Chapter 6: Big Sister Gaya (2)
The next day, Kim Jun stepped out of the master bedroom.
The daily looting runs he had planned were now on hold after what happened yesterday. For the time being, they would make do with the supplies they had already gathered and focus on training the girls step by step.
In the kitchen, he found an unexpected face among the idols.
“...?”
“Oh, it’s Eun Ji!”
“...”
Ever since the incident in the car, Eun Ji had stayed quiet, only offering Kim Jun a polite greeting as she prepared food.
“What’s this? Did you take stuff out of the fridge?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It wasn’t the fridge—I used the dry goods from the pantry.”
“What’s even in the pantry… Oh!”
Inside the massive stainless steel pot normally used for ox-bone soup, ten packs of ramen were boiling in a full pot of water. Since they had ramen stacked by the box, it wasn’t a big deal.
“Did… did I do something wrong?”
“No, it’s fine. Since we’re already at it, let’s crack some eggs in there too.”
Perishable items had to be eaten quickly. Right now they needed to separate what would spoil soon from what could be stored long-term. Meat and eggs especially had to be consumed immediately.
They added the fish cakes tucked deep in the fridge and sliced green onions, creating a “green-onion-and-egg” ramen loaded with toppings.
As she set the bowls on the table, Eun Ji spoke softly.
“I’ll… I’ll work hard to get used to living here.”
“Hm?”
“I’m a bit… slow to warm up to people, so…”
With those words, Eun Ji hurried into the living room and began setting the table. The memory of how he had shoved a pistol into her hands the moment they met and made her point it at her own head flashed through her mind again.
This whole situation is still completely insane to me too… but we all have to adapt.
Kim Jun told himself they could talk things through little by little as he carried the ramen to the table.
The girls, who had been eating nothing but porridge, stared at the ramen with wide eyes. All except two.
Eun Ji, who had cooked it, and Gaya.
“Is Gaya doing okay?”
Kim Jun had always hated talking about work while eating back in his military days, but in this new world he quietly asked about “looting in a zombie-infested city.”
“Yes… she’s fine.”
“Eat a lot. Fill your stomach properly.”
He had brought idols here for safety, yet somehow it felt like he was back in his sergeant days, looking after the soldiers under his command.
Deciding to put yesterday’s events behind them and lighten the mood, Kim Jun spoke to the other top stars while eating.
“I know it’s mentally exhausting and scary with zombies right outside. But let’s all try to adapt. In the end, we’re doing this to survive, right?”
Everyone nodded at his words.
After the meal, while Kim Jun was outside enjoying a cigarette, Gaya approached him carefully.
He looked at her and gave a small chuckle.
“Want one?”
“...Ah, sorry?”
“If you’re going to smoke, I’ll give you one.”
When Kim Jun smiled, Gaya lowered her head, carefully bringing up what happened yesterday.
“Oppa… I’m really sorry.”
“Sorry for what? Screaming last time? I should be the one apologizing.”
In this situation, there was no point in accepting apologies. Honestly, the world had ended while he was browsing the internet. On top of that, he had rescued a bunch of delicate celebrity flowers from a greenhouse. Compared to that, a girl screaming at the sight of a zombie was nothing.
Besides, she must have been terrified to take his joking line—“One kiss and I’ll forgive you”—seriously enough to plant a deep kiss on him.
“Who’s ever seen a zombie before? This isn’t a movie.”
“But still…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Relax…”
After going back inside and thinking for a while, Kim Jun called over Mari, the idol who had graduated from medical school.
“I was thinking of opening some soju tonight to help everyone unwind. Is that okay?”
“Hmm… considering how long it’s been since they arrived… Ah, this is tricky.”
Mari counted on her fingers before answering.
“The ramen helped settle their stomachs a bit, but alcohol could cause problems. On the other hand, with so much PTSD…”
“P-T-S… what?”
“Post-traumatic stress disorder!”
“...Just say trauma.”
