Episode 3.
* * *
“What’s going on?”
I tried to look at Jinwoo flatly, but I couldn’t.
My relationship with Jinwoo hadn’t been bad from the start.
Jinwoo joined the company in my third year.
Despite being the president’s son, no one disliked Jinwoo when he smiled brightly, saying he wanted to experience things from the bottom up, and I was no exception.
“Senior! Please teach me this.”
“Ah, you just do it like this.”
The days passed when I taught him know-how bit by bit because I was proud of how he approached without hesitation and asked politely whenever he didn’t know something, and there came a day when we had a drink together.
“Jinwoo, you’re lucky. I don’t have parents. Take good care of yours from now on.”
“…….”
“Just keep working like you are now. You know? You’re doing well.”
“Yes……”
“Call me hyung from now on.”
“…….”
And from the next day, people started treating me differently.
Just as always, I handled bothersome tasks that someone had to do but no one wanted to bother with, and reported to the section chief, but what came back was a scolding.
“Hey, why are you doing things no one told you to do?”
“It’s something that had to be done anyway……”
“Who says? Since when is this overstepping? Did I tell you to do it?”
“No……”
After hearing the section chief’s scolding and returning to my seat, I heard voices from another team.
“Anyway, he lives thinking he’s all that. Who does he think he is?”
“Bastard. Guess he wants to stand out.”
“Even the higher-ups know that bastard is desperate to get promoted.”
“There’s a limit. Does he work alone? Doesn’t he think his peers get scolded because of him? Selfish bastard.”
The female employees who used to approach and talk to me during breaks became difficult to even communicate with on work matters, beyond just being cold.
“Yujin.”
“Yes?”
“What’s the schedule for next week’s buyer meeting?”
“Ah, I’m not sure, so please ask someone else.”
I could only stare blankly as the person in charge finished speaking and avoided me.
‘Why on earth?’
“Hyung.”
“Oh, Jinwoo.”
Jinwoo called out to me as I stood there dumbfounded and said he had something to tell me, asking to meet on the rooftop, so I followed.
And.
“Kekeke. Now do you understand a bit of reality?”
“Huh?”
Jinwoo, who had been giggling and patting my shoulder, snorted.
“Hmph. Where does an orphan bastard get off trying to measure up to me just because he works a bit hard?”
“What?”
“Do you think I’m the same level as you? What, hyung? You’re doing well? Who are you, a guy with no parents, to tell me to treat my parents well?”
“…….”
Strength entered Jinwoo’s hand as it patted my shoulder.
“A bastard like you with nothing should just do what people like me tell you. Got it?”
“…….”
“Getting ahead of yourself calling me hyung? Keheh, pathetic. What? Did you think being called hyung by a golden spoon would make you somebody? Hehehe, fine. I’ll call you hyung from now on.”
“…….”
Jinwoo removed his hand from my shoulder and smiled brightly, just like when I first saw him.
“If you don’t resign, that is.”
“…….”
Three months passed like that.
I, who had been an icon of competence, had before I knew it become an incompetent outcast.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered resigning, but I couldn’t.
If someone like me, who had nothing, ruined my career as well, my life would be twisted beyond repair, so I tried somehow to make up for it.
‘I didn’t want to lose because of my birth.’
But effort and all were futile—zombies appeared.
Now I couldn’t even think about my career. I just wanted to focus all my capacity on survival.
But that bastard still held power.
Jinwoo, who had been grinning, opened his mouth.
“I was wondering why you catch them so diligently. It’s almost as if the zombies hold some secret.”
“The more data, the better.”
At my words, Jinwoo raised the corners of his mouth.
“Aah, is that so? I learn yet another thing from you, hyung.”
“…….”
“But, hyung.”
Jinwoo cut himself off with cold eyes, then opened his mouth again.
“Why has your body gotten so much better? No matter how physical catching zombies is, I can’t understand how someone ends up like you.”
Jinwoo’s gaze swept over my body.
My already tall frame had packed on muscle, putting me in a state that exuded a thick masculine scent.
Worried someone might notice, I had hunted while covering up with loose clothes, but when someone approached as close as Jinwoo to check, it was impossible to hide.
“I don’t know either?”
I couldn’t give a reason for this. No matter what reason I gave, it was impossible for a body to improve this much in a short time.
Jinwoo glared at me for a moment, then grinned again.
“You don’t know either. Well, okay. Good work, then.”
I watched Jinwoo turn around and walk toward the main building.
‘This is ominous…….’
* * *
“Everyone be careful! Safety first!”
I had gone out to hunt and witnessed an absurd scene.
“Fuck……”
The ominous feeling from yesterday had become reality.
Tower trucks and regular trucks lined against the fence. And groups of young men atop them catching zombies.
My hunting ground being stolen was unfolding before my eyes.
“Huh? Hyung.”
Jinwoo spotted me and approached.
“We’ve decided to take over zombie hunting from now on. The men weren’t doing anything, so people were anxious. Times like these, a leader has to step up and set goals.”
“…….”
Jinwoo, grinning widely, continued.
“You’ve hunted enough, haven’t you, hyung?”
“…….”
This bastard. Does he know about the shop window?
He probably used the word “hunting” on purpose.
His actions were vicious, but he wasn’t stupid.
“Come to think of it, you’re really amazing, hyung. Look over there. They’re vomiting, crying, screaming—it’s chaos. But you minimize noise and catch them calmly?”
“…….”
“Zombies, when you think about it, are people, right? They were neighbors until recently. They were someone’s family.”
“Fuck. Stop it.”
I know too. That zombies are humans. No, that they were beings who had been human.
