Joo Joohye (1)
Joo Joohye (1) — Over Incheon
Just how high is his skill level…?
Joo Joohye kept glancing around, taking in the sight of thirty people being carried safely through the air. It was a miracle she couldn't have hoped to imitate even in her wildest dreams.
If I… if I'd had an ability like that too….
She wouldn't have shut herself away inside the Great Temple like an idiot, wasting her time on nothing but prayers. Her head fell back, her emptiness turned skyward, and she stared up at the heavens. The blue sky that had always been beyond her outstretched fingertips now felt close enough to grasp, adorned all the more mysteriously by the white clouds drifting across it.
It had truly been so long since she'd looked at the sky instead of the ground.
Did the zombies hear my footsteps? How many magazines do I have left?
How long had it been since she'd walked through hell with murderous thoughts pounding in her skull — since she'd simply admired nature like this?
"Hhk— sob— hhk—"
Even floating through the sky, Seo Hyewon couldn't stop crying. The manic energy that had possessed her earlier had vanished completely, leaving behind eyes drowning in guilt.
"Hyewon, it's okay. None of this is your fault."
"Hhk, I know. I-I know that, but…."
Yes — this was exactly what she remembered: the Hyewon who had been kind to the point of foolishness. Joo Joohye smiled softly and said it again.
"You don't need to feel guilty at all. That man was just using you."
Yes. The one who was truly rotten was that man over there, who was surely listening to this very conversation. Hyewon had simply been caught in his cold-blooded design — the result of him relentlessly probing her weakest, most fragile places.
A word surfaced in her mind, the one that described him most precisely. Pseudo — something that merely resembles the real thing.
'Why should I be your daughter? I'm my mom and dad's daughter.'
A narcissist who spoke of salvation as if it belonged to him. A psychopath who went beyond killing to savor slaughter. All those negative words tangled together and spread into a single picture — blood flowing from the search team, crossing the crucifix, rising toward that man suspended in the air.
The Antichrist.
She had only ever half-listened to the pastor's spittle-flecked sermons, but even she understood. The enemy of Christ. The false prophet.
The devil had been much closer than she'd ever imagined.
"Wh-whoaaa—"
Awe spilled out from the group around her, and only then did Joo Joohye snap out of her thoughts, hurriedly taking her grandmother's and grandfather's hands.
"J-Joohye, look at that."
At her grandmother's words, she lowered her head. The same wonder that filled the others flashed across her eyes as well. Directly beneath them stretched an enormous orange barrier — a membrane brimming with some special power, its purpose unmistakable at a glance. Beyond it, countless zombies writhed and clawed, desperately trying to force their way inside.
As if granting them time to take it all in, the group hung motionless for a moment, then began their slow descent. Falling gently as feathers, they passed softly through the barrier.
"Ooooooh—"
The eyes of the group, arrived in the Sanctuary, melted into rapture. Beneath the shield stood a holy white temple — a grand, strangely modern, refined structure radiating majesty, framed by vibrant lawns and lush trees. They alighted upon that feast of pure white and fresh green, welcomed by a lawn soft beneath their feet. A crowd in white robes, chatting on benches, looked up and beamed at them.
"Oh — good afternoon, Cult Leader!"
At one man's greeting, the people gathered throughout the garden flocked toward him with smiles in unison.
"Yes, a good afternoon indeed. Have you all had lunch?"
"Oh no, Cult Leader — how could we possibly presume to eat when you weren't here…"
"Hahaha, it's all over your faces, believer Lee Gyeongmin. The Vice-Cult Leader told you there'd be no meals until I returned, didn't he?"
"Aw, damn it—! You caught me, everyone!"
"Hahaha! I should've had more sense and come back a little sooner!"
Hahaha—
Laughter bloomed and spread among them in an instant. Unable to reconcile herself with this peaceful atmosphere, Joo Joohye turned her head. Outside the barrier, the zombies stared in at them with bulging eyes.
"KEEEEEEAAARGH!"
Bang— bang— bang— The phantom gunshots rang automatically in her ears. That was the 'everyday' that had made up who she was — and then…
"Hahaha— was pork belly on the menu today?"
"You should have seen Seo Taesan's face, Cult Leader. He was practically drooling down his chin while preparing the food."
"Haha — I can picture it perfectly just from hearing it."
…the 'everyday' these people lived. She looked back and forth between the two.
After laughing and chatting for a while, the man pointed at them and said, "These are the new family members who will be joining us from today. Please tell the Vice-Cult Leader to prepare more places at the table."
