Chapter 118
“Hey, Muyoung hyung.”
Muyoung, who had been sending a lingering gaze at the back of Seokjae’s head, turned around in surprise at the sudden call.
“Oh, Junwoo? What’s wrong? Is something the matter? Does your leg hurt?”
“It’s not that… I know it’s not my place to say this.”
Despite his normally confident stride, Junwoo hesitated as he spoke, alternately glancing at Seokjae, who surely must have heard their conversation but didn’t turn around, and Muyoung with his innocent face that seemed to understand nothing. Then he whispered quietly.
“Can’t you just forgive him once?”
“Uh, what? What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know what Seokjae hyung did, but I’m sure his intentions were good, so if you could just forgive him once—”
“No, no. Wait a minute.”
Unable to comprehend what Junwoo was saying, Muyoung hurriedly raised his arms with his palms visible.
“…”
“…”
As Junwoo obediently closed his mouth at hyung’s unspoken command, the tiresome silence that had been hovering between them returned. Though Muyoung knew the boys disliked silence, he couldn’t easily open his mouth this time either.
‘What is he talking about? Forgiveness? Who should forgive whom?’
He was bewildered, unable to grasp how such a misunderstanding had begun. If Junwoo had asked him to apologize to Seokjae instead, he wouldn’t have been this confused. After all, it was obvious even to someone with no sense that things between him and Seokjae had been different from usual these past few days.
‘No, actually, hyung is acting normal, but I’ve been the one behaving awkwardly…’
But he couldn’t help it. Muyoung wasn’t someone who possessed high-level skills like naturally avoiding physical contact.
And what if the other person was someone he liked? An already difficult task became even harder. Having to suppress the urge to wag his tail in happiness—it was only natural that he moved like an unoiled tin robot.
So why did he have to do something he didn’t want to do? To understand the cause, we need to go back to their secret night.
After enjoying an adults-only birthday party with Seokjae, Muyoung returned to the classroom where the kids were sleeping only after neatly finishing all the cleanup.
“Snore…”
“Sss- sss-”
He had worried they might wake up since the two had napped at lunch, but the kids were sleeping soundly, oblivious to the world. After confirming this, Muyoung exhaled in relief, rubbing his heart, and Seokjae quietly laughed.
Squeeze.
“Sleep well, hyung.”
“Yeah, you too.”
Before lying in his own bed for the perfect crime, he briefly held Seokjae’s hand and bid him goodnight.
“Ah, sweet dreams.”
“Worried I’ll have a nightmare? At least for today, I’ll definitely have good dreams, so don’t worry.”
“That! …Ahem. I don’t know why, but th-that’s good…”
“You don’t know? I could tell you why.”
“I-I’m not curious!”
Even whispering and flirting to avoid detection—they were no different from young lovers who had just started a secret relationship.
One might wonder what the problem was if everything was sweet until the end, but problems always arise at the end.
Thump…
Muyoung sensed the change in the wee hours of the morning, about two hours after finishing his conversation with Seokjae. Lying on the floor, he kept feeling a heavy vibration, as if someone were patting his back.
Thump… Thump… Thump.
The low, faint resonance tormented Muyoung roughly once every 10 seconds at the longest, and once every 5 seconds at the shortest.
It continued to tap his back with an irregular rhythm that seemed about to stop but never did, so at first, he thought there was something on the floor. But no matter how much he tossed and turned, the strange vibration persisted.
Finally, Muyoung sat up, and even then he felt the heavy impact dropping with a thump!
‘…!’
Only then did he realize that this was a resonance occurring inside his own body. The vibration that had only felt irritating now included an awkward familiarity. As the saying goes, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment—what he had deliberately ignored had become a certainty.
Muyoung attempted something he hadn’t tried in a very long time, except right after waking up with new eyes.
Swish-
He lifted his hand from the floor, placed it on his left chest, and held his breath. In the quiet, dark classroom, all his nerves focused on his hand.
Thump…
Thump… Thump… Thump.
“…It’s beating.”
Although incredibly slow and weak—to the point where a human would be beyond resuscitation—it was definitely the sound of a heart beating.
Muyoung hastily slipped his hand inside his t-shirt to check again, just as he hadn’t believed when his heart first stopped.
“Gasp! Haa…”
Only after confirming the faint movement tapping his palm several times did Muyoung take in the breath he had been holding.
When had it started beating? What was the reason? Would it suddenly stop? Would his lost senses return too? All sorts of questions swirled through his mind.
