He's Lying
This was never going to be an easy quest.
Taking in these four men might turn out to be the biggest mistake of my life. If the quest I'd received had anything to do with these guys, it meant they possessed enough power that even Yang Jaeyeol and his friends wouldn't be able to stop the tragedy.
But unlike the original scenario, I was here with them now.
Five against four.
We had the numbers, and those guys didn't even have proper weapons in their hands. By comparison, I had a field shovel, Yang Jaeyeol had a machete, Park Mingu had a hand axe, and the other two were carrying spears made from mop handles with kitchen knives and scissors tightly bound to the ends.
"Ahhh!! Finally starting to feel human again..!"
"Is there any more?!"
"No matter how much I eat, I'm still starving..!!"
"Here, try some of this too.."
"Thank you!"
Of course, it was entirely possible these people had nothing to do with my quest at all. They might even be meant to help Yang Jaeyeol's group early on. Either way, that was something I'd figure out naturally if I just watched without jumping to conclusions. Still, letting my guard down was out of the question.
"Jaeyeol."
"Yes?"
"They might be dangerous."
"Dangerous people..?"
"Yeah. These are people who barely survived in a world gone insane with zombies. And it's four men, no less."
"W-why would that make them dangerous..."
"Where do you think those guys are looking right now?"
"Ah...!"
Now that their stomachs were filling up, they were starting to size up their surroundings. Not openly scanning the room, but even as they shoveled food into their mouths, their eyes were working overtime. And the place drawing the most attention was where Han Nari and the college girls were gathered.
"Do not give them weapons under any circumstances. Even if they ask to just take a look, the answer is no."
"Yes!"
"And you two, come with me. Jaeyeol and Jingu stay here."
"Uh, hyung!"
"What?"
"It's Mingu... My name is... Park Mingu..."
"....Sorry."
I'd thought it was Jingu. Turns out it was Mingu. Not that Mingu or Jingu made much difference.
"Hyung, do you know my name?"
"My name is..."
"......"
"Kim Jaemin!"
"And I'm Lee Yeonghun!"
"Right. Kim Jaemin, Lee Yeonghun. You two come with me."
Now I had the names locked in for good. Yang Jaeyeol, Park Mingu, Kim Jaemin, Lee Yeonghun, Han Nari, Kim Seonye, Lee Jeongyeon, Choi Huijin. Having bothered to memorize them, I hoped I'd get to keep calling those names for a long time. The hidden condition of this quest was almost certainly that nobody gets left behind.
"Hyung, that's everything."
"We checked over here too!"
"Nothing on this side either. So we're all clear, right?"
We'd gone through the cafeteria and the snack shop and hidden every dangerous blade we could find — buried among the zombie corpses piled up in the ice room.
"Pass this on to Jaeyeol and Mingu. Nari and the girls too. Don't bother telling the older women. It'd probably show on their faces somehow."
"......"
"......"
"Kim Jaemin, Lee Yeonghun! I didn't forget your names..!"
"Yes, Juhan hyung."
"Got it, Juhan hyung."
Always move in pairs of at least two, and one of them has to be a man. Same rule for sleeping. Everyone stays together, and weapons stay either in hand or within arm's reach at all times. Those were the instructions I gave Kim Jaemin and Lee Yeonghun. There wasn't much reason to wander off alone here, but people still needed the bathroom or the occasional moment to themselves, so better safe than sorry.
I left the older women out of it because there was no reason anyone would go after women in their fifties when there were young girls right there. O Jihye, of course, I'd keep next to me.
......
......
......
Should I just send her over with the other girls?
"You pervert... You said you were going to sleep, so why do I have to stay next to you? What are you planning if you're not sleeping..."
"......"
"What... Are you already asleep..? Are you actually sleeping..?"
"Please just shut up and go to sleep..!"
"You're not... going to..."
"Not going to what?"
"You're not going to wait until I'm asleep and then leave on your own, right..?"
"I'm not leaving."
"Then..."
O Jihye wriggled around to face me, tugged my left arm over, and laid her head on it like a pillow.
"......"
"I-it's just..! You might try to run... And it is kind of comfortable... From back on the bus.... There's no real pillow here anyway.."
"There's a pillow over there. Want me to grab it for you?"
"Screw you..!"
"Fine. Use it."
