Into the Stalker's Mind
“What the hell is this…….”
Kang Tae-san rubbed his face in disbelief.
Of course, the reflection of Yoo Pil-joo in the mirror followed suit, mirroring the motion.
At that moment, a mechanical female voice he seemed to have heard somewhere before echoed in his ears.
From now on, you will experience the life of the client 'Stalker'.
“What?!”
Huh!
At the same time, Tae-san clutched his head and collapsed to the floor.
Actually, “rolled around” would be a more accurate description.
Unable to even scream, Tae-san thrashed as merciless memories flooded his brain.
The face of his violent father unbuckling his belt to beat him.
A childhood spent neglected, wandering without proper meals.
Peers pinching their noses and pointing fingers, saying he smelled.
Yet the bright smile of the class president—the only one who ever spoke to him and smiled at him.
‘Pil-joo, you have such pretty hands.’
After hearing that compliment from Joo-hee, the class president, he began stealing glances at her more and more often.
Wanting to see her every day, he secretly took photos.
The pain of those photos being discovered, trampled, and beaten for it.
After dropping out of school, he holed up in his room, days spent staring at a monitor filled with nothing but unhealthy search terms and videos.
“Aaaaargh!”
Eventually, Kang Tae-san—now fully returned to the memories of Yoo Pil-joo—stared back at the bathroom mirror, panting like a wild beast.
“Hah. Hah.”
His heart pounded so violently he could barely breathe.
“No, this isn’t me!”
Just then—
Thud. Thud. Thud.
-Hey, keep it down!
The sound of someone banging on the thin wall snapped him back to reality.
Kang Tae-san, now in Yoo Pil-joo’s body, looked into the mirror again.
Yoo Pil-joo, drenched in sweat, stared back at him with piercing eyes.
“……Shit.”
Pil-joo muttered under his breath.
Even though he lived in a cheap studio apartment, the neighbor next door had the nerve to complain about a little noise, and rage surged through him.
Still, he had no desire to confront the guy head-on.
If it came to a physical fight, he knew he wouldn’t stand a chance.
Yoo Pil-joo examined his own slender reflection in the mirror.
Rough skin. Bony legs. Short stature.
There wasn’t a single thing he liked about himself.
Except for these hands.
These pale, straight hands without a single callus—he could proudly show them anywhere.
“Joo-hee…… Joo-hee said my hands were pretty too.”
Pil-joo’s gaze fixed on one of the countless photos of Joo-hee plastered across the wall.
“Time to go see Joo-hee.”
He knew Joo-hee’s routes and daily patterns inside out.
At this hour, she would be finishing her part-time shift at the gym.
Pil-joo began wrapping himself up tightly—far more than necessary for simply going out to meet someone.
A black cap, a black mask, layers upon layers of clothing.
Even amid the clutter, he found what he needed with practiced ease.
Finally, Pil-joo pulled a camera from the closet and swapped out the lens.
He needed a telephoto lens with a focal length of 70mm or more to capture Joo-hee leaving the gym in her sweat-soaked workout clothes.
“Heh heh. She was wearing those tight leggings when she left for work today. She must’ve worn them just for me to see, right?”
Even as he stepped out, his mind was consumed by thoughts of Joo-hee.
If he could, he would follow her into the gym and breathe in the lingering scent of wherever she had sat.
It would surely be warm and sweet.
“If it weren’t for that bastard……”
There was one member who kept bothering Joo-hee.
The thought of that muscle-bound idiot who always slicked his hair back with pomade still made his blood boil—he had even gotten kicked out of the gym because of him.
Arriving at the café, Yoo Pil-joo ordered the cheapest iced coffee on the menu, sat down, and skillfully set up his camera.
He didn’t forget to drape his windbreaker over the camera so people wouldn’t stare.
‘Heh heh. She’ll be out soon.’
Through the viewfinder, he zoomed in on the gym entrance and waited for Joo-hee in her leggings.
‘5, 4, 3, 2…….’
Just as expected, Joo-hee emerged wearing leggings and a long padded coat.
His prediction was spot on, and Pil-joo’s lips curled upward in satisfaction.
But that upward curl quickly twisted into a low curse.
“Shit, who the hell is that guy?”
Joo-hee had come out arm-in-arm with that guy.
She was smiling brightly at him.
That smile.
The same smile she had given him when she said his hands were pretty.
‘Fucking filthy bitch.’
An indescribable sense of betrayal washed over him.
How dare she. How dare she play around with another man and leave me behind?
She told me my hands were pretty.
What the hell is she doing? Shit, what is she trying to pull?
Why is she going to Joo-hee’s house?
Why is that bastard going to Joo-hee’s place—a place I haven’t even been to yet?