Among them, the thought that first struck his heart escaped his lips.
“What a relief.”
So that was why zombies had attacked him. Because he was closer to being human than a zombie, they had reacted. It wasn’t that they had reached the level of thinking. And…
‘I can leave with hyung.’
The problem that had plunged him into sadness even while in Seokjae’s arms melted away.
“…Then, that wasn’t an illusion.”
The warmth he felt momentarily after their intimate act, which disappeared without a trace, might really have been his body heat. Thinking about it, somehow he felt a sunny warmth return to the skin that had touched Seokjae.
But that happiness was very brief.
“Wait, does this mean my strength is weakening too?”
As one problem disappeared, a new hardship arrived as if in equivalent exchange.
The human Kang Muyoung, unlike the zombie Kang Muyoung, was weak, with neither good hearing nor a keen sense of smell. Moreover, his motor skills weren’t great either. It was fortunate that his running speed and stamina were decent, thanks to all the soccer he had played in school and the military.
But that only helped when running away. Of course, there was a saying that being good at escaping was a form of helping, but…
‘I’m completely useless!!’
That saying offered no comfort to the current Muyoung.
Feeling dejected from his sense of helplessness, Muyoung quietly went to where their bags were piled and tried lifting them. Whoosh! His thin arms easily lifted four heavy bags without even a grunt of effort.
Only after confirming this did he return to his bed. Then he firmly pinched his cheek, pulling it out and releasing it.
‘Doesn’t hurt. Except for the heartbeat, everything else seems the same for now.’
He could still hear the faint sounds in the kindergarten office, so his hearing was intact. He still didn’t need sleep, so his stamina remained. His eating habits were the same, so he wouldn’t need to touch their food supplies. And…
After counting the remaining traits one by one with his fingers, Muyoung sighed deeply with the thought that things were still okay for now, then flopped down and stared at the ceiling.
‘But I’m worried because I don’t know how quickly I’ll change… Since I don’t know why I’m turning back into a human, I can’t deliberately slow down the process either.’
He continued pondering until morning when everyone would wake up.
And that worry was resolved more quickly than he had anticipated.
“Are you okay?”
Perhaps his eating habits were the first to return to human form. After gagging from his body’s rejection of the dog food can, rinsing his mouth repeatedly at the sink, and scrubbing his face with soap, he was still struggling with the lingering scent and taste.
“Hyung… why did you come?”
“How could I not follow when you left like that? Feeling sick?”
“I’m fine now.”
Despite telling him not to come, Seokjae had followed him anyway, and Muyoung inadvertently made a sad face at showing him such an unsightly appearance. Worried that his body might smell bad, he sniffed himself with a “sniff” when Seokjae approached.
Swish- swish-
“Geez, did you play in the water? You’re completely wet.”
And those exposed abs… No, Seokjae had lifted his own t-shirt to wipe Muyoung’s wet face! Feeling his heart pounding from Seokjae’s kind gesture and body, Muyoung touched his chest while pretending to rub his solar plexus.
‘Well, it must be my imagination… How could it pound when it’s beating so slowly—’
Thump! Thump… Thump!
Was it angry at being ignored? As soon as he thought this was impossible, his heartbeat became slightly stronger and faster.
Oh my!
“…It’s because of you, hyung.”
“What did you say?”
Seokjae thrust his head forward at the self-mutter that was barely louder than a breath. Feeling his heart flutter once more, Muyoung hastily shook his head.
“Nothing, it’s nothing. Thank you, hyung.”
So hyung turned me back into a human. The day after realizing his first love, he discovered he was becoming human, and that hyung was the cause. It was like something out of a fairy tale.
‘…I’m sorry, hyung!’
If only he hadn’t gritted his teeth and avoided Seokjae afterward.
But he had no choice. To slow down his humanization, he needed to prevent his heart from fluttering, which meant staying far away from Seokjae. His face, voice, body, gaze—even his breathing. There wasn’t a single thing about him that didn’t make Muyoung’s heart race.
Of course, he couldn’t explain these circumstances. Seokjae must have felt wronged when his friend suddenly started avoiding him like he was looking at a bug. Yet he was maturely waiting without getting angry or confrontational. So why was Seokjae misunderstood as being at fault?
“Um… what do you mean by forgiveness? Hyung hasn’t done anything wrong to me.”
Back in the present, Muyoung whispered quietly into Junwoo’s ear, worried that Seokjae, who was already likely upset, might feel hurt by the misunderstanding.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
