He was stabbed yet he only felt spasms and bruises on his stomach.
Was he hallucinating? Maybe it was not a stab but tons of kicks and hit instead. His liver and kidneys might have ended bruised, which was a miracle for him to make it alive.
His whole body was stinging and it was really painful to get his right arm to work. It was as if the bone was shattered to pieces.
“Old Lady Mei?” That was the first word that came to his mind seeing the old lady who was sleeping on the mat besides him.
“Shattered racks, no furniture, mats-filled floor… eh, isn’t this that bastard’s house?” He mumbled to himself. “Did I not die and was taken here instead?”
That was the most logical explanation for now.
The mother, who had transformed into a snoring log, seemed to not notice that her son had woken up. She was simply exhausted after spending the whole night taking care of her son.
After she got her son home, she acted like a crazy old woman; rampaging from clinic to clinic. She offered tears and sweats but still, nobody would see her.
It was simple. In a neighborhood where business ran on trust, take one wrong case and you are done for. Even a blind person could sense that something was terribly wrong from her action. Therefore, her case was by no mean a simple one.
If you’re not confident on healing a case, the safest option is to stay away from it. And she wasn’t a worthy person to scam either.
Nobody wanted to have anything to do with her but that one person.
He was a quack. She knew that fact, but she had no other choice. A quack might have some skills after all.
And so, that quack doctor miraculously healed her son. Weirdly enough, he asked for no money. Perhaps that was because they lived in the same neighborhood.
Jun tried to get up but his whole body felt like cracking, as if he was a broken shell. He felt thirsty, and it was hard for him to clench it further. It was just at the right moment he saw a bottle of water on the table near him.
Since he could hardly use his right arm, he mustered his strength on the left one. The bottle was just besides him, yet he felt like it was ten miles away. Did this bottle play prank on him?
“Got you,” Jun smiled in satisfaction when he finally managed to grab the bottle.
*Snap*
Just as that moment, he felt tingling sensation on his arm, causing him to lose his grip. The bottle fall on the floor, but luckily the cap was there to hold the water. ‘Damn, I screwed up’.
Reflexively the mother opened her eyes. “Jun, are you awake now?”
“How are you feeling?”
She continuously bombarded Jun with tons of questions. But still, people could feel tinge of softness in her tone.
She spared no effort in hugging Jun.”Jun, do you know how worried I am… you silly child…”
“Wait, JUN?? I’m not Jun… I’m…” He was puzzled.
Jun was once the name of his best friend. Well, now he was his best enemy, whom he swore by heaven and earth to destroy. The one who stabbed and left him bled to death.
“Old Lady… eh… mom, can you get me a mirror?” He wasn’t stupid.
He tried his best to stay calm with his eyes spacing out.
This body of him was that of Jun. ‘So, I really did bleed to death then.’
If you were a scientist, this would have been a major breakthrough. If your spirit were able to hop onto another body after you died, this is one of the sure paths of immortality. But being in an immensely deep lust for revenge, he wouldn’t have time to think for this kind of thing.
He wasn’t sure of what had happened to him, but he was sure of one thing.
“Jun, I didn’t expect for this day to come this quick. Ha ha ha.” He quickly reformed and reaffirmed his heart.
Now wasn’t the time to get puzzled. At least, he escaped death, although this body wasn’t his. He would have plenty time to think after he settled this important business of his.
On the other hand, the innocent mother thought that her son must be frustrated to see his face full of bruises when she handed the mirror.
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“Hi, I seem to have problem remembering who I am. Just call me Jun at the moment since that’s what this body is.”
“But I’m sure of one thing.”
“I was killed by my best friend, and now, I’m living with his body…”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“… or to put it simply, I’m more like a vengeful spirit who possesses his killer. I really want to revenge for my unfair death…”
“I don’t need any explanation. I just need actions now!”
Jun blinked his eyes several times while staring at the broken roof. Luckily it wasn’t a climate with rainy weather; otherwise they would have been in a deep trouble.
His body was still like a log since it hurt a lot to move around. However, his mind had been running as far as he could. How should he settle his revenge?
An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. A body for a body. Should he just kill this body? No, he couldn’t afford to feel the pain of dying for the second time! God knew how hurt it was.
Should he just kill ‘his’ mother then?
Suddenly he thought of an idea. Carefully, he laid out the plan in his mind. It was going to be ‘fun’ if it worked. A smile bloomed like a wild flower on his face.
***
It had been three long days. He couldn’t do anything but lay on the mat, like a paralyzed person on his deathbed. It wasn’t until today that he felt a bit better.
“How the hell did he get this injury though… he was perfectly fine back then…” He felt like cursing the hell out of this body.
