As soon as I've moved into my new home, Rebecca Zangler, the white-collar office worker who lives across from my apartment calls the cops on me. Her reasoning is that I've been peeping on her whenever she's taking a shower because my unrequited love toward her has transformed into brimming hatred and resentment.

When the police show up, Rebecca starts crying her heart out. Then, she begins berating me.

"You pervert! Every night, you're the one peeping at me with your binoculars! You even uploaded my photos to the Internet!

"I saw everything, you know! Those eyes of yours are nothing but lecherous! You really are disgusting!"

My neighbors begin pointing at me while mumbling about me. Someone even comes over and starts roughing me up and calling me a scumbag.

"Perverts like him should be chemically castrated!"

"He looks decent at first glance, but you'll never know that he's actually a peeping Tom!"

When faced against everyone's backlash, I take off my sunglasses quietly, revealing my cloudy eyes.

"Officer, may I ask how can a blind man like me peep on others in the first place?"

I hadn't spoken in a loud voice, but the words still cracked through the commotion, instantly silencing everyone. The neighbors who had been shoving and cursing at me earlier froze in their movements, while the middle-aged woman leading the crowd left her hand hanging in mid-air. It seemed she had forgotten that it was even there.

Everyone stared at me, or to be more accurate, at the milky eyes in my face.

That was the permanent scarring I received from the fire I was caught in three years ago.

The police captain was an older man named Walter Jenkins. He was momentarily stunned, but then he furrowed his brow and snapped impatiently, "Stop trying to scare people with that act! Whether you're truly blind or not can easily be proven with a visit to the hospital!"

The woman who had accused me of peeping on her, Rebecca Zangler, briefly stopped her crying before shrieking at the top of her lungs, "He's lying! He's just trying to weasel his way out of this! How could he possibly be blind? He's at the window every night, peeping on me! Those eyes… Those eyes…"

She seemed to be trying to think of a way to describe my eyes, but the sight of them unnerved her so much that she couldn't find the words. All she could do was point a finger at me while her whole body shook.

"Disgusting! He's just too disgusting!"

Her shout caused the spectating neighbors to stir once more, and they began clamoring.

"That's right! He must be pretending to be blind!"

"Criminals nowadays truly are willing to go to great lengths when committing their crimes! For the sake of evading punishment, he even has the nerve to say he's blind!"

Enraged at the injustice, a younger man charged forward and made to seize me by the collar. "You scumbag! I'm going to deliver justice myself today!"

Captain Jenkins swiftly stopped him. "What are you doing? None of you move! The police will handle this!"

He then turned to me, the suspicion and disgust in his eyes not lessening one bit.

"You're coming with us to the police station."

I didn't resist and calmly held out my hands.

In the next second, a chilly sensation came from my wrists as cuffs were slapped onto them. Following that, I was escorted to the elevator by two younger policemen, one on each side.

Behind me, Rebecca's wailing and the neighbors' cursing of me mixed into a cacophony of noise.

"Scum of society!"

"Get out of our neighborhood!"

"I hope you'll be comfy in jail!"

I could almost see the righteous fury on their faces, as well as hear the smug delight at having stomped someone into the ground in their voices.

Once we entered the elevator, the metal doors slowly shut, cutting off the outside noise.

One of the younger officers, likely new to the job, couldn't resist asking me in a low voice, "Can you… really not see?"

My lips twitched slightly, but I didn't answer.

Another officer patted him on the shoulder and gestured for him to stop talking.

Whatever the case, I knew that deep down inside, their scales were already completely tipped in that crying woman's favor.

After all, one was a young, beautiful, and pitiful white-collar woman, while the other was a suspicious-looking man with sunglasses who lived alone.

To the police officers, it was clear as day who the victim and the perpetrator were.

Nonetheless, they didn't know that what the eyes saw was sometimes actually the biggest lie, and I, a blind man, could "see" what they couldn't.

For example, when Rebecca was tearfully accusing me of the crime, her heartbeat had been steady and calm, not at all like someone agitated.

A bright incandescent light shone harshly overhead in the police station's interrogation room. There was also a musty smell in the air.

I sat in an icy steel chair, with Captain Jenkins and a female officer sitting across the table from me. The latter was in charge of recording the process.

"Name."

"Charles Luson."

"Age."

"28."

"Occupation."

"Unemployed."

Captain Jenkins slammed his pen down on the table, the sound ringing in the room.

"Mr. Luson, I suggest you come clean! There's already evidence and a witness to prove your crime! Just how long do you plan on lying about this?"

I turned in his direction and calmly asked, "May I ask who the witness is? And what evidence do you have?"

"The witness is none other than the victim, Rebecca Zangler! As for the evidence…"

Captain Jenkins paused, seemingly realizing that this was a tricky situation.

"We're still searching for the evidence! Don't think that you'll be fine just because you refuse to admit to your crime!"

Then, he spoke in a much sterner voice, as though he were attempting to cow me with his authority.

"Ms. Zangler has already told us everything! You only moved in last week, yet you've harbored intentions toward her right from the start! Every night at eight, you would use your binoculars to peep on her while she showered! You even took photos of her and uploaded them to a shady overseas website to earn money!

