Scene 6

Under the desk, at the corner of the bed headboard, between the hangers, diagonally next to the door frame—we found small cameras in places that were too easy to spot. I had to admit I’d been too careless.

We collected six small cameras from the tiny room.

Every time I removed one camera, the stalker counted them like a game, cheerfully telling me how many were left.

“Seriously, shouldn’t you report this? Six cameras in this tiny room… There wouldn’t even be a blind spot… Hey, what are you looking at?”

“Huh? No, just a little.”

“Let me see.”

Denver snatched the phone from my hand and started scrolling up. I hovered around him anxiously, glancing at Denver as he skimmed through the messenger messages the stalker had sent me.

His eyes twitched as he scrolled. A vein bulged on his forehead, and he finally exploded, unable to contain his anger.

“This guy’s a total psycho, isn’t he?! And you’ve been putting up with this?! What’s the point of being built like a mountain? You’re just sitting there like an idiot, letting him mess with you!”

“What was I supposed to do?”

“Pretend to leave and hide at home to catch him, or install a hidden camera yourself!”

“I’d need money to buy and install one. And until now, I didn’t even feel that uncomfortable.”

“Of course you didn’t feel uncomfortable—he was doing your chores for you! Even if you’re careless, no one is this careless.”

“…….”

My face flushed slightly, and I looked down to the left. Denver shook his head, as if to say there was no answer, and handed the phone back to me.

I took my phone from him.

“Anyway, you’re saying it was convenient back then, but now it’s scary, right?”

“Yeah. Now it’s kind of scary.”

“Then from now on… No, first, let’s just get out of this house.”

“Why?”

“There are cameras—what if there are wiretaps too? Aren’t you an engineering student? Think about it!”

Denver pulled me out of the house by the hand.

Even as we left, I checked the stalker’s messenger messages, just in case. If there really was a wiretap, I thought the stalker might say something more.

Denver stared at my face as I anxiously checked the messages, then snatched my phone and turned it off.

“You’re really…”

“Hey, why’d you turn it off?!”

“Why are you even looking at this? And you’re asking why I turned it off? Elias. Are you… being tamed or something?”

“…….”

Being tamed? I wanted to shout that it was nonsense, but my throat tightened, and the words stuck.

Being tamed.

Me? Being tamed?

My face paled. Denver was right—I had tolerated the stalker’s behavior for months, and it might have looked like I was being conditioned.

“What… should I do?”

“Let’s catch the stalker.”

***

After the man left, I stopped counting the numbers.

I realized that the numbers I counted and the actual time didn’t match at all.

The pain from the slaps on my cheeks and the sore hole didn’t hurt as much after the medicine was applied.

Once I could think rationally, I finally started planning my escape. To escape from this unknown place, I needed information. There wasn’t much I could gather in just two days.

What I knew:

– My feet were shackled.

– The shackles were heavy and strong, impossible to break with ordinary strength.

– My range of movement was limited to one step from the bed. The shackles were connected to the bed.

– The man had the key to unlock the shackles from the bed.

– If I endured until the fifth day, a light bulb would be installed in this room.

– Outside the room was a narrow hallway.

– The room next to this one was the bathroom.

– The wallpaper looked freshly applied, but the inside smelled rotten, like decaying wood.

– Two more steps away was the toilet. It wasn’t an all-in-one bathroom and was on the opposite side of the shower room.

– Moving a little farther led to an open space—the kitchen.

– There was a large table that looked like it had been picked up from somewhere.

The man cooked soup and rice in the kitchen and fed me. I ate it politely, afraid of being hit or punished.

In the latest model refrigerator, I glimpsed prepped vegetables in containers, along with a microwave and coffee pot. The man used a folding knife when cooking, meaning there were no knives left lying around the house.

After piecing together these minor details, I got up from my spot.

The stench filled the air, so I couldn’t tell where I had relieved myself the day before just by the smell. I groped around the bed to find the spot. The paint on the right end of the bed headboard was peeling. I traced it and found where I had urinated. I pulled down my pants and urinated as far as possible to measure the distance. The wall was close, and the stream bounced back.

I frowned in disgust. If only the shackles were off, I could walk to the bathroom myself. I pulled up my pants and burrowed back into the bed.

I hadn’t been able to sleep because I’d been counting numbers the whole time, but as soon as I lay down on the scratchy blanket, my eyes closed.

I didn’t want to sleep yet. I wanted to find more ways to escape.

Exhaustion pulled my entire body deep into the bed.

I closed my eyes for just a moment.

When I opened them, someone was lying next to me, holding me.

I flinched and my whole body tensed.

A steady breath came from the nose of the black silhouette holding me.

The man was asleep beside me.

My heart pounded violently when I realized it was him. At this distance, I could strangle him. I thought that if I searched his body, I might find the key to the shackles or a way to call for help.

Slowly, I groped his body to find his neck. Fortunately, the man continued to breathe evenly until I wrapped both hands around his throat. He didn’t seem awake yet.

If I squeezed now, I could kill him.

I scoffed at the man’s carelessness—how could he sleep so peacefully after kidnapping someone?

The strength in my fingertips faltered. My face, which had unconsciously been smirking, hardened.

This man… if…

But… if…

If I killed him like this…

How long would I be trapped here?

If I killed the man who fed me, would I never be able to escape this place?

What if I searched his body and didn’t find the key? What if there was no phone to contact the outside? While I hesitated, the neck I was gripping let out a low chuckle.

“Why don’t you kill me?”

“Ah—!”

I was so startled that I let go.

I scrambled backward, nearly falling off the bed. The man grabbed my hand in the pitch-black darkness and pulled me back.

My center of gravity shifted onto the bed, and I fell into his arms.