The Price
"Hold on. Don't get the wrong idea. They were already zombies by the time I got here. Don't tell me that even now you expect me to honor a zombie's property rights."
The words came out of me in a rush. Kang Hanna had gone wary, her hand drifting toward the pistol at the small of her back, and the sight of it startled the truth straight out of me.
"Right. No way you'd do something like that."
To my surprise, she took it easily—that I hadn't killed the old couple and stripped the place. Saving her life had left her warmer toward me than she would ever have admitted, and that warmth was doing the believing for her.
"Want a look at the yard?"
With the misunderstanding out of the way, I opened the doors onto the veranda and led her outside, if only to change the air between us, and showed her the grounds of the mansion.
"Holy shit! How big is this house?"
The yard opened out in front of her, and the size of it startled a curse clean out of her mouth, tangled up with genuine awe.
"You live in a place this huge all by yourself?"
Curiosity sat plain on her face as she asked it.
"Yeah. Just me."
I answered her honestly.
"Then... maybe..."
The blunt confidence she'd carried until now faltered. Whatever she meant to say, Kang Hanna hesitated over it.
"What is it? Spit it out. Holding back doesn't suit you."
I already had a fair idea of what was coming. I hurried her along anyway.
"Could... could my people stay here too?"
The reluctance was still written across her face, but under the pushing she finally got her mouth open.
"I know it's shameless of me. Things just aren't great on our end..."
She watched my expression as she said it, measuring me.
"How many of you?"
"Six to ten!"
Ask for a headcount and she lit up, as if the question itself were a yes.
"You're not asking me to take you in for free, I hope."
"Of course not, of course not! You can't look after a house this big on your own, right? If my people come, leave the upkeep to us!"
She thumped her own chest, wearing a leave-it-to-me look and all but begging me to hand it over. That wasn't the payment I wanted.
"I had something else in mind."
"Something else? Just say the word. I'll do whatever you want."
She said it like someone who had never once considered what I might actually ask.
"...If you please me, I might be willing to think about it."
The answer froze her. She stared, and threw it back.
"...What are you asking for?"
I grinned.
"You crazy bastard!"
Once she'd heard it laid out, the curse tore out of her and the anger came with it.
"Have you lost your goddamn mind, you sick pervert?! What the hell do you want me to do? Did you forget I'm a cop? Sexual harassment, to a police officer's face?"
I'd known the mouth on her was filthy. I hadn't known it was this filthy.
"Calm down. For what you'd be getting, isn't this a fair price?"
"A fair price? The hell it is."
Her eyes went wide and she glared straight through me.
"Think it through. In times like these, a safe place to live is a real asset. The chairman of some conglomerate could walk in and offer a mountain of cash and still not be able to buy one. And you could have it while owning nothing at all. Where else are you going to find a sale this obscene?"
"What kind of bullshit is that supposed to be?"
"And from the start—'the price is we look after the house'? That's just what you'd be doing anyway. You'd be living here too."
"Ugh... that's..."
The point seemed to land. The fight drained out of her face, and she drew back, flustered.
"On top of that, once you're inside this house, you fall under my protection. You saw it yourself. Those zombies you couldn't even get a shot off at, the ones you were running from—I cut them down with a sword."
"Nngh."
The memory of how close she had come to dying seemed to rise up under her. Her expression went slack and dizzy.
"A stable, comfortable home, and a protector strong enough to matter, and the price is a single body? Anyone who isn't a fool takes that deal on the spot."
Something new crossed Kang Hanna's face at that. Wait. Is he... actually right?
I didn't waste the opening. I took another step in.
"Honestly, I'm not asking for anything big right away. We can start small."
Her brow tightened as she threw it back at me.
"...Small?"
I smiled, easy and indecent.
"A kiss. We can start with exactly one. For the price of a life, that's cheap, isn't it?"
"...Nngh."
Kang Hanna's eyes flew open. This time, though, the curse didn't come straight away. Her gaze wavered for a moment, and then she bit her lip and let her eyes drop.
I sold it with everything I had. And then—
"Fuck off, you perverted bastard! Who the hell do you think you're selling that to?!"
She'd seen through the pitch. Up came her middle finger, and the curse came with it.
Damn it. I almost had her. What a waste.
"Tsk. Well. A shame, but it can't be helped."
I smacked my lips and made no effort to hide the regret.
"Keep smacking your lips like that and I'm going to want to hit you."
