Walking Daddy

After taking a moment to compose herself, she spoke.

“The woman in this photo… Soo-Hyun and I went to college the same year.”

“…Where is Soo-Hyun?”

“Well, the thing is…”

Hwang Ji-Hye trailed off and then looked back at Kim Hyeong-Jun and me. We looked at her with encouragement and gestured to her to continue.

Hwang Ji-Hye let out a deep breath and continued where she had left off.

“She died. In the previous fight.”

The enemy leader’s eyes went wide, and he stared at the woman in the photo as if his soul had left his body. His mouth opened and closed silently, like a goldfish’s. I wondered if he was too shocked to even say anything.

I moved next to Hwang Ji-Hye and gestured for her to step back. I was being cautious, in case the enemy leader decided to go insane.

Even though he had no limbs, he still had sharp teeth. We had to be prepared for anything.

The enemy leader’s lips twitched like a madman’s.

“You’re lying, right? Tell me you’re lying.”

\'No, it\'s all true.\'

"Don’t fucking lie to me! Bring Soo-Hyun to me right now!”

I slapped the enemy leader.

‘Wake up, you bastard. Your daughter’s dead.\'

“...”

The enemy leader looked at the floor, his eyes empty. Then he looked up at me.

“Did you kill her?”

‘Is that how you want it to be?\'

“So it was you. You’re the only one that wants me to metamorphose into a black creature.”

“...”

“No, no. Are you lying about Soo-Hyun’s death so that you can see me turn into a black creature? Ha, I knew it! So, Soo-Hyun is alive! Did you really think I would fall for this silly trick of yours?”

The enemy leader was having a hard time accepting reality.

He grinned at me and Hwang Ji-Hye like a madman, as though he had figured out our machinations and was not going to be fooled by us.

Hwang Ji-Hye stepped forward next to me. Her expression seemed complicated. She seemed to feel sorry for the enemy leader and his inability to accept the truth.

She looked at him directly.

“In the last battle, Soo-Hyun was part of the ammunition distribution team. She wasn’t doing anything dangerous.”

Despite the sorrow on her face, her voice remained calm.

“But zombie bodies started to pile up, and the second defense line was on the verge of collapsing. As she tried to get away… She was bitten by a zombie that came over the defense line.”

"Don’t lie to me. The second defense line didn’t fall in the last battle. I killed the leader controlling the zombies right before the second defense line could fall!”

“Why didn’t you kill the leader a little earlier? Just because the second defense line didn’t go down doesn’t mean that zombies hadn’t made it over.”

“Stop coming up with all this nonsense!!”

The enemy leader was yelling at the top of his lungs. The veins on his forehead were popping out, threatening to burst. His jaw was trembling, quivering with murderous intent. It seemed like he was ready to bite Hwang Ji-Hye at any minute.

I stepped in front of Hwang Ji-Hye.

\'Don\'t blame others for your foolish behavior.\'

“But that bitch is lying!”

‘No, no. Let’s get something straight. You\'re the one denying reality.\'

The enemy leader looked at me, grinding his teeth together so hard that I could hear them. I frowned, feeling the sadness and the complicated knot of emotion deep in my heart.

\'I hate to break it to someone who’s almost the same age as my father, but everything we said is true.’

“...”

‘You should’ve stopped the attack before it happened if you wanted to protect your daughter. You were naive.’

“This can’t be. This can\'t be…”

The enemy leader shook his head while repeating the same words as if he had lost his mind.

Kim Hyeong-Jun came up to me and carefully looked into my eyes.

‘Ahjussi, something doesn’t seem right.\'

\'What is?\'

‘He’s… He’s not showing any signs of metamorphosis.\'

\'He hasn’t accepted the fact that his daughter is dead yet. He thinks we’re lying to him right now. We need something more than just words. Indirect experience isn’t enough to trigger his desire.’

As long as he didn’t see his daughter\'s corpse in the flesh, the enemy leader wouldn’t mutate.

