Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: The Woman No One Can Remember the Face Of (3)
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Byung-su and Sergeant Choi climbed the mountain path side by side, shoulders level.
"Her face doesn't stick in your memory?"
Byung-su asked Sergeant Choi, who had drawn close beside him. Sergeant Choi nodded in reply.
"Even though I saw her right in front of my face, her face didn't stay in my memory at all. I might not even recognize her if I saw her again..."
Byung-su glanced at Sergeant Choi, whose words trailed off, then shone his flashlight into the dark mountain path ahead and said,
"I get it. I wouldn't recognize her either if I saw her again."
"You saw her?"
"A few years ago, while out on assignment, I filmed her. I never released the footage, but I still have it."
"Why didn't you release it?"
"There was a curse attached to the video."
"A curse?"
"It's a telekinetic ability to attach curses or suggestions to photos or videos. The footage I shot had a very powerful curse on it."
"I see..."
"It was almost like she deliberately gave me the chance to film her just to place the curse... By the way, how's your wrist?"
"It hurts. Feels like it might be broken. That woman is no ordinary person."
Sergeant Choi's expression was calm, but his voice was trembling.
It seemed the fear of the woman still lingered.
'He must be pretty shaken and scared. But he still followed me up here. Cops are cops, alright.'
Byung-su inwardly praised Sergeant Choi as he squeezed his body through a gap in the barbed wire fence blocking the path ahead.
Sergeant Choi followed, muttering,
"I sealed this up just yesterday, and someone's already broken through again. Could it be those two foreigners who came to the station?"
Looking up at the mountain lodge glowing bluish under the moonlight, Byung-su answered Sergeant Choi's question.
"Maybe. But there's no light coming from inside the lodge. What kind of people did you say they were?"
As Byung-su said, no light shone from any of the lodge's windows.
"One's a Buddha, the other a fallen angel, apparently..."
"What? A Buddha and a fallen angel?"
"Yeah, probably some crazy guy or bold foreigners here for a horror experience. Since it was on the news, I'm worried more people will come looking."
Sergeant Choi gripped his pistol in his still-good left hand and quietly opened the lodge door.
The entryway sensor lights blazed on.
With the light, the outline of the wide living room came into view.
The infamous second-floor railing was visible too.
"The lights still come on. Luckily, we haven't run into any suicidal types hanging from the second-floor railing today."
Byung-su stepped past Sergeant Choi and into the lodge.
"Uh, Reporter..."
"Yes?"
Byung-su turned at the hesitant call from Sergeant Choi, who was reluctantly stepping inside.
Sergeant Choi's legs were visibly shaking.
"The power's been cut here. Ten years ago..."
"Ah!"
Only then did Byung-su recall that the lodge's electricity had been disconnected, and a chill crawled up his neck, making the back of his head tingle.
The door behind them slammed shut with a bang, and the entryway sensor lights snapped off.
"Argh!"
Sergeant Choi let out an involuntary scream.
"Damn it!"
Byung-su hurriedly swept his flashlight around, scanning the area quickly.
Sergeant Choi tried to open the closed door, but it wouldn't budge, as if someone had locked it from outside.
"L-Let's go in. We can break a window to get out later."
Sergeant Choi pointed his gun at a window and said.
Through the window, a bright moon floated in the sky, one corner seemingly bitten off.
Ring, ring.
At that moment, the shrill bell of an old rotary phone echoed through the lodge.
Sergeant Choi stared at Byung-su in shock.
"A phone..."
Byung-su moved toward the sound and cautiously lifted the receiver from the table in front of the kitchen.
"In cases like this... it's usually just breathing on the other end."
Byung-su spoke confidently, as if accustomed to such things.
Dust covered the long-unused phone; as he picked up the receiver, the flashlight beam caught the particles flying up.
"Hello?"
Byung-su called out to whoever was on the other end.
—You came looking for me? You did come looking for me, right?
A young woman's clear voice asked delightedly from the receiver.
"Who is this? By any chance..."
A chill ran through him, and Byung-su asked back.
The voice, warm just moments ago, turned icy cold.
—You didn't come looking for me! You didn't come for me!
"Uh, excuse me."
—No one, no one comes looking for me. I'll kill them all! Kill even more!
Byung-su broke into a cold sweat at the woman's voice thick with hatred and asked again,
"Sorry, but where are you? Are you here?"
—Where do you think I am? Where am I?
Feeling the blood rush to his head, Byung-su clutched the receiver and looked around.
The flashlight beam revealed the severed phone cord dangling, and Sergeant Choi's legs gave out beneath him.
"You've come to this place twice. Do you remember me? Did you come looking for me?"
The woman's voice now came not from the receiver, but from the second-floor railing.
Byung-su and Sergeant Choi's gazes snapped to the second-floor railing simultaneously.
A woman with her hair neatly pinned up looked down at them.
The woman whose face no one could remember remembered Byung-su.
"Y-Yes, I came looking for you. Twice."
Feeling dizzy, Byung-su stammered his reply.
It was what the woman wanted to hear.
Satisfied with Byung-su's answer, the corners of her mouth curved into what seemed like a smile as she asked again,
"Will you find me? Find where I am?"
Sergeant Choi bellowed and aimed his gun at her, enraged by the woman's attitude even though she was right above them.
"You're right here—where else would we look? Come down now!"
He knew she wasn't human, but fear made him shout threats anyway.
"See? You didn't come looking for me after all. No one even cares where I am. They make a huge fuss when someone dies here, but no one looks for me! I have to kill them all. Kill even more! Die!"
