Chapter 21: Eyes Meet When Times Get Tough
Kim Jun hummed cheerfully as he threw himself into making dumplings.
He hauled flour up from the storage room, dug out everything in the pantry, combined it all, and added baking powder until he had a massive lump of dough that filled an entire basin.
With that, Kim Jun rolled it out on a board using a rolling pin while the girls used bottle caps to cut out perfect dumpling wrappers.
The filling had already been prepared—a completely natural version using only ingredients they had at home since they couldn’t reach the supermarket. Still, it was packed with finely chopped aged kimchi, canned ham, mung bean sprouts, spinach, and all kinds of side dishes.
Everyone gathered to fold the dumplings together.
“Hey! You’re not supposed to do it like that!”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Dummy, why are you sealing it?”
“That’s how you fold dumplings, isn’t it? You seal the ends.”
“If you seal it that way, they won’t be potstickers!”
Emily and Do Kyung were at it again, bickering over whether to roll and pinch the dumplings or simply fold them.
Kim Jun watched them and laughed. “Just make them however you want. We’re doing both steamed and fried dumplings anyway, so what’s the problem?”
“Is it really okay to do it like that?”
“Look, you think emptying all that filling is a joke? It’s going to take all day. We’ll be at this from morning till night.”
Kim Jun knew from experience. Back in his childhood, before making kimchi for winter, people from the village would bring their own aged kimchi, chop it all up to make dumpling filling, then gather at the community center-slash-town office to fold hundreds of dumplings together and share them.
Making all these dumplings would probably take until lunch, then cooking them until dinner, and finally sorting them into bags and organizing the fridge. The whole day would vanish.
That was exactly why Kim Jun had everyone join in on the dumpling-folding duty.
They worked in silence, the only interruptions being the occasional bathroom break.
“Did you wash your hands after peeing?”
“Hey! Emily, what the hell are you saying now?”
“You’re using the hand you wiped yourself with to fold dumplings!”
“Ugh, you crazy bitch! You’re ruining my appetite!”
The girls were rowdy even though it was just a dirty joke. Kim Jun, who had been quietly cutting wrappers, finally smacked one of them and told them to stop with that kind of talk.
He rolled the dough with force, created the right thickness for the wrappers, then rolled it again with the pin.
After hours of nonstop work, his fingers started to ache and the sizes became inconsistent. Just as he was about to take a break, lunchtime arrived.
“Whew—”
Lunch was the same pollock and seaweed soup from breakfast, served with rice. Everyone ate normally, but Kim Jun couldn’t even pick up his spoon.
Clink.
“Oh my?”
“Damn, my finger joints are all throbbing!”
After hours of hard labor, every knuckle creaked in protest. When Kim Jun finally lifted his spoon again, everyone saw how swollen his fingers had become.
“Oppa, your fingers…”
“Wow, they’re completely…”
Kim Jun hated that kind of reaction even more, so he kept shaking his hands.
“Ugh, this is what happens when you make dumpling wrappers. It shouldn’t be like this.”
That was when In Ah spoke with a gentle smile. “Making dumplings is always hard work.”
“No, it’s not like I got injured or anything…”
“It’s fine. Dumpling-making is heavy labor. You spend all day rolling dough with a pin, your hands hurt from making the wrappers, folding them, and carrying the steamer. People who do it for a long time end up with ruined finger joints.”
In Ah calmly explained that it was nothing strange, while Kim Jun felt awkward for showing weakness.
Still, right now they were just enjoying a peaceful daily life without having to drive around dodging zombies or go out on dangerous scavenging runs. Even if his body ached a little, this was much better.
When In Ah sent Nanika up to gather some mushrooms, Kim Jun felt motivated again. He hummed as he went back to making wrappers.
But that peaceful atmosphere shattered instantly.
“Kyaaaahhhhhh!!!”
“!?”
“What the hell?”
At the sudden scream, Kim Jun shot to his feet on reflex.
“Everyone, stay right where you are!”
At his single command, all the girls froze.
Kim Jun dashed to the master bedroom, grabbed his air gun and pellets, and said, “You girls can keep doing what you were doing. I’ll be right back.”
“Oppa!!!”
Gaya and In Ah had come running after hearing Nanika’s scream.
Kim Jun stroked both their heads, calming them down.
“Don’t worry. Whatever it is, I’ll go take care of it and come back.”
After reassuring everyone, he went straight upstairs to check.
Nanika had collapsed on the third-floor rooftop garden. Kim Jun quickly helped her up.
“Hey? What’s wrong? What did you see… oh man.”
The front of her pants was gradually getting wet.
Thankfully, it was only a small amount of liquid—enough to slightly dampen her pants.
“O-over… there…”
The idol had passed out from fear while wetting herself.
