I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

[Turning a female character into a sociopathic crime profiler TT_TT Jaeyeong, thank you, I knew I could trust you]

I’d been hyped as hell since the teaser, but now that it’s actually out, it’s even better than I expected.. Haha, t first, even I was kind of like huh? when I saw the casting article for Lee Seohae’s actress, but she fits insanely well. Once your diction is this good, you’ve already won half the battle.

Anonymous (1.185) Seriously Jaeyeong, thank you so damn much. Go do everything you want.

Anonymous (17.172) Facts from start to finish. I kinda thought Seohae’s actress had too soft a T-zone to suit a sociopath role, but it actually works.

Anonymous (3.31) That honestly makes me even more interested.

Anonymous (23.28) The screen stays so muted and gloomy that the voices come through even clearer. Looks like Gam Seonghwan’s actor trained his projection hard too? It doesn’t grate on the ears at all.

The two headed to the home of the now-identified victim. It looked like she hadn’t been able to go outside for a long time; delivery containers and recycling trash were piled everywhere.

They tried their best to find evidence, but couldn’t reach any meaningful conclusion.

Clunk.

Gam Seonghwan bumped his shoulder into a shelf and nearly knocked something off from above.

“Whew. Nice catch.”

What landed in Gam Seonghwan’s skillful grip was an image of the victim while she was alive.

A pretty ID photo, the kind anyone might take once at that age. In the frame, the victim smiled brightly, photographed at the famous “Siyeonhada” studio known for its stylish results.

Gam Seonghwan carefully placed the frame back on the shelf.

“Forensics says it looks like a grudge killing.”

“That is my assumption as well. The level of mutilation is severe.”

“All the victims seem to be in their thirties, so sexual crime is also a possibility. Well, we’ll know more once forensics sends the full report.”

Woman, woman, woman, woman, woman, woman.

The six bodies discovered in the trash house all appeared to be women in their thirties.

“For now, we need to infer the commonalities. Consistent patterns reveal more than people think.”

Lee Seohae took the victim’s phone as evidence and skimmed through the browser history and messages.

But there was nothing particularly noteworthy.

Other than trivial conversations with internet friends and a few texts from a welfare officer, the victim truly seemed like the kind of person who could disappear from the world and no one would know.

There was no way to identify who might have held a grudge against her.

Gam Seonghwan widened the scope of the investigation. He brought in the people around the elderly woman from the trash house and questioned them one by one.

“That old lady? The exact time... I’m not sure, she wandered around day and night without any pattern. Even when she came to our junk shop, it was irregular. Sometimes at lunch, sometimes in the evening. Never in the morning.”

“Why not?”

“Well, obviously. She came after collecting cardboard and scrap. Would that kind of stuff be out on the street in the morning? The garbage trucks come at dawn.”

Gam Seonghwan wrote down the junk shop owner’s statement.

By contrast, Lee Seohae went to see the unconscious elderly woman. She wanted her medical records.

Lee Seohae stared fixedly at the old woman lying there with an oxygen mask.

“You seem very worried. For now, her life is not in danger.”

The doctor explained the patient’s condition to her.

“No. It’s just... somewhere...”

Lee Seohae continued staring at the old woman as she spoke.

“I’m sure I’ve seen her before.”

Despite how hard Gam Seonghwan pushed the investigation, there was still no real progress.

“A distinctive trait... honestly, she hardly ever spoke, so nothing really stands out in my memory...”

“There has to be at least one thing. Anything is fine.”

“Her grip strength was incredible. One time I said I’d help untie some string, and she blocked my arm immediately. I still remember how insanely strong her grip was then. She was also ridiculously good at undoing tightly knotted cords.”

Gam Seonghwan took a gulp from the drink handed to him by the welfare officer and moved on to the next witness.

“The rotting smell was always there. The smell of food waste going bad was indescribable. But who would’ve guessed it was the smell of corpses?”

“There aren’t really any CCTV cameras in this alley...” 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Gam Seonghwan diligently collected witness statements, but no meaningful evidence surfaced.

“What about CCTV? No suspicious people?”

“There are local residents here and there, but most of them were just going over to complain... and the bags in their hands all look normal. No one stands out as suspicious.”

Gam Seonghwan let out a deep sigh.

“Sunbae. A head’s gonna come out of the yard tomorrow, right?”

“Ha...”

“Seriously, right? The suspect’s usual activity radius... no, wait, no. At this rate, are we gonna end up digging the whole mountain behind the neighborhood too? Ugh.”

If no head was found in the yard, the search radius would spiral completely out of control.

* * *

The arsonist was caught. It turned out to be a third-rate BJ.

“I’m telling you, I wasn’t trying to start a fire! It just happened because my luck was shit! I just smoked one cigarette, one cigarette—how was I supposed to know this would happen? Ah, shit. The bastard who poured gasoline is the real bastard! This is so unfair!”

