Magic on the Dead Chapter 136

Hajin, who was wearing a raincoat, used the long umbrella he had picked up at the bathhouse to protect Pie’s elongated body. Beside him, Eden walked with the hood of his windbreaker pulled over his head.

Thanks to the drizzling rain that seemed like it would stop but did not, they were able to proceed on their way with ease. By walking on the road instead of needing to take the difficult forest path, their travel time was significantly shorter than expected.

They were now just a little over two hours away from Neverland. With the destination right before his eyes, an unprecedented tension settled on Hajin’s face. An intangible anxiety had been drifting in his heart the whole time, but he consciously tried to divert his gaze and push the thoughts away.

Perhaps because he had become noticeably less talkative, he could feel Eden occasionally looking back at him. However, instead of asking trivial or prying questions, Eden simply walked in silence, matching his pace.

Although no particular conversation was exchanged, Hajin knew that Eden was being considerate of his state. As if he fully understood the heart that was more worried about the worst-case scenario than joyful about their reunion. Instead of saying that everything would be alright, Eden’s solid profile, simply staying by his side, was a great comfort to Hajin.

While lost in one thought or another, the two of them entered a new neighborhood. Patches of bright sunlight were shining through the gaps in the dark, heavy clouds.

Hajin slowly blinked, memorizing the surrounding scenery. On the right side of the street was a central shopping district with a concentration of hospitals, and on the left were a warehouse-style household goods store and an apartment complex. After passing an elementary school with a large playground, a small neighborhood stationery store came into view.

Just as he was about to pass by it, Hajin’s shoulder was suddenly grabbed with a jolt.

“Wait here for a moment.”

“Huh?”

Eden said that and then slipped inside the stationery store, whose door was broken and dangling. As Hajin stood guard in front of the store with a bewildered face, Eden came back out after a few minutes.

“Why here all of a sudden?”

“Take this.”

Instead of an explanation, Eden held out something familiar in front of Hajin. On his white palm lay a heavy, rectangular deck of cards. Amazement gradually spread across the eyes that looked down at the playing cards.

“I’ve noticed that your fingers, Mr. Do Hajin, never seem to rest. I saw you playing with that leaf earlier.”

It was a common occupational hazard for a magician. Being unable to bear the sensation of having empty hands, and only feeling satisfied when their fingers were busily moving while gripping something…. It was a habit that could easily get them berated for being distracting, as they would fidget with their hands constantly, even while talking.

Moreover, because his tension was compounded by his worry for Junseok, his fidgeting was even worse than usual today. Hajin realized that Eden had been paying quite a lot of attention to him and his face turned red.

“I never would have thought of this. Thank you so much.”

Of course, the playing cards he had found were cheap plastic poker cards, not ones meant for magic, but it was much better than having nothing. As if mesmerized, he tore open the paper packaging, and a plastic case containing the cards popped out.

The thin box, which looked like it would shatter into pieces if dropped, also had a terrible finish, but it was enough to bring a pleased smile to his face. While Hajin, as was his habit, took out the two joker cards and put them in his pocket, he discovered another item in Eden’s hands.

“What is that…? Why would a stationery store sell something like this?”

“I wonder. There was a whole bundle of them inside the counter.”

Eden shrugged and stuffed a large number of condom boxes into the front pocket of his backpack. Having already had sex, Hajin did not want to act naive, but witnessing the absurdly large quantity of condom boxes, his ears could not help but burn.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon, you’re really a horn-dog.”

Eden glanced at the astonished Hajin and suppressed a laugh. In an emergency situation, condoms could be used as water canteens, capable of holding up to one liter of water. He had brought them strictly as survival supplies, but he did not bother to correct Hajin’s misunderstanding.

Although he was curious what Hajin’s reaction would be if he revealed his plan to keep ejaculating his semen into his hole without a condom from now on.

“I brought a lot, so let’s try to use them all up in the near future.”

As he said this with a serious, hardened expression, Hajin let out a choked cough.

“Where would we find the t-time for that.”

“Time is something you make.”

“And there isn’t a proper space….”

“The outdoors isn’t bad either.”

Realizing this was a conversation he could not win, Hajin’s lips quickly sealed shut. Instead, he carefully placed the poker cards Eden had gotten for him inside his bag, cooling his flushed face.

They had been fanning themselves and walking again for some time when Pie suddenly let out a low growl, grrrrr, and lowered his body. At the sudden alert, Hajin and Eden froze and looked around.

“……”

“……”

The sound of raindrops falling on the asphalt and the sound of their soft breaths from tension filled the silent space. They stood still for a while, their eyes scanning the area, but there were no discernible signs of danger.

