Even Zombies Have Fandoms

Chapter 23

“Who’s this stupid guy? Is there anyone dumber than you?”

“I don’t know. He looked kind of dull, but he helped right away when I asked for help. If it wasn’t for that guy, I would’ve really been screwed.”

“A kid? Are you proud of hiding behind a child? Cut off your dick, you loser.”

“No! He wasn’t really a kid! High school? He was about college age.”

Just as Seokjae was about to readjust his grip on the fire extinguisher, not wanting to dirty his ears with their voices any longer, something bothersome came out of the man’s mouth.

“Shit. Are you sure you didn’t run into anyone else? It’ll be troublesome if he’s part of a group.”

“No, no, there was no one else around. He was walking around without any weapons.”

“Walking around without weapons? Come to think of it, where’s the hammer I lent you?”

“Well, while I was running away in panic…”

As the man turned pale and stepped back hesitantly, the other three surrounded him. The man with tattoos on his arms poked the frightened man’s chest and ordered,

“Hey. Go out alone to get food tomorrow too.”

“What?”

“You lost the weapon, you lost the medicine. Shit, if you had any conscience, you should go out yourself.”

While a scene of intimidating one person was unfolding, Seokjae’s eyes remained calm.

Moving alone without weapons, readily offering help when asked, and a mild appearance that looked like a high school or college student. Piecing together what this miserable man had said, it all pointed to one person.

“Ha, so he went to save that bastard?”

To think the reason he deviated and didn’t return was because of such a guy.

Did he choose that guy over me? What’s the reason? Why were you distracted by someone who doesn’t even know how to be grateful and is quick to mock you as stupid?

The veins on the back of Seokjae’s hand, gripping the nozzle, visibly pulsed.

* * *

Muyoung ran hard, his soaking wet hair flying. He couldn’t touch the items he was going to give them in such a dirty state, so he had hurriedly found a building with a shower room to wash up, and quite some time had passed.

Although it was still far from the time they usually moved, today’s events had made him acutely aware that things could become dangerous in an instant, no matter how much he cleaned up the streets. Because of this, he was needlessly worried about whether they had safely returned to their temporary shelter.

Of course, they wouldn’t do anything stupid to provoke the zombies like that man did, but still, he couldn’t help but worry. His anxiety wouldn’t subside until he confirmed their safety with his own eyes.

“…W-what is this?”

Upon reaching the temporary shelter, Muyoung’s jaw dropped at the disaster before his eyes. The entrance, which had been a clean house, was now covered in white powder for some unknown reason.

As he urgently approached, the smell of blood hit him strongly. It was the smell of fresh human blood. Muyoung’s already pale face turned as white as marble.

“What should I do, did hyung get hurt somewhere?”

Muyoung wanted to go inside the house immediately to check on Seokjae’s safety. Was he still here?

As he paced back and forth, unsure whether to open the door and go in, he heard footsteps rapidly approaching from inside. Muyoung reflexively moved to hide against the side of the building.

With just his head slightly peeking out, the door flung open not long after. The ones who came out of the entrance were Kyungho and Junwoo.

‘Those two are safe. Then where’s Seokjae hyung? Where is he?’

The two standing firmly on both feet looked completely fine without any injuries. While it was a relief that Kyungho and Junwoo weren’t hurt… this increased the probability that Seokjae was injured.

“Hyung, we’ll be back soon!”

“You need to stay still or it might get worse!”

They spoke rapidly with concern and quickly ran outside.

Good grief. To think that Seokjae actually got hurt in the brief moment he took his eyes off them. Muyoung closed his eyes tightly and opened them again, feeling devastated. First, he needed to check how badly Seokjae was hurt.

‘I’ll regret it later.’

Muyoung scrunched up his nose, feeling as if his dried-up tear ducts were trying to function again, and headed towards where the large window was.

“I’m sure there was a window here that showed the living room.”

Although it was likely blocked by curtains and other objects, there should definitely be a small gap. It had always been that way until now.

Muyoung circled around the building along the wall and soon spotted the large window, rushing towards it hurriedly.

“Ah, I found…”

Muyoung’s face brightened at the thought of being able to see Seokjae, and he looked around for a gap, but what he discovered made the hair all over his body stand on end.

A bloody note stuck between the gaps of the curtain covering the glass window. It had one sentence written in a rough handwriting he had never seen before.

[Why did you go to him?]

Muyoung’s eyes widened greatly. He blinked several times, wondering if he had seen wrong, but the paper didn’t disappear.

“Uh, blood… No, is this really meant for me? Who did I go to…”

From the bloodstain spreading like a dye to the content itself. Everything confused Muyoung.

After being dumbfounded and frozen for a while, Muyoung pressed close to the window to find out the whereabouts of the person who wrote that memo.

When did Seokjae notice his existence? How did he know he would come here and left a note? And who was this ‘him’ referring to? There were so many questions. But more important than all of that was finding out where and how that blood came from Seokjae.

“Is he badly hurt?”

Judging from the reaction of the two who had rushed out earlier, it didn’t seem to be a small wound. Muyoung looked inside the house with a face that seemed about to whimper.

“Where on earth is he?”

He quickly scanned the interior with his face close to the window, but Seokjae was nowhere to be seen.

Could he be on the second floor instead of the first? If so, there was no way to see him unless he went inside.

“Ugh, that won’t do. Please be on the first floor.”

The blood-stained paper was enough to know that he had noticed Muyoung’s existence. But that didn’t mean he could boldly reveal himself. He probably didn’t know that the being following him wasn’t human.

It would be great if Seokjae accepted him even knowing his identity, but that was unlikely to happen. Who would want a monster that eats people by their side? This wasn’t something that could be overlooked even if Muyoung claimed “I’m different.”

How many sheep would believe a wolf if it said, “I’m a good wolf that doesn’t eat sheep” to a flock? It would be fortunate if they even pretended to believe. So maintaining the current distance was the best option.

Rather, he could now help them more openly, so wanting more than this would be greedy.

“…But how did he really know?”

As he couldn’t see even a strand of Seokjae’s hair no matter how much he scanned the interior, the curiosity he had put aside momentarily poked its head out.

Muyoung glanced once more at the ominous-looking paper. What could be inferred from the content was that Seokjae not only recognized Muyoung’s existence but also knew whether he was around or not.

‘Why is hyung so sure that I went to meet someone?’

He had been absent several times, but the only instance that could be described as “going to someone” was when he went to save that bad man today.

But looking at this question that seemed to contain resentment or complaint, it made Muyoung seem like a playboy who always went to meet different people. He had always moved for Seokjae’s sake, and this was truly the only time he did something like this.

Somehow, he felt wronged, as if his fan devotion was being doubted. To borrow Gwanghun’s expression, he was truly single-mindedly devoted to Seokjae. As he was pouting his lower lip in frustration, a possibility that crossed his mind made Muyoung frown deeply.

“Could it be that the bad person escaped and came here?”

Thinking about it carefully, it wasn’t impossible. If that man came here and somehow brought up the story about Muyoung, and Seokjae realized it was about him, then such a question made sense.

“Gasp. I think he was worried…”

Yes, this note wasn’t a complaint or resentment, but concern about why he followed a dangerous person. Having reached this conclusion, Muyoung covered his mouth with his hand in emotion.

Come to think of it, it was strange for Seokjae to criticize him for being distracted when he didn’t even know Muyoung was his fan.