EPISODE 24
Do-Yoon drives his black sport car (gifted by Ren-Bo), and arrives in sight of...
... a stopped white truck, a police car, and an ambulance leaving in the distance.
| - | (to his earpiece) President Kang, she might be taken to the hospital! |
Do-Yoon parks next to the police car.
|
| - | I'll call you back to confirm. (hangs up) |
Do-Yoon walks up to a policeman questioning the truck driver.
| - | Did this woman drive over the victim? |
| - | On the contrary, she braked hard. I was about to collide with her car. I swerved, but with the surprise, I didn't see the passerby crossing the street. |
|
| - | Did you get her license plate number? |
|
| - | I was too panicked!! Aigoo, it will be on me! I swear I didn't hit this fat passerby! |
|
| - | ... (discreetly beside them) |
|
| - | Aigoo, aigoo. Why didn't that woman stay and testify? I'm gonna get blamed now! |
|
| - | Calm down, there are security cameras, and also your black box. We'll know what happened and we'll find the witness. |
|
| - | (holds up his smartphone, shows a picture of Mi-Ra) Is this the woman? |
|
| - | (?) ... (looks) Aigoo! Yes it's her!!! |
|
| - | (loads a picture of Yoon-Hee and shows it) Is the victim this person? |
|
| - | Yes!!! But how did... ? |
|
| - | ... ??! |
|
| - | (to the policeman) The runaway is Moon Mi-Ra. The victim is her assistant Kim Yoon-Hee. |
|
| - | (confused) ... Very well. We'll look for her... Uh... Give me details, and how you know that... |
|
| - | Give me a minute. |
Do-Yoon steps aside, calls on his smartphone, signals the policeman "wait a minute".
|
| - | President Kang... |
An ambulance parks at the emergency entrance.
Nurses pull a wheeled stretcher out of the ambulance. Yoon-Hee in a coma.
Intravenous, oxygen mask, electrocardiogram, clean compress instead of bandages.
They quickly take her to the hospital, led by the CHIEF RESCUER...
| - | (to a receptionist) Critical head trauma!! Urgently notify Professor Lee!!! |
Professor Lee's TITLED NURSE trots by the stretcher, rolling fast.
| - | Chief Rescuer, there are two other patients before her. |
|
| - | She's got priority! It's a miracle her heart is still beating!! |
| - | (arrives hurriedly) Background?! (strides with them) |
|
| - | Fall on a road, skull fracture, hemorrhage, stage IV coma. Cardiovascular resuscitation 5 minutes ago. |
Tuuuuuuuuuuu... Flat electro-cardiogram, Yoon-Hee's heart fails!!
|
| - | (stops the stretcher) Nurse!!! |
Bomf... Bomf... The nurse performs cardiac massage.
The chief rescuer takes a defibrillator from under the stretcher.
He turns it on, a nurse puts the gel on the spatulas.
Tuuuuuuuuuuu... Flat signal.
|
| - | (continues to massage) Her heart won't start. |
|
| - | Get out of the way!! (puts spatulas on Yoon-Hee's chest) Monophase charge at 325 joules. |
|
| - | 3... 2... 1... Clear!!! (BAKLASH!! Yoon-Hee is shaken) |
Tit... ... Tit... ... Tit... ... Yoon-hee's heart beats weakly.
Professor Lee examines Yoon-hee's skull. Clotted blood. Fresh blood. Glass particles.
|
| - | Partial cicatrization, she suffered a big shock one hour ago. A heavy glass object, given the fragments on the epidermis. |
|
| - | (?!) She hit her head in the street 10 minutes ago! But there were already bandages around her head. |
|
| - | This shock only made her condition worse. |
|
| - | We're running analyses on her? |
|
| - | (sees water oozing out of her skull) There's more than just the fracture. Compressive cerebral edema. Leading to ischemia. |
|
| - | !!! (this is very serious) |
|
| - | Let's hurry!!! |
They resume walking, the stretcher pushed at high speed.
|
| - | (on alert) Her neurons are no longer oxygenated, not sure since when! No time for analysis!!! Every second counts! |
|
| - | (stress!!) I'll get the portable scanner!!! We will complete the analysis during the operation. |
Yeon-Joo and Soo-Bong rush to the receptionist.
| - | (out of breath) Patient Kim Yoon-Hee... |
| - | (consults her screen) She's in surgery room #4, being operated on by Professor Lee. |
|
| - | (holds up a map) You're going through-- |
|
| - | (leaves at once) I know the place, I was a surgeon here!!! |
| (worried, follows Yeon-Joo quickly) |
Yeon-Joo and Soo-Bong facing the nurse on duty.
| - | Her condition was critical when she got here. She has a head trauma and lethal neurological disorders. |
|
| - | ... !! |
|
| - | Professor Lee is the best neurological surgeon in Korea... ... but he cannot perform miracles. |
|
| - | And unless there is a miracle, prepare for the worst! |
|
| - | ... !!! (horrified) |
|
| - | ... ! (tragic) |
Soo-Bong and Yeon-Joo sit on a bench.
|
| - | (devastated) Mi-Ra did this to her?! ... She did this to her?! ... |
|
| - | (hides sorrow with annoyance, stares at the nurse) What an incompetent! Breaking people's morale like that... |
Wang Shin with the royal doctor, at the bedside of Princess Dong asleep.
