Splat!
The moment what had been inside fell out, I reflexively stepped backward. Half-melted and rotted into a mangled mess, it only barely retained a human shape when examined closely, so it took me quite some time to realize that it was a zombie.
“……Is it a zombie?”
Even though my mind had already judged it to be a zombie, I was not certain, so I asked as I approached him. Baek Hyeonwoo crouched down and rummaged through the corpse with his bare hands as though it were nothing, then calmly nodded and said, “Yeah.”
“But I don’t think it was originally in this condition…… It seems to have been damaged further after being put inside the cocoon, but I can’t tell whether it rotted naturally or whether some other factor caused it.”
“……Couldn’t it be both?”
“That’s possible too.”
I hid behind him and silently looked down at the corpse. Its face was so mushy that its features could no longer be recognized, and its stomach and chest looked like chunks of rotting meat. The strange thing was that despite being so decomposed, it gave off no smell.
“Why doesn’t it smell?”
“Who knows……. I don’t think we have enough time to investigate that far.”
Unlike me, who was taking it seriously, Baek Hyeonwoo seemed unwilling to concern himself with it that much. With an indifferent expression, he rummaged through the corpse a few times, then sliced its abdomen open in one long stroke with the knife. When I saw pus ooze out like melted cheese, I could not endure the disgust and buried my nose in the hem of Baek Hyeonwoo’s clothes.
“There are no bones or organs.”
“Did they melt?”
“Probably.”
“Ugh…….”
Why had the monster capable of making something like that put a zombie inside a cocoon? The reason was so obvious that thinking about it at all felt pathetic. I tugged on my brother’s arm as he kept rummaging through the corpse and said,
“It probably meant to use it as food, right?”
“We don’t know that. Why? Are you scared?”
“Of course I’m scared…… Zombies were human in the end. Doesn’t that mean it might eventually eat humans too?”
“They used to be human. Don’t worry too much. Just because they’re mushrooms doesn’t mean they’re all the same kind of mushroom. Think of it like that.”
Mushrooms…….
Perhaps because the comparison was so unexpected, even in such a serious situation, a deflated sound escaped me without my realizing it. I soon shook my head to clear away the distracting thoughts, then took out one of the antibacterial wipes I had with me (Baek Hyeonwoo had packed them for me before we left the hospital.) and held it out to him.
“Wipe your hands.”
“Will you wipe them for me?”
“Are you a child?”
Even as I grumbled for no reason, I carefully wiped Baek Hyeonwoo’s hands. He had touched and examined something like that because of me, so I felt sorry and wanted to do at least this much for him.
“You don’t have to be so thorough.”
“Say something that makes sense.”
It would not have been enough even if he had washed them thoroughly with soap, yet he said I did not have to be thorough. Hearing that from the person who made such a fuss about me washing my hands whenever I went outside even briefly irritated me, so I pinched the back of his hand hard.
“You’re saying that when zombies have appeared?”
“Mm, sorry.”
He did not sound sorry at all.
Without replying further, I merely glared silently at my brother, then sighed and let go of his hand.
“All done.”
“Thank you.”
I had only wiped his hands, yet Baek Hyeonwoo acted as though he had received an enormous gift. Whenever he did that, it made me feel a little upset. If there had been more I could do for him, I would have simply scolded him for making a fuss and moved on, but this truly was the best I could do, so it felt as though he did not expect anything from me at all.
“Are you going to open the other cocoons too?”
After swallowing the bitter feeling, I asked carefully, and Baek Hyeonwoo firmly shook his head as he answered.
“No, I don’t think there’s any need to.”
If he said so, then that must be how it was. I did not ask why. I did not want to make him do something I could not do with my own hands either.
“Shall we get going again?”
“Yeah.”
I slowly followed behind Baek Hyeonwoo, who smiled so brightly that merely looking at him made me feel better, and left the town. I remained tense in case we encountered a monster, but perhaps they were nocturnal, or perhaps they had already fed and gone to sleep, because not even the tip of one appeared.
Once we left the town, there really was a river, just as my brother had said. However, the bridge crossing it was considerably high and sturdy, so no matter how much the water rose, it did not seem likely to affect our movement. As expected, he had deliberately stayed longer because of me.
Feeling both sorry and grateful, I tightly gripped the hand of the man walking ahead of me, and Baek Hyeonwoo turned back with a worried expression and asked,
“Are you tired? Should I carry you on my back?”
“I just wanted to hold your hand.”
“You did? You wanted to hold your brother’s hand? Our Sihyeon is still a baby.”
“No, agh!”
Before I could even protest, Baek Hyeonwoo pulled on our joined hands and swept my staggering body into his arms in one motion. He did not even carry me on his back, but lifted me outright and sat me on his forearm as though soothing a small child, leaving me unable to resist and merely opening and closing my mouth.
“Do you want to lean on your brother’s shoulder and go sleepy-bye?”
“Ah, why are you doing this? I can still walk on my own two feet.”
