A Place That Eats People
The meeting with Chae Young-sik was arranged without delay.
Two days out, after working hours, with Lee Ha-yoon and Shin Jeong-ah riding along in Kang Hyeong-seok's car—which was how it came to be a little past quitting time by the time they finally set off.
Vrrrooooom.
Cruising along the car-only expressway, Kang Hyeong-seok flicked his eyes to the rearview mirror, toward Lee Ha-yoon in the back seat.
"Have they all clocked out over there?"
"Yes. We're on KakaoTalk right now—he says he's alone."
"Good to hear."
Chae Young-sik was on night duty again today, apparently. In practice the man practically lived at the company, so if anyone else had been around, three visitors showing up would have looked more than a little strange.
"There's no CCTV or anything like that, right?"
"Hold on a sec."
Lee Ha-yoon fired off a message with both thumbs at a speed that bordered on frightening, and then:
"He says there's one security guard on site, and he's told him friends are coming by to visit."
"That's a relief."
Between one exchange and the next, Kang Hyeong-seok pushed out a breath and turned his focus back to the road.
All the while, Shin Jeong-ah sat in the passenger seat wearing a preoccupied expression—her eyes carrying the look of someone who had sensed something ominous she couldn't quite name.
"What about you, Manager?"
"No, nothing. Just... a weird feeling, I guess."
Since he was driving, Kang Hyeong-seok couldn't hold his gaze on her profile for long. He stole one glance, then withdrew his eyes to the road.
Was it because of the possession last time?
Should he call it sharpened intuition? Or had something simply opened her eyes?
Either way, Shin Jeong-ah seemed to be sensing the same thing he was.
"Arriving at your destination shortly."
The closer they drew, the more the energy announced itself—a curious thickness coating the inside of his mouth, a dull ache settling deep behind his eyes.
Rrrumble—click, click!
With the parking done, Kang Hyeong-seok scanned their surroundings the moment he stepped out of the car.
Roughly three hundred meters away loomed one massive structure that looked like a factory, and clustered around the container just nearby stood several more buildings that might have been warehouses.
Kang Hyeong-seok swept his gaze up over the mountain rising behind them.
A formation that closes around this place...
The arrangement of the mountains was so uncannily precise that it felt as though someone had deliberately chosen this exact spot to raise a factory.
Kang Hyeong-seok's brow knitted, and Lee Ha-yoon dialed Chae Young-sik.
"Hey, Young-sik! Yeah, hi! We're here."
(I'll be right out.)
The area was so quiet that Chae Young-sik's voice carried clearly even without speakerphone.
"Hello. I'm sorry for the late hour. And for standing you up last time, too."
"I'm Kang Hyeong-seok, with Daejeong Mulsan. A pleasure to meet you."
Kang Hyeong-seok offered the greeting with a look that said don't apologize, but Chae Young-sik only smiled awkwardly, embarrassed.
Ah. This man really is a gentle soul.
"Come in. You haven't had dinner, have you? I ordered delivery. Please, eat with us."
"Thank you. Then we'll impose."
Kang Hyeong-seok dipped his head and followed him in, while Chae Young-sik glanced back to wave warmly at Shin Jeong-ah and Lee Ha-yoon.
The door swung open.
The moment Chae Young-sik pulled it wide, a smell washed over them—so textbook it was almost comical, the scent of a home where a man lived alone. They could pick it out even beneath the overwhelming aroma of fried chicken, which meant he hadn't been living here just a day or two.
Rustle, rustle.
As Chae Young-sik unpacked the bags of chicken, Kang Hyeong-seok took a slow look around the interior, then spoke.
"You know why I'm here, don't you?"
Chae Young-sik's hands stopped short, and his head came up.
"Yes. I know."
"This man is seriously no joke, I'm telling you."
Lee Ha-yoon cut into the conversation as if she'd been waiting for exactly this moment; Shin Jeong-ah, for her part, wore a scowl. But that was less because she'd sensed something and more because the smell soaked into the container disagreed with her.
