“Everyone, please dig in. Everything’s made with fresh ingredients, so it should taste good.”
The table was set with dried pollock soup with dumplings in it, seasoned tofu, steamed eggs, and a few side dishes.
And the moment he saw the food, Junho could tell how thoughtful and perceptive Choi Haneul had been.
She deliberately made things without red seasoning or meat.
Even if it had only been through a screen, just a few hours ago they had watched living people get torn apart and killed, blood and flesh flying in a brutal, horrifying spectacle.
That was why Choi Haneul had obviously left out red meat and anything aggressively seasoned, and prepared a meal that was mild but still nutritious.
“Everyone, go ahead.”
“Yeah, let’s eat.”
At Junho and Baek Hail’s words, everyone picked up their spoons and chopsticks.
“The broth’s seriously clean. You really are amazing at this, ma’am.”
“Oh, listen to you. What’s so hard about this? The ingredients did all the work. They were so fresh, even Mr. Junho could’ve made something decent with them.”
That was what she said, but Choi Haneul was clearly pleased.
Across from her, though, Baek Sua still looked downcast as she listlessly moved her spoon around.
Sneaking a glance at her, Choi Haneul said,
“And Sua helped a lot too. She’s got skills you don’t see in young women these days.”
“Huh? Ah... I-I...”
“See? Our Sua’s been serious about learning to cook since middle school, so her hands know what they’re doing.”
With even Baek Hail chiming in, Baek Sua glanced around in flustered embarrassment, then just lowered her head and drank a spoonful of soup.
Then, as if they had all agreed to it beforehand, silence settled over them.
The seven shelter members, Junho included, spent the next several minutes eating without saying a word.
No, they couldn’t help it.
They all knew that outside this shelter, hell was still actively unfolding in real time.
Only they, cut off completely from that hell, were sitting here having a peaceful, delicious meal as if nothing at all had happened.
“...Hic.”
Baek Sua’s low sob broke the silence.
But she quickly wiped away her tears and shoved another dumpling into her mouth with her spoon.
That was how she finished the whole bowl of dried pollock dumpling soup that she and Choi Haneul had made together, even as tears kept streaming down her face.
***
After finishing their first meal of the apocalypse, everyone gathered again in the lounge.
Each of them had a drink in hand—coffee, tea, cola, something like that.
They all knew that even this had already become a luxury outside.
“First, Ms. Haneul, and Baek Sua, and Baek Suho.”
Sensing that the way the three of them were looking at him now was completely different from how they had looked at him during the emergency deployment earlier, Junho continued.
“I understand Hail told you the rough outline already. Is that right?”
“Yes...”
“You have no idea how shocked I was.”
“Me too, Uncle Junho. Dad said you were the one who told him I had pancreatic cancer and needed surgery? Thank you so, so much, Uncle.”
In reality Junho was closer to an older-brother figure, but because he and his father addressed each other like brothers, Baek Suho called him uncle, and he looked so overwhelmed he might as well have dropped to the floor in gratitude.
And it wasn’t just gratitude and emotion in the way Baek Suho looked at him.
It was more like...
a kind of respect, or awe. Almost something like worship.
And honestly, that made sense. On the big TV here, Baek Suho had just watched Junho gun down zombies and rescue Choi Jeongwoo’s group.
He had seen the man who dreamed of the future, saved his life by revealing his cancer, built this unbelievable facility, rescued his whole family,
and then shot zombies and saved people with combat skills that were almost impossible to believe.
To a man in his early twenties, Junho might as well have been a superhero.
“It was nothing. Thank your father, not me. If you’re healthy right now, Mr. Baek Suho, that’s all because of him.”
“Of course I’m grateful to my dad too. But Uncle, you can talk to me casually.”
“Really? Then I will. Anyway, like Hail already told you...”
Framing his regression as a prophetic dream for all the shelter members,
Junho calmly explained what he had done from November 2021 up until now, and how he had come to build this shelter.
Even though Baek Hail had already told them the rough story, the siblings Baek Sua and Baek Suho and Choi Haneul still sat there with their mouths hanging open, unable to hide their shock.
Yoon Youngsu, for some reason, had a faint flush on his face and stared straight at Junho through his horn-rimmed glasses with glittering eyes.
“...And that’s how I ended up here with all of you. So then...”
“Boss, question!”
Yoon Youngsu shot his hand straight up as if he had been waiting for this.
“Yes. Go ahead, Team Leader Yoon.”
