Even Zombies Have Fandoms

Chapter 104

Creak—

The blood-stained door bearing traces of the fierce struggle from hours earlier slowly opened. Seokjae, pressed tightly against the doorframe, held his breath as he checked the corridor through the narrow gap.

“…”

Thanks to a zombie that had thrown its entire body at them last night, the long corridor was completely empty. After checking both the path to the staircase they would use and the opposite corridor, he quietly signaled.

Flick, flick.

Seeing the lightly moving hand, Muyoung pressed himself closer to Seokjae. Feeling this movement, Seokjae immediately stepped outside. Muyoung also carefully took a step forward, following his lead. At that moment, Muyoung heard the sound of someone taking a deep breath.

“Hoo—”

A faintly trembling breath. Muyoung, who had just stepped into the corridor, glanced back slightly.

“Ha…”

There stood Kyungho, looking as pale as Muyoung, seemingly more tense than yesterday. It was natural to be reluctant to go back out into that space so soon after nearly dying while being chased by zombies. Normally, Junwoo would have been beside him, comforting him well, but…

“Gulp.”

Though he seemed better off than Kyungho, he too was just an ordinary high school student. Right now, he didn’t appear to have the composure to comfort his friend.

‘Hmm…’

After a moment’s thought, Muyoung stepped back from Seokjae and moved closer to Kyungho. Startled by the sudden presence beside him, Kyungho looked up with wide eyes, and Muyoung whispered softly:

“Are you okay?”

“Ah—hup!”

Realizing his voice had come out louder than intended and echoed around them, Kyungho quickly covered his mouth and nodded rapidly. Though he wasn’t hiding his fear as well as he intended, his effort not to show it was admirable.

While Muyoung found him commendable, he also felt a slight sense of relief.

‘It’s good that we didn’t tell him what’s happening outside.’

Even now he was this tense—if he knew they’d be in danger unless they left before the sun fully rose, he would only be more frightened.

“It’ll be fine.”

“Yes… I suppose so.”

After gently patting the back of Kyungho, who managed an awkward smile at his encouragement, Muyoung returned to position closely behind Seokjae, recalling what had happened in the classroom.

‘The timing was good.’

Convincing the freshly awakened kids had been easier than expected. Because they had been using dawn and dusk to move around all this time, both of them had nodded, assuming it was just time to move again.

Of course, the children’s lack of suspicion was also thanks to Seokjae maintaining his casual attitude. If he had appeared as restless as when Muyoung woke him, they would have noticed something unusual despite the good timing.

‘How can hyung remain so calm even while knowing something has happened?’

Even without any information about what exactly that “something” was, he was dutifully heading outside just hearing they needed to move.

Muyoung was freshly impressed by Seokjae’s unwavering composure. As he stared at his broad back descending the stairs, Seokjae’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind like an auditory hallucination:

‘Do I need an explanation? When you ask me to come with you.’

“I don’t need explanations because you’re the one asking.” It was almost like saying he trusted him completely. The usual Muyoung would have been unable to contain a silly, foolish grin.

Even now, it wasn’t that he wasn’t happy. However…

‘Yet yesterday he immediately said no…’

The situation when he had offered to lure the zombies replayed in his mind, making curiosity outweigh his happiness.

‘Hyung!’

‘No.’

‘But I haven’t said anything yet?’

‘…’

After all, back then, he had barely started to speak—only calling his name—yet Seokjae had immediately refused.

Considering the accident that happened to him afterward, no matter how good the outcome, it couldn’t escape being labeled as “reckless.”

‘What changed? Did I do something without realizing it? What’s different between then and now?’

As he tilted his head, trying to recall each experience with him…

Thunk.

His head, lowered to descend the stairs, hit something, and his forehead collided with a hard surface. Muyoung staggered backward slightly as if bounced back, barely managing to keep his balance. When he looked forward with eyes wide open like a startled rabbit, he met Seokjae’s gaze as he turned around, hand cupping the back of his head.

Only after rubbing his forehead, which seemed to vibrate with a “wong-wong” sensation, did Muyoung realize he had headbutted Seokjae, who had stopped in front of him.

‘I-I made a mistake.’

Seokjae’s raised eyebrow seemed to blame him for being so lost in thought that he hadn’t noticed the person in front had stopped. Plus, they had collided hard enough to feel the recoil. It must have hurt quite a bit.