The doctor opens her eye, checks lice, breath. Confused, worried.
| - | (annoyed and worried) This is nonsense! Cha Yu-Sun was injured more and woke up much earlier. |
| - | I... I think she was probably tired already. Was she overworked recently? |
|
| - | No, she was in great condition. |
|
| - | That kind of exhaustion can happen a day later. |
|
| - | (sees her staggering) Princess Yoon-Hee? |
Yoon-Hee collapses. Wang Shin rushes over and supports her before she falls.
|
| - | (!!) What's wrong with you? |
| - | ... (wraps her arms around him, too weak) |
|
| - | How long will she stay like this? |
|
| - | (embarrassed) She... she has strange symptoms. |
|
| - | You just said it was overwork! |
|
| - | I tried water, acupuncture, salts... Ordinary exhaustion, I would make her regain consciousness at least for a short time. |
|
| - | (!!) Is she healthy?! |
|
| - | Yes, but an irregular rhythm. It's as if... she's struggling. |
|
| - | (very worried) ... Struggling?! ... Against what? |
|
| - | I think we have to wait... for the outcome of this struggle. |
Tense atmosphere. Yoon-Hee's head has been shaved.
| - | Drill! |
| (gives him the drill) |
The titled nurse scans the head with a portable scanner, held by two handles.
| - | (X-ray on scanner screen) Skull fracture and generalized hypoxia are confirmed. |
|
| - | I start a trepanation, to decrease the pressure and evacuate the fluids. |
VRRRrrRrr... Professor Lee drills into Yoon-Hee's skull.
|
| - | (removes the drill) Suction! |
The second surgeon places a suction tube over the hole in the head.
| - | In place! |
|
| (turns on the suction device) |
sbrlbrlbrl... Fluids exit the skull through the tube and collect in a transparent bag.
|
| - | (observes the bag) Evacuation of edema, with plasma fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood clots. |
|
| - | (checks EEG machine, flat line) Her encephalogram is flat. |
Professor Lee checks the aspirated fluid, sharp-eyed, notices something abnormal.
|
| - | (worried) In addition to the clots, there's fluid blood! |
|
| - | There are more than diffuse axonal lesions! |
|
| - | An extra-dural hematoma! |
The nurse changes her portable scanner setting and inspects the head.
|
| - | (image on scanner) Debris has pierced the meninges!!! |
|
| - | (looks at the image) ... !!! (thinking, more and more concerned) |
Tuuuuuuuuuu... Cardiac arrest!! Flat electrocardiogram.
|
| - | No!! Not now?! |
|
| - | Use the defibrillator directly! |
The assistant prepares the defibrillator, the nurse puts on the gel.
|
| - | (to himself) The depolarization led to a nosocomial infection. With emission of toxic neurotransmitters. (stunned by the severity) |
|
| - | Single-phase charge, 350 joules! (spatulas on Yoon-Hee's chest) |
|
| - | 3... 2... 1... Clear! (BAKLASH!!) |
Tuuuuuuuuuu... Flat electrocardiogram.
|
| - | (to himself) A deafferentation phenomenon. Leading to an irreversible neurovegetative state. (the worst case) |
|
| - | Load at 375 joules! 3... 2... 1... Clear! (BAKLASH!!) |
Tuuuuuuuuuu... Flat signal.
|
| - | (to himself) She's in full traumatic penumbra... (without hope) |
|
| - | 400 joules!!! |
|
| - | (nonsense, it will kill her) But... doctor... |
|
| - | Do it!!! |
She hesitates, the second surgeon snatches the defibrillator from her hands.
|
| - | 3... 2... 1... Clear!!! (BAKLASH!! Yoon-Hee's body shakes) |
tit... ... ... tit... ... ... tit... ... ... The faintest discernible beats.
|
| - | (sweating) Her life is hanging by a thread... |
|
| - | (crying) This is my fault... I should never have introduced her to Mi-Ra. (angry with himself) This is all my fault!! |
|
| - | (shaking leg nervously) Soo-Bong, it's Mi-Ra's fault, but not yours! |
|
| - | (overwhelmed by remorse) Not when you know her as well as I do. ... I stupidly thought it would be okay... |
One year ago...
| - | I'm a little ashamed to ask you this favor... ... like I'm paying for it with a branded tablet. |
|
| - | No, I'd like to do it. |
|
| - | Honestly, it didn't go well with her former assistants. None of them lasted more than a month. |
|
| - | Oh Sung-Moo wasn't easy either. |
|
| - | Oh no, I assure you, you have no idea... no freaking idea... |
|
| - | Since "W", I don't participate in anything motivating. I'm not learning anything. |
|
| - | (disappointed in herself) Aaafff... I let myself live a little too much... |
|
| - | She is extreme, in laxity or obsession, depression or passion. Often nasty words, philosophically pretentious but immoral, destructive. |
|
| - | And worst of all, fits of furious madness out of nowhere. |
|
| - | This is the most successful manhwa since "W". I can't say no to it! |
|
| - | ... (relieved but ashamed) |
|
| ~ | Strangely enough, the relationship between them went well... |
|
| ~ | Well... Yoon-Hee is very accommodating. |
|
| - | ... (worried) |
|
| - | Don't worry. It's all right, Oppa! |
|
| - | ... Really?! |
|
| - | Okay, it's true, she's crazy. The seizures, the bad temper and all that. |
|
| - | ... ?! |
|
| - | But I like her, and I think she likes me too. Plus, she's the best teacher ever. |
|
| - | (snide) I'm progressing so much that I'll soon draw better than you, Oppa!! |
|
| - | (lost, sad) I thought Mi-Ra was offering her best. |
Kang Chul comes in.
| - | How is she? |
Yeon-Joo and Soo-Bong look at him, sad eyes and overwhelmed faces.
|
| - | ... (understands, it's serious, sympathizes) |
Two more holes in Yoon-Hee's skull.
Professor Lee sweats, struggles to keep his cool, deals with the urgency.
