BOW Chapter 1 (Part 1)
by Brie- The Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Today, Jiyeon killed Manager Park. The reason was absurd. It was because the team leader had turned into a mutant.
“Wh- wh- what do I do…”
Unable to believe what was happening, Jiyeon let out a trembling breath. A thick utility cutter meant for drafting was lodged in the manager’s neck, more precisely, in his uvula. It was a knife that Assistant Manager Hong Jiyeon of Haseong Media Company’s Planning Team had driven in.
“M-manager? Manager Park Oseop!”
With a faint hope, Jiyeon called out Park’s name and checked his condition again. But Park, lying on the floor with his eyes open, did not move at all. From his neck, where the cutter was buried deep, a dark red, sticky liquid was flowing out. It was unmistakably blood.
Did I kill him? Me? I killed the manager?
Jiyeon’s face, already pale from chronic vitamin D deficiency, drained of all color. To be honest, he had imagined killing his boss, Manager Park, hundreds of times. Who hasn’t at least once fantasized about hiring someone to get rid of their superior? But he swore he had never intended to carry out murder. Jiyeon was just an ordinary office worker with rational thinking and basic social functioning.
But in the urgent situation just moments ago, anyone would have had no choice but to drive a knife into Manager Park’s neck.
About twelve hours before, Hong Jiyeon killed Manager Park.
8:55 a.m.
There were still five minutes left until the official starting time written in the employment contract, yet the fourth-floor office of Haseong Media Company was already full of employees who had arrived early. None of their faces showed any hint of liveliness, and perhaps because of that, the office atmosphere felt gloomy and desolate.
This was because of Manager Park, the old-fashioned superior who believed it a virtue to arrive ten minutes early and leave late.
Clocking in exactly on time didn’t cause any attendance issues, but the silent pressure from a superior… that wasn’t something a subordinate could simply ignore.
Yet Manager Park himself was always late and left work right on the dot. That wasn’t all. He was unbelievably incompetent while being even more unbelievably greedy. He jumped into work without thinking ahead and always left the mess for his subordinates to clean up. It was enough to call him the worst of the old-fashioned bosses at Haseong Media.
Working under such a manager, Jiyeon, who held the position of assistant manager, was the one who suffered.
“Assistant Manager Hong, we’re heading out to buy coffee. Do you need anything?”
One of the planning team employees approached carefully, seeing Jiyeon already deep in work without even a moment to breathe after arriving. Jiyeon gave an awkward smile and shook his head.
“No, I’m fine. Go ahead.”
“Okay.”
As soon as the employee left, Jiyeon let out a sigh and resumed typing on his keyboard. His face was expressionless, but the exhaustion radiating from him was severe. If it were only fatigue, it would have been a blessing, his head felt as if it might explode at any moment. Last week, Manager Park had brought in some nonsensical idea out of nowhere and suddenly dumped the entire planning work on Jiyeon. Because of that, he had been burning himself out with two consecutive days of overtime.
Four years ago, Jiyeon joined Haseong Media, a famous advertising agency and partner organization of Haseong City, with high hopes. But the passion and ambition he had as a new hire had long since vanished. He once dreamed of being a cool, competent office worker like those seen in dramas and films, good at his job and good at taking care of himself, but now he was nothing more than a pitiful employee dragging around chronic fatigue and migraines.
Tap. Tap-tap.
While Jiyeon typed with a soul-drained expression, a voice came from beyond the partition.
“Ugh. Why is it only Wednesday? Sunbae, I’m so tired and sleepy.”
It was the voice of Jang Joohee, the planning team’s youngest member, cheerful and talkative, now one and a half years into the job.
“Lately, even if I sleep eight hours, I still feel sluggish and heavy. And yet I keep eating and eating… gasp. Don’t tell me I’m infected?”
“What? Oh my, Joohee, don’t say things like that even as a joke.”
Her senior, Choi Sunghwa, scolded her lightly with a hint of seriousness. Joohee gave an embarrassed laugh and quickly changed the subject.
“Sunbae, did you hear about that?”
“Hear about what?”
Choi responded indifferently, but Joohee continued anyway.
“Assistant Manager Lee from the Legal Team.”
She leaned in and lowered her voice as much as possible, as if leaking a state secret. But she didn’t seem to realize that Jiyeon, sitting just beyond the partition, could still hear her clearly.
“He turned yesterday and was immediately quarantined to the Black Zone.”
Those carefully spoken words made even the uninterested Choi pause, and made Jiyeon stop typing as well.
“Really? Oh! No. Assistant Manager Lee joined the company the same year as me…”
Choi muttered bitterly, turning back to the monitor. It was a terrible situation, but there was nothing she could do about it, so her reaction ended there.
“But you know, I heard Assistant Manager Lee has never even visited the Black Zone before. Most of the recent mutants were bitten after wandering into the Black Zone by mistake, right?”
