attention-whore Kang Yejun seemed to have given up on everything, because he cursed again, “Has that bastard lost his mind?!” He must have been desperate to draw attention. I checked the cameras installed in the hall and slowly headed toward the shared bathroom.
There wasn’t a single person washing up in the bathroom. Fucking filthy bastards. I clicked my tongue and stood under the shower. Right around now, everyone was probably busy bonding among themselves. You know how it is. Like deliberately sticking members together and putting on some homo routine, if you act nice and get along with several people, there’s a synergy effect. The more you show off, the more likely you are to get caught on camera too.
There had to be plenty of bastards in there who, on the inside, were weighing things like who was better and whether it would benefit them more to latch on to that guy. There would be innocent bastards too, sure, but the longer someone had been buried as a trainee, the less likely they were to be purely playing some brotherly friendship game. That scene was such a mess. Even I, who got cast late and joined Seven Days afterward, received quite a lot of attention at first.
Unfortunately, after I played with them one by one and had my fun, things quieted down. Among them, there was even one bastard who had a seizure whenever he saw me and quit being a trainee. I played with him too entertainingly, that was all. That bastard should be grateful to me. I played with him in a fun way, and as a bonus, he didn’t have to live this shitty idol life either. Right as I was about to feel proud of my good deed, some bastard came in. I stopped rinsing my hair and turned around.
“Park Yuha?”
What was this bastard doing, standing there naked and calling someone else’s name? I made a horrible face that said, I fucking despise you, then turned around and quickly rinsed out the shampoo. When I finished washing and was about to leave, I saw the bastard right beside me, staring at me. Had he been staring only at me this whole time without even washing? Wondering what kind of disgusting bastard this was, I smiled brightly.
“What are you staring at so hard, you fucking bastard?”
“I thought maybe you’d changed a little, but you really are Park Yuha. Or not? Maybe you did change?”
“What the hell are you saying?”
“You being an idol is honestly beyond ridiculous. Why are you even an idol? No, are you allowed to be one with that personality? Isn’t there a law against it? Then again, what law could matter to a guy who ignored the law from the start?”
The bastard sneered like crazy. I slowly studied the bastard in front of me.
…No matter how I looked at him, I didn’t know that face.
Was it that, maybe? Yeah. It had to be that. I spoke in a voice full of conviction.
“You’re my fan. A fucking stalker fan!”
“That kind of…! I’m not that kind of fucked-up thing!”
“You are a fan. You’re flustered because I caught you.”
“I’m not, fuck! You seriously don’t remember me?! First year, Class Two, Seonghyeon Middle School!”
This bastard was a seriously malicious stalker. He even knew the middle school I graduated from, down to my class. I got chills. Shouldn’t I sue this bastard? Considering he kept watching me wash, he wasn’t just an ordinary pervert. Was this bastard jerking off to me in his head even now?
When I looked at his dick with all the contempt I could muster, the bastard went berserk. Were only diseased bastards cast for this show? Why were there so many morons? Then again, with my naked body in front of him, it would be hard for a stalker bastard not to have an episode. I shook my head, then placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. Then I pressed hard into his collarbone. The man swallowed a scream.
“I get that you’re a pervert. But let’s act with some common sense. Okay?”
“What the—what kind of strength…!”
“Following me all the way here and getting horny is not it.”
“Ah! Aaagh!”
“This bastard’s loving it.”
That was one hell of a moan. I only touched his collarbone a little, and he was trembling all over while screaming. A proper pervert bastard. I let go of the man as he tried to collapse and clicked my tongue. The way he panted was deeply fucking unpleasant. The way he glared at me with reddened eyes was fucking nasty too.
In a dying voice, the bastard muttered ominously, “Park Yuha… you damn, you dogshit, you fucking….”
I nodded half-heartedly and crushed his dick under the sole of my foot. A pervert bastard like this should never be able to get it up again.
“Aaaagh!”
“Oops. Are you feeling it?”
The bastard couldn’t even speak and went into convulsions. Did he pass out? I looked down at the bastard who had collapsed with his eyes rolled back and wondered what to do for a moment. See, even dog shit has its uses. I smiled innocently at Kang Yejun, who had just come in, and beckoned with my hand. Kang Yejun looked back and forth between me and the bastard collapsed at my feet, then clutched his hair. I went closer to Kang Yejun and silently patted his shoulder.
