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When Lee Cheong San opened his eyes, he was lying under a pile of corpses ( ? ) / zombie corpses. It’d be an overstatement to say he opened his eyes, after all what can one see beneath the pile of burnt corpses? To be honest, he didn’t expect himself to survive that blast nor be immune to the virus. Well one can say he became a ' Super Zombie ' like Choi Nam Ra and Yoon Gwi Nam.
‘Oh yea right, did that bastard survived too?’ thinks Cheong San and tries to get out of that pool of corpse that surrounded him. As he was clearing the corpses on his way, he sees the half-burnt body of Gwi Nam. One can never be more cautious, after all that bastard is kinda immortal considering how many times he should’ve been dead already, so he pokes Gwi Nam’s dead body and it doesn’t responds. He lets out a relived sigh and continues on his way out. After getting out of that, he walks around in the abandoned building but finds no signs of zombies or his friends.
‘I hope they’ve reached to safety.’ he thinks before reminiscing the moments before his supposed death. After remembering something, he checks his pocket and doesn’t find Nam On Jo’s name plate ( idk what you call that thing ). He rushes back to the place where he first woke up and starts searching for it. After a while he finds it and pats off the dust on it. He stares at it for a while before coming to a realization that he can never see her now and having this is meaningless. He tries to console himself but tears escape from his eyes and he cries. With no spectators, no one would ever know but the walls of the abandoned building will forever be the witness of that heart breaking sight.
“ Nam On Jo, i hope you’ll have a bright future. May all the thorns on your path clears away and you live a happy life .. with someone that’s not me ” says Cheong San as he drops the name tag into fire caused by the blast near the building.
-Several Weeks Later -
“ Now that I have my weapons and some supplies for emergency, let’s leave this place ” says Cheong San as he packs his makeshift bag he made during his time here. He turns around for the last time looking at the part of a half collapsed building that was their school until several weeks ago.
During the last several weeks, Cheong San went around the school premises checking if anyone else survived except him. When he first saw the crater on the school ground, he didn’t really expected anyone else to survive that. But he still had to be sure of that. He went around the whole school premises, the ones that weren’t utterly destroyed. At the warehouse far from the school building, he found several zombies but they were just normal ones, not the intelligent ones like him. So he just let them be since the government is gonna send the army to kill off the rest of the zombies anyways. Why should he bother with killing them? He didn’t kill any zombie since they didn’t attcked him. Being a super zombie isn’t that bad as well he thought as he found soo many perks of it.
1. The zombies won’t attack you.
2. You don’t have to worry about eating because you’re, in a way, already dead. ( Just to make you clear, Cheong San will not be like Nam Ra or Gwi Nam and eat humans or zombies. Why? Because i said so. Instead he’ll become a zombie who doesn’t really need to eat anything. As for how he’d gain energy, he’ll just sleep a lot and gain energy from it. ”
3. You have hightened senses which works in your favour. Except when there’s a thunderstorm. Those sensitive hearing will make your ears bleed
As he makes his way through the town, he ccomes across the army that was sent to kill off the rest of the surviving zombies. Because of his senses, he easily evades them but then he hears a crying child and some zombie growling. He rushes to the scene and finds a girl, about his age probably, defending a child from zombies that were ganging up on them. He tries to save them but when he reached there, the older one had already gotten bit by one of the zombies. He hurriedly takes his weapon and kills the zombies, more like immobilizes them. As he senses the army getting close, he takes both the girl and the child and flees from the scene.
He reaches an abandoned house and then let’s them off. He checks on the child for any bite marks but fortunately doesn’t find any. As for the other girl, he already saw her got bit so he has no other option than kill her when she turns into a zombie to protect the child. Surprisingly, the girl faints before she turns into a zombie and stays unconscious for nearly two days. For that duration, Cheong San stays with the child and protects her from other zombies.
After two days, Cheong San hears the girl mutter something along with the words “ Fuck, this hurts soo bad. I swear I’m gonna kill those zombies. ” Shortly after that the girl wakes up, she analyzes her surroundings and starts frantically searching for the child. Cheong San then points at the corner, when she looks at him, where the child is sleeping wrapped up in warm blankets. The girl’s expression warms up and then she starts a conversation with Cheong San.
