Runner-up's Revenge

It wasn’t in Dahye’s nature to continue something without satisfaction.

“Yeah, I’m sorry… I really am sorry, Dahye…”

She glared at the ceiling in her bedroom, which had done nothing wrong. For days, Dahye couldn’t even recall seeing Dowon’s face. He always had his head down, chanting his apologies like prayers.

“After just a few weeks, he had already…”

Dahye had endured three years. For three years, she had forced a smile in the face of Dowon’s arrogance. The reward for her survival shouldn’t be this dull.

She didn’t want to keep attempting her subtle jabs if none of them were going to elicit an interesting reaction, but that didn’t mean she was giving up entirely. She just needed to try a new tactic.

“Hmm… It’d be nice if he came along,” she murmured to herself.

Dahye grabbed her phone from the bedside table. The group chat for their upcoming high school reunion was buzzing with notifications.

“How can I trap him into going?”

She imagined Dowon sitting there, sweating and on the verge of tears, unable to answer questions like, “What are you doing now?” or “What are your plans for the future?” Just the thought filled her with glee.

But there was no way Dowon would come to the reunion willingly.

He didn’t even respond to messages from their classmates. Dahye was the only one who knew anything about his life. Even if bribed with money or threatened with his life, he still wouldn’t show up.

“…What was her name again?”

Dahye suddenly sat up straight and searched through her phone. She remembered a female classmate who had a connection to Dowon. Clearing her throat, she spoke into the receiver with a honey-sweet voice.

“Yoonah, how have you been?”

If Dowon insisted on cocooning himself in his cozy little convenience store, Dahye would bring his classmates directly to him. Specifically, someone who would cause him the most torment upon seeing her.

“Do you remember Dowon Lee? The guy who turned you down in our second year? The one who was always top of the class?”

“Of course, I remember. Whenever I think about it, I still want to punch him in the face.”

“Really?” Dahye laughed lightly. “Was he that bad?”

Yoonah Kim, a classmate who asked Dowon out in their second year. The rejection had been so condescending and brutal that it was notorious among their classmates.

“I remember it clearly to this day. He said, ‘You’re not worth the time I could be using to study. Dating me would be a leg up for you, but what would I get out of it?’ Crazy, right?”

Dowon’s got a lot to answer for.

Dahye held back a malicious laugh, twisting a strand of her hair.

“How’s everything with your boyfriend?”

“We’re doing great! Thanks again for the gym membership you sent us; we’ve been using it constantly.”

Yoonah was already a reminder of Dowon’s sins, but she also now had a great job and a famous, good-looking boyfriend.

How miserable would Dowon feel, seeing a girl he cruelly rejected show up, more successful than him, with a handsome boyfriend at her side? Seeing her look down on him, alongside a guy who was leagues above him, would surely double his agony.

“Oh, by the way, I saw Dowon Lee recently while heading home from work.”

“What? Really? What’s he up to these days?”

“He was working at a convenience store near my office.”

“…He’s working a convenience store job?”

Yoonah tried to sound indifferent, but Dahye noticed the subtle pause at the end of her sentence.

“Wow…” she said slowly, as if savoring each letter. “I’d like to see him again, just to ask how he’s doing.”

“You would? Let’s go see him together, then. Dowon’s been asking about how everyone’s doing, too.”

“Is he? Where is this store?”

It was easy to lure Yoonah out. Fortunately, Dowon’s trail of karma was long and sturdy enough to make Dahye’s revenge possible.

Thrilled about what was to come, Dahye headed to the convenience store with Yoonah.

“Dowon, look who’s here—it’s Yoonah.”

But as soon as the door swung open, they saw the convenience store was in utter chaos.

“I’m gonna kill you! Let’s just hang ourselves and die together, how about that?”

“I’m sorry! I said I’m sorry!”

Dowon was quite literally being beaten. He was getting pummeled so badly that Dahye instinctively thought she should call the police. He was definitely getting hit by someone—who just so happened to be incredibly pretty.

