Walking Daddy

Chapter 12

So-Yeon looked back and forth between myself and the woman before carefully opening up. “Lee So-Yeon…”

“Lee So-Yeon? What a pretty name! How old are you sweetheart?”

“...Eight years old.”

So-Yeon held onto my shirt as she answered. She was still keeping a distance from the strangers. The woman seemed to sense what she was feeling. She put on a smile and said, “Nice to meet you sweetie. My name is Choi Da-Hye.”

The woman rubbed her right hand on her pants and offered it out for a handshake. She wanted to shake So-Yeon’s hand. So-Yeon looked at me, her eyes reflecting an unspoken question: ‘Can I shake her hand?’

I smiled, giving her a nod of approval. Only then did she let go of my hand and shake the woman’s hand. She was now holding onto a living human’s hand, full of warmth, unlike mine. I looked at Da-Hye and gave her a nod. It was the best way for me to express my gratitude. She looked at me, swallowed visibly, and looked at So-Yeon. “Is he your father?”

So-Yeon nodded.

She laughed and said, “Hmm… what a nice dad you have.”

She still had some wariness and fear, but she was trying her best to maintain a smile for So-Yeon’s sake. I knew she was a good person. Even in a situation like this, she interacted with children while doing her best to lighten the mood.

Thanks to her, So-Yeon’s anxiety also disappeared. As she opened up, Choi Da-Hye started asking questions that she had wanted to ask. So-Yeon answered as best as she could, given her knowledge. Choi Da-Hye asked her simple questions, for example, how long So-Yeon had been in the apartment unit, how I turned into a zombie, and how I was different from the other ones.

I tried to draw and scribble out letters on the drawing pad to provide answers to the questions So-Yeon couldn’t answer. However, Choi Da-Hye could not understand what I was trying to convey, so she called the man at the dining table.

“Hey, Jeong-Hyuk.”

The man didn’t say anything so Da-Hye called him again, sharply.

“Lee Jeong-Hyuk? Jeong-Hyuk oppa!”

“Yeah, what?”

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The man with the knife was named Lee Jeong-Hyuk. Now that his older brother had calmed down, he patted him on the back and got up. He walked over to Choi Da-Hye and looked closely at the drawings and letters I’d put together. He shook his head, as though confused.

I needed time to build my rapport with them. They were survivors in this hellish world that hadn’t forsaken their morals. The third requirement I’d set earlier… That didn’t matter anymore. I was planning to go to the high school again the next day, and if that didn’t work out… Wouldn’t I be able to find some kind of direction along the way?

I was going to find the third requirement by myself, so these survivors only had to satisfy my first two requirements.

Lee Jeong-Hyuk sat next to me, rubbing his neck. With a sheepish grin, he whispered to me, “My apologies for the aggressiveness my brother showed earlier on.”

He was apologizing to a zombie. I didn’t know how to take this in. I gazed at the man at the dining table. He was staring straight into the dark kitchen, unmoving. It seemed like he had gone through a lot. I knew how he felt. He had probably been engulfed by the fear of death when the zombies trapped them. Even in such a situation, he’d put his life on the line to save Lee Jeong-Hyuk and Choi Da-Hye.

The fact that they’d been brought to me by zombies probably hadn’t helped either. It made sense for them to be completely on edge. However, despite the despair he surely felt because of what had happened to his family, he buried his pain deep down to protect those around him.

I valued his efforts and mentality. The fact that they’d survived to this day, proved that they had decent survival skills as well. They were different from me, since I hadn’t been able to last even a day against ‘them’.

Lee Jeong-Hyuk rubbed his chin while taking a close look at my drawing. “So… let’s cut to the chase. You want us to protect your daughter? The words here seem to be ‘daughter’ and ‘protect’, am I right?”

I nodded, growling at him with my throat-rending cry. The sound made him take a couple of steps back, but he continued, “Hmm… I really don’t know what to do.”

Talking with a dead person. This was impossible to do with a sane mind. At that moment, the man at the dining table croaked, “How can we trust you? What if that child is merely a lure that leads us to guys like you?”

The man was running through all possible scenarios. As a leader, he had to think about and take care of the things no one else did, could, or wanted to. I didn’t take his words as an insult. I had to figure out how to gain his trust. I spied Choi Da-Hye’s shoes in the entryway. They had all taken off their shoes when they had entered.

I was amazed that they had taken them off, even with the world in the state it was in.

If my intentions had been different, they would have had to run away barefoot. The thought of that made me laugh reflexively. The man at the dining table narrowed his eyes, taking it as a sign of mockery. “You’d better explain everything.”

In response, I walked to the entryway and picked up Choi Da-Hye’s shoes. The survivors looked at me cluelessly, waiting for my next move. I took her flats and walked toward the living room. I placed it between the door and the door frame, showing them how the door wouldn’t close. They looked at me with puzzled expressions. I went inside the bedroom and retrieved three cans of food and some water, to help them understand what I was trying to express. I rolled the food items in through the crack in the doorway.

