Plus
Anyway, after finishing the shopping I left the department store.
Before any of the part-timers or the gorilla could spot me and come over, I slipped out fast and ducked into an alley.
With my back loaded down by the meat stuffed in the bag and the clothes hanging from hangers, a heavy shopping bag swinging from one hand as I walked the streets, the survivors barely clinging to life in their hiding spots must have been wondering what the hell that bastard was.
At first they just figured me for another common suicide-hopeful who’d gone completely mad. But once they saw me smash the charging zombies with the fire axe in my other hand, they came pouring out of every shop they’d been hiding in, desperate to latch on somehow and find a way to live.
Their scrambling was so frantic it was hard to tell them apart from the zombies.
But that was their problem. I wasn’t about to let them trail after me quietly.
One burden was already enough. I had zero intention of adding more.
Without even meeting their eyes I raised the blood-dripping axe and pointed it at them. They hesitated and backed off. It felt a little awkward, but freeloading off someone else’s spine was still a hard pass for me.
I locked eyes for a moment with a little girl staring at me teary-eyed, then tossed her a chocolate ball I’d stashed in my pocket for dessert.
Looking at me with those eyes won’t do you any good, so cut it out.
Was the reason I’d ended up with this power some noble purpose to save kids like her?
Or was it just a miracle—or pure coincidence?
That’s for me to decide. It’s not something woven by someone else’s will.
This is my body, and I’m the owner. I’ll live however the hell I please.
As the girl snatched up the chocolate ball and hurried back to the parents calling her, I flung the axe at a corpse staring hard at the child’s back from a corner of the street.
I still didn’t feel a single trace of that unique stinging emotion people call sympathy.
But those damn eyes locking onto a kid made irritation boil up whether I liked it or not.
“I’ll gouge those eyes out.”
I muttered it as I walked up to the one that had collapsed with the axe blade buried in its chest.
Beep-beep—clack!
“I’m back.”
At first I’d planned to shout for meat to be grilled the second I opened the door, but that felt a little off, so I settled for a simple greeting. No answer came back.
“...?”
The place felt empty. I walked toward the kitchen and found a note sitting there.
I’m sorry, Oppa T_T Being alone was too scary so I asked the people upstairs. If it was okay to stay with them just until Oppa comes back… Sorry for doing as I pleased!
“.....”
Writing like she’d committed some capital crime when there was nothing to be sorry about was something I’d gotten used to by now. Still, if Yejin was upstairs right this moment, I wondered whether I should go up and bring her back myself.
While I was turning that over, the sudden sound of someone rushing down the stairs outside the front door reached me.
Then the doorknob rattled, followed by a sudden stretch of silence. I let out a small snort of laughter.
She doesn’t know the password, does she?
I walked over and opened the front door for her. Yejin stood there breathing hard, wearing an awkward smile.
“Haa… haa… You’re back?”
“Yeah.”
I almost teased her about how frantically she’d come down, but there was a far more important ceremony waiting, so I held it in and grabbed her wrist instead.
“Are you hurt anywh—ah?!”
“Hurt? What are you talking about. Did you already forget what my body is like?”
“S-still… you never know.”
“Forget it. Just help me set up already. If we drag this out any longer I might actually die.”
“Y-yes…?”
Set up? Drag out? Die? Yejin’s thoughts spun in circles before she suddenly went pale.
“Don’t tell me you mean surgical setup? Oppa, did you get stabbed or something?!”
“...I might die of hunger. Calm down.”
Her hands were frantically patting down my upper body. I muttered in pure disbelief.
She froze with an “Ah,” face flushing deep red as she pulled back.
“Normally when someone says ‘set up,’ don’t you think of a meal first? Or were you a total drama addict before?”
“...That’s really not it. I was too busy with part-time jobs to watch any dramas…”
I kept glancing at her as she fidgeted with her fingers in embarrassment, quickly laying out the gas burner and dishes on the table.
“Then what were you thinking that made you jump to that conclusion? Don’t tell me acting all demure around me is just an act and you’re actually into gore or something.”
“What…! Why would I put on an act with you, Oppa! No—when would I even have had the time for that!”
“Hey, look at the situation. Suddenly groping my body like that, too. I mean…”
Yejin couldn’t take the teasing any longer. She waved her hands wildly and raised her voice.
