Any Objections?
"The development thugs are the same as always. The apartment people are, well, tearing each other apart. And the guys in Jung-dong... oh? Are they finally heading out to hunt zombies?" Yun Yeong-su's eyes sparkled behind his glasses.
There was a change in the Jung-dong area of Gahyeon-ri—the district where the original residents had lived for a long time, characterized by old, three-story-or-less commercial buildings and shops that were at least twenty years old, all lined up along the road. About twenty men in their forties and fifties, dressed in thick, long-sleeved clothing and crude armor, and armed with all sorts of blunt weapons and makeshift blades, were moving slowly in groups of five or six.
"Just like the boss said, we might clash with those thug guys in a month or two. As for our Eoktens punks... they haven't made a move yet."
The reservoir site where Jun-ho had carried out the slaughter, and the mountain pass leading toward it, were quiet. Since he had a rough idea of the direction where the Eoktens' base was located, Yun Yeong-su locked the CCTV of the apartment's high-rise safe house onto that area, then clicked his mouse to display the feed from within the shelter grounds on his main monitor.
"Let's see. What are our 'Dolsoe', 'Jeom-sun', and 'Jeom-rye' up to?"
Having been told by Jun-ho to keep a close eye on the three people he’d rescued today, Yun Yeong-su habitually propped his legs up on the desk and tore open a bag of potato chips. Jun-ho had great sense; he hadn't just prepared food, but also a large supply of various snacks. Of course, there were only seven or eight types, but they were all the most popular brands in Korea, so anyone would find at least one or two that suited their taste.
"Oh, wait! I need to take these first."
Midway through reaching for a chip, Yun Yeong-su hurriedly reached for the medicine cabinet next to his desk. High-end multivitamins containing the daily recommended intake of zinc, selenium, and magnesium, along with acetylcysteine, probiotics, and omega-3s. And lutein, which was essential for someone like him who stared at monitors all day. After tossing five pills into his mouth at once, he washed them down with a gulp of Zero Coke.
"Mmm, the smell of getting healthy. Our shelter is the best, and the boss is the best."
Honestly, he was starting to think he was healthier now than before the apocalypse. Of course, that wasn't a thought a guy who ate a bag or two of potato chips with soda every day should be having.
"Hmm. The ones speaking English are siblings. Judging by the accent, the American South? Texas?"
Yun Yeong-su nibbled on a potato chip like a hamster, focusing on watching and listening to the three people's actions and conversations through his monitor and headset.
"...Huh?"
Suddenly, Yun Yeong-su stopped chewing and pushed up his thick-rimmed glasses. He was staring with furrowed brows at the two women among the three, who had just come out of the bathroom after washing up and changing into the shelter's dedicated training wear, and were now raiding the refrigerator to devour water, drinks, and various foods like starving ghosts. Their hair, which had been matted, and their faces, where filth and exhaustion had coexisted, were now clean.
"That's strange. I definitely feel like I've seen them somewhere before..."
The girl who was stuffing frozen dumplings into both cheeks like a squirrel and just opening a bottle of water, speaking to her brother in a mix of English and Korean. The girl with big, cute eyes who was shoveling instant rice mixed with plenty of kimchi and tuna into her mouth. They looked strangely familiar.
"Where did I see them? Hmm... hmmm..."
Yun Yeong-su, who had been lost in thought with his legs back on the desk and nibbling on a chip, suddenly jumped up, tossing aside the potato chip—a snack that had become incredibly rare in the outside world.
"...Ah! Ahhh!"
"What? Idols?"
"No way..."
Jun-ho and Jun-hyeok looked bewildered, and Yun Yeong-su grinned and nodded.
"Yes. Psyche Flare. A five-member group. It's a girl group consisting of three Koreans, one Korean-Japanese mixed-race, and one Korean-American. Their birth dates and body measurements are..."
"I don't want to know that. Anyway, those two are members of that group?"
"Yes. That tall, slim girl over there is Sunny Claire Park, born in Dallas, Texas. The cute one is Saionji Yuna. Her father is Korean, but she was born in Japan, so she used her mother's surname when registering her family register. In Korea, she just goes by her father's surname, Jo Yu-na. But... pfft!"
"Why?"
As the brothers tilted their heads, Yun Yeong-su pointed at the man sitting between Sunny Claire Park and Saionji Yuna, who was piling a piece of aged kimchi onto his face and shoving it deep into his mouth, unable to hold back his laughter.
