The Incomplete Zombie
The atmosphere was wrong. I needed to get out of here fast, and I started to pull Seolhwa along with me.
But she suddenly grabbed both my hands.
"Wait!"
"What? It's obvious zombies have shown up."
"Can't you... save him?"
She looked up at me with a pitiful expression, pleading.
"I can barely keep you safe as it is. It's dangerous. We're leaving."
"Please. Save the teacher. He wasn't always like that."
I considered ignoring her and walking away, but she was about to dig her heels in again.
Of course, knowing how to handle that was negotiation — a man's craft.
"Fine. It's not like I can't do it."
"Really?"
"On one condition. You don't disobey a single thing I say. Get that through your head. You've already racked up plenty of debt with me, haven't you? Running away and all the rest."
With a girl like her, loading her down with debt and working the guilt was far more cost-effective.
Running off before, trying to leave on her own — from Seolhwa's point of view, maybe that had seemed natural enough.
But I was the center. I was what mattered. Meaning those choices had been a minus for me.
"I'm sorry..."
"I don't even have a real reason to do this, but I'll do it for you. So when we get home later, I'll be expecting something."
"..."
"Answer me."
When I pressed her again, Seolhwa hurriedly nodded.
"Okay."
"You answer me right away when I speak. Carve that into your skull too. I'm your master and your boyfriend."
"Yeah."
At least she was quick on the uptake. I turned and headed toward the school. Screams were already pouring out from inside like mad.
But where had the zombies even come from? Had Gang Haseong turned?
I moved toward the entrance and found a single zombie hard at work biting someone.
"Stay put."
I didn't care where or how this thing had crawled out.
Kill it, take Seolhwa home, and enjoy myself. That was enough.
The crossbow's range was more than sufficient now, but I closed in deliberately and lined up a clean shot.
The moment I fired, the bolt punched straight through the zombie's skull and it crumpled to the floor.
"Hah."
I brought my sword down on the twitching victim.
Safe for now? Any others?
"Aaaagh! Teacher Gang!"
Right then, something agile came rushing toward me, shoving something ahead of it.
A person. Holding someone by the throat and thrusting them forward?
Can a human even be that strong?
Something had a woman by the neck and was shoving her into my face.
It was a person. Only a person would do something like that.
Zombies had no intelligence.
But the whole thing felt wrong. A person holding another person up by the throat with one hand?
"Teacher Ga...ngh... ghk!"
What the hell was the thing behind her, choking her out?
Then the hand swung back once — and threw her at me.
"!"
I caught the woman and tangled with her, and in that instant a face that was familiar and yet not familiar filled my vision.
"How dare you—how dare you—how dare you! Seolhwa—!"
A teacher. Blue veins stood out across his entire face as he reached for me.
I reflexively shoved the woman off me — and in that same moment his hand punched through her torso and kept coming, right up into my space.
That was not human strength.
Almost like a zombie. But was he different from a regular one?
Still, this was an opening. I raised the crossbow again and took aim.
"You bastard, Seolhwa—!"
But the voice came from right beside me. Not just fast — beyond that.
And then my body slammed into the wall, the impact crashing through me.
What the hell?
I tried to get up, and a kick was already in my face.
I was sure I'd raised my arms, but for a moment I felt nothing — sensation gone numb — and I was driven toward the stairs.
"Ugh!"
I got up again, and the man with the blue veins crawling over his face came at me.
He tore the crossbow from my hands and hurled it into the wall.
What even was this thing? A mutation? Was he still a zombie?
A thousand thoughts ran through my head, but I had to kill him. I had to put him down if I wanted to play later.
Then human voices rose from the stairs again, and several people came down into view.
They saw me and startled — then looked below and recoiled in horror.
"Aaaah!"
"Teacher Gang's turning! What do we do?!"
"He's about to become a zombie! Everyone run!"
Thanks. That confirmed it. He was in the process of turning into a zombie?
Turns out that stage was when they hit the hardest.
I groaned and pretended I couldn't move. If he still had any intelligence left, that would bait him into overcommitting.
Sure enough.
He grabbed me by the throat and hauled me up.
"You piece of trash!"
"Ghk—!"
As that crushing strength closed around my neck, I drew my knife and tried to drive it into his skull.
A wet thunk reached my ears, and blood sprayed.
But it wasn't his head. The knife sank into his hand — and then the blade snapped off, still buried in his flesh.
"Kraaaagh!"
He flung me like a toy.
"Ugh!"
I tried to roll with the fall, but the anti-stab gear made a clean landing almost impossible.
I barely got to my feet as he writhed in pain — then started laughing like a maniac.
"Hahahaha! The pain's stopping. The pain...! Wow!"
The process of turning into a zombie. I wasn't crazy enough to keep fighting him now. Absolute priority: run.
I put everything I had into sprinting.
I considered the opposite stairwell to get outside, then realized I'd never beat him on open ground.
"Up!"
I deliberately took the stairs to the second floor. I needed to buy as much time as possible.
Time was on my side.
"Hah... hah..."
I waited, gasping, for him to come — but I never heard his voice.
Why wasn't he following? Had he finished turning?
I'd miscalculated one thing. He was more obsessed with Seolhwa than with me.
"Ah! What are you doing?!"
Seolhwa's panicked voice cut through the air, and I didn't even look back — I just ran for the corridor.
Outside, he had Seolhwa in his grip and was screaming at her.
