Bedevilled 2016 < SIMPLE • CHEAT SHEET >

Bok-nam raised the sickle. The rain ran down the blade like tears. “I am not crazy,” she said. “I am not stupid. I am not your pity. Tonight, I am the tide.”

She heard footsteps on her stairs. Slow. Heavy. The door didn’t open. A hand—thin, knuckles split—pushed a piece of paper under the crack. bedevilled 2016

The first week, Hae-won pretended not to see. She had her own wounds to lick. She stayed inside with her books and her cheap wine. Bok-nam raised the sickle

When the mainland police finally arrived three days later—sent by a worried neighbor who’d seen the smoke from the burning compound—they found Hae-won sitting on the dock. She was covered in mud. Beside her, wrapped in a clean white cloth, were the bones of a child. “I am not stupid