TSTL 07

Chapter 7

The One Who Remembers, The One Who Rages

“Test’s over.”

When class ended, Hyung-jin Noh turned in his exam sheet.

He had thought his new ability was useless for studying — yet, unexpectedly, it was proving quite helpful.

Who would’ve thought something like this would actually work?

After all, tests were always taken in school. So when he focused during class, those memories became sharply etched in his mind. Later, during the test, he could pull them back out as if replaying a recorded lecture stored on a computer’s hard drive.

It’s kind of cheating, though.

Yes — definitely a shortcut. The college entrance exams and the GED would be held at other schools, in different rooms, not necessarily where those memories came from. If the person who’d sat there before him had been a diligent student, he’d be lucky — but if not, going in unprepared could ruin everything in one go.

“Yeeaaahhh!”

“Midterms are over! Let’s go play!”

“Finals are still left, you idiots.”

“Hey, Noh Hyung-jin! How can you drag your friends to hell when heaven’s just opened up?”

“What hell?”

Still, with midterms over, everyone finally had time to breathe. Most schools only held morning classes during exam week, so when the morning test was done — especially on a Friday — it was like stepping straight into a storm of freedom.

“Let’s go to the fish room!”

“The what room?”

“You know, the PC room — pee-shi-bang.”

“That’s fish, you idiot.”

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s just go already!”

A crowd of students stormed out, shouting. Hyung-jin shook his head and followed them outside.

Well, this isn’t so bad either.

Honestly, having psychometry — the ability to read memories from objects — made studying ridiculously easy.

More precisely, it made memorizing things easier.

Memories he read from objects stuck far more vividly than his own. If he focused while studying and then reread those memories, they became imprinted in his brain — as if he’d reviewed them three times over.

The only problem is the emotions.

If the memory carried unpleasant feelings, he had to endure all that too — which could ruin his mood completely.

Still, I’ve got safeguards.

The “safeguards” he meant were the things he could bring into an exam: his watch, his pencil case, his pens, even his seat cushion. If he carefully planted memories into those objects, he could use them as reference during tests — not perfect, but enough to help.

“Let’s go!”

“Woohoo!”

“Kids these days,” he muttered with a laugh.

They were only in eighth grade — still wild, still bursting with energy. Watching them run ahead, Hyung-jin smiled faintly.

Maybe I’ve been thinking about life the wrong way.

None of them were exactly on the path to success, but that didn’t matter. School days were still something to remember fondly.

Anyway… focus.

He shook his head. The most urgent thing was still the next test, not existential philosophy. Once midterms were over, he could think about high school again.

“Yoon Mi-young, the teacher’s looking for you!”

The class rep shouted as he returned from the staff room. Hyung-jin turned.

“Huh?”

“Teacher says come now.”

“Oh, okay.”

Mi-young looked deflated as she packed her things.

Guess she bombed the test, Hyung-jin thought casually.

In her hurry, she dropped her pencil case. Without thinking, he picked it up and handed it to her.

“Here.”

“Thanks.”

The moment their hands brushed —

A violent shiver shot through his entire body.

“Ugh!”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

Startled by his reaction, Mi-young hurried off, clutching the pencil case.

“Damn it…”

Hyung-jin’s hands trembled. That horrible chill — it wasn’t normal.

After all his practice, he’d learned how to block other people’s memories from flooding into him. But this one forced its way through his will like a scream.

That feeling just now…

It was only a split second, but he was sure of one thing — it was a desperate cry for help.

“Hey, you’re not coming to the fish room?”

“I told you, it’s fish!”

“Whatever! It’s been forever — you’re coming, right?”

Hyung-jin hesitated, bag half-packed. A sour, uneasy feeling clung to him.

“I can’t today.”

“Again with studying? Damn, man, is our friendship that cheap to you?”

“It’s not that. Something urgent came up.”

“Urgent? Like what?”

“Just… something.”

“Lame. Bet it’s a girl.”

Well… he’s not wrong.

He sighed as he slung his bag over his shoulder. Somehow, he already knew this was going to turn into a headache.

“Hey, Noh Hyung-jin, aren’t you going home?”

“I’m waiting for someone.”

“Who? Mi-young?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s been three hours already.”

“Heh…”

Three hours since she’d gone into the staff room. That wasn’t normal. No teacher-student talk lasted that long, especially right after exams.

“Hey, Mr. Lee, maybe let her go? This kid’s gonna wait all night.”

“Hmm.”

When the homeroom teacher, Lee Gyu-sung, stepped out, Hyung-jin greeted him with a polite smile.

“Hello, sir.”

“Ah, Hyung-jin. Why aren’t you heading home?”

“I was supposed to meet Mi-young after this.”

