“Hmm, I thought I’d managed to calm him down pretty well…… Why is our youngest in such a sour mood?”
If there was one thing Baek Sihyeon didn’t know, it was that Baek Hyunwoo was not human — and that as long as his threads were connected somewhere, no matter how far away, he could see everything happening within that space as clearly as if he were standing right beside it.
“It can’t be just because I rubbed his lips a little…… Is he still feeling anxious?”
Baek Hyunwoo tilted his head with an exaggerated air of puzzlement, arms folded across his chest. He’d been watching the youngest since he was little, but even so, just when he thought he had a read on him, the boy became impossible to figure out again. Maybe it’s because he’s human.
“What do you think? Hm? You used to be human, so you should know.”
He spoke in a casually comfortable tone, as if consulting a friend about a personal problem — yet the figure his gaze had settled upon was in a rather wretched state. Wound tightly in pale, hazy threads and suspended upside down was a zombie with nothing left but its head. To be precise, everything below the head had been stripped clean — flesh and organs peeled away until only bone remained.
“It’s fine that he relies on me out of anxiety, but…… I’m worried he’ll stress himself sick over it. That’s not something medicine can fix either…… And if I try to knead his mind directly, I’m afraid of losing control and driving him mad.”
“Gh-kk…… Ghkrrk……”
At his murmuring, the zombie repeatedly opened and closed its slack mouth, but it was in no state to offer a response — it couldn’t even produce a proper sound. Baek Hyunwoo let out a long, theatrically exaggerated sigh and tilted his head to one side.
“Right. What am I even saying to a corpse.”
The moment he gave a casual flick of his hand, as if shooing away a fly, the zombie’s head popped lightly apart. It split open like a watermelon, flashing red inside, and from within the shattered fragments, bugs the size of thumbs came crawling out — their appearance rather peculiar.
At first glance, one might mistake them for spiders. But unlike ordinary spiders, their color was pitch black, and scattered across their backs were numerous large, red eyes. Where a head would normally be, a rounded bundle of writhing tentacles took its place instead.
That wasn’t all — their long, pointed legs had multiple joints, and from each segment, irregularly shaped protrusions and hook-like appendages repeatedly extended and retracted.
They scurried rapidly up Baek Hyunwoo’s body and burrowed into his mouth and ears. Some among them tried to crawl into his eyes, only to be caught in his hand and rolled around like toys.
“What on earth makes them tick, I wonder.”
No matter what was done to them, they wouldn’t die unless their heads were burst. This was a phenomenon that, frankly, even Baek Hyunwoo found baffling.
“What a headache.”
Zombies, of all things — this was something even Baek Hyunwoo hadn’t imagined. Of course, he too had posed as a human and consumed all manner of media. He’d watched the ones featuring monsters and ghosts with genuine interest, impressed by how plausible they managed to make it all feel — but whenever zombies showed up, all he could do was marvel at human imagination.
Which was just another way of saying how utterly absurd this situation was. Even for someone who wasn’t human, it was the sort of thing you’d laugh off as impossible — yet here it was, happening for real. How bewildering.
“I wish the kids would figure out the cause soon.”
Tsk. Baek Hyunwoo clicked his tongue and repeatedly tossed and caught the bug that had been getting thoroughly squashed in his hand. The creature kicked its legs frantically in protest and let out pitiful little whines, but he paid it no mind and opened his mouth.
“Alright, everyone. Let’s wrap this up before sunrise.”
I can’t win against my little brother’s stubbornness.
He added that, gave a wave of his hand — and soon, bugs came crawling out from the shadows and spread swiftly to every corner of the village.
While his bugs industriously made their rounds through the village collecting information, the first place Baek Hyunwoo stepped into was a clothing store.
It had occurred to him that, with the weather growing colder by the day, it would be wise to stock up on warm clothes in advance. Making clothes wasn’t a difficult task for him — but he wasn’t about to waste any of this precious time alone with just the two of them on something like that.
“This one’s no good, this one’s no good either, hmm…… This one’s not bad.”
But that didn’t mean he could just grab anything at random, so Baek Hyunwoo, browsing with the thoroughness of someone actually out shopping, set aside only a few pieces they’d need to wear right away and loaded everything else into a bag, which he set down on the floor.
“Take it away.”
