A chill ran down Jeong Hae-jun's spine.
He quickly spun toward the source of the sudden sound. In the swirling red fog, Officer Kim Hyeong-gu—face contorted in abject terror—had fired his gun. The bullet sliced through empty air, striking nothing, but now the muzzle in his shaking hands was starting to swing toward the other people nearby.
"No!" Jeong shouted as he lunged forward with all his might. He grabbed Officer Kim's wrist and thrust the gun barrel toward the sky. "Officer Kim! Snap out of it!" he yelled, wrenching the pistol from the panicked officer's grip.
Officer Kim's eyes darted around in frantic confusion. At last, with a look of pure fear on his face, he collapsed to his knees, sobbing. "Wh-what… what the hell…," he stammered as if coming back to his senses.
Jeong swiftly ejected the magazine from the pistol, then grasped the heaving officer by the shoulder. "It's all right now. Take a deep breath," he said in a calm, steady voice. At Jeong's reassurance, Officer Kim nodded blankly.
"Detective!" a voice called out from a short distance away. Jeong turned to see Detective Choi Do-yoon across the plaza. Choi had already set up a police line at the plaza's edge and was diverting oncoming cars, working quickly to bring the chaos under control. He was moving briskly, requesting backup over the radio and checking on the ambulances' arrival. In no time, Choi had dashed over to report to Jeong.
"Backup is expected in five minutes," Choi said, slightly out of breath. "Paramedics are administering first aid, and the fire department has donned protective gear and deployed detection equipment to figure out the cause of this fog."
Jeong caught his breath and asked, "Any sign of toxic gas?"
Choi shook his head. "Nothing unusual so far. It doesn't seem to be a gas or a fire… It's just fog, apparently, but none of us have ever seen anything like this. Everyone's pretty confused."
Jeong reached out as if to grab a handful of the red mist. The crimson haze dispersed through his fingers, leaving only a cold chill behind. A fog with no smell, no poison… He realized instinctively that this situation was the same as the first incident at the abandoned building. Once again, no one would believe what was happening until they saw the cause with their own eyes.
Choi Do-yoon relayed some of the victims' statements he had gathered nearby. "Everyone says they saw something that wasn't really there. One person said it was raining blood, another thought their family turned into monsters…. Every single one of them described seeing an apparition amid the 'red fog.'"
Jeong pressed his lips into a hard line. It was just as he suspected. He gave Choi a terse order: "Get everyone moved outside the fog. Hand them over to the medics so they can be evacuated immediately. When the forensics team arrives, have them collect samples from the scene."
"Understood!" Choi answered. He immediately relayed the instructions over his radio and directed the other officers. Thanks to his cool, level-headed response, the situation gradually came under control.
But Jeong Hae-jun's sense of unease only deepened. He even imagined that the red fog around him was curling inward, drawn toward him.
From nearby came Park Jae-min's urgent voice, stammering as if he almost used a more familiar term: "D-Detective…!" Jeong whipped his head around. He saw Detective Park Jae-min, who had just handed an apprehended janitor over to another officer, now racing back toward him with an unconscious person slung on his back.
Park Jae-min skidded to a stop, gasping. "This is a security guard who fell from that rooftop. He's got a pulse, but he's unconscious!" he panted. Park's face glistened with cold sweat.
Jeong quickly scanned the area. Just then, two paramedics who had arrived on site came sprinting over. He and Park worked together to ease the fallen guard onto the paramedics' stretcher. "Take this man first—he fell and is unconscious!" Jeong urged the medics.
"Got it!" One of the paramedics gave a swift nod as they loaded the guard onto the stretcher.
With the security guard safely in the ambulance, Park Jae-min suddenly plopped down, gulping in air. He must have overexerted himself before fully recovering from his own injuries; his face had turned ashen. Jeong hurried over and gripped his shoulder, worry etched on his face. "Jaemin, are you all right?" he asked.
Park took a moment to catch his breath and forced a smile. "Hahh… y-yes, I'm fine," he managed. But his hands were trembling ever so slightly. The afterimage of that black figure he'd seen in the fog still flickered before his eyes. If I run into it again, will I really be okay…? he thought. Pushing down the wave of fear welling up inside, Park vowed that he would never collapse in front of his colleagues or the public again.
At that moment, a chilling whisper sounded right behind Jeong Hae-jun. "All of you… will die…."
