Three Days Was Enough
The kids who had been standing at the entrance like stone guardians suddenly snapped wide awake at a single sensation.
After the end of civilization, the dramatic family reunion was one thing—but the spicy aroma of ramen boiling in the pot was more than enough to make three days of pent-up appetite overflow.
I couldn’t hold back and ended up snatching the half-cooked noodles that Haejun, the first to rush in like a zombie, was fishing out of the pot.
“Want to wait quietly, or go hungry till dinner?”
“...I-I’ll wait, hyungnim.”
Having personally experienced the grip strength that even zombies had loved to death, Haejun answered while barely enduring the pain. I let go of his hand and once again stared sternly at the pot.
As I gazed at mere ramen with a serious expression I hadn’t even worn when surrounded by man-eating corpses at school a few hours earlier, Soeun made a hollow face.
A human who had been slaughtering monsters like that was getting serious for the first time… over just ramen?
But that was only for a moment. As her stomach growled as if to refute her own thoughts with that bitter hunger, Soeun had no choice but to gulp and gradually approach.
…Come to think of it, maybe it is something worth getting a little serious about.
Without paying the slightest attention to whatever the kids were feeling as they stared at the ramen, I—who had been staring only at the pot—finally lifted a big clump of cooked noodles with the tongs.
“Hoooo…”
As I cooled the steaming noodles with my breath, the savory aroma spread massively.
I reverently placed the noodles on top of the instant rice, snapped the wooden chopsticks apart with a crack, and muttered.
“Thanks for the meal.”
Sluuuuurp—
It was such a vigorous suction that Haejun, who had been drooling beside me, flinched.
Ah, I’m filthy hungry, so what.
I saved your lives, right? I’m not nice enough to endure this hunger and show even that kind of minor consideration.
If I were, I’d have attained nirvana long ago. Right?
A little later, after about an hour had passed.
Once the towering mountain of ramen on the table had collapsed like the Tower of Babel, the chopsticks that had been moving in a trance finally stopped.
“…Slurp.”
Even the last remaining noodle vanished into Sujin’s mouth as she rounded her eyes at the suddenly quiet atmosphere. She flushed and avoided my gaze.
“We’ve finished eating, so I’m heading out to take care of the rest of my business.”
“…What?”
Yejin, who had been watching her little sister with a fond expression, whipped her head around in shock.
“You’re going out again? Didn’t you already find them and come back?”
“I wanted to. But if I’d actually done that, those kids would’ve all turned into corpses, so I came first.”
Since I’d already eaten lunch while I was here, I wasn’t in that bad a mood.
I’d polished off five packs of ramen by myself. Smacking my lips at the lingering savoriness still on my mouth, Chaeyeon in the chair right next to me asked in puzzlement.
“Where are you going? School? Oppa, didn’t you come to school because of Yujin and Sujin?”
“That was part of it. The real purpose is separate. I have to go back.”
I gave a rough answer, stood up, stretched once, walked to the entrance, and pulled the fire axe from the umbrella stand.
Then I met the eyes of Yejin, who was looking this way with worry, and said one thing.
“If the kids ask, answer for me. I can’t be bothered explaining.”
“Yes, oppa.”
“It might take a while, so if it gets late, eat dinner first.”
I’d better strip a ton of food on the way back. How many mouths do I suddenly have to feed?
I yawned once from the food coma, then finally locked eyes with Chaeyeon.
“Got something to say?”
Her gaze was so intense I couldn’t just brush past it.
Chaeyeon looked at me with those same sparkling eyes as always and spoke.
“Can I come with you?”
“…Are you crazy?!”
At those words, Soeun cried out in horror instead of me and started shaking Chaeyeon’s arm, but the girl paid her no mind at all and simply waited for my answer.
And instead of answering, I let out a small, empty laugh. Of course I did.
“Forget it. Just tell me if you need anything. I’ll pick it up if I see it on the way.”
“I’m not joking. I want to fight alongside you once, oppa.”
“….”
Only then did I realize she was serious, and I lowered the corner of my mouth that had been lifted. Then I looked around at the kids.
I’d expected everyone to look dumbfounded, but surprisingly, none of them seemed that shocked—except Soeun.
Even Haejun started watching my reaction instead of trying to stop her, so I glanced at the fencing sword Chaeyeon had never let go of even while eating.
“That sword—can you actually use it properly?”
