Even if I had known nothing about the original novel, I would have quickly realized that Moon Seyoung was the center of the world. When I blankly waved back at her, Baek Hyeonwoo said something, but none of it reached my ears. All I could think was that I wished this moment would last forever.
Her light steps, as though she were walking on clouds, her cheeks slowly flushing red, her straight white neck like a deer’s, and the merciless way she smashed a zombie’s head…….
“……Huh?”
Did I see that wrong? I must have seen it wrong. Something strange had slipped in just now, hadn’t it?
I hurriedly shook my head and looked down again, but nothing had changed. The female protagonist, said to be the most lovable person in the world and so softhearted that she could not even kill a bug, was holding a hammer and crushing zombie heads without mercy.
“Let’s go.”
“W-wait, hold on.”
Baek Hyeonwoo turned away without hesitation, as though he had just witnessed something revolting. I hurriedly stretched out my legs, climbed down from his arms, and grabbed the railing.
Even after rubbing my eyes and looking again, the object in Moon Seyoung’s hand was unmistakably a hammer.
“…….”
Crack! Smash!
Every time Moon Seyoung swung her arm, the heads of the zombies nearby burst like water balloons. What I had mistaken for flower petals was actually blood spraying from their skulls.
She moved lightly from place to place, mercilessly disposing of every zombie that rushed at her.
If she had at least looked distressed or trembled in fear, I could have thought she was desperately struggling to survive. But there was no sign of anything like that.
She was simply far too calm and meticulous, as though choosing flowers to arrange in a vase.
Even more impressive was the fact that she was holding up the hem of her dress with one hand so blood would not splash onto it. Watching her step elegantly aside as though avoiding the blood bursting in front of her mattered more than the zombies charging from behind, the whole thing felt so unreal that I found myself wondering whether this was a dream.
The classical music playing inside the department store gradually swelled into something grander.
As it did, Moon Seyoung’s movements grew broader. Every action looked like part of a dance. In particular, the scene where she knocked down a small sculpture installed above the fountain and crushed the zombies beneath it was so spectacular that merely watching it with my own eyes felt like a waste.
At last, the steadily rising music ended with a magnificent lingering note, and Moon Seyoung’s slaughter concluded at the exact same moment, perfectly matching its flow.
The chaotic noise and movement settled as if they had never existed, and she stood alone atop the highest point of the fallen sculpture.
Then, in that space stained with chunks of flesh and shattered debris, she lightly took hold of her skirt, bent one leg gracefully, straightened again, and bowed like an actress concluding the final scene onstage.
Clap, clap, clap.
The moment I saw it, I began applauding without realizing it.
Of course, when Baek Hyeonwoo called from behind me, “Sihyeon,” I hurriedly lowered my hands, but the sound had already reached Moon Seyoung.
“Thank you!”
She smiled brightly and waved both hands above her head.
“N-no, it was amazing,” I answered stupidly, stumbling over the words.
Moon Seyoung called out that she would come up to us, then hopped down from the sculpture.
“……I could do that too.”
Baek Hyeonwoo grumbled, but I let it go in one ear and out the other while repeatedly rubbing the goose bumps on my arms.
What had I just witnessed?
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“We can’t stay here forever.”
I was waiting for Moon Seyoung to come upstairs when Baek Hyeonwoo grabbed my wrist and tugged as though he wanted to leave.
I looked back at the central hall, now covered in zombie blood and chunks of flesh, then planted my feet firmly.
“She said she was coming up. Let’s wait just a little.”
“She could be dangerous.”
Baek Hyeonwoo was not wrong.
Someone who could crush the heads of dozens of zombies with nothing but a hammer was suspicious and dangerous by anyone’s standards. Had she been anyone else, I would have agreed with him. I might even have suggested running away while she was still smashing their heads.
“No. I think she’s a good person.”
“How can you be sure?”
Because she was the female protagonist.
Everything had changed, but some things did not.
Just like my brothers, who still cherished and cared for me, her fundamental temperament and personality must have remained the same.
“Uh…… She just looks like one.”
I could not exactly tell him the truth, so I gave an answer that sounded like a stubborn child insisting for no reason.
Fortunately, Baek Hyeonwoo merely frowned slightly. He did not drag me away by force or say anything more.
When he even released my wrist as a sign of permission, I let out a relieved sigh inwardly and turned toward the sound of her approaching footsteps.
“Hello!”
