Chapter 9

Trying to Avenge an Old Enemy Created a New One.

“Unni, unni!”

At Young-ah’s continuous calls, Miso managed to gather her spinning focus and raised a hand to clutch her throbbing head. Yet, for some reason, her body refused to move the way she wanted.

“What is happening…”

How much time had passed? Her voice barely escaped her dry lips.

“I thought you were dead! Wake up!”

Urged on by Young-ah, Miso forced herself up into a sitting position. Only then did she realize that both of her hands behind her back and both of her feet side by side were bound tightly with thick ties.

“Unni… I think we’re in the back seat of a car.”

Frustrated after checking the cable ties around her ankles, Young-ah spoke in a tearful voice. Though the situation was clearly threatening, Miso kept a tight grip on her reason and slowly looked around. Pitch-black darkness surrounded them, hiding everything, but the texture of the leather seat beneath her and the faint outline of a steering wheel caught in the dim moonlight unmistakably revealed they were inside a car.

“We’re going to die! No, we’re already dead, and our souls fell down into the underworld. We were destined to be beaten to death by the man who came to the office from the very beginning!” “Hush… words become seeds, remember? My head feels like it’s going to split open, which means we’re still alive. Even in a tiger’s den, if you keep your wits about you, you can survive.”

Miso twisted her body and pulled on the car door handle, but there was no way it would open easily. It seemed the safety lock was engaged, requiring it to be opened from the outside. Even when she threw her weight against it, the firmly blocked door showed no signs of budging.

Click—

Right at that moment, before the two could recover from their panic, the driver’s side door flew open violently, and a dark figure slipped into the car and sat down. Through the open door, the premature spring rain could be seen pouring down fiercely and thick as ropes.

“You’re awake.”

The dark figure spoke in a low, rough voice. Soaked through with the bitter smell of rain filling the interior, the figure was completely concealed inside a black raincoat, blending seamlessly into the darkness without an inch of flesh showing.

Yet, judging by the familiar voice and the unfolding context, Miso instantly knew the man’s identity was Han So-jung’s father.

“What is the meaning of this! Stop this right now!”

Young-ah warned the dark figure, her voice trembling slightly with tears but as bold as she could muster. As Miso fixed a sharp, piercing glare on him, she felt her faintly scattering focus slowly sharpen into clarity.

“Mr. Han Kang-soo, what is the reason for this?”

Miso’s heavily sunken voice flowed out firmer than ever. A chilly, winter-like coldness swept through the car. Only the sound of rain beating fiercely against the glass windows and the car body swaying precariously in the storm—as if about to plunge into the darkness at any second—filled the silence between the three of them.

“Reason… you ask for a reason? Do you know what kind of reason my daughter died for?”

Han Kang-soo began his story with a cracked, rough voice, tinged with sorrow.

“That’s right, I’m the one who deliberately made Kim Hyun-bin’s death look like an accidental crash here at the reservoir. But the police will just assume it’s a simple drunk driving accident since there are no streetlights and no CCTV.”

Now that she thought about it, this was the exact strange detail Miso had noticed when she first arrived at the reservoir with the ghost detector. Considering they had set up a walking path beside the reservoir, it had been strangely dark except for the faint moonlight.

“Uh—case number 231-34, I will now announce the final verdict. Hm, the defendant’s crime of driving under the influence clearly deserves social condemnation and is a distinct wrongdoing. However, considering that the accident site was unusually dark, the victim was standing on the road making it difficult to take evasive action, uh—and furthermore! Given that the defendant is a first-time offender and is showing sincere remorse… I sentence him to not guilty.”

“N-Not guilty?! Then what about our So-jung!! What crime did my wrongfully murdered daughter commit, Your Honor!!”

Han Kang-soo’s desperate, wailing cries as he clung to the railing scattered into the empty air, unheard by anyone inside the courtroom.

First to leave was the judge, followed by the prosecutor packing up his files while still avoiding eye contact, and then the lawyer who cheerfully shook hands in victory with Kim Hyun-bin. Finally, Kim Hyun-bin—who looked as though his tight collar was suffocating him, loosening the top button all the way up to his neck—slowly approached Han Kang-soo and whispered right into the ear of the trembling man, who shook like an aspen leaf.*

“The crime of being poor?”

“He had so little remorse after killing a person that he didn’t even recognize my face and hopped right into the passenger seat of the car I was driving. Hmph, chattering away excitedly without even knowing he was heading to his death, babbling about how he had a bad dream about falling off a cliff and dying—I wanted to throw him straight into the reservoir right then and there. Though I failed in the end…”

As if the mere memory of Kim Hyun-bin that day made his teeth chatter with rage, he clenched his jaw tight and slammed his fist down onto the steering wheel.

“So you’re saying you’re going to kill us too, since we found out the whole truth.”

Miso forced herself to reply coolly, but sweat trickled down from her temples to her pale cheeks due to the unavoidable wave of fear. Yet Han Kang-soo himself seemed somewhat anxious, gripping and releasing the steering wheel tightly to betray his own discomfort.

“I’m sorry, I truly am sorry. You said earlier that we could see our So-jung, right? Please make sure to tell her that this useless father of hers tried so hard for her, even if it’s late.”

With those final words, he slowly took his foot off the brake and released the handbrake lever.

