Please Shoot Me - 11

“Don’t come over here.”

Ryung stacked the items around him in a high row to form a barrier and sent Yuyeon to the other side. This would give her time to escape if he lost consciousness. Yuyeon was reluctant, but she could not break his stubbornness.

As night fell and the small amount of light that came through the doorway disappeared, the building became pitch black. They lay in their robes on the hard floor, blinking in a daze. It was a sleepless night, and they knew each other wasn’t sleeping, but they didn’t speak. They were too tired from dealing with the chatter in their own heads.

The hard floor was cold, and Yuyeon was at her wits’ end. When she turned over, feeling exhausted from lying in the same position, she saw a pair of golden, flashing eyes beyond the frozen obstacles. Yuyeon patted her chest in exasperation.

“Whoa… what are you doing?”

“Looking at you.’

“Why?”

“It’s just a habit.”

Yuyeon laughed and shook her head slightly. A soft chuckle came from the other side.

“You have all kinds of weird habits, but can you even see anything with it being this dark?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh?”

She could tell he was blinking because his eyes kept disappearing and reappearing before her eyes.

“I didn’t know because I was panicking earlier, but I think I saw your face at some point since I can clearly remember you crying…”

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

Yuyeon asked, extending her fingers.

“Two.”

“And now?”

“Four.”

He replied without hesitation. It didn’t seem like he was lying about being able to see.

“Are these also symptoms of infection?”

“Probably. That’s the only different thing. More than that, if you can see it all… You, there are two dead bodies over there, are you okay?”

There was a zombie corpse they had taken care of and a decomposing human corpse on Ryung’s side. It was for Yuyeon, of course. Ryung snorted, thinking Yuyeon’s concern for him was funny.

“I’m a corpse, too, but they’re all friends, you know.”

“How are you a corpse when you’re alive… You have a heartbeat, you breathe, you talk, so you’re at least half human.”

“That’s your consolation?”

His question made her laugh. She felt half-crazy for laughing in this situation.

“Sorry, I’m not very good at consoling.”

“That’s okay, it’s part of your charm.”

Yuyeon, who is allergic to compliments, rolled over to lie on her back when an urgent voice called out.

“Can’t you just stay?”

“Why?”

“Because I want to see you.”

“You… say things like that all the time, like it’s nothing…”

“Well, honestly, I was scared earlier…”

“I was scared to see you… actually, I’m still scared now.”

They were wrapping it in playfulness, but underneath it all was insecurity and fear. The two subconsciously made lighthearted remarks to cover it up, but it didn’t last long. The atmosphere grew heavy, and Yuyeon pushed out the breath she had been holding.

“What? Are you afraid of dying or becoming a zombie?”

Suddenly, his golden eyes, glowing in the darkness, didn’t fade, which meant he was looking at her without blinking.

“To me, it means the same thing: neither will I see you.”

“…”

“I’m not scared of anything else except for that.”

“…”

“So I’m going to watch a lot because I don’t know when it’s going to stop.”

Amid the darkness, the glowing eyes were like a light at the end of the tunnel, and Yuyeon found herself wanting to hold onto them. There was a vague sense that there would be hope at the end of the road.

For Yuyeon, Ryung had always been like that. He was her happiness that she had been trying to keep out of sight for fear of extinguishing it. It was only when she was on the verge of losing that light completely that she dared to reach out.

“Okay, I’ll have to watch a lot, too, so I don’t forget.”

“You can’t see me.”

“I can see you. Your eyes keep glowing.”

Suddenly he hid his eyes after she said those words. For a moment, Yuyeon’s gaze, bereft of a lighthouse, drifted with nowhere to go.

“What? Did you close your eyes?”

“… Gross, right?”

“What?”

“You… don’t like zombies, do you?”

“…”

It was strange to see this side of Ryung, who usually winked at her and was always waiting for her to make eye contact. The confidence that usually pierced the sky was now digging into the earth and punching Yuyeon in the chest. She felt guilty, knowing all too well that it was she who turned him into this.

“It’s okay, open your eyes.”

“Don’t look. I’m not sure what I look like now.”

“I know what you look like. You look like a zombie.”

“… Hmph.”

A muffled cry told her that he had fallen flat on his face somewhere. Wanting to help, Yuyeon took over.

