Blood on the Floor
There was no body.
"The room was paid for with the woman's credit card. Under the name Lee Hee-seon..."
"That's right. The footage shows two people, and it was charged to the woman's card."
"She was with a man, then."
Well... it was a motel. Was that really so surprising? Not many people would come to a place like this just to rest alone. Besides, this was a lively district packed with university students, and it was Friday night. Plenty of women were bound to have a few drinks and end up at a motel with a man. The owner had said the rooms were completely full at the time.
"So whose blood is it?"
When one of the detectives asked, everyone simply shrugged. They still couldn't be certain.
Meanwhile, the CCTV footage sped forward. The only person who returned to the room was the motel owner. The couple who had entered never came back out through the door.
The owner explained that when the rental time passed with no contact, he had gone up himself to check. The screen captured him unlocking the door with the spare key and stepping inside. Then came the scream, and the image of him collapsing to the floor. The footage ended there.
"Someone went in, but no one came out... The room was drenched in blood... yet there's no body. What the hell is this?"
One detective grumbled, his face twisted in confusion. Team Leader Kim Hyeong-taek barked orders at the others.
"First, find out whose blood it is. And put out a search for those two who went in."
"Yes, sir."
The detectives nodded and quickly dispersed to their tasks.
Meanwhile, Detective Oh Su-hyeok had returned to the blood-soaked room on the second floor. If someone had lost this much blood, the victim couldn't possibly be intact. They had to be dead. Yet the traces remained—why was the body missing?
What if the perpetrator had tried to hide it? Then why hadn't they attempted to wipe away this flood of blood? It wouldn't have been easy, of course, but the intent to conceal the corpse might also mean the intent to hide the fact that a murder had been committed.
But there were no such signs. No evidence of any effort to erase the traces of the killing.
Oh Su-hyeok's gaze drifted to the window. He walked over and threw it open. A rush of cold wind slammed into him. Below, the street was as noisy as ever, crowded with curious onlookers. Loud music blared from somewhere nearby. This was the heart of a bustling district, after all. Even in the late hours, the streets around the university were alive with people.
If someone had climbed out the window—carrying a body, no less—it made no sense. There should have been witnesses. It would have drawn every eye in the area.
And before that, how could anyone have moved a body after it had bled out like this?
Oh Su-hyeok's face remained clouded with questions. A powerful craving for a cigarette hit him. He reached into the inner pocket of his jacket. The pack was there. He pulled it out, closed the window again, and stared once more at the blood-drenched bed. His face tightened into a frown.
It was strange. An utterly strange feeling. Maybe he was simply more sensitive than usual after the recent cases. Between that strangeness, something ominous kept peeking through. As if this incident, too, might involve something that science could not explain.
The thought came unbidden. Ghosts... or monsters... or... demons...
He smiled bitterly and shook his head. He really must be losing his mind. Ghosts? Monsters? Beings from the other side? He didn't know. Until he saw them with his own eyes, he could not believe in any of it. And wasn't he a detective? That alone made it even harder to accept.
"Hey! Su-hyeok! What are you doing?"
A colleague's voice called out to him.
Some fresh air might clear his head. Breathing nothing but the metallic stench of blood in here seemed to have turned his brain to mush. He stuck the cigarette between his lips and answered.
"It's nothing. I'm coming..."
Young-hoon sat in a daze, staring at the people passing through the quiet park. His vacant eyes followed the early-morning crowd as they hurried about their lives. Yet those eyes held no emotion whatsoever. He looked like a man who had lost his soul.
He had been watching the early risers with no particular purpose when a familiar voice reached him.
"What the—Young-hoon? Hey! What are you doing here?"
Young-hoon turned toward the sound. A man around his age stood there, face bright with recognition.
"What's with you? Why do you look so out of it? Did you go drinking with Hee-seon last night? You crazy bastard, you've completely checked out."
The man laughed playfully. Only then did Young-hoon seem to snap back to himself. He gave a faint chuckle and replied in a low voice.
"Ah... yeah... I think I drank too much yesterday. When I came to, I was here."
"What? You crazy fucker! How much do you have to drink to pass out on a park bench? You maniac! Anyway, where's Hee-seon? Weren't you meeting her yesterday? You must've been together, right?"
"Ah... yeah... but Hee-seon... I don't really know."
"You're talking complete nonsense. Wait—don't tell me you actually broke up with her? For real?"
Young-hoon paused, then slowly shook his head.
"No. We didn't break up."
"What? The day before yesterday you were going on about whether to end it or not, and now things are suddenly fine again?"
"Were we not getting along?"
Young-hoon smiled awkwardly, as though he genuinely couldn't remember what had happened just days ago. His friend Jae-hyuk clicked his tongue in disbelief, then playfully called him a crazy bastard like always.
"Seriously, how much did you drink to wake up here? Where the hell is Hee-seon? Did she head home first?"
"Maybe..."
"Maybe? If you don't know, who does? Forget it. So, you free today? You're working part-time too, aren't you?"
"Yeah... I should get going..."
The response was strangely flat. Jae-hyuk suddenly felt that Young-hoon's entire demeanor was off. He wondered if something had happened between him and Hee-seon, but quickly shrugged it away. Even if they were friends, he had no desire to meddle in someone else's relationship.
The only complication was that Jae-hyuk was also fairly close to Hee-seon himself.
"When do you finish? Want to hit the PC bang afterward? Or grab a drink? My afternoon shift is probably canceled for a while anyway."
"Why?"
"No idea! Fuck... they're doing expansion work or something. The place is closing temporarily, so my hours got cut. Let's drink for the first time in a while!"
Young-hoon seemed to consider it for a moment, then smiled and nodded.
"Sure. Let's do that."
Jae-hyuk grinned, satisfied. He clapped Young-hoon on the shoulder a couple of times, said they'd meet later, and left. Soon Young-hoon rose from the bench. His movements were slow, almost sluggish. He trudged away with unsteady steps.
Jae-hyuk let out a hollow laugh. How drunk must he have been to pass out on a bench instead of going home? It wasn't the first time, and Jae-hyuk had done the same himself more than once—even though his own place was right nearby. Still, it bothered him that Hee-seon had left Young-hoon in that state and gone off alone.
"Maybe their relationship hasn't gotten any better?"
He remembered how the two of them had seemed stuck in a rut lately, nowhere near as affectionate as before. There had been a time when their constant lovey-dovey behavior made his eyes ache from how sickeningly sweet it was. Looking back now, those days had been better. Their drama had even started making his own relationships feel awkward.
Jae-hyuk shrugged. He could hear the rest of the story later. With that thought, he cut across the park toward the busy streets and the convenience store where he worked the morning shift. It sat right at the edge of the park where Young-hoon had been sitting. During the day it saw plenty of hungover customers, and sometimes even drunk patrons who hadn't sobered up since the night before would cause trouble.
Just thinking about dealing with them made his head throb. But what worried him more was the canceled afternoon shift. The free time was nice, yet it also meant less money. University tuition didn't pay itself, and one part-time job was never enough. If only he'd studied harder and earned a scholarship... The thought crossed his mind. Well, that was never going to be easy.