“Hmm?” Suddenly, Choi Da-Hye’s eyes flew wide open, as if she had reached an epiphany. She pointed at me hesitantly, then nudged Lee Jeong-Hyuk in the arm, her voice growing excited. “Don’t you remember, oppa? The time when someone gave us food while we were trapped in the convenience store?”

“Oh…”

“You don’t remember?”

“So this was the… person… human… zombie…? Anyway, it was him?”

“Yes! It was my shoes. The door didn’t close because it had gotten caught!”

Lee Jeong-Hyuk seemed to remember now. He looked at me, his eyes open wide. The man at the dining table was also scrutinizing me. Then, Da-Hye stood up. “Oh goodness! It was you! The person who gave us food?”

“Grr…”

I nodded violently. I wanted to let them know that I was different, that I didn’t harm people, that I was a zombie that was on the side of the humans. The man sitting at the dining table came toward me. After a while, he looked me straight in the eyes and asked, “If we take care of your child, what will you do for us?”

Straight to the point.

It felt rather threatening, but it was the wisest question, given the current situation. Negotiations were inevitable. That’s how all deals were made.

I picked up the drawing pad and crayons on the living room floor and took them to the kitchen. I opened the drawing pad and tried my best to explain myself using a combination of pictures and letters. The man rubbed his chin for a while, then finally spoke. “So… if we take care of your child, you’ll provide us with food?”

“Grr!”

I nodded violently. He then flipped to the next page, wanting more confirmation about our deal.

“Then what does this mean? If your child gets hurt or dies… We will lose our lives as well?”

I nodded, a serious expression on my face. The man swallowed visibly.

‘Is he nervous?’

Despite this reaction, his expression remained impassive, showing no emotions. However, Jeong-Hyuk and Choi Da-Hye couldn’t hide their nervousness. After a while, the man grinned and said, “Isn’t this an unfair deal? Then again, I suppose we don’t have a choice.”

I didn’t react to his question. He was right. They had no choice. He rubbed his ears, then added, “We’ll ask for one more thing.”

I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow, waiting to see what they were going to bring to the table. He took a close look at all of my drawings and pointed to one of them.

“This. Does this mean you’re looking for shelter?”

I didn’t say anything. I could tell where this was going.

“You were probably looking for one for your daughter. Or somewhere with prey to hunt.”

Everyone had let down their guard, but this man still had his up high.

‘Lots of prey, huh.’

His statements were completely bogus, but it made sense for him to be cautious, since they had yet to experience death.

He kept his piercing glare on me, and continued, “We want to go to a shelter too. I want you to guard us until we find one. This is my additional condition. When your daughter goes, we go too.”

I heard his demands, but remained silent. I wasn’t sure if I could trust them with So-Yeon. He was wary of everything and everyone, except for his own people. It was definitely something you needed to survive this cursed world, but having too little trust was just as bad as having too much. Distrusting everything meant isolation from everything.

He noticed my lack of response, and folded his arms. “If you don’t agree to this, you can kill all of us here right now.”

Lee Jung-Hyeok’s eyes grew wide. “You can’t say that!”

The man’s gaze did not flicker towards his brother at all. It remained locked with mine.

‘Is he bluffing? Or is he just being brazen?’

There was a glint of certainty in his eyes. I could tell just by looking at them.

He knew that I had no intention in killing them and knew for a fact that I needed them. If I considered them prey, I would’ve finished them off much earlier. But So-Yeon was a game-changer. The man had probably taken some time to consider the situation, and figured out that striking a deal with me was the key to survival.

However, striking a deal on my terms probably left him with a lot of questions. The possibility that they could end up being domesticated like So-Yeon probably bothered him. Also, if I did find shelter, he was probably concerned by the possibility that I could just send So-Yeon there by herself and devour everyone else.

Even though I had emotions and a rational mind, to him, I was no different from the ones outside. To him, I was nothing more than a walking dead body. So he was going to use So-Yeon as his key to get them all to a shelter. He was smart. I had to be extra careful. You could say he was using his people as pieces in a negotiation, but this was probably for the best.

As soon as I understood his intentions, I couldn’t help but laugh. He narrowed his eyes and said, “You think I’m joking?”

Nope, it was the exact opposite. I liked his offer.

If he ever found himself alone, he would turn into an absolute beast, with no mercy left in him. However, the tears he’d shed, along with the chemistry he shared with his companions… He still had the capacity for emotion, and he had leadership traits.

Lee Jeong-Hyuk and Choi Da-Hye were his buffers. As long as they were around, he would not go south. If So-Yeon and I could join them, they would be irreplaceable allies.