The clock on the interrogation room wall ticked steadily, each second a small hammer strike in the silence. Kang Young-soo sat cuffed to the metal table, his face a mess of dried blood and swelling bruises. He hadn't asked for medical attention. He hadn't asked for anything. He just sat there, staring at nothing, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
Min-jun stood outside the one-way glass, watching him. Dae-hyun leaned against the wall nearby. The rest of Team Zero were scattered through the bullpen, waiting.
"He's been like that for an hour," Min-jun said quietly. "Just smiling like a fucking creepy bastard."
Dae-hyun's voice was flat. "He's enjoying this. The attention. It's all part of his story."
"So what do we do? Let him rot in there?"
"We talk to him." Dae-hyun pushed off the wall. "But not me, you. He wants an audience. Give him one."
Min-jun raised an eyebrow. "Me?"
"You're the veteran. You've seen everything. He'll respect that more than someone younger." Dae-hyun moved toward the door. "I'll be watching. If he tries anything, I'll be in there before he blinks."
Min-jun straightened his jacket and opened the door.
---
The interrogation room was small, windowless, and designed to feel like a cage. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead. A single camera in the corner recorded everything.
Min-jun sat down across from Kang Young-soo, placing a thick file on the table between them. He didn't speak. He just opened the file and began reading.
Kang Young-soo watched him for a long moment. Then the smile widened.
"Detective Kim Min-jun," he said. His voice was raspy, damaged from the fight. "Forty-five years old. Twenty-three years on the force. Transferred six times because you're too good at your job." He tilted his head. "I know all about you."
Min-jun looked up slowly. "Is that supposed to impress me?"
"No. Just letting you know I pay attention." Kang Young-soo leaned back as far as his cuffs would allow. "I've been paying attention for a long time. To all of you. Captain Kang especially. He is a street kid who became a legend; it's very poetic."
Min-jun closed the file. "Let's skip the games. You're here and caught. The only question now is how much you're going to tell us."
"Everything." Kang Young-soo's smile didn't waver. "I'll tell you everything."
Min-jun's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Because I want them to know. All of them. The families. The police. The whole world." He leaned forward, his voice dropping. "I want them to know what I did. How many? How long? How I got away with it for years while they ran around like fools."
Behind the glass, Dae-hyun's jaw tightened.
Min-jun's voice remained calm. "Then talk."
Kang Young-soo did.
---
He started slowly, almost gently, like a man savoring a fine meal.
"The first one was in Busan. Her name was Kim Hye-jin. Twenty-three years old. She lived alone in Seomyeon, in a small apartment above a bakery. He closed his eyes, remembering. "She was beautiful. Quiet. She never made eye contact when she walked past people. That's how I knew."
Min-jun's pen moved across his notebook. "Knew what?"
"That she was perfect. They're all perfect, the quiet ones. They don't scream as loud. They don't fight as hard. They just... accept." He opened his eyes. "She accepted. In the end."
The details spilled out like water from a cracked dam.
He described how he followed them, watched them, and learned their routines. How he approached them in coffee shops or bookstores or on the street, always with a smile, always with a story. How he gained their trust over weeks or months, becoming the "different" man they mentioned to friends.
He described how he killed them. The same grip every time. Thumbs pressing, fingers curling. The way he watched the light leave their eyes.
He described the posing. Curling them like sleeping children. Arranging their hands just so. A ritual he'd perfected over years.
And he described the mountains. Busan first, then Seoul. Hiding them where no one would look, where animals might find them years later or never at all.
Min-jun's face remained neutral, but behind the glass, Hae-rin had turned pale. Soo-ah's hand covered her mouth. Jin-young had stopped typing. Shi-eok stood like stone.
Seo-ah watched with eyes that missed nothing.
---
Kang Young-soo talked for two hours.
When he finally fell silent, Min-jun set down his pen. "You said twelve women. We found eight in Bukhansan and four in Busan. That's twelve."
Kang Young-soo smiled. "Did I say twelve?"
Min-jun's eyes sharpened. "How many?"
"Count again, Detective." The killer's smile widened. "There are more. In both cities. Places I haven't told you about yet."
Behind the glass, Dae-hyun straightened.
Min-jun's voice was careful. "How many more?"
"Ten. Maybe twelve. I lost count after a while." Kang Young-soo shrugged, the motion casual, horrifying. "They start to blur together after a certain point. But I remember where I put them. Every single one."
The room was silent.
Then Min-jun stood. "Where?"
"Near Busan. Another mountain. Different one this time." Kang Young-soo's eyes glittered. "I'll show you. If you want."
Min-jun looked at the camera—at Dae-hyun behind it. A long moment passed.
Then Dae-hyun's voice came through the speaker. "Take him."
---
They moved within the hour.
A convoy of police vehicles wound through the streets of Seoul toward the airport, where helicopters waited. Kang Young-soo sat in the back of an armored transport, cuffed and shackled, still smiling.
Dae-hyun rode in the vehicle behind, with Min-jun beside him.
"He's enjoying this," Min-jun said. "Leading us to more bodies. It's a game to him."
"It's always been a game." Dae-hyun's voice was quiet. "The only difference is now we're playing."
The helicopters lifted off, cutting through gray clouds toward Busan.
---
The mountain was called Jangsan, a sprawling mass of forest and rock on the outskirts of the city. Kang Young-soo led them up a narrow trail, his shackles removed but armed officers surrounding him. He moved with the ease of someone who knew this place intimately.
"There," he said finally, pointing to a cluster of boulders near a cliff edge. "Under those rocks. I dug deep. They won't have moved."
Officers moved forward with shovels and ground-penetrating radar. Dae-hyun stood apart, watching.
The digging took hours.
The first body was found at dusk. Then the second. Then the third.
By midnight, they had uncovered ten more graves.
Ten more women. Ten more lives. Ten more families who would receive the worst news of their existence.
Kang Young-soo watched it all with that same small smile.
"See?" he said to no one in particular. "I told you I'd show you."
Dae-hyun walked up to him slowly. For a long moment, they stood face-to-face—the hunter and the hunted, the captor and the captive.
"Twenty-two," Dae-hyun said quietly. "Twenty-two women."
"At least." Kang Young-soo's smile didn't waver. "Like I said. I lost count."
Dae-hyun said nothing. He simply turned and walked away.
Behind him, floodlights illuminated a mountainside that had become a graveyard. Forensic technicians moved among the graves, documenting horror after horror. Officers stood in silent shock. Min-jun lit a cigarette and stared at nothing.
Team Zero had caught their monster.
But the true scale of his evil was only just becoming clear.