Unfinished

Many hours later, we were back in Seoul. The dawn was just breaking when we finally got into Min Gi's apartment, but between Min Gyeong and I, none of us cared about time anymore. We were both beyond exhausted and still hurting physically. Our brains were too muddled to perceive anything. Both of us just wished to wash and sleep in a warm, soft bed, and that's precisely what we did in the first hour after we arrived at Min Gi's apartment. He allowed us to sleep in his bed, and we instantly collapsed side-to-side in it, hair still dripping wet. In reality, we were also hungry, but that could wait until later.

It felt like heaven, after a long time away, being trapped inside the dank dungeon. We would later learn that we had been imprisoned for almost two months. It's funny that it was already autumn when we got back. It seemed not so long ago that it was still summer.

While we slept, Min Gi and Yeo Joon went to the Seoul police. Originally, the police requested Min Gyeong and me to come to the station once we reached Seoul. But Yeo Joon convinced them to allow us to have some rest first before the police questioned us. In turn, he and Min Gi would go to the police instead. They promised to explain everything at the station. The detective (apparently Yeo Joon's friend back when he was still an officer because Yeo Joon was acting friendly toward him, but I didn't catch his name) reluctantly agreed to let us stay home. Even so, he proposed a condition that Min Gyeong and I would come to the station tomorrow. We all knew there was no other choice, so we accepted the idea. After taking us to the apartment, Min Gi and Yeo Joon left straight to the police. They only went back when it was almost midnight. They didn't bother to go upstairs—they chose to crash at the downstairs office.

In the morning, around six, we heard banging on the door, and without our permission, two police officers went inside the bedroom to wake us up. Min Gyeong was very mad when they barged in and forced us to be prepared five minutes before they took us to the police station. I was only half-awake; however, we dressed immediately and went downstairs to the office, where we met Min Gi and Yeo Joon. They were already awake, and to my surprise, they also came along with us, only in a different car with different officers.

Nobody asked us if we wanted breakfast first. Only after Min Gyeong protested she wouldn't cooperate without eating first that the detective (Yeo Joon's friend from yesterday. His full name was Choi Shin Yook) commanded his subordinate to order a take-out. It was tasteless, but I ate it anyway without thinking about the taste too much.

Although the police promised us that the interrogation wouldn't take more than an hour or two, it ended nearly twelve hours later, which irritated Min Gyeong very much. In the end, she locked her mouth and wouldn't say a thing to the detectives. I was also annoyed with the way they treated us, but I still replied to their questions. Or repeated them to be exact, in shorter sentences. When it was seven p.m., we were allowed to leave with Min Gi. We didn't see Yeo Joon anywhere, and Min Gi said Yeo Joon would probably have to stay overnight at the station. So, we went home without Yeo Joon, too tired to talk about everything.

We fell asleep together on the couch, excluding Min Gi who fell asleep on the kitchen table. We didn't wake up at the same time, but by the time we were all awake and feeling famished, it was two p.m. We missed dinner last night and breakfast this morning. There was no sign of Yeo Joon in the apartment or at the office, and he hadn't called either. Min Gyeong offered to order us pizza, and we instantly agreed. We were starving and didn't really care about the menu, as long as there was food. We waited for the pizza to come impatiently, and when it finally came, we gobbled it down.

After we were satisfied, I mumbled to no one in particular, "So, what now?"

Min Gyeong shrugged, while Min Gi said, "They told us to wait."

"Wait for what?"

Now he was shrugging. "I don't know. Hell, I don't know what they meant by 'waiting.' It was all clear from the beginning."

"What do you mean, 'clear from the beginning?'" I frowned.

Min Gi sighed, rubbing his face. He was exhausted, hadn't shaved for days, and had thick bags under his eyes. "Do you remember the number you gave to me, that you said belonged to the photographer's agent in Seoul? You got that from Min Gyeong's manager."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. To be honest, my brain was a jumble of mess. My sense of time was lost as if the past and the present had overlapped. But I nodded anyway.

Then Min Gi continued, "When we lost you at that empty house in Sangpan-ri, we didn't have a choice but to go back to Seoul for a while. A couple of men attacked us back in Sangpan-ri, at the same time you were taken. We beat them and escaped. We knew that we needed to do something to find you. We didn't know what to do back then, but I remembered that we still had that phone number."

"But you couldn't call it," I said. "No one answered that number."

"True," Min Gi agreed. "But Yeo Joon can track the number, and he found the owner. Or, as he said, he pinpointed the location where the phone call was last made. It took us some time before we found the guy. The point is, once we found the owner, we decided to follow him around for a few days. Unfortunately, he knew that he was being followed, so we almost got busted. Luckily, at the same time that night, we glimpsed his tattoo on his forearm. It was covered by many other tattoos, but it was definitely the Báthory's coat of arms."

"Was that the man who invited girls to be models and actors?" I asked, recalling Yeo Joon's story.

