Chapter 6

Yu-su clenched his bloodstained fists.

“I should.”

“Yeah. Well, those things look like they’re gone, so let’s catch our breath for a minute.”

Yu-su’s gaze drifted back toward the door. The barricade of piled furniture blocked most of it from view, leaving only the upper section exposed.

Beyond the fractured glass, a few zombie shadows wandered aimlessly through the corridor.

Did they forget about us?

Fortunately, they seemed to be roaming without realizing that prey remained inside.

After a brief hesitation, Yu-su nodded. Then, as though suddenly remembering something, he approached the window.

A floor-to-ceiling glass panel stretched across one entire wall. From this high above the city, everything below lay exposed like a miniature map.

“…It really is a disaster out there.”

“I told you. Downstairs is hell too.”

In truth, it was worse than hell. The apocalyptic chaos sprawling beneath them defied description.

It was Friday night, after all.

Massive crowds flooded the roads and sidewalks, desperately fleeing death. The zombies were not particularly fast, but their numbers were overwhelming, and the people below had surrendered completely to blind, panic-stricken terror.

One group of survivors caught Yu-su’s attention.

They wore restaurant uniforms and clutched pots, pans, and kitchen knives as makeshift weapons. Dodging the approaching zombies, they occasionally vaulted over low walls and barriers.

They had been running at full speed when they rounded an alley and collided head-on with a horde surging from the opposite direction.

Several people immediately shoved their own companions forward as shields and fled. Those who fell disappeared beneath the zombies, their bodies ripped open and devoured while the others ran.

SCREEECH!

A speeding truck plowed through them.

Then came an explosive BOOM as the skidding vehicle crashed into a storefront and erupted in flames. Everyone unfortunate enough to be caught along its path met a horrific end.

Yu-su stared wordlessly.

Was that fire or blood?

The screams seemed to reverberate inside his skull.

“Enough, Jeong Yu-su.”

A large hand shoved his shoulder sharply, finally tearing his gaze away. Muwon gestured toward the bathroom with his chin.

“Go in there and wash your face.”

“This isn’t the time to be washing my face—”

“The hallway’s quiet. We decided to catch our breath, so take care of your head first.”

“…All right.”

Yu-su walked toward the shower room with as much composure as he could muster. The instant he shut the door behind him, he gripped the sink with both hands. Only then did his body sway.

“Ugh…!”

Perhaps it was because he had eaten almost nothing all day, but he could not stop dry-heaving. Bitter bile rose in his throat as images of vivid red blood and twitching scraps of exposed organs flashed before his eyes.

It felt as though he could still see them.

And, in truth, he could.

Muwon had not practically shoved him toward the sink over something trivial.

One glance at his reflection told Yu-su why.

He was drenched in blood, as though someone had painted him crimson from head to toe. His cheeks and shoulders were plastered with dark, congealed smears he had no desire to identify.

A fresh wave of nausea surged through him, forcing him to grip the edge of the washbasin until his knuckles whitened.

“Ugh, hng…”

After a moment, he managed to swallow back the bile burning in his throat. He cautiously turned on the faucet. A thin stream of clear water trickled out, free from the rotten stench that had clung to the zombies. Still too anxious to feel any genuine relief, Yu-su scrubbed his skin until it stung. He rinsed his face and mouth repeatedly before finally retreating from the bathroom.

“Finished?”

“Yeah.”

Muwon stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a bottle of water as though it were a can of beer. The moment Yu-su stepped out, Muwon’s gaze latched onto him.

The weight of that stare made Yu-su’s brows draw together.

“…What?”

“Nothing. You okay now?”

“I’m fine. What about you? Those bruises look bad.”

“This? It’s nothing. I’m completely fine,” Muwon countered.

A quick glance toward the hallway revealed that it remained deathly quiet.

Washing up had calmed Yu-su slightly, but faint tremors still disrupted his breathing.

Muwon spoke without warning: “I found something to eat in the fridge. There’s water too.”

“Okay.”

“There should be more in the desk, but I didn’t want to move it yet. This is all we’ve got for now.”

The desk was part of the barricade blocking the Division Head’s office door, so naturally they could not approach it without weakening their defenses.

Following the tilt of Muwon’s chin, Yu-su looked down at the carpet. Six bottles of water, four cans of coffee, two bottles of cola, and what appeared at first glance to be an extraordinarily expensive bottle of baijiu had been arranged on the floor.

“Baijiu?”

“It’s alcohol, so it’s better than nothing. I’m going to wash up.”

“…Oh. Right.”

