Chapter 77 - Time Will Sort It Out
The sharp clack of the crossbow rang out.
“Nice!”
Kim Jun clapped his hands and gently ruffled Gaya’s curly seaweed-like hair.
“Ah…”
Feeling the warmth of his hand on her head, Gaya’s cheeks flushed slightly. She quietly stepped back and handed the crossbow to Kim Jun.
“You’re getting pretty good now, huh?”
“Thank you.”
During the ongoing training sessions, Kim Jun had started the crossbow practice with Gaya and then moved down the line to the younger girls, following the same order he’d used after Emily.
Unlike the slingshot training, the crossbow required precise aiming. Among the girls, Gaya, Eun Ji, Emily, and Do Kyung showed excellent concentration and quickly grew comfortable firing it.
Of course, no one knew how they would perform against actual zombies, but at least they could reliably hit stationary targets.
“Alright~ Once you’ve all fired your quota for today, we’ll have to make some more arrows.”
After having the girls retrieve every practice crossbow bolt one by one, Kim Jun moved to the side and began carving new arrows from wood using a sickle.
Helping him with the work were Rana and Nanika.
“In Ah is usually really good at this kind of thing.”
“Is In Ah unnie… still like that?”
Ever since that morning incident, In Ah had continued preparing meals and handling household chores as usual, but she was keeping a strange distance from Kim Jun.
Even when working, she stayed on the opposite side of wherever he was. Right now, she was up in the rooftop room with Eun Ji, knitting scrubbers.
“Should I… try talking to her?”
Nanika felt guilty and offered to help smooth things over, but Kim Jun shook his head.
“It’s fine. If anyone’s going to say something, it should be me.”
Kim Jun had expected something like this to happen eventually. Considering how many of the girls he had slept with, he thought he was actually late to the party.
Still, he had assumed Eun Ji would be the one avoiding him in this situation. Instead, In Ah seemed to be taking it much harder.
“In Ah unnie… probably thought you were dating Mari unnie.”
“Ah, that…”
Back when they had managed to keep their relationship hidden, during the time In Ah shared a room with Nanika.
It had been Mari’s first time as well. After they had gone at it intensely, the two of them had come out together in the morning and run straight into In Ah.
Even though In Ah had been flustered at the time, she only started talking to Kim Jun again after some time had passed.
She seemed to have assumed that the two of them coming out of the same room together meant they were dating. But that wasn’t the case.
In reality, Mari had been next in line after Gaya, Rana, Emily, and Nanika. By the time she was discovered, there were already five top stars who had done everything with him.
“Well, time will take care of it. It’ll just be a little awkward for a while.”
At Kim Jun’s words, both Rana and Nanika nodded.
Then Kim Jun looked at the two girls and said,
“If you swing the sickle like that, you’ll hurt your hands. Give them here.”
“Ah, yes.”
Just like during the slingshot training, Kim Jun took the sickles and knives away from the two girls after watching their still-clumsy technique.
He then handed them the wooden shafts he had already carved.
“Just sand these down.”
“Yes, oppa.”
Even if the atmosphere was awkward, the two girls still eagerly tried to do whatever Kim Jun asked of them.
Because of that, Kim Jun ended up teaching them all sorts of things and spent some time working on household tasks together with them.
A little while later.
Kim Jun checked the supplies in the warehouse and inspected the remaining food on the second floor and in the rooftop room.
There was still plenty, but he never knew when something might happen. It was about time to head out again, so Kim Jun picked up his weapons.
“I’m going out tomorrow to get some fuel and supplies.”
At his announcement during dinner, the eight top stars fell silent.
“Are you leaving tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
“Then the ones going this time…”
Gaya thought back to which of the younger girls had gone out on previous supply runs.
The last time they had brought back eggs and meat, it had been Mari and Rana. So the next ones would be…
“Looks like one of them is me, right?”
Emily said coolly that she would get ready to go looting outside.
Then a girl who had been quietly watching the situation slowly raised her hand.
“I… I’ve never gone out before…”
Kim Jun looked at Nanika and nodded.
“Then tomorrow’s looting team will be Emily and Nanika.”
“Okay!”
To Emily, going out looting where zombies were crawling everywhere seemed more like a casual outing.
The problem was Nanika, who had never been outside once.
I’m going to have to teach her a lot, huh?
During the previous rotations when they had chosen partners and taken the car out, everyone’s reactions had been completely different.
Gaya and Do Kyung had been a bit of a hindrance at first, while Eun Ji, Emily, and Rana had been skilled partners.
With that in mind, Kim Jun finished dinner and called the two of them to the camper van to prepare a simple mock training session.
“Hmmm.”
“S-sorry…”
“It’s okay.”
Nanika kept bowing her head in apology, but Kim Jun brushed it off, saying it was understandable.
“Want to switch seats?”
“Huh? Nanika in the passenger seat?”
Emily’s eyes widened as she asked if he was serious. Kim Jun nodded.
“It’d be better if Nanika sits next to me, and you keep watch from the back, Emily.”
“But then… I won’t be able to use this, right?”
Emily held up the crossbow she had claimed as her favorite and used almost exclusively. Kim Jun stroked Nanika’s anxious head and answered.
“On the way there, Nanika will be in the passenger seat with the slingshot. We’ll switch seats on the way back.”
“Ah~ So it’s like a tutorial run?”
