The Witness and the Red Clothes
[Are you listening?]
Static. The voice of Seo Jong-myeong crackled through the frequency.
“Don’t you worry about it.”
Lee Jun-ho hung up the radio. He picked up the receiver, watching the blood drip from his forearm.
“I did it, just like you said. I cut myself.”
—Whew. Thank goodness!
A long, diagonal gash, deep enough to expose the muscle.
It burned as if it had been scorched. It was a painfully sad sensation, but it didn’t feel bad.
Lee Jun-ho smiled.
“But you know, I’ve been thinking.”
Who is it… where is it….
“Why, of all things, was it only the kid’s corpse that was left behind? Everyone else went missing.”
Missing.
Not just Seo Jong-myeong, but every other clue pointed to disappearances, not murders. That was because there were no bodies.
And yet, Kim Soyeon had been found.
What about the countless other missing people?
Were they buried in a place no one could find, becoming people no one could ever reach?
Just like that?
—You were the ones who found her. That’s a relief.
“No. No matter how I think about it, it’s not that we found the kid’s body—it’s that you couldn’t use it.”
The child’s face had been almost entirely torn away.
‘Almost’.
One ear remained. As if the job hadn’t been finished.
“The culprit wore the teacher’s skin to kill Soyeon. And you must have intended to jump into her body. But.”
Splatter, splatter… Watching the blood pool on the landing with agonizing focus, Lee Jun-ho took off his clothes. His coat and shirt, all at once.
“That’s when the witness arrived. You arrived.”
—…Yes. That is correct.
The thing on the other end of the line replied.
—I witnessed it and barely managed to escape. I am trying to teach you that method right now.
“Right. You.”
Lee Jun-ho’s smile deepened. The corners of his mouth tore as wide as a ghost’s.
“Let me ask you something. How did you recognize us, and why did you call us ‘you people’ from the very beginning?”
What the witness said when he first picked up the phone.
‘Don’t tell me, you people, this number, is this Jeoldong Elementary School right now?’
‘Damn it. Once you’ve picked up this phone, you’re in the same position I was in back then.’
“I was the only one who picked it up. Not Seol Ha-woon, not Kang Hyun, not Kate. Just me.”
—…It was a guess. Who goes there alone?
“Just so you know, don’t hang up. I know the ‘3 minutes’ thing is just your bullshit.”
In this village, 3 minutes is at least 60 minutes.
—What… the public phone rang three times. That’s why this call connected. Did you even read the precautions—
“Listen here, you son of a b*tch.”
Lee Jun-ho floated his clothes in the pool of blood. The white fabric turned a deep, crimson red.
“Since when was this a public phone?”
[Jeoldong Elementary School Safety Phone!]
[Call your parents~]
[3 minutes free!]
“This red phone is a ‘Safety Phone’. The public phone is separate, on the first floor, you idiot.”
The conversation Seol Ha-woon and Seo Jong-myeong had when they first arrived.
‘By the way, where are the phones?’
‘There is one on the landing of each floor. There’s also a public phone on the first floor.’
Seo Jong-myeong had clearly distinguished between the landing phones and the public phone.
Spirits are honest. They’re honest enough to believe a truck is a police officer.
Therefore, this Safety Phone was definitely not a public phone.
“Where do you think you’re going with such a shallow trick?”
Kids… where are you….
“In my opinion, you didn’t escape. No, you weren’t allowed to. You killed the witness.”
Lee Jun-ho meticulously soaked the front and back of his clothes.
“It didn’t make sense from the start. Why would a guy like you leave a witness alone?”
There… who is it…!
He picked up the blood-dyed clothes and threw them down the stairs.
Flutter, flutter.
They fell slowly.
“You told me to suspect Seo Jong-myeong, but let’s think about it. The door closing.”
It’s you───!!!!!!!!!
“It was right after I received your call.”
The vengeful spirit came thumping down, brushed past Lee Jun-ho, and lunged toward the red clothes that had settled on the first floor.
“If I had to wear red clothes, that kid wouldn’t have died, right?”
The child had died while wearing red clothes.
“You wrote Rule #9, didn’t you? Do you have a color fetish?”
The red clothes were likely the thing’s ‘constraint’.
Talents do not manifest infinitely.
Especially for a talent as annoying and f*cking awful as this, the conditions and limitations were clear.
“Right after a murder, you have to cut the victim’s face and swallow the body using a method we don’t know yet. Within a few minutes, at the very least.”
That was likely the reason the bodies of the missing people were never found.
“And you have to be wearing red clothes while doing it.”
It was a strange constraint, but it was persuasive because the talent was closely tied to a human’s ‘outward appearance’.
“That’s why the vengeful spirits go berserk whenever they see red clothes. Because of you, who stole their bodies and polluted their souls.”
—…….
“I’ll tell you. You tried to swallow Soyeon, but you were caught by the witness, and you wasted time hunting down and killing that witness. That’s why you couldn’t properly dispose of the body.”
The witness remained silent for a long time.
“What do you think?”
Lee Jun-ho’s face bloomed into a wide, radiant smile.
“You’re going to get caught soon, aren’t you?”
—…Haha.
The person on the other side laughed as well.
“What are you laughing at, you f*cking son of a b*tch? I’m going to find you and tear you to pieces. A guy who touches kids doesn’t even deserve to live—”