Cracks appeared on the faces of the detectives gathered.
They weren’t visibly shaken, but their exchanged glances spoke volumes.
“A man, you say?”
Han-gyeol immediately questioned the unexpected result.
The detective from Deokdong Station nodded with a regretful look and manipulated the mouse.
The screen changed to show photos clearly distinguishing between pieces of the hip and shoulder bones.
“Silence.”
Even after the detective finished speaking, a heavy silence lingered in the room.
“A man…?”
Jun-hyuk murmured absentmindedly, pressing his forehead with a stunned expression.
“Exactly.”
The head of the task force, who had been sitting with his arms crossed and a grim look, cut off Jun-hyuk’s words and interjected.
His voice was dry and coarse.
Rubbing his face as if trying to scrub away his frustration, he continued in an indifferent tone:
“If this case is the work of the same perpetrator from back then, the case name will have to change.”
Jung-yoon was just as dumbfounded by the completely unexpected result.
He had read the files but didn’t remember much.
But a man?
If the body they discovered belonged to a man, then it didn’t match the behavioral profile they had developed for the criminal so far.
In that case, it might be the work of a copycat, or perhaps the pattern had changed — but even those assumptions didn’t fit.
The discovered remains had been so far decomposed and exposed to animals or natural elements that they were more like fragments than a proper skeleton.
That meant the body had likely been buried a long time ago.
Combined with the other evidence, it strongly suggested the person was killed during the height of the original string of crimes.
And yet — a man?
“…Peach.”
The gap in the data they had built up until now caused confusion to spike.
Jung-yoon’s mind became too crowded to think.
Then it happened — a small but firm voice pierced his ears from behind.
Goosebumps rose on his skin.
When he turned around, he saw Jeong-rok, his face emotionless, staring sharply at the screen.
His gaze was so intense, it almost gave the illusion the culprit was inside the screen.
***
“You okay?”
The pain behind his eyes throbbed all the way from the back of his head to his forehead.
The headache had started the moment they arrived at the scene and had become unbearable after confirming the autopsy results.
Eventually, Jung-yoon excused himself mid-meeting and buried his head in a sink.
He splashed his face with cold water.
Despite his efforts over the past six months, this kept bringing him back to reality.
He still couldn’t get used to it.
Witnessing actual corpses, not just imagined ones or videos, was torture.
Fortunately, some other detectives found it difficult too — otherwise, he would’ve definitely raised suspicions.
Jung-yoon stared blankly at his pale face in the mirror.
He tried hard to push the image of the corpse out of his mind.
He was in the middle of mentally steeling himself again when a familiar voice came unexpectedly from behind.
“You look like you’re struggling.”
“I’m fine. I’m just… pissed off, that’s all. It’s nothing.”
Jung-yoon hastily wiped the water from his face, trying not to look at Jeong-rok and answering with forced coldness.
Jeong-rok clicked his tongue softly.
Stopping mid-step, Jeong-rok leaned sideways against the opposite wall and casually pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket, offering it to Jung-yoon.
He didn’t seem to care much about the cold reaction.
“We’ve identified the victim. You want to check it out?”
“Of course.”
Jung-yoon, who had been wiping his wet face with his bare hand, hesitated when he noticed the extended handkerchief.
Every time something like this happened, the image of his ex overlapped in his mind and made it hard to breathe.
He just stared at the handkerchief without moving.
Then Jeong-rok approached and reached out to his face himself.
The soft fabric brushed over Jung-yoon’s forehead, eyes, cheeks, and finally touched his lips.
“Geez, our darling’s face gets even more radiant after a wash… oof.”
The seriousness didn’t last even three minutes.
Enduring the gentle cleaning for a while, Jung-yoon couldn’t hold back when Jeong-rok suddenly made a cheeky comment.
He threw a punch into Jeong-rok’s stomach with all his might.
Coughing hard, Jeong-rok leaned on the sink for support.
Jung-yoon snorted down at him, who was clutching his stomach and giving him a betrayed look.
One of the best parts of being this version of Woo Jung-yoon was exactly this — being good at fighting and having excellent reflexes.
Jung-yoon had learned and used those skills effectively when arresting suspects.
Hitting a fellow detective — well, that was a first today.
He flexed his fist a few times, then looked down again — more precisely, at Jeong-rok’s stomach.
