Reference Point
The lips pressed against mine were cold as frozen cherries. Far colder than my own.
I savored the kiss for a few dazed seconds before I tried to pull away and demand what the hell she thought she was doing.
That was when I sensed something wrong with my vision and froze.
The face in front of me—pale as chalk until now—began to flush red, as if someone were painting it with blood. If that had been the only change, it might have been manageable. The real problem was that the entire room was bleeding the same crimson color. My whole field of vision was drowning in red.
The woman finally broke the kiss, brushed my hand off her shoulder, and wrote something down.
This is a first. Something like this. Normally I'd just feed it with my fingers.
The red in my vision kept deepening until I could barely make out the words she had written.
I was in a hurry. It wasn't working. Ability manifestation.
But. Not bad. The feeling.
She tucked the notebook away and cupped both of my cheeks, stroking them gently. Somehow my body refused to move properly. More precisely, it felt like an overloaded machine grinding and seizing up.
I focused everything into my fingertips, trying to force them to twitch the way you fight free of sleep paralysis—when she suddenly bit down on my lip. Hard. Not a kiss. Teeth. Hard enough to draw blood.
I glared at her, demanding with my eyes what the hell she was playing at and what she had done to me. She was still sucking the blood from my lip with soft little sounds when she suddenly jerked back in shock.
She touched her own lips, fiddling with the frost that had formed there, and stared at me.
"...Kyau?"
What the hell are you?
I ignored her and concentrated, slowly clawing back control of my body. Finger joints, palm, wrist, then the whole arm, then my face—I forced the stuttering nerves to obey until I could finally open my mouth.
"What did you do to my body."
It felt like the blood inside me was boiling. Not a metaphor. Literally, physically boiling.
With that awkward new sensation I managed to raise an arm and seize her pale throat—only for her to throw herself into my arms at the same moment.
I rolled my eyes down to look at her face. She wore the expression of a wide-eyed child who had just discovered the perfect teddy bear.
Not letting go. You're mine for sure. From now on.
I stared at the hastily scrawled notebook page, then checked the bastard glaring at me from the side again.
That was it. That irritating look hadn't been wariness. It had been jealousy.
Right after that, hurried footsteps came pounding down the corridor outside.
The door burst open. Chaeyeon stood there, barely managing to steady her ragged breathing, face twisted as she stared hard at me and the woman.
"...Oppa. What are you doing?"
The atmosphere had gone thoroughly weird. I shoved the woman out of my arms and staggered to my feet.
"It's not what you're thinking."
Control of my body was slowly returning.
I avoided the heavy stare fixed on me from the side and clenched and unclenched my fist.
The stuttering-nerve sensation was almost gone. The boiling-blood feeling, though, was still right there.
What the hell is this?
"....."
I turned to Chaeyeon, who was still cursing me with her eyes, and said,
"I told you it's not like that. Common sense—do you really think I'd do something like that with some suspicious woman in a situation this dangerous?"
Correct. We did. Just a kiss, though.
"Right. We didn't even use tongues, just lips—wait, no, that's not the point."
The agreement had come so naturally that I realized my mistake too late.
Chaeyeon stared at the expressionless woman like she genuinely wanted to kill her, then let out a long sigh and lowered the sword she had been pointing.
She jerked her head away, refusing to look at us, and muttered sullenly,
"What, did you use some kind of charm skill? Or did the two of you just happen to fall for each other at first sight?"
"I'm not crazy enough to pull something like that. And it wasn't love at first sight either. Just..."
I tried to explain, but I couldn't. Something had definitely been done to me.
"...So what exactly did you do to me."
I looked at the woman and asked. She had been fiddling with her own lips the whole time; now she met my eyes.
Safety device. Contract. Friend.
"That sudden lip-smash... no, feeding me blood is a safety device?"
Affirmative. Sharing blood. Friend.
She pointed a finger at the tattoo on the back of my left hand.
Possible. Because you have the qualification.
I looked down at the coffin mark. Sure enough, the tattoo had turned red.
It means you're on my side. You. Now.
I narrowed my eyes at the back of my hand, then met Chaeyeon's gaze again.
"...What is she talking about, Oppa."
