Why isn’t he back yet?
After tossing and turning in bed for a long while, I startled awake at the sound of rain and sat up — then, when the thunder began to roll, I gave up entirely and went to stand by the window to watch outside.
Not that it did much good. Apart from the brief moments when lightning flashed, there was nothing to see. Still, it was better than sitting still doing nothing. If only my phone worked, I could at least ask where he was, when he was coming back.
But I couldn’t exactly open the window and shout either, so I just kept gnawing at my lips, pacing back and forth in front of the window in a restless daze — when I heard footsteps coming down the corridor.
It’s hyung, right?
Of course it’s Baek Hyunwoo. Who else would it be.
Even as I thought that, something he’d said before he left made me uncertain. The approaching footsteps were heavy, accompanied by the wet, squelching sound of rain-soaked clothes.
The closer the presence got, the louder my heart pounded, and cold sweat trickled down my back. My body trembled uncontrollably even though I wasn’t cold.
Then a bolt of lightning struck — so fierce it seemed like the sun had risen for a split second. My eyes squeezed shut against the sudden glare, and in that same instant, I caught a glimpse of the shadow of something standing beyond the corridor door.
“……”
Rumble——
It wasn’t human. It had only been a fraction of a second and I hadn’t gotten a proper look, but that silhouette — it was absolutely not something that could be called human.
I felt every hair on my body stand on end. I took a reflexive step backward. What do I do? What should I do? When is hyung coming back? No — what if hyung runs into that thing in the corridor……
Knock knock.
A wave of dizziness hit me all at once.
“Sihyeon, hyung’s coming in.”
It wasn’t a zombie. It wasn’t a monster. The moment I registered that soft, gentle voice, all the strength drained out of my legs. Before I could even answer, I crumpled straight down to the floor. Whatever little energy I’d had left was swept away in an instant, and I couldn’t even breathe properly.
I couldn’t get a single word out. My shoulders slumped — and then the door opened, and Baek Hyunwoo came in quickly, clearly alarmed. He dropped down on one knee and cupped my face carefully in both hands.
“What’s wrong, are you okay? Did something happen?”
“……Outside — I thought the thing outside wasn’t you.”
“Did you hear something strange?”
“No……”
All I could do was shake my head. Baek Hyunwoo seemed to read my state quickly, because he didn’t press further — he made it his first priority to get me back onto the bed.
Then he gently kneaded my hands, which were trembling in small, fine shakes. Without really knowing what had happened, he kept murmuring “It’s okay, hyung’s here now. Yeah?” — soothing me over and over — and only then did I manage to answer in a small voice that I’d seen something strange when the lightning flashed.
“The shape looked wrong, so I thought it was a monster……”
“It was probably the shadows of things in the corridor blending together.”
Hearing that, I finally realized I’d been wound up far too tight, strung out on edge. I’d told myself to clear my head, but being a born coward wasn’t something I could just switch off. I’d always been more fearful than most people, but when I was young — or rather, in my previous life — it hadn’t been this bad…… That incident, the one that killed me, must have left a deeper mark than I’d thought. Haa — I let out a long breath of relief and let my shoulders go slack, and hyung’s hand swept down my back.
“I should have come back sooner. I’m sorry.”
“It’s because I’m such a coward, it’s not your fault. And the rain ended up being heavier than I expected……”
“Right, and the thunder too.”
Baek Hyunwoo murmured in reply, then walked over to the window and carefully drew the curtains that had been left slightly open. He came back to my side, turned off the mood light that had been left on just dim enough to make out shapes, nudged my shoulders gently to lie down, and pulled the blanket over me as naturally as breathing.
“It seems like leaving tomorrow is going to be difficult.”
“Because of the rain?”
“Yeah. The river will have swelled quite a bit.”
He said it was because of the river, but the real reason was obviously me. This frail body of mine, which caught a cold at the slightest chill — there was no way it could push through that downpour unscathed.
But I said nothing about that, and simply nodded to show I understood.
“Close your eyes.”
“……”
“Go on.”
With no light coming in, it should have been impossible to see anything — yet Baek Hyunwoo spoke as if he could see everything perfectly, nudging me along, patting my chest in a steady rhythm. But even with my eyes shut, sleep wouldn’t come easily. I tossed and turned several times as the sound of rain grew rougher and rougher, and in the end, I couldn’t help but lift my eyelids again.
The creature slightly larger than a human moved, just as before, entirely at Baek Hyunwoo’s command. From its back, rib-like structures opened and closed rhythmically, as if breathing — and where a face should have been, a tangle of tentacles writhed in its place. Eyes were set densely across its surface.
