Evening. Silence.

Suddenly — loud knocking on the door.

“Yerin! Come here!” Su-ah shouted from the hallway.

“What happened?”

“The pipe burst, water is everywhere! Help me hold it, I’ll go call someone!”

Yerim was squatting and holding the pipe when Sua returned — not alone.

A security guard was with her.

“Let me take a look,” he said in a calm voice. “And you call the plumber.”

Yerim felt a cold wave spread inside her. His voice… the same one.

She froze, unable to look away.

Her breathing grew sharp and uneven. She stepped back, her hands trembling. “It’s him…”

Without thinking, she ran into the hallway, took out her phone, and called the police. She told them about her suspicions.

Two police cars arrived a few minutes later. Among the officers were familiar faces — Minho and Dongjun.

The guard was led out in handcuffs. He didn’t even resist.

“We’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Minho said, looking at her. “About your injuries — your head, your hands…”

“It’s all connected,” Dongjun added. “Now tell us what really happened.”

Yerim burst into tears. Her shoulders shook, and despair filled her eyes.

The dorm director and the front desk lady — the one who always smiled — rushed into the room.

“This is a mistake!” she shouted. “He couldn’t have done this!”

The officers had to step outside to calm everyone down. But soon someone knocked on the door again.

A girl from the first floor. She spoke with a trembling voice, barely holding back tears.

“It was him…” she whispered. “He raped me too… two months ago. I was too scared to say anything. I thought no one would believe me… If I had told someone then, maybe she…”

Her words dissolved into sobs.

Meanwhile, Yerim sat on her bed, clutching her stomach.

Two lines on the test lay beside her — like two thin strokes crossing out her past.

The police returned to Yerim’s room, but she wasn’t there.

On the bed lay a note — crumpled, soaked with tears.

Every word was like a last breath, like a scream no one heard.

“I feel like there is no life left inside me.

Every night is torment, every day is pain.

I tried to hold on, but the wounds won’t heal; they live inside me.

That evening he hit me… then everything went dark

I remember his voice, his shadow, his breath. I’m certain —

it was him.

All these days I’ve been living as if in a cage.

Afraid to go outside, afraid to breathe.

I felt the dirt even under my skin.

And when I saw the two lines — I understood I couldn’t

go on anymore.

I’m not ready to carry his child inside me. I’m not ready to remember

that night every morning.

Mom, Dad.

You were my home, my warmth, my light.

You didn’t do anything wrong.

Forgive me for not being strong enough.

I love you more than I could ever say.

It hurts to write this, but staying silent hurts even more.

I once thought life was a path upward.

But sometimes, it seems, to find peace you just have to…

take a step forward.”**

On the roof of the dormitory, beneath the dark sky and the glow of the moon, Yerim stood.

Tears streamed down her cheeks, but her face was calm — for the first time in a long while.

She lifted her eyes toward the sky, as if trying to see her parents,

waiting for her somewhere far away in her childhood.

The wind brushed through her hair.

And she took a step forward.