“…”
“Then that means he was infected inside the White Zone…”
Still keeping her voice low, Joohee swallowed hard and continued.
“What if it’s spreading somewhere we don’t know about?”
“…Joohee.”
As Jang Joohee became so immersed in her own story that she was practically turning it into a horror tale, Choi Sunghwa shook her head.
“It’s time to work. Stop saying strange things and let’s focus now.”
At her firm tone, Jiyeon, who had unknowingly been listening closely, snapped back to reality and began typing again.
Tap. Tap.
As work officially began, the only sound filling the office was the clacking of keyboards. The atmosphere remained bleak and dry, but no one complained about it. For office workers, this monotony was a kind of peace.
Even in this silence, the rumor about Assistant Manager Lee of the Legal Team spread quickly through the company messenger. While passing along such a huge piece of news, everyone still carried on with their own tasks without issue. They had no choice. In daily life, ordinary people almost never encountered mutants. Because of that, even though they knew mutants existed, they didn’t truly perceive them as real.
Simply put, the Black Zone and mutants were things that belonged to someone else’s world for people living in the White Zone. No one wanted to let the fact that someone had turned into a mutant disrupt the peaceful routine they relied on.
However, a little before ten, someone shattered the office’s fragile peace.
“Hic… h-heeuuk…”
“…?”
“Huuuaaaaang!”
The youngest member of the design team suddenly burst into tears. Her sorrowful wailing rang throughout the quiet office, making everyone stop what they were doing to stare at her. She must have been in the middle of design work; she was gripping her tablet pen tightly in her right hand while fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Hyejeong, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
While the startled employees exchanged uneasy looks and hesitated to speak, the ever-interfering Jang Joohee approached the crying junior first.
“Are you hurt?”
“Hic, Joohee… what do I do? My Jonggeun oppa… h-hic… what do I do now?”
“Ah…”
Hearing her tearful words, the employees who had heard the rumor about Assistant Manager Lee let out silent sighs. His name was Lee Jonggeun. They had noticed the two sticking together often lately, it seemed they were dating.
Caught off guard by the junior’s unexpected confession, Joohee quickly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and patted her back, like comforting a child.
“It’s okay, Hyejeong. The Black Zone has good facilities now. Even if someone turns, they can live for a long time, and you can even visit them through CCTV.”
Jiyeon clicked his tongue at Joohee’s attempt at comfort. He couldn’t imagine how visitation could possibly be reassuring. From what he knew, once mutation began, the skin started rotting within five hours, and the infected lost both reason and consciousness. They became nothing but starving ghouls that knew only hunger. What good was it to see someone who wasn’t even a person anymore?
“It’d be better to just kill them.”
Jiyeon muttered under his breath and turned back to his monitor. Honestly, he didn’t understand why they didn’t simply kill mutants, who were practically the same as monsters.
The first mutant had appeared decades ago in a lab researching stem cells. In an experiment where a bioengineered organ made from stem cells was transplanted into a test pig, one of the subjects showed an abnormal reaction, its skin and muscle necrosed, and the pig became violently aggressive, biting the researchers. Panicked, they euthanized it. At the time, everyone simply thought the experiment had failed.
But a few hours later, the researchers who had been bitten lost reason and consciousness and began attacking others. Their appearance was identical to the euthanized pig. From that moment on, the number of people showing abnormal reactions skyrocketed. The small city quickly fell into panic, and the state named them “mutants.”
In the early days, the government killed all mutants to prevent the infection from spreading. But over time, groups formed around the families of those killed, arguing that killing someone whose heart was still beating was murder. They launched national petitions and social campaigns. Public opinion formed, asking whether it was truly necessary to kill people who had once been someone’s family or friend. As a result, the government decided to isolate mutants from society instead of killing them.
In this way, South Korea, once divided into eight administrative regions, shifted to a system divided only into the Black Zone and the White Zone. This had happened more than thirty years before Jiyeon was even born.
Fortunately, Jiyeon’s parents had lived far from the area where mutants first spread and gave birth to him there. Thanks to that, Jiyeon had never encountered a mutant in person nor lost anyone to infection. In short, he had grown up like a delicate flower in a greenhouse.
The same was probably true for everyone else in the office. Very few people had ever survived the Black Zone and made it to the White Zone. That was why Jiyeon, and most White Zone residents, couldn’t fully grasp the fear mutants represented.
Still, it wasn’t as though Jiyeon didn’t understand the grief of the junior who had just lost her lover, so he kept his mouth shut and focused on his work. But the same couldn’t be said for Manager Park.
“Hey, Hyejeong. Don’t cry here and make the office atmosphere weird. If you’re going to cry, go outside.”
“Team leader!”
At Park’s disapproving scolding of the junior, Joohee snapped her head around and glared at him.
“What? Did I say something wrong? Honestly, she’s being a nuisance. A nuisance!”
