By Zephyria 
Ha-jin’s face crumpled. He was furious at the man’s brazen attitude after rummaging through his stolen luggage. It was to be expected from guys who wouldn’t hesitate to kidnap him, but he couldn’t bear the rising unpleasantness.
“Are you the person who told me to come to Misan Ranch?”
“Answer my question first. Where did you get the radio?”
The man rebuked Ha-jin instead.
He felt like his blood was running backward at the absurd misunderstanding that he was receiving from the thugs who killed Chun-beom. What the hell are these crazy bastards doing?
“Hey, shouldn’t you apologize first?”
“What?”
“Yesterday, my colleague was shot and killed by you guys above the pasture. And on top of that, you’re detaining people overnight for no reason?”
Ha-jin’s voice cracked at the end. Even though he tried to calm down, the more he spoke, the more anger welled up, and his whole body trembled.
The man replied to him, revealing his teeth, in a deflated voice.
“I don’t know how your colleague died, but I have nothing to do with it. I only want to ask one thing. The radio… no, where is Lee Chang-yeol?”
“He’s dead.”
Before Ha-jin could even open his mouth, an answer was suddenly thrown from the opposite side.
The man’s head slowly turned toward Eden.
“Lee Chang-yeol was bitten by a zombie on the way to the police station and died.”
At the indifferent explanation, a deep vertical line creased between the man’s eyebrows.
“How can I believe that?”
“Are you saying we harmed Lee Chang-yeol?”
“When the radio signal was caught, Chang-yeol clearly answered, didn’t he?”
“That’s the police officer’s misunderstanding. We didn’t pretend to be Lee Chang-yeol, but rather answered that we were acquaintances of Lee Chang-yeol. The police officer knows very well that the signal was unstable and the voice kept cutting out.”
“……”
“If we had harmed Lee Chang-yeol, would we have any reason to bring his name up again?”
The police officer slowly bit his lip as if he had lost his words. The man, who had been staring blankly at somewhere in the air, suddenly ruffled his hair wildly and stood up from his seat.
“How can I believe you? There’s no way Chang-yeol would die so meaninglessly.”
Eden raised the corner of his mouth with a smirk, as if he had expected that reaction.
“Police officer. My colleague who died yesterday wasn’t someone who would die so meaninglessly either.”
A moment of chilling silence fell. Ha-jin was still breathing heavily with an angry face, glaring at the back of the man’s head.
“Lee Chang-yeol was heading to the Sangwon Central Police Station to find his girlfriend, and he requested our escort in the process. Unfortunately, he was bitten by a zombie on the way, while passing by a nearby medical center.”
“……”
“Whether you believe it or not is up to you, police officer, but we’re telling you the truth as it is.”
Unlike his emotionless face, there was a faint anger in Eden’s voice. The man couldn’t speak for a while, as if he had been attacked unexpectedly, and then let out a deep sigh.
The man, who had been pacing busily around the warehouse for a while with an uneasy look, interrogated Ha-jin this time.
“There’s no way you guys would have promised to escort Chang-yeol without any compensation, so how did you end up accompanying him?”
Ha-jin spat out the words as if chewing them toward the man who was questioning him.
“Lee Chang-yeol promised to give us a car that he parked inside the police station, and we had no reason to refuse, so we just left together.”
“…Didn’t you hear anything else about his girlfriend’s name?”
“I’ve never heard anything other than that she’s pretty with a bob cut.”
At the smooth answer, Chief Kim groaned and touched his forehead.
Lee Chang-yeol, who was innocent but knew how to discern people, was not the type to easily reveal his weaknesses. There was no way he would have been rambling about his girlfriend to the thugs who were trying to kill him.
Besides, the only reason for them to kill him was the assumption that he broke his promise in the middle of giving them the car as compensation for the escort. But if it was Lee Chang-yeol, his Hubae whom he knew, he would not have made a promise that he could not keep in the first place.
Chief Kim was a Seonbae from the same school and hometown, so he couldn’t help but know Lee Chang-yeol better than anyone else. He was a friend who valued loyalty and promises as much as his own life.
Even after listing various hypotheses and rationally considering them, the story that Chang-yeol was bitten by a zombie and died was much more credible than the story that he lost his life to these people.
Besides, the eyes of the hostages who were caught were clearly asserting innocence and truth. It wasn’t him who unfairly lost a colleague, but these people right in front of him.
“Hoo….”
