By Zephyria 
The two were silent for a moment. It felt like an eternity passed. Then, a resounding chant broke the silence between them.
“Move it, move it! Forward! One! Two! One!”
Military personnel were using rails laid on the ground to pull a helicopter out of the hangar. Beside them, those waiting to board huddled around the person in charge.
Some were smiling as if relieved, while others were fidgeting, their faces crumpled with dissatisfaction at the light luggage in their hands.
Eden was the first to break the silence.
“Why did you come out?”
Ha-jin’s gaze, which had been idly watching the noisy scene, returned to Eden. He took a step closer.
“It’s a bit noisy inside. Jeffrey and Byeol went to the restroom for a bit, dragging Pie along.”
“I see.”
“…Is that all you wanted to say?”
The Maintenance Depot, bathed in the brilliant sunset, was filled with a restless atmosphere due to the excitement and busyness of those leaving.
Eden changed the subject instead of answering.
“Why is your face so red all of a sudden?”
A loving hand lightly tapped his flushed cheek. Ha-jin frowned and stepped back.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Why not?”
“I’m getting annoyed, so don’t.”
“What’s making you so annoyed?”
“Ugh, seriously…” Ha-jin, holding his forehead, suddenly glared at Eden.
“Why was Jeong Tae-geon bowing his head over there?”
“……”
“I heard everything from Jeffrey. He said that if you assemble the remaining Transport plane, you can definitely leave from here. Then you can take it to that aircraft carrier or whatever in the West Sea, right?”
“Do Ha-jin.”
“Jeong Tae-geon, you’re better when you’re looking down on and ignoring others, so don’t do things that don’t suit you.”
“That’s quite the harsh confession.”
Ha-jin seemed momentarily speechless, letting out a small gasp. Eden, who had stepped closer, gently cupped his round forehead. Ha-jin, enduring his irritation, took a calm breath as Eden’s hand stroked his feverish skin as if to soothe it.
“Even so, how could you think of sending Byeol and Jeffrey into that crowd of people? And there’s even one seat short, right?”
“You have good ears, even in this situation.”
Ha-jin removed Eden’s clinging hand and looked him seriously in the eye.
“Jeong Tae-geon, you know too. It’s become completely impossible for us to go together, situationally.”
“It’s not impossible.”
The engine of the helicopter, which had started, pierced their eardrums. As the propeller spun powerfully, a hot wind rushed in.
Ha-jin, struggling to calm his surging emotions, grabbed his arm.
“Jeffrey said so. He said that assembling the helicopter is absolutely impossible alone. Mason only managed to complete the Maintenance in a month with the help of the military personnel. So, Jeong Tae-geon, you absolutely have to stay here.”
“Can’t you wait for me?”
Eden asked in a low, subdued voice.
“It won’t take long. I’ll finish it as quickly as possible.”
Ha-jin frowned, feeling an inexplicable pressure in his chest. After moving his lips for a while, he roughly rubbed his stinging nose with the back of his hand.
“Jeong Tae-geon. I’m already late enough.”
“……”
“My brother must be waiting a lot. I wish I could leave for Neverland right now.”
It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid. Thinking about the reality he would face after choosing to part with Eden and leaving this safe barbed wire fence, his vision was already darkening and his breathing felt constricted.
Even today, Ha-jin had reversed his decision to break up with him thousands of times. He had even considered reluctantly accepting him if he insisted on following him empty-handed.
Seeing the survivors rushing in recklessly and the increasingly evolving Zombies, he was amazed at how he had managed to survive until now.
But from the moment he witnessed Eden bowing his head for him, “I’m planning to leave by tomorrow morning at the latest.”
Nothing else mattered to Ha-jin anymore.
“So, don’t try any harder.”
He just wanted Jeong Tae-geon to live. To escape this hellish land and live peacefully in a safe place without pain or sacrifice. It didn’t matter even if he could never see him again.
‘I want to rest a little.’
He wanted to give that wish, which he had once uttered like a sigh, to him as soon as possible. Only then could he comfort himself that this arduous and painful journey had some meaning.
“Can’t you really wait for me?”