“They’re similar, but technically different terms…”
It would have been strange if none of them had it. They had experienced severe shock; the fact that none of them had completely broken down was a miracle in itself.
Kim Jun had suggested the soju gathering because he understood that, but Mari thought it over and shook her head.
“It depends on the person, but I don’t think we should yet. Let’s give their stomachs a few more days to settle before everyone drinks.”
“Alright then.”
Following Mari’s advice, Kim Jun decided to postpone the drinking party and focus on another task instead.
“Take out all the opened meat in the fridge. We’re turning it into preserved food.”
“Huh?”
“Everyone, lend a hand.”
Kim Jun pulled out the frozen meat that had been sitting in the fridge for a while. In the past, whenever his grandfather butchered a pig or chicken in the neighborhood, they would vacuum-seal it for long-term storage. That’s why raw meat was neatly stacked in the kimchi refrigerator in the storage room.
Those packs could last a long time, but the remaining meat was in the house fridge—tough cuts from the hind legs that were hard to grill, miscellaneous meat for stews, and leftover raw chicken pieces.
Kim Jun brought out the blender, drained the meat, and ground it all up.
“We need to peel and mince some garlic.”
“I’ll do it.”
In Ah stepped forward and began peeling garlic cloves one by one. Rana and Nanika helped her.
While the three of them handled the garlic, Kim Jun gave orders to the others.
“Who’s on laundry duty?”
“Me, me!”
When Do Kyung and Mari raised their hands, Kim Jun told them, “There’s a bunch of stuff stacked on top of the kimchi fridge across from the laundry room, right? There are tons of bread molds there. Take them out and clean them thoroughly. Also bring out the steamer and foil from the pantry.”
“Yes!”
With Gaya resting after her zombie-induced trauma, the remaining girls—Emily and Eun Ji—cleaned the inside of the oven and washed ingredients to prepare the food.
“Ooh~ Can we eat this too?”
Emily’s eyes sparkled at the sight of the meat. Mari quietly spoke to Kim Jun.
“Maybe one piece each for dinner tonight…”
“Yeah, let’s grill up one piece per person for dinner then.”
“Yesss~”
These idols had been on brutal schedules with constant training, so they had all gotten quite thin. Even when Kim Jun calculated their food costs, eight people eating like four healthy adult men still maintained their bodies.
The problem was that even with the ham they were making today, the fridge only held about a week’s worth. If they started pulling from the emergency stock in the storage room they could last longer, but they had no side dishes.
“Alright, give me the minced ginger and garlic.”
“Here.”
Kim Jun mixed the minced vegetables In Ah handed him with the ground meat, then added plenty of flour and starch and kneaded it thoroughly.
The girls watching him each took a bowl, put on sanitary gloves, and followed along. They added salt and pepper at intervals, kneaded until it formed a dough, then lined the bread molds Do Kyung and Eun Ji had brought with foil, oiled them, and packed the mixture in tightly.
After wrapping them with plastic wrap, they placed them in the oven and the steamer pot and started cooking.
Thirty minutes later, a savory aroma rose from the oven while a salty spam-like scent wafted from the pot.
“Whoa…”
The idols stared in fascination as canned ham—something they had only ever bought at convenience stores or supermarkets—took shape right before their eyes.
Kim Jun decided he would experiment with various recipes to keep feeding them in the future.
That evening, they took out the vegetables piled in the fridge and made a salad. It was a Korean-style salad with lettuce, onions, carrots, romaine, and perilla leaves, topped with the freshly made spam and dressed with mayonnaise and a touch of sesame oil.
“Alright, let’s eat!”
“Thank you for the meal!”
Everyone spoke in unison. As they ate the ham and salad they had made themselves, Kim Jun watched with a warm feeling in his chest.
“We’ll need plenty of fresh vegetables to supplement vitamins…”
“That’s right. Since we don’t have supplements, we’ll have to rely on diet to cover our nutritional needs.”
Mari chimed in, and Kim Jun nodded. In the 21st century, no one would have expected to worry about scurvy or beriberi, but this was now a long-term survival situation where those dangers were very real.
