The room I was assigned to held about ten people.
It wasn't very large and sat right beside the corridor that led down to the dining hall. Apparently rooms in that location were the most expensive in the entire center.
Which explained the kind of people living there.
Most of them were spoiled rich kids whose families had money to burn.
Except for one man.
The moment I saw him, I knew he was the real thing—a genuine street thug.
His face was cold and expressionless, his body covered in tattoos.
Inside places like this, tattoos came in two categories.
The first type belonged to the rich kids. They used the money their families sent them to visit tattoo shops outside during temporary leave. Their tattoos were colorful, flashy, and expensive—but somehow they all looked the same, like fashion accessories rather than symbols of anything real.
The second type was different.
Those were hand-drawn tattoos done with crude tools and ink—simple, sometimes uneven, but strangely alive. You could tell they carried stories.
This man belonged firmly to the second category.
When I entered the room, he walked over and casually patted my shoulder.
"New guy?" he asked.
His voice was surprisingly calm.
We chatted for a few minutes. Then he leaned closer and lowered his voice.
"While you're here," he said quietly, "the best rule is this:
Don't hear anything.
Don't see anything.
Don't know anything.
Life will be much easier."
I nodded.
That sounded reasonable enough.
Everyone minding their own business—that was exactly the way I preferred things anyway.
But life has a strange sense of humor.
Because the one rule he gave me—hear nothing, see nothing, know nothing—
turned out to be the one rule I would fail completely.
***
Every morning at six, the entire center woke up for exercise.
It was brutal.
I had never in my life woken up that early.
Trying to sleep through it was impossible. Guards would storm into the room and drag anyone still in bed outside.
Eventually I developed the habit of waking up early on my own.
Sometimes I would sneak a cigarette or brush my teeth before everyone rushed to the sinks after exercise.
Unexpectedly, waking up early had… certain advantages.
After that particular morning, I became one of the people who voluntarily woke up earliest in the entire center.
***
That day the sky outside was still dark when I woke up.
I pushed my blanket aside, planning to go outside for a cigarette.
But the air felt cold.
Too cold.
I lazily pulled the blanket back over my head and decided to sleep a little longer.
Just as my head touched the pillow again—
Click.
A soft sound came from the door.
Then a shadow slipped inside the room with incredible speed.
For a moment I thought it was a guard.
"Why the hell are they here so early?" I almost said aloud.
But then I looked more carefully.
The figure was tall.
Long hair.
And wearing the center's uniform.
Not a guard.
A girl.
I stayed perfectly still.
The rule suddenly echoed in my mind.
Don't hear anything. Don't see anything. Don't know anything.
The girl moved quietly through the darkness until she reached the bed of Eduardo Reyes—the tattooed gangster who had given me that advice.
Apparently he had already been awake.
He sprang up immediately.
For a second I wondered if they had some kind of feud and were about to fight.
But I realized my mistake almost instantly.
Eduardo Reyes needed about one second to pull down his shorts.
The girl took slightly longer—maybe two seconds.
Then suddenly she climbed onto the bed.
She was still wearing her shirt.
But from the waist down she was completely naked.
Her body bent forward, her hips rising in the air as she lowered herself onto him.
The two of them moved with unbelievable speed, as if they were trying to set a Guinness record for the fastest blowjob in human history.
What the hell was this?
My bed was near the door.
Eduardo's was deep inside the room.
All I had to do was lie on my side and open my eyes slightly—and the entire scene unfolded like a live pornographic film.
I had seen plenty of sex in my life.
But watching it happen right in front of me at lightning speed like this was something entirely new.
And I couldn't help noticing something else.
Eduardo Reyes wasn't a particularly large man.
But what he had between his legs was… terrifying.
The girl's mouth stretched around it, her head moving up and down while her hair fell over her face so I couldn't recognize who she was.
But one thing I could see clearly.
Her body.
Especially her hips.
Perfectly curved.
White in the dim light.
Moving rhythmically as she pressed down toward his mouth.
The entire performance lasted maybe two minutes.
Then Eduardo suddenly pulled her down.
He stood up straight—and the sight was even more shocking.
Two dragons twisted across his back and chest, fighting over a pearl.
Two phoenixes spread their wings along his thighs.
But the most terrifying creature of all was right in the middle of his body.
His erection was nearly twenty centimeters long.
Dark.
Thick.
And I could vaguely see four large beads implanted beneath the skin.
Then the girl turned her face slightly toward my side of the room.
I froze.
It was the same girl who had approached me at the canteen on my first day.
