Landlord Park Do-chul Throws a Shitfit from Inferiority Complex Over Me — Then Aunt Min-jung Stands Up for Me [Awakening][2]

"Wow... you can operate all of this yourself, honey...????"

Kim Min-jung, still surveying the bunker's interior, stared in open amazement as her daughter Park A-young worked the equipment inside.

"This kind of stuff? Once you mess with it a little, you get the hang of it right away."

"I take after Mom — pretty face, killer body, and a brain to match. The only thing I didn't inherit is her personality. Mine's just a pain in the ass."

Park A-young answered in a cool, offhand voice.

The moment she recognized the zombie outbreak for what it was, A-young had checked the online situation on her phone and headed straight into the bunker. Securing her own safety had been the primary goal, but she had also decided she needed to familiarize herself with the bunker's systems in advance.

"What are you talking about, A-young... You're such a sweet girl... You shouldn't say things like that in front of your mother..."

Pat...! Pat...! Pat...!

From Kim Min-jung's perspective, those words cut deep. Wasn't she the one who believed that more than half of A-young's prickly temperament was her own fault? A bitter expression crossed her face as she stroked her daughter's shoulder.

"Anyway, Mom — aren't you going to change? You planning to keep wearing that? You reek of blood!"

And every time Min-jung got like this, A-young would change the subject. She frowned slightly as she looked her mother over. Min-jung was still wearing that new-city housewife outfit, stained with zombie blood.

"I was going to keep it on a little longer... I want to hold on to this sense of tension..."

Faced with her daughter's scolding, Min-jung looked sheepish. But the catharsis and rush she had felt while smashing zombies still hadn't faded — and even though the words came from A-young, her Achilles' heel, she stubbornly insisted on keeping the outfit on.

What is this, seriously???

A-young tilted her head, a flicker of confusion in her eyes. The Kim Min-jung in front of her was nothing like the mother she had known. There was a real intensity to her — a fixation, a hunger. Even with zombie blood on her clothes, A-young still couldn't quite bring herself to believe her mother had actually killed any zombies herself.

"Fine. Do whatever."

But A-young hid that bewilderment with masterful ease and refocused on the bunker equipment.

"He's still not picking up... You'd think he'd answer at a time like this..."

Kim Min-jung, who had been trailing after her daughter the whole time, muttered under her breath with a sigh. A phone was clutched in her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hand.

"Isn't he amazing, Mom? The guy runs a security company, and even with this chaos going on he won't even text his family. Lol. Wow~~ our dad Park Do-chul is just the best."

Hearing her mother's murmur, Park A-young curled one corner of her mouth in a self-mocking smirk.

After Geum Tae-yang had left to save his father, Kim Min-jung had called her husband Park Do-chul. But that pathetic excuse for a man had always ignored family calls whenever he was on a business trip. It had been going on so long that Min-jung ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠herself had stopped bothering to call him years ago. This time, though — with an unprecedented zombie outbreak underway — worry had forced her hand. At this point, she had figured, even a bastard would pick up.

But the bastard Park Do-chul had ignored roughly twenty of her calls.

"That worried about him? Honestly, Dad's probably one of the safest people alive right now."

A-young asked the question carefully, as if testing the waters.

"Of course I'm worried. How could I not be?"

Min-jung answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, there is a way to reach him~"

The reason A-young had been probing was that she already knew a route to contact Park Do-chul.

"How?????"

Min-jung's eyes went wide.

"If we use the communication equipment here, it should work. On business trips he probably uses the company security radio instead of his regular phone."

Sharp as ever, A-young had already analyzed the mechanics of her father's business-trip routine. After walking the bunker and mapping out its systems, she had confirmed that the bunker's comms gear could reach him.

"Then do it. At a time like this, we should at least know each other are okay."

Min-jung crossed her arms and urged A-young to make the call. The anger in her expression and tone was unmistakable. Having to go this far just to contact family — for a woman as devoted to her household as Kim Min-jung, it was enough to make her blood boil.

"Fine~ If that's what Mom wants~"

Thud. Thud. Thud.

A-young's face settled into an expression of pure detachment as she headed for the communications console. She already had a clear picture in her head of how Park Do-chul would react once they got through — and that picture had shaped her face.

"I figured out how to use the equipment ahead of time, poking around with this and that."

"They're communicating through specific-frequency devices in a high-security zone. And among those frequencies, I found Dad's."

"I'm going to lock onto that frequency and make the call."

The bunker had three above-ground floors, and the main communications unit was in a second-floor room. Settling into the dedicated chair, A-young explained as Min-jung took a seat beside her. The main unit wasn't just for ordinary calls — it came equipped with comms-related hacking and jamming functions as well.

"This is the frequency. See? Press this and it connects."

A-young showed Min-jung the frequency she had already locked onto for Park Do-chul.

"Alright. Pressing it, Mom."

Click.

She hit the connect button.

"Dad'll probably think it's an emergency-frequency transmission. I set it up that way on purpose. He wouldn't even respond to a radio call from some unknown frequency otherwise."

The signal was connecting. A-young watched the screen with her arms crossed, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

Just as A-young had predicted, Park Do-chul took it for an emergency transmission and responded immediately — even though the signal wasn't classified under any of his usual channels.

"I just talk into this mic, A-young?"

"Yeah."

Min-jung leaned toward the main unit's microphone and checked with her daughter. A-young gave a short, flat answer, her face expressionless.

"Honey, it's me. Your wife, Kim Min-jung."

She made a point of introducing herself clearly. Just saying "honey, it's me" wouldn't be enough for Park Do-chul to recognize her voice — it had been nearly a year since he had last heard her over the phone. Once, when he was home and she was out, she had called him, and he had barely been able to place his own wife's voice.