It was clear that Manager Park, lacking any sense of social empathy, was actually getting angry. Yes, the junior’s sudden crying had startled everyone, but still, there was a difference between saying things kindly and saying them harshly. Did he really have to talk like that to someone who was already heartbroken?
“Hyejeong, come with me. Let’s step outside and calm down.”
Shaking with anger, Jang Joohee guided the junior, who was struggling to hold back her tears, out of the office. As soon as the two left, the room fell silent. Manager Park, uncomfortable with the quiet that seemed to scold him, muttered loudly for no reason.
“Ahem. Anyway, shouldn’t we put Ms. Park Hyejeong in quarantine too? If they were dating, what if she suddenly mutates while working?”
Even the employees who had been quietly observing the situation were horrified at his outrageous words. All at once, the sounds of rapid typing filled the office. They were surely cursing him through messenger. Right on cue, a message also arrived for Jiyeon. But its contents had nothing to do with Manager Park.
It was a message from Yoon Suhyeong, the sales team leader who worked on the floor above.
Sales Team Leader Yoon: Want to have dinner with me today?
“Is he out of his mind? Dinner? Seriously?”
[Me]: I’m working overtime today.
Jiyeon let out a dry laugh as he replied.
Haseong Media’s Sales Team Leader, Yoon Suhyeong.
Unlike the rigid and stubborn Manager Park of the planning team, Suhyeong was young, competent, handsome, and well-liked by everyone, a star of Haseong Media. Aside from the fact that he and Jiyeon had been senior and junior in college, they didn’t have much connection.
But strangely, after Jiyeon was promoted to assistant manager last summer, he began crossing paths with Suhyeong more often.
It started on the third day after Jiyeon’s promotion.
“Jiyeon, are you heading home now?”
“What? Ah, yes.”
As if he had been waiting, Suhyeong stopped Jiyeon right as he was leaving work. It wasn’t normal for a team leader from another department to wait for him, so Jiyeon looked up nervously.
“What do you do after work?”
“I usually just go home and rest…”
Why is he asking that? Wait, he’s not about to give me work, is he?
Because there were always shameless people from other departments who dumped work on the planning team, Jiyeon’s already tired face grew tense with worry.
“Ah, Team Leader, actually…”
He tried to lie and say he had plans, but before he could, Suhyeong spoke first.
“Then let me treat you to dinner tonight to celebrate your promotion.”
“…What? Why would you do that?”
Jiyeon frowned slightly, puzzled. They didn’t even work in the same office. Why would this other department’s team leader care enough to celebrate his promotion? To be honest, Jiyeon found him uncomfortable.
“You’re my junior from college. I wanted to take care of you.”
But why? They weren’t even close.
Jiyeon’s confusion only deepened. But then Suhyeong added:
“I made a reservation at a fine dining restaurant…”
“Thank you, Team Leader.”
Jiyeon bowed. Even if they weren’t close, there was no reason to refuse a congratulatory meal, especially an expensive one.
And so, Jiyeon ended up having an unexpectedly delicious and high-priced dinner with Suhyeong. Though sitting next to him felt a bit uncomfortable at first, once he started tasting the food melting on his tongue, his attention shifted entirely to the dishes.
“Jiyeon. Can you do me a favor?”
“Yes? Wh-what is it?”
But when the final dish was served, Jiyeon heard something that felt like a bolt from the blue.
“There’s an early morning soccer match at the sports stadium tomorrow at 9 a.m. We’re short one member, so I hope you can come.”
“Tomorrow is… Saturday.”
“Yes. We have to work on weekdays, so games are held on Saturdays.”
“…”
“You’ll come, right?”
With a gentle smile, Suhyeong asked. Jiyeon looked down at his plate, clean after finishing dessert. Saturdays were precious to office workers, sacred, even. And he was being asked to use that precious Saturday to play soccer. Early in the morning at that.
Damn it. If I refuse… I’ll look like a total freeloader, won’t I?
Having accepted the expensive meal, Jiyeon couldn’t bring himself to refuse. So the next morning, he unwillingly sacrificed his precious Saturday to join Suhyeong.
That was only the beginning. After that, their strange meetings continued several more times. Suhyeong bought him expensive meals, saved him from overtime under the excuse of “helping out,” and insisted they meet on weekends to exercise. Jiyeon, being just an assistant manager, couldn’t ignore those requests.
In the end, at least once a month, he ended up participating in various sports activities with Suhyeong.
Didn’t he have any friends to exercise with?
Why was he acting close and dragging Jiyeon out every weekend?
He was terrified that someday the man would ask to borrow money, or, worse, for an organ donation.
[The other party is typing…]
Jiyeon thought the conversation had ended with his last reply, but he saw the typing indicator pop up. A moment later, a new message appeared.
Sales Team Leader Yoon: Overtime? Didn’t you work overtime yesterday too?
…How does he know that?
Jiyeon’s eyes widened. Then he remembered they had run into each other in the elevator yesterday after work.