"This guy is Sunny Claire Park's older brother. He's also... pfft... he's a male idol, too. His stage name is Ducky. But his real name is... pfft! Park Deok-cheol."
"Ha."
Jun-hyeok also chuckled at the somewhat rustic name that didn't match the man's clean-cut, handsome face.
"Sunny Claire Park is Park Seon-hui. So in the States, they were called Sunny and Ducky, and they used those as their stage names."
Sunny—no, Park Seon-hui—was scolding her brother while wiping kimchi broth off his mouth, and Park Deok-cheol was grinning broadly before shoveling another large spoonful of instant rice into his mouth. And Jo Yu-na, who seemed full now, was sitting demurely and sipping water, a stark contrast to how she had been shoveling down the tuna kimchi bibimbap just moments ago. As Jun-ho stared at the three of them, something flashed in his mind.
"Then their real homes and families are all in the US and Japan?"
"Yes. That's how it usually is for idols who are foreigners or hold foreign citizenship. They probably lived in dorms in Korea, right?"
"That means they have nowhere to go. In a world like this, they wouldn't have anyone to rely on in Korea."
"Whoa? That's true."
"Ah! Korean-descended foreign workers with nowhere to go? Maybe they'd be perfect as 'Dolsoe' and 'Jeom-sun'!"
The phrasing was a bit blunt, but Yun Yeong-su was right. The fact that it was physically impossible for them to meet their families meant there was virtually zero risk of trouble arising from those families. Since the shelter was in Namyangju, there was a huge difference between having family in Seoul or the metropolitan area during an apocalypse versus having them in a foreign country where they couldn't be seen at all.
"But why are they in Namyangju right now? Their agency or dorms wouldn't be around here."
"Ah, about that..." Yun Yeong-su shared what he knew. "...Psyche Flare debuted three months ago? Four? Anyway, they're total rookies. And Junix, where Park... pfft, Park Deok-cheol belongs, has been around for a few years but they're basically a failed group. So they went to perform at the Namyangju Ducheon-eup Firefly Festival."
"Yeong-su hyung, were you an idol fan? You know quite a lot."
"The community I visited every day had a lot of 'multi-stans.' There was a user who would post clips, videos, and profiles whenever a new male or female idol debuted. That person was obsessed with Psyche Flare, and they posted their schedule the night before the world turned to hell. That's how I knew."
Furthermore, Ducheon-eup was in Namyangju, not far from Gahyeon-ri, so it had stuck in his memory. For that reason, while the top-tier K-pop groups were appearing at big, flashy events in Seoul like Waterbomb or water festivals, rookies like Psyche Flare and the failing Junix were participating in a local town's firefly festival.
"I have clips and photos of Psyche Flare, want to see? The songs aren't great, but they have potential. Especially Sunny and Yuna's figures, oh my..."
"Not interested."
"Ah. Too bad."
"Anyway, good work. Character and utility are the most important things, but it's good that they're people with nowhere to go. Plus, since they're idols, their basic physical fitness should be decent."
"Right. Don't idols practice like crazy?"
Yun Yeong-su nodded at Jun-hyeok. "Like crazy. Eight to ten hours a day is the standard."
"Then that's settled. Keep watching them, and starting tomorrow, we'll interrogate them and get a sense of where they stand."
At Jun-ho's words, Yun Yeong-su asked with a hint of expectation. "But boss. You're only going to watch them for about a week this time too, right?"
"No."
"Ah!? Why?"
"Choi Jung-woo's daughter and Ha-yun are too young, and the doctor and his wife were people I intended to bring in from the start, so they were exceptions. For them, we follow the basic manual."
"T-then...?"
"Starting tomorrow, for a total of four weeks, we'll run the tests without any leniency."
"Ah, ahhh..."
Yun Yeong-su seemed deeply disappointed, but Jun-ho had no reason to show leniency. Idols or not, if they couldn't pass the tests or didn't have any special skills useful to the shelter, he would send them to the Hanalreum Nursing Home, or just hand them some water and food and drop them off in a quiet rural village.
"Anyway, keep a close watch on the territories of the development thugs and those Eoktens bastards. Especially the Eoktens—let me know as soon as their base is identified. They're trash that needs to be wiped out as soon as possible."
"Got it."
Having washed away the grime of two weeks and eaten a proper, filling meal, the siblings Park Deok-cheol and Park Seon-hui, along with Jo Yu-na, fell into a deep sleep without anyone needing to say a word. Because the air conditioning was set to a cool 23 degrees, and for the first time in a long while, the worry that they might be attacked by zombies or other people had vanished, the three of them slept for a whopping twenty hours before waking up the next morning.
