Chapter 86 - Sosa-beol's Hwang Yeosa and Her Crew
Kim Jun stared at the woman in front of him, blinking in recognition.
“You’re Sergeant Kim’s nephew, right?”
“Who are you?”
“Aigoo, you don’t recognize me? The owner of Dazzling!”
“…Huh!?”
Now that she mentioned it, the face did look familiar. He’d seen her both during his military days and while living in this area.
Only then did Kim Jun notice the sharp-featured woman gripping a baseball bat beside her, along with the foreigner from earlier. It all clicked.
“The owner of Dazzling Bar?”
“That’s right!”
The sharp-featured woman next to her also spoke up after seeing him.
“Ah, Eunbyeol noona?”
“Hoo… yeah.”
Kim Jun let out a long sigh at the sight of the bar staff he hadn’t seen in what felt like forever.
“You’re pretty badly hurt. Is your arm okay?”
“Ah, on the way here some crazy bastards on motorcycles smashed our car up like this.”
“Motorcycles?”
“Mama! I think those guys are coming back!”
The foreign woman clutched her head and sank to the ground, trembling violently. Both Eunbyeol and the owner tried to comfort her.
“We caught two of them, but the rest ran off.”
“They got away?”
At the Dazzling owner’s question, Kim Jun nodded. His eyes drifted to her arm, which was still bleeding steadily. He quietly stepped back.
“How many people are in your group?”
“How about you, sir?”
“I brought all the girls from the bar.”
“…”
“Can you come inside and help us? They’re all just scared little girls…”
In a situation that could turn dangerous at any moment, the owner’s earnest plea made Kim Jun sigh again. He decided to treat his arm first.
“Let me patch this up and ask the girls. Then I’ll decide.”
With that, Kim Jun opened the rear door and stepped inside the camper.
Through the window, he caught a glimpse of the three women huddled together, talking in low voices.
“Oppa! Your shoulder!”
“Get the first aid kit from next to the fridge.”
Back when he’d been preparing for that two-day-one-night supply run, he’d stocked up on essential gear and trade goods. Medicine had been part of that haul.
Kim Jun first headed into the camper’s bathroom, rolled up his sleeve, and washed the blood and wound under running water.
“Fuck…”
When he looked closer, he saw glass shards embedded in several places. He pulled them out with his bare hands, then wrapped his arm with a towel.
In Ah recoiled like she was watching a horror movie and simply held out the first aid kit.
“H-here.”
“You didn’t get hurt, In Ah?”
“Ah, no… ugh!”
When she claimed she was fine but clutched her waist in pain, Kim Jun pulled out antiseptic and gauze, applied them to his arm, and wrapped it with a bandage.
Tap. Tap. Click.
With a cigarette between his lips, he lit up inside the camper and pulled out a pain relief spray for In Ah.
“Lift your shirt. I’ll spray it for you.”
He shook the spray bottle and beckoned her over. She hesitated, then reached out her hand.
“I… I’ll do it myself.”
“Can you reach?”
“Ah, yes.”
Seeing how much she still feared being touched, Kim Jun silently handed her the spray. She lifted the back of her own shirt and sprayed it on her lower back.
Knock knock.
“Gaya! Are you hurt anywhere?”
When he knocked on the wall and asked the woman sitting in the passenger seat, she answered right away.
“Just a slight sprain. Otherwise I’m fine.”
“The window behind you opens, right? Pass the spray over.”
“Yes! Oppa.”
After spraying herself, In Ah opened the window connecting to the passenger seat and handed it to Gaya.
While the two idols tended to their injuries, Kim Jun explained the situation outside.
“Listen carefully. That woman is Hwang Yeosa. She’s a very well-known figure around here.”
“What does she do?”
“She runs two bars, three karaoke joints, and one room salon in this area.”
“Oh my…”
“I went there a few times. They charged eighty thousand won for five bottles of beer.”