Right, he asked, “Should I give you a ride home?” and I said no.
He had run off as soon as the elevator doors opened, terrified that getting into that car would cost him another weekend. He had been so exhausted yesterday that he had forgotten all about it.
[Me]: I still have some tasks left, so I need to finish everything today.
Sales Team Leader Yoon: I see…
It was only a text, but somehow it sounded like he was truly disappointed. Still, Jiyeon really did have overtime today, and even if he didn’t, he had no intention of having dinner with him, so he didn’t reply further. As mentioned, Jiyeon found him uncomfortable and burdensome.
Sales Team Leader Yoon: Then what about lunch today?
What, did he get possessed by the spirit of someone who died eating alone?
Annoyed by Suhyeong’s persistence, Jiyeon quietly changed his messenger status to “Away.” Thankfully, no more messages came.
Not long after Jiyeon managed to fend him off and return to his work, Joohee came back into the office. The junior who had left with her was nowhere to be seen.
“I told her to take a half day and go home.”
No one had asked, but Joohee explained immediately as she sat down. With that, the once noisy office returned to the familiar, dry, boring peace.
8 p.m.
Long past the official end of the workday. But Jiyeon was still wrestling with the hopeless planning proposal Park had dumped on him. Meanwhile, the very same Manager Park, who had forced Jiyeon into three consecutive days of overtime, pretended not to notice and walked out of the office right at six o’clock.
“Haa… That bastard Park.”
Alone in the office, Jiyeon didn’t hold back as he swore out loud. He dragged a tired hand down his exhausted, roughened face, then dropped his forehead onto the keyboard.
sssssswqqajh,,,jㅓㅓㅓ,cmxzf,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,suㅕㅗㅓrhaenㅇmgaㅣhyeojaㅓㅗㅕㅓdyaㅗㅕㅑㅑㅕㅑㅑㅕㅑㅕㅕ
As his forehead pressed into the keys, meaningless strings of letters filled the document. Jiyeon lifted his head and sighed repeatedly at the sight on the monitor. Frowning hard, he hammered the backspace key, erasing the nonsense. This was no time for this kind of stupidity.
“Right. I’ll crush this in thirty minutes.”
He lightly slapped his cheeks with both hands, then focused and resumed fixing the proposal. As his concentration sharpened, the previously hopeless plan began to reveal a solution. His typing grew even faster at the hope that he might be able to submit it for approval tomorrow.
Time passed, and soon the clock pointed to 8:30 p.m.
“Grrrhh…”
“…?”
Somewhere in the office, a strange sound echoed. Jiyeon tilted his head for a moment but returned to work. Soon, the sound came again.
“Grrruuh… grr… uk.”
“What was that?”
“Grr… grrhh…”
It sounded like someone groaning through a throat full of phlegm. Hearing it repeatedly, Jiyeon turned around. But since the lights were off everywhere except near his desk, he couldn’t immediately pinpoint the source.
“Is someone there?”
Feeling uneasy, he turned on his phone’s flashlight and aimed it toward the sound.
“…?!”
He spotted a figure standing motionless in the corner of the office. He nearly screamed, thinking it was a ghost, but recognized the person’s silhouette and exhaled shakily. It was Manager Park, who had left work two hours earlier.
“Team leader? Did you forget something?”
Jiyeon pointed the flashlight at him, but when he saw Park’s condition under the bright light, he sucked in a startled breath.
“Team leader? Are you okay?”
“Grr… uh.”
The man who had returned to the office was in utter disarray. His suit jacket was nowhere to be seen, his shirt buttons were all ripped off, his face was yellow like someone with severe liver trouble, his eyes were unfocused, and something, saliva or worse, was dripping from his mouth.
“Grruu… H-hong… ugh… grrruh.”
“T-team leader?”
“Help… me… grr… guk.”
Something was clearly wrong. He had high blood pressure and diabetes, was this some kind of sudden complication?
“J-just a second. Team leader! I’ll call emergency services!”
“Grrh… grr…”
Jiyeon quickly grabbed his phone. Manager Park kept producing strange groans. For a second, Jiyeon wondered if he was drunk, but this was different. The sound wasn’t drunken mumbling, it was like someone trying to endure an agony boiling from deep inside.
“Just hold on! I’ll, hiiik!”
Before he could press the call button, he instinctively looked up at Park, and dropped his phone.
Crack. Crack, crRK. Crack.
With grotesque snapping sounds, Park’s arms and legs began bending at impossible angles. His right shoulder rotated inward a full 180 degrees, and his legs twisted in unnatural directions. No normal human body could move like that.
“N-no way…”
Jiyeon realized it. Park was turning into a mutant. He had never seen a mutant in person before, so he hadn’t recognized it at first.
“Grr, erk… grrrk.”
