Chapter 183
Chapter 183
Long Time No See
Setting aside the strange feeling, Yu Yeon-seo stepped into the annex and scanned the cluttered interior.
“Cough...”
He couldn’t tell if it was the dust or the strange changes in his body, but the coughing wouldn’t stop. Thump, thump. His heart pounded louder than usual. After freezing for a moment, he mustered his courage and took a step forward.
‘This house used to seem so big...’
It doesn’t look that big now... I guess it’s because I’ve grown up.
He had been steadily downloading memories, and the synchronization was over 80% complete. Only minor memories remained. With each step forward, recollections of his time in this house surfaced one by one.
(Yeon-seo!)
‘What was that?’
The voice was different from the auditory hallucinations he was used to, and he spun around. In that instant, the dark, dust-filled space transformed into a sunlit scene from his childhood.
Yu Yeon-seo stared blankly at the back of a small child who ran past him with a pitter-patter of feet.
(You’ll fall!)
(Hurry up, hyung!)
A young Yu Eun-ho chased after him. The young Yu Yeon-seo giggled, teasing his older brother.
He could only see their backs, so their faces weren’t clear. As if possessed, Yu Yeon-seo followed his younger self.
(Mom! I brought hyung!)
(Did you? Don’t tell me you snatched your brother’s book again.)
(Yeah!)
He heard the children’s peals of laughter and a gentle voice soothing them.
Yu Yeon-seo rounded the corner at the end of the hall and opened a door. Before he knew it, the rims of his eyes had turned bright red.
“Mom...”
A tear clinging to his eyelashes streamed down his cheek. At that moment, Lee Hui-seo, who had been affectionately stroking the two children’s cheeks and hair, looked up and met his gaze. He drew in a sharp breath.
‘She can’t possibly see me...’
Yu Yeon-seo took a step back. Lee Hui-seo’s face, once blurry as if covered in static, became quite clear. She wasn’t smiling warmly, nor was she angry. Her expression was placidly blank, which made it all the more terrifying.
(Yeon-seo.)
“Gasp!”
He had only blinked, but the young brothers were gone. The warm midday sun had vanished too. In its place was the dim gloom of early dawn, with only neglected, dust-covered furniture standing forlornly.
Only then did Yu Yeon-seo come to his senses and look around. This was the place where Lee Hui-seo had died.
(Why did you do it...)
Her phantom was hanging in that exact spot. I knew this would happen. Yu Yeon-seo clamped a hand over his mouth and glanced around.
According to the synchronized memories, Lee Hui-seo used to bury things she wanted to hide desperately in her own secret place.
‘She told me to make a place like that too.’
She said to bury my troubles there when I was hurting and my joys when I was overwhelmed. But I buried mine by forgetting.
A nosebleed trickled down, and Yu Yeon-seo wiped it away carelessly with his sleeve.
‘Where could the secret place be?’
(Yeon-seo.)
Yu Yeon-seo tried his best to ignore the resentful voice and lifted the white cloth covering a piece of furniture.
He rummaged through the drawers of a wooden vanity and sighed heavily.
‘She wouldn’t have kept it somewhere easy to find.’
In movies or dramas, they always hide things in attics... The ceiling in this house was much higher than in other houses. Even if Lee Hui-seo was quite tall, she wouldn’t have hidden it in the ceiling where it would be inconvenient to retrieve.
(Yeon-seo...)
The voice persistently tormented his mind. A stabbing headache forced Yu Yeon-seo to his knee, and he lowered his head.
“...Ugh.”
After coughing up some blood, he struggled to his feet and searched every corner of the room for the diary.
(Because of you...)
“Just, stop!”
Unable to look in that direction, he kept his head down and snapped irritably. Since the soul adjustment, the aftereffects of the phantoms were being transmitted directly to his body.
If he stayed in this space any longer, he felt like he would go half-insane. He hurried away, then stopped at a certain spot.
‘The sound of the floor is a little different here.’
He stepped on another spot, then back on the first. The difference was subtle but definite. He pulled back the carpet and examined the floor. There was a faint crack in the fine-grained wooden floor.
“Found it.”
Unable to hold back the rising nausea, he turned his head and vomited again before prying open the gap. Dust billowed out, making him cough for a moment. He turned on his phone’s flashlight and peered inside.
In the small space lay a rather thick leather-bound diary. A diary. Hopefully, it contains a clue.
‘No business plan, I see.’
He tried to act nonchalant as he took out the diary, but his fingertips trembled slightly.
“A parenting diary?”
Even after removing the diary, several other notebooks lay at the bottom. Yu Yeon-seo took them all out. They were parenting diaries for Yu Eun-ho and Yu Yeon-seo, respectively. Judging by the volume, she must have written in them diligently. He felt a complex mix of emotions.
After a moment’s hesitation, he opened the diary with his name on it.
[Yeon-seo seems really upset that his brother only reads and won’t play with him. He keeps snatching his brother’s book and giving it to me, and the way he looks at me for praise is just so adorable.
When you get scolded by your brother and sulk, then snuggle into my arms, I feel like I have the whole world. It’s a secret from Eun-ho, but I hope you keep snatching his books often.]
(Yeon-seo.)
Just then, the hallucinatory voice called his name, and he struggled to his feet. After a deep breath, he faced the white figure head-on.
“Mom.”
A hot lump rose in his throat.
“Cough...”
Staying here any longer would be dangerous. He forced himself to shake off his lingering feelings and fled the room as if escaping. As he walked down the hallway, the happy moments of his childhood echoed in his ears.
Just as he was about to leave the annex, he turned his head again and swallowed hard at the sight of the figure at the end of the hall.
Creeak. An eerie sound came from a poorly oiled door.
There’s no time to get sentimental. If I solve the case, perhaps the guilt that torments me will lessen.
