Chapter 32

Grrr… Gk-kgh…

The newly risen dead lingered before the sealed door for a time. Eventually, however, they turned away and scrambled back toward the chaos still raging outside. Sighs of relief escaped from every corner of the restaurant.

Muwon noticed Yu-su standing frozen in place. He gripped his shoulder and tugged him gently.

“I found two inside and threw them out. Let’s find somewhere to settle down.”

“…Okay.”

The group moved to a corner of the restaurant near the windows, where two long sofas faced one another across a low table. From there, they had an unobstructed view of the dining hall. Even at a rough count, more than thirty people had taken shelter inside. Some tended to injured relatives or companions, while those who had arrived alone curled into themselves and watched everyone else with wary eyes. Yu-su scanned every face in the room, his fist slowly tightening.

They’re not here?

His siblings were nowhere to be seen.

The blood in his veins seemed to turn to ice, and his body swayed even though he was already seated.

“Jeong Yu-su?”

“……”

“What’s wrong?” Muwon asked. “Are you hurt?”

“No. It’s nothing. I just got dizzy.”

Yu-su pushed Muwon’s hand away and bit down hard on his lip. He had missed them. He should have paid closer attention and searched the crowd more thoroughly while they were fleeing to the building.

He was hardly alone in his guilt and grief. The air hung heavy with ceaseless wailing. On one side of the restaurant, a woman repeatedly struck her head against the wall while muttering to herself.

“We’re going to die anyway. Every one of us is going to die eventually…”

The restaurant had become a stagnant pit of despair. Most people wept not from relief at having survived, but because they were convinced that death had only been delayed. The constant groans of those injured during the escape deepened the gloom. One person had a broken ankle. Another continued vomiting blood without even knowing where the injury lay. Nearby, someone clung to the hand of a dying family member whose breaths were growing perilously faint, their sobbing flowing on as though it might never end.

Then a man rose from his seat.

It was the scruffy-bearded man who had ordered the entrance closed. A lawyer’s pin adorned his jacket, and although he appeared shorter than average, his plump frame and smiling eyes lent him a vaguely benevolent air.

He walked to the center of the dining hall and addressed the survivors.

“Everyone, there isn’t anyone here who was bitten by a zombie, is there?”

His voice carried clearly across the room. At that single question, the survivors’ gazes sharpened and shifted toward the wounded, who were still groaning in pain. Bewildered and offended, the injured and those protecting them immediately protested.

“My wife wasn’t bitten,” a man insisted. “She was hurt in the car!”

“Neither was I. I tripped while I was running.”

“There were that many zombies outside, and you expect us to believe nobody got bitten?”

“If one of them turns into a zombie in here, we’ll all die!”

The situation deteriorated rapidly. Several people surged to their feet and advanced on the wounded, determined to examine them by force.

“Then show us! We have to check!”

“Let go of me! Don’t touch the wound!”

“He really did fall while we were running. Stop this!”

“Get out of the way!”

The lawyer had been watching the confrontation and seemed ready to intervene, but Yu-su’s voice cut across the room first, cold, sharp, and unmistakably clear.

“There are more than thirty people in here. Can’t all of you handle one or two zombies if it comes to that?”

“……”

“The more noise you make, the greater the danger becomes.”

Half the survivors in the restaurant, including the bearded lawyer, had ridden on the same bus and had seen Yu-su’s group lead the escape. A brief standoff followed, but the calm weight of Yu-su’s words carried more force than the crowd’s rising panic. Gradually, the tension began to recede.

The lawyer studied Yu-su closely, then clapped his hands twice. The room’s attention naturally shifted toward him.

“Well, that is precisely my point. Nevertheless, lives are at stake, so we must take reasonable precautions.”

“That’s right. We need to check.”

“It’s the only way to know we’re safe.”

“For now, I will personally examine the injured,” the lawyer announced.

No one raised any serious objection. He began moving through the restaurant, inspecting each wounded person in turn until he gradually approached Yu-su’s group.

When he reached the front of their sofa, he made eye contact with Muwon first.

“How’s General Manager Cheon?”

The moment the name left his mouth, Muwon’s expression hardened with fury. He opened his mouth as though he were about to erupt, but the lawyer had already turned toward Yu-su.

“You did an exceptional job on the bus, and again during the escape.”

“……”

With his towering frame and thunderous voice, Muwon had naturally drawn the most attention while they were fleeing. It required a keen eye to recognize that Yu-su, not Muwon, was the true center of the group.

The man held out a business card.

[Kang & Kang Law Firm, Senior Attorney Park Yeongil]

Muwon, who had remained rigid until then, barked out a sharp laugh. He snatched the card from Park Yeongil’s hand and crushed it in his fist.

Park Yeongil glanced at him as though regarding a petulant child, then proceeded to examine Joo Hee-eun and Sim Gorak in turn. Muwon opened his mouth again, but Yu-su caught his wrist and pulled him back before he could say anything.

Park Yeongil adjusted his glasses and offered them a faint smile.

“It appears no one here is injured, which is a relief. I’ll leave you to rest.”

As Park Yeongil made his way to the front of the dining hall and climbed onto the small stage reserved for live performances, every gaze in the room followed him. He had appeared on several television programs, making him a familiar face to many of those gathered there, and whispers soon rippled through the crowd.

“That’s the man I saw on television,” someone murmured.

