Chapter 44: Carelessness

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Morning wood.

I snapped awake to a vigorous erection announcing the start of a fine day.

Still lying down, I stretched once, then pressed myself against Seon-yeong, who was sleeping on her side facing away.

My hand burrowed toward her chest, and I ground my pelvis tight against her ass.

Something was off. The feel of holding her was different from usual.

Her shoulders and the frame within my arms felt somehow narrower than usual.

I gently kneaded her chest, but there was far less in my palm than I expected.

An uneasy suspicion made me sit up quietly.

Long hair reaching her waist tickled my forearm...

Long hair?!

I realized the woman I'd been fondling wasn't Seon-yeong and stopped breathing.

Ga-yeong was sleeping beside me, and across from her I could see Seon-yeong lying asleep.

I confirmed both were still out, carefully got up, and left the master bedroom.

I showered in the living room bathroom and started on breakfast.

I kept breakfast simple, reheating the large batch of bean sprout soup from yesterday and taking a few side dishes from the refrigerator.

In the end, the three of us had slept together last night.

I repeatedly tried to persuade Ga-yeong to sleep in her own room, but with reddened eyes and a genuinely hurt expression, she clung to Seon-yeong and insisted on staying.

Seon-yeong was especially weak to Ga-yeong and eventually gave me a look asking me to yield for one night.

Arguing further with a drunk girl seemed exhausting, so I tried to surrender the bedroom to them and leave.

Then she grabbed my leg and begged me not to go.

Was she really twenty-four? With no other choice, the three of us fell asleep in one bed with Seon-yeong between us.

When I woke, though, Ga-yeong was somehow sleeping in the middle.

It had been an accident, but the realization that I'd rubbed my erection against Ga-yeong's backside left me mortified.

At least they had both still been asleep.

"Seon-yeong, Ga-yeong, get up. Let's have breakfast."

Once breakfast prep was done, I went into the master bedroom to wake them.

Seon-yeong was curled up like a shrimp as usual, and beside her Ga-yeong slept in the same position.

It was strangely endearing to see them asleep in identical poses.

Wouldn't sleeping like that be uncomfortable?

"Seon-yeong, Seon-yeong. Ready to get up now?"

I stroked Seon-yeong's hair and quietly whispered.

Soon she opened her eyes, met my gaze for a moment, then covered her face with both hands.

"Mm-hm, I'll get up. Go on out and wait just a sec."

Her voice was husky with sleep.

Embarrassed, she pulled the blanket up over her nose and told me to go out first.

Because I always woke first, I was used to seeing Seon-yeong immediately after she woke. Yet every morning, once she came to her senses, she became shy in exactly the same way.

#

"Tae-sik~"

Seon-yeong came out of the bedroom and walked over to me where I sat on a kitchen chair.

She climbed onto my lap, straddled me, and buried her face against my neck as she embraced me.

I pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair and back, feeling the warmth of her body.

"Sleep well? How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine now! I can go out with you today."

"That's a relief. Tell me if anything feels even slightly wrong. What about Ga-yeong?"

"Ga-yeong'll be out soon too, she's washing up."

After remaining in my arms for a while, Seon-yeong noticed that breakfast was ready and began stretching in the living room.

I joined her for a brief stretch, and before long Ga-yeong emerged from the bedroom with a faintly flushed face.

"Good morning..."

"Hehe. Did our baby sleep well? Is your stomach all right?"

Ga-yeong seemed to remember her drunken behavior from the night before. Unable to meet my eyes, she greeted us in a tiny voice.

I answered with a grin, thinking I'd tease her a little.

"I'm so sorry... Seon-yeong, I'm sorry too..."

"Hehehe, I'm fine. But Ga-yeong, why did you keep touching my breasts? It was hard work prying you off me!"

"Sorry, Seon-yeong... I don't really know why I did that either."

Seon-yeong joined in, and after teasing Ga-yeong together, we sat down to breakfast.

It was still early, but maybe because we'd gone to bed early last night, they both looked fine.

Every remark from Seon-yeong or me made Ga-yeong's face grow redder, and breakfast passed peacefully amid our teasing.

#

"All ready? Double-check you didn't forget anything."

"Yeah, got everything! Sigh... I take one day off and I'm nervous again."

Seon-yeong and I geared up in front of the front door.

I'd said she could rest ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one more day, but she insisted she was really fine now and that she'd come with me.

Ga-yeong had decided to rest a bit more in the morning and then get lunch ready.

"Tae-sik, Seon-yeong, be careful out there! If everything is calm later, message me before you come back."

Today I was planning to try a new area.

We had nearly finished clearing Zone A except for the J Broadcasting Company building, but the station itself was still too daunting.

We'd explored only a few places in Zone B, and the likely presence of another survivor group reduced its scavenging potential.

We left the apartment complex for the four-lane road and followed it northeast.

