Chapter 36
Grr! Kak!!
My underlings started howling at the middle-aged man. Smelling a live human and hearing his voice clearly excited them.
‘Everyone of you shut up and keep your heads down if you want to stay alive.’
I glared at them with my eyes open, and their heads sagged. After a moment, another man appeared next to the first.
“Ah, ahjussi! Are you out of your mind?”
The man—who was in his twenties—grabbed onto the middle-aged man’s shirt, his face full of fear. The older man flicked him on the forehead, which then escalated into a small quarrel. The older man raised his voice and gave the younger man a good scolding, causing the younger man to back off.
The man in his twenties, who seemed to be close to tears, disappeared somewhere. After a moment, the man in his forties peeked out of the window and yelled, “You, were you keeping an eye on us?”
His question took me aback.
‘Did he know that I’d been observing everything from the building right next to the supermarket? Has he been pretending to be oblivious? No. There’s no way.’
They definitely hadn’t been acting as though they were hunting something. They’d probably been on lookout duty, and not trying to hunt me down. He probably came to the conclusion because I just happened to appear at the right moment. Serendipity, if you ask me.
I looked at the middle-aged man, my expression neutral. ‘I don’t have to answer him, do I?’
At any rate, there was no way for me to answer his question, so I just kept my eye on him. The man told me to stay put, then chuckled and left.
After a while, I saw him appear on the first floor. It seemed like he wanted to get closer but was still rather afraid, so he resorted to yelling at me from the glass doors.
“My name is Park Gi-Cheol! I know a lot about beings like you! Would you like to talk?”
My eyebrows twitched after hearing what he’d just said.
‘Did he just say that he knows a lot about beings like me?’
I ordered all my underlings to stand guard. I took a handful of them and walked toward the supermarket entrance. Park Gi-Cheol swallowed as he saw me walking toward him with my ten underlings. In fact, he swallowed so hard that I could even see his Adam's apple moving. He was either scared or nervous. When I finally stood in front of Park Gi-Cheol, he was stuttering, barely able to speak.
“You’re, you’re a very tall man. Are you about one hundred eighty-three centimeters? Haha!”
He was trying his best to lighten the mood. I didn’t like the roundabout manner in which he was speaking, but I knew it wouldn’t hurt to hear what he had to say. I continued to stare at Park Gi-Cheol with my mouth closed, and he flashed an uneasy smile.
“Umm, it seems like you can’t speak. Am I right?’
I nodded slightly. It seemed like he wasn’t lying when he said he knew about beings like us. Since he knew that I couldn’t speak, he probably had experience with beings with glowing red eyes. Park Gi-Cheol cleared his throat.
“The…mm… reason I came all the way out here is to ask if you knew Hyeong-Jun.”
‘Hyeong-Jun?’
It was my first time hearing the name. I shook my head right away. He smiled uneasily.
“Hmm… okay…” he mumbled to himself.
After a moment, he sighed and asked another question.
“Then do you know a person by the name of Hyeong-Seok?”
I shook my head again. From the names Hyeong-Jun and Hyeong-Seok, I could tell that the two he mentioned were brothers.
Park Gi-Cheol hung his head and stayed silent for a while, as if thinking about something. After a while, he went through his pockets and handed me a photo. It was an ID photo of a mysterious male.
“This man is Hyeong-Seok. Have you never seen him?”
When I shook my head, Park Gi-Cheol smacked his lips and asked once again, “Aren’t you from Haengdang-dong? Can you nod if you are?”
I nodded in approval.
“But you don’t know who Hyeong-Jun and Hyeong-Seok are?”
I nodded again.
“If you don’t mind me asking, can you tell me when you turned into a zombie?”
I felt this conversation slowly turning into an interrogation. I glared at Park Gi-Cheol without saying anything, and he quickly waved his hands.
“My apologies if that question offended you. I had no intention to do so.”