After finishing the day’s meal and starting to clean up, Emily looked outside and said, “Huh? It’s raining.”
“!?”
Kim Jun glanced out and saw rain beginning to fall and wet the ground. He immediately prepared to go outside.
“Only three people! We’re going to do some work!”
When they all looked at each other, Kim Jun pointed directly.
“Gaya, you rested well today, right? Come with me. And you, the tall one over there!”
“Ah, me?”
Former volleyball player Do Kyung was chosen. As she stepped forward, In Ah stood up as well.
“I’ll come too.”
“Okay. There are disposable raincoats in that pantry. Everyone put one on.”
Kim Jun put on his rain gear, left the house, and headed to the backyard.
By then the rain had grown heavier. The place he led the three girls to was the massive PVC water tank in the back.
“I’ll climb up and open this one, so you three open the one buried in the ground here. It’s too heavy for one person, so work together.”
The tank his grandfather had buried long ago as drought preparation, along with the rainwater tank Kim Jun had installed himself, proved incredibly useful now.
Kim Jun climbed up, used a valve wrench to forcefully open the tank cap, then bent the pipe that ran down from the waterproof-painted metal roof of the storage building so it directed straight into the rainwater tank.
While he worked, Gaya and In Ah grunted below as they struggled to open the large valve. Do Kyung barely managed to turn the one beside her on her own.
Kim Jun sighed, picked up the rusty valve wrench he had thrown aside earlier, and tossed it down.
“Hey, use this!”
“!”
Gaya and Do Kyung stared at the three-pronged wrench they had never seen before, unsure how to use it. In Ah, however, hooked it onto the round valve and turned it with all her strength.
“I think it goes like this… Hup!”
With the rusty metallic screech of metal scraping against metal, the buried rainwater tank slowly opened. A filter inside ensured only clean water would enter. Once Kim Jun activated the pump, purified rainwater would come up.
“Whew. All done. Good work, everyone.”
Kim Jun praised them. While he was at it, he handed over some of the emergency rations he had hidden in a box in the storage room.
“Whoa! Chocolate bars!”
“Eat them here quickly before we head back, okay?”
“Yes!”
They shivered in the rain, but the sight of them happily eating the hot breaks made him smile.
That night.
Kim Jun rummaged through the fridge, hungry for a late-night snack.
He had tried to be considerate, but eating three meals a day with the idols made him feel like he was the only one dieting. He took out the hot bars, crab sticks, and cheese balls he had looted from the convenience store last time, along with some soju from the storage room.
“Man, it really is getting empty in here, huh?”
After thinking for a moment, Kim Jun set aside the crab sticks and cheese balls, deciding to use a single hot bar as a side dish. He muttered to himself.
“Once we finish the ham we made today… does that mean we won’t be eating real meat anymore…”
“...”
It was just a casual remark while looking in the fridge.
At that moment, as Kim Jun gathered the soju and snacks and headed toward the master bedroom, he ran into Gaya coming out of the bathroom.
“...Ah!”
“You’re not sleeping yet?”
“Ah, I was just about to.”
Gaya glanced at what Kim Jun was holding. Her eyes lingered on the soju and wouldn’t let go.
Kim Jun chuckled at the sight.
“Want a drink?”
Normally he would have followed Mari’s morning advice about letting them stabilize first, but he decided to let it slide this time.
When Gaya silently nodded, Kim Jun told her to wait five minutes and went inside. Just in case, he checked the pistol under the bed again, put the shotgun and air gun in the closet, locked it, and slipped the key into his pocket.
When he told her to come in, Kim Jun had dimmed the lights to the minimum and greeted her.
“Here.”
“...Thank you.”
He poured a little soju into a paper cup and handed her a hot bar. She drank the cup in one go, then scrunched up her face, forcing down the bitter taste.
“If you’re not feeling well, you can head back right away.”
“...”
“We’re just going to drink between the two of us and that’s it, okay?”
“Yes.”
