Anxious feeling
There was no body. When Jae-hyuk reached the convenience store, he changed into his work clothes and took over at the counter from the previous shift's part-timer. After the handover was done and he was finally alone, he let out a massive yawn, sat there in a daze, and stared at his phone. The internet was already buzzing with talk of what had happened last night. The fact that the incident had taken place right in this neighborhood left Jae-hyuk feeling strangely unsettled.
"Ah, fuck... of all the places it could have been..."
While scanning the news section of the site, Jae-hyuk muttered irritably, then flipped the screen over to the YouTube app he always used. As usual, he started a video from one of his favorite streamers and settled in to kill the empty hours.
But he had no idea. The person he thought had gone home—Young-hoon—had somehow come back and was now watching him through the window.
The empty time refused to pass. Whenever he played games or did anything else, the hours always seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye. Yet for some reason, only during his part-time shifts did time crawl like this. He kept yawning again and again.
It was still only ten in the morning. His shift ended at two. The realization that four full hours remained felt like it might drive him insane. Jae-hyuk rummaged through his pocket, pulled out a jelly, popped it into his mouth, and stared blankly at his phone again.
Three straight hours of videos had killed even that interest. In the end, he closed the app and let his gaze drift across the interior of the store, where music drifted from the speakers.
There were unusually few customers today. Fewer people meant his body could relax, but the time dragged even worse. Of course, it was still better than being rushed off his feet. He let out a heavy sigh, then picked up his phone once more.
As always, he opened Instagram to see what his friends were doing. When that lost its appeal, he scrolled through a few Reels. But even those eventually bored him.
"Ugh... this is so fucking dull..."
He considered playing a mobile game, but quickly pushed the thought away. He used to play them all the time, but the in-app purchases had forced him to quit. Once he started spending, he couldn't stop. It was like a hole in a jar—every won he earned poured straight into the game. He had even skipped meals and run out of money to hang out with friends. He had gone so far as to spend the tuition savings he'd set aside for university, eventually having to beg his family for school fees. After that, he had mostly given up on mobile games.
Still, when boredom hit this hard, the craving always came rushing back. At least games made the time fly.
He had been staring vacantly at his phone screen for a long while when the door chime rang.
The people who stepped inside looked rough. They were all solidly built with buzz cuts, exactly like the criminals you saw in gangster movies. Jae-hyuk's face tightened with unease as he forced out a greeting. "Welcome."
One of them approached and ordered a pack of cigarettes. As Jae-hyuk was handing them over, the man suddenly held up his phone screen.
"Have you seen anyone who looks like this?"
"Huh?"
The abrupt question caught Jae-hyuk off guard. His eyes widened. The man let out a small "Ah!" and introduced himself.
"I'm Oh Su-hyeok, a detective with Investigation Team 1. You may have heard about it. There was an incident nearby, right?"
Jae-hyuk exclaimed in recognition and said yes, he knew about it. Detective Oh Su-hyeok nodded and pressed on.
"The scene was right next door. I was wondering if you'd seen anyone matching this description. Take a look—recognize him?"
The image on the phone appeared to be a screenshot from a video. The quality was predictably terrible. Jae-hyuk studied it carefully. Something about the person in the grainy photo felt familiar.
He tilted his head, examining it more closely. Detective Oh Su-hyeok's eyes sharpened at his reaction. After all, their door-to-door inquiries had turned up nothing useful so far.
"Do you know him?"
"Well... the quality's bad, but... I think it's my friend?"
At the word friend, Su-hyeok's expression flickered with surprise. He glanced at his colleagues, who moved closer with heavy, intimidating presence. Jae-hyuk flinched, shrinking back. Su-hyeok continued.
"Your friend? Then you know his name. Do you also know where he lives?"
"Yes, of course. Looking at it, I'm pretty sure it's Young-hoon and Hee-seon. Actually, Young-hoon was at the park near here this morning. We even talked."
"This man here—is he the one you mean by Young-hoon?"
"Yes, exactly. Ji Young-hoon, my friend. The woman beside him is his girlfriend, Hee-seon. Lee Hee-seon."
The detectives' expressions grew strangely twisted.
"You're certain this is Young-hoon? And you spoke with him this morning?"
"That's what I've been saying. There's a park right out front, yeah? He was sitting on one of the benches. Honestly, he often sits there when he's drunk before heading home, so I figured he must have had quite a bit last night. He even told me himself that he'd been drinking."
"You're positive it's Ji Young-hoon?"
"Come on! Of course I am! We've been friends since we were kids. There's no way I wouldn't recognize his face. I'm close with Hee-seon too, and those two have been dating forever, so I'd never mix them up. But why are you asking about them?"
The detectives' faces clouded with confusion, as if something simply refused to add up. Seeing their reaction, Jae-hyuk stared back at them with the same bewilderment.
"What the hell is this? He was just sitting there like it was nothing... after losing that much blood?"
One of the detectives muttered in disbelief, sucking hard on his cigarette. The others wore equally puzzled expressions. It felt like they had all been haunted by a ghost. If the part-timer's story was true, it meant Young-hoon—who had bled enough to die—had been walking around completely fine.
"Can a person even survive after bleeding that much?"
The youngest detective, newly assigned to Investigation Team 1, asked the question. The others frowned in unison before answering bluntly.
"Want to find out? Should I bleed you a little?"
"N-no, sorry... It just doesn't make sense. The bed was completely soaked through. There's no way he could still be alive. Maybe someone... you know, a killer wearing Young-hoon's face or something?"
"You idiot. What is this, a spy thriller? You really think someone could disguise themselves well enough that his own friend wouldn't notice?"
The rookie smiled awkwardly and scratched his cheek at the sharp rebuke.
"And why would anyone go to the trouble of preparing a full disguise just to kill an ordinary college kid?"
"Yeah... you're right."
"Stop talking. People are walking by."
Detective Oh Su-hyeok exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.
"We've confirmed the identity. Let's go find him ourselves. We'll get clearer answers then."
He ground the rest of his cigarette into the ashtray. The other detectives tossed their butts into the convenience store trash bin and headed off toward the residence of the presumed victim, Ji Young-hoon. Their faces remained heavy with unanswered questions.
After the detectives left, Jae-hyuk found himself increasingly disturbed by the strange situation. He couldn't understand why they were searching for his friends, or why they had looked so shocked and flustered when he mentioned meeting Young-hoon that morning.
He had given them both Young-hoon and Hee-seon's phone numbers and told them where they lived, but the uneasy feeling refused to leave him. The Young-hoon he had spoken with earlier had seemed perfectly normal.
He thought back carefully. Had there been anything strange about him, like the detectives suggested? Nothing specific came to mind. If he had to point to one thing, maybe Young-hoon had seemed more out of it than usual. At the time, Jae-hyuk had assumed it was a hangover, but now that he reconsidered, he didn't remember smelling any alcohol on him.
"But... is that really weird?"
Jae-hyuk tilted his head again. Just to be sure, he picked up his phone and dialed Young-hoon. Maybe he had gone back to his room and fallen asleep. The call rang for a long time before the mechanical voice announced that the other party was not answering.
He tried Hee-seon as well. Same result. Only the cold automated message greeted him.