[Do-yoon’s POV]
Episode 17
The world collapsed. Everything collapsed. The once peaceful street was suddenly in chaos, filled with confusion and noise. From what I could gather, zombies had appeared.
“Zombies? Are they shooting a movie nearby…?”
At first, I didn’t take it seriously. But the moment I saw a person being ripped apart and eaten alive by another right in front of me, I realized it was real. After that, I ran like a madman, mixed in with the crowd of people.
I didn’t know where I was going; I just ran, looking ahead. The place I ended up at was my alma mater, Seongwol High School. I couldn’t believe the place I had ended up after running away was a school. I should have gone back home instead…. Even though I blamed myself, it was already too difficult to turn back, so I had no choice but to go in. As I approached the main entrance, however, I saw someone standing there. I wondered what they were doing standing like that in such a situation here, and was about to say something to them when something strange appeared before my eyes.
「Stage 1. School」
「Congratulations on entering the first stage!」
“What the hell is this…?”
I stared at the opaque blue screen that appeared before me with a bewildered face and cautiously reached out to touch it. Then, I felt a strange sensation as my hand passed through it. I wondered if it was a hologram, then questioned how such a thing could be possible.
But that was only for a moment. Remembering that I was being chased by zombies, I decided to go inside the school for now. As I did, I also tried to speak to the person standing in front of me.
“Huh…?”
The moment I saw the girl’s face as she turned around, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if I had met her somewhere before. I became more certain of this feeling the more we talked, but no matter how hard I thought about it, she wasn’t someone I knew. I decided to think about it more later and grabbed her arm, pulling her along as I ran into the building.
***
“Hyung! I never thought we’d see you here! I thought you wouldn’t come back after graduation.”
“Yeah, I never thought I’d be back either, but here I am.”
As I watched the girl leave, leaving behind words I couldn’t understand, I recognized familiar faces coming down the stairs. My tension eased slightly, and a faint smile made its way onto my mouth.
“Do-yoon hyung, what’s the situation outside? Are those zombies for real?”
“Of course they’re fake, you idiot. Right, oppa1*[term for ‘brother’ that females usually use for their real brothers or older boyfriends]? They’re all actors dressed up, aren’t they?”
“No, they’re not. I saw them – people tearing each other apart, blood and all.”
Before I knew it, they had left me out of the conversation and started arguing noisily among themselves about who was right and who was wrong. Just as I was about to speak up to sort out this chaotic situation, a scream came from the upper floor. Then, not only me, but the other kids also turned their attention to the top of the stairs.
“Who screamed?”
“Isn’t it just the others playing around?”
Although we tried to brush it off as nothing serious and move on, the screams didn’t stop there.
“Ahhh! Help me! Why are you doing thi…. AAGH!”
“Kyaaa!”
“Are you crazy? Why are you doing this?”
The screams of people coming from all over made us realize that something had happened, and we all went up to the upper floor together. There, I found the same situation that I’d seen on the street unfolding.
***
“Hyung! Help me. I wasn’t bitten. I really wasn’t bitten, okay? Look, look, I’m fine.”
“Lift up your other arm’s sleeve.”
“…Shit. Are you suspecting me now?”
Seeing him growl as if he were ready to pounce on me at any moment, I steeled my resolve.
“So you’re going to kill me? You murderer bastard. Are you going to kill me too?!”
He lunged at me, unable to contain his anger, and I eventually swung what I had in my hand at him.
“Kuh-eok! Shit….”
Blood streaming from his head, he stumbled and then collapsed with a thud.
“Crazy murderer bastard…. Tch, you’re not even human…. Monster of a guy. Kuhk….”
Until the very end, he glared at me with eyes filled with resentment, and then he died, just like that.
“….”
I stared blankly at his dead body with unfocused eyes. Where did it all start to go wrong? Why did it end up like this? Yes, I was crazy. I was a murderer and monster who killed people just like he said. Why on earth..
Would things have turned out differently if I hadn’t been with them? If they hadn’t betrayed me from the start, if I had acted like an adult and proposed to lead them, would things have been different? Whenever I lost myself in my regrets, I found myself back in the past each time I came to my senses.
I didn’t know why I had this ability, but it was a curse, not a blessing. It slowly trapped me into a hole without me realizing it. I thought I could save them, but no matter how many times I repeated it, nothing changed. Instead, as I experienced betrayal and death at their hands again and again, I gradually became skeptical. Were they really my friends? Until just a few days ago, we were close at school, calling each other hyung and dongsaeng2* [word for lil brother, for younger friends]. How could this happen? Was it even right to save them?
“….”
I looked down at the cold, stiff corpse that was beginning to twitch little by little. Look, you were bitten after all. It soon sprang up, screaming like a monster and charging at me. I watched it with an indifferent gaze and mechanically swung my weapon.
“Khaak! Kuhk….”
Perhaps because I had already crushed its head once, the second time it completely shattered and lost all form. After confirming it was truly dead, I turned away without any attachment and left the place. They were doomed to die anyway. If they were going to die no matter how hard I tried to save them, it was better that they died in my hands. Wasn’t it better to die quickly and painlessly than to be tormented and ripped apart by zombies? In the end, I decided to give up on them.
***
“You! Are you crazy?! Do you know who that thing is to attack it!”
Suddenly, an unexpected force pulled me from behind, and I fell backward. I was sure there weren’t any other survivors left. There shouldn’t have been. I turned around to see who had grabbed me, and there she was.
Ah, that’s right. There was still one left. Someone I hadn’t met during the numerous regressions. It was only natural since the starting point of each regression was after parting with her. It was a bit odd that we had never met within the school, which wasn’t particularly large or small, but I decided to let it go for now.