He trembled violently like a herbivore cornered by a predator, not knowing what to do. Park Gi-Cheol kept on massaging his neck as he talked to ease his nervousness.
“I realized that I’ve been asking you questions without giving you much context. I’m just very impatient for some reason. My apologies.”
Park Gi-Cheol smiled sadly, and then scratched his sideburns.
“We have someone like you with us as well,” he continued. “Hyeong-Jun and Hyeong-Seok, whom I mentioned earlier, have red glowing eyes like you.”
I paid close attention to what he was saying. From his earlier question about whether I was from Haengdang-dong, it seemed like something had happened in this part of town. This was a chance for me to get some new information.
Park Gi-Cheol cleared his throat and continued, “Hyeong-Jun and Hyeon-Seok are both very nice. They never attacked anyone. In fact, they’re trying their hardest to help other people.”
It seemed like there were other zombies that were helping people out, just like me.
“The photo I showed you earlier is a photo of Hyeong-Seok. You said you’ve never seen him, right?”
I nodded. I couldn’t help but feel sad that I didn’t know this man.
“To be honest, it’s been a while since he’d gone missing. Hyeong-Jun’s been searching for weeks, but he hasn’t been able to find anything.”
The word ‘missing’ triggered a bad memory, one that I didn’t want to think of—the creature that had wiped out everything in its path. It was possible that he’d been eaten by the black creature. As a matter of fact, if he’d been missing for weeks, there was a high chance that he would have been eaten by the black creature.
My expression must have revealed my mixed feelings, prompting Park Gi-Cheol to flash a bitter smile.
“I’m sorry if I asked a question that you felt uncomfortable answering. I just wanted to know if you knew about Hyeong-Seok, since you have the same glowing red eyes as him.”
My eyes were half-closed as I avoided Park Gi-Cheol’s gaze. Waiting for someone who wasn’t going to return—that would slowly kill the person who was waiting. I felt like I could relate just a little to the desperation that they were feeling.
I, too, had experienced sleepless nights waiting for my wife, and the rescue team that I had known wouldn’t come. It had sucked the living soul out of me.
My expression continued to reflect my inner turmoil, and Park Gi-Cheol cleared his throat once again, as though he sensed that I was feeling uncomfortable.
“My apologies if I offended you. I didn’t mean any harm. You saved us from the zombies, so I thought you were similar to the Kim brothers.”
So their last names were Kim, and they were known as the Kim brothers. After a moment, Park Gi-Cheol’s face hardened, and I saw his eyes tear up. His speech became slightly slurred. He seemed to be trying to recall a fuzzy memory of his, which was leading him into a realm of indescribable sadness.
Such sadness, waiting for someone so desperately—these were feelings that only humans could experience.
Park Gi-Cheol smacked his lips. “Hyeong-Jun told me to run away without turning back if I ever saw anyone like you. But I don’t necessarily think that’s right. I believed that there would be more beings like Hyeong-Jun that cared about people.”
“...”
“Haha… Sorry for dragging out the conversation. But I actually came here to say this.”
Park Gi-Cheol flashed me a smile that I hadn’t seen before.
“Thank you for saving us. I really mean it.”
Park Gi-Cheol bowed deeply toward me from the waist. I could feel his honest gratitude. He was respectful and cared about the Kim brothers, who were both zombies. And he thanked me from the bottom of his heart, despite it being the first time he’d seen me.
He looked like a rather senior figure, and was well past the age where he would need to bow to others. It wasn’t easy for a person like him to bow this respectfully.
How nice the world would be if there were only people like him. If there were only people like him in this cursed world, it wouldn’t be too bad of a place to live in.
I bowed back to Park Gi-Cheol. I had to show him the same respect that he showed me. Even though I’d done him and his people a favor, I believed that I had to reciprocate his thanks on the same level.
Park Gi-Cheol lifted his head and smiled gently. On the other hand, I frowned slightly and reached my hand toward him.
He looked at my hand closely and then asked, “You want to shake hands?”