Kim Jun gave a bitter smile as old memories resurfaced.
“So… are we going to end up working with them?”
“For now, she says everyone inside is female.”
It looked like Hwang Yeosa had gathered all the bartenders and hostesses she could find.
“I’ll go check it out myself.”
“I’ll come with you.”
When Gaya spoke with firm resolve, Kim Jun looked at her for a moment before nodding.
“First, let me reload.”
He prepared every close-range weapon he had: the axe at his waist, the revolver, and the air pistol. He moved the camper as close as possible to where the women were waiting. Just in case, he kept the long guns hidden inside the vehicle, ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice.
When he brought Gaya and In Ah with him, Hwang Yeosa guided Kim Jun into a narrow alley.
“This used to be my liquor warehouse. The café next door and the flower van are mine too.”
“Flower van?”
“You know, the one that shows up when your superiors visit.”
“…Ah.”
He had a rough idea what she meant and decided not to ask for details.
At the sight of Hwang Yeosa, women began emerging from various hiding spots.
“Mama!”
“Who’s the guy behind you?”
“Everyone, gather up!”
It was clearly another large survivor shelter.
“There used to be more of us…”
Eunbyeol shook her head with a bitter expression, then looked at Kim Jun.
“Got a cigarette?”
“Here.”
Kim Jun silently handed her one. She lit it immediately and took a deep drag.
“Those girls over there are from the Philippines and China. They used to work the streets. And that one you already know—Nami from Dazzling Bar.”
“Ah… hello?”
Even as Eunbyeol introduced them, the women eyed the unfamiliar man who had entered their shelter with clear wariness, though they still offered polite greetings.
Under Madam Hwang’s leadership, the shelter consisted of ten women—survivors who had worked for her and avoided infection. As mentioned, five of them were Filipino and Chinese hostesses from the karaoke bars. The rest were bartenders and managers from her establishments.
“These are my companions.”
When Kim Jun tried to introduce Gaya and In Ah, the women recognized them first.
“Oh my, don’t we know those faces?”
“Ah… us?”
Gaya and In Ah hesitated, unsure how to introduce themselves in this situation.
Kim Jun spoke for them.
“I rescued them from the stadium. We’ve been gathering supplies together.”
“Goodness~ They look so young, but they’ve managed to survive. Impressive.”
Hwang Yeosa and Eunbyeol nodded, having roughly pieced things together.
They sat down and shared their current meal: cans of peanuts normally used as drinking snacks, along with dried fruits that kept well for long-term storage.
“How do you get water?”
“We have some bottled water stockpiled. For washing, we go to the reservoir over there and fetch it ourselves.”
“…You’re using reservoir water?”
“Last time we even caught fish and grilled them.”
“Any problems?”
“We ate some a month ago and we were fine.”
Kim Jun clicked his tongue in amazement. These women had somehow held on, surviving all by themselves.
Still, the foreigners all called Hwang Yeosa “Mama” and followed her lead, and with a veteran like Eunbyeol acting as a practical leader, the rest seemed to move in an orderly fashion.
“So, Sergeant Kim, you came here looking for supplies?”
“This is my first time in the Sinreung-myeon area. There are a few places I want to check out.”
“Hoo… That’ll be tough. Because of those bastards.”
“The biker gang?”
At that, every face in the group turned deathly pale.
Eunbyeol let out a heavy sigh and revealed their identity.
“Those fuckers are from the Jeil-pa.”
“Jeil-pa? Weren’t they a gang?”
At Kim Jun’s question, Hwang Yeosa pulled out a long cigarette, lit it, and began explaining everything that had happened.
“At the beginning, when people outside went crazy and started biting and killing each other, it was absolute chaos. We barely managed to gather the girls who were left and hid here. Honestly, those gang guys used to supply our liquor and girls. I thought that if they were still human, we could at least coexist…”
The story was turning extremely dark. Gaya and In Ah, standing behind Kim Jun, felt chills run down their spines and broke into cold sweat.
