Please Shoot Me - 10

BANG!

The moment the bullet pierced his head, Yuyeon screamed and fell to the ground. A sharp pain spread through her body as if it was her head that had been pierced, and her blood went cold. Her whole body pulsates as if her heart was beating in her head, and she couldn’t think straight. Her organs felt like they were being twisted, and the saliva in her throat tasted like blood. She pounded her fists against the ground, unable to breathe from the intense pain.

A terrible sense of helplessness denied and crushed her entire life. Then, it morphed into hatred of herself and struck at her throat. If this is what the pain of death feels like, then she is already dead. When her gun came into view, blurred by tears, she felt like it was a means of relieving her helplessness.

‘I had waited too long to find answers. What the hell did I think I could change? I was arrogant. I should have died then, so I wouldn’t have to feel this pain again.’

As if in a trance, she reached for her waistband.

“… What?”

Ryung’s voice rang out. Yuyeon narrowed his eyes and laughed in self-deprecation. She thought she was losing her mind and hearing things. Either that or her time was ticking from the moment she decided to die.

BANG!

This time, an ear-piercing gunshot rang out. She wondered if her eardrums were still tingling from the first one. It felt so real that if anyone heard it, it would seem real…

“… Huh?”

The voice was too clear to ignore, and Yuyeon’s head jerked up. Expecting to see something terrible, she didn’t want to bother to check, but there he was, Ryung’s eyes were wide open with embarrassment.

“Sunbae…”

“You…”

Blood was oozing from the spot where the bullet had passed, but he was alive.

“What the… what happened?”

He pointed the muzzle of the pistol at his head as if to fire one more time. At that moment, Yuyeon sprang to her feet and knocked the pistol away with the back of her hand. As the pistol rolled across the rough ground, Yuyeon hugged Ryung tightly, sobbing.

“Hmph… Why are you like this? Ugh… You don’t listen…!”

“…”

“Ugh, you’re terrible… Hmph…”

He tried to push her away in vain as he listened to her sobs. When she noticed, she hugged him tighter, as if to strangle him. She was no longer afraid of death because she had already made her mind up about it. She didn’t care if she was bitten, or if they became zombies together. She just didn’t want to be alone anymore. She was tired of surviving alone.

“Sunbae, it’s dangerous…”

“You son of a bitch… Hmph…”

“No, sunbae…”

“You’re a piece of sh*t…”

“Sunbae…”

“I’ll cut off your limbs and throw them to the zombies as food… Hmph…”

“…”

His mouth closed at the increasingly harsh insults. His complexion turned an earthy color as her arms tightened around him, trying to strangle him in case he pushed her away one more time. Even though he was alive, he felt like he was already half-buried.

After holding him and crying for a long time, she began to study his face. His eyes, which had been a deep bronze color, were now golden and purplish red around the edges. His blemish-free cheeks and temples were streaked with red and blue blood, and his lips were colorless and corpse-like. It was the typical appearance of the infected.

Yuyeon touched him here and there. His body temperature seemed lower than hers, but there was still heat. His pupils reacted to the light, and his heartbeat and breathing were within normal limits. She locked eyes with him and earnestly asked.

“Do you… Do you want to bite me?”

His expression changed for a moment, and he swept her from head to toe with his eyes, moistening his dry lips.

“I don’t want to bite… I want to suck.”

At the out-of-the-ordinary answer, Yuyeon breathed a sigh of relief and politely nodded.

“Same as usual.”

She then ran her hand through his hair, looking for the bullet hole, but it was smooth with no sign of scarring. Ryung ran his hand through his hair, too, and gravely frowned.

“That zombie back there. It was kind of weird how its eyes glowered with fluorescence, and it didn’t even die…”

Yuyeon, who had completely stopped crying by now, nodded in agreement.

“I think it’s a variant. The virus mutates endlessly to survive, and you didn’t even have a seizure when you were changing.”

The zombie virus is most similar to the rabies virus because of the similarity in the symptoms after infection. After an incubation period of about 10 minutes, the zombie virus causes a seizure that forces the body into a bizarre contortion. It was the host’s last stand, as the virus isn’t complementary to the human body.

“Shall we… keep… shooting?”

He asked, looking at the gun in the distance.

“What?”

