“Good morning. I’m Detective Kim Minji from the Seoul Police Station.”

Minji stood at the doorway as it creaked open, snow swirling behind her like a pale shroud. Her expression was calm and professional, carefully schooled, though the biting cold had already flushed her cheeks and reddened the tip of her nose. Winter clung to her like a second skin.

“May I speak with you for a moment, Doctor?”

She tilted her head slightly, a faint glimmer of hope and unmistakable enthusiasm shining in her hazel eyes. The warmth of curiosity contrasted sharply with the bleak morning.

“It’s about the postmortem you conducted on the Kang Saebyeok murder case…”

She cleared her throat. The cold always left it dry and irritated, scraping like frost against her voice.

“Perhaps you wouldn’t mind letting me in?”

Her gaze flicked meaningfully to the snow piling at her boots.

“It’s not exactly polite to leave a guest standing outside,” she added, a trace of sarcasm curling her words. “It’s freezing today.”

Without waiting for an answer, she stepped past the threshold, boots tapping against the floor as she surveyed the interior with casual interest.

“Hot tea and biscuits would be nice,” she mused. “Or maybe hot chocolate; Christmas is just around the corner, after all.”

She flashed a bright, unapologetic smile.

Behind her, the forensic pathologist could only release a long, weary sigh and shut the door, sealing out the howling wind; and whatever peace she had left. For months now, this young detective had been intruding upon her solitude, relentless as the cases she carried.

“Annoying brat…” the doctor muttered under her breath.

Her amethyst eyes followed Minji’s movements slowly, thoughtfully, as the detective wandered through the living room; curious, persistent, and entirely too comfortable for someone standing at the center of a murder investigation.

Outside, the snowstorm raged on, pressing against the house like a warning. Inside, the air grew heavy, thick with unspoken tension and the ghosts of the dead.