“I recognize him too,” another person replied.

“Fortunately, it appears no one here has been bitten. Some of you may already know me, but for those who don’t, my name is Park Yeongil. I’m a senior attorney at a law firm nearby.”

With the crowd’s full attention fixed on him, Park Yeongil arranged his features into an appropriately solemn expression. When he smiled, he appeared gentle and approachable, but without that smile, his narrow brows and eyes lent his face a cold, cutting severity.

“I know all of you are anxious, but we need to confront the reality of our situation. Given how events have unfolded, there is a strong possibility that the government will abandon us.”

The dining hall erupted before he could continue.

His assessment was not entirely unfounded. Two rescue attempts had already been made, and both had ended in failure. Worse, the large-scale military deployment had resulted in near-total annihilation. Even if the government wanted to mount another rescue operation, it might no longer have enough personnel to send.

As anxiety surged through the hall, someone called out to Park Yeongil.

“Then what are we supposed to do now?”

“The worse our circumstances become, the more important it is that we establish rules and unite as a community. That is the only way we’ll survive.”

The crowd offered little resistance to Park Yeongil’s sudden assumption of authority.

Amid the chaos, he had somehow become a minor celebrity. He was a lawyer with a polished appearance and a calm, persuasive way of reasoning. Then again, the gun tucked into his pocket might also have contributed to his influence. In all likelihood, it was a combination of both.

One of the people whispering among themselves finally raised a hand. “What kind of rules?”

“Things like how we’ll distribute our supplies. Before we discuss that, though, could anyone with medicine bring some forward for the injured?”

Those who had fled directly from their homes to the restaurant, rather than running blindly through the streets as Jeong Yu-su and Do Muwon had, might have had the presence of mind to bring first-aid kits. Even so, no one stepped forward. Some were simply unwilling to surrender what they had, while most had lost their belongings during the frantic scramble to reach the restaurant.

At a time like this, medicine was perhaps the most valuable commodity of all. Unsurprisingly, Park Yeongil’s request drew an immediate and defensive challenge from somewhere in the crowd.

“And what if we refuse?”

Park Yeongil fixed his gaze on the man who had spoken. “I’m not forcing anyone. Who am I to take your medicine by force? I’m only asking because there are people here in pain.”

“…”

In the end, only two of the more than thirty people present raised their hands and admitted to having painkillers. Park Yeongil accepted the medicine and distributed two pills to each of the injured people crying out in agony.

He then instructed several people, who had already begun addressing him as “Attorney Park,” to carry the restaurant’s water bottles, cups, and bowls onto the stage.

“We’ll keep the water up here. You’re all exhausted, so we can discuss everything else after sunrise.”

After giving them one final reminder to conserve their limited supply, Park Yeongil sat beside the water bottles. Whenever someone approached for a drink, he greeted them and exchanged names with them all over again.

Jeong Yu-su’s group remained silent, taking their cue from Do Muwon’s expression, until Muwon finally broke the oppressive quiet.

“Why did you stop me earlier?”

“Because things would’ve gotten out of hand if you’d stepped in.”

“Hey, I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve gotten pretty patient these days, you know.”

“You weren’t about to be patient.” Jeong Yu-su studied him for a moment. “Do you know that man?”

Do Muwon shook his head, then narrowed his eyes as though trying to drag some half-buried memory into the light. Whatever he was searching for, he apparently had no desire to dwell on it. He exhaled heavily and dismissed the thought.

“He was asking about that son of a bitch back home. You really think he’s a good guy?”

“…”

Jeong Yu-su remembered the secret Do Muwon had shared with him on the rooftop, when Muwon admitted he did not know who his biological father was.

Yu-su had been curious, of course. Although Do Muwon and the man he called his father could hardly have been described as close, their relationship had never appeared so poisonous that Muwon would refer to him as a son of a bitch.

What could have happened after they cut ties?

Do Muwon clearly had no intention of ever discussing the matter again, and Jeong Yu-su could not bring himself to press him.

Muwon might have seemed quick-tempered, but he normally kept his true emotions hidden beneath the surface. That was precisely why such naked revulsion was so rare.

The last time I saw him make that face was when the rumor spread that he and I had kissed.

Jeong Yu-su’s expression darkened as well, further unsettling Joo Hee-eun, who sat beside him. The tension only began to ease when Sim Gorak, who had been crying ever since they reached the restaurant, finally lifted his head.

“But what’s a ‘General Manager Cheon’?”

Do Muwon waved a hand dismissively. “Forget it. Drop the subject. Just remember that he isn’t a good guy.”

“I had a terrible feeling about him too. What was with that attitude?” Frustration sharpened Joo Hee-eun’s voice. “Instead of thanking us, he spoke as though he were ordering around his subordinates. Is he higher up than the Assistant Manager or something?”

Jeong Yu-su had finally gathered his thoughts. “There were plenty of people like that at the office. It’s not as though I’ve only seen it once or twice.”

“Even so…”

“In a situation like this, people need someone they can rally around. Let’s leave him alone for now.”

“Okay…”

Do Muwon was still seething, and his heavy breathing made that abundantly clear. Once Joo Hee-eun and Jeong Yu-su finished speaking, the group fell silent again, and the air around them thickened with oppressive quiet.

Sim Gorak glanced nervously among the three of them as the mood soured. A hiccup caught in his throat.

“What… what do we do now?”