Why Only to That Guy?
"Ah, fuck. Seriously. What the hell is wrong with these people? So what’s it gonna be this time?"
Just when he’d thought he might finally get a little rest, someone else had come barging in, and Byun Gil-seok was irritated all over again.
"I already told you, didn’t I? I’m not opening my mouth. From here on out, it’s my right to remain silent!"
He laced the words with every ounce of mockery he could muster, determined to needle the rookie-looking detective.
But the reaction was odd.
"That’s exactly what I was hoping for."
The young detective smiled brightly, as if he’d been waiting for this.
The response was not what Byun Gil-seok had expected, and for a moment he was caught off guard.
Of course, he didn’t show it.
Drraaak—
The young detective sat down across from him.
He had a sharp face, but not much presence to speak of.
Compared to that female cop from earlier, he was almost cute.
"Where did you hide Jang Min-ju’s body? Are you willing to talk?"
At the detective’s even question, Byun Gil-seok picked up a pen and wrote on the white sheet of paper.
Go fuck yourself.
Nodding, Song Tan opened the diary he’d set on the table.
"According to the investigation file, the arrest was pretty rough. You were running for your life, slammed your shoulder into a utility pole, then jumped down a stairwell and injured your ankle, too."
Snorting, Byun Gil-seok picked up the pen again.
And what the hell are you gonna do about it, you fucking bastard?
Song Tan continued as if it were nothing.
"It still isn’t fully healed, is it? It probably aches every night."
"What the hell are you talking abou—"
Byun Gil-seok couldn’t hold back anymore and started to speak, only to—
"!?"
He reflexively touched his own neck.
His eyes went wide with alarm.
Song Tan rose from his seat without a word and moved behind him.
Then he began massaging Byun Gil-seok’s shoulders and back with light, almost tender pressure.
In a voice so warm it didn’t match the situation at all, he said, "I believe in you, Byun Gil-seok. I believe you’re actually feeling tremendous guilt and deeply reflecting on your actions in your heart."
Byun Gil-seok merely blinked, saying nothing, moving nothing, while Song Tan kept one hand resting on his shoulder.
At a glance, it looked almost like a pastor laying hands in prayer.
Then Song Tan’s fingers casually brushed a spot on Byun Gil-seok’s back, somewhere just beside the spine.
Byun Gil-seok’s pupils dilated black and wide with terror.
At the same time, his body began to tremble faintly.
Something starting from his back was drilling its way up toward his shoulders.
It felt as though someone had grabbed his shoulder from the inside and was twisting it out of place.
With the sensation of every nerve being torn apart, he could hear phantom cracking sounds deep inside his body, as if something were snapping one piece at a time.
"................!!"
Byun Gil-seok wanted to scream until his throat tore open, but his tightly shut mouth showed no sign of budging, like a rusted door.
"Exercising your right to remain silent doesn’t automatically work in your favor, Byun Gil-seok. Are you still planning to keep your mouth shut?"
Song Tan asked, looking him straight in the eye.
Byun Gil-seok wanted to howl, to beg to be saved, to tell him it hurt so badly he felt like he was dying.
Song Tan lightly tapped his shoulder with one fingertip.
Then the pain that had been raging like lava vanished without a trace.
Byun Gil-seok felt relief—along with a bone-deep terror.
Because at that instant, he was certain the source of the pain had been the detective sitting right in front of him.
He had no idea what kind of trick had been used, or how.
"I’ll ask one more time. Where did you hide the body?"
You think I can talk if my damn mouth won’t open, you bastard!
Byun Gil-seok shouted with his eyes, but Song Tan only shook his head.
"Hmm. I suppose we’ll have to start from the beginning."
The pain started again without warning.
No, even the word pain wasn’t enough.
The points of agony began at his ankles and spread through his entire lower body.
It felt as though his legs were being fed through a grinder.
The horrific torment, as if every individual bone shard were being broken down, sent Byun Gil-seok’s mind drifting into darkness.
The thoughts hold out? and not guilty? had long since been blasted clean out of his head.
All that remained was a primal, desperate need to escape this pain.
Gazing intently into Byun Gil-seok’s blurred eyes, Song Tan nodded.
"At last, it seems you’re ready to talk."
As Song Tan released the pressure points he’d been pressing, Byun Gil-seok suddenly burst into tears.
"H-hhuuk... Hahh-heeek... Waaaaah...!!"
He began bawling his eyes out in floods.
