Locked in a Vault (Short Story from 김언수: 2011 제35회 이상문학상 작품집 <금고에 갇히다>)

        Wow. How on earth did this even happen? How did I end up playing "scissors, paper, stone" with Randy in the vault, and fucking praying to all the Gods to let me win?


        It was Friday evening when we opened the vault. The sound of the safe door opening made us feel thrilled. Well, any thieves would have liked that sound. Randy started to stuff the golden coins and jewellery into his large bag without having a time to feel excited. My adrenaline was already starting to surge as well when I saw those golden coins and jewellery. I've only seen such thing in movies, and never did I expect to see them in my life. The girl was screaming and yelling her head off as she witnessed the scene. She ran from one end of the vault to the other end, danced and jumped around. I thought she was overreacting too much, but I let her be. When will this kind of moment appear in her life again? Although her crazy laughter was quite annoying, it was fine. Since we opened the vault.



        Her mad laughter didn't stop even when I was tying a knot of my third bag of golden coins and jewellery. Then, it happened. She put bunch of golden coins in all parts of her clothes and rolled on the floor, giggling, and she kicked the support that was keeping the safe door open. And the ultra strong safe door slowly closed.


        Really?? The safe door moved very slowly, so any of us could have ran there to stop the door from closing. But none of us did. All of us stood there like bunch of brainless idiots and watched the safe door close. Even after the safe door closed and made the locking-up sound, we didn't know what was going on. We looked into each other and blinked our eyes, still smiling.

"Hahaha, my friend, that door, isn't really closed right?" Randy asked me.

"Hahaha. It's not." I said. "It's not right?" I asked, looking at the girl who was looking at us vacantly.

        The girl who was laying down slowly stood up awkwardly. Randy threw his bag on the floor, stomped there and made some cracking, thumping, and banging sound for a while.

"Oh fuck. This is really closed." Randy said.

Yeah, he said it's really closed. Shit.



        And that's what happened. We are now locked in the vault. A fucking vault. There isn't any toilet or window. The interior of the vault is made of shiny walls, and screaming "Is anyone outside! We are locked in a vault!" wouldn't give us any reply. Because everyone who is working at this vault have left the office by this time.

        This feels very unrealistic, I mean, I did imagine someone being locked in the vault before. But I never imagined myself being locked. I sat down on the cold floor and thought. Yeah, this is really unrealistic. We planned to open this vault for the past 6 months and when we finally succeeded and went into the vault, we got locked inside because of the stupid bitch that kicked the fucking support. And it is now realistic that we are locked. With that, my plan to stay in a 5-star hotel and watch all the Korean dramas and movies all day long with an expensive champagne has disappeared. Randy's plan to fuck five Venezuela girls at a same time has also disappeared, completely. No wonder things were going too easy for us. Who are we to have such luxurious lives and Venezuela girls anyways?

        I feel like being in a prison as three of us stare at each other. No, it's worse than being in a prison. There is no water, window and toilet. There isn't any other prisoners to talk to. Police would come only on Monday morning. What can we do until then? I have to stare at this fucking Randy and dumb ass bitch for 2 days, with some useless gold coins and jewellery?

        I saw a reflection of myself at the shiny wall and I felt like it was laughing at me. 'You know how pathetic and pitiful you are?'. I know. I clearly know how pathetic and pitiful my life is. I am sure Randy and I would be awarded for <The Most Stupid Thieves In The World> if such thing exists. I should have listened to my parents and study hard in school when I was a teenager. But it is too late now.

        I didn't feel totally hopeless when Randy was trying out some ways to open the safe door. Because his father was the most skilled safecracker in the country, so I told myself that he must have gotten some secret methods to unlock the safe doors. But he threw his stuff away and sighed.

"You can't open it?" I asked.

"Fuck you. Have you seen a safecracker unlocking the safe door from the inside?" He complained.

"Dude, just put in some more effort." I pushed.

"The lock system is outside. I need holes for me to open the lock. And there isn't any holes inside here for me to do anything!"

        He is right. There is just a plain shiny surface at the back of the safe door. No holes at all. And just like what he said, there isn't any safecracker who unlocks the vault from the inside. Yeah, who the fuck would do that, or even try to do that? Plus, this old vault isn't modern enough to even have a safe system to alert the police in case anyone gets trapped inside, in which no one should in the first place.

"You have a cigarette?" Randy asked.

"I left it in my car."

"Freaking hell, there isn't even a cigarette."

"But I have a lighter." I said.

"Oh, you have a lighter? Are you fucking kidding me?" He shouted with irritation.

        The girl started to cry. Not sure whether it was because she was sorry, embarrassed, scared or whatever. But she must have wanted to chop off her ankle that kicked the support.


