“That’s too much.”
“What is?”
How had someone like this ever thought of opening a café in the first place. No, wait, was that exactly why he had opened a café instead? That sounded plausible. Otherwise, he would not have been asleep every single time I went there.
“More importantly, are you going out like that? Your hair is a mess.”
At my words, my third brother held out the black hair tie he had been wearing around his wrist as though it were only natural, then dropped down onto the floor without a care. It meant he wanted me to tie it for him.
When I looked at it calmly, I sometimes thought it might have been better if Baek Itae had been born the youngest and I had been born third. Even while grumbling, “I told you to at least tie your own hair yourself,” I brought over a comb, brushed through his dog-fur-like hair, and tied half of it back.
And although I did not feel like it, I gave my third brother a light kiss on the cheek as well. If I did not do it now, he would whine about it all day today and tomorrow, so it was better to get it over with quickly.
“You brothers need to realize that I am an adult now.”
“Mhm, baby. Big brother is going to work.”
Now he naturally ignores anything he does not want to hear.
I gave up on saying anything more and waved my hand to tell him to hurry up and go. Likewise, before leaving, Baek Itae rubbed his lips all over my face.
At last, I had finished half of my daily routine. For reference, the remaining half consisted of greeting my brothers when they came home from work.
“Haa…….”
“Oh dear, our youngest has such a hard time indulging his brothers every morning. They must still see you as a baby toddling around. How are any of them ever going to get married like that? Their wives would be jealous.”
When I let out a long sigh, the woman who always prepared my meals smiled and joked with me. If I truly knew nothing, it would naturally have made me feel uneasy, but I answered calmly without the slightest trace of anxiety.
“Oh, no. My brothers will change once they meet someone they like, won’t they?”
“That is true. People like that are usually devoted to their girlfriends.”
“That is why I am waiting while thinking I only have to endure it until then.”
“Your brothers would be hurt if they heard that, wouldn’t they? Ah, I have kept you too long. Hurry inside and rest.”
“I will.”
Humming as I went up to the 2nd floor, I entered my room and smiled contentedly as soon as my eyes fell on the desk calendar sitting on top of my desk.
The reason I could remain so calm was very simple. Because this was the world inside a novel set against the backdrop of a peaceful and heartwarming family healing story!
When I first realized that I had been reincarnated here, I was a little flustered. It was difficult enough to accept that I had been born again with my memories intact, but the world inside a novel? Still, that confusion lasted only a moment, and I quickly accepted reality.
The novel called <She Is the Brothers’ First Love!> was, just as the title suggested, a romance novel in which the female protagonist, who had lived steadfastly through a harsh world, met my brothers, began to bloom into love, and had her life turned completely upside down by 180 degrees…… Anyway, it was that kind of extremely common story.
A villain? Hardships? Frustrating developments? There was none of that shit. Everyone cherished, loved, and embraced the female protagonist, and healing the deeply wounded heroine was the most important thing. It was truly the healing story among healing stories. There was no reason at all to turn away from reality.
To show just how much they cherished the heroine, when she cried because she could not choose one of the brothers and asked whether she could not simply love them all together, the brothers, who had treated one another as rivals and fought as though they wanted to kill each other, accepted it while begging her not to cry and saying they would do exactly that.
Me? For reference, I was the sickly young master who supported and helped their love. I was only a little ill throughout the novel, lived perfectly well until the end, and there was even a story in the side chapters about a cure being developed for me, so there was absolutely no reason to worry.
Of course, there was also no reason to feel uneasy about my brothers’ excessive attention and affection. There was now only one week left until the original story began. Once the heroine appeared, my brothers would be far too busy trying to win her over somehow, so I could give them as many embarrassing kisses on the face as they wanted.
The development moved so refreshingly quickly that within only 1 year, it was already decided that they would all live together, so I thought I would not have any time to feel bored for a while.
Until the original story ended, I would have to diligently follow my brothers around. If I said I was going out more often because I felt suffocated, they would certainly allow it even while looking troubled.
Suppressing the corners of my lips as they kept twitching upward, I flopped down onto the bed. It was still a novel I had liked in its own way, so my heart even began to pound at the thought of watching the original story unfold with my own two eyes.
In other transmigration stories, the protagonists carefully wrote down every detail of the original story, but unfortunately, by the time I realized that I had transmigrated, the contents of the novel had already become hazy. It was almost amazing that I remembered even the major events. Even though I had read it that much.
