Episode 72

The world seemed to have changed a lot while I was stuck there — it had probably changed that day itself, to be exact.

Zombies…

Among the countless words I’d heard people say that day was that one too. But I hadn’t really paid it any mind. This was a theater, and one of the films being screened at the time was a zombie movie, so I’d assumed people were just hyped about the movie and moved on.

But they weren’t talking about fiction.

Or maybe part of me had known. The ones with blood-smeared mouths writhing on the floor, the others staring blankly at the screen—some buried instinct inside me had labeled them zombies. I’d just refused to acknowledge it.

Admitting it meant accepting I’d been locked in a tomb with these monsters.

If this cramped theater held this many zombies, what about outside? Why did everyone stampede here that day instead of fleeing outside?

The answer to that question was one anyone could guess.

There were more zombies outside than here.

Then, would there be anyone who could break through all those zombies to come here and save me? The answer was obviously no.

For me, who knew this, there remained only one option: stay trapped here with those zombies and slowly die while eating off the last scraps of popcorn or other food.

Ah, wait—there was one more option: being torn apart and devoured by those zombies who might suddenly turn violent and charge at me.

So despite being more than one option, the result was the same. The end would always be death.

Knowing that made me even more reluctant to admit that they were truly zombies. I tried to ignore reality and cling to the hope that someone would come to rescue me.

And this delusional wish of mine somehow became reality and pulled me out of that hellish place.

“Were you fine with Ji-ah while we were gone? Nothing happened, right?”

I stared blankly at the woman walking toward me while speaking those words. Seeing her standing confidently with a pipe in hand, exactly like when we’d first met in that nightmare, slightly eased my suffocating anxiety. As I shook off the chaotic thoughts and glanced around, I noticed Ji-ah—who’d been talking beside me moments ago—was now standing next to Do-yoon before I knew it.

“Yes. Nothing happened.”

We smiled briefly at the sight of the two getting along before I turned my gaze away from her.

“What about you, Noona? You okay?”

“I’m perfectly fine.”

“Your hair’s a bit messy for someone who claims that.”

Her previously neat hair was now tangled in every direction.

“Ah… It’s nothing.”

She gave an awkward smile, smoothing her hair with her hand.

“Did something happen?”

“Fighting just messes your hair up, doesn’t it? All that moving around.”

“You fought? Were there many zombies?”

“Hmm, not exactly ‘many’—more like… strange ones.”

“What?”

“They weren’t regular zombies. No, could they… even be considered zombies at all?”

She tilted her head as if contemplating for a moment.

“They… popped out of the screen. But Do-yoon handled most of them, so I didn’t really do much.”

Screen…? She couldn’t mean they literally came from a movie screen, could she?

While I struggled to process her words and did not know what to say back to her, I noticed Jia approaching. But something was off about her—she was holding a blood-reddened tissue under her nose. I was startled.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Just a nosebleed. It’s nothing.”

“A nosebleed?”

Just as I thought it might’ve been because of a weakened condition of body, Ga-eun interjected:

“Did you heal him?”

“Yeah. But are you sure you don’t need it, unnie?”

“I’m really not hurt.”

Healing? What did that mean?

It all felt complicated again. What linked nosebleeds to “healing”?

“What do you mean ‘heal him’?”

Then, Ji-ah paused for a moment and then said, “I’ll tell you later.” Recognizing I’d probably overstepped, I nodded and shut my mouth.

***

During the drive to the shelter, I sat in the passenger seat to look at the navigation system instead of Ga-eun who was behind the wheel. I felt that if I didn’t do something, I would be left behind by them, so I stepped up to take the initiative.

While Ga-eun might not mind, the other two didn’t seem particularly happy to have me with them.

Ji-ah didn’t show it on the outside, but it felt like she was annoyed with me deep down.

Every time they talked about things I didn’t understand, I felt a sense of isolation, but it was especially pronounced when I asked her something and she brushed me off with a “I’ll tell you later” while showing signs of annoyance.

Moreover, Do-yoon completely treated me as if I didn’t exist, and he never talked to me first.

It was uncomfortable having to read his mood every time he looked at me with an expression that seemed to clearly say I was a nuisance.

