His legs were trembling by the time he arrived. Having overslept and skipped breakfast, his energy had drained faster than expected. Yuhyeon let out a labored breath and descended the stairs leading to the entrance.
The deliveries were stacked as high as he was tall. Yuhyeon’s jaw dropped as he scanned the pile up and down in disbelief. It wasn’t just the food ingredients for the bar snacks that had been delivered — boxes of liquor were lined up in a row as well, as if someone had also placed an order for the stock they were running low on. He’d been told it would be done within three hours, but clocking out on time was starting to look unlikely.
“Huh…?”
Glock’s operating hours were over. The doors should have been locked — so why was the entrance left open by about half a hand’s width? It didn’t seem like any staff were still around either, so Yuhyeon cautiously poked his head in. His eyes swept slowly across the interior — nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Did they leave it unlocked because of me.
They’d said they were leaving the store lights on before heading out, so it was a reasonable guess. Yuhyeon retrieved the transport cart from the storage room and began stacking the food items onto it one by one. He loaded it as heavily as he could to save time, but given the sheer volume of the delivery, he still had to make a few trips back and forth.
He’d done nothing but carry things, and somehow thirty minutes had already passed. Yuhyeon rubbed and kneaded his aching lower back and forearms before forcing himself to move again. It was time to get down to the real work.
To think the head chef had been doing all of this alone…
The head chef was always complaining about his back. And now Yuhyeon was experiencing firsthand exactly why.
“These all go in the liquor refrigerator, right?”
After checking the quantities of the delivered spirits, Yuhyeon opened the refrigerator and took out all the bottles already lined up inside. The cold air rolling out of the fridge and the chill of the glass bottles numbed his fingertips. He huffed warm breath onto his hands and began sliding the newest arrivals in one by one — and before long, he could see the end in sight.
Yuhyeon neatly gathered the empty liquor boxes to one side and reached for the remaining food ingredients. Unlike the straightforward liquor, the food items came in a wide variety, so counting the inventory alone was its own kind of work. He moved in a flurry — eyes scanning product names and quantities, hand checking off the list. Crossing out each item in the refrigerator with a pen one by one, the end gradually drew closer.
Is that it?
He’d tried to move as fast as he could, and yet four hours had slipped by. Straightening up from his hunched posture, a sharp ache rewarded him from the back he’d kept bent for so long. Yuhyeon gently massaged the knotted muscles and clutched his growling stomach.
Maybe I’ll grab a triangle kimbap on the way.
He decided to put off dealing with the trash for a moment.
He climbed the stairs leading outside, and the bright, fully risen sun greeted him. Hit by the sudden light, Yuhyeon scrunched his brow and raised a hand to shield his eyes. He came to a stop at the crosswalk, intending to head to the convenience store across the street, and noticed that everyone passing by was carrying an umbrella. It seemed like rain was in the forecast today. Come to think of it, the air did carry a faint, humid smell.
I didn’t bring an umbrella…
If he finished up quickly, he’d be home within an hour — he just had to hope the rain held off until then.
“Welcome.”
He returned the convenience store part-timer’s mechanical greeting with a light nod and made his way to the triangle kimbap display. He’d been worried everything might have sold out now that the morning rush was over, but thankfully one or two were left.
“That’ll be 1,200 won.”
Yuhyeon placed his transit card on the card reader and waited for the payment to go through.
“Yes, payment confirmed.”
He pocketed his card, tore open the triangle kimbap’s wrapper, and tossed the packaging in the trash. Since he planned to eat while walking, he didn’t linger in the convenience store long. He bit off a large piece from the top, and with a satisfying crunch, savory grains of rice filled his mouth.
Just as he stopped at the crosswalk, the light changed in his favor. He walked straight through without waiting — and that’s when a familiar vehicle caught his eye.
Isn’t that the boss’s car…?
It was an uncommon make, which was how he recognized it. When had it been there? He’d been too flustered when he arrived to notice the parking lot. Yuhyeon peered at it from a distance before finally losing interest and heading back into Glock.
The trash scattered across the floor was there to greet him when he returned to the kitchen. He could sort through the garbage quickly enough — the real headache was the moisture that had leaked from the food ingredients. He’d need to mop it all up properly.
Maybe thirty minutes if I invest the time.
Holding onto that hopeful estimate, Yuhyeon got to work without delay. He swept the trash together with his foot, stacked the empty boxes, and pushed them into the storage room — and with that, things looked reasonably clean. All that was left was mopping up the moisture on the floor.