When Kim Heeyeon screamed and ran, the creature turned back to look at Baek Hyunwoo as if asking what to do — and he smiled and gave a small curl of his fingers.
“Hya-aaah!”
At that, thumb-sized bugs burst out from all corners of the flower shop and coiled around Kim Heeyeon. The threads looked like they’d snap at the slightest pull, yet they were astonishingly tough — in an instant, her limbs were bound.
Thud. Kim Heeyeon landed flat on her backside and squeezed out a few tears, but Baek Hyunwoo felt no remorse. He simply crouched down across from her and met her eyes.
“There are people who got there ahead of you, so introduce yourself and try to get along.”
“Huu-euung, please let me gooo……!”
“Oh, you might actually know them — you’re from the same neighborhood. It’s a doctor and a nurse from the hospital on that intersection over there.”
“I don’t have anything on me! I swear!”
“Once you’re outside, please try not to scream too much. If zombies give chase, my kids will move to stop them from following, and that might give you motion sickness. That would only hurt you, Kim Heeyeon.”
“No, I don’t wa — aaAAAAH! Don’t come near me! Huuu-aaah!”
Before long, the massive bug that had sidled up beside her started fussing over Kim Heeyeon where she sat crumpled on the floor. It carefully gripped her waist with its long legs, laid her across its back, secured her firmly with its rib-like structures, and then slathered sticky fluid from its tentacles all over her.
“W-wait, wait a moment. Just wait!”
“Well then, see you next time.”
“Please let me li — AAAAAHHH!”
Baek Hyunwoo held the door open for her himself, then waved both hands in a playful little flutter, like a theme park attendant sending off a ride. Kim Heeyeon, lying strapped to the creature’s back, had no way of seeing any of it.
Shhhhhhh——
And just around the time her screams had completely faded into the distance, the rain began to fall.
Ah, I should have at least put a raincoat on her. Baek Hyunwoo smiled to himself as he stepped out of the flower shop. With rain pelting her full in the face, screaming would be rather difficult — so the creature ferrying Kim Heeyeon might actually have it easier this way.
He searched every nook and cranny to see if there were any more humans hiding, but all that turned up now were zombies. Seeing the village emptied out this quickly, this might well be one of the very first locations where the zombies had appeared.
“It wasn’t quite the time to be giddy about having the place to ourselves.”
Baek Hyunwoo let his eyebrows droop and exhaled slowly. He’d known from the moment the first zombie appeared that something was going wrong — but actually wandering around trying to gather information made the gravity of the situation feel all the more real. He almost felt foolish for having trembled with excitement at the thought of travelling alone with Sihyeon.
Still, if this really was one of the original outbreak sites, he might be able to pick up at least a small clue. Holding onto that thought, he set off again, moving briskly.
“Good grief……”
But even after hours of searching, he came away without a single piece of useful information. No unusual smell, nothing that felt out of place. There was one thing that nagged at him, though……
“What do you think?”
At Baek Hyunwoo’s question, the bug perched on his shoulder blinked. That meant it didn’t know either. He answered, “Same here,” and lightly picked up then set down a piece of clothing that had been rolling across the ground.
The fabric was thick and rough — grey cloth, cut in the shape of a dress, with long zippers running along the back and the sleeves. What made it unusual was this: the zipper on the sleeves could be rolled all the way up to the shoulder, and the one on the back, when fully unzipped, caused the garment to come apart entirely into separate pieces.
This was clearly a garment with a specific purpose, and Baek Hyunwoo knew what that kind of clothing was generally used for.
“Not something you’d expect to find in a place like this.”
Still, it was probably worth keeping in mind just in case. He committed everything to memory — the texture of the fabric, the stitching, the shape of the zippers, the faint and peculiar scent that clung to the cloth — and only then made his way back to the hospital.
Crash——!
Just as he stepped into the lobby and shrugged off his raincoat, a sound like it could tear the eardrums erupted from the sky. Raining this hard — is a late typhoon on the way?
……Or perhaps it is Mother’s will.
Baek Hyunwoo looked up at the sky with a slight frown. The wind had taken on an ominous edge.
Leaving tomorrow would have to be put on hold. A typhoon or a tidal wave posed no threat to Baek Hyunwoo himself — but the youngest, fragile as he was, could catch a cold from the slightest dampness.
Then I suppose we’ll just have to spend our time alone together in a closed space. Baek Hyunwoo shook the rain lightly from his hair and made his way down the corridor toward the hospital room where Baek Sihyeon would be waiting, humming softly to himself.
