Chapter 7
“….I thought it would be warmer to wear it.”
“I don’t think so. It would be better to lay the padding down to block the cold air—”
“I said it’s fine!”
When Park Ji-in snapped irritably,Glasses Guy who had been speaking in a know-it-all tone turned his head away, grumbling awkwardly.
“Are you really okay, Ji-in? Can you sleep on the bare floor? How will my daughter manage…”
“Mm-hmm. It’s fine since I’m not the only one struggling.”
Park Ji-in said, still unable to stop glancing at Baek Yi-heon.
I turned my gaze away from that sight and went to the corner of the room, curling up to lie down.
The kerosene lamp’s light fills the room with a yellow glow. Silence has fallen in the air-raid shelter.
Lying on the cold, bare floor, I couldn’t fall asleep and became lost in thought.
‘As expected, going to the shelter is the best option.’
In fact, there were other choices.
The novel mentions a final survivor camp that survives until the apocalypse, and I know its location too.
But after experiencing just one day in this ruined world, my thoughts became even more firm.
‘I don’t want to mingle with other humans.’
Even the people gathered in this small air-raid shelter whispered about me, calling me the daughter of a murderer.
There are even vile humans who covet my body just because I’m a young woman.
‘I’d rather just go to the shelter and live alone until the world ends, then die.’
Besides, the world isn’t ending right away.
It takes 10 years from the Gate Outbreak for the protagonist to fail in their adventure.
So what will I do after hiding for 10 years?
‘I’ll just die, I guess…’
In the days when there was no hope, not even the hope of apocalypse, I wanted to die right away.
So being able to enjoy 10 years of solitary life without humans in a world destined for destruction was rather a luxury.
The problem was how to get there alone, without others knowing…
For me, who had read the novel, figuring out that method was a piece of cake.
It was the sweet item that the protagonist obtained about halfway through the novel.
The Wave Interference Device!
That item was a kind of ‘monster repellent’ that generates waves to cancel out the life energy emitted by humans.
With this, most low-level monsters would fail to detect humans and just pass by.
I remember it was invented at the final survivor camp.
‘If I can just safely reach the camp using the protagonist, after that, I’ll get the item and run away.’
Until then, if I pretend to be nice and pitiful while sticking close, that goody-two-shoes male lead won’t even think to suspect me.
As I was hatching such a devious plan, suddenly, the man’s voice I heard today flashed through my mind.
“I don’t care whose daughter you are.”
…Why have I been like this since earlier?
Let’s forget it.
Focus only on surviving.
Look at my situation now. How miserable is it that I have to sleep on the bare floor?
Aside from the hardness, the rising chill makes it impossible to sleep soundly.
‘Damn. My sleeping bag. I bought that for quite a bit of money at Cou…’
Just as I was groaning and curling up as much as possible to block the cold.
Thud—.
Something fell on top of my body.
When I raised my head, Baek Yi-heon had taken off the cardigan he was wearing and was now in a white T-shirt.
It was just a plain white T-shirt, but somehow he looked even more handsome than when he was fully dressed earlier.
“What’s this?”
Baek Yi-heon didn’t answer my question, just closing his eyes and leaning against the wall.
It seemed he intended to spend the night like that.
I didn’t particularly refuse his kindness and spread out the cardigan on the floor to lie on top of it.
Thanks to him being much bigger than me, the cardigan served quite well as a blanket.
With even a little of the cold blocked, it was much more bearable.
As I rubbed my face against the soft cardigan, feeling better, I could see Park Ji-in in the distance, tightly held in her mother’s arms, glaring at me with an envious expression.
‘Why is she acting like that?’
I think being held by her mother would be better than something like a cardigan.
…Of course, because it’s warmer.
A person’s warmth would be warmer than a single layer of clothing.
Just because of that. It’s not like I’m particularly envious or anything.
Quickly turning my gaze away from them, I lay down and looked up at Baek Yi-heon with just my eyes.