“But, hey, it’s not bad, and your eyes are a different color than the other zombies. Yellow, it’s quite unique.”

“Forget it, what’s the point of being a unique zombie…”

“Well, you’re the most handsome zombie.”

“What’s the use of being the most handsome zombie…!”

Yuyeon, who was never much of a wordsmith, eventually failed to soothe him. She could hear his pouts in the darkness, wondering if he was really crying. She couldn’t understand why he would be so sad about changing his appearance, as she couldn’t remember ever looking in the mirror. If she was sane, she always thought she was the same person after all.

“You didn’t even look at me when I was fine… Now you do look at me. Sh*t, do you hate me…?”

“… Sh*t?”

Apparently, this was Yuyeon’s fault, too. The harsh words he spat out without realizing it muffled her breathing. She was about to erase herself from the world, even if it wasn’t from a suicide. She ran an irritated hand through her hair and sighed.

“Since when did you say you liked me for looking at you? Well, you said love is selfish, and if what you do to make yourself happy is love, then you should keep doing it.”

“I don’t want to be hated… but I don’t want to be looked at.”

“You’ve been pretty sure you haven’t been hated so far.”

“Yeah…”

Yuyeon was surprised. She thought he’d been busy hitting on her every time, but that wasn’t true.

“On what basis?”

“Because you smile a lot, even if it’s just a little.”

Come to think of it, she laughed out loud with him a lot. Because he was acting like a jerk because his n*ked facial expressions were funny because it was cute that a big guy was acting like a kid only with her…

“Sunbae!”

A giggle escaped her lips as a scene flashed through her mind, and he peeked out of hiding in response to the sound.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“…”

“I laughed a lot because of you. I still do now…”

“…”

“Then, isn’t it okay? To me, you’re just as good now as you were then.”

This time, the answer was good enough, and his eyes remained fixed on her. She smiled back at him and raised an eyebrow, and she was clearly able to hear him sobbing.

‘No way…’

“Huh! You…”

That’s when Yuyeon jerked upright.

“I think my heart is going to burst…”

“Do you think it’s from the infection…”

With a gasp, she turned on the light on the gun to illuminate him. He was clutching his chest, eyes squeezed shut. His eyelashes fluttered, and it looked like he was in a lot of pain.

“You’re okay…”

“I’m touched by that.”

“… What?”

“Don’t flirt with me when you’re not going to marry me.”

He nodded and groaned, unable to match his words with his symptoms, so she asked again.

“Where… does it hurt?”

“My c*ck…”

Yuyeon was dumbfounded by his response. She calmly turned off the light and lay back down, realizing she’d gotten an unwanted overload of information.

‘An assh*le was an assh*le, even as a zombie.’

But for now, it was comforting to know that nothing had changed.

For a moment, Yuyeon recalled as she subconsciously checked his lower region. His pants, so tight you’d think there was a steel pipe inside, were pulled so much against his skin that they looked as if they would burst. For some reason, her lower stomach tickled, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

When he shut up, there was silence for a while. It was Yuyeon who couldn’t stand the prolonged silence, uneasy that something might happen to him.

“Hey.”

“… Don’t talk to me. I’ve forgotten where I am in the national anthem.”

“Hey.”

“Three thousand f*cking miles away…”

“Dude.”

“Whoa… What?”

He finally responded, sounding annoyed at her constant calling.

“If… You and I are this way by sunrise tomorrow, we’re going back to headquarters together.”

“Headquarters… Can we go back?”

He wasn’t unreasonably worried. According to the manual, zombies were to be killed at all costs, and he was a perfect zombie in appearance, if not in mind. Even if he was lucky enough to be accepted, he’d be locked up in a lab for the rest of his life as an experiment.

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll make sure the higher-ups…”

“I’m not worried about me, I’m worried about you.”

Of course, her current offense of lying and breaking the rules was enough to get her kicked out.

“Well, that can wait until tomorrow…”

“I was going to pretend I didn’t know, but now that I do, I’m going to tell you.”

His voice rang through the cold night air. Yuyeon’s toes tingled with an unexpected nervousness and Ryung finally spoke up.

“I know you’ve been stealing lab materials.”

Kofi