[horror story] Don't cross the bridge at Jinwi Stream, Pyeongtaek

I wasn't going to post this but it's been sitting in my head for three years now so here we go.

There's a small pedestrian bridge over Jinwi Stream in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. Locals call it Noeul Bridge, the sunset bridge. And there are stories. Old ones. About people disappearing from that bridge one by one. The one thing they all had in common: they crossed it at 2am.

Fall 2022. I got sent there for a short-term work assignment, factory near Jinwi-myeon. My housing was a little apartment complex right by the stream. First time I saw Jinwi Stream I honestly thought it was kind of pretty. Calm water, birds somewhere in the distance, that old rickety footbridge cutting across. Peaceful.

Then one night a coworker, older guy, got drunk and said it.

"That bridge. Don't cross it at night. Especially not around 2am."

I asked why. He didn't laugh. He didn't even smile.

"My friend went missing there. Last call was 2am. Last thing he said was 'I'm crossing the bridge now.'"

That just. stayed with me.

So I started watching the bridge. During the day it was totally normal, kids riding bikes across, residents taking walks. Nothing. But there was this one thing. On the railing, there was an official-looking sign that said "CAUTION: RESTRICTED ACCESS" and underneath it, in handwriting, someone had added:

*"Not at 2. That's when it's there."*

One night I'm coming back from overtime. 1:45am. I'm near the bridge and I just. go up to it. Nobody around. Fine.

Then 1:58am hits and this thick river fog just ROLLS in out of nowhere and swallows the whole bridge.

I told myself it was just fog. I stepped onto it.

A few steps in, something grabbed my arm from behind and yanked.

I spun around. Nobody there.

I pulled out my phone. 2:00am exactly.

And from the other end of the bridge, someone started walking toward me.

White shirt, black pants. But his face. his face was just. blank. Where the eyes and nose and mouth should've been, just smooth pale skin. Head tilted down. And his footsteps were SO CLEAR, like weirdly, wrongly clear in the fog.

I backed off the bridge as fast as I could.

Then a whisper from somewhere on the bridge behind me.

*"Cross it... and you disappear too."*

I heard it. I know what I heard.

Went back the next day. No fog. The handwritten sign was gone. Nobody acting like anything was wrong.

I never went near that bridge again after that.

A few days later, someone posted in the local community forum:

"They say another person who was walking on Jinwi Stream bridge at 2am just disappeared."