For a seasoned detective like Kim Yerim, she prides herself for being able to absolutely survive any case the human and supernatural world has ever thrown at her.

Investigating a high-profile third party case? Caught the motherer right before he could even check-out of the hotel.

Recovering a bunch of kidnapped orphans from an aswang gang? Her team did this with their eyes closed.

Catching a murderer with a drugging M.O? She personally took the offender behind bars to rot for two lifetimes.

With those cases and many more under her belt, she can say that no problem is too much for her and her team to handle. 

But as per usual in challenging the world of the unknown, she holds the file for what would be her weirdest experience in a missing persons case. 

She has flipped through the pages so much that the bottoms are starting to crease, trying her best to make sense of what could be the beginning of something new and impossible and completely out of Yeri’s experistise.

And it all starts with the one who filed the case itself. 

“Joohyun Bae.”

The woman dressed in all white looks at her at the sound of her name, their straight jet-black hair framing an equally white face with the reddest pair of lips Yeri had ever seen. If she didn’t know any better, she would think she was face to face with a celebrity and this case was rather about a scandal which she could easily solve in a matter of hours.

Instead, Joohyun Bae is a White Lady, the White Lady of THE Balete Drive in fact, and she came in with the request to find someone for her.

Yeri takes a long sip of her coffee, trying her best to wake up her dead tired brain cells in order to take all of this properly and prevent herself from possibly offending who could be the most powerful ghost in the city. 

“So, you want my help in finding somebody?”

“Yes. I have heard of your reputation in supernatural cases and I believe that this case of mine would easily be solved as well.”

“Thank you for your trust, Miss Bae. But isn’t hiring a detective too much for this? Not to say that it’s a low-priority case, but your dwarves can easily find them in a matter of minutes.”

“While I do hold fondness for people in my employ, it just so happened that this person of mine… I would like to keep her safe from any supernatural repercussions. She’s very important to me and I will not be able to accept it if anything happens to her.”

“I understand, Miss Bae. By that I accept your case and will do my absolute best to take this person home. Kang Seulgi, is it?”

“Yes. I trust you Detective Kim to find my Seulgi. Please, bring me the love of my life safe and sound.”

They shook hands on it, and Kim Yerim left with a plan to track down this Kang Seulgi figure and bring back home to the White Lady.

Yeri, along with two members of her team, was on her way to the last sighting of Kang Seulgi when her phone rang, the ringtone a serious beat indicating that it was a work call. When she picked up, she almost wished she didn’t.

The call directed her to a small place from another town over, the grass green from constant care but there was the sorrowful tang of flowers in the air. The white stone path beneath her feet was clean, having just been washed by the rain, and her footsteps led her to a small building with rows and rows of individual boxes filled with jars of different sizes and colors.

A columbarium. 

Yeri almost didn’t want to believe it but when Wendy, a siren who’s in charge of negotiation should it be needed, pointed out a tombstone with the name Kang Seulgi written in elegant script, she knew that her search for Kang Seulgi ended right then and there.

She has found Joohyun Bae’s missing person. 

The epitaph told her that Kang Seulgi had died a long time ago, at the tender age of 25 from a heart attack. According to her source, Kang Seulgi became distraught after hearing how her lover had died when they were supposed to meet for their 5th anniversary. The family took her away to recover in the province, but failed as the sadness was too much for Ms. Kang's heart. She was cremated then put to rest in this columbarium, and has been in the same place ever since.

Yeri relayed this information back to homebase, and asked if she could explain the entire situation to Miss Bae personally. Even though she had indeed completed what was her assignment to find Kang Seulgi, some part of her feels guilty to having found her objective in a less than alive state.

When she had recounted the experience to the White Lady, she felt a sense of suspicion especially since there was no amount of shock that had colored the ghost’s face. Not even a tinge of surprise to know that Kang Seulgi has long been dead. The silence confirmed her suspicions.

“You knew she was dead.”

“I did.”

“Why did you send me out, then? Are you just wasting my time?”

“Will you listen if I explain, Detective Kim? I can leave if you are uninterested.”

With an indignant huff, Yeri took a seat and the White Lady began her tale.

Before she had turned into the White Lady, she was just Joohyun Bae. A 4th year college student in a nearby university who had the luck to bump into a junior going by the name of Kang Seulgi. They met right there by shed by the balete tree one October afternoon, decided to strike up conversation as they waited for the rain to subside. 

A conversation turned into two, then three, then countless more as the days passed by. Their lives have long since adjusted to each other’s presence, with the demands of Joohyun’s law school and the deadlines of Seulgi’s art course. No longer were their meetings secluded at the waiting shed by the balete tree.

They met in coffee shops, in football fields, even in each other’s dorm rooms.

Needless to say, Joohyun and Seulgi fell in love. So much that even after their respective graduations, they had plans to travel to the capital to properly start their lives together. Both had their families’ blessings, and Joohyun was to meet with Seulgi at the place where they first met to properly ask for the love of her life’s hand in marriage.

Unfortunately, Joohyun got into an accident right there by the balete tree.

Reports retold of a drunk driver who had accidentally ran over a woman in her mid-20s at Balete Drive due to the poor lighting in the area. From grainy camera evidence, the driver dumped the body in a shallow grave behind the tree and escaped the scene of the crime without calling for help. It was too late when the body was reported by a passerby: Joohyun had died on impact.

For some reason she couldn’t comprehend, Joohyun woke up right beside her mortal body but unable to touch and to speak to any human being she came across. She felt like she was a ghost, and the dreadful fact was confirmed by one of the dwarves that resided near the university when it found her crying at the side of the tree. 

It told her she was not just any ghost, but a White Lady. Off to guard the place she died for all of eternity.

She didn’t want any of it, would rather want to know more about her lover, how her Seulgi had fared knowing she had died.

Joohyun hoped that Seulgi would come around to the balete tree, even if it was just to mourn for her death. Alas, Seulgi never came around. Rumors from the dwarves told her that the family had driven away from the place, Seulgi in tow, and no one knows where they were.

No matter who she asked, no one was able to give her the location of her beloved. It drove her to frustration, unleashing her fury towards anyone who had the bad luck to stay out in Balete Drive past midnight, causing unexplained deaths that led people to believe the place was cursed.

She had mellowed out throughout the years and started to become more benevolent, focused on protecting the innocent from anyone who had bad intentions within her area of power. She had long grown out of her anger towards her lover who had probably moved on without her, only wishing that her Seulgi was happy.

Years passed before she knew that Seulgi had passed away. Just felt a piece of her soul throb at the lack of her other half before realizing that it was the sign that her love had now joined her dearly departed.

Seulgi’s name went unheard, all creatures high and low knowing better to avoid touching what would be a forever soft spot in the White Lady of Balete Drive’s heart.

Until one day, she did.

“You’re saying… her spirit’s alive?”

“I believe so. Her spirit was said to be seen roaming around Balete Drive, asking around for me. But...”

“What’s the problem?”

“It seems that she has taken to manifesting into a human whenever she roams, making her invisible to a supernatural’s eyes. I can’t summon her to talk nor can my best witches. Only humans can see her and I was hoping that if you found out where she had died, you could devise a way for me to speak with her.”

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