Who's Left Behind?

YOU MURDERED ME

The words were big enough for a blind man to see but some foreign church must've left it. Before he could get out his phone to open Papago to translate the strange note that had been slid under his door while he was away, the middle aged office worker was blinded by a flash of white light and then inky blackness. When he awoke he had the worst migraine ever yet his skull simultaneously felt thick. He was bound at the ankles, elbows, and wrists naturally. A strip of duct tape sealed his eyes. The source of the accent eluded him, but by the bass in the voice, he knew the intruder to be male and on the younger end of the spectrum. The words he spoke shot pangs of ice through his heart.

“Tell the truth, you sonuvabitch, and you might get out of here alive.”

“Please, my family….” The older man tried to plead. 

“Who would want to marry a potbellied greasy haired murderer like you?” The unseeable intruder snapped.

Immediately his abdomen exploded in pain and he cried out.

The younger man’s next words were equally chilling. 

“Scream all you want. Nobody’s gonna hear you in here, see you either.” He said casually knowing well the insult of informal speech. 

Ignoring his reflex instinct to swear he said instead, “ You do not know me. You are a foreigner. That’s why you speak slowly like that with that strange accent. And I have no foreign friends!”

It was beginning to dawn on him now that his surroundings did not have the scents of his own home and first tingles of true terror set in. 

“Yeah, and you’re a murderer, M-U-R-D-E-R-E-R. And I definitely don’t hang out with murderers!” The response was followed by another gut blow from the blunt object. “And….”

From how his assailant materialized at his side in a mere two second pause, he knew that he must be rather tall, striding lengths like a model on the runway. A foot to the sternum and blow on the collarbone intended, without a doubt, to shatter it. “You’re the worst of the worst, the lowest of the lowest kind of murderer.”

“What kind, you psycho?” He almost choked on his own scream.

A second blow did what the first could not and stole his breath away.

“I’ll ask the questions here and remember my first words….tell three lies to me and I will make sure that the next one to your head sends you straight to hell where you belong.” The same slow deliberate way of speaking was no less effective with the words being spoken.

In that moment, he truly felt like he would leave the room only in a body bag.

“My first question for Surname Park and don’t ask how I know your name…... it’s what they’re going to call you in the media due to the stupid defamation and privacy laws in this country. Question one now. What are the names of all the cities and towns in those cities that you have lived in since 2000?”

Surname Park hesitated.

The blunt object smashed down on his right hand with enough force to cripple him for years if not life. It was an extrajudicial sentence of chronic unemployment in a country which reportedly had the world's lowest rate of left- handedness. 

"Nowon, Seoul. Songdo, Incheon. Bucheon-si, Godeung, Suwon…..please my head hurts so badly that I cannot think!" Surname Park gasped. 

Porridge thick tension filled seconds went by.

"Alright, fine…." Sighed the MC of this horribly twisted nightmare kidnap concept survival show. "You passed question one, but now it is time for question two. Again remember my first words of warning and please know that there will be a record of your words. Are you ready?"

Was Surname Park being filmed? 

He almost immediately realized that was indeed a stupid question in a country with a CCTV camera in every single corner.

"Nae…" He surrendered. Yes

"Question two now. Are you 금수저 or 흨수저?" The MC asked sternly. Are you a geumsujeo or huksujeo?

The child of a rich family or a poor family?

"You made a mistake. You must be a foreigner." Surname Park pointed out. 

The penalty was an agonizingly painful blow to his crotch. 

"Worry less about my nationality and language skills. Worry much more about the person that you killed and whether or not you're getting out of here while you're still breathing, Surname Park!" The slow monotonous voice kept its even pitch.

"I'm a golden spoon, a rich kid despite the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. My parents were loaded even then." Surname Park admitted.

"Better. Much better. I think you might actually understand now…..concealing your past and lying will not serve or save you in any way now." MC Mysterious quipped. "You might have gotten away with it back then but now only the truth and every God in the universe can save you now."

"Question three now, please." Surname Park was careful to make a statement rather than ask a question. His life depended on his humbleness and abandonment of all culturally instilled social rules regarding seniority.

"What is your date of birth?" 

The question was puzzlingly simple.

"07 December 1984." Surname Park responded.

"I was also born in December." MC Mysterious mused after a minute or so. "The last possible day to be a liner of that year and with quite annoyed and disappointed too young parents."

For just a moment there seemed to be a bit of humanity in the voice.

"What is question four?" 

"I said already that I'm asking the questions here!" MC Mysterious snapped.

The blunt object crashed down on Surname Park's left ankle.

There was no way to survive. The assailant was clearly hellbent. Only ways to prolong the inevitable. 

"What kind of foods do you like to eat? What's your favorite?" came question four.

"I love 깐풍새우 and dumplings." Surname Park admitted. The Chinese style shrimp and dumplings. 

'You were there…." His captor declared.

"왜?" Surname Park made the mistake that 100% of his own people had made at least a few times. (Wae) Why? Meant to seek clarification by any ordinary fellow countryman brought only more pain to Surname Park. 

It took the form of a brutal blow to his right kneecap with the unseen blunt object.

Question five, please! I will tell you all of the truth!" Surname Park wailed beside himself in pain, his undergarments and pants soiled while he struggled to maintain his consciousness. 