They didn’t seem to have any intention of accepting me. Even though we were together, I felt like I was on the edge, unsure of when I might be abandoned.

At least Ga-eun didn’t show any signs of that, so being next to her allowed me to relax a little. Still, it seemed that Ji-ah was the real leader of this group, so I needed to make a better impression on her.

“If the road keeps being blocked like this, we’ll have to keep going around to get to the shelter…”

“Why did everyone leave their cars on the road?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they all tried to escape from the zombies and ended up abandoning their cars when the road got blocked? If one or two people leave their cars in front, it blocks the cars behind them from moving forward. In the end, the people who abandoned their cars first caused the ones behind them to do the same.”

“Do you think they escaped safely?”

“I hope so.”

She said that, but it didn’t seem like she believed they had escaped safely.

I felt the same way.

“If the roads ahead are blocked by cars, we might have to walk.”

“That’s a bit concerning.”

As I said that, I briefly took my eyes off my phone and looked up. I had been deathly focused on my phone to navigate us here, and my eyes were starting to hurt a bit.

Also, maybe also because I’d been staring at my phone for so long, I felt a bit nauseous as if car sick. We had to take a brief stop, so I tried to calm my stomach and relieve the fatigue in my eyes as much as possible during it.

So I looked around while taking this break, and then a crow caught my eye.

The black bird was perched on a branch, staring at us. For some reason, I felt uneasy at its appearance, so I turned my gaze away.

This time, I saw Do-yoon and Ji-ah a little distance away from us. It felt strange to see Ji-ah hanging on to Do-yoon’s arm and sticking closely to him.

It really feels like those two are dating…

“Ah! No! Give it back!”

At that moment, I heard Ga-eun’s voice shouting urgently. I hurriedly turned my head to look at her, and found something popping out of the driver’s side window, and then she ran after it.

“Huh? Wait! Ga-eun noona, it’s dangerous to go alone!”

I didn’t know what was happening, but seeing her run off alone made me hurriedly follow her.

I entered some building after her, but in the end, I lost track of Ga-eun noona and ended up alone.

“Where did she go?”

Suddenly left alone, I became anxious and looked around, pacing back and forth.

Come to think of it, I had come this far without saying anything to Do-yoon and Ji-ah… Were they looking for me?

I might not be something for them to care about, but Ga-eun was close to them, so they would definitely be worried about her.

What if I ended up left here alone? What if a zombie suddenly appears…

As those unpleasant thoughts made me increasingly anxious, my mouth went dry.

No one is going to come looking for me. If I’m left like this…

“Let’s go outside. I need to get out of here and return to the car.”

I hurriedly tried to retrace my steps. However, when I looked back, I realized just how complicated the paths in this place were, like a maze. I had only seen her back when I entered, so I had no idea where I had come from.

Before entering, I had thought this building didn’t seem that big. But now I was lost…

With tanks full of water all around, it looked like an aquarium.

Is the inside of places like this usually so complicated? And there were weirdly no fishes in the tanks either.

As I took a moment to calm my excited heart and surveyed my surroundings, I suddenly recognised the vibrations in my left hand that’d been coming for a while and looked down.

I had been distracted by other things until now, but my phone was vibrating.

“A call…?”

A number I had never seen before appeared on the screen. Receiving a call in this situation was a bit surprising, but feeling desperate, I answered it anyway.

“Hello?”

[Park Jun-woo? Hey, you! Why are you only answering now?!]

Hearing Ji-ah’s voice as she scolded me on the other end made my anxious heart ease for a moment.

[Where are you right now?]

“That’s… I don’t really know. I just kept running ahead.”

[Ah. Damn it. I knew this would happen. You two are together right now, right? Don’t move and stay where you are. I’ll come to you.]

“Wait. I’m alone right now.”

[What? Where’s Ga-eun unnie?]

“I lost her in the middle because she was too fast.”

[Okay. You just stay where you are for now. Don’t move.]

With that, the call ended. I looked at my phone and bit my lip.

Ji-ah sounded disappointed when I told her I was alone. She would probably have been more urgent to find Ga-eun than me.

Because they didn’t need someone like me.

The momentary joy faded, and I was once again reminded of my situation.

—

Poor baby 🙁 i get that insecurity