Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The Yandere Fairy's Gaze is Strange
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"Mr. Park Gwangho, are you okay?"
An uncomfortable silence hung in the hospital room.
Park Gwangho, wrapped in bandages on the bed, blinked blankly at the ceiling.
His face was bruised black and blue, and his lips were still swollen and split open.
The wounds visible between the bandages on his arms and fingers were deep and jagged.
His gaze was vacant, as if his mind hadn't fully returned.
'This is driving me crazy.'
With the investigation hitting a wall, Detective Yoo Seongjae had come to check if Park Gwangho's mental state had improved.
He let out a long sigh at the continued lack of response.
Screeech. Thud.
"N-no, stay away! Fuck! I said stay back!"
But that's when Detective Yoo Seongjae noticed something odd.
Every time the hospital room door opened and a nurse entered, Park Gwangho—who hadn't even acknowledged his own questions—flinched and trembled.
He thought it might be a coincidence at first, but then it happened a second time, a third...
Even among the visitors coming to see other patients in the same room, he reacted the same way whenever a woman stepped inside—like he was having a seizure.
'That's weird.'
This time was no different. As a female nurse entered to check his pulse, Park Gwangho suddenly started gasping for air and curled up.
His bandaged hand clutched the blanket, and he reflexively turned his head away without even looking at her.
"Are you alright?"
As the nurse cautiously approached, Park Gwangho twisted his face and tried to shrink toward the edge of the bed.
Watching the scene, Detective Yoo Seongjae tilted his head.
'Why does he only react like that to women?'
Puzzled, he returned to the station, but Park Gwangho's reactions still nagged at him.
Still, the priority right now was figuring out how he'd gotten injured.
As he entered the office, his colleague Detective Kim Jin-ho, who was sorting files, spotted him and approached with a thick stack of documents.
"Seongjae, the forensics report came back."
"What'd it say?"
Detective Kim Jin-ho spread the papers on the desk, his expression grave as he continued.
"Looking at the wounds on his body, there's about a five-hour gap between some of them."
"Time-gap wounds?"
"Yeah. The initial beating looks like it happened at the abandoned house where the first bloodstains were found. The problem is what came after. It seems like he took a severe beating between 2 and 3 a.m., but the other wounds on his body suggest he was attacked again at least five hours later—around 7 to 8 a.m."
Detective Yoo Seongjae stroked his chin, his eyes sharpening.
"So you're saying, besides the injuries from the abandoned house, someone else might've attacked him afterward?"
"Well, yeah, but we can't rule out the possibility that the same person chased him out of there and kept beating him."
"...No drugs or alcohol in his system, right?"
"None. Why? Something off?"
"Nah. I went to the hospital to see if he'd snapped out of it, and he freaks out every time he sees a woman. Makes me suspicious."
Detective Kim Jin-ho crossed his arms heavily.
"You think the perp might be a woman?"
"But if no drugs or booze, he was stone sober. No way he'd let a woman beat him one-sidedly like that."
"Hm, if there were two perps, it wouldn't be so far-fetched."
"...Huh?"
Detective Kim Jin-ho pointed at the papers on the desk.
"I just said it—another beating around 7 or 8 a.m. By then, Park Gwangho probably couldn't even stand properly and had dragged himself out of the abandoned house—"
Detective Yoo Seongjae cut him off, eyes flashing.
"So he got jumped by another attacker where the second bloodstains were found? Another woman?"
"...Well, the wounds are a bit too vicious for a woman, but nothing's proven yet, so we keep all possibilities open."
"So to sum up: he got subdued by a guy at the abandoned house, took a brutal beating, escaped, then got jumped by a woman?"
"If there are two perps, odds are low they're accomplices."
"Why's that?"
Detective Kim Jin-ho met Detective Yoo Seongjae's questioning gaze calmly.
"The one at the abandoned house didn't intend to kill him. They only beat him once and then left him alone for five hours."
"Different motives?"
"Exactly. If the first wounds were about subduing him, the second set was pure 'murder' intent."
"...This case is getting murkier by the minute."
"Tell me about it. Unlike Seoul, these backwater spots are a pain—no CCTV anywhere."
The mention of CCTV made Detective Yoo Seongjae pause.
"Right! Remember that first guy we talked to during the canvass?"
"Yeah. Han Haeseong, right?"
"Could Park Gwangho have run into him that morning after fleeing the house?"
"Zero chance. Han Haeseong was sleeping in the supermarket backroom and didn't leave for food until lunchtime."
"Damn... He seemed like the prime suspect to me. No other guy fits subduing Park Gwangho."
Detective Kim Jin-ho sighed shortly.
"That's what's weird. Han Haeseong's the only viable suspect."
"What if the perp isn't local?"
"Then where?"
"Heard Park Gwangho does business in Seoul. Someone could've lured him here for revenge."
"Not impossible. We'll check his Seoul contacts too."
The puzzle pieces were starting to fit, but something felt slightly off.
They were still missing that key piece.
"Any CCTV around the abandoned house or witnesses?"
"No CCTV there. And it rained that day, so witnesses are unlikely."
"...If Park Gwangho would just snap out of it, we wouldn't be suffering like this. Drives me nuts."
"Anything else from the hospital?"
"Don't hold your breath."
"Meaning his memory's completely gone?"
Detective Yoo Seongjae tapped the desk with his nails as he continued.
"Hospital says possible partial amnesia from psychological trauma. But I think it's less 'lost the memories' and more... instinctively refusing to recall them."
"Trauma?"
"High chance. And not just from a beating—something more intensely terrifying."
Detective Kim Jin-ho uncrossed his arms, closed the file, and leaned in.
"Alright, I'll forensics his phone like we said and dig into his Seoul contacts."
"Yeah. I'll check out the local women. That reaction at the hospital bugs me too much."
"Sounds good."
By the time they finished debating Park Gwangho's case, it was late at night.
Yet the station office buzzed under the fluorescent lights.
As their talk wrapped up, Detective Kim Jin-ho stretched and glanced at Detective Yoo Seongjae, still standing there stroking his chin.
"...You're way too into this, even for you."
"What...?"
The Yoo Seongjae his colleagues knew was a guy who drank daily and slacked off instead of focusing on cases.
He'd gotten disciplined from above more than once.
But now...
Watching Yoo Seongjae with that intensely changed gaze, Detective Kim Jin-ho couldn't help but voice his confusion.
"You don't think this is connected to Seonghyeon's case, do you?"
Detective Yoo Seongjae's younger brother had vanished five years ago in his early twenties, only to be found the next day covered in blood by a rural roadside.
The shock had landed him in a mental hospital.
It was one of the station's unsolved cases.
"...Who knows."
"Y-you out of your mind!? Mixing emotions into an investigation just muddies the waters!"
"Won't muddy anything. I haven't felt this clear-headed in ages."
How could he forget his brother's face and those wounds?
His heart tore anew every time, but he'd pored over the case photos multiple times a day for years.
All to catch the bastard.
And Park Gwangho's body had similar—though not identical—wounds scattered across it.
"...The living have to keep living! How long are you gonna dwell on the past?"
"Seonghyeon's not dead yet."
"You think he'd want you like this!?"
Ignoring Detective Kim Jin-ho's worried raised voice, Detective Yoo Seongjae delved back into those deep memories.
Then, as if remembering something overlooked, his eyes flashed, and he grabbed his coat.
"...Guess I need to see Park Gwangho again."