Let me share something I heard while I was in Suwon.
I can't say for certain it's true. It didn't come from someone who saw it firsthand — they heard it from an acquaintance of theirs. So it's already secondhand by the time it reached me. Still, have a listen.
You know Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon — Janganmun, the north gate. During the day it's all tourists and photographs, that sort of place. But there are people who say that if you pass by there after two or three in the morning, something feels different.
This would have been two or three years ago. A man who lived in Suwon — no one knows his name, just that he was a salaryman in his thirties. He'd worked late, missed his bus, and was walking home. It must have been around half past two in the morning. His route took him along the path beside the fortress wall near Janganmun.
At first, he said, it was simply quiet. No one around at that hour, naturally — just the glow of the streetlamps stretching long across the old stones. But as he walked, he began to hear footsteps.
Not his own. He was wearing trainers, walking on asphalt. What he heard was something heavier — the sound of boots on stone — and not just one person, but several, moving in step together. Tak, tak, tak, tak. A steady rhythm. Like soldiers marching in formation.
He stopped walking. The sound stopped too.
When he started again, the sound followed. When he stopped, it stopped. He tested it three times. He looked all around him and saw nothing.
He left that place walking as fast as he could without quite running. But here's the thing.
When he was nearly home and turned to look back — there was something standing on top of the Janganmun gatehouse. Far away, so it appeared small. But it was unmistakably the shape of a person, and something like the hem of a garment was moving in the wind. Was there wind that night, you ask? He said there was none at all.
He felt the chill run through him and ran the rest of the way without looking back once.
When he told the story to his acquaintance later, that person said they'd heard similar things before. Someone who had heard the sound of a gong near Janganmun in the small hours. Someone who had seen something looking down from the top of the wall.
Hwaseong was built during the reign of King Jeongjo of Joseon. There must have been hundreds of soldiers garrisoned there to guard those walls. Where do you suppose they all went.
No one really knows.
What is known is that ever since that night, he always takes a taxi after working late. No matter how short the distance. He will not walk past Janganmun.
Not in the small hours.
