Magic on the Dead Chapter 129

An incomplete breath escaped from Hajin’s lips. His chest was already so inflated that it was difficult to even inhale.

The sudden turn of events made his temples throb and dizziness set in. The longer he held Eden’s gaze, the more his sense of reality seemed to fade.

Even when he tried to calmly retrace the situation, his memories were a tangled mess like a knotted ball of yarn. The helicopter, the chocolate bar, the zombie searching for its mother, the steep hill, and Jung Taegeon looking down at him….

Just as he thought, Is this a dream?, and raised his hand to slap his own cheek, his wrist was caught by a strong force. Eden pulled the collapsed Hajin to his feet. As soon as he staggered up, he heard the sound of a dog barking, “Woof!”, from somewhere.

This time, Hajin, truly startled, flinched. When he whipped his head in the direction of the sound, a cheerful Pai came into view.

‘Pai…?’

Pai was running energetically towards Hajin, his tongue hanging out. Finally grasping the situation, he slowly opened his mouth, feeling the dog’s stiff fur against his calf.

The voice he had longed for flew into his ears once more.

“You look like a mess.”

Jung Taegeon, whom he thought had left, had reappeared before him.

One by one, a variety of emotions began to surface in Hajin’s previously unfocused eyes.

“Hah….”

A breath of air escaped from between his lips. A mixture of relief and resentment, confusion, joy, sadness, and surprise caused his thick eyelashes to tremble as if an earthquake had struck.

Hajin was speechless for a while, feeling the warm body heat and the gentle gaze from the hand that held his wrist. It was only after his body came into contact with Eden’s that he realized he had been desperately longing for human warmth for the past few days. It felt as if his skin would melt away like a snowman in midsummer.

“I’m sorry for not keeping my promise.”

Eden offered an apology for breaking his promise not to follow him. As if he fully understood his complex and confused heart, he raised his hand and gently wiped his cheek, which was dirty with blood and dirt.

Just then, a deeply hoarse and cracked voice burst from between Hajin’s dry lips.

“How did you follow me all the way here?”

Instead of answering, Eden took something out of his pocket and placed it on his palm. It was a green flowerpot keychain with an eyeball on it. The doll, which was worn and damp from being in Pai’s mouth, rolled around on his large hand in a shabby state.

Hajin, who immediately recognized the keychain, let out another hollow breath. It was a doll he had given to Eden like a gift at the maintenance depot, but it was a keychain that had stayed in his own hands for a longer time right before he left. He had never imagined that he would use this to find him with Pai.

Eden asked slyly at him, who was blinking his eyes as if at a loss for words.

“It’s covered in Pai’s saliva, but do you want it back?”

Hajin lowered his gaze and looked at Pai, who was sitting with the most innocent expression in the world. When their eyes met, his long tail happily swept the ground, swoosh, swoosh. Looking at the cute fawn-colored snout, he barely managed to compose his breathing and lifted his head.

“When did you start following me? What about the helicopter? What happened to the helicopter? Did Jeffrey and Byeol leave safely? Is it true they left without any problems?”

As if he had come to his senses, Hajin belatedly showered him with a barrage of questions. Eden pressed his trembling under-eye area as if to calm him down and answered.

“I left around noon yesterday, and the helicopter was repaired safely. It’s also true that Byeol and Jeffrey were on the transport plane that just passed by.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?”

“Do you still have the Yongun Research Institute key card?”

At the out-of-place response, Hajin’s chest swelled up like a balloon and then deflated. He, who had barely managed to suppress his excitement, took out the white card he had carefully placed in his pocket. Eden took the ID card with Chunbeom’s face on it.

“I’ll hold on to this. It’s the only key to escape, so it would be a bit troublesome if we lost it.”

In that moment, Hajin’s two fists clenched tightly. The words’the only key to escape’felt like they brought his sense of reality completely back. This reckless and fearless man in front of him had finally followed him and set foot into hell.

“Are you… really crazy?”

“I knew you’d say that.”

Hajin tried his best to compose his trembling Adam’s apple, but he couldn’t hide the look of exasperation in his eyes.

“Do you even know what I was feeling when I left you, Mr. Jung Taegeon?”

“And do you, Mr. Do Hajin, know what I was feeling when I followed you all the way here?”

“……”

“……”

A heavy silence followed, but their gazes, which met, burned rapidly like a lit fuse. It wouldn’t have been strange if something had exploded. In the midst of the tense and heated war of nerves, Hajin ground his teeth and muttered.

“I want to punch you.”

Eden raised an eyebrow as if he had misheard and asked blankly.

“…What?”

While he was asking, his chest was pushed away forcefully. Before he could even plant his feet on the ground, a fist flew towards his left cheek. Thwack—!