Watching Park’s body twist with those monstrous groans, Jiyeon immediately turned off the flashlight and ducked beneath his desk. His mind went blank at the unimaginable sight, but he forced himself to stay calm and recall the “mutant response guidelines” he’d learned as a child.
If a mutant appears nearby, immediately call 1541-1592. Then avoid contact with mutant saliva and hide somewhere safe!
But that was all he remembered. He had never learned how to escape from a mutant or how to fight one, if he had learned it, he certainly couldn’t remember it now.
Who the hell expects to run into a mutant in the White Zone?!
“Grk… hrk… gggh.”
“Hh… hhp…”
Trying to steady his trembling breath, Jiyeon slowly crawled out from under the desk. Park was still twisting and contorting, bones snapping horribly. The sight was straight out of a horror movie.
Jiyeon quickly measured the distance to the office exit. Thankfully, it wasn’t far.
He suddenly remembered hearing that mutants had extremely narrow vision. If that was true, he might have a chance to escape.
“Hoo… hoo…”
He exhaled shakily, lowered his body, and began inching toward the exit in a slow duck-walk.
But the heavens did not favor him.
Crunch!
He hadn’t even taken a few steps before something shattered underfoot. Looking down, he saw it was a plastic business card case someone had dropped. The sound of the plastic cracking wasn’t that loud, the real problem was that Jiyeon, startled, fell backward onto the floor.
“Haaat!”
His short yelp and the loud thud of him landing echoed through the quiet office. At that moment, Park’s foggy eyes snapped toward him.
“KRAAAH! KHAAAK!”
Before he could even react, the frenzied Park lunged, drooling as he charged straight at him.
“U-ugh! T-team leader! Agh! Don’t come any closer!”
Rolling desperately across the floor, Jiyeon dodged him and shoved a nearby chair toward Park. Unseeing, Park tripped over it and crashed to the ground.
“Kraaaagh!”
But it wasn’t enough to buy even a moment to escape. With a tearing scream, Manager Park shot back up from the floor. Jiyeon moved desperately, knowing that if he got bitten by that man, no, by that thing, he was done for. But no matter how he struggled, he couldn’t fully shake off the frenzied Park, who kept lunging at him.
“Damn it, Manager Park, you bastard! I said, don’t come near me…!”
“Kyakh… kak!”
Jiyeon finally burst out cursing as he barely managed to push away Park’s head, which was trying to tear into his flesh. But his body, worn out from overtime and endless tasks, was reaching its limit.
“Kraaaagh!”
Park’s teeth clicked dangerously close to the side of Jiyeon’s neck.
“…!”
Something flashed into Jiyeon’s vision. A heavy-duty cutter, the kind used for thick paper or wood. It lay on the desk of a design team employee who had gone home earlier. The distance was barely two meters.
“Please, just! Get off! Ugh!”
Thud!
Using every ounce of strength he had left, Jiyeon drove his knee into Park’s abdomen. The blow made Park, who had been clinging to him, grunt and stagger backward for a brief moment.
Now!
Practically throwing himself across the floor, Jiyeon snatched the cutter from the desk. His body moved before his brain could even think, anything, anything to survive. He aimed with the hand holding the knife and drove it straight into Park’s throat.
Thwack!
“Grrraagh!”
“Aaaaah!”
Only after the thick blade sank into Park’s skin did Jiyeon register what he had done, screaming in horror.
“Gr… grrk… kegh!”
Park thrashed wildly with the blade lodged in his neck. Jiyeon clasped the handle with both hands, trying to hold it in place. Even though it was a larger, heavier version of an office cutter, it wasn’t designed to pierce human flesh easily.
“Hic… damn it, I’m sorry!”
Gathering every bit of strength he had, Jiyeon pushed the blade deeper into Park’s neck. Slowly, the thick cutter sank in further, and then dark red blood burst out.
“Ke… kehk… krrk…”
Park let out a dying choke and collapsed to the floor.
“Haa… haa…”
Breathing hard, Jiyeon stared down at the fallen Park, his hands trembling violently. The sensation of cold metal cutting into flesh was sickening, horrifying. He couldn’t calm down. His heart was beating so fast it felt like it was pounding in his ears instead of his chest.
“N-now what… what do I do?”
Wiping the blood splattered across his face with the back of his hand, Jiyeon bit his lip. He dragged Park’s fallen body into the corner of the office. His vision dimmed; his mind went blank.
He had killed someone.
Was Park really a mutant?
This was the White Zone.
Even though he’d heard the rumor this morning about someone mutating in the Legal Team, he still couldn’t believe what had happened.
So what happens to me now? Am I going to be arrested for murder?
As his numb reason returned, the fear hit him like a storm. The thought that he might suddenly become a murderer made his whole body shake uncontrollably.
“Hic…”
Bursting into frightened tears, Jiyeon grabbed some A4 paper from the printer and approached the fallen Park. He covered Park’s frozen, wide-open eyes with the sheet.