"Ahh— so many of you! I'll hurry and spread this wonderful news!"
The bespectacled believer who had been conversing with him darted off into the building. After only the briefest moment, small sounds began to reach Joo Joohye's ears.
Ssssss—
She knew immediately, just from listening. Meat hitting a hot griddle, tiny beads of juice crackling and popping. Smoke from grilling meat dancing white above the pan. And as she imagined it, white smoke actually drifted out of the building toward them like a heat haze, carrying a familiar smell within it.
Grrrrrrumble—
At someone's mortifying stomach growl, flushes of embarrassment crept across every face.
Clap—!
A small burst of applause drew the group's attention. The white-robed man who had guided them here spoke with a bright smile.
"An unfamiliar place, unfamiliar people. I know full well the confusion and anxiety that must be ruling over you right now."
It was a completely different tone from the booming voice from before — gentle, soothing.
"I could explain every detail so you'd fully understand your situation, but before that… a saying suddenly comes to mind. 'Even the most breathtaking views come after a good meal.' Ah — was that too out of nowhere?"
Every word out of that man's mouth is calculated to ensnare people. Joo Joohye could feel it. She felt it clearly, and yet…
"Right! Let's eat first, shall we?"
Watching him smile warmly as he gestured toward the building, she felt her guard loosen. If even she, vigilant as she was, was softening like this, the others didn't stand a chance.
With their faces thoroughly melted, the people of Star Light Church followed the man's guidance toward the building. Joo Joohye clung tightly to her family's arms, as if making a vow.
Ssssss—
The delicious sounds grew clearer with every step inside. Brightly gleaming white corridors, and at their center, a colossal statue. The people seated at the long tables arranged around that statue applauded in unison at the sight of them.
Clap— clap— clap— clap—
"Yay~ welcome!"
"Welcome! Everyone, welcome!"
Amid that overwhelmingly warm welcome, some of them rose to guide the newcomers to their seats. As the group shuffled awkwardly into their chairs, the griddle came into view — and the pork belly sizzling on it, golden brown and glistening with juice. That pale brown color conjured the texture all on its own, and their mouths watered without permission.
Screech—
At some point the Cult Leader, seated at the head of the table, pushed back his chair and rose. Beside him sat a woman in finer white vestments than any other believer, and another woman in an office look. The two of them took his hands in theirs and gazed up at him — and at the same moment, everyone around Joo Joohye and her family joined hands as well.
Coming from a Christian family, she found it deeply familiar, and yet somehow alien.
"I have to wonder — who might you all be?"
He swept his gaze slowly across the crowd.
"Whose devoted prayers, I ask myself, could possibly have nagged our Vice-Cult Leader into cooking a delicious lunch for all of you?"
Hahaha—
The instant his words ended, laughter rang out around the hall, and he gestured to the women at his sides.
"Today is a day of such joy. New family members have arrived, and I've learned that your faith has grown all the more vivid. On a day of festival like this, surely the Vice-Cult Leader and the Saint may join us as well?"
"Of course! Welcome!"
A man beside the bespectacled one from the garden shouted it out, and the Cult Leader turned a sly expression on him.
"Do you welcome the pork belly, or do you welcome the executives?"
"Both!"
Hahahahaha—
As laughter rolled through the hall once more, the Cult Leader spread his arms wide.
"Right! There's meat to spare, so everyone eat as much as your hearts desire, without holding back!"
The moment he finished, countless chopsticks shot toward the griddle. A joyful meal began, wrapped in lively chatter.
"Joohye, you eat too. Hurry."
"…Ah, I'm fine. You go ahead, Grandpa."
Joo Joohye smiled faintly at the pork belly piled on her white rice, then glanced toward the right corner of the first floor — at the pork belly stacked high on the self-serve counter — and then side-eyed the Cult Leader, murmuring something quietly to the woman in the office look.
What exactly are you plotting, I wonder?
With a small sigh, she laid a well-cooked piece of meat on top of Seo Hyewon's rice — Hyewon, who was just poking listlessly at her meal beside her.
"Oh, y-you should eat first, unni…."
"No. You eat plenty too, without worrying. They told us to stuff ourselves."
Worrying changed nothing. And there was no reason to snub kindness that was being freely offered. She lifted the tongs and laid the heap of pork belly from her plate onto the griddle.
It's not like I could beat that monster anyway….
With that small resignation, the joyful festival carried on. The mountain of pork belly gradually shrank as people patted their bellies with happy expressions, and the faces of the Star Light Church survivors, their hunger finally banished, glowed smoothly for the first time in ages. Then the robed believers began handing each of them a sheet of paper.
