"I never thought I'd step into hell willingly… but if hell is where they are, then it's where I belong."
—Flash forward: Police sirens blaring—
Seok-Hyun sat in the back of a patrol car, wrists locked in cuffs.The red and blue lights painted his pale face in shifting colors.He wasn't panicked. He wasn't even angry.He was smiling.
"Finally… I'm on the path."
—Flashback: Two days earlier—
The city at night was alive with noise—bars spilling drunks into alleys, neon signs flickering. Seok-Hyun walked alone, hood up, hands trembling not from fear, but from anticipation.
He had spent weeks planning this. The gym training. The stolen gloves. Watching the bullies' movements. Learning where they gathered after school, which streets they claimed.
Tonight, he wasn't going to be the victim.
At the corner convenience store, the bullies were waiting. Three of them—laughing, kicking cans, shoving each other like they owned the world.
Seok-Hyun stepped out of the shadows.
"Yo… look who it is," one sneered. "The loser who cried at his sister's funeral."
The laughter cut into him like knives. His vision blurred red.
Without a word, he smashed a glass bottle against the pavement. Shards glittered in the streetlight. The bullies froze, caught off guard by his sudden defiance.
"You think this is funny?" Seok-Hyun's voice was low, steady. "Laugh again."
One rushed forward, swinging wild. Seok-Hyun ducked—crack!—his fist slammed into the boy's jaw. Another charged, but the jagged bottle pressed against his neck stopped him cold.
The street went silent except for the sound of Seok-Hyun's ragged breathing. For the first time, the bullies' faces weren't filled with amusement… but fear.
—Aftermath—
The police arrived minutes later. Witnesses screamed about an "attempted murder." The bullies, bleeding and shaken, painted Seok-Hyun as a monster.
He didn't resist. He raised his hands.He confessed to everything—no hesitation.
"Charge me. Lock me up. Do whatever you want."
The officers looked at him like he was insane. But to Seok-Hyun, this was exactly what he wanted.
—Prison Transport Bus—
The other inmates jeered, shouted, bragged about their crimes. Seok-Hyun sat in silence, eyes fixed out the window.
Steel bars. Concrete walls. Chains rattling with every turn of the bus.
"I framed myself for this. I chose this cage. And inside it, I'll find them."
His sister's voice echoed in his memory, faint and fading."Oppa… will you protect me?"
Seok-Hyun's fists clenched so hard the cuffs cut his skin.
"Yes. Even if I have to build a throne of blood to do it."
—End of Chapter Three—