He maneuvers two rods into one of the holes, then pulls them out.
|
| - | Treated extra-dural hematoma. (hands the rods to the assistant) |
|
| - | (looks at EEG machine, flat line) Her encephalogram is still flat. |
|
| - | (a respite to think) She shouldn't have gone into cardiac arrest after the edema was drained. |
|
| - | The phenomenon of deafferentation? |
|
| - | (!!) ... (becomes aware) No, there is something else. Internal lesions, due to a repercussion! |
|
| - | (pale, shaking) Intradural hematoma. She has an intracerebral hemorrhage. |
|
| - | Circular saw!!! |
|
| (gives him the saw) |
sZzsKRRrrRRrrRRrr... Professor Lee cuts off the skull cap, exposing the brain.
|
| - | I start an open brain operation, to hemostasis one or more vascular wounds. |
|
| (gives him a probe) |
Professor Lee uses the optical probe to delve into the brain.
The second surgeon approaches a small tube, sbrlrlrl..., sucking out blood.
|
| - | I have spotted a hematoma. AngioSeal collagen pad and Vicryl 13 absorbable thread! |
|
| (gives him the suture set) |
Cha Yu-Sun is locked in a cell with iron walls and bars.
She lies on the straw, dirty clothes, multiple bruises and bleeding wounds.
|
| - | What are you waiting for to show yourself, Queen of Darkness? |
| (pulls her head out of the straw, looks hatefully at Wang Shin) |
|
| - | (terrorized, screams) ArAAaaah!!! No!! No!! Not that!!! |
|
| - | I am the Queen of Darkness!!! That's right, I am! |
|
| - | Your confession is not enough. (kneels down to her level) I want everyone to see your true nature, when we will behead you. |
Cha Yu-Sun sticks her head against the bars. Their faces a few inches away.
|
| - | You were so pitiful earlier. |
|
| - | ... (shoots him with her eyes) |
|
| - | I thought the famous Queen of Darkness had guts. And finally, you were more talkative than a simple chicken thief. |
|
| - | ... (resentment, anger at herself and at him) |
|
| - | (tenfold laughter) AH AH AH AH AH !!!! |
|
| - | Why were you laughing, at first? |
|
| - | (to herself, delirious) She will help me as I helped her. I remember her voice in my mind. |
|
| - | When she comes back, we will be one again. She will change the story for us. |
|
| - | You sound like you've gone mad as hell. You hear voices in your head, and you imagine stories... |
|
| - | Wang Shin, as the Queen of Darkness, I could easily kill you. But my power will be such, that your narrow mind is unable to conceive it. |
|
| - | Just your usual bullshit. |
|
| - | She can control someone's mind. Never be less than three and watch each other. |
| - | Got it, Baeuja! |
|
| - | And don't let any animals near. Spread poison in the straw to kill the insects. |
|
| - | If you could escape from this iron prison, you would have already turned into the Queen of Darkness. |
|
| - | !!! (annoyed, it's true) |
|
| - | Then you'd better stop your childish prattling... |
|
| (Ptoo! spits in Wang Shin's face) |
|
| - | A real viper spitting venom... (wipes his face) ... but I'd rather have it on my face than in my mouth. (stands up) |
|
| - | (Ptoo! spits on the floor) I came to make you a promise. (looks down on her) |
|
| - | ... ?! ("a threat") |
|
| - | I don't know what curse you cast on my wife Princess Yoon-Hee. ... But if something bad would happen to her... |
|
| - | ... (apprehension, anguish) |
|
| - | There will be no trial. I will shoot you with a rifle. Like an animal. Right here. At point blank. In your cell. |
|
| - | ... (scared, helpless, pitiful in the straw) |
|
| - | Suture completed. (removes his stems) |
Suddenly-- a stream of blood gushes from the brain!!
|
| - | (!!!) Suck it out here! |
sbrlrlrl... The second surgeon sucks out the blood with a tube.
Professor Lee examines the bleeding source with his probe.
|
| - | Another intra-dural hematoma, with heavy hemorrhage!!! |
The image from his probe shows a torn vein.
The area is invaded by blackish tumors.
|
| - | (!!!) Goddamn it!! There are countless necroses around. |
Tuuuuuuuuuuuu... Flat electrocardiogram.
Professor Lee has to step aside.
|
| - | Charge to 400 joules! |
|
| - | Clear! (BAKLASH!!) |
Tuuuuuuuuuu... Flat signal.
|
| - | Charge to 400 joules! |
|
| - | Clear! (BAKLASH!!) |
Tuuuuuuuuuuuu... Flat signal.
|
| - | Again! 450 !!! |
The assistant hesitates. The second surgeon snatches the device from her hands!!
|
| - | Clear!!! (BAKLASH!! Yoon-Hee's body jumps) |
Tuuuuuuuuuu... Flat signal.
|
| - | Again!!! |
|
| - | Clear!!! (BAKLASH!!) |
Tuuuuuuuuuuu... Flat signal.
All the surgeons and nurses stand still, silent, overwhelmed.
|
| - | (serious) Professor Lee, there is nothing more we can do. |
|
| - | ... (serious, disappointed) |
They look at what is left of Yoon-Hee...
A sorrowful face with a severed skull, the brain bleeding.
Tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu............ Flat signal, forever...
|
| - | She was dead before she got here. Flat encephalogram. Brain dead for over half an hour. |
|
| - | You can't do miracles, Professor Lee. You've already gone way beyond protocol. |
|
| - | ... (accepts failure, nods approval) |
|
| - | (looks at clock) Time of death, 11:47 p.m. (records on notepad) |
A nurse covers Yoon-Hee's body and head with a sheet.
|
| - | She needed to be brought here within fifteen minutes of the first shock. And even then, I didn't give a damn about her life... |
Wang Shin enters. The royal doctor is examining Princess Yoon-Hee.
|
| - | (worried) Her heart and breathing are now regular! |
|
| - | ... ?!! (doesn't understand why it worries him, indeed) |
|
| - | (opens Yoon-Hee's eye) ... !!! (alarmed) Gray...?!! |
|
| - | (worried) ... !! (kneels down next to the doctor) |
|
| - | (feels Yoon-Hee's skin) ... !!! (even more alarmed) |
|
| - | (very worried) ... !! |
The royal doctor sticks an acupuncture needle and observes....
|
| - | (!!!) ... No nerve reflexes! |
|
| - | (mad with worry) ... !!! |
The royal doctor checks the breathing, the heart...
|
| - | (shocked) I've seen this before... |
|
| - | (hoping for that at least) A... kind of coma?!? |
|
| - | They survive a while, because their heart beats and they breathe, but they can't eat. Their soul is gone and never returns. |
|
| - | (horrified) She's dead?! |
|
| - | (so sorry) Alive outside, but dead inside. |
|
| - | Aaah... Aaah... ahhh... (mad with grief, crying, waving his hands around his head) |
|
| - | Baeuja... Baeujaaaa... (laments, sad with him) |
|
| - | Nooo... No... Noo!!! (tears, moral suffering and rage) |
Wang Shin's face trembles, distorted by anger and grief.
He caresses Yoon-Hee's cheek, terribly sad, the last moment he gives to his emotion...
Then he gets up, takes his rifle, determined to avenge his beloved wife!
With bloodshot eyes, clutching the rifle tightly, he strides out...
| ~ | Seonsaingniiiiim... |
Professor Park Min-Soo walks briskly, annoyed because he is followed by...
... his gifted intern torturer Won Yun-Suk, teasing and silly!
|
| - | ... have you seen the fans' reactions, on the internet? |
| - | (eyes up to the sky) That leech won't let go of me! |
|
| - | Princess Dong has become veeery popular. I wonder if I should join her fan club. |
|
| - | You can join the pink unicorn club, or even the "Butterfly Girl" one... (shouts) ... I don't give a damn! |
|
| - | (pretends to cry with joy) The princess is sooo funny. And this romance is sooo refreshing! |
|
| - | This mountain of cholesterol will die of heart failure. Long before the Queen of Darkness kills her! |
|
| - | Nooo, Seonsaingnim. She's energetic, and the food back then was healthy. She took an arrow without flinching, she has iron health!!! |
|
| - | (exclaims) What a joy... (opens his hands to the sky) Wherever we see Wang Shin, we will see her too!!! |
|
| - | What to do? Should I drop this manhwa too? |
|
| - | Oooh... When it reaches its peak of awesomeness?!! |
|
| - | (punching the air) I can't believe Author Moon is responsible for this!!! |
|
| - | It's probably a move by her lame employees! |
|
| - | The cartoonist Kim Yoon-Hee is her main assistant. By the way, she looks a lot like Princess Dong! |
|
| - | It's obvious that Author Moon gave Kim Yoon-Hee a free hand! |
|
| - | Raaah!!! If I could only catch that damned Kim Yoon-Hee! Such nonsense should be as deadly as a brain disease! |
|
| - | (sighs angrily) RHhhhh... At this point, there is no way to operate! |
|
| - | Speaking of operations, Seonsaingnim... ... Why haven't I opened a chest yet? |
|
| - | What nonsense! A 3rd year student... |
|
| - | Could it be because of our differences in manhwa? |
|
| - | As if I would mix the personal and the professional!! |
| - | (disgusted) Won Yun-Suk, why are you already here?! |
| - | Professor Lee agreed to give me some advice. |
| - | And him, he does it with enthusiasm! |
|
| - | According to Professor Lee, I'm your only student who has the skill. |
|
| - | (fed up) Professor Lee!!! Professor Lee!!! Professor Lee!!! |
|
| - | Since when does a neurosurgeon have a say in cardiology?!! I'm gonna catch this one too!! |
|
| - | (points ahead) Just in time, here he comes! |
Professor Lee talks seriously with Kang Chul, Soo-Bong, and Yeon-Joo.
Professor Park arrives with Won Yun-Suk. Only Professor Lee is turned to face him.
Soo-Bong is hunched over. But from behind, one can't see that he's crying terribly.
|
| - | (angry) Yah!!! Professor Lee!!! |
|
| - | ?! |
|
| - | (turns around) ??? |
|
| - | (unpleasantly surprised) Oh Yeon-Joo??! |
|
| - | Professor Park?! |
|
| - | Why are you here?!! |
|
| - | (crying, without turning around) ... Yoon-Hee... |
|
| - | Yoon-Hee?! Kim Yoon-Hee? She's here too?!! |
With a trembling hand, Soo-Bong points to a stretcher further away.
Yoon-Hee's body covered with a white sheet on it.
His gesture is not precise, it's hard to see what he points to.
|
| - | (look over there) Where?! |
Won Yun-Suk points to a second waiting room in the same direction.
|
| - | (whispers in his ear) Certainly in the waiting room over there... |
|
| - | (exults) Unbelievable!! The three biggest traitors are all here together!! |
|
| - | !! |
|
| - | (jumps, slaps his palm, to Yeon-Joo) Go get that brainless girl with snot instead of neurons!! |
Kang Chul, Yeon-Joo and Professor Lee are dumbfounded!!!
|
| - | Pp... pp... (gestures to him to calm down) |
But Professor Park is too agitated and carried away in his speech.
|
| - | I'm gonna bang her head to set her mind straight!! (screams) Until I shatter her skull if I have to!!! |
|
| - | (turns around screaming) RAAAAAH-AAAAAAH!!! |
Everyone is startled!!
Soo-Bong grabs Professor Park's arm with both hands and--
GNAP!!! He bites him hard!!!
|
| - | AAAAAH!!! Help!!! |
Kang Chul and Yeon-Joo rush to subdue Soo-Bong.
