episode_0208

Unfortunately, Miri’s father’s treatment was not carried out immediately.

“First, I’ll do it after he recovers a bit. His current physical condition is too bad…”

Dr. Jang explained that even receiving treatment required energy.

So, they scheduled to induce the fracture again sometime tomorrow.

Miri’s father’s complexion only returned to normal after being recommended to have enough food and rest until then.

After the farce between the one trying to treat (?) and the one trying to be treated ended.

“Hot water?!”

I and the three newly joined people headed straight for the showers.

Miri’s father was quite surprised, but not as much as the two American women.

The luxury of soaking one’s body in hot water.

Heize and Lawrence were ecstatic, as if lasers were shooting from their eyes.

Watching Heize follow Shia, laughing cheerfully, I got the impression that she was very honest with her emotions.

And easy to understand as well.

And I, too, enjoyed the hot shower just as much.

Unless it was a truly unavoidable situation.

I could never give it up before then.

The feeling of melting away my tired, blood-soaked body with hot water.

I really liked the pleasant weariness that came over me after a long time.

However, the shower took a little longer.

Perhaps because I was covered in zombie fluids, the shampoo wouldn’t lather.

At first, I thought I’d used it wrong, but that wasn’t…

‘…It’s the first time I’ve gotten goosebumps while washing my hair.’

It took a long time of spraying, rubbing, and wiping before it returned to its original state.

I glanced at my reflection in the mirror.

First, the scars on my upper body had faded quite significantly compared to before.

To the point where they felt faint compared to how they were initially.

And my muscles felt a bit more elastic.

I had a feeling like I had developed a bit more.

I flexed, feeling my joints pop.

My body felt extremely good.

I examined my body from front to back and let out a small sigh of relief.

I’d been wondering if there might be any negative effects on my body from constantly fighting zombies…

There was a subtle concern that bothered me.

Even dirty water wasn’t good for the skin, let alone rotting blood.

For now, it seemed there were no major problems, thankfully, but…

‘…That feeling back then…’

The uncontrollable elation I felt at Yongsan Base.

It wasn’t that there was a problem, but I couldn’t help but be bothered by it.

Uncontrollable emotions are dangerous.

Right after that fight, I felt fine, but…

The only things I suspected were the things I’d been covered in.

I was a little worried.

Whether I was getting drunk on the taste of blood, or if the zombie blood was stimulating me.

“…Did I lose some weight?”

I decided to just brush it off.

Since when did I get scared of such things?

Rather than rack my brain over an unanswerable question, I’d rather just sleep.

After a slightly long shower, I got dressed.

And sat on the edge of the bed for a moment.

It was a stark room, devoid of anything but basic furniture.

It hadn’t been used for a while, but not a speck of dust was visible.

The desk, the floor, everything was clean.

The bed sheets and blanket I sat on were soft and smelled pleasant.

‘……’

An indelible sense of life and coziness.

It seemed my companions had been continuously taking care of my room.

Feeling grateful for the unseen thoughtfulness, I headed to the lounge.

Everyone seemed busy, as there was no one in the lounge.

I picked a suitable sofa and sank into it.

“Ughhh~”

It was truly comfortable.

I could deeply understand why people just lounge around on sofas.

I felt a magical power that could make a person utterly useless.

As my eyelids began to droop, feeling both weariness and comfort at the same time.

“……”

“Miri, have you been well?”

She nodded.

Miri approached silently and stood before me.

Standing demurely, Miri looked at me with swollen, rabbit-like eyes.

It seemed her speech had opened up, but she wasn’t quite ready for conversation yet.

“Sit here.”

I gently lifted Miri’s small body and sat her beside me.

The child, who entrusted her body without much resistance, leaned her back against me quietly.

“Have you been listening to your mom well?”

“……”

Instead of answering, she nodded her head.

I threw a few more words her way, but she didn’t voice a reply.

Thanks to that, the short, one-word replies didn’t last long.

As the conversation died down and I was spacing out, a small object rested on my thigh.

“……”

Miri slowly lay down, using my leg as a pillow.

Perhaps because she was a girl, she was incredibly small and delicate.

I gazed silently at Miri, who was acting like a kitten.

It was the first time the child had acted so affectionately.

She was always a child who clung to her mother’s embrace, so this was unexpected.

Perhaps she wasn’t scared of me anymore?

As I watched Miri quietly wiggling her fingers, Shia approached.

“Miri’s lying down~? Are you sleepy? Oppa, would you like a drink?”

“Oh, thank you.”

Because she bent slightly to place the cup on the table, her long, straight hair flowed softly down. Her clean, shiny, beautiful hair swayed before my eyes.

And the subtle fragrance I had noticed earlier enveloped my face.

‘……’

For a moment, I couldn’t take my eyes off her flowing hair.

“Why? Is something on me?”

“No…”

Feeling a sudden thirst, I gulped down the orange juice in one go.

As Shia swept her hair back at my gaze, I had the illusion that the fragrance intensified.

‘…Has she gotten prettier?’

“Oppa, have you lost weight?”

“Huh, huh?”