“Just wait a little longer.”
After bringing the diary and parenting journals from the annex, he came down with a bad cold. Naturally, the household was in an uproar, and he was more or less forced to stay at his grandfather’s mansion for a few more days. The planned gathering with all the relatives was, of course, canceled.
‘It didn’t matter anyway, since my uncles probably wouldn’t have come, claiming they were busy.’
Getting out of the mansion was an ordeal. After arguing with his grandfather, today was finally the day he could go home. He hadn’t even had a chance to open the diary he’d gone through hell to get.
After leaving the agency office, Yu Yeon-seo headed straight for Baek Seo-jun’s location.
“Mr. Im, what happened to the person who sold the filming location information?”
“We’ve caught them and secured the information.”
They threatened to sue, and with a detective present, the seller got scared and spilled everything.
“Was there anyone named Min Seong-cheol among the buyers?”
Im Seung-hyeon scanned the list of accounts that had sent money to the seller. These were the actual account holder names, not ones they could change at will.
“Yes, there is.”
“Please investigate him with Secretary Park.”
“Understood.”
Yu Yeon-seo immediately closed his eyes and called Beta.
‘Can you use Memory Replay?’
<Yes, it is possible. Which memory would you like to see again?>
From the change in Yu Yeon-seo’s demeanor, Im Seung-hyeon guessed that this Min Seong-cheol person was the stalker. He had just come from seeing CEO Han, after all... He glanced at the young master in the rearview mirror, who had his eyes closed as if asleep.
Thud.
[Ah, I’m sorry.]
Through Beta, Yu Yeon-seo persistently observed a staff member he had bumped into on the set of ‘Snake’.
<Memory Replay has concluded.>
‘Again.’
The man was wearing a hat, so he hadn’t gotten a good look at his face. The man had ducked his head, intentionally avoiding Yu Yeon-seo’s gaze.
‘I’m sure I’d never seen him before.’
He had a good memory and remembered all the staff, but this man was a stranger. Besides, the chilling sensation he’d felt at that moment made it impossible to just let it go.
Yu Yeon-seo obsessively replayed the memory, studying the man. He must have watched it about five times. The moment he spotted a faint scar on the man’s right ear, Yu Yeon-seo stopped the replay.
‘Lee Tae-gyeom’s hypothesis was correct.’
Wasn’t my mother enough? Is he hovering around me now?
Im Seung-hyeon, who was checking Yu Yeon-seo’s complexion in the rearview mirror, was startled to see blood trickling from his nose.
“...Should I pull over?”
“No, just keep driving.”
Yu Yeon-seo wiped it away carelessly. If Lee Tae-gyeom is right and the object of his obsession has shifted to me, and he’s now hovering around me... then won’t he come to me on his own, without me having to search for him?
“What took you so long?”
“My grandfather.”
“I heard from Eun-ho. Are you some kind of princess locked in a tower? At your age, you couldn’t get out of the house?”
“You have a real talent for annoying analogies.”
Yu Yeon-seo felt goosebumps rise on his arms. A princess? Where in the world is there a princess this tall and well-built?
However, he didn’t know that fans called the pitiful and tragic Hwang Min-jae from ‘Filicide’ a princess. The fans were better than he could ever imagine at coming up with nicknames and making them stick.
“You should experience my family’s overprotectiveness firsthand. Do they think I’m three years old?”
“Well, you should’ve taken better care of yourself. You still look pale.”
“You too, hyung?”
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop.”
When Yu Yeon-seo shot him a rather murderous glare, Baek Seo-jun raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Did you talk to them?”
“Not yet. I’m slowly wearing them down. But seriously, what’s with your expression?”
The atmosphere is pretty intense. Baek Seo-jun turned to look at Im Seung-hyeon.
‘What’s up with him?’
‘I think he’s found the stalker.’
‘Really?’
While they conversed silently, Yu Yeon-seo remained focused on the CCTV monitor. He pressed a button, and their shouting voices came through the speakers.
(Hey! Is anyone there?!)
(I’m telling you, I don’t know anything! He made me do it...! Yang Hong-sik, did you catch him? I told you everything!)
The stalker’s accomplices, Park Gyeong-won and Yang Hong-sik, were protesting their innocence to the camera. Baek Seo-jun scoffed. As if it mattered whether someone ordered them to do it or not. They were the ones who went along with it and directly participated in a murder...
“Wow, they’re still full of energy. Was he someone you knew well as a child?”
“Back then, there was no one I didn’t know. That man used to give me shoulder rides often...”
“Damn it.”
Baek Seo-jun casually swore. He ran a hand through his hair irritably. This shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
“You should probably stay out of this. I’ll get them to talk.”
Even though it was to find the ‘mastermind’ quickly, he kept regretting having revealed the culprits to the victim. No matter how much they had wanted it, he hadn’t considered the fact that the two of them would be forced to constantly relive that day. The way Yu Eun-ho had cornered Park Gyeong-won was also unlike the friend he knew.
“...Can I talk to him?”
“No, wait a minute.”
Baek Seo-jun grabbed the arm of Yu Yeon-seo, who was about to head out. But when he saw the look on his face, his grip loosened on its own.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I need to catch him and end this quickly.”
“Haa... alright. Let’s go in together.”
Yu Yeon-seo followed Baek Seo-jun down the hallway. He had to force his fists to unclench several times.
“Mr. Yang Hong-sik?”
“Please, get me out of here!”
When the door to his confinement opened, Yang Hong-sik’s face filled with joy. He clearly mistook them for rescuers.
But when he saw Yu Yeon-seo enter behind Baek Seo-jun, Yang Hong-sik gasped.
“Hello, mister.”
“Gasp...!”
“Long time no see.”