1 Chapter 1 - Serial Murder Case

"Ugh!" A young man sleeping on a large sized bed groaned in pain while sweating continuously in his sleep.

"Se-rin-ah!" He abruptly wakes up while murmuring something and sits up indignantly. He gasped for air for a second there, with his eyes wide open and a terrified look on his face.

The young man then bit his lips in frustration as blood started dripping out of his mouth and a few seconds later, he cried until his eyes became dry completely.

"Now that I have taken my revenge, she must have rested in peace, right?" He mumbled to himself with a faint smile. "I'm sure I saw him falling off the cliff along with me back then."

After reminiscing about his past, he finally came to his senses and noticed the surroundings around him, especially the antique bed with four poster design that only existed in ancient times while the room itself was pretty historic.

He was lost for words.

'What's going on here? I thought I died there. More than that, I want to know where am I.'

Then, he started touching his body for some reason.

'Whose body is this? Why my hands are so tiny? Did I perhaps become young?' he thought to himself while having a perplexed look on his face.

'The knife wound at my abdomen has also gone. What's happening?'

"Ah!"

While he was trying to figure out the current situation he was in, Yu-min got a slight headache that paused his thinking process.

'This crazy bastard, f**k off!'

'Go away, you abnormal kid! There's no place for people like you.'

'Gi-wan, no matter what other says, you're still my..."

Flashbacks of memories that wasn't his, flooded through the young man's mind. Although he couldn't processed everything in his mind, but he saw some flashback scenes playing like a movie in his head.

"What the hell is going on? Whose memory is this?" he said in a confused voice.

The young man's name was Kang Yu-min. He was a martial arts teacher at Seoul City, who gave defense lessons to kids between the age of 7 - 16 years old.

A few months back, Yu-min's wife, 'Yoo Se-rin' was found dead at home with her body parts sliced into pieces. When the police investigated the case, it was concluded that she was murdered by a serial killer they've been chasing for almost two years now. According to the forensics report, his wife's case had the same MO like other similar murder cases they were investigating and thus, they declared this case as a serial murder case. On top of that, the same culprit had already killed more than twenty victims in total.

After the incident, six months have passed and two more victims had already became prey to killer. But they still couldn't catch the culprit yet.

Yu-min was at his limits to rely on the police authorities who couldn't found any clue about the ghost criminal who leaves no traces behind when he kills anyone.

Therefore, he had to investigate the case himself and find the criminal at any cost. Three months later, after some digging, Yu-min found out that the killer mostly targets women who are in their 20's or 30's and also noticed the pattern he uses for targeting his victims.

Since Yu-min was an analytics expert in a huge finance company, it was given that he was smart and witty for his young age. With the help of a serial killer whom he visited in prison several times in a row, he was able to find some clue about the murderer and his patterns of killing his victims.

After figuring out his pattern of killing and the most probable targets he killed, Yu-min just had to prepare a similar bait to lure him out and catch him red-handed. For that role, a female colleague he knew for a long time was ready to do the job.

Her name was Shin Yoon-sung and she was actually a reporter. So, if he was able to catch the culprit of a serial murder case that not even police was able to, she could get a big scoop for her story and can make an exclusive news out of it. Thus, it was a win-win situation for both of them.

After some planning and picking out a location he would mostly appear, they were ready to execute the operation to catch the killer. Along with him and his colleague, some of his male friends were also ready to help him catch this bastard once and for all.

At Christmas Eve, they carried out their plan and were waiting for their target to show up. Since it was Christmas, most people were out drinking and would return home late at night. That's why, it was most likely the time he would show up and kill his next victim.

And Yu-min was right about his prediction.

The serial killer actually showed up and followed Yoon-sung to her home. According to his appearance, everyone confirmed that he was the killer and jump out to catch him.

However, the serial killer was no fool. He was able to sense someone was following him and he ran before they could catch him.

Yu-min didn't give up and kept chasing him until he reached the mountains where the criminal was living and had a scuffle with him there. In the end, both of them fell off the cliff while fighting each other brutally and then died after their bodies hit the ground.

After few seconds had passed, Kang Yu-min was in an unfamiliar room with a younger body in his possession, although he was 31 years old in reality.

---Present----

'Staying here won't give me any answers. I should go outside and ask someone around.' With a determined mindset, he got off from the bed and started walking towards the exit door.

'Wait a minute…' he halted his movements and turned around. 'I should check my body first. Who knows, how much younger I look now.'

"What the-" his mouth was gape open in surprise.

As soon as Yu-min looked at his reflection in the mirror, he was baffled and shocked with no words coming out of his mouth for a while.

"Who the hell is this?" he touched his face in amazement. "I don't recall having a face like this in my younger days. What happened to me? It's so strange…"

Before he could comment any more statements to his newfound look, the door of the room was suddenly opened while following a sweet and soothing voice calling out a certain name.

"Gi-wan, my son!"

It was a woman in her 30's, and she had a delicate and elegant body with a gorgeous face that can attract any men in the world. With a gentleness in her voice and bright smile on her face, she headed towards the bed Yu-min was sleeping just a moment ago.

"Son, look what I brought here. After eating this, you'll recover-"

Just before she could finish her sentence, the woman turned silent with a shocking expression on her face.

As soon as she looked at Yu-min standing over there just fine, tears started falling out of her eyes.

On the other hand, Yu-min had a confused look on his face. 'This woman... Why do I feel like I know her?'

She immediately rushed towards him with a smile on her face and hugged him out of the blue.

"Son, you're finally awake. I was so worried about you. I really thought I lost you, my poor son!" she said in a concerning tone.

'Son? what the hell is she talking about? How come I am her-' Yu-min paused there and something clicked in his mind.

'Ah.. I see! I'm really her son.'

"Son, what's the matter? why are you spacing out there? Are you feeling unwell somewhere." she shook his body a few times to wake him up from his trance.

Once he came to his senses, he replied. "Uh… I'm fine, mother. Don't worry."

He smiled.

"Oh, thank god." She sighed in relief. "But what happened to your tone, son? Why are you acting weird?"

"What do you mean, mother?" He asked.

"I mean- Never mind. I think your change in behavior must be for the better, I guess." She smiled back.

'What is she talking about now? This new memory is so fuzzy right now that I can't remember everything right away. So much for a side effect.' He sighed inwardly.

While Yu-min was lost in thoughts, Gi-wan's mother continued to speak. "Now that you have recovered, I can rest easy. Here, it's a good medicine. It might improve your immunity power. Please take it as soon as possible."

She then handed over the bowl she was holding to Yu-min.

"Alright, mother. I'll make sure to take it afterwards. Thanks a lot."

"Okay, then. I'll go back to work. I left my stall open there and came to check on you. We'll talk later. Bye."

"Sure, mother. Bye!" he said with a smile.

Gi-wan's mother turned around and took some steps forward but halted her movements for some reason while turning her head back to Yu-min.

"Oh! I totally forgot to tell you. Tomorrow's a big day and there will be a festival in the city. So, I hope you don't mind if you help me in the stall, right?"

"Mother, why would I mind? I'll make sure to help you tomorrow. Don't worry!" he answered with a smile.

"Okay, I'll leave then. Bye."

she said and Yu-min nodded in response before she headed outside.