By early morning, Gwanghwamun Square had grown much quieter.
A few hours ago, chaos had raged—chaos so hellish it defied belief—but it had subsided as if it had never been real. Now, where the cold air had cleared away the fog, only a pale dawn light remained.
Yellow police tape cordoned off the square on all sides, and shards of broken glass and discarded personal belongings lay strewn across the ground.
On any other day, the street would be bustling with the morning rush of commuters. Now, however, an icy silence prevailed, broken only by the busy movements of police officers and forensic investigators.
Yet in contrast to the calm morning outside, the atmosphere inside the local precinct's meeting room was as tense as if everyone were standing on thin ice.
Jeong Hae-jun slowly let his gaze sweep over the faces of his colleagues. In the span of a single night, they had all turned ashen.
"I know you're all exhausted. But we have a long day ahead of us—we'll have to push through," he said, his voice low and grave.
No one replied. The only response was the heavy gaze of eyes weighed down by fatigue.
Jeong Hae-jun himself hadn't slept a wink since the red fog incident, but at this moment, understanding the case took priority above all else.
He decided to split the team into two groups. "Choi Do-yoon, Yoon Tae-shik—you two go to the hospital and take statements from the injured and any witnesses. Detective Park Jae-min and I will handle analyzing the evidence from the scene."
At Jeong's instruction, everyone nodded in agreement.
Yoon Tae-shik stood up, clutching the shoulder that was still tightly wrapped in bandages. The fact that he was even standing at all—so soon after surgery—felt like a miracle.
Choi Do-yoon said worriedly, "Detective Yoon, your condition... you really should still be resting."
But Yoon Tae-shik, his face bloodless, answered with a faint smile. "I'm fine. Everyone's struggling—I can't be the only one sitting out."
At his unyielding stance, Choi Do-yoon couldn't continue to argue. He simply lowered his head.
Jeong Hae-jun regarded Yoon Tae-shik in silence for a moment. He understood his colleague's stubbornness; by now, this entire detective squad was, for all intents and purposes, bound by a shared fate.
"Just don't overdo it... alright?" Jeong said gently.
"Understood, sir," Yoon Tae-shik replied.
At Jeong's quiet urging, Yoon Tae-shik gave a short nod and stepped out of the meeting room. Choi Do-yoon quickly hurried after him.
Now only Jeong Hae-jun, Park Jae-min, and a single member of the forensics team remained.
"Let's start with the crime scene analysis report," Jeong said, turning to the forensics officer.
The female technician gave the documents in her hand a quick once-over, then spoke in a calm, steady voice. "The initial analysis just came in. Both the air samples and the residue showed nothing unusual. No toxic gas, no narcotic hallucinogens... no traces of any such substance were detected."
Jeong Hae-jun's expression hardened at the report. Park Jae-min looked disappointed as well. "That can't be... It triggered such powerful hallucinations, yet there's no chemical agent at all?" he murmured in disbelief.
"However..." the woman continued. "We did collect a few red particles from cracks in the ground at the scene. They're not typical dust or soil, so we've requested a detailed analysis from the National Forensic Service."
She held up a small evidence bag. Inside were a few specks that looked like sparkling red powder. At a glance, the particles were bright red—like ruby dust.
Jeong Hae-jun took the bag and held it up to the light. As he did, the red granules inside the finger-sized bag glimmered faintly, then the glow faded, only to flicker into light again.
"What on earth... is this?" he murmured to himself.
It certainly seemed connected to the red fog, but there was no definitive evidence yet.
"We'll let you know as soon as we hear back from the lab," the forensic agent said. Jeong Hae-jun nodded and handed the evidence bag back to her.
"Thank you for your work. Please keep on this," he said.
At his thanks, the young woman stood up, her face still stiff with unease. "Honestly, this is the first time we've ever seen a case like this..." she admitted, her words trailing off as a look of bewilderment crossed her face. "There are even rumors going around that it's like people were possessed by a ghost, so everyone's pretty shaken up."
That last remark came out in a voice clearly tinged with fear. Forcing a calm expression, Jeong Hae-jun replied firmly, "We will uncover the truth behind this."
The woman managed a small nod, looking slightly relieved, then hurried out of the meeting room.
