By Zephyria 
After that, the entire class turned into chaos, filled with terrible screams. Mi-so’s fists didn’t stop until the blood pouring from Oh Pig’s nose had thoroughly soaked the classroom floor.
‘Damn it, I’m already pissed off, so don’t you dare hover around me! I’m furious that I got hurt! Aaaargh!’
Mi-so sobbed bitterly as she beat him down. If Ha-jin hadn’t stepped in to testify about Oh Pig’s continuous harassment, she would have been referred to the school violence committee and expelled without a doubt.
Ha-jin thought Mi-so had saved him, but, ridiculously, Mi-so didn’t think anything of it. Rather, she was puzzled by Ha-jin’s eagerness to stand up for her. Of course, after they became inseparable best friends, Mi-so volunteered to be Ha-jin’s bodyguard.
“You were really scary back then, Yun Mi-so, when you were crying and beating down Oh Pig.”
“Hey, hey, just forget about it.”
Mi-so playfully jabbed at Ha-jin, who was enthusiastically reminiscing about the past.
After their childish exchange of punches, the two of them had a long conversation for about an hour. The topic jumped endlessly, from Ha-jin’s first magic competition to the moment he started his first YouTube channel.
For a moment, it felt like they had returned to a peaceful everyday life. Mi-so, who had been reminiscing about the past as if in a dream, called out to Ha-jin in a serious voice.
“Do Ha-jin.”
Ha-jin didn’t take his eyes off the countless stars in the night sky, like grains of rice, and replied.
“Yeah.”
“I think I’ve been very indifferent to you lately… I’m sorry.”
At the sudden apology, he tilted his head and looked at Mi-so askew.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
As he asked with a frown, Mi-so’s nervous eyes darted quickly from side to side. She carefully chose her words as if she was contemplating, and then whispered softly as if telling a secret.
“I didn’t know, and I kept singing about you getting a girlfriend.”
“…Huh?”
“Honestly, everyone you’ve dated so far has been a woman, so I never even dreamed of it.”
“…….”
“I should have known when you were dating without any soul, but I didn’t.”
“Wait a minute, Yun Mi-so.”
Ha-jin, with a hardened expression, raised his index finger in front of her face as if to stop her.
“What are you talking about? What do you know about me?”
Mi-so blinked her big eyes once, and this time she answered as quietly as a mosquito.
“That you like guys… I don’t think I realized it.”
“…….”
“Honestly, I was still unsure even after seeing the hickey on your neck, but, well. Seeing Jeffrey’s reaction, it became clear that there’s something going on between you and Jeong Tae-geon.”
She carefully watched Ha-jin’s reaction and asked as if to confirm one last time.
“Am I right?”
It wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t like he had liked men from the beginning. Ha-jin didn’t know where to start to clear up the misunderstanding, so he sighed helplessly and grabbed Mi-so’s shoulders.
“Half right, half wrong.”
“Huh?”
“That, with Jeong Tae-geon… it’s true, but it’s not like I like men or anything.”
“What are you talking about? Jeong Tae-geon is a man.”
“Yeah, he is, but, well.”
“…….”
“Haa. Anyway, it’s not like I liked men from the beginning. It just happened somehow….”
He couldn’t express his confused feelings properly. Mi-so, who was staring at him as he sighed in frustration, gently took the hand placed on her shoulder.
“So, there’s something between you two.”
Ha-jin stared at her for a while, then sighed deeply and reluctantly nodded. It was fortunate that it was a dark night, or else his shamefully flushed face would have been exposed.
She patted Ha-jin’s hand with her fingers as if comforting him, and then carefully chose her words once more.
“…Are you okay?”
“With what?”
“You dating a guy, and giving your heart to someone who’s going to leave anyway….”
Ha-jin couldn’t speak easily. The moment the question filled with worry and affection pierced his ears, it felt like a large marble was stuck in his throat.
Exchanging feelings with a man wasn’t a problem in itself. But, giving your heart to someone who’s going to leave…
He’s not okay.
He was somehow afraid to say that clear answer out loud. Even if they hadn’t slept together, even if they weren’t more than colleagues, Ha-jin instinctively knew that he couldn’t calmly accept the scheduled farewell with Jeong Tae-geon.
“It can’t be helped.”
