Highway Phantoms

Past two in the morning on the Jayu-ro expressway. Fog erases the lanes, and only the glow of the dashboard tints the car's interior blue. The woman in the passenger seat just stares out the window and says nothing more. After her words about being dropped off at the same spot every time for three years, you passed an exit, and a sign reading 100 km to the next exit just went by again. The number is exactly the same as the one you saw earlier. Your foot on the accelerator still won't lift the way you want it to. Then headlights flash across the next lane. In the driver's seat of a car running side by side at the same speed, the outline of someone staring straight ahead appears for a moment, then fades into the darkness. Behind it, and behind that one too, are the same outlines. People with no words and no expressions, endlessly repeating nothing but driving straight ahead. And from the car radio you've never once turned on, static slowly begins to seep out.