Episode 306:
Kim Ki-jeong was a typical victim who was caught up in the bullying of his parents and almost ruined his life.
His parents, like Kim Ki-jeong, were involved in the music industry. His father was a conductor and his mother was a violist. Kim Ki-jeong, who may have inherited the inheritance from those two, had a keen sense of hearing that could be dared to be said to be special, and the two, who recognized their son’s great talent, decided on his future.
“Now what sound is this?”
“…city.”
“Then what about this?”
“Do pa.”
“Once again. This?”
“Re mi do….”
“What do?”
“…high notes….”
The problem was that Kim Ki-jeong was not very interested in music.
But the parents didn’t think it was a big problem. Anyway, hobbies and jobs are different things. Kim Ki-jeong could utilize his talent to work in the music industry, but once he was established, he could enjoy the hobbies he wanted along with them. We were unlucky and did not succeed, but we could not leave Kim Ki-jeong alone because we thought there was no way a son with such talent could not succeed.
“…Oh, I don’t like it!”
“Kim Ki-jeong!”
“I won’t say no! it’s annoying!”
However, Kim Ki-jeong, who had a single personality since childhood, was also quite stubborn. He often had trouble sleeping due to his extremely sensitive hearing, so he refused as much as he could to the future his parents had decided for him, and his stubborn parents took extreme measures.
“Then you leave the house.”
“…uh?”
“Get out. We feed them and put them to sleep, okay? I do everything for you, but you don’t even develop the talent you passed on. Just be stubborn. There is nothing to do. “You can’t thank your parents when they do something nice to you, but why are you being rude to your parents?”
“That’s not what you said.”
“No, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t like it that much, don’t do it to my son. He’s not our son. Why are you here? get out. “Why don’t you get out soon?!”
In fact, if you think about it now, they probably didn’t mean what they said. They must have said this because they were angry because they were giving everything to their child, but my child was rejecting it. I really mean that I wouldn’t have wanted my child to be kicked out, go missing, or become someone else’s child.
But how would a child know that? It was an incredible act of violence and intimidation for a child who had no one to rely on except his parents. Kim Ki-jeong ended up sobbing outside the front door and was only able to enter the house when his parents forgave him.
“Are you going to listen well?”
“…Yeah…”
“Mom and Dad don’t like children who don’t listen. “Are you going to listen well?”
“I’ll listen carefully.”
“It’s right, it’s good. “Mom will forgive everything.”
However, since both parents and children are stubborn and have difficult temperaments, this was bound to happen over and over again. If you forget, Kim Ki-jeong was kicked out, and as the number of incidents increased, they became more and more accustomed to this situation.
Around the time he reached the 6th grade, Kim Ki-jeong finally exploded.
“…SEE! I don’t need mom or dad either! Everyone get out! “I’m going out!”
And the parents ignored what they said.
“What the heck! Come out and see! huh? What are you going to do when you get out?! “You should be grateful when someone takes care of you!”
“They said leave it alone and I will take care of it. You have to run away from home to know that the world is scary. “Let’s just leave it at that.”
“I happened to call that guy my son… It’s useless to give birth to a tummy ache. “Even if my head got bigger, they would fight me.”
That’s how accustomed they were to each other’s conflicts, so no one caught Kim Ki-jeong going outside. I just shouted behind Kim Ki-jeong, who was trying to pack his luggage.
“We bought all of that for you, so why are you taking it with you?! Put it down quickly.”
“…Oh really! “I’m leaving because it’s dirty.”
Eventually, Kim Ki-jeong, a 6th grade child, left home bare-handed and did not return for a week.
“Have you tried contacting Jincheol’s?”
“He didn’t even go there….”
“Where on earth did he go?”
The complacent belief that, at most, I would be sitting at a friend’s house or staying in a PC room or sauna, was gradually collapsing. Only then did Kim Ki-jeong’s parents realize that this situation might not have happened simply because of their child’s stubbornness.
“…the phone….”
“You left your cell phone behind.”
“Oh my gosh, what is he going to do?”
“First of all… let’s report him missing.”
If they were staying at a friend’s house they didn’t know, there would be no such shame, but when they didn’t get a call from the police right away, their anxiety got worse. It didn’t matter if he pouted and acted lazy again, he just prayed that he would appear in front of us safely.
A month had passed like that.
“Kijeong…!”
“Kim Ki-jeong!”
The parents visited Kim Ki-jeong, but the child’s condition was not good.
“…go away! “Don’t come back!”
“Mom, Kijeong. huh? “What’s wrong…”
“Go away! Argh! “Ahh!”
If you tried to grab his hand or shoulder, he would scream and fight, and he would become stiff as if he didn’t want to touch anything, so he couldn’t even lie down in bed. If anything touched his hand, he would raise the nail of the other hand and scrape it off. Even the arms, neck and cheeks…
The police officer who found the child explained it with a perplexed expression.
“Well… I was staying with my grandmother who had dementia.”
“yes? “Grandma?”
“They said they took a child spinning around in the mountains thinking it was their grandson…”
Kim Ki-jeong’s family lived in an area far from the city center, and the average income cannot be said to be high even with empty words. There was a mountain and a small village nearby. However, when I was puzzled by the fact that the child went to the mountains and not to a friend’s house, the police continued.
“I was sitting on the playground when a strange man approached me.”
“Am I a kidnapper…?”