She kept grumbling under her breath for a while after that, but she must have been exhausted, because she was out cold before long. Not that I could blame her. I was barely keeping my own eyes open. Maybe I'd catch a little sleep myself.
What... Is it already time..?
"Hyung..!"
"Ah, I'm up..."
"Whew... Then I'll go get some sleep. You can't fall asleep, hyung.."
"Yeah."
"Mmm....!"
I carefully slid my arm free from under O Jihye's head, easing it down onto the floor so she wouldn't bump anything, then sat up in one motion. I wasn't exaggerating — the second I closed my eyes, I'd be gone. That was how tired I was. But if I fell asleep now, there'd be no point in Yang Jaeyeol or the others having pulled night watch just to free me up.
"Hoo...."
I let out a long breath, slapped both cheeks with my hands, then stood and stretched. While I was at it, I studied them carefully — the four men sleeping nearby.
"It's only the first day."
If I was wrong, I'd just been overreacting. But if I was right, those guys would need time to get a read on us too. Time to figure out our strength.
"Mmmph..! Mmm...!"
Having a nightmare? She was talking in her sleep pretty hard. Wait — was I actually worrying about O Jihye right now? At some point I'd crouched down and was staring at her as she frowned and mumbled in her sleep. Had I gotten attached? Well, it had been a whole week already.
And for the record — who the hell was she calling a pervert while dreaming about that..!!
"Ugh..! It's too biiig...! Don't push it iiin... Can't breea... Mmmph...."
"......"
Was it because she'd cleaned up? She'd almost fully recovered the looks I'd first seen on the subway. Sure, all the makeup was gone and it was just her bare face, so there was a slight difference — but not a big one.
"Her bare face is prettier than I expected.."
"Mmmmph...! You pervert bastard... In my mouth... So salty...."
"Just dream normally and go to sleep already..!!"
"Aah..!! Mmmph.. Mmmmph...."
I gave her cheek a light squeeze and shook it, and she mumbled a bit more before the sleep-talking stopped. That was when it happened.
Thud-
Approaching footsteps. My hand reacted first, snatching up the field shovel I'd left on the floor. I shot to my feet and spun toward the sound.
"......"
"Ah... S-sorry..."
Scared the hell out of me. Thankfully, the footsteps belonged to Han Nari.
"It's fine. But why aren't you sleeping?"
"Ah.. Well.... I need to use the bathroom.. And you said not to go alone...."
"......"
What now? I couldn't leave my post while I was on watch. But the fact that she'd come to me instead of waking the others meant either they wouldn't get up or she felt bad about disturbing them... And I couldn't leave O Jihye alone either....
"Hnn..! Finally showing your true colors... You perve..! Going to wreck me raw and— Mmph!!!"
"Please be quiet..!!"
"......"
I'd tried to carefully lift and move her, but the second my hands touched her body to get my arm under, she launched into that filthy sleep-talking, so I had to change tactics.
Screeech-
In the end, I grabbed O Jihye by the ankles and dragged her across the floor like a lawnmower, dumping her into the dugout room where Han Nari had been sleeping. Should've just done that from the start. Leaving her alone still made me uneasy, but the guys were camped out right in front of that room, so nothing was going to happen.
"Let's go. I'll move her back once we're done with the bathroom."
"Okay.."
Honestly, I probably could've just left her there. She really did just pee and come straight back out.
"I'm sorry.. For the trouble.."
"Don't be. You did the right thing."
"Um, Oppa.."
"Yeah?"
"It's about... those people.. I might be imagining things, but..."
"What is it? Just say it."
"Well... One of them made eye contact with me.."
"And?"
"When I came out of there just now... Our eyes met..."
"......"
When I'd checked, all of them had their heads down against the floor, asleep. But while I was looking at O Jihye mumbling in her sleep, one of them had locked eyes with Han Nari as she came out of the dugout?
"So?"
"Huh??"
"How did he react?"
"Well.... He stared right at me... Then lay back down...."
"Was he up?"
"Not fully up... Just his head lifted a little.. I-I must have imagined it, right..??"
She hadn't imagined it. Even without an enhanced vision skill, with the soft light we had going, that distance was more than enough to tell whether someone's eyes were open or closed.
"Just as I thought..."
"Huh??"
"It's nothing. Go back in and sleep. I'll keep watch until morning."
"Okay.. Thank you... But which of the three was it? Who did you make eye contact with?"