“I said it was all because I was only thinking about you, Oppa!”
“...?”
Silence again.
She seemed startled by her own words. She clapped a hand over her mouth, then lowered it and launched into a rapid-fire explanation.
“No, I mean not like that—while I was waiting I was just so worried about you that…”
“Got it, so grab these tongs already. We’re barely going to make it grilling and eating at the same time.”
I wanted to keep teasing her, but the perishable meat sleeping peacefully in my bag needed saving, so the tongs and chopsticks had to start moving fast.
Sizzle—
Under my constant nagging, Yejin quietly grilled the meat with her lower lip stuck out and refusing to go back in.
I had no idea why she’d suddenly done that, so I just stared. She kept sneaking glances at me before finally speaking.
“W-what. I’m grilling the meat just fine.”
“No, I was just curious why your lip suddenly stuck out like that.”
“...It’s nothing. It just itched a little…”
Watching her make excuses and avoid my eyes, I couldn’t help a small laugh.
She was probably sulking over my reaction ranking lower than a piece of meat.
Still, it looked good on her. Everyday behavior like this was several times better than yesterday, when she’d been carefully trying not to step on a single one of my nerves.
“And here I thought you were just sexually frustrated the whole time.”
“What is that supposed to mean?! I’m not—”
At that point she understood without me finishing and dropped her head.
But what was I supposed to do? When she stuck out those lips gleaming with grease, that was the only thought that came to mind.
Watching her—so easy to tease, zero game whatsoever—I kept inhaling meat without pause.
Exactly like a castaway gulping down an oasis in the middle of the desert without even a water bottle, I was annihilating the pork belly. Yejin watched me with complicated eyes while flipping the meat at high speed.
It wasn’t the skill of someone who’d only worked a couple of part-time jobs, but even that sharp speed couldn’t keep up with my intake rate.
We spent a while just eating and grilling in silence. Then Yejin brought me a cup of water as I was dumping rice into my mouth along with the meat, and she spoke.
“Um… Oppa. How about sharing some with the people upstairs too?”
“Those siblings?”
Why bother?
I openly frowned. I barely had enough for myself, and now this…
Of course Yejin had no idea I planned to finish every last scrap of this meat right now, which was why she was saying it.
Even after seeing my reaction, she didn’t stop.
“If we leave it, it’s obviously going to spoil soon. If we’re going to throw it away anyway, wouldn’t it be better to use it for a trade?”
“A trade? Not just giving it away?”
“...Huh? Just give it away? Why would we just hand over something you risked your life to bring back? Absolutely not.”
“Hmm… I see.”
Honestly I hadn’t risked my life that much. I’d briefly forgotten what kind of person she was.
“The reason I went upstairs—sure, being scared was part of it, but I also wanted to check if they had anything useful.”
A woman left alone after her man disappeared, trembling with fear and begging to be let in—from the perspective of people who’d already received help, they had no choice but to allow it.
I could only blink and listen as she said it so casually.
Right. She was always like this. Seems a bit airheaded on the surface, but she’s also quietly sharp.
“Nice work. So, was there actually something useful?”
Useful enough to trade meat for, no less.
At my completely subjective value calculation she smiled bashfully and answered.
“Just like us, every electronic device was fried. But there was exactly one thing still working.”
“Ah, don’t tell me.”
“Yes. That’s it.”
Not just for zombies—across every end-of-the-world scenario from nuclear war on down, the one thing no survivor can do without. The last straw and the spark of hope.
A radio.
“I’d been watching that guy just spinning the dial and clinging to it for dozens of minutes. Then I spotted you coming from the veranda and came down.”
And right before she rushed out the front door, she’d heard a human voice cut through the static that had only been crackling until then.
Hearing that, I couldn’t hold back any longer.
“We’re going right now. Pack every last bit of the remaining meat.”
“Okay. Got it.”
For the first time since the end began, we could get information on how the world was turning. What could possibly matter more?
Before the apocalypse or after, in this modern world information was worth more than anything else.
I gathered the meat with Yejin, who followed my words without complaint, then paused when I saw what was left on the grill.
I started wrapping it again, stopped once more, and said one thing to her.
“Still, finishing what’s left before we go would be the polite thing to do for the meat, don’t you think?”
“.....”
At that, she finally covered her mouth and couldn’t help laughing.