Moon Seyoung rode the escalator up and waved with a bright smile.
The protagonist I had wanted to meet so badly was walking toward me.
I awkwardly smiled while wiping my palms, damp with cold sweat, against my pants.
“……Do you like pretty people that much?”
“Hm?”
“Aren’t I prettier? You said I was so pretty last time.”
“……That may be true, but you’re a man. What are you talking about? And I’m not trying to meet her because she’s pretty.”
Baek Hyeonwoo and Moon Seyoung were both beautiful, but in similar yet completely different ways.
He gave me a suspicious sideways glance, but I meant what I said.
Was I a fan of hers? Of course. But what mattered was that she was the protagonist.
Yes, the protagonist.
My brothers were male leads too, but this was ultimately a romance novel, and the story unfolded from Moon Seyoung’s point of view. They were only separated into different categories because of the genre. Even so, the center of the story was Moon Seyoung.
Thinking about it that way, there was nothing especially strange about her mercilessly beating zombies to death.
If a romance novel had suddenly twisted into a zombie apocalypse, was it not only natural for the people inside it to change in ways that suited their new world?
And most protagonists possessed some kind of key to resolving the situation.
Immunity, a cure…… Whatever it was, as long as I stayed right beside her, there was no reason to worry at all.
“I didn’t realize anyone was still inside the department store—no, anywhere in this city. You must have been startled. I’m sorry.”
Moon Seyoung approached while tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She gave us a charming smile with her eyes, lightly bowed her head, then straightened again.
Wow…… She really was beautiful.
How could someone like that exist in the world?
Barely managing to keep my mouth from falling open, I cautiously asked,
“No, it’s fine. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Of course not. My name is Moon Seyoung.”
I knew it!
She really was Moon Seyoung.
There had been a tiny, impossibly small part of me that worried she might somehow not be the female protagonist, even though there was no chance of that. But she was!
Suppressing the urge to cheer, I pointed to Baek Hyeonwoo standing beside me with a blank expression.
“I’m Baek Sihyeon, and this is Baek Hyeonwoo. He’s my brother.”
“Why were you here?”
Before I had even finished speaking, Baek Hyeonwoo asked in an icy voice.
His wording was only slightly polite. With his arms folded and his gaze lowered, he looked as though he disliked Moon Seyoung immensely.
“Ah…… I came to find food.”
“Why did you remain in a city with no one else in it? Don’t think you can brush it off with some vague answer. You’ll need to explain it in a way that makes sense.”
Moon Seyoung’s lips parted in obvious confusion at the interrogation. She glanced around as though unsure how to answer and hunched her shoulders as if frightened.
The more she did, the narrower Baek Hyeonwoo’s eyes became.
“Brother.”
I poked him lightly in the side, telling him to stop.
The atmosphere was awkward, but I was not surprised.
Of course not. Their relationship had been exactly like this in the original novel.
Baek Hyeonwoo had disliked Moon Seyoung one-sidedly.
Though he had always been known as a kind and gentle man, he never concealed his true feelings in front of her.
Naturally, as in every other romance novel, he would later fall for her more deeply than anyone else.
“This is the first time we’ve met another person since the zombies appeared.”
“I see. Then it makes sense that you’d be cautious. I understand.”
Moon Seyoung nodded as though even that clumsy excuse was perfectly reasonable and gave us a small smile.
Was she an angel?
Feeling something warm and soft swelling inside me, I looked up at my eldest brother.
See? She’s a good person.
I tried to convey that with my eyes, but Baek Hyeonwoo sharply turned his head away, as though refusing to admit it.
“I arrived here two days ago. I searched around for survivors then, but no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t find anyone. So I assumed everyone had already left.”
“We only arrived today.”
“Ah! That explains it. No wonder I didn’t know. Instead of standing around here, would you like to come to the place where I’m staying? It’s safe and clean, and the hot water still works.”
Naturally, I intended to follow her, but I still needed Baek Hyeonwoo’s permission.
When I tugged on his arm, he thought for a moment before asking,
“Does it have a bathtub?”
“It does! A really huge bathtub.”
Moon Seyoung spread both arms wide and flapped them up and down.
How could every little thing she did be so cute and lovable?
The sight of her smashing zombie heads had already faded into the distant past.
While I watched the male and female leads from the original novel talking to each other in a daze, Baek Hyeonwoo raised a finger and pointed upstairs.
“Then let’s pick up some bath salts first.”
“Sounds good!”