Chapter 143 – Homophobia (11)
Homophobia (11)
Growling-
Someone’s belly clock rang on the top floor of the department store.
Perhaps the most basic yet dangerous survival signal sent by the body.
However, no one answered the signal.
Hyundai Department Store in the afternoon, when the only relief is the shining sunlight.
The female campers gathered in a huddle in front of the escalator were staring at the ground without moving.
Kim Hyo-jin was no different.
She stared blankly at the ground, looking more sinister than ever.
I looked at the specks of dust on the black floor and thought about the past two days.
48 hours.
Things got to this point in just 48 hours.
A result that Kim Hyo-jin herself could not have predicted struck her and the entire women’s camp.
Grumble-
The ending was this miserable situation.
No, if you look at it, it wasn’t even the ending.
This new hell, with no idea when it would end, was still ongoing.
I couldn’t even tell when it would end.
… Hyeji Lee.
Because that slut who doesn’t care even if she changes her mind doesn’t want to end it.
Nod!
Lee Hye-ji’s face appears in each and every piece of dust.
Looking at those faces, Kim Hyo-jin gritted his teeth furiously.
With her red face, she gritted her teeth and dropped her hands.
There was only one thing that changed.
The day the reinvestigation was completed.
Before receiving dinner rations, the president gathered them all together.
Then, Lee Hye-ji was put in front again and the two people were called out.
Jeong Da-jeong and Park Seul-ah.
Tuk- Tuk-
The president’s hand blatantly brushes Lee Hye-ji’s shoulder, as if showing it to the girls.
Even though Lee Hye-ji occasionally massaged places other than her shoulders, she was looking down at them with a nonchalant expression.
Rather than refusing, he leaned his back on the president and looked at the two friends who were getting up from their seats with strange expressions.
The president pointed his finger at the two people.
At the silent command to come closer, the two people ran through the campers.
Two people standing in front of the president and Lee Hye-ji.
Kim Hyo-jin is with two people shaking her legs like a newborn giraffe –
‘Are these two people?’
I remembered the president’s dry question.
‘… Yes.’
Hyeji Lee’s voice answering that question.
‘Okay? ‘That’s it then.’
This next word.
‘From now on, feel free to use it whenever you need it.’
It started from the next word.
Not to the two people trembling at the sudden name-
Not even the campers who looked up at those girls with anxious eyes-
‘As much as you want.’
A privilege granted only to Lee Hye-ji.
At the same time, it was the president’s warning to everyone present.
The president’s indirect warning that if you don’t follow this order, you will never end up in a good situation.
Everything ended with that one short command.
Kim Hyo-jin’s struggles to somehow change the situation in a better direction had no choice but to come to an end.
No matter how much the fox flew or crawled, it could not disobey the tiger that returned to the tiger’s den.
In Kim Hyo-jin’s eyes, the situation at that time felt like a kind of coronation.
It was the moment when the number of beings they could never disobey increased from one to two.
… Hyeji Lee.
At that moment, Kim Hyo-jin recalled Lee Hye-ji’s gaze looking at her.
The creepy look in her eyes as she looked down at herself with a strange smile.
Now there was no one who could defy her inside her modern department store.
From then on-
It started from that day.
Two days from that day until now.
Hyeji Lee made the most of those 48 hours.
He harassed Kim Hyo-jin and the girls very tightly and thoroughly.
Not only did she get the supplies she had originally hoped for, but even the supplies she was carrying were taken away from her.
Food distribution, which was provided twice a day, was reduced to once –
Even the reduced rations were not implemented properly.
It wasn’t because there was a lack of food.
She did it just because Lee Hye-ji, who had full authority over supply, wanted to do it.
Lee Hye-ji piled up a day’s worth of food on her back as if to show off and did not properly serve her food.
She gave them just enough food to keep them from starving and then locked up the food.
Her earnest pleas were useless, and crying and holding onto the crotch of her pants was useless.
Rather, the begging camper only suffered a more miserable situation as an example.
Camp One, who pleaded and apologized, was trampled mercilessly by Jeong Da-jeong and Park Seul-ah, whom she controlled.
A camp member with deeper tears being stepped on by two people who are crying all kinds of times as if they are in pain.
There was a hell here that was worse than before.
Lee Hye-ji harasses them so persistently that she is vicious.
There was no one here who did not know the reason.
It was a punishment.
The punishment that Lee Hye-ji declared was meted out to everyone, including Kim Hyo-jin.
Not only to Kim Hyo-jin, but to all the women who were with her.
Grumble-
“… “Sister.”
The belly button ringing again and the pitiful voice calling for Kim Hyo-jin.
Kim Hyo-jin, who was looking down at the dust on Lee Hye-ji’s face, turned her head toward that place.
“… What should we do now, sister?”
