The unexpected twist hit the audience’s minds hard.
They had never seen it coming.
“Th-this…”
A voice slipped out of someone’s lips.
The volcanic rage of the person who was betrayed by the one he trusted.
It reached its breaking point and exploded.
“Trash!”
The people who had cursed me turned their foul words towards Kim Ji-yu as if they had never done otherwise.
“You, you filthy trash! How dare you frame someone for no reason?!”
“How could a collector do such a thing? Wow. I’m ashamed to be in the same profession as you.”
“Look at how shameless she is. This doesn’t look like her first time doing this.”
The arrows of slander that had been shot at me changed their direction and aimed at Kim Ji-yu and her gang.
They didn’t know what to do in this situation.
They stood there as if they were nailed to the ground.
They couldn’t say anything.
They should have made some excuses, but their minds were already blank.
What could they say?
Despair.
The two letters of emotion that rose above their heads were so clear that they could be seen with the naked eye.
As I watched her shiver as if she had seen something unbelievable, I felt an irresistible joy.
‘You should have looked at your opponent before you attacked.’
I smiled and drove the final nail in the coffin.
“I never imagined that a human would accuse a teller of being a sexual offender. Is this the culture of Korean collectors?”
As they tried to lump me together with Kim Ji-yu, the collectors started to criticize her more fiercely.
“Trashy bastards!”
“Die!”
“You don’t deserve to be called collectors, let alone humans!”
Unfiltered and crude insults poured out. Contempt and finger-pointing, venomous words spread like a thick fog around Kim Ji-yu and her group.
“Everyone calm down! Stop!”
As the situation got worse than expected, Choi Jung-mo stepped forward and tried to somehow mediate, but the anger of the majority that had already exploded did not subside easily.
“Ah…”
I met Kim Ji-yu’s eyes as she looked at me with trembling pupils.
I winked at her playfully with one eye closed.
Kim Ji-yu turned pale as if she had lost all color from her face.
I wanted to give her more trouble, but this was enough.
“Ladies and gentlemen.”
As I cleared my throat and spoke, the noise stopped like magic.
They had been watching me from the beginning.
They were cursing Kim Ji-yu on the surface, but they were ready to react to me at any time and anywhere.
As the hall became quiet again, I spoke with ease.
“I regret that this unpleasant incident happened. I never thought that I, a teller, would receive such a blatant insult.”
At that remark, the anger that had stopped in the people flared up again, but
I spoke faster than they could spit out more curses at Kim Ji-yu.
“But why are you so brazenly insulting her?”
“…”
“…”
A sudden change of pitch.
They didn’t expect me to point out their faults, and they became speechless in an instant.
I pointed my finger at a collector who had yelled at Choi Jung-mo earlier.
“You there.”
“Yes, yes?”
“Yes. You. A while ago, you asked Choi Jung-mo, the person in charge here, why he was protecting a criminal like me, right?”
“Me? Me? I…”
“‘Hey, are you taking his side? He’s a sexual harasser, you know.’ You said that, and I heard it clearly.”
As I repeated his words without missing a single syllable, the man rolled his eyes and looked around nervously.
The other collectors glared at him with reproach.
I snorted.
They were all the same to me.
“Everyone here did the same thing to me at first. Criminal. Pervert. Get lost. I was born a teller, and this was the first time I heard such harsh insults. I was shocked. Do you know that? After the truth came out, not a single word of apology was directed at me.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
What could they say, even if they had ten mouths?
The people kept quiet and looked around.
They bowed their heads or avoided my gaze, afraid that I would single them out.
They were the timid movements of those who didn’t want the arrow to come back to them.
I sneered at their attitude and said.
“I found that really ridiculous. In this world, instead of the other party presenting evidence to prove my guilt, I was already a sinner and I had to present evidence to prove my innocence. Is this the law of the limit? Is this your way?”
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No one answered my question.
They couldn’t.
“So you all rushed to join the witch hunt as soon as you caught a case, and when it turned out to be not too late, you pretended not to know and acted as if nothing happened. Is that your way? And then you point out the evil deeds of others and act like righteous people?”
I didn’t get angry.
I just spoke calmly and softly.
The headquarters was spacious.
But it was quiet enough to hear even the breathing in the silent association headquarters.
My voice was enough to fill it.
“In the end, you’re all the same.”
That they were also nothing but perpetrators.
They wouldn’t know that even if I said so.
They probably wouldn’t want to accept it either.
Those people were reeds that swayed by their emotions without any conviction.
And they blindly believed that they were absolute justice.
And where I stood now was a reed field where the wind blew.
“You collectors must know this. Stories have power. When everyone repeats the same story, it becomes reality. It can make people stronger or hurt them. Stories have that much power.”
I slowly turned around in my seat and looked at the people around me one by one.