“Hic… I’m s-sorry. I’m so sorry. Team leader, I’m really sorry.”
Jiyeon collapsed to the floor and cried, tears falling heavily onto the tiles. He needed to call the mutant center, or the police, or the fire department, but he couldn’t think straight at all.
“Hhic… sob… Manager Park, you damn bastard. Why did you make me work overtime!”
In the end, Jiyeon began cursing the now cold and stiff Park. In the heavy, oppressive silence of the office, his sobs echoed.
How long he remained like that, he didn’t know.
Rrrrrrr…
“Hyaaaah!”
The sudden ringing of a phone pierced the air. Startled out of his skin, Jiyeon screamed. He had been so shocked he nearly fainted on the spot.
“Wh-who the hell is calling at this hour…?”
The persistent ringtone continued without stopping. Jiyeon looked in the direction of the sound, and realized the phone ringing was his own.
It was nearly nine in the evening. Who would call the office, and his extension specifically, at this hour? Still, the sound snapped him back to his senses. Half crawling, he hurried to his desk and picked up the phone.
“H-hello?”
—Jiyeon! Are you still in the office?!
The moment he answered, the person on the other end shouted loudly. Already overwhelmed by Park’s death and the unexpected phone call, Jiyeon’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit. He nodded instinctively, even though the caller couldn’t see him.
—Don’t move! Stay right where you are!
“What?”
—Stay there! Don’t move!
The caller practically yelled, then abruptly hung up.
“Team Leader Yoon Suhyeong?”
Staring blankly at the receiver, Jiyeon muttered to himself. He hadn’t realized it in the panic, but the voice sounded familiar, like Team Leader Yoon. The caller ID showed it was indeed the Sales Team’s number.
He hasn’t gone home yet?
Even with the traces of death left all over the office, somehow the thought that someone else was still in the building brought Jiyeon a flicker of relief.
But only for a moment.
“…?”
Feeling a strange presence behind him, Jiyeon slowly turned around.
And then…
“Kraaaagh!”
A chilling roar exploded behind him, and a huge shadow slammed into his body. Jiyeon fell backward in a violent tumble.
“H-huuhk… T-team leader? Aaaagh!”
“Grrah, hraaagh!”
Seeing what had climbed on top of him, Jiyeon nearly lost his mind. With half his face melted off, Manager Park was clacking his teeth like a starving ghoul, trying to tear into Jiyeon as he lay on the floor. The knife was still stuck in his neck. At the sight of that horrific appearance, Jiyeon screamed.
Wasn’t Manager Park dead?
“Kraaaagh!”
“Aaagh! Damn it! Why are you doing this to me?!”
Jiyeon pushed against the man’s forehead, struggling frantically. To make things worse, Park’s drool was dripping all over his face. Mutant saliva didn’t cause infection just by touching the skin, but the revolting sensation made Jiyeon clench his lips and tear up.
As if it wasn’t miserable enough that his mind and body were being shredded by overtime and endless work, now he was about to be bitten to death by his deranged boss. The grief and injustice made his tears fall uncontrollably.
He had always thought, when watching zombie or creature movies, that in a situation like this, it would be better to just die or become a monster rather than struggle to survive. But now that it was really happening, he didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to become a horrifying monster attacking people.
He wanted to live.
No, at the very least, he wanted to be bitten by a different mutant, not Manager Park!
“Grk… grrrh!”
If he had known this would happen, he would have stabbed the knife deeper earlier. Then he wouldn’t be suffering like this.
“Hrrk. Ugh!”
His strength was fading. The force pushing Park away weakened. Taking advantage of that moment, Park’s gaping mouth lunged at Jiyeon.
“Kyaaaagh!”
Thinking it was the end, Jiyeon squeezed his eyes shut. Park’s teeth were just about to reach his face when…
Thud!
A heavy, explosive sound burst beside his ear. Something hot splattered across his face, and he felt the weight pressing down on him, topple to the side.
“Haa… haah… haah…”
Dizzy and panting, Jiyeon slowly opened his eyes.
“A-aaagh!”
In front of him lay a grotesque, appalling sight. The Park who had been attacking him seconds ago now lay on the floor with his head completely crushed, blood and brain matter spilling everywhere.
“Haa. I wasn’t too late.”
Next to the corpse stood Suhyeong, holding a fire extinguisher smeared with blood and breathing just as heavily as Jiyeon.
“Jiyeon, are you okay?”
“Ah…”
Shocked by the overwhelming chaos, Jiyeon collapsed to the floor with a dumb, hollow sound. Suhyeong slipped an arm around his waist and lifted him up. Jiyeon’s legs buckled, and he fell straight into Suhyeong’s arms.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Because Suhyeong was almost a head taller, Jiyeon couldn’t see his face clearly. But in his ears, he could hear the rapid beat of Suhyeong’s heart. Warmth seeped through the thin shirt, reaching him fully. Only then did reality come rushing back like a tide.