“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!”
Yoo Pil-joo hurriedly packed his things.
He hadn’t planned on following her all the way home today, but he couldn’t just stand by and watch.
The thought of that filthy animal laying his hands on his Joo-hee made his blood boil in reverse.
‘If he tries anything, I’ll kill him. I’ll definitely kill him.’
Pil-joo reassured himself as he waited for the signal.
He quietly tailed the pair as they disappeared into the alley.
In the distance, he saw the two of them entering Joo-hee’s villa.
‘Don’t tell me she’s cheating on me with another guy? This is bullshit, seriously.’
He slipped into a deserted alley and quickly pulled out his camera, zooming in with the lens.
If he was lucky, he’d be able to see inside Joo-hee’s living room.
Hadn’t he once gotten a precious shot of Joo-hee in just a tank top, rushing to close the curtains because she’d forgotten to draw them last time?
‘Please. Please don’t do anything.’
Yoo Pil-joo turned on the camera screen with a desperate prayer in his heart.
That was when it happened.
The living room lights flicked on, and he saw the two of them frantically shedding their coats before locking lips in a deep kiss.
“Shit!”
Pil-joo couldn’t bear to watch any longer.
He pulled out the kitchen knife he had packed in his bag—just in case some creep tried to hurt Joo-hee.
Turns out it was a good thing he’d brought it.
He took the stairs two at a time and stood in front of unit 402.
The building across from his. Same floor, same unit number.
Every single day, from his own home, he longed for her this much.
She was the only one for him. His entire world was filled with nothing but her!
The fact that Joo-hee didn’t understand this love made him hate her to the core.
Ding-dong—
He pressed the doorbell.
-Who is it?
“Delivery.”
-Delivery? Did you order something?
-No?
-We didn’t order any delivery.
“It says XX Villa, unit 402.”
A moment later, the door opened, and Joo-hee appeared—still wearing her leggings.
“I told you we didn’t order anything…… Wh-who……?”
Behind the mask, his lips curled upward.
It was an involuntary smile that surfaced whenever he saw Joo-hee.
Joo-hee’s face turned deathly pale when she saw the knife in Pil-joo’s hand.
“No!!!”
* * *
Hah—
Kang Tae-san gasped, filling his lungs with air.
“Cough. Hack. Cough.”
A fit of coughing forced him to clutch his chest.
Snapping back to his senses, Kang Tae-san quickly pulled his hands away from his chest and looked down.
No. These weren’t those terrifyingly bony hands.
These were his own hands—thick-knuckled, covered in calluses. Kang Tae-san’s hands.
Looking around, he saw Yoo Pil-joo’s apartment, now spotlessly clean.
“What…… what just happened to me?”
He immediately searched for a mirror and found his own reflection—Kang Tae-san—standing there plainly.
His dazed expression looked somewhat unfamiliar, but a wave of relief washed over him.
All Tae-san could think about was getting out of there as fast as possible.
Grabbing his cleaning supplies, he rushed out of the room, glancing back one last time.
It was just an ordinary studio apartment—one he had cleaned to perfection.
***
The moment Kang Tae-san returned to his own home, the tension drained from his body and he sank to the floor.
Leaning his back against the bed, he sat on the ground and replayed everything that had just happened.
“It was around seven when the cleaning finished……”
Even if he chalked it up to a hallucination, it should have felt like several hours had passed.
‘But how could I have such a horrific nightmare in just a few minutes?’
He didn’t know what was going on.
It had been disgusting, yet vividly real—too real to be just a dream.
Even if he tried to dismiss it as a nightmare brought on by intense labor after a long time, Yoo Pil-joo’s face remained etched in his mind.
‘It was a nightmare. Let’s just call it a nightmare.’
It made no sense for someone to witness an entire person’s life in such a short time, like a live broadcast—yet believing he had actually lived that person’s life made even less sense. So he chose to believe the more plausible explanation.
But the cleaning app refused to let Tae-san off the hook.
The cleaning of 'Stalker’s' home has been completed.
Smileage points have been awarded.
— Smileage: 180p
“What is this?”
Come to think of it, there wasn’t even a CCTV in the house, yet the moment he finished cleaning, a notification popped up saying the job was complete.
And now that he thought about it, the client wasn’t the stalker criminal Yoo Pil-joo—it was the building owner.
‘This app is seriously weird.’
From the very beginning, those strange phrases about “understanding the client’s life” had bothered him.
He had assumed it was just some marketing gimmick companies used, but now he had every reason to suspect the app itself was involved.
Tae-san immediately called the customer service number linked in the app.
While regular customers could only call during business hours, managers had a direct line to headquarters in case anything went wrong during a cleaning job.