Before Yu-su could say anything else, Muwon had already disappeared into the bathroom.

Left alone, Yu-su turned back toward the door.

Thankfully, the zombies’ behavior remained unchanged.

“Haa…”

Biting his lip, Yu-su walked toward the window as though an unseen hand were pushing him from behind. Far fewer people remained on the streets now. Perhaps most had managed to flee, but the city had descended into even greater chaos. Like a scene torn from an apocalyptic film, the roads were choked with wrecked and overturned vehicles, while corpses lay scattered across the pavement like garbage bags that had burst open.

The greatest problem was that most of those corpses had begun to move again.

“What the hell is going on…”

What is happening to the world?

After regaining consciousness in the office, Yu-su had shoved such questions into the back of his mind, far too consumed by the desperate struggle to escape. Now, with a moment to breathe, those unanswered thoughts erupted all at once.

A zombie outbreak.

Time repeating itself.

He had unquestionably relived the same day.

He remembered there was a term for that sort of phenomenon in science-fiction and fantasy films.

Something like…

A loop?

“Ha…”

Yu-su buried his face in his hands.

Had someone warned him earlier that a zombie outbreak was about to occur, he would probably have dismissed them as insane. Yet the statement, From now on, every time you die, the day will repeat, was somehow even harder to comprehend.

Accepting the existence of zombies was difficult enough.

Accepting a time loop felt impossible.

What was more absurd was that, at this point, he felt capable of brushing the zombies aside with a simple thought.

Sure. I guess zombies are real now.

After all, time itself had turned backward.

Could anything be more nonsensical than that?

Why?

He knew there was no point searching for an answer, yet he could not stop himself. A flurry of disconnected theories formed and shattered in his mind one after another, never approaching anything resembling a conclusion.

That was when it happened.

“Another power outage. It’s getting closer, isn’t it?”

“…!”

A low, rough voice rasped just above his head as an arm swept past his ear and planted itself against the window frame.

Yu-su flinched visibly and turned around, his face flushing with irritation. ‘You scared the…’ he began, but the words trailed off. His feet stopped moving before he could take a step back. The distance between them was much closer than he had anticipated.

Muwon had reached around him from behind, planting one hand against the glass while Yu-su remained pressed against the window. With Muwon’s massive frame looming over him, it looked as though Yu-su had been caged between his arms.

Worse still, Do Muwon appeared to be completely naked.

He must have showered. Droplets of water slid slowly down his chest, tracing the hard contours of Muwon’s body. Yu-su’s gaze caught on the broad, solid slope of Muwon’s damp shoulders. Unable to risk looking any lower, he raised his eyes and locked stares with him instead.

Yu-su’s lips parted, trembling faintly, but the voice that finally emerged was cold enough to cut.

“…Manager Do. Move.”

“Let’s not start acting like this is something new.”

Muwon wrinkled his nose in displeasure and slowly tilted his head. His face, carved from sharp, powerful features, was almost unfairly handsome. It felt as though an eternity had passed since they had last stood this close.

Yu-su had no intention of continuing to stare at him. He shifted his body, preparing to squeeze past.

Crack.

A faint electrical noise echoed, and suddenly, the lights went out. The power had failed. Neither man uttered a word. Even the distant glow of the city seemed to disappear, and the moonlight itself appeared to retreat, casting the cursed predawn hours into complete darkness. This darkness connected them like a rope. For a moment, Yu-su was stunned as he gazed into the depths of Muwon’s jet-black eyes, reflecting on everything that had transpired.

So many things I never imagined, not even in my wildest dreams, have happened today.

Zombies. Loops. Standing this close to Do Muwon.

Of all people, Do Muwon.

—“Assistant Manager! Big news. I’ve got some incredible gossip.”

—“Keep your voice down, Senior Associate Shin.”

—“How am I supposed to keep my voice down? The heir to the Cheonsan Group is coming to our company!”

—“The heir… You mean the Chairman’s grandson?”

It had been two weeks since Do Muwon had suddenly appeared at the company.

Cheonsan was a titan of the construction industry, a name so famous that even children in Korea recognized it. Six months earlier, the conglomerate had completely swallowed Hyeonmyeong Construction through a merger orchestrated by Chairman Do Sang-guk, the formidable leader known as the Giant.

Then Do Muwon, the Chairman’s eldest grandson, had joined the company as a manager.

He belonged to a world so impossibly distant that an ordinary assistant manager could never hope to reach him. Yu-su had spent two weeks doing everything possible to avoid him, only to end up trapped in this situation.