The moment the order was given, a bug that had been crouching beneath the counter came lumbering over. It looked similar to the bugs that had fanned out across the village, but with a few differences — it had several more eyes, its entire body gleamed with a slick, oiled sheen, and it was roughly the size of a large dog.
The creature climbed on top of the bag, gripped it firmly with two of its legs, and exited the store with a rhythmic clatter-clatter of footsteps. It vanished from sight in the span of a few blinks, but Baek Hyunwoo paid it no attention and moved on.
The second stop was a supermarket, and the third was a bookstore. At the supermarket, nearly thirty bugs were deployed. The ones that had been working silently at first were giving him are you serious? looks by the time Baek Hyunwoo set down his fortieth load.
“Can’t be helped. Everyday essentials are important to humans.”
Saying that, he also collected dishes of every variety, which left them no time to grumble — they just had to keep moving. The silver lining was that what he picked up at the bookstore wasn’t books but a diffuser sold exclusively there. He scattered information the bugs would have very much preferred not to know — namely, that Baek Sihyeon was particularly fond of this scent — and was just stepping out of the bookstore when—
“Hm? I smell a human.”
By now there shouldn’t have been any living people left in the village. Baek Hyunwoo stroked his chin and looked down at the bugs. He silently chided them for not having searched more carefully, and they blinked the eyes on their backs rapidly, looking just as baffled as he was.
“Right, I’ll just go check myself.”
If someone had stayed completely still in one spot the whole time, it would have been easy enough to miss them. Just how cowardly did a person have to be to finally start moving now? As long as they’re not too noisy, he thought — and the place where Baek Hyunwoo’s feet came to a stop as he followed the human scent was a flower shop.
Crouched among various flowers and plants was a woman who appeared to be the shop owner. Having stayed completely still among the fairly strong-scented flowers, the zombies had apparently failed to notice her. The scent leaking out now was most likely due to her opening the door and looking around.
“Hmm.”
Flowers, huh……
The human mind is fragile — it gets stressed from moving around too much, and equally from not moving at all. In Baek Sihyeon’s case, compared to other humans he preferred staying in one place for long stretches of time, but that didn’t mean he never went outside. Didn’t he insist on strolling through the garden at least once a day, saying he needed to get some sunlight?
Come to think of it, the home they’d had was luxurious, yet it had a quietly barren quality to it somewhere. So their new home would need a space where his little brother could refresh himself. To think I only just remembered this now — Baek Hyunwoo muttered that he was hardly fit to be a guardian, and stepped inside the shop.
Jingle. The moment the cheerful bell rang, the owner gasped loudly and clapped a hand over her mouth. The shadow seeping out from behind a large planter was trembling so pitifully that Baek Hyunwoo didn’t approach too hastily, and instead spoke in as gentle a voice as he could manage.
“Excuse me, I was hoping to ask you something.”
The planter lurched with a thunk and tilted to the side — she’d been that startled. The woman hurriedly caught the tipping planter and slowly peeked her head out. She’d been so frightened that her face and eyes were both dreadfully swollen from crying.
“A-a person?”
“Yes, a person.”
She stared up at Baek Hyunwoo with a dazed expression, then looked around. Had she been having a terrible nightmare? Had she been hallucinating……? But she quickly realized she’d been clinging to a false hope, and her face crumpled — then she flinched and looked back at Baek Hyunwoo.
The way she edged backward made it clear she had no intention of welcoming him simply because they were the same species.
“How did you……”
“I happened to pass by and stopped in. By any chance, are you good with growing plants too?”
“I — pardon?”
“They don’t need to be enormous. Something like a flowerbed, or a walkway garden.”
Speaking so naturally, just like a customer who’d wandered in off the street, the woman stopped mid-wariness and nodded with a bewildered look.
“That wouldn’t be difficult, but why……”
“Ah, I see. May I ask your name?”
“……Kim Hee — Kim Heeyeon.”
“Wonderful. Kim Heeyeon, I look forward to working with you.”
“I — pardon? What do you meaaa — AAAGH! A m-monster!”
Before she could even process the conversation that had left her utterly lost, it was over in an instant. With a heavy thud, something dropped from the ceiling — a massive creature that looked strikingly like a giant spider.
Of all things why did it have to be spiders 😭