‘…What is it?’

Did he just see a bug pass by? Just as Hajin was following the gaze of Pie, who was still growling and staring at something.

“…Aargh!”

A piercing scream erupted from a distance, along with a clamorous noise. Startled, Hajin threw down the umbrella he had been holding over Pie and hurriedly rummaged through his bag. While he was frantically searching for the pliers he had put away, he heard the sound of someone scrambling and running on the ground.

A zombie? But the rain hadn’t stopped yet, and Pie’s reaction wasn’t as intense as usual.

Just then, Eden pushed Hajin behind him and gripped his axe tightly. Suddenly finding himself in a protected position, Hajin desperately pulled at the hem of Eden’s shirt as he tried to step forward.

“What are you doing? Don’t get involved, let’s just hide together!”

He urgently looked around, but unfortunately, there was no suitable place to hide. He was just debating whether they should run back to the stationery store. A woman, tears streaming down her face, was seen running towards them.

When the woman spotted the two of them, she shouted loudly.

“Help me! Please save me!”

Her voice was so filled with terror that the fear seemed to be contagious just from hearing it. The woman, who had reached them in no time, collapsed into Hajin’s arms as if she were fainting.

“Ugh…!”

He reflexively caught her thin body and fell on his butt. At the same time, a large group of men appeared from the direction she had run from.

Hajin pushed at the shoulders of the woman who had fallen on top of him and struggled to sit up. Even in the urgent situation, a look of bewilderment crossed his face.

Oddly enough, the woman, who was crying so hard her eyes were puffy, smelled of flowers. It was not a figurative expression; she literally smelled like real flowers.

‘Is it perfume?’

Along with the overly sweet scent, the clean smell of shampoo was wafting from the woman’s body. At a time like this, in a neighborhood like this, he had never seen anyone walking around looking so neat, so his doubt could only grow larger.

While he was quickly checking on the trembling woman who was sobbing and begging for her life, a vile voice came from beyond her.

“Our pretty little thing, you’re unnecessarily fast at running, aren’t you?”

The shock from the cringey line, which would not even appear in a B-movie, was brief. His forearm was roughly grabbed, and his body was yanked upwards by a strong force. The woman in his arms also stumbled to her feet along with Hajin in her surprise.

It was none other than Eden who had forcibly pulled up Hajin, who was entangled with the woman.

“Get away from him.”

He glanced at the woman with an emotionless face. Hiccup…! The woman, who had swallowed a sob, flinched and hid behind Hajin. All the while, a ceaseless stream of curses and sexual harassment flowed into their ears.

“Oppa will be sad if you keep running away when I haven’t even done anything yet, huh?”

The men in front of them reeked of filth and kept using the disgusting nickname ‘pretty little thing’. One of them even pulled his pants down to his thighs and performed the grotesque act of thrusting his pelvis.

“Sob… You fucking lunatics, really….”

Disgusted by the nauseating harassment, the woman shuddered and desperately hid behind Hajin.

Hajin considered the possibility that the woman and the group in front of them were on the same side, but the chances of that seemed to be almost nonexistent. The appearance of the woman, whose neck collar was clean even though she was soaking wet, could not even be compared to the men who stank of filth.

He quickly scanned the white backpack slung over the woman’s shoulder. Inside the half-open bag were items like surgical latex gloves and a stethoscope, and a name tag that read ‘Seong Dayeon’ was attached to the front pocket.

Just then, a man with a knife scar on one cheek took a step forward and addressed Eden and Hajin.

“Gentlemen. If you have any sense, how about you just back off, I wonder.”

As soon as the nonsensical words were out, Hajin glanced at Eden. As expected, his face was filled to the brim with irritation.

Hajin’s situation was no different. They had to get into Neverland before the rain stopped, but now his nerves were on edge because their time was being held up by these pieces of trash that had appeared out of nowhere.

Moreover, what they were trying to do now was not a simple robbery to stay alive. Not a trace of guilt could be felt on their faces as they nonchalantly framed their act of trying to break a weaker person’s body and soul.

Hajin thought of the murderers he had encountered at Misan Ranch and suppressed the rising urge to gag.

Just then, a shocking line came out of Eden’s mouth.

“I’m not interested, so do whatever you want with the woman, take her or leave her.”

Hajin, with an expression as if he had been struck hard on the head, turned to look at him with his mouth wide open. The woman also seemed shocked by the unexpected situation and let out a fierce scream.

At Eden’s unhesitating suggestion, the man with the knife scar on his face burst into a satisfied laugh.