Chapter 52

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What am I doing?” His mother did not even look at him. Her entire attention remained fixed on the twins. “The children said they didn’t want to go to the hospital. Yu-rok, Yu-yeong, you said that, didn’t you? You said you didn’t want to be sick anymore.”

Madness glittered in her eyes.

“That’s why Mom is making sure you never have to go back to the hospital. You won’t be sick anymore. Isn’t that wonderful?”

“You’re insane. Let them go. Let go of the children first!”

“Why? I’m telling you I won’t let my children suffer, so why are you stopping me?”

Yu-rok and Yu-yeong were only thirteen, already frail from years of illness. They clung to Yu-su, sobbing and struggling for breath as he pulled them from their mother’s grip and wrapped both arms around them.

“Stop it!”

His mother froze for a moment. Then her face twisted hideously. She lunged at Yu-su, raking her nails across his skin as she tried to tear him away from the twins.

“It’s all your fault!”

Her nails ripped through wounds that had barely begun to heal, tearing away the scabs and drawing fresh blood.

“Because you reported him, the pastor was arrested, and now the children can’t even have their sins forgiven! Isn’t it better for the whole family to leave this world cleanly than to suffer all your lives before dying anyway? I gave birth to you! I’m your parent! If I tell you to die, then you die!”

“Stop talking nonsense! That cult… ngh!”

“I told you it isn’t a cult!”

Splashing footsteps rushed up behind him.

THUD!

A kick struck Yu-su squarely in the back.

“Gah!”

“You little shit!”

Yu-su’s father had finally regained his senses. Clutching his swollen cheek, he glared down at his eldest son with murderous fury.

“How dare you hit your own father, you worthless bastard!”

“Honey, hurry and pull him away!”

“Move.”

Yu-su’s father seized him and pulled with all his strength, but Yu-su refused to release the twins. The man’s expression grew more savage with every failed attempt.

“Fine. Fuck it. Keep holding on.” His father’s mouth curled bitterly. “Those bastards will come back tomorrow, and then they’ll sell every one of us off, won’t they?”

Yu-su said nothing.

“Why do you have so much to say when we’re only trying to leave together as a family and spare ourselves the suffering?”

KABOOM!

Lightning tore across the rain-lashed sky.

Yu-su snapped his head toward his father, his eyes burning even through the sheets of rain.

“You came back because of gambling debts, didn’t you?”

His father’s face went still.

“You’re in debt again.” Yu-su stared at him in disbelief. “You fucking lunatic. You aren’t even human.”

“You dare speak to your father that way?”

WHACK!

His father struck him, then continued beating him with the frenzy of a madman. Yu-su had no choice but to absorb every blow head-on while using his body to shield the twins.

“Do you think I did this for myself? I was trying to repay the debt! If I’d won this time, everything would have been over!”

The kicks rained across Yu-su’s body until one finally struck the back of his head.

His breath caught.

Yu-su went limp, collapsing like a marionette whose strings had been severed.

Breathing heavily, his father seized the unconscious Yu-su by the back of his collar.

“That’s enough. Our eldest son can go first. Daddy, Mommy, and the little ones will follow soon.”

He dragged Yu-su toward the railing. Yu-su’s waist struck the metal bar, and his upper body folded over the edge.

As blood rushed into his head, Yu-su’s eyes snapped open.

A strangled breath tore from his throat.

Instinctively, he grabbed the railing and tried to pull himself upright, but the rain-slick floor offered no purchase. His hands and knees slipped again and again while his father raised his legs, determined to tip him over.

Yu-su’s body lurched precariously until he was nearly upside down. The distinct groan of stressed metal pierced through the rain.

Below him waited a dizzying drop.

Nausea churned in his stomach, followed by a terror more intense than anything he had ever known.

If he fell, he would die.

I’ll die?

“Let go of me!”

Fear wrung every last trace of strength from Yu-su’s body. He seized his father’s arms, using them as leverage, and shoved upward with everything he had. Yu-su’s body slid back onto the rooftop. The recoil sent his father crashing into the railing with a deafening BANG!