"I don't know either."
Simply feeding me blood couldn't have been nothing more than a mark. Not with this boiling blood, and not with the meaningful look in that woman's eyes. Both left a thoroughly unpleasant feeling.
"And that's all it is?"
She didn't answer the follow-up question. She just let a faint smile touch her eyes and let it pass.
...Fine. I'll let it slide. For now.
I'll go with you. Now. As you wanted.
Chaeyeon flinched hard at those words, uncrossed her arms, and said,
"What, you're really going to follow him just because of one kiss?!"
"...Of course not. We already talked about it before that."
"Talked about what. What, love at first sight? That kind of talk?"
What is this. Why does she sound so cold? It was the first time I'd ever seen Chaeyeon this prickly. I stayed silent for a few seconds, then said,
"I'm taking her as a scout-type. Crow will fill you in on the details."
Crow?
I ignored her tilted head and also ignored the way she was now casually licking the red frost off her lips like ice cream. I pointed at the mutt.
"What about that one. Are you bringing it or not."
Of course. Because it's a friend.
"Then what about the things in the hallway?"
She patted the growling mutt's head until it settled, glanced out at the corridor beyond the door, and shook her head.
Sacrifices. Simple ones. Not friends.
Then she walked over, dragging the bedsheet she had wrapped around herself, and opened her mouth.
"Kyaau."
Chaeyeon frowned at the sudden animal sound. A second later she couldn't help flinching.
The mummies lined up tight against the walls all snapped their heads toward the woman at once, then raised both arms and clamped their own skulls.
And then—
Crack!
The sound of dry branches snapping. Every single mummy collapsed with its neck twisted completely around.
Done now?
The woman looked at me while constantly readjusting the bedsheet that kept slipping down.
Once we were outside the hospital, the woman kept looking around like everything was fascinating and fired questions at me nonstop.
What is that?
"Just a signboard. Stores use them."
And that?
"A motorcycle. Something you ride."
That?
"Manhole cover."
?
"...Vending machine."
The endless questions were annoying enough on their own. What bothered me more was the mutt walking beside me with her on its back.
It kept snuffling around my feet and baring its teeth like it wanted to bite me any second. I was this close to just kicking it, but—
As I kept reminding myself, she was coming as a guest. Even if the pet had zero manners, I couldn't just lash out.
Meanwhile Chaeyeon was trailing a little farther behind, either because the woman had stolen her spot next to me or simply because she was in a bad mood. I turned my head toward her.
"How about coming a little closer."
"I don't particularly want to, but if it's Oppa's order I guess I have no choice..."
"No, it's not an order. Do whatever you want."
"Then I won't."
She sulkily avoided my eyes and kicked at random pebbles on the asphalt.
The woman watched her with clear amusement and asked,
Girlfriend?
"Don't even joke about that. She's just a companion."
Doesn't seem like it.
"What do you mean it doesn't."
I snorted and picked up the pace. We still had a long way to go; I had no intention of wasting it on pointless chatter.
That was when I suddenly felt a presence. I looked up and locked eyes with several people.
I ignored the fact that I had sensed them even though I hadn't heard a single sound. Looking closer, every one of them was a man, and all their gazes were glued to one side.
Well, of course. A half-naked woman riding a mutt bigger than most motorcycles was going to freeze anyone's eyes in place.
But from the looks of it, they weren't exactly in a position to care about us.
"Grrraaaagh."
"Hhk—?!"
Whether they had been clearing the building or hiding after being chased, a zombie from a higher floor came tumbling over the railing and dropped right onto them. The men recoiled in panic.
A second later corpses started raining down like grain at harvest, and the men scrambled back inside the building.
A few that fell all the way to the ground started crawling toward us on shattered legs and arms.
Chaeyeon drew her sword with extra force, like she needed something to take her frustration out on.
Then she stopped walking and just stared blankly ahead.
"Grrk."
"Grrk."
The woman sat astride the mutt like some noble lady, leisurely surveying the surroundings. She ignored the corpses that had collapsed in dead worship before her and held out her notebook to me.
Let's go. Ignore them.
No interest. Things like that.
...As long as I got her home, I was sure I'd find some use for her.