Chapter 15

“…”

In one corner of the peaceful, sunlit break room sat a figure reeking of blood, a grotesque presence so utterly out of place that it seemed to defile the calm around it.

“Do Muwon, why are you… Oh.”

“Shit. Lock the door first.” Muwon reached behind them and turned the lock himself.

With their backs pressed against the door, the two men stared once more at the figure in the corner. The person sat slumped forward, head bowed and body utterly motionless. Yu-su studied them with the rigid caution of someone facing a dangerous enemy, searching for the slightest twitch before he finally broke the silence.

“A corpse…?”

It was hardly an unreasonable conclusion. Blood had poured from the crumpled figure and congealed into a dark pool across the floor. Even Yu-su, who had little familiarity with death, could tell that no one could lose that much blood, remain so completely still, and somehow still be alive.

“Yeah. Looks like a corpse.”

“…Probably.” Yu-su kept his eyes fixed on the body. “But I’m not sure.”

They knew far too little about the zombies to be certain.

Yu-su had learned one thing while looking down at the street from the division head’s office. Most people transformed the instant they were bitten, but in rare cases, the victims never changed at all and simply remained corpses.

There also seemed to be cases in which the transformation occurred only after a delay, though they had no way of knowing how long that delay might last.

“…”

The two of them edged half a step closer, advancing with painful slowness.

The middle-aged woman wore a semiformal suit, and her hands were clasped tightly together. A massive, mangled wound gaped across her neck.

No one had closed her eyes. Her contorted expression and gaping mouth revealed with brutal clarity how fiercely she had clung to life and how much agony she must have endured before death finally took her.

Every window in the room was sealed, yet something like a winter wind seemed to brush past them.

Muwon clicked his tongue, tightened his grip on the triangular desk plaque bearing Kim Hyeoktae’s name, and stepped forward.

“I’ll touch her.”

“Be careful.”

“Yeah.”

He prodded the woman with the plaque’s sharp corner. Even through the object in his hand, he could feel the corpse’s rigid resistance.

“…”

They waited for what felt like an eternity, but the body did not move.

Only then did both men release the breaths trapped in their lungs.

“She doesn’t seem like a zombie.” Yu-su’s shoulders loosened slightly, though his gaze remained wary. “What should we do?”

“Leaving her here feels wrong.” Muwon grimaced. “Should we throw her out the window?”

Disgust at his own suggestion twisted across his face. He raked both hands roughly through his hair, his frustration mounting.

“Fuck. Listen to me, talking about throwing someone’s corpse away.”

Yu-su said nothing.

Instead, he approached the woman and gently closed her eyes, despite the tremor running through his hands.

“Jeong Yu-su.” Muwon watched him tensely. “Be careful.”

“Yeah.”

Yu-su then eased a thin object from between the woman’s tightly clasped hands.

It was an employee identification card.

He scraped the hardened blood from its surface with his sleeve, gradually revealing a photograph and a name.

[Oh Yunju, Manager
Safety and Environment Team
Hyeonmyeong Construction]

When he turned the card over, he found a family photograph tucked inside. A married couple stood with their children among blooming forsythias, their smiles more radiant than the flowers surrounding them, so bright that the sight was almost blinding.

She must have been looking at it until the very end.

When Yu-su finally spoke, his voice betrayed the tangle of emotions he could not put into words.

“Can we not throw her out?”

“…Then what do you want to do?”

Yu-su considered the question for a moment before rising and opening the door marked ‘REFRESH ROOM’. The main cafeteria had a nap room labeled ‘SLEEP ROOM’ on the left and a lounge labeled ‘REFRESH ROOM’ on the right. The sleeping room was the one they actually needed. Leaving the woman’s body in the lounge would not interfere with them.

“We don’t have any reason to use this room.”

“Is that so?” Muwon glanced inside, then nodded. “All right, then.”

Together, they carried the corpse into the lounge.

Yu-su placed the employee identification card in the woman’s arms, then covered her body with a clean blanket stored inside the room. “Rest in peace,” he murmured while his gaze remained fixed on the covered body the entire time. “Do Muwon… have I been too soft again?”

“Let it go. No one’s chasing us, so what’s the big deal with locking them away?”

“They could suddenly turn into zombies and put us in danger.”

“Then we’ll deal with it.”

Then we’ll deal with it…

Yu-su turned Muwon’s words over in his mind, a bitter, self-mocking smile crossing his face.

—“Jeong Yu-su, stop being such a pushover. You got burned again, damn it.”

—“It’s fine. I can handle it.”

—“Ugh, fuck. You’re too damn kind.”

Yu-su remained silent for a long while. It took a broad fingertip prodding him squarely in the forehead to finally break the spell.

Muwon looked down at Yu-su’s bewildered face and gave a dry chuckle. “Looks like our roles have reversed.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. If you’d just tossed them outside, I would’ve felt like shit too.”

“…Yeah. Thanks.”

Muwon might no longer have considered zombies human, but corpses were apparently another matter. With a shrug, he caught Yu-su by the wrist and led him toward the lounge.

“I’m starting to feel tired. Are you sure we’re not pressed for time?”