Kim Jun dragged her over to the rooftop garden, sat her down, then aimed his gun in the direction she was pointing.
[Ughhh— Uggghhhh—]
“Ah, fuck!”
Three zombies from the neighboring house stood on the roof at the same height as the rooftop room. They were staring at the complex web of electrical wires connected to the utility pole, clearly trying to cross over.
Their slow, sluggish movements made it unlikely they would actually make it across, but Kim Jun couldn’t just ignore them swaying like that.
Click.
Ting!
He pulled back the bolt, loaded a lead pellet, and fired from where he stood.
The zombie took a direct headshot at close range and staggered, grabbing onto the power line.
That line was for high-speed internet. After a moment of thought, Kim Jun pulled out a knife.
It wasn’t a power line anyway, and even if communications came back someday, it would only be for PC internet at best. He cut the line cleanly. The zombie that had been holding it plummeted immediately.
[Uggghhhhh—]
Crunch!
The zombie that fell from the third floor shattered on impact, blood spraying everywhere.
“Whew, it landed inside their fence.”
It would probably stink for a while, but Kim Jun figured it would rot and disappear along with the other zombies in a few days. He turned his aim to the remaining two.
From the roof, he calmly sniped them. Five shots later, both zombies were down.
Once everything was taken care of, Kim Jun went back to Nanika, who was still leaning against the wall.
“You okay? It’s all over now.”
“Ugh… ughhh…”
Nanika was in complete panic. Kim Jun pulled her into his arms and helped her stand.
Noticing her wet pants, he opened the door to the rooftop room and guided her inside.
“Go wash up and change your clothes, then come back down.”
“The… the zombies… they won’t come back, right?”
“They won’t. I killed them all.”
When Kim Jun tried to leave after resolving the situation, she grabbed his hand.
“!”
“I-I’ll wash and change quickly… so please… stay with me for a bit…”
“Sigh, alright. Go wash and change.”
Nanika trembled as she entered the bathroom and stripped off her clothes.
Kim Jun told her to close the door, but she kept it open, reaching out to hold it. She stood completely naked in front of him and slowly washed herself.
He had suddenly been treated to a strip show and a bath show, but Kim Jun understood her fear. He quietly sat down, turned his head away, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.
When Nanika came out after washing, she approached with only a towel covering her wet body and silently held out her hand.
“C-can I have one too…”
“Here.”
Her body still shook as she tried to calm down with the cigarette. She hadn’t even dried herself properly.
Kim Jun waited patiently. Even when the beautiful naked girl stood right in front of him, breasts swaying while she searched for and put on her underwear, he never once let his gaze linger inappropriately.
She finally found her panties and put them on. The bra was slightly the wrong size and uncomfortable, but she managed to hook it, twist it around, and finish dressing. Then she put on the hiking t-shirt and sweatpants she had looted with Emily last time before heading downstairs.
The two of them put her soiled pants in the washing machine and came down as if nothing had happened.
When the others asked what had occurred, Emily spoke up with perfect innocence.
“You went up at different times, but when you came down her clothes were suddenly different? And I smell body wash…”
“Hey!”
“Just kidding~”
Kim Jun let Nanika rest for a while, washed his hands, and went back to making dumplings.
“There were zombies on the neighbor’s roof. They were trying to cross over using the wires. I shot them.”
“Oh my!”
“No blood splattered over here, but the third floor is going to reek. It’ll take about three days for that thing to rot.”
The celebrity residents of the rooftop room waved their hands in understanding after hearing Kim Jun’s explanation.
That was when In Ah, still folding dumplings, spoke up. “We can just sprinkle compost on that zombie.”
“Oh, that’s true. The smell of a rotting corpse and rotting soil isn’t that different.”
When Emily chimed in during the situation, the other girls shook their heads and continued making dumplings.
“Alright, situation resolved. Let’s finish what we were doing. I’m the one catching zombies, but you all have to make the food we’ll survive on.”
It was the moment the girls—who had been living leisurely in isolation without seeing many zombies—felt their loosened sense of fear tighten again like a screw.
The cheerful atmosphere continued, but fundamentally this was possibly the only zombie apocalypse survivor shelter, and they were currently making emergency food supplies.
Kim Jun spent the entire day rolling out massive amounts of dumpling wrappers with the rolling pin. While the girls finished the filling and began folding individual dumplings, he stood up again.
“While I’m at it, I’ll do a perimeter check.”
He patrolled the surrounding area once every hour, scanning with binoculars and a scope.
He could see a few zombies moving far outside the house, but they were too distant.
At that range they couldn’t possibly cross over, but the uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away.
He took out the shotgun he had sealed in the storage room last time and aimed it.
A zombie was loitering about fifty meters away near the regular barrel’s effective range.
Kim Jun fired calmly.
Bang!
The sound of the powder-driven slug bullet was completely different.
