Magic on the Dead Chapter 103

Miso, who had frequently visited Hwayeonsa Temple with her parents since she was a child, led the group and introduced various parts of the temple. Jeffrey, who was not familiar with Eastern culture, was busy observing the unfamiliar Buddhist architectural style with his mouth agape.

After the introduction of the more than twenty large and small temple buildings was finished, the sound of growling, hungry stomachs echoed from here and there.

Just then, Hongju bosal-nim approached and guided the group, who were near the One Pillar Gate, to the temple refectory, the dining hall. There, a larger number of people than expected were already seated. It seemed there was no specific rule about maintaining silence, as they were eating while having small conversations with each other.

“I prepared it in advance thinking you might be hungry. It’s temple food, so you might get hungry again soon, but it will taste good.”

Hongju bosal-nim held out her palm as if telling them to sit down quickly. On one side of a table, a meal had been set separately, just enough for the number of people in Miso’s group. In a large ceramic bowl, there was freshly cooked white rice, various seasoned vegetables mixed with dressing, and red chili paste.

[Hey, you guys? I’m not already dead, am I?]

Jeffrey slapped his own cheek hard, as if he could not believe their angelic kindness. The people in the dining hall were busy stealing glances at the unfamiliar guests with curious eyes.

“Whoa, there’s food for Pie too, uncles!”

“Jeong Byeol. You have to be quiet.”

After Eden’s scolding, the group, which had sat down hesitantly, soon devoured the meal voraciously, as if possessed by a hungry ghost.

The taste of the spicy and sweet-and-savory mountain vegetable bibimbap was so heavenly it was beyond words, and the cool barley tea in the teacup completely washed away the day’s fatigue.

In the midst of it all, Hajin was busy constantly looking around, finding the noise created by ‘others’ to be both welcome and, on the other hand, awkward. In this place, a total of fifteen survivors were present, including the people he had seen in the courtyard earlier. Judging by their attire, it seemed most of them were people who had come seeking help, just like them.

Hajin, who had been engrossed in his spooning for a while, suddenly became curious and raised his head.

“By the way, where did you go earlier?”

When he whispered softly to Eden, who was sitting across from him, the dark brown eyes turned toward him. Hajin rubbed the sesame oil smeared on the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and added.

“Earlier, when Miso was giving a tour of the temple. You suddenly disappeared.”

“Ah.”

He nodded his chin as if it were no big deal.

“I went to the rooms.”

“Why?”

“I checked the bags of the people staying here. There was nothing special.”

“…Wow.”

At his thorough cautiousness, regardless of the time or place, Hajin could only shake his head from side to side. It was a stark contrast to his own actions, having completely let his guard down for the sole reason that it was a temple Miso had attended as a believer. I guess not just anyone can be a leader.

“That kind of thing is probably innate, right?”

“What do you mean.”

“Being rational and sharp in everything… how should I put it, not having any openings? Anyway, I want to be a bit like that too.”

At Hajin’s random rambling, which could be a compliment or a complaint, Eden let out a chuckle. After silently moving his spoon for a long time, he belatedly opened his mouth.

“It’s not that great. This place gets tired.”

A small shadow fell over his face as he nonchalantly tapped his temple with his index finger. In reality, from grand scenarios of various versions to prepare for the worst-case situation, to small details like managing the group members’ stamina, Eden was busy constantly burning through thoughts without a moment’s rest, even in the very moment he fell asleep.

He soon muttered as if to himself.

“I want to rest a little.”

Hajin was momentarily at a loss for words at his unexpected confession. While he blinked, his chewing motion of crushing the rice grains also stopped, and the friendly sound of conversation in the dining hall filled the silence between the two.

For a moment, the image of Eden from the cylindrical underpass, suffering from his paralyzed sense of smell and leaning his body against him as if collapsing, flashed through his mind. Whenever he unreservedly revealed his vulnerability, Hajin felt like his thoughts would stop in bewilderment.

To think that the words, ‘I want to rest,’ could be a sentence that came out of his mouth. A subtle emotion resembling compassion settled warmly in the middle of his chest.

“There’s no need to look at me so pitifully. Even if it wasn’t a situation like this, I’ve always lived like that.”

Hajin had nothing more to say and just nodded his head in place of an answer. While he carefully and sparingly scraped and ate the remaining rice, Eden offered his share of the barley tea and tapped the corner of his mouth as if to let him know something.

“You have sauce on your mouth.”

Hajin, looking sheepish, nodded and quickly wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

“Not there, here.”

This time, he reached out his hand himself and rubbed his thumb over the corner of Hajin’s mouth. Hajin, who was about to avoid the touch out of embarrassment, remembered the chilling warning Eden had given him once before and reflexively stiffened his body.