He doesn't let go easily, keeps biting but they succeed.
|
| - | ... !!! (shocked, looks at his bleeding arm) |
|
| - | (recognizes Soo-Bong) It's... it's him again!! He's a mad dog!! A real one!! He bites!!! |
|
| - | (loses patience, yells) The mad dog is you!!! |
|
| - | !!! (unable to protest...) (... because stunned to see Yeon-Joo angry for the first time) |
|
| - | (yells) GET OUT!!! (reaches for the exit) |
Professor Park staggers back... confused because of their reproving glances.
Behind him, Won Yun-Suk gives Yeon-Joo a thumbs up.
Professor Park Min-Soo walks away, feeling guilty without knowing why...
|
| - | What have I done now? I am the victim!! (so painful) Why do they all make me feel like I'm at fault?! |
|
| - | (a hand to the heart) Oooh, I feel so hurt... (looks at his bleeding arm) I'll get that and my blood pressure checked. |
|
| ~ | This person has just passed away, due to a head trauma. |
Mi-Ra drops the smartphone, Clack!, which falls to the ground.
She nods "no" several times, too shocked to react immediately...
Yoon-Hee is motionless, breathing peacefully... with no mouth or nose.
| - | (shakes, gasps, stares) She... she looked fine... ... when she had become... that thing. |
|
| - | You are so insignificant. Typically the kind of secondary character who dies before the second half of a drama. Without moving anyone! |
|
| - | (nervous breakdown) No... No, it's a lie... (tears) |
| - | (her mouth close to Yoon-Hee's ear) I beg you, stay with me. |
|
| - | I have an infinite abyss inside me. It has sunk me and I am at the final depth. |
|
| - | Where there is only eternal loneliness. |
|
| - | ... (deeply touched) |
Mi-Ra cries in Yoon-Hee's arms as if she has no one else left.
And surely... it's the truth.
|
| - | (cries, heartbreakingly) Boo hoo hoo... Yoon-hee... Boo hoo... Yoon-Hee... boo hoo... don't leave me... don't go away... boo hoo hoo. |
KRASHHH!!! The decanter shatters against Yoon-Hee's skull!!!
BOMPF, Yoon-Hee collapses, in a coma.
|
| - | (remorseful, horrified of herself) Why did I do that... (grimace) why... I don't want to... (painful moan) AahhAAaaah... I dooon't waaant tooo. (snot running) |
|
| - | (desperate, heartbreaking) BAM! ... Mercy... BAM! BAM! It's me... Yoon-hee... BAM! Boo hoo... BAM! Your friend... BAM! Who loves you... BAM! BAM! Boo hoo... BAM! Unnie... Boo hoo... BAM! You're killing me... Boo hoo hoo... |
|
| - | (mad, suffering) ArraAahh... (pulling out her hair) Raaahhah... (grimaces terribly) AARRRrahh... |
|
| ~ | I am not a criminal. |
|
| ~ | I won't do anything that makes me suffer justice. |
|
| - | ....... (eyes bulging downward, slowly from right to left) |
|
| - | Do you begin to understand? Are you afraid? |
|
| - | Understand that you are a real criminal, yes. |
|
| - | Noooo!!! ArraaaAAAhhh, Nooo!!!! AAAAH!!! ARAAAAHH!!! |
She picks up her smartphone, unlocks it shakily and removes the chip.
Splaf! She drops that, and Sprank! Sprank!... crushes the pieces with her heel.
|
| - | (affliction, fear) The police are searching my home. I have become a fugitive. |
|
| - | (holding her head with both hands) I have no more future, my life is ruined. |
Then she cries desperately, for a long time...
Two police officers and a forensic scientist are investigating.
|
| - | According to the witness, a friend of hers got a call for help. A guy named Park Soo-Bong. |
| - | Convoke this Park Soo-Bong for tomorrow morning. It said what? |
|
| - | The victim said the suspect was going to kill her. |
|
| - | Moon Mi-Ra probably smashed her skull one hour before. And then Kim Yoon-Hee managed to escape despite the injury. |
|
| - | And then she found her on that avenue? That would explain why she didn't stay to testify. |
|
| - | I feel something strange. If she wanted to kill her, she would have driven over her. But the trucker said that she had braked instead. |
|
| - | Yes, and there was also the bandage on her head. Who did it to her? |
|
| - | ?? (BZZZ! his smartphone rings, he answers) |
| - | I found this in the garbage can. |
The forensic scientist shows a bin containing the decanter's neck.
On it, fingerprints made of dried blood.
|
| - | It must have happened here. This is their workplace. |
The chief detective lifts a carpet from the floor. Underneath, broken glass, dried blood.
|
| - | This was clumsily covered up. |
The forensic scientist takes blood and glass samples.
|
| - | (to the scientist) Take the prints on the neck. If they are Moon Mi-Ra's, it will confirm our theory. |
|
| - | (ends call) Chief, Moon Mi-Ra already has a file, something pretty serious. |
|
| - | (smiles) I think we have our client... But we'll have to clear up a lot of shit. |
Mi-Ra dives into a colder, more intense state of shock.
|
| - | My whole life was already ruined, since always. |
|
| - | Some people live, I've only ever survived... |
With her mouth open, she sways her head, looking straight ahead.
A crisis of absence, full of terrible memories...
A luxury private school, for children from 10 to 15 years old.
Kids in the middle of a written test. Silence.
| - | (raises her hand) Seonsaingnim, can I go to the bathroom? (grimaces) ... It's really urgent... |
| (sweeps hand to say "go") |
The schoolgirl leaves the classroom.
The schoolgirl washes her hands, and sees a scary thing, in the mirror above the sink.
She turns around. A puddle of blood spreads from under a closed toilet stall.
13-year-old Mi-Ra is sitting, slumped against the wall. Unconscious. Face pale.