“Ah…”

Only then did Yu-su realize how unbearably heavy his eyelids and limbs had become. Since the zombie outbreak, he had not managed a single proper night’s sleep. Even when exhaustion finally dragged him under, he slept only in brief, fractured stretches, and his frayed nerves turned every one of them into a nightmare.

I did get some sleep that first morning, though…

The same could not be said for Muwon.

Yu-su glanced at his wristwatch, then toward the window. It was still only nine in the morning, and the sky outside was clear.

“We still have time. Let’s get some rest.”

“Yeah. Wash up first.”

“Clean the soles of your shoes while you’re at it.”

“My shoes?” Muwon gave him a puzzled look. “Uh… sure.”

Considering that Muwon had soiled his entire body while moving the corpses, it was only natural that he would want to wash before sleeping. Fortunately, the lounge had an attached bathroom. As soon as Yu-su nodded, Muwon headed straight inside.

Yu-su released a slow breath and pressed a hand against the tightness in his chest, rubbing the spot several times before turning his attention to the lounge’s firmly shut door. It was thick, heavy, and completely soundproof. He doubted the zombies were deliberately targeting this place, but the crushing weight of his anxiety would not allow him to rest without preparing for the worst.

Once he had done what little he could, Yu-su entered the sleeping room first.

Six bunk beds lined the room, with headsets provided at every berth and an air purifier that had long since stopped working. Like every other lavish amenity in a company that demanded endless overtime, the sleeping room had been furnished so extravagantly that it could have appeared in a magazine.

“Let’s see…”

Before long, Yu-su had stripped the blankets and sheets from every bed and knotted them together into a single, continuous rope.

Some time later, Muwon emerged from the bathroom and found the lounge empty.

“Jeong Yu-su…?”

Panic jolted through him. He hurried from room to room, searching everywhere until he finally found Yu-su standing beside the sleeping room window.

At first, all Muwon could see was Yu-su’s slender back resting against the window frame. When Yu-su turned his head, however, the movement revealed the graceful curve of his profile. Against the brilliant blue sky, his light brown hair fluttered in the breeze, brushing over his smooth forehead, while the bridge of his nose rose straight and delicately sculpted.

More than anything else, Muwon noticed those plump lips.

He used to pinch and tug at them playfully because they were so soft beneath his fingers. Now, those same lips were closed around a cigarette.

Yu-su inhaled until his ribs expanded beneath his shirt. When he finally released the smoke, he tipped his chin upward and let his gaze drift languidly downward. His long, gently curved eyelashes shimmered behind the veil of haze.

The contradiction was almost absurd. Jeong Yu-su seemed so pure and untainted that cigarettes should not have suited him at all, yet he handled one with such practiced ease that it looked strangely natural between his lips.

“I’ve been wondering about this for a while.” Muwon strode over, leaned his back against the wall, and folded his arms. “When did you start smoking?”

Yu-su noticed that Muwon still had nothing wrapped around him but a towel, yet for once, he did not nag him. Instead, he kept his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the window.

“Twenty.”

“Ha.”

“Had to survive out there somehow.”

“And you gave me hell for smoking?”

The cigarette crackled as Yu-su crushed the shortened stub against the window frame. He held the final lungful of smoke for a long moment before slowly letting it escape.

Now I can finally breathe like a person.

Turning his head, Yu-su fixed Muwon with his light brown eyes.

“That was back when we were students. Besides, you specialized in swimming.”

“I never touched another one after you nagged me about it.”

As Muwon had said, it happened during their high school years. Back then, Do Muwon often associated with delinquents, and when Yu-su caught the smell of smoke on him one day, he had given Muwon a merciless scolding.

“Want one now, since you’re still so hung up on it?”

“Forget it. They’re terrible for your health. You should quit once we’re rescued.”

Yu-su merely shrugged, wearing the expression of someone being lectured by a fussy old man.

“What’s a little damage to my health?”

“Oh?” Muwon studied him more closely. “Does that mean you don’t exercise anymore?”

“…Do you still swim?”

“Only as a hobby now and then. It’s been that way since I got out of the military.”

At those words, Yu-su stared silently at the discarded cigarette butt. The more cigarettes became part of his life, the further exercise receded from it. In truth, it would have been more accurate to say that he had never been able to spare the time for anything else.

When he finally answered, bitterness seeped into his voice.

“I see.”

“Yeah. Well, it was basically my job after graduation.”

“Graduation…”

Korea Physical Education High School was held in such high regard within the athletic community that gaining admission practically guaranteed a path to the national team. Naturally, applicants needed either a record of competition awards or a formal recommendation, and the tuition was absurdly expensive.

Do Muwon had specialized in swimming. Yu-su had been a diver, and he still remembered how much joy he had found not only in diving, but also in the gymnastics and horizontal-bar routines he practiced alongside his regular training.

Though I never ended up graduating.

When Muwon saw Yu-su’s distant expression, regret tightened his face. He swore under his breath, glanced around the room, and hurriedly changed the subject.

“By the way, what’s that on the bed?”

“That?” Yu-su followed his gaze. “Ah. It’s a rope made from bedsheets.”

