By Zephyria 
Eden carefully placed the handkerchief over the mouth of the water bottle. He crossed his arms and leaned slightly forward, closing the distance between their faces.
Ha-jin, who was accustomed to reading people’s body language due to his profession, followed the man’s reactions with his eyes and held his breath.
Jeong Tae-geon didn’t trust him and was showing considerable wariness. Should he take solace in the fact that he hadn’t leaned back? At least it wasn’t a sign that he was looking down on him.
“Magician.”
Growing anxious, Ha-jin corrected him without realizing it.
“My name is Do Ha-jin. Not ‘Magician,’ Do Ha-jin.”
Their gazes met more intensely. Despite the lack of change in the ambient light, he saw the man’s pupils dilate for a moment. Ha-jin almost gasped.
Interest. The man was definitely interested in talking to him. It was a physiological reaction that didn’t quite match his half-frozen facial muscles.
“Alright, Do Ha-jin.”
Ha-jin unknowingly swallowed the sticky saliva that had gathered in his mouth. At that moment, he heard the roar of a monster walking down the hallway. Startled, Ha-jin flinched.
“I’m sorry, but Do Ha-jin…”
The man lightly pushed Ha-jin’s shoulder away with his palm as he leaned in, continuing, “…is of no use to me.”
“…”
He had been somewhat prepared, but Ha-jin clenched his fist without realizing it at the more resolute and blunt rejection than he had expected.
“Of course, you seem like you could be helpful in other ways, but there’s no chance to loosen my lower half in this fucked up situation.”
Before the shock could subside, the man threw out another meaningful remark. Ha-jin blinked rapidly, trying to clear his muddled head. What did he just say…?
The man, smiling handsomely, leaned back. He even extended his palm to the side as if telling him to leave. A beat late, Ha-jin understood the man’s last words and could only move his lips for a while, unable to show any other reaction. A hot flush rose to his neck and earlobes.
“It was nice talking to you.”
This time, the dismissal was definite.
After a moment of blankness, Ha-jin abruptly raised his head. It had to be his last chance. If not now, escaping from this place wouldn’t be easy.
He could tell from the fact that the same situation had occurred in the distant Dragon Cloud City. The zombie outbreak couldn’t be a temporary happening. The odds of him evacuating to a safe place alone and saving his brother were close to zero.
“Please, I have a brother I need to go find.”
This situation, where he had to beg for his life, wasn’t pleasant, but Ha-jin had no time to worry about his pride.
Eden licked his red lips as if surprised by Ha-jin’s stubborn persistence. After meeting Ha-jin’s desperate eyes for a while, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Then you don’t mind abandoning that couple?”
“…Excuse me?”
Eden pointed to the couple huddled in the corner, embracing each other with their eyes closed, and asked again.
“You’re not suggesting that we take Do Ha-jin and his party while leaving that couple behind, are you?”
Ha-jin’s eyelids fluttered as if he had been struck in the back of the head.
“No, no. Of course, if we can all go together…”
“Surion is the name of a military transport helicopter used in Korea.”
Eden sighed and picked up the wet handkerchief again, wiping the faint bloodstains from the back of his hand.
“There are two pilots, at least three soldiers and medical personnel to be mobilized for the transport operation, and the number of people gathered here is eight. Unfortunately, the maximum number of people who can board the Surion is nine, excluding the pilots.”
“…”
“That means that even if you run to the rooftop with all your might, one or two people will inevitably be left behind. It’s an obvious gamble that the people who can’t board will die, but are you still going to come?”
He could take them to the rooftop, but he couldn’t guarantee their lives. It was a zero-sum game where someone would live and someone would die.
“Of course, there’s no guarantee that I won’t be the one who dies. And I’m someone who doesn’t need to take that kind of gamble.”
There wasn’t even a hint of pity in his expression as he put the handkerchief down again. It was perhaps a natural attitude for Eden, who had lived a life where he never needed to look good to others or be kind. He was rarely immune to the task of packaging sentences nicely.
