Segok-ri Reservoir (4)

"Hello? Hello!"

The call had dropped mid-conversation, and Seo Jinwoo jabbed at the redial button.

Through the receiver came a click and the faint tone of someone picking up — but no answer followed.

"Yunho hyung? Hello?!"

Crackle-crackle! And the line went dead.

So even in this day and age, you lose reception once you enter a tunnel?

Living in the countryside, he'd come to understand, meant putting up with plenty of inconveniences. But he'd also learned that it offered a sense of ease and peace no city could ever give him.

Right. A little inconvenience like this was nothing.

I'm on my way to see Kim Yunho hyung. This doesn't even count as an inconvenience.

Until now, Jo Woochul had been the most comfortable hyung in Seo Jinwoo's life. The man showered him with compliments, so seeing him always lifted his spirits.

You have real talent as an actor — don't ever give up acting. Let's make a great project together someday.

Just having someone say those things to him had meant the world.

But after meeting Kim Yunho, his thinking had changed.

It felt like I'd finally met the hyung of my lifetime.

Kim Yunho had noticed the pain Seo Jinwoo never spoke of aloud.

He'd caught wind of a condition Jinwoo couldn't confess to anyone and offered to help.

Then he'd actually removed the bizarre evil spirit clinging to his body — and life had become livable again. No, it had started becoming good.

Benefactor. Savior. Maybe even an angel.

Somehow, some way, Seo Jinwoo wanted to repay that debt.

"I'll call again once I'm out of the tunnel."

But then —

"Why did the map change?"

He'd been navigating with an app on his phone. The route was simple: exit Ugok Tunnel and go straight — Ugok 3-ri first, then Ugok 2-ri, and at the very end, Ugok 1-ri. That was his destination.

Yet the map was now instructing him to turn right out of the tunnel, claiming that road led to Ugok 1-ri.

Something's off.

Perhaps it was the creeping unease, but a dull throb pulsed in his back.

A few days ago, he'd visited a dermatologist for laser tattoo removal. He would need four more sessions before the ink was gone completely.

The doctor had clucked sympathetically, saying how many people got tattoos on impulse and lived to regret it.

What I actually regret is meeting Hye-ra before I'd dealt with my own problem.

Bae Jung-hee had manipulated Hye-ra into suicide — but Seo Jinwoo believed he bore his own share of responsibility for how things had unraveled.

Either way, Hye-ra loved me.

Throb! The old tattoo site ached again, sharp as a long rod being driven through it, skewering him all the way to his heart.

"Ugh!"

Seo Jinwoo pulled off the road onto the shoulder just past the tunnel exit.

Whenever emotion surged up like this, his mind dissolved into unbearable agony. Even the simple wish to shake off his wounds and get back up felt selfish, and he ground his teeth against the guilt.

"Haaaah."

He was still slumped against the steering wheel, breathing raggedly, when headlight beams flooded into the car.

HOOONK! A horn blared deafeningly.

He snapped his head up to find a vehicle bearing down on him with its high beams blazing, as if fully committed to a head-on collision.

"What—!"

He flung the door open and threw himself out.

CRUNCH! A sound like rolling thunder split the air.

Smoke was rising from the truck that had just rammed the car he'd been sitting in and ground to a halt.

What is wrong with these people?!

There had been two of them inside, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their eyes had been wrong. No black pupils — just blank white rolled back in their sockets.

Looking closer, it was a catering truck.

"Gyeongsoon's mom?"

Her cooking was famous for being delicious — he'd even reserved her food truck for this film shoot. But this was nothing like the woman he knew.

Seo Jinwoo staggered backward, spun on his heel, and bolted for his life.

He had no idea what was happening — figuring that out could wait.

Right now, running was the only way to stay alive.

"There it is — Ugok Tunnel."

I said it with both hands clamped tight around the wheel.

"Last time I went through that tunnel, I ended up wandering somewhere strange and nearly drove all the way to the submerged village."

No. 1 had been rudely awakened, scooped up, and bundled into the car while still half-asleep, so his mood was thoroughly soured. He stared straight ahead, thumping the seat with his tail as he grumbled.

"We took that tunnel when we went to the hospital last time too, y'know."

It was the tunnel you absolutely had to pass through to enter Ugok-ri. The only alternative was going by way of Pyeongcheong Grand Bridge, and that was a massive detour. Some days we crossed it a dozen times.

True. Nothing happened back then. But sometimes, strange things do happen in there.

If I hadn't experienced it myself, I never would have believed it.

Something in that tunnel lures people toward the submerged village.

"The submerged village?"

Yeah. That's probably exactly why Gyeongsoon's mom with the food truck and Seo Jinwoo went into that tunnel and dropped off the face of the earth.

I floored the accelerator, blasted through the tunnel, and turned toward the submerged village.

But even where the road dead-ended, there was no sign of Seo Jinwoo's car — not even a trace of the food truck.

My headlights caught a sign.

Beyond the sign, behind a chain-link fence, a black river slid past in the darkness.

This isn't it. It's completely different from where I went astray.

"Then try another road."

Turn right out of Ugok Tunnel and this was the only road there was — the route to the submerged village, which no one ever used.

As I swung the car around, I rifled through my memories of that day.

What was different back then, and just now?

The time I'd gone astray in the past — and the moment I'd spoken with Seo Jinwoo earlier. There was definitely something they had in common.

Pop music. I heard pop music.

