Kang Ji-yoon stared at the scene before her in shock and despair. When the coroner, Lee collapsed, she saw it, she saw the ghost of Lee's wife. The ghost's makeup and appearance were extremely strange, even somewhat grotesque, completely unlike what Lee's wife looked like when she was alive.
And at that moment, the police officer and his assistant finally arrived, but after seeing the situation, they didn't think too deeply about it.
They arrested Kang Ji-yoon on the spot. After all, the only people present were Lee and her—if it wasn't Kang Ji-yoon, then who else could the culprit be?
Thus, Kang Ji-yoon was taken into custody at the police station as a suspect. The police officer immediately began questioning her.
Although Kang Ji-yoon insisted that she had gone to save Lee based on details from a comic, the officer didn't believe her at all.
Instead, he took out evidence showing that on the night of the female team leader's death, Kang Ji-yoon's car had been near the company. He claimed Kang Ji-yoon had been digging into people's private lives and then murdering them according to scenes in her comic—turning their stories into content to earn money.
And to be fair, although this officer had a rather unpleasant personality, his interrogation skills were indeed quite impressive. Coupled with the fact that Kang Ji-yoon had already become mentally unstable after witnessing the ghost of Lee's wife, she was in a fragile state. Under the officer's intense pressure, she finally broke down mentally.
"It wasn't me… it wasn't drawn by me… I plagiarized it."
Her words stunned the officer completely.
Kang Ji-yoon then explained everything that had happened back then.
A year ago, she finally signed with the female team leader's company and began publishing her own comic series. However, during that period, she suffered a terrible creative block—she couldn't draw anything. At that critical moment, she suddenly received an anonymous email.
The email contained a series of incredibly compelling comic story ideas. They had never appeared anywhere in the market before. After hesitating for a moment, Kang Ji-yoon decided to plagiarize all of it into her own comic. She achieved huge success, but everything she drew had been stolen from those anonymous materials.
Meanwhile, the police officer's assistant was in the car reading the comic. He suspected the comic might be tied to unresolved incidents from the past. But as soon as he began reading, he discovered that one of the stories depicted was his own.
A few years ago, before he had stable work, the assistant finally passed the civil service exam. He was ecstatic, and late that night, he was driving while chatting with his girlfriend through his Bluetooth earphones, excitedly sharing the good news. But while driving, he became distracted for a moment. That moment of distraction caused him to hit something.
Horrified, he got out of the car to look. After searching around, the only thing he saw on the ground was a bag of tofu. At that same moment, it began to rain.
Later, a knocking on his window startled him awake. It was the broadband technician he had called earlier—the same person he needed to help track the anonymous email sender's IP address.
The technician traced the origin, and it led to an apartment in "Happiness Residential Complex." When another staff member heard that name, his expression changed and he immediately wanted to leave.
Sensing something was off, the assistant hurried after him to stop him and questioned him. Only then did that staff member reveal the truth: the Happiness Residential Complex was haunted, and its ghost stories came from incidents many years ago.
Back then, there was a young girl living in the complex, known for drawing on the walls. One day, another girl really did die in a manner similar to one of those drawings. Rumors spread that the place was haunted. Later, a fire broke out in the complex, and that young girl went missing.
After gathering this information, the police officer continued the investigation and learned that the missing girl was not Kang Ji-yoon, but Lee's daughter. During the time Lee's daughter lived there, Kang Ji-yoon also lived at that same complex, which increased suspicion around her. Yet Kang Ji-yoon hardly remembered any of it.
With the documents the officer provided, she managed to recall fragments of the past.
It had been five years ago, when she was still a struggling novice artist whose work no one appreciated. One day, while smoking, she saw Lee's daughter drawing on a wall while a group of kids bullied her. Kang Ji-yoon rushed over to chase those middle and high school students away. After that, she discovered Lee's daughter was drawing like a madwoman—her hands were scraped raw, yet she still wouldn't stop.
Kang Ji-yoon forced her to stop and gradually became a close friend to Lee's daughter. Eventually, they even moved in together. However, Lee's daughter would sometimes go into a frenzy and start drawing uncontrollably, and nothing could stop her.
In the present, Kang Ji-yoon followed the police officer to the place where she and the girl used to live. The place was abandoned, in complete disarray. Looking around, memories began to return to her.
Back then, a family had barged in—because their daughter had died in a manner described by one of Lee's daughter's drawings. They were convinced she was responsible and began beating her. Kang Ji-yoon had no choice but to scare them away by cutting herself with a knife to protect the girl. Their bond deepened further.
Later, a fire broke out at the complex. By the time Kang Ji-yoon arrived, the flames had already spread. From that day on, Lee's daughter disappeared. Everyone claimed she had started the fire.
The officer pushed open a door and found a full computer setup inside. That confirmed the place was where the comic files were originally sent from. He tapped the space bar, and the computer—still powered on—lit up, revealing files containing comic content.
To identify the true culprit, everything was taken back for fingerprint analysis, while the officer and Kang Ji-yoon went to a small restaurant for a meal.
During the meal, the officer said that the current prime suspect should be Lee's daughter, since Lee had past allegations of child abuse, giving his daughter possible motive. As for why the female team leader died, only after catching the daughter would they know. The officer went to pay the bill, while outside, it seemed someone was secretly watching.
Kang Ji-yoon then received a text message from Lee's daughter—saying: "Sister, long time no see. I'm waiting for you at the Happiness Complex."
While the officer stepped away to get cigarettes, Kang Ji-yoon locked the car doors and drove off by herself. The officer had no choice but to call headquarters to track her phone.
Kang Ji-yoon arrived at the complex, calling out the girl's name. A shadowy figure stood behind a mesh barrier, but she didn't see it. The sounds around her startled her, and only then did she realize she was dreaming.