As the door closed, only Jeong Hae-jun and Park Jae-min were left. Park Jae-min exhaled a long, deep sigh and sank back against his chair.
"Sir... is it really possible nothing will come up? If this can't be explained by science, then...?" He didn't finish his sentence—he couldn't bring himself to say what if it's something supernatural? out loud.
But Jeong Hae-jun understood what he meant; he couldn't shake the same thought himself. "I don't know. But we have to do what we can," Jeong said quietly.
He turned toward Park. "Detective Park, have we secured any CCTV footage?"
Park Jae-min pointed to a few USB drives lying on the desk. "Yes. I got the CCTV from a convenience store and a bank building near Gwanghwamun Square. Vehicle traffic is restricted in the area, so we haven't received any dashcam footage yet."
He opened his laptop and began to play the footage. On the screen, the midnight scene of Gwanghwamun Square appeared from several different angles. At first, the quiet streets looked completely normal.
But once midnight passed, the video image gradually began to take on a reddish hue.
—Kzzzt, kzzzt...
Sudden static crackled, and the picture distorted with noise. The entire view of the square on screen warped, the colors bleeding into red—
"Look at this," Park said, pausing the video. Jeong Hae-jun leaned in closer.
At the center of the frame, in the middle of the square, something stood there—faint and blurry. At first, it looked like it might have been a shadow, perhaps a trick of the malfunctioning camera.
But on closer inspection, it was the silhouette of a person. What's more, it was a pitch-black figure of unnaturally tall stature.
For an instant, the camera view clouded over, as if a red fog had swirled across the lens, blurring everything—and in the very next moment, the figure vanished without a trace.
Jeong Hae-jun and Park Jae-min locked eyes.
"You saw that... right? There was definitely something there," Park said, his voice trembling slightly.
Jeong Hae-jun rewound the footage and replayed that moment over and over. It was far too tall to be a normal human, and the outlines of its head and limbs were strangely indistinct.
"It's like... a ghost," Park whispered.
Without a word, Jeong Hae-jun closed the laptop.
"In the witness statements, they all mentioned a 'tall black figure,' right?" Jeong said, recalling what the forensics team had told him earlier. Each person's hallucinations had been different in detail, but everyone had reported seeing an unknown black shadow within the red fog. He had half-dismissed it amid the chaos at the time, but now that it was even confirmed on video, a chill ran down his spine.
"If that's a real human, we have to catch them, and if it isn't..." Jeong let his words trail off, swallowing the rest. If it wasn't human, then what on earth was it?
Park Jae-min closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his forehead. "So the culprit who drove people insane was that black figure... But the police can't very well go chasing after ghosts...." He gave a bitter laugh, but it was filled with unease.
Jeong Hae-jun's thoughts were tangled as well. That figure captured on the CCTV defied any easy explanation.
Hallucination ghost...
Suddenly, he recalled something the enigmatic man called Fog had said—the warning of a Specter's shadow, possibly watching them from the darkness not far away.
Jeong Hae-jun abruptly jumped to his feet, as if to shake off the eerie chill creeping over him. "For now, let's compile everything we've analyzed so far and share it. Also, try to secure more footage from the vicinity—we need to find out when and where the fog first appeared," he said decisively.
"Yes, I'll request additional videos right away," Park replied, rising from his seat as well.
Jeong checked the time and his missed calls on his phone. There was still no word from Yoon Tae-shik or Choi Do-yoon at the hospital; it seemed the witness interviews were taking a while.
"Should I give them a call?" Park asked.
Jeong shook his head. "No, they'll contact us soon. Let's keep focused on our work for now."
He walked up to the chalkboard in the room and began jotting down the key details of the case. Red fog. Simultaneous mass hallucinations. A tall black figure sighted... and Lee Seo-ha.
Pieces of a massive puzzle were scattered everywhere—that much was clear.
He remembered the haunting whisper that had swirled in his ears all through the night: Lee Seo-ha... that woman is the key.
Tightening his grip on the chalk, Jeong Hae-jun wrote in one corner of the board: Lee Seo-ha – Missing Person Case.
Seoul Central Hospital emergency room corridor.
