Ah, should I even be telling this… it's something I heard firsthand, but I can't swear to all of it. Just something someone told me. Still gave me chills just listening.
You ever been to the Hanok Village area in Jeonju? There's a path that leads up to Imokdae from there. During the day it's nothing — tourists around, just an ordinary little hill road. But apparently once the sun goes down and you head that way, the whole feel of the place changes completely. A friend of an older girl I know went there last late autumn, and this woman was famous for not being scared of anything. That's part of what made it worse, hearing it from her.
It was around eight in the evening, she said. Right at that moment when the dark finally settles in. She was passing near the undergrowth beneath the overpass — the one that connects the entrance to Imokdae up toward the mountain — when the air suddenly shifted. Not just cold, but damp and heavy, pressing right up against her throat. Warm and cold at the same time, like something breathing on her. It was so wrong that she stopped walking.
And right at that moment, something rustled in the undergrowth. No wind at all. At first she thought it was a cat. So she looked over, and —
There was a man. Crouching.
Hunched down inside the bushes, looking straight at her. Not just looking — his head was tilted slightly to one side, and he wasn't blinking. The streetlight fell directly on his face, so she could see every detail of his expression. He was smiling. Smiling, but his eyes weren't. Just the corners of his mouth pulled up, and he was watching her. Not a word.
She was so startled she couldn't even scream — just froze where she stood. But apparently there's a rumor about that place: you must not look away, and you must not turn your back. Because that's what he's waiting for. The moment your eyes leave him. So she kept her gaze fixed on him and slowly backed away on trembling legs. The entire time she was retreating, he didn't move. Same position. Same expression.
Only after she was completely clear of the overpass did she turn and run. But here's the strange part — the next day, in the afternoon, she went back and looked at that spot in the undergrowth. The grass where the man had been crouching was all flattened down. And not just in one place — pressed down in several spots. Like someone had been sitting there regularly, for a long time.
Some people say he was possessed, others say he was just some disturbed person. No one really knows. But she said the scariest part wasn't the man himself. It was those few seconds while she was backing away, eyes forward, not looking behind her — when she caught sight of her shadow stretching out beneath a distant streetlight.
There were two shadows.
Hers, and one right beside it.
