All Streams Flow to the Sea

Minji, exhausted from crying, fell asleep ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in Ye-jeong's arms.

I was watching Minji sleep in her mother's arms, looking like a cute little hamster, when she suddenly bolted awake.

"Oh!"

She let out a sudden gasp.

What just happened?

Minji stared blankly into the empty air.

Ah, I knew that look. She was looking at a status window. Had Minji finally awakened an ability of her own?

I gently pulled her into a light embrace and spoke.

"Congratulations, Minji."

Minji looked up at me, her eyes filled with the kind of deep, affectionate warmth my mother used to show me when I was a child.

"How did you know right away?"

"Staring blankly into thin air? What else could it be but a status window? Heheh."

"It says... it's an ability to erase my presence."

"Oh, that's a great one. Isn't that an assassin's skill? Did you have someone you wanted to kill?"

Minji stared intently at me. Surely she doesn't mean me, right? Especially when she's already bound by my Brand?

"Minji, staring at me so passionately like that makes even me a little embarrassed, you know?"

Minji quickly turned her head away.

Feeling a bit bored, I went to the adjacent room to check on Lee Jeong-ah. She happened to be taking a nap, and just as I was about to wake her up with a playful slap to her ass, the memory of Jihye straddling me and raining down punches flashed through my mind. I immediately backed out of the room.

It felt a bit awkward to go right back into Minji's room, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so I just paced up and down the hallway and stairs for a walk. Walking had always been a hobby of mine anyway, back when I used to jog along the walls of the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress.

When I finally returned to Minji's room, no one was there except Jihye. Strangely, Jihye was wearing Ye-jeong's form-fitting Dongtan Missy Look dress. To make matters worse, the hem of the skirt had ridden all the way up to her mid-thighs.

Uh... honestly, walking away from a situation like this would mean forfeiting my manhood. I'd have to chop my own dick off.

Using my thumb and index finger, I pinched the edge of the skirt and slowly lifted it, making sure not to wake Jihye.

Rustle... rustle...

As I carefully pulled it up, a pair of white cotton panties came into view.

Wait, aren't these Minji's panties?

Jihye usually wore black lace, mesh, or thongs, dismissing plain white cotton as childish underwear she'd never wear.

For some reason, the image of Minji's tear-filled eyes from earlier flashed in my mind. Minji, wailing like a mother who had lost her child.

Fearing she might wake up if I pulled the dress all the way up to her chest, I gently lifted her hips, parted her legs slightly, and meticulously slid the panties down.

Her smooth, fully waxed pussy was revealed.

I slowly aligned myself and slid inside, inch by inch, trying not to wake her. I began to move with deliberate, cautious strokes.

Jihye didn't let out a single moan. Well, of course. She was asleep, after all.

Mmph... ah... hah...

Only the quiet, muffled sounds of my own breathing echoed in the room.

Spurt! Spurt!

Ah, I finally came. Sneaking in a quick somnophilia session while she was asleep felt absolutely amazing. Heheh. Jihye probably had no idea, right?

Just as I was about to stealthily pull her panties back up, Jihye's hand suddenly clamped down on my wrist.

"Oh, Jihye?"

"How could you ravish a sleeping girl like that? You've completely woken me up now. You'd better take responsibility."

In the end, I had proper sex with Jihye for the first time in a while. It seemed I had finally overcome my trauma, as my erection was rock-hard and reliable. But Jihye refused to let me go, forcing me to keep pounding her even after Ye-jeong and Minji walked in and watched us.

When Jihye smiled at Ye-jeong, Ye-jeong smiled warmly back at her. I felt a deep sense of pride, knowing I had preserved our harmonious family dynamic once again today.

After we finished, I cracked open a bottle of water to share with Jihye. Then, we went into the bathroom together to take a shower, but when I turned the tap, not a single drop of water came out.

Did the useless parasites in this building seriously drain the entire massive water tank in just four days? I was furious, but then I realized there was no point in wasting my anger on people who were going to die soon anyway from drinking radioactive water.

"Minji, bring me a few bottles of water."

"How many?"

"Just a reasonable amount."

We had to use only a tiny bit of shampoo and body wash, rinsing ourselves off as best as we could with the bottled water. As Jihye and I washed each other, she smiled brightly, looking genuinely happy.

After washing up, I felt bored, so I turned on the radio I had set up in Minji's room. It was originally ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in my apartment, but I had brought it over. I couldn't leave it in Room 209 since the metal wires inside the power cord could potentially be used to pick handcuffs.

Crank... crank...

I spun the hand crank to charge it, but the static was terrible, and I couldn't get a clear frequency. Annoyed, I tossed it into a corner.

The next day.

Today was Thursday. Was it March 24th already?