The woman's voice started mournful and pitiable, then gradually turned into enraged fury.
Her scream assaulted Byung-su and Sergeant Choi's eardrums like it would tear them apart.
"Argh!"
Blood trickled from Sergeant Choi's ears as he clutched them and collapsed to the floor.
Byung-su gritted his teeth against the stabbing pain in his eardrums and shouted,
"I did come looking for you! Don't you remember me? Why else would I come here twice? I'm not here to kill myself. I came for you!"
At Byung-su's shout, the hatred in the woman's eyes softened slightly.
At that moment, the lodge door burst open with a crash, and Lucifer leaped inside, yelling,
"You insolent wretch! How dare a mere Won-gwi act up?"
The woman's eyes trembled at Lucifer's roar, and she hurriedly turned and hid in the darkness beyond the second-floor railing.
Jijang followed Lucifer in and shouted toward Byung-su and Sergeant Choi,
"You alright? Oh? Fancy seeing this officer here too. You got roughed up by that Won-gwi again."
Recognizing Lucifer and Jijang, Sergeant Choi slumped in the living room and said,
"Save us."
"That's why we rushed in here—relax. We got a bit lost on the mountain path, so we were late, and look at you two, half-dead already."
Lucifer patted Sergeant Choi's shoulder, climbed up to the second-floor railing, and peered into the darkness where the woman had stood.
"Jijang! There's a Gwi-mun here, but to go through it to hell, we'll need a sacrifice. It's made from that Won-gwi's resentment, so no sacrifice means it's tough."
Jijang, as if he'd already anticipated it, ignored Lucifer and moved to stand under the railing.
"Oh, you poor thing... So this is where you were. I'll find you, so let's end this now. You've harmed people, that's a grave sin, but your grudge is just as great... I'll ease that grudge first, then judge your sins. Poor soul."
Sobbing as if weeping, Jijang slammed his bony fingers into the living room floorboards and began ripping them up.
"Ah, this guy. So sentimental... No wonder he's Jijang. Even the nasty spirits and demons in the boonies must seem pitiful to him. Typical."
Lucifer, leaning over the second-floor railing, looked down at Jijang tearing up the floor, then fixed his gaze on Byung-su.
'That human has three strange auras.'
Feeling something near Jijang as well, Byung-su pulled out his phone and started filming.
Gazing into the space under the ripped-up floorboards, Jijang carefully and reverently lifted out bone fragments one by one.
"That Won-gwi must have been imprisoned by someone in this lodge and buried alive under the floorboards."
Lucifer, looking down from the railing, noted the deep scratches on the ripped-up floorboards and said.
Byung-su was amazed by Lucifer's night vision, which identified things precisely in the dark, and he felt the scattered floorboards, tracing the gouges.
Scratched so deeply with fingernails, the marks bore dark stains from years of age.
"Those bloodstains soaked into the lodge and even created the Gwi-mun. The resentment from no one finding her... attached itself to the people who come here looking for suicides."
Byung-su sensed no spiritual energy from Jijang or Lucifer, so he just took them for shamans.
"She cursed not those who harmed her, but those who didn't even look for her. Poor woman. Vicious, yet pitiful..."
As if seeing the whole scene play out before him, Jijang murmured while staring ahead.
"Jijang, we need to find her and let her achieve Buddhahood. But since she vanished through the Gwi-mun, chasing her right now will be hard. Seal this Gwi-mun for now."
From the second-floor railing, Lucifer pointed behind him with a finger.
"Right, I'll close the Gwi-mun. We'll leave this woman's remains with the officer here. As for you... well, nice to meet you anyway."
Jijang glanced at Byung-su, bowed his head in greeting, then climbed to the second floor.
Sergeant Choi, dazed, looked at Byung-su and asked,
"What do we do?"
"Call for backup. We need to find who locked this woman up. Hope the statute of limitations hasn't run out."
* * *
Thirteen years ago, news that the missing heir to Haedong Group had been found as a skeleton under the floorboards of the suicide lodge dominated broadcasts daily.
Byung-su ate a late dinner at a shabby diner, his eyes on the TV showing the woman's image from thirteen years prior.
Her uncle, who took over Haedong Group after she vanished, seemed the prime suspect, yet no broadcasts questioned him.
They focused solely on the sensational issues of the skeleton and the suicide lodge.
"In a country where even the president goes to jail for crimes, money's power is something else... I should look into Haedong Group."
"The taste of money is always sweet."
A woman's clear voice came from behind him.
A woman with her hair neatly pinned up, accentuating her features, smiled at him.
"The president's power lasts a mere five years, but money's power is endless. Around that power, people flock who savor the sweet taste..."
"Sweet taste... Sounds delicious. Haha."
Byung-su chuckled, looking down at his meal.
"I seem to have interrupted your dinner. Please enjoy it. And when you're reporting, watch out for the Paeng family. Seriously."
"The Paeng family..."
Haedong Group's owners were the Choi family, and Haedong Daily was run by the Park family.
The uncommon Paeng surname felt oddly familiar to Byung-su.
"Could it be?"
At Byung-su's question, the woman gave a graceful smile.
"Farewell..."
Though they'd just met today, she bid him a familiar goodbye and left.
Byung-su stared at her retreating figure for a long while, then turned back to the TV and muttered,
"Beautiful woman, but damn if I can't remember her face."
His gaze shifted back to the diner door she had exited.
Suddenly, he jumped up and rushed outside.
But finding the woman whose face no one could remember was impossible.