Held in Suhyeong’s arms, Jiyeon felt both the relief of not being dead and the hair-raising terror still crawling over his skin. Everything felt too real. The horrifying sensation of plunging a blade into someone’s flesh still lingered in his hands.
“H-hic… Team leader… Yoon…”
“It’s okay. It’s alright, Jiyeon.”
Overwhelmed by fear he had never known before, Jiyeon couldn’t even speak, only sob as tears fell nonstop. Suhyeong soothed him gently, like comforting a child. Startled by the unfamiliar warmth and tender voice, Jiyeon still unconsciously leaned into his chest.
“Do you feel a little calmer now?”
After a long while, as he softly patted Jiyeon’s back, Suhyeong asked quietly. At that voice, Jiyeon abruptly lifted his head. He saw Suhyeong’s face looking down at him, concern filling his expression. The moment their eyes met, Jiyeon snapped back to his senses and jerked away, stumbling backward.
“T-Team Leader Yoon, what are you doing here at this hour?”
It was already well past nine. It made no sense for Suhyeong to still be at work. Seeing Jiyeon’s confused suspicion, Suhyeong smiled. His neatly shaped, handsome features curved gracefully, making his already striking face shine even more.
“You said you were working late again today, so I was waiting for you to get off work. But then I heard screaming from downstairs.”
“You were waiting for me? Why…? You’re not planning to drag me somewhere this weekend again, are you?”
Instead of answering, Suhyeong just shrugged lightly. That unhelpful gesture made Jiyeon sigh and rub his face. His gaze then shifted to the fallen Park.
What used to be Manager Park Oseop, the mutant, was now a melted ruin, exposing red muscle and bone beneath what remained of his skin. Blood and brain matter pooled beneath him.
“Urk… ugh.”
One look and Jiyeon felt a wave of nausea.
“Ugh… blegh.”
He threw up right where he stood, unable even to think of running to the restroom. Since he’d only consumed coffee and energy drinks all day, only thin stomach acid came up. Thank god he’d skipped lunch to nap in the rest room.
“Hhic… s-sorry…”
Wobbling, Jiyeon apologized. But Suhyeong didn’t scold him, he gently patted his back. He helped Jiyeon to a chair and crouched down to look at his face.
“I’m sorry…”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about.”
“….”
Suhyeong brushed away the dampness beneath Jiyeon’s eyes with his thumb. The tenderness almost made Jiyeon burst into tears again. Sniffling, he spoke.
“How did this happen? Why did Manager Park…”
“I think he was bitten by a mutant and infected.”
“B-but… this is the White Zone…”
“Jiyeon. Even the place that’s now the Black Zone used to be the White Zone. No place stays safe forever.”
At Suhyeong’s calm words, Jiyeon swallowed, tasting bitter stomach acid. He wiped his ruined face with his palm and looked at Suhyeong. The blood of Manager Park stained his spotless shirt. It was from a fairly expensive brand, yet he casually wiped the blood from his hand onto his suit.
Why was he so calm?
“For now, we should clean this up. We still have to come to work tomorrow.”
Suhyeong looked down at the brutally dead body of Manager Park as he spoke. Unlike Jiyeon, who was trembling uncontrollably, he was already thinking about going to work tomorrow. It was astonishing.
“I’ll take care of this. You stay back.”
“H-how… how are you going to do that…?”
“You probably shouldn’t watch.”
He gave Jiyeon, who was anxiously hovering from a distance, a light smile. Then he went to the break room and returned with a large bag, big enough to hold half a person. It was the bag they used to collect shredded paper from the shredder.
What is he planning to do with that?
He told him not to look, but Jiyeon’s gaze stayed fixed on him.
“Well, you can watch if you want. But it’ll be a bit gruesome.”
With another soft smile at Jiyeon’s bewildered face, Suhyeong approached the fallen Manager Park. Then he grabbed a fistful of Park’s hair, his horribly crushed head dangling.
“Don’t blame me later if this shows up in your nightmares.”
With that, he yanked, hard, just like pulling up a radish buried deep in the soil. Except what he was pulling apart was a human head. The neck and skull of what used to be Manager Park tore apart with sickening resistance. It was the kind of horror you might expect from a low-budget gore film. But Suhyeong carried it out without even blinking.
“Hrrk.”
Unable to bear the sight, Jiyeon covered his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut.
Crack. Crack.
Even with his eyes closed, he heard the same bone-snapping sounds he’d heard earlier when Park’s body twisted unnaturally. He had already emptied his stomach, yet he kept gagging as if he might vomit again.
“Whew. Maybe because he was on the heavier side, this is taking some effort.”
Meanwhile, Suhyeong only wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and sighed lightly.
“Dead mutants have melting skin and muscle. It’s easier to handle them if you separate the parts like this.”