"Maybe," Min Gi shook his head, unsure about his word himself. "Yeo Joon then contacted Captain Choi. They used to work together on the kidnapping cases before Yeo Joon resigned. Captain Choi was, in the beginning, confused when Yeo Joon asked him about the kidnapping cases. They had closed the cases many months ago—that was what prompted Yeo Joon to quit the police—but Yeo Joon told him that he might have found a clue. That's how the three of us followed the man when he kidnapped a girl, brought her in a car away from Seoul until we reached Hwaak-ri, where we found you with hundreds of other girls."

Min Gi got up and took his beer bottle from the fridge, gulping half its content. "Captain Choi was really mad at Yeo Joon for acting foolishly by himself, trying to solve the kidnapping cases alone and not according to the law protocols. But once he realized that we had spotted the right place, that we finally solved the case, he called a back-up. That's how we came to save both of you. Mind you, it took a long time to figure out what we had to do. Most of the time we spent spying on this mysterious man who scouted girls around the city—just to be sure that we had the right person—that's why we needed almost two months to find you."

"And I guess you not only found us but also realized another thing," Min Gyeong said.

"To be precise, it was Captain Choi who realized it. He was aware of who he'd see inside the building in Hwaak-ri when he saw the cars parked in front of it."

"He knew the owners of the cars?" I asked.

"Yes. They belonged to the wealthy people in this country. The women you saw in the building's hall? They were all Korean top female politicians and entrepreneurs, and one of them was our First Lady."

Min Gyeong's mouth was open wide. "What the hell? So, our First Lady participated in killing those innocent girls?"

Min Gi's face was grim. "More like helped to cover the tracks, actually. First Lady and other wealthy women in Korea had provided support for this unknown crazy woman who called herself 'Elizabeth Báthory'—money, house, and probably also her bodyguards—and this Elizabeth was the one who plotted the kidnapping and murdering of the girls. It's still a big question how they met Elizabeth, and how, for some reason, those well-off ladies trusted her blindly to make them young and beautiful forever." Min Gi shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe they got charmed by Elizabeth's idea, that by drinking girls' blood they could conjure their dream into reality. Captain Choi knows all this and still is too cautious, that's why he asked us to wait. This is a difficult case, involving great people who rule this country, and he wants to handle this case carefully."

He chugged down his beer. "Well, he, too, gave me a hard time yesterday, because I killed Elizabeth. But it was an act of defense—I was just protecting Min Gyeong."

No one said anything for a long time. It was already dark outside, rush hour time. I nibbled on another pizza. "So, who was this Elizabeth, really? And how long has she been conducting her … cult?"

"Hm, that's another biggest question," replied Min Gi. "Who was Elizabeth actually? We know that she was clearly not Hungarian, but she was familiar with the infamous legend of Elizabeth Báthory. She even trusted the legend and practiced it in the present time. So far, the forensics are still doing the autopsy. We won't know the result any time soon. And the police are still deep into the investigation. They don't want to spill anything out, or there will be meddlesome journalists interrupting their work."

"But, sooner or later the world will know," Min Gyeong said. "It's just a matter of time before someone blabs about a criminal case involving famous people. All hell will break loose by that time."

"Of course," Min Gi nodded, "but don't forget, sooner or later, nosy people will also find our names in it."

Min Gyeong groaned, but I didn't listen to their chitchat. My mind wandered to the girls who were imprisoned with us. What happened to them now? I asked myself. Where were they? What were they doing? Were they safe at home? We didn't get to say goodbye when we were still in Hwaak-ri. We were too spent, too busy with ourselves. Even when we were told by the paramedics to go to the hospital to check our wounds, in case there were deeper ones, we didn't pay attention.

Oh, and there was also the problem with this mysterious person called Hong Joon by Elizabeth. I told Captain Choi about the name, but they still couldn't figure it out.

"Same goes to the men who worked for Elizabeth," Min Gi continued. "Police are still interrogating them. Nearly the entire people are not Korean, but it looks like someone has been teaching them to speak Korean fluently so they could talk and bait young women to be Elizabeth's victims. At least, that's what I know from Yeo Joon's story."

"What about the men I saw in Min Gyeong's apartment?" I suddenly remembered that horrifying night when I saw unknown people inside Min Gyeong's room. "What were they actually doing that night?"

Min Gi drank his second beer. "Ah, there has been no news about it until now. I think Choi was right after all. That all we can do now is just wait. But I suspected those guys were ordered to wipe out traces of Min Gyeong's identity, so no one will be able to recognize her, in case someone found her body. But it's just my thought. Seoul police were in the middle of contacting Daegu police when we left last night, so they're probably looking into Min Gyeong's apartment right now."

We talked for about half an hour more before we got tired. The night was getting late, so we said good night to each other and went to bed. I heard Min Gi talking to Yeo Joon on the phone as he went to the kitchen, but he said nothing afterward, and I asked nothing. We were all still too tired. But, judging from Min Gi's face, tomorrow would be another long day for us. And perhaps many more days ahead.