Even Zombies Have Fandoms

Chapter 25

‘Huh? He should have asked by now…’

Even though he had opened it carefully, Muyoung thought he had made enough noise. But until the window was more than halfway open, Seokjae showed no reaction.

As the situation didn’t unfold as expected, Muyoung missed the timing to introduce himself and couldn’t hide his confusion. Thinking Seokjae might not have heard, he forcefully pushed the curtain aside, but there was still no movement.

Could he have lost consciousness? Muyoung’s expression grew serious. If his guess was right, it was an extremely urgent situation.

Finally, unable to contain his anxiety, Muyoung gathered his courage and called out loudly.

“Hey, excuse me!”

His voice cracked at the end, producing a comical sound, as if his urgency affected his vocal cords. Normally, such a mistake would have been embarrassing, but right now, he was too worried about Seokjae to think about anything else.

‘What if he really lost consciousness?’

His hands trembled with worry.

However, fortunately, Seokjae, sitting on the sofa, slowly began to respond to the call.

‘At least he’s not unconscious.’

Muyoung exhaled deeply, relieved it wasn’t the worst-case scenario. Meanwhile, Seokjae slowly straightened his head and looked at Muyoung. Their eyes met in mid-air.

‘He’s handsome… No, this isn’t the time. I need to introduce myself first!’

Muyoung’s body stiffened at their first eye contact since their initial encounter. Noticing a slight dazedness in Seokjae’s expression, Muyoung shouted the words he had practiced internally, going over his plan.

“I, I am memo-!”

He shouted with his eyes tightly closed, but his tongue got tied due to nervousness, and consequently, the next part of his plan went awry. As the prepared words got jumbled, his mind went blank, and he ended up throwing the things he was holding. It was an action taken with the remaining thought that he needed to make Seokjae come to his senses.

Thud, roll roll…

‘I messed up.’

The objects that flew from Muyoung’s hand hit Seokjae’s legs and rolled on the floor under the sofa. At that moment, Muyoung felt as if cold sweat was running down his back.

“What is this…”

Seokjae thought it was the first time in his life he encountered a situation where he had no idea how to react.

When he heard the sound of the window opening, he felt joy, even elation, at the imminent face-to-face encounter.

Realizing that if the other person noticed his emotions, they might feel uncomfortable, he closed his eyes and exhaled. He tried to suppress his emotions and create an appropriate expression for their first meeting. This was why Seokjae’s reaction was delayed even after Muyoung opened the door.

And when he finally calmed his heart and lowered his head to meet eyes, Seokjae felt something akin to being moved when the other didn’t run away despite making eye contact.

Although he hadn’t prepared what to say for his first words, he tried to call out to him with the kindest and gentlest voice possible. That attempt was thwarted when Muyoung threw something.

He wasn’t angry. It was an unexpected action, but he knew the other wouldn’t harm him. So he sat still, watching the flying objects without trying to dodge them. As expected, the objects that hit his legs and fell were very light, feeling as if he’d been hit by dolls.

Despite being the one who threw them, Muyoung was startled when the objects hit Seokjae. Seokjae, looking at him with a strange expression, rolled his eyes to check the objects, trying to figure out what the correct response should be.

‘Bandages and gauze?’

Bundles of bandages and gauze wrapped in plastic. They were indeed necessary items in the current situation, but… unable to understand why they were thrown, Seokjae raised one eyebrow.

Muyoung, seeing Seokjae’s expression, thought he was angry. An intruder suddenly appearing and throwing things without warning – it was certainly something to be angry about.

‘But at least he’s come to his senses, right?’

Although this incident might have left a negative impression, Muyoung didn’t regret it. He saw that Seokjae’s eyes were noticeably clearer than before. In fact, he felt relieved that Seokjae probably wouldn’t lose consciousness again.

‘As expected, an attack from a stranger stimulates survival instincts.’

Although the plan had gone a bit awry, the result was successful, so now all that was left was to run away. While he had acted out of concern for Seokjae, he didn’t have the confidence to face his cold reaction. Muyoung hesitated, then quickly put down the first aid kit on the floor and shouted.

“Wake up! Wake up and treat yourself! Th-those are all fine!”

Backing away step by step, emphasizing each word, he ended with “Make sure to lock the window too!” before fleeing without looking back. His attitude showed no lingering attachment to staying.

Contrary to Seokjae’s expectations, Muyoung had no intention of revealing his identity and introducing himself from the start. He only meant to help a little in waking Seokjae up so he could treat himself.

Nevertheless, if Seokjae really couldn’t come to his senses, he was naturally prepared to help directly. It would be better for his future self to clean up what had happened than for Seokjae’s life to be in danger.

Unaware of this resolve, Seokjae immediately reacted to Muyoung’s voice. He had even injured himself to lure him in, but instead fell for Muyoung’s test.

Thus, without realizing it, Muyoung achieved the feat of sticking his head into the trap Seokjae had set and then escaping.

Seokjae remained frozen, not even trying to catch the quickly fleeing Muyoung. As the sound of retreating footsteps faded away, rain began to fall as if it had been waiting.

Only then did Seokjae seem to come to his senses, letting out a hollow laugh.

“Ha, haha.”

The laughter soon grew loud enough to fill the living room. The sight of him laughing joyfully while blood dripped from his arm would have been terrifying enough to make anyone who saw it run away immediately.

“Ahaha…”

Not long after, Seokjae straightened his mouth as if he had never laughed and glared fiercely at the place where Muyoung had left.

“Ah… So this is how you want to play it?”

His face was expressionless, but the muscles protruding along his well-defined jawline clearly revealed his anger.

Unaware that he had wounded Seokjae’s pride, Muyoung was busy making a sad face at the sudden downpour of rain while searching for Kyungho and Junwoo, worried about their lack of news.

“Aah! It’s raining!”

While running to avoid the unexpected shower, Muyoung continued to search for Kyungho and Junwoo’s whereabouts. Soon, he spotted two figures running at the end of an alley. His expression brightened, and before they could spot him, he quickly hid behind a nearby parking lot pillar.

Eventually, they passed by where Muyoung was hiding and ran straight to Seokjae’s temporary shelter. Although their expressions weren’t good as they ran through the heavy rain, they didn’t seem to be injured.

Muyoung wiped away the rainwater that had trickled down his hair with the back of his hand and muttered,

“Now I can really relax.”

It was fortunate that the two had returned safely, but he was also relieved that there were now people to be by the injured Seokjae’s side.

* * *

Click.

The front door of the house, which had been silent since the end of the commotion, opened. Simultaneously, the surroundings quickly became noisy with the sound of out-of-breath panting and the sloshing of shoes soaked with water.

“Hyung! We’re back!”

“Whew, we’re soaked through.”

“I know, huff, it was clear just now, why the sudden rain…”

Junwoo and Kyungho, drenched from head to toe like drowned rats, conversed with tired faces from their continued running. Then, realizing there was no response to their announcement of arrival, they looked at each other.

Did hyung faint?

Having the same thought simultaneously, the two ran into the living room, pale-faced.

“Hyung! Are you okay?”

“You didn’t collapse, did you?”

They had run so urgently that they almost slipped on the wet floor in front of the living room, barely managing to stop as they shouted.

Contrary to their worries, Seokjae was sitting calmly on the sofa.

“What’s this? You’re awake, so why didn’t you answer, hyung?”

“You scared us… Hyung, are you alright?”

Seeing him sitting upright on the sofa without even leaning back, he didn’t seem to have fainted. Junwoo and Kyungho approached, chattering with relief. However, even as they walked around the sofa to where they could see Seokjae’s face, there was still no response. Their faces gradually began to show confusion.