By Zephyria 
Eden, stopping in front of the trailer, opened the door without hesitation. He gazed at the candle placed in the sink directly ahead before turning his head toward the bed. Hee-sung was lying face down, burying his face in the pillow.
“…I don’t want dinner….”
He mumbled in a terribly hoarse voice. As if he had been crying continuously, a wad of wet tissues and an empty water bottle were scattered beside him. Eden, quietly surveying the surroundings, crossed his arms and leaned his shoulder against the makeshift dresser next to the bed.
His purpose in finding Hee-sung was to inquire about Jun-seok’s death and his whereabouts afterward.
“……”
Perhaps finding the silence too strange, Hee-sung, who had been lying on the bed as if dead, abruptly lifted his head.
“I said I don’t want to eat….”
A hint of annoyance flickered in his eyes, momentarily replaced by bewilderment.
Hee-sung flailed like a fish dragged onto land, hastily raising his upper body. His thin wrists, supporting himself on the bed, trembled visibly.
Eden’s dry gaze slowly scanned his frightened face. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and the area around them was swollen to a horrifying extent.
Lacking in mental strength, physical stamina, and courage. That was Eden’s assessment of Hee-sung after a short time. This type of person was surprisingly difficult to handle, and they wouldn’t easily come over to his side without the use of violence.
‘Still, conversation would be best.’
Violence was the most effective way to elicit a quick answer, but it wasn’t a good method for obtaining additional, high-quality information. He needed to gather as many clues about Jun-seok as possible to consider various ways to save Ha-jin.
He let out a short sigh and parted his tightly closed lips.
“Let’s talk.”
“……”
“Don’t think about avoiding me by crying like before. It won’t work on me.”
He tried to reason with him as gently as possible, but Hee-sung fidgeted as if he were about to run away at any moment. It was an excessively sensitive reaction for someone who had simply witnessed the death of a friend.
Those who abandoned their comrades and fled often suffered from severe depression. Their hearts were crushed by guilt, eventually gnawing away at their own lives.
Eden had encountered many people who reacted like Hee-sung on the battlefield, so he could easily guess the general situation.
He scanned the excessively thin man’s cheeks and protruding shoulder blades, pausing in thought. The longer the silence stretched, the more Hee-sung curled up like a pill bug. Eden, organizing the order of his questions, spoke again.
“Is Do Jun-seok dead, or has he become a Zombie?”
As expected, an answer didn’t come immediately. Hot tears began to well up again in Hee-sung’s reddened eyes. Eden let out a deep sigh.
“It’s an important matter, so you’d better answer properly.”
Should he just take the easy way out? If he continued like this, he was willing to make his already damaged leg crippled while strangling him. He secretly fiddled with the small pocketknife he had tucked into his back pocket, pondering.
These days, thanks to Do Ha-jin, he seemed to have plenty of opportunities to develop his patience.
“Hoo….”
Recalling Ha-jin’s clear face, he swallowed his anger for the last time and slowly removed his hand from the knife.
“Do you know how enemy soldiers desecrate corpses on the battlefield?”
At the sudden opening, Hee-sung’s gaze, which had been lowered, lifted. Eden met the timidly approaching red eyes and continued.
“They rape the corpses, peel off their skin, display their gutted entrails along the road, or hang them from wagon wheels and make them crawl on the ground. Until the flesh is all gone and the bones are exposed.”
“……”
“Even though the methods of defilement vary, the ending is the same. The corpses are abandoned on the streets in a gruesome state, and the survivors live with more humiliation and pain than the dead.”
The wrinkles on his brow deepened even further.
“If Do Jun-seok has become a Zombie, he’ll be wandering the streets looking no different from those corpses.”
Belatedly realizing the meaning of Eden’s words, Hee-sung gripped the blanket tightly with trembling hands.
Eden gazed out the window at the front, recalling the civil war that had taken place in the desert. When everyone shouted for him to abandon Leo’s body and retreat, he refused to let go of the coldly stiff body until the end. The mere thought of Leo’s body being defiled made his blood boil.