Soon the four-story building where Min-su was staying came into view.

Up to now, we'd turned left in front of that building and entered Zone A.

Today, though, we continued along the road without crossing so we could reach the area we'd named Zone C.

"But hey, there can't be that many zombies in the mountain next to us, right?"

"Yeah, I doubt there are many. What, are you nervous?"

"Yeah, because it's an unfamiliar route... but we can't search the entire mountain for zombies. It could also be the animals' territory. I can't stop worrying about it."

We'd passed the three-way intersection by Min-su's building and kept coming up, and now we were walking with a mountain on our right.

Beyond the apartment complex, the road curved around a small mountain that the map listed as about 150 meters high.

I carefully scanned beyond the fence as we walked but saw no zombies. Instead, several stood at the four-way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠intersection ahead.

"Seon-yeong, see the zombies at the intersection over there?"

"Yeah, I see them too. But there are a fair number of zombies on the road here, huh?"

"I wonder how many there are. Let's move closer and get a count."

The zombies showed no reaction, probably still too far away to register people.

Even so, we approached carefully, using the abandoned cars along the road as cover.

"Any closer and they'll notice us. I can see about ten. What do you think?"

"Yeah, there are some inside cars too, but those can't get out anyway, so excluding those... But hey, not being able to see around the corner bothers me."

"Right. We can't see how many are around the corner, and we can't pass them. This is frustrating."

I focused my enhanced vision on the convex traffic mirror at the intersection.

Through the mirror I counted five more zombies.

There was no way to know how many more were hidden behind cars, street trees, and the like.

"Seon-yeong, I can see five more in the convex mirror. That makes at least fifteen, and with all the obstacles, there could be more. Is there any way around them?"

"If we crossed the mountain, we could avoid the intersection... but I don't know whether it would be safe. There may be packs of animals up there."

How many wild animals could be living on a small mountain in Seoul?

From what we'd confirmed, animals had been steadily growing larger since the zombie outbreak.

I'd seen stray cats and feral dogs from a distance several times. Most were about the size of car tires, and some were even larger.

Some had probably been living on the streets all along, and there were pets that had gone feral outdoors.

Fortunately, they seemed wary of humans. Even when we saw each other from a distance, neither side approached, and we simply passed by.

I hadn't seen any species other than dogs and cats yet, but I couldn't dismiss a neighborhood hill as trivial anymore.

If we encountered even one enlarged wild animal, it might be more dangerous than a zombie.

"Seon-yeong, I want to take a chance, clear the zombies at this intersection, and enter Zone C. Do you think it's impossible?"

"I want to do that too. If perfect safety were all that mattered, we'd go home and hide until our food ran out. We would never go anywhere. Let's think of a plan. Charging straight at them is still far too dangerous."

We carefully withdrew along the route we'd come.

Once we'd fallen back to a distance where the zombies definitely hadn't registered us, Seon-yeong and I put our heads together and worked out a plan.

We couldn't guarantee safety, but we had never charged ahead without thinking either.

"Zombies always move in a straight line. If we just restrict their path, instead of fighting over ten zombies all at once, we can split them up and deal with one or two at a time. We've been fighting that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way from the start."

"Yeah. Plus, zombies don't perceive my shield well. It's not just for blocking attacks—I can make them crash into each other or trip them."

We reviewed our earlier battles and considered each advantage available to us.

If we shaped the battlefield in our favor, we could deal with a large group relatively safely.

"Seon-yeong, hold on. Let's sit somewhere comfortable and think."

Seon-yeong was crouched awkwardly behind a car, pulling paper from her sling bag and jotting things down.

A good plan was unlikely to appear instantly, so I lifted the rear of a car and rested it on the pavement to make a screen.

This way, zombies couldn't see us.

They probably couldn't detect us at this distance anyway, but blocking their view eased my mind.

And this much weight wasn't exactly demanding anymore.

"Come here. Sit on this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠edge. Your legs'll cramp up if you keep squatting like that."

"Hehe, are you sure you're not the one struggling? Squatting like this isn't particularly difficult for women."

"Ha-ha-ha, you caught me? Yeah, I'm gonna cramp up. Heh-heh-heh."

Even though the situation was frustrating and no answer had appeared, being together left us enough composure to joke.

It also helped us release tension while moving outside, allowing us to scavenge longer.

There was a saying: if you wanted to go far, go together.

"Oh?! Hey, lifting the car like that—isn't that hard?"

"It's fine, this much is nothing."

I raised an arm, flexed my biceps for Seon-yeong, and played it up.

"Tae-sik, praise me! I think I have a good idea."

"Of course! I knew I could count on you."

Without even hearing the idea, I patted Seon-yeong's backside and showered her with blind praise.

Seon-yeong kept nodding and murmuring in delight.

What was it? She could stop celebrating alone and tell me now.