“What’s going on, Dahye? Is that Dowon Lee?”

“Should we… call the police?” Dahye muttered.

The woman beating Dowon looked so composed and beautiful that the entire scene was even more baffling. Even Dahye and Yoonah were stunned by how beautiful the violent woman was. Her pale skin, messy bob haircut, and tear-filled, reddened eyes made her look heartbreakingly fragile and alluring.

“Well…” Yoonah said, looking awestruck. “If someone that gorgeous is involved, it’s probably his fault…”

***

Dowon clutched his head as it snapped from side to side and thought, If someone who stays holed up at home has this much strength, maybe she has a future in sports.

“Why didn’t you wait for me? Why? We were supposed to go to the cafe! We were supposed to go to the aquarium!”

“That never happened, ah! Ah! Hana, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Dowon decided to stop making excuses. Every time he tried to explain, Hana’s punches seemed to get faster.

“Do you think marriage is a joke? Do you?”

It wasn’t a joke, and that was why he had no intention of marrying Hana. He quietly endured the beating. Hana wasn’t just furious that he had tricked her into going to the hospital, but that he hadn’t even waited for her to finish her appointment.

“Hana, your medication, okay? What about your medication?” he managed to ask.

If she had taken her meds, she wouldn’t be this out of control. He dodged her punches, only to have Hana scream back at him.

“Of course I threw them away, you psycho! You sociopath, playing with people’s feelings! You really think I’d fall for your tricks?!”

Of course. Damn it. Dowon felt like biting his own tongue in frustration. Hana had a habit of throwing her meds into the bushes outside the hospital after her appointments—this wasn’t the first time. He’d have to go back and find them.

For now, he needed to deal with the customers who had just entered. Using that as an excuse, he hoped to get this crazy woman off him for a moment.

“Hana, wait, I’ve got customers! Customers!”

Dowon managed to push Hana into the back of the counter to separate himself from her, then turned to the entrance, his body feeling like one big bruise. Two customers stood there, looking bewildered as they glanced between him and Hana.

“Dowon, your uniform’s torn,” said a familiar voice, filled with mock pity. The condescending tone, thinly concealed under a veil of faux kindness, was Dahye. Not surprising.

But Dowon froze the moment he noticed who was standing next to her—Yoonah.

“Dowon Lee… You seem to be doing well… I guess,” Yoonah said awkwardly.

Dowon shot a look at Dahye, who was trying hard to hold back a laugh.

Her intention was obvious: she had brought Yoonah here to see Dowon at his lowest, to humiliate him. Then she would laugh with Yoonah at his expense.

“Yoonah—ow, Hana! That hurts, it hurts!”

“Yoonah? Who’s Yoonah? Who’s she? You’re cheating, aren’t you? You’ve been cheating this whole time! Is she the one you ditched me for?!”

“We’re not even dating, Hana!” he yelled fruitlessly.

“You’re not dating, but you promised to marry me? You promiscuous jerk! I’ll kill you!”

Dowon didn’t even have time to feel humiliated. His priority shifted from escaping Dahye’s scheme to simply surviving Hana’s onslaught.

Whatever Dahye’s original plan was, it didn’t matter anymore. If he lost focus on dodging Hana’s blows, he might actually die.

“Let’s go,” Dahye said, realizing now wasn’t the right time to torment Dowon. She started leading Yoonah out of the convenience store. Dowon felt silently relieved.

“Where are you going?”

Hana’s fists paused their attack on Dowon to grab hold of Yoonah and Dahye.

“You’re running away because I caught you, aren’t you? What’s going on between you three? You’re not going anywhere until you explain!”

Yoonah and Dahye gaped at each other in shock, then at Dowon and Hana. Hana was clinging to their clothes, yanking on them so hard that the sleeves began to stretch.

Dowon briefly tried to recall where he’d left the box cutter he was using earlier. Maybe cutting himself out of this situation was the only way out.

