Predators don't steal trust; they carefully earn it step by step, only to burn it in betrayal.
On January 12, 2019, another life was tragically lost to the cruelty of online grooming.
Reports described her as a widow whose husband had passed away five years earlier, during an arranged marriage that offered little warmth or comfort.
In the years following his death, her deepening isolation left her emotionally vulnerable.
Unaware of the danger, she fell into a trap of false affection, which began with deceptive kindness and ended with her taking her own life, leaving a five-year-old daughter alone and orphaned.
Yet, what seemed a straightforward case of grooming was far more complex.
...
The black van lurched along the cracked road as coarse laughter bounced through its shadowed interior.
Three men sprawled in the back seat and pawed at Hye-rin with crude hands while the man in the rabbit mask steered with icy precision.
That masked driver was none other than Jaemin.
In his past life he wouldn't have dared this even for a million won since the Green Centipede gang gripped Seoul's dark corners and Dong-sae known as Ray their leader's son claimed any prey he wanted so no one crossed him.
Yet as a reborn man Jaemin's thoughts twisted differently from ordinary minds.
This case seared his memory so one day's planning sufficed especially when it wove a politician's son, a washed-up actor, a wannabe travel vlogger, and a gangster's heir into the kidnapping of one woman.
An hour earlier he slipped into the driver's seat after knocking the original driver cold.
That move was simple since Seoul's streets noticed faces but ignored masks so even a vlogger moonlighting as a wheelman for dirty deals sparked no suspicion.
Now with the pieces set Jaemin nudged the plan toward its next step.
He ground three propranolol tablets between his molars and their sour bite sharpened his mind in an instant while his pulse stayed eerily steady.
"Hey boss! You want a smoke? Got some prime stuff with me."
Dong-sae known as Ray squinted from the rear seat and expected his friend not this masked stranger but he let it slide since fear didn't touch him and only a trusted few could drive his father's van.
"Damn bastard we've got fresh meat right here so why would we care about your smoke?"
Dong- sae aka ray leaned forward and squeezed Hye-rin's breast through her dress with a grip harsh enough to make her flinch.
Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks as bound arms and a silenced voice left her shaking against the van's relentless shudder.
"Fucking rabbit keep your shit for later because we don't need it now."
"Get us to the Green Villa and don't screw around since we're not here for your smoke."
The Green Villa stood as a rotting two-story café abandoned in a barren stretch with no souls nearby.
The three men brushed off smoking since past kidnappings paled against this woman's allure so they itched to reach their hideout and tear into her without restraint.
But Jaemin was Jaemin and he would never let them run their game unchecked.
Five minutes later...
"Hey, does this crap really boost stamina? Not like we need it, but…"
"Obviously. I've bedded plenty of beauties, and every one of them left satisfied. You think I'd waste my time otherwise?"
When lust clouds a man's mind, rationality can't be expected.
It took barely five minutes to talk them into smoking their own deaths.
Every word he spoke was dressed in exaggeration, the kind only a seasoned rapist could summon.
The short-haired woman with purple strands clinging to her pale face, watched him with eyes that saw a demon in human skin.
"Alright, now drive faster. I need to see if it really works."
With that, Jae Min pressed down on the accelerator.
The car surged ahead with insane speed, and in that rush, stress faded, replaced by the hollow thrill of the ride.
Fifteen minutes had already passed before an almost-dead building came into view, the Green Villa.
Once a tourist spot in the nineties, it now stood crumbled and abandoned.
In fact, this whole street belonged to the Centipede Gang, a place left in ruin so they could breed chaos in Seoul.
...
"Hey Rabbit, take this woman inside the building, room 002."
"Alright, boss."
As soon as the van lurched to a stop Dong Sae gave the order to Jae-min, and now was the time to devour the fruit of his six months of effort.
But when he saw the lustful and depraved gazes of his friends irritation burned inside him, because he was the one who had seduced this bitch and yet he still had to share the pie with everyone.
"Umm... hnn... umm..."
On the other hand the despair Hye-rin felt could never be put into words.
Soon the doors flung open and rough hands dragged her out, her tied wrists and taped mouth smothering her cries as her feet and arms thrashed wildly in a desperate fight against her captors.
Even bound beneath the night sky Hye-rin still looked pitiful, yet gorgeous.
Her short purple hair glimmered under the dim streetlights, the thin straps of her top stretched tight over her massive breasts with one lush mound spilling free and its hardened nipple jutting shamelessly.
While her bodycon coat lay discarded leaving every curve exposed to the biting chill.
But Jae-min was not some monstrous rapist and he had no other thoughts about the woman because from the very beginning he had only one goal.
Following orders Jae-min slung her over his left shoulder, her bound hands useless and her muffled sobs smothered by the tape, her legs kicking frantically until he grabbed her ankles in a rough grip that pinned her as he carried her toward the room.
They reached a grimy chamber and the door creaked open as Jae-min dropped her onto a stained mattress.
The impact made her exposed breast bounce violently and her curves trembled with each panicked breath.
She looked at Jae-min and the others with immense despair and in that moment the image of her daughter flashed across her mind as she begged God to send someone, anyone, to save her from what was about to come.
...
"Boss, are you feeling weird or like something is out of place? I mean, something like your brain is spinning."
Jae Min's eyes flicked to the three men in front of him, each of them already stripping off their clothes for the obvious reason.
""What the fuck are you babbling about? You're not needed here."
"So it's not kicking in, huh?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Take off that fucking mask already."
"Damn...it"
In fact, Jae-min wasn't some kind of saint who wanted to save a helpless woman and become a chivalrous knight.
From what he knew, this Green Villa was actually a stock house of the Centipede Gang.
Since it had been abandoned for many years, Security was thin here, no one bothered watching over a place everyone already forgot.
In his previous life, media reports said the Centipede Gang distributed drugs from here. Though it wasn't their main stock, the amount was still impressive.
Hye Rin's suicide had blown it open, forcing Seol to act, and the raid uncovered nearly a billion dollars' worth of narcotics.
Jae-min didn't want to steal some kind of drugs.
What he was after was the yellow suitcase that he remembered from his previous life, when the police showed it to the media.
A suitcase with foreign currency that could amount to at least 10 billion won.
That amount was what he was after, not some saving-damsel fetish and delusional heroics.
"Who are you?"
Even lustful as they were, the men before him weren't stupid—they sensed something was off.
"Damn… looks like we'll need to get rough."
One rolled up his sleeves, ready to punch Jae Min in the face, but froze—his pants were already down, leaving him trapped, unable to move.
In the next second, Jae Min pulled a black spray bottle from his coat and…
Sizzz… sizzz… sizzz.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One by one, all three went down, completely unconscious.
"Phew… that was close."
Jae put the knockout spray back. In fact, he had already given them cigarettes laced with flunitrazepam.
Generally, it takes twenty minutes for the effects to show, but since he had been driving fast, they arrived in just ten minutes, ten minutes before the drug would take effect.
For that reason, Jae Min had to use the knockout spray as a backup plan, another substance that could render a human unconscious for hours. Taken in excess, it could even be fatal.
"Now, where the hell is my money?"