The Silence Between Us | A Dark Korean Psychological Thriller Story

Episode 1: The Silence Between Us

Author:Kavitha.V 

Eun-chae always believed silence was peaceful.

She liked the way it wrapped around her during late nights, when the city slowed down and her thoughts finally caught up with her. But that night, silence felt different. It felt heavy. Watching. Waiting.

Rain fell steadily over Seoul, turning the streets into mirrors of broken light. Eun-chae stood alone at the bus stop, clutching her coat tighter as cold seeped into her bones. Her phone rested in her palm, dark and quiet.

Too quiet.

Jaejoon hadn’t replied.

That alone made her uneasy.

Jaejoon was never careless with time. Even on his busiest days, he left signs—short texts, half-finished thoughts, random voice notes sent at odd hours. Silence was never his language.

Her eyes drifted to the road, then to the café across the street. The Moonlight Café was closing for the night, its shutters rolling down slowly. Above it, a CCTV camera rotated lazily, its red light blinking. For a brief second, Eun-chae felt as if someone was watching her through it.

She turned around.

Nothing.

Just rain. Just empty pavement.

Her phone screen suddenly lit up—not with a new message, but with an old one.

Jaejoon’s last text.

“If anything happens to me, don’t trust what you see.”

Her chest tightened.

At the time, she had brushed it off as one of his dramatic lines. Jaejoon was a crime journalist; dark words followed him everywhere. But now, standing alone in the rain, those words felt less like drama and more like a warning.

Jaejoon chased truths others avoided. Corruption, missing cases, people who vanished without explanation. He believed every disappearance left a scar on the world—and someone had to trace it.

But Eun-chae knew something else.

There was one story Jaejoon never talked about.

One name he avoided.

One fear he never explained.

The rain grew heavier, drumming against the metal roof of the bus stop. Then her phone vibrated.

An incoming call.

Unknown Number.

Her fingers hovered over the screen. Every instinct told her not to answer.

Still, she did.

“Hello?”

No voice replied.

Only breathing.

Slow. Steady. Close.

Her pulse raced. “Jaejoon?” she whispered.

The breathing stopped.

Then a man’s voice came through—low, calm, almost gentle.

“You are Eun-chae, correct?”

Her throat went dry. “Who is this?”

A brief pause. Then, “Someone who knows how this story ends.”

“What story?” she asked, her voice trembling despite her effort to stay calm.

“Jaejoon’s last investigation,” the man said. “He believed you would finish it.”

The call ended.

Before she could react, she noticed something near her feet—an envelope, half-soaked, pressed against the bench leg by the rain. Her hands shook as she picked it up. It was heavier than it looked.

Inside was a USB drive.

Blood stained the plastic, dark and unmistakable.

On the back of the envelope, words were written in uneven handwriting:

“He trusted you. That was his first mistake.”

Eun-chae felt the world tilt beneath her.

This wasn’t an accident.

This wasn’t a disappearance.

It was a message.

And the silence she feared wasn’t empty anymore.

It was alive.

???? To be continued…