Chapter 144

Inside a small mart where the setting sun cast an orange glow through the windows. Empty shelves and shopping baskets rolling on the floor indicated that the place was no longer in operation.

A man entered through the slightly open side door of this time-frozen mart.

Ding-

“Ah!”

Startled by the door bell shaking above—which he hadn’t expected on a back door in the exterior wall—the man quickly stretched out his hand to grab the bell. He then immediately surveyed his surroundings.

“…”

For quite some time, he held his breath and darted his perfectly round eyes around. After swallowing dryly about five times, there was still no sign of movement nearby. Only then did the man relax and continue walking.

“Not here either…”

Muttering quietly while meticulously checking each empty shelf, the man soon let out a disappointed sigh.

“Ah.”

What he saw was a banana, trampled beyond recognition under someone’s foot. His eyes, which had been bright with hope despite the obviously empty store, darkened.

But that lasted only a moment. Muyoung deliberately folded his arms with an exaggerated gesture and sighed, trying to compose his sinking mood.

“Sigh, I really wanted to bring back some fresh food. I guess I can’t find any… The lady will be disappointed.”

Muyoung was more concerned about the woman who could barely eat anything except water than about the old man who would throw a fit over not finding bananas. His ability to worry more about the pregnant woman’s health than the verbal abuse directed at him was partly due to his kind nature, but there was a more definite reason.

“He’ll nag so much again today.”

It’s not like he could hit me anyway.

Muyoung held the most important role in their current situation. No one would dare lay a hand on him. He wasn’t so oblivious as to miss what everyone in the group knew.

That’s why, unlike before when he was hurt by harsh words, now he remained calm no matter what was said to him. Moreover, he viewed the middle-aged man who could only rage verbally but not physically as like a bulldog—barking fiercely behind a door but quiet once outside.

He knew it was disrespectful to regard a person that way, but wasn’t it somewhat justified when someone constantly hurled insults?

Besides, it was better for his mental health not to think of him as a person. A dog’s bark couldn’t wound like human curses.

“How am I going to appease him this time…”

Though he called him “mister,” Muyoung didn’t treat him as an adult. As he was tousling his hair in thought—

BANG!

A dull noise echoed from outside. Muyoung immediately crouched down and minimized his presence.

But afterward, he faintly heard what sounded like human laughter.

‘Is it not a zombie?’

Since the sound came softly from outside the door, he couldn’t be certain, but it was far from the noises zombies made. Tilting his head in confusion, Muyoung straightened up and carefully moved toward the commercial building entrance where the sound had come from.

“Hmm, I can’t see clearly…”

Whether a catastrophe had occurred here too, the glass wall and door were covered in blood. Muyoung hesitated at the sight of the crimson bloodstains everywhere.

Finding a clean spot to peer through, he looked outside and saw a tall man standing motionless in the corridor.

‘It would be terrible if he’s a zombie… Please, let him be human.’

Zombie or human, he couldn’t understand why the man was standing there, but even if it was just one person, his build suggested Muyoung would have no chance of winning. Tense from the stark difference in physique, he focused all his attention on the man’s movements. After a moment, Muyoung felt a mixture of relief and admiration.

“He’s handsome…”

When the man roughly ran his fingers through his hair, revealing his face—despite his frowning expression, he was remarkably good-looking. It was a face that couldn’t possibly be mistaken for a zombie’s. Besides, a zombie couldn’t tousle its own hair anyway.

While Muyoung’s attention was captured by this face, rarely seen even on television, the man moved.

“Huh? What?”

But his movements seemed concerning. He clutched his chest, and even from a distance, Muyoung could tell he was breathing heavily as his upper body visibly rose and fell.

“Is he sick?”

If not that, then…

“Was he bitten and driven out?”

The loud noise heard earlier sounded like a door closing. In other words, this man had come out of the neighboring store.

But something was odd. Despite his build making him difficult to forcibly remove, there hadn’t been any commotion until the door closed.

‘Plus there’s someone collapsed on the floor… Could they both be injured?’

That would make some sense. His speculation soon became conviction. Just look at those staggering movements. It seemed right that he’d been expelled from his group due to injury.

‘Poor thing…’

Muyoung’s gaze kept returning to the man who appeared to be struggling more than the motionless person on the ground. He felt sympathy for him.

‘Should I ask him to come with me?’

As he wavered about whether to save the two people, the man who had been staring at the person on the floor seemed to make a decision, raised his head to glare at the steel door, and—

BANG!

Kicked it. Not just once. He stomped on it repeatedly with such force that it seemed he intended to destroy the steel door.

Crash! BANG!

The loud noise clearly reached Muyoung through the glass.