Her eyes were half closed with pleasure.
Her hands pressed against the bed while her hips lifted slightly.
Eduardo stood behind her and thrust slowly.
She tried to suppress her moans, but soft sounds still escaped her throat.
Suddenly my own body felt warm.
After more than ten days wandering around inside this center, my own physical needs were beginning to feel… neglected.
Just as I was starting to worry my body might betray me—
Eduardo suddenly stopped.
He exhaled heavily.
That surprised me even more.
It hadn't even been five minutes.
All that terrifying equipment—and it barely lasted long enough to be useful?
My wounded pride instantly recovered.
The girl, however, didn't seem disappointed.
She grabbed Eduardo's shorts, wiped him quickly, and pulled her clothes back on at lightning speed.
Then she slipped under the blanket.
Eduardo dressed just as fast and handed her a baseball cap.
Why didn't she just leave? I wondered.
Did she want another round?
But just then—
CLANG!
The exercise bell rang.
Everyone in the room began waking up and pulling on their clothes.
Eduardo opened the door, peeked outside, then waved to the girl.
She tucked her long hair under the cap and walked out casually among the male residents.
That was when I realized something.
This operation had an entire system behind it.
Later I discovered that my room was actually one of the most popular "meeting points" in the center.
Because it sat directly beside the corridor.
Girls could glance around, slip inside unnoticed, and leave again surrounded by a few male residents.
No wonder the room was so expensive.
Everyone wanted it.
***
Still, no matter what strange things happened inside the center, life here was unbelievably boring.
After about fifteen days, I had already reached that conclusion.
The initial surprises faded quickly.
And the daily routine became painfully predictable.
Morning exercise.
Breakfast.
Coffee until lunchtime.
Lunch.
Another round of coffee.
Maybe a short gym session in the afternoon.
Dinner.
Television or movies.
Sleep.
The entire routine was not much different from the life of a well-fed pig on a farm.
In fact, if someone walked into the center without looking at the sign outside, they might think they had accidentally entered a fitness club.
Many of the guys here were enormous.
Some arrived thin as skeletons, but after a few months they started to resemble professional bodybuilders.
The food wasn't bad either.
At night residents could even order meals from outside restaurants.
The first time I saw the dinner menu, I thought I was in a cheap neighborhood restaurant.
Fried tilapia.
Chicken curry.
Grilled goat meat.
Roasted pork.
Everything.
But strangely, I had no appetite.
Because I still kept thinking:
I'm not even an addict.
The people who had just finished detox, however, ate like wild animals.
After watching them for a while, I realized something.
When addicts spend months chasing drugs, their bodies ignore every other need.
Food.
Sleep.
Sex.
Once the drugs are gone, those suppressed needs come roaring back.
They eat like monsters.
And when it came to sex…
Some of them joked that when they were high, watching porn felt about as exciting as watching the evening news.
But after quitting drugs, the desire returned with overwhelming force.
***
I've never been good at making friends.
Outside this place, that wasn't really a problem.
Inside here, however, it became a serious disadvantage.
I tried to socialize.
But listening to people talk endlessly about drugs quickly bored me to death.
At first their stories were interesting.
After a few days they became unbearable.
Most of the girls in the center were quite pretty.
But ever since a doctor warned me about HIV, I couldn't help seeing them the way you might look at animals in a zoo.
Interesting.
But best kept at a distance.
I loved life too much to risk dying early.
The only person I talked to regularly was Antonio Cruz—the man I had met in detox.
He was older than me and extremely well educated.
But our conversations rarely lasted long.
After a few minutes we would run out of things to say.
Which left me alone most of the time.
Watching martial arts movies.
Practicing imaginary kung fu alongside Donnie Yen and Jet Li on the television screen.
***
The rehabilitation center didn't have official prison bosses.
But there were still big shots.
These were men with reputations in other centers or on the streets.
Wherever they went, a group of followers trailed behind them.
At that time the center was full of such characters.
Ramon Tan, a massive Chinese gangster whose torso was covered with nine dragons.
Jun Mercado, a notorious tough guy from Cavite rumored to have once knocked a guard unconscious in another center.
And many others whose names I never bothered to remember.
As long as I didn't provoke them, none of them would bother me.
Still, the longer I stayed there, the more unbearable the boredom became.
Sometimes I even felt tempted to escape.
Fortunately, fate seemed to have a sense of fairness.
Because it soon sent two people into my life.
Two people who would completely change my dull existence inside the rehabilitation center.
One man.
And one woman.