Eden’s voice, asking with difficulty, was rough. Ha-jin nodded without hesitation. The words that he couldn’t wait were not an excuse but sincere.
It was a reality where life and death were determined by a difference of a day or two, no, even a minute or a second. He had never forgotten for a moment that this entire journey had started solely to meet his brother. Now it was really time to go meet his brother.
Ha-jin, still holding Eden’s arm, leaned his forehead against his shoulder.
“I’m sorry I can’t see you off. Take care of the Maintenance, and go back safely.”
He was worried that his voice might tremble, but fortunately, the voice that came out was calm. The helicopter soared quickly, cutting through the sky. Amid the loud propeller noise, he could faintly hear Jeffrey and Byeol calling out to them.
❖ ❖ ❖
Unlike the deep and dark outside, the inside of the hangar was as bright as a new day. A lighting fixture suspended from a wire illuminated the top of the helicopter brightly. Lights on the ceiling. Ha-jin blinked rapidly, his eyes stinging from the artificial light he was encountering for the first time in a long time.
Military personnel in military uniforms were seen sitting and resting throughout the hangar. They were constantly rotating to guard the front and back gates of the Maintenance Depot. He heard that they were patiently waiting for the Transport plane that the Ministry of National Defense would send in a month.
Unfortunately, Jeffrey cast a vote that the low-ranking military personnel were just being used and abandoned. Ha-jin also agreed with that, but he didn’t bother to add his opinion.
Eden and Jeffrey were already having a serious conversation for an hour, tapping on the landing gear, which was the helicopter’s leg. It seemed that there were differences of opinion on the Maintenance method and order. Jeffrey occasionally swept back his hair as if frustrated, and Eden was persuading him, scribbling on a piece of paper he had obtained from somewhere.
They were spouting technical terms in English, so he couldn’t understand what they were saying at all. Ha-jin sat nearby and stared blankly at them, then turned his gaze to Pie and Jeong Byeol, who were lying with their heads on his thighs.
Byeol’s eyelids were swollen like macarons. He playfully poked his closed eyes with his thumb and index finger, and his small brow furrowed sharply.
“Are you still angry?”
He had been like this ever since he heard Ha-jin’s words that they would have to part tomorrow morning. He had braided his hair carefully to soothe the child, but Byeol just cried relentlessly and wouldn’t talk to Ha-jin at all.
He didn’t seem this angry when he parted with Mi-so…
“Byeol. Uncle will be very upset if we part on such bad terms.”
Speaking with a deliberately hurt voice, the child’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
“Byeol pinched and hit Uncle earlier, so Uncle’s arm is bruised. Take a look.”
At those words, the lips that had been stubbornly pouting were tucked inside. Ha-jin barely suppressed the laughter that was about to leak out and gently stroked the child’s cheek. His chubby cheeks had become gaunt from the hardships he had endured.
Byeol, who had been stubbornly keeping his mouth shut, finally opened his lips.
“Why can’t you go with Eden Uncle?”
A nasal voice flowed from his small mouth. Ha-jin wiped Byeol’s clear snot with the back of his hand and replied.
“Families should stick together. It’s right for Eden Uncle to go with Byeol.”
“Then how will Ha-jin Uncle come to America alone? Uncle is scared of Zombies. You’re also scared of water.”
“Umm…”
He was speechless at the words that hit the nail on the head, and as he was about to sigh, Byeol’s eyes, which had been closed all along, suddenly opened wide.
“I’ll only wait a hundred nights.”
The child warned sternly. But it was still a nasal voice, so there was no sense of threat at all.
“If you don’t come to see me by then…!”
Byeol’s eyes, looking up at Ha-jin, became wet again. A cute little walnut appeared on his chin as if he was sad.
“If you don’t come to see me… I’ll be sad every day thinking about Uncle.”
I’ll hate you. I’ll curse you. I’ll never see you again. There were many words of curse, but Byeol never uttered those ugly words.
But he would be sad every day. Wasn’t that a more terrifying warning than any curse? Ha-jin, who had been gazing at the child, slowly nodded as if he had lost.
“If Byeol is sad, Uncle is sad too…”
He couldn’t hide the stinging in his nose.