Chapter 28: Birthday Celebration Special
After working up a good sweat, Kim Jun came back inside to find the house completely flooded with water.
The idols were hauling rainwater from buckets to fill the bathtub, then heading back out to collect more from the pouring rain.
Kim Jun let out a small chuckle at how well they handled everything without being told. In the middle of it all, In Ah—fresh from a rainwater shower with a towel wrapped around her hair—was already preparing the morning spread.
“Oppa, I’ll keep breakfast and lunch simple. I’ll make everything special for dinner.”
“Sounds good. Think you can manage the cake?”
“We have enough ingredients. Plus we got milk yesterday.”
Once upon a time, the mere thought of multi-entertainer Shine preparing a birthday meal would have made every man in the country weak in the knees.
“Ah~ That smells amazing.”
“Seaweed soup again today?”
“Obviously. What kind of day do you think it is?”
“Right!”
Chatter filled the table. Today was Eun-ji’s birthday, and everyone knew it.
Steaming bowls of sesame-oil-rich seaweed soup arrived, and Eun-ji showed off her skills.
“Days like this really need meat,” Emily said with clear regret. In its place they brought out grilled Spam and the dumplings they’d made last time.
“Everyone, thanks for working so hard since morning.”
“Alright, Eun-ji starts first! Grab your spoon!”
At Kim Jun’s words everyone clapped for her. Eun-ji smiled awkwardly, thanked them, and picked up her spoon.
They all ate the lavish breakfast with gratitude. Every time Eun-ji took a spoonful of seaweed soup, a faint, gentle smile crossed her face. She seemed truly thankful for an apocalyptic birthday feast.
Then In Ah spoke to her.
“Still, thank you for setting the table.”
“You can’t thank me for just this. The real main dishes are coming out tonight.”
“No, it’s fine. You don’t have to… We need to conserve water, right?”
“Don’t worry about that. We collected hundreds of liters yesterday even if it wasn’t perfect. I’ll let you all eat to your hearts’ content for one day.”
Besides, because of what happened yesterday, Kim Jun decided to put the plan he’d only been thinking about into action.
For that reason, today would be the day the kids got to make whatever they wanted to eat.
It had only been two days since they declared they would save water, but heaven sent them rain as a gift.
Kim Jun announced, “We’re throwing a birthday party tonight. Tell me anything you want to eat.”
“Hmm…”
Eun-ji never inserted herself into moments like this. She had no particular desires; she was simply here because she was alive. Her expression remained calm and detached.
Emily, who couldn’t stand the silence any longer, shot her hand up.
“Pizza!”
“…You think that’s possible?”
“I’m craving hot soup loaded with ingredients. Packed full, with tons of black pepper and red pepper flakes.”
“Rana, your tastes are so old-man style.”
“Hmm… steak…”
“Where are we supposed to get meat?”
“It’s just a wish.”
“Jajangmyeon.”
“Ah, that might actually work.”
“Can we have fried food…?”
“We have plenty of oil, but…”
“No. We don’t need any of that for a birthday. It’s all about the cake!”
They threw out suggestions one after another. Some were clearly impossible, yet the birthday girl herself stayed completely silent.
In the middle of the noisy chatter, In Ah counted on her fingers and said coolly, “Everything’s possible.”
“For real?”
“Yes. A few things will need substitutions, though.”
“Hey, even if we can swing soup, jajangmyeon, and fried stuff, pizza and steak are—”
“Oppa, just trust me completely. Today I’ll be using the third-floor kitchen and the second-floor fridge quite a bit.”
Thanks to all their looting, they had plenty of food, but most of it was preserved goods. It was about time to start using up the vegetables anyway.
Watching In Ah prepare, Kim Jun asked quietly, “What do you need right away?”
“Eggs, but…”
“…Sorry. We really can’t get those.”
Eggs were spoiled everywhere. Bringing any back would only create more food waste. Unless they caught wild chickens and started raising them, meat would be limited to canned goods.