“The other kids are definitely all asleep, right?”
“Yes. They’re all good kids, so they handle their own responsibilities.”
It seemed the entertainment industry’s senior-junior hierarchy was keeping some order, even if the “seniors” were all younger than Kim Jun and in the prime of their twenties.
“Thinking about it, yesterday didn’t have to happen that way.”
“Sorry?”
“The deep kiss~”
“...”
When Kim Jun brought his hand to his mouth and laughed, Gaya’s face burned as she trembled.
“B-back then… I couldn’t hear anything. Just cursing… and you saying you were going to leave me behind…”
He had only been joking when he said tension could be relieved with a kiss, but she had taken it seriously.
The two of them shared soju from paper cups. Eventually Gaya asked him carefully.
“Um… Oppa…”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think all of us can survive until the end?”
“Of course. Obviously~”
As he answered, Kim Jun glanced at Gaya. Even without makeup, her lips and eyelashes stood out beautifully. Her long curly hair, fresh from a bath, carried the scent of the convenience store shampoo in a strangely seductive way.
“For me, living with pretty idols like you will be a memory that lasts a lifetime.”
“R-really?”
It was casual conversation, but the alcohol seemed to make Gaya’s face grow hotter. Kim Jun didn’t notice her slowly inching closer as he took another sip of soju and murmured.
“Well, even if we can’t go looting, there will be plenty of ways to help out.”
“For example… that…”
“Hm?”
“Even if it’s just sex…?”
“...!?”
When Kim Jun turned, she was already leaning on his shoulder, breathing out alcohol-scented breath.
A tingling sensation ran down his spine. In the dim light, Gaya’s face came into view. Her flushed cheeks held the same beauty that had made countless uncle fans cry five years ago.
“What are you doing? I was joking.”
“Still… if I were to be held by you right now…”
Gaya drew even closer and kissed him. Their tongues intertwined deeply inside their mouths.
Within the sticky saliva, his lower body began to stiffen. Her pure white hand slowly moved downward.
It was a fantastic situation. There was only one thing missing.
“Sorry, but we don’t have any condoms.”
“...”
“Let’s do it next time.”
The romantic mood shattered in an instant, but he had said it on purpose. They didn’t know how much time they had left. If this kind of atmosphere formed so quickly, how would he face the other girls later?
But she didn’t seem willing to stop.
After thinking for a moment, Gaya slightly parted her lips and pointed at her moist mouth.
“With my hands… and my mouth at least…”
“Pfft!”
Gaya showed no sign of stopping. Kim Jun looked down at his increasingly hard lower body and quietly stroked her hair.
At that moment, Gaya’s face moved down to his crotch. She bit the zipper of his shorts with her teeth and pulled it down.
Ziiiip—
After lowering the zipper with her teeth, she used her tongue to gently pull aside his boxer briefs. A massive shaft sprang out.
“Wow…”
Surprised by the size, she gathered her lips and took it all the way to the back of her throat.
“Ugh.”
A current idol was using her mouth to survive in this shelter.
The sound of her sucking echoed continuously in his ears. As the lights dimmed further, he relied only on touch and hearing.
Slurp— slurp—
Through the thin fluttering T-shirt, he could see the shape of her breasts and feel the texture of her bra strap against his legs.
She wrapped her tongue around him, moved her lips, and sucked on the tip. After several minutes of this caress, Kim Jun released in one powerful burst.
“Mmph, mmph!”
Kim Jun instinctively grabbed the back of Gaya’s neck as the pleasure of climax made his eyes roll toward the ceiling.
Gaya showed him the thick load pooled in her mouth, then quietly spat it into a nearby tissue. A long, white string of semen stretched out.
“Whew… Damn, I came straight in your mouth on impulse.”
“Mmm…”
“...You really don’t have to do this kind of thing.”
“When we get condoms… even later is fine…”
Gaya rinsed her mouth with soju, then hugged Kim Jun like a lover.
After feeling her warm embrace, the events of that night remained a secret between the two of them while everyone else slept.