“Mmph.”

As Muyoung anxiously opened his mouth to apologize, a large hand stretched out and covered it before he could even utter the first syllable of “sorry.” Seokjae, covering his entire lower face except for his nostrils, surveyed the corridor beyond the stairs.

Belatedly understanding the situation, Muyoung rolled his eyes and waited patiently for Seokjae to remove his hand.

‘Right, I lured zombies to the floor directly below. That could have been really bad.’

Actually, it wasn’t as serious as Muyoung thought. Though unintentional, he had driven the zombies not to the room directly below the science lab but to a classroom some distance away, and they were using the staircase furthest from it. So as long as there wasn’t a loud noise, there shouldn’t be a problem.

‘How could I forget what I did myself? I’m not that stupid. No, I shouldn’t have let my guard down in the first place.’

However, Muyoung wasn’t bold enough to think “so what” even knowing this fact. So he kept anxiously watching Seokjae’s expression like a puppy who’d caused trouble.

“Gurgle…”

Through the corridor’s echo, the faint sound of phlegm could be heard from a distance. They could see a group of zombies gathered in one classroom and others crawling along the floor at various points. They had their backs turned, perhaps being drawn by the noise coming from the classroom.

‘Yes. After all that commotion, there should be at least this much effect.’

It was a scene where the results of their efforts—making three people’s hearts drop and a mutant zombie nearly dying—were paying off.

Only after satisfactorily confirming the situation did Seokjae remove his hand from Muyoung’s face. Then, to prevent the same accident from happening again, he firmly grabbed his wrist and moved to the next floor.

‘Tsk, I need to check if his forehead is cracked.’

He was worried about Muyoung’s white forehead. They had collided with such a dull sound that it made his body stagger, yet he himself was fine.

Usually, when breaking something, the pain is greater if it doesn’t break. Seokjae glanced sideways to roughly check the condition of Muyoung’s forehead as they moved. Whether it was his imagination or not, the forehead visible through his hair seemed rounder than usual. It seemed like a bump had formed, causing him to sigh softly.

“Sigh…”

“…”

Muyoung, who had been drooping each time Seokjae’s gaze fell on him, completely looked like he was about to cry after hearing that sigh. If Seokjae had noticed this change, he would have reassured him that it was fine, but he was too busy simultaneously examining Muyoung’s forehead—which kept appearing and disappearing through his swaying hair—and their surroundings to notice at all.

‘Hyung… didn’t even say it was okay and even sighed.’

Muyoung was shocked in his own way by that reaction.

‘He must be really angry…’

Perhaps because he had become accustomed to Seokjae’s kindness. Thoroughly dejected, Muyoung wrinkled his nose as if feeling a sting at its tip, trying to wipe away non-existent mucus. He didn’t forget to bow his head deeply to hide his pouting lips.

“Sniff… sniff?”

Then, strangely enough, only now did he notice the strong smell of rot wafting from the corridor.

Perhaps because he had smelled the faint soap scent remaining on Seokjae’s hand earlier, this now felt like the most disgusting smell he had experienced, causing him to wrinkle his nose sharply.

At the same time, images flashed through his mind: the zombie with only its upper body remaining that they had encountered after leaving the house, and the corpses sprawled on the way into the school, whose state was so poor it was difficult to tell whether they were zombies or just bodies.

‘Could it be…’

Muyoung could form a new hypothesis about the zombies’ strange behavior that had puzzled him.

‘Are they trying to prevent themselves from rotting?’

Several weeks had passed since the zombies appeared. If they were ordinary corpses, they would have long since decomposed and collapsed in the hot weather. Yet, although the zombies were clearly decaying, they were tenaciously hanging on.

Moreover, because of the strong perception that they were monsters rather than people, he had never thought about the fact that they were continuously decomposing. Even while smelling that rotting odor. In fact, from the absence of flies and other insects, they differed from ordinary corpses, but fundamentally, they had been human.

‘Then, if we hold out, will they all eventually die on their own?’

While a hopeful thought arose, a bad premonition followed. Some individuals were dying off naturally, and the remaining ones were showing movements that weren’t initially visible.

This meant they were evolving and learning.

‘That means zombies could become more intelligent than they are now…!’