By Zephyria 
“…….”
Startled by the sudden proposal, Lee Chang-yeol stood up. He had always been confident in his physique, never losing out to anyone, but the imposing presence of Eden, standing before him, was considerable.
He had sensed it when he first saw him at the mart, but the man before him, who seemed to be the leader of the group, was indeed no ordinary human.
In the face of the sudden confrontation, Ha-jin, caught in the middle, could only widen his eyes. Ha-jin stealthily rose from his seat between the two men’s legs and stepped back. Before he knew it, a ghostly fog was slowly creeping into the abandoned factory.
Lee Chang-yeol swallowed hard and mustered the courage to retort.
“I’m just saying the situation is different from what we agreed on. It feels like a threat when you say it’s okay to go separately, taking advantage of someone in a hurry, and it makes me uncomfortable.”
Eden, who he thought would furrow his brow, surprisingly showed no expression. He merely spoke in his usual, indifferent tone.
“Was there such a clause in our agreement? That we would escort you to the police station without stopping at any other location in between?”
“…Not exactly, but morally speaking….”
“Taking advantage of someone in a hurry to threaten them, huh….”
With each word Eden uttered, it felt as if the surrounding temperature dropped by more than five degrees. As always, there was no inflection in his voice, but it was particularly chilling.
Ha-jin watched Lee Chang-yeol’s profile, unable to move, and recalled his own desperate plea for companionship inside the warehouse. Back then, too, Eden had mercilessly thrashed Ha-jin’s mentality with ruthless logic and sharp reason.
Remembering that time, he couldn’t help but understand Lee Chang-yeol’s feelings, like a fish skewered on a skewer, flapping its tail meaninglessly.
“It was clearly you who enticed me with the promise of a car and firearms, and therefore it is also you who can withdraw that offer, so who are you to point fingers at whom for threatening?”
His calm words were laced with sharp blades.
“If you spout nonsense one more time, then you’ll really be torn apart. So shut your mouth and go quietly.”
It was a double entendre, unclear whether he meant tearing apart the direction he was going or his body. Ha-jin felt a chill down his spine. The return of Jeong Tae-geon’s forgotten rudeness reminded him that insults like ‘newborn giraffe’ were nothing.
He had barely managed to join Eden, but if things went awry like this, he would surely hear words like, “Go separately?”
Lee Chang-yeol looked dumbfounded, like someone who had been hit with an uppercut. He looked around as if seeking support, but Jeffrey, Park Chun-beom, Mi-so, and Byeol, who met his gaze, all slowly shook their heads.
Lee Chang-yeol, crestfallen, turned to Ha-jin with a last glimmer of hope.
“Should I, uh, get some mosquito repellent at the pharmacy? Mosquitoes keep biting me….”
Ha-jin awkwardly smoothed things over and got up. They needed to move before the fog got any worse.
Eden simply slung his bag back over his shoulder as if nothing had happened.
As Lee Chang-yeol had said, after passing through the central commercial district, a park hidden by lush foliage appeared.
Thanks to the mart being burned down, tragically and spectacularly attracting zombies, the way was not difficult. They encountered Aberrants from time to time, but the numbers were not threatening, and dealing with them was not a problem.
And currently, seven people, including Lee Chang-yeol, whom they had met at the mart, were passing through the park entrance in two lines. Lee Chang-yeol and Do Ha-jin were at the front, followed by Park Chun-beom and Jeong Byeol, Jeffrey and Mi-so, and finally Eden at the very back, maintaining their formation.
Everything was going smoothly. Except that Lee Chang-yeol, who was acting as the guide, had a very dark expression.
Ha-jin, who was walking alongside him, glanced at Lee Chang-yeol’s face, which was covered in gloom. His lips were sulking, as if he was very upset about being scolded by Eden, and it particularly caught his eye.
Ha-jin quietly recalled the first two digits on his resident registration card.
‘Come to think of it, he’s only twenty-seven years old.’
The young man before him, who had given up his safe home with the single-minded determination to save his girlfriend, wandering here and there and heading directly to the police station. His reckless purity and passion seemed particularly poignant.
“Are you okay?”
At Ha-jin’s question, Lee Chang-yeol, who had been fiddling with his portable hammer, looked up.
“He’s usually a bit harsh, but he didn’t have bad intentions…or so he would have said. Don’t take it too much to heart.”
He didn’t bother to mention the subject, Jeong Tae-geon, but Lee Chang-yeol immediately understood and chuckled.