Park Do-chul responded with a puzzled tone. There was a distance in his voice — and a reaction so wildly out of place for the current crisis that it was almost grotesque.

"Yes, it's me, Kim Min-jung. There's a full-blown panic over these zombie monsters, and your phone wasn't working, so I contacted you through the bunker's main communications unit. Are you alright over there? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"We're safe for now — we made it inside the bunker."

But Min-jung already looked resigned. She asked after Park Do-chul's well-being right away, then filled him in on her own and A-young's situation.

"...."

A-young listened to the exchange in silence. Her expression had gone past unimpressed — it was nearly blank.

Park Do-chul had been puzzled about how Min-jung had managed to reach him on a specialized security radio — but the moment he heard she had done it through the bunker's main unit, his tone turned sharp.

"What kind of thing is that to say? 'Broke in'?!"

Until that moment Min-jung had managed to keep her composure, looking resigned. Now her eyes flew wide open. She had long known about her husband's indifference toward her and their daughter — but she had never expected him to react like this even in a situation like this.

As Min-jung's tone rose, Park Do-chul barked even louder, unwilling to lose ground. Then he unleashed a torrent of personal insults.

"Shut the fuck up, you bastard... Mom's smarter than you..."

While Park Do-chul spewed his verbal filth at full volume, A-young muttered under her breath, her face still blank. Before her genius became widely known and professional tutors took over, the person who had first fed her early hunger for science and math had been her mother, Kim Min-jung. Min-jung herself had had a gift for those subjects in school. A-young knew exactly how smart her mother was — which was why she had worked the main communications unit while talking with her the whole time.

"Excuse me, Mr. Park Do-chul. There are zombies out there eating people right now. We needed somewhere safe, and the man who's supposed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to be our father never called and never gave us the bunker password, so we opened it ourselves."

"At the very least, the first thing you should ask is whether your family is okay."

In the end, Min-jung's temper snapped. The distinctive way of speaking she only used when truly angry came pouring out.

Called out properly for his own idiocy, Park Do-chul flew into a rage and doubled down with pure stubbornness. His attitude about the bunker grew even sharper.

Hmm... Looking around, there were a few things that seemed off... but is it really that serious...?

Glance...!

Quick on the uptake, A-young immediately caught how sensitive Park Do-chul was being. She swept her gaze across the main control room — and her expression filled with interest.

Just as he was about to cut the connection, Park Do-chul suddenly dragged Geum Tae-yang into it out of nowhere.

"Why are you bringing Tae-yang into this? He lives right next door with no fence between us — of course we'd share a bunker in a situation like this. What kind of thing is that to say?"

The abrupt mention of Geum Tae-yang left Min-jung looking utterly incredulous.

Park Do-chul exploded with rage at the mere mention of Geum Tae-yang, then cut the transmission in an instant, claiming he was busy.

A fortune-teller's power really is something else... Making him keep someone around even when he hates him that much...

Watching Park Do-chul bare such murderous hostility toward Geum Tae-yang, A-young clicked her tongue in amazement.

Ever since Tae-yang hit puberty, Park Do-chul had despised him with a passion. He had harassed the boy's father and ultimately tried to drive them out. But the shaman he followed with fanatical devotion — the Baby Bodhisattva — had stopped him. She had declared that Geum Tae-yang, along with Kim Min-jung, was a fated connection that brought good fortune to the man named Park Do-chul. She had made him swear never to drive Tae-yang away. And Park Do-chul, who obeyed the Baby Bodhisattva's every word without fail, had ground his teeth over Geum Tae-yang for years — and still never kicked him out.

"...."

When the transmission ended, Kim Min-jung stood with her arms crossed, her back turned. Then came silence. Absolute silence. She said nothing at all.

"...."

A-young watched her mother without a word. In high school, Park Do-chul had become so busy that she rarely saw her parents fight. But before that, she had seen it often enough. She had seen Kim Min-jung standing with her back turned after a full-blown argument more times than she could count. A-young already had a clear image in her mind of what her mother looked like right now.

Turn...

Then Min-jung turned back toward A-young.

Huh...?

A-young's eyes went round at the sight of her.

"Hoo..."

Min-jung let out a deep breath, as if cooling her anger.

Mom's not crying...?

It was nothing like what A-young had expected. After fights like this with Park Do-chul, her mother Kim Min-jung had always turned away and wiped her tears.

"—Kieeeeeeeeeeh!!!"

"—Kueeeeeeeeeeh!!!"

They're just keeping fucking multiplying...

A few hours later, the number of zombie-virus infectees had clearly ballooned. As a result, the intervals at which Geum Tae-yang ran into them kept getting shorter.

—Shhhhk!!!

—PWOOOOOSH!!!

—Swaaaah!!!

—PWOOOOOM!!! —PWOOOSH!!!

"Die!! Die, you fucking bastards!!!"

But the more of them there were, the more Tae-yang's zombie-killing ability evolved. He was no longer fighting with calculated moves — he was dodging and smashing them down on pure instinct. Even when two or more zombies charged him at once, he tore through them with fluid, unhesitating motion.

And yet, for all that clean, satisfying steel-pipe work, Geum Tae-yang's expression only grew more grim.

When the hell did it get this bad all the way out here, damn it!!!!!

The closer he got to his father's business building, the more the zombie numbers swelled. His destination was starting to come into view — and with it, a mounting, crushing urgency.

"Please... please...!!!!!!"

And on top of that—

"Why won't you pick up, Dad...!!!!!!"

He had called several times since setting out, but his father Geum Il-bong never answered.

"!!!!!!!!!!"

Running on with his heart melting in his chest, Geum Tae-yang's eyes suddenly flared wide open.