Even Zombies Have Fandoms

Chapter 45

Even with his hair disheveled from settling into position and half-covering his face, the perfect shape of his nose bridge and jawline remained unhidden. However, human greed knows no bounds, and Muyoung wanted to see his face in even more detail.

‘Just a little…’

After hesitating, Muyoung raised his hand and gently brushed Seokjae’s hair away, as if a feather were passing over it.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to bother him. Seokjae’s breathing remained steady as Muyoung swept all of his hair back. In fact, the slight tension in his brow relaxed, as if he liked having the tickling hair removed from his face.

With the hair no longer obscuring his face, Muyoung’s view became clearer. Sculpture-like features combined with slightly dark skin created an intensely masculine aura. Having him sleeping on his lap made Muyoung feel like a decadent nobleman.

‘How can he look newly handsome every single day?’

Like a cat addicted to watching a fish tank, Muyoung was intensely focused on observing the sleeping face. Without realizing it, he reached out his hand towards Seokjae’s face again, as if entranced. Though he couldn’t feel pain or temperature, his sense of touch wasn’t completely gone, so he could tell that the skin was very smooth.

‘It was worth the effort.’

He had thought Seokjae’s complexion looked better than when he first found him, and it wasn’t just his imagination. He was glad that the things he had prepared seemed to have affected not just Seokjae’s safety, but his health as well.

‘Next is…’

Having touched him lightly several times without any sign of him waking up, Muyoung grew a bit bolder.

‘Touching someone’s hair helps them sleep better.’

Making this self-serving excuse internally, he began to stroke the jet-black hair he had always wondered about.

“Hmm…”

“Gasp.”

How many times had he moved his hand? It hadn’t been long, but Seokjae, who had been still until now, took a deep breath and snuggled closer into Muyoung’s embrace. Thinking he might have disturbed him, Muyoung quickly withdrew his hand, and a moment later, Seokjae frowned deeply.

Fidgeting nervously, Muyoung began to stroke his hair again on a hunch, and as if that was the right answer, Seokjae’s expression became peaceful.

‘He seems to like it.’

After that, Muyoung continued to stroke his hair at a steady pace without stopping for a moment. He looked no different from a zookeeper trying not to wake a sensitive predator.

Pitter-patter.

Muyoung, who had been enjoying their private time together, looked towards the closed door upon hearing footsteps from outside.

Pitter-patter-patter.

The footsteps were clearly lighter than an adult’s, but they resonated strongly on the floor, stopping and starting again repeatedly. Judging by how they grew distant and then close again, it seemed like someone was searching for something.

Even just from the sound of the footsteps, Muyoung could tell who it was. He pondered for a moment without stopping his hand stroking Seokjae’s hair.

‘Should I go out?’

Listening carefully, there were no other sounds besides those small footsteps. In other words, that person was alone in the hallway right now… Curious about how they ended up alone on the first floor and feeling worried, Muyoung decided to go out and check.

The problem was the predator sleeping soundly on his lap.

‘Can I move hyung onto a pillow without waking him?’

Muyoung slowly slid his stroking hand under Seokjae’s head, supporting the round back of his head with his palm.

“…Phew.”

Then, bringing over a pillow with his other hand, he kept the hand supporting Seokjae’s head in place while simultaneously pulling out his leg and sliding the pillow in. Seokjae stirred a little, perhaps feeling awkward with his head suddenly on something soft, but he didn’t wake up.

Muyoung got off the bed as if crawling, careful not to make even the sound of rustling sheets. The moment his feet touched the floor, his legs stiffened like wooden posts, and his knees buckled.

“Ugh.”

If I fall, he’ll wake up!

In the brief instant his body was falling forward, Muyoung made a quick decision. He immediately put strength into the soles of his feet to support himself and placed his hands on the floor. Ending up kneeling on the floor in quite a graceful pose, he immediately turned his head to look back.

Fortunately, Seokjae was still sound asleep.

‘That took years off my life.’