Ha-jin asked Eden, grasping at straws.
“…If those people don’t want to board the transport plane, would you be willing to take me and Mi-so?”
Eden tilted his head slightly. His wet bangs partially obscured his cool eyes. If it wasn’t a matter of personnel, would he have helped?
‘Of course not.’
Eden was so amazed by the naive Ha-jin, who was asking such an obvious question, that he almost burst out laughing.
“You don’t think you’re the only one who recognized me, do you?”
“…Yes?”
“I already finished talking to that couple. While you were sleeping peacefully.”
“…”
“The conversation wasn’t much different from now.”
Ha-jin let out a strangled groan at the man’s unexpected words. He turned his head and stared blankly at the faces of the sleeping couple.
‘We came all the way to see Ha-jin.’
Despite this chaos, the two had greeted him, saying they were honored to meet Ha-jin. When he thought about it, they were the people who had come to see his performance and were trapped here… It was a moment when he felt ashamed that he hadn’t cared about their well-being, wanting only to save himself.
After much deliberation, Ha-jin turned back to Eden.
“If I give up my spot, can they go? If we can’t all go together, it’s better for at least one team to go…”
“Do Ha-jin.”
The man’s voice, cutting off Ha-jin’s words, was sharp. Eden erased the remaining smile from his face.
“Just stop there. And loosen your kneeling legs a little. It makes me look like a psycho who’s bargaining with people’s lives.”
Startled, Ha-jin desperately shook his head.
“That’s not what I meant. I didn’t mean to put any pressure on you, and I’m well aware that my request itself could be a nuisance…”
Eden stared silently at Ha-jin, who was waving his hands with a pale face.
To be honest, he was a little surprised that the concept of concession would come up in this situation. Perhaps the magician in front of him would have looked for a way to get everyone on the transport plane before even calculating the odds, like he did.
Unfortunately, this kind of public-spirited personality had very little chance of surviving in a chaotic world. He might somehow survive the zombies, but he was the perfect case to be backstabbed by someone and die.
Eden, watching the flustered Ha-jin, added his last words.
“In the first place, I’m someone who can’t guarantee any safety to you. Even if there were plenty of seats on the transport plane, there’s no reason to take you. You can call me cold, but I can’t help it. I don’t even try things that have a high probability of failure.”
Eden didn’t distinguish between good and evil in what he considered rational. Reason was his ethics and justification. Therefore, he couldn’t help but not care that his words might hurt someone.
“Ah…”
Ha-jin felt a sudden darkness in front of his eyes. Eden’s cold, indifferent face came into view. There was nothing more to add to his convincing and clean speech, and he had no justification to criticize his cold-blooded judgment. In the end, Ha-jin could only nod slowly.
Still, if he had explained this situation first before saying things like ‘you’re useless,’ he wouldn’t have felt so down. Even though he had come prepared to be rejected, his pride somehow felt scratched.
Ha-jin forced a smile.
“Oh, I’m not usually like this, but I got a little clingy for a moment. It’s a matter of life and death, so people get pathetic.”
He scratched the back of his head and got up from his seat, making a light joke to change the atmosphere.
“Anyway, thank you for saving me on stage.”
It was an unexpectedly clean acceptance. The desperate look on the man’s face, who had been begging for his life just a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen. There was only a slight embarrassment, like someone watching a ball thrown with all their might miss the goal.
Eden stared at Ha-jin’s flushed cheeks. It was a bonus to slowly scan Do Ha-jin’s upright body. He was of a decent height, and his frame was solid even though he looked thin at first glance. Eden briefly clicked his tongue because his slender figure was quite to his taste. This part is a bit of a waste…
Then, Ha-jin, who was heading towards Mi-so, suddenly turned around.
“Jeong Tae-geon.”
Eden met his gaze and slowly blinked.
“You saw my opening performance today, right? In the front row.”
“……?”
“How was it?”
Eden raised his eyebrows at Ha-jin’s sudden question.