Jeong-rok, misinterpreting the gaze as concern, groaned louder and clutched his side — which wasn’t even where he got punched.
Jung-yoon, regardless of what was going on, opened his hand and looked once more at Jeong-rok’s stomach.
The sound coming from Jeong-rok’s belly didn’t seem human.
The sensation he felt at the tip of his fingers was the same.
It was surprising that his hand didn’t hurt much even after hitting something that felt like a rock.
Was he not only good at fighting but also incredibly resilient?
Jung-yoon looked at his own fist in awe.
“What’s with that face like you’re the one who got hit after doing the hitting?”
“Well… You said if I said one more stupid thing, you’d strip off my rank.”
“Didn’t they say it’s taboo for martial artists to hit civilians? Especially a good-hearted civilian like me?”
“How are you a civilian, Team Leader?”
Jung-yoon, looking at the indignant Jeong-rok as if he were pathetic, reached out his hand.
Casually, he lifted Jeong-rok’s T-shirt and clicked his tongue in disgust.
Dropping the shirt like he was showing him something, he shoved his shoulder and spoke to the frozen Jeong-rok.
“What kind of workouts do you do?”
“Did I just get sexually harassed? Who lifts up a guy’s shirt like that? You’ve definitely done this before.”
“Whatever. I’ll wash this handkerchief and give it back to you.”
“I just wiped off the moisture, no big deal. Just give it here.”
Still… It had been used to wipe his face.
The now damp and clingy handkerchief was snatched from him in vain, and Jung-yoon scratched his forehead.
Watching him neatly fold the wet handkerchief and tuck it into his back pocket, Jung-yoon asked suddenly.
“Is that important to you?”
The corridor leading to the conference room was empty.
Jung-yoon felt like his voice was echoing more than usual and cleared his throat.
“It’s a secret.”
It wasn’t even a big question—he just wanted to make some small talk for once because he was grateful.
He wasn’t usually good at it.
But the reply piqued a curiosity he didn’t even realize he had.
Frowning, Jung-yoon stared up at Jeong-rok with a persistent gaze.
Jeong-rok, not avoiding his eyes, gave a faint smile.
That was when Jung-yoon’s eyes widened a little.
Normally, Jeong-rok smiled easily, laughed foolishly, and did weird things just as often—it was cheap and effortless.
So familiar that he’d seen it countless times.
But the smile he just gave him felt different somehow.
A bit… lonely.
“Detective Woo.”
“Yes?”
“You know there are two ways to drive a person crazy?”
“Two ways?”
“Yeah.”
The mysterious smile disappeared, and the usual cheap and easygoing Jeong-rok returned.
Jung-yoon didn’t show any reaction.
Here we go again—what weird nonsense is he about to say now?
“And what are those?”
“The first is stopping mid-sentence.”
“Stopping mid-sentence? Like saying something vague to drive them nuts? And the second?”
In front of the conference room.
While adjusting his clothes, Jung-yoon continued speaking, wanting to guess the second reason.
He looked at Jeong-rok as he thought about it.
Then, “Heh.”
Jeong-rok let out a creepy laugh, suddenly turned his back, and slipped into the conference room without answering.
“What the…”
Following his back in disbelief, Jung-yoon suddenly realized his intent and immediately scowled.
That bastard…
“Why are you just standing there like someone who got mugged? Aren’t you going in?”
Jun-hyuk walked past, reeking faintly of cigarettes.
Noticing Jung-yoon’s death glare directed at the conference room, he shook his head.
“Jeong-rok again? Are you sure you didn’t do something to piss him off?”
“Not yet, but I feel like I will soon.”
“I totally get that. I support you and all, but let’s solve the case first.”
Jun-hyuk slung his arm around Jung-yoon’s shoulder and led him inside.
The slightly relaxed atmosphere tensed up again as the lights went out and the screen flickered back on.
“As I said earlier, there’s nothing particularly revealing about the male remains.”
Jun-hyuk displayed a photo of the discovered skeletal parts.
“As you can see, there are no signs of tool marks on the severed ends. The forensic opinion is that the bones were likely broken by external forces after being exposed to the surface over time. We’re still looking for the rest, but at this point, there’s a good chance they were lost. Apparently, a typhoon nearly flipped half the mountain in Deokdong two years ago.”
The sound of pen scribbling suddenly stopped.
A heavy silence settled over the conference room.