The Demon Visits the Precinct

A fresh case strikes the Exorcism Squad — the team that resolved the demonic possession outbreak that began among a gang of delinquent high schoolers in Exorcism Investigation 1. Last time it was a single child; this time the scale has grown, and the squad begins investigating a demonic possession that has taken root inside a drug smuggling organization.

Over the desks of the squad's officers hung a placard reading LET'S NOT HIT JUST ANYONE.

This squad, whose method of investigation was quite literally fisticuffs, traced its origins all the way back to Inspector Hwang Dongwan's childhood. As a boy, Dongwan had injured himself out of taekwondo and gone through a rebellious, wandering phase — during which he helped his grandmother, a shaman, with her work. Then one day, the grandmother took a hammer to a television the villagers had dragged in, insisting a ghost had gotten into it, and declared:

By some miracle of the grandmother's touch, the battered television returned to perfect working order.

Dongwan engraved that lesson deep into his bones: ghosts and machines answer to a beating.

In this case, the narcotics officers thrown in with the squad are initially baffled about how to separate addicts from the possessed — but they soon find their equilibrium.

And so, thrashing addicts and possessed alike, the squad beats the demons out of every last possessed victim. Dongwan, who inherited both physical force and spiritual power from his grandmother, could sense whether a demon had truly left a body — and he checked every single one of the possessed. Or rather, he thought he had.

One boy in a plain checked shirt, supposedly some bystander swept up in the chaos, was deeply, unmistakably off.

Beaten black and blue by the Exorcism Squad and filed away as an "ordinary drug addict," the boy slipped clean out of their attention. And yet — there he was, strolling back into the precinct where they were investigating the possessed, wearing a soft, silken smile.

Inspector Hwang Dongwan feels a monstrous, overwhelming surge of spiritual pressure rolling off the approaching boy.

Seo Joongsung, playing the role of Inspector Hwang Dongwan, took a deep breath.

He had shared half a year of father-and-son screen time with Lee Heeyoon in Love in the Moon, and he'd believed he understood the actor reasonably well by now.

But the energy Heeyoon was unleashing as the Demon — to sum it up in a single word, his qi — was utterly crushing the well-built, well-seasoned actors standing on this set.

The moment the Demon's first visitation scene wrapped, staff and cast alike slumped into their chairs, drained. Seo Joongsung, who had faced that energy head-on, covered his face with both hands. It was Kim Ian — the lone female detective of the Exorcism Squad, who never flinched no matter how terrifying the material — who spoke first.

"Sunbaenim, I'm... a little scared."

"Of Heeyoon, you mean?"

"His eyes. They're going to do the color change in CG later, right? But did you see him just now? Blinking, moving his head — and as the light shifted, it genuinely felt like his eye color was changing..."

Seo Joongsung was every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bit as rattled.

The Heeyoon who had walked into that substation looked like some extraordinary creature conjured from exhaustive study of demons. Even someone who knew nothing about this film would have clocked, instantly, that Heeyoon was playing something not quite human. That was how unambiguous his performance was.

Come to think of it, during Love in the Moon, Heeyoon had often seemed effortlessly natural — natural enough that Joongsung occasionally forgot the boy wasn't really his son. Joongsung had chalked that up to the character Moon Gyeoul simply fitting Heeyoon like a glove. He had full confidence in Heeyoon's ability, sure, but he'd attributed that particular naturalness to the fit.

Watching the Demon in Exorcism Investigation 2, though, he found himself seeing Heeyoon in a completely different light.

Heeyoon was shrewd — a performer as polished as someone with decades of experience. In Love in the Moon, he had simply judged that naturalness was what the role demanded, and so he'd delivered it, acting in a way that made every actor around him fall in love with him as if it were real.

This time was the exact opposite. This was an occult genre film, a story that had to draw visceral, real-world dread out of pure fiction. And for that film, Heeyoon had instead chosen a boldly stylized performance — something almost like a comic-book character.

When Seo Joongsung glanced over at the director, the man's face was glowing with emotion. It seemed the scene had surpassed even what Jeon Changhwan had been hoping for.

Joongsung looked to the monitor. Jeon Changhwan was staring at a shot filled edge to edge with Heeyoon's face.

"So this is what they mean by controlling every facial muscle."

The words had slipped out of Jeon Changhwan, probably without his even noticing. Seo Joongsung — absurdly proud, as if his own son had been praised — answered.

"He really does look like a demon, doesn't he."

"So this is the face of a villain."

"Told you. A proper villain's face."

Then Jeon Changhwan said, quietly:

"But we're shooting this again. One more take, and it'll be even better."

"Pardon? Why?"

"The kid got spooked."

"...Pardon?"

"His shoulders locked up. An actor who performs like that doesn't carry his body like that."

