april.
Cherry blossoms are in full bloom, and lovers walk along the flower path, giggling.
After school, children rush to the PC room. Workers hurry home, their bodies weary.
An alley next to a convenience store. It's a less redeveloped area even within downtown Seoul.
As evening approaches, the smell of cooking begins to waft through the alleyways.
Part-time workers who have finished their weekly work will quickly stop by a convenience store to buy a discarded lunch box.
Aya and I will be working hard again today, working menial jobs for minimum wage.
I will criticize feminists and Aya will criticize Hannam.
We'll talk about the most viewed posts in each of the boys' and girls' communities, and have fun talking about the world we see on the internet.
And we each walk home from work to our studio apartments, across the alley where the sun is setting.
Looking at each other with awkward and embarrassed expressions.
We will walk like that.
like that….
The world is destroyed.
I raise my face and look at Aya.
Because of the tears, one of her eyes was slightly swollen.
Aya and I are tied together to a cross-shaped stake.
I've been patient for a long time.
It must have lasted at least a day and a few hours.
However, humans have something called physiological phenomena.
I'm not the type to read a lot of web novels or webtoons... I just read about the amount of stuff an average person would read while lying in bed after work.
In no apocalypse movie has this been told.
About defecation, drinking water, and pain.
It's a much bigger problem than zombies.
“Sir… Don’t look… Please….”
"are you okay."
There's only one thing that comes to mind right now.
Neither Amundsen, who explored the poles, nor Reinhold Messner, who conquered the Himalayas and discovered the truth about the Yeti.
And the fact that the Yeti is a big bear is somehow boring.
What comes to mind now is a British person who starts with something like "bear".
In extreme situations, you need to learn to drink urine and even eat crickets in tree branches for protein.
As he mutters these words, Uncle Bear prepares a fish with a MacGyver knife.
And then, the next line he threw out.
"But the most important thing is to not give up mentally and persevere with your heart. After all, humans are thinking animals."
So, I decided to follow Brother Bear's advice.
“Sir… I told you not to look. It smells….”
“Aya, it’s okay. Look at me.”
Aya looks at me helplessly with tear-filled eyes.
“I’m tired too. Did I just get tired?”
I deliberately move my pants a little, which is an ugly sight.
“Already, the flies like me.”
Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any dung beetles in downtown Seoul.
But, there is something that bothers me more than the physiological phenomenon.
The first face I've seen since I was born.
This is Park Aya's face, completely devoid of hope.
“If I don’t clean up after myself, I might get bitten by germs… What should I do?”
Still, we still have the capacity to think normally.
“That’s a problem, but there’s a bigger problem.”
“Food?”
Yeah, food. We've been fasting for almost two days now.
But, there's a bigger problem.
“No, water.”
"water…."
Aya licks her swollen lips.
“Looking at the sky… it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain in Seoul.”
After all, he was tied to the cross on a hill that rivaled Golgotha.
I don't think a miracle will happen to us.
####
“Wow, sensei. You pooped so hard. I thought you were in a public restroom.”
Jinbyeol approaches us, munching on a chocolate bar.
It's already been three days since I've been tied up like this.
How long can a person survive without drinking water?
I don't know about starving, but I don't think I can last long without water...
Now you don't have to worry about incontinence.
Because I didn't drink anything.
I force myself to look at Aya.
Aya, it seems, doesn't even have the strength to raise her head.
Like a dying kitten, only its lips are gasping.
“Ugh, it doesn’t look good. Huh?”
Jinbyeol takes out an ionic drink from his pocket.
The refreshing sound of a can being opened fills my ears.
Jinbyeol deliberately gulps down his drink so that Aya and I can see it clearly.
“Oh, shit. I’m full.”
And then she throws the drink she didn't even drink on the floor.
“Sensei. Do you know that?”
I didn't say anything.
It's not because of resistance, or a sense of justice, or a desire to get screwed...
Because I really don't have the strength to respond.
“The first time I betrayed someone was when I was six years old.”
Jinbyeol pulls a wooden chair over and sits down in front of us, as if he wants to tell us an interesting story.
“I had a best friend, and one day— this thought occurred to me.”
“….”
"This man accepts everything I say. So, what if I 'lie' to someone who says I'm completely okay with it? What if I deceive and 'betray' that person? How would that feel?"
Crazy bitch.
"So, I lied for the first time. I lied that the boy hit me, that he hit my butt. In fact, he was just holding me back because he was afraid I'd get hurt."
Jinbyeol fiddles with the butt of his air gun with a somewhat ecstatic expression.
