Red Dot - 160

Chapter 160

Nam Ki-hyuk’s ‘punishment’ was something that Junseong had not anticipated.

Junseong had thought Ki-hyuk would cruelly dismember him, play with him, and then kill him, just as Ki-hyuk had done to others. Junseong believed he could endure it somehow, since he couldn’t feel pain anyway, no matter how gruesome or harsh it was. Ultimately, Junseong figured that dying would allow him to escape this situation.

However, Nam Ki-hyuk understood the rules of Junseong’s dreams all too well.

All the dreams Junseong had experienced so far included him willingly killing himself to restart the cycle.

Above all, Nam Ki-hyuk himself did not want Junseong’s death.

Instead, Ki-hyuk killed others, not Junseong.

Ki-hyuk did it right in front of Junseong’s eyes.

“Argh-!”

Ki-hyuk killed the people who had killed Junseong.

“Please, spare me!”

Or the companions who had been with Junseong at the end.

“What are you guys doing?! Why are you doing this?!”

Or the people Junseong had trusted.

“Junseong! Why are you here…?! Aaaargh-!”

Ki-hyuk tore, slashed, and dug into them until their human forms were barely recognizable.

“Here, a gift.”

Ki-hyuk always cut off their heads and presented them to Junseong.

Junseong saw Jang Daewook’s head appear before him again, like an extension of a previous cycle, and he panted heavily. Bloodstains never dried on the silver tray, which held human heads multiple times a day, and Junseong’s pale face reflected in it.

Ki-hyuk closely observed every single one of Junseong’s reactions.

Ki-hyuk noted how Junseong’s eyes trembled, how dull his gaze became, how pale he grew, and how much his breathing changed.

Junseong felt Ki-hyuk’s eyes surrounding him from all directions.

“As expected, Junseong likes seeing heads cut off like this.”

Nam Ki-hyuk smiled brightly and handed the tray with Daewook’s head to Woo Seok-jin, who stood nearby. Seok-jin, like an obedient puppet, took the tray and tossed Daewook’s head among the scattered body parts.

Other men gathered the dispersed body pieces into the center, grabbed the transparent vinyl on the floor, and bundled them together. They tied the bl00d-soaked vinyl into a sack and dragged it outside.

Junseong watched the lump of flesh that was once Jang Daewook being dragged out like garbage, and he finally let the tears welling in his eyes fall. Nam Ki-hyuk, as if reluctant to let those tears go to waste, pressed his lips to them, licking the moisture with the tip of his tongue while slowly laying Junseong down.

“Why…?”

A sorrowful voice flowed from Junseong’s lips as he lay powerlessly.

“Why are you doing this…?”

The horror filled with bl00d and screams continued for three days. When Ki-hyuk left, Junseong was forced to sleep with sedatives, and when a new person was brought in, Junseong was injected with a strange stimulant to wake up and witness the brutal scene again.

After Junseong etched the indescribable horror into his eyes, Nam Ki-hyuk, with a satisfied face, laid him down properly and climbed on top of him.

Ki-hyuk grinned, his back against the bright factory lights, just like when they first met.

“Because I like you.”

“…What?”

To Junseong, it was an absurd reason, but to Nam Ki-hyuk, it was undeniable truth.

“I like you so much that I don’t want to share your secret with anyone else.”

Ki-hyuk’s hands, smiling innocently like a child, wrapped around Junseong’s neck. Knowing the pain that would follow, Junseong’s body began trembling rapidly, as if trained to react.

“Everyone who knows your secret, or knew it, I’ll kill them all.”

The skin around Junseong’s neck pressed tightly. He felt his airway gradually constricting under the strong pressure. His rough breathing grew faster, and only strained groans mixed with air escaped instead of a clear voice.

There was no pain.

Only sensation.

The sensation of someone controlling his breathing was the worst. The agony of not being able to breathe freely as he wished was beyond imagination. The breath control, teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, was the most terrifying pain in the world for Junseong.

Junseong’s powerless body writhed. Driven by survival instinct, he gasped, trying to breathe even a little more, and struggled with his handcuffed hands to pry Ki-hyuk’s arms off his neck.

“Ha… Junseong…”

Nam Ki-hyuk, with glazed eyes and a flushed face, whispered.

“I don’t want you to die. But…”

Ki-hyuk’s face sank into deep ecstasy.

“I love how desperate you get when you don’t want to die… like now.”

Ki-hyuk’s hands bore countless scratch marks from the past three days. Another long red mark was freshly etched on the back of his hand.

Ki-hyuk licked Junseong’s physiological tears several times, whispering with heavy breaths.

