The Child in Unit 402
Weeeoooo!!
The fire truck tore down the road, siren screaming. Cars peeled aside in a single wave to clear the lane.
Thanks to that, they reached the scene without losing the golden hour.
"Oh my God. Oh my God."
"What on earth is going on?!"
But the scene was already chaos incarnate.
"Somebody help us! Please!!"
"My mom's still in there...!!"
"Aaaaagh!!"
Residents stamped their feet and screamed. The police were sweating through the effort of holding back the surging crowd.
"Step back!!"
"You can't go that way!!!"
Watching it all from the passenger seat, the team leader spat a curse.
"Look at this circus. Absolute circus. Shit. Everybody out—now!"
"Yes, sir!!"
The crew slammed the doors open and jumped down as one. The team leader raised his radio and spoke while staring at the villa.
"Heavy smoke venting from third-floor window at this time. Risk of fire spread. Team One—that's us—preparing to make entry first."
At his order the firefighters moved in perfect coordination. The engine operator flipped open the side panel and spun up the pump.
Jung Jin-hyuk, a suppression firefighter, slung the hose connected to the water tank over his shoulder and reached the villa entrance with the assistant nozzleman.
It's eating through way too fast.
He muttered the thought while staring at the entrance choked black with smoke. Barely twenty minutes after the call had come in, the entire building was already burning.
The problem was the open piloti structure on the ground floor. The fire kept feeding on air and growing, and the stairwell had turned into a giant chimney.
Because of that, the flames had been able to shoot all the way to the top floor in a matter of minutes.
"Make entry slow. Start from the first floor."
The team leader's voice crackled through the radio clipped to Jin-hyuk's shoulder, thick with static. He answered shortly from inside his mask.
"Understood."
He turned to the rookie behind him.
"Stay close. Take it slow."
"Yes, sir!"
"This one's not easy..."
The team leader let out a heavy sigh, exhaustion written all over him.
"Tell me about it. Still—we got everyone out, didn't we?"
Jung Jin-hyuk was soaked through with sweat. He spoke while staring at the villa, where the flames still refused to die.
They had been pouring water for an hour straight, and instead of dying down the fire was only spreading further.
"This is why I hate villas. Looks like they had the sprinklers shut off."
"Seconded."
On top of that, once they made entry they found illegal renovations everywhere—half the units looked nothing like the floor plans. That had made the search a genuine headache, though the apartments being small had kept things from getting worse.
"Rest a bit more. We'll rotate later."
"Yes, sir."
The team leader was just about to step away when it happened.
"Ha-hyeon!!"
A scream sharp enough to split eardrums cut through the air.
"You can't!!"
"My baby is in there!! My child is still inside!!"
A woman thrashed and tried to throw herself toward the flames, tears streaming down her face.
The police threw everything they had into holding her back, but stopping a parent who had lost all reason was never easy.
At her feet, tofu and bean sprouts meant for dinner—and a bag of snacks the child must have liked—lay scattered across the ground.
"My kid wasn't among the people you rescued! My baby is still in there!!"
"Shit."
The team leader spat another rough curse and strode toward her. Jung Jin-hyuk followed with a grim expression of his own.
There's still a victim inside?
No one had told them a child was still in the building.
"There's a child?"
the team leader said to her.
"Yes! He's still in there—I'm sure of it. Please save him. Please! Hic, hhk..."
She begged with tears pouring down her face, hands and feet scrabbling in desperation.
"My Ha-hyeon. Joo Ha-hyeon—please, please just save him..."
"Which unit? What floor?"
Jin-hyuk asked urgently.
"Unit 402! Four-oh-two!"
In that instant, Jung Jin-hyuk's face went rigid.
"If it's 402, I already searched it. There was no child."
"No. He's in there—I know he is. He's so scared he must be hiding! Please... sir, I'm begging you!"
If they had known a few minutes earlier, maybe. Now it was far too late. The fire had already swallowed every corner of the place.
Going in now was as good as walking to your own death. The team leader's expression sank dark for a reason.
"Sir, please... I'll get down on my knees. I'm begging you."
She dropped to her knees and pressed her hands together.
"Ma'am, just a moment."
The team leader clenched his fists, then jerked his chin for Jin-hyuk to follow. Once they were behind the fire truck, out of sight of the crowd, he spoke.
"It's tragic, but there's nothing we can do. You know that, right? You know what happens if we go in now."
"Yes. But..."
"No. Absolutely not. Jin-hyuk. If you go in now, you die—guaranteed. I'll tell Team Two. You stay put."
"So you want me to just pretend to look around?"
"..."
"We don't have a choice. We're not superheroes out of some comic book or movie. You've been doing this for more than five years. You know how it is."
He did know. But turning away from the desperate eyes of a parent searching for their child was anything but easy.
"Absolutely not. It's heartbreaking, but it's already..."
