Destruction — Chapter 25

6. Incomplete Routine

Saejin adjusted the shape of the pillow, then lay down with satisfaction at how comfortably it settled. On the sheet where Woobeom had been sitting moments ago, the warmth of his skin still lingered. Letting himself melt into that gentle heat, Saejin ran a hand over his chest, trying to make sense of a feeling he couldn’t properly define. He really needed to shake off this strange mood quickly. To clear his head, Saejin just blurted out anything that came to mind.

“Hey, you know… I feel like even if you were a gangster or whatever, you probably treated the guys under you well. Right?”

He couldn’t find the right words and ended up sounding a bit… no, way too blunt. Still, he was genuinely curious about Woobeom’s past. Normally when you say gangster, you imagine some sleazy or violent jerk, but Woobeom didn’t show even a hint of that. Well, except for those moments when he used a rough, street-tinged tone and reminded Saejin that he really had been one.

“Who knows.”

Giving an ambiguous answer, Woobeom pulled the hand away from the back of his head. Lightning flashed again and again, and for an instant the brief light revealed the sharp line of his profile. Saejin, whose eyes had adjusted to the dark, silently traced the shape of his face. The man’s closed eyelids didn’t twitch at all. Looked like the small talk ended here. Pulling his gaze away from Woobeom, Saejin stared up at the pitch-black ceiling.

‘Is he only this nice to me?’

Even he felt like he was being a little too self-aware. Good thing the power outage made the room so dark, or else his flushed face would’ve been obvious. Rubbing his hot cheeks against the pillow, Saejin wiggled his toes. After a long time of fidgeting with the fingers and toes hidden under the blankets, he inched as close to Woobeom as he could and tried to sleep.

It had been four days since they settled into the villa. Greeting another peaceful morning, Saejin boiled water for tea out of habit and turned on the TV. Naturally, the few channels still working weren’t airing dramas or variety shows anymore, only emergency broadcasts. Watching the monitor closely, Saejin sighed and turned his gaze toward the window.

‘The weather’s nice today.’

Life at the villa had several advantages. The biggest one was that he couldn’t see any zombies, which was great for his mental health. Another was that his wounds were healing. Maybe it was the energy of nature or something, but the small cuts and the stab wound in his abdomen were recovering faster than expected. He hadn’t even received proper treatment at a hospital, yet new skin was forming. It must’ve been heaven’s mercy. Absentmindedly touching the injured area, Saejin raised the cup of tea to his lips.

If anything had changed in four days, it was the overseas news. According to the breaking reports so far, even though international travel had been shut down, the rich had kept sneaking out of the country on private routes. At first Saejin thought Korea alone had fallen into panic from the virus infection, but that wasn’t the case. Soon enough, reports came out saying that infections were now appearing all over the world, in China, the United States, Japan, and more.

At first, people suggested that the spreading infections were caused by Korean stowaways, but that idea died out quickly. The timing didn’t match. Since the virus had a one-month incubation period, experts said it couldn’t be assumed that the first origin point was definitely Korea.

Counting the four days spent in the villa, it had already been a full week since the monsters first appeared. After reporting that the expected number of infections had surpassed five million, the news stopped giving updates. Since the virus could spread from simple contact, it was multiplying too fast for numbers to even matter.

And it wasn’t just the absurd infectiousness, there were also the incubation-stage infected, who committed attacks just to spread the virus more aggressively. The world was becoming hell for the uninfected.

And if the outbreak dragged on long term, rather than ending quickly, there was no doubt the uninfected would eventually turn on each other. With society’s infrastructure collapsed, a second disaster would follow: the depletion of essentials. That would be the starting point of a future where people would have to kill others just to survive.

“Anyway… he’s pretty late today.”

Saejin stared out the window. It was freezing outside, well below zero, but inside the villa the boiler ran 24 hours a day, keeping the temperature above 25 degrees. Sitting in the sunlight streaming through the window made him so warm he felt sluggish. Blinking lazily, Saejin let out a long yawn.

