Her Circumstances
Her Circumstances
Heukbungi Ureoyot* - [Today, my mother died. Or maybe, yesterday.]
(Photo of a woman spilling her intestines.)
Kyaah! Finally, liberation! Isn't Zombie World just totally lucky Vicki~!
ㅇㅇ(78.294) : Is this guy nuts lol His own mom is dying and he's posting proof pics lol
ㄴㅇㅇ(175.342) : Isn't this fake? How can you be so happy about your mom dying?
ㄴㅇㅇ(92.12) : Believe it or not, he's a filial son. He took care of his mom with dementia for 10 years.
ㄴㅇㅇ(175.342) : If that's true, that's kinda sad
Nongjjuk Nongjjuk* : It's a chicken coop...
Sunae Wins* - [I fucked my something-boyfriend]
(Picture of a humiliated man and a V-sign)
Oohyo www Mi-jeong-kun, are you watching? Such absurd, sticky... feeling good? The red bean paste is really thick and so good www
Spashuba* : Sis, foot? What is this??
ㅇㅇ(132.44) : No what the fuck is that a hand or a foot? Please lose some weight.
Bunker Guy* : This bitch finally did it. I feel so fucking sorry for that guy.
Can Do Anything* : As expected, women do the big deeds!
God Is Good* : Heaven for Jesus, hell for non-believers.
Apo Teacher Day 1* - [Recruiting bright and lively survivors]
Location> Mapo Oil Tank Culture Park. Plenty of food. Relatively few zombies. Anyone welcome.
! Women receive preferential treatment. Young, younger women receive extreme preferential treatment.
010-xxxx-xxxx
Please send a message.
However, no men allowed.
Make sure to!! read the notice!!
Cheese Gratin* : Gays... if you want to have sex just say so...
Im Choi-mom* : Crazy pedo-lolicon bastard is disgustingly fucking gross.
ㅇㅇ(77.29) : Nooooooong lol
.....
Ah, this familiar scent of a terminally online loser.
The gallery was a sight, as always.
Overflowing with pointless shitposts, every kind of disgusting image you can imagine, and spam run rampant.
Did the mods die or something?
Those perpetually unemployed bums used to nuke disgusting images the instant they appeared, but lately they've vanished without a trace.
Well... I get it. The situation's so fucked right now it'd be weirder if they hadn't just disappeared.
Honestly, the weird one here is the guy still managing a gallery at a time like this.
'But these fuckers...'
I knew they were unhinged from the start, but... isn't posting proof of your crimes going a bit far?
'I killed so-and-so,' 'I fucked so-and-so' — it's literally Sodom and Gomorrah out here.
Well, whatever.
They were hopeless retards to begin with. May as well let it slide.
The important stuff isn't that anyway.
Most of it is useless bullshit, but every so often, there's something worth referencing.
Like this, for example.
Zombie Observation* - [Zombie Observation Diary Day 3]
Just scribbling down what I've observed so far.
Zombie: As everyone knows, these fuckers are no different from what you see in other media.
You get bitten even once, you're infected. Game over.
Weakness is the head.
Most of them are slow, but a handful are fast.
Probably heavily influenced by their pre-infection life.
Added) Mutant entities also discovered.
Fast and strong.
Each entity has noticeably developed body parts.
Be careful near Choansan Mountain — there's a crazy muscle-freak entity with four arms.
Activity gets especially active at night.
Conversely, they seem relatively sluggish during the day.
Don't know why. Just had a feeling.
Special note: Reacts to sound. Speculating their eyesight may have degenerated (literally just speculation)
-
Reliability's low, but keeping it in mind won't hurt.
Cross-referencing this kind of info and slowly analyzing their characteristics — that'll come in handy someday.
Yeah, if I get the chance, I should make checking this a habit.
'Anyway, a muscle-freak mutant...'
And if it's near Choansan Mountain, our routes might overlap, right?
Sure, we move underground, so the odds are extremely low. But bad luck always finds a way to fuck you over at exactly the wrong time.
Lucky One my ass. I only get the enhancement buffs; my actual fortune is absolute dogshit.
