No Body Left Behind
The body was gone.
"No! How can you understand? Even though we were divorced, she was still my precious wife. I nearly lost my daughter too... Why on earth... why did something like this have to happen to us? What did we ever do so wrong... No one... no one will ever be able to understand. No one..."
"I understand you completely."
Jun-hee turned to face Hwan, flustered. For a moment, he saw that Hwan's eyes had clouded over with an indescribable loneliness.
"What do you..."
"I lost my family too, just like you. A reason? There is no reason. It happened simply because, on that day, in that place, my family was there. And now I'm hunting the gwoeyi that destroyed us. Unfortunately, I still don't even know its true identity. But somehow... no matter what it takes, I want to find that thing and take revenge for my family."
"You... you went through the same thing?"
"That's right."
Hwan's gaze drifted past Jun-hee again, toward some distant place. "Why did it have to be us... Why did our families have to suffer something like that, and why was I the only one who survived... Why did it have to happen to me, of all people... I still don't know."
Hwan's voice trembled quietly. Beneath that tremor, rage churned like dark water. Jun-hee flinched at the sight of it and unconsciously took a step back. But Hwan soon forced a pained smile and barely managed to swallow the fury threatening to spill over. A heavy sigh escaped him.
"I might end up asking the same questions you did. If I ever, ever come face to face with the thing that killed my father and kidnapped my mother, I'll ask it the same things. Why us? Why me? But... I have a feeling the answer won't be much different from what we already know."
"That we were just... unlucky?"
"Heh. Yes. That's it. We were simply unlucky. That's all. It's like fishing. A fish that knows nothing bites the bait that's been cast out..."
"That's..."
"It's infuriating. It's unfair. But we can't just sit here wallowing in resentment forever. That's why we're living the way we are now."
"So you're helping others while searching for its trail?"
"Who knows. Even helping others... might just be an empty facade. I'm still incredibly disappointed. Honestly, it makes me furious. What I want, now and always, is to find the gwoeyi that ruined us and kill it. If I could do that, I'd sell my soul to the devil without hesitation..."
Jun-hee shuddered again. He could tell these weren't empty words. The tone suggested that if it were truly possible, if he could achieve revenge that way, he was ready to hand his soul over to a demon. Or perhaps... he already had.
Jun-hee's eyes flicked toward the woman who looked like a model. She was fiddling with her phone with an utterly carefree expression. After watching her for a moment, he turned back to Hwan. He hesitated, then spoke.
"I don't know what I should say... The only thing I can tell you is... thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to save So-hee. And... I hope you achieve what you're looking for."
"I will. I'll be going now."
Hwan gave a bitter smile and nodded. Then, without another word, he and the woman left.
Watching them walk away, Jun-hee let out a heavy sigh. He glanced at the half-collapsed warehouse, then pulled out his phone. After hesitating for a long time, he decided the only thing he could do was call the police. Of course, he had no idea how to explain any of this. Would they even believe him? It didn't matter if they didn't. What else could he do? He couldn't just let this slide in silence. Especially not with So-yeon still inside.
Jun-hee had finally come to believe that there were things in this world that existed in the shadows, things beyond human understanding. Things that could only be described as gwoeyi.
"Hello... I'd like to report something. First, the location is... Ah, yes... It's... a murder case, I suppose... I'm sorry, I don't know how to explain this properly. Could you please send someone here? I'll explain everything when you arrive. Please hurry."
CASE NO:UNKNOWN-24-0719
REPORTING WITNESS:KANG JUN-HEE
LOCATION:ABANDONED WAREHOUSE, OUTSKIRTS OF SEOUL
TIME OF REPORT:23:47
Multiple fatalities. Victims allegedly attacked and partially consumed by an entity known as "Jangsanbeom." Entity reportedly mimics human voices and appearances. No bodies recovered at scene. Witness claims supernatural involvement. Physical evidence shows large claw marks inconsistent with known urban wildlife.
The detective wore an extremely troubled expression.
