Episode 25
I tried to comfort her with various words, but it only seemed to encourage her crying. It felt like it would be better to just keep my mouth shut, so I quietly went to her side and rubbed her back.
Why was she suddenly crying? Was she that hungry? Did the food she had hidden run out a while ago? Maybe she’d been starving for a day or two….
“Sniff… I’m sorry…”
“It’s okay. More importantly, are you alright?”
“I-I’m fine… Sniff.”
…she did not look fine at all.
I continued to rub her back to imply it was okay to cry more, and perhaps because of the comfort, she burst into tears. Do-yoon and I could only wait for her to regain her composure in this awkward situation. After a while, she seemed to have cried enough and raised her head, sniffling quietly.
“I’m so sorry. To show such a disgraceful sight in front of people I just met…”
“It happens.”
“Actually… I don’t know why I cried. I just… suddenly started crying…”
“You must have been through a lot. Given the situation, it’s possible that it all built up and led to this.”
“….”
Honestly, I never thought it would turn out like this. My plan was to first meet her, listen to the situation here and her circumstances, and then help her seek revenge while we looted the food. After she felt grateful for our help, I intended to invite her to come with us to the next stage, but…
“….”
“….”
“….”
Suddenly, it turned into a flood of tears, and the atmosphere completely changed. From her perspective, she would be too embarrassed to say anything after crying in front of strangers, and from my perspective, it was inappropriate to casually ask about someone’s personal affairs. And Do-yoon… he just didn’t like the situation itself. He didn’t want to come to the second floor in the first place, but he came because of me….
Ha, damn it. Should we retreat for now? After shedding a flood of tears, she’d need time to settle down. So wouldn’t it be right for Do-yoon and me to leave her alone?
“Excuse me… we’ll be going now…”
“Yes, it has been hard. It’s so hard that I want to die.”
The moment I tried to subtly leave, she launched into her story without waiting for me to ask.
“I don’t know what to do anymore. Every day is just torture.”
“I, I see.”
I hadn’t even asked her anything, she began to speak on her own.
“Zombies suddenly appeared, people are fighting each other to the death, I’m starving but there’s nothing to eat, and my younger brother… my little brother…!”
“Ms. Ga-eun, calm down. You’re a bit riled up…”
“How can I calm down? How! My little brother died because of those bastards!”
Her voice grew louder and louder, and by the end, she was shouting. Overwhelmed by her intensity, I couldn’t say anything and just froze.
“How can humans do that to each other? Are they even human? To use a kid as bait and throw him to the zombies because he’s younger than you!!”
I knew that the incident involving her younger sibling was a trauma for her. However, since she had spoken calmly about it in the game, I thought she would do the same this time, so I was taken aback by her inability to control her emotions.
What was I supposed to do in this situation…? It felt like I definitely learned about how to handle an excited client and how to continue the conversation calmly in class, but I couldn’t remember anything.
Damn it, I only learned theory in class and never did any practice, so how was I supposed to apply it right away in a real situation? I’d just entered university, so I was too busy drinking and partying with friends to study diligently.
“Sister, there’s a commotion outside.”
“Huh? Ah… shit.”
When I glanced outside the tent at his words, I saw people gathering in our direction. They were probably coming this way after hearing her voice.
“They’re all the same! All the same! I begged for help… I pleaded for them to save my brother, but they just watched! You monsters. What’s the difference between you and the zombies outside!”
Ah, this was driving me crazy. Seriously. She finally exploded and started cursing the people. The problem was that she was doing it in front of the very people she was cursing, and there were so many of them. The reason they hadn’t touched her until now was because of a minimal sense of conscience.
The last human conscience regarding the killing of a person, her younger brother. But even that was only to a certain extent; she occasionally lost control and caused indiscriminate chaos, and every time new survivors came, she interfered with their attempts to drive them away.
Moreover, they were aware that she was plotting revenge against them, making it hard for them to just leave her be.
“Do-yoon, try to stop Ms. Ga-eun.”
“What? No, noona!”
Ignoring him calling me, I stepped outside the tent. They were already annoyed with her for stopping them earlier. There was no way they would just stand by while she cursed them out so loudly. As far as I remembered, there was an event in the game where people drove her out. That could happen now if we were not careful.
“Why the long faces? Why are you all here?”
“Don’t play dumb. You must have heard everything from that girl!”
“Get out of the way if you don’t want to die!”
They were all holding threatening weapons they had gotten from somewhere in one hand. Their appearance made it clear they had come with serious intentions. Wow, Seo Ga-eun was as good at triggering events as Lee Do-yoon. It hadn’t been long since we met, and she was already causing such a big event….
