By Zephyria 
Eden’s breath was drowned out by the rough motorcycle exhaust, making Ha-jin even more anxious. To maintain his composure, Ha-jin tried to focus on the hot body temperature leaning against his back. With the single thought that it wasn’t too late, he drove towards where the sign led.
Thanks to this, he arrived at the botanical garden much faster than expected, but the entrance to the visitor center was blocked by thick bushes, making it difficult to move. As he slowed down and ran over the leaves with the wheels, a fishy grass smell rose to his nose.
“Huff… huff…”
The rough road caused his stamina to drop rapidly, and Ha-jin had to catch his breath. He had only ridden a motorcycle a few times when he was a delivery boy in his childhood, so he couldn’t relax for a moment while coming here. To make matters worse, he had been carrying a collapsed patient on his back and running away from Zombies, so it was a wonder he hadn’t collapsed in the middle.
As he drove, he was soon in front of a brown building surrounded by lush trees. Ha-jin parked the bike right in front of the entrance and took a deep breath as he read the red letters on the sign.
Temporarily closed.
Ha-jin’s gaze moved to the thick iron chain hanging on the doorknob. The opaque glass door was stained with dust and rain from long neglect. However, if you looked closely, you could see subtle fingerprints and handprints.
Clearly, someone is staying here. Convinced of this, Ha-jin grabbed the end of the rope tightly tied around his waist. He leaned against the bike screen so that Eden wouldn’t fall backward and quickly untied the knot. After many twists and turns, Ha-jin carefully lowered him to the parking lot floor and knocked on the door, panting.
“Seong Da-yeon! Open the door!”
He shouted, recalling the name tag hanging on the woman’s bag in his memory.
“Seong Da-yeon!!”
He kept banging on the door as if to break it down. If Zombies were to flock here after hearing the noise, Seong Da-yeon would also be in trouble. Noticing this, Ha-jin didn’t stop making noise.
He was occasionally looking back at Eden lying on the ground while knocking on the door. Through the opaque glass door, he could see a human silhouette flickering. Soon after, two men appeared from the left rear of the building. They found Ha-jin sitting on the parking lot floor and Eden collapsed and stopped in their tracks.
“Who are you?”
When the man with short curly hair asked, Ha-jin waved his hand and shouted.
“I’m looking for Seong Da-yeon! Someone is hurt and needs a doctor to treat him…!”
“…Are you perhaps a friend of Da-yeon?”
He wasn’t an acquaintance, but she couldn’t possibly not recognize them. Ha-jin quickly nodded.
He held Eden’s head wrapped in a short-sleeved T-shirt in his arms and begged them to call Da-yeon. The men, recognizing the urgency of the situation, were seen whispering to each other. Judging by the occasional word Zombie, they seemed to suspect infection.
“No! He wasn’t bitten by a Zombie, he just fell from a high place and got hurt…”
It was the moment he desperately tried to explain. Then, someone carefully appeared from behind the men. Ha-jin’s eyes widened as he immediately recognized Seong Da-yeon.
“Seong Da-yeon!”
As he shouted her name and got up from his seat, her shoulders flinched. Da-yeon, with a frightened face, looked back and forth between the staggering Ha-jin and the collapsed Eden. However, she couldn’t recognize them right away, so she couldn’t come closer and hesitated.
“You can’t recognize me?!”
Ha-jin didn’t even know what he looked like now and yelled at Da-yeon. His body, which hadn’t eaten for days since Jun-seok’s death, was emaciated, his eyes, which had suffered from insomnia, were darkly dead, and his whole body was covered in dirt because he had climbed the mountain.
Eden’s face lying on the ground was also half-covered by his short-sleeved T-shirt, so it was natural that the woman couldn’t recognize them.
“Who… who are you?”
Ha-jin quickly explained the memories of that day to Da-yeon, who asked who he was. Her eyelids soon widened as she was unsure about the disjointed explanation.
“Oh my god…!”
Da-yeon, who finally recognized Ha-jin, quickly moved her steps. She knelt in front of Eden, who was lying as if dead, and removed the T-shirt covering his head to quickly examine the wound.
“What is this…! How did this happen?!”
“He fell from a high place. I couldn’t check if his bones were broken… and there’s a lot, a lot of blood from his head…”
Da-yeon opened Eden’s eyelids to check his pupils.