He calmly placed the torn body parts into the shredder bag. His movements were far too skilled. Jiyeon wanted to ask how he knew all of this, but now wasn’t the time for questions.
“What’s… what’s going to happen to us now?”
They had killed Manager Park. Mutant or not, it didn’t change the fact. Yes, killing a mutant often earned some lenience in court, but punishment aside, the weight of having killed someone was crushing Jiyeon with dread.
“It’s okay. Nothing will happen.”
As if comforting a frightened child, Suhyeong gave him a bright smile. It was disarmingly refreshing, and Jiyeon was taken aback.
“I’ll go throw this out. You wait here.”
Dragging the bag containing what was left of Manager Park as casually as if it were a large trash bag, Suhyeong disappeared. Jiyeon stared blankly at his retreating back.
He didn’t want to be alone in the office, but following Suhyeong would surely show him things he didn’t want to see. So he stayed put.
“Haa…”
Jiyeon slumped into his seat, exhaling deeply. Heavy fatigue and stress weighed down on his shoulders like lead. The office was a wreck, blood and some vile fluids everywhere, and he needed to clean it up, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. His mind was completely blank. Maybe it was better to rest a little until Suhyeong returned.
When he comes back, we’ll clean together…
Then we’ll talk about everything that happened…
“What am I supposed to do now…”
Overwhelmed by the surreal nightmare around him, Jiyeon whispered tearfully. His eyes drifted toward the floor where Park’s body had been, and he shut his eyes tightly.
Several dozen minutes passed. Jiyeon awoke to a strange, unsettled feeling around him. He must have dozed off sitting in his chair. Startled, he jumped up and looked around.
The office was spotless.
Suhyeong had already cleaned everything.
“You’re awake?”
Sitting in front of him with his eyes on him, as if he’d been watching the whole time, Suhyeong spoke immediately. Jiyeon shrank slightly and nodded.
“You didn’t look like you were in any state to handle the cleanup, so I took care of it.”
“T-thank you…”
“Grab your bag. I’ll drive you home.”
“Why are you…”
Why are you totally fine?
Seeing Suhyeong as calm, kind, and gentle as always, Jiyeon swallowed the words rising in his throat. His heart was still pounding, unable to make sense of what had happened, but Suhyeong looked completely unfazed.
“Assistant Manager Lee from Legal, too… A lot of people are mutating these days. We should be careful.”
“……”
He said it with the same weight as, ‘The flu is going around, so take care.’
At those strangely casual words, Jiyeon felt a sense of distance, an unfamiliar distance, but not entirely new.
“Do you see him?”
“That guy eating ramen, right? Oh my god. Is he a celebrity?”
“No. I checked because I thought so too, but he’s just a junior in the Broadcasting and Journalism Department.”
“Hyunji, should I transfer to that department?”
“What are you talking about? By the time you transfer, he’ll have already graduated.”
The student cafeteria was always noisy at lunchtime, but today it felt even rowdier. Wondering who everyone was staring at, Jiyeon pretended to go get some water so he could look around. And then he saw him, a man who stood out even among the crowd. With looks that made the “celebrity?” question understandable.
He was sitting alone, quietly eating ramen.
A simple 1,500-won bowl of cafeteria ramen, yet the way he ate made it look like a 15,000-won hotel dish.
If he’s a junior in Broadcasting and Journalism, that makes him my upperclassman…
Jiyeon, only a week into his college life, hadn’t even memorized all his classmates’ faces, let alone upperclassmen. He didn’t even know someone like that existed in his department.
“Well, he’s a third-year. It’s not like I’ll ever run into him.”
He wondered briefly if he should greet the upperclassman, but in the end he returned to his seat. He sipped the water he’d brought back and checked his class schedule. His next class was a major course. Since it was the first week of the semester, he prayed the professor would just do the orientation and dismiss them early as he ate his lunch.
About twenty minutes later, Jiyeon saw the “ramen-eating senior” again, in the lecture room for his major class. As it turned out, they were taking the same course. And thanks to the professor, they were sorted into the same group from day one.
“You’re a freshman, right? I’m Yoon Suhyeong, third year. Nice to meet you.”
The handsome senior smiled as he introduced himself. It was the kind of smile anyone would like. Embarrassed, Jiyeon bowed and greeted him. He hadn’t expected to work on a group project with someone he assumed he’d never run into. It all felt surreal.
That was Jiyeon and Suhyeong’s first meeting.
Back then, to Jiyeon, Suhyeong was simply “the handsome, likable senior.” And truly, Suhyeong was well liked by everyone, students and professors alike.
Time passed, and about a month into the semester….
“Why isn’t anyone coming…”
Jiyeon muttered as he checked the time on his phone.
Presentation season was approaching, and they needed to finish their group project. But for whatever reason, their group still hadn’t collected any proper materials. Today, they’d finally managed to match their schedules to meet in the cafeteria. Yet out of the five members, only two had shown up.
Suhyeong and Jiyeon.