Afraid of causing a major disaster by standing up normally only to fall again, Muyoung carefully raised his body. His legs were still stiff, but they seemed a bit better than when he had taken his first step earlier. Moving slowly, one step at a time, he ended up moving like a creaking tin man.

Somehow, there was a subtle tingling sensation in the soles of his feet. Thinking he might have stepped on something, he moved his foot and looked, but there was nothing there. Just in case, he tried curling his toes, and they moved around on their own, similar to a phenomenon he had often experienced in the past.

‘…Could my foot be asleep?’

He couldn’t be sure because there was no pain, but it was similar to the numbness often felt when maintaining one position for a long time.

‘Can zombies get numb legs too?’

He thought about it carefully, but since becoming a zombie, he had never maintained one position long enough to get a cramp like this, so it was hard to compare.

‘Well, the fact that I have consciousness at all is already beyond common sense… I guess a mutant zombie could experience this too.’

Tilting his head and pondering, Muyoung decided to let it go when he heard the footsteps outside becoming slower, as if losing strength.

‘Come to think of it, isn’t it good that I realized this now? If I had been hiding outside and tried to run without realizing my leg was numb, I would have fallen. Then not only would I be in danger, but everyone else would be too.’

Next time he had to crouch for a long time, he’d have to manage it better in advance. Thinking he had turned a crisis into an opportunity, Muyoung cheerfully limped over to open the door.

As he went out of the room, he saw a child peering around here and there in the corridor, just as he had expected.

“Hayun.”

“Oh, oppa! Hello.”

When he called out to the child, she waved and greeted him as she always did.

“How did you come down alone?”

“Unni is sleeping right now!”

“So you didn’t get permission to come down.”

As Muyoung muttered with a troubled face, the child looked sheepish and said,

“Isn’t it okay if I play with oppa? She let me talk to you earlier too.”

“That was probably because she was watching from behind…”

Currently, the relationship between Seokjae’s group, including himself, and Park Hyunyoung seemed to have improved, but only for Muyoung. The reason it had only improved for him was that he and he alone had been delivering meals to the second floor.

It wasn’t that someone had pushed the task onto him. Except for the sick Junwoo, hyung and Kyungho had volunteered to go, but Muyoung had declined and desperately held onto this task.

The reason was that he was worried about their condition. …No, actually, it was because he wanted to delay the torturous mealtime even a little bit. So Muyoung went beyond just delivering meals and exchanged a few words each time before coming back down.

Normally, he wouldn’t have spoken to someone who showed such aversion. It would have been scary, not knowing what kind of abuse he might receive. But his fear of the food torture was even greater, so he persistently tried to make conversation on everyday topics.

That’s not to say he stayed on the second floor for long. With three people waiting and not eating until he returned, he couldn’t stay long due to a guilty conscience.

Still, those small attempts seemed to have an effect. The door that was tightly closed at first opened a crack over time, and through that gap, they were able to exchange brief greetings.

From today, since his secret had been discovered, there was no need for him to bring the meals up himself. But he had developed a sense of responsibility, or rather, closeness, so he took charge of bringing the meal up this time too. And something surprising happened. This time, the child opened the door wide and came out.

The woman had always come out alone to take the food in. It seemed she had given the child permission to talk. The child must have begged, but still, she didn’t scold her and close the door, so it appeared that her wariness had decreased significantly since the first day.

‘But to think such an unexpected situation would occur right away.’

He had a bad feeling that not only would the child get scolded, but the gaze directed at him would become harsh again. After all, he was the only person the child could have come down to meet. Even though it wasn’t intentional, it could look like he had lured her down.

“Hayun, how about just going back up? If you want to come down, let’s get permission from unni first.”

“What if she says no?”

“Well… then there’s nothing we can do, right?”

“It’s boring being alone on the second floor. Unni barely plays with me and just sleeps all the time.”

I don’t know how old you are, but shouldn’t you not compare your energy levels with an adult unni?