Kang Hanna Subdued
Thanks to Kang Hanna's sacrifice, Jang Sangcheol, Kim Minho, and the rest of their group made it back to the store unharmed.
"Huh? Where's Hanna-noona?"
"Puhaha! Can't you tell just by looking? She ran her mouth all that time, and in the end she died anyway."
"Heh heh. Serves her right."
Kim Hyunjun and Jeong Jinu had read the grim faces of Hanna's group and realized something had happened to her. They started to sneer.
"What did you just say?!"
"Bear with it, Jia. If it's Hanna, she'll come back. No question."
Calming Lee Jia, who had flared at Hyunjun's mockery, the group kept a sleepless vigil through the night, waiting for Kang Hanna's return. Choi Minhyuk's crew watched them and laughed, certain she was never coming back.
And then, the next morning.
"Unnie!"
"Noona!"
"Hanna!"
"I'm back!"
The moment day broke, Kang Hanna walked back into the store. Her people lit up and welcomed her. Choi Minhyuk's group only stared, their faces gone stiff.
"Thank heavens! Thank heavens, truly!"
"Nothing's uglier than a grown old man bawling, so quit crying."
Jang Sangcheol, who had been certain Hanna died because of him, greeted her in tears, as if he were finally shaking off the guilt he had carried all night.
"Noona!"
"Hold it. There's something I've got to do first."
"Huh?"
She stopped the others as they came running, left them standing there bewildered, and headed straight for Choi Minhyuk's group.
"Oh, I thought you were dead, but look at you, alive. Congratu—"
Chk.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
Choi Minhyuk had been talking as he watched her approach. The moment Kang Hanna drew the gun from her waist and leveled it at his head, he went white with terror.
"I told you. Pull any shit, and you get a hole blown through your skull. Remember?"
"What the hell did we even do?! That's bullshit!"
He barked back, trying to bluster, but both of his eyes were shaking.
"I've been thinking. Zombies are dumb as they come, but falling out of a building out of nowhere? That doesn't make any sense."
Hanna kept the gun on his head and went on.
"So the only conclusion I can come to is that you bastards shoved zombies off the roof to fuck us over. That's the only thing that fits."
"Fuck, you got proof? You got any proof?!"
"Proof? What, you want me to haul the CCTV footage into a courtroom at a time like this?"
Even Choi Minhyuk, who had been lounging in his own confidence, went pale the instant the gun filled his vision, his composure cracking into panic. The two of them locked into a breathless standoff.
"I'll let this one slide. Next time, no mercy. You understand me?"
"Hhk—!"
"Minhyuk, you okay?"
"Let go of me! Fuck!"
Kang Hanna lowered the gun first and ended it. Choi Minhyuk let out the breath he had been holding, and the tension finally broke.
"Unnie."
"Is that really Lee Jia, the ice princess? Since when do you cry this much?"
"What's with that weird nickname."
"Whatever. Let's actually rest today. I'm dead tired."
"B-but..."
"If it's food you're worried about, don't. I brought enough to get us through today."
When Kang Hanna opened her bag, simple food spilled out. It wasn't much, but it was enough to fill the group's stomachs for a day.
"Whoa, where did you get all this?"
"Stole it. From some pervert's house."
"A pervert?"
"Figure of speech. Just eat."
And so they rejoiced that Kang Hanna had come back safe, ate their fill, and finally rested.
"Hey. Tell those kids not to sleep tonight. Tell them to stay up and watch."
"What? Why?"
"When I tell you to do something, you do it, you little shit."
"Fine."
Of course, Choi Minhyuk's group—unable to stomach the sight of them—had already begun to scheme.
"Hyung. Hyung, wake up."
"Mmm..."
The night Kang Hanna returned, they had filled their long-empty stomachs at least a little, small portion or not, and fallen asleep to rest. But a watch still had to be stood against Choi Minhyuk's group, and when the time came to change shifts, Lee Jaemin woke the sleeping Kim Minho.
"Mmm. Already my turn?"
"Yes, that's right. Hang in there, hyung."
"Yeah. You worked hard too."
Kim Minho got up to take the watch and approached the curtain that divided them from Choi Minhyuk's group.
On the other side of it, Minhyuk's people were resting.
"Haaam... I'm tired..."
He dropped into a seat without much care, yawned like a man running on nothing, and started his watch.
"Babe. Babe...!"
"Wh-what!"