“I’ll take care of everything… If I find a solution, your dreams will end, so I’ll find it…”

Ki-hyuk’s giggling laughter tickled Junseong’s suffering ears.

“Once it’s over, you’ll live with me forever. Got it?”

“Ugh… sob…”

“You need to answer if you understand.”

“Guh…!”

Ki-hyuk’s thumbs pressed harder on Junseong’s neck. Breathing was already difficult, but the thumbs pressed his airway so tightly that the pain was unbearable.

With his eyes half-rolled back, Junseong’s mind, overwhelmed by survival instinct, frantically screamed to answer quickly.

“I… understand… guh…!”

“Good.”

Ki-hyuk, smiling with satisfaction, lightly kissed Junseong’s cheek.

“Now say, ‘Please spare me.’”

“Ugh, urk…!”

“I told you. If you want to live, you have to beg me.”

Did Junseong want to live?

No, he wanted to die.

If he died, he could start over.

But after several rounds of torture, Junseong realized something. If he didn’t give the answer Ki-hyuk wanted, he couldn’t faint or die and would have to endure this torture for hours.

Above all, his mind, tamed by Nam Ki-hyuk, was beyond his control. His usually sharp brain was utterly useless now.

“Spare… me… ugh, sob! Please… spare me…!”

“You don’t sound sincere. Do you really want to live?”

Junseong stopped scratching and grabbed Ki-hyuk’s arms tightly, as if clinging.

“Hyung… sob, I’m scared… ugh…! Please… spare me…!”

As Junseong barely managed to speak, the madness in Ki-hyuk’s eyes gradually softened into a warm glow. His face, which had looked like the most insane in the world, became infinitely gentle.

“Yes, Junseong. I’ll spare you.”

Ki-hyuk, trembling with a flushed face, murmured and slowly released his hands. A new red handprint appeared over the layered bruises.

As breathing returned, Junseong’s mind grew hazy. The prolonged breath control turned his mind temporarily blank and drained his body of strength. Even coughing felt exhausting.

Nam Ki-hyuk embraced Junseong, whom he had ‘spared’ with his own hands, and lay down with him.

Ki-hyuk carefully licked the saliva Junseong couldn’t swallow and let drip during the choking. Unable to resist, Ki-hyuk pressed his lips against Junseong’s. Junseong, nearly unconscious and trembling, didn’t even register what Ki-hyuk was doing.

After the torture, Ki-hyuk was a completely different person. He was indescribably kind and warm, devoted like when he had died for Junseong by letting zombies bite him.

That made it even scarier.

Junseong couldn’t understand what made a person so abnormal.

* * *

How long had Junseong been confined in the abandoned factory?

The layered bruises on Junseong’s neck grew darker each day. Every time Ki-hyuk choked him, Ki-hyuk was consumed by intense pleasure, intoxicated by the fact that he had ‘saved’ Junseong with his own hands.

Today, too, Junseong witnessed another person’s gruesome fate and was choked afterward. Knowing Ki-hyuk wouldn’t kill him, Junseong begged insincerely to be spared. Speaking quickly made it slightly easier.

Due to the accumulated effects of the torture, Junseong could only produce wheezing breaths. That day, too, he was forced to sleep in Ki-hyuk’s arms. He had been given sedatives so often that sleep wouldn’t come, but at least while pretending to sleep with Ki-hyuk, he wasn’t subjected to strange acts.

“Boss, we found the first infected.”

Seok-jin’s voice faintly reached Junseong. Junseong remembered him well as the man always with Ki-hyuk, watching everything without flinching.

“Lower your voice. You’ll wake him.”

Ki-hyuk, lying down and holding Junseong tighter, glared coldly at Seok-jin. Seok-jin apologized quietly, and Ki-hyuk asked,

“Where’s the origin?”

“It’s Dongjin Apartment. The first infected was a woman in her 50s, but our investigation shows she wasn’t a resident there.”

“So she might have been infected elsewhere.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Ki-hyuk clicked his tongue and stroked Junseong’s head, saying,

“Investigate that woman further. If you can bring her here, even better.”

“Understood.”

Seok-jin bowed and headed out of the factory.

Left alone with Junseong in the vast factory, Ki-hyuk gazed at Junseong’s seemingly sleeping face.

“I’ll take care of everything.”

Ki-hyuk’s eyes sank deeply.

“Whether it’s a solution or anything else, I’ll find it and end this. I’ll make it so this isn’t a dream but ‘reality.’”

Ki-hyuk buried his lips in Junseong’s hair, whispering in a heavy voice.

“Let’s stop having these kinds of dreams.”

Inside his trembling eyelids, Junseong still couldn’t grasp the meaning of Ki-hyuk’s whispered words.