Cha Hyun-jin asks Kim Hyo-jin while holding her stomach as her belly button clock rings.
This was already her third time asking the same thing in less than an hour.
“Just a little longer – let’s hold on just a little longer, Hyunjin.”
Kim Hyo-jin managed to comfort her with a smile on her lips.
“Now is the time when Da-jeong promised to come up secretly–for now, to Da-jeong-“
“What on earth is the use of that, sister?”
Cha Hyunjin frowned and asked, as if she was frustrated.
For the first time, Kim Hyo-jin cut her off mid-sentence and snapped at her.
“It’s not like Da-jeong is coming up with food—if she comes up anyway, it’s obvious she’ll just talk about dirty things that I don’t want to hear and then come down again, so why do we keep waiting for Da-jeong—”
“But you can’t do anything, Hyunjin.”
“…”
“I can’t just stay like this, Cha Hyun-jin.”
“…”
This time, Kim Hyo-jin interrupted Hyun-jin’s conversation and consoled her.
However, Cha Hyun-jin’s dissatisfied eyes show no sign of relenting despite such comfort.
To Kim Hyo-jin, those eyes were a louder danger signal than her belly button watch.
Truly-
At that moment, the sound of footsteps coming from downstairs quietly.
Trap – plod –
Kim Hyo-jin stood up from her seat with a gasp at the sound of cautious footsteps walking up the escalator.
“Ah!”
She let out a faint exclamation and hurried towards the escalator in front of her.
“Damjeong-!”
“… “Sister.”
Jeong Da-jeong’s quiet voice responds to her whisper.
Even after Kim Hyo-jin finished climbing the escalator, she moved closer to Jeong Da-jeong, who was standing there as if she were nailed to the spot.
“Really~ I’m Da-jung, and you’re not coming-“
Kim Hyo-jin, who was approaching Jeong Da-jeong with a bright smile, momentarily stopped.
In proportion to her approaching steps, her steps back away and her nods to avoid eye contact.
Moreover, Jeong Da-jeong’s right hand shows no signs of leaving the escalator.
Signs of rejection were clearly visible all over her body—
“… Do you know how worried I was? I’m so glad.”
Kim Hyo-jin forcibly ignored her signals and hugged her.
Jeong Da-jeong accepts Kim Hyo-jin’s hug with her frozen body.
It was only after Kim Hyo-jin saw Jeong Da-jeong’s face at close range that she realized the reason.
“Dajeong, have you washed by any chance?”
“… Yes.”
Jeong Da-jeong’s clean face with not a single stain visible.
A white face, rarely seen in recent times, was in front of Kim Hyo-jin.
“… How?”
“… Hyeji shared the water left over after washing.”
Bath.
It was a luxury that could not even be dreamed of now that water has become scarce.
A nose-blind voice answers Kim Hyo-jin’s dumb question.
Da-jeong Jeong, who was clearly breathing only through her mouth, took a step back from her once again.
Thanks to this, Kim Hyo-jin had no choice but to let go of her hug and smiled with an awkward face.
She didn’t have any facial expressions other than an awkward smile.
“What about the situation downstairs? “Nothing in particular has changed?”
“… It’s still the same, sister.”
A mumbling voice coming out with his head lowered to the floor.
“Seul-ah and I are still standing in front of the children’s lounge, and strange noises are still coming from inside. And a little later, Hyeji comes out with her face red. “We clean various things off Hyeji’s face.”
“…”
“The president still hasn’t come out of the children’s lounge. We went to the supply warehouse as Hye-ji ordered and took out today’s supplies, and then as Hye-ji ordered, we brought her sisters -“
Jeong Da-jeong’s voice becomes increasingly wet as the story continues.
Kim Hyo-jin hurriedly interrupted her and asked.
“So, will it be the same today? That’s why Da-jeong was able to come up secretly.”
“… Yes. Hyeji has just entered the children’s lounge.”
“Then, about how many minutes after you go in do you come out?”
“…”
I wasn’t curious about what was happening in the children’s lounge where Lee Hye-ji entered.
It was such an obvious story that there was nothing to ask.
All she needed was information.
Information that can somehow turn this situation around.
We had to gather even the dustiest information and seek a reversal.
In order to survive, I had to somehow end this hell.
“… Dajeong?”
“…”
However, there was no reply from Jeong Da-jeong.
She lowers her head and remains silent.
“I’m sorry, sister.”
The first word that came out of her was an apology.
“Hyeji already knows. “I secretly come up like this.”
“… “What?”
A confession that comes out of the blue from Da-jeong Jeong.
With just that confession, Kim Hyo-jin’s face turned as white as a sheet of paper.
Failure came again before I could even struggle.
But what was more painful than that failure was another fact hidden within the fact that Lee Hye-ji now knew about this secret conversation.
The fact that Lee Hye-ji knows this means-
The president also knew this fact.
