“Just being treated this well is more than enough to be grateful for.”
I said that and stepped toward the table. I shot Baek Hyunwoo a look that said ease up, you’ll regret this later — though whether he caught it, I wasn’t sure.
“I’ve been waiting for so long. I kept thinking about what I’d say when I met someone, what I could do to make them happy……”
“Hey.”
“Ahaha, too much talking, right? Please just think of it as me being excited to see people. Come on, come on, you must be hungry — eat up.”
Moon Seyoung had apparently been completely alone since the zombie outbreak started. Watching her welcome people with this much warmth made me feel something heavy in my chest. I’d only been alone for a few hours after it all began, and even that had felt bleak and suffocating — I couldn’t begin to imagine what it had been like for her.
Moon Seyoung said it was worth spending two full days cleaning, and waved for us to hurry up and eat. I couldn’t even begin to guess what state of mind she’d been in while cleaning all that time. But instead of asking, I picked up my spoon right away and helped myself to the seaweed soup first. Mm. The taste of mass production.
“It’s delicious.”
“Really? I’m so glad. Hyunwoo, hurry and eat too.”
Hyunwoo, she said!
The familiar, casual way she’d addressed him caught me off guard, and I bit down on the inside of my cheek to keep my expression straight, pretending to focus on eating while sneaking glances at the two of them. Moon Seyoung was smiling warmly — but Baek Hyunwoo didn’t say a word in response and simply placed side dishes on top of my rice.
“By the way, how old is everyone?”
“I’m twenty, and hyung is thirty-seven. And you, Seyoung — um, Seyoung?”
Moon Seyoung came back with fruit just as we were finishing our meal and I’d set down my spoon. Her apple-peeling was less peeling and more something approaching a massacre of the flesh, so Baek Hyunwoo, looking like the sight of it personally offended him, took the knife and started peeling the apple himself.
“I’m twenty-seven.”
“Two thousand seven hundred, more like. Twenty-seven — right.”
I knew he’d keep acting like this until he became aware of his own feelings toward Moon Seyoung, but it was still jarring. Was he always this petty about it? He’s not in elementary school…… I made a mental note to bring it up with him when we had a moment alone, and quickly steered the conversation along.
“Then would it be alright if I called you noona?”
“Of course! Let’s all just speak casually with each other. And would it be okay if I called you oppa?”
In the original, it had taken quite a while before she called him that — was this what they meant by the power of circumstance? I bit the tip of my tongue lightly and accepted a piece of apple from hyung with a flutter of anticipation.
Crunch. The crisp bite of apple was the only sound filling the dining area. Baek Hyunwoo kept peeling without a word in response — a blunt, deliberate silence — but Moon Seyoung paid it no mind and simply declared, “That’s what I’ll do then!” and decided for herself. If it had been me, I’d have read the room and apologized by now — the female lead really is something else.
“Please don’t call me that. I don’t like it.”
“So, noona — are you planning to stay here long-term?”
Hyung’s reply dropped out flat and blunt, and I quickly changed the subject. Why is he being like this, seriously!
“Do you happen to know where everyone evacuated to…… did you hear any broadcasts or anything like that?”
That aside, now that we’d met someone, we needed to gather some information. Moon Seyoung had only been here for two days herself, and when she’d encountered us, she seemed to find it genuinely surprising that there were people here. Which meant she had already expected the city to be empty to some degree — so she probably knew more about the situation than we did.
“Right after the zombies appeared, there was a broadcast telling everyone to evacuate toward the southern coast. They probably sent military units to areas without outbreaks first and got people out from there.”
That was practically the same as saying the government had known in advance. They’d said it all happened simultaneously and in an instant…… was that even possible?
“So is the southern coast safe?”
“Not particularly, I’d say. Mm, from what I heard, the important people are —”
“Moon Seyoung.”
Of all the moments, Baek Hyunwoo cut her off right then. What now? I turned to him with a puzzled look, and he rose from his seat with a rigid expression and said:
“Let’s talk for a moment.”
“Why? Is it something I shouldn’t hear?”
He’d said he didn’t know how things had come to this — but apparently that wasn’t it. He’d just wanted me not to know. Wow, that stings. Even so, I wasn’t at the point of getting angry at Baek Hyunwoo or demanding he say it here with me present — so I let myself look a little put out, and left it at that.
Partly because I knew that even if I did find out, all I was capable of was worrying, more worrying, and trembling with fear. And even setting that aside, he’d have his reasons. I trust my hyung.