“Damn it, I knew this would happen. We should have driven her out then! What the hell is so pitiful about her that we let her stay?!”
“Fuck, everyone agreed with that back then. You didn’t say anything either at that time!”
“That vicious girl has caused so much trouble the time she’s been here! Let’s just drive her out quickly!”
“Every time she looks at us, it’s with the venomous gaze of a thousand-year-old snake. It’s f*cking scary!”
“We should have driven her out together when we had the chance. Tsk.”
They spat at me and hurled insults. Even though I knew their words weren’t directed at me, hearing their raw, thorny words felt like I was being hurt.
“You’d better back off while we’re still talking nicely. If you don’t, you’ll end up like her!”
“Ha… just shut up.”
“What? What did you just say…?”
“Shut up, you trash. Are you still human beings? How can you be so brazen after killing someone?!”
I should have calmed down, but there was no way I could stay silent after hearing their words. In the first place, it was these bastards who made her that way, so I felt feverish with anger when they spewed nonsense like it wasn’t their fault with their gaping mouths.
“Can you be sane after your family died in front of you? You killed him, too. How can she not go crazy when the perpetrators are alive and well right in front of her!”
“We’re the perpetrators? What kind of nonsense is that!”
“Yeah, perpetrators… It wasn’t us who killed him. He got bitten by a zombie, and there was nothing we could do about it!”
“You couldn’t help it?”
I somehow managed to calm my body, which was trembling with anger, and uttered this.
“You’re not even human.”
“What?”
I clenched my fists as I met the eyes of each person standing among the crowd, watching us as if they were spectators.
“If you had helped back then, if you had stopped the zombies even a little, there might have been a way for that child to survive, right? Did you even consider that?”
“We were too busy trying to survive ourselves! How could we have the leisure to help anyone?”
“That’s right! And there’s no guarantee that he would have survived even if we had helped. There were so many zombies around him at that time. It’s not like dealing with one or two nearby zombies would have solved anything.”
“How can you be so sure? If you had created even the slightest gap for him to escape, he might have survived. You’re making assumptions without even trying and justifying your actions to yourself. It’s just an excuse.”
“We were hurt too, but we couldn’t help it! In such an uncertain situation, we had to ensure that those who could survive, did survive. Isn’t it obvious to sacrifice the few for the many?”
“Oh, really? So while listening to pleas for help, you felt relieved that you were alive? Were you afraid that the cries for help from the dying kid would attract more zombies? So instead of comforting Ms. Ga-eun, who lost her younger brother, you threatened her?”
No matter how understandable their position might be, I couldn’t forgive them. How could they be so cruel? Yes, he might have been bitten by a zombie, and there might have been nothing they could do. But they should have treated him like a human being. To tell a child dying from being eaten alive to go further away and die so he wouldn’t attract more zombies?
Even though it was just a fictional story within a game to me, it was still too disgusting. It felt like I was witnessing the depths of human depravity. That’s why I hated this stage so much.
“Noona!”
“…!”
“This person’s condition is really bad. She won’t listen to anything I say and just keeps talking to herself. What should I do?”
At that moment, Do-yoon came out of the tent and called me. Seeing the woman sitting on the ground, pouring out her anger and tears through the open door, I made up my mind.
“Do-yoon, wait a moment.”
I entered the tent and reached out to the woman sitting on the ground. Our gazes met as she looked up at me with unfocused eyes.
“Don’t you want revenge?”
“…Revenge?”
“Yes, revenge. You want to get revenge on the bastards who killed your brother, don’t you?”
As soon as the topic of her younger brother came up, her unfocused gaze returned, and she looked at me straight.
“Get up. Nothing will change by staying here like this. Come with me. I’ll help you.”
“….”
“Hurry. We don’t have time to waste.”
“You can help me…? Really, can you help me?”
“Yes. I’ll help you.”
“Lies. No one… no one helped me. I begged so much. I pleaded for help.. but no one helped me.”
She hesitated to take my hand, then shook her head and lowered her hand. I then grabbed her hand on my own instead and pulled her up.
“I can promise I’ll help you. So come with me, Ms. Ga-eun. You can’t give up like this, right? You want revenge, don’t you?”
“….”
She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. After staring at me for a while, she finally closed her eyes tightly.
“Please help me….”
“Yes. As much as you’d like.”
I smiled warmly as I wrapped my hand around the hand she’d held out to me.
WOOOHOO my girl is a bad b
They are cooked
