Destruction — Chapter 2

The man, cigarette between his lips, fiddled with his phone for a moment. Then, as if telling Saejin to see for himself, he handed it over. A video was playing on the screen.

The platform was YouTube. The video had only been uploaded around thirty minutes ago, yet it had already racked up nearly two million views—clearly, a lot of people were searching for answers about the same kind of monster.

[Title: Isn’t this a zombie?
Uploaded: 13 minutes ago
Views: 1,930,232
Description: This is the middle of Gangnam^[1], but there are people walking around who look like they’re in zombie makeup?? But is it really makeup? Their eyes look hollow, like they’re gone, and their skin looks like it’s boiling. I almost fainted when I got close. I looked around thinking it might be a movie shoot, but there were no cameras anywhere. Is this some huge prank? But I swear, it smells like rotting corpses.]

[Comments: 14,382]
┗ [NotSubbedYou’llSeeMeInYourDreams]: I live in Busan ^[2]and saw something exactly the same…;;;
┗ [PuppyDog]: Huh? I thought this was a film shoot. These things were all over in front of my high school….
┗ [WahWahImABaby]: ?????? I just saw something weird too and looked it up—everyone’s seeing the same thing.
┗ [Honey]: The creepiest part is there’s no news coverage. Posts are popping up everywhere, and the media’s silent. Government cover-up? lol
┗ [Richard]: I saw this and did a somersault. Truly astounding.
┗ [Hurridixugh]: They don’t charge like normal zombies, though. I’m in Boseong. They’re popping up everywhere. I thought it was a shoot and nudged one—no reaction. But some weird fluid got on my hand. Gross. Had to go wash up…
┗ [LoveLove]: Watching this vid thanks to the algorithm, and y’all look insane. But now that I check outside, there’s seriously something crawling out there. I didn’t even know about the whole zombie thing until I saw this video… ^^
┗ [DoggoDori]: Guys, stop reading this and go search “zombie” online. It’s tied to the new virus. Apparently, people who were thought dead are getting up and roaming around like zombies. The problem is—they’re not alive. They’re still dead.
┗ [Kim Youngsoo]: Is this all some elaborate prank on me?
┗ [MeowMeowMeow]: Zombie-related posts are blowing up on [00 community site]! Go before they’re deleted.

Saejin’s pupils trembled slightly as he scrolled through the comments. Zombies? He wanted to scoff at the fantasy of it all—but right in front of him was a monster, oozing dark blood, crawling on the ground. More than that, the trending search terms online were already filled with zombie-related keywords:

[Real-Time Search Rankings]

1. Zombie ↑ 1390
2. Monster ↑ 57
3. New Virus ↑ 493
4. Dead Turned Zombie ↑ 30
5. High Fever ↑ 21
6. Hospitals Overrun NEW
7. Emergency Lines Down ↑ 59
8. No News Coverage NEW
9. Roadblocks ↑ 123
10. YouTube Video ↑ 930

He wanted to find out more about that post mentioned in the YouTube comments. It had only been posted a minute ago—maybe the man hadn’t seen it yet. Without hesitation, Saejin spoke up.

“There might be clues about these monsters in that community post. Would it be alright if I used your phone a bit longer to check it?”

“Do what you want.”

The man shrugged lazily, as if wondering why Saejin even bothered to ask, and finished off his cigarette. He inhaled deeply until his cheeks hollowed, then exhaled the smoke into the air. Unlike the visibly anxious Saejin, the man remained utterly calm.

Saejin, who had just been about to resume his search, glanced at the man with a suspicious look. Normally, when zombies showed up, an average person would scream or run away. But this guy—he didn’t so much as flinch when confronted by a monster, casually swinging a spanner at it without a word.

‘Who even is this guy?’

Judging from the mangled creature sprawled on the ground, the man had clearly intended to kill it. If that “monster” had turned out to be just a person in makeup, he would have been a murderer. He hadn’t even known the full situation and still hadn’t hesitated to resort to violence.

‘Is he… some kind of criminal or something?’

Even at a glance, his build was far from ordinary. But Saejin quickly shook the thought from his head. Whether the man was a criminal or not wasn’t his concern. They’d part ways soon anyway. No use dwelling on it.

Ending the pointless speculation, Saejin moved his fingers quickly and found the community post. The view count was nearly as high as the viral YouTube video, so it was definitely the post that linked the new virus to the so-called zombies.

Just as the post finished loading, the monster whose skull had been crushed by the spanner suddenly let out a piercing scream. It was a guttural, animal-like roar that scratched at the eardrums. Startled, Saejin jumped back, while the man stepped away too, flicking away the remains of his cigarette.

“Why is it screaming like that all of a sudden?!”

There was no way the man had a proper answer, but Saejin still shouted the question while clapping his hands over his ears. The howl felt like it was summoning something—and the cold, ominous sensation prickled all over Saejin’s skin.

“L-Look!”

The man’s warning flashed back through his mind: “Go that way and it’s crawling with monsters.”