“No, that’s it. We barely found the place because there were no CCTVs and the quality of the images was poor… He said that he was worried because the child was alone in the evening and asked where his parents were. “As you can see in the video, there was no specific circumstance of touching or forcibly dragging the person.”
“No, but people are like that…! “If you approach me like that!”
“Calm down and listen. He tried to take the child to the police station, but the child got scared and ran away toward the mountain. “In the evening, because he knew the mountain was dangerous, he followed the child into the mountain… but at some point he couldn’t see him, so he gave up and went home.”
But it wasn’t long before the 6th grade kid got lost in the mountains. Kim Ki-jeong, who already had excellent hearing, had been wandering around the mountain for a whole day, hearing the sounds of insects and wild animals coming from all directions, and escaped for a whole day. An old woman with dementia found him and took him home.
Kim Ki-jeong tried several times to say that he was not your grandson and that he should return home, but each time, his grandmother scolded him and told him to stop talking nonsense. Because it was a home for the elderly who lived alone with no adults visiting, Kim Ki-jeong had to stay there for nearly a full month, very scared.
“…Oh, no, no… What will you do if you only find it now! “The kid has gotten to that point!”
“You know that neighborhood. There was no CCTV, and even if there was one, it didn’t work… Even if it was filmed, the quality of the picture was bad… We tried our best to find it. However, the child entered the mountain and fell into a different direction than the road, so we had a hard time. “It doesn’t hurt anything though.”
“The problem is not that there are wounds on the body…! Can’t you see it?! Didn’t you see it!? The kid was so scared! No, why did it take so long to find such a small child in the first place?!”
“Then why did you kick the child out? “He’s only a 6th grader… You should have known from the moment you kicked him out that it could be dangerous.”
“Did we really tell you to get out?! “That’s just what I’m saying…!”
The parents who kicked out their children with their own hands, and the police who dragged their feet on duty and found the missing person much too late. The argument between the two pitiful adults was all heard by Kim Ki-jeong’s good ears, and every time he heard it, Kim Ki-jeong wiped his clean hands with a clean tissue.
“….”
A mountain full of mud and bugs, and an old man with dementia who treated me like I was a rat. Kim Ki-jeong, who was living in a clean house but was exposed to uncleanness for the first time in his life, developed myelopathy without even realizing it. The child did not know exactly what his condition was.
I just couldn’t bear the unpleasant feeling of having dirty hands constantly on my hands.
“…I’m scared…”
I heard tinnitus and all the noise in the world disappeared.
“scared.”
I couldn’t even hear my own voice properly.
Even after returning home, Kim Ki-jeong was still stuck in the mud pit.
* * *
Whenever he felt scared, he wiped his hands.
“…It’s not there…”
I searched my pockets, but I couldn’t find the handkerchief I used every time.
“Did you fall while running away?”
Kim Ki-jeong’s eyes turned to my wrist again.
1 min.
“…1 minute….”
He sat down on the stage and looked intently at the wide floor of the auditorium.
“….”
Kim Ki-jeong suffered from his parents just to be able to stand this high.
Even if it is not the simple podium of a school like this and is a podium that one climbs up to command, it is not as high as an apartment building. Just go up a few steps and you’re done. Kim Ki-jeong always argued with his beloved parents and made sharp remarks, just to get up to that level. Even though he got to that point, Kim Ki-jeong still loved his parents.
“…is not it.”
Maybe it’s love/hate. They are definitely precious people, but they are the ones who hurt me so much.
“It’s scary.”
He sat on the podium, shuffling his feet and muttering.
“I’m scared…”
Despite what happened, several years passed and his parents scolded Kim Ki-jeong again.
In any case, since you were the one who left voluntarily, you are also responsible. As a result of listening to our consideration, you were not seriously injured in the end. He said that because you were so scared, you were such a narrow-minded person that it felt like you had a hard time for no reason…
“….”
So even when he was this scared, Kim Ki-jeong had no choice but to wipe his hands.
“…I’m scared….”
There’s no one who will listen anyway.
No one will watch me die.
“….”
That’s how Kim Ki-jeong became a plaster monster.
* * *
The question that arises at this point is why Kim Ki-jeong became a plaster monster.
On the second floor, Park Da-hoon and Yoon Gar-ram were waiting, hiding in the lobby, and Ha Seong-yoon, who came down from the third floor to immediately chase Kim Ki-jeong. Nevertheless, the fact that Kim Ki-jeong became a plaster monster meant that there were no more people left on the second floor.
But why was that so? There were not two, but three people, including those who chased Kim Ki-jeong down, on the second floor.
“Mr. Kang Min-ah…!”
The reason was Kang Min-ah.
“I have to die.”
“Please calm down! Why are you doing that…!”
“We all have to die. “I have to die.”
Kang Min-ah was a returner.
To be exact, he is a person who was influenced by ‘Kang Min-ah’ who remembers the time before his return. The memories she recalled before returning did not seem to be her own, but they were clearly hers, and she fell into a sense of detachment and confusion. It was myself and at the same time it was not my memory.
So, Kang Min-ah starts to think.
“Everyone must die.”
Only when we all die can we start anew.
“I have to die…”
Even if I die anyway, another me will have a new beginning and I don’t want to remember the present. It doesn’t matter if we don’t become the last survivor, we need a new opportunity.
It’s right for everyone to die.
“…Let me help you.”
I can help you get started.
Kang Min-ah truly thought so.
