PRU | Prologue

Jaehwan was ordinary. No, to say he was ordinary would have been a bit much, he was quite diligent.

Unlike boys his age, he did not play the trendy games, and he did not watch cartoons or dramas, and he did not go out to play soccer, but only made two hours of Internet surfing around 11 p.m. on occasional Saturday nights into his leisure time, the exemplary first grader.

The second grader. The third grader. The fourth grader. The fifth grader. The sixth grader. The first-year middle schooler. The second-year middle schooler. The third-year middle schooler. The first-year high schooler. The second-year high schooler. The third-year high schooler.

He had few friends. There had been many once, but the moment Jaehwan, like a racehorse wearing blinders, ran with both fields of vision blocked and only looked ahead, friends began to disappear. Unlike Jaehwan, the other boys his age liked the trendy games, liked cartoons, and liked soccer. Jaehwan was a pebble that had lost its common denominator. At some point, his classmates no longer paid attention to Jaehwan.

But Jaehwan cared. He always cared. Jaehwan was very interested in the trendy games, cartoons, dramas, soccer, baseball, and his friends. Only the racehorse with blinders on ran. It ran looking only ahead.

However, he never lost his sense of reality. That this finish line that pleased me, or someone, whether it was parents, teachers, relatives, or whatever, was never a period.

The youth unemployment rate kept rising, and no matter how hard Jaehwan worked to get into a prestigious university, he could not settle down and would have to prepare for employment. Taking the CSAT and going to university did not mean freedom to Jaehwan.

Nevertheless, the racehorse ran. Even if its leg broke, it would soon be put down, but it ran. Because a racehorse raised that way its whole life knew no other method.

Still, Jaehwan was quite optimistic. When this game ended, wouldn’t rest come? Or maybe, if I really became rich, wouldn’t I be able to rest a little later? No, maybe, this blindfold.

The day it would come off.

That hope was shattered sooner than he expected. One day, after the CSAT was over and even the last early-admissions interview had ended. With the release of the CSAT scores and the university results still ahead, and the three months of rest Jaehwan alone would have had in between, Jaehwan’s swelling chest was stopped by a hand dragging him under the ground. The racehorse’s leg had broken.

Jaehwan could not come to his senses in that sudden moment. It was an outrage he suffered on the way home after the last interview ended. In fact, that would have been too little to call an outrage. A hole suddenly opened in the ground. On top of that, a hand came out. Jaehwan was so dazed his brain would not work. Sinkhole? Alice in Wonderland? It was all incomprehensible.

The place he fell into was a room. One person, two people. Two in all. Both foreigners. Both men. One had dark brown hair, one had strangely red hair, as if adorned with a blazing sun. One was old and one was young. And even their clothes were strange. He had never seen them in any book, but they looked just like Western traditional clothing. Or clothing from ancient Greece.

But that was not all Jaehwan could not understand. The red-haired man said something he could not understand in an angry voice, then slapped Jaehwan’s cheek.

[Ah! Why, why are you doing this!]

And Jaehwan was dragged away in that state, by the hair.

He was raped.

Of course, Jaehwan resisted splendidly. He screamed, was hit, crawled, was hit, struck back, was hit, cried, was hit, begged, was hit, cried again, was hit, begged, was hit, and again, cried, was hit, begged, was hit, cried, was hit, begged, was hit, was hit, was hit, silence.

Though Jaehwan was becoming half-broken, the furious man did not forgive Jaehwan’s wriggling. Jaehwan ended up unable to twitch even one finger.

As beasts learned fear by the cudgels that rained down on them, Jaehwan, who had been such an excellent student for the past 19 years of his life, learned fear in a single act. Muted, without even a gagging sound. Like a dog whose vocal cords had been removed, Jaehwan stayed silent. In the meantime, what came into view inside the blinders was the man’s red eyes. And Jaehwan fainted.

It was almost like a miracle when Jaehwan opened his eyes. No, it had been forced by a miracle. Surely, in the place Jaehwan had lived, this kind of act was called a miracle. An old woman had healed Jaehwan with dazzling light. That dazzling light exposed Jaehwan’s wounds one by one, but the old woman did not pity him. This was not a kind place to pity Jaehwan.

And a young woman came over and wiped and washed Jaehwan’s body. The young woman also did not pity him. She was jealous instead. In this place, attending to the red man’s bed meant glory and wealth. Just like that, the young woman withdrew and the red man slapped Jaehwan’s cheek.

