The Thorn that Pierces Me

Heesoo bowed her head like a criminal, perplexed by what he was saying. However, she was certain he found her presence undesirable.

“I said, GET. LOST.”, He pointed behind Heesoo.

“Don’t follow me, just go.”

Seeing Heesoo standing there, completely baffled, he let out a sigh of frustration. In a fit of irritation, he yanked off his hood, reasoning that the woman wouldn’t recognize him since she was an outsider.

He strode over, grabbed Heesoo by the shoulders, turned her around, and then pushed her back.

“Go.”

“....”

“You’re being troublesome. I said go!”

“....”

Heesoo’s body staggered with each push, but she planted her feet firmly, resisting. His pushes became stronger the more she resisted.

“FUCK. OFF!”

However, what scared Heesoo more than the man yelling right in front of her face was the thought of being left alone in here.

Moreover, this man wanted nothing from her, unlike all the other men she had encountered here. He was different from those who only sought to take whatever they could from a woman who had nothing.

“Just leave me alone, for god’s sake!”

Heesoo grabbed the man’s arm as he pushed her, but he shook it off roughly, as if flicking off a leech.

“Ah...!”

Heesoo collapsed weakly to the ground. Starved for a week, she had no chance against a man who could break ropes with his bare hands.

“Don’t follow me,” The man turned to leave again, utterly indifferent.

But Heesoo couldn’t give up. She quickly got up and followed him. Even though she knew he didn’t want her, that very fact made him her last hope.

Heesoo was ready to beg and do anything he asked, if only he would protect her.

“Can’t you understand at all?”

The man suddenly grabbed Heesoo by her collar. Her partially torn shirt rode up under his firm grip.

“I told you to GET LOST.”

“Uhh....”

“You can’t speak?”

Struck with aphasia and unable to make any sound, Heesoo was left completely immobilized in his grip. She trembled, feeling like a pinned butterfly, enduring his fierce stare and firm grip.

“I’m really going to kill you if you follow me once more. Don’t test me.”

With a bone-chilling threat, he shoved her back to the ground. Heesoo fell against a tree and scraped her hands on a rock.

“Ah!”

Indifferent to her plight, the man paid no heed. He even lightly kicked the fragile, wounded knees of Heesoo while she was rolling on the ground in pain.

Heesoo flinched, glancing around like a scolded dog, gauging his mood.

“Get lost. This is my final warning. Next time, I won’t show any mercy.”

After those final words, the man turned to leave. But before he could, Heesoo had already grabbed onto his leg, clinging to him.

“Ughhh!”

“What the... You don’t really get it, do you?”

Though Heesoo couldn’t understand him, it was clear he wasn’t pleased.

“LET GO!”

A large hand approached Heesoo in a threatening manner. Anticipating a blow, Heesoo clenched her teeth and shut her eyes tight. It was her reflex coming into effect, as she was already quite used to this kind of situation; being treated like a stray dog, exposed to violence and all kinds of harassment without even knowing the reason.

“JUST GO, I SAY!”

But instead of hitting her, he detached her from his leg. As if in defiance, Heesoo quickly grabbed his leg again, clutching his thigh as desperately as a koala clings to a tree.

“Huuuh.... I should’ve just left her in that hut....”

The man peeled Heesoo’s arms off multiple times, but every time Heesoo clung back to his thighs. The futile struggle continued.

Unable to convey her pleas with words, Heesoo tried to communicate with her eyes.

‘Please don’t leave me behind.’

It was in that moment, as she looked up at him intently, that his emerald eyes momentarily faltered. His gaze did not linger on Heesoo’s face, but rather drifted to somewhere below.

Her top was half undone from the desperate struggle.

There was shame laced in the man’s gaze as it instinctively touched her breast and then quickly moved away.

“Just get lost...!”

The man squeezed his eyes shut as if something had stabbed him. It wasn’t a look of embarrassment after unintentionally witnessing the ‘sensitive parts’ of a complete stranger, it was rather a look of someone who had stolen something that belonged to someone else.

He quickly released Heesoo and turned away in a more urgent manner than before.

‘Seriously, this man... He’s completely different.’

He was certainly a man who was ‘fundamentally’ different from those who she had met until now, those vile men who always tried to harass, violate, and exploit her.

Rather, he seemed to be the type of person who deliberately tried to avoid contact with a female, to the extent that he seemed ‘afraid’ that he would succumb to his own desires.

As she reached to such a conclusion, Heesoo clung to his thigh even stronger, using all her strength.