“Who are you? And why did you save us? And how did you fend off all those zombies soo easily? Oh wait- didn’t I get bitten by one? Why didn’t I turn into a zombie?” She showered a lot of questions at him that he could hardly believe that this girl was unconscious for two days and just woke up.
“ I’m Lee Cheong San. A former student of Hyosan High School. I saved you guys just because i could do it and didn’t wanted to see more people die. And i could easily fend off those zombies because .. um .. I’m a zombie too. ” said Cheong San. The girl is about to throw hands at him when she hears that he’s a zombie but he stops her and says, “ You’re also a zombie now ”. The girl stares at him not trusting him and then scoffs telling him that she’s not a zombie. Cheong San then tell her to see the bite mark on her left hand. The girl is baffled at this revelation and falls on her knees. Cheong San then tells what happened with him and how he’s now a zombie but has his consciousness as a human.
As they are conversing, the child wakes up and runs towards the girl and starts crying, “ Eonni, I- I thought you were also gonna turn into a zombie like mom and dad. * sobs * I’m so glad you’re ok ” The girl also starts crying as she hugs her younger sibling and whispers comforting words to her as the younger one falls asleep again. “I’m Kim Seo Jun. This is my younger sister Kim Se Ri. I’m really thankful to you who saved both of our lives. She’s the only family I’ve left as both my parents have turned into zombies and .. killed by the blast several weeks ago. I and my sister were hiding all this time but we ran out food supply ran out so we were on our way to replenish it but we met a group of zombies on the way and you know what followed afterwards. Thank you so much for looking after my sister and protecting her when i was unconscious.” says Seo Jun respectfully bowing her head to Cheong San. He quickly makes her stand straight and tells her not to worry about it. Then they start discussing about the future.
“ Seo Jun, what are you gonna do with your sister? You and me are both infected so we can’t go to the shelter camps. But she will certainly be more safe in the camp than with us. ” says Cheong San. Seo Jun just strokes Se Ri’s hair as the younger one sleeps peacefully on her lap and says “ I know that it’ll be safe for her in the camps. But I just can’t leave her alone there. The only relatives we have are our mother’s family who lives down in Busan. She can definitely go there but what about the whole way? Will she be fine? Will she reach there safely? We’ll never know that, that’s why i can’t decide what to do .. ” “ You siblings should take whatever decision think is best for you. I’ll support you guys no matter what choice you make.” Cheong san assures Seo Jun who sniffles quietly in fear of waking her sister.
After a week of discussion, quarrel, bashing and crying the sisters ultimately agree on Se Ri being sent to the shelter from where she’ll go to Busan to her mother’s family and live with them. As for Seo Jun, she’ll just travel with Cheong San and help other people like her and live in hiding until this whole incident is forgotten. As the zombies are kind of immortal from a perspective, she assures her younger sister that she’ll come to meet her no matter how many years pass by so the younger sister has to live a long long life.
The very next day, as the army is still wondering around the city, Seo Jun hugs her sister for the last time and sends her towards the army. The officers quickly spot the child and rush towards her. One of them asks, “ Are you alone, child ? How were you by yourself ? Are you fine? ” Se Ri starts crying saying “ I was with my Eonni this whole time but some zombies bit her yesterday and she turned into a zombie too. ” She sobs hard and points at the direction where Cheong San found a group of zombies. The Officer then takes her inside the vehicle and she turns around for the last time looking at her Eonni and Cheong San mouthing - ' We’ll meet again '
Time keeps on flowing and months start to change into years. Cheong San and Seo Jun go to live away on a uninhabited remote island far from human settlement. Years go by and love starts to blossom between them. They eventually confess and then live happily with each other. After 25 years, Seo Jun finally meets her sister and it was a very heart touching reunion. Cheong San also thought about meeting his former friends but he quit that idea because they’ll be better off thinking he died that day in the blast after turning into a zombie. They both lived with Se Ri afterwards until she took her final breath and then again moved to a secluded place to spend the rest of their eternity.
Even though his first try at love remained unrequited, Seo Jun gave Cheong San the love he deserved. Living forever is a scary thought as what makes our life beautiful is the fact that we’ll die one day. But having someone who loves you as much as you do, by your side as you live for eternity didn’t sound bad for both Seo Jun and Cheong San. And like that they both stayed by each other’s side till infinity.