[SPOILER] WEBTOON PLOT SUMMARY

EARLY BACKGROUND (Pre-Middle School)

• Oh Gi-wan, born an orphan, is adopted into Je Moon-jae's family before Je Moon-jae is born. After Je Moon-jae’s birth, Gi-wan is neglected and eventually abandoned by Je Moon-jae's father at Sotae Amusement Park (Sotae-91). He is taken in by a violent, sexually abusive man who poses as his father.

• Je Moon-jae, unaware of this connection, grows up normally but has lingering trauma from vague early childhood memories.

• Kim Seong-pyo is institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital in his early years due to autism and anxiety.

• Lee Geum-seok and Hwang Dae-jun become close childhood friends and later lovers. Geum-seok is bullied for his femininity.

• Shin Eui-teum grows up under the illusion that his father is abroad on business. In reality, his father is an illegal immigrant from Pakistan who is deported.

MIDDLE SCHOOL EVENTS

Writing Club is formed, largely due to Han Joong-pil dragging introverted Je Moon-jae into it under false pretenses. Oh Cho-hee, a bachelor teacher with a feminine name, becomes their supervisor.

Main writing club members:

• Je Moon-jae

• Han Joong-pil

• Shin Eui-teum

• Kim Seong-pyo

• Lee Geum-seok

• Park Ji-woong

• Oh Gi-wan

• Kim Min-woo

Key events:

• Han Joong-pil commits minor frauds and cons. He manipulates situations like lying to the sports club to offload chores. He is suspected early of being the “field mouse.”

• Oh Gi-wan is feared due to his violent tendencies and bad reputation. He skips shooting training, but has a tattoo that reads “Sotae-91.”

• Writing club starts renting 19+ movies to students illegally through a secret “wormhole” bunker. Shin Eui-teum refuses to join this scam.

• Je Moon-jae serves as a passive enabler for many club misdeeds. Like, in a writing assignment, he excluded the names of his writing club peers, which led to them being bullied.

• The writing club becomes increasingly corrupt, which causes cracks among members. No Ja begins observing from the margins.

• Tensions rise when Je Moon-jae accidentally reveals to Han Joong-pil that his mother is not a corporate executive, but a helper at a news agency. Han Joong-pil feels deeply humiliated.

• Han Joong-pil plans to kill Je Moon-jae, plants rumors about the club's corruption, and escalates the situation.

• During this time, Oh Gi-wan, whose trauma resurfaces, starts to identify himself with “the field mouse,” fueled by his abandonment and abuse. He believes Je Moon-jae stole the life that could’ve been his.

The Attempted Murder Incident:

• Park Ji-woong, Kim Seong-pyo, Shin Eui-teum, and Lee Geum-seok all become complicit in a vague murder plan, thinking it will scare or hurt Je Moon-jae.

• On the night of the incident, Han Joong-pil brings a blunt object to a reservoir but fails to follow through.

• A flowerpot made of cardboard falls on Je Moon-jae, and a firecracker explodes. Joong-pil insists he didn’t truly try to kill Moon-jae.

• However, Je Moon-jae is injured and terrified. Rumors of a “reservoir ghost” spread to cover up the attack.

Parallel developments:

• Oh Gi-wan murders his adoptive father, burns his house, and fakes his own death by placing the father’s body in a school uniform. The burned body misleads everyone into thinking Gi-wan is dead.

• Lee Geum-seok witnesses one club member heading to the reservoir. Guilt consumes him.

• After the incident, Park Ji-woong is sued by school bully Shin Hae-seok and cannot afford a settlement. He ends up in juvenile detention.

• Geum-seok is outed for his homosexuality and eventually commits suicide at the reservoir rock.

• Kim Seong-pyo is branded mentally ill and ostracized.

• Shin Eui-teum suffers due to his family background becoming known.

• Kim Min-woo vanishes from memory; someone else later impersonates him.

IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH

• The club breaks apart. Oh Gi-wan is presumed dead.

• Je Moon-jae tries to forget, but is haunted by repressed memories and guilt. After his discharge from the hospital, he learned boxing as a way to cope with and defend against domestic abuse from his father.
  

• Rumors circulate about the “ghost” and “curse” tied to the reservoir, dropping land value and turning the area into a taboo place.

MANY YEARS LATER

• Je Moon-jae becomes a renowned drama writer.
• Established a shell company in Hong Kong to evade taxes.
• Took on the alias "Cha Hyun-woo" while operating his business.
• Plagiarism allegations and a fall in career.
• Defrauded the violent loan shark Noh Ja, prompting him to go into hiding for 10 years, never setting foot outside during that time.
• Due to Je Moon-jae's reclusive lifestyle, An Gyeong-hwan, his lawyer and middle school classmate, handles matters outside the house on his behalf. He secretly conspires with the Field Mouse in a plot to replace Je Moon-jae.

