Please Shoot Me - 15

As the suddenly distracted Ryung approached with his mouth wide open, Yuyeon reflexively raised her gun and screamed at him.

“What! Why? What are you…!?”

Without realizing it, the muzzle of the gun wandered into the space, and for a moment Ryung wondered if there was a change in his body rather than something else. Hiding behind his back, Yuyeon pointed her index finger at something bobbing in the air.

“There’s a… Moth…”

“What…?”

“A moth the size of my fist…”

True to her words, a giant moth was hovering there. Sure, it was big enough to be mistaken for a small bird at first glance, but it was just a moth. Perhaps it was because it was insignificant, but in the heat of the moment, Yuyeon blurted out something she shouldn’t have.

“Oh, what a surprise! You’ve got a moth coming out of your mouth…!”

“…”

“Ah…”

Yuyeon hastily covered her mouth, but already Ryung’s head bent forward as if it had been severed. He walked past her without a word and entered the building again. It took more than an hour to drag him outside by telling him he was the most handsome of all the humans and zombies in the world since he would rather die by himself.

“Come on.”

Yuyeon tugged on Ryung’s sleeve. He acted like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse, exuding a melancholy air. He staggered along, but he outpaced her brisk stride. When they exited the landfill after a few hills of garbage, the car was waiting for its owner. She opened the passenger door herself, threw the crumpled man inside of it, and climbed into the driver’s seat herself.

“What dust…”

It had only been a day, but there was a thick layer of dust on the windshield. Yuyeon roughly wiped it off with the windshield wipers and started the car. Now and then, she glanced at Ryung’s face as he leaned against the window, looking like the world was at his feet.

“Hey, are you still pouting?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Well, fasten your seatbelt.”

“I’m not a buckling up, I’m a zombie.”

“Well, if you don’t want to be ejected and have your face painted on the windshield, buckle up.

“I’ll take and get a new face…”

“Hey…!”

Nervously unbuckling her own seatbelt, she leaned her upper body toward him and buckled it up for him. For a moment, his gaze, which had been focused out the window at the distance, was drawn to her.

“Why are you being so nice to me? Are you still feeling guilty?”

“I told you I’m not. Do you really want to continue being an assh*le? You aren’t a child.”

With an annoyed snort, she fastened her seatbelt again and waved him off. Unexpectedly, the corner of his mouth twitched upward. Her head sharply titled at his reaction.

“What the hell? Why are you laughing?”

“Because you’re being so nice to me, I want to be meaner. Be careful, I have a mean streak and I’ll take advantage of you.”

Yuyeon realized that he was back to being the smirking, confident, and arrogant junior again.

“Is this… Do you feel better?”

“Well, it’s the first time I’ve ever had a sunbae care this much about me, so it’s nice.”

“You pretended to be hurt and played me. Do you like making fun of your boss?”

“I was actually hurt at first because you were so blatantly surprised to see my face earlier.”

“When did I-?”

“When you freaked out about the moth and grabbed your gun.”

Yuyeon couldn’t help but be surprised when a pale-faced hulk came running at her and screaming. It was a reflexive reaction from her body that had been fighting zombies for nearly a decade.

“Hmph, I thought another zombie showed up.”

“You were looking at me.”

“… Ah, no.”

“The one who got hit knows better than the one who hit.”

Yuyeon shut her mouth, trying to deny the increasing pressure. Ryung stuck out his lips like a duck as if he knew her excuses were coming. He checked himself in the mirror on the passenger side of the car. She watched his reaction as she started the car again. If he was as demoralized as he had been earlier, she might have to talk to him for another hour.

She gazed into his reptilian eyes. Ryung pressed his lips to hers and softly sighed.

“You’re lucky to have lips like these.”

“Why? What’s wrong with your lips? They’re pretty.”

Yuyeon defended his lips as if they were her own, and Ryung laughed, slightly shaking his head.

“Really? I didn’t realize you were into zombies.”

“Uh…? Whatever, it isn’t bad. It’s not so bad to see it in person, is it?”

“Maybe it’s because I’ve been bracing myself, but it’s not as bad as I thought, except for maybe the yees.”

Ryung rubbed his hands over his eyelids as if he wanted to pluck them out. Yuyeon hastened to speak again.

“No, your eyes are the best. When I saw them at night, they looked like the stars in the sky.”

“Really? Didn’t you freak out when you first saw them?”

“… No, they’re really beautiful. The more I look at them, the more I love them…”

Sensing that she was struggling, Ryung quickly broke into a mischievous grin.

“Oh, I don’t want you to fall in love with me as a zombie. I’m going back to being human.”

From then on, the two continued their playful conversation and laughed together. As the car bounced over a bump in the dirt road, Yuyeon suddenly remembered yesterday’s handover. When she drove this road on the way out here yesterday, she had no idea of the tragedy to come. She thought she would just get through the mission and go back to sleep.

Even though she was faced with an unexpected trial and things weren’t going well, she was comforted by the fact they had survived. Perhaps because they had bounced back from the worst of it, the distance between them after a night of life and death was narrower than ever. They were filled with a new type of courage as if they were on drugs.

She wondered if she was actually paralyzed between despair and hope, hoping to see the edge of the giant iron gate she had to cross, but she shook her head and dismissed that thought.

The iron gate separating the safe zone from the rest of the building was about 10 meters high. It was about the height of the third floor of the headquarters building, with a watchtower on top, so it was heavily guarded. To leave the safe zone, one had to get special permission from the headquarters. Even Seonwoo’s deportation required a special order from the headquarters, and when Yuyeon went to go feed the dog, she did so with the excuse of collecting DNA from an unusual species.

“What are we going to do now?”

“Go to the lab.”

“Well, you said the lab was outside, so why don’t I just hide my face and you go into the headquarters and then…”

“No, I can’t do that.”

“Why not? Are you afraid we’ll be caught? Your original plan was to get me out of the service anyway…”

“I was short-sighted yesterday. If this whole thing was an experiment in the first place, the higher-ups would be waiting for us to come back. Going inside the headquarters is like putting a noose around your own neck.”

Seonwoo’s invitation to come to his lab included going through the iron gate. If they tried to pass through the gate without permission, they would be interviewed. Normally, this would have resulted in expulsion, but given the condition of Ryung, it was clear they would not let him go. No one would let a successful test subject go so easily.

“Then what are you going to do? I can’t get past the iron gate, but we need permission to open it… Hah…”

Immediately after Ryung came to a realization, the car skidded to a halt, unable to continue along the dirt road. Apparently, they had been arrogant to think they could even make it to the iron gate. Ahead, a wall of A/Z military vehicles blocked the road.

“What the hell?”

With a self-deprecating laugh, she grabbed Ryung by the back of the head.

“Just keep your head down.”

Ryung obediently dropped his head but continued to glance ahead.

“I don’t know what they’re doing, but the way they’re blocking me like that… I’m guessing they have orders from above.”

“Was it the fact that you said it was too difficult to come back yesterday as an excuse to stay out?”

“So you say they are here to pick us up? I’ve been picked up too many times to know better than that.”

Yuyeon spotted them and scanned the crew before she got out of the car. The only faces she recognized were on her team and Team B. Hopefully, she will be able to get away with it.

Yuyeon took off her robe and covered Ryung’s face.

“Cover it with this, then lie down.”

“What?”

Instead of answering, she quickly reached out and tilted his chair backward, causing him to spit out an unintelligible word as he lay down. Flattened, Ryung clasped his hands together and swallowed hard. Yuyeon watched the crew approach the car and whispered to Ryung.

“I’ll go out and come back. You’re sleeping because you’re tired, okay?”

Kofi