Even after moving to the villa, Woobeom still went outside as soon as dawn broke, patrolling the area for about an hour. Saejin had said he wanted to come too, but Woobeom banned him from going outside until the staples were removed.

– When I get back, I’ll take out the staples, so get yourself ready.

– You’re really not going to knock me out first?

– It won’t hurt that much.

Was he really telling the truth about it not hurting much? Sometimes he scared him, sometimes he said it wouldn’t hurt that bad, so it was hard to trust him. Remembering the conversation he had with Woobeom, Saejin rested his chin on his hand and let out a long breath. At first he had trembled at the thought of the pain when the staples were removed, but after being alone for so long, he found himself actually looking forward to the day.

I need to shower and take a walk outside.

Woobeom had said he wouldn’t know for sure until the staples were out, but that he’d probably be able to shower soon. Planning out the rest of his day, Saejin glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

“…Ugh, why is he taking so long.”

He wiggled his toes on the half-reclined sofa, then spread his fingers wide. Opening and closing his hands, pinching the air several times, Saejin eventually got bored of that too and let his body slump.

Fortunately, the wound held together with the stapler didn’t show any signs of infection. Because of that, he no longer felt pain when simply walking, and had plenty of freedom in his movements. Of course, intentionally putting force into his abdomen or running around was still out of the question.

Now I get why he said he’d start training me a month later.

Just because the surface healed didn’t mean everything was fine. Even if the outside looked better, the inner wound didn’t heal nearly as fast. After patting his stomach carefully, Saejin headed to the fridge. With no internet, he had nothing to do, so he figured he might as well open a snack. Whenever space appeared in the fridge, Woobeom made sure to refill it every time. Thanks to that, Saejin could snack without feeling guilty.

“Oh, there’s jerky too.”

Grabbing the jerky, he also picked up a can of something that looked like a drink and went back to the sofa. When he opened it, a refreshing fizz sounded. As he chewed on the jerky and lifted the drink to wet his throat, his eyes widened.

“What the… is this alcohol?”

The mix of barley and alcohol lingered strongly in his mouth. The design was unfamiliar, so he assumed it was just a newly released drink. He would’ve never guessed it was a beer from some brand he didn’t recognize. Trying to figure out which company made it, he rotated the can, but there wasn’t a single familiar logo.

It felt wasteful to throw away something he’d only taken a few sips of, but giving a half-drunk can to Woobeom felt trashy too. Staring down at the beer in his hand, he thought about it. The can was already open, if he hesitated any longer, it’d just go flat and taste gross. He wasn’t taking any medication, and it shouldn’t matter if he drank it. And since today was the day the staples were coming out, one can probably wouldn’t mess with the healing.

“But this… the burn going down is kinda warm.”

The flavor was just like beer, but the burn was closer to whiskey. Narrowing his eyes, Saejin peered at the can and realized there was no alcohol percentage listed.

He wouldn’t put something undrinkable in the fridge. It should be fine.

He enjoyed the warm buzz for dozens of minutes while chewing jerky, until he heard the sound of someone entering the door code. The first body part to register that Woobeom had arrived was his butt. Just hearing the sound made it wiggle excitedly. Because of that overly expressive backside, Saejin had to jump up from his seat. If humans had tails, he’d probably be spinning his like a propeller and floating into the air right now.

“Hyuuung!”

Since he’d been left alone in the villa for two whole hours, unlike usual, Saejin was thrilled to see him return. As Saejin stretched out the end of his words and hurried toward him, Woobeom shot him a warning look telling him to walk slowly. Pouting at the sharp boundary Woobeom drew, Saejin shifted his attention to the plastic container in Woobeom’s hand.

“What’s that?”

“There’s a valley on the other side. The water wasn’t frozen, so I caught a few trout.”

“Wow… you could survive even if you got dropped in a jungle.”

He had been getting tired of eating canned food for every meal lately. Looking at the fish circling inside the water container, Saejin quickly stuck himself to Woobeom’s side.