A searing pain, like fire, flared up on his cheekbone and inside his mouth. Eden, who was attacked without any time to defend himself, staggered and fell to the ground. He grimaced with his left eye and looked up at Hajin with a bewildered expression, as if to say,’What was that for?’

The inside of his mouth must have burst from the surprisingly sharp blow, as the metallic taste of blood formed on the tip of his tongue. Eden, who was running his tongue over the swollen inside of his mouth, spat out pink, blood-mixed saliva onto the ground, Ptooey! To think that he had risked his life to find him, only to be met with a punch.

“…Hah.”

Letting out a laugh of disbelief, he wiped the remaining blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. However, as soon as he got up, Hajin charged at him again with all his might.

Eden caught Hajin’s arm and waist at once, blocking the second attack. He had no intention of quietly taking it a second time, though the first time was a different story.

“Mr. Do Hajin.”

At that firm grip, Hajin desperately twisted his body to break free from his embrace. Pai, sensing the unusual atmosphere, moved a good distance away from them and watched cautiously.

Eden dragged Hajin as he was and hid in the bushes. The struggling Hajin burst into tears, panting heavily. As if he couldn’t understand at all, Eden furrowed his thick eyebrows.

“What do you think you’re doing right now?”

Hajin finally broke free from Eden’s embrace and pushed his chest away forcefully once more. His trembling hands struck his firm shoulders, thud, thud. Eden, who was quietly taking the blows, let out a deep sigh.

“Let’s stop.”

“I wanted you to be safe, Mr. Jung Taegeon. I wanted you to get out of here!”

“It was the same for me.”

Eden suppressed his anger and grabbed Hajin by the collar. Their mingled breaths, so close to each other, overflowed with unsuppressed excitement.

“You punch me too, Mr. Jung Taegeon.”

“Are you crazy?”

“It doesn’t matter, just hit me.”

He knew he was making an unreasonable demand, but Hajin just wanted to cut through this tangled mess of emotions as quickly as possible. He should have been prioritizing Eden’s safety above all else, but he couldn’t stand how pathetic and creepy he felt for first feeling relief and joy upon seeing him again.

Hajin couldn’t tolerate such a selfish version of himself and was pouring out his resentment in an unrelated place. Of course, it would be a lie to say that his fist was completely devoid of emotion.

“Punch me.”

As he brought his forehead close, this time Eden’s face contorted fiercely. He roughly let go of Hajin’s collar, which he had been holding, and muttered.

“You’re insane.”

Eden, who ran the tip of his tongue over the torn flesh inside his cheek, warned Hajin.

“You must be doing this because you think I really can’t hit you, but I won’t let it slide a second time.”

Feeling a murderous intent for a moment, Hajin gasped, hic. He belatedly scanned Eden’s face slowly. It seemed he had failed to control his strength, as his once-clean cheek and cheekbone were slightly swollen.

As his head, which had been heated up in excitement, cooled down a bit, he finally felt the throbbing in his knuckles. To think he had slugged him in the face with all his might, to the point where his fist ached.

As reason slowly returned, a cold sweat ran down Hajin’s back.

“…I’m sorry.”

At the end of a suffocating silence, he offered a timid apology, and Eden pointedly touched his throbbing cheekbone.

“I expected you to at least spit out a curse… hah, I never know what you’ll do next.”

He pulled the awkwardly standing Hajin’s arm and let out a deep sigh.

“Were you that unhappy that I came? Couldn’t you have at least said you missed me, even if you didn’t mean it?”

At the tone of voice he had never heard before, as if he were whining, Hajin’s moist eyes widened. He was even more flustered because he had been preparing to get hit.

“You asked why I followed you. I was just worried about you too, Mr. Do Hajin.”

“……”

“Even when you left without saying goodbye, I tried to respect that choice. So you, Mr. Do Hajin, should at least pretend to try to understand me.”

Hajin was at a loss for words, his mouth agape with a foolish expression.

“It’s not like I can go back now anyway, even if you tell me to. Let’s find your brother, Mr. Do Hajin, as planned, and then head to the Yongun Research Institute.”

As if his mouth was uncomfortable, Eden roughly spat blood-mixed saliva onto the ground once more, then turned his body and added his final words.

“Let’s rest early today and leave at dawn tomorrow. Unless you plan on meeting your brother in that state.”

Leaving the bushes, he slung Hajin’s discarded bag and his own bag over his shoulders. Hajin watched Eden’s retreating back and let out a sigh that had been pent up deep in his chest.

His eyes belatedly fell on the zombie he had killed. …It definitely wasn’t a dream. The moment he recognized that fact once again, Hajin was overcome with the urge to hug Eden’s back, who was walking away in the distance.