"Shut the fuck up you fucking bitch! Why the fuck are you crying for." Randy said angrily.

        His deep and rough voice echoed in the vault. She was startled by it and stopped crying immediately. The vault became quiet and none of us talked or moved. For a very long time, we just sat there.

        I have robbed, cheated, deceived and lied to get into this vault. I even lied to myself in the process. And now, I have all the golden coins and jewellery in front of me which I cannot even take out. Seriously? My life has always been like that. What's new?

        I put in bunch of jewellery in my pocket in an attempt to feel happy and it failed miserably. I felt even worse, knowing that none of these belong to me. I found a golden pig and asked. "Don't you want to get out of this vault as well?" And there isn't any reply.

"Hey did you just lose your mind or something?" Randy said, looking at me pitifully.

        The girl started to cry again. Randy glared at her and she stopped crying upon sensing his anger. But tears continued flowing down her face. Randy suddenly stood up and kicked the safe door hard, and she looked at him with a shocked face. Her eyes became large and round, and it got small. I didn't realised that she was actually very pretty, because when we were working with her, I only concentrated on getting the jewellery. And the uniform that she is wearing is extremely cute and I started to feel sexually aroused. Whenever I see a girl wearing a uniform, I get aroused easily, which I do not know why. Maybe I have some uniform fetish, and I'm not proud of it.

        She then started to cry loudly, and Randy who was doing some push-ups stood up and ran towards her, kicked and punched her. He did it so fast that I didn't have time to stop him.


"You fucking bitch stop crying! You don't even deserve to cry! I am so pissed off." He said as he returned to his place.

"But how can you hit a weak girl. You ignorant guy." I said, looking softly at the girl.

"Because of that bitch, I need to go inside the prison again! I am sick of prison. This time, I really wanted to live an enjoyable life.. And I am still under probation! Fuck!"

        But actually, being in prison is a comfortable life to life failures like us. Because they will feed me 3 times a day, and give me a warm place to sleep. Unlike when I am outside, I cannot even eat proper meals as I don't have enough money, get beaten up by some gangsters for no reason and so on. So being in a prison at least lets my mind be calm and free from any worries. Randy found some golden pottery and started to urinate inside. After that, he took out his phone and moved around.

"Give me your phone. My phone has no connection." He said.

"You need phone for?" I asked.

"Let's call the police and tell them that we are here."

"Are you kidding?"

"Since we cannot even do anything, why not we just get arrested now rather than waiting till Monday? I am so bored and hungry."

        He is right again. So I took out my phone. But my phone has no connection as well. I guess there isn't any phone connection available in a vault.

"Mine has no connection as well."

"Hey lady, does your phone have connection?" Randy asked her.

She looked at him resentfully then looked down.

"That bitch's phone doesn't have connection as well. So what should we do now?" He complained.

"Let's sleep." I suggested.

"This is making me go fucking insane. I can't believe I have to do this shit until Monday. I hate being bored and hungry. It is the first time that I am desperately waiting for police to arrest me."

"I know right. I rather get beaten up by some people than sitting here and do nothing." I reciprocated.

"If we had some board games or something, it would have been better. No cigarette too. Damn it." He complained again.

"But we have a girl." I said, just to poke fun at Randy.

"A girl.." He opened his eyes big and thought for a moment.

"Think about it. When we enter the prison on Monday, we won't get to see any pretty girls for months or even years. Furthermore she is wearing a uniform. She should have graduated from a University. When do you think a guy like you can have sex with a young girl like that? Already getting aroused right?" I told him, observing his facial expressions.

"Err.. Nah. That isn't right still. We must not rape. My dad told me that I can rob as much as I like but I must not hurt others. How can you think of raping her? Aren't you ashamed of yourself as a man? Regardless of us being in the dark with a girl, we should be a gentleman. And going into the prison as thieves would cost us about two to three years, but going in as a sexual assault criminal will be freaking troublesome. Do you think that bitch will stay quiet when the police come, if we rape her?"

"That's right! I will not stay quiet!" The girl who was sitting down suddenly stood up straight and yelled.


"Hey you bitch! You want me to fuck you up? Who caused this to happen!" I shouted at her. She isn't in any position to say anything.

        She dropped her head and crouched down again. When I think about it, Randy is right. Whatever he said about being a gentleman is all bullshit but going into prison as a sexual assault criminal is going to be bad. A rapist will be treated like a garbage in the prison. Ah, screw this. Nothing is going in my way at all.

        I threw a golden coin towards Randy and he dodged naughtily and laughed. When I was about to throw another golden coin, she slowly opened her mouth.

"How is prison like?"

