—Flashback: Months earlier—
The apartment was small, but it had always felt full when his little sister was there.Jang Hae-Won, 14, bright-eyed despite the same worn clothes Seok-Hyun wore, always trying to protect her brother even when she was just a kid herself.
She was the only reason he hadn't given up entirely.
One evening, she didn't come home after school. Hours passed. Seok-Hyun and their mother waited, pacing the floor, checking the street again and again.
Then the phone rang.
It wasn't the police.It wasn't her voice.It was the laughter of the same bullies who had tormented Seok-Hyun for years.
The world turned red.
—Later that night—
The police arrived, but they were too late. Hae-Won was found abandoned in an alley. Broken. Lifeless. The officers muttered things about "investigation," about "not enough evidence." The bullies were questioned… and released the next day.
At the funeral, Seok-Hyun's mother collapsed. His father's absence was already a wound; now this was the blade driven deeper. She barely lasted weeks before her own body gave out under the weight of grief.
Now it was only Seok-Hyun, sitting in the dark apartment surrounded by silence that screamed louder than any beating ever had.
Seok-Hyun's Breaking Point
He stared at his sister's school notebook, pages filled with messy doodles and homework problems left unfinished. He clenched it so tightly his knuckles bled.
"They didn't just take Ma and Father. They took Hae-Won. They laughed while they did it… and no one stopped them."
For the first time, he understood what had to be done.
He wouldn't call the police.He wouldn't beg for justice.
He would carve it out himself.
Foreshadowing Revenge
The final panel: Seok-Hyun sitting in a dark room, lit only by the glow of his sister's picture frame. His face is hollow, empty of fear.
"If the law won't touch them… then I'll drag them to hell with me."