Seoul Object Story

A seemingly gaunt high school student hurried along the school road amidst the chilly morning air. He hadn’t slept well due to a persistent, unsettling nightmare, and the cold seeped through his uniform. Buttoning his collar tightly, he hurried to the school.

As he rushed along, he saw a crowd gathered in the middle of the road, causing a commotion. The throng was near the entrance of the unnecessarily long, and high stairs that he had to climb to go to school.

The stairs were so steep and dangerous that people often slipped and fell, so he thought that maybe someone had fallen while rushing down the stairs.

“Another serial murder case.”

“Seriously?”

However, as the gaunt student approached the scene, the other students’ murmurings overturned his earlier prediction.

The police and people gathered in droves. The barricades were set up as if they were there to completely block the road.

Contrary to the student’s expectations, it seemed like a serious incident. It must be related to the ‘serial murder’ that had been appearing in the news and rumors lately.

A murder case targeting a person walking around alone after 6 PM in Mapo-gu. It was a large-scale case with over 10 victims already, and with new victims appearing every day, the entire Mapo-gu area was gripped by fear.

Since not only schools and academies, but even convenience stores closed before 6 PM, even the gaunt student who had little interest in the case found out about it. Everyone at school was scared, but the gaunt student clearly thought it was just a one-time incident.

With this much interest and how focused the investigative power was, he thought it was only a matter of time before the murderer was caught. Well, it was surprising that he hadn’t been caught yet.

“Haaaaaah.”

The tired student yawned and stood in line behind the crowded students. He didn’t want to stand in such a bothersome line, but he had no choice. If he didn’t go to school through the stairs, he would have walked longer.

The stairs that he had to go through to get to school.

And the sidewalk that had become narrow thanks to the barrier.

For those two reasons, the students had no choice but to go around the barrier of the murder scene and line up.

As he got closer to the stairs, a scene from his nightmare that had become blurry began to come back to him.

The yellow full moon shone down on the stairs.

A puddle of blood.

And the stairs overflowing with blood.

He looked up at the moon in the sky which seemed to be laughing.

When he absentmindedly looked at the scene which was circled by a barrier, it seemed like a puddle of blood was bubbling up on the empty asphalt.

Then, the decapitated man’s head floated in the puddle of blood.

The smell of blood seemed to spread so much that it made it hard for him to breathe, so the student closed his eyes and shook his head.

It’s because I can’t sleep. It’s because I’m tired.

When he opened his eyes again, the puddle of blood was nowhere to be found. However, he now could see a strange man wearing a large helmet turned towards him.

“Student, are you sick?”

The student looked down and saw a tag on the man’s clothes.