Seoul Object Story

It was really quiet.

There I stood, in a cobblestone square smeared with blood, lighting my pipe like it was any other Tuesday. The camp in front of me was steeped in an eerie silence, the kind that makes you question your own heartbeat.

It was perfect silence. Not even a cricket had the guts the chirp.

The only thing breaking the monotony was the occasional whisper of the wind through the alleys and the slow, creeping shadows.

All the residents were dead.

This camp, lively and bursting with excitement just yesterday, had transformed into a graveyard, with the buildings serving as the tombstones. The silence was so thick, that even the sound of my own heartbeat seemed too loud.

The only ones left were the ninja wannabes, who had melted into the darkness like it was their natural habitat. I knew there was one lurking in the corner of this square, watching me.

He was one of the silent assassins who had slaughtered every resident here, yet here I was, wearing a bright yellow suit and my pipe, still, I was completely ignored. His eyes, though, were glued to me.

It seemed their mission was to wipe out the camp’s inhabitants. Yet after turning Gyeyangsan camp into Gyeyangsan cemetery, they kept scuttling around, looking for something.

I had a hunch. What these ninja wannabes were after, was an ‘Unusual event’ in this camp. And that ‘Unusual event’ was the key to solving my client’s case.

Bang-!

A gunshot shattered the camp’s eerie calm. If those ninja wannabes weren’t actually breaking the ‘sacred laws of genre continuity’ and actually packing heat, then it had to be from the revolver I handed to Junior No. 2.

Hmm, the shot came from farther than I’d expected.

As if pre-planned, like me those ninja wannabes took off toward the sound.

Bang-! Bang-!

Even more shots rang out.

Was my junior in deeper trouble than I thought? The revolver had six bullets tops, so she must’ve emptied the chamber.

I followed the shots to a building cluttered with construction materials. Just as I was considering scaling the heap, a shrill whistle sliced through the air.

Fweeeeeet-!

The sound was ear-splitting.

The ninjas, both the hidden ones and those scrambling over the materials, froze and then started moving somewhere. The number of ninjas was quite large—twice as many as I expected.

All of them were headed north.

From my little knowledge, all there was in the north was a sewer entrance that led to a large underground waterway. Could there be something down there?

With that lingering thought, I strolled into the clearing the ninjas had left behind.