‘Don’t avoid my touch.’

‘I’m telling you one last time because you seem to have forgotten.’

Eden smiled, his dimples showing, as if proud of Hajin for meekly accepting his touch like a well-behaved child.

[You crazy bastard. Can’t you tone it down a bit?]

Jeffrey, who was watching, muttered a curse under his breath, and Hajin burst into a dry cough, hack.

“Uncle Hajini’s cheeks are red!”

“Shh, you have to be quiet when you’re eating.”

Eden shamelessly placed his index finger over his lips and quieted the commotion. Miso, who had been chatting with Hongju bosal-nim about this and that, belatedly turned her head.

“Why, why? Is something funny going on?”

Jeffrey exaggeratedly furrowed his brow as if to tease her for being surprisingly unobservant.

“You are a fool, Miso.”

“Hey, why am I suddenly a fool.”

“Why is Miso unnie a fool? The fool’s butt is uncle Jeffrey, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. Just as you’d expect from a clever girl, our Byeol only says the right things.”

[Haa… I don’t know why kids like the word butt so much.]

While the group’s attention was diverted from him by the suddenly spreading fool-debate, Hajin hurriedly quenched his dry throat with barley tea and finished his meal. Eden, finding something so amusing, was busy chuckling until then, not wiping the smile that hung on the corners of his lips.

“Thank you for the meal, bosal-nim.”

It was the moment the group, after finishing their boisterous meal, once again left their thanks to Hongju bosal-nim and stepped out of the dining hall.

“Excuse me….”

Someone blocked their path as if they had been waiting. A man with short hair that reached his shoulders, who looked to be in his late twenties at most, stood with his arms spread open.

“If it’s not too much trouble, would you be alright with a short conversation with us?”

“Pardon?”

“It’s been so long since someone came up from below, so we have a lot of questions. You can rest assured, none of us are strange people.”

The man, who held up his palms in a gesture of reassurance, showed an awkward smile. Hajin turned his head and looked at the group still sitting blankly at the table. The people were forcing awkward smiles to appeal their harmlessness, just like the man with short hair.

Everyone, including Miso, naturally turned their gaze to the leader, Eden. After a moment of thought, Eden checked the clock on the wall of the dining hall and then nodded his chin as a sign of permission.

Miso’s group sat down facing the group of survivors. The survivors were composed of a diverse group, including a family of two and a family of four, a child and a single mother, a middle-aged man who had lost his family, siblings in their twenties, and members of a hiking club.

“Honestly, when we heard the knock earlier, we thought we were hearing things. We haven’t seen anyone for almost two weeks…. We even went down the mountain for a bit once, but there was nothing but zombies all around the area.”

The woman in her twenties with bleached yellow hair scratched the top of her head where her black roots were showing and let out a deep sigh. For someone staying in a safe place, her face was full of worries. Another middle-aged woman sitting next to her also nodded, yeah, yeah, and chimed in.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. We really thought everyone but us had died. There were quite a few people who went down to get supplies and never came back, you see. After that, we got scared too, so we couldn’t even think about going outside recklessly….”

“That’s right. We were just wondering if we should live off the land in the mountains and if we’d never see people again, but phew, anyway, meeting like this again makes me feel happy for some reason and brings tears to my eyes.”

“Oh my, why is this unnie crying again, making me tear up too?”

It seemed the kindness of opening the door to strangers without hesitation, serving them with what little food they had, and offering them a room was all due to the fear and loneliness brought on by social isolation. Some tried to laugh while making jokes, but there were also those who sniffled or silently shed tears.

Hajin looked at the faces of those pouring out their sorrows and gave a bitter smile.

“Of course, we were lucky compared to others. Thanks to the monk and Hongju bosal-nim, we found a place to rest our bodies with peace of mind. But we have no idea what the situation is like outside, so we couldn’t just laugh and live happily, ha ha ho ho.”

“That’s right. We don’t even know if our families are dead or alive. When you can’t sleep because of worry, you get haggard day by day, you know.”

To those who had fought zombies on the dangerous streets and survived day by day with difficulty, these stories sounded like nothing more than cute complaints, but nevertheless, Hajin tried not to carelessly judge the scale of their pain. Because the hardship he had experienced did not give him the justification to ignore the pain of others.

Just then, a middle-aged man who looked quite old tapped the table as if knocking and gathered the survivors’ complaints.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s stop talking amongst ourselves now and listen to what these people have to say. They must be tired from coming from afar.”

A woman of a similar age nodded as if in agreement. She then carefully took hold of Miso’s hand, which was on the table.

“Excuse me, miss. May I ask where you came from? I think I heard you say earlier that you came from Sangwon.”

Miso, who had been secretly nudging the dozing Jeffrey with her shoulder, quickly raised her eyes.