The cause was a cigarette he smoked after ending his live stream. That confirmed the arson and the murders were separate issues.

Even so, it remained the hottest case in the city.

The news that six bodies had been discovered in the middle of downtown kept the public in a state of outrage.

“Are they really gonna dig that up?”

“Oh god, that’s horrifying...”

A massive excavator dug into the yard of the trash house. The neighborhood residents surrounded it, watching the whole thing. It was no different from complete chaos.

—Gukpyeongo TV! Hello, bros—. Hit that donation button hard!

—That excavator’s paid with my taxes too, right? Ah, there goes the tax money pouring out again.

A swarm of BJs doing live broadcasts on their phones crowded in. No matter how much the police put up lines and tried to hold them back, it wasn’t enough.

The situation was also being broadcast live on the news, giving even the # Nоvеlight # district office responsible for the neighborhood a headache.

“The public board is complete chaos.”

“Sigh... what did we even do wrong?”

“My tiny paycheck gets taxed too, and now they’re calling us tax thieves.”

The district office message board wasn’t filled only with anger toward the elderly woman in the trash house.

Stones were also being hurled at the welfare officers who had failed to manage her properly.

“Alright, alright, let’s not get too worked up—. We have work to do. Work.”

Someone tried to ease the atmosphere, but the stiff expressions on everyone’s faces refused to soften.

The news kept alternating between the constantly moving excavator and the enraged citizens.

Gam Seonghwan was struggling to keep the citizens from crossing the police line.

But no matter how much they dug up the front yard with the excavator, the missing heads did not appear.

At this rate, it seemed the new welfare bill had no chance of passing after all.

* * *

—The “headless body” case discovered in a heap of trash has remained unsolved for a fourth day. Police executed a search warrant on the home of 70-year-old Mr. A, the prime suspect, earlier this morning, but ultimately failed to recover the victims’ heads.

Click, click, click....

—Local residents are pouring their anger toward the government. Although the elderly suspect met the qualifications for basic livelihood support, it has been revealed that he had been excluded from welfare management for years. Rumors suggest the suspect may have harbored resentment over this...

Click, click, click, click....

—Citizens are criticizing both the police’s delayed response and the poor oversight, while also condemning a welfare administration system where tax money is clearly not being used properly.

“....”

Lee Seohae sat rooted in the office, staring with irritation at Gam Seonghwan, who kept clicking his pen.

With the pen cap in his mouth, Gam Seonghwan scribbled the investigation results into his worn detective’s notebook. The office, otherwise silent, was filled only with the news broadcast he had left playing.

Lee Seohae, meanwhile, read through the SNS posts of the only victim whose identity had been confirmed on her tablet.

[Ah, this is seriously the work of my life.... I cry every time I watch it, fuck TT_TT Should’ve seen it in 4D]

[When I get a proper job again later, I’m gonna do an event for my mutuals too....(´∀`) I’ve only ever received so much and never given anything back, I feel so bad. Don’t know when that’ll be but definitely someday....]

Lee Seohae’s eyes remained calm as she searched for clues. There was no visible change in her expression.

Pattern.

Among the irregularities, she had to find the hidden thread connecting the victims.

[Sorry for posting this at dawn, I’m just so depressed. I wanted to work at a real company too. I wanted to save money. Someday I wanted to get my license and travel somewhere with no destination in mind]

[Emergency welfare support lunch, haha It reminds me of that sandwich shop I went to years ago. It still hasn’t closed... I don’t have the courage to go out, so I just look up reviews sometimes]

Bodies presumed to be tied to a grudge.

Just as she was estimating what kind of hostility might have existed between the victims and the perpetrator, Gam Seonghwan’s phone rang right on cue.

“Forensics sent the results. Let’s go.”

The two got into the car and headed out.

While gripping the steering wheel, Gam Seonghwan suddenly asked Lee Seohae a question.

“But Investigator Lee, is there a particular reason you think the culprit is the old man? I mean, sure, he’s the strongest suspect.”

“The fact that his resident registration number was deleted makes him statistically likely to be a criminal. In the data, some people with deleted registrations retain past criminal records or administrative sanctions. Looking at the deleted-registration sample, there are often layered factors like severed family ties, long-term disappearance, and unofficial transactions.”

“Disappearance, false reports caused by loss of family contact... there’s stuff like that too.”

The navigation ended its guidance. They had arrived at the National Forensic Service. As Lee Seohae unfastened her seatbelt and stepped out of the car, she answered.

“Even if the deletion happened that way, it does not eliminate the possibility that crimes were committed in the life that followed. Individuals left in welfare blind spots are powerless.”

Following Lee Seohae out of the car, Gam Seonghwan found himself thinking about the life of the elderly resident of the trash house.