When Jeong Mina whispered to him from beyond the curtain, he startled and shot to his feet.
"Babe, it's me."
"You've got some nerve, still calling me that. Don't you have a shred of shame?"
"Babe, just listen to me. I'm telling you, I didn't do it just so I could get ahead by myself."
"Listen to this bullshit."
Kim Minho burned with anger at Jeong Mina, who had betrayed him and now had the gall to come crawling back.
"Just hear me out once. Please?"
"Fine. Let's see what kind of shit you're about to talk."
The watch was idle anyway, and he had grown curious why his ex was clinging to him, so he decided he might as well listen.
"How long are you going to stay over there? It's better here, isn't it?"
"Ha. You're telling me to join the side you shacked up with? Why the hell would I go over there because of you?"
"Even if it isn't about me, do you have any reason to stick with them? They can't scrounge up a single bite to eat. They're just scraping by."
"That's because you—!"
"And how long do you think you're going to stay safe?"
Kim Minho, who had been flaring up at her, faltered at what came next.
"Yesterday. The zombies falling. Yeah. That was us."
"What? How—?"
"So what, you think that bitch Kang Hanna is actually going to fire a gun in here? Please. She's so stuffed with that righteous-cop act that if she doesn't have proof she saw with her own eyes, she won't pull the trigger to the end. And if she does shoot in here, what are you going to do about the zombies that come running?"
Even after confessing to the thing that had nearly killed him yesterday, Jeong Mina kept talking without a hitch.
"She got lucky and made it back this time, but next time? If you go out there and the same thing happens again, you'll be dead before Hanna even gets a shot off."
She wasn't wrong, and Kim Minho couldn't get his mouth open.
"So I'm telling you—dump Kang Hanna. No food, no safety. Come over to our side."
Her whisper was sweet and seductive, like a devil's.
"...... What am I supposed to do?"
In the end, Kim Minho gave in to the devil's whisper.
Look... carefully...
For the first time in a long while, Kang Hanna sank into a deep sleep.
If this keeps up... and she... wakes...
Maybe it was the relief of having brushed death and made it back to the nest. A crushing weight pressed down on her body, and there was a little commotion, but none of it was enough to wake her.
Found it!
But the moment she felt something being drawn off her body, her eyes flew open on instinct.
"Mmm... what the—!"
"Hey, she's awake!"
"Shit, hold her down!"
Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she realized Choi Minhyuk's group was on top of her and tried to surge upright at once. Under Minhyuk's order, they crushed her beneath their bodies.
"You sons of bitches! What the hell are you doing? Let go!"
Even Kang Hanna couldn't move an inch with three grown men pinning her down.
"Hey, hey, that's enough. I got it."
"You—that's...!"
Choi Minhyuk had drawn the revolver from her waist.
"Haha, you fucking bitch. You sure strutted around all this time banking on this one thing, huh?"
"You son of a bitch! Hand that over!"
Kang Hanna thrashed, but Kim Hyunjun and Jeong Jinu still had her pinned, and she couldn't move.
"Look at her, still acting fierce. What was it again? Keep running your mouth and I'll put a hole in your head?"
"You don't have it anymore, so you won't be saying that line again."
"Heh heh."
They snickered, the pistol aimed at her head.
"You bastard, I won't let this go!"
"Shut up, you dumb bitch. Can't you read the situation?"
Choi Minhyuk ground the pistol roughly into her chest as he spoke.
"A mere female cop, daring to humiliate me like that? Just wait. I'm going to toy with you until you're sobbing and begging me to forgive you."
He dragged the gun slowly down from her chest to her stomach, mocking her.
"Heh! I'll get you soaking wet. Your eyes, and down below."
"You goddamn rutting bastards!"
With the woman who had kept them under her heel now pinned beneath them, Choi Minhyuk's group were in high spirits. They didn't spare a glance for their surroundings. They just groped at Kang Hanna and enjoyed themselves.
"This bitch is still acting high and mighty?!"
Thud.
"Khk! You crazy bastard...!"
"Heh heh. Finally a face worth looking at."
Whether it was rage at the sight of Kang Hanna refusing to break, Choi Minhyuk drove his fist into her stomach and laughed at the face twisted in pain.
"Hanna-noona!"
Thud!
"Are you out of your mind?!"
Lee Jaemin, jolted awake by the commotion, saw Kim Hyunjun and Jeong Jinu pinning Hanna down and threw himself at them at once.