Swallow Hunting Chapter 65

※ This episode contains trigger elents such as violence that may cause trauma. Please keep that in mind before proceeding with purchase.

No matter how I twisted my shoulders and struggled with everything I had, I couldn’t overpower those bulky gangsters. My clothes were stripped off in seconds. Even the underwear I’d tried so desperately to protect was torn apart, and just like that, I was completely naked.

‘Why, why.......’

‘I didn’t plan to go this far, but you’re impossible. When a bastard doesn’t co to his senses no matter how much he gets beaten, you’ve gotta try sothing else.’

‘D-don’t... please.’

Getting beaten was terrifying. Being told they’d gut was terrifying. But even then, I could hold my head up. If I died, it was over, right? Death itself was scary, but afterward it would be quiet. I could grit my teeth and tell them to go ahead.

But this ti was different.

An instinct told sothing far worse than I’d imagined was about to happen. If I was going to die, I’d wanted it clean. I’d never once imagined they’d do sothing filthy first.

My lips trembled as I pressed my forehead to the floor and begged.

‘Spread your legs.’

‘No—!’

A palm flew across my face. I collapsed sideways, and the n next to yanked back up. I shook my head violently, thrashed my whole body. They hit a few more tis and then grabbed even tighter.

One of them pinned my arms from behind and hooked his foot behind my knees. The rope around my ankles was loosened, forcing my thighs wide open. Choi Manseok grinned nastily as he looked at my limp cock and balls hanging there.

He squeezed my pale inner thighs roughly.

Then he pulled a box cutter out of his pocket.

Click.

The blade slid up with a raw, tallic sound. Even under the dim bulb, the silver edge glead sharp.

‘Don’t move. Slip up and I’ll slice your balls off.’

The blade touched my groin.

My body froze like a corpse. My dilated pupils reflected the cutter and Choi Manseok’s hand.

The hand with the gold ring moved.

Scrape.

My skin split.

I scread. A sound so horrible it felt like it could blast through the walls of that room and keep going forever. It didn’t last long. A hand clamped over my mouth and cut it off.

‘One cut would be boring.’

The flat side of the blade brushed against my balls. Choi Manseok kept grinning, twisting the direction of the blade back and forth. Like he was deciding what kind of shape to carve. Tilting his head like an artist admiring a canvas, examining my groin.

‘Cut wrong here and you bleed out. Our dear custor can’t die. You owe too much money.’

Once.

Twice.

Three tis.

The blade crossed my skin. Bright red blood burst from the wounds and stread down like a river.

I couldn’t lift my head to look. Tears pooled in my wide eyes and dripped down into the red puddle beneath . My whole body shook violently.

‘Cha Haejun.’

Choi Manseok finally tossed the cutter aside and grabbed the top of my head. He yanked my face up with brutal force. His eyes narrowed like a crocodile’s, lips twisting.

‘No matter where you go, where you breathe, where you piss — it’s all in this palm. So stop trying to be clever and just pay your debt quietly. Then at least your organs will stay intact. Yeah?’

‘.......’

‘Today we only stripped you. What do you think we’ll do next ti?’

His grip tightened over my wounds. Pain, resignation, despair, terror — he looked at the ss in my eyes with satisfaction. Then he raised his phone. The cara lens aid straight at my naked body and the slashes.

‘Now smile.’

The man behind forced the corners of my mouth upward.

Click.

The shutter sounded like a gunshot.

When they finally left, I collapsed like a bundle of straw. The cuts burned and throbbed. Blood kept flowing, but I didn’t even think about stopping it. If all the blood drained out and I died, it didn’t feel like the worst possible ending.

The rain didn’t stop. Unlike , ti kept moving.

The untreated wounds grew hot, then festered. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger.

Even if I paid, the violence would only get worse. Even if I ran, I’d never escape them. And even if I sohow did, who knew what worse thing they’d do next?

The only exit felt like death.

So I curled up in the dark and let myself rot. Even when flies drawn by the sll of blood landed on my wounds, I didn’t have the energy to swat them away.

Then, in that room no one should’ve found, soone ca.

Four days later.

The one who found — starving, dehydrated, just waiting to die — was Yohan. He was the only one who’d searched for everywhere, day and night.

The mont he saw , he was horrified. Furious. Crying. He apologized for being late — sothing I couldn’t even understand.

‘Let’s go.’

‘No. I’ll just die like this.’

