“Your panties are off, I see. What were you doing in there? Making porn? Your mom’s blood hasn’t even dried from your scalp yet, you baby …” As I say this I feel in my gut, Oh shit, this is a bad idea. Her fist flies into my face. I fall to the ground, hitting my head against the door. I crawl on my elbow to grab her boot, but her sneakers give my head a good kick. I spin on the floor like a windmill. I give up, I give up, sorry, sorry! I’m so scared they will keep kicking me, but they stop at my surrender. Perhaps they are drained from what they were doing in the stall. They tell me to pay up instead. I hand over the eight thousand won, all the money I have, but beg for some change so I can pay the subway fare. They look proud, like they won a prize from spinning the Wheel of Fortune. I actually feel pretty good, too. My chest feels lighter now that my nose is bleeding. I can make more money. And I have a good amount of money in the bag I left at Jihyun’s place. Money saved from the café and German tutoring. Jeong Yeoul, you are doing your best. Good job! And these wounds are just mild scratches. Wait, no, they’ll probably leave some serious marks. Shit, where did those little assholes go?

Bravo, My Life

Bravo, My Life

“After I come back, she and I will get married.” I hear Jihyun saying to Donghyuk, his best friend, as I’m coming out of the bathroom after a shower. I feel like he is saying it for me to hear.

“Is this bastard for real?” his friend asks me.

“Of course.”Jihyun doesn’t give me a chance to speak, and starts rambling. “Yeoul, you can keep going in college as a married woman. I’m going to persuade my father in Italy. My mom is more or less on board. Don’t worry about a thing. You want this too, right? I take that as a yes.” Jihyun and Donghyuk seem pretty wasted. When I arrived at Jihyun’s place for my bag, there were already several empty wine bottles on the table. Jihyun was surprised to see my mangled face, but Donghyuk acted as though he expected it.

“Sungyun did that, right?” Donghyuk asks. He goes on to tell me my attacker has been looking for me, inquiring about my whereabouts. He paid off the police, too, so that their investigation won’t go anywhere.

* * *

Jihyun lifts the piano cover and starts to play. This man is capable of all kinds of things.