After waking, she checked her phone—the text had been real. She returned to the complex. Just after stepping into the backyard, she was ambushed and knocked unconscious.
The officer soon arrived as well, only to find her phone abandoned—no sign of her.
He then called the assistant for backup. The assistant claimed his wife's prenatal exam had complications, so he had to go to the hospital. But after hearing the officer's assumptions, he suddenly asked whether Kang Ji-yoon had run off from the restaurant entrance. After hanging up, the officer initially thought nothing of it—until everything suddenly clicked.
How did the assistant know she escaped from the restaurant? The officer had never mentioned that. And the assistant hadn't been with them that night. Everything pointed to one conclusion—the assistant had kidnapped her.
Meanwhile, this was indeed the case. The assistant had abducted Kang Ji-yoon and brought her to an abandoned slaughterhouse. Using his phone's location, the officer hurried there as well.
The assistant questioned her, demanding to know where Lee's daughter was, and even held up the drawing of the little girl she had drawn. He demanded to know how she found out he had run someone over years ago.
The story rewound to that night.
After searching everywhere, the assistant had finally discovered a young girl, around ten years old, wedged beneath his car. She was the same girl Kang Ji-yoon had met in the past.
He crouched down to pull her out and bring her to a hospital. Just as he grasped her hand, his girlfriend's excited voice came through his Bluetooth earphones, her father had finally agreed to let them marry. Hearing that, the assistant's expression changed completely.
He knew full well that the reason her father approved of him wasn't because he was exceptional, but because he had become a civil servant. If news of the accident got out, he would lose his job. Her father would force them to break up, and he'd probably land in prison.
His entire life would be destroyed.
Overwhelmed by fear, he hesitated. Seeing the girl's face covered in blood, he made his choice.
And just like that, the girl died. The assistant escaped punishment, remained undiscovered, and lived normally until the day Kang Ji-yoon's comic revealed his past.
Now, for the sake of his unborn daughter, he decided to kill Kang Ji-yoon to silence her. Just as he raised the axe to strike, he suddenly heard the voice of the girl he had killed—the exact same cries for help from that night. Terrified, he looked around as the lights flickered violently.
Panicked, he pulled out his gun. In the flashes of light, he saw the vengeful ghost of the girl he had killed. Overcome with terror, he screamed and fired his gun repeatedly. The officer, who had just arrived, heard the shots and rushed inside.
When the officer finally found Kang Ji-yoon, he also saw the assistant sitting on the ground, holding the gun to his own head. Afraid the assistant would commit suicide, the officer tried to talk him down, but the assistant insisted it wasn't his choice, "It's the girl… the ghost…"
The officer, straining to hear, approached.
The scene cut to outside the slaughterhouse—then a single gunshot rang out.
The assistant collapsed into a pool of blood.
The next day, the whole police department arrived. A superior located the assistant's service weapon and told the officer to keep quiet. Standing in the rain, the officer still seemed dazed.
He insisted he had heard three gunshots, but the superior found that only one bullet was missing from the assistant's gun. When the officer mentioned the ghost the assistant saw, the superior panicked and ordered him to shut up. It was already bad enough that a police officer had committed suicide and abducted someone—if they brought ghosts into it, the situation would become unbearable.
He also sternly warned the officer: under normal circumstances, the officer himself would be the primary suspect, but since the leadership was busy covering everything up, they weren't pursuing charges. He also told Kang Ji-yoon to remain silent.
Kang Ji-yoon quietly looked at the officer.
Later, the officer gazed at the ultrasound photo of the assistant's unborn child and wept. Then another colleague approached, saying they had found something unusual at the crime scene. Opening the bag, the officer discovered a portrait drawn by Kang Ji-yoon—the name written on it was the same name the assistant had uttered before his death. The officer then retrieved Kang Ji-yoon's published mahwas, hoping to find more clues.
Meanwhile, Kang Ji-yoon was destroying the manuscripts that had caused all these deaths. But then she received an email—this time, the drawing was of herself.
When Edward watched this part, he was sure Kang Ji-yoon was going to die. Anyone who sees the comic becomes vulnerable to the vengeful spirit—this was clear in the film. The ghost could only kill those who had seen the drawings.
Kang Ji-yoon looked at the comic and remembered the past. Lee's daughter had once told her that these stories were all whispered by vengeful spirits. After her mother died, Lee would often lock her in the morgue. Over time, she gained the ability to see ghosts—and hear their stories. Whenever she heard them, she couldn't stop herself from drawing them.
Kang Ji-yoon had taken those drawings to her editor, polished them slightly, and the female team leader approved them eagerly, even promising to publish her work.
Thrilled, Kang Ji-yoon hurried home—only to find the place on fire. She rushed inside to save the manuscripts, but Lee's daughter tried to stop her, because she had set the fire herself.
Consumed by madness, Kang Ji-yoon shoved the girl aside, trying to retrieve the manuscripts. The girl resisted, so Kang Ji-yoon struck her on the head with a snow globe and seized the drawings like a lunatic.
Lee's daughter warned her that if the comic was published and seen by others, the vengeful spirits would enact revenge by killing. Summaries were fine, but detailed publication was not—they would be treated as murderers by proxy.
And so, the cause of death behind all the victims was revealed.
Driven insane, Kang Ji-yoon ended up strangling Lee's daughter in the burning building—this was why the girl had gone missing.
At last, Kang Ji-yoon remembered everything. She was filled with deep regret. Meanwhile, the officer was on his way to the Happiness Complex. The forensic results were in: the keyboard held only Kang Ji-yoon's fingerprints. That meant she had drawn and sent everything herself. There were no fingerprints from Lee's daughter at all.
Kang Ji-yoon was the true culprit behind everything.
(End of Chapter)