“You tried to drag me into my house to rape me. And you hit me because it was not going well.”
“…..”
“Forget about ‘lovers’, it’s not even a ‘quarrel’, so what ‘lovers’ quarrel’? A mental criminal on the rise like you, who pretends to be a person sane in mind, should not work at a right-minded company, nor meet with a right-minded woman. I can’t allow it while I am alive.”
“……”
“I’m going to email all your colleagues about our ‘lovers’ quarrel’. The hundreds of messages you sent like a lunatic, the recording of all the nasty things you said to your ex by harassing her at her house right from the morning… Ah, in fact, I can sum it up in one line: ‘He tried to rape me but assaulted me because he couldn’t’. Like this, I’ll send it to all people from your company—”
“—Na-Yool, hang on—”
“—I’ll make your work life a fucking hell.”
Na-Yool even felt a sense of liberation from using ‘fucking’ for the first time in her life. She did not even want to laugh at the young and ordinary office worker who now solely remained in front of her, whose ferocious momentum had vanished into thin air in belated extreme fear for his social life.
He really believed in me.
Sang-Hoon had believed. After being unilaterally betrayed during their breakup (or so he thought), he came to look for Na-Yool trembling with the taste of betrayal and ruthlessly talked down to her to a point of no return, as if he had nothing to lose or be afraid of. Yet, he had believed.
That either way, she would not report him. That she could not.
“…Na-Yool, let’s not cross lines which shouldn’t be crossed.”
That she would not cross that line.
But how dare he call it a ‘line’! How dare he say it was not meant to be crossed! The belief that she would do nothing no matter what he did — that belief was what made this pathetic man fear nothing. Na-Yool did not even want to guess what its basis was. Even after doing all this to her, did Sang-Hoon expect her heart to soften out of affection for him, or maybe that she would be even more afraid that others would know about it…
“You can’t think straight right now because you’re upset. I got too excited too. Sorry.”
It was as if a beast that used to walk on four legs suddenly stood up on two and talked. As she remembered his threat to make it so that she can never lift her face again, Na-Yool smiled coldly. Sang-Hoon’s confidence in raping her to shame and coming out unscathed of it had shattered when she had mentioned the police was on its way. The fact that he was a gutless coward was to Na-Yool’s good luck. But to think that the only thing he had relied on was her powerlessness made her sick to her stomach.
“So let’s calm down and think it through, together.”
“Don’t say ‘together’. It makes me barf.”
“…First of all, Na-Yool. When did I try to rape you? How could I, hm? You know me. Am I that kind of trash?”
“You did. What you did earlier is sexual assault.”
“Are we in bed? We’re not even in your house! How could I do it in the hallway? Am I crazy?”
“Hence you tried to drag me in. And yes, you’re crazy.”
“I was just saying it, I didn’t mean to. I wanted to talk to you, but you kept avoiding me, so I had no choice but to—”
“If I say I don’t want to talk to you, then that’s it. What ‘no choice’?”
“Na-Yool… I said I love you.”
“You, if you love me more, you might kill me.”
“Stop talking nonsense. Even the police will laugh at you if you say that. We’re dating. It can never qualify as rape—”
“I am not dating you, for God’s sake!”
“—Ms. Kim Na-Yool?”
Their expressions simultaneously changed as they heard the voice of a third party.
“I’m the police. We got a report from your friend. First…” said the young policeman in an apathetic tone, standing next to the stair landing. But when he saw the corner of Na-Yool’s lips, his words paused, and he slowly looked around at the documents spread all over and the bag thrown on the floor. Then, when his eyes fell on the cellphone thrown in the distance, his brief observation came to a stop.
“Sir, I need you to follow me to the police station on charges of attempted rape and assault.”
Another policeman who was out of their sight came up from under the landing, and soon haled down Sang-Hoon, frozen in shock. The moment Sang-Hoon disappeared from her view, the tears that Na-Yool had suppressed finally burst out. A policewoman who had come along and was around the same age as Na-Yool, wrapped her arm around the shoulders of the crying Na-Yool, while she repeated that everything was fine now. After checking a few memos in the notepad that he was holding to give Na-Yool some time, the other policeman in front of her then addressed her.
“Ms. Kim Na-Yool, I must ask you to go with us to the station to give your testimony. Is it alright?”
“Yes, it is.”
Na-Yool took the bag that they roughly had put together for her, wiped away her tears, and bravely walked off. But after a few steps, she exclaimed an “Ah!” as something crossed her mind and, with a more relaxed voice and disposition, made a request to the policewoman walking by her side.
“My cellphone was unexpectedly broken; would you mind lending me yours just for a moment?”
However, tears were still flowing down, making her look awfully pitiful. The policewoman had no reason to refuse, and even if she did, she felt too sympathetic to be able to.
“Oh, yes. Please use it. Are you calling your family?”
“Ah, no.”
Na-Yool promptly received the phone while still wiping her tears, and right away connected to the internet to search for something under the interrogative stare of the policewoman. Ethical Communications? Na-Yool immediately clicked on the search result to open the site of the company unknown to the policewoman, then scrolled all the way down to the phone number info and dialed it.
“……”
“… Hello? Hi, Team Manager Lee. This is E/D team Kim Na-Yool. My apologies for calling you so early in the morning, here is the thing… yes, I have some unexpected urgent matter and I can’t come to work today…”
Poor office workers… The policewoman’s gaze was even more sympathetic than when she first saw Na-Yool.
Chapter 22 – Friday the 13th (B)
“What was it… ah right, that she had to go to the police station.”
“……”
Hyung-Wook from the HR team perplexingly observed Si-Jin, who was staring at him with a still frame. It had been a long time since he last experienced such an awkward silence that made him forget his next word.
Despite being called the ‘HR team’, Hyung-Wook had been its only member since joining the company. As the company’s growth was steep, even when the size of the business reached this level, there were clearly some elements that could not change up to grade. Such was Hyung-Wook. From the start, he had always assumed both the role of team manager and team member on his own. Because of this, he was extremely proud to have mostly amicable private meetings with Si-Jin, unlike other employees. In the name of the HR team, although he was Si-Jin’s puppet, he could handle all HR-related decisions, from big tasks to miscellaneous ones, such as the employees’ salary, attendance management, insurances, year-end tax adjustment, and certification procedure. As such, he had naturally gotten used to dealing with any sort of matter.
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