The meal proceeded amid a faint awkwardness—partly because a stranger had joined what was meant to be a friends' gathering, and partly because the reason for Kang Hyeong-seok's visit was anything but pleasant.
Still, they were Korean. The unifying power of a shared meal was not to be underestimated.
"Hey, is there a salt shaker anywhere?"
"You were supposed to grab tissues on your way in."
"No sense at all. Why didn't you bring forks?"
"Did you two come all this way just to pick on me?"
Shin Jeong-ah, Lee Ha-yoon, and Chae Young-sik bickered their way through the chicken, and once they'd eaten their fill—
"So, um... I heard you know a lot about this sort of thing."
Whether this was simply his nature or not, Chae Young-sik broached the subject warily, glancing around like a hamster testing the air.
"Have some more."
"No, thank you. I've had plenty."
Kang Hyeong-seok looked at Shin Jeong-ah and Lee Ha-yoon. Both wore the same expression.
So he pressed his lips together firmly, then opened his mouth.
"The site isn't good."
"Sorry?"
"You mentioned having frequent nightmares. From what I can see, you're not possessed. But if you keep staying in this place, you will go through something bad."
Perhaps because his words were blunter than anyone had expected—
Chae Young-sik stiffened, and the other two froze up with him, visibly thrown.
"Something... bad?"
"You had a nightmare again two days ago. Last night, you slept soundly."
Chae Young-sik's breath broke off reflexively, and his eyes went wide.
"How did you—how could you possibly know that?"
"I can feel it."
Kang Hyeong-seok rolled his tongue around the inside of his mouth.
What lingered there was not the taste of chicken.
It was bitterness.
All five of his senses were feeding him the unpleasant energy steeped into this space.
"If you sleep here tonight, you will have a nightmare. And your body will only grow more gaunt. Go stay somewhere else."
Chae Young-sik swallowed drily, but his gaze stayed locked on Kang Hyeong-seok.
Shin Jeong-ah and Lee Ha-yoon were no different.
The words Kang Hyeong-seok chose. The low register of his voice. The aura that radiated from his body.
All of it together overwhelmed the space, and the three of them had no choice but to hang fixed on him.
"Is it... really that dangerous?"
That was probably why. Why the way Chae Young-sik spoke to Kang Hyeong-seok had turned respectful.
"Yes. Frankly, it's bad. Submit your resignation the moment the sun comes up. At the very latest, this can't be allowed to drag past this month."
Kang Hyeong-seok spoke in a grave voice.
A voice without a shred of hesitation. Without a trace of doubt.
He had shaken neither the Mudang Bang-ul, his sacred bells, nor swung the Sinjangkal, the Divine General Blade.
And yet, having drawn closer to the divine than ever before, his sharpened instinct was telling him: this man must leave this place.
"This place eats people."
"Whoa—hey, Hyeong-seok."
Lee Ha-yoon jumped into the conversation, flustered, but Kang Hyeong-seok passed his gaze to Shin Jeong-ah.
"Manager, you find this place unpleasant as well, don't you?"
Instantly, Lee Ha-yoon's and Chae Young-sik's eyes swung to Shin Jeong-ah.
A spirit-worker was asking an ordinary friend to corroborate him. The situation was so foreign and flustering that her words jammed in her throat—but Shin Jeong-ah nodded, heavy and slow.
"I... feel it too, honestly."
Kang Hyeong-seok exhaled a thin sigh and nodded back.
"Yes, exactly. It's in the terrain, and the way the buildings were raised—all of it closes in around this container. Whoever set this up did it with unmistakable intent."
Having said everything worth saying, Kang Hyeong-seok fell silent.
At that, Chae Young-sik's lips fluttered; he swallowed hard, and his eyes were trembling.
"I-I can't... not right away."
"Hey! This is no time to be stubborn!"
Lee Ha-yoon raised her voice, but Chae Young-sik went on staring at Kang Hyeong-seok.
"That's not how working life works, you know? I can't just quit out of nowhere, and if I leave, there'll be no one left to take night duty."
