The electric saw in her hand might as well have been useless; her entire body had frozen solid.
Glowing eyes discovered in the dark mountains. Her ankles were seized by a murderous intent that pressed down on her limbs.
That is to say, the moment she locked eyes with the man who was burying someone alive.
"...."
"...."
The thought that something had gone terribly, utterly wrong blared like a siren in her mind.
'A murderer...?'
Words she might only expect to hear on the 9 o'clock news grazed her mind dully, but the goosebumps rising like hives were vivid one by one.
How did she, whose life goal was simply to live quietly and safely, end up witnessing such an absurd scene?
'It was just an ordinary day.'
Going to work at the hospital, reading through overdue bills, checking on trees that had undergone surgery, arguing over the phone with a client who hadn't sent treatment fees for over a month.
Moreover, sneaking up the back mountain at night to check on trees left abandoned like homeless people was an old habit of So I-yeon, a tree doctor.
It was just one of those ordinary days.
In particular, this mountain was private property with a clear owner. Yet it was completely unmanaged, with countless tree branches looking like a ghost's disheveled hair.
Just like the trees living in abandoned houses, many here suffered from malnutrition, a place that had weighed on her heart.
"Sa, save me...!"
The person buried underground cried out in crushed pronunciation. However, the scream blocked by the fiercely piling soil stopped at mere vibrations.
The man, tall as a pole, wore a glossy black vinyl raincoat. Not someone who had dug a hole once or twice, his form of shoveling earth into the pit was quite skilled.
"P, please...! I'll tell you everything, everything...!"
An arm burst through the rising mound of dirt. The hand frantically scratching the ground looked desperate.
But unlike someone flailing in panic, the man hummed a monotonous tone slowly.
"Wrong. Here, you have to beg to be killed."
Boredom stretched long like a shadow.
"Huu..."
"The show is just beginning."
The man sang a tune as he tapped the other's fingers with the toe of his shoe. Then, like hammering, he began to strike down without mercy.
"Aaah!!"
His expression was utterly composed, yet his kicking was as fierce as a madman. The bent fingers were crushed to pieces with a sickening crunch.
"Gaaah...!"
A scream carrying soil particles echoed from underground.
"Don't you know that the more you do this, the more excited I get?"
"Ugh...!"
"Because idiots as tough as you pop up every now and then, I can't stop doing this."
The man resembled a silver birch said to shine brightly even at night. His face was that pale and smooth. However, it didn't look like the blood color of a living person at all. There was only that eerie feeling of looking at one's face reflected in a blade.
"Urk..., gurk...!"
When the soil shifted and the crown of the head was revealed, the man pressed it down firmly like extinguishing a cigarette. Due to the raincoat hood covering half his face, the only thing visible was his long, torn lips.
As the movements of someone trying to live, trying to resist in their own way, gradually grew dull, So I-yeon could only think one thing.
'It's a murder scene!'
The scene unfolding before her eyes was so unreal. Dry saliva gulped down, and sweat formed in her hands.
She hid her phone behind her back and began dialing 112. Relying solely on intuition, she fumbled and pressed the screen.
Just then, when all her nerves were focused on her fingertips.
Snap, a branch was stepped on.
Perhaps a very slight sign.
But the man, who had ignored the screaming, suddenly stopped digging at a sound that would have been easily covered by an owl's cry.
"...."
Then he deliberately dropped the shovel as if by accident.
So I-yeon saw that instant that stretched like taffy. Her gaze followed the tilting shovel, and at the same time, her breath stopped.
"...!"
The smell of blood grazed the tip of her nose. There lay a motionless, bloodied man, slumped. Looking closely, his clothes were dark colored but only the arm portion was white. That meant it was originally a white dress shirt. All stained with blood.
"Fuck, what is this now."
The moment she faced a beast hunting in the forest she had loved.
"Don't you need to run?"
That low murmur soon became a gunshot pushing her back.
So I-yeon began to run without looking back. The ground was soggy from last night's rain. Though her sinking shoes were cumbersome, she felt like her hair would be grabbed if she hesitated even a little. Her heart pounded violently as if it would burst. She gasped for breath to the point of tasting blood in her throat.
―Yes, this is Hwayang Police Station.
Then the voice of a savior came through the receiver.
"H, hello?"
―Yes, please speak slowly.
Tears suddenly poured out. She babbled on incoherently.
"Right now, so, someone is burying a person in the ground...! Please come quickly! I've been spotted!"
―May I have the name of the caller?
The mechanically trained voice was flat.
"It's So I-yeon! I'm really going to die, sir!"
―First, please stay calm. Where is your location?
"Huu..., huu.... There are dozens of hornbeam trees gathered together! I can also see an elm tree with a big hole in its trunk, I just passed that point!"
She answered as best she could while breathing roughly.
―Haah...
At the same time, the police officer let out a long sigh.
―That doesn't tell me anything. Are there any buildings nearby?
I-yeon realized her mistake and snapped to attention.
"Spruce Tree Hospital! It's the mountain behind that!"
―We'll dispatch immediately. If this is a false report, you'll have to pay a fine.
"Please hurry!"
It was just as she entered the downhill path leading to the mountain entrance.
"Kek...!"
A wire as thin as thread yanked at her neck. At the coarse strength digging into her flesh and tightening, vomit surged up. She scratched at her neck frantically, but the rope was so thin it didn't catch on her fingernails.
"Hey, you dropped this."
Even in her suffocating state, her body hair stood on end all at once. Above all, the breath touching her ear was terrifying.
As if mocking her, he placed an object in her hand. Then the weight she had forgotten fit perfectly in her grip. It was the saw that had been working with her hand and foot for years now.
At that moment, she didn't know where such strength came from, but she struck the man with all her might.
Along with the sound of something breaking, a heavy impact was felt. She swung the tool repeatedly, thud, thud. So I-yeon, already consumed by fear, couldn't even bring herself to look back. Only the electric saw, its switch pressed belatedly, trembled with a loud vibration.
This was her secret patient.
It was her first meeting with a man who had been lying as a vegetable for two years.