The team leader couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. Jin-hyuk understood exactly what he had been about to say.
"...Understood."
"Good. Jin-hyuk. You don't need to feel guilty. Stay and rest. I'll explain things properly to the parents."
"Thank you, sir."
"Yeah."
Left alone, Jung Jin-hyuk stared blankly as the team leader approached the child's mother and spoke to her.
She was nodding, saying something. Probably thanking him.
His chest felt heavy. This was not why he had chosen to become a firefighter.
But the team leader was right—going after the child now was the same as walking into a death trap on your own two feet.
"Careful over there! Faster!!"
"Slow down! Steady! Keep working the fire!"
Jin-hyuk looked up at the fourth floor of the villa, still burning fiercely. Black smoke continued to pour from the windows.
What if. What if the child is still alive? What if right this second he's crying for someone to save him?
Just imagining it made his breath catch in his throat.
I can't do this.
If he turned his back and pretended not to know, he would regret it for the rest of his life. Dangerous or not, he had to go look for himself.
Only then would he be able to sleep with both feet stretched out tonight. Jin-hyuk glanced once at the team leader, who was still shouting into his radio in a frenzy.
In and out. Fast.
Helmet on, he slipped carefully into the villa—as if he belonged to Team Two, the crew currently working the fire.
"Hah... hahh..."
The moment he stepped inside, a wave of searing heat hit him. Dense smoke and flame reduced visibility to nothing.
"Hey!!"
"Where the hell are you going!!"
Jin-hyuk ignored the other firefighters yelling that he was out of his mind and headed straight for the fourth floor.
"Hah... hahh..."
Even inside the respirator, breathing was a struggle. But for a veteran firefighter, this level of pain was nothing.
They had already forced the door open during the initial search, so all he had to do was walk into Unit 402.
He took one look at the violent flames beyond the front door—and threw himself through without hesitation.
Everything was blazing red fire and black smoke. What had once been a peaceful home had transformed into hell.
If the sprinklers had simply worked the way they were supposed to, the fire never would have spread this far.
Where are you.
"Ha-hyeon! Joo Ha-hyeon!!"
He wrenched open the nearest door. Bathroom—no child.
"Damn it. Where are you."
Please don't tell me...
He turned and was hurrying toward another room when something caught his eye.
A half-burned calendar hanging on a door.
"Huh...?"
Something about it felt familiar. Jung Jin-hyuk remembered the strange things that man had said—the one who claimed to be a shaman.
"A giraffe drawing."
Next to the door was a giraffe-sticker growth chart. In that instant, Jin-hyuk's breathing stopped.
No way. I'd completely forgotten...
The man's words echoed in his ears like a hallucination.
Of all the details in the world, he had nailed the giraffe sticker exactly.
Goosebumps raced over his entire body. Then—was the moment of death the man had spoken of... right now?
He said to take a leap of faith and believe him, didn't he?
That unwavering look in the man's eyes rose in his mind. That was not something anyone could fake.
All right. One gamble of a lifetime. Just like the man said.
He said to watch out for the living-room ceiling. To go through the kitchen instead.
In that exact moment—as he started to leave his spot—a burning support beam crashed down where he had been standing.
KRAAASH!
"Son of a—"
A chill ran down his spine. A second later and that heavy beam would have crushed him.
There was no time to freeze. If he stood there stunned, he really might burn to death in here exactly as the shaman had said.
Jung Jin-hyuk did not cut straight across the living room. He went through the kitchen side instead, into the room the shaman had mentioned.
"Mommy..."
The child was curled up in the corner, crying.
Found him! I actually found him!
KRAASH! BOOM!!
Outside, the sound of burned beams giving way under their own weight and collapsing filled the air.
"We're getting out of here. Uncle's going to save you!"
He rushed over and scooped the child up. The boy clung to Jin-hyuk's neck as if pleading for his life.
"That's it. Keep your head down."
The instant he wrapped the child in his arms and cleared the front door, a thunderous roar filled the air—and the living-room ceiling came crashing down.
"...!"
Jung Jin-hyuk thought of that man's face as he sprinted down the stairs.
"Jung Jin-hyuk! You bastard! Who the hell said you could go in alone!!"
"They said there was a kid—how was I supposed to ignore that? I got him!"
"Get out here. You son of a bitch. Just get back!!"
"Yes, sir!!"
Jin-hyuk raced down and sprinted straight to the child's mother, shouting.
"I got him!"
RUMBLE! KRAAASH!!
A massive sound tore from the villa as something inside gave way and collapsed.
"Whoa—whoa!!"
Startled people ducked and scrambled backward. Watching them, Jung Jin-hyuk swallowed hard and thought of the man who had rewritten his fate.
It was real. Everything that shaman said.
If he hadn't listened, Jin-hyuk would have died in that place together with the child.
He had to meet him again. Without fail.
Somehow—any way he could—he wanted to repay this debt.