"That's when I realized that pleasure. The look on the face of the boy who'd been betrayed by me. The look on the face of someone who hadn't doubted me even a little, only to get a brutal slap on the back of the head!"
Jinbyeol pulls the chair closer.
"Since then... I've lived a life of betrayal. But it's not as easy as it sounds. Social life... isn't something you can just betray and stab in the back of the head at any time. You're older than me, Sensei, so you know what I mean, right? Lies and betrayal are harder than you think."
I want to throw up because it's disgusting, but I can't because I haven't eaten anything.
"I already knew it! Ever since Aya started talking about Sensei in the group chat. Ah, this kid. She definitely has special feelings for this guy."
Aya to me?
I desperately try to expand my thoughts.
In a dried-up heart, thoughts do not wander.
Jinbyeol raises her hand and slaps my cheek.
"So, that's how I acted. I did tell the pig and the captain a bit beforehand, but the rest was improvisation! Doesn't it sound plausible? Because if you want to deceive others, you have to deceive your own troops first. That's the true pleasure of betrayal and lying."
Yeah, that psychopathic bitch, Jegal Jinbyeol.
You're not a feminist, you're a lunatic.
Oh right, were those two homonyms?
"Oh, that's boring. If you're going to tell me a good story, you should answer. That's why I feel sorry for you. You idiot."
“… Please.”
“Huh? Sensei? What did you say?”
There is very little moisture, so you have to be careful with every word you say.
Because my head is already spinning and my heart feels like it's beating slower.
Still, I barely managed to open my mouth.
“I don’t mind dying… but just let Aya go. Aya is a feminist… so… please…”
Jinbyeol looks at me blankly.
And then the crazy bitch with the air gun starts laughing and holding her stomach.
“Oh, crazy! What the? Sensei, what kind of innocent person are you? You think it’s some fucking hilarious hidden camera? Huh?”
Jinbyeol's boot kicked my stomach hard.
“What kind of feminist is that girl! What the hell! She’s a scar! Don’t you know what scar means? Tell me, okay?”
Anyway, I have neither the strength nor the means to resist.
Now, even the senses are changing like rotten wood.
“Teacher, fuck off. Do you want me to tell you something fun?”
Jinbyeol giggles and retrieves the air gun lying on the floor.
"The refugees you worked so hard for, the ones you tried so hard to help pass the exams for. But none of them bothered to ask about your well-being."
“You four bitches are acting like that… who would ask….”
Those people have no power.
They are just people who have been born into this world with no sin.
This crazy… bitch… is an exaggeration… you beast of a person.
“Oh, really? Then, there’s no justice?”
Jinbyeol slung an air gun over his shoulder.
"Sensei, try praying. Don't you have a religion?"
“….”
"No, why? There's something like a rain ritual. It's like the one my favorite Zhuge Liang did, from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Try doing something. When it rains, you can lick up the raindrops."
Jinbyeol glances at my unresponsive face for the last time.
"Of course, praying won't do any good. If it's God who gave us this power, then there's no way that God, or a computer, or some cosmic being, would answer your prayers, teacher."
Jinbyeol giggles and leaves the cross.
The temperature in April is warm.
Aya and I are dying.
####
Someone is calling me.
Are you new?
Ah, that bastard above the constellations, that voice or whatever.
You, I really have a lot to say.
Looks like he's finally dead.
Just tell me. God, you're really dead.
Oh right, if you're already dead, you can't die again, right?
"mister!"
My consciousness returns.
In front of the lips, which are dried and twisted like the bark of an old tree, a plate that looks like a cat's water bowl is visible.
A small hand holds a plate full of water in front of my mouth.
“Drink quickly. You never know when your sisters will come.”
Almost instinctively, I started licking the plate like a dog driven mad by thirst.
It's so sweet. It's so sweet that it makes my tongue burst with sweetness.
I emptied the water bowl in no time.
"Here's another one. But that's it. My sisters even limit my water intake. The man who came in on Monday was beaten up for drinking a little too much."
I licked the water bowl, which had shrunk slightly since before, like a puppy. I sucked. I inhaled.
After drinking the water of life, the brain that seemed to be broken begins to come to its senses.
"ouch…."
I call her name weakly.
“Give Aya some water too….”
“Is that the tied up sister over there? She’s already….”
Already? What? No way?
I feel strength entering my body.
I struggle in vain, twisting my bound body.
My vision comes back to life, and the damned world unfolds before my eyes again.
I don't think I've fallen behind yet.
“I already watered it. It’ll be fine.”
Kid, if you keep speaking so haltingly like that, you won't live long. Don't you know you're part of a secret organization?
