Chapter 287 : The Teacher
Chapter 287: The Teacher
At the stranger's sudden visit, the boy shrank into the corner and trembled violently.
The teacher knelt down and slowly approached him.
-It's okay. It's okay. I won't hurt you.
-......
He already knew that.
At least, he knew the teacher wasn't going to beat him.
The one he feared wasn't the teacher herself, but the master. It didn't look like she had gotten permission to come in here, so if this meeting was discovered, there was no way he would escape unharmed.
-Child, what's your name...?
-......
-How long have you been here?
-......
Despite the teacher's repeated questions, the boy remained silent.
There was no way he could answer.
It had only been a week since he'd been beaten like a dog simply for replying to a stranger.
The wounds from that beating hadn't even healed yet, and the injuries to his eye and ear were beyond recovery.
Fear carved into the deepest part of one's heart wasn't so easily erased.
In a situation where it already felt like a miracle that he was still alive, what frightened him most was the teacher's very presence.
Perhaps the teacher realized that as well, because she stopped pressing him any further. Instead, she slowly began taking the things she'd brought out of her bag.
She moved a little closer to the boy huddled in the corner.
Paralyzed by fear, the boy couldn't even resist and simply trembled. Afraid the master might see this scene, he kept his one undamaged eye fixed on the entrance.
Seeing that, the teacher suddenly began sniffling.
Then, with the utmost care, she removed the bandages covering the boy's face and gasped at the horrific sight beneath.
-Those bastards aren't even human...!
Tears streamed down her face as she took out a syringe and gently inserted it into his face. She was remarkably skilled with injections.
Though he didn't know where she'd gotten it, the medicine inside was probably an anesthetic.
While the boy squeezed his eyes shut, the teacher busily moved her hands, cutting away something and stitching something else. Even he could tell she was incredibly skilled.
-There.
The teacher secured fresh bandages around his face, removed the gloves now soaked in blood and pus, carefully placed them into the bag she'd brought, and spoke.
-You don't have to worry too much. I got the village chief's permission to come today.
Even the boy could tell that was a lie.
Yet at the same time, that lie eased his fear of her, if only a little.
It was contradictory.
He knew it wasn't true.
Yet he wanted to believe it anyway.
-...You shouldn't stay here.
-I know. But I couldn't help it.
-Please go back.
-Before that, let me ask you a few things.
Now that the boy had finally spoken, the teacher seemed determined to seize the opportunity and began asking him all kinds of questions.
How long had he lived on this island?
How long had he been living like this?
Did he have parents?
What kind of work did he usually do?
What were the relationships between the villagers?
Everything she could think of about the island.
Though hesitant, the boy carefully answered her questions.
With every answer he gave, the teacher's face grew increasingly grim.
She wore the expression of someone who simply couldn't believe such things could happen in this world.
After questioning him for about an hour, the teacher stood up, placed a pill into the boy's hand, and said,
-It's an antibiotic. You have to take one every day.
-How do I take it?
-Swallow it with plenty of water. Your right eye can't be saved... but if the infection spreads to the rest of your body, things will become much worse... so make sure you take it.
-The bandages....
-Hm?
-If the master notices they've been changed....
-Ah.
Only then did the teacher realize the problem.
After thinking for a moment, she took out the blood-soaked bandages again and carefully wrapped them over the clean ones, making sure they wouldn't touch the wounds.
-This isn't ideal either... but for now, it's the only choice we have.
Then she gave him several warnings.
-Don't tell anyone we met today. Even if you see me outside, act as you always do.
-......
That much went without saying.
The boy silently nodded.
-I'll take care of the rest.
-......
-Don't worry. Everything will be alright.
With those words, the teacher pulled the boy into a tight embrace once before quietly leaving, just as silently as she'd entered the storage shed.
After she was gone, the boy swallowed the pill with water and lay down to sleep.
Then he suddenly realized one of his shoulders was slightly damp.
It hadn't been like that before she'd hugged him.
-......
She'd been crying.
Only then did he realize it.
Muttering the thought without any particular emotion, the boy quietly fell asleep.
After that, remarkably, the teacher came to the storage shed every single night.
The boy couldn't even begin to imagine how she'd managed to avoid the eyes of both the master and the villagers.
Every night she checked his wounds, gave him medicine, and whenever necessary, provided additional treatment.
She also brought wet wipes and towels to clean his body, and secretly brought snacks for him to eat.
That alone completely changed the boy's life.
But more than anything else, the greatest change was that the teacher began teaching him.
-You said you've never been to school, right?
-...Yes.
-Can you read?
-...A little.
-Really? That's a relief.
Once his treatment was finished, she always sat him down and taught him.
First-grade elementary school Korean, mathematics, and English.
Of course, there wasn't much time, so at most they could only study one subject each day....
-Now then, can you read this sentence?
-I have a math exam tomorrow.
-W-What!? You're incredibly good!
Perhaps the boy was gifted.
