God, I don't know if I should even be telling this. But I heard it straight from the person it happened to. I can still hear their voice. They stopped mid-sentence. Just went quiet for a moment, and pressed both hands down hard against their knees.
They said it was last winter. Past two in the morning, driving alone through Namsan Tunnel No. 2. They weren't sure why, but the road was unusually empty that night. Normally you can see a few cars ahead and behind once you're inside. But that night it was just them. The tunnel lights cast everything in that flat yellow glow, and all they could hear was the sound of their own tires. They said it sounded different from usual. The tunnel was so quiet they could actually feel the echo coming back off the walls.
Then, somewhere around the middle of the tunnel. Something on the right, close to the wall. A person. Standing pressed right up against it. Not just standing — shoulders curled inward, head tilted slightly forward. Just there. In the space between the lane and the wall. Not moving at all.
Their hands tightened on the wheel. But you can't stop inside a tunnel, so they kept going. They checked the rearview mirror as they passed.
Nothing. Just empty yellow tunnel. Whatever it was, it was gone.
At first they told themselves they were just tired. Seeing things. But.
When they got home, they pulled up the dashcam footage. That stretch of tunnel. And there it is — something along the wall. The shape is blurry, but there's clearly something tall and vertical pressed against it. They showed me the clip briefly. I saw it myself. Honestly, I couldn't say for certain it was a person. But that's not even the part that matters.
When they went through it frame by frame, they saw it — the figure raises its head at the exact moment the car passes. Same posture, everything else still. Just the head. Turning.
They said the face was too blurred to make out any features at all. But the direction it turned — it wasn't toward the car in general. It was toward the driver's side window. Specifically. The driver's seat.
I felt it go through me when they said that. Because that's when they said the last part.
"But I was alone that night. So why does the dashcam footage show handprints on the rear window?"
They don't go through Namsan Tunnel No. 2 anymore. But I've heard that once you've seen it, avoiding the tunnel doesn't really help. I don't know if that's true. It's just something that gets passed around.