People with deleted resident registration numbers cannot receive proper welfare. They lack even the means to apply on their own....

“Oh! You’re here? Come in, come in.”

The forensic researcher who had been waiting greeted them. The only identified victim among the six bodies lay on a cold steel examination bed.

After quickly hearing the report on body damage, cut direction, blood pattern, estimated weapon, estimated time of death, and whether there had been postmortem damage, Lee Seohae spoke immediately.

“I apologize.”

“Huh? For what?”

“My judgment was wrong. The face felt familiar, so I assumed I had seen it on a wanted poster before, but that must not have been it. The old man could not have committed murder using this method. I am removing him from the suspect list.”

Lee Seohae spoke while rapidly scanning the forensic results.

Gam Seonghwan looked at the report with her. Nothing written there seemed particularly unusual.

And yet something snagged at him.

It felt as if the loose end of a tangled knot was almost within reach.

At that moment, the researcher abruptly cut into Lee Seohae’s analysis.

“Even a man in his seventies could absolutely do this. Especially if he had strong grip strength and was physically conditioned from manual labor....”

“Impossible.”

Lee Seohae cut him off.

“The killer sliced through the neck with a sharp tool. That’s why the cut surface of the bodies is so uniform. The old man is incapable of committing murder this way.”

“....”

“The hospital staff told me both his right and left finger joints were completely twisted. He might be able to lift and move objects, but gripping a tool and applying steady force with precision would be impossible.”

“Wait a second!”

Gam Seonghwan’s eyes darted between the body and the report.

“You’re saying it was impossible for him to grip a tool?”

“Not completely impossible, but to cut this cleanly and sharply....”

Over Lee Seohae’s voice, a witness statement overlapped in his mind.

“Her grip strength was incredible. One time I said I’d help untie some string, and she blocked my arm immediately. I still remember how insanely strong her grip was then. She was also ridiculously good at undoing tightly knotted cords.”

Creeeak—.

The sound of a door layered over his thoughts like an auditory hallucination.

The instant ramen packet with time still left before expiration, the one he had seen at the burned trash house scene.

Where had it come from?

Someone who could enter and leave the trash house without raising suspicion.

Someone who could estimate a place where bodies would rot well.

Someone who gave cleverly distorted testimony to steer suspicion away from themselves.

“...!”

At that moment, a different person rose onto the suspect board.

* * *

“You can head out—.”

“Good work today!”

As quitting time arrived, the Welfare Department employees began leaving one by one. There was a man smiling as he saw off his coworkers.

The last person remaining in the office, he walked toward the parking lot with leisurely steps.

“Alright, alright, let’s not get too worked up—. We have work to do. Work.”

He was the very man who had been the only one calming his coworkers when the district office complaint board had been flooded with furious citizen posts.

That same man.

He drove off somewhere, leaving behind only acrid smoke.

[WEE-OO WEE-OO WEE-OO if you don’t watch now the arrest is going down, episode 2 live thread]

—??????

—holy shit

—F*CK LMAO

—this is insane TT__TT

The real-time live thread exploded.

Gam Seonghwan hurried into the car and explained the welfare officer’s false testimony to Lee Seohae.

“Internal inconsistency. A common symptom.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Seriously, quit using difficult words.”

“It is called an internally inconsistent statement. Since structural flaws have appeared in the details of the testimony, the culprit’s psychological state is predictable. If not for the arson case, this would have remained undiscovered, so they must be shaken.”

But Lee Seohae showed not even the slightest hint of satisfaction at having narrowed down the suspect pool.

Because there was still one massive obstacle remaining.

“However, until the warrant is issued, a seizure and search is impossible.”

Gam Seonghwan fell silent for a moment.

“As you know, given the current situation, the lack of physical evidence means the warrant process will take at least three days. If it is rejected and must be refiled, it may take more than five.”

At Lee Seohae’s words, Gam Seonghwan gripped the steering wheel tightly.

The traffic light changed to red like a warning signal.

The car carrying the two of them came to a stop.

As if they themselves had been blocked by a giant wall.

A steel-cut montage flashed once each across Lee Seohae and Gam Seonghwan’s faces, then the old man’s house left in ruins by the excavator, the protest against passing the welfare bill, and finally the welfare officer with the kind smile.

Bang!

Episode 2 ended, and the preview began.

“It’s a request to review the suspect’s financial records.”

“For just that?”

“The projected burial radius is far too wide. I think we need to dispatch a search team to recover the bodies!”

“Is Investigator Lee finally opening her mouth?”

As soon as the short preview ended, articles poured out in a flood as if they had been waiting.

The pacing felt flawless, the deductive process was as tight and satisfying as the very essence of the genre, and even the chemistry between the leads was perfect.

It was the exact moment the most anticipated work of the second half of the year firmly established itself as a breakout hit.