“First off, you can just call me Youngsu or Team Leader Yoon.”
“Fine. Team Leader Yoon.”
“Yes. What I’m curious about is this. In that prophetic dream, you said you met me in Songpa in person, right? So did we keep living there together, or...”
“I’m not commenting on that. Your futures are already completely different from the futures in the dream I ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) had. So questions like that don’t mean anything anymore.”
“Ah...”
Turning his gaze away from Yoon Youngsu, whose disappointment was plain on his face, Junho continued.
“From now on, all of you need to survive here with me in our shelter. Like I said before, this place is equipped with almost everything a person needs to live. For example.”
Junho picked up a hiking backpack he had prepared in advance.
“This is a supply bag that all of you—and anyone else who joins us here—will receive.”
“......?”
He opened the zipper and dumped the contents of the backpack onto the table.
There was a toiletry bag containing soap, solid shampoo, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a towel, nail clippers, and even an ear pick.
Several pairs of vacuum-packed socks and underwear, two summer tracksuits, performance sneakers, mid-top outdoor shoes, and slippers.
A personal tumbler, a mini first-aid kit, toilet paper, wet wipes.
There were also a notebook, pens, a smartphone box, and more.
“Wow...”
“For now, I packed yours based on your sizes. And.”
Listening to Yoon Youngsu’s admiring noise, Junho picked up two opaque zip pouches of the same type, one light pink and one sky blue.
“These are male hygiene supplies and female hygiene supplies. I’m sure you can guess what’s in them, so I’ll skip the detailed explanation. But in the women’s one—”
He looked at Choi Haneul and Baek Sua as he continued.
“—there are standard sanitary pads, obviously, but there’s also a menstrual cup in there. You women will need to get used to using it.”
“Oh...”
Baek Sua’s face instantly turned red, but Choi Haneul actually brightened and said in impressed amazement,
“Wow... Junho, you really thought this through. How’d you even know about menstrual cups? Plenty of women don’t know much about those.”
“Like I said, I spent a very long time thinking about shelter life. In a world where basic goods are hard to get, men will have inconveniences too, but women especially won’t have just one or two problems. Hygiene is directly tied to health, and disposable pads have a shelf life.”
“That is so true. I was just thinking while I was getting dinner ready, What am I supposed to do when my period starts in a little while? I should’ve grabbed a few more overnight ones... Good grief, I feel a lot better now.”
“Ms. Haneul, that’s a little embarrassing to say out loud...”
“What’s the big deal? Everyone here’s an adult.”
“Ahem.”
Looking over the now much brighter Choi Haneul, the somehow more embarrassed Baek Hail, and everyone else except for Yoon Youngsu awkwardly trying not to show it, Junho continued.
“Anyway, that’s the kind of thing that’s already been prepared here—basic necessities and daily supplies. When you leave in a bit, take one each. And...”
He went on to explain the major facilities the shelter had, what each of them did, and how long all categories of supplies—including food—were expected to last.
Except for Junhyeok, who had done the large-scale shopping, packing, and loading with Junho, everyone’s jaws dropped.
“There’s a gym and a pool...”
“And food and daily supplies for twenty years... worth?”
“Yes. That’s the minimum estimate with all twenty resident slots filled. If we use things carefully, it’ll probably last more than thirty.”
“This is seriously insane...”
“And besides that...”
Junho explained the rules people needed to follow while living in the shelter.
Things like the fact that wake-up time, bedtime, and meal times had to be followed without exception, and that everyone had to do their best at whatever role they were assigned.
Then he laid out what each of the current members needed to do right away.
“Ms. Sua, set up the pharmacy lab on the second floor of the workshop. It has everything from over-the-counter medicine to a decent range of prescription drugs. There’s a dedicated pharmaceutical refrigerator and freezer too. And all the compounding equipment and lab gear—mixers, a centrifuge, things like that.”
“M-me?”
“Yes. You’re a pharmacy student, aren’t you? Then who else is going to do it?”
Her eyes were already so large that when they widened even more, Baek Sua looked like a startled owl. Junho kept going.
“I got all the equipment and facilities in there, but I’m not a specialist, so I couldn’t organize it properly. So go do it now. Hail and Suho are going to be stationed in the first-floor workshop full-time, so if there’s anything that needs muscle, ask them for help.”
“Ah... okay...”
Baek Sua quietly nodded.
But Junho kept staring at her.
Just as a puzzled look started to form on her face, he said,
“What are you waiting for? Why are you still here?”