The moment it was hit, the zombie collapsed and never moved again.
With the determination to clean up the surroundings, Kim Jun even climbed onto the rooftop solar panel area and sniped zombies across the whole area.
When he checked the time as the sun was setting, the world he looked down on from above was truly a spectacle.
The sun disappeared and the sky filled with sunset glow, but there wasn’t a single trace of living people. Most of what remained were burned-out ruins of houses and cars, or the ghostly silhouettes of empty villas and apartment buildings with no one in sight.
Kim Jun clicked his tongue at the bitterly cold sight of his once-familiar neighborhood and came back down.
By then, the first batch of dumplings was already steaming in the cooker.
“Where’s Emily?”
“She took Nanika to the small room to look after her mental state.”
Eun Ji and Gaya said it made sense and, as the older sisters, comforted the other girls.
“Now that I think about it, Gaya’s twenty-seven and Eun Ji is twenty-six, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“When you think about it, we’re all still kids.”
There wasn’t a single person over thirty. A group of fresh twenty-somethings protecting a three-story house shelter in the apocalypse.
After something like today’s incident, they really needed at least one dedicated person for mental care.
While Kim Jun was pondering new responsibilities after becoming their plaything, the steamer lid opened and a delicious aroma burst out.
“Here we go~ The long-awaited aged-kimchi gyoza dumplings have arrived~”
Eun Ji skillfully brought out the steamed dumplings and passed them around one by one.
Kim Jun tried one and gave a thumbs-up, saying it was definitely worth making.
“Alright~ Bring out the soju too. We’re having a proper dinner party tonight!”
That night, they deliberately created an even more cheerful atmosphere to forget what had happened during the day.
They turned on all the lights in every room on the second floor. In the bright atmosphere, they set out individual trays and gathered in groups of two or three like a room café, enjoying dumplings and soju. Kim Jun moved between them.
“So that’s what they asked for?”
“It must have been scary.”
Because of the daytime incident, the girls who slept on the second and third floors had discussed swapping bedrooms.
“I volunteered to go. Since I’m the older sister, just like Oppa said.”
Eun Ji had offered to take Nanika’s place in the rooftop room that night.
The two idols now in the small room were Emily and Nanika.
Since the topic had come up, Kim Jun decided to offer some comfort. After making the rounds to the other rooms, he headed to the small room.
Right across from the master bedroom, Emily had one arm around Nanika, gently soothing her.
“The first time is always like that for everyone. We’re not superheroes, and this isn’t the set of a zombie movie.”
“Thank you… for comforting me.”
Seeing the two idols hugging each other warmly, Kim Jun sat down in front of them and picked up a soju glass.
“That’s the one I was drinking from~”
“I’ll get you a new one.”
“It’s fine. If it’s Jun, sharing glasses is totally okay.”
Emily brushed it off coolly. As she stood up to leave, she whispered softly to Kim Jun.
“I’ve calmed her down a lot, so comfort her plenty tonight.”
“…”
After dropping that loaded remark, Emily waved and headed to the room where Eun Ji and Gaya were—the one Kim Jun had just left.
While laughter continued outside without pause, Kim Jun said, “You must have been really scared.”
“…I’m sorry. For showing you such an embarrassing sight.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Thinking about what happened yesterday, Kim Jun told her, “If it’s really hard, you can talk to me anytime. We’re all trying to survive together. Is there anything I wouldn’t help with?”
“Haha… ha…”
Nanika gave a small laugh, her face flushed red as she downed her soju.
Then she moved closer and gently leaned her head on his shoulder.
It wasn’t just one or two of them who did this. When pushed to the limit, it seemed they all saw Kim Jun as the person they could rely on.
“Oppa…”
“Yeah?”
“Later tonight… can we… do that again?”
“Hm?”
In a tiny voice, Nanika whispered into his ear so no one else would hear. “Like yesterday… looking at the moon, talking in front of the camper…”
“…Ah, that.”
“One in the morning.”
“Sure, why not. It’s basically counseling.”
Kim Jun said he was happy to do it anytime and stroked her hair.
That night.
After everyone had passed out drunk and the sound of snoring filled the house, Kim Jun quietly got up and grabbed his cigarettes.
He took a few packs of soju from the fridge along with some dumplings that would be easy to eat and prepared to head out.
The night was chilly.
While everyone slept, he quietly made his way to the camper. When he heard movement inside, he carefully opened the door.
“You were inside…”
When the door opened, there was indeed a beautiful woman waiting for him.
“Hey~ Jun.”
“…Why are you here?”
“Too bad. I’m here too.”
Emily kneaded her own breasts and winked at him. From the camper’s shower stall beside her came the sound of someone washing.
“…”
Once again, he had an ominous feeling that the inside of the camper was about to become a place of love and encounters…