"Ugh..."
The first to open her eyes was Park Seon-hui, who had been sleeping next to Jo Yu-na on a double mattress. Because she had fallen into a dead sleep without properly digesting the meal she'd stuffed herself with, her face was puffy. Rubbing her eyes, which wouldn't open properly, she stumbled off the mattress. In the process, she accidentally stepped on the side of her brother Park Deok-cheol, who had been sprawled out sleeping on the floor next to the mattress.
"Kuh-up!"
Park Deok-cheol jumped up, letting out a strange groan. Park Deok-cheol, whose eyes were also puffy like his sister's, spoke in a groggy voice toward the figure he assumed was his younger sister.
"You're up? Bathroom?"
"Yeah... Ate too much yesterday. Stomach feels bad..."
"Okay. Close the door tight so it doesn't sme..."
The voice of Park Deok-cheol, who was telling his sister to close the door tight so it wouldn't smell while she did her business, gradually faded. This was because he realized too late that his sister's response had come from behind him, not from the figure he was currently looking at.
"...Whoa! Wh-wh-who are you?"
"The owner of this place. You guys wouldn't wake up, so I came early and was waiting."
Jun-ho, who had been sitting in a table chair, gestured expressionlessly at Park Seon-hui, who was frozen like a statue just after getting off the mattress.
"Go do your business. The bathroom fan here is powerful, so the smell clears out right away. It's soundproof, so you won't hear a thing from outside."
"Ah..."
Park Seon-hui just wanted to die.
"Psyche Flare. A five-member idol group that debuted this June. You're Sunny Claire Park, and this is Saionji Yuna. Your Korean names are Park Seon-hui and Jo Yu-na, right?"
"Y-yes, that's right."
Park Seon-hui and Jo Yu-na's eyes widened. How could this intelligent murder expert know about them, mere rookies? The internet had been cut off for a long time, so there should be no way for him to find out. The two of them were shocked, unaware that the satellite internet service Earthlink, which the shelter had been using for a year, was still working perfectly.
"And you are... Enix? Phoenix?"
At Jun-ho's words, Park Deok-cheol quickly replied. "It's Junix. It's a band name that modernized the Latin word for June, and it has the noble and charismatic image of Jupiter, the king of the gods..."
"I'm not curious about that at all, so you don't have to explain."
"...Yes."
"Anyway, you're an idol too? You two are siblings, and the two girls are friends of the same age."
"Yes."
"That's right."
To the three of them, who were nodding their heads, Jun-ho maintained a chilling demeanor.
"You're the ones involved, so you probably know roughly what happened, but those guys yesterday were trying to catch you and kill you. Or, they were going to kill you, the man, and as for the two of you... well, you know what would have happened without me saying it."
"......!"
Park Seon-hui and Jo Yu-na trembled slightly. As terrible things they didn't even want to think about crossed their minds, the two of them instinctively held each other's hands tightly.
"Those bastards yesterday were punks who used to be bullies in Namyangju. Most of them have already graduated or dropped out of school long ago, but now that the world has turned like this, they're having the time of their lives. They've already killed dozens of people."
"Gulp..."
As the sound of Park Deok-cheol swallowing hard echoed, Jun-ho continued.
"Anyway, I saved the three of you. Any objections?"
"N-no."
"None."
"Good. Then you have to pay the price for saving your lives. Any objections?"
"Ah... no."
"None at all."
Thinking that what they feared had finally come, Park Seon-hui and Jo Yu-na trembled and bowed their heads. The man who knew they were active idols probably wanted 'that kind of thing' as the price for their lives. Holding each other's hands even tighter, the two of them teared up.
"First, go change your clothes."
Thud.
"......"
Would it be racy underwear? Or was he into dressing them up in perverted cosplay? Trying to hold back the tears, Park Seon-hui, who had closed her eyes tight, opened them and reached for the clothes first on behalf of the timid and terrified Jo Yu-na.
"Eh?"
She let out a dumbfounded sound without realizing it. Because the clothes the intelligent murder expert had brought out were...
"Never seen work clothes before? There's a lot to do, so change quickly and come out."
They were dark brown work clothes that construction workers might wear, or that looked remarkably similar to what the North Korean army wore. Perhaps because of what had just happened, they looked strangely like the color of excrement.