The people watching from the observation room stared, jaws hanging open, completely stunned by the absurd scene.
At first, they’d all looked at Song Tan, who had been muttering to himself in front of a suspect who refused to speak, and shaken their heads.
He had looked like a rookie detective flailing desperately, trying anything he could think of.
They had even been debating whether they should go in and drag him out.
Then the suspect had suddenly grabbed Song Tan and started weeping like his heart was breaking.
The detectives exchanged looks, unable to make sense of the situation.
But not a single one of them had an answer.
Even Do Se-lin, the one who had brought Song Tan here, was no exception.
It’s the same as last time.
Do Se-lin knew it instinctively.
She knew something was about to happen.
Her trembling pupils fixed fiercely on the other side of the glass.
***
"H-hhuuuk, hhhk."
White tissues piled up in front of Byun Gil-seok like a little stone pagoda.
The relief of having crawled out of hell.
The fear that the pain might start again at any second.
Together, they shattered his mind to pieces.
Then, in the ears of the man who had gone completely slack, came the voice of a grim reaper.
"F-fin...ally, I’m going to ask you one last time. Where did you bury Jang Min-ju?"
Byun Gil-seok jerked as if struck by lightning and snapped his head up.
"I-I didn’t bury her! I just threw her in!"
"So our Byun Gil-seok has finally come to his senses. Good. Start from the beginning and keep it short—just the essentials. From the murder to how you disposed of the body."
"I-I... I was trying to make it work somehow, but... it looked like things could never be repaired between us, so... I got her into the car and strangled her. T-this mark is from then."
Byun Gil-seok pointed to a thin scratch on his own neck.
"And then?"
"I put the body in a bag... and drove to a place I’d picked out near Dopyeong Mountain. But, fuck... s-sorry. I wasn’t cursing at you, Detective."
"It’s fine. Go on."
"There were too many rocks, so I couldn’t dig the ground at all. I was sweating like crazy and already exhausted, so I was thinking of just dumping her somewhere... and then I saw a pit right in front of me."
"A pit?"
"It looked like a well... honestly, I’m not sure what it was, but I figured it was perfect, so I just threw her in there... and covered it over with leaves the best I could. That’s it. Really."
Byun Gil-seok looked at them pleadingly, as though begging to be believed.
It wasn’t entirely nonsense.
In the mountains, abandoned wells once used by farms were occasionally found.
If it had been a well, it would have been at least five meters deep, making it difficult for the smell of decomposition to reach the surface.
And because the space was so narrow, air circulation itself would have been poor.
"Where is it? What’s the location?"
"I-I don’t know."
"......"
Song Tan looked at him expressionlessly, and Byun Gil-seok flinched and hurried on.
"I mean I can’t explain it in words! You have to see it yourself to understand! I’m serious! I’m not lying!"
"So you can find it once you’re there?"
"Probably... no! I’ll find it, absolutely."
Byun Gil-seok didn’t even know what he was saying anymore.
He only knew one thing: he had to stay out of the gaze of this detective he had no doubt was the Devil made flesh.
"Good. Then let’s go."
"N-now?"
"Do you want to stay here longer? With me?"
Huh!? No, no! I’m coming! We’ll leave right now!
Byun Gil-seok sprang to his feet and stamped his feet anxiously.
He looked ready to run if he had to.
Clack—
With that, Song Tan finished the twenty-something-minute interview and stepped out of the interrogation room.
"............."
In the observation room, everyone stared at him with their mouths hanging open.
They didn’t even move, like mannequins.
"The suspect has confessed to all charges. If we take him to Dopyeong Mountain, he’ll show us where the body was disposed of."
He made it sound less like an interrogation and more like hiring a tour guide.
Do Se-lin finally gathered herself and walked slowly toward Song Tan.
Her face was still filled with shock.
"What on earth... did you do?"
"I interviewed the suspect."
"No, I know that, but..."
Do Se-lin felt as if her head might split from the confusion.
It was as though everything she had learned until now had become a smear of useless scribbles thrown in the trash.
She had watched with her own eyes.
Song Tan had thrown meaningless questions into empty air, and the suspect had mocked him with silence.
That much had been exactly as expected.
He was a vicious man who had even toyed with her, a profiler.
And then, out of nowhere, the suspect had burst into tears and started confessing as though possessed.
It’s exactly like Kim Choon-gon...
Hadn’t Kim Choon-gon, who had refused food and sleep, been especially obedient only in front of that young detective?