By morning, even this place—which had been packed with patients and witnesses brought in overnight—was slowly regaining a sense of calm. Along the corridor benches, people sat draped in blankets, staring blankly up at the ceiling. Most of them were those who had endured the bizarre hallucinations at Gwanghwamun Square. Nurses bustled about, administering sedative injections to some patients or hurriedly calling their family members on the phone.
Yoon Tae-shik walked down the corridor, his left arm in a temporary cast. Waves of pain throbbed through his injured shoulder and arm, but he gritted his teeth and bore it. Beside him, Choi Do-yoon followed along, carrying a small notepad.
"Sir, maybe we should take a short break. You don't look well...," Choi said, eyes full of concern. But Yoon Tae-shik shook his head.
"I'm fine. Besides, the moment I close my eyes, it's nothing but nightmares... I'd rather keep moving," he replied.
In truth, deep shadows had settled under Yoon Tae-shik's eyes. His body was far from healed, but he was determined not to let any clue to the case slip away.
"First, let's find out how the witnesses are doing," Yoon said. He headed toward a makeshift interview room that had been set up in one corner of the ER. Inside, a few civilian witnesses had finished receiving basic treatment and were waiting to give their statements to the police.
The first person he saw was a middle-aged woman with graying hair, a blanket over her shoulders as she sat hunched and quietly sobbing.
"Let's start with her," Yoon Tae-shik whispered. At his signal, Choi Do-yoon cautiously approached the woman.
"Ma'am... may we speak with you for a moment? We're with the police," Choi said gently.
At his soft voice, the woman wiped her tears and looked up. Yoon Tae-shik and Choi Do-yoon both sat down across from her, moving slowly so as not to startle her.
"Could you tell us your name and what you experienced?" Yoon asked in as warm a tone as he could manage.
The woman brushed aside her disheveled hair, and answered in a trembling voice. "I... I clean a building near Gwanghwamun. I was on my way to work early this morning, and... I got caught in that fog... that fog surrounded me...."
As the words left her, she suddenly began to shiver. The memory itself seemed almost too horrifying to bear.
"Take your time. It's alright," Choi Do-yoon said, quickly placing a bottle of water in her hand.
The woman took a sip and managed to steady herself enough to continue. "The fog was so thick I couldn't see a thing. It got so hard to breathe that I collapsed to the ground... and then... then right in front of me...."
Her eyes went wide with fear.
"Right in front of me... my dead husband appeared...!" she cried out at last.
As her wail echoed down the corridor, even a nearby nurse stopped in her tracks, startled.
"Y-your... dead husband?" Yoon Tae-shik repeated in disbelief.
At that, the woman covered her face with shaking hands. "Yes... he passed away three years ago. But in the fog he was coming toward me. His face was all rotten, like a decaying corpse... and his eyes—he was looking at me like he resented me..." Her voice broke into sobs.
She couldn't finish and dissolved into tears. Yoon Tae-shik and Choi Do-yoon were at a loss for words. A ghostly vision of her deceased husband...?
Yoon felt a cold sweat trickle down his back.
"By any chance... did you see anyone or anything else around you then? Any other person or figure? A black shape, perhaps...?" Choi Do-yoon asked carefully.
Sniffling, the woman dabbed at her tears and nodded. "I did... I saw it. Behind my husband—there was this huge, tall black shadow standing there. It wasn't... it wasn't human..."
As she groped through her memories, a look of fear flickered across her pale, tear-streaked face. "That figure started moving around... and then my husband's image disappeared... and I don't really remember what happened after that. When I came to, I was in an ambulance."
She finished her story, choking on a sob.
At that very moment, a sudden commotion erupted from the direction of the emergency room.
"Aaagh! Uwaaahh!"
A piercing scream and the crash of something hitting the floor resounded through the corridor. In a split second, Yoon Tae-shik and Choi Do-yoon snapped their heads toward the sound.
They immediately turned and sprinted toward the ER. There, a young man had just bolted upright from his bed.
"No! Don't come near me! I said stay back!" the man was shouting, as if seeing something that wasn't there. He was clearly not in his right mind, screaming at empty air.
Two nurses rushed over to subdue him, but the man swung his arms wildly. The moment he clambered off the bed, he stumbled—then wrenched free of their grip and tried to bolt down the corridor.