 PRESENT TIMELINE (10 Years Later)

• Je Moon-jae begins investigating the past after encountering someone with the exact same name and appearance as him, while also saving himself from No Ja's reach.

• After being spotted by former classmate Na Seong-gi, he is forced to leave his hiding.

• Moon-jae blackmails An Gyeong-hwan to obtain a list of his former classmates.

• Reunites with former club members one by one:

  • Kim Seong-pyo reveals his lie about having a rare disease and his mental illness. He resents Je Moon-jae for not intervening or helping him during his difficult times

  • Shin Eui-teum confesses about his father and childhood, clearing him as the “field mouse.”

  • Park Ji-woong helps investigate, then is killed by an ambush.

  • Han Joong-pil, now in prison, confesses he planned the attack out of humiliation but insists he didn't lie about seeing a ghost.

  • Geum-seok’s suicide is confirmed by Hwang Dae-jun, who still mourns him.

  • Hwang Dae-jun reveals Geum-seok confessed involvement in the attempted murder.

• Je Moon-jae learns from Joong-pil that the real identity of the “gravekeeper” at the reservoir was Joong-pil himself, who saw a “ghost” dragging a body - which was Oh Gi-wan with his father’s corpse.

• The phrase “Sotae-91” and memories of Sotae Amusement Park trigger Je Moon-jae’s repressed memory: Oh Gi-wan was the abandoned child - and he was the one Je Moon-jae had unknowingly displaced.

• The tattoo “Sotae-91” symbolizes Oh Gi-wan’s trauma.

• Oh Gi-wan had returned and tried to kill Je Moon-jae during a reunion, but the “murder” was only partially carried out. He may still be alive and watching.

• Song In-ju, a former colleague and romantic partner of Je Moon-jae during his days as a writer, reconnects with Je Moon-jae, and tragically killed in a car bomb explosion shortly after parting ways with him.

• Na Seong-gi is revealed to be complicit in the Field Mouse’s scheme and punished by Moon-jae.

• An Gyeong-hwan orchestrates an attempted murder of Je Moon-jae and Noh-ja by dispatching assailants to Je Moon-jae’s uncle’s home. Ultimately, An Gyeong-hwan is killed by the Field Mouse.

• Moon-jae's uncle, a troubled alcoholic, knows the true identity of Field Mouse. He is assassinated and framed as a suicide to silence him before he could reveal the truth to Je Moon-jae.

• Kim Sang-soo, a contract killer with alopecia areata, works for the Field Mouse, tasked with assassinating anyone who knows the Field Mouse’s identity. Kills Noh-ja and gets killed by dispatched police.

• Park Soon-yong, a middle school classmate of Je Moon-jae, works as a detective, though with no real achievements, and was demoted due to assaulting a junior. Now divorced, he does odd jobs. He gets close to Field Mouse's identity and gets murdered at a rooftop cafe by a reporter disguised as a waiter, who works for Field Mouse. During school days, was a member of the student council and turned a blind eye when Je Moon-jae tried to sneak a pornographic magazine to students.

CLIMAX

• Je Moon-jae is eventually caught by trappers and taken to Sotae Amusement Park, where he confronts Field Mouse.

• Oh, Gi-wan is confirmed to be the “field mouse,” the person who impersonated Je Moon-jae. Moon-jae is disturbed after knowing his story:

1. Legally declared dead under South Korean law, making him immune from prosecution.
2. Assumed Je Mun-jae’s identity and lifestyle, inspired by a cable TV animation titled “The Mouse That Ate Fingernails.”
3. CEO of “The House of the Field Mouse,” a supposed charity that functions as a vigilante front. He is motivated by a twisted sense of justice rooted in childhood experiences with class inequality. They kill corrupt individuals, steals and transfers their identities to impoverished people, and murders dissenters or anyone who uncovers his true identity.

• During Gi-wan vs Moon-jae at Sotae Amusement Park, Gi-wan is shot by Moon-jae.

• Gi-wan gets cremated anonymously; his ashes are stored in an incinerator. He is only remembered by Je Moon-jae, and former writing club members: Eui-teum and Seong-pyo.

• The reporter who killed Park Soon-yong was arrested on charges of involvement in the field mouse incident.

EPILOGUE

• Je Moon-jae emerges from the chaos with a new understanding of who he is and what he must do moving forward. Though the events have left irreversible scars, Je Moon-jae finds a sense of closure as he comes to terms with the complex web of betrayal, guilt, and identity.

• He admits to plagiarizing a work and returns all profits to the original author. He begins writing a new story titled “People Who Don’t Exist.”