‘His eyelashes are long too.’
Sitting there quietly with his mouth shut, he looked just like a statue rather than a person.
‘He must be quite cold…’
Before his awakening, he was still just a human with slightly superior physical abilities.
Watching him sleep against the cold wall wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt, my heart strangely began to ache.
It felt as if a small bird had come and was pecking at my heart with its beak.
‘Go away.’
In this ruined world, it’s better for my heart to remain as hard as it is now.
I chased that little bird far, far away.
With my face buried in the cardigan that carried a person’s scent, sleep overcame me even in this situation.
I soon fell into the depths of slumber that engulfed me.
✦
“Have you ever seen your father hurting small animals, like cats?”
At that time, I was seven years old, sitting in a police station interrogation room.
I thought the police officers were asking such strange questions.
I sat in the chair, swinging my short legs that didn’t reach the floor, and answered while sipping the ice cream they had given me.
“No. We’ve never had pets. Mom doesn’t like fur flying around. Dad, umm, I don’t think he disliked cats.”
“He never hit you?”
“No. Dad is nice. He always treats me well.”
“What kind of person was your dad usually?”
“All the neighborhood ladies liked Dad. They said he was handsome.”
However, the police, the profiler, and the reporters from various newspapers all seemed disappointed with my answers.
They probably expected answers like ‘a notorious killer’ or ‘a cold-hearted psychopath’.
My father was a serial killer.
Not just a murderer, but one who committed crimes in a horrific manner, supposedly under the influence of some cult.
The media went into a frenzy over the cruelty and bizarreness of it all, and Mom practically lived at the police station for a while for questioning.
Even I, at seven years old, was called to the police station and asked various questions.
But Dad, or rather that man, was really quite ordinary.
Of course, I don’t remember exactly since I never saw him after I turned seven.
That man was sentenced to life in prison, and Mom never once visited him there.
She forbade me from visiting him too.
Whisper, whisper.
After Dad was gone, all the neighborhood people looked at us with contemptuous eyes. Behind our backs, they whispered, wondering if we really didn’t know.
Mom left the neighborhood we lived in as if running away, and remarried three years later.
It was to an older man who had a daughter my age.
Soon after Mom remarried, a half-sibling ten years younger than me was born to Mom and my new dad.
I thought only happiness awaited us now. Even though Dad was gone, I had gained three new family members.
However, my misfortune was just beginning.
“You’re just a victim.”
My new dad always told Mom that.
“How could you have known what that man was doing outside? A modest woman like you who only knows how to do housework.”
“Y-yes…”
“But, that child…”
My new dad’s contemptuous gaze fell on me.
“She’s the offspring with that psychopathic killer’s blood mixed in.”
Mom just kept her mouth shut without saying anything.
She just pretended not to notice my new dad’s cruel words, my new sister’s snickering laughter.
I guess she wanted to protect her newly gained family.
At first, I tried to understand Mom.
Mom found it harder to bear people’s whispers than the man’s crimes.
So probably, she couldn’t accept a second divorce at all.
That’s why. Yes.
“Kyaaaaa! Mom!”
My new sister, Ji-in, cried out loudly, calling for Mom.
“Ji-in! What’s wrong!”
Mom, wearing an apron, hurriedly ran to the playroom where we were.
“Waaah! Noah! Noah tried to stab me with that knife!”
Ji-in ran into Mom’s arms, crying with fake tears.
I was holding a small fruit knife in my hand.
It was the knife Ji-in had brought from the kitchen, saying she wanted to eat an apple and asking me to peel it.
I pointed at the half-peeled apple and stammered:
“No, I was just, the apple…”
But I couldn’t finish my sentence.
Because of that look in Mom’s eyes as she looked at me.
It was the same look Mom had when she saw Dad on the news.
Cold contempt and fear.
✦
Thank you for reading! ♡
