Even Zombies Have Fandoms

Chapter 19

Seokjae, who had prepared various foods, put down the last instant rice and called the two.

“Guys, come eat.”

“Yes!”

“Wow, there’s so much delicious food today.”

“We need to move from early morning tomorrow.”

The three, who now had some leeway thanks to the food Muyoung had provided, returned to the police substation and were able to have their last meal there abundantly.

“They’re eating well…”

There was still a gap between the curtains, so Muyoung was fortunately able to watch them having dinner.

Clinging to the window and peeking inside the building from the dark outdoors, he looked quite pitiful, like the little match girl from the fairy tale. In reality, though, he was happily enjoying his favorite person’s mukbang more than anyone.

After watching the three’s harmonious scene for a while, Muyoung felt a strange sensation in his stomach and muttered while rubbing it.

“…I’m hungry.”

He had just realized the hunger he hadn’t noticed before. He needed to fill his stomach at least once every two days, but he hadn’t eaten anything for three days because he was focused on Seokjae, so the feeling of emptiness was worse than usual.

‘This is the first time I’ve felt my organs thrashing about in my stomach like this…’

To only notice at this point. As they say, late-learned thievery is the most fearsome – he had been so focused on his fandom that he forgot to take care of his own body.

“This won’t do. I need to be strong to protect hyung.”

Of course, he wouldn’t die from starving. But his energy wasn’t as good as when he was full. He would need to eat better than before as he would have to exert a lot of energy following them around from now on.

Muyoung immediately sat down on the ground and opened the zipper of the bag he hadn’t opened at the convenience store.

“Should I eat the crushed ones first?”

What he grabbed while rummaging through the front pocket was the canned food that had once snapped him out of his Seokjae-induced daze.

He took out a disposable spoon wrapped in plastic and opened the can lid. With a click, a fishy smell that stimulated his appetite wafted out strongly. Inside the can was food that looked like ham.

“Thank you for the meal.”

He felt a bit of self-loathing as he made eye contact with the furry animal printed on the can, but if it meant he didn’t have to eat humans, there was nothing he couldn’t eat. Sighing deeply, he took a big spoonful, and felt the mushy texture on his dulled tongue.

Since becoming a zombie, Muyoung had diligently explored his body. The starting point was his appetite. Despite all appearances suggesting his biological functions had stopped, he still felt hunger.

Although his stomach didn’t growl like when he was human, he felt a twisting sensation inside. Once this stage passed, his hearing and smell became more sensitive than usual. As he couldn’t rest comfortably for a moment, his nerves naturally became sharper.

He realized all of this was due to hunger when he started salivating at the smell of human blood.

Shocked from that day on, Muyoung searched for alternatives. He was firmly resolved never to eat humans even if it meant dying by bashing his head against a wall, but he couldn’t be certain that he wouldn’t lose his reason like other zombies due to hunger.

So he tried various things. After repeatedly spitting out human food that tasted like mud as soon as he ate it, he realized he could only satisfy his hunger with meat. Afterwards, Muyoung tried the raw meat at the supermarket.

However, as time passed and the meat started to spoil, his body showed rejection reactions as if he had eaten something else, so he had to find another alternative. He didn’t want to know, but that was the day he learned why zombies don’t eat each other and only attack humans.

After that, Muyoung searched for food that met the demanding conditions of being meat but with a long shelf life and easily obtainable anywhere.

“I never thought I’d be eating dog treats in my life…”

Among these, he settled on pet snacks, avoiding as much as possible anything that could be human food. If he were human, he probably couldn’t eat it due to the strong fishy smell and taste, but maybe because he was a zombie, both the taste and smell seemed bland to him.

Still, meat was meat. It satisfied his hunger well. If he were to compare it to human food, it might be like soy meat.

Usually, he felt self-loathing every time he ate and hypnotized himself saying ‘this is canned ham’, but thinking it was all to help Seokjae made it not difficult at all. He even scraped the can clean and had cat treats that you squeeze out for dessert.

Now that his stomach was full, he felt he could protect their safety well too.

“…I hope nothing bad happens.”

Muyoung muttered, listening to the peaceful voices coming from inside the building.

He had wandered here and there wanting to save as many survivors as possible, but the neighborhoods he knew were limited. From what he heard, it seemed they were heading towards the outskirts to leave the city. In other words, Muyoung too would now be moving to places he hadn’t been before.

‘I didn’t expect the advantage of being able to warn of dangers in advance would disappear so soon.’

Muyoung’s shoulders drooped a little.

“What should I do…”

How should he move to be of benefit to Seokjae? As Muyoung was pondering this, he suddenly stood up as if he had decided something.

* * *

In the dim dawn, the three people moving forward through less populated areas stopped in their tracks when they saw a shape drawn on the ground.

“There’s another one.”

An X mark painted with white spray paint. They had been continuously finding these for days since leaving the police substation. Some days it was spray-painted on the ground like now, other days it was marked with sticky notes on building exteriors.

At first, they thought it was just a kind person marking dangerous places. However, as they kept finding these marks stuck everywhere they went, it became difficult to simply pass it off as just a kind person.

If Seokjae hadn’t persuaded the two, they would have hesitated to the end to enter buildings marked with an ‘O’.

“What kind of person could it be?”

“Maybe it’s like a legendary mercenary from the movies?”

But while it was difficult at first, currently, the two trusted this nameless existence very much. It was because the buildings they entered trusting Seokjae had no zombies and had adequate food left.

“Guys.”

It was when Kyungho and Junwoo were speculating about the identity of their benefactor as usual. Seokjae, standing in front of a house, called them. As the two hurried over, Seokjae removed a note stuck to the wall and opened the door without hesitation.

Originally, opening a building door without any checks was a taboo act after zombies appeared. Because no one could know how many zombies might be inside.

“Are we resting here today?”

“Yes. It’ll be dawn soon.”

“Wow, it’s our first time in someone else’s house. We might be able to wash up!”

However, there was no tension on the faces of the three. It was thanks to the fact that places with notes attached were as good as guaranteed safe.

“Oh, they went in.”

Muyoung, who had been watching this scene while hiding behind the wall of the neighboring house, was relieved to see the three enter the house he had checked.

A few days ago. From the moment the three started moving with only their final destination decided, Muyoung became very busy. It was because he could no longer use the method of safely preparing the place they would arrive at one step ahead of them, as he had been doing until now.

Even they didn’t know when and where they would arrive. Unless he could see the future, there was no way for Muyoung to know where they would go.

So Muyoung decided to guide the three along a path he had created. He would finish exploring during the times when they couldn’t be active outside and leave marks.

“It was no different from gambling. Even now, I think it’s a miracle it worked…”

No matter how safe a place he guided them to, it would all be for nothing if the three didn’t trust him.

These days, it seemed they were trusting the marks he left, but at first, it wasn’t like that at all. For example, when they refused to enter a marked place, his heart sank. But when he saw Seokjae soothing the two and entering the building, he rejoiced with silent cheers.

“I thought he would be the least likely to trust.”

In fact, he didn’t expect Seokjae to trust marks left by an unknown person without any basis. Usually, the more responsible a person is, the more suspicious they are.

But he trusted Muyoung even before the other two did. Although it must be a misunderstanding, it somehow seemed like he knew Muyoung was the one leaving the marks, and Muyoung felt like he was flying all day that day.

But as time passed, Muyoung gradually became tired.

“I don’t get enough of hyung…”

It was because the time he could see Seokjae had drastically decreased.