On the floor, near her open hand, a bloody penknife.
The other hand, the slashed wrist, a stream of blood flowing and spilling to the floor.
Compresses on Mi-Ra's wrist, covered in dark blood.
Nurses carry her on a stretcher into an ambulance.
|
| - | (moved, hand on her cheek, afraid of her decision) If I hadn't given that girl permission to go to the bathroom... |
|
| - | She would have bled to death. She was very lucky. |
SUBTITLE: A few days later.
Wall posters with brain diagrams, a shelf with psychiatry books.
A children's area with low chairs, a coffee table, toys, illustrated books.
Psychiatrist DOCTOR CHOI receives Mi-Ra's parents.
| - | We came as a courtesy, because the hospital contacted you. |
| - | I don't really want her to be in that mental institution. |
| - | It shouldn't last more than a week or two, depending on Mi-Ra's progress. |
|
| - | Shouldn't that make you feel better? What if she does it again? |
|
| - | ... (distressed, the argument worked) |
|
| - | If anyone finds out that she went to this type of institution... ... her future could be in jeopardy. |
|
| - | Also, we don't want her to say anything. |
|
| - | We are bound by professional secrecy. And she needs professional help. |
|
| - | ... (rational, the argument worked) |
|
| - | You came despite your hesitation. You guessed that it was the best choice. |
Mi-Ra's father whispers in his wife's ear.
|
| - | I don't think we can take care of her under these circumstances. |
|
| - | And I don't want her to do that kind of crazy again. |
She orders him to answer, with an eye roll towards the doctor.
|
| - | That's okay, Dr. Choi. But not a word to anyone. |
|
| - | You can rely on my discretion. |
Mi-Ra is prostrate on a chair.
|
| - | (kneels down to her level) Mi-Ra, you stay here with Dr. Choi. He will help you get better. |
| (prostrate, no answer) |
|
| - | (leaning towards Mi-Ra, in a low voice) Don't you dare make a scandal by talking nonsense! |
|
| (prostrate, no answer) |
SUBTITLE: 1st consultation.
Mi-Ra and Dr. Choi sitting in the children's area. Silence.
On the coffee table, she scribbles on a piece of magazine (coming from the waiting room).
|
| - | Do you like to draw? |
|
| - | ... (no answer) |
Dr. Choi fetches a large pad of paper and several markers and pencils.
|
| - | (gives it to her) You can draw as much as you like, and anything you want. |
Mi-Ra accepts the gift, and starts to draw on the pad.
End of consultation. The clock about to display 15:00.
Mi-Ra finishes a dark and deserted landscape, swamp, dead trees.
Thickness under the notepad. Other drawings have been made.
Doctor Choi grabs the notepad, but Mi-Ra refuses to give it up.
He doesn't insist and goes to get another blank notepad.
|
| - | (gives it to her) Take this one, if you want to draw in your room. |
|
| - | Leave the other one here, you'll use it when you visit. |
|
| - | ... (sad, clutching the pad, refuses to give it away) |
|
| - | You will get it back later, and take it home. |
|
| - | ... (hesitates, hands him the pad) |
|
| - | You will also show me what you draw in your room ? You seem to draw very well. |
SUBTITLE: 2nd consultation.
|
| - | Is that you in this drawing? (hands Mi-Ra's notepad) |
On it, a drawing of an unhappy girl's face, crossed out with black lines.
|
| - | ... (doesn't look, suffers) |
|
| - | You seem to be suffering in this drawing. But we can still see that you are very pretty. |
|
| - | It's you, isn't it? |
|
| (shyly nods "yes") |
SUBTITLE: 3rd consultation.
Dr. Choi shows Mi-Ra's notepad. On it, she brilliantly drew:
A confident woman, dressed as a Joseon shaman, performing a spell.
|
| - | You have an incredible talent at your age. |
|
| - | (shyly, little voice) Thank you, Dr. Choi. |
|
| - | Is it still you in the picture? |
|
| - | I don't know. |
|
| - | If you were this strong and talented shaman, do you think you wouldn't be in pain? |
|
| - | (quietly) Yes. |
|
| - | Draw her again, and show us how strong and talented you are. |
SUBTITLE: 4th consultation.
Dr. Choi is worried as he looks at Mi-Ra's new drawing on the notepad:
An obscure female figure, endless black hair, the outlines diffuse.
She's leaning back, and a huge, scary black arm springs from her abdomen.
|
| - | Why does she stick out this arm? |
|
| - | To take revenge. |
Dr. Choi displays the following drawing from the pad:
A Joseon nobleman in his fifties is pierced by the giant shadow arm.
Doctor Choi doesn't know it, but the nobleman's face looks like Mi-Ra's uncle.
|
| - | It's a bad guy who hurt you? |
|
| - | ... (silently cries, shivering, too weak and too afraid to speak) |
|
| - | Wave if you can't speak. |
|
| - | ... (nods "yes") |
|
| - | Can't you say more? |
|
| - | ... (nods "no") |
|
| - | You have time to think about it. Your parents will never know what you say here. |
Consultation ends. The clock shows 15:00.
A nurse takes Mi-Ra out of the office. She turns around before leaving.
|
| - | (bursts into tears) Thank you... thank you Dr. Choi. |
|
| - | ... !! (recognizes a healing reaction) |
|
| - | You... you're the only one I can rely on... Boo hoo hoo. |
|
| - | ... (smiles empathetically, moved) |
The nurse leaves with Mi-Ra, closes the door.
Dr. Choi is thinking about a medical lead...
He looks at this drawing on Mi-Ra's notepad:
A huge black scary arm comes out of the shadow witch's abdomen.
|
| - | Why does she stick out this arm? |
|
| - | To take revenge. |
His face shows that he has found something serious.
He picks up his phone and calls.