“How long has he been hurt?”
Ha-jin approached her as if crawling and answered.
“I think it’s been about 30 minutes. I tried to bring him as quickly as possible…”
“It seems like he has severe head trauma. Even if he has a concussion, he usually wakes up within a few minutes, but this is strange.”
She frowned as much as Ha-jin did, and checked Eden’s pupils and breathing again.
“I can’t do a blood test or CT scan right now, so I have no choice but to wait. The area above his forehead is torn, but fortunately, the bleeding has stopped because of the good pressure hemostasis, and his pupils and breathing are normal, so I’ll check the other wounds inside.”
Ha-jin, who urgently grabbed Da-yeon’s arm as she was about to get up, asked in a trembling voice.
“Is there a possibility that this person could die?”
“I can’t guarantee that. Waiting is the best thing to do in this situation.”
Da-yeon’s appearance, like a wet puppy at their first meeting, was nowhere to be found. She reassured Ha-jin with a skillful and firm attitude and turned around.
The men who were watching the situation from afar moved in unison at Da-yeon’s signal. After a while, they brought a mattress and laid Eden’s limp body on it. Ha-jin hurriedly followed the people and explained the situation at the time of the fall to Da-yeon in more detail.
Da-yeon supported him as he staggered as if he was about to collapse and summarized the story.
“So, a Zombie attacked him, no, Jeong Tae-geon, but he wasn’t bitten and fell to the bottom of the mountain? Fortunately, he stopped because he hit a big tree in the middle?”
“Yes, I think he hit his head hard at that time.”
“First of all, if he wakes up, I’ll examine him more closely. Just from what you’re saying, it wouldn’t be strange if one part of his body was broken.”
Eden and the men soon disappeared through the door marked ‘Staff only’. Da-yeon, who stopped Ha-jin from following right behind them, whispered softly.
“Where’s the puppy you were carrying around?”
“Excuse me?”
She stared blankly at Ha-jin, who seemed a little out of it, and then shook her head.
“No, that’s not important, first… come in.”
Ha-jin finally remembered Pie and the three siblings left on the mountain. They must be running to the botanical garden by now, following him. Ha-jin added as he chased after Da-yeon, who was entering the lounge.
“The puppy is with other people. The others said they would bring Pie to the botanical garden.”
“How many people are there?”
“Three.”
She was startled by the larger-than-expected number of people, but reluctantly nodded.
“First of all, I’ll talk to the manager separately so that they can come into the building.”
Da-yeon sat the flustered Ha-jin on a round stool and then examined Eden, who was lying on the mattress. She lifted his limp arms and legs here and there and asked Ha-jin.
“By the way, how did you know I was in the botanical garden?”
“It was just a guess.”
“And how did you know my name?”
“I happened to see a name tag on your bag. I didn’t look at it on purpose, so don’t misunderstand.”
At the word misunderstanding, Da-yeon shook her head as if she was worrying unnecessarily.
“I don’t misunderstand things like that. What’s your name?”
“Do Ha-jin.”
While exchanging simple information, a few people who came into the lounge heard the situation from Da-yeon. A middle-aged woman looked at Eden lying on the bed with pitiful eyes and belatedly discovered Ha-jin and jumped up.
“That person also looks badly hurt, shouldn’t he rest a little?”
“I was going to do that anyway. I’m sorry, but can I get one more mattress?”
At Da-yeon’s words, the woman moved without saying a word. A little later, the men who were waiting outside brought a mattress and laid it on the floor.
She asked for additional tools needed for treatment and soon received two bottles of nutritional supplements, various examination equipment, and ointment. Even while people were busy coming and going, Ha-jin couldn’t easily take his eyes off the unconscious Eden.
“Do Ha-jin, lie down quickly. I’ll check if you’re hurt anywhere.”
“I’m okay.”
“You don’t look okay at all. Honestly, do you know that Do Ha-jin’s face looks worse than Jeong Tae-geon’s lying there?”
Ha-jin reluctantly lay down on the mattress at Da-yeon’s insistence. Eden was within arm’s reach. He clenched his fist tightly, trying to hold back his tears. His palm, scraped by the rope, tingled as if thorns were stuck in it.