Even Zombies Have Fandoms

Chapter 18

Muyoung, with his eyes half-open, looked alternately at the back and the zombie under his feet, then closed his eyes tightly and shut the storage room door. He didn’t want to be in such a cramped space with a zombie, but he had no other choice.

Fortunately, the small window in the storage room door let in some sunset light, allowing him to maintain some visibility. However, when the space was sealed, the rotten smell intensified, and he couldn’t help but scrunch up his face.

“Wait.”

At that moment, Seokjae, who didn’t miss the sound of the door closing hastily, spoke while sending the other two back.

“What’s wrong?”

“I heard a sound.”

“Huh? What sound?”

“A zombie sound?”

Kyungho and Junwoo looked around tensely. However, nothing was visible in the open interior of the convenience store.

“There’s nothing here though?”

“Yeah. Sorry. I must have heard wrong.”

Muyoung, who was leaning against the door and focusing all his attention on them, exhaled shakily. He never realized helping people could be this nerve-wracking.

He was never good at hide-and-seek, but he thought he had gotten used to secretly helping from behind. Maybe it was arrogance. Or perhaps Seokjae was particularly perceptive compared to others.

Whatever the case, these continuous close calls felt like electric shocks to his heart. He almost thought his stopped heart might start beating again.

“Grooaak-“

“Be quiet, will you?”

Muyoung glared at the zombie and scolded it. The zombie, seemingly in the process of decay, was flailing about with half its facial skin peeled off, revealing blackened teeth.

“Ugh.”

Shuddering at the disgusting sight, Muyoung was newly grateful that his body wasn’t decaying like that. When he first became a zombie, he worried about when he might decay like them.

Fortunately, Muyoung’s body remained unchanged from when he was human. Although his skin color was similar to a corpse in a morgue, nothing was rotting, and he didn’t emit the unpleasant odor they did. If anything, his durability had increased rather than weakened.

He wondered if having reason alone could make such a difference… but since the existence of zombies itself defied common sense, Muyoung was thinking that it was better this way.

“Wow, there’s so much food!”

“We really hit the jackpot, huh? This should last us a few days.”

“Yeah.”

Hearing their joyful voices, Muyoung came to his senses and looked outside through the small window. As he had imagined, the two were smiling broadly as they gathered the food.

Watching them fondly, Muyoung pressed his face close to the window to see Seokjae’s reaction too. Unfortunately, Seokjae had his back turned, so he couldn’t see what expression he was making.

“Ah. I can’t see…”

Though muttering dejectedly, Muyoung didn’t give up and kept peeking. At that moment, Seokjae suddenly looked around. Startled, Muyoung jerked his head back. It was a speed that would have snapped a normal person’s neck.

“W-what? Why did he suddenly look this way?”

If he had sensed Muyoung’s gaze and looked around, he truly had an unbelievable intuition. After mentally counting to 30, Muyoung, still very tense, looked outside again.

Seokjae was bending down to pick something up. It seemed like their eyes had met in mid-air, but it must have been his imagination after all.

How long had it been since he got scared at the police station? After another heart-pounding experience, he felt a fatigue he hadn’t felt since becoming this way.

“…Could I be the problem?”

No matter how perceptive Seokjae was, getting caught this often might mean there was a problem with him too. Thinking about it, he had poked his head out much more frequently than when helping other people, simply because he wanted to see Seokjae. So naturally, he was more likely to get caught.

“I need to be careful.”

Honestly, if he got caught peeking, he could literally be killed by Seokjae’s hands. He wouldn’t see Muyoung any differently from other zombies.

If he pretended to be human, he might not get attacked, but he wasn’t confident in dealing with the aftermath if his identity was discovered.

‘It would be fortunate if he made me his slave instead…’

But given Seokjae’s personality, that seemed unlikely. Rather, wouldn’t he cast Muyoung out of the group for the safety of others? The thought of Seokjae telling him to leave with eyes full of betrayal was terrifying even to imagine. If that happened, it would become difficult to follow them around anymore.

Not wanting to experience the worst, Muyoung swallowed dryly and observed them with more timid movements than before.

“There it is.”

Seokjae muttered as he picked up an energy bar from the floor.

In fact, Seokjae had spotted Muyoung precisely before he hid. He just pretended not to see and turned away after seeing him bounce away and hide like a cat seeing a cucumber.

“Hyung. Did you choose this place knowing there would be items left?”

“Wow. Really?”

Junwoo asked, hugging his now fuller bag after hearing Seokjae’s mutter. Kyungho looked at Seokjae with sparkling eyes full of admiration.

“No, that’s not it. I just hoped that someone might have left a little behind for the next person.”

Seokjae answered while glancing at the door in the corner. Kyungho, who was too busy rejoicing over the suddenly abundant food to notice this, smiled brightly and said,

“There must be someone as kind as you, hyung.”

“I’m not that kind, I’m telling you.”

“There you go again. Finding someone like you in this situation would be as difficult as plucking stars from the sky.”

“I don’t know about that.”

As Junwoo dismissed his denial as mere modesty, Seokjae raised the corner of his mouth crookedly, thinking of the hidden person.

“There’s someone much kinder than me.”

“What? Who is it? Is that person an angel or something?”

“Well. It seems they’re not human now.”

“Not human now? What do you mean-“

“Hey.”

Junwoo tapped Kyungho’s back, who was asking with a puzzled look, and shook his head. Kyungho, who had been looking confused, soon realized the meaning of “not human now” and closed his mouth. Feeling he had made a mistake, though unintentional, Kyungho sheepishly apologized.

“Hyung, I’m sorry.”

“Hm? For what?”

“Just, I feel like I made you recall unpleasant memories.”

Hearing the sudden apology, Seokjae slowly rolled his eyes and muttered as if pondering.

“Unpleasant memories…”

“Hyung?”

Unlike usual, when he didn’t smile or say it was okay, the two became restless, thinking his mood had soured considerably. However, Seokjae had just briefly fallen into his own thoughts.

Quickly organizing his thoughts, he spoke with clearer eyes than usual.

“Right. I didn’t like it… but now it’s okay again.”

“What?”

“I really disliked being kind too, but now I don’t mind it.”

“Huh?”

The two displayed question marks on their faces, confused by his incomprehensible words.

Seeing their expressions, he thought that perhaps the reason this person became interested in him and started following was because he had stayed behind in the building for these two. Seokjae, feeling a renewed appreciation, lightly patted their heads.

“Thank you.”

“Huh? For what?”

“Just. Thank you.”

Unable to understand the situation at all, Kyungho and Junwoo glanced at each other. Then, thinking it was fine as long as Seokjae wasn’t angry, they decided to let it go without asking for details. They were worried about making another mistake just after barely avoiding one.

“Well, seems we’ve got everything, shall we go?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, hyung.”

After sending the two ahead, Seokjae, the last to leave the convenience store, focused on the sounds coming from behind as he walked.

‘He’s following.’

He heard a faint bell sound and the pitter-patter of following footsteps. As expected, it seemed he wanted to secretly help them by following.

Seokjae planned to go along with what he wanted. If he wanted to help people in dangerous situations, he was willing to cater to that preference more than anyone. It seemed like the only way to soothe his damaged insides was to become the most concerning existence for him, leaving no room to pay attention to others.

And… when he couldn’t bear to be away from Seokjae’s side. He intended to make sure he could never do the same things as before. If that was impossible, he would forcibly take that job away from him.

In the end, the last person remaining would be him, not Seokjae.