"You filthy bitch! Why did you defile yourself?! I protected you! I told you not to!"
"It hurts!"
"You should have stayed pure! You disobeyed me and gave your body to some man?! Trash! Filthy whore!"
The classic picture of a man drowning in madness, reason slipping away.
He treasured this girl so much, and one act of sex was enough to call her garbage?
"See? Filthy bastard after all."
I grabbed a bat and charged.
In the middle of ranting over Seolhwa, his eyes locked with mine.
I couldn't beat him head-on. I had to shake him. Keep shaking him.
Use his obsession with Seolhwa.
I started walking in slowly from outside striking range.
"Hey, this is something else. One little 'lie' and a person falls apart this hard?"
"What... what the hell are you talking about?"
His murderous stare made cold sweat run down my back. But I was going to turn that madness against him.
"That girl trusted you, so she made a bet with me."
"What?"
"I said you were a hypocrite — a teacher lusting after Seolhwa. She said you weren't."
I could feel his grip loosening from the look on his face.
Seolhwa slipped free of his hand and gasped for air, and I pressed harder.
"Looks like I won. You wanted your own student. You wanted to keep her."
"No. That's not true."
"But you put on a show of conscience and kept other men away from her, didn't you? Your real feelings are obvious."
Those crazed eyes wavered, just a little.
"That's ridiculous. No. I was... trying to protect her."
"You figured if you kept her in your line of sight, you could take her whenever you wanted, right? Even if your position made it impossible — once law and order collapsed, all you'd have to do was sweet-talk her from the side. That was the plan."
"Shut your mouth! I'll kill—"
"Seolhwa's a virgin. For real. It was an act. An act. Didn't something feel off to you?"
I drove the words in hard, and Gang Haseong started panting like a dying animal.
"No. Lies... I..."
"There it is. Fake teacher. In all my life, I've never seen a bastard scream abuse at a girl who got raped. How about it? Finally seeing that filthy, disgusting heart of yours for what it is?"
I closed the distance step by step. One clean knife to the skull would do it.
Confused, he grabbed Seolhwa again and shouted at her.
"Seolhwa. I... I... you know your teacher was only worried about you, right?"
"Give me a break. Disgusting bastard."
I couldn't see Seolhwa's face then. I only felt as if contempt and condemnation had driven a blade straight into his heart.
"Seolhwa! Teacher's sorry—"
"Get lost! And yeah, I'm not a virgin. Good thing I threw myself away on someone else instead of the likes of you!"
"You... crazy little biiiiitch—!"
That was when I used a judo technique and swept his legs. He went over backward, and I drove the knife straight down into him.
And then the place was quiet again.
Seolhwa watched the man she had once looked up to — Gang Haseong — die right in front of her.
Normally she would have been shocked. Instead, her heart felt strangely light.
Piece of trash.
Anger filled her more than anything else.
Strictly speaking, her virginity had been taken — but that didn't mean she deserved to be cursed like that.
It was Gang Haseong's behavior, so unlike his usual self, that had caused this whole mess.
The man who had taken her first turned his body toward her.
"..."
And Seolhwa felt her body flinch on instinct.
A savage, cruel male. Being led by his hand, what came next was obvious.
That thought rang through her as the man asked her one thing.
"Do you feel sorry for him?"
"...No."
"Want to stay here?"
Seolhwa looked at the school without Gang Haseong in it. People inside were staring their way.
Would they take her in after she'd been with the ones who killed their spiritual pillar?
There's no one left to protect me.
No matter what happened to her at this school. Seolhwa felt a hollow sadness settle over her.
"I don't... have anywhere to go anymore. Do whatever you want."
"Anywhere to go? You're going to live as my woman. Never betray me. Follow me without question. That's your job now."
The man didn't ask for her opinion.
An order.
The king who had eliminated a rival male was giving the girl her orders.
He told her to follow him outside. Seolhwa went without a word of protest, glancing back once toward the school in the distance.
A place that should have held countless memories. Now she was afraid to even approach it.
"Haa..."
She let out a long breath and climbed onto the back of the electric bike.
"Nnh..."
The pain had dulled a little, so the sound that slipped out was small — but it was still embarrassing.
Once we get there...
A man and a woman living together. What else was there going to be?
Just like with Lee Soyeon, the future was already decided.
Her face heated for no good reason as the man peeled off the gloves he was wearing.
"Why are you taking those off?"
"Zombie blood on them. Same with my clothes. Don't grab anywhere you shouldn't."
"Got it."
That was probably consideration. If Seolhwa grabbed the blood-smeared front of his torso, the risk of infection would be high.
Kinder than he looks... no. Not really.
A kind man couldn't have done what he'd just done. But right now, there was no one else she could rely on.
"Hey... you called yourself my boyfriend. So... from now on, are we...?"
"As long as you don't betray me. I stay the same."
Seolhwa sighed deeply. Like a trap Jin Dohyuk had laid, she already thought of herself as in his debt — which meant she had no choice but to accept this man.
"Okay. Then... take care of me."
"Good answer."
Under the setting sun, the bike arrived at Seolhwa's house.
The first order of business was cleanup. Burning her mother's corpse, and washing clean the bodies that had fought so hard.
And after that? Obvious enough.
"Can't we... wait a few days? It still hurts..."
"You don't get a choice."
The male began to claim his rightful spoils of war.