Chapter 121
At that time, Seokjae’s breathing had faltered momentarily. Even when Muyoung had done something as outrageous as placing his muzzle against Seokjae’s palm, he had barely shown any reaction, yet a single sentence had caused him clear agitation.
Moreover, Seokjae’s strange behavior didn’t end there.
‘Why don’t you come to where I’m staying? It’ll be dark soon.’
‘……’
‘I-I’m sorry, really. Back then, I didn’t know anything either. Now—’
‘Lead the way.’
From his position, Muyoung couldn’t see, but judging by Lim Sangjin’s pale face, Seokjae must have shown a rather unfavorable reaction. Yet he had accepted the offer. And quite urgently too. As if he wanted to silence Lim Sangjin.
Given that Sangjin had apologized, it was likely his fault rather than Seokjae’s. So why did Seokjae want to hide it?
‘Is it a personal story he doesn’t want us to hear? Or something he never wants to hear again?’
Various questions came to mind, but what he was most curious about was:
‘What did that bad person do to hyung?’
Whatever it was, the fact that someone had dared to hurt his precious Seokjae hyung made him dislike Sangjin even more.
‘I’m upsetting hyung right now too, but…’
That was a measure to protect him, so it could be excused.
Of course, Lim Sangjin had said he had no choice, but that lacked credibility. Because he had been lying from the moment they first met.
‘How could he have forgotten Seokjae hyung’s face?’
Such striking looks would be memorable even from a passing glance. Even if one could understand momentarily forgetting and then remembering, how could he forget someone involved in an incident serious enough to warrant an immediate apology upon meeting? That didn’t make sense.
‘He must have pretended not to know him.’
Whether he wanted to engage in some kind of power play, or his wrongdoing was so severe that he couldn’t face Seokjae without such pretense—the truth was unknown, but Muyoung could be certain that Seokjae didn’t welcome him.
‘The evidence is that hyung hasn’t eaten anything.’
It was just skipping one meal, but Muyoung had inherited his grandmother’s “my baby blinders” when he started admiring Seokjae, and rather than removing them, he had only strengthened them after realizing his love.
Muyoung glanced at the lounge door.
‘Should I go check on him?’
Muyoung had started eating human food instead of dog treats, making the absurd excuse that his body constitution had suddenly changed.
Since then, he had always greeted meal times with extreme enthusiasm, as if making up for all the meals he couldn’t eat before, but today he wasn’t excited. Having recalled how tired Seokjae had looked, he began to worry that his condition might have worsened and he might be suffering alone.
‘But I might be disturbing his rest… What should I do?’
While Muyoung was fretting like a whimpering puppy, Seokjae, left alone in the study space, was glaring at empty air.
*Crunch-*
His nails, gripping the desk, scratched the underside of the wooden surface, making a chilling sound.
“Fuck, why is that bastard here…”
He didn’t want to be separated from Muyoung, but his patience had reached its limit, so he needed a moment to calm down. Otherwise, he felt like he would curse in front of Muyoung and beat that guy to a pulp.
“If he’s a rat, he should stay buried in the gutter. Why does he show his face without knowing his place, driving people crazy?”
Besides this, Seokjae was muttering curses like incantations. When his mind cleared somewhat, he sat on the desk and irritably swept his hair back.
‘I showed too much stupidly.’
Being perceptive, Sangjin must have already noticed that he wanted to hide the past. Yet the fact that he hadn’t mentioned what happened then suggested he wanted something from Seokjae.
Thanks to this judgment that Sangjin wouldn’t speak, Seokjae could separate from the group briefly like this… but he wasn’t sure how much value that parasite placed on “that incident.”
‘If he knows exactly what happened, he probably won’t demand too much in return.’
Moreover, he might have subtly noticed Muyoung’s value to Seokjae. After all, he knew Seokjae’s original personality.
‘Tsk, I should have ignored him completely.’
The situation seemed more disadvantageous because of this, but how could he ignore a little puppy baring its teeth while zealously guarding its territory? He didn’t understand why the usually people-friendly Muyoung was so wary, but seeing him keep his distance was a hundred, a thousand times better than watching him engage in friendly chatter with Sangjin.
“I just want to kill him…”
If he had his way, he would strangle him secretly when they were alone and feign ignorance. In a place where people dying wasn’t unusual, people would likely assume he went to the bathroom and died without much suspicion.
