Rewards for Those Who Strive!
Night had already slipped past nine. Without electricity, the darkness swallowed the house whole — so thick you could barely make out the person standing next to you.
Lee Soyeon's place at least had candles, enough to scrape by. Even those were little more than stubs now, burned nearly to nothing.
Still, the soft glow cast a certain mood — the kind that would normally send a pair of lovers tumbling straight into each other without a second thought.
But this place held only a conqueror and the conquered.
Her usually immaculate bedroom was a wreck, blankets spilled across the floor. Medicine bottles had tumbled from the neatly arranged living-room shelves. The desk in the center of the room, the handprints smeared across the veranda window — all of it told the same story.
Every mark was the trail of a young male who had taken what he wanted from her.
Ravaged and breathless, Lee Soyeon lay on the sofa, trying to steady her breathing.
Pervert...
She replayed what had just happened. The moment Jin Dohyuk walked through her door, free will ceased to exist. Whatever he demanded, she had to give. Being shoved down and used was no longer surprising.
What unsettled her was the weariness — and the pleasure her own body kept answering with.
...My body... is burning.
For days now she had taken the man she was forced to call husband. Even when her mind refused, her body answered a little more each time.
He just knows women too well.
He was skilled at working a body open, and hers had been developed under that skill until it responded on its own. At the end, when climax took her, she had simply clung to the man violating her and gone still for a long while — something the old Lee Soyeon would never have done.
And he deliberately dragged me out to the veranda...
Midway through, he had seized her pale thighs and carried her straight onto the balcony, holding her body up where anyone might still have seen, and taken her hard. For Soyeon — whose entire sexual history amounted to a handful of bland, careful encounters — it was a first. The shame of being exposed, the terror that someone might be watching, had fused with raw arousal into an assault that forced her body over the edge whether she wanted it or not.
Her heart still hammered. The heat in her flesh had not faded.
There's nothing I can do even if I fight back. I have no choice.
He held the keys. Resistance was meaningless. She told herself she had no choice — because she still had one goal she was desperate to survive for. Even Dohyuk had wondered, at first, why she clung so stubbornly to life.
It's for my goal. I have no choice. And... at least I'm getting something out of it.
Compromise. She was rationalizing everything with that single word — never realizing that the very act of thinking this way was exactly what Jin Dohyuk had been angling for. Real resistance had to be absolute from the start. Instead her body was learning, her instincts slowly leaning toward a new master. The moment she was forced into sex and into calling him husband, she had already stepped into his snare.
"Haa... haa..."
She stared blankly at the ceiling, the heat of what they had done still lingering, when the generator coughed to life.
"It runs on diesel. With this, you can cook a hot meal and even run the washing machine. You understand what that means, right, Soyeon?"
"But where are you going to get the fuel?"
"You've got your husband, don't you? I'll take care of it."
She sighed. There was no point arguing about the title anymore. No matter what she said, a boy years younger than her tossed the word around like it was nothing. And the humiliating conditions only kept piling on.
"By the way — aren't you supposed to use honorifics with your husband?"
"...I'm not doing that."
"You will eventually."
A chill ran through her even as her chest gave a sharp, sudden thud. Whether it was pure refusal or something closer to excitement, even she couldn't tell.
"Only run the generator when you need it. It smells like fuel, but it's better than nothing."
At least with power she could charge a phone.
"What about the bathroom? Last time I checked, the water was still trickling a little."
"By now... it probably isn't. It could cut out any day."
"That's why I brought a portable toilet."
"?"
For a second she had no idea what the man was talking about. He stood there naked, that still-impressive length of him catching the moonlight, and she looked away in instinctive shame.
He's going to do it again soon anyway. A kid like him always does.
The mere thought sent fresh heat flooding through her body.
"It's big, though. Hauling it up is going to be brutal labor. Even if I hook the elevator to the generator, the height won't line up."
She barely registered what he was saying. All she could think about was when the next round of mating would start.
He pulled on his pants and went downstairs. For a full thirty minutes she listened to him grunt and strain, lugging the chemical toilet up the stairs one piece at a time, all the way to the fourth floor. Sweat poured off him. His hands had started to tremble.
"If I hadn't done construction work before, I never would have managed this."
Watching him struggle, Lee Soyeon found herself wiping his brow with a handkerchief as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Good girl. This is exactly the kind of wifely care I like."
"..."
He hooked up the generator, plugged in the toilet, and rich foam began to swirl in the bowl.
"I didn't know these even existed."
A flicker of genuine surprise crossed her face.