Back then, too, I'd been listening to music on the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠radio.

I turned back into Ugok Tunnel and switched the radio on, tuning to a late-night FM station, then pressed the call button on my phone. On that day, I'd been on the phone searching for lodging. Seo Jinwoo had been on a call with me, and the food truck — I'd heard — had been on a call with the assistant director.

The most recent person I'd called was Director Jo Woochul.

"Ah, yes! Mr. Kim! Have you found Jin-woo? I keep calling him, but he still isn't picking up."

Beyond Jo Woochul's chattering voice, wind howled through the phone.

"Whoaaa. There's a barrier! It's opening! What kind of bastard built this thing?!"

Pop! I felt a vibration, like passing through an invisible, gossamer membrane.

Crackle! The call dropped.

And then —

The map changed!

A little while ago, my car had been heading out of Ugok-ri when it had veered toward the submerged area. I'd come back and entered the tunnel in the same direction again.

But now my car was driving the tunnel in the direction of entering Ugok-ri from the outside.

I hadn't even entered a destination, yet the guidance voice was flowing out of the speakers.

"I think we've come into that place I told you about."

"Looks like it. I'm sensing a massive amount of ghost energy in here. Whoa! This is gonna be delicious."

No. 1 loved swallowing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠puny little evil spirits whole — or tormenting them into submission and feasting on their agony.

He'd been pressed flat against the window, flicking his red tongue, when he suddenly jumped.

"There's a car over there! A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠truck!"

The truck sat stalled, straddling the center line after ramming a sedan head-on. Its entire windshield was shattered, and white steam curled up from the hood in thick billows.

Looking closer — the sedan was the foreign luxury car Seo Jinwoo always drove.

Screeech!

I rolled past the accident scene and braked to a stop.

Ugh.

"Master, those people!"

Tilting my head, I saw a man and a woman walking out of the brush.

Their rolled-back eyes suggested their minds were not entirely their own.

"They're not evil spirits... They're earthbound spirits."

So they are.

The same kind of earthbound spirits I'd seen when I went to the accident site to purge the parasitic spirit clinging to Bang Seongeun.

But why would earthbound spirits possess living people?

I clicked the door open and stepped out.

Behind me, light began to pour forth as the Underworld Gate cracked open. A damp, bone-deep chill swept past on a whistling wind.

The Gate is open.

I sprinted toward the shambling figures, struck each of them on the shoulder, and whirled them around behind my back.

Pop! Fwaaaash!

The earthbound spirits possessing the man and woman were yanked out like dust sucked into a vacuum, summoned into the Underworld Gate at my back.

The moment it happened, both of them crumpled to the ground.

"Are you awake? Hey — can you hear me? Are you all right?"

"Wh-where am I?"

"Honey, are you okay?"

The man and woman threw their arms around each other and wept.

From what I could piece together, they'd been heading to the film set when they took a wrong turn and kept circling the same mountain roads over and over. Eventually they'd wandered into a village — and everyone there had been off, somehow.

That was how the woman who introduced herself as Gyeongsoon's mom put it, sobbing all the while.

"They actually told you they were ghosts?"

"They didn't say the word 'ghost.' They said they could only leave if they dragged someone into the spot where they died — today, of all days."

When Gyeongsoon's mom finished, the man spoke up.

"Then something entered my body, and after that I don't remember a thing."

Roads where accidents happen again and again. Spots that claim crash after crash. The old saying surfaced in my mind — that ghosts were behind them all.

Railway accidents were no different. At level crossings where disaster had struck, car engines would suddenly die, people would stumble and fall, and the tragedy would repeat. The dead couldn't leave that spot until they dragged someone else into it — or so the stories went.

I always thought those were just old wives' tales. Turns out they're real?

What Gyeongsoon's mom had overheard: the ghosts kept insisting that today was the anniversary of their own deaths, and that they had to pull someone into that spot to be set free.

"By any chance — do you know where the owner of that car is? The actor Seo Jinwoo. Did you happen to see him?"

"No. We don't even know how our truck ended up like that."

I swept my gaze around the scene and asked her, "You said you were lost on those mountain roads for a long while. Did you perhaps make it as far as the Pyeongcheong Dam submerged area?"

"We never saw anything like a submerged area. There was a village."

"Which direction was that village?"

The man peered around this way and that, then pointed back the way the truck had come.

"That way — I think?"

"Get in my car, both of you. You'll be safest staying with me."

I loaded the couple into the car and set my phone's navigation running. Any destination would do — in this grotesque pocket of space, every route led to the same place anyway.

The winding mountain roads will spit us out at the submerged area.

The food truck couple had wandered those same roads before stumbling into that strange village.

Just as I expected — even with Seoul entered as the destination, the app guided me along a snaking route through the mountains.

After driving like that for some time —

"Master, look over there."

I turned my head where No. 1 was pointing with a front paw.

Where the submerged village should have appeared, lights were flickering.

"Oh! That's it — right there! That's where the strange people are!"

"Somewhere in there is where we'll find Seo Jinwoo," I said, my voice low.

The village was cobbled together from the kinds of humble shops you'd see along any country highway, plus a scattering of rural homes. A restaurant, a black goat health center, a gas station, a shoe store, a corner market.

A village that doesn't even exist on the map.

"A ghost town, huh. And there are a whole lot of something over there."

No. 1 rolled his yellow eyes in their sockets, gleaming.