“Ah! Y-yes, right.”
“Suho, go with your sister and help her out.”
“Yes, Dad. Sis, let’s go.”
Baek Suho jumped to his feet, hurried along his sister, who was still standing there awkwardly, grabbed the backpacks prepared for each of them, and headed out.
Watching the siblings and then Junho in turn, Choi Haneul rose quietly with a knowing smile.
“I guess I’d better go do my part too, unless I want to catch hell for slacking. I should check the kitchen, the refrigerators, and the cold-storage room, right?”
“Yes. You can check the food inventory list and the storage locations in the cold room on the tablet.”
Taking the backpack he handed her, Choi Haneul gave Junho a soft, habitual eye-smile.
“You may come off blunt and cold on the outside, but you’re a very thoughtful, warmhearted person.”
“...What?”
“It’s nothing. It just occurred to me that times like this are exactly when people need to stay busy, so they don’t have room for bad thoughts. That’s all. Anyway, I’ll get going too.”
“......”
Like a master with perfect instincts, Choi Haneul had completely seen through what Junho was trying to do, and left.
“See? That’s our Haneul for you. Anyway, Hoya, thanks for lookin’ out for my kids. Like she said, people need to stay busy as hell and have work only they can do, or their minds start wanderin’ in bad directions.”
“You’re giving me too much credit. I’m just putting your kids to work.”
“Heh. If that’s all it is, you can work ’em all day long. All right then, Youngsu.”
“Yes, sensei!”
“That damned sensei again... Anyway, you and me need to build those air-rifle turrets and make drones out of those electric carts my son rides around in. I’ve already done the rough design, so you handle the detailed circuit layout and the programming.”
“Leave it to me. Though I guess cameras and motors and all that... yeah, of course you already have them. Heh-heh. They’re all dead. Let’s go, sensei!”
Pushing up his horn-rimmed glasses, Yoon Youngsu strode out the door with the swagger of a comic-book villain.
“You little punk, your supply bag! Ah, seriously... Anyway, I’m headed out too.”
Picking up both his own backpack and Yoon Youngsu’s, Baek Hail followed after him.
That left only the brothers Junho and Junhyeok in the lounge.
“Hyung, that plan of ours... when are we doing it?”
“I don’t know... Looking at the mood, I don’t think we’ll need to.”
“Right? Man, that’s a relief.”
Junhyeok let out a sigh of relief.
The truth was, the brothers had prepared a kind of act in advance in case some of the shelter members were still too overwhelmed by fear and confusion to function properly, or even got angry or started resisting.
Junhyeok would be the first to keep objecting to things and picking fights over the current situation, and then Junho would logically shut it all down under the banner of cooperation and coexistence.
And they had planned to do it pretty aggressively too—short of actually grabbing each other by the collar.
Since the two of them were real brothers, and in the shelter right now they were the only two who could handle lethal weapons, it was a move based on the fact that the other members would have a hard time stepping in.
“Anyway, the first day was always going to be the hardest. I’m glad it worked out, hyung.”
“Yeah. I’m glad too.”
At Junhyeok’s words, Junho let out a quiet sigh of relief inside.
No matter how much he was the builder and owner of the shelter, he could not force everything through with sheer pressure.
That didn’t fit the values of their shelter either—the shelter he wanted to be a place where people could live lives as normal as possible.
And more importantly, in the apocalypse, groups run that way usually did not last very long.
Sure, they might be fine for a year or two.
But their shelter was a place where all kinds of people would have to live together for at least ten years, maybe for life.
Invisible discrimination, hierarchy, and conflict might be impossible to eliminate completely.
But if dissatisfaction and conflict kept building up without ever surfacing, then in a moment of real crisis, a group could collapse so easily it would feel absurd. That was what Junho feared.
That was why he had concluded that everyone needed a channel.
Things that were hard to say directly to him could be said to Baek Hail or Junhyeok, and the two of them could pass them along.
As the shelter’s owner, he himself would inevitably become someone harder to approach, but Junhyeok could be someone people felt less burden talking to—someone they could at least speak to.
It wasn’t perfect, but Junho had planned to naturally establish that kind of communication and complaint-resolution system over time.
And yet—
“Hyung, I think the people in our shelter are all really pretty decent.”
Without saying anything, Junho nodded.
Because he knew better than anyone how hard it was, in an apocalypse where people’s hidden nature came spilling out, to find people like the ones in their shelter now.
And Junho truly felt lucky.