“Can’t be helped. Then if we can just get emulsifier, that would be perfect.”
“Emulsifier? What’s that?”
“It’s a chemical additive that binds water and oil. With it we can make cheese, butter, margarine, mayonnaise—everything.”
“Where do we find it?”
Kim Jun’s interest was piqued. If they could make cheese, margarine, and mayo from now on, that changed a lot.
In Ah thought for a moment. “Oppa, back when I filmed a CF for Paris Jour, I did a one-day baking workshop. I saw it there. Bakeries usually keep it in stock.”
“They showed celebrities the actual ingredients?”
“It’s business. Even rural areas use a lot of chemical additives.”
At least now they knew where to look. Kim Jun decided to make one more run before dinner.
“Ah, are you going looting?”
When Eun-ji approached, Kim Jun crooked his finger at her.
“Yeah. You don’t have to come.”
“If it’s because of my birthday, you don’t need to worry. It’s until evening anyway, so it doesn’t—”
Rana, reading the room perfectly, suddenly hugged Eun-ji from behind. “Unnie~ You promised to do that thing today, remember?”
“What thing…?”
“After we looted the salon last time and grabbed the scissors and curling iron, you said you’d do our hair. I’ve been asking you to thin mine out since yesterday.”
“Ah, that… I’ll do it when I get back…”
“No. While I’m gone, take care of the kids’ hair. A few of them are complaining their bangs are stabbing their eyes.”
It looked like they would soon have a full beauty salon operating alongside the kitchen and farm.
Unable to refuse Kim Jun’s request, Eun-ji reluctantly agreed to tend to the girls who had been begging for haircuts.
The looting partner Kim Jun chose this time was Gaya.
“It’s been a while.”
“Sorry for picking you again when some of the others haven’t gone yet.”
“Not at all! The oldest sister should obviously handle this.”
Gaya shrugged, full of determination not to show any trace of the girl who had screamed at her first zombie and nearly broken down at the sound of gunfire.
“Today’s a short trip. There’s a bakery we haven’t hit yet. Only a kilometer from here.”
“Is In Ah really going to make pizza?”
“She says she can if we get that emulsifier stuff.”
“Whoa~ Today’s going to be a real luxury feast. Pizza, jajangmyeon, cake… in this situation.”
Just imagining it brought happiness, but every bit of it was compensation earned by risking their lives.
Kim Jun arrived at the neighborhood bakery he used to visit occasionally. It had done bundle deals—three cream buns for a thousand won, seven for two thousand—but through the glass it was clearly a mold-covered wasteland. He had never gone near it.
“Oppa! There’s a zombie over there…”
“I see it.”
Kim Jun raised his air gun and took aim from a distance.
“You remember the rule, right? If you mess up my hunt, you’re getting cursed out.”
Gaya slipped on the wireless headset they’d taken from the bookstore last time and gave a thumbs-up. She didn’t forget to check the passenger-side mirror and every direction around them.
Kim Jun aimed as usual, targeting the zombies near the bakery. There were four of them, and the distance was safe.
Ding—
With a cheerful metallic sound, the lead pellet punched through a zombie’s head.
[Kyaaaaaaa!!!]
“!?”
The hit zombie staggered, then charged. The other three joined it. All four rushed them at once.
“Ugh…!”
Gaya nearly screamed but bit down hard on her lower lip, desperately holding back so she wouldn’t interfere.
Kim Jun almost switched to his pistol but, in the urgent moment, slammed the car into reverse instead.
Vrooooom!
He backed away from the four charging zombies, spun the wheel, and opened fire with the pistol.
Bang!
Crunch!
The shot glanced off the moving car, but one zombie lost an eye and half its skull. It staggered and collapsed.
What followed was a chaotic game of tag. Kim Jun swerved the car like a stunt driver while the zombies chased.
No matter how fast the infected could run, they couldn’t keep up with a car moving twenty kilometers per hour through alleyways.
After shaking them off, Kim Jun holstered the pistol and pulled out the shotgun.
