Chapter 74: Yu-wol
Chapter 74: Yu-wol
#
"Tae-sik. We need to talk."
The day's work had ended without incident, and night had fallen.
I was on my way out for a cigarette when Seon-yeong asked whether I had something to tell her and called me into the master bedroom.
When I entered, she met my eyes in expressionless silence.
"I hope you enjoyed yourself, Team Leader."
"I'm sorry... I have no excuse."
Her so-called woman's intuition appeared to have activated; she already seemed to know everything.
I finally spoke first and told her exactly what had happened.
"Do you actually feel sorry toward me?"
"I do..."
"Why? What exactly are you apologizing for?"
Her expression and tone contained no sarcasm.
I answered her honestly.
"Because I told you I loved you and then slept with another woman. I'm sorry. It wasn't an accident or a momentary mistake. I did it because I wanted to."
"But why apologize to me for that? Frankly, you could do anything you wanted now and no one could stop you."
"Because it hurts you. I'm sorry for causing that pain—and for never intending to restrain myself."
"..."
Speaking this way was an abuse of my position.
I knew how cruel I sounded.
I was wrong. Please forgive me. I'll never do it again.
Those words wouldn't come.
Because the same thing would probably happen again.
If someone called me human garbage, I could offer no defense.
I had merely decided to be honest about my desire to possess more than one woman.
Law. Custom. Social convention.
This lawless world had rendered all three meaningless.
If I could accept responsibility for the consequences, perhaps I was allowed this much greed.
Once a woman entered my arms, I became possessive of her.
I didn't want to content myself with one woman and relinquish the others.
I had no intention of abandoning my humanity and living like a madman, but I wanted to keep as many women I desired as I could.
That decision was why I had accepted Ga-yeong that afternoon.
Killing zombies. Rescuing people. Sometimes fighting other survivors.
Through all of it, I had thought constantly about how to preserve my morality.
When it came to the instinct to sleep with women I desired, though, I had lowered the bar considerably.
Self-justification.
My urge to spread my seed had grown stronger. These women would depend on me regardless. Excuses like those.
"You don't regret it?"
"No. I thought about it carefully. But I sincerely regret hurting you."
"All right."
Through a few terse words and exchanged looks, the perceptive Seon-yeong appeared to understand my entire decision.
I had intended to hide nothing, yet I still felt stripped bare.
Thud.
Seon-yeong closed the master-bedroom door behind her and left.
I regretted everything already.
Fuck. What was I supposed to do now?
#
"Haaah... Where in the world have you been wandering?"
Schneider had her head buried in a bowl of feed.
By then, I had begun bringing down food and water whenever I visited.
As a result, I often smoked inside the barricade.
"Raid Leader."
"Oh, So-ra. Taking a smoke break?"
"Yep~ I heard you and Seon-yeong are sleeping in separate rooms now."
"What the hell? How did you hear that already?"
This was insane.
Rumors traveled faster here than they had at the office.
"You should've admitted you were wrong, begged forgiveness, and sworn never to do it again."
So-ra offered unsolicited advice between drags of her cigarette.
Would it have been better to smooth things over immediately that way?
No, wait.
Did she even know what I'd said?
Or was her situational awareness so perfect that her own woman's intuition had activated?
If she'd reconstructed everything from the atmosphere alone, then women had each possessed an Ability even before the Zombie Outbreak.
Women—men might have been excluded—had secretly possessed Status Windows all along.
At the perfect moment, a message such as “Creation: Woman's Intuition” would appear and activate.
Completely overpowered...
"Raid Leader."
"What."
Embarrassment washed over me. If So-ra next door knew, everyone must know.
No wonder my thoughts had fled in such a ridiculous direction.
"Go back upstairs and talk to her. Hehe. It might not be as serious as you think."
She giggled as though mocking me.
I shot So-ra a flat glare and returned to the apartment.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Coming~"
I knocked on Ga-yeong's door. A cheerful answer came from within, and a moment later she poked her head out.
"Ga-yeong, give me a moment. I need to speak with Seon-yeong."
"Oh, she asked you to wait a little. Talk to me first, Mister. Just a second!"
Ga-yeong glanced back into the room, closed the door, and stepped into the hall.
We sat at the living-room table.
"Didn't Seon-yeong scold you? It looked as though the two of you stayed together the entire time."
"Pfft, hehehe. I actually received her permission beforehand."
"Huh? Really?"
"Yep~ Did I truly seem bold enough to do that without asking?"
"No, but Seon-yeong looked furious."
"Of course she's angry. Don't tell her I revealed this. Go in there, talk things through properly, and use a few cheesy lines while you're at it."
Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had reached a private decision.
So much for “Creation: Woman's Intuition.”
What kind of cheesy lines did she expect me to use?
I headed toward Ga-yeong's room to try repairing things with Seon-yeong.
Ga-yeong flashed me a mischievous smile and entered the smaller bedroom where Su-jin was staying.
Click.
"Seon-yeong."
"Oh... Tae-sik."
I'd forgotten to knock. When I opened the door, I found Seon-yeong applying eye drops.
What the hell?
"What are you doing?"