It was the last thing Joongsung expected to hear. Jeon Changhwan turned to him.

"Hey, Father. Go talk to him for me."

"I mean... Heeyoon, spooked? Our Heeyoon?"

Unable to believe it even as he walked, Seo Joongsung double-checked several times before making his way over to Heeyoon.

I stepped outside the substation set for a moment. My own performance had left a bad taste in my mouth, so I dropped into a chair, pulled the script back out, and ran through it once from top to bottom.

I was in the middle of reading when Seo Joongsung came over and asked, "What didn't you like? Everyone else thought it was great."

What is it? What am I unhappy with, exactly?

As I turned the question over, Seo Joongsung spoke in a tone far more careful than a man his size had any business being.

"Only the director wants to go again. He says you got a little scared back there."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Your shoulders were... I mean, the atmosphere was pretty frightening, I suppose."

Only when I heard that did I finally understand what I'd been afraid of.

"He's right. I was scared."

"Didn't look like it."

"Not of the people. Of the place."

"The place?"

"My big uncle's a police officer. He had this whole row of police commendation plaques hung up at home... they suddenly popped into my head. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I got scared of the place."

Seo Joongsung, thrown by the answer, worked himself into a commotion of his own.

"Wow. A director really is a director. How did he catch that? I couldn't see a thing."

"A director should be able to catch at least that much on his own film."

I jabbed at him, then let out one long, slow breath.

Damn it. Of all things, me, afraid of a police station.

Come to think of it, back in the days when I'd get beaten for no reason and fall asleep in tears, I used to dream, again and again, of being locked in a holding cell. Almost certainly the fault of my big uncle's drunken proclamations — that brat's a criminal waiting to happen, someone ought to throw him behind bars right now.

Seo Joongsung glanced sidelong at me as I stewed in my own pathetic self-reflection, then dragged over a chair that no sane man should have been able to move one-handed, planted it in front of me, and sat down. One hand. Yeah. Best not to mess with this one.

Then Baek Geonwoo — the squad's youngest, who'd been eavesdropping on us from a distance — wandered over as well. There was no seat left, so he knelt down on the ground the way a ssireum wrestler grips his loincloth. The man claims he's two years older than me. He reads like ten.

Baek Geonwoo asked:

"Hey, could you... do me a little favor?"

"...A favor for what, exactly."

"Aw, don't be rude about it. I'm asking if you'll rub my hands down."

Is this guy... actually an actor?

Before I could finish the thought, Seo Joongsung — true to form — seized Baek Geonwoo by the nape of the neck.

"You punk, you're a celebrity now. What hands need working on?"

"Ah, hyung-nim!"

"Call me ajusshi, kid. I'm the same age as your mothers."

"Still, there's no way I could call you ajusshi..."

Seo Joongsung, perhaps thanks to his own athletic past, treated his sports juniors like a man with a split personality. He was nothing like that easygoing, chuckling uncle from the Love in the Moon set.

Watching him, I suddenly remembered Gam Seongbeom wistfully confessing how terrified he'd been back when Joongsung used to dandle him on his knee. Yeah. It really must have been terrifying.

Baek Geonwoo piped up beside me again.

"Wanna step out for a smoke before we go back in?"

"Damn it, Geonwoo."

"Wh... what?"

"He's a minor, you idiot."

"...Really? I had no idea. Wow. How does a kid act that well?"

"Geonwoo. Not 'a kid-kid.' Just a kid."

"Aigoo, sorry, sir."

Of course I got scared. It's called acting.

Listening to all this, I could suddenly see why Seo Joongsung's mouth kept turning foul whenever Geonwoo was in front of him.

That said, sitting here while Seo Joongsung and the next-generation Seo Joongsung bickered back and forth, my flinching at the ghost of my big uncle did start to feel a little ridiculous.

It was then that Baek Geonwoo whipped his head around toward the grass. And then he asked:

"Hyung-nim... you didn't hear a child laughing just now, did you?"

"There's no kid on this set younger than Heeyoon."

"No, I definitely heard something."

Oh, come on...

The problem was:

I'd heard it too.

"...So did I."

"See? You heard it too, right? Damn it, what is that."

Geonwoo shook with fright, then carefully rose to his feet and peered toward the grass. And then, grabbing me and Seo Joongsung and hauling us both upright, he urgently herded us back inside the substation set. Seo Joongsung, flustered, asked:

"What's wrong?"

"It made eye contact."

"With wh... with what?"

"I don't know..."

Baek Geonwoo's whole body was trembling like a phone on vibrate.

I had heard rumors that this area had terrible energy, but still...

Call it a blessing in disguise.

Because from that moment on, the outside of the substation felt so horrifying that the inside stopped scaring me at all.