"The company was the one who put you on night duty in the first place, wasn't it?"
Chae Young-sik flinched—but he wasn't surprised.
After all, no employee volunteers for night duty out of the blue.
"...Yes."
"It's Young-sik, correct?"
Chae Young-sik's eyebrows arched in puzzlement, and Kang Hyeong-seok pulled a soda toward himself, took a sip, and spoke.
"You don't owe the company a thought. Sleep on it tonight, and quit tomorrow if you have to—for your own sake if nothing else."
Deep in thought now, Chae Young-sik pressed his lips firmly shut.
Kang Hyeong-seok could more or less guess what was running through his head. What he could possibly say to the company. What on earth he'd tell his parents. And so on, and so on. His head would feel fit to split.
And the very fact that he agonized over these things at all was proof of how upright a man Chae Young-sik was—and exactly why the company had put him on night duty.
Cruel as it was, gentle and good people made easy prey for exploitation.
"...I'll talk to the company tomorrow."
"Good. That's the right call."
Kang Hyeong-seok broke into a smile and nodded deeply; Chae Young-sik lifted the corners of his mouth awkwardly, his brow still furrowed; and Shin Jeong-ah and Lee Ha-yoon let out sighs of relief.
"Well then, we should be heading off. Or would you like to stay a while longer?"
Kang Hyeong-seok asked Shin Jeong-ah and Lee Ha-yoon, and both shook their heads.
"We'd better get going too. It's late."
"R-right. You've got work in the morning too, Hyeong-seok."
Kang Hyeong-seok nodded and reached to gather up the trash scattered on the floor.
Young-sik had bought the food, after all—the least he could do was take out the garbage on their way.
But Chae Young-sik squawked in protest and stopped him, and he ended up rising empty-handed.
"Oh, right. Come to think of it, this is a connection of fate, too..."
Just before getting into the car, Kang Hyeong-seok slid a crisp business card from his card case.
He held it out to Chae Young-sik, who—flustered all over again—fished out one of his own and returned the gesture.
"If anything happens, you call me."
"Thank you. Truly."
"And good luck tomorrow."
"Y-yes, thank you."
Kang Hyeong-seok nodded grandly and climbed into the car.
Then he started the engine and pulled out of the factory grounds—and the security guard's gaze clung to their backs with a stickiness that felt deliberate.
"Whew! It's all over and done with now, right?"
"Hey, but what was with you earlier?"
"What was with me?"
It was then that Shin Jeong-ah turned her head toward Lee Ha-yoon in the back seat.
"Y'know—earlier. When you said something felt off."
"Ah—no, it's nothing. Nothing."
"Is something up with you too, then...?"
"Nope. Shut it, brat."
Listening to Shin Jeong-ah and Lee Ha-yoon squabble back and forth, Kang Hyeong-seok just let the corner of his mouth curl upward.
He dropped each of them off near where they lived, then drove alone down a deserted stretch of road, headed for home.
Vrrrm. Having confirmed that no car trailed behind him, he eased off the speed and picked up the phone mounted on his dashboard.
Then he scrolled through his contacts, called Shin Yo-sep, and set the phone back on its cradle.
Ring-ring, ring-ring.
(Do you have any idea what time it is? Where are your manners?)
As the call connected, Kang Hyeong-seok picked up speed.
"I need a favor."
(What kind of favor?)
"I'm going to send you a business card. Look into that company for me."
(What's going on?)
Probably because he knew Hyeong-seok would never make a call like this without a reason—
Shin Yo-sep, mid-grumble, shifted to a grave tone, and Kang Hyeong-seok pressed his lower lip under his front teeth before he spoke.
"It looks like a place that performs human offerings."
A rite of offering people up to a god.
And by every sign, that rite was in progress there even now.
"Look into it for me. What's happened there—and what manner of people they are, from the CEO clear through the executives."
This matter was no light one. A premonition that it would surely prove as much was jabbing at his heart like a honed awl, fierce and unrelenting.