"You don't need it right now. Use it when the real bathroom dies. It needs power, so I'll leave it outside the door."
She didn't know what to do with herself. He had gone to all this trouble — for her.
If that's the case...
When he came for her body later, she would have to give him everything he wanted. Enough to satisfy him.
What am I even thinking? He'll just take it himself anyway.
While Dohyuk showered off the sweat, Soyeon sat fretting. Once he finished, he would come for her without hesitation, the way he always did.
Twenty minutes later the young male stepped out naked, their eyes met, and her body answered more eagerly than anyone else's could have.
Why am I like this? Don't fall for it. In the end, he'll just...
Her heart hammered as he approached to claim her.
Am I actually looking forward to this? That's ridiculous.
She denied it with everything she had, face flushed, waiting for him in the dark —
"Well, I'm heading out."
"Why?"
The word slipped out before she could stop it. She clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Ah — hauling that toilet wiped me out. I'm this close to catching a cold."
"Then... I guess there's nothing you can do."
Panic flooded her. The routine she had come to expect was simply gone.
"Get some rest. I'll be on my way."
"...Hey."
"Hm?"
She startled at the realization that she had grabbed his arm — something the old Lee Soyeon would never have done. Looking up at him, she searched for words.
"Nothing. Just... thanks for today. Be careful."
"Sure."
He started down the stairs. She sank back into place.
Stay the night.
The words stuck in her throat. She watched his retreating back with a restless, hollow ache she couldn't name.
Thank god that portable toilet was a newer model and didn't weigh as much as the old ones.
"Goddamn, my whole body is screaming."
I could feel exactly what it used to be like before construction work toughened me up. Compared to the old chemical toilets I'd seen, this one was single-user, built for light duty, with a smaller holding tank. I'd even separated the tank before hauling it up — and it still wrecked me.
"Never again. Should've just gone with a camping toilet."
The hassle of emptying it more often would still have been a better deal.
I left my creaking body behind and found the shower booth still sitting on the cart.
"Ah. Forgot that too."
Whatever. I could drop it off later. Next stop: Seol-hwa. My body was so wrecked I wasn't sure I could even perform, but I still had to go. By now the kid would be alone and losing her mind.
I'd deliberately waited until night. The longer she sat in the dark, the tighter she'd bind herself to me. Her mother was dead. No light. Nowhere to run outside. That was the opening I was walking into.
I wanted nothing more than to collapse, but a high-school girl — one I had my eye on — was waiting. Was I going to walk away from that?
"You can do this, Jin Dohyuk. Treasure always sits on the other side of risk."
I flipped on the electric bike's headlight and pushed forward, forcing my body to move, dragging the cart behind me. At least it was electric — I didn't have to pedal — so that helped a little.
I cut through streets so black the old cliché "pitch dark" actually fit. Nothing existed beyond my headlight beam. Every sound hit harder because of it — the sounds of zombies.
There were more of them left than I'd expected. Footsteps. Twitching, restless movement. Each one scraped at my nerves.
Please don't see me.
Of course a car was jammed diagonally across the road, forcing me to ease through carefully. The zombie noise got closer.
If you can see me, just let me pass.
I wanted an easy out. Reality didn't care. One of them stepped into the bike light at a quick walk.
"Kyaa... kyaa..."
It turned toward the beam, went still for a beat —
"Kuaaaagh!"
"Figured as much."
I loosed a bolt from the crossbow to finish it. The shot sailed clean past.
"Ah — my hands!"
They were shaking too hard for a clean aim. That left the custom bat. As I raised it, the thing charging the light hesitated, face twitching.
Huh? What was that?
Then it came at me again.
"Kyaa..."
A clean crack rang out, almost cheerful. Nice of it to give me the spacing. I put its head through and climbed back on the bike.
As I rode, I turned the moment over. It had seen the light, made me out dimly, and charged — then flinched when the beam got close and intense. A zombie trait the previous owner of this knowledge had never mentioned. Something I might use later.
One more scrap of intel in the bank. I rattled my way to Seol-hwa's building on a body that felt ready to fall apart. Good thing I'd already cleared the zombies around here.
I killed the bike, grabbed a water jug and some canned food, and climbed to the third floor. I knocked.
"Can you open the door? It's me!"
Would she open it? Just like I'd predicted?
My heart was pounding. Then came the rapid patter of feet, and the door swung wide.
Seol-hwa's silhouette stood there sniffling, letting me in.
Of course she would. Alone and terrified, she had no choice but to welcome me. Spacing the visit had worked perfectly.
I looked at the appetizing meal waiting for me and licked my lips.