“Get up. Let’s go somewhere else. It’s fortunate I found you before you entered that guy’s attack range; you almost died.”
“Who are you to interfere? Mind your own business.”
“You….”
She had never appeared until now, and now that she had, she was getting on my nerves. I hadn’t asked for her help. Irritated by her meddling, I snapped back sharply, and her eyes widened as if in surprise, and she struggled to continue. Her reaction was somewhat satisfying, and I shook off her hand, stood up, and prepared to move forward again.
“…Must you really go that way? If you have to go to the new building, let’s go around outside.”
I thought that would be enough to shake her off, but she didn’t seem to care and grabbed me again. Her persistence annoyed me and tried to shake her off again, but this time she held on tightly with both hands, as if she wouldn’t let go no matter what. Her behavior made me laugh hollowly.
“You’re going to the new building, aren’t you? Then let’s go together.”
“Who are you to act so familiar? Stop being a nuisance and leave while I’m being nice.”
“I don’t want to. I won’t go by myself. Do you even know what you look like right now? You have no life in your eyes, just like those zombies. You don’t look like a living person at all.”
The moment I heard those words, I felt a surge of anger.
“What do you know about me to talk like that? Are you looking for a fight?”
“I know. I know you very well.”
“You know? Don’t spout nonsense. Don’t speak so carelessly with your sharp tongue when you don’t know what I’ve been through.”
She kept pretending to know everything. As my mood worsened, I roughly grabbed her wrist and forced it off my arm. I pushed her away with intentional force, and she winced in pain, letting out a small groan. It was amusing to see her cling so desperately despite her weakness.
After leaving her on the floor, I moved forward and quickly entered the creature’s attack range. Me, dying at the hands of such a thing? There was no way I’d fall to such a weakling. I easily dodged the acid it spat out and ran forward. After getting close, I swung the weapon I was carrying. It died after only three or four attacks.
I turned around to show off and found her sitting on the floor. She stared blankly at the dead creature before shifting her gaze to look up at me. Surely, she wouldn’t bother me anymore after this. I shook the blood off my weapon and prepared to head towards the new building.
“The smell of blood… I can smell it…”
If only I hadn’t heard that unpleasant sound. I quickly turned my gaze in the direction of the noise. Although it was obscured by the wall and not clearly visible, it seemed to be coming from the corridor of the main building. Judging by the mention of the smell of blood, it was undoubtedly a variant zombie specialized in smell. They were notoriously tough and difficult to deal with.
Just as I was about to flee towards the new building, my eyes met hers as she was still sitting on the ground. If she just kept staying there, she’d die…. But it was none of my business. As I thought about turning away, I suddenly saw her get up and head towards the corridor. Was that woman crazy? There were obviously zombies there, and she was heading that way?
“You, run away!”
That’s when I heard her voice shouting at me.
Huh?
“I’ve done that guy in before, so this is a piece of cake for me. So you should run away in the meantime.”
With that, she completely disappeared. That woman has been interfering and clinging to me since earlier…. And now it seemed she wanted to die. ‘Piece of cake’, she said—I didn’t understand why she was so insistent on helping me even though she didn’t know me well. Anyway, she brought it onto herself, so I decided to leave without hesitation. I was determined to do so, but for some reason, my feet wouldn’t move.
Then, I heard the sound of glass shattering, followed by the heavy thud of something falling. What was that? My body reacted before my mind, and I ran towards the corridor. Neither she nor the variant zombie was in sight. Could she have jumped out? A sense of foreboding made my hair stand on end, but then I saw a small hand through the broken window.
“Ha, this is ridiculous.”
I chuckled in vain and ran to grab her arm. Perhaps she’d lost the strength in her arms, but she let go of the window frame, and suddenly, my upper body was pulled down in an instant.
“Idiot. Let go of me. I’ve got a cushion down there anyway, so it’s okay if I fall.”
What kind of thing was that to say to someone trying to help? Wondering what the “cushion” was, I looked down to see the variant zombie lying there. However, it didn’t seem to be dead; it was struggling to get up.
“Are you crazy? Is that a cushion?”
“Isn’t it big enough to be a cushion?”
“You’re really crazy.”
I couldn’t even laugh anymore. I thought about just letting go, but I saw the red marks on her wrist where the skin was exposed. It looked like they’d just formed. They would probably turn blue soon…. Ah, damn it. That’s where I grabbed her earlier. I couldn’t possibly let go after seeing that.
“Let go of my hand! You’ll fall off too if you keep this up!”
“Ah, come on! Stop struggling and just stay still!”
In the end, I pulled her up with all my might and saved her. As a result, I was too exhausted and ended up lying down on the floor.
***
“How long are you going to keep following me?”
“Do you not like me following you?”
“Yes, I don’t. You’re nothing but a burden; there’s no way I’d like it.”
I regretted saving her. As I dealt with the zombies in front of me, I vowed that if I could go back to that moment, I would never save her again. Meanwhile, she followed me by the ears and handled the pesky little ones that bothered me. And if I got even a little hurt, she would take out some medicine from God knows where and treat me.
“Am I really just a burden? I’m still doing my part.”
“You’re noisy.”
No matter how harsh my words or how much irritation I showed, she never complained and continued to follow me. Although we had only been together for a day, her presence became strangely more and more natural. The attention, affection, and warm care she gave me were too good.
However, only negative words came out of my mouth instead of good ones. I never agreed with her ideas. It was because I thought she would stay by my side no matter how I treated her. It was a silly thought that would soon be shattered.
Wow, I hadn’t expected for us to peek into Do-yoon’s pov so early, but I do like this. I feel so bad for him, but also, love that Han Jia has been a little unhinged badass since the beginning.
