Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Woman No One Can Remember the Face Of (1)
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Evening on Mount Jiri, as darkness began to fall.
Changmin was climbing up to the mountain lodge infamous as a haunted suicide spot.
“That’s it up ahead! The Suicide Lodge, where people come to kill themselves no matter how many warnings they get.”
Changmin, speaking to Kyung-ryeol’s camera, was a horror YouTuber.
“The road’s been closed off already, but I broke through for you viewers. Like, subscribe, pretty please! We’re live on Paprika and NewTube, so give us a shoutout. Alright, here we go! Let’s do this!”
The camera, which had been filming Changmin’s face, now panned to his back.
Under the bluish supermoon, a two-story wooden lodge came into view.
“Supermoon makes it super bright. No lights needed to see clearly. There’s something written on the door. Let me read it for you.”
The camera turned toward the lodge door.
[Don’t commit suicide!]
“Whoa! Short but punchy. Not exactly the kind of emotional plea that tugs at your heartstrings and makes you cling to life, but I like the directness. It’s like slapping a ‘Beware of Dog’ sign on the door.”
The camera swung back to Changmin.
“Doubt anyone who’s come all the way here to die is gonna read that warning and change their mind. Bureaucrats, am I right?”
A flood of chat messages poured in, echoing Changmin’s sarcasm.
“Alright, let’s open the door and head in. Oh, darn—it’s locked.”
A broken window was visible, but for dramatic effect, he stood in front of the closed door.
“Live viewer count’s over thirty thousand now. Thirty thousand! For you thirty thousand viewers, I’m gonna pry this door open with a crowbar. Hand it over!”
Changmin reached out to Kyung-ryeol, who was filming.
The camera shook as Kyung-ryeol pulled a crowbar from his backpack.
Even while grunting and prying at the door, Changmin didn’t stop talking.
“Finally, we’re in. They locked it up tight to keep suicidal folks out. Nothing beats a crowbar for breaking in, though.”
The hyped-up chat reactions only fueled his excitement.
“We’re inside at last. Kyung-ryeol! Over there—film those stairs!”
He guided Kyung-ryeol’s camera by shining a flashlight around.
The moment the camera caught the stairs...
Something was dangling from the stair railing, swaying gently.
“Holy crap!”
Kyung-ryeol muttered it without thinking, still filming.
The chat went silent for a moment.
Then it exploded: ‘Holy crap!’, ‘Jackpot!’, ‘Save her!’, ‘Hurry, rescue her!’
The thing swaying from the railing was a woman in a white dress with long straight hair.
Her neck was caught on the railing, and she was swinging back and forth like on a swing.
“N-No wind, but... she’s swaying! Look at that, folks! This is the infamous Suicide Lodge!”
Changmin bolted up the stairs to save the woman.
“She’s still moving, so she might be alive. No time to waste—we gotta cut the rope. Like, subscribe—please!”
Even as he grabbed the rope, Changmin kept rambling.
The woman’s gaping mouth began to reveal her tongue.
“She’s alive! Gotta be! Today, I’m saving a suicide here.”
One million subscribers—finally on track to be a dutiful NewTuber son.
‘Thank you, suicide lady!’
“This is real—call the cops and 119!”
Changmin’s face flushed with excitement as he struggled with the tightly knotted rope.
But Kyung-ryeol’s expression, behind the camera, grew darker by the second.
The screen shook, and the chat fell silent again.
“Kyung-ryeol! Stop shaking the camera—hold it steady!”
At Changmin’s shout, Kyung-ryeol stammered.
“B-B-Behind you.”
The chat erupted, echoing him.
“Ch-Changmin! Behind you! Run!”
At Kyung-ryeol’s sudden yell, Changmin slowly turned.
A woman with her long hair neatly pinned up stood right behind him.
She looked down at Changmin and spoke softly, word by deliberate word.
“Leave it. It’s mine.”
Her voice was clear but utterly devoid of strength.
Changmin found himself answering without thinking.
“Huh? B-But I have to save her.”
The corner of her eye drooped as she let out a faint chuckle.
“Then... wanna go with her?”
A chill from her words froze Changmin’s face.
“Aaaah!”
Changmin and Kyung-ryeol screamed in unison and fled the lodge.
They had to save their own skins first.
* * *
Jijang and Lucifer sat in a rundown green onion pancake joint in Jongno.
“Lucifer, I’m really loving these green onion pancakes. You like ’em too, right?”
Unlike the vegetarian Jijang, Lucifer looked thoroughly uncomfortable.
“Jijang, it’s been a whole month of these. You’re that damn Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, so no meat makes sense for you. But I’m different. Why’d they have to skip the squid?”
He held up a pancake with his chopsticks.
“I gotta get back to hell ASAP. Can’t live like this.”
As Lucifer vented, a guilty Jijang pointed at the menu.
“Want some kimchi pancakes?”
“Shut it.”
Lucifer’s roar left Jijang awkwardly shifting his gaze to the TV.
The news was on.
“Lucifer, how do we get to Jirisan?”
Jijang asked, eyes fixed on the screen.
Lucifer, picking out green onions, replied without looking up.
“Beats me. Ask the motel owner.”
“Lucifer, looks like there’s a gate back to hell there.”
Lucifer finally glanced at the TV.
