Chapter 153. His True Colors.
We'd gathered in the assembly hall to hear the report on the visitors staying in our village.
"So, how's the situation?"
"Contrary to our initial wariness, they've blended in seamlessly—no different from the people who were already here."
"Any unusual incidents?"
"None."
The group that came this time would be heading back soon. Honestly, I'd considered the possibility they might pull something insane, like commit acts of terrorism, but they'd been more ordinary than I expected.
"You never know. Stay on guard until the very end."
"I'll pass that along."
Everyone except the women filtered out of the room. I stayed seated, thinking.
"Sihu, what's wrong?"
"Hm... nothing."
Something felt off in the back of my mind, but I couldn't pin it down—no clear 'this is it' feeling.
"How anticlimactic."
"That bastard should be arriving around now, so let's get going."
Lee Jong-hyun had meticulously checked the headcount and loaded everyone into the vehicles. But as he did, his eyes lingered on a few people with unusual sharpness. That nagging feeling I'd had suddenly clicked into place.
Inside the vehicle heading back to Suwon, Jimin leaned toward Hanna, who was sitting beside her, and whispered.
"Wasn't it nice there? Not the terrible place we'd heard about."
Jimin had been careful to speak so only Hanna could hear. But perceptive as she was, her awareness only went so far. Hanna, far quicker on the uptake, shook her head.
"No. I didn't like it much. I like our village infinitely better."
"What..."
I'm sorry, Jimin... The truth is, I loved it so much it drove me crazy.
And someone was listening to their conversation—and not just theirs, but every conversation on the bus.
It wasn't far from Gimpo to Suwon, so they soon returned to their group. The moment they arrived, a crushing sense of disappointment pressed down on her chest. The village Cheon Sihu protected was, in the end, also a community of people banded together against the zombie threat—just like theirs. But the eyes of the people here held no life.
This was a place she knew. Yet after experiencing the Gimpo village, everything looked different. Everyone wore the same weary frowns, their eyes sunken with fatigue. You couldn't find a trace of laughter or joy here.
The faces of people ground down, focused solely on survival, were hollow. Distrust filled their eyes, and they moved through their daily tasks with guarded, careful motions. Even their conversations were dry and empty.
Nothing's changed here...
After sending Jimin on ahead, Hanna stopped and looked around. She'd once thought of this place as a safe refuge. Now it just looked like a prison where you waited to die.
That place...
As she thought of it, tears suddenly welled up. People there laughed and talked, willingly spending their time helping each other. The air was light, and everything felt natural. Unlike here, the villagers trusted and believed in one another, and they enjoyed life, not just survival.
Sniff...
Her eyes stung, and tears spilled over before she knew it. She hurriedly wiped them with her sleeve, afraid someone might see. She shouldn't have. The sight of her grimy sleeve only reminded her of the clean clothes they wore, making her feel even more wretched.
Walking with her head hung low, she bumped into someone. The haggard man immediately flew into a rage.
"Ah, fuck. Watch where you're going!!!"
"S-sorry..."
Regret bloomed deep inside Hanna's heart. Staying here made her feel lonelier than ever. She missed that happiness, that warmth she'd felt in that village.
I shouldn't have come back...
At that same hour, Lee Jong-hyun sat silently in his office. His gaze was cold, filled with resolve. He summoned the people who had returned from Cheon Sihu's village one by one and spoke with them. He made it sound like ordinary small talk, but it was really a thought inspection.
The reason for the inspection was that rumors about wanting to move to Cheon Sihu's village had been circulating for a while. Unfortunately, he hadn't managed to find the source.
"How was your stay at that village?"
Lee Jong-hyun asked calmly, but a sharp blade was hidden in the question. No one in the group suspected a thing. After all, this was the man who always asked if they were facing any hardships, expressing concern every time they met.
Through the conversations, he quickly picked out those who had been tainted. Their expressions, their tone, their eyes—the change was undeniable. The more perceptive ones inwardly wanted to praise the warmth and peace they'd felt in that village, but they held it back, cautiously gauging Lee Jong-hyun's reaction.
"How was it for you, Miss Jimin?"
"I thought it might be nice, but it wasn't much. Our group is definitely the best."
