I Miss Lee Jun-ho
March 16, 2025, 05:30 AM. A wooded hill near Kangho Resort, Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province.
"……."
Yoon Seol-hee lay in wait, draped in a mottled camouflage net atop the ridge. She kept her body low, her sharp eyes scanning the terrain ahead. Beside her, resting against her side, was a modified bolt-action air rifle, while a military combat knife was strapped to her gear.
"Hoo… hu…."
Yoon Seol-hee slowly steadied her breathing. A breeze blowing from the northwest brushed the hair at her temple. Since the scent wouldn't be flowing back toward them, there was no risk of being detected. Then, heavy, unrefined footsteps echoed from below the ridge. The intervals were erratic, and their weight distribution was sloppy. To make matters worse, the sound of them hacking through the brush was far too loud, layered with the clanking of metal and their own boisterous chatter.
'Amateur thug bastards….'
Yoon Seol-hee’s gaze grew even colder. However, these gangsters were armed with Chinese-made suppressed submachine guns, pistols, and air rifles. Regardless of their skill, they had managed to survive in this hellish world for over half a year. They were not to be underestimated.
'Seven of them.'
Though they were only 50 meters away, Yoon Seol-hee, wrapped in her ghillie suit, didn't even twitch as she watched them. Human eyes were easier to deceive than one might think; at this hour and distance, there was no chance these amateur thugs would spot her.
The dark silhouettes of the gangsters drew closer. At one point, she saw one of them put a cigarette in his mouth and light it. Even that act proved how amateurish they were, and how easily they had lived by killing others until now. The yellow flame created a fleeting target in the pre-dawn darkness.
'Distance 30. No wind influence. First target is the one in the lead.'
The principle of the "first shot"—always emphasized during night ambush training in her Special Forces days—flashed through her mind.
— Break the flow with the first shot, steal their vision, and delay their situational judgment.
Memories of mid-winter training in the mountains of Gangwon-do, where she had lain prone in the snow for 30 hours waiting for a target, flickered by. The only difference between then and now was that she wasn't using rubber bullets; she was using lead pellets that could kill a person at this range.
"Hoo…."
Yoon Seol-hee steadied her breath one last time and gently pulled the trigger.
Thwip!
A short, compressed air sound rippled through the leaves. The neck of the pot-bellied gangster in the lead buckled inward.
"Ghk!?"
He collapsed on the spot.
"Huh? What the?"
The second man behind him instinctively grabbed the corpse, and Yoon Seol-hee didn't miss the opening.
Thwip!
A second shot rang out. This time, the lead pellet flew cleanly, piercing under the second target's chin and tearing through his carotid artery. As blood spurted out, steaming in the cold air—
"Fuck! It's a gun!"
"Sh-shot! We're being shot at!"
The remaining five instinctively dropped low, their heads whipping around to find the source of the fire. Being only 30 meters away, she could clearly see the panic on their faces. The moment they spotted her, bullets would rain down like a storm at this close range. But Yoon Seol-hee didn't panic. She flicked her left wrist, pulled the bolt lever, and pushed it forward again. The hand movements she had repeated over a thousand times during target practice in the Special Forces moved on their own.
"Where is it!? Fuck!"
"I, I can't see!"
Third shot. Thwip!
"Argh!"
The cheek of the gangster holding the most threatening QBZ-97 rifle burst open, and he fell. The rifle he dropped clattered onto the fallen leaves.
"B-Beom-hee, hyung-nim!"
The moment another one screamed, the fourth shot followed. Thwip!
"Kuaack!"
With a scream, another one crumbled. As the fourth victim rolled down the slope, the remaining three, proving they had indeed survived half a year in the apocalypse, reacted by pinpointing her location.
"Th-there!"
"Shoot! Fuck!"
Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat!
The flashes of the suppressed submachine guns flickered in the darkness, and the dull, characteristic noise of Chinese-made suppressed weapons filled the air.
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
Bark and dirt sprayed from the mossy rocks. But Yoon Seol-hee had already curled her body low and rolled backward, hiding herself below the slope. Moving a few meters to the left in an instant, she hid behind a small rock, went prone again, pulled the bolt, and chambered another round. Just then, she heard the sound of the gangsters spreading out and approaching.
"I, I saw it! It's definitely over there."
"Then go check it out, you bastard!"
She heard them climbing rapidly toward the spot where she had been hiding just moments ago. Near that spot, she had left a small "bait." The bait was nothing more than several empty cans half-buried in the leaves, with thin twigs rigged to them. If anyone so much as brushed them with their toe, the cans would roll and clatter. Seol-hee waited, lying low.
"Go slow. Get ready to fire."
The moment the gangster's voice became clear, the lead man triggered the bait. Clang. The metal hit a stone, and a clear sound rang out.
"Huh!?"
All three instinctively turned their heads and gun barrels toward the sound. In that instant, from a flank 5–6 meters away, the distinct compressed sound of the air rifle—Thwip!—erupted. The pellet pierced the neck of the gangster trailing in the rear, and he collapsed, dropping his submachine gun.
"Behind us! Behind!"
The remaining two turned in a hurry, but it was too late. Yoon Seol-hee had already drawn her combat knife and closed the distance. Before the first man could raise his barrel, she stepped inside his guard, twisted his gun away with her left hand, and drove the blade of her combat knife deep into his side.
"Guaaack!"
He screamed and staggered back, but Yoon Seol-hee, having already wrapped her arm around his neck and secured his back, plunged the knife into his chest multiple times without mercy.
Thud! Thud-thud!