The screen showed Changmin and Kyung-ryeol filming the woman hanging in the lodge.
It even caught the pinned-up woman looking down at the crouched Changmin.
Her face was distorted—just the face, like a glitch.
Not a mosaic.
“A won-gwi. Even I, who’s spent two thousand years in hell, can’t classify every stray ghost. But a gate back to hell?”
As Lucifer stared at the distorted-faced woman, Jijang pointed to the darkness behind her.
“I see a gwi-mun. Right there.”
* * *
“Team leader, you know the Suicide Lodge on Jirisan?”
Dong-jin asked the moment he spotted Byung-su arriving late.
“Yeah, big news back then. I covered it a few years ago... Why?”
“Got a tip!”
Na-rae jumped in.
“A tip? Still hungover. Ow, my head.”
Byung-su grumbled as he sat. Dong-jin handed him coffee.
“Coffee here. The tipster’s a buddy who was filming with him. Says Changmin’s gone missing.”
“Thanks for the coffee. Missing? It’s only been days since the stream—bit quick to panic, no?”
“Kinda, but this faceless woman showed up.”
“What? No face?”
“She has a face, but no one can remember it—like she’s faceless. Begged us to find her friend, figured you’d know about the lodge since you’ve been there.”
“I do. It’s dangerous.”
Byung-su, who rarely called anything dangerous, said it firmly.
Dong-jin and Na-rae exchanged glances and asked together.
“That dangerous?”
“Yeah, very. Gonna cover it?”
Na-rae replied boldly.
“We have to! Missing person.”
“Cops handle missings. We’re reporters. It’s dangerous.”
“That dangerous? For real?”
“Yeah, very. Dangerous means no story?”
Na-rae stood firm again.
“We have to! Missing person.”
“It’s really dangerous. Gotta brace yourselves.”
Seeing the two reporters’ serious faces, Byung-su scratched his head and muttered.
From Byung-su’s expression alone, Dong-jin sensed trouble and pressed.
“That dangerous? Something’s up, huh.”
“Yeah. There’s bears. Asiatic black bears! They released some nearby. Not just cute cuddly ones. They bite!”
At the unexpected answer, Dong-jin and Na-rae stared blankly. Byung-su grinned sheepishly.
“Let’s go! Know a guy at the national park office. I’ll call on the way. Let’s roll.”
* * *
In the car heading to Jirisan, Byung-su questioned Kyung-ryeol beside him.
“Occupation?”
“College student. Same school, same major as Changmin.”
“Right. You think your friend’s missing? Why? Filed with police?”
“Did, but they don’t believe me.”
“Why?”
“We went to the lodge Friday. I reported yesterday—they said wait.”
“Wait, huh... Young guys missing get treated as runaways. Any real reason you think he’s gone?”
“We hit a million subs in a day, thanks to the news playing our stream nonstop.”
“A million? Insane! Wow!”
Na-rae exclaimed.
“Yeah, huge. So Saturday, we shot a thank-you video. I handle editing and filming. Changmin shoots solo, emails it, I edit and send back, he uploads. But this time, his video was weird.”
“How weird?”
Byung-su asked sharply, like he had a hunch.
“Front part’s clearly him alone in his room thanking a million subs. Then static—cuts to lodge footage, those stairs?”
“Stairs?”
“Yeah, where the suicide was hanging from the railing.”
“Oh, those! Heard the woman died before rescue?”
“We ran out, then went back in right away to save her. Viewers already called cops. She was gone from the railing, so we cut the rope and got her out. Died before police and EMTs arrived.”
“Wasn’t on the news... Just slammed us immature college kids for unethical live-streaming next to a suicide. Reporters, huh... Anyway, good job. Didn’t save her, but going back was brave. Back to it.”
Kyung-ryeol brightened at the praise.
“Thought he added the stairs clip on purpose at first. But something was off.”
“What?”
“Changmin can’t edit. Looked closer—no, it wasn’t our Friday night stairs footage.”
“Wasn’t?”
“Ours had the hanging woman and Changmin. This one? Just the pinned-up woman. And she said something totally different from what she told us.”
“What’d she say?”
“...‘Let’s go together.’”
“Her face clear in the video? But distorted when you showed cops?”
“Yeah. Crystal clear... but ruined beyond recognition for police.”
“Got the video?”
“Yeah. Here.”
Kyung-ryeol pulled out his phone.
“Hold up! You said you got the suicide out?”
“Yes! We did.”
“Pinned-up woman didn’t come out then?”
“No. We stood guard with the crowbar, scared she’d follow. She didn’t. But...”
“But?”
“The suicide woman... left words before dying.”
“What?”
“Everyone dies.”
Byung-su’s face drained of color at those words.
“You watched the video, called Changmin? Before he vanished?”
“Yeah, how’d you know? Asked if he added the end on purpose.”
“What’d he say?”
“He thought it was weird too. No contact after that call—went to police.”
Byung-su pointed at Kyung-ryeol’s phone.
“Suicide Forest. Resentful spirit. You haven’t uploaded this anywhere but police, right?”
“No... Changmin vanished, no time.”
Byung-su sighed in relief.
“Good call. If it’s real, matches Suicide Forest—strong resentment curse. Could trigger mass suicides. Priority’s finding Changmin. We’ll watch on the way back.”