Chapter 1.2

Chapter 1.2

I glared into Wangnyeo’s leering eyes.

“Just try it.”

“What are you gonna do, b***h?”

I raised my middle finger to her smirking, bloated face.

“Wash your greasy hair. You reek like a pigsty.”

“…You fing c!”

Snorting like an enraged bull, Wangnyeo lifted her hand to strike me. I already knew how heavy that blow would be.

I bolted out of the shower room. My nape throbbed as if she had already seized me by the collar. I darted to the guard standing by the iron bathhouse door and grabbed hold of him.

“Officer!”

My chest heaved. I had only run that short distance, yet I was already gasping.

“Hhh… hhh… I…”

I clutched at my chest, trying to steady my breathing. Suddenly my body felt wrong. My vision blacked out, returned, then flickered again.

Groping for support, my hand brushed against cloth. Without thinking, I seized it. My breath caught, choking me. I thought I might die. Help me.

“7059, let go and step back.”

The voice came from above, low and resonant.

The sound alone slowed my breathing, steadied the hammering of my heart. Air seemed to fill my lungs again, circling all the way through. Only then did I lift my head.

The man towered over me. I had to tilt my head all the way back, like staring up at the top of a mountain.

The line of buttons on his uniform shirt was neatly fastened all the way up to his throat. My gaze climbed higher and landed on the sharp rise of his Adam’s apple. For a split second, and out of place, it looked indecently sensual. I felt my face flush.

I lifted my chin and tilted my head back a little farther. A solid, masculine jawline came into view, then full lips with striking definition, a strong nose smooth as if sculpted by hand.

He wore the prison guard’s cap pulled low, the short brim casting his upper face in shadow so that nothing above his nose was visible. My eyes stayed locked on that shaded space as if it were a pitch-black maze, when suddenly a flat, toneless order dropped at my feet.

“7059, let go and step back.”

The voice was firmer now than before. Startled, I released my grip on the gray shirt I’d been clutching.

Out of the corner of my eye I glanced at the shower room doorway. Wangnyeo was sticking her flushed face out from behind the door, grinding her teeth. A quick thought darted through me, and without hesitation I leaned closer to the guard.

“Can you check my lips?”

“……”

“They’re all split, aren’t they? It hurts so much.”

I put on a pitiful face. I could feel his shadowed gaze rest on the corner of my mouth, still split from Wangnyeo’s blows two days ago.

I puckered my lips deliberately and rolled my eyes to scan the surroundings. The chime signaling the end of shower time rang out briefly. Wangnyeo, a towel slung over her shoulder, was swaggering out of the door, staring this way. Far down the hall, Chief Park was coming back into view.

Chief Park was infamous for being merciless with inmates. Fear jolted through me. If I slipped up now, all the effort I’d put into maneuvering would collapse and I’d end up in worse trouble.

Prisoners who had finished washing were already lining up in twos at the door. My heart was thumping with impatience, but the guard I had asked to check my lips stood silent.

At this point I had nothing to lose. I tugged up the hem of my worn prison uniform.

“My lips aren’t the only thing that hurts. Here too.”

It wasn’t a lie. Wangnyeo’s fists and kicks had left bruises all over my back, stomach, ribs, and beneath my chest. Every movement made my bones creak and my flesh ache.

I twisted to show my side, hoping he might see. Without a bra, my breasts shifted heavily to one side under the fabric.

In this wretched prison, everything cost money. The girl whose body I now occupied had breasts but no money for a bra, so she walked around bare beneath her uniform.

“……”

I prayed the guard’s eyes would fix not on the slight swell of breast peeking from beneath the cloth, but on the dark bruises spread across my ribs.

I forced out a whimper.

“I think my bones are broken. It hurts so much…”

“What’s going on over there, Deputy Ki?!”

Chief Park, his face flushed red as always like a drunkard’s, strode over swinging his baton.

Deputy Ki. I mouthed the rank of the guard standing before me. He didn’t show an ounce of warmth. Not that I expected a guard to feel compassion for a prisoner. But even after seeing my bruised body, there was no reaction at all from him.

I was finished. Wangnyeo would drag me back into the cell and tear me apart. I squeezed my eyes shut.

“7059, fix your clothes and follow me.”

“……”

“We’re going to the infirmary now.”

When I straightened, Deputy Ki pressed the tip of his baton against my shoulder, urging me forward. I moved as if being pushed.

After a few dragging steps, I glanced back. The women were already lined up to return to their cells. I quickened my pace. As if by walking faster, I could leave that place behind forever.