Even Zombies Have Fandoms

Chapter 64

After Muyoung said his goodbyes, Seokjae, who had returned to the hallway first, thought his wariness towards the woman was justified and resolved to maintain it. This incident gave him the self-centered conviction that if Muyoung looked good in his eyes, he couldn’t look bad in others’ eyes.

At the same time, he tried to maintain a dry expression, fighting the urge to smile at the fact that Muyoung had chosen him over the two of them. No matter how cute Muyoung was, smiling would diminish the effect in a situation where he needed to scold him.

This was the truth behind the menacing expression that Muyoung had mistaken for Seokjae suffering from nightmares. But now, his expression was genuinely starting to crumple.

While he felt like smiling when Muyoung approached with innocent concern, seeing him lie for the woman’s sake made him feel irritated.

He knew it was childish, and he knew he had deliberately pushed the situation to this point, but he still felt annoyed nonetheless.

“I went to the kitchen because I was thirsty… and briefly to the utility room? I must have gotten dirty there. Probably…”

“Why did you go to the utility room?”

“I, I heard a sound there?”

“What kind of sound did you hear?”

“Well… that is…”

Muyoung was flustered by Seokjae’s sharp probing of the holes in his lies. It would be a big problem if they spent more time in the hallway and the woman happened to come in for something she needed and encountered them.

“Hyung.”

Muyoung, who had been rolling his eyes around, took a small deep breath and called him.

‘Oh no. Is he going to confess first?’

In fact, he hadn’t intended to push this far. He had just planned to let Muyoung know that he knew everything and stimulate his guilt… But seeing him try so hard for her sake annoyed him, making him forget what was important and focus on tormenting him.

He realized his mistake, but it was too late to recapture the lost opportunity, so Seokjae hid his regret and answered.

“Yes, Muyoung?”

“Could you… ask me again in the morning instead of now…?”

I can tell you then…

Contrary to expectations, Muyoung kept his loyalty to her until the end. Seeing Muyoung looking at him with a face that seemed about to whimper, the strength in Seokjae’s angry eyes slowly drained away.

“And, you’re tired from nightmares too, hyung. Let’s go to sleep together quickly.”

And with these last words, even the slight pettiness he had been harboring completely disappeared.

‘Right, it’s not because of the promise with that woman, but because it’s a promise that he’s trying to keep it.’

Thinking about it again, Muyoung was always the type of person who would do his best to keep a promise, regardless of what it was or who it was with, if he had promised to keep it secret. Seokjae, his childishness gone, judged that there was no need to worry about it anymore and simply nodded.

“Then in my room again today-“

“Muyoung, you went outside, didn’t you.”

However, what he had nodded in agreement to was the “let’s sleep together” part, not the “please ask me tomorrow morning” part.

“What? No, no, I didn’t. I didn’t.”

Muyoung, who had been feeling relieved, was startled by the confident accusation and repeated his lie like a parrot, forgetting that he had already half-confessed to hiding something.

“There’s grass stuck to your pants.”

“Gasp.”

But as soon as he heard Seokjae’s point, he lowered his head to check his pant legs. Having failed to notice the black dust on his top, he didn’t doubt it this time either, thinking he had made a mistake.

“Huh…?”

There’s nothing stuck on them?

But Muyoung’s pant legs were clean without a trace of anything stuck to them. Thinking he might have missed it, he shook his head frantically back and forth to check, but not even a small blade of grass was visible.

“It’s a lie, why are you so surprised.”

Seokjae said to the wide-eyed, flustered Muyoung as if telling him to calm down. Muyoung, who was just about to lift his leg back and turn his head, looked at Seokjae with a movement that seemed like it would make a creaking sound.

‘I’ve been tricked!’

Only then did Muyoung realize that Seokjae had thrown out bait to see his reaction. If he really hadn’t gone outside, he wouldn’t have been this surprised. Cold sweat seemed to run down his spine. Muyoung sighed at his own carelessness.