“But those lunatics… in the middle of all that, they raided a motorcycle shop and started openly robbing living people.”
“Didn’t you have guards, ma’am?”
“There were two older brothers… One got stabbed by those bastards, the other was shot and killed.”
“A gun…”
“Their leader supposedly killed the police chief at the Sinreung-myeon station and stole his gun.”
“!”
Kim Jun scratched his face, wondering if he had arrived too late. He had even learned the location of the weapon safe and the passcode at the station, but the gang had already killed the chief and taken the pistol.
No matter how much of an apocalypse it was, the Sinreung-myeon area had truly become a lawless zone.
“They come by every once in a while, take liquor, mess with the girls…”
“Hoo…”
“When I tried to stop them, those bastards…”
Eunbyeol said it would be faster to show them than explain. When she rolled up her sleeve, the idols behind Kim Jun couldn’t bear to look and turned their heads away.
“Wow… those sons of bitches are real pieces of shit.”
Eunbyeol had gotten a small tattoo on her arm back when she was a bartender. Around it were countless circular burn scars from cigarettes.
“Next time they said they’d burn my face.”
“Hiiik…”
Gaya and In Ah pressed themselves even closer to Kim Jun’s back, trembling uncontrollably.
From their perspective, these were horrifying stories they couldn’t even imagine being part of.
“If it’s the Jeil-pa… ha, those guys are beyond saving.”
As a local, Kim Jun knew them well too.
The city had a population of around 150,000, but with industrial complexes, military bases, and a logistics terminal connected to the port, the entertainment district had grown abnormally large. The Jeil-pa operated under the name “Jeil Liquor Distribution,” typical gangsters who ran protection rackets for karaoke bars and room salons. They’d clashed several times with port union workers and military officers on leave, but the business owners always urged settlements first, and the general atmosphere was to keep quiet so they could keep operating. That was how the gang had continued thriving…
“Sergeant Kim, please help us. There’s no telling when those bastards will show up again.”
“Hmm…”
Both Hwang Yeosa and Eunbyeol stood up and bowed deeply. The other women, reading the room, all clung to Kim Jun at once, begging for help.
In that moment, Kim Jun looked at Gaya and In Ah.
Gaya found getting involved with these people uncomfortable, but hearing about the gang’s attacks made her visibly disgusted and sympathetic at the same time.
In Ah also glanced at the darkening sky outside as if asking what they should do.
At a signal from Hwang Yeosa, three women went down into the basement of the house. They came back grunting, carrying something heavy.
“We don’t have much to give you, but…”
What they brought was a case of bottled water and a case of 17-year-old whiskey.
“Will this be enough?”
“Hmm… Then let’s do this.”
“!?”
Everyone’s attention snapped to Kim Jun at his words.
Click.
“Don’t worry and just get some rest, you two.”
“Is that really okay? I can take turns with you.”
When Gaya offered to stand watch, Kim Jun shook his head.
“It’s fine. If I get too tired, I’ll ask you to make me a cup of coffee.”
“…Yes.”
“Take good care of In Ah. She must’ve been really scared today.”
Kim Jun first moved Gaya and In Ah into the broken-down camper parked inside the auto repair shop next to the café so they could rest.
Then he took out his shotgun, attached the infrared scope, and prepared the night-vision equipment that would let him operate in the dark.
He also made sure to lock the café doors tightly, preparing for the possibility that the Jeil-pa might come roaring back on their motorcycles.
Since the vehicle needed repairs anyway, they would stay here for the night. He planned to scavenge replacement truck bumpers, window glass, sealant, and anything else usable from the shop.
In this location, they could lower the shutters on both the repair shop and the café and maintain a solid perimeter.
He had already saved eight top stars. There was no reason he couldn’t save more.
As the only man here and the sole combatant, he would earn the supplies they had given him.