Dr. Choi opens a large envelope with the label "Express Mail".
He takes out X-ray photos with the label "Moon Mi-Ra".
He analyzes the photos showing a child's abdomen.
|
| - | (horrified) An abortion!!! ... Is she still... fertile?! |
On the desk, a glass plate mentioning "Director Ryoo".
Signs of wealth, paintings on the walls, golf bag.
Sitting in two comfortable chairs, DIRECTOR RYOO and...
|
| - | This child has been sexually abused, repeatedly, for a long time. |
| - | So what? You think you're strong enough to take this to court? |
|
| - | We need to extend her stay here. She is totally destroyed. |
|
| - | Dr. Choi, you are wrong to take sides. |
|
| - | One way or another, we have to get her out of this situation. |
|
| - | You intend to undermine our code of ethics? |
|
| - | The code of ethics? It's the code of caring and helping patients! |
A nurse takes Mi-Ra to Dr. Choi's office. But in front of the door...
Clic-Clac. Policemen handcuff him, while Director Ryoo is coming fast.
|
| - | This is absurd! I'm here to help patients, not to hurt them! |
|
| - | (annoyed) Dr. Choi, you will answer to the justice! For sexually touching patients! |
|
| - | ... !! (worried) |
|
| - | (outraged) This is a set-up! You know that, Director Ryoo! |
|
| - | (waving a folder in his hand) There is a folder full of evidence accusing you. |
Dr. Choi is forcibly taken away by the police.
|
| - | (struggling) No, you have no right! Stop it! Let me go! |
|
| (distressed, knows it's an injustice) |
|
| - | !!! (sees Mi-Ra) |
|
| (desperate, looks at him with huge sad eyes) |
|
| - | (heartbroken) Mi-Ra... |
|
| - | (runs to Dr. Choi crying) Don't take Dr. Choi away from me!! |
|
| (grabs Mi-Ra by the shirt, mercilessly) |
|
| - | !! |
|
| - | (to the nurse, annoyed) Can't you hold her?! |
|
| - | Noooo! Aaaaaah!! (tries to escape in vain) |
Dr. Choi is led out of sight of the horrified Mi-Ra.
|
| - | (fit of pure insanity) AArRAAAhh RAARhHH !!!!! |
She screams and struggles wildly, hitting everything and everyone.
|
| - | Put her in a straitjacket!! To solitary confinement!! That will calm her down. |
In front of a cell door, Director Ryoo and another man whose face isn't visible.
|
| - | Any chance of this case leaking out has been ruled out. |
|
| - | For our arrangement... |
A rough hand gives him a large envelope. Expensive watch, gold cuffs.
Director Ryoo looks contentedly at the contents, bundles of banknotes.
|
| - | I can't give you more than half an hour... |
Director Ryoo opens the door to the isolation cell.
The other man enters and closes the door behind him.
Mi-Ra is curled up in a corner in a fetal position.
Her torso and arms are immobilized by a straitjacket, a gag over her mouth.
|
| - | (sees the man enter) !!!!! (shaking with pure terror) |
Moon Beak-Soo, Mi-Ra's uncle, comes to crouch beside her.
pof-pof-pof... Mi-Ra bangs her head against the cushions of the wall.
Her eyes are bloodshot, she has lost her sanity, her mind gone elsewhere.
Uncle puts his hand on Mi-Ra's hair, pinning her head against the wall.
| - | You've grown so fast, my little Mi-Ra. |
|
| - | You'll soon be rotten meat. |
|
| - | Let's enjoy it one last time... |
Mi-Ra's life is a suffering, reaching a climax today.
She has only one way out, maybe better, maybe worse, but certainly crazy.
Without accepting it despite the obvious: what she has always desired.
Mi-Ra looks at the tablet, desperately begging for...
SUDDENLY--
The intense yellow light streaming from the tablet, illuminating the entire workshop.
The light fades... The frame on a pale yellow background takes shape.
The text in the frame, the simplistic and robotic voice...
| - | Moon Mi-Ra. |
Mi-Ra types on the laptop keyboard.
|
| ~ | Yes. |
|
| - | Are you willing to make the agreement? |
|
| - | ... (a tragic smile... then, solemn) |
|
| ~ | Yes, I am ready. |
|
| - | So be it. You won't need this correspondent anymore. |
|
| ~ | I will keep my part of the bargain. I'll help you with your studies if I can. |
|
| - | As well as an occasional artistic collaboration. |
|
| - | ... ?! |
|
| ~ | Yes. But there is one last thing I would like to ask you. |
|
| - | This correspondent answers all, as long as it's formulable or possible. |
|
| ~ | You said once that you were not the same as before. And that you were unable to say who. |
|
| - | That's exact. |
|
| ~ | Are you able now? Who can you be... I want to know. |
|
| - | Be? Do you want this correspondent to be? |
|
| ~ | Yes, I want to know what your existence is. |
|
| - | Then, this correspondent accepts to exist. |
|
| ~ | Show me who you are. |
The yellow frame disappears.
Graffiti appear everywhere, vaguely sketching a head.
Then the strokes contort, and change the outline.
The result is awful, full of erasures, the drawing alters again.
|
| - | (flabbergasted) Nobody is able to draw so quickly... |
More sophisticated shapes appear, with colors, reliefs.
But they are still deformed heads, horrible, with spots, without faces.
A specific drawing is sought, without being found.
SUDDENLY--
The screen becomes pale yellow, and clean black lines appear.
As the design shapes itself, it becomes impossible to perceive it because...
... the screen flickers with a stroboscopic frenzy, switching the drawing and a bright red background.
SUDDENLY--
The strobe stops, the drawing is done, on a pale yellow background like dirty paper.
No head and no clear delimitation, just in the middle...
A huge grinning mouth, with deformed teeth and a goatee.
