The rattling windows burst open. The wind roared, sending the curtains flailing. Taekjoo, still asleep, pulled his blanket up to his neck and hunched his shoulders. But he couldn’t withstand the brutal cold. If he fell asleep now, he’d be found frozen to death in the morning. Annoyed, Taekjoo got up.
The moment his feet hit the floor, pain shot through him. All this time, he used to think he was pretty good at taking hits. He must have been wrong. He had hit rock bottom while he was unconscious, and just getting to this point had taken everything. Dragging his feet, he closed the gaping window. Finally, the piercing wind stopped. His shoulders trembled from the chill.
Still half-asleep, he climbed back into bed. The mattress was stiff, and the blanket barely covered him, forcing him to curl up tight. It was a private ward, but still painfully under-equipped. Taekjoo ground his teeth. He promised himself he would file a complaint to HQ the moment he got back.
He drank some water and lay down. For now, all he wanted was to rest. He closed his eyes, about to fall asleep again, when his hair stirred gently. At first, he thought it was the mist from the humidifier. But soon, everything started to flutter again—his gown, the IV tube, his blanket.
Taekjoo couldn’t believe it. He had just shut the window. He opened his eyes, confused.
‘...!’
He sat up immediately. The windows he had just shut were wide open again. A silhouette stood between the flowing curtains. He couldn’t see the face, but he didn’t need to. His heart sank to his stomach. Every heartbeat thundered in his ears.
‘This is it? Your burrow?’
The figure grinned and swung over the windowsill in one smooth, graceful move. Taekjoo’s ward was on the fourth floor, but the height didn’t bother him at all. He pushed back the curtains and walked inside. His usual smiling face looked especially unsettling. Taekjoo instinctively stepped back, but his back hit the cold wall. There was nowhere to run.
‘H-how did you... here... ugh!’
His voice cracked as the intruder’s hand closed around his throat. The figure seemed to swell in size, his choking grip equally monstrous. His body couldn’t withstand the pressure. Taekjoo’s eyes bulged, and his mouth opened wide in pain. He thrashed desperately, trying to free himself, but it was no use. The intruder simply spoke in an easy, almost cheerful drawl.
‘I got bored without my toy. And it’s always better to do a clean job, so no one would come back to haunt me.’
He licked his lips, eyeing Taekjoo with unreadable intent. His eyes glinted silently like a giant reptile’s. Taekjoo’s vision blurred from the lack of oxygen. He barely managed to keep his eyes open. A reddish glow flickered in the intruder’s eyes. It was desire—a blood-red desire.
‘Our bodies know each other quite well, wouldn’t you say? Seems only right to say goodbye properly.’
Taekjoo sensed the danger closing in. In an instant, he was flipped over. The hand that had choked him now pressed hard into the back of his neck. His face was shoved into the pillow. He didn’t even notice his pants were down until something hot and rigid pushed between clenched cheeks. Taekjoo thrashed with everything he had.
‘Stop! You’ve raped me more than enough, you son of a bitch!’
He roared furiously. The intruder tilted his head mockingly, grounding his hard, hot shaft between Taekjoo’s trembling cleft.
‘I wouldn’t call it rape. You enjoyed it too. You even came several times.’
He let out a cold chuckle as he forced unbearable pressure into Taekjoo’s spine. Taekjoo’s felt his lungs and guts being crushed and screamed from the unbearable pain. He knew it was useless, but he screamed anyway, desperate for someone—anyone—to hear him.
Yet the more he screamed, the fainter his voice grew, like a cry sinking into deep water or swallowed by a murky swamp. No one heard him. No one came to help him. He was consumed by a suffocating sense of isolation, completely severed from the world.