“Yeah, I was upset, but…honestly, he only said what was right, so I had nothing to say.”
Ha-jin found himself amused by the sense of camaraderie he felt with him and laughed like an idiot.
“Isn’t that the most infuriating thing? When they only say what’s right.”
Ha-jin whispered. Lee Chang-yeol suppressed the laughter that was spreading like a contagion.
“Yeah, I’m usually good with words, but I really couldn’t argue with him earlier. But I was being selfish, so….”
Ha-jin nodded and listened to the man’s words.
“I just want to meet my girlfriend safely, whatever it takes.”
“You must like her a lot.”
Ha-jin felt embarrassed for stating the obvious, even as he asked the question. He must like her a lot to risk his life and head to the police station. But the man smiled brightly, as if he had been waiting for the question, and began to boast about his girlfriend.
“Yes, of course. She’s probably the prettiest police officer in the country, and she looks best with a bob cut.”
Looking at his bright face, Ha-jin suddenly thought of his younger brother, Jun-seok. His brother was the same age as Lee Chang-yeol. Because of his bulky build and somewhat rugged face, Lee Chang-yeol didn’t exactly feel like a younger brother, but seeing him like this, he was definitely like someone his age.
While continuing their trivial conversation and moving their feet, they had already passed half of the trail.
Lee Chang-yeol stopped for a moment and gathered the group to explain the route once more.
“This is called a neighborhood park, but you can think of it as a low mountain. If you walk about 200 meters further, there’s a path that branches off to the left, and from there, the uphill slope is a bit steep. Please follow carefully.”
“My legs hurt. Can you hold me for a second?”
Byeol tapped his tiny knees and whined to Eden, who was standing behind him. Without showing any annoyance, Eden handed the bag he was carrying to Park Chun-beom and picked up Jeong Byeol.
Park Chun-beom naturally moved to the very back, where Eden had been.
“Let’s go.”
Ha-jin glanced back at Eden, who was carrying Jeong Byeol and moving behind him. When their eyes met, he simply gestured with his chin, as if telling him to look ahead.
Thud, thud…! The moment he turned his body back, a stray cat quickly crossed the road and jumped into the leafy bushes. Ha-jin stopped abruptly and reflexively grabbed his hand axe. Come to think of it, it was the first time he had encountered an animal since the zombie outbreak.
Would animals also go crazy if they were bitten by zombies? The question he had never thought of was newly added to his mind. Ha-jin cast his gaze at the bushes where the cat had disappeared and slowly swallowed the sticky saliva of tension.
“We’ll have to see if it’s a zoonotic disease or not, but let’s be careful of animals for the time being.”
As if reading his mind, Eden spoke from behind. Ha-jin nodded in response and resumed his stopped steps.
Before he knew it, the morning sun had passed and the hot sun illuminating the afternoon rose above his head. Thanks to the cool trees casting shade, it wasn’t too difficult, but Ha-jin was constantly tense because of the threat that could come from anywhere at any time.
As a habit to find peace of mind, Ha-jin groped his bare chest, then lowered his hand inside his pants pocket, exclaiming, “Ah.” He grabbed the Card Deck he cherished like a talisman. As he fiddled with the surface of the case with his thumb, the tension that had been stifling his chest began to ease little by little.
“Belly ache, no, no. Hungry. Hungry.”
“Oh, you don’t make mistakes anymore. Your Korean has improved a lot?”
“Originally do. Hard. Study with K-Drama.”
“What. You learned Korean from dramas? That’s so not like you.”
“『Boys Over Flowers』. It’s a masterpiece.”
“Wow, I’m going crazy.”
Jeffrey and Mi-so were giggling and exchanging words from the very back. Lee Chang-yeol was eavesdropping on the curly-haired foreigner and the woman’s banter with a curious expression. He even turned his head all the way back, as if it was funny.
The mountain, which was disguised as a park, was quiet. Even while passing through the outdoor gym where rusty exercise equipment was clustered together, no particular sign of life was felt. At this rate, it seemed like they could reach the park exit without any problems.
While Lee Chang-yeol was distracted, Ha-jin secretly took out the cards from his pocket and loosened his stiff fingers.
He put the hand axe under his arm and shuffled the cards with one hand, then showed off the thumb fan technique of fanning out the cards in a fan shape. His white fingers, which were being maintained quite cleanly considering this mess, danced and swam across the cards as if they were dancing.
“I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t know you were a real magician.”
At the unexpected words, Ha-jin’s hand movements, which had been loosening up with concentration, stopped abruptly.