I pointed to the ID photo he had in his hands. His eyes widened in surprise as he finally figured out my intentions.
“You’re going to look for Hyeong-Seok?”
I nodded in approval.
“...”
Park Gi-Cheol remained silent. He looked at the picture of the man for a while, then took a deep breath and handed me the photo.
“I know I’m not the person to ask this, but if you could…”
I nodded again in approval.
“Are you also with a different band of survivors?”
I frowned at his question. It wasn’t appropriate to ask if I had people with me or not. No matter how nice people seemed on the surface, I would never trust them that much. I didn’t respond to his question. Park Gi-Cheol realized that he had asked a sensitive question, and waved his hand violently.
“No, no, that’s not what I meant. Forget what I asked you. I’m sorry.”
“...”
“I was just wondering… If you’re not with anyone else, then perhaps you could join us.”
For a second, I thought about joining them, but I eventually ended up refusing his offer. Park Gi-Cheol’s group already had a being with glowing red eyes with them. There was no reason for my people to join them.
Park Gi-Cheol coughed as though his throat was itching. “Anyway, thank you for helping to look for Hyeong-Seok.”
He grabbed my two hands and smiled as best as he could. His face was one of many emotions. His smile seemed forced, as though he was trying to cover the sadness he felt deep down. It made me feel bad.
I wondered what Park Gi-Cheol was thinking or feeling at the moment. It seemed impossible for me to figure them out and to sympathize with him.
Despite that, I knew one thing for certain. He was a warm-hearted person. I felt his honesty through his two hands.
* * *
I left that group of supermarket survivors and took my underlings back to the apartment. As soon as I entered, everyone—they had been praying for me to get back safely—came running toward me, bombarding me with questions. I looked into their faces with an uncertain smile. I wasn’t sure whose question I should be answering first.
“Okay everyone, stop!” came Lee Jeong-Uk’s voice from the living room. Only then did the others move away from the front door, clearing the entrance. As I made my way into the living room, smiling, I saw Lee Jeong-Uk sitting on the living room floor.
In contrast to his serious expression, his hands were full of crayons. The children in the group were gathered in front of him. It seemed like they were coloring.
Despite his expression and demeanor, he was good with children. Looking at him caused me to smirk, and I ended up bursting into laughter. Lee Jeong-Uk looked at me up and down, then laughed along with me.
“Judging by your face, I guess things aren’t as bad as you thought they would be?” he asked.
I nodded silently. Lee Jeong-Uk stood up with a grunt and stood beside me.
“Should we get moving tomorrow?”
“...”
Noting my lack of a reply, he went straight for the drawing pad on the floor without saying a word. I didn’t need to ask him for much anymore. He knew what exactly I needed when I needed it. I grabbed the drawing pad from him and then started illustrating what I’d seen with drawings and words.
- Survivors, glowing red eyes
The others who had gathered around looked at my drawings and words and came up with their own interpretations. As always, Lee Jeong-Hyuk was the one who came the closest.
“Survivors and glowing red eyes? I think he means there’s someone like So-Yeon’s father at the supermarket as well.”
My eyes went wide, and I pointed to Lee Jeong-Hyuk in surprise, causing everyone to express their own wonder at his interpretation. In contrast, Lee Jeong-Uk rubbed his chin without saying a word.
After a moment, he said calmly, “Well then, there’s no reason for us to step up then, is there? If they have someone like So-Yeon’s dad with them, there’s no reason for them to join forces with us.”
Lee Jeong-Uk was right. It seemed like Lee Jeong-Uk was thinking along the same lines as me when I refused Park Gi-Cheol’s offer. After a moment, Lee Jeong-Hyuk, who was standing next to him, spoke up.
“How about we approach them first and ask if they want to combine forces?”
“Us? And why would we want to do that?”
Lee Jeong-Uk arched an eyebrow at Lee Jeong-Hyuk. He didn’t seem to understand why Lee Jeong-Hyuk was even considering this.
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