How were they supposed to believe this absurd story? Overwhelmed by exhaustion, the officers rubbed their faces and looked at the man sitting before them with his head hung low—Kang Jun-hee, the one who had filed the report. Or rather, they weren't even sure if he should be called the reporter.
The biggest source of confusion in this case was that while there were clearly victims, there was no way to identify a perpetrator. And they couldn't decide whether the man sitting in front of them—the one who had called it in—should be treated as a victim or a suspect. The situation was incredibly chaotic.
Moreover, his statement was bizarre beyond belief. The detective glanced at the printed documents on the desk. These were the results of questioning Kang Jun-hee. There was nothing useful at all.
"So... this thing called a Jangsanbeom appeared and killed people? And it even mimicked the ones it ate?"
Even as he said it himself, a hollow laugh escaped him. But while his mouth laughed, his eyes did not. The detective glared at Jun-hee with a grim expression.
Jun-hee said nothing. What was worse, he seemed completely sincere. He didn't look like he was lying at all, which only made the detective more uncomfortable. For a moment, he even wondered if the man had some kind of mental illness.
A sigh slipped out involuntarily.
"Let's call it a day for now," the detective said, then left the interrogation room.
When he shook his head at the colleagues watching from outside, they all wore expressions of utter disbelief. But there was a reason they couldn't simply dismiss Jun-hee as delusional.
The forensic analysis already sent to the National Forensic Service had revealed that most of the bodies recovered from the scene showed bite and claw marks consistent with a large animal. Something the size of a bear or a tiger, they had suggested.
Ridiculous. A bear or tiger in the middle of Seoul? Sure, there had been bear attacks causing trouble in Japan lately, but that was Japan. There was no way something like that could happen in the heart of Seoul, South Korea.
One of the detectives asked, "Could it have been feral dogs?"
Another agreed that it made more sense than anything else. There had been a rise in feral dog incidents both in rural areas and near Seoul, after all. A particularly large stray dog might explain it. That wouldn't be too strange... Or would it? Honestly, it still sounded off.
Several bodies had been found. Could they really all have been killed by wild dogs? They couldn't simply close the case as a feral dog attack because of the photos taken at the scene.
While people had died from dog attacks before, the detectives all stared at the same photograph. There were long claw marks gouged into a steel door—rusty, but still solid metal. Could a feral dog really leave marks like that? It made no sense.
Faced with this baffling mystery, the detectives felt their heads begin to throb. They were pressing their temples, wondering what the hell they were supposed to do, when the leader of the Violent Crimes Unit 1 returned. He had stepped out briefly to take a call from higher-ups.
The detectives looked at him hopefully, wondering if he had brought some kind of breakthrough. But the captain, a man in his late forties, wore an unusually grave expression. Without a word, he returned to his seat, dropped heavily into his chair, and began rubbing his wrinkled forehead with a tired look. It was the gesture he always made when things weren't going well.
The detectives clicked their tongues quietly, reading the room. They knew without being told that something had gone wrong upstairs.
At that moment, the detective who had been questioning Jun-hee brought over the report and asked cautiously, "Captain... what should we do about this case?"
"What?"
"I mean... how are we supposed to write the report? Should we really put down exactly what the victim said? It feels like we'll be the ones who end up getting chewed out."
"Fuck... We don't even need a proper report. Just... sweep it under the rug. Call it feral dogs or bears, I don't care."
"Excuse me? What do you mean?"
The detective looked stunned. Sweep it under the rug? The whole thing was full of things that made no sense. How could they just bury it? He asked again, wondering if he'd misheard, but the captain's serious expression didn't change. It seemed he'd heard something from above, and he clearly didn't like it.
The detective licked his lips out of habit and asked again. "This is full of things that don't make any sense. How are we supposed to just sweep it under the rug?"
"I don't fucking know either! The higher-ups are the ones saying to bury it! They said if we write a half-assed report and send it up, they'll handle the rest. What the hell do you want me to do about it?!"
"The higher-ups said that?"
"Of course it was the higher-ups! You think I'd come up with this shit myself? Anyway! Just wrap it up and move on!"
"But... how are we supposed to..."