“Mi-young?”

The look the man gave him — cold, hostile — made Hyung-jin pause.

Even for a teacher who kept distance from students, this wasn’t normal. It wasn’t indifference — it was hatred.

Why?

His instincts, honed by years of legal battles in his previous life, didn’t lie.

“Well, then,” the teacher said curtly, “Mi-young, we’ll stop here for today. You can go.”

“Huh? Oh… yes.”

Startled, Mi-young quickly packed her bag and hurried out.

“Enjoy it while it lasts, kid,” one of the other teachers muttered as she left. “Getting private lessons from your teacher isn’t easy, you know.”

That offhand comment hit Hyung-jin like a brick.

Private lessons?

So the homeroom teacher had been tutoring her after school?

Why?

Mi-young wasn’t a top student. If anything, she was average at best. There were plenty of students below her in rank. Why her?

“Shall we go?”

Outside, Mi-young spotted Hyung-jin waiting and tilted her head in confusion.

They were classmates, but barely spoke. She was ranked around twenty-fifth in the class of thirty-five, while Hyung-jin was the undisputed top student — practically living in another world.

“Don’t stay out too late, kids,” one teacher called as they left.

The school was eerily quiet now — everyone else had gone home.

“So… why were you waiting for me?”

“Well, about that…”

He couldn’t tell her the real reason — that he’d felt her desperate memory through her pencil case.

“Come with me.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

He tried to dig through his memory for anything about her life — but there was nothing.

After middle school, that’s it?

Apparently, they’d been separated into different classes the next year, and their connection had ended there.

“Quiet here, huh?”

He led her to a small park. No one was around — too hot during the day, and everyone was still at work.

“So… why’d you bring me here?”

Her voice trembled slightly, wary of being alone with him.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

What could he even say?

He didn’t understand why he had felt that surge of terror and despair — only that it was real.

I need to know what happened.

He clenched his teeth and grabbed her wrist.

“Ow! Let go!”

Startled, she tried to pull free, but even a middle-school boy was stronger.

“Please… let go…”

Her voice broke, her eyes filling with tears. The sight snapped him out of it. He released her immediately, his own face twisting in shame.

“What’s wrong with you?”

She backed away, ready to bolt.

But Hyung-jin’s voice was low and steady.

“What did that bastard teacher do to you?”

“W-what?”

“That bastard. What did he do to you?”

His eyes burned with fury.

He already knew. He had seen flashes of it in her memory — things no one should ever see.

“There’s nothing like that,” she said quickly.

“I never said what kind of thing — so why deny it like that?”

“…”

“Are you going to tell me, or should I say it for you?”

Her face went pale. Then, as if her strength had left her, she collapsed to the ground and began to cry.

“…sob… sob…”

Tears poured down her face, unstoppable.

And that was all the confirmation he needed.

“Phew…”

By the time the sun set, Hyung-jin sat on a park bench, watching Mi-young sleeping beside him — exhausted from crying herself out.

Everything was clear now.

Rape.

The teacher, Lee Gyu-sung, had approached her under the pretext of helping her study — and then done the unthinkable.

“That bastard…”

Hyung-jin ground his teeth.

No wonder the teacher had looked at him with hostility — he’d been afraid of being found out.

He’d probably been planning to “tutor” her late again today, then take her somewhere afterward to assault her once more.

“Mom…”

Mi-young whimpered in her sleep, her tear-streaked face barely visible in the dim light.

“Damn it…”

This wasn’t some new event caused by his return. It must have happened before, too. The only difference was that back then, he hadn’t known.

How could I have guessed something like that — from a middle school girl, no less?

“What now…”

He couldn’t just ignore it. Once she realized he knew everything, she had broken down completely and confessed.

She had never told anyone — and with her family, who could she tell?

Her mother was dead. Her father — a gambling drunk.

“Reporting it to the police won’t help,” he muttered bitterly.

In Korea, sexual crimes were treated with baffling leniency. Even if a fifteen-year-old was assaulted, the rapist could walk free if a “settlement” was reached.

And with a father like hers…

He could already see it. The man would take the settlement money and blow it all on booze and bets.

“Still… I can’t just let this go.”

Rape was a kind of murder — the destruction of a person’s soul.

Having studied in the U.S., Hyung-jin could never understand how Korea could be so lenient toward such monsters.

And even if there was a settlement — Lee Gyu-sung would go right back to teaching.

Right back to finding another victim.

The recidivism rate for rapists was over sixty percent — the highest among all crimes. That was why some countries used chemical castration.

“There’s no easy way to get proof, though…”

He clenched his fists.

But deep down, he already knew.

He wasn’t going to let that man walk away unpunished.