And hadn’t he confessed to everything right there, too?
Why? Why only in front of him...?
It was the second time she’d seen it, and she still had no answer.
The fact was driving Do Se-lin nearly insane.
"Um... aren’t we going to go find the body? It’ll be daylight soon."
At Song Tan’s quiet words—
"Ah!? Y-yes, of course! We’re going now! Hey! Get the cars ready, fast!"
"Yes, team leader!"
The detectives, snapping out of it at last, scattered in a hurry.
Right now, the only thing that mattered was finding the body and proving Byun Gil-seok’s murder.
"Detective Song?"
The strong-crime team leader from Seochoseo spoke to him respectfully.
"If it isn’t too much trouble, would you mind coming with us? I’m worried Byun Gil-seok might try something again..."
Sharp-eyed, he could tell.
He didn’t know why, but Byun Gil-seok was clearly terrified of the young detective standing in front of him.
"Ah, and of course, I’ll make sure your help in opening his mouth is fully reflected in the official report. We owe you a huge debt."
Song Tan looked at Do Se-lin instead of answering.
"What should I do?"
At the question, her blurred gaze finally sharpened again.
"We’re going."
Do Se-lin hurriedly gathered her things.
She was flustered, unlike her usual cold, composed self.
***
Halfway up Dopyeong Mountain.
After climbing the heavily overgrown ridgeline for a long time, Byun Gil-seok pointed to one spot.
"There... there it is..."
The detectives narrowed their eyes.
At a glance, there was nothing to see.
Then, between the fallen leaves and weeds, something like a chunk of concrete caught the light.
When they moved closer and brushed the leaves aside, they found what was indeed a collapsed old well.
Most of the walls had caved in, making it look less like a well and more like a vertical pit.
The detectives clicked their tongues.
"Damn... no way we’d have found this on our own."
One of them shone a flashlight inside.
Then, with a heavy expression, he shouted down, "Found it!"
The smell of decomposition rose from below, mixed with leaves and dirt.
The site was immediately sealed off, and before long, the forensic team arrived.
Clad in white protective suits, the investigators carefully lifted the body out.
"Well, damn."
The decomposition had progressed significantly.
Evidence collection began on the spot.
One of the forensic investigators, scraping beneath the fingernails, squinted.
"This looks like skin tissue."
"He said he scratched the victim’s neck during the struggle, so that’s probably it."
"A DNA comparison should finish it."
After collecting the evidence, the investigator looked at the detectives and said, "If it had gone just a few more days, the body would’ve started turning skeletal. Finding it now was a miracle."
"Is that so...?"
At that moment, the detectives all thought the same thing.
What if we hadn’t gotten Byun Gil-seok to talk?
As much as they hated to admit it, there was a good chance they would never have found the body.
It had been that hard to discover.
If things had gone differently, Byun Gil-seok would likely have been acquitted of murder, and the one piece of evidence—the body—would have become part of nature, turning the whole thing into the perfect crime.
Imagining the victim’s family weeping while Byun Gil-seok strutted around the streets with his head held high made the detectives frown without realizing it.
One detective looked at the team leader and asked carefully, "Team leader, that guy... Song Tan, was it? Can’t we pull him into our team?"
"Hmm... do you think Annam Seobu would send him over? An ace like that?"
"Right... yeah, I guess not."
Even if it had been him, he never would’ve let him go, so the detective had no choice but to nod.
***
A red Porsche rolled smoothly out of the Seochoseo parking lot and merged onto the road.
Inside the car, there was only the low hum of the engine, no conversation.
Whenever the streetlights swept across the windshield, her face flickered into view and then vanished again.
She kept chewing at her lip, frowning in irritation.
No matter how she thought about it, the scenes replaying in her mind refused to make sense.
Up until now, she had believed profiling was ultimately a matter of probability and patterns.
Estimating a criminal’s behavior based on thousands of cases.
But because of the detective sitting beside her, she had reached the point where she seriously doubted whether everything she had learned had any real practical value at all.
Song Tan, seated next to her, had said nothing, simply staring out the window.
The car slowed to a gentle stop at a red light.
Do Se-lin stared at the signal for a moment, then bit her lip hard as if she’d finally made up her mind.
Turning her head, she blurted out, "Want to go get a drink?"
Resolve sharpened in Do Se-lin’s eyes.
She was determined to bring this detective with her, even if she had to dangle a golden carrot that no police officer could possibly refuse.