Some of them blushed with shame, some pretended to reflect to avoid the current situation.
There must have been some who resented me for saying such things in their hearts.
“You are now wasting the power of that story and trying to ruin an innocent person.”
I didn’t blame them for pointing them out.
I didn’t want to blame them either.
I just wanted to say one thing.
“Be ashamed as a collector, or as a human being.”
No one opened their mouth.
***
The situation ended quickly.
I immediately asked Choi Jung-mo to take care of Kim Ji-yoo.
“Are you sure that’s enough?”
“What, do you sound like you want me to do more?”
“That’s not…”
I smiled playfully at Choi Jung-mo, who hesitated to answer, and told him it was okay.
“I trust that you will handle this matter well.”
I swallowed my words as I glanced at Kim Ji-yoo being dragged away by the security guard.
She looked like a soulless person.
‘She’s already broken enough to never stand up again.’
In front of everyone, Kim Ji-yoo’s guilt was exposed.
The rumor must have spread already, and those who were deceived by her would be more resentful and try to bury her.
Even if I told them not to do that today, they would do it anyway.
The words of a collector whose future is blocked are miserable.
It’s more cruel than just receiving the punishment for your evil deeds and dying, living in a reality where you don’t even get success.
“I’m really sorry about this.”
“Why are you apologizing to me?”
“It happened under my jurisdiction. Of course I should apologize if anyone should.”
“I was the one who received your help, you know?”
“Helping is the natural thing to do. Innocent people, even if they are Tellers, should not be harmed.”
“You’ve changed a lot.”
He had changed quite a bit from the person who used to argue that it was okay to do anything to the minority for the sake of public interest.
Choi Jung-mo coughed awkwardly, adjusting his glasses, as I pointed that out.
“It’s all thanks to you, Yu-hyun.”
He muttered that and looked at the collectors who were dispersing, talking about what had just happened, with a troubled gaze.𝓷𝗼ѵ𝒆𝙡𝔟𝔦𝖓.𝒏𝘦𝑡
“But they won’t do the same.”
His voice, sighing deeply, was filled with pity.
“Not everyone is righteous. In fact, only a few people are truly righteous, and the rest are deluded by their own sense of justice.”
I quietly listened to Choi Jung-mo’s words, which sounded like a lament of regret.
“We always try to see only the ideal image of others. That person should be good. That person should be just. That person must be so. But that is nothing but our idolization of others. And when that person does something slightly deviant from morality, we tremble with betrayal and criticize them.”
“…”
“Not everyone can do that. Not everyone can be right. Just like there can’t be only one first place in the world, if there is a first place, there is a last place, and there is an average in between. And in the world, this average is the most common.”
But people don’t try to understand that fact.
As if it was an unavoidable instinct, they impose strict standards on others.
Even though they themselves are the ones who fail to meet those standards the most.
“Even after the era of change when language and stories gained power, the world is still the same. After all, people have always been like that.”
Choi Jung-mo bowed his head slightly and said to me.
“But please don’t hate people too much.”
“…”
I didn’t expect him to have such thoughts.
I thought he was just a person who did his best in his role from his position.
Seeing Choi Jung-mo again, I chuckled and said.
“I know. That’s how it is.”
“Is that so?”
“In the end, that’s what makes us human, our flaws and shortcomings.”
Who wouldn’t know that?
Even though I became a Teller, I was once a human.
I didn’t not know.
In fact, I knew better than anyone else, but I just pretended not to.
People pursue perfection, but perfection cannot exist.
They know that, but they still pursue perfection.
Because they are the most imperfect beings.
Sometimes they tear each other apart, sometimes they envy each other, sometimes they harbor jealousy.
And yet they praise perfection with their mouths.
I am not perfect.
I am not pure.
So I long for perfection in others and fantasize about it.
That’s human.
That’s the essence of humanity, and they are the members of the world I have to save.
“So I don’t hate them. I just get annoyed.”
Good and evil.
All those things mixed together make humans.
And that’s why those humans have more unpredictable potential than anyone else.
Like how a person who always selfishly craved survival would suddenly sacrifice their life for someone else.
‘Yeah. That’s right… That’s human.’
Unpredictable beings who can go anywhere.
Maybe that’s why the spirits liked humans so much.
Because they couldn’t be like that themselves.
Because their stories were always fixed in length.
Maybe they wanted stories that didn’t have an ending.
So let me show them more stories.
Stories that are unpredictable, but also so captivating that they can’t take their eyes off them.
To get closer to my goal.
Because that’s what I have to do.
“Oh. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll let anyone who comes at me off the hook. Please understand that.”
Did he read my somewhat relieved expression?
Choi Jung-mo threw off his cautious attitude and smiled softly at me.
“That’s good. I’m glad.”
Feeling awkward at his smile, I couldn’t help but smile back at him.