“I know. I’m doing this because I want to, so don’t worry about it.”
“I don’t li-”
Smooch.
I stopped speaking and opened my mouth wide. What was that just now? The area was too wide for it to be called a kiss, wasn’t it? Did he suck on my cheek? No, was it not closer to suction? Unable to contain my shock, I clutched my cheek, and Baek Hyeonwoo smiled brightly as he whispered,
“Cute.”
“…….”
Kissing and biting were not enough…… now he was doing things like this too? Did he really see me not as twenty years old, but as around twenty months old?
“How can such a cute little creature exist?”
Had something gone wrong with his head? No matter what, he had never done anything like this before……. With trembling eyes, I met my brother’s gaze. Beyond the playful look in his eyes, I could see sincerity that could not be ignored. He was joking, right?
“You, you haven’t forgotten that I’m twenty, have you?”
“Why? Is this another thing you shouldn’t do to a twenty-year-old?”
“Of course it is. I’m an adult. What kind of brother does that to the cheek of his adult younger brother, like, like that…… Huh?”
“Why wouldn’t there be one? If you look hard enough, I’m sure you’ll find one.”
Baek Hyeonwoo lightly tapped the bridge of my nose with his finger.
“And you may call yourself an adult, but you’ve only lived for twenty years. Come back after you’re around two hundred, and then your brother will say, our youngest has finally become an adult.”
“That just means you’re going to treat me like a child forever.”
“Mm?”
When I answered in a subdued voice because I felt unfairly wronged, he looked puzzled for a moment, then responded slyly as though he had only just realized it.
“Ah, right. Humans barely live to be one hundred.”
“What? Anyone hearing you would think you weren’t human.”
“I’m not.”
It seemed he had changed the way he teased me. Not funny. Grumbling, I lightly hit his arm several times. It was ridiculous to insist that I was an adult while being held like this, so I told him to put me down, but he pretended not to hear.
“Do you want to become an adult that badly?”
“……It’s just, well, something I’ve wanted for a long time.”
In my previous life, they said they would let me go outside once I turned twenty. In this life, I had to turn twenty before my illness could be treated and I could live an ordinary life like everyone else. It was not that I had major complaints about my life, but that did not mean I wanted to be satisfied with remaining shut inside the house forever.
All I wanted was to travel alone, stay out all night having fun, go to famous festivals…… I only wanted to do the things I had encountered through books in my previous life, and had seen only on television or the internet in this one.
But even if I grew older, if I was still treated like a child and had to be protected, then I would never even be able to dream of doing those things. Perhaps that was why I reacted so sensitively to it.
“Your brother wishes our Sihyeon could remain a baby forever.”
“Stop saying horrifying things.”
“Why is that horrifying? Haa……. Back then, you couldn’t do anything, so I liked that you had to rely on me.”
“……Anyone hearing you would think I can do something now.”
Even in my own eyes, I was nothing but dead weight right now. When I answered dejectedly, Baek Hyeonwoo drooped his eyebrows and said, “Oh dear.”
“You do so many things on your own.”
“What do I do?”
“You know how to walk.”
What kind of answer was that?
I frowned, wondering whether he was teasing me again, but Baek Hyeonwoo continued speaking seriously.
“You know how to go to the bathroom by yourself, and you know how to eat by yourself. On top of that, you sleep well and wake up well all on your own.”
“…….”
“You have no idea how much I hold myself back, do you? If I had my way, I’d want to do all of it for you.”
“…….”
“So I’ve been a little happy lately. I can keep carrying you around like this, and wherever we go, we go together, and you only eat the food your brother brings you.”
Besides, you can’t sleep without your brother either. I enjoy putting you to sleep all the time, and waking you up when it looks like you’re having a nightmare.
The words he added quietly were openly saturated with happiness and joy. This was not something he was merely saying for my sake. It meant he truly saw things that way.
And I decided to simply accept Baek Hyeonwoo as he was. Honestly, it was a little bewildering, but when I thought about it, he was one of the male leads in a novel.
What kind of beings are male leads?
Unreasonable devotion and obsession are practically passive skills for them. Even when they are selfish characters, if you look at what they do, they are basically walking charitable organizations. The Baek Hyeonwoo in the book was not far outside that boundary either.
The most memorable example was when the female protagonist refused the driver he offered her, saying she could just take a taxi, so he founded an entire taxi company and made sure taxis were always stationed along her routes.
Baek Hyeonwoo was also the one who, while feeling sorry whenever the female protagonist was sick, was delighted that she stayed in bed without going anywhere and relied only on his care.
I knew that with zombies appearing, it would be better to treat the novel and reality as separate things and distinguish between them…… but that did not mean the person himself had gone anywhere. And although I was not certain, even with the world in this state, we might still be able to meet the female protagonist.
‘When that happens, his attention will move to her anyway.’
Besides, he had not said he loved me. He merely thought I was cute. Like a younger brother exhausted by overprotection, I let out a long sigh and said, “Haa,” then let my body go limp.