Unwelcome

We didn't want to wait any longer, lest we lose the chance of saving Min Gyeong. None of us was sure whether Elizabeth Báthory's gory history could be our clue to finding Min Gyeong. Or even the motive behind Min Gyeong's abduction. But we were determined to go to Sangpan-ri—and we needed good preparation. The trip could cost us a good seven hours (more or less) on the road. We needed to be prepared for whatever might happen because we still didn't know what exactly we were dealing with. What if Min Gyeong wasn't in Sangpan-ri? Who were those tattooed men, and why did they kidnap, even murder, young, innocent women? What did all these have to do with the history of Elizabeth Báthory?

Yeo Joon gave the handbag and the suitcase he found in the abandoned building to Min Gi. The handbag was too wrecked—whatever inside it had become ashes just like Yeo Joon said. Even so, he had saved the ID card by putting it in clear plastic. The suitcase probably got burned, too, but Min Gyeong's name written next to the lock could still be read, although it was fading. Finding these things only added more to our confusion and led to another question: why did they try to set Min Gyeong's stuff ablaze? Did they also hurt Min Gyeong in the process?

In the end, we didn't waste more time. Soon before noon we packed our necessities and left Seoul. We knew that, by the time we reached Sangpan-ri, it'd be dark already, but we figured that it'd best to find Min Gyeong as soon as possible, even if we also risked our lives in the process. Min Gi and Yeo Joon asked me to stay behind at the apartment. If something happened, they'd call me. In turn, I had to call for the police's help. But I insisted on coming with them, and they could do nothing to change my mind.

We only stopped occasionally to relieve our bladder and quickly got back into Min Gi's truck. We were too busy with our own thoughts to even mention meals. The traffic in Seoul was as jammed as it gets; some places were packed with tourists still spending the last days of summer before it ended. I saw that some of the tourists were not Korean. Were they aware of the women gone missing lately? Did they know that Seoul was not safe for everyone, especially for women at night?

Probably not. All the tourists seemed to enjoy their time here. And they couldn't care less about the news. Also, the government might have pressed the media not to get too deep into details. There was still some news about the lost women, but somehow, they'd made it flit past the ears of these tourists, even the Koreans. As if women went missing was something natural, a part of our daily life. Sometimes, on TV, there were some people who would say that those missing women were not "good women." They were gone because they had done immoral deeds, so the guilty ones were them. Why would those girls and women go outside their house, anyway? What were they doing in the middle of the night? People argued about such questions and gender issues, but I'd long stopped thinking about it. It's never my place to judge whether a woman is a good woman if she likes to spend some time outside her home at night.

At some point, I fell asleep, and when I opened my eyes, it was dark already. It got colder, too, so I grabbed my jacket and put it on. The truck was just turning left onto a short path. Then Min Gi stopped the engine.

"Where are we now?" I asked Min Gi and Yeo Joon.

"We've reached Sangpan-ri," said Yeo Joon, "and this is the building I talked about."

The "building" that Yeo Joon talked about was, in reality, more like a house. It was old and huge, ruined, too, probably one of those houses where it used to be inhabited by families of several generations. Now it had been abandoned. There were no lamps outside. The only light came from Min Gi's truck. We could see the front door of it, or the place where the front door used to be, and the vast hall inside.

Yeo Joon, Min Gi, and I scrambled for our flashlights and got out of the truck. My flashlight's beam was rather vague, but Yeo Joon and Min Gi's flashlights were much brighter. As long as I stayed close to them, I didn't need to worry.

Min Gi and I followed Yeo Joon as he showed us where he found Lee Young's body and Min Gyeong's suitcase. It was the backyard, the wall around it had crumbled down and we could glimpse at the thick forest surrounding this house. The closest neighbor's house was probably miles away from here. There was nothing else to be seen there—except the tall grass growing from the concrete and trash scattered on the floor.

"Where did you put Lee Young's body?" I heard Min Gi asking Yeo Joon.

"I brought her to the mountain and looked for a secluded spot where tourists didn't come often. Buried her there myself," replied Yeo Joon. "It'll be more complicated if I just casually go to the police station and tell them I found a dead lady. They'll somehow track the connection between me and Lee Young."

Min Gi agreed, but I didn't listen to their discussion anymore. Something inside the room to my left had caught my eyes. The movement was brief. Probably a cat or a rat, but I was curious. I pointed my flashlight to that room and walked cautiously to it.

Yet, as I reached the room, it was empty. Only more trash and a sleeping bag. Probably homeless people also used this place to sleep. I turned around to go back to Min Gi and Yeo Joon, but something hard knocked me down on the nape, and I didn't have the chance to scream before darkness fully engulfed me.