"mister."
The son of the woman who killed the pig, Lee Yeon-jeong.
What was his name? Was it Siwoo, Seonwoo, or Woojeong? I don't know.
“Mrs. Yuhwa said, what will that woman called Daejang do here tomorrow?”
“What is that?”
The little boy shrugs.
"I don't know. Anyway, everything those older sisters do is weird. It can't be good."
This kid. Now that I look at him, he's quite intelligent for his age.
“Sir, please don’t die.”
“Is that up to me?”
“You know what? After Mom goes to heaven and Grandpa passes away….”
The little boy babbles, as if he doesn't want to recall sad memories.
“That older sister secretly gave food to me and my family.”
“Ayaga?”
The little boy nods.
“So, please don’t die. If you and I die too.”
A child who hesitates for a moment.
“Because really, I think you’ll think there’s no God in the world.”
After saying that, the boy quickly goes down the stage.
Next to the stairs, there is a makeshift ladder that the staff use to carry luggage during performances.
Perhaps, it crawled up beyond that.
God.
I don't even know if there is a god.
But, maybe it's not what you think it is.
No one cries all night because an earthworm dies.
Even if we defecate and urinate here and die.
Probably, because no one will cry.
####
"Therefore, the argument of Korean men comparing feminism to Nazism is absurd! It's disgusting! True female supremacy is, after all, an inevitable act to overhaul a male-dominated society that has persisted since the Stone Age! Therefore, this is neither reverse discrimination nor hatred! It is the only truth!"
The Valkyries applaud.
Oh, that kid.
The Valkyrie who was captured with us last time.
Congratulations on your wonderful ideological transformation.
Be sure to go to Tiananmen Square for your honeymoon later.
"Good. Sister, your good advice will serve as an example to the other Valkyries and the inhabitants of Paradise."
Thanks to the brave little friend who doused him with water, he survived.
A body that has been defecated emits a foul odor, and a mouth that has not eaten anything emits a foul odor.
Because it was fixed for a long time, the body was a mess like oak firewood.
“Let me go!”
"yes?"
“I told you to let me go. Are you deaf?”
Before I knew it, I saw men wearing the ‘blue armband’ I was wearing.
Perhaps, they are the new teachers who were appointed as captains of Seocheonma in the meantime.
Those men untie Aya and I.
Because I was tied up for several days, I couldn't move properly.
It would be a miracle if the flesh didn't rot.
Aya and I lay down on the floor without saying who would go first.
“Huh huhu… It smells like death.”
The Seocheonma is coming towards us, making a clicking sound.
In the distance, I see the Valkyries and the Egos.
However, their escort is actually unnecessary.
Right now, I don't have the strength to kill even a single ant.
“Would you please raise your head, sir?”
I try desperately to move my head, but it's not enough.
“What are you doing? Can’t you hear what the captain is saying?”
The Hannam captains forcibly pull Aya and I by the hair.
“Oh, yes. That’s right… Good. Teacher. Could you look over there?”
Beyond the head pulled by the armbands, I look across the stage.
I see a cross.
Unlike the wooden cross that Aya and I were tied to, this cross was made of a special material.
A shiny ebony cross.
There, tied up, was an angel who had almost lost his light.
“How many times?”
Seocheonma licks his lips and asks a question to Valkyrie, who is working in the office.
“There were a few omissions during the recording… but, roughly around 302 times…”
"okay."
I look at an angel with broken wings and almost lost his golden glow.
Zenobia's shining clothes and sparkling pearl stockings are now torn to the point where they are difficult to see.
And, the white marks that were stuck all over her body.
Oh, no.
"It seems the ego is more poisonous than humans. Up until the 180th time, you kept your mouth shut and held back your voice. Indeed, it seems the legend of her being gang-raped by Roman legionaries is true."
Seocheonma laughs like a child, as if he is having fun.
"Even so, it's just the victim's ego. After the 200th time, he finally started groaning. It's rare to find a decent man among the refugees, so it must have been incredibly difficult to keep him ejaculating…."
“It’s a natural phenomenon.”
"huh?"
That voice wasn't mine, Aya's, or the Valkyries'.
The wingless angel moved his lips, which were covered in semen and filth.
"When a man or woman's genitals engage in sexual intercourse, they naturally secrete love fluids. And even if it's due to pain, they make sounds. It's not due to love or pleasure. That doesn't prove superiority. Don't you really understand?"
Seocheonma doesn't say anything.
“Why? Or maybe it’s because I’ve never truly experienced ‘love’….”
Both body and mind must have been torn apart.