“You little…”

His father leaned heavily against the rail and planted his feet, preparing to rise.

That was when Yu-su noticed something wrong.

CREAK.

The railing shifted backward.

“…Uh-oh?”

His father’s silhouette began to tip into the darkness.

Yu-su, his mother, and even Yu-rok and Yu-yeong froze as they watched.

The railing gave way.

Yu-su’s father flung out his arms. The hands that had struck Yu-su countless times clawed desperately at empty air.

Their eyes met.

For the first time, his father looked uncertain. His chin jerked toward the void, and his wet, matted hair whipped around his face. The relentless rain seemed to press against his body, forcing him farther over the edge.

Then he fell.

SPLAT!

The sound resembled an enormous, tough-skinned balloon bursting against the pavement below.

Rain continued pouring from the sky, yet for one impossible moment, every droplet seemed suspended in the air.

No one moved.

Then Yu-su took a step backward.

“Th-This… this isn’t right.”

Yu-su looked between his trembling hands and the place where his father had disappeared. He continued backing away, unable to bring himself to look over the edge.

Did I push him? No. It was an accident…

It was insane. None of this could be real.

“Honey!”

Yu-su’s mother abandoned the twins and rushed to the broken railing. She collapsed beside it, clutching the twisted metal while staring down at the ground below.

After a long moment, she forced her stiff neck to turn.

Her gaze found Yu-su.

“You… Jeong Yu-su, you…”

“No. I didn’t. This…”

“Murderer! You murderer!”

Murderer. Traitor. You killed him.

You killed him.

Each word shattered another piece of Yu-su until his legs finally gave way beneath him. His mother did not seem to know whether she was grieving or raging. She stumbled past Yu-su, seized the unconscious twins by their arms, and began dragging them toward the ruined railing.

“Come with Mommy. We’ll leave that murderer behind and go together…”

“No… Don’t.”

Yu-su finally forced his body to move. He crawled through the puddles and clung to the twins.

“Stop. Please, just stop now…”

“Are you tired? I’m tired too, so let’s end everything right here!”

His mother shoved him away.

“Ngh!”

Rain blinded him. Through the watery blur, Yu-su watched his mother’s back as she dragged the twins farther away.

Mother.

Mom.

He had never been happy to have parents like them. He had never been happy to work without a single day of rest, nor to cradle his swollen hands and aching knees while crying himself to sleep every night.

I’m sick of it.

His clenched fist struck the concrete.

“If you want to die, then die alone!”

A bolt of white lightning tore through the sky behind Yu-su.

Light flooded the rooftop, followed by a world-shattering KABOOM!

His mother stopped and turned, disbelief twisting her face.

“You…”

“I’m fucking sick of it. You said you wanted to die, so why are you still alive? Just die already!”

Yu-su’s bloodshot eyes looked as though they were weeping blood.

“How can you say that to your own mother? Was killing your father not enough? Do you want to kill me too?”

“Yeah! So what? Die already! Just leave us alone!”

Yu-su crawled forward, tore the twins from her grip, and gathered them into his arms.

In the distance, police sirens began to rise through the storm. Jeong Yu-sol had managed to contact them.

Yu-su’s mother stood motionless, seemingly lost in a stupor. Then she tilted her head toward the sky and laughed.

“Ha… haha. Fine, Jeong Yu-su. I’ll die for you. You’re the one killing both of your parents tonight!”

Her voice scraped from her throat as she backed toward the broken railing, shrieking with uncontrollable laughter.

“You children had better listen carefully! Every moment of pain and suffering you endure from now on will be Jeong Yu-su’s fault! It will all be because of your precious, self-righteous hyung!”

She stepped onto the shattered ledge and locked eyes with Yu-su.

Then she screamed the words like a curse.

“Jeong Yu-su! You’ll live a life that makes you wish you were dead! You’ll regret this!”

Sensing what was about to happen, Yu-su instinctively clamped his palms over the twins’ ears.

POW!

Her shadow vanished.

A vivid, wet sound of rupturing flesh echoed through the rain.

In that instant, Yu-su knew he would remember it for the rest of his life.

***