Hanmaum Guwon Cult — Prospective Believer Survey
"Hanmaum Guwon Cult…."
Figures. They really are a cult — every last one of them.
Once the whole Star Light Church group had received their surveys, the woman on the Cult Leader's right rose from her seat and drew all eyes.
The Vice-Cult Leader of the Hanmaum Guwon Cult.
An office look that clung to every line, and a haughty, aloof face. Joo Joohye had once been teased by her college friends for being the type to leave people's KakaoTalk messages on read, but in her eyes, this woman fit that image even better.
"Pleased to meet you, prospective believers. Welcome to the Hanmaum Guwon Cult — the only zombie-safe zone on Earth."
With a clear, trustworthy voice, she began her explanation.
"There is nothing to fear. We will not forcibly take a single thing from you. On the contrary — we wish to share happiness and abundance together with you."
She raised the survey in her hand and, with the pen in the other, pointed to each question one by one as she spoke.
"Here at our Salvation Cult, we intend to assign each of you your own private living quarters. If you agree, please circle 'yes' and move on to the next question. If there is someone you would especially like to live with, please write down their name. And…"
Questions followed about any special amenities or foods they desired, the toiletries and cosmetics they'd need for washing up, and so on.
Nothing about it felt remotely cult-like — the questions were almost laughably generous — and Joo Joohye's mouth fell slightly open.
R-right. Of course. Cults always make their surveys look perfectly normal at first.
While she was steeling her resolve, her grandfather raised his hand slightly. The robed believer assigned to each table hurried over to him.
"Yes — what's your question?"
An intelligent, bespectacled woman with striking beauty.
"Ah, well… you see, we're family."
"Yes, yes."
"If it wouldn't be rude to ask, even as family — might we have separate rooms?"
"G-Grandpa!"
Joo Joohye cried out in shock, her voice pitching loud. Separate rooms?! In a place like this, teeming with cultists, sticking together would barely be enough!
Come to think of it, it was strange — a man who'd been the second most devout person she knew was being quieter about this than she was.
"Heh heh heh, Joohye. You're a fully grown young lady and you still want to sleep with your grandparents that badly?"
"Th-that's not what I meant—"
Even as she pinched his thigh repeatedly under the table where the robed woman couldn't see, her grandfather just kept smiling without a word and took her grandmother's hand across from him.
"Look at your grandmother's hands. Those beautiful hands…. I made her suffer her whole life, you know. I promised that when I retired, I'd finally let her live in comfort…. Now, at last, I want to give her a space where she can rest on her own, in peace."
The old couple's eyes brimmed with tears.
The grandfather who had once declared he'd take them around the world on a giant cruise ship, fulfilling his wife's lifelong dream — and the grandmother who'd smacked him on the back, scolding that they had no money and he was being ridiculous. The world that had actually unfolded before them held, instead, the son and daughter-in-law who had left this life before them. And days upon days of living on without dying, reduced to the chain that choked their granddaughter.
"Joohye. We've lived our lives wrongly all this time. We prayed to a false god, and we were punished for it."
"……"
Faced with a vulnerability in her grandfather she had never once seen before, Joo Joohye couldn't bring herself to answer. She knew his pain, his anguish, his sincerity. But this — this wasn't right.
"Grandpa…"
"I understand, brother. There was a time when I, too, walked down a wrong path with total conviction."
"Oh — really?"
The bespectacled woman believer's answer came faster than Joo Joohye's could. At that warm sense of kinship, her grandfather's eyes lit up.
"But now, there isn't a speck of doubt left in my heart."
"Oooooh — how…?"
"The Cult Leader told me. That the very act of praying is itself the greatest act of courage. By entrusting every thought and every feeling to Him, and simply praying — I was made whole."
"……Prayer."
That was what her grandfather had been doing all his life. A lifetime of devotion, never once rewarded. And now the woman believer gently took in her hands those hands steeped in decades of toil.
"What matters is direction, you see. Simply turn that full and overflowing faith of yours toward the right direction, brother, and you will be saved completely."
"…Direction. I see. It was the direction that mattered."
The woman believer's head turned toward the center of the hall. The white-robed man at the head of the table, watching them with a benevolent smile. Her grandfather turned to look at him — and broke into a wide, beaming grin.
"…So that's how it was, sister."
Believer and grandfather now wore the same smile, like a decalcomania pressed from a single image. Watching those distorted smiles bloom in mirror image, Joo Joohye felt an inexplicable chill crawl up her spine.