Baek Hyunwoo ruffled my hair once and left the dining area with Moon Seyoung. Whether he thought I’d try to eavesdrop without meaning to — or did intend to — he walked all the way over to where the massage chairs were before they started talking.
Crunch. I took another bite of apple, stood up, and began slowly tidying the table. Should I do the dishes? Probably better to. Honestly, part of me wanted to ask Moon Seyoung if we could travel together — but since I didn’t know how things would go, I decided for now to at least clean up her space.
I wiped down the table and collected the scattered rubbish from around the kitchen. I broke one dish during the washing up, but managed to finish the rest completely. I smiled to myself with quiet satisfaction and put my hands on my hips, then glanced outside again. Whatever they had to say to each other, the two of them were still talking.
Even Moon Seyoung’s perpetual smile had stiffened slightly — so it was probably something fairly serious. Either that, or Baek Hyunwoo had gotten under her skin again with something unreasonable. I knew the distance meant I wouldn’t hear anything even if I went out, but just in case it made them uneasy, I sat back down at the table.
“…….”
Sitting here like this, it really does feel like we’ve rented out a jjimjilbang all to ourselves. It would’ve been even better if my second and third hyungs were here too. What were those two doing right now? Hyung had said they were fine, so they were fine — that was that. Maybe they’d already reached the destination and were waiting for us.
I hadn’t seen it myself, but my oldest hyung had taken out zombies in an instant, and Moon Seyoung had been going around caving in zombie skulls with a single hammer like she was splitting watermelons — so those two probably had more than enough strength to do the same.
“……I miss my hyungs.”
Even with Baek Hyunwoo here so I wasn’t lonely, the absence of family I’d always had around me was impossible not to feel. Having a proper bath and a real meal only made it more so. They weren’t in some terrible situation — surely not. I hoped those two were doing everything they needed to do along the way. Better yet, I hoped they were taking it easy and enjoying themselves.
Thud.
I was sitting there thinking that when something dropped onto my head without warning. What? The moment I straightened up in puzzlement, I couldn’t help but startle.
What had fallen from the ceiling was a spider roughly the size of a palm. More precisely — it was a monster that resembled a spider. Several things that looked like eyes were embedded across its back, and at every joint of every leg, holes opened and closed in a rhythmic, breathing-like motion.
Where a face might have been, a cluster of tentacles writhed and wriggled — and every time the creature stumbled backward in what looked like confusion, it let out an adorable little squeaking sound.
“……You!”
Squeak!
I reached out quickly and grabbed it, and a cute little noise escaped it. It wriggled its legs frantically as if desperate to get away, but I didn’t let go — instead, I pushed a finger into the cluster of tentacles. I must have pushed too deep, because a strangled ack! burst from somewhere inside.
The eyes on its back went pitch black and started rolling around. I knew that was what it did when it was unhappy.
“Sorry.”
I quickly apologized and pulled my finger back a little, and at the tip I felt something like blunt little teeth. The lips that had been pressed shut slowly parted. There was no mistaking it. This creature resembled a monster I had met in my past life.
“Arachne?”
I knew it was impossible, but I called the monster’s name just in case. Technically it was less a name and more an experimental designation, but we’d used it as a name regardless — so if this really was Arachne, it would react.
“I’m C11-404…… the heterogeneous synchronization specimen, I mean. Type 11, experiment number 404.”
I explained in detail just in case, but the creature clearly had no idea what I was talking about and simply made a gesture that said let go of me. Right, there was no way it could be that monster…… But then why was there a monster that looked so much like it? Did it have some ability to cross dimensions? That didn’t make sense. If it did, it would have escaped long ago. Then what? Could it possibly be its offspring? That didn’t hold up either. Even if that were the case, it would still need to have crossed into this novel somehow……
“……Is it just a lookalike?”
I didn’t want to accept it, but it was the most realistic answer. And looking more closely, the finer details were different. Arachne had been a bit blacker, smoother — everyone said it was revolting, but to me it had been beautiful. Its eyes had sparkled like gemstones, and its tentacles had a lustrous sheen and were soft to the touch. This one, by contrast, looked a bit…… rough around the edges.
So it’s not Arachne…….
I swallowed my disappointment and let the creature go. It scrubbed the spot where my hand had been with its tentacles as if wiping away the contamination, then cried out in a series of indignant squeaks, as if lodging a formal complaint. That alone confirmed it — definitely not Arachne. That one used to cling to me more and more the longer I touched it. There had been more than one occasion where I’d nearly been crushed to death by it.