“Probably a lot better than you’re thinking, oppa.”
Only after looking into Chaeyeon’s eyes one more time did I finally understand why her gaze had felt so burdensome.
The identity of the passion blazing in those shining pupils wasn’t mere curiosity or affection.
It was pure, boundless competitive spirit.
Click-clack—thunk—
I opened the front door, stepped out, closed it behind me, and glanced once through the hallway window.
Then I let out a huge yawn that kept rising and trudged down the stairs alone.
Nope. Don’t bother me and stay here.
Ah, I’m really confident I can fight well…!
Yeah. We’ll save that great skill of yours for a look later when the chance comes.
Remembering Chaeyeon’s first sulky face afterward, I couldn’t help snorting out a laugh.
Competitive spirit or whatever—there was zero reason for me to put up with the hassle and inconvenience of taking her along.
If something happened after I brought her, protecting her would all fall on me. Why the hell would I do that?
Still, it was a little interesting. Even Haejun, who looked far more the type, hated making eye contact with me—yet this girl…
Where does that confidence even come from?
A high school girl who’d almost gotten sandwiched top and bottom by that bald corpse, and after I saved her she skipped the romance route and went straight into shonen manga mode.
“Interesting.”
I muttered that as I stepped out of the house, thinking I really ought to check out her fighting skills sometime.
Whether it was just empty bravado from that peculiar personality… or whether she actually had the right to say it.
I’d find out soon enough anyway.
I cut off that train of thought around there, fiddled with the fresh clothes I’d changed into, and was about to take a step when a sudden thought made me freeze.
…Ah, I didn’t bring the bike.
I’d been so distracted by thoughts of someone that I’d forgotten the bicycle I’d left propped around the stair corner and come down without it.
Was it less annoying to go back up and get the bike, or less annoying to just walk?
After desperately turning it over in my head, I finally sighed and trudged toward the school on foot.
Maybe it was because my feet were so heavy with laziness, or maybe I was just drowsy from being full—I don’t know.
I never noticed the gaze staring fixedly at me from the corner of an alley I passed.
That gaze flicked back and forth between the back of my head and the entrance of the house I’d come out of, then hurriedly vanished beyond the alley.
Avoiding the eyes of any corpses that might be around, he vaulted walls one after another and headed somewhere, eventually entering a parking lot.
Then, dodging the headless corpses rolling around everywhere, he went deeper inside—and a low voice reached him.
“Find them?”
“Yeah. It’s a house. One guy left by himself. Probably looking for food.”
“Carrying that little axe scrap?”
The man gulped down bottled water and nodded hard instead of answering. The other man who’d been talking grinned slyly.
“Ha, this is free real estate. Yeah. We deserve a day like this.”
“Keheheheh. Ah, fuck, I can’t hold it anymore.”
One of the men perched on a car hood groped the junk sticking out through his filthy jeans.
“When do we start? Let’s just hit them right now.”
“Wait a bit, you retard. We still need the bare minimum of a plan.”
“Plan my ass. They’re all blue high school kids and only three dicks. One of them even left already.”
That was just a tonic heaven itself had handed down.
“You got no idea how good high school girls are for a man’s body?”
“I get it, so shut up. We’re still not going without a plan.”
The man who had spoken as if he alone were calm finally failed to control his expression and flashed another gum-baring smile.
“Ah, fucking hell, for real. My head won’t work because of you, you retard.”
“How’s that my fault, you retard.”
“Because you brought up high school girls, you fucker. Ah, this is shit. Fuuuck.”
Muttering curses nonstop while desperately turning it over in his head, he suddenly snapped his eyes open.
“…That’ll work. What. It’s ridiculously simple.”
“What. Already done?”
“If it’s a house, there’s only one entrance, right? Then we just block that.”
If they did only that, the ones inside couldn’t escape, and any outside things that heard the noise and came running couldn’t interfere until the job was finished.
“Let’s go right now. I can’t hold it any longer either.”
“Ah, this feels fucking great. For real. This shitty country should’ve gone under ages ago, right?”
“Shouldn’t we bow to that mummy bastard? He sent high school girls down for us to fuck.”
“Then you bow while you pound them. ‘Thank you so much! Hngh! Thank you!’ like that.”
“Puhahahahaha!!”
As they talked and climbed into the parked van, their clothes were all uniformly the same.
Bleak prison uniforms of gray and black.