Kim Hyeong-Seok had lost it after witnessing his girlfriend\'s death with his own eyes. Mr. Kwak had also lost his mind when he saw Ms. Koo’s body. And according to the enemy leader, the former boss of the Family had also lost their mind after seeing their son’s dead body.

I figured that he would only accept reality only when we showed him his daughter\'s grave.

I looked at Hwang Ji-Hye.

- Is there a grave for your friend named Soo-Hyun?

“It’s inside the shelter.”

- If it’s okay with you, could we bring the enemy leader inside the shelter?

“Well, then the guards would know that we sneaked out.”

- We will go in through the main entrance with the enemy leader. You can go in through the tunnel first. We can meet in front of the first defense line.

I figured the enemy leader would accept reality once he saw his daughter\'s grave.

Hwang Ji-Hye nodded and left the apartment first, telling us to wait for five minutes before leaving. When she left the apartment, the living room turned dead silent. It was so silent, it felt as though time itself had stopped. Even the bugs had ceased their chirping.

Frowning, Kim Hyeong-Jun broke the silence with a question. It seemed like the silence had made him uncomfortable.

\'What are we going to do now?\'

\'About what?\'

‘Well, our priority is getting information about the mutants. If the enemy leader sees his daughter’s grave, he’s going to turn into a black creature.\'

\'Then I just need to eat the enemy leader’s brain.\'

‘Are you going to eat another black creature’s brain? You don\'t even know what his desire is.\'

\'If he turns into a black creature after seeing her grave, we’ll know that his desire was to protect his daughter. His desire would be perfect for me.’

I answered him calmly, eliciting a sigh.

‘Huh, ahjussi. Do you know what kind of face you were making while you were saying all of that?\'

‘...?’

\'Why do you look so sad, ahjussi?’

I made my way into the adjacent bathroom. A zombie with a sorrowful face stared back at me from within the mirror.

I wondered if I’d unconsciously thought of So-Yeon after hearing the words ‘daughter’ and ‘death’. After listening to Hwang Ji-Hye\'s story, I’d tried to imagine the last moments of this woman named Soo-Hyun. I wondered what she’d been thinking when the zombie had come over the wall while she was handing out magazines. I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been scared, or terrified of her impending death. Or even if she’d hoped that someone would come to save her.

And if her father’s face flashed before her eyes right before she died, would she have died resenting him?

I knew something like this could happen to So-Yeon any day. My heart sank at the thought that something like that could happen while I was away. I couldn’t help but feel sad that So-Yeon would think of me, and that she could resent me for not being there beside her when death was upon her.

My head sagged with the weight of my sadness. Kim Hyeong-Jun walked into the bathroom.

\'Let\'s go. It’s been five minutes.\'

‘Okay…’

I slapped myself on the cheeks and let out a deep breath.

We headed toward the first defense line of Silence together with my underlings and the enemy leader.

* * *

When we got to the first defense line, the guards there pointed their guns at us.

“Identify yourselves!”

Kim Hyeong-Jun put both hands on top of his head and walked toward the defense line.

The guards squinted at Kim Hyeong-Jun, then let out a sigh of relief and made way.

I followed Kim Hyeong-Jun and showed the guard what I had written down.

- Get me the group leader.

“Right now?”

- It\'s an urgent matter.

“Ah, yes. All right."

The guard rushed to where the group leader was.

Hwang Ji-Hye should have arrived back at her dorm by this time.

In the meantime, we waited between the first and second defense lines for her to make her appearance.

“God damn, what are the odds? There goes my day!”

I heard someone walking toward us from the second defense line. As I looked in the direction of the voice, I saw the guard leader looking at me and Kim Hyeong-Jin, carrying his weapons.

He spat on the floor. Dissatisfaction was still written all over his face.

I sighed and shook my head. Kim Hyeong-Jun looked me in the eyes.

‘Ahjussi, can\'t we just kill him later and pretend it was a mistake?\'

\'What?\'

It seemed Kim Hyeong-Jun had also heard what the guard leader had said.

I looked at him with my eyebrows raised, and he smacked his lips.

\'Okay. Honestly, I don’t like the guard leader. People like them aren’t helpful, no matter where they go.’