"What?" Her question was so stupid that I wanted to throw some profanities but her sad facial expression stopped me.

"Prison, is it a scary place like the ones in the movies?" She asked again.

"No no, what the movies show have quite a lot of bullshit. Basically, prison is neither a brutal nor a scary place. It may be a bit hard to adapt at first but you will get used to the environment quickly. Also, there are many fun people inside to play and talk to one another. That's how prisoners pass their time." Randy replied her instead.

"I saw a movie last time which showed a girl getting beaten up by other stronger girls in a Mexico prison. And she got beaten up and raped every night..."

"Hey, that is a Mexico story. Prison in Korea is not like that. It's just that it feels uncomfortable. Being locked up in a room. But anyway, staying here or staying in prison is the same." Randy said, playing with the jewellery.

"Yeah, it's the same. It's just a place for people to live in, nothing much." I interfered.

"Then what's going to happen to me?"

        What Randy and I said did not comfort her at all and she started to cry again. Well, she must be feeling scared, thinking that she needs to go into the prison. When I went in for the first time, I also felt really scared just like her. Anything is scary at the beginning. We just looked at her pitifully. Then, Randy suggested that we play "scissors, paper, stone".

"Hey lady, stop crying and come here. Let's play "scissors, paper, stone" together. Crying won't solve any of your problem. Let's brighten up our mood by playing." Randy looked at the girl and said.

"What is the point of playing in this situation?" She cried with an annoyed voice.

        Her cry was loud, and thanks to that, the two of us stared at her with a blank face. But she realised that she was in no position to be angry, so she went down on her knees and cried softly. I was irritated at first, but the girl wearing a uniform and crying looked both cute and pitiful. So I did not complain and just played with Randy.

        We played "scissors, paper, stone" for about 10 minutes and it became really banal. I have never played this shit for more than 5 minutes of my life. And if we have some fun penalties to the loser like in drinking games, it would be so much more awesome. And this was just stupid and pointless.

"Hey, this is boring." I couldn't play anymore.

I lay down on the floor, and Randy did it too.

"I have a way." The girl suddenly lifted up her face and cried.

"What way?' I asked.

"The way to get out of here."

"How?" Randy quickly got up and asked.

"Two of you are the ones who opened the vault, so let's take it as I am kidnapped and had no choice but to be dragged here forcefully. Therefore I was intimidated and threatened.."

She must have seen Randy's cold facial expression because her tongue twisted in the middle of her sentence.



"You little crazy bitch. I gave you sympathy because you cried and now you think I am a pushover? Hey, you fucking bitch, who caused this shit to happen? If you have a bit of conscience, you wouldn't have said that shit from your mouth. So you're saying you are going to live alone?" Randy barked angrily.


"But since this happened, not all of us should die. If it is possible, at least one of us should live and not go into the prison. Just now you mentioned about you being a gentleman and I guess it is all a lie. And if I don't go into the prison, I can send private supplies to both of you while you guys are inside." She said desperately.

        Randy shook at the word "gentleman". He goes extremely sensitive over that word for some whatever egoistic reason. No wonder he has been single until now and got cheated from all the girls he had met.

"Should we listen to that bitch?" He asked.

"Have you lost your mind? Why? You really think she will send you private supplies? Hey Randy. Randy. Please wake up. This foxy bitch who is trying to get out alone won't do anything for us."

"No, I mean, two of us can just go inside and not necessarily the girl as well, right? Also, she has no criminal record so far in her life. It would be a pity for her if she goes into the prison." Randy tried to persuade.

        This Randy is so fucking dumb. I am going to cut off contact with this pushover retard once I get released from the prison.

"So a gentleman like you can beat up a girl?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well, that was because I was too mad. You know. I get angry momentarily. So let's let the girl go." Randy whined.

        My goodness. He is hopeless. I didn't reply and looked away.

"Hey, a man should be cool and have an open mind." Randy said again.

"Who is the one that threw the money down the cliff? If that girl did not jumped and rolled like a crazy dog and kicked the support away, I would be in some 5-star hotel by now, having sex with some Venezuela girls. Only that? Maybe I would have opened some Miss Universe contest! And now, you want us to go into the prison ourselves and let that bitch have a happy life outside? Have you absolutely lost your mind?" I shouted.

"Yeah.. it's a pity we can't have some fun with the Venezuela girls. Venezuela girls are so pretty. I see so many of them in the Miss Universe." Randy said sadly like an idiot.

"If you guys let me off.. I will do it for you." The girl said suddenly with a shy face.


        Randy and I became blur after hearing what she said.

"What? What will you do?" Randy asked quietly.

"The thing you guys are talking about with the Venezuela girls.." She said very quietly.