Jeong felt his breath catch in his throat and spun around. Right in front of him, floating within the crimson fog, was the face of a pallid woman. The figure wore a deathly pale smile, with blood tears streaming from her eyes. For an instant, Jeong felt as if his heart had frozen solid. He recognized that face—it was identical to the missing woman Lee Seo-ha, whose photo he had seen during the previous case.
The woman's apparition, arms outstretched, was drifting toward him. "Detective…," a faint voice echoed. "Please… find me…."
"Lee… Seo-ha…?" Jeong found himself whispering the name aloud without thinking.
In the very next moment, the ghostly woman's face twisted into a horrific grimace and she began to wail. "Find it! Only then… will it st-stop…." she howled. Bright red tears of blood dripped from the apparition's eyes, and then her form instantly scattered into the dark red mist.
"Detective!" Park Jae-min's alarmed face swam into view as he grabbed Jeong and shook him. Slowly, Jeong's dazed senses came back. He couldn't tell if what he had just witnessed was a mere hallucination or some kind of message. But one thing echoed vividly in his mind: the name Lee Seo-ha. Yes… Lee Seo-ha. That woman is the key.
Jeong shook off the dizziness and stood up. "I'm okay," he muttered, as much to himself as to Park. As he gave that brief assurance and began to glance around, a cluster of headlights at the edge of the plaza suddenly blazed to life all at once. Additional police units and heavy equipment vehicles had arrived, and they now aimed their bright beams toward the square.
From all sides, intense shafts of light sliced through the darkness. Strangely, the crimson fog recoiled from the brightness, rippling as if being pushed by invisible waves. Even the writhing black shapes hidden within the mist scattered in surprise at the sudden illumination.
Jeong snatched up his radio and shouted, "All units, turn your headlights on full and light up the square!"
As emergency sirens blared, powerful spotlights flooded the plaza. The red fog, driven back by the light, began to thin out little by little. As the fog's hold weakened, the citizens who had been trapped in hallucinations started rubbing their eyes and coming to their senses one by one.
Moments later, a police announcement boomed across the plaza: "Everyone, please remain calm! There is no danger. Maintain order as you evacuate the area!"
Jeong pulled the portable megaphone from his belt and added his own voice. "Evacuate in an orderly fashion. Stay calm—you are safe now!" His deep voice echoed reassuringly throughout the square.
Before long, the chill of early dawn swept into Gwanghwamun Square. As if the city were waking from a nightmare, the red fog gradually vanished without a trace. For a brief moment, a heavy silence fell over the plaza that, mere minutes ago, had been a scene from hell. It was only a momentary calm; soon, groans and sobbing broke out all around, and the chaos resumed.
Broken cell phones littered the ground, a single shoe lay abandoned, a street vendor's cart had been overturned in the panicked rush to flee….
Emergency workers hurried through the scene, triaging the injured. A dozen or so people were carried away on stretchers to waiting ambulances, and dozens more were on site receiving oxygen masks or IV saline as part of first aid. All of them had shown bizarre symptoms simultaneously, only to suddenly return to normal just moments later.
Jeong stood in the middle of the plaza, dazed, and drew in a deep breath. In his ears, the screams from earlier still buzzed, ghostlike. What on earth could have done this to these people? The nightmare of the red fog that had engulfed him and his team just days ago resurfaced vividly in his mind.
He felt tension coiling around his entire body as he slowly surveyed the area. Gwanghwamun Square—where grotesque laughter and whispers had echoed just moments before—was now silent, as if it had all been a lie. The realization that a supernatural disaster had penetrated to the very heart of the city sent goosebumps prickling over Jeong's skin. It was a shock, as if the very safety of the everyday world he relied on was shattering to pieces. Is there… truly no safe haven left? He clenched his fist tightly.
The abandoned building where the red mist first appeared, the police station corridor, and now this plaza—nowhere was exempt anymore.
"Detective…." a tentative voice called out. At some point, Choi Do-yoon had walked up beside him, his expression grim. "Initial response is complete, sir." Choi tried to keep his voice level, but a faint tremor at the end betrayed him. He looked as though he himself couldn't quite believe what he was saying as he continued, "In the end, we found no evidence. No gas or drugs—nothing that could have caused a mass hallucination on this scale."
Choi's eyes met Jeong's, searching. "Surely… you don't think something else actually intervened here?" he asked uncertainly. According to the forensics team, no harmful substances were present, and the CCTV footage hadn't shown anyone suspicious. Choi couldn't even bring himself to finish the thought aloud, but there was no other way to explain what had happened.