I can't help feeling an ominous shadow settling in the corner of my chest.
Ah, forget it, forget it.
Let's shake off these foreboding thoughts and check the next post.
D-87* - [This soldier boy deserted lol]
I'll cut straight to it.
The military is fucked too lol
If anything, it's even worse ㅠ.
I don't know how or why, but guns don't fire.
Seriously. No bullshit, I swear on both my parents — they're just completely dead.
They're useless 4-kilo scraps of metal now, you know?
So there's zero control right now, and infected keep popping up inside the military — absolute chaos.
Martial law my ass. Everyone's scrambling to save their own skin.
Calling it desertion honestly makes it sound more organized than it is.
The unit basically collapsed. Not a single person left in the barracks lol
So don't get scared if you see soldiers.
Their guns don't work lol
dlsr* : Is this real?
ㄴㅇㅇ(23.11) : You gonna believe it?
ㄴRuruping* : Yeah lol. ㅇㅇ lol. For real I'm a sergeant, and my unit's all just fending for themselves now too.
ㄴdlsr* : For real? Not a fake?
ㄴD-87* : What you believe is the truth, my gay friend
bababa* : Military bastards are useless the moment you actually need them.
ㄴㅁㅁ(69.40) : For real lol, they sucked up our tax money like blood, actual mosquitoes themselves lol
ㄴZombie Observation* : Memo(pussy).
"Hmm."
Reading this suddenly reminded me of what was written on my status window.
-Notice!! Firearm usage in this World is strictly prohibited! All firearms are processed as misfires, so please take note!
Could this phenomenon actually be happening?
Suspicious, but given that bizarre shit like the special vending machine exists, this is probably true too, not a lie.
Of course, jumping to conclusions before finishing verification is forbidden, but being aware of it won't hurt.
Besides, I checked other sites just in case, and similar testimonies kept popping up.
But strangely, I couldn't find a single mention of people manifesting special abilities like Kim Ha-yoon or me.
Are the conditions just strict? Or are they playing it safe, figuring there's no upside to showing their cards?
You'd think at least one attention whore would pop up, which is honestly baffling.
"Hic... hiccup..."
...Sigh. But that sound's been subtly bothering me for a while now.
I turned my eyes slightly, glancing at Kim Ha-yoon.
Instead of sleeping, she had her face buried in her knees, sobbing quietly.
For a solid thirty minutes now, no less.
Is she cold? Overwhelmed by the misery of her situation?
I don't know.
Can't say I'm particularly curious either.
But watching her shiver and sniffle like that for thirty straight minutes is seriously getting on my nerves.
My gaze keeps drifting over there for no reason.
"Haaa..."
I let out a humid sigh.
If it's like this, I've got no choice. I was going to test the waters a little, but I guess I have to step in.
"Hey, Ha-yoon."
I called to her in a voice barely above a whisper, afraid I'd wake Ha Hui-ryeong. But she didn't even flinch — maybe she didn't hear, or maybe she just ignored me.
So I raised my tone slightly.
"Hey, you hear me? If you can, come here for a sec."
"...W-why?"
"Just hurry up."
With visible reluctance, she walked over.
I grabbed a blanket and held it out to her.
"Here, cover yourself."
"...?"
"What are you staring at? I said cover yourself."
She stared blankly, like she couldn't fathom my intentions — but only for a moment.
After hesitating, she carefully took the blanket I offered.
And as she was about to head back to her spot, I grabbed her arm.
"Don't sit all the way over there. Come a little closer."
"I... I don't want to..."
"Don't start a pointless power struggle and just hurry up. You don't want your jaw knocked out either, right?"
I tapped the empty spot beside me. Kim Ha-yoon hesitated again.
She looked on high alert, like she couldn't guess why I was suddenly acting like this.
Pursing her lips, she spoke in a curt tone.
"...I won't say thank you."
"I'm not asking you to. More importantly, just get some sleep. You need to recover at least a bit of energy."
"...."
Timidly, she drew a little closer and took the empty spot beside me.