That’s why I deliberately treated it like a game. When counting, I called them “heads” instead of “people.”
I was afraid that the moment I called them “people,” I would remember that they had been human, so I tried hard to ignore it.
But this bastard Choi Jinwoo provoked me.
It was a ploy to shake my psyche.
This guy. He wants something from me.
“Tsk tsk tsk. I’m just saying.”
“…….”
“And from now on, the supply warehouse is restricted.”
“The reason?”
When I asked the reason, Choi Jinwoo shook his head and opened his mouth.
“The group leaders have decided not to tolerate individual actions anymore. You have to follow too, hyung.”
“…….”
He shook my psyche, restricted my actions, and partially revealed his information while making it clear he wanted something.
‘He’s using what he learned from me against me.’
What did he want to say to me that he was throwing so many snares?
As I stared silently, he finally got to the point.
“Hyung, I’m very broad-minded. I thought that even an overstepping hyung like you should be forgiven and taken along in times like these.”
“…….”
“Come under me. Don’t you want to live like before? If you come under me, everything is solved. You know?”
“…….”
I know. I know very well now. That you’re a bastard.
Still, I didn’t refuse right away.
I needed to know what he knew and what he didn’t.
“So, I just have to lower my head?”
At my words, Jinwoo raised the corners of his mouth and shook his head.
“Nnnope. No. It’s not that simple. It seems you have information that others don’t…… Open it up to me without hiding anything. Only then will I forgive you.”
“Hehehe……”
Who is forgiving whom?
At the word “forgive,” regardless of information or anything else, I choked up.
“Fuck you, bastard.”
I raised my middle finger, shook it at him, and turned around.
Jinwoo shouted at the back of my head.
“You fucking bastard. Leave the spear too. It’s not yours, is it? Company property must be used with permission.”
“Take it, bastard.”
When I aimed the spear at Jinwoo as if to throw it, he flinched and cowered.
I wanted to run him through with the spear, but held back.
The time to kill would come someday, but not now. If I killed Choi Jinwoo now, I’d have to deal with Choi Jinwoo’s group noisily and leave this place.
‘For that, I’m still too weak.’
I was about to throw the spear at my feet but instead hurled it with all my might outside the fence.
Whoosh. Clang.
Choi Jinwoo glared murderously, but I ignored him and turned around.
‘If it’s like this, I have to move up my plan…….’
I had been planning to leave the company anyway.
But not now. Even the time needed to find a new location, build a safe zone, and scout hunting grounds was too precious right now.
I had set the escape date for when the special assignment ended, but today had been wasted in vain.
‘Tomorrow will be like this too.’
If that’s the case, it’s better to leave even a day sooner. If I add the time wasted after leaving, the loss would be immense.
‘A day now is ten days later. No, considering opportunity cost, it could be an insurmountable gap.’
Choi Jinwoo. You bastard.
Get bitten by a zombie and become one!
Cursing inwardly, I entered the main building, and my colleagues who joined the same year greeted me sarcastically from the entrance.
“Well, if it isn’t Deputy Choi.”
“…….”
They’re all the same.
“I heard you were sucking honey alone in the supply warehouse. What brings you here?”
“Kekeke. I knew it. How can you be so selfish even in this situation?”
“It’s in his blood, I guess.”
“Jinwoo is so kind. To think he’s trying to save even a guy like this.”
Sigh, I’m already annoyed, and they’re making it worse.
But even the time to argue was precious.
I ignored them and headed for the third floor, where I had worked.
When I heard Jinwoo’s bullshit, I wanted to kick the company and leave right away, but there was something I needed to get.
I arrived at the office and put my hand in the pocket of the top hanging on my chair.
What I pulled out was a plastic box slightly bigger than a business card wallet.
Click.
Inside the box was one 10,000-won bill folded in half.
‘My treasure…….’
I was fifteen.
It was when I realized how heartless and indifferent the world truly was.
One day when I was fifteen, after being dragged away by the director and beaten like a dog for no reason, I ran away from home.
Consumed by frustration and the thought of why I had to live like this, I wandered the streets.
“I’m hungry……”
After two days without eating, pride be damned, I found myself looking around for someone to help.
A face covered in wounds. Shabby clothes. Eyes steeped in hunger.
Only after looking around did I realize that my appearance was not someone people should help, but someone they should avoid.
The fact that I was alone was scarier than the fact that I was hungry, and my whole body shook.
“Hey.”
That was when.
I met that man.
“Hey.”
“Me?”
I turned at the call and saw a man approaching in sloppy clothes.
“Yeah. Did you run away?”
“…….”
The man approached without hesitation and tapped my shoulder.
“Hey, kid. Hyung isn’t a bad guy.”
“…….”
“I think I was about your age when I wished someone would help me out. I was an orphan. You were practically begging for help with your whole body, so I couldn’t just pass by. Here, take this.”
“…….”
What the man handed me was one 10,000-won bill folded in half.
“You don’t live because you’re happy—if you keep living, happy days will come. For now, just try living hard. Got it?”
“Yes……”
And the man left with a smile.
From that day on, I truly lived hard.
I started part-time jobs I could do as a student and saved money, and afraid they’d tell me to quit because work might interfere with my studies, I maintained top grades as well.
Living like that, everything worked out. Until I fell out of favor with the golden spoon.
Now, the man’s face is hazy, but I kept the bill I received then without spending it.
To me, this bill is proof that there are warm people in the world, and a signpost.
I put the box back in the pocket and put on the top.
“Going on a business trip or something?”
My body stiffened at the voice.
I turned around to see Jinwoo and four colleagues who could now be called his lackeys smiling.