Jaehwan opened his eyes from the strong shock. And what came into view was the red man. Jaehwan stopped breathing. But this place was not such a kind place.

Right away, raped again.

Of course, Jaehwan stayed silent splendidly. No, no sound came out because it was blocked. His brain still was not working because it was overloaded. error. Wrong access. Only after that message appeared dozens of times did the man pull away.

The man was still angry. Jaehwan was still afraid. Despite the unfair treatment, fear rose through every single cell in Jaehwan’s body instead of anger. The man went out just like that and Jaehwan closed his eyes. The only thing Jaehwan could do was sleep.

That kind of thing repeated itself many times. The question Jaehwan had once asked, Where is this, had long since disappeared. He knew nothing, but there was nothing he wanted to know either. Jaehwan just wanted to go back. This was the first time he had ever wanted home so blindly.

When he opened his eyes, he thought, ‘Ah, I’m still here today.’ It had not taken long for that thought to change to, ‘I’m still alive.’ It had not taken long for the man to stop coming either.

How should Jaehwan’s feelings be explained when the man stopped coming from one day on? Jaehwan felt fear there too. Even though Jaehwan had seizures at the sight of red alone, after that man disappeared, Jaehwan could at least tell that his own usefulness had disappeared. Was he really going to die now.

Even though every morning he opened his eyes Jaehwan thought he wished he would just die, that if it was going to be like this please kill me, ironically, he did not want to die.

Jaehwan had too many things he wanted to do. There were so many things he wanted to do that if he held them all in both hands, they overflowed. Living life like that, Jaehwan had neatly piled up what he wanted to do to the side, but he had also lost many things.

And yet, right now, to die while being raped by a man without having done a single thing. Jaehwan’s mouth twitched. He could not help laughing. But if the people taking care of Jaehwan here found out, it felt like the red man would come again. Jaehwan laughed in silence like that.

But Jaehwan did not die and kept living. Jaehwan accepted it before long. The man must have grown tired of him. And he would not kill him either. After living like that with his breath held for several days, one day Jaehwan said to the woman who brought him his meal.

“[Where is this?]”

The woman said something or other, but Jaehwan could not understand it. The woman looked at him like he was pathetic, Jaehwan was intimidated by that, and after going out for a while, she threw him a book. The letters were something he was seeing for the first time too, but Jaehwan knew what that thin book meant. An elementary reading primer given only to children. With that one book, the woman told Jaehwan, Learn letters. Jaehwan agreed. And he got to work right away.

The racehorse ran again. Its leg had not broken. Because Jaehwan had spent his 19 years as an excellent student, something like this was not a problem. The woman who brought him meals came in three times a day, and Jaehwan learned the pronunciation of letters and the pronunciation of words from her three times a day.

At first the woman seemed annoyed, then soon, as if she felt some pity, though Jaehwan could not tell what that was, she taught him diligently. Then, in one month, Jaehwan reached the level of speaking like a five-year-old.

Jaehwan asked.

“Can I go home?”

“No.”

The woman answered coldly. Jaehwan closed his mouth again. And read the book again. His book had now gone beyond simply having a picture and a single word, to being about the level of a fairy tale book with slightly large letters on one picture. Jaehwan read the letters one by one. ……Caroline said. Where is this? Here is the land of –…….

“What is this –?”

“It is an angel. A servant of God. Winged, and carrying out God’s orders.”

……It is the land of angels. Welcome……. Jaehwan closed the book just like that. And went back to the bed and pulled the blanket over himself.

“You have to eat. Your Majesty will be angry.”

“What does being angry mean?”

“It means getting angry. Angry.”

“I have no appetite.”

“You still have to eat.”

The woman came over to the bed and roughly pulled Jaehwan up. Jaehwan was pulled up by that hand like a puppet. Yes, I’ll eat. Jaehwan said faintly. What a bother. The woman brusquely brushed Jaehwan off.

Jaehwan sat back down at the table again without even being able to sleep as he pleased. And ate the pale porridge and bread. When he silently finished eating, fruit was brought out. Jaehwan silently ate that too. And he asked the woman.

“Where is this?”

“The land of the Blessed Red Lion. Know it as glory.”

“What is glory?”

“Glory. Something like honor. Bright and beautiful. It just means be grateful.”

Jaehwan drew in a breath. Can I sleep now? Yes. Jaehwan fled from reality like that.