“Where’s the mop again…”
Cleaning supplies were probably in the staff restroom. He was cutting across the hallway to go get the mop when it happened. His body, which had been moving busily, came to an abrupt halt, and goosebumps crawled up his spine. Something sticky and wet beneath the soles of his shoes had stopped him in his tracks. Yuhyeon, who had been charging forward with his eyes straight ahead, swallowed drily.
He slowly looked down — and what met his eyes was a pool of deep red liquid. Yuhyeon traced the irregularly spaced droplets with his gaze.
“What… is this…”
His voice, taut with tension, cracked in a way that wasn’t pretty. The suspicious red moisture on the floor trailed all the way to the restroom. Each step forward became infinitely more cautious.
When he reached the restroom door, Yuhyeon nearly leaped out of his skin at the sight before him. Through the frosted glass door, a deep red hue bled through. It felt certain that the inside was just as much of a mess as the hallway, if not more. He steeled himself with a deep breath and reached for the handle — only to feel something slick and viscous transfer to his palm. Yuhyeon flinched and looked down at his hand. The same reddish color that had been on the floor was smeared across his pale skin.
What made it unsettling was that the dark, reddish-brown marks didn’t look like ordinary stains. They appeared to have been there for a while — half-dried already. When he wiped it off his skin, he could feel small, gritty particles clinging to it. Was it too much of a leap to say it looked like dried human blood? Yuhyeon, now carrying a heavy sense of dread, pushed open the glass door.
Before the goosebumps on his skin had even had a chance to settle, he was hit with another wave of shock. If the trail in the hallway had felt like something barely being held back, then the restroom was the scene of it having poured out entirely.
“…This isn’t blood, right?”
It couldn’t be. The more rational thought was that someone had spilled something and simply not cleaned it up. He’d vaguely heard talk recently about repainting somewhere — he wanted to believe that’s what this was. Yuhyeon muttered to himself to stop getting worked up over nothing.
The worst of it was the sink. The stain was anything but inconspicuous, yet whoever made this mess had left without dealing with it — the cleaning lady was going to have a fit when she saw it. There was even a streak across the sink that looked like someone had dragged their fingers through it. Even a haunted house set designed to be deliberately terrifying wouldn’t be this bad. A cold chill crept down his back, and his movements picked up speed.
“At least clean it up before you leave.”
At a glance, it was the kind of scene that could easily be mistaken for a real crime — that was how gruesome it looked. Yuhyeon squeezed his eyes shut and opened the cleaning supply cabinet. As he ran water over the mop he’d pulled out, the urge to leave the restroom grew stronger. Whether it was just his imagination, a strange smell seemed to linger in the air too. He wrung the mop out firmly and bolted the moment his business there was done.
Even telling himself it was nothing, the uneasy feeling only grew. Yuhyeon hurried back to the kitchen floor and scrubbed it vigorously, his mind drifting back to the things that had been nagging at him.
Come to think of it, the door wasn’t closed when I got here this morning…
The image of the entrance left ajar floated back to the front of his mind. If they’d simply forgotten to lock up, the door should’ve been closed at the very least, even if not locked. The more he thought about it, the more suspicious even the smallest details seemed. Glock’s front door was far larger and heavier than a typical residential door — a light push was usually enough for it to swing fully shut on its own. Even if someone had been in a hurry to get home and made a careless mistake, it wasn’t the kind of thing that happened easily.
That was when it happened. As Yuhyeon was busily mopping the floor, a loud noise reached his ears. A crashing, clattering sound was coming from somewhere near the rooms. Yuhyeon’s shoulders shot up at the noise — coming from inside a Glock he’d assumed was empty. He hurriedly peered down the hallway.
Wha — what is that?
His pupils, flooded with alarm, darted frantically from side to side. Burglar. The moment that word crossed his mind, the blood in his body ran cold all at once.
What do I do — should I call the police?
But if he called and it turned out not to be a burglar, he’d never live down the embarrassment. Yuhyeon spun around in circles, agonizing over it, before steeling himself. It seemed like he had no choice but to check for himself. Phone in hand with 112 already dialed, he crept slowly down the hallway toward the rooms. He had an emergency call ready to go so he could report immediately if the situation seemed dangerous.
Placing one careful step after another, Yuhyeon’s heart lurched. A human silhouette was clearly visible near Room 1. His breath, which had stopped without him even realizing it, suddenly burst free, and his entire body trembled violently. His finger, about to press the call button, froze in midair. The faint voice coming from inside — somehow, it was familiar.
“Boss?”
Faint but unmistakably Seongjun’s voice. Yuhyeon rushed across the threshold of the room and found Seongjun bracing himself against the wall, staggering.
He didn’t look well at all.
“…Boss!”