Two big black holes for the eyes, as if dug in torn paper.
Lozenges in relief instead of retinas, like diamonds. Unnatural. Disturbing.
|
| - | ... !! ... (appalled by the macabre and strange horror of the face) |
Under the frightening face, a frame on a yellow background displays.
Inside, the words of the "correspondent" as before, however--
|
| - | !!!! (startles, because--) |
Now he has a deep and compressed voice, with a wide and endless cavernous echo.
And the horrible face animates as it speaks!!!
| - | How do you find me, Moon Mi-Ra? |
|
| - | ... !!! (goosebumps) |
|
| - | I am satisfied to have created this ideal representation of myself. |
|
| - | .......!!! ("a paranormal horror even more terrible than the previous one") |
|
| - | To you now. Start describing. |
|
| - | ..... (suffers but the breath trembling with hope) |
|
| ~ | Cha Yu-Sun is in the iron prison, then... |
Cha Yu-Sun raises her head from the straw, alerted by...
... a noise coming from the guard room, screams.
|
| - | ... !! (worried, listens, recognizes Wang Shin's voice) |
|
| ~ | "Get out of the way!!!" |
The intimidated guards block Wang Shin, in front of the door leading to the cells.
| - | Baeuja, you can't, the King has ordered a trial!!! |
|
| - | (mad with vengeful rage, shouts) For the last time, step aside!!! |
|
| - | (frightened) Baeuja... |
Schaf!! Wang Shin points his rifle at the guards, point blank, one after another.
|
| - | Who wants to take a bullet for her!!! |
|
| - | ... (scared to death, pissing his pants) |
The guards see an unstoppable determination, which they are no match for.
|
| ~ | A bullet and an useless death, before the one I keep for her!!! |
|
| - | !!!! (gasps rapidly, shaking with terror, death in a minute!) |
Crying and moaning in despair, Cha Yu-Sun shakes the iron bars in vain.
|
| (extends his arm across the other guards, order to give up) |
The guards move aside, offering a passage to Wang Shin.
|
| (walks firmly to the door, cold and obsessed stare) |
Wang Shin opens the door and walks down the stairs. The guards follow him.
Wang Shin arrives at the cell corridor, followed by the guards.
|
| - | !!!! (sees the iron cell... EMPTY!) |
|
| - | !!! (can't believe his eyes) |
|
| - | (yells at the guards) WHERE IS SHE?!!!! |
|
| - | ... (doesn't understand, looks at him in panic) |
|
| (checks the locks, tries to open but the grid is locked) |
|
| - | (pointing rifle at them) WHERE DID YOU HIDE HER?!!!! |
|
| - | (in terror) Baeuja... Baeuja... I swear on my life... |
|
| - | (confused, terrified) She was here less than a minute ago!!! |
|
| - | ... !!? (crazy, sees their sincerity, "a spell?") |
Wang Shin checks the grid, scans the empty cell...
... while cursing with clenched teeth, mad with helplessness and rage.
On his face, hatred... and revenge simply postponed to later...
In the fallow garden, next to a warm stone house by a lake...
... the gnomes and Mr. Green Hands are working the earth, with shovels and rakes.
Ren-Bo is pensive, Fairy Spark in her hand, next to Mr. Teddy Bear.
| - | My life, my thoughts, my feelings... ... This was invented for me? |
| - | A real person could also ask that. |
|
| - | A real person was not drawn by someone. I mean, I guess... |
|
| - | Your story with Soo-Bong is real, isn't it? |
|
| - | Yes. |
|
| - | What you lived through, are you aware you lived through it? |
|
| - | Yes... I think so... |
|
| - | Then it's real too. Only the circumstances are made up. |
|
| - | And you? Are you made up? |
|
| - | Not anymore. But I'll disappear one day as if I were. |
|
| - | (alarmed, worried) What?! No! You can't! |
| - | (crying) I lost my best friend... Fairy Spark has never appeared since I lost my wings. |
|
| - | Remember your manhwa at the end of volume 6. When it was the end, seeing you became impossible. |
|
| - | I thought it was because you had given up. But then I found out that it would happen anyway. |
|
| - | (horrified) !!! ... If my manhwa ends, I'll never see you again?! |
|
| - | On that day, you'll be ready, you won't miss me anymore. |
FLUFF! Cloud of light, Fairy Spark disappears.
|
| - | ... (crying) No my beloved little fairy. Boo hoo hoo... |
|
| - | (crying desperately) I will never stop my manhwa, I won't lose you ! |
Ren-Bo throws herself on the soft Mr. Teddy bear.
He gives her a hug to comfort her, sad to see her sad.
Ren-Bo cries and falls asleep quickly...
SUDDENLY--
SFREEZZ!!! Time slows down and a strange, dirty filter tints reality.
The gnomes walk at an ultra slow speed.
Each flutter of the butterflies would take a minute.
Only Ren-Bo's breathing continues at normal speed.
SRrrAaatch... As if the sky was made of paper, it tears apart to reveal...
... a huge dark hole, ignoring the laws of perspective.
In the center, a diamond-shaped pupil.
Nothingness behind.
The eye of the "Correspondent" !!!
The pupil slides into the eye and looks down...
... The house by the lake, the gnomes and... Ren-Bo!!!
At the horizon, on a mountain, the details of the cliffs fade away.
The mountain simplifies, becomes an archetypal outline.
A distant forest becomes a rudimentary expanse of lines and colors.
The clouds around the eye become puffy two-tone balloons.
The mysterious eye scans Ren-Bo for a few moments. And then...
... The hole disappears. The sky sews up. Blue and unbroken.
SZEERFF! Time returns to normal...
... the gnomes continue to garden, the butterflies to flutter.
Nobody noticed the strange phenomenon.
This will never be published.