Therefore, Do Ha-jin’s feelings, having failed to be with his Hyung at the end, must be indescribably miserable. A faint anger began to seep into Eden’s voice, which had been maintaining its composure.
“Recovering the body is an act of protecting the dignity of the dead. The survivors can gain comfort from those series of actions and find the strength to live on.”
“……”
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“…I….”
“The more you keep your mouth shut, the more miserable Do Ha-jin will become.”
Hee-sung took a deep breath, his chest heaving. The dark circles under his eyes trembled.
“So, put aside that pathetic guilt and answer the question. What happened to Do Jun-seok?”
The faint candlelight flickered, painting Eden’s resolute face yellow. A faint breeze blew in through the slightly open window.
While the night cicadas chirped noisily, Hee-sung burst into tears again. However, unlike before, he didn’t avoid Eden’s gaze.
“That’s….”
After shedding a round of tears, Hee-sung began to haltingly recount the whole story. The days he endured by eating gummy worms at the souvenir shop, the infighting among the survivors, and the events that occurred after the electricity was cut off.
Amidst his disjointed words, Hee-sung constantly expressed his guilt.
“Just thinking about J, Jun-seok… I feel so sorry… I want to die… sob….”
He said that he had forcibly persuaded Jun-seok, who wanted to stay in the shop, to come outside. But they were immediately surrounded by a horde of Zombies, and Jun-seok, who stepped forward to save Hee-sung, was eventually bitten by a Zombie.
Looking down at him as he sobbed, clutching his chest, Eden clicked his tongue briefly. Lost in thought, he opened his mouth.
“I plan to go to Neverland tomorrow morning.”
“Hic… What?”
“You will guide us to where Do Jun-seok is.”
At the sudden proposal, Hee-sung hiccuped with an incredulous expression. Eden, conveying only the necessary words to him, who seemed to require an explanation, left the trailer.
❖ ❖ ❖
Eden entered the trailer where Ha-jin was, carrying two boiled eggs and half a cooked onion. It seemed Pie’s meal had been taken care of in his absence, as a porcelain bowl was neatly placed on the white floor.
He placed the meager food he had brought on the makeshift table and examined Ha-jin’s complexion. Ha-jin was sitting on the sofa in the same position as before, fidgeting with his fingers. In one hand, he held the poker cards that Eden had provided, and in the other, the silver brooch he had received as a gift from his Hyung.
“Shall we eat first?”
At the carefully asked question, he responded with a faint smile. It was an indication that he didn’t want to eat, but Eden pretended not to notice and prepared the meal. Ha-jin was eventually forced to eat the food he had brought.
After confirming that he had rinsed his mouth with cold water, Eden led him to the bedside. Pie, who had been lying leisurely on the bed, promptly moved to the sofa where Ha-jin had been sitting.
The two sat facing each other on the edge of the bed.
“Do Ha-jin.”
At the softly called name, he made eye contact as usual.
“Yes.”
“Let’s go back to Neverland tomorrow.”
But there was no response to the following words. Eden carefully added, caressing Ha-jin’s unusually cold hands.
“Actually, I’m coming back from talking with Lee Hee-sung.”
“……”
“…He remembers the last place he saw Do Jun-seok, who had become a Zombie.”
He had wondered whether to just say that he had died and was already buried in the ground. But hiding the truth from a lover who couldn’t properly grasp the death of his family was too cruel. Ha-jin had to face the separation from his Hyung, and he had to grieve enough to let the sadness that had accumulated inside him flow out.
“I’ve arranged for Lee Hee-sung to go with us tomorrow as well.”
Ha-jin, still staring blankly at Eden, suddenly covered his mouth with both hands. He stood up, roughly shaking off the hand that tried to hold him back, and ran out of the trailer. Eden, flustered, quickly chased after him.
“Do Ha-jin?”
Ha-jin dashed into the dark restroom inside the welcome center. The sound of his body bumping into things echoed in the lightless space. Eden groped along the wall with his hand, calling out to Ha-jin.
“Do Ha-jin…!”
“Ugh!”
The sound of retching came from not far away. Eden barely managed to find the first toilet stall and threw open the door. He could see the silhouette of Ha-jin, sitting on the floor, curled up in a ball.