A high school student recently jumped off the school rooftop. It was exactly one month since the missing person report was filed.
When they found her, they couldn’t even recognize her face. Her face was swollen, and her skin had turned completely black. Her body was covered with bruises and burn marks.
I knew her. She was a really kind person. She was the type who you heard nothing bad from anyone.
After the autopsy, her mother called me, crying. They had found semen inside her body, which hadn’t been there for more than a day. It was shocking, but I thought the culprit would be easy to catch. At least, I thought I could clear the injustice for that girl.
But… it wasn’t like that. The semen hadn’t come from a human body. Do you understand what I mean? It came from an animal. A four-legged beast covered in fur. That’s where the semen had come from.
It felt like sparks were flying from my eyes. My brain felt like it was boiling and melting. My rationality was completely in a mess, and I felt like I had to smash anything in my way to divert my mess up mind.
As far as I know, there was only one person who could have done that. If it wasn’t him, no one else would have been so cruel to that boy.
I ran home, swearing I would kill him.
He was lying on the sofa, watching TV. Calmly saying that he had been waiting for me.
That guy? I’ve lived with him in the same house. Since I was about 8 or 9 years old. Our mothers are the same. Before that, I had lived with my grandfather, but after he passed away, I moved to Seoul with my mother.
Our house was really small. The building had about five or six doors, but my mother told me not to go inside any of the other ones.
The second door was our house. When you opened it, you’d find a narrow kitchen, and beside it, a tiny single room.
That’s where I first met him. He was lying under an old blanket in a messy room full of household items. My mother said he, like me, was her son. He was younger than me.
When I first met him, I was happy. I thought I’d finally have someone to play with, and that I wouldn’t be bored anymore. It was a mistake. The moment I greeted him, a pillow flew at me. I got a nosebleed. I don’t know who said it, but someone said, “No one can spit on a smiling face.”
When no one was home, he deliberately bullied me. It was common for him to trip me by sticking his foot out when I walked by. He once forced my mouth open and shoved a cockroach inside, not letting me spit it out. Compared to what came later, that was nothing but a child’s prank.
I thought he was just being mischievous because he was introvert. I thought things would be fine once he got used to me, just like it took time for me to get along with other friends.
That was naive optimism. Even after I graduated elementary school, and when I went to middle school and high school, he never left me alone.
Why? Of course, I asked. He answered right away. “Just because.” Just because I annoyed him. Just because I was unlucky. And so, just because… he wanted to kill me. Those were the words of a ten-year-old. He was already messed up.
He never changed, even after becoming a high school student… That bastard who couldn’t stand the sight of me, he wouldn’t let my girlfriend off easy either. I overlooked that. In the end, it was all my fault.
Everything turned white in front of me, and all I could hear was my own breathing. He was grinning at me, watching me. On the TV, the news about that girl’s suicide was being reported, and he casually made a sarcastic remark. Then he asked me,
“Did you maybe get her pregnant?”
We had made a bet. He wanted to know. If the baby in her stomach was human, or an animal.
A loud sound echoed. I don’t know if it was his jaw breaking or if my fist that hit him. The sofa was overturned, and phones, dishes, and vases all crashed to the floor. As I struggled with him, we both fell, and I hit my head on the floor. For a moment, I was dazed, but he jumped on me and started choking me. He was laughing even then.
I thought I was going to die. I thought he would definitely kill me. I couldn’t die like this. I didn’t want to die like this.
I struggled to get away from him. I saw a knife that had fallen to the floor. Desperately, I reached out and grabbed it. Then, filled with rage, I stabbed his thigh. Blood sprayed like a fountain.
He screamed, saying he was going to die from such a small wound.
“…So, in the end, this is why, huh? You couldn’t control yourself. You’ve been suffering from paranoia for so long that you couldn’t stand it anymore. You couldn’t bear the demon in front of you. Right?”

The doctor nodded as if he understood everything. His gaze and tone towards the patient were kind. But any violence or condemnation would not have been as cold as this.
The man, who had been recounting his story, stared blankly at him. His youthful face still held the fresh stain of blood, and his grip tightened on his hands.
“I don’t claim it was self-defense,” he said. “But I’m not delusional either. Everything I’ve told you, it really happened. You must’ve seen it on the news too.”
“Yes, well… the details will come out during the investigation.”
The doctor smiled faintly. The man, who had been desperately pleading, now seemed to lose all strength. His eyes, which had pleaded for the truth to be understood, grew hollow.
There was no way out. A deep sense of hopelessness engulfed him. He bit down on his lips, shaking his head. His bloodstained nails dug painfully into his own palm.
“…No.”
“I understand that you want to deny it…”
“No, I’m not crazy! The one who should be here is not me, it’s that bastard!”
He jumped up and screamed, pounding the desk with his fists filled with rage. His breathing became ragged, and his face flushed as though it might explode.
Even with the tense atmosphere, the doctor remained unfazed. He simply pressed the call button. Soon, guards rushed in and restrained the man. In an instant, his face slammed into the cement floor.
“Let go! Let me go!”
The doctor stood up and approached the struggling man. In his hand was a syringe filled with some unidentified substance.
The man thrashed and resisted, but it was futile.
“It’ll all be over soon,” the doctor said quietly.
With those cold words, the substance began to flow into his veins. Soon, his limbs went limp. The man’s eyelids fluttered and then closed weakly. Tears ran down his cheeks and soaked into the cold cement floor.