"Argh! Gurgle! Ghk…!"
"You bitch!"
The last gangster blindly pulled the trigger of his pistol. Click-clack! Click! Click! Thud! Thud! The bullets, flying through the dark air, embedded themselves into the body of the gangster Yoon Seol-hee was holding.
"Ghk! Ghk! Huh?"
Click. The gangster panicked for a split second at the jam—a common occurrence with pistols. He had to pay the price for failing to maintain his weapon properly.
Thwip-thwip!
Yoon Seol-hee shoved the limp body of the gangster she had been using as a shield to the side and lunged forward, keeping her body low.
"You fucking bitch!"
He didn't know that the person in the hat and mask was a woman, but he cursed out of habit and tried to strike her down with his pistol. Yoon Seol-hee didn't take the blow head-on. She twisted her upper body to the left, and the pistol grip whistled through the air, hitting nothing but empty space. Whoosh!
Her combat knife, held in a reverse grip, drove deep under the armpit of the gangster, who had lurched forward from the momentum, and pierced his lung.
"Hup…."
Before the last gangster could even draw a breath, she twisted her wrist and pulled the blade out.
"F, fuck…."
He hadn't fallen yet; he shoved her shoulder with his left hand and raised the pistol again. Yoon Seol-hee drew a vertical line with her combat knife, the tip instantly passing through his groin and reaching his spine.
"Ghk."
The gangster's body stiffened for a moment before his knees buckled and he collapsed. Thud!
Yoon Seol-hee quickly picked up the pistol he had dropped. The slide was stuck halfway back, and a shell casing was jammed halfway out. A classic stovepipe jam. Yoon Seol-hee quickly pulled the slide with her right hand to eject the jammed casing, pressed the magazine release with her left to check it, and then pushed the slide forward to check the chamber. In less than a second, she had restored the pistol to working order and began to walk slowly toward the fallen gangsters, aiming at them. Both were already motionless.
"Huu, huuu… sob…."
The last gangster, who had been heaving and twitching, finally went limp.
"……."
Having dealt with all seven, Yoon Seol-hee meticulously searched the bodies—including the ones down the slope—collecting not only their firearms but also searching them for extra magazines. Only then did she turn on her radio, which she had kept off, and sent a transmission.
"I've cleared all the ones that came through the Valley Route 1. I've collected all the firearms as well."
- G, great work, Manager. We're in the middle of a battle on another route; is support possible? It's a bit dangerous.
"It's possible. Route 3 is the closest, so I'll head there immediately."
- Yes! Thank you so much, Manager.
Ending the call with the voice of the former KW Cops employee, which was laced with respect and admiration, Yoon Seol-hee took only the firearms she could use from the collection, stuffed the rest into her backpack, and began to run through the woods. She thought to herself:
'There are too few people who can handle enemies with guns.'
The resort's combat personnel were quite capable. They had skill and guts. But unlike the air rifles that fired lead pellets—which wouldn't kill you if you protected your vitals—they were now fighting enemies with real guns, where even a single hit could mean death in this world. The combat personnel, led by the KW Cops, weren't able to perform at their best. But that was to be expected, as they weren't people with specialized training like her.
'However….'
Even so, Yoon Seol-hee couldn't help but feel a sense of regret. The enemy, presumed to be a criminal organization, had too many numbers and too many guns. Already, six of her staff had been shot and were either dead or in critical condition. Among them was Deputy Kim, her junior.
"……."
As she ran in silence, fueled by anger and regret, one person’s face naturally floated into her mind: Lee Jun-ho.
Unlike his perfectly ordinary name and appearance, he was a man of the same age who had felt extraordinary from their first meeting, and who had provided immense help to Kang Baek-ho and the others in surviving until now. What would have happened if he had been at the resort?
'Three… no, more than five.'
Convinced that he would have performed the work of five staff members, or perhaps served as a force as capable as she was in this situation, Yoon Seol-hee found herself missing him.
* * *
Pew…! Pew…!
Tungsten pellets fired from the modified air rifle pierced the heads of zombies over 100 meters away.
"Done."
"Yes, sir."
Park Deok-cheol, wearing a camouflage combat uniform, tactical vest, and a backpack in anticipation of the coming spring, lowered his air rifle.
"But did those soldiers not finish them all? Maybe they didn't go this way?"
"They have a lot of people and trucks, so they probably didn't take this road. Come on, let's go. Get on."
"Yes, sir."
The multi-purpose electric vehicle began to roll down the mountain path, which was less than two meters wide. Jun-ho was currently traveling with Park Deok-cheol along a narrow path on the mountain overlooking the Bukhan River. Their destination was the leisure sports pier where the gangsters had disappeared on motorboats a while ago.
"You don't have to look that hard. The wireless relay covers this area, so the AI will let us know if it spots any zombies or people."
"Ah… Yes sir."
Park Deok-cheol, who had been checking the tablet displaying the drone footage, laughed sheepishly. Jun-ho had brought Park Deok-cheol on this expedition. The reason was that if he were to be absent for a long time, Jun-hyeok had to be at the shelter, and Park Deok-cheol was the one he trusted most after Jun-hyeok. Above all, Park Deok-cheol himself had strongly wanted to accompany Jun-ho.
The reason was:
— K, Kangho Resort? Our Cherry must be there! What? You don't know Blossom's Cherry? Unlike our group, Blossom is super famous….
Because the girl group member he had a secret crush on had been at Kangho Resort for an event the day before the apocalypse broke out, and she had stayed there with the other members for a vacation.