But unlike Ha Hui-ryeong, who was plastered tight against me, she left enough space for an arm to fit between us.
Well, this distance is about right for now.
Satisfied, I turned my attention back to my phone.
After a long while, a small voice suddenly came from her with her back still turned to me.
"...I can't sleep."
A complaint still laced with moisture.
Maybe because I'd handled her gently — such a stark contrast to the perpetually prickly Ha Hui-ryeong — she'd unexpectedly initiated conversation.
I was just glad.
I was feeling bored anyway, so this worked out perfectly.
"If you don't sleep, tomorrow's gonna be rough, you know?"
"...That's for me to worry about."
"I see. Want to chat for a bit then?"
She squirmed slightly, shifting her posture.
She didn't face me, but she glanced sideways from where she sat, eyes still forward.
No clear answer, but in this context, silence meant yes.
How cute.
I barely suppressed the chuckle threatening to escape and broke the ice.
"So, first off. You said you're twenty?"
"...Yes."
"Five years apart, exactly. The two of us are twenty-five. We both used to work at convenience stores, for the record. What about you? In college?"
"No. I'm a high school grad."
Oh my god. You too?
That made three blockheads gathered here.
My heart truly swells with pettiness...
"My circumstances weren't good."
Reading my sunken gaze, she added a single curt remark.
Maybe her family was a bit unfortunate, I guess?
It's fine. I'm a dirt-spoon too.
"There's some common ground. Same here. My parents passed away early too. Oh, right. Speaking of which, where does your family live?"
"I don't know. And I really don't care to know."
"Don't know? So you cut off contact or something?"
"Yes."
Kim Ha-yoon answered firmly.
Sounded like her circumstances went beyond just unfortunate into something more complicated.
But there was no need to dig deeper here.
We weren't that close yet, and I wasn't all that curious either.
I subtly drew up the corners of my mouth in a faint smile.
"I see. That's fortunate."
"...What's fortunate about it?"
"At least there's no worry about you whining that you miss your mom. Given the situation, we don't have the energy to spare calming you down."
At my words, Kim Ha-yoon shot me a dumbfounded glare.
"...You're blunt."
"Gotta be blunt. That's how you build trust, isn't it?"
"Not at all."
"Cold. Even if you don't mean it, you should at least nod along out of tact."
"Then you shouldn't have done r... I mean, shouldn't have done that."
She was about to say rape, then corrected herself.
Now that her head had cooled down, did explicit terms become repulsive?
Looks like she might be the type whose filter comes off when she gets worked up — just like Ha Hui-ryeong.
"I do feel sorry about that. It must have been the worst possible first experience."
"...For someone saying that, your words have absolutely no soul in them."
"I mean it. I just don't think I committed a sin worthy of death."
"You sound like trash."
"Thanks for the compliment."
"It wasn't a compliment."
Surprisingly, once the words started flowing, the conversation continued smoothly.
Though her tone was always laced with a sulky edge.
This was a good sign.
The fact that she kept responding meant her wariness was slowly melting.
While I was snickering to myself, the gaze that had only been giving me sidelong glances finally turned to face me directly for the first time.
Her red-rimmed eyes, perhaps from crying once — no, dozens of times — seemed genuinely pitiful.
Her dried lips slowly parted.
"Can I ask just one thing?"
"What?"
Kim Ha-yoon paused for a moment before continuing.
She brought up a somewhat random question, startling enough to make me flinch.
"Are you... dating that unnie?"
"Me? With her?"
She nodded slightly.
Was the sight of them clinging together like they'd die without each other an eyesore? Or was it just pure curiosity?
Either way, it was a difficult type of question to answer.
I scratched my head awkwardly, then shook my head in denial.
"No. Probably not?"
"If it's a no, it's a no. Why turn it into a question?"
"I don't know either. Honestly, what I have with her isn't exactly normal."
Ironically, that was the most accurate way to put it.
Ha Hui-ryeong and I share a subtle emotional line,
but if you asked me whether it was love, I'd have a hard time giving a straight yes.
Even while sharing more physical intimacy than most couples, we always maintained a certain boundary.