Just like the saying ‘every cloud had a silver lining’; it was still better ending up with an injured body than a cold corpse.
“How are you feeling today, Jun?” His mother asked in low voice. Nobody could decipher whether that was a tone of pity or tiredness.
A pity for her son who had been bedridden for three days.
Or was it due to tiredness from working during the days and sleep deprivation due to taking care of her son during the night.
But being a mother as she was, she would never say it out loud. If she couldn’t even take care of him when he was sick, why did she bother to painfully give labor to him?
Well, there was a popular saying among the poor; just be a simpleton and enjoy your life. There was nothing to lose anyway.
Jun was now able to move parts of his body, despite being a bit comfortable. He tried to rise up. ‘Time for the first plan: Make his mother hates him’.
He smirked deeply in his heart. If this was a Disney’s movie, surely tons of evil laughter could be heard echoing even to the seventh sky, deafening all the flying angels.
There was nothing sweeter in revenge than hurting people who were close with your enemy. That way your enemy would realize how high the sky and how wide the earth were for messing up with you.
Furthermore, it was more satisfying seeing his enemy’s beloved person got hurt, while his enemy couldn’t even do anything to help it. Human hated being helpless the most!
Ughh, he was a best friend, but that was the past. The present was what mattered.
She was his best friend’s mother. Now, she was the best target for revenge.
Even in the past, he only met Jun’s mother once, and that was by accident. Naturally, he wouldn’t think twice about hurting her, either emotionally or physically.
A quick death was easy, but a slow death was more painful and fun. Well then, let’s rope her to our torture chamber; 70 shades of hatred! We will make sure she is emotionally drained and hate her son to the bone.
‘Pangggg!!!’ His mother was caught shocked when her hand was slapped by him. Her hand that was holding a spoon of soup hit the table, and the spoon fell hard on the floor.
The soup fell on her skin; hot. However, the hot soup seemed to freeze time with the coldness of the situation as she just stared at her hand silently.
“What happened?” She asked herself as she was unsure of the situation. She was caught completely off-guard.
A moment later Jun spoke his mind, breaking the awkward silence.
“Vegetable soup again?!” Jun raised his voice a bit. It sounded a bit creaky though. “I’m not dead yet and you keep feeding me vegetable. Are you really desperate to see me becomes a vegetable?!”
‘Don’t worry Jun. You’re doing the right thing. She deserves this because of her useless son.’ Jun tried to calm himself. To be honest, this was his first time scolding someone at the age of his own birth mother. He was not even sure if this was too much, but he was hundred percent sure this was justified.
She had never seen her son got angry before. He was like a reincarnation of God of Love, with sole purpose of spreading love between mother and son, husband and wife, sisters and brothers and… friends who swore to live and die together.
When the devil of poverty stroke them hard, her son was like a golden pillar from Eden; giving shoulder of hope and patting her exhausted back with determination.
“Mom, one day I’ll take you out of this place and we’ll live like how a human should live.” That was the promise given to her by a young boy named Jun, years ago.
Now, that boy had reached adolescence. Reaching adulthood was just a matter of time. But, in her gradually aging eyes, the one in front of her would always remain as that little young boy.
And that boy suddenly scolded her harshly, for the first time since time immemorial! Had the sun rose from the west?
She was scared. She wasn’t scared because of the scolding. She was scared of her son finally realized the harsh truth of their poor life. She was scared of her son giving up living with her, threading the path of the poor, knitting hopes day by day for a miracle. Then she would lose her golden pillar of life.
There would be no meanings left to life.
The mother didn’t realize it, but Jun could clearly see her eyes became watery, yet the tears weren’t falling down. It was as if there was a complex emotion that was holding it back.
“Hurrr…hurrr…” Her chest breathing became apparent and getting louder, like something had been suffocating her.
“Hey… ” Jun said in a low voice. He tried to poke her with his left hand.
She responded by jolting her upper body, as if she was just got electrocuted in a power station. Her arms and legs wouldn’t stop twitching.
Her body fell helplessly on the floor just like a porcelain doll. But it wasn’t her body that was broken to millions of pieces, but her spirit. And surely, Jun had no way of knowing that.
She continuously writhing and dribbles could be seen flowing from her mouth.
“Hey, what are you…” Little did he expect to see such outcome.
He was just planning to show how rude and rebellious her son was in order to plant some emotional scar. How did she end up twitching continuously like there were some poisonous snakes in her veins? Her continuously oozing saliva made her look more miserable.
‘Wait, is she really dying?’ That thought somehow scared him, but wouldn’t this be a better outcome?
An apple for an apple, a body for a body!