Dae-hyun's phone buzzed as he stepped onto the trail, the screen lighting up with Hae-rin's name. He raised it to his ear, still walking.
"Hae-rin."
"Captain." Her voice was tight through the speaker. "I've been thinking about the profile. About where he might be."
Dae-hyun slowed. "Go on."
"I don't think he'll be there. On the mountain, I mean. Not anymore." Papers rustled in the background. "He's too careful. Too methodical. He wouldn't risk being anywhere near where he hid them, especially not during the day. He'd come at night, do what he needed to do, and leave. By now, he's long gone."
Dae-hyun stopped walking. Shi-eok paused beside him, watching his face.
"So you're saying—"
"I'm saying you probably won't find him up there. But you might find them." Hae-rin's voice was quiet. "The bodies. That's where your focus should be. Find them, and we have evidence. We have something to work with."
Dae-hyun was silent for a moment, processing. Then: "Understood. Good work."
He ended the call and turned to Shi-eok. "Hae-rin doesn't think he's here. But the bodies might be."
Shi-eok nodded slowly. "Makes sense. He'd be a fool to stay."
"Then we focus on finding them." Dae-hyun looked up at the mountain, at the darkening sky. "Call the teams. Keep searching until we lose light. Then we start again at dawn."
Shi-eok pulled out his radio and began relaying orders.
---
Night fell over Bukhansan like a blanket, cold and absolute.
The search teams pulled back to the base camp as darkness made progress impossible. Tents went up. Portable lights cast harsh shadows across the parking lot. Officers sat in groups, eating instant meals, their faces tired and grim.
Dae-hyun stood apart from them, staring at the mountain.
Soo-ah approached cautiously, two cups of instant coffee in her hands. She held one out to him. "Captain. You should eat something."
He took the coffee but didn't drink. "Later."
She hesitated, then stayed where she was, looking up at the mountain with him. "Do you think we'll find them?"
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
He didn't answer for a long moment. Then: "Because he wanted them found. Eventually. That's part of it for men like him. The discovery. The panic. The fear." He finally sipped the coffee. "He's probably watching the news right now, waiting to see if we find his work."
Soo-ah shivered. "That's horrible."
"Yes. It is."
They stood in silence, watching the mountain, until Min-jun called them back to camp.
---
Dawn came cold and gray.
The teams moved out again as soon as there was light enough to see. Drones lifted into the air. Officers spread across the mountain, methodical and determined.
Hours passed.
Noon came and went. The sun reached its peak and began its slow descent. Hope flickered and dimmed with each passing hour.
And then, near evening, a shout went up from the eastern slope.
Dae-hyun was there within minutes, pushing through underbrush, his heart pounding. A young officer stood frozen, pointing at something on the ground.
At first, Dae-hyun didn't see it. Just leaves, dirt, ordinary forest floor. Then he looked closer.
An animal had been digging. A dog, maybe, or a wild boar. The ground was disturbed, torn up, and something white protruded from the earth.
Bone.
Dae-hyun knelt beside it, his gloved hands brushing away debris. The shape became clear—a finger bone, still connected to others, still part of a hand.
He stood slowly and turned to the gathered officers. "Dig. Carefully. Document everything."
They dug.
What they found would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
---
The first body was nearly complete—a young woman, curled on her side as if sleeping, her clothes still recognizable despite months in the ground. Park Soo-jin's face, or what remained of it, stared up at nothing.
Soo-ah turned away, her hand over her mouth. Seo-ah stood frozen, her face pale. Even Shi-eok looked away.
But Dae-hyun didn't move. He simply looked at her, this woman they'd been trying to save, and made a promise.
"I will find him," he said quietly. "I will find him, and he will pay for this."
The digging continued.
For three hours, they uncovered horror after horror.
The second body was found ten meters away, buried shallower, less preserved. The third was deeper, wrapped in plastic, as if he'd taken more care. The fourth, the fifth, the sixth—each one a young woman, each one curled in that same position, each one wearing clothes that might have been pretty once.
Seven in total.
Seven skeletons, some with flesh still clinging, some reduced to bone. Seven young women who had vanished from their lives, from their families, from a world that barely noticed they were gone.
By the time they finished, night had fallen again. Floodlights illuminated the grim scene. Forensic technicians moved among the graves, collecting evidence, photographing everything. Body bags lined up like terrible soldiers.
Dae-hyun stood at the edge of the light, watching.
Min-jun came to stand beside him. "Seven," he said quietly. "Seven that we know of."
"There could be more."
"Maybe. But we won't find them tonight." Min-jun's voice was tired, older than his years. "The teams are exhausted. We need to regroup."
Dae-hyun nodded slowly. "Seal the mountain. I want patrols around the clock. No one in or out without authorization."
Min-jun relayed the orders. Officers began the grim work of securing the scene, of transporting the bodies, of packing up equipment that had never been meant for this.
Team Zero gathered near Dae-hyun's SUV. No one spoke. There was nothing to say.
Finally, Dae-hyun turned to them. "Go home. Sleep. We have work tomorrow."
Soo-ah's voice was small. "Captain, what kind of person does this?"
