June 17, 2021
Ian's Residence
Ian couldn't take his eyes off the screen of his cellphone, which was now displaying a story about the gumiho figure that Min Hyung had told the other day. He got the link to the story directly from Min Hyung because he was very curious about the gumiho story. After he read the whole story, he realized that the story was one hundred percent similar to Emma's old life, even down to the names of the characters in the story being the same as the names mentioned by Emma.
He wondered, why did that happen? Why is this story the same as Emma's story from two hundred years ago? Is it just a coincidence? Or could it be that Emma had read this story and then told it as if it were her life story? No, that's not possible. When he heard Emma's story, he was one hundred percent sure that it was indeed his old story. Could there be a living witness?
The young man shook his head. It seems even more unlikely that someone would know a story that happened hundreds of years ago. He had to find out why he wrote such a story.
"What are you reading?"
Seo Joon's question that comes up to him makes Ian turn off his phone and keep it on the sofa behind him. His friends are still at home, they want to accompany him until the evening so said Su Bin who is currently engrossed in playing video games with Min Hyung.
"It's nothing," Ian replies as he accepts the juice Seo Joon gave him. Coincidentally, Yoo Ri and Min Jee are making juice in the kitchen because they had time to buy fruits before going to her house.
"That's it," said Seo Joon, who was sitting next to his friend. "By the way, I'm still curious about your attitude right now."
"Attitude? Which attitude?" Ian asked, pretending he didn't remember.
"Don't pretend you don't remember," Seo Joon protests. "You were like a confused person when you saw us coming. You also seem to be avoiding us and your face," he said, pointing to Ian's face. "Your face very clearly shows a sense of regret."
Ian was silent. He didn't know what to say to Seo Joon. It is also impossible to say what really happened, when his friends seem to have completely forgotten the events of yesterday.
"Well, if you don't want to answer, no problem. It's just that, please don't harbor your problems alone, you better tell your friends or maybe Emma," Seo Joon said as he patted his friend on the shoulder. In the end, the young man gave up trying to find out the reason for Ian's strange attitude.
Ian sighed softly and drank his watermelon juice. The young man's attention was drawn to Su Bin who looked perfectly fine. He wanted to ask if Su Bin knew about Park Soo Young's case or not. But he refutes his intention, he is afraid that Su Bin does not know about Lee Soo Young's case.
"Lee Soo Young is dead," Seo Joon's words suddenly made Ian turn to him. "She was the victim of this serial killer."
"Then Su Bin? Does he know?" asked Ian. Thank goodness Seo Joon touched on the matter, so he didn't have to ask Su Bin directly.
Seo Joon nodded his head. "Yes, he found out last night from the news. After knowing that, he went to the funeral home, after which he took Min Hyung and me to Tae Hyung's bar. There he got very drunk and poured out his grief."
Ian took another breath. His attention returned to Su Bin, who looked fine, but he was sure his heart must still be grieving over the death of the woman the young man liked. He felt even more remorse and guilt for Su Bin.
***
Jung Family Residence
Jung Young Dae stared at the lighted screen of his laptop. He wanted to find something on the internet, but he was still hesitant to look it up. The thing he wanted to look for was the gumiho story that Ji Young had mentioned the other day. Somehow after the events of Lee Soo Young, curiosity about the story just grew in him.
After steadying his heart, Young Dae's fingers finally began to move over the laptop keyboard, typing in the keyword he needed-gumiho. The results of his search were apparently numerous, but there was only one that caught his attention. He immediately opened an article that caught his attention. Young Dae seriously began to read the contents of the article. A fine wrinkle appeared on his forehead as he was astonished by its contents.
In the article he is reading the author lists the years experienced by the gumiho. This makes it seem as if the author is a living witness of the gumiho. In addition, in the article, the author tells of the death of a girl with a heart missing for hundreds of years. At that time, the authorities in each year never knew who the culprit was, which was actually the gumiho.
The case is indeed the same as the one he is handling at this time. However, he didn't want to be too quick to believe that the current case's culprit was a gumiho as well. Maybe it would be more logical if the culprit was someone who trafficked human organs, like Yoo Eun said.
Young Dae opened a new tab to look for other articles that might be the same as the first article he read. But the result is nothing, only the article itself tells such a story. This made him very curious, as if there was a mystery to be solved in the article.
One eyebrow was raised when he found a story about gumiho, which apparently came from the same blog as the previous article. He quickly opened the story. Apparently, the story he read is much clearer in terms of the depiction of the gumiho figure named Lee Myeong. He scrolled his mouse until the end of the story, where there was the name of the author, even with the author's email address.
Soon, Young Dae opened his email and sent a message to the writer to ask him to meet. Hopefully the author's email address is still active. He must find out the truth behind all this so that he can sleep peacefully. He let out a rough breath, then leaned his back on the back of the chair with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"Moon Tae Shik, did he base this article and story on facts, or ... just his imagination?" he muttered, while continuing to pay attention to the name of the author of the blog, which is listed in the lower right corner of the article.