***

“So, we finally ended up at a cafe, huh? You came here with these women before me, didn’t you Dowon? How did you find this place? It’s so nice! Did you search for it just so you could come here with them? You were going to take me to that cheap coffee shop, but you took them to a fancy dessert place with all these famous cakes? Are you saving money when you’re with me and splurging on them? Am I just your budget girlfriend?”

That, of course, was entirely nonsense. Hana had demanded an immediate explanation from the three of them, forcing them to relocate, and the only place near the convenience store where they could talk loudly without bothering anyone was a big café.

“No, no, that’s not—Hana, just try some cake first, okay?”

“You think cake will fix this? Are you trying to brush this off? Do I look seven years old to you? Is that why you tricked me into going to the hospital? Because you think our mentalities don't match, and that’s why you don’t want to marry me? You must think you’re so great—”

“No, Hana, it’s not like that,” Dowon sighed wearily. “These are just… old classmates…”

Yoonah and Dahye, both exhausted from their own run-in with Hana, nodded weakly, their clothes slightly stretched from Hana’s vice grip.

“Hana? Look, we’re really just Dowon’s old classmates. I work nearby, so I just stopped in,” Dahye said, offering a business card.

“You got a job just so you can be near him, didn’t you?” Hana started to rave again.

“You have an… interesting thought process,” Dahye replied, forcing a smile.

She pushed the business card into Hana’s hand. As she said, the Hanban Bank branch she worked at was indeed nearby, and it wasn’t exactly a place where someone would move jobs just to follow Dowon.

Hana, now looking somewhat deflated, stared at the card before glaring at Yoonah.

“Then is it her?”

“I don’t work nearby, but I do have a boyfriend,” Yoonah said hopefully.

“So, are the three of you all dating?”

“Listen, I don’t care about Dowon at all,” Yoonah said, stumbling over her words in her haste to placate Hana. “My boyfriend’s amazing, okay?”

Yoonah, eager to prove herself, pulled out her phone and displayed her lock screen—a picture of her and a man in a recording studio, their faces pressed together in the photo.

“Is that enough?”

“It’s true,” Dahye added. “Yoonah’s boyfriend is a famous producer. How could Yoonah be interested in Dowon when she’s dating someone like him?”

Dahye focused on seizing this opportunity to criticize Dowon. However, the one who got knocked down wasn’t Dowon, but Hana.

“Producer…”

“Yes, producer. You know that popular one these days, that—”

“Producer…”

“…What’s wrong with her?”

Hana, who had been fiercely attacking Yoonah and Dahye until that moment, leaned weakly against the soft sofa.

“Producer…”

“Ah, we’re screwed,” Dowon muttered.

It was one of the reasons Hana had been living such a depressing life, cooped up at home. Hana’s existence had been a life worse than death since being forced to give up on her dream of music.

So the mention of a producer boyfriend had triggered Hana’s depression, quelling the mania that had been roiling inside her up till now.

Dowon waved his hand in front of Hana’s eyes, trying hard to suppress his own despair.

“Hana, are you okay? Are you alright? Do you want more cake? Should I order another americano?”

She moaned.

“Hana, Hana Baek. Look here.”

“No… I want to die…”

Hana began to whimper, burying her face in the back of the sofa and beginning to sob. Yoonah and Dahye exchanged awkward glances, completely stupefied.

“Ugh… That’s why you should take your medicine… How did I manage to take you to the hospital last time…”

“Kill me…”

“Hana, get up. Let’s go.”

“No…”

Dowon grabbed Hana’s arm. She was dead weight, sprawled on the sofa, tears rolling down her cheeks. Dowon sighed deeply, then lifted her up.

“Hana, do you remember where you threw your medicine?”

With that, Dowon and Hana left, receiving a number of uncomfortable looks from the customers inside the cafe. Yoonah grabbed Dahye’s arm in confusion, and asked. “What… was that, exactly? Isn’t Dowon Lee working at a convenience store? He seems like he’s some kind of caregiver, doesn’t he?”

“Uh…”

Dahye blinked slowly, staring fixedly at the exit where Dowon had vanished.

“I don’t know either… What was that, seriously…”