Looking alternately at the angry man’s face, the collapsed figure, and the unyielding door, Muyoung reached his own conclusion.

‘Is he trying to save his companion? Makes sense—being driven out with nothing, he probably doesn’t have medicine either. But at this rate…’

Sure enough, before even a few minutes had passed, a guttural snarl could be heard from the main street. They would soon swarm into the commercial building. Yet despite clearly hearing this chilling sound, the man continued kicking the door.

‘What should I do? Should I save him? But we’re also short on medicine because of the old man…’

As Muyoung hesitated, he heard the sound of breaking glass and realized zombies were swarming in. Only then did the man stop kicking and look around anxiously.

Seeing the fear on his face, Muyoung stopped thinking and opened the door, calling out:

“Hey! Come this way!”

“Huff… gasp…”

“Hurry! Come over here quickly!”

The panting man approached, seemingly startled to see Muyoung, not even bothering to bring his companion. Of course, Muyoung urgently tried to inform him of this fact.

Crack.

If only the body of the person who had been lying motionless hadn’t suddenly stirred.

Arms and legs twisting in grotesque directions as it crawled on the floor, and the cloudy grayish-white eyes visible as it raised its head.

‘A zombie…!’

The handsome man seemed too disoriented to notice what was happening behind him, as he approached slowly and unsteadily.

Fearing that making him look back would force him to witness his companion’s horrific transformation, Muyoung silently ran out, grabbed his hand, and retreated into the store.

“This way!”

Then he locked the door. It was somewhat difficult to reach the lock while pressed against the large man, but there was no time to ask him to move aside as Muyoung urgently tried to secure the door before the fully zombified companion could reach it.

Click.

After struggling desperately, fortunately, he managed to lock the door before the zombie could burst into the store.

“Whew—that was close.”

“You…”

“Are you okay?”

Just then there was a loud THUD! as the zombie—formerly the man’s companion—smashed its head against the door. Muyoung flinched but kept his composure, not wanting the man to look back, and looked up at him.

The man who had been quietly staring at him slowly opened his mouth.

“Muyoung.”

“What?”

“Kang Muyoung.”

“H-how do you know my name…?”

Surprised, Muyoung continued staring at his face, and the man’s perfectly symmetrical lips moved once more.

“Wake up now, Kang Muyoung.”

At that moment, the floor suddenly gave way, and his body fell into the darkness below.

“Ah!”

“What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

“…”

Taking a deep breath as he opened his eyes, the face he had just been looking at was right in front of him. Gazing at him in a daze, Muyoung grabbed Seokjae’s cheeks with both hands.

“Ouch.”

A sharp pain accompanied the slapping sound. Though Seokjae frowned in confusion at the sudden attack, Muyoung blinked as he felt the warm sensation under his hands.

“Hyung.”

“Why are you slapping my face first thing in the morning? Was last night that disappointing?”

Staring blankly at Seokjae who raised his eyebrow sarcastically, Muyoung’s eyes suddenly cleared, and he sat up urgently.

“What, you want to do it again?”

Seokjae nimbly dodged backward, nearly getting headbutted by the sudden movement. But immediately after, Muyoung climbed on top of him. As Seokjae spoke with apparent amusement, Muyoung urgently opened his mouth.

“Hyung, you’re not a murderer.”

The fact that Seokjae had been trying to save his companion was Muyoung’s misunderstanding, and whatever information about him kicking the door with thoughts of revenge against those who betrayed him was completely irrelevant to Muyoung who loved him.

Having already erased it from his mind, Muyoung smiled brightly, happy that Seokjae no longer needed to feel guilty.

“What?”

“That person. He was definitely a zombie. He really was. I remember everything now.”

This time Seokjae was dumbfounded. Looking up at Muyoung’s radiant smile, Seokjae soon became infected by that smile, chuckling before firmly gripping the soft buttocks resting on his thighs.

“Oh?”

“Then shall we do it once more to celebrate my cleared name? I only got to finish once yesterday, which was unfair.”

“W-what?”

“If that’s not enough, let’s also celebrate the fact that I’m alive.”

Perhaps because it was morning, Seokjae’s cock was hard, poking between Muyoung’s buttocks, making him swallow nervously and smile awkwardly.

“That’s, that’s… really wonderful news, but hyung, shouldn’t we get going? The others are waiting.”

“Mm, I’ll finish quickly. Don’t worry.”

“N-no, that’s not it, my condition—!”

“I can carry you on my back.”

Considering how limp he had become after last night, once they did it again, moving around smoothly would be difficult. So he tried to avoid it, but—

“That would be too hard for you, mmph!”

Seokjae devoured Muyoung’s lips as he continued listing reasons why they shouldn’t, and all his efforts came to nothing.