For instance, kissing.
We frequently had sex, yet we had never once kissed.
Not a single attempt. We both avoided it without either of us ever bringing it up.
It was a kind of unwritten rule.
An implicit agreement to crave affection but never to confirm it.
That's why I dodged the question with an ambiguous tone.
"Probably... we're not dating."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. If we were dating, she'd never let me do stuff with you, right?"
"Could be a unique taste."
"...No. No, not that."
I could at least assert that much.
Because initially, when I showed lust toward Kim Ha-yoon, she had expressed extreme revulsion.
Of course, halfway through she got a taste for the fun of tormenting her and half enjoyed it — so the taste itself is closer to sadism than... netorare.
"Anyway, Ha-yoon. I suddenly got curious about one thing myself. Mind if I ask?"
"Go ahead. I don't have a right to refuse anyway, do I."
"I know. I just bothered to ask despite knowing."
"You have a terrible personality."
Chuckling inwardly, I slyly raised my index finger.
"So. How did you end up with an ability like that?"
"...That's a difficult question to answer."
Kim Ha-yoon lowered her gaze.
As I silently pressed for an answer, she let out a resigned sigh, as if she had no choice.
"Actually, I don't really know either. If I had to guess... that bastard."
Her brown eyes, previously drenched in fatigue, instantly turned fierce.
Looks like she went through something pretty nasty.
"When I killed that son of a bitch, I started seeing strange things. Strange phrases on a semi-transparent window. Wasn't it similar for you?"
"Similar. But the one you killed was that corpse rolling around in the corner of the convenience store, right?"
"...Yes. He deserved to die. He tried to rape me. Just like my dad."
I see. She's had quite the eventful life too.
So that's why she couldn't feel even a shred of regret about cutting ties.
"He was pretty big. How did you manage it?"
"....."
She shut her mouth, clearly uncomfortable talking about it.
But spotting the faintly raised smile in my eyes, she clicked her tongue irritably.
"You know. You saw the body."
"Yeah. His dick was ripped off."
That confirmed it.
She must have sweet-talked and coaxed him somehow, convinced him she'd do it with her mouth first — then when she saw an opening, chomp! Ripped it right off.
I had a vague idea, but... she's a vicious one among vicious ones.
"Guess I better not ask you for oral."
"Not funny."
Too bad.
After clicking my tongue inwardly, I smoothly shifted the topic.
"Anyway, your dad tried to do something like that too? For real?"
"He was trash beyond saving. If my stepmom hadn't saved me, I would have killed myself that day."
"Stepmom?"
"He remarried."
Huh.
I swallowed a hollow laugh.
A remarried household, and your own father lusting after you.
Maybe her situation is worse than mine. Worse than Ha Hui-ryeong's.
But she said her stepmom saved her — so her relationship with that side is okay?
As if reading my inner thoughts, Kim Ha-yoon continued.
"That person hated me. Constantly picked on me and harassed me. But at least... at least she just wasn't trash like my father."
I stared at her, momentarily lost for words.
I prided myself on having a shitty life, but there are always deeper depths.
Ranking who's more miserable is pathetic, but she could boldly claim a spot among the deep-sea dwellers I've witnessed.
"Your life's quite the tragedy too."
"...Don't pity me."
"Wasn't that the mood?"
"It wasn't."
She grumbled, her face sulky — yet at the same time, I caught a glimpse of something relieved in her expression.
Was it just my imagination?
No, it wasn't.
I saw it.
The faintly risen corners of her mouth, as if she felt unburdened.
A change so subtle you wouldn't notice it without observing carefully.
"I'll sleep now."
Is it human nature to feel lighter after venting old pent-up resentment?
Leaving that single remark, she turned her back to me, as if placing a period on our conversation.
"Yeah. Good night."
I replied, feeling a strange tickling sensation in my chest for no reason.
The subtly narrowed distance between us didn't feel so bad.
*
And the next day.
Whether by fate's cruel trick.
We came face-to-face with the crazy mutant muscle-freak.
"...Son of a bitch."