"Where were you exactly on 10 August 2003 and what were you doing?" was question five.

Surname Park didn't dare hesitate although he could barely recall his own name at this point.

"Probably with friends eating and drinking in order to enjoy at the Chinese restaurant." He offered weakly as a response.

"You actually told the truth, the whole truth for a change, so now I have only one question left. Congratulations….you're still alive." MC Mysterious chuckled for a few seconds before his voice became steely.

"Did you see her face?" 

Again Surname Park broke the rules set by his captor.

"뭐?" He asked. Mwo, (what)?

"Did you see the slightly too short t-shirt, too long boy sized shorts and attached to suspenders, and popsicle hair clips? Did you see who she truly was? Did you glimpse the trickling discharge from her nose and unnaturally sprawled limbs?" 

The two children were semi running and semi tumbling down the hilly road without sidewalks, at dusk on a lazy summer's evening. The girl was in front, her mid back length normally unruly jet black curls partitioned into three plaits with flyaways dealt with by clips, betraying her complicated genetic history. Another child, slightly taller with short neatly trimmed wavy dark hair, rounded glasses, and a red and blue jersey. He alternatively skipped, jumped, and barreled down the narrow hillside street.

It was when that child had stopped due to a rock in his sandal, pressed himself against the wall of a building to get it out, that the headlights illuminated them. The taillights had twice repelled him from continuing forward against all of his instincts to run to the limp form on the coarse uneven stone. In less than two minutes what once was breath had become only air scented by burnt rubber. The blood congealed to the same color of the track marks.

Then all of a sudden, it clicked for Surname Park. 

" Yes, the little girl that you backed over not once but twice to avoid liability although your parents were admittedly loaded…..the young boy who was distraught in the middle of the street as you and your buddies sped off? You knew that if she was still breathing then her family could've asked for major bank in compensation for her injury and perhaps your father's company would have been made public knowledge,but if she was dead and nobody saw it..... Your family's good name was protected and your parents didn't even know that their son was a drunk driving moron. Well,the little girl had one older brother. They were returning from the convenience store to their grandmother's shop." MC Mysterious said gravely.

Surname Park was barely conscious.

"And he kept his promise to his little sister. Did you really think you would get away with it forever? Answer me! "

"I barely saw her, because she fell down so quick……"

Could these be the last words?

"My mother always said that every dog has his day and everybody has to pay for the wrong that they do before they leave this Earth….Time is up, Park A-Hwi. You didn't pay down here in this lifetime, but you're damned sure gonna pay in the next lifetime!" MC Mysterious declared. 

"There should be a little girl so kind and much missed, who deserves to be 29 years old soon. But she's been dead for 20 years …she was killed two decades ago when laws were quite different. But it ultimately matters little now." 

It played on all of the media outlets, initially domestic and soon internationally, reported on almost globally from every angle and perspective possible. 

"This bastard can't rot in jail by law, but he's about to burn in hell for all eternity."

"That night….." Surname Park mumbled weakly as he faded away.

"That night…an innocent 8 year old child lost her life to a privileged irresponsible troublemaker. " The MC countered. "Do you have any idea how challenging the life that you cut short was? Did your liquor soaked brain think you'd just run over some stray dog or cat instead of an actual child? Do you know what she meant and how her presence held a weak defenseless little boy's life together? And did you ever think about who exactly is left behind and who has to deal with your irresponsibility and selfishness?"

"Yes, it was just a kid, just some girl running in the streets….." Surname Park somehow managed to stammer.

"Just a little girl who had already been through so much. Just a little girl who faced every day with resilience and maintained her naturally empathetic and caretaking characteristics. Just a little girl who deserves to turn 29 years old in a few weeks, but she didn't even get to blow out nine candles…." MC Mysterious reflected ominously with utmost seriousness. 

"In the rear view mirror when I saw the little boy dash back out into the road without any concern for personal safety ….I never thought….." Surname Park slurred.

"That one day he would grow up, become a man, and keep his promise to his little sister who he could never remember life without? The sole witness is silent no more…Ready to go meet your maker?" 

All went black and the question unanswered. 

Doctors say there is very little of recovery for the man found bloodied and virtually unrecognizable on the side of a road in Mapo-gu. Police are still searching for the scene and reviewing all of the case files in all of the relevant cities mentioned for the referenced date in the video….. 

He heard the news on TV mounted opposite the studio's mixing board, as he put all of his 70 kilograms behind a stiff bristled brush and scrubbed the floor like his life depended on it. His livelihood and reputation did at least. No need for his prodigies to notice the rust colored specks. Many late night sessions often led to tensions and even tears, so no need to add anything more upsetting to the setting. He mopped his sweaty brow and swept back the bangs he had allowed to become long in adulthood with tattooed pianist-long fingers. Every now and then he would adopt the push up position to crack his stiff back and stretch out his legs. Less than one year of being 30 and he already felt old. 

"Good morning, Producer D!" A trio of voices chirped as they opened the door and half bowed. 

Before he could stand and respond, their noses curled at the overwhelming smell of chlorine bleach.

“The worst of the worst, the lowest of the low, scum of the Earth are the baby killers. And still there are even worse….the ones that murder children and think the child’s voice dies with them.”