-Hello, this is Smile—cleaning the lives of our clients.
“Hey, I just experienced something really strange. I think I saw the client’s past—or some kind of hallucination.”
-Yes, that is to be expected. The experience you had regarding the resident is a perfectly natural phenomenon, Manager Kang Tae-san.
“A perfectly natural phenomenon?”
-Yes, that is correct.
“What the hell does that even mean……?”
For a moment, he was at a loss for words at how matter-of-fact the voice sounded.
-If the side effects of the ‘experience’ are severe, please visit our Smile welfare mall and use the items we have prepared. They will be of great help to you, Manager.
“Hold on—what welfare mall? How is that supposed to help?”
-Thank you for always working hard for Smile. Please continue to clean thoroughly in the future.
“Wait a second—what the hell are you people even doing?!”
Click.
The call ended abruptly after that one-sided response.
He tried calling customer service again, but unlike before, it didn’t connect right away—only endless ringing filled the line.
Now that he thought about it, the voice on the phone had sounded strangely familiar.
‘It was that same mechanical voice that talked about experiencing lives.’
A dull pain throbbed at his temples.
Between the grueling labor and the bizarre experience, his mind and body were completely drained.
Tae-san decided to stop thinking for now and headed to the bathroom to splash some water on his face.
Right now, he wasn’t in any state to think clearly, so he resolved to get some proper sleep first and deal with it afterward.
This was one of the small rules Tae-san had set for himself—rules that had proven incredibly useful in navigating life.
For example: when your body is tired, avoid making hasty decisions that could lead to mistakes—get enough rest.
Therefore, keep your personal space clean at all times.
Because of this, Tae-san’s apartment was far too neat and empty for a man in his early twenties.
Part of it was his personality—he never bought unnecessary things or furniture—but it was also because of his rule: don’t create messes in the first place.
Following his own rules, Tae-san laid his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.
“God, this is driving me insane.”
But Tae-san couldn’t fall asleep properly.
Every time he drifted off, Yoo Pil-joo’s nightmares tormented him.
His body was drenched in sweat, and eventually he gave up on sleeping altogether and went into the bathroom.
Standing under the warm water helped clear his head a little.
It felt as if two separate selves were fighting inside his mind, and the pain was unbearable.
‘I can’t do this. I have to go to the company myself.’
It was still dawn.
Once business hours started, he planned to go to Smile’s office and demand proper answers about what had happened yesterday.
Just then—
Buzz— Buzz—
His phone rang. It was “Little Sister.”
“Yeah. What’s up, calling so early in the morning?”
-Oppa, why does your voice sound like that? Are you sick?
“Nah, it’s just morning. My throat’s a little hoarse.”
-Really? Then…… I’m really, really sorry, but…… can you help me just this once?
“Why? What’s going on?”
-Well……
So-yeon hesitated for a moment before explaining the situation.
Kang Tae-san told her to ask someone else, but in the end, he had no choice but to put on his coat.
Nothing was more important to Tae-san than his little sister.
***
The place he arrived at after taking the subway was Exit 2 of Sinsa Station.
So-yeon, her cap pulled low, greeted Tae-san with a bright smile.
“Thanks, oppa. And I’m really sorry.”
“Isn’t your company being way too irresponsible?”
“My manager was supposed to come with me, but he took the day off because he caught gastroenteritis. I was too nervous to go alone. You just have to stand there. This audition is really, really important, okay?”
Due to the road manager’s sudden sick leave, there was a gap—but since So-yeon was still just a trainee, there was no replacement staff available for her.
Originally, she had planned to have someone play the opposite role during the audition anyway.
So So-yeon had hurriedly called Tae-san.
“Alright, alright. Even after growing up, you still can’t do anything without me, huh.”
So-yeon grinned and linked her arm with Tae-san’s.
When Tae-san flinched in surprise, So-yeon widened her eyes and asked why.
The siblings had always been close, so linking arms was nothing new.
But Tae-san had just remembered the scene from Yoo Pil-joo’s memories—Joo-hee linking arms with another man.
“……It’s nothing. Let’s go.”
Tae-san let out a small sigh.
Whatever happened, he needed to finish this quickly and figure out what that bizarre phenomenon from yesterday was.
Otherwise, he felt like his mind would completely unravel.
Part of him wanted to just treat it like stepping on something gross and quit, but honestly, jobs that paid over 200,000 won for a single day’s work weren’t common.
‘They say there’s no easy money in this world, but damn, this really isn’t easy.’
With a complicated heart, he took the Line 2 subway and arrived at Seongsu Station.
Today’s destination was the audition site for the music video of Giant Kim’s new song “MAD.”
It was the headquarters of Studio H, under SL Entertainment.