“You’re still trying to hide that you met with that woman.”

It wasn’t good to pressure him again, as he had almost lost the opportunity due to his own pettiness. But if he didn’t do this, there would be no point in waiting deliberately, so Seokjae finally led the situation so that Muyoung would throw away his chance to speak first.

“H-How…”

“I knew from the beginning.”

“From the beginning?”

“I was about to go out after finishing packing, but I heard you talking with the child outside the door. I didn’t know the details, but it seemed like you had made some kind of promise with that woman, so I waited until you came back.”

Hyung knew everything. Muyoung’s mouth opened slightly in shock.

‘Was telling me about the dust on purpose to give me a hint? And I didn’t realize that and kept making excuses…?’

He felt so embarrassed knowing that Seokjae had been watching while knowing all his words were lies.

‘Ugh… I should have gone up to the second floor to talk with Hayun.’

Muyoung regretted not talking with the child in front of Seokjae’s room, but in fact, no matter where they had talked, his lies were so clumsy that anyone paying a little attention could have noticed.

‘I guess I was actually a very careless person…’

While it’s not good to do things secretly, having all three of his secret attempts end up being caught by others made Muyoung feel a bit dejected.

“Then, why didn’t you say something from the beginning?”

What could be the reason for asking while pretending not to know everything? Was it funny to see him trying to deceive Seokjae while knowing nothing? Even though he knew Seokjae wasn’t that kind of person, Muyoung momentarily doubted his intentions due to the embarrassment and frustration washing over him.

‘Is that supposed to be a glare?’

His face, scrunched up with effort as if he had never glared at anyone before, looked more like he was holding back tears than being fierce.

In fact, given who he was facing, his face kept relaxing even when he tried to glare on purpose, but to Seokjae, who didn’t know this, Muyoung looked like some soft, angelic being beyond human who couldn’t even glare properly anymore.

“I wanted you to tell me first.”

Seokjae said, slightly turning his head to the side. It gave a very melancholic impression, but in fact, he turned his gaze to hold back the laughter that was about to escape upon seeing Muyoung’s puffy face.

“Ah…”

Muyoung was so shocked by Seokjae’s words that he lost his voice. He had trusted and waited for him, yet Muyoung had doubted his sincerity out of embarrassment. He lowered his head deeply, overcome by shame for a different reason than before.

“What did that person ask you to do?”

“She didn’t ask me to do anything, just made a request…”

Seokjae glanced at the restless Muyoung, deliberately let out a small sigh, and then spoke.

“If she asked you to steal food, it’s okay to give it to her. I won’t tell the kids it was you, and I’ll explain it well.”

“No! It’s absolutely not that! If it was something like that, I would have refused even if she asked.”

Muyoung’s heart sank, and he hurriedly grabbed Seokjae’s hand and shook his head. Seokjae’s familiar way of handling the situation made it seem like he had lost trust in Muyoung.

Having had different experiences from ordinary survivors, Muyoung hadn’t directly faced interpersonal problems, but he had seen many survivors split up for various reasons. Most of the causes of conflict were individual greed and distrust, and there was a high probability that Seokjae had experienced such problematic situations as well.

Even though it seemed unlikely that someone’s heart could change so suddenly, this city was that kind of place. Innocent people had died because of such individuals.

So Muyoung was anxious that if he let today’s incident pass without resolution, Seokjae might no longer see him as a friend.

‘I don’t want that.’

Even if it came to that, he would still do his best to help Seokjae, but in the few days they had spent together, his feelings for Seokjae had grown, and he couldn’t go back to the time when he was satisfied just by being acknowledged.

‘I want hyung to keep seeing me as a friend in the future. I want to be someone he can share worries with that he can’t tell the kids, like yesterday, and someone he can lean on anytime…’

Muyoung, who had been passively accepting Seokjae’s actions until now, felt an unfamiliar emotion similar to desire for the first time, and inwardly stomped his feet.