I was 17, sneaking a smoke, and a man chased us with a knife

okay so this is NOT a ghost story. this is real. this actually happened.

I'm 17. a few weeks ago me and 3 friends ditched hagwon early to go smoke somewhere. teens smoking is just kind of normal at this point, whatever. anyway our neighborhood has this massive abandoned zone, like seriously MASSIVE, tens of thousands of square meters of condemned houses that got shut down like 10 years ago bc they were supposedly building apartments there. perfect spot, right. nobody around.

so we head into the alleyways to smoke and then out of nowhere we hear this guy just SCREAM "YA!!!!!!" like a full adult man's voice echoing through everything. we were like. okay. what the hell was that. we looked around, saw nothing, figured maybe someone was fighting and kept moving.

then it happened again. "YA!!!!!!!!"

we were like okay this dude is unhinged, let's just smoke fast and leave. I was already freaked out, I said guys can we please just not do this here. but we stayed.

and then we heard it. running. footsteps, coming fast.

we were already tense, already spooked, and suddenly someone is RUNNING toward us in this pitch dark abandoned alley. my heart was going insane. we all crouched behind a parked car and peeked through the window.

some guy in a black padded jacket and a black hat just sprinting past.

we were like... was that the screaming guy? probably not. whatever. we finished up and stood to leave.

and then. he came back. from above us somehow. running down at us.

my friend saw him first. "YO that's the same guy from before!!" and he was maybe 10 meters away and closing and we just. ran. no thinking. just ran.

then I looked back.

he was screaming "YA!!!!" and COMING FOR US and he reached into his pocket and pulled out something wrapped in newspaper and he unwrapped it and it was a small knife. a KNIFE.

we sprinted through 10 square kilometers of abandoned buildings crying, full on sobbing, running for our lives. I genuinely thought I was going to collapse. we ran for like 10 minutes straight until we hit the main road.

looked back. he wasn't following anymore.

we called 112 (korean 911) immediately. I was crying so hard I could barely talk. "please help us, some man chased us with a knife" and they tracked our location and sent 3 cop cars.

we went to the station. gave statements. parents came and picked us up.

next day the cop called me.

"thanks for your help yesterday. you must have been really scared. we caught him."

I asked who he was.

and the cop said he was one of those human trafficking guys. like Oh Won-chun type. selling... people. (spoiler: as in, literally selling human flesh.)

I literally went blank. just stood there. if we hadn't run. if we'd been a little slower.

I can't sleep. I still can't. every time I leave the house I'm scared. that abandoned zone? never again in my life.