He absorbed knowledge several times faster than ordinary people, like a beast that had wandered a desert for ages greedily drinking rainwater after a long-awaited storm.
Thanks to that, it wasn't long before he possessed knowledge and academic ability comparable to children his own age.
Of course, the boy didn't understand what any of this learning was actually for.
Still, studying itself was something entirely new and fascinating to him, so he devoted himself to it with surprising enthusiasm.
Time continued to pass.
The boy and the teacher grew closer and closer.
Their brief secret lessons inside the storage shed every night became part of their daily lives and an irreplaceably precious time for both of them.
Then the boy reached his fifteenth birthday.
Well, since nobody actually knew his real age, his "fifteenth birthday" was simply a date the teacher had decided herself.
-Happy birthday!
-Thank you, Teacher.
Over the years they'd known each other, the boy had grown until he was only slightly shorter than the teacher.
His voice had begun cracking from puberty, and dark fuzz had started appearing beneath his nose.
As always, the teacher celebrated him by giving him a novel as a birthday present.
Accepting it, the boy vaguely thought that birthdays really were wonderful things.
Then, unlike her usual self, the teacher suddenly asked an unexpected question.
-○○.
-Yes?
-Don't you want to leave this island?
The moment he heard those words—
Flames erupted inside the boy's heart.
-......
The teacher had taught him many things, and he had gradually realized that the environment he lived in wasn't "normal."
Naturally, his curiosity about the outside world had grown beyond measure, and he'd begun yearning for a better life.
But reality was cruel.
His situation on the island hadn't improved at all.
An enormous wall of reality stood in his way.
His vague fears also kept him rooted where he was.
Yet at this very moment—
The teacher's single sentence became the spark that ignited the oil barrel his heart had become.
His chest burned.
He was angry.
He felt wronged.
He wanted to scream.
As though exhaling smoke that had filled his lungs, the boy finally whispered his true wish.
-I want to leave.
Hearing his answer, the teacher smiled warmly.
Before long, however, the boy came to regret those words.
Something about the village felt strange.
He couldn't explain what it was, but instinctively, the boy sensed that something was terribly wrong.
Even so, he ignored the unsettling feeling and quietly finished his daily work.
As he worked, he reviewed the lesson the teacher had taught him the previous night and looked forward to seeing her again tonight.
But she never came.
It was an unusually bitterly cold night.
A piercing wind constantly seeped through the gaps in the storage shed.
Even wrapped tightly in winter clothes and blankets, the cold seemed to sink into his bones.
-She's not coming. Maybe it's because it's so cold.
Perhaps she'd decided to rest because of the weather.
There had been times before when she'd skipped lessons because she wasn't feeling well, so the boy didn't think much of it.
Before long, however, someone came to the storage shed.
Clank! Clank! Bang!
Just from the sound of the lock opening, the boy knew the visitor wasn't the teacher.
Immediately tensing up, he stared at the door.
Sure enough, the one who entered was the master—
No, the village chief.
-What is it, sir?
-Come with me, you little bastard!
Without another word, the village chief began beating the boy with a club before tying him tightly with thick ropes and dragging him away somewhere.
Bleeding heavily from the nose, the boy was taken deep into the island's forest.
Accompanied by several village elders, the chief threw the boy into an abandoned warehouse hidden there and locked the door from the outside.
-Fuck! Stay in there and don't make a sound!
Afterward, the villagers gathered outside and quietly discussed the situation.
The gist of their conversation was this:
The teacher had finally made things explode.
She had exposed everything abnormal about the island to the mainland.
The media and the mainland police had gotten involved.
Soon, outsiders would swarm onto the island.
They had to hide everything somehow.
-......!
The shocking news left the boy stunned.
He'd expected the teacher to do something.
But he'd never imagined she'd set the entire island ablaze like this.
And the shocking revelations didn't end there.
-Fuck. I knew that bitch was suspicious...! I should've realized it the moment she started wagging her tail around us at those drinking parties, and then she stabs us in the back like this...!?
The villagers had always known the teacher was educating the boy.
They simply chose to overlook it.
The price, however, was that the teacher had slept with the village men, including the village chief.
According to them, this entire disaster began because the teacher had claimed she'd become pregnant with the village chief's child and used that as an excuse to visit an obstetrics and gynecology clinic on the mainland.
She had shaken off the guard accompanying her and secretly detonated the bomb she'd prepared.
-That bitch planned everything. She'd even prepared to run away with ○○. If we hadn't found the boat she'd hidden behind the island, we'd have been completely fucked.
The teacher had planned to secretly return to the island immediately after setting everything in motion and rescue the boy.
Unfortunately...
Her plan had been discovered.
-So where's that teacher?
-Didn't you hear earlier? We locked her up too!
Only then did the boy realize someone else was inside the warehouse with him.
It was too dark to see.
Feeling his way across the floor, he slowly moved toward the source of that presence.
The floor was slippery.
Then a thick metallic smell entered his nose.
Blood.
There was no mistaking it.
And lying unconscious in that pool of blood...
Was the teacher.