From the direction Saejin had originally tried to escape toward, a group of zombies was now stumbling into view. Their eyes had melted from their sockets, leaving them blind, but they shuffled toward the screech, drawn only by the sound. One of them even had a half-severed leg—probably from some kind of accident—but luckily, they were all moving very slowly.

It was only natural to want to flee when faced with multiple grotesque beings. Saejin’s face turned pale as he grabbed the man’s wrist and sprinted in the opposite direction of the monsters.

“There’s a place nearby—my apartment! Let’s go there for now!”

The man was still a suspicious stranger in Saejin’s eyes, but he couldn’t bring himself to just leave someone behind in a place swarming with monsters. The man looked briefly at Saejin, who had latched onto his wrist, then wordlessly followed. Soon enough, he overtook Saejin, forcing Saejin to follow him instead.

“Straight! Then a right, right there!”

Like a human GPS, Saejin guided the man to the apartment building. It wasn’t until they reached the front of the house that Saejin finally caught his breath.

‘Holy crap, this guy’s stamina is insane…’

While Saejin panted, coughing dryly with every breath, the man remained calm and composed. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Saejin dragged his trembling legs up the stairs to his one-room apartment.

“Don’t look at the password.”

He covered the digital door lock with his body and carefully pressed in the code. The man, watching Saejin’s futile attempt to hide the passcode with his small frame, let out a faint, inexplicable sigh. Unaware of it, Saejin waited for the lock to disengage and opened the door.

“My place is pretty cramped… but come on in.”

Letting the man inside, Saejin plopped down onto the floor, saying he needed to sit for a moment. He had already vomited from the nausea of facing the monster, but now his head throbbed from the aftereffects of drinking too much. The man followed behind him, quietly watching as Saejin made no effort to keep his guard up.

“You don’t even know who I am, and you just let me into your house like that…?”

He muttered the words under his breath, but Saejin didn’t miss them. Lifting his head confidently, he replied:

“You helped me, didn’t you? When I saw those monsters coming earlier… if I’d run the other way, it would’ve been really bad.”

“…You just called me ‘that guy’?”

“So what?”

“That’s the first time I’ve been called that by a kid.”

A kid? Saejin blinked in disbelief. What else was he supposed to call someone whose name or age he didn’t even know? Besides, he was twenty-five and had already completed his military service. He knew how to take care of himself. Being called a child was ridiculous.

“Then what should I call you? I mean, you… no, sir… mister…? I don’t even know your name.”

Realizing the man didn’t like being called that guy, Saejin tried to rephrase, but couldn’t settle on anything that felt right. No matter how many times he revised the sentence in his head, nothing came out smoothly.

“And I’m not a kid. I’m a legal adult… I’m twenty-five.”

“Still a lot younger than me.”

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-two.”

A three in front. Yeah, that was definitely an adult. At a loss for words, Saejin glanced around the room and tried to think of a proper title. Then, suddenly, a term popped into his head, and he spoke without thinking:

“Uncle?”

“…….”

“You’re thirty-two, so I figured… But maybe that’s too much? Would you prefer ‘mister’? ‘Uncle’ might be weird, huh?”

The man’s eyes turned sharp and deadly, and Saejin shrank back, stumbling over his own words.

“Kid, what the hell. Thirty-two is not ‘uncle’ age.”

“K-Kid?”

“You said you’re twenty-five, right? So yeah. I called you a kid.”

Seeing the man throw his own words back at him made Saejin gulp. Thinking about it again, uncle or mister really didn’t suit him. In the warm light of the apartment, unlike out in the dark, Saejin could now clearly see that the man had a sharp jawline and a high nose bridge. His build was solid, his posture impressive—his temperament was rough, sure, but his appearance was striking. And yeah… the word uncle didn’t quite roll off the tongue.

“Sorry. Seeing you up close, I guess you’re not an uncle after all… My name’s Yoon Saejin. Please call me Saejin, not kid…”

Bowing slightly, like showing respect to an elder, Saejin decided to call him hyung. The man gave a short breathless laugh at Saejin’s absurdly quick recovery.

“Jung Woobeom.”

Jung Woobeom. Saejin repeated the name to himself over and over so he wouldn’t forget it—even if they were probably going to part ways soon.

“Oh! That reminds me, what about your car? You didn’t close the door, did you? What if it gets stolen…”

“My car?”

“I saw you take the spanner out of the trunk. I don’t think you closed the trunk or the driver’s door.”

“Oh… you mean that.”

Even though there was a real risk that someone could steal whatever was inside, Woobeom stayed oddly calm. When the question mark didn’t leave Saejin’s expression, Woobeom finally spoke up like it wasn’t a big deal.

“It’s not mine.”

“Oh, is it a rental or something?”

“Nope.”

“Then…?”

“It was just sitting next to me, so I opened it and borrowed a tool.”

Can’t exactly smack something that filthy with my bare hands, right? His tone was like someone casually saying they ate because they were hungry. The way Jung Woobeom so nonchalantly confessed to a literal crime left Saejin stunned.

‘So… he just stole it and used it?’