“A bedsheet rope?” Muwon’s brows drew together. “I have no idea what you’re planning.”

“I was just about to explain.” Yu-su met his gaze and raised his voice slightly, making it clear that he wanted Muwon’s full attention. “Do Muwon, listen carefully.”

Muwon’s expression sobered.

“I don’t think we can reach the rooftop through the emergency stairs.”

His eyes flicked toward the sleeping room’s closed door before returning to Yu-su. “Why?”

“Didn’t the lobby feel a little cold?”

“I didn’t notice.”

A convincing lie always needed a little truth mixed into it. Besides, Yu-su was not lying about the rooftop door being open. Now that he thought about it, the lobby truly had been chilly.

“I was cold, but every window in the hallway was shut.”

“…So?”

“I think the rooftop door is open.”

Muwon fell silent.

He understood perfectly well what that meant.

If the rooftop door was already open, the roof itself was almost certainly a den of zombies. Taking the emergency stairs would amount to walking straight into their nest, volunteering themselves as the creatures’ next meal before eventually rising again as two more members of the horde.

Muwon dragged both dry hands down his face.

“Fuck. Seriously?”

“I’m almost certain. You saw the flowers scattered through the hallway, didn’t you? They came from the rooftop garden.”

“Goddammit… fuck.”

Daffodil petals from the rooftop had been strewn throughout the fortieth-floor lobby. The explanation was obvious. It was the sort of clue Yu-su would have preferred to notice much earlier. Had he recognized it the last time he reached the fortieth floor, he would not have been forced to endure such an agonizing death.

Some things, however, could apparently be understood only after experiencing them firsthand.

Yu-su gave Muwon enough time to process the revelation before continuing. “There is another way, but it’s dangerous.”

“Has anything we’ve done so far not been dangerous?”

“This is the worst one yet. It borders on insanity.”

With that, Yu-su reached an arm through the window and pointed upward, tapping twice against the exterior wall above the frame.

“What is it?” Muwon muttered. He leaned halfway out the window and looked up. A moment later, he twisted back around, sheer disbelief written across his face. “Wow… fuck. No way.”

“Yes way.”

Muwon broke into a grin, baring his sharp canines. “Let’s do it right now.”

“I knew you’d say that.”

Hyeonmyeong Construction’s corporate slogan read:

Creating Value That Never Crumbles
Building the Foundation for the Future

The slogan had been mounted in enormous three-dimensional lettering along the uppermost section of the building’s exterior wall. Each individual letter had been cut into its own shape and secured directly above the sleeping room window.

“Right now, we’re here.”

“Yeah.”

Yu-su took out a notepad and swiftly sketched the building along with its slogan. He then tapped the location of the window with his pen. ‘The rooftop structure looks like this,’ he explained. As his pen moved across the paper, he added trees, flowers, and finally a large structure that took up a significant portion of the rooftop.

Muwon watched with his arms folded before tilting his head. “What’s that?”

“…You’ve never been to the roof?”

“Nope.”

A solar-power installation stood on the roof, a remnant of the former chairman’s attempt to greenwash Hyeonmyeong Construction’s public image before stepping down. Several tall pillars supported a broad canopy of solar panels, creating a large, shaded rest area beneath them.

They renovated the entire rooftop garden back then just to install this thing.

In the end, the solar generator had been abandoned once the chairman lost interest. The employees had still been pleased with the project, however, because the resulting rooftop garden was unexpectedly beautiful and comfortable.

“So, from here…”

Yu-su tapped his pen against the notepad and drew a dotted line from the sleeping room window toward the rooftop structure.

“We’ll use the slogan letters as handholds and climb toward the structure. Once we reach the railing, getting onto the roof itself shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“…That’s fucking insane.” Competitive excitement surfaced beneath Muwon’s disbelief, and a smile slowly spread across his face. “I love it. Seriously.”

“Do Muwon.”

“Yeah?” Muwon reached over and tapped him on the forehead again. “You really thought this through.”

“Well…” Yu-su looked down at the makeshift diagram. “We have to get home.” He approached the bed and lifted the rope he had fashioned from the blankets and sheets. “That’s why I knotted everything together like this. If we secure one end to the bedpost and tie the other around our waists, it should at least work as a makeshift safety tether.”

“All right. I’m in.”

After stretching his body, Muwon joined him and began inspecting each knot in the blanket rope.

“When do we move?”

“You said you were tired, and so am I. Let’s rest for a while and start before the sun goes down.”

His wristwatch showed noon. Since winter days were short, they would need to begin climbing no later than three or four in the afternoon.

“Fine. How much extra time did you build in?”

“About three hours, including the time we’ll need to pack everything.”

“Got it.”

Muwon nodded, crossed to the opposite bed, and dropped flat onto the mattress.

“I’ll set my phone to vibrate, so you should sleep too.”

“I’ll try.”

Although he said it lightly, climbing the exterior of the building meant staking their lives on every movement. Their bodies and minds needed to be in the best condition possible. Even if sleep refused to come, they had to lie down and allow themselves to rest.

Yu-su climbed into his own bed and pulled the blanket over himself.

“Get some rest, Do Muwon.”

“You too.”

***