Destruction — Chapter 5

‘Don’t tell me it knows someone’s inside and is trying to get in…?’

The thought alone made his skin crawl with unease.

“There’s still a zombie outside. We can’t leave like this.”

Even aside from that, the hallway situation had worsened compared to earlier. Down the stairs, a monster was crawling with a twisted leg, and a couple more were lurking near the front gate. Even if they somehow shook off the zombie glued to the door, there was no guarantee they could escape safely with this many around. He’d assumed they couldn’t climb stairs due to the fevered brain decay, but apparently, they were determined enough to crawl their way up.

“They seem to react really fast to sound…”

When Saejin lightly tapped the door, all the zombies instantly turned their heads toward him. With how sharp their reaction was, there was no way he could let Woobeom leave, even if he insisted. At this rate, he’d only end up surrounded before making it far.

“Why don’t you just stay the night?”

There was no sense in forcing it. They couldn’t go anywhere until the number of zombies thinned out anyway, so it was better to be flexible.

“If you’re okay with that.”

“Of course I am. We’re brothers now, right? Right?”

Saejin was joking to ease the awkwardness, hoping Woobeom wouldn’t feel burdened. Usually, people would laugh or at least smile at a comment like that, but Woobeom just kept his stoic expression. Embarrassed, Saejin quickly steered him toward the bed, suggesting they get some sleep. It was a single bed, so sharing it would be cramped, but not impossible.

“Huh? You’re going to sleep on the floor?”

“Kind of bold of you to think two people can actually sleep in that tiny space.”

“…It’s not that cramped.”

Since the man seemed uncomfortable, Saejin didn’t try to force him. Scratching his head, he pulled out a summer blanket he wasn’t using anymore and gently laid it over Woobeom.

“I’ll turn the lights off.”

When the light went out, darkness took over. Lying flat on his back, Saejin stared blankly at the ceiling before slowly lowering his eyes. Maybe because he’d already napped earlier, he wasn’t the least bit sleepy.

‘Feeling kinda restless.’

The monsters outside definitely weren’t helping him sleep. The darkness, in its irony, stirred up all the worries he’d tried to keep buried.

Turning on his side, Saejin felt the presence of Jung Woobeom. It was too dark to see clearly, but he could tell a living person was lying beside him. If he had been alone, he probably would’ve been shaking in fear by now. Bringing him into the apartment had definitely been the right call.

The peaceful life he knew had been shattered by the monsters outside. He and Woobeom weren’t close enough yet to lean on each other emotionally, but just having him there eased the anxiety. Of course, Woobeom would return to his own place eventually—and then he really would be alone. The creeping pressure of surviving on his own made Saejin’s insides churn.

“Hyung… are you asleep?”

“No.”

The reply didn’t take long to come. It was short and quiet, but hearing a voice in return helped ease the fear in Saejin’s heart. Wanting to shake off the uneasy mood, he spoke again in a light, teasing tone.

“When I think about it, it feels pretty unfair not knowing anything.”

“…”

“You’re the one who took shelter in my place, but I don’t know a single thing about you.”

“So?”

“At the very least, I should know what you do. That way I can sleep easy. What if you’re some ex-con who just got out of prison or something?”

Saehin grinned and exaggerated the words, trying to coax an answer from him with playful suspicion. But Woobeom didn’t respond at all.

“Why won’t you say anything?”

Annoyed, Saejin sat up with a snap, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

“Wait… are you actually some ex-con who just got released? Is that why you’re not answering…?”

“You out of your damn mind?”

“…Then what do you do?”

When he kept pestering, Woobeom finally pulled a business card out of his wallet and tossed it toward the bed. Saejin fumbled around in the dark, found the card, and shone his phone’s flashlight on it. Tracing the words with his fingers, he read the card and then sat up straight in disbelief.

“Executive Director Jung Woobeom?”

He’d never worked in a company before, but he knew that was a pretty high-ranking position. Up until now, he thought the guy was shady because he refused to say what he did—but it turned out he was much more respectable than expected.

“You’re surprised just from the title? Are you that naive?”

“Huh…? Why?”

At Woobeom’s words, Saejin peered closer and found a company name he didn’t recognize.

‘Sanwon Group?’

Just as he tried to search it up, Woobeom snatched the card back.

“Rumor has it the company was founded by some rich gangster. Guess you’re too young to know that.”

“…Wait, a gangster? So you’re a gangster too?”

“No. I quit, so I’m unemployed now.”

Muttering that a little piece of paper like that was basically trash, Woobeom crumpled the card in his hand. His expression was lost in the darkness, but Saejin had the odd feeling he looked relieved.

‘So he was a gangster after all.’

He’d always heard that gangsters could never truly leave the organization, even in death—but maybe that wasn’t true after all.

‘But if he was an executive director, wouldn’t he have had a lot of subordinates?’

Even if he held an executive position, it didn’t seem like he’d spent his time in a comfy office. From what Saejin saw in the shower, his body was more like a pile of rags. Maybe he’d started from the bottom and worked his way up. Playing out a gangster movie in his head, Saejin nodded in agreement with his own theory.

“Should I start calling you boss instead of hyung from now on?”

“Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with you…”

He thought it was fitting to match the title to Woobeom’s past, but the man just grumbled that if Saejin was gonna spout nonsense, he might as well just go to sleep. Feeling dejected, Saejin lay back down and pulled the blanket up to his shoulders.

---

The worries born out of silence clung to him stubbornly, refusing to be shaken off. After tossing and turning for quite some time, Saejin finally managed to drift into a shallow sleep. But before his muscles could fully relax, even that fragile sliver of sleep was pulled away. His instincts, sharpened to the edge by the need to survive in a world that had changed overnight, detected a shift in the air.

Responding to that instinctual warning, Saejin forced his heavy eyelids open and raised his upper body, scanning his surroundings. Woobeom was already sitting upright in the dark, having sensed the disturbance before him. There was a noise, something bumping down the hallway, gradually drawing nearer. As soon as he noticed Saejin was awake, Woobeom flipped on the light.

“You heard that sound too, right…?”

With monsters crawling outside, even the smallest noise felt amplified. Saejin began cautiously, and Woobeom gave a short nod in agreement. Raising a finger to his lips, Woobeom signaled for silence, then moved to check the peephole in the door.

And then it happened.

A blood-curdling scream rang out from the hallway, loud enough to rupture eardrums.

The corridor was already narrow, so even a small sound echoed through the building. That scream had surely reached not just the monsters wandering inside, but also those lingering near the first floor. It was the roar of a monster calling its kin. The two of them had already experienced this kind of cry once before. Soon, more monsters would swarm toward the source of the sound.

Saejin ran over to Woobeom to find out what was going on. As Woobeom stepped aside, he peered through the peephole.

“What the—!”

Saejin gasped, choking on disbelief before biting down on his tongue. What he saw was the zombie that had been stationed at their door being attacked by the man from the apartment next door. The neighbor must have opened his door without realizing what was outside and walked straight into the monster lurking in the blind spot. What followed was easy to guess. The zombie reacted to the noise, approached the man, and the startled neighbor swung something heavy at it in panic.

Though the man next door seemed to be decently armed, he was now surrounded. The scream had drawn in more zombies, which were now crawling up the stairs. The man appeared frozen in place—maybe there were even more monsters lurking out of sight. Trapped, with nowhere to run, the neighbor suddenly cried out for help.

– Help, please help me!

The desperation in his voice was unmistakable. But harsh reality stood between Saejin and any attempt to answer that plea.

“He just came into contact with a zombie.”

Saejin reported what he saw to Woobeom, just in case the man’s cries tempted him. Now that they knew the virus could be transmitted through contact, there was no helping him.

As he watched Saejin draw a hard line like that, Woobeom realized he had misjudged him. He’d thought of Yoon Saejin as naïve—someone who brought home strangers without hesitation and showed no sense of caution. He’d even assumed he was the type to confuse recklessness with righteousness. But surprisingly, when it came to someone who might be infected, Saejin was coldly rational.

“This… it’s not like we have a choice, right?”

Catching the subtle tremble in Saejin’s eyes, Woobeom understood: the kid wanted reassurance that his decision was the right one. The way he looked to Woobeom for validation stirred a strange, ill-timed thrill in him. He wanted to keep watching that look—Saejin seeking comfort from him under pressure.

“Yeah. There’s nothing we can do.”

Woobeom offered agreement like a favor. Only then did the tension in Saejin’s brow ease a little, and the anxiety visibly lessen.

So much had changed in the span of a short conversation. The monsters’ cries had stopped. The desperate pleas of the man outside had come to an end. A strange stillness settled in. Just as Saejin moved to check the peephole again, Woobeom clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Shh.”

Had he sensed something?

Wide-eyed, Saejin grabbed Woobeom’s wrist, blinking as if to ask what was happening. Then they both heard it—the voice of a man muttering just outside the door.

– I asked for help… asked for help…

Thud. Thud.

– I asked you to help me. I know you’re in there. I know you’re in there!

Thud. The man next door didn’t leave Saejin’s doorstep. He wandered around for a while before slamming his head against the wall. Since Saejin wasn’t one to sleep out, the man must have been certain someone was inside. And so, he unleashed his misplaced rage on Saejin, who had coldly ignored his pleas for help. Suspecting the man might be infected had been a valid concern, and under the circumstances, offering assistance had been impossible. Even so, the sound of his tearful, desperate voice left a heavy weight of guilt in Saejin’s chest.

Still holding the trembling Saejin close, Woobeom continued observing the man next door. His body was smeared with slime—likely from being knocked around by the swarm of zombies. The lack of visible injuries supported what the online community had said about the monsters not being overtly aggressive.

– Am I going to end up like that too…?

The man, who had been slamming his head, suddenly froze as if possessed and stretched his mouth into a grotesque smile. Though no official news had been released about the zombies, screenshots from the community posts had spread widely on social media. Anyone who had even once looked up the creatures would know how the virus spread. Judging by his expression, the man understood he was in the incubation stage of infection.

“Let’s go back inside…”

It was too painful to keep listening. Woobeom had said Saejin made the right call, but hearing the man’s anguish made it hard to handle. Whispering that they should go in, Saejin tugged on Woobeom’s sleeve, but the man didn’t budge, still staring through the peephole.

“Hyung?”

Woobeom clicked his tongue in irritation, as if things had just become more troublesome.