Still, I was not worried. Was it not enough to know who the male protagonists and female protagonist were? Besides, rather than knowing everything, it would be fun in its own way to watch without knowing.
What would the female protagonist actually look like? In the book, she was described as a beauty so stunning that people lost their senses, and as someone like sunshine who made you feel healed simply by being near her. Of course, aside from that, she had also been called an angel because she had never hated anyone, and a fairy because she was small and cute, and even the fiercest animal became docile when touched by her hand.
When I first read the novel, I had thought, ‘Hm? To this extent?’ But now that I was about to see her directly with my own eyes, I could not sit still from anticipation and excitement.
“I hope the 10th comes quickly.”
After muttering that, I laughed strangely, hehehe, then eventually hugged the blanket and rolled around on the bed.
*
……I was sure that was what I had been thinking until one week ago.
“Kyahhh!”
What in the world was happening right now?
“Save me! Please, save me! Aaaagh!”
Was I dreaming right now?
“Bring a knife! A knife!”
“B, but.”
“Hurry up and stab him to death! Get him off me!”
“Then the driver will……! Guh!”
No matter how I looked at it, this did not seem like a play created to prank me. Otherwise, there was no way the smell of blood reaching my nose could be this vivid. No, even if blood itself could somehow be faked…… how could it be fake when arms and legs were being torn off and intestines were spilling out?
“I’m sorry, sob, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
“Just go- Aaaagh!”
“R, run, we have to run…… We have to get away!”
Bang!
With the sound of the front door being violently thrown open, the caregiver ran out first. Following behind, the woman who had been sitting collapsed on the floor escaped the house while falling over several times, and the doctor who had come down to the 1st floor after hearing that someone was injured did the same.
Crunch, crunch.
The only ones left in the living room were the driver biting into a person’s neck, the nurse trembling violently with bloody foam bubbling from her mouth, and the manager, who had already stopped breathing.
“Grrrgh…….”
With a wet, phlegmy sound, the manager’s body jerked. His heart had been ripped out, so he should normally have been dead, but he staggered to his feet, drool streaming from his mouth, and lunged at the nurse. Like someone who had starved for dozens of days, he frantically tore into her flesh and gulped down her blood.
And not long afterward, the nurse also stood up as though she could no longer feel pain. The driver and manager who had been biting her sniffed several times as if nothing had happened, then obediently backed away. While they picked up and ate the pieces of intestines scattered across the floor, the nurse blinked and looked around.
Dark red veins bulging grotesquely, eyes turned white as though covered by a film, people moving perfectly well and making animal-like sounds despite wounds that should have made it impossible for them to remain alive…….
‘……No matter how I look at them, they seem like zombies.’
I slowly stepped backward, forced my trembling legs to stay steady, and climbed the stairs as silently as possible. I had only come down for a moment because it was noisy outside, and I had never even imagined that something like this could have happened. Because I had a weak stomach, nausea rose so violently that bitter fluid came up into my throat, but I suppressed it with all my strength and barely managed to return to my room.
“…….”
I closed the door as quietly as possible and locked it. Just in case, I dragged over a nearby chair and placed it in front of the door, then piled the books that had been standing on my desk on top of it. I wanted to move the desk or the bed there, but I was too weak, so this was the best I could do.
“Huff, huff…….”
Sure enough, even though I had only moved a few books, my entire body was soaked in sweat. Even then, afraid they might hear me panting and come, I had to cover my mouth and steady my breathing.
My thoughts became hopelessly tangled. Was this really not a dream but reality? Zombies? Zombies, seriously? Did that make any sense? It was so absurd that a hollow laugh escaped me.
Even in the middle of that, my body moved diligently and picked up the phone I had left beside the head of the bed. My brothers, who should have contacted me first if something like this happened, were silent. Even when I pressed the call button with trembling fingers, the only thing that came back was an announcement saying that I was outside the service area.
“……That makes no sense.”
Right, this truly made no sense. They had all been fine until this morning, until only 3 hours ago. That meant no more than 3 hours could have passed since this incident began, yet I was already outside the service area?
Had every cell tower been destroyed and the fiber-optic cables cut? Maybe something like that had already happened before the zombies appeared. Otherwise, there was no way I would not have received even a single call from my brothers.