Mi-so smiled bitterly at his roundabout answer in a subdued voice. Ha-jin looked up at the distant sky again to hide his troubled face. As he blankly stared at the night clouds passing leisurely between the stars, a calm voice disturbed his heart once more.
“Feelings can’t be reversed, Do Ha-jin. So, get along well while you’re together, without regrets.”
It was unexpected advice. Ha-jin, who had stiffened for a moment, narrowed his eyes and looked back at Mi-so.
“Oh… it’s comforting and nice to get advice from someone who’s never been in a relationship?”
Soon, a dull pain landed on his forearm. As expected of someone who had made a name for herself as an athlete in her school days, the power she put into her fist was still tremendous.
“Can’t you listen when someone is giving you serious advice? And how many times do I have to tell you I’m not single?”
“You’ve never shown me your boyfriend.”
“…It’s just because I’m too lazy to do that.”
“Okay, I’ll believe you.”
Ha-jin, with a listless laugh, nudged Mi-so’s shoe with his toe.
“Stop now and go in and sleep. It’ll be hard for you to move alone from tomorrow.”
He ended the conversation plainly at this point. Mi-so quietly nodded.
A little later, she cheerfully patted Ha-jin’s shoulder as always and left first.
He quietly stared at the empty space where her warmth had lingered and disappeared, curled up, and rested his chin on his knees. He was tired, but even if he went into his room and lay down, he didn’t think he could fall asleep easily.
Soon after, beyond the closed door, he heard Byeol’s cries and Mi-so’s pitiful comforting of the child.
“Haa….”
Ha-jin’s face, after wiping his face roughly, contorted slightly. The child’s sorrowful cries seemed to represent his own heart, so he remained still with his head buried in his hands for a while.
Only after a long time did Ha-jin raise his reddened face. There were many marks on his lower lip from biting it, but his nose was red, making his efforts to hold back his tears futile.
Soon after, he picked up the weapon he had put down and got up from his seat. He wanted to escape from the swirling thoughts and the suffocating anguish that made his temples throb.
Leaving the wide yard and heading down the stone steps, he soon came to the training hall. Passing the building and reaching near Hwaam Hall, which was used as the main auditorium, the seven-story stone pagoda he had seen earlier came into view.
Everyone must have gone to bed early, as the temple was filled only with the chirping of summer night insects. Ha-jin blankly stared at the bell-shaped head ornament on top of the pagoda and slowly moved his steps again as his feet led him.
This moment of relaxing and taking a leisurely stroll alone felt strangely awkward. He couldn’t even remember when he had last had a quiet time alone. Life before the zombie outbreak felt like a past life.
He casually slung the hammer in his hand over his shoulder and walked around the silent temple, squinting as he read the sign with Chinese characters. He desperately tried to empty his head, but when he came to his senses, he found himself standing still in one place.
Was it because of the farewell with Mi-so that came earlier than expected? Or was it because he couldn’t picture the reunion with his Hyung? Or, was it something else…? Countless worries and anxieties branched out endlessly in his head.
As he walked aimlessly again, he passed the Geumdang and was near the cliff. In front of him were several crudely stacked stone towers. Hundreds of stones, containing someone’s earnest wishes, stood silently in place under the noble moonlight.
Ha-jin bent down and picked up a small stone. A new piece of stone was placed on the stone tower, where money, health, or the happiness and well-being of loved ones were projected. Ha-jin’s wish, which occupied the top of the stone tower, was the ‘survival’ of his loved ones.
―Hyung, what should we do? Are you always… there? What… is this?
―I’m scared. Hyung, I can’t even get out…
Jun-seok’s voice, desperately calling for him over the phone, which he had recalled more than tens of thousands of times in his head, was vividly replayed. The unfamiliar voice of a strange woman overlapped with that anxious voice.
‘And if it’s Neverland, you should consider it almost hopeless. The roads were packed with cars because of the Rose Festival.’
Ha-jin, who had put down his weapon, sat down on the dirt floor and covered his head.
He had fought fiercely, big and small, for the single goal of reuniting with his Hyung and had survived desperately until now. However, as he got closer to Dragon Cloud City and faced the scheduled farewells one by one, subtle holes began to appear in his firm heart.
The brooch in his pocket painfully poked his thigh.
“I can do it, I can meet him again….”
He muttered as if repeating a mantra, but his firm determination to save his Hyung only scattered emptily in the damp night air.