My voice was barely louder than a fly’s wings, but he heard it.

‘Don’t say crazy shit! The ones who should die are those bastards, not you! I’ll kill them. I will!’

He dragged toward the door as I crawled weakly across the floor. I tried to push him away with what little strength I had, but it was useless. So I shouted instead.

‘Let go!’

‘Cha Haejun!’

‘Even if I leave, I’ll just die by their hands anyway. I’ll end it here. I’m done.’

‘Cha Haejun.......’

His voice went soft.

I lifted my head.

And stopped breathing.

He was making a face I’d never seen before. Not even when his grandmother died.

A face crushed by grief and rage so heavy it felt like it could suffocate soone. The weight of it pressed into too.

‘Please.......’

‘.......’

‘You’re my only family now. If you do this... how am I supposed to live?’

Tears poured down his face like the rain outside. He crumpled, like a cracked wall finally collapsing. Curled up like a child and sobbed the way I’d only ever seen once at his grandmother’s funeral. Hearing him scream my na over and over, the darkness in my eyes slowly filled with moisture.

‘Please.’

‘.......’

‘Please, Haejun.’

On one side of the scale was easy death. On the other, a painful life.

Death weighed heavier.

But Yohan was sitting on the other side.

I cried as much as he did. I wanted to die. I really wanted it to end. But the more tears fell, the lighter that wish felt.

In the end, I wanted to live.

Even if it was miserable. I wanted to live with Yohan.

‘Let’s go.’

After who knows how long, Yohan grabbed my hand with his swollen face. This ti I didn’t shake him off. I had no strength, stumbled and limped, but crossed the threshold on my own.

In the end, it was Yohan’s tears that pulled outside.

My body and mind had sunk to the very bottom. It took a long ti to rebuild. Yohan helped quietly. When I couldn’t pay my debt because I had no inco, he emptied his own savings to hold the loan sharks back. It was around that ti he introduced to host work.

The wounds I’d left to rot turned into dark scars.

Carved into my thigh like a record of that black history.

I summarized the story briefly. Said I’d run without paying and got scratched up a little when they caught . I laughed lightly, hoping the weight would feel lighter.

“It’s really nothing.”

I’d hoped Lee Kangjoo would smile back.

He didn’t.

He simply looked at the scar calmly. Slowly rubbing over it as if wiping away blood that had long since dried.

“It must’ve been deep.”

“A little. It got infected, so it took a while to heal.”

“......”

“That’s why I worried when you were hurt before, sir. Even small wounds can fester if you leave them.”

“Who was that guy?”

“Yohan?”

“No. The bastard who left his mark on your body.”

“.......”

A na I could shout in my sleep, wrapped in every curse in existence.

But in front of Lee Kangjoo, I found it hard to say those three syllables. It felt childish. Like tattling.

What if he thought I was immature?

My lips parted, then pressed shut. I scratched my chin awkwardly and gave a vague smile.

“Do you still see him?”

Thankfully, he didn’t press deeper.

“I pay properly now. Haven’t seen his face in a long ti. I hope I never do again. He’s ugly as hell. Ugliest guy I’ve ever seen.”

I’d actually ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) run into him while delivering recently. Sothing shitty had happened. But I didn’t want to tell Lee Kangjoo. Even soone who lives like dust on the ground has pride.

Just thinking about that bastard’s face made my expression twist. I shuddered and rubbed my arms like I’d touched sothing filthy.

Lee Kangjoo didn’t ask more.

He lay down with his head on my thigh and placed his palm over the scar.

“......”

It was the first ti anyone other than a doctor had touched it.

His warmth felt like it could lt not just the scar but the nightmare carved into it. He didn’t say anything comforting. No “that must’ve been hard.” No pity.

But the simple weight of his hand covering it was strangely gentle.

I wanted to do sothing for him too.

I wanted him to feel the warmth I felt.

Touching his body the sa way didn’t seem like sothing he’d like. So after hesitating for a long ti, I gathered my courage and placed my hand on his head.

I’d expected his hair to be stiff, but it was surprisingly soft between my fingers. Cool and smooth. I kept running my hand through it, almost srized.

Lee Kangjoo closed his eyes lazily, like a big cat, and let touch him.

It was quiet.

Peaceful.

I’d just revisited sothing horrific, but I wasn’t drowning in it. As long as Lee Kangjoo was beside , it felt like no ghost from the past could reach .

Where he was — that was my nest.