“That zombie died earlier because he took multiple shots, so if I take multiple shots in quick succession…”

A single, sharp blow echoed through the room, and Ryung’s head was jerked to the side, startled by the slap on his cheek. Being a zombie didn’t mean he couldn’t feel pain, so a small tear formed in the corner of his eye at the inevitable realization.

“Does it hurt?”

Yuyeon asked with a gentleness that made it hard to believe she was the one who slapped him. He nodded, holding his cheek in disbelief.

“It hurt when you got shot. You didn’t die, but you felt the pain equivalent to death. Why would you want to do that kind of experiment with me?”

“Because you’re in danger right now… You’ve seen that I don’t die easily. I think I have a long incubation period, and this might be my last chance because even if I’m sane now, I don’t know when I’ll turn on you…”

“Stop…”

“Hah… Imagine if you were alone with that zombie and you were in the same situation. Do you think you would be able to survive? I don’t think so.”

Ryung’s impatient tone had risen to a higher pitch. It was a frustrating situation where even looking out for each other became a conflict. She ran a hand through her hair in annoyance and glared at him.

“Why did you stop me? Why did you get bitten while saving me? You should have let me die! You knew what I was afraid of, didn’t you? Why did you make me go through this twice?”

Yuyeon’s jaw quivered as she screamed. Her eyes were filled with resentment and anger. But in this unusually extreme situation, he, too, was quickly swept up in his emotions.

“I did it because I like you! I did it because you are more important to me than I was to you and if you died, my life would be meaningless. I just… I wanted you to be alive and breathing, and I wanted you to stay that way. I know your life sucks and it’s not fun, but I wanted you to live. I don’t know if happiness will come to you someday, and I wanted to at least give you a chance… it was just a one-sided thing. Love is selfish, and you don’t know because you’ve never been… ah.”

His words trailed off, sucked into Yuyeon’s mouth.

Swallowing his lips, she pushed her tongue through the gap and swirled it inside of his mouth. Realizing what was happening, he pushed her harder, and the tiny body slid away from him. Lost in thought, Ryung rushed over to the groaning woman, startled once by her kiss and once by his strength.

“Sunbae… are you okay?”

“Man… you’re already strong, but now you’re even stronger.”

She muttered curses as she slowly got up, but Ryung was cursing, too. He snarled through clenched teeth as he gently propped her up.

“What are you doing something so dangerous for?!”

“Gambling.”

It wasn’t possible to get the zombie virus by ingesting saliva, but it wasn’t 100% safe. There were always exceptions, and with a mutant virus mankind had never seen before, it was a gamble.

“What?”

“Well, I’m infected too, so we don’t have to do that experiment, do we?”

Understanding her intentions, Ryung narrowed his eyes and pressed a hand to his forehead.

“Ah… you’re crazy, really. Is it okay to trample on other people’s hard work like this?”

“Yeah, who said not to?”

“Why don’t you listen to me? You’re so….”

“You keep saying stuff like that so let’s just do this. Do you get a pass now just because you’re a zombie?”

“Ah! Seo Yuyeon is so stubborn…”

“Hey!”

Childish bickering was going on in the middle of the mission. Suddenly, a voice came from the radio that they forgot existed.

[Is everything okay? It’s been a long time since I heard from you.]

Ryung and Yuyeon, who had stopped breathing at the same time, locked eyes. So many things had happened, and none of them had been organized. Ryung sat back on his head and wiped his face. His earth-shattering sigh was a bonus.

“Hah… I’ll stay here, you go back to headquarters.”

“Whatever. Did you forget I kissed you earlier?”

“…”

“We’re already in the same boat.”

After smirking at him, Yuyeon calmly picked up the radio.

“Sorry for the late report, the mission was uneventful. It’s just that we’re going to be delayed in returning due to the spread of garbage. Tomorrow…”

Yuyeon continued with her false report with shameless casualness. She was here with him today and was willing to wait out the incubation period.

Looking at her as she was in contact with her superiors, Ryung tilted his head back and sighed as if he was about to die. Then, he rubbed his lips with his fingertips, which were in contact with her lips, and muttered to himself.”

“She’s so cool…”

hehehe im finally back with uploading this gem. if there are any mistakes, feel free to lmk in the discord and i will fix them as soon as i can 🙂

Kofi