"That one... Him..."
Han Nari's raised fingertip pointed at exactly one person. A little unexpected, honestly.
Since I had the last watch, I kept my eyes on them all the way through morning. But nobody made eye contact with me, and nobody lifted their head to quietly scan the room. Not even the one Han Nari said she'd locked eyes with.
And right on cue, he was waking up.
"Mmm...!! Ah..."
"......"
The man mid-stretch met my eyes, then dipped his head in a polite nod. I nodded back. Once he'd finished stretching and working the kinks out of his body, he walked straight over to me.
"The ladies mentioned it — you're Kang Juhan, correct?"
"Yes."
"Yesterday was so chaotic, and between eating and washing up we kept missing each other, so I never properly introduced myself. I'm Jeong Doyun."
"Kang Juhan."
Of the four who'd barged through the door without a second thought, this was the only one who'd actually thanked us. The one I'd figured was the only decent human among them had just shown the most suspicious behavior of all.
"Jeong Doyun-ssi, could we talk for a minute?"
"Of course."
I moved us a short distance away — far enough for privacy, close enough that I could still keep an eye on the other three — and asked a few questions.
"Were the four of you already acquainted?"
"No. We just happened to get trapped together at the hospital. Ah! Though those two over there did know each other already. They're brothers."
"Brothers?"
"Yes. The one lying all the way at the end is Kim Myeongjun, the older brother, and next to him is the younger one, Kim Myeonghyeon. The big guy beside them is Park Dongsu."
Two brothers, two strangers. Though watching them eat yesterday, they'd looked pretty close. Then again, four men stuck in a life-or-death situation for a whole week, clawing to survive — of course they'd bond.
"So how did you end up here?"
"Ah... Actually, we came because of you, Juhan-ssi."
"Me?"
"Yes. Ending up at this building was pure coincidence, but yesterday we saw someone using a car alarm to lure the zombies and then moving through the gap. We figured if that method worked, we could do the same, so we worked up the courage."
"And how did you know that was me?"
"Ah.. From the hospital window... It was pretty far and dark, so I wasn't completely sure, but the ladies said you'd also arrived here last night... Was it not you??"
"No, that was me."
"Ah, I knew it! You saved our lives. Thank you."
"About that hospital. Is it in this building?"
"No. It's in the building next door."
"First floor?"
"No, second floor... Why do you ask?"
"Just curious."
"....I see."
Just for a second, something in his eyes felt seriously off. If he'd looked at Han Nari like that in the middle of the night, no wonder she'd been scared.
Anyway — next building, second floor. And he'd still seen us? When we left the bus, it was already night. By the time we passed right in front of the neighboring building, it was even darker. And yet Jeong Doyun claimed he'd spotted me and O Jihye from a second-floor window. At least twenty meters away, on a dark road, while we were moving crouched between cars. Even the zombies much closer to us hadn't noticed.
This guy... Does he have the same skill as me?
More importantly — Jeong Doyun had cleared a quest and received a skill. So what about the other three?
Wait a second. He'd said they were trapped in the hospital. So the quest would've cleared when they escaped, and that's when they got their rewards. But Jeong Doyun claimed he'd already seen me and O Jihye moving along that dark road from twenty meters away — before that.
"That bastard.... He's lying?"
Jeong Doyun. It's you, isn't it. The one who turns Yang Jaeyeol dark.
"Alright! Alright! Now that everyone's up, let's properly give the thanks we couldn't manage yesterday~"
"We already thanked them plenty yesterday..."
"They saved our lives. A few more times is nothing. Come on, Dongsu-ssi, up you go. Once Dongsu-ssi gets up, Myeongjun-ssi and Myeonghyeon-ssi will follow~"
"Ah, yes! Yes! I'm getting up! Stop pulling!"
"Ugh.. What a pain..."
"Too loud this early in the morning..!"
Keep playing the nice guy while you can. The second that mask comes off, you're dead.
Though the more important one right now was Han Nari....
"S-sleep well..?"
"Yeah. But what's with you? Since yesterday?"
"M-me? What about me??"
"You keep stuttering. Did you bite your tongue or something?"
"Haha...! What are you talking about, I don't stutter~"
"Oh?? Oppa! Did you sleep well?"
"......"
Yang Jaeyeol. Don't glare at me like that already. I haven't done anything yet.