I went to grab a drink, only to find we were completely out of bottled water. Ah! So that was why Minji had asked me to clarify how many bottles I wanted yesterday. And here I was, thinking she was just a brainless, useless recruit who couldn't comprehend what "a reasonable amount" meant.

Looking out the window, I saw black rain pouring down. I'd have to ask Juho about this.

I threw on some clothes and crossed over to my apartment.

"Juho, there's black rain falling outside. What should we do?"

"What do you mean, 'what should we do?' It's actually a good thing. Rain washes the fallout out of the atmosphere, clearing the air. Highly concentrated fallout will accumulate on the ground, but that's still better than breathing it in. Besides, the radiation levels are dropping day by day. Normally, they say it's safe to leave a nuclear bunker after about two weeks."

"So we still have to wait nine more days?"

"If it's an absolute emergency, we could push it and go out on the seventh day, but I wouldn't recommend it."

"We're completely out of water. What do we do?"

"Remember when we went door-to-door last Saturday to tell everyone to seal their windows and vents? Why don't we break into the apartments we identified as empty back then and loot them?"

Yes, he really was the Zhuge Liang of our little group. I'll reward you with a woman later, kid. One that I have no interest in eating myself, of course.

I mobilized my forces: my general, Jihye; my soldier, Minji; and my laborers, Ye-jeong, Jeonga, and Jihun. I left our Zhuge Liang behind. Even if he didn't have the "bone of rebellion" like Wei Yan, a traitor's son is still a traitor.

I double-checked the notepad Jihye had written on.

I equipped myself with my Hwando saber and Gukgung traditional bow, taking only three arrows out of my quiver of twenty.

I handed Minji a dagger.

Jihye wore her police uniform, strapped on her revolver, and held her whip.

Ye-jeong took a liking to the fire axe, so she carried that.

I left the sledgehammer in Minji's apartment and handed the crowbar to Choi Jihun.

What about Jeonga? That elegant lady was far too delicate to carry such brutal weapons.

"From now on, we're going to break into the empty apartments to secure water and food. It'll be troublesome if we make a scene and draw the neighbors out, so I will give all orders silently using hand gestures and eye contact."

When we reached Room 202, I noticed they hadn't replaced the handle with a digital lock; instead, they had installed a separate deadbolt-style digital lock above the handle. In this case, there were two locking points, meaning we'd need two crowbars to pry it open.

As I scanned our gear, my eyes fell on the fire axe Ye-jeong was holding. One side was a standard axe blade, but the other was a pick. Come to think of it, firefighters used these axes specifically for breaching doors, didn't they?

I gestured to Choi Jihun. Having survived both the military and corporate life, the man was quick on the uptake. He immediately wedged his crowbar into the gap near the deadbolt. I handed my Hwando to Ye-jeong, took the fire axe from her, and jammed the pick end into the gap near the door handle, just below Jihun's crowbar.

Using the leverage of both tools, we pried with all our might. Within seconds, the front ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠door gave way with a dull groan.

Gripping the fire axe and crowbar tightly, Jihun and I slipped inside. But to our disappointment, the apartment was completely vacant. There was absolutely nothing inside.

From Room 203 onward, the process was automatic. Jihun would wedge his crowbar, I would follow with the fire axe, and with a silent three-finger countdown, we would pry the door open.

Fortunately, Room 203 was a jackpot!

There was water and food. Since the power had been out for five days, most of the food in the fridge had spoiled, but we managed to salvage non-perishables like instant ramen and instant rice.

We skipped Rooms 204 and 205 since they were occupied.

We breached Room 206 next. Another bust—completely vacant.

I desperately wanted to kill the day laborer ajussi in Room 207, but since we still had food and water, I didn't want to resort to murder just yet. After all, I was a civilized man!

Fuck! Room 208 was vacant too! How did this building even stay in business with so many empty units?

Out of the 38 units from the second to the fifth floor—excluding my place and Minji's—we looted every single unoccupied apartment. Nine were completely vacant, and seven were fully furnished but abandoned, their owners likely vaporized in the nuclear strike on Seoul.

"This should keep us going for a little while," I muttered. "But water is a much bigger issue than food. We can get through today, but I don't know what we'll do tomorrow."

Jihye answered without hesitation.

"What is there to worry about? We can just kill that sassy bitch in Room 201 and the sexual predator in Room 207, then take all their supplies."

Damn, this girl is absolutely out of her mind. A cop, suggesting we commit murder and armed robbery just five days into the apocalypse. Even I had only killed zombies so far; I hadn't murdered a living human yet.

"You're lucky you're a woman. If you were a man..."

I cut myself off, realizing it wasn't the right time to say it.

"If I were a man, what?"

"Nothing. If you were a man, we would have parted ways and gone our separate paths."

To heaven or hell, that is.

Jihye shot me a suspicious look, but there was no way in hell she could read my mind.