“You’ve lost some weight, though?”

“Have I? I’m not sure.”

Feeling somehow embarrassed, I ran a hand over my face.

While I felt a slight awkwardness, Shia sat down on the opposite side of Miri.

Miri on the left, Shia on the right.

A flower in each hand… no.

As I gently stroked Miri’s hair, Shia quietly spoke.

“It seems you had a very hard time out there.”

“…Hmm… A little?”

Shia tried to engage in conversation little by little, but she couldn’t help but be a little awkward.

It was clear she didn’t have much experience talking to men.

Perhaps that was why.

She poured out conventional questions like ‘Did you eat well?’ and ‘Did you catch a cold?’, yet they didn’t feel trite.

Somehow, it was a bit…

“Why, why are you laughing?”

“Because you’re cute.”

“……”

Her blushing face and clumsy words both felt endearing.

“What have you been up to?”

“Me, well, I was just the same. Helping Grandma with chores and cooking…”

“Cooking aside, this place is so big, cleaning must be hard, right?”

“It’s fine because we all do it together.”

Shia, who also spoke of learning various things from Grandma, felt calm and comfortable.

“Who cleaned my room?”

“Uh… I did… Why, why?”

“I just thought it was clean and nice.”

“Oh, really?”

At my honest remark, Shia smiled contentedly.

“But is it okay for an actress to do that?”

To my jokingly expressed concern, Shia reacted nonchalantly.

“This is all experience for the future. They say if you get used to it, it’ll all be helpful.”

“Who says that?”

“Jihyeok sunbae-nim and my acting teacher-nim have said that a lot. They say you need to experience everything to bring a character to life.”

“Oh… Prince Jihyeok, huh.”

Pfft…

Shia, who turned her face away to suppress her laughter, spoke calmly.

“Because of a drama I was in before, foreign fans said I looked like a prince from some country.”

“The prince from the North?”

“Oppa!”

As I chuckled, Shia lightly tapped my arm.

I pretended not to notice her adorable touch.

“So that’s Prince Hyuk?”

“Yeah, well… He likes it but also gets embarrassed.”

“My hands and feet curl up just hearing it [an idiom for feeling extremely embarrassed or cringeworthy], so it’s understandable he’d feel that way.”

“I really didn’t expect to hear that nickname again here.”

Thanks to Prince Jihyeok, even I, who am not good with words, could continue the conversation a little.

Looking at it this way, Shia didn’t seem to find me difficult either.

Both Shia and Heize had suffered terribly because of men, so were they really okay?

Watching her chatter away beside me, with the corners of her eyes curving beautifully, she simply gave off the impression of a fresh, innocent girl.

“I’ll go help set the table and come back.”

“…Okay.”

It was when Shia slowly stood up.

“Aaa~~ This is so good~”

She roared with a distinct Western intonation, stretched her long arms high, and shuffled out.

Although women take a long time to wash, it had been quite a while.

She seemed to have borrowed Shia’s clothes, as she was in comfortable attire instead of a military uniform.

Her previously matted, seaweed-like hair had transformed cleanly and now swished.

Having shed her grimy past, her rosy face glowed.

Two large melons, flaunting their presence above her loose T-shirt, jiggled—

Cough?!

“Oh, Oppa?”

“Huh?”

‘W-What is that?’

I was startled after a long time.

Heize’s chest, which had previously been underwhelming… her chest… Her splendid breasts were now causing huge waves.

“Hey.”

“Hmm?”

“What is that on you?”

“What?”

“What did you put on your chest?”

“?? Ah~?”

Heize looked down at her chest, then began to flash a sly smile at me.

“Do you want to see?”

“What are you talking about?! There’s a child here too!”

“Oops?”

“Whoa whoa whoa…”

I covered Miri’s eyes, and Shia froze while standing.

Heize, sticking out her tongue, approached with a provocative stride.

With each step she took, her chest heaved.

Jiggle jiggle~

Where on earth did these breasts, which weren’t there before, suddenly spring from?

She struck a pose!

“W-What is it?”

Instead of answering, Heize drew a seductive smile.

And, turning one hand behind her back…

With a tug—

“!!!!”

“You like this?”

She pulled her clothes back from behind, revealing the curves of her body as they were.

The destructive curves revealed clearly before my eyes.

Her beautifully curved figure, which had been completely hidden by the military uniform, was etched into my vision.

“Hey!!!”

“Ahahaha! Come on~ baby~”

“Th-This crazy woman!”

On top of that, she even swayed her hips from side to side.

As I yelled at her to stop immediately, Shia mumbled.

“I, I too…”

With a determined expression, she was about to stand side-by-side with Heize…

“What nonsense are you spouting now?! Hey!! I said stop! In front of a child, really!”

“Woo~♡”

“Oh, come on!!”

As I growled between the unbridled white horse and the stumbling innocent.

“Seonghan. Grandma said to eat r—”

“………”

“…My bad.”

“No, Hyung! It’s not like that!”

I called out to Jihyeok Hyung, who was turning away, wondering what he was sorry for.

But Hyung, slowly retreating, simply gave a silent thumbs-up.