But… he didn’t want to touch Muyoung with hands dirtied like that. Also, Muyoung had good hearing, so if he made a mistake and was caught, it would be disastrous.
So although bothersome, the most straightforward solution would be to grant what Sangjin wanted and then part ways.
“But if he crosses the line, I’ll just kill him.”
And if he got caught…
“I’ll say he was already bitten by a zombie. It wouldn’t be the first time…”
After muttering softly, he rubbed his face with his dry hands, then picked up a chair nearby and threw it to the floor.
‘Now that I’ve finished thinking, I should call them.’
*Crash!*
At the loud noise, everyone in the lounge looked outside with wide eyes. Silence followed the loud sound.
*Hisss-*
The silence was broken by the sound of steam from the electric kettle. There were no other sounds. In the strange silence, Junwoo, who had tensed up, carefully opened his mouth.
“W-what was that?”
“Could zombies have gotten inside…?”
They hadn’t heard any sound of the glass entrance door breaking. But at Kyungho’s words, just considering the possibility was frightening enough that Junwoo swallowed dryly.
At that moment, Lim Sangjin firmly shook his head and said:
“That’s impossible. The zombies around here are all…”
“What?”
“Ah, no. There are no zombies around here.”
How can he be so sure? Wondering this, Muyoung turned his head to see Lim Sangjin retreating to a corner. His voice had seemed a bit distant, and indeed, with nowhere else to go, he had moved to a corner.
‘No matter how I look at him, he doesn’t seem capable of clearing the area…’
Muyoung wore a strange expression, but being polite, he changed the subject.
“Let’s go check it out.”
“What?”
“Let’s go out and see. We need to confirm if it’s zombies, people, or something else!”
Though Lim Sangjin clearly showed he didn’t want to go, Muyoung didn’t give up. If he left kids with such a bad adult, they would surely hear hurtful words like before.
But the man, showing no shame, tried hard to avoid going.
“Seokjae is outside anyway. If you don’t want to go alone, take the kids instead of me.”
“This is where you’re staying, Lim Sangjin-ssi, so you should go. I’m going because I’m worried something might have happened to Seokjae hyung. So come on.”
“Ah, fine. I get it, I get it.”
When Muyoung grabbed his arm and dragged him, Lim Sangjin grumbled, “How are you so strong?!” but pretended to walk out on his own, heading outside.
Shortly after leaving the lounge, they saw Seokjae sitting on a desk with a chair sprawled on the floor.
“Hyung, what happened!”
Despite how perfectly fine he looked, Muyoung rushed over with a fuss, examining various parts of Seokjae’s body. Even in this situation, Seokjae enjoyed his closeness and shrugged.
“The chair fell over.”
“Oh… You scared me. I was worried.”
“See, I told you it was nothing?”
As Muyoung clutched his chest in relief, Lim Sangjin cut in abruptly. Acting shamelessly as if he had known all along, despite having tried to avoid coming. Muyoung, who had been glaring at him with narrowed eyes, soon looked back at Seokjae. His gaze had already softened.
“Can I ask you just one thing?”
“Mm?”
“How did you two get to know each other?”
“Ah. That’s, well, something that could be called quite long—”
It was a question Muyoung had filtered through many times, wanting to hear directly from Seokjae without putting him in an awkward position. Yet Lim Sangjin cut into the conversation again. But Seokjae cut him off abruptly, as if unaware of his presence.
“He’s a guy… person I met at the evacuation site when everything first broke out.”
“The beginning? Where—”
A person was being ignored right before his eyes, but rather than paying attention to that, Muyoung felt relieved that their relationship was lighter than he had expected. At the same time, his interest was drawn to the appearance of someone who knew about Seokjae during the time period Muyoung was unaware of, which he had pieced together from Kyungho and Junwoo’s stories.
Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask more questions:
“Aaack!”
A scream was heard from afar. Muyoung, with wide eyes, immediately turned his head.
“Go check. You’re worried about the kids.”
“Ah, yes, yes!”
When Seokjae gently pushed his back, Muyoung ran off, urgently calling out, “Kids! What’s happening?!”
And with only Seokjae and Lim Sangjin left, the latter tried to quietly slip away, feeling intimidated by Seokjae who was just standing still. Despite his plan to use Seokjae, he was instinctively afraid.
“Well, I should also—”
“You need to talk with me.”
Unlike before, Seokjae, his expression now vacant, spoke quietly with his head tilted at an odd angle.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