Kang Yejun had experience in this business too, so I trusted he would understand what my behavior meant. And just as I expected, Kang Yejun quickly grasped the situation, ground out curses, and rushed over to the collapsed pervert bastard. It was pretty funny watching him check under the guy’s nose first to see if he was breathing. It wasn’t as if I had ever killed someone in front of him.
I looked down at Kang Yejun for a moment, then went outside. After changing clothes, I pulled out the phone I’d shoved away earlier. It seemed they weren’t collecting phones separately. They probably meant we should refrain from using them on our own. Since breaking that rule meant being kicked out, most people would obey. I checked my texts and put my phone into my pocket. Things were moving faster than I expected.
*****
I had been used to malice since I was young. And not just malice. How many bastards had there been who tried to kill me? The more powerful my maternal grandfather was, the more he cherished me, the more trash targeted me. How easy was it to kidnap a young kid and use him as a threat? One motherfucker even tried to sell me, as a child, into a whorehouse. I heard that motherfucker had been worked like a dog under my maternal grandfather and then thrown away.
My maternal grandfather had a fuckload of enemies. It only took a moment to turn people who had been on his side into enemies too. No matter how much my maternal grandfather cherished me, revenge after I was dead would be worthless. So I exercised every day and waited. Waited until I could crush the motherfuckers who kidnapped me with my own strength. Naturally, the exercise I learned was in that direction. Not some sport that went on about fair play. Exercise that could kill people. I did that shit all day until I was fourteen.
After I turned fourteen, I went to my mother’s family every weekend and every vacation and got worked until I puked. If I felt like my body had gone soft, I went to my mother’s family even on weekdays after school. Even while working as an idol, I exercised whenever I had time. Maybe that kind of thing had become a habit, because if I didn’t exercise, my body itched. Exercising didn’t get rid of all of that itch, though. Maybe because I’d learned it for that kind of purpose, the stiffness only loosened when I crushed people. More than anything, there was no need to wait anymore, so wouldn’t I get restless if I just sat still?
“…….”
I lay in bed pretending to sleep, then opened my eyes. I checked the alarm clock. It had slipped past 11:40 p.m. Even breathing could be heard around me. I carefully raised myself and grabbed the long padded coat I had hung on the standing clothes rack. Then I pushed open the door I had deliberately left not quite shut. The hall was dark. Not a single rat in sight. I connected a power bank to my phone and made a call.
My younger uncle had sense. He told me he had sent one of his men, so I should get in the car. I’d thought I might have to take a taxi to the broadcasting station. I slipped out of the dorm and checked the area. In the winter night, where only a few streetlights stood lit, bright headlights turned on. For once, he had sent a bastard who didn’t look like a gangster. I smiled with my eyes at the man bowing to me.
Once we left the quiet road, an open road appeared. It looked like we would reach the broadcasting station sooner than expected. I planned to meet my younger uncle first, then meet that producer bastard. He would probably be in the middle of editing right about now, so it would be fine to take my time. There was one thing bothering me, though. I looked at the car reflected in the rearview mirror. It had seemed to be following us in a strange way for a while now. The neat-looking man must have thought the same, because he opened his mouth.
“Young master. I believe we have a tail.”
“Is there somewhere around here we can stop?”
“If we go a little farther, there should be a commercial area.”
“Then stop after we go a bit.”
I added casually,
“Somewhere secluded, with nothing nearby except a convenience store, would be nice.”
Luckily, before long, a place matching what I’d described came into view. The neat-looking man pulled over and asked, “Shall I handle it?” The car that had been following us had stopped close by too. I shook my head and got out of the car. My body had already been itching for the past few years. I smiled faintly and entered the convenience store.
I didn’t know who had put the tail on me, but the bastard was no ordinary moron, because he followed me all the way into the convenience store. Well, that worked out. I bought cigarettes, then entered an alley near the convenience store. Pretending I knew nothing, I put a cigarette between my lips. The instant I flicked on the lighter, the bastard who had followed me charged. I moved lightly out of the way and kicked him in the abdomen.