An Offer of Rescue
I ended up inside a zombie apocalypse novel. Going out for a walk had seemed like a good idea at the time. Even though I had been illegally reading the novel, I was still an enthusiastic fan. There was no way I could dislike Kim Yeonhua, Kang Siwoo's first heroine. The first button... had been fastened wrong. No, terribly wrong. Getting punched in the stomach and coughing up blood at our first meeting, then being treated like a rival heroine afterward—it was absurd, like something straight out of the novel itself. Still, in the original story, we would have gradually grown closer through casual conversations about shared interests. After all, there were so many things I wanted to ask her.
In the original novel, Kim Yeonhua never talked about her past. She never even revealed her age or birthday, so I couldn't tell if she was twenty or twenty-one. All I remembered were her attributes: a boisterous female character, an outboxer, a virgin. I had no idea what kind of life she had lived. I thought her parents lived in western Busan, and maybe they were already dead. Either way, there were plenty of things I wanted to ask.
"You call him Siwoo oppa, so... you're a bit younger than him?"
"Ah, yes."
"How old did you say you were again? Did you ever tell me?"
They say you can't spit in a smiling face, so I asked with a gentle smile. Everyone already knew I was terrible at conversation and couldn't even talk to strangers, so they would probably just brush it off as me being oblivious again. Surprisingly, Kim Yeonhua's expression didn't darken. Instead, she smiled brightly and looked straight at me.
"I'm nineteen. My birthday is still a little ways off..."
"Come on, if you have your ID, you're an adult. Is your birthday in winter? Or fall?"
"It's in winter. November. I'll only say that much. This is a secret from Siwoo oppa and Ayeong too."
"Got it. I know how to keep my mouth shut when I'm not supposed to talk."
"Honestly, I was surprised. I didn't expect you to be so tight-lipped."
"What?"
"Just kidding."
"....What's wrong with my impression?"
"If someone bribed you with food, you'd probably spill everything..."
Kim Yeonhua glanced around cautiously, then scratched the back of her head with an awkward laugh. Ah, right. Food. Delicious food... Truthfully, it wasn't like no one had ever tried to approach me. As Kang Siwoo's closest aide, I had been working hard and getting roughed up, so a few people thought they could secure a position if they buttered me up. Naturally, they offered various proposals and food. I couldn't tell Kim Yeonhua, but birds of a feather recognize each other. I actively used my image against those who approached with ill intentions. By playing the fool and shouting, "I ate it without a clue!" everything would resolve itself. People who genuinely gave me food would talk to me without hesitation, while those with malicious intent... well, if Kang Siwoo caught wind of it, it would be over for them.
"Unni, is something wrong?"
"No, I just got a sudden chill."
"Then something must be wrong."
"Maybe..."
"It's strange. You seem so pure sometimes, but then not at all."
"Me?"
"Yeah. Just from your expression and the things you say, you seem like a scheming sycophant..."
"Me!?"
"But when I look closer, you're kind of cute... Anyway, that's how it is."
I didn't know whether to feel pleased or offended. After all, that was exactly the image I had cultivated. "What? Lee Yeji is planning a rebellion or betrayal? That idiot?" If that kind of rumor spread, it would make moving around easier for me. I had no intention of betraying anyone anyway, and I regularly received not-so-subtle warnings from Kang Siwoo. So for now, I decided to take it as a compliment. Kim Yeonhua wouldn't go out of her way to mess with me.
"That was a compliment, right?"
"...Unni, do you just laugh it off when other people say things like that too?"
"Huh? Why...?"
"It's something I've noticed for a while... You don't seem to take care of yourself very much."
"What do you mean?"
I couldn't understand. Who in the world took better care of their body than I did? If I hadn't been careful, I would have kept defying Kang Siwoo. The only reason I ran over whenever he called was to protect myself. But as Kim Yeonhua kept explaining, it started to make sense.
"So you're saying that unless I'm certain I'll die, I just charge in recklessly?"
"Yes. Like during that ambush last time... and even when we first met..."
"Well... I can't say for sure that's true. Haa... How do I even explain this?"
It seemed both right and wrong, which was oddly unsettling. I sat on a nearby bench, trying to find a counterexample, but I couldn't come up with any rebuttal. I had rarely ever properly taken care of my body. My approach had always been to throw myself in first and think later. Even when I was alone in the PC bang, I moved without thinking. I charged in without any armor, got hit, whined, and somehow turned things around. When I teamed up with Noh Changhun, did that change? Not really. While he cooled down his overheating body during fights, I bought time by throwing my own body into the fray.
Part of me wanted to think about this more carefully, but my instincts told me it was better not to. It felt connected to what happened during those two weeks in the officetel. Just thinking about it made a headache creep up, confirming my suspicion. So I nodded along to Kim Yeonhua's words and changed the subject. Fortunately, as we chatted, she brought up the boxing gym her father ran.
"If it's a gym... where is it?"
"There's a commercial building in Gaya 2-dong."
"Where's that?"
"Unni, do you know about Inje University Busan Paik Hospital?"
"No, I don't."
"You're not from Jangyu...?"
No wonder some people kept giving me food, assuming I was from the same area. It seemed the misunderstanding had spread at some point. I slowly corrected it. I lived in Seoul and had come down to Jangyu for work when everything went to hell. So I didn't know anything about Busan and had just been following my comrades around.
"Ah... Then you probably wouldn't know. If you go a bit east from Sasang, you'll find it."
"From the campus perspective...?"
"Northeast."
"Ah, is it close?"
"Yes. It's not that far. Honestly, I want to run there right now..."
"Ah..."
"As you know, this isn't a place where I can act alone. I can't make any sudden moves."
Right. Now I remembered. It was only after six months into the outbreak that Kang Siwoo had any breathing room. Negotiations with the military forces in the east had gone smoothly, and there were fewer things to worry about. From then on, he started dispatching people to rescue survivors. The highest priority went to those who had contributed to the community, and Kim Yeonhua was among them. Kang Siwoo even went on the first rescue mission himself. They went to the location of her parents' gym together, and the result was... obvious in a situation like this. Kim Yeonhua's parents had long since turned into zombies. Kang Siwoo had glossed over the details in the original novel, but from the context, they must have died several months earlier. I remembered how Kang Siwoo had comforted the devastated Kim Yeonhua and convinced her to cremate them. But right now, it had only been about two months since the outbreak. That meant we were moving at least four months ahead of schedule. Thanks to my joining, Kang Siwoo was pushing reforms much faster. We could afford to take a look. Dispatching people for survivor rescues would also boost morale. Even if we couldn't bring anyone back, retrieving personal belongings would provide some comfort. Naturally, we should prioritize finding the families of those going out on rescue missions. In this case, my family would be first in line since I had contributed so much to the community. But as I had told Kim Yeonhua earlier, I lived in Seoul. It took a full five hours by car from Busan to Seoul, so realistically, rescue was impossible. I wanted to give myself priority, but it wouldn't be usable anyway. So it would be fine to pass that priority to Kim Yeonhua.
"So, what do you think?"
"Huh?"
Kim Yeonhua, who had been listening quietly, stared at me blankly with her mouth open. Then she forced a smile and held out her arms.
"I'm fine. You don't have to go that far for me."
"You might regret it. Besides, I wanted to rescue more survivors anyway. How about a personal retrieval service?"
"If you're offering... thank you..."
Kim Yeonhua's eyes welled up with tears. I had expected that reaction, but when she suddenly hugged me and buried her face in my chest, I was caught off guard. I hadn't anticipated this part. It was very different from how she had been portrayed in the original novel. Still, it didn't feel bad, so I held her for a while, gently patting her back.