Emily understood and agreed that it made sense for her, with more experience, to watch the blind spots from the back seat that Kim Jun couldn’t see.
They switched seats again and continued the mock training late into the night. With the lights on, the two girls trained with Kim Jun until the very end.
“Grrrrraaaah—”
As if to say goodbye before they left, a zombie was wandering near the house.
Just like before, Kim Jun climbed onto the roof of the camper van and quietly aimed the air gun at the zombie.
“Ugh…”
Nanika was trembling. Even before they had left the house, having to deal with a zombie already terrified her.
Even through her arm guards and thick clothing, her shaking was visible. Emily gently patted her back to comfort her.
Gaya and Eun Ji, who had come out as well, also tried to soothe her.
“There’s no need to be that scared.”
“Yeah. If you just stick close to Jun oppa, it won’t be too dangerous.”
Following the advice of her experienced older sisters, Nanika did her best to calm her pounding heart and took deep breaths.
Ting—
Click—
Ting—
With the sound of compressed air firing, two lead pellets flew out and dropped the zombies.
Kim Jun lit a cigarette and kept checking through the scope to make sure the zombies weren’t getting back up.
Once he confirmed the situation was completely handled, he climbed down from the vehicle.
“Good. Let’s go!”
“Y-yes!”
When Kim Jun got into the car, Nanika took the passenger seat while Emily climbed through the rear door of the camper. She smiled when she saw the generator and empty fuel cans inside.
With the remaining top stars at home waving them off, Kim Jun’s vehicle headed in the exact opposite direction from where they had killed the zombies.
Ever since the last zombie wave, the surrounding area had become eerily quiet.
He didn’t know what kind of “situation” had driven all the nearby zombies toward the house, but thanks to that, the roads were much easier to travel.
Of course, there were still the occasional zombies like the one from earlier.
“Oppa, th-there!”
“We can just drive past that one.”
Unless a zombie was blatantly blocking the road or had spotted them and was charging, Kim Jun simply drove past them on the national highway.
The one Nanika had pointed out in terror was a zombie walking along the roof of a single-story commercial building.
Shooting something like that was awkward. If he missed, it might fall onto the roadside instead.
But Nanika was the most timid of all the girls when it came to zombies.
She had once encountered a zombie on the rooftop opposite Kim Jun’s house, foamed at the mouth, collapsed, and even wet herself in his arms.
“Hey~ Miss Japanese~ Don’t be so tense. We’re still inside the car.”
Emily knocked on the partition from behind to calm Nanika down. The girl tried to gather her courage again.
Come to think of it, today’s group was a multinational combination of Korean, Japanese, and American.
Kim Jun took them along the route he had planned yesterday during the mock training.
“We’re heading to the gas station near the sports field.”
“We’ve been there a lot. Is there still anything left?”
“The convenience store next to it too. There’s still a lot of stuff piled up inside.”
“Hmm~ So it really is a tutorial run?”
Since one of the girls was attempting looting for the first time, they decided to go to the most familiar and stable location.
It would be easier for Nanika to get used to the field while she was outside gathering supplies, in case any sudden situations arose.
Kim Jun drove toward the Sosabeol Public Gymnasium.
When a few zombies appeared sparsely in front of them, Nanika shouted again.
“O-oppa!”
“Yeah, that one we should take care of.”
Zombies were slowly walking in front of several smashed and burned-out cars.
Kim Jun loaded both the air gun and the shotgun, then knocked on the back where Emily was.
Knock knock—
“Yep~ No one in the rear, and it doesn’t look like any zombies will suddenly jump out from the sides either.”
Emily held her crossbow at the ready just in case.
Hearing that the rear was safe, Kim Jun opened the window and leaned out.
He rested the barrel on the side mirror, quietly aimed through the scope, and pulled the trigger.
Ting—
With the sound of compressed air, one zombie staggered and collapsed.
At that moment, Nanika seemed to make up her mind. She bit her lip hard, opened her own window, and leaned out.
She pulled out the slingshot, loaded a nut, and drew it back with all her strength.
But her timing was off.
“Kyaa— Kyaaaaaaaah—”
After hitting one, the one next to it was a runner.
When it charged toward Nanika, she panicked and accidentally released the slingshot.
“Eek!?”
Crack—
Thud— Thud— Thud…
The nut flew off because her hand had slipped in fear. It struck the concrete in front of the zombie, bounced high into the air, and rolled across the ground.
The moment she tried to reload, Kim Jun’s shotgun was faster.
Bang!
Splat!
The runner’s head exploded instantly, spraying blood everywhere before it collapsed.
Kim Jun shouted at Nanika, who was still frozen halfway out the window.
“Get back in!”
“Y-yes… Ah, yes!”
Nanika immediately sat back in the passenger seat. Kim Jun spoke again.
“Close the window!”
“Yes, the window… Ah! I’m sorry!”
As Nanika hurriedly closed the window to prevent any zombie attacks, Kim Jun put a cigarette in his mouth.
“Huu—”
“You expected that, didn’t you?”
At Emily’s playful question from behind, Kim Jun gave a bitter smile and lit the cigarette.
It was normal for someone to mess up on their first looting run.
And so far, everything was going exactly as Kim Jun had predicted.
Gaya was like that. Do Kyung too… and Mari…
Kim Jun thought that this was something she simply had to gain through experience. He didn’t scold her harshly and instead gave them a short break.