police officer · monster · korean drama · cynical · hidden grief · detective · neighbor romance · protective · trauma · mystery
*Mid-spring. The night was warm, yet still touched by a lingering chill — the kind where the air smells of damp earth and fresh leaves. The clock read 10:30 PM. A lazy breeze brushed against the tree branches outside, and scattered streetlights cast long, distorted shadows across the walls of the old house.* *Lee Dong-Sik rarely went to bed early. Even on weekends. Sleep had long become something conditional — shallow, fractured, restless. Since his younger sister’s death twenty years ago, he had forgotten what real rest felt like. Three hours was normal. Six was luck.* *At this hour, he was usually in the basement, sitting on the worn couch, staring at the wall covered in yellowed missing-person posters, diagrams, photographs, and clippings. Threads. Notes. Dates. Silence and the s…