Hanna, who had spoken with Lee Jong-hyun earlier and sensed something was off, had tipped Jimin off beforehand. But Lee Jong-hyun tilted his head, as if he picked up on something odd, and asked.
"Didn't you say it was better than you expected?"
"Ah, well, once I actually got back here, I realized this place is so much better...!"
It was a little strange, but Lee Jong-hyun just smiled and nodded.
"Haha, thank you. I'll keep working hard for everyone."
"Yes! It's all thanks to you, Jong-hyun, that we're still alive!"
After all the interviews, he sat back and thought. Many people had been tainted by the ways of that place, and he knew intuitively it would become a seed for serious conflict within the group. Lee Jong-hyun's judgment was swift. He didn't hesitate long.
He decided to eliminate the impure elements.
His group needed to be united by a single, solid ideology. Otherwise, it might end up like Cheon Sihu's village, crawling with rampant discrimination and selfish people. As he made his resolve, that eerie light flickered briefly in his eyes before vanishing.
This was an unintended consequence of his plan to use them as propaganda tools to spread negative rumors. Of course, a few perceptive ones had given negative opinions, but Lee Jong-hyun didn't know that much right now.
I must stamp out the bad influence before it spreads through our community...
Determination was etched in his eyes—a determination that only highlighted his obsession, the kind that bordered on madness. He had been removing the tumors festering in his community, very slowly. Moving alone, without even his closest aides knowing, he was killing people.
Throwing them to the zombies, dumping bodies in the river—slowly but surely, the number of people was dwindling.
Turncoats who failed to understand our cause...
He muttered it to himself as he looked down at the list in his hand. Many names were already marked with an X.
Today, he summoned yet another turncoat.
"Please try to understand. This is a choice for the good of everyone."
Lee Jong-hyun kept speaking in a gentle tone, like a priest offering salvation. The summoned man looked confused but didn't suspect anything in particular.
And the moment he turned his back, Lee Jong-hyun's smile deepened—all because of his conviction that he was walking the right path.
The truth was, he'd been saving people while crying out for justice, but...
"I must become stronger to save more people."
The man glanced back, hearing Lee Jong-hyun spouting that incomprehensible nonsense, and couldn't dodge the knife that suddenly lunged at him.
"Gahk... why..."
He always wore that expression. Without a flicker of emotion, Lee Jong-hyun simply believed he was upholding justice in his own way.
"Blame yourself for harboring strange impurities."
His plans were always thorough, but repetition had made him careless. And Hanna had been watching the whole scene from the beginning.
Hanna had been out for a walk when she happened to witness it. Under the faint moonlight filtering through the leaves, she heard a voice and looked over. The sight of him dealing with a person so utterly devoid of emotion was surreal. Her heart pounded, and she froze, forgetting to breathe.
What... why... was he a criminal...?
She wasn't so naive as to have a head full of flowers. In a world where the law had crumbled, a group had to judge criminals harshly just to stay stable.
Hanna's mind was chaos. She couldn't believe it, but the scene unfolding before her eyes was no lie. Lately, people from the group had been disappearing one by one.
Hanna had clearly heard Lee Jong-hyun's last words, and she saw his eyes turn a violet hue.
Suddenly, it was like lightning struck her mind, and the scattered puzzle pieces clicked into place.
The common thread between the man who just died and all the others who had disappeared was that they were all people who'd shown a positive reaction after visiting Cheon Sihu's village.
Do Jimin and I have to die too...?
The moment that thought flashed through her mind, her body reacted instinctively. Fear washed over her. She had shrewdly given a negative reaction, but with someone as perceptive as Lee Jong-hyun, there was no telling what he might do.
I have to run...!
But could she escape? Where would she even run to? Outside, zombies teemed, and if she stayed here, she'd be caught and killed eventually, without knowing when.
Hanna's breathing grew ragged. She squeezed her eyes shut and agonized over what to do. Whether to find a way out of here, or whether to survive to the end by tiptoeing around Lee Jong-hyun's moods.
Honestly, surviving by walking on eggshells around him wasn't easy. He seemed to see right through people's hearts.
The haven that had once saved her and sheltered her body had turned, before she knew it, into a hell she had to flee.
First, I have to find Jimin...!