‘But to kill someone? I can’t believe you’re saying this after you grilled me on whether I was really going to kill the enemy leader\'s daughter.\'

‘No, you’re comparing apples and oranges. The enemy leader\'s daughter was an ordinary person. But the guard leader considers us as something less than animals. I wouldn’t be surprised if he used my family as hostages one day.\'

Taking his family hostage…?

I knew that the guard leader was the kind of person who would easily do something like that. I slapped him on the forearm and smacked my lips. Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at me, not knowing why I’d hit him.

‘What, why are you hitting me? What are you trying to say?\'

\'It means do whatever you want. Is there anything wrong with that?\'

A sinister smile crept across Kim Hyeong-Jun’s face.

\'You don\'t like that person either, do you, ahjussi?\'

Instead of answering, I looked away. To be honest, after listening to Kim Hyeong-Jun, I thought it was right to kill him and disguise it as a mishap.

If the guard leader threatened us by holding our families hostage, it was possible that Kim Hyeong-Jun and I could turn into black creatures. I couldn’t help but think that it’d be nice to kill the guard leader when an opportune moment presented itself, since we couldn’t just kill the guard leader without a reason.

It felt like passing the buck to Kim Hyeong-Jun, but since he’d brought it up first, I was hoping that he would take responsibility for it.

After chatting for about ten minutes, I saw Hwang Ji-Hye walking toward us, flanked by some guards.

Hwang Ji-Hye spoke in a calm voice.

“What are you doing here this late?”

She was acting, even though she knew everything. I cleared my throat and took out my notepad.

- There was something I wanted to check.

“The Silence cemetery is not open to outsiders.”

Hwang Ji-Hye spoke loudly, so that everyone around us could hear. All the guards focused their gaze on Hwang Ji-Hye.

I wondered if she’d done this on purpose to draw attention. I wrote more words in my notepad and showed it to Hwang Ji-Hye.

- You’re… Acting right now, right?

“So, you’re saying that the enemy leader\'s daughter is here, and that he’s agreed to tell us about the mutants after he’s seen her grave with his own eyes? Okay, got it. If that’s the case, I’ll cooperate.”

Hwang Ji-Hye continued to speak loudly, as if she wanted everyone around us to hear.

The guards started muttering amongst themselves, nodding in agreement. It looked like she was trying to come up with a reason to let me, an outsider, enter the cemetery.

Hwang Ji-Hye winked and gestured for me to follow her. I tried my best not to smile and followed her.

After walking for about five minutes, I saw the cemetery a distance away. The cemetery was located in the heart of Seoul Forest. I walked around the cemetery, taking a look at the names written on the tombstones.

It wasn’t exactly how I’d imagined it. All they had were large, ordinary rocks that were probably sourced from nearby.

As I kept on walking, I finally came upon the tombstone carved with the name ‘Soo-Hyun.’

I was able to confirm that Lee Soo-Hyun had passed away in her late thirties after seeing her birth date. I looked at Hwang Ji-Hye, who also approached the tombstone and checked the name and birth date.

She nodded, her face solemn. What seemed like one of Lee Soo-Hyun’s possessions had been placed beside her tombstone. There were a pair of old sneakers.

I ordered my underlings to bring the enemy leader over.

My underlings placed the enemy leader in front of the tombstone. He stared at the tombstone, shell-shocked.

Her epitaph said the following:

- Lee Soo-Hyun, who never lost her smile even when the world wasn’t on her side. Rest in peace.

After reading her epitaph, the enemy leader looked at the sneakers next to the grave and teared up. Even though he was an enemy, I thought it was only right to give him some time to himself.

I took five steps back and observed a moment of silence for all the souls that were buried there. Kim Hyeong-Jun and Hwang Ji-Hye followed me. Her personal bodyguards also observed a moment of silence.

I wondered if there was still a distinction between enemy and ally in the face of death. Death seemed to be the final doorway through which all of us had to pass one day.

As I looked at the back of the enemy leader with his severed limbs, a tinge of sadness welled up within my heart.