        She would let us have sex with her? Randy looked into my eyes. I looked into his eyes as well. The gears inside my body started to turn crazily fast. Now, this is a different story. This Randy and I would go into the prison anyway, and bringing that girl along with us technically won't benefit us at all.

"Really? You will really do it with us if we let you off?" I asked.

"Of course. But I can't do it with both of you. No matter what kind of situation I am in, I have my female pride. I am not a prostitute.. I am not going to fuck two guys." She said really firmly.

"Then who will do it?" Randy asked desperately.

"I thought someone said he is a gentleman?" I said competitively.

"No? This is a different story. I was talking about raping just now, and this time, it is about, err, consensual sex isn't it." Randy said firmly as though he is never going to give up.

"Well, you two decide who will do it. Now I will tell you guys what I will say to the police." She said with a clear voice. "So I was threatened by two brutal-looking guys who were holding weapons, and I had no choice but to give you guys the key and password for the vault safe door. And you two dragged me here along so that I am not able to report it to the police. But I was smart enough to kick the support away to close the safe door, so that two of you can be caught by the police. Some~thing like that. How's my story?" She spoke some nonsense with confidence.

"What the fuck? Then what if the police ask why you are unharmed when you sabotaged our plan?" I asked.

"Then I will say that you two did not wanted to go into the prison as rapists, since you guys are gentleman." She talked like some school teacher.

"But did you just call us brutal-looking guys? I look so kind.." Randy asked, pitifully showing off his pushover nature.

"I mean, I am just saying. I will say scary-looking guys then." She said, smiling for the first time after the vault safe door closed.


"But we are really not those murderers that use weapons to threaten or hurt other people. Just say that we verbally threatened?" I asked.

"Then wouldn't it be funny that I gave you guys the key and password when I was just verbally threatened?"

"No, our penalty will be worse if you say that we used weapons to threaten you. And what kind of pussy guys would use weapons to threaten a girl? I am not those type." Randy said as if commanding.

"Okay, okay, I understand. I will say that I was verbally threatened in a scary tone." She said.

Randy and I thought for a while.

"Then you will really do it with one of us?" Randy checked with her.

"Yes I will! Why can't you believe me? I will do it with one of you as my appreciation for letting me off from going into the prison. Just nice, I'm not on my period." She reassured.

"Well, fine then. This will benefit all of us, wouldn't it? Except for one of us that would not have sex with you." Randy agreed.

"Yeah. So we play scissors, paper, stone to decide who will do it with her?" I suggested desperately without thinking.

"Are you kidding? This is some serious deal man, and not some kid game where the Elementary school kids decide who will pay for the ice-cream." Randy said, pointing his short middle finger at me.

"Then how the fuck do we decide?" I asked.

"Forget it. Let's play scissors, paper, stone. Just one round." Randy said, becoming extremely serious.



        Okay, now I don't need anything else. I just need to win this "scissors, paper, stone" and get the girl. Please, Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, Buddha and all the Gods in the world. I don't need money, a cool-looking limousine or whatsoever. Let me just win this fucking "scissors, paper, stone". Please???


"Scissors! Paper! Stone!"

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Photo credits:
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/holy-wow-you-can-actually-swim-like-scrooge-mcduck-in-1481547007

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/anime/answers/show/487323/anime-character

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/401875966723198487/

http://kinoshitakitsune.deviantart.com/art/Save-Galaco-Stop-the-Galaco-s-desactivation-386219146

http://animewishes.blogspot.kr/2010/09/anime-boy-angry.html

https://31.media.tumblr.com/27389a13d13cfc226a075608a5bbcd5a/tumblr_inline_neqqr9QLjk1sdi40k.png

http://media0.giphy.com/media/fvcrSYkOmtP8c/200_s.gif

http://www.wallpaperfo.com/thumbnails/detail/20120429/brunettes%20angry%20anime%20anime%20boys%20ao%20no%20exorcist%20rin%20okumura%201500x840%20wallpaper_www.wallpaperfo.com_63.jpg

https://www.tumblr.com/search/Galaco

http://supershadyshadow.deviantart.com/art/PD-Galaco-DL-327979445

http://silverinessimage.webs.com/photos/anime%20boys/cuteboy5.jpg

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Sasuke-Shippuden-Praying-Render-290024396





Original story adapted and edited from:
<금고에 갇히다> by 김언수 from <2011 제35회 이상문학상 작품집>


※ This story, "Locked in a Vault", ranked inside the Top 8 stories of South Korea's most renowned Literature Competitive Book awards; 이상문학상 작품집 in 2011. I personally enjoyed reading this story a lot, but it is not translated into English anywhere. So I decided to translate it myself to share with all the English readers.

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