With a complicated heart, Chief Kim leaned his back against the wall next to the warehouse door.
“If what you’re saying is really true, I’m sorry for the conversation just now. I was also waiting for a Hubae I cherished, so I unintentionally spoke harshly.”
“Why did you kill my colleague, and why are we trapped here?”
Ha-jin still couldn’t contain his anger, and he glared at the man with a cold look. Chief Kim avoided his gaze as if he was in trouble.
“That’s not within my authority. Lieutenant Colonel So will be here soon, so talk to him directly.”
An unexpected rank popped out of the police officer’s mouth. Lieutenant Colonel…? Lieutenant Colonel was a rank used in the military, not the police.
Eden looked back at Ha-jin, seemingly feeling the same bewilderment. Their eyes met in the air.
Chief Kim, who had been roughly sweeping his hair back for a while, asked carefully.
“…Then, have you ever been to the Sangwon Central Police Station?”
“Yes.”
“What was the situation like?”
“If it wasn’t bad, we wouldn’t have come all the way here.”
At Eden’s cynical answer, Chief Kim let out a futile laugh.
“I asked something unnecessary. I’m sorry.”
He scratched his eyebrows awkwardly and opened the warehouse door. Then, he briefly talked to someone presumed to be a gatekeeper and entered the warehouse again.
The Chief had a clean bottle of mineral water in his hand. Ha-jin’s eyes widened as he discovered the water. He handed the opened bottle of water to Ha-jin.
“Have some water.”
Ha-jin couldn’t easily accept it and moistened his parched lips with his tongue. With a worried face, he looked at Eden with an anxious gaze, worried that it might be poisoned. He comforted Ha-jin as if to reassure him.
“It’ll be okay to drink. There’s no way they’d play tricks on hostages with mineral water when every drop of water is precious.”
Come to think of it, that was true. Ha-jin relaxed and tilted his head toward the water bottle.
He was gulping down the water as if he was thirsty, like a young wild animal just rescued from a burning pit.
Eden slowly scanned Ha-jin’s face and body, which were clearly becoming drier than before. The way he tilted his head to a stranger was subtly annoying, and his eyebrow twitched involuntarily.
“Take a breath and drink again.”
When Chief Kim kindly took the water bottle away from his lips, his moist tongue peeked out as if he was disappointed. Eden made an effort to withdraw his prickly gaze and clicked his tongue.
Having quenched his thirst, Ha-jin closed his eyes as if he was exhausted and leaned against the haystack. The man who brought the extra mineral water handed the water to Eden this time. Eden raised his handcuffed hands and easily emptied the mineral water himself.
After that, a calm conversation continued for a while. Chief Kim heard everything that had happened to Eden and Ha-jin yesterday in detail. The cave, the rain, the man in the black raincoat, the merciless shooting, the death of his colleague….
After hearing all the details from the innocent hostages, he offered an apology with a face as complicated as when he had heard about Lee Chang-yeol’s death earlier.
“If it wasn’t for my radio call telling you to come to Misan Ranch in the first place, things wouldn’t have turned out this way… I’m sorry.”
His bitter voice, feeling responsible, continued.
“I don’t know if your colleague’s body is still on the pasture, but I’ll check it out first as soon as we get out. If things don’t go well with Lieutenant Colonel So, I’ll help with the conversation directly from the side.”
Ha-jin, who had regained his energy, carefully scanned the man’s face. He didn’t let go of his suspicion, wondering if he was putting on an act, and searched with sharp eyes, but his physical reactions were all showing the truth.
Similarly, Eden, who had released his guard once, asked Chief Kim.
“May I ask what this place is?”
At the question containing many implications, it was the moment when the man, who had been choosing his words, opened his mouth.
“This place is….”
“Hey— is everyone doing well!”
Bang! Once again, the warehouse door opened with a fierce momentum. Ha-jin, Eden, and Chief Kim’s heads turned toward the door at the same time.
In an instant, the fine hairs on Ha-jin’s body rose like scales.
‘Hey— teachers! The rain has stopped, so you have to be careful—!’
It was definitely that voice from yesterday. The man in the military uniform, with his hair parted in a tacky 2:8 style, stepped into the warehouse with a confident stride.
He pushed away the subordinates who were trying to follow him with a hearty gesture, and stood in place, clapping his hands twice loudly!
“Hey, Chief Kim! Why aren’t you untying the guests’ ropes?”