"I don't know yet." His eyes were hard. "But I'm going to find out."
---
The search continued for another day.
Teams swept every corner of the mountain, guided by drones and thermal imaging and desperate hope. They found nothing. No more bodies. No sign of the killer. No trace of where he'd gone.
By the second evening, they had to accept it. Seven was the number. Seven women, buried in a mountain, waiting to be found.
The mountain was sealed. Police patrols circled it day and night, a ring of steel around a graveyard.
Team Zero returned to Seoul.
---
Dae-hyun and Min-jun went straight to the National Forensic Service.
The building was clinical and cold, all white walls and fluorescent lights. A technician led them through corridors that smelled of antiseptic and death, to an office where a woman in a white coat waited.
Dr. Han Soo-ji was the chief forensic examiner, a small woman with sharp eyes and hands that had touched more dead bodies than most people would see in a lifetime. She looked up when they entered, and her face was grim.
"Captain Kang. Detective Min." She gestured to chairs. "Sit."
They sat.
Dr. Han pulled up images on a large screen—the bodies, the graves, the evidence. "Seven victims, as you know. All female, estimated ages between early twenties and mid-thirties. Time of death ranges from three months to approximately two years ago."
Dae-hyun's jaw tightened. "Cause of death?"
"Strangulation. Manual, not ligature." She pointed to specific images. "See the fractures here, here, and here? Hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage. Classic signs of hand strangulation. He used his hands."
Min-jun leaned forward. "Anything else?"
Dr. Han nodded slowly. "There's more. A pattern. A signature." She pulled up close-ups of the victims' necks. "Each of them has the same mark. Not just strangulation—a specific grip. His thumbs pressed here, his fingers here. The bruising patterns are identical across all seven."
Dae-hyun's eyes narrowed. "He has a method."
"He has a signature." Dr. Han zoomed in further. "See these small abrasions? Fingernails. He holds them in a specific way—almost ceremonial. Like he's done it so many times that his hands move without thinking."
Min-jun exchanged a glance with Dae-hyun. "The Busan victims?"
"I've reviewed those files." Dr. Han pulled up another set of images. "The patterns match exactly. Same grip, same pressure points, same fingernail marks. This is the same killer. No doubt."
Dae-hyun stood and moved closer to the screen, studying the images. "Tell me everything. His MO. His signature. Everything you've found."
Dr. Han nodded and began.
"He hunts in specific areas—busy neighborhoods where young women live alone. He targets introverts, women without strong social networks. He approaches them, gains their trust, and eventually gains access to their homes." She pointed to victim profiles. "No signs of struggle at any of the apartments. They let him in willingly."
"Then he kills them there?"
"No. He takes them somewhere first. We found trace evidence on two of the bodies—soil samples that don't match the mountain. He kept them somewhere else, for a day or two, before killing them."
Min-jun frowned. "Why?"
"That's the question, isn't it?" Dr. Han's voice was quiet. "He spends time with them. Maybe talks to them. Maybe..." She trailed off. "There's no evidence of sexual assault on any of the victims. That's not his motivation."
Dae-hyun's voice was flat. "Then what is?"
"I can't answer that. That's your job." Dr. Han pulled up more images. "But I can tell you this—he poses them. After death. Before burial."
The screen showed a body in situ, still in the grave. The woman was curled on her side, her hands folded near her face, her legs bent.
"He arranges them," Dr. Han continued. "Every single one, in the same position. Curled like a sleeping child. Like he's tucking them in."
The room was silent.
Min-jun's voice was rough. "That's not just killing. That's... something else."
"Ritual," Dae-hyun said quietly. "It's ritual."
Dr. Han nodded. "I'd agree. This man isn't just killing. He's performing some kind of ceremony. Every victim is treated the same way—the same grip, the same pose, the same burial position. It's his signature. His mark."
Dae-hyun stared at the screen, at the curled bodies, at the work of a monster.
"The Busan case," he said. "Did they find the same positioning?"
"Yes. The files are clear. All four Busan victims were found in the same curled position." Dr. Han pulled up comparison images. "It's identical. This is the same man, using the same methods, for at least five years. Probably longer."
Min-jun ran a hand over his face. "Eleven victims that we know of. Eleven women."
"At least eleven." Dr. Han's voice was quiet. "There could be more we haven't found. In Busan. In other cities. He's been doing this for a long time."
Dae-hyun turned from the screen. "Thank you, Doctor. Send your full report to my office as soon as it's ready."
"Of course, Captain."
They walked out into the night, the cold air a shock after the sterile warmth of the building. Min-jun lit a cigarette, something he rarely did anymore.
"Eleven women," he said again. "Eleven."
Dae-hyun said nothing. He simply stood there, looking at the stars, at the city, at the world that kept turning while monsters hunted in the dark.
"We'll find him," Min-jun said finally. "We'll find him, and we'll stop him."
"Yes." Dae-hyun's voice was quiet but absolute. "We will."
They got into the car and drove back to the station, back to the bullpen, back to the board covered in faces of the dead.
Somewhere in the city, a man with a bear tattoo was probably watching the news, smiling at his handiwork.
Team Zero was going to wipe that smile off his face.