"Everything you've done is a serious offense! If you come clean now, then you'll still get a chance to apply for leniency!"

I almost laughed in his face. Everything had been perfectly thought out—the time, location, tools, and motive. If I weren't the person involved, I would've believed that story to be true!

"Captain Jenkins," I began, instantly cutting off his tirade, "Firstly, I don't have binoculars. Secondly, I don't have anything that could commit the latter crime. I already switched my laptop and phone to models suitable for blind people three years ago. None of them has a camera to take photos. Thirdly, and most importantly…"

Pausing for a second, I then put emphasis on my next words. "I'm blind. That means I can't see anything."

Captain Jenkins' breathing grew audibly heavier.

"I already told you to stop using that as an excuse! We'll take you to get an examination to prove whether you truly are blind or not! Before the results of that come out, you're the biggest suspect!"

At that moment, the interrogation room door opened before a young officer stuck his head inside.

"Captain Jenkins, the victim is extremely agitated and keeps crying. She says she's taking this to the higher-ups because she claims we're defending the criminal."

Captain Jenkin's face darkened at the news. "I got it."

Waving a hand to dismiss the young officer, he then turned to glare at me.

Naturally, I couldn't see his glare, but I could hear the sound of his teeth grinding.

"Mr. Luson, do you have any idea how much pressure we're under right now because of you? Ms. Zangler graduated from a prestigious university, so a lot of people are paying attention to this case. If this matter isn't handled properly, our entire precinct is going to suffer criticism!"

In that instant, I understood. Rather than finding out the truth, he was more interested in soothing ruffled feathers.

And the easiest way to do that? Force me into admitting to the crime.

"So, just because you don't want to be criticized, you want me to admit to something I didn't do?" I uttered coldly.

However, my attitude seemed to anger Captain Jenkins.

"What sort of attitude is that? Who do you think you are? Let me tell it to you straight—anyone who comes in here has to adhere to our rules and obey us, no matter who they are! You absolutely refuse to come clean, right? That's alright! We have plenty of ways to loosen your lips!"

He stood up and gazed down at me imperiously.

"Lock him up and wait for the search warrant! Once we have it, we'll turn his house upside down! I refuse to believe we won't find any evidence!"

The door opened, and two police officers entered to grab me by the arms.

I didn't resist, for I knew that the moment Rebecca called the police, I had already fallen for an elaborate trap. Since they had the guts to do something like this, that meant that they would have done the necessary preparations.

I was certain that what would happen next was the police "finding" some "evidence" in my house, which would result in me being thoroughly branded with this shame.

…

The metal door swung shut behind me with a deep thud as I was locked into a temporary detainment cell.

The room was incredibly small, with only a hard slab for a bed and a toilet bowl. The cloying smell of disinfectant mixed with the despair that hung heavy in the air.

With my hands outstretched, I slowly fumbled my way over to the bed and sat down to quietly listen to the noises outside my cell.

The sound of footsteps echoed up and down the corridor as the police officers went about their business. I could hear a few of them talking to each other in low voices.

"That's the pervert who peeped on that woman showering?"

"He looks like such an ordinary man. Who would've thought he would do something so repulsive?"

"I heard that he claims to be blind. It must be an act, right?"

"Who knows? Either way, he's dead meat. Of all the people he could've offended, it had to be a female white-collar worker."

Their words stabbed into my ears like countless tiny needles.

I had long since grown used to the darkness, but this was the first time that darkness felt bone-chillingly cold.

Roughly two hours later, the metal door swung open once more.

It was Captain Jenkins, holding a transparent evidence bag. A smug smile painted his face as he waved it at me.

"Mr. Luson, look at what I've got here."

He seemed to have forgotten that I couldn't see.

Nonetheless, he was quick to reveal the answer to his question, his tone practically dripping with satisfaction.

"We found this beneath the window at your unit. It's a pair of military-grade binoculars! We also discovered this!"

He took out another evidence bag that contained a digital camera.

"Tons of humiliating photos of Ms. Zangler were found on this camera, with many taken from different angles! What do you have to say for yourself now?"

I remained silent, but deep inside, I was shocked.

They clearly hadn't wasted any time in planting the evidence.

Captain Jenkins took my silence as an admission of guilt.

Pulling a chair over, he sat down across from me and began lecturing me in the way an elder would talk to a younger person.

"Mr. Luson, you're still so young, and you have relatively decent looks. There are plenty of things you could've done to earn money, so why did you resort to something so disgusting?

"With all this concrete evidence, there's no point in you denying it any longer. Hurry up and sign this, and I might be able to help you plead for a lighter sentence from the judge."

He held out a form and a pen.

"Come on, sign it. The quicker we get this over with, the better it is for everyone."

I took note of the impatient and flippant tone in his voice.

He clearly didn't care about the truth; he just wanted to close the case as soon as possible.

Slowly raising my head, I gazed in his direction.

"Captain Jenkins, if I sign this, does that mean I'm admitting to all the charges?"

"But of course!"

"So, I'll be sentenced to prison for voyeurism and distribution of obscene materials?"

"That's right. These crimes will get you a combined sentence of at least three years."

"Then my name, my life, will forever be branded with the title of 'pervert'?"