Aya's ego laughed.
“You don’t know what that is, do you?”
“That bitch….”
Seocheonma stretches his hand forward.
A strange cube of light that buzzes and glows.
Her singularity begins to radiate energy.
"slave!"
I look up and see the bound angel.
Why are you a slave until the end? At the end, call me by my name.
“This is the 311th time I’ve been destroyed!”
Even Ego can't do that. It's an extreme job.
Seocheonma focuses the cube's energy on one point.
“We all die.”
The light of energy settles down like a pinnacle.
“And… the time comes when you must make a choice. A final choice, one you can only make once.”
The singularity is at its peak luminosity.
“At that time, you… make the right choice.”
A tremendous light spreads out into the sports complex.
Me, Aya, the Valkyries, and the refugees gathered around all closed their eyes because of the light.
And then, the light slowly fades away.
In the place where the ego was tied, only the lingering scent of ashes scatters pitifully.
“Hoohoo... hoohoohoohoohoo!”
Seocheonma adjusts her posture, shaking her hands like a crazy woman.
"See? This is the power of the singularity! Even if it's ego! To me... No! If you defy feminism, you'll just be raped, gang-raped, and turned to ashes!"
Seocheonma is trembling all over.
Like a rookie executioner carrying out a sentence in a slaughterhouse for the first time.
“Haa… ha… good. Now….”
The devil snaps his fingers.
Immediately, two Valkyries climb onto the platform.
“Let go… I don’t like it… this….”
And, they strongly restrain Aya's sides.
“Hahaha… I feel so bad. I want to tear that squinty-eyed, scarred girl with her tits jiggling right in front of you, teacher.”
I see the side profile of the Cheonma.
A shaking, maddening face with eyes blinking, tongue slightly parted.
In this crazy world, there are crazy feminists.
“It’s a shame I can’t steal that girl’s virginity because I’m a woman.”
Seocheonma waves his fingers and stretches out the singularity.
From the cube, something like slime was dripping down.
"no!"
Cheonma, without changing his expression, holds the liquid in his lips.
And then, while hugging Aya who was captured by the Valkyries, he opens her mouth and forcibly pours liquid into her.
“Whoosh!”
Aya, exhausted, has no way to resist that power.
A single tear streamed down her cheek.
Seocheonma deliberately sucked her lips so that I could see clearly, as if showing off.
He pours saliva and the liquid of the singularity into Aya's mouth as if he is insulting her with a kiss.
“Phew!”
And then she pulls her tongue out of Aya's mouth.
“Hahaha— I guess it was your first kiss. You look great.”
The horse strikes Aya's chest.
"But it tastes disgusting. The taste of a slut and a fake feminist. The taste of a prostitute who can do nothing but arouse men with her body."
After tormenting Aya like that.
The horse looks down at me quietly.
“Seocheonma.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’d better kill me now.”
“Oh, teacher. Didn’t you know the meaning of my name?”
Seocheonma laughs at me, the corners of his mouth twitching.
"I told you, my name comes from a disgusting martial arts novel. My father, a man of few words, read countless martial arts novels. So, even though he didn't like it, he had to memorize the contents."
“….”
"Teacher, that line sounds like something out of a 1980s martial arts novel. It's a stupid line that wouldn't sell at all, something out of a trashy, Hitel-era martial arts novel. You get it?"
“Kill me now.”
I'm used to hiding my feelings.
All modern people are like that.
Because I can't live by my emotions.
No matter how special the guest is, you have to treat them politely in order to receive your salary.
No matter how much nonsense the store manager talks, you have to listen to him if you want to continue going to work.
That's life.
But now.
For the first time in my life, I feel…
I am experiencing feelings of maddening anger, hatred, and revenge.
“If you don’t kill me now.”
“Yes. Yes. Please, please kill me, sir.”
Seocheonma hits my knee with the tip of her high heel.
I couldn't even scream, I just twisted my body.
“Please, kill this boring, omnipotent being with that disgusting, filthy ...
The Valkyries lifted Aya's sagging body.
Their egos hold me back.
"Teacher. I won't kill you. I gave that ugly bitch, whose head is full of thoughts of you, a special 'gift'."
The eyes of the Heavenly Horse shine with distorted colors.
“So, to that cow-scared bitch and the teacher….”
A light that suits a world gone mad.
“I will punish you with expulsion from paradise.”
Knock. Knock.
I look up at the sky.
The sky was so pitch black it was hard to believe.
The raindrops I've been longing for are finally wetting my head.
Yes, Aya and I.
The second time I was abandoned by the world.