Three shots. Three kills.
While hurriedly reloading, he realized the pistol had almost no bullets left and scratched his head.
Never mind food. I really need to start conserving these.
Kim Jun decided he would figure out how to get more ammunition later. He waited inside the car until the zombies’ movements completely stopped.
Only then did they enter, prying open the closed door and stepping into the bakery.
In the mold-filled, rotting space, the masked pair moved carefully into the baking room.
“Oppa, over here!”
Unopened bags of flour were stacked neatly: strong, weak, and medium.
When they opened the fridge, eggs were visible but long since spoiled. Shaking one produced only a watery slosh with no yolk texture.
“Aspartame, sugar, yeast, food coloring, whipping cream powder… The real prizes are in here.”
“Wow! There are canned goods too.”
“Oho, salted minced meat? I’ll take it!”
Kim Jun regretted judging the place by its exterior alone. If they had found it just a little earlier—before the power died—they might have salvaged dairy products before they spoiled.
While Kim Jun gathered items one by one, Gaya found something.
“Can we use this?”
It was butter in a sealed container. Being at room temperature, the outside had melted slightly and turned sticky.
Kim Jun remembered that butter could last up to eight months if kept away from light, so they took the whole box.
While they were at it, they grabbed every container of coffee and drinking water they could find. But the one thing In Ah had asked for was nowhere to be seen.
“What the hell does emulsifier even look like…?”
“Oppa!”
“What?”
“Can we take this…?”
The bakery was packed with cooking tools. What Gaya pulled out was a dusty stainless-steel manual noodle maker that hadn’t been used in ages, an electric dough mixer, and even an air fryer.
“Take it all! Take everything!”
“Yes. Then this too…”
Gaya carefully packed everything, double- and triple-wrapping the powders in case they spilled.
Kim Jun rummaged deeper and found it.
◈ Allows creation of cheese, butter, margarine, and mayonnaise
◈ Long shelf life if kept dry
“Found it!”
With that as the final prize, today’s looting run had yielded mountains of flour, sugar, butter, various seasonings, and professional baking equipment. They headed home satisfied.
“Today was incredibly productive!”
“Good. Looting’s done and we still have time. Want to talk?”
“…Pardon?”
Leaving a confused Gaya behind, Kim Jun pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
Suddenly the car had become a counseling session.
“I ran into a lot of trouble looting with Eun-ji.”
“Ah…”
“She acts with literally zero caution. Hoo…”
Gaya finally understood why he had specifically chosen her.
Kim Jun also believed an elder was best for this kind of conversation. “Remember when I first told her to take her clothes off so we could check for wounds? She refused.”
“I checked her myself… She wasn’t infected, right?”
“Exactly.”
Gaya understood where this was going and spoke softly. “Actually… she has some trauma.”
“I figured as much. Still, she shouldn’t completely isolate herself from the other girls.”
“That’s…”
“Remember that night you got drunk and came to me first? You said there were no condoms so we should use your mouth.”
“Th-that—?!”
“No taking it back. The other kids already know everything anyway.”
“…”
Gaya had nothing to say. In truth, she had suspected Kim Jun’s relationships with the other idols. A few seemed confirmed, so she had even wondered if she should offer her body instead of just words.
“She told me she understands, but if something like that happens to her, she’ll quietly leave the house.”
“…”
“Tsk. How did I come across that she’d say something like that…”
“It’s understandable. To the other kids, you’re…”
“Anyway. Keep an eye on her. She doesn’t mix with the others enough.”
“I’ve been rooming with her on the second and third floors, taking care of her. But… I’ll try harder. All the remaining people need to survive without any more trouble.”
“That’s what I’m saying!”
Kim Jun prepared to drive. The time was already four o’clock. Any later and the grand birthday feast would disappear.
“Right then~ Let’s go throw our prickly lady Eun-ji a proper birthday party!”
“Yes, oppa!”
On the way back, Kim Jun stepped lightly on the accelerator.