“Hey, so when are you taking them out? I’m suffocating here.”

The request to remove the medical staples was understandable, but the sudden shift in attitude was suspicious. That morning he’d whined for anesthesia and begged for this and that, yet now his energy had changed while Woobeom was gone. Narrowing his eyes, Woobeom looked Saejin up and down, then noticed the faint smell of alcohol. His eyes moved to the sofa. Sure enough, a crushed can was rolling around.

“Quiet. I’ll do it, so wait.”

He pressed a finger to Saejin’s forehead to push him away, but before long the clingy brat had attached himself again. And even though one can shouldn’t be enough to get him drunk, his energy was weirdly high, draining to deal with. Worried he might trip if left alone, Woobeom reluctantly made his way to the kitchen with Saejin glued to him. Thanks to that, even walking a few steps took forever.

“Yoon Saejin.”

Woobeom set down the fish he had caught and called Yoon Saejin in a stern voice. Normally Saejin would read the mood and keep his distance, but maybe because he drank, he was unusually bold.

“Why.”

“Do I look like a tree.”

“A tree?”

“You’re clinging like a damn koala.”

Saejin was hanging onto him with both arms and even both legs. He wasn’t heavy, but it definitely made walking difficult and annoying.

Just one can and he’s like this?

Being weird was fine, but this was overkill. Woobeom headed toward the living room sofa Saejin had been lounging on and picked up the can rolling there.

“…Ah.”

Looking at the design, he sighed and pressed his fingers to his forehead. The group he used to work for had expanded into the alcohol business. Before releasing a product, they had developed a limited-edition 30-degree beer for an event, and it looked like a sample from back then had ended up delivered with the groceries. Of all the drinks he could’ve chosen, he picked this one. If he’d tasted it, he should’ve noticed immediately that it wasn’t a normal beer. The fact that he’d finished the whole thing made Woobeom realize just how simple his thought process could be.

“Yoon Saejin. A young guy shouldn’t get this drunk off one can.”

“…Are you some old man?”

What does being young have to do with being drunk. Saejin stared at him in shock. He rarely thought of Woobeom as old-fashioned except in the very beginning, but that sentence was ridiculous enough to make him shake his head.

“Oh, I’ve been told that a lot.”

Instead of snapping, Woobeom answered without much interest. He didn’t intend to argue with a drunk kid. Carrying the clinging Saejin, he went into the bedroom. Since the alcohol probably dulled his senses, now was a good time to remove the staples.

“Am I heavy?”

Blinking slowly with unfocused eyes, Saejin asked as they entered the room. Judging from his face, he wasn’t really curious; he was just saying whatever floated into his head. Woobeom opened his mouth to answer, then closed it. There was no point in replying to drunken nonsense.

Sure, it was annoying to handle everything with one hand because Saejin had wrapped himself around his right arm, but aside from that, not really. The small brat wasn’t heavy.

“Get down.”

Stopping in front of the bed, he made sure Saejin slid off safely, then grabbed the staple remover. It looked like a pair of scissors, and by pressing the center, it lifted and removed the ends embedded in the skin. It allowed for a quick removal without damaging the skin, so his promise that it wouldn’t hurt much wasn’t entirely a lie.

While Woobeom sterilized the tool, Saejin undid the dressing himself. Since they had changed the bandages daily for disinfecting, he had gotten used to wrapping and unwrapping them.

“On a scale of one to ten, how painful is this going to be.”

Seeing Woobeom approach, Saejin asked with a suddenly serious tone.

“It’ll just sting a bit.”

“So if you had to put a number on that sting?”

“Zero.”

“Zero for you means it’ll be around a three for me. That sounds worse than I thought…”

Even after hearing zero, he assigned his own number. Why ask if he was going to decide for himself anyway. Still, Saejin lay down, covered his eyes, and insisted he couldn’t watch. His drama was honestly a sickness. Woobeom warned him not to move or he’d risk causing a new wound.

Shouldn’t have said it might hurt.