Oh my Ghost [YiZhan FF]

Chapter 26 - Research Institute?

A few years ago I had to go several times for research to a house that belonged to an old lady. She had lived there all her life, which was 83 years by then. The house was not very big and had just been freshly painted on the outside. It was all white and had tiles at the bottom in a lighter and darker brown. Always alternating, light and dark.

When I walked into her house, it smelled a little musty. But not unpleasant or anything. All the walls had been freshly painted there, too. Her grandchildren had surprised her with it, as she told me at the time. Now she had white walls, which with the big windows provided a lot of brightness in the house.

The furniture in the house was already very old. And everything was filled with mementos from her 83 years of life. Each item seemed to have its own story, which she was only too happy to tell me. I would point to something and she would tell me the story of it. She remembered every detail, every moment, and could even recall what clothes she was wearing at the time. I was really impressed with her.

When you met this woman and listened to her, everyone thought she was really sweet and lovely. No one would just believe that she is the mother of a serial killer. But she is. Her then 50 year old son had brutally raped and murdered 9 women between the ages of 45- 50. And he could only be convicted of his crimes because he told his mother the truth and she immediately went to the police with it.

She reported her own son to the police and she told me she would do it again and again. "Even though he is my son and I love him more than anything. I couldn't let him continue to walk around free and kill more women." She told me. She also told me that she knew this meant his death sentence.

Of course, she suffered greatly for reporting her own son and then him being executed only 4 months after his conviction. But she persisted, he had to pay for his guilt.

When I asked her why he became like this, since I assume that no one is born evil, she said that it was probably because of her husband, his father. Of course I asked her how she meant that and she explained that her husband had also raped her when she was only 17 years old. And that her family insisted that she marry her tormentor, because she became pregnant through the rape.

She was no longer innocent and pure and her family thought she would never find a good husband that way. So they forcibly married her to her rapist who was already 44 years old at that time. She had lost the baby then after her husband raped her again. And her son had also been created in this way.

It really hurt me to hear her tell me that she never had real sex with her husband because he only ever brutally raped her. This happened once or twice a month. Each time after such a rape, he would wait until her injuries healed and then rape her again. This was a vicious cycle for her that ended only when her husband died a year after their son was born.

I asked her if she had found a new partner to love after her husband died. She laughed and said, "I found my dream woman. Unfortunately, she passed away half a year ago. But I am sure I will see her again soon." She was a lesbian and stood by it. I was more than impressed with her. She died a month after I last visited her. Her two grandsons and daughter-in-law buried her next to their beloved girlfriend.

And the reason why I am telling this now is, when we were driving to the research institute, I remembered her again, because we were driving through the small village and past her house. Today her daughter-in-law and her two grandsons live there. The three of them had told me at the time about her death and about how they wanted to honor the memory of this great impressive woman.

I told Zhan, Youn and Wooseok about it on the way. Zhan said he knew who I was talking about because he was investigating this serial killer case as a criminologist at the time. Somehow I could guess that. It's funny that he and I didn't meet much earlier. Because during my research at that time, I often spoke with police officers and investigators of the homicide squad.