Leaving the interrogation room immediately, Eun-ho had rushed with Jin-tak straight to Han So-jung’s house. With a tense heart, he pressed the weathered doorbell beneath the nameplate reading [Han Kang-soo].

After the sound of the doorbell echoed a few times outside the gate, a brief silence followed. Since several days had passed since Kim Hyun-bin’s death, the possibility of flight could not be entirely ruled out. Unable to hide his anxiety, Eun-ho swallowed hard, his smooth neckline bobbing.

“Is anyone home!?”

Jin-tak shouted while rattling the blue iron gate. Perhaps due to the setting sun, the surroundings quickly grew dark, and with the chilling air, cold raindrops began to fall against Eun-ho’s cheek.

“Ah, cold. They didn’t say it was going to rain today! Eun-ho, let’s head back to the station for now. We won’t be able to force our way in unless we get a warrant or something.”

Noticing the raindrops growing ominously heavy, Jin-tak tried shielding his head with both hands.

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

Though the CCTV footage secured from Jo Ki-joon’s house was crucial, there was nothing more the two could do at this point without an issued search warrant.

Creak—

Right as they turned away, braving the suddenly intensifying rain without protection, the tightly closed old gate opened cautiously.

“Were you home alone?”

Guiding Jin-tak and Eun-ho inside the house to escape the pouring rain, Han So-jung’s mother handed them each a warm, fluffy towel straight from the dryer.

“Yes, I was doing chores around the house, so I was a bit slow to hear the doorbell. Letting you detectives get completely soaked… I really must be out of my mind, I’m so sorry.”

She spoke to Jin-tak as he ruffled his soaked hair with the towel to dry it.

“Not at all, not at all. When I’ve got my mind on other things, I can’t multitask either. Haha.” “Ah, multi… right, yes…”

While Jin-tak tossed out casual banter to ease her guard, Eun-ho slowly scanned the interior of the house. A sharp medicinal smell caught his attention. Tracing the source of the scent, Eun-ho’s eyes landed on three teacups and a handkerchief resting on the low table in the living room.

“Were there other visitors here besides us?”

As Eun-ho stepped toward the handkerchief on the table, she startled and snatched it up in a panic, hiding it behind her back. Her movements were awkwardly unnatural, instantly sharpening the gazes of the two detectives.

“Where is Han Kang-soo right now?”

Eun-ho asked, keeping his eyes lowered toward Han So-jung’s mother, who was biting her lower lip firmly with her upper teeth. Even at a glance, her lips bore a striking resemblance to the late Han So-jung’s.

“He went out… to meet a friend.” “Oh, really? Would you mind giving him a quick call? We just need to verify a simple detail.”

When Jin-tak asked with a rigid expression quite unlike his usual self, she hesitated for a moment before pulling a cell phone out of the pocket of her skirt.

“Wait, what kind of verification are you trying to do?”

Just before pressing the call button, Han So-jung’s mother stopped and asked, fueled by the desperate anxiety of the two detectives.

“We secured video footage of Han Kang-soo riding in Kim Hyun-bin’s car on the night he died. If that’s true, it’s something that requires investigation.”

At Eun-ho’s explanation, her pupils dilated and trembled violently for a split second.

“That’s impossible… There shouldn’t even have been a dashcam.”

It was a slip of the tongue spoken entirely in the subconscious, but it landed solidly in Eun-ho’s ears. The thought flashed through his mind that the whereabouts of the dashcam they had searched for so desperately might be right inside this house.

“Where is Han Kang-soo right now?”

Gripped by a chilling premonition, Eun-ho began to press Han So-jung’s mother with urgent demands.

“Well, that is… um…” “Did you kill Kim Hyun-bin to take revenge for your dead daughter, Han So-jung?!”

Struck by Eun-ho’s piercing words like a dagger, the color drained completely from her face as she had been standing precariously, and she collapsed to the floor in a heap.

“N—No, he’s not dead! Why would my daughter be dead?! He didn’t die!! Sob… No!! That’s not it!!! Uwaaaah.”

Thus began the agonizing wail of parents who had lost their child.

“Goodbye, then.”

As the slowly moving vehicle pushed aside the pile of stones blocking its front wheels and inched forward, Han Kang-soo threw open the car door and leaped out in an instant. Though the dark storm completely obscured the outside view, Miso had no doubt about her intuition: the vehicle moving forward like this was headed straight for the reservoir.

“Please open…”

Turning around in a desperate long shot, she yanked hard on the rear door handle, but cruelly enough, no miracle awaited Miso and Young-ah.

“Unni… unni, sob.”

Sensing the end, Young-ah whimpered and clung to Miso. Having exhausted all her escape attempts, Miso finally gave up everything and leaned back against Young-ah.

“Young-ah, I’m sorry. I should have given you a much prettier name…”

Miso’s warm, embracing voice mingled with Young-ah’s soft sobbing and the roaring sound of the fierce storm, filling the interior of the car. Feeling the front of the car slowly tilt downward as it picked up speed, Miso and Young-ah squeezed their eyes shut, unable to even let out a final scream.

HONK—!!!

Right at that moment, intense headlights flooded the inside of the car, illuminating Miso and Young-ah as a blaring horn sounded. Peeking through her eyes at the deafening roar, when Miso looked to the side, a blindingly bright light was already swallowing her up in an instant.