Absolute Dweller

A woman with a devastated expression sat collapsed on the floor of the silent one-room apartment.

The middle-aged woman, appearing to be in her late forties, clutched a blanket that had been carelessly strewn across the floor and began to sob.

“Hic… hic…”

There were traces of the past left behind.

A bed filled with stuffed animals.

A laptop with an apple logo.

Thick textbooks for her major.

Clothes hanging on a rack.

The cheerful and lively clothing hanging there made it clear that the owner of this one-room apartment had been a female college student.@@novelbin@@

“Hic… Ji-yeon…”

Everything in this room was a remnant of her daughter.

A blanket that hadn't been washed for so long that it carried a stale scent.

A bathroom left unattended, piled with filth.

The filthy state of the room itself spoke volumes about how much she must have suffered, making it all the more painful.

“Mom is sorry. I came too late… I’m so sorry.”

On the mattress lay the corpse of a young girl, long since decayed, its stench filling the room.

A girl who had starved to death without ever managing to leave this place.

“You must have been so lonely. You must have been terrified.”

Hwang Eun-byeol gently caressed the rotted cheek of her daughter’s corpse and continued speaking.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She remained there, weeping for a long time.

Then, someone entered the one-room apartment.

“Ms. Hwang Eun-byeol?”

The man stood frozen for a moment, unable to speak upon seeing the grieving woman in front of her daughter’s lifeless body.

“Mom is sorry.”

Hearing her endlessly muttering the same words was enough to piece together what had happened.

She repeated it as if she were a sinner, as if she could atone for her guilt by saying it over and over.

The man approached her and spoke.