"Ah. Hehehe. The tears wouldn't come properly, so I thought I'd give them some help. Darn, you caught me before I could use them."
"Come on. Why would you do that to me?"
"Because if I don't do at least this much, I'm afraid you'll start waving your lower half at every woman you see..."
"I wouldn't do that."
I crossed to the bed and pulled Seon-yeong into my arms.
As we talked, she admitted that she'd been preparing herself for this possibility for a long time.
Put simply, I was the group's only man.
Women I'd rescued might naturally develop feelings for me.
Even without romantic feelings, Seon-yeong believed some might seek security by physically claiming a definite place beside me.
She'd expected Ga-yeong to approach me eventually, even before the Prugia women joined us.
"And you aren't the only person with a sex drive. We're stressed too, and there's almost nothing to do for entertainment. Some women masturbated often even before the outbreak. It varies from person to person."
"Then why did you act that way earlier? Don't joke around—tell me honestly."
"I'm older than the others. I wanted to see how sorry you actually felt toward me."
"You don't need to test that. You were my first. Stop worrying about your age."
"You're visibly growing younger, and your body is incredible. Of course the others will come after you with fire in their eyes... How could I not feel anxious?"
"Haah... Come here."
We exchanged a long, heated kiss.
Then I held her tightly enough to feel our heartbeats against each other.
"Seon-yeong, you give me an enormous sense of security. You have since our first day together. I truly am sorry. You'll always be my first priority, and you're the only person I feel I love."
"Ga-yeong would be deeply hurt if she heard that. Still... I do feel better."
Seon-yeong gently stroked my back.
"I understand the situation too. Throughout history, polygyny was common across the world for many reasons. I've even heard plenty about male instinct and things like that. I expected more women to gather around you eventually. But jealousy still flared before I could stop it. I'm being greedy, aren't I?"
"No. Tell me everything you feel. You genuinely made my heart drop earlier."
"You said you didn't regret it... Does that mean I get the position of first wife?"
We lay side by side on Ga-yeong's small bed and talked about everything.
Embarrassing though it was, we exposed our innermost feelings without hiding anything.
Pressed together on the narrow bed, our affectionate touches gradually reignited the heat between us.
But if we did this, where would Ga-yeong sleep?
She could use the master bedroom or work something out...
I was relieved that the confrontation appeared to have ended well.
I devoted myself to making Seon-yeong melt beneath me and finally put my fears to rest.
#
Kiss, kiss.
"Mister, wake up! Honestly, this is my bed..."
She startled me.
Ga-yeong had climbed astride me and was trying to wake me.
Seon-yeong had apparently left already.
"What's this? Did you like my bed that much? Even you slept late. That's a first."
She had a point.
Why had I overslept?
Before considering it further, I wrapped the blanket around Ga-yeong—still straddling me—and pulled her against my chest.
"Ugh... haaah. I can't breathe. Save me."
I rolled onto my side, held Ga-yeong close, and lazed with her for a while.
"Hmph... Seon-yeong sent me to wake you for breakfast..."
"All right. Let's get up."
I greeted everyone gathered at the living-room table and joined them for breakfast.
To my discomfort, they had all delayed eating because I had overslept.
They could have relaxed that rule, but when even Seon-yeong made no comment, I quietly picked up my spoon.
"Are you truly going alone? Wouldn't it be safer to take Su-jin?"
"I'll be fine. Have everyone work together on capture poles and snares."
At the meeting, we had decided to postpone outside scavenging until we developed countermeasures against the Feral Dog Pack.
Although the dogs had grown larger, their anatomy remained unchanged, so we decided to prepare capture equipment.
That day, I intended to revisit the artificial-turf field that had sheltered us on the first day.
I planned to strip the netting from its soccer goals and fencing for use in our traps.
After breakfast, I left the apartment alone for the first time in a while.
The moment I hopped over the barricade, Schneider appeared and stared at me with yellow eyes.
"Schneider. When did you arrive?"
On closer inspection, she'd grown considerably.
Did cats normally grow this quickly?
She was already as large as a full-grown cat from before the Zombie Outbreak.
"MyaaooOONG~ Waeng."
"Whatever that means... I'm leaving now."
I said goodbye and turned away, but the little beast jumped from the barricade and followed me.
She'd never done that before.
Was it because I was leaving alone?
"Go away, you little pest."
I shooed her repeatedly, but she continued following at a fixed distance.
Even when I accelerated to a run, she kept pace until the end.
"Arrrrr, arrrr."
"What are you growling about?"
At the turf field, Schneider seized one end of the netting while I cut and began tugging against me.
She wasn't strong, but the constant resistance was irritating as hell.
Whenever I pulled in her direction and then relaxed, she bit down harder and redoubled her efforts.
"What's gotten into you...? I need to finish quickly and leave."
I continued wrestling with the net while waiting for her to exhaust herself.
Eventually, she hooked both front paws into it and rode along wherever I dragged it.
The little beast was clearly playing.
"Hisss! KYAAAHK!"
Schneider had finally tired herself out and was resting nearby when she suddenly released a piercing cry.
She sprang upright, and I followed her stare.
"Oh, you mother—"