Three minutes after getting dropped in front of a lodge in the woods, caught in a serial-killer Ghost Story.
The secondhand marketplace trader, who got off the bicycle after us, walked toward the lodge door.
Then, seeing that Baek Saheon and I were already standing there, he paused for a moment.
‘…Looks like he recognized me.’
The secondhand market seller, I mean.
But for now, I kept my mouth shut and pretended not to have noticed who he was.
Baek Saheon immediately started talking in an innocent voice.
“Excuse me, are you perhaps the owner of this house? Sorry, but I think we got on the wrong bus. Maybe because we’re in the woods, there’s no signal, so we were wondering if we could use a phone just once….”
“I came here to ask for help as well. I took a wrong turn.”
“Ah… I see.”
Only then did I turn toward him and pretend to be surprised.
“…!”
I just widened my eyes a bit and gave a slight nod.
It seemed I was right that he had already recognized me, because instead of looking flustered, he simply returned a faint nod of greeting.
Even in the meantime, Baek Saheon was subtly probing for personal information.
He was trying to size him up, probably. To see whether he was weaker than him.
“Are you here for a weekend hike or something? This place seems pretty remote. I guess you live nearby.”
“…No. I don’t know how I got here either. I definitely set out from Seoul.”
“Ah, really? Same for us, but there’s no signal here. Do you happen to know the way out, or where exactly this place is…?”
“……I’m not sure. Let’s go inside and ask.”
“…Ah, yes.”
Baek Saheon seemed disappointed at the fruitless conversation, then glanced at the bicycle the man had ridden in on.
And he finally seemed to confirm something.
The printed mark on the handlebar.
[Seoul Metropolitan Government #2153]
At a glance, it was obviously official civil-service equipment. Baek Saheon spotted the opening for…