“This is insane! Totally insane~”
In Ah was thrilled by the incredible haul from the short looting run.
“Oh my, the protein will be well supplemented. Look at all these seasonings and cans!”
Mari examined each item, but in their current situation no one was going to complain about nutrition or chemical additives. They simply showed everything off.
Do Kyung came out carrying the flour dough she had kneaded and showed it to In Ah.
“You cut your hair short?”
“I gave myself a slight bob. Does it look weird?”
She had tried to add a little style reminiscent of her athlete days. Kim Jun nodded and told them to focus on the food.
“Oh! Emulsifier! Then let’s make sliced cheese right away.”
The girls began helping one by one. The noodle maker was cleaned and ready to produce fresh noodles.
Carrots, onions, and peppers were finely chopped. Dried fish was deboned, rehydrated, mixed with tuna cans and flour, and turned into fish cakes.
“This is for the soup. We even have minced meat, so one pot will be done in no time!”
They used the radish stems they had dried last time, substituted mung bean sprouts for regular ones, and boiled everything vigorously with soybean paste and minced meat instead of brisket.
On top of that, they made black bean sauce with chunjang to go with the fresh noodles from the machine. It was turning into a real feast.
Ding—
“Oh! The cake’s done in the oven.”
“Wow! You really prepared everything with what we have?”
“We’re so lucky we still had sugar and flour.”
Instead of fresh cream they used cocoa powder and ground nuts. The result was a surprisingly decent cake.
They called the girls down from the third floor and prepared to truly enjoy themselves.
One~ two~ three~ Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~
Our beloved Joo Eun-ji~ Happy birthday to you.
The idols sang in chorus. Everything they had wished for that morning had been created by In Ah’s hands. The feast was so luxurious it was hard to believe they were living in the apocalypse.
“This is the market-style soup Rana wanted. Sorry we couldn’t find cabbage, so I boiled lettuce for the toppings.”
“No way! It’s absolutely perfect!”
“We made a whole pot of jajangmyeon so everyone can serve themselves. For the steak, Jun oppa brought minced meat earlier, so we turned ground Spam into hamburger steak. And these are fried fish cakes—they go amazingly with the dumplings…”
The main dish, pizza, was a miraculous creation.
Flour dough spread with ketchup, perilla leaves instead of basil and mushrooms, Spam, and fake cheese made from cooking oil, butter, emulsifier, sodium caseinate—basically Prima—seasoned with salt. It looked surprisingly convincing.
What began as a joke had become completely sincere.
Finally they stuck the candles looted from the bakery into the cake, lit them, and presented it to Eun-ji.
“…”
“What are you waiting for? Blow them out.”
“The candles are melting! Hurry!”
“Th-thank you… everyone…”
The moment Eun-ji blew out the candles, Emily suddenly pulled something out and snapped a photo of them all.
Click!
“Hey, what is that?”
“A Polaroid. We somehow had film too.”
“Where did you pull that from? I never even used it—did you dig through my stuff?”
“Mmm~ We should use nice things when we have them, right?”
Gaya quickly stuck herself beside Eun-ji, threw up a V sign, and said, “No, let’s all take one together! This is a record that we’re still alive!”
“Yes, let’s do a group shot!”
All eight of them crowded together. Kim Jun took the camera and snapped the picture.
Gaya waved everyone closer, and they took a group selfie with all nine, carefully recording every dish as well.
Kim Jun stood beside Eun-ji. Rana hugged his neck from behind while Emily linked arms with him. In the photo, Eun-ji’s faint smile could be seen.
That night.
The idols, stuffed from the birthday feast and soju, moved on to second round, third round, growing louder and louder. But the star of the day, Eun-ji, quietly climbed to the rooftop room.
Under the small LED light, in the dimness, she taped the photos they had taken one by one onto the wall.
Ridiculous candid shots, the cake, even the one where cocoa cream was smeared on her face—she attached every single photo, then smiled quietly.
“…It was the best birthday party in a long time.”
Despite the situation, today at least, she could smile.