Jeong remained silent, staring at the pavement where traces of the red fog might have clung. The mist was already gone without a sign, yet he felt as though a red stain still spread across the ground there. "Looks like… no evidence this time either," he muttered bitterly. Choi bit his lip in frustration.
Just then, they noticed in the distance the injured security guard—now on a stretcher—being loaded into an ambulance. Park Jae-min stood nearby, speaking with one of the paramedics.
Choi Do-yoon lifted his head and reported, "They say the guard who fell is going to be okay. A concussion and a few fractures… incredibly lucky, all things considered."
Jeong exhaled a short sigh of relief. Honestly, it was a miracle the man was alive at all. He gazed blankly up at the rooftop from which the guard had fallen. According to Park's investigation earlier, there had been no other footprints or physical evidence by the railing up there. In the end, the guard must have been alone, panicked by an illusion, and fallen by himself.
Suddenly, a voice crackled over Park's radio: "Detective Park! Is Detective Yoon at the scene? The hospital just called—he's gone missing…." Hearing that, Jeong, Choi, and Park all turned sharply toward the radio.
"What did you say?" Park blurted, eyes wide. As he spoke, out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of someone staggering toward them from the far end of the plaza. A man clutched one hand to his bandaged shoulder as he stumbled closer. It was Yoon Tae-sik.
"Detective Yoon!" Park Jae-min cried out, rushing over in alarm. Yoon Tae-sik managed a faint smile on his pale face. "Haah… everyone… seems okay," he said in a weak, exhausted voice. As he spoke, he swayed on his feet, and Park and Choi quickly grabbed him from either side to hold him up.
Jeong could hardly believe what he was seeing—was it a dream or reality? He never imagined a colleague who had just come off the operating table would show up here like this.
Yoon Tae-sik, still trying to stand under his own power, mumbled in a half-joking tone, "Detective Jeong… I'm sorry. I thought if I was there too… I might be able to help—…" Before he could finish, his strength finally gave out; darkness closed in around him and he slumped, about to collapse. Jeong lunged forward and caught Yoon before he could fall.
Even as his consciousness grew hazy, Yoon Tae-sik cast his eyes around the plaza where the red fog had lingered so heavily. "It's… all over now… fortunately…," he whispered, relief in his voice. Then he added softly, "But why… is it so cold…?" It was as if the frigid chill of the red fog still clung to him.
Jeong tightened his grip on his colleague's shoulder and answered in a low, steady voice, "Yeah. It's over now… just rest for a bit." His tone was gentle and matter-of-fact, but his eyes were lit with an anxiety that bordered on anger.
After seeing Yoon Tae-sik safely handed off to an ambulance, Jeong took one last slow turn around the scene of the incident. Most of the civilians had already been transported to hospitals, and across the broad plaza only the flickering afterimages of the police cruiser and ambulance lights remained. In the span of just a few hours, the square appeared to be returning to the ordinary stillness of early morning.
Yet a chill that he couldn't dispel lingered in a corner of Jeong's heart. Nowhere felt truly safe anymore. He unclenched his fists and let out a long breath. The nightmare seemed to have ended, but he had a gut feeling that perhaps it had only just begun.
Off on the far side of Gwanghwamun intersection, in a patch of lonely darkness, a figure called Fog stood quietly. Dressed in a shabby windbreaker and with a fedora pulled low over his eyes, he leaned against a wall feigning the nonchalance of a passerby, but his gaze was fixed, razor sharp, on the aftermath of the incident. As Fog watched the now-cleared plaza in silence, a bitter ghost of a smile flickered across his lips.
Taking in the sight of the police restoring order and the plaza gradually growing quiet, Fog muttered under his breath, "In the end… not a one of 'em saw it." His voice carried a faint regional lilt, but its tone was as cold and flat as the words themselves. Fog's clouded eyes remained fixed on the center of the plaza where the red fog had lingered until the very last. Nothing was visible there now, but Fog knew the truth: a Hallucination Ghost—a mid-level specter that conjured illusions to mock people's deepest fears—had briefly manifested here before disappearing. The police's lights and the dispersal of the fog seemed to have extinguished the creature for now, but Fog pressed his lips together grimly.
"This is only just beginnin'…," he murmured quietly to himself. "Ain't gonna be no safe place left anymore." A cold gleam, and something like sorrow, flashed in Fog's eyes. He tipped the brim of his fedora down and turned to leave. As he vanished into the darkness, the only thing left behind was the cold, lonesome air of dawn spreading over Gwanghwamun Square.