"Come on. I saved your life. Isn't that a little harsh?"
"B-be grateful I haven't arrested you on the spot!"
The anger still hadn't burned off. She growled it at me.
"Enough! I don't want to be around you anymore. I'm leaving!"
Sick of the pointless snapping, Kang Hanna announced she was done with the house.
"You sure about that? It's already night."
While we'd been at each other, the light had gone out of everything around us.
"Wh-what?! When did it get this late?!"
She looked around, realized how dark it had gotten, and her face cracked into panic as she glanced about.
"You were out cold longer than you think. Head out now and it's going to be dangerous."
I said it with a leer.
"I know the zombies get sluggish after dark, thanks."
Oh. So she knew that, too.
"Two or three people sticking together, no blind spots, and maybe the night really is safer. Go alone and your field of view gets cut down. Night's more dangerous then, isn't it?"
However sluggish the dead became, darkness still put a limit on human eyes. Without someone beside you to watch the ground you couldn't see, walking alone after nightfall was a risk.
"Kh...!"
Unable to answer it, Kang Hanna swallowed the sound like she'd bitten down on her own frustration.
"Then you'll just have to sleep here and leave in the morning. I'll be merciful and allow you that much."
I put on a benevolent smile and dispensed my benevolence.
"Try to jump me and I'll put a hole through your skull."
"Wow. Terrifying. Definitely shouldn't, then."
I answered the wary stare she had fixed on me with perfect, shameless ease.
"Take any room on the first floor and sleep. I'll be on the second."
I left her there—still watching me with eyes full of the suspicion that I might come down on her at any moment—climbed to the second floor, and turned in.
And that was the end of a long, grinding day.
"Haaahm. Up already, is she."
The stir of someone moving on the floor below had pulled me out of sleep, and I went downstairs just as I was.
"Leaving already?"
I caught Kang Hanna just as she was about to step out of the house.
"At least eat breakfast before you go."
"...I don't need it."
There was a flicker of hesitation. She refused anyway.
"You ate just fine yesterday. Now you're getting precious about it?"
"That's because back then I didn't know you were after my body!"
The anger snapped back out of her and she fired it at me.
"What, you eat a meal and I jump you?"
"And how am I supposed to know what you dosed the food with?"
"You ate it yesterday without a problem."
"Ugh... shut up!"
My perfectly orderly logic seemed to have left her with nothing left to throw. She turned and headed for the front door.
"Yeah, yeah. Change your mind, come back whenever."
"Save it. Pervert."
She declined my offer—politely, if you squinted—and turned her back.
I sighed.
"Right. Get home safe, then... huh?"
I was in the middle of seeing her off when Kang Hanna drew a long, heavy breath, turned around, and came back toward me.
"Wh-what?"
"I can't stand owing a debt."
What? Did I push her too far?
Had I needled her hard enough that she meant to answer with her fists? I was braced for a swing I might not see coming when something soft met my lips.
To my astonishment, she rose onto her toes and kissed me. A soft, wet sound passed between us.
I set aside the question of why Kang Hanna was kissing me and decided, for the moment, to concentrate on the kiss.
My tongue pushed between her lips, coiled around hers, and drew it in.
"Mmm... hah... stop..."
As if she couldn't breathe, she shoved at my chest with both hands and tore her mouth away. I caught the back of her head in one hand and forced my mouth over hers again.
"Mmph— mmph—"
The wet sound of it filled the space between our mouths. A moan leaked out past Kang Hanna's lips. Her tongue fought desperately to push mine back, and only ended up tangled with it.
"Hah... stop... mm... I said stop, you son of a bitch!"
"Ghk—!"
Unable to endure her mouth being ravaged any longer, she buried a fist in the pit of my stomach.
"Guhhh... so what was that supposed to mean?"
Only after the blow folded me did I get around to asking her what the kiss had been for.
"I can't stand being in debt, so I paid back what I owed you for saving my life, that's all! I figured it'd be the kind of reward a pervert like you would actually like, so I gave you one!"
She snapped it down at me where I sat collapsed on the floor.
Her face burned red with shame. She flipped me off and left in a hurry.
"So the going rate for a saved life is one kiss. Damn, but that's an expensive woman."
I muttered it, watching Kang Hanna walk away from the house.
She was gone. I wasn't worried.
Sooner or later, Kang Hanna would put herself under me. She wouldn't have any other choice.