Magic on the Dead Chapter 62

“…How long was I asleep?”

“About 10 minutes.”

“Did anything happen in that time?”

“Nothing.”

Eden’s voice had a somewhat bored tone to it.

Hajin squeezed his eyes, swollen from crying, shut and then opened them. Being kidnapped was absurd enough, but the thugs who had locked them in the warehouse hadn’t shown their faces once, even late into the night.

“What in the world is this….”

For a magician, for whom untying rope knots was no big deal, the situation was all the more agonizing.

He wanted to throw off his restraints right away, get up, and stride out of the warehouse, but no matter how much he racked his brain, there was no way to beat an opponent with a gun.

Seemingly of the same mind, Eden also just stared at his cuffed hands with an impassive gaze, taking no action and sitting quietly.

Occasionally, the sound of busy footsteps and mumbled, indistinct conversation could be heard from outside.

“Haaah….”

Hajin’s resentful sigh echoed through the silent space. The rope, which seemed to be for livestock, had coarse fibers that were mercilessly scraping his skin. His thigh muscles, stretched taut from being forced to his knees, his ankles, bent at an extreme angle, and his wrists, tied tightly behind his back, were screaming in pain.

It was the worst in many ways, but compared to Chunbeom’s sudden death, this much physical pain was nothing.

The final image of his face, his eyes not even closed, chaotically tore through his mind. Hajin’s chest heaved with indignation.

Who were these thugs who had appeared out of nowhere, fired a gun, and then didn’t even hesitate to kidnap them? Were they police? Soldiers? Or were they looters who lured people with lies? If it was the former, they might have mistaken them for zombies and opened fire in error.

But even if he were to find out the reason, he would never be able to understand Chunbeom’s death. The more he thought about why a man so good-hearted and brave had to meet such a futile end, the more he seethed with a sense of injustice.

Hajin slowly blinked his raw eyelids, having already shed so many tears.

“I wonder what happened to Mr. Chunbeom. The ground must be cold, especially after the rain….”

A calm reply came back to his muttering, which was closer to a lament.

“When we get out of here, we’ll find him and bury him.”

Darkness fell deep within the warehouse. Looking at Eden, whose form was now just a blur, Hajin murmured weakly.

“The others got away safely, right? They should have made it back to the cave without any trouble.”

“Right now, finding a way for us to survive is more important than worrying about others.”

At the unexpectedly cold response, Hajin’s eyebrows shot up. To think the day would come when he would feel relieved to hear that uniquely self-centered, prickly reply….

He had thought that Jung Taegeon would be just as lost in shock over Chunbeom’s death as he was, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Hajin, who had been struggling to change his position, exhausted his energy and let his body slump heavily against the pile of hay. The dry grass pricked the back of his neck.

As if the ropes weren’t enough, one of his ankles was cuffed to an iron post, making it difficult to move. Eden’s ankle was also tied to the post on the opposite side.

The situation of not being able to get close to each other was just frustrating and made him anxious.

“As expected, you’re so calm, Mr. Jung Taegeon. I think you were just like this when the zombie outbreak first happened.”

Just as on the day the zombie outbreak occurred, he was perfectly composed even in the extreme situation of a comrade’s death and a kidnapping. Perhaps the only reason a coward like him could even doze off for a moment was all thanks to that placid demeanor.

When no reply came, Hajin just rambled on about whatever came to mind.

“Sniff…. In the Delta Force, don’t they teach you how to pick handcuffs?”

He thought he had cried all he could, but even now, as he tried to force his thoughts away from Chunbeom, a stream of water ran down his right cheek. Drip. It felt as if his tear ducts had broken.

Even in the pitch-dark surroundings, Eden somehow noticed Hajin’s tears and chided him coldly.

“Stop crying.”

Embarrassed, Hajin gently bit the inside of his cheek.

“If you lose moisture, you’re the only one who suffers, Mr. Do Hajin. If you lose your strength, you won’t be able to escape from here even if you want to.”

“Crying right now isn’t my choice, you know.”

Eden rebuked him for his timid retort.

“For Mr. Park Chunbeom’s sake, you should save your tears. If you want to collect his body and at least build him a grave, you’d better get a grip.”

At the sharp, piercing final words, his slouched back straightened up. It was indeed advice that jolted him to his senses.

Sniff. Hajin sniffled embarrassedly and forced himself to sort out his tumultuous thoughts. He had grown particularly close to Chunbeom recently, so his emotions kept welling up.

He wiped away the last of the tears that filled his eyes onto the floor and composed his grief. After crying for a whole day, it felt as though all the moisture had been drained from his body, just as Eden had said.

Then, a voice that had become a bit softer awkwardly comforted Hajin.

“If you’re done crying, get some sleep. You must be exhausted.”

“What if someone comes in and hurts us while I’m sleeping?”

“They won’t kill us right away.”

Hajin’s swollen eyes widened as far as they could.

“How would you know that, Mr. Jung Taegeon?”

“Usually, the hands of hostages who are worth negotiating with are tied in front. It’s a sign that they don’t intend to recklessly threaten or kill them for the time being, so you can rest assured. Besides, they’ve been leaving us completely alone for half a day, haven’t they.”

When there was no reply, he continued his explanation calmly.

“It means there’s no need to give time and space to hostages they’re going to kill anyway. Unless it’s some kind of intimidation game.”

Hajin’s expression changed from moment to moment. His neck tensed with a hopeful yet ominous premonition, unsure if this was good news or bad.

“If what you’re saying is true, then I have no negotiation value. My hands are tied tightly behind my back, you know…? Only your hands are tied in front of your chest.”

At the sullen remark, Eden’s characteristic, toneless laugh burst out. It was a shallow laugh that didn’t suit the situation.

I’m dead serious here, and he’s laughing…. Hajin glared resentfully at the man whose outline he could barely see. Even in the darkness, he could clearly picture the deep dimple on his right cheek.

Just then, a small commotion could be heard from outside.

—No, I’m just going to check… now!

—I have… received no report from Lieu… Major…. Please go back now.

—If you keep this… I won’t just stand… either….

Hajin listened with intense concentration. The conversation didn’t last long.

—Stop it and go back…. You have… plenty of time to check tomorrow.

—Damn it! If you keep acting like this….

After a short shout, the commotion quickly died down. Although faint noises had been heard intermittently during the day, this was the first time voices had been heard this close.

As expected, there was a guard standing outside the warehouse. Hajin lowered his voice.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon. Did you hear that?”

“I heard.”

“It sounded like they were talking about checking tomorrow or something. Looks like they’re not going to kill us today and will just let it go.”

Eden responded with a snort, as if Hajin had discovered some incredibly surprising fact. Hajin’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t laugh at me.”

“I get it, so stop chattering and get some sleep. You have to at least replenish your stamina to even try to escape or do anything, don’t you think?”

“If I sleep, who’s going to watch over you, Mr. Jung Taegeon? Or should we sleep together?”

“……”

…Somehow, that last remark seemed to have a strange nuance. A sudden, awkward silence pressed down on the air. Hajin flinched as if doused with cold water and hastily corrected himself.

“I’m kidding.”

“It wasn’t funny, but it’s much better than the whining.”

As if he had been waiting, a surprisingly normal answer came back. At Eden’s usual, irritating level of tension, Hajin shot him a sullen glare, but on the other hand, he let out a faint sigh of relief.

After witnessing Park Chunbeom’s death, the image of him briefly losing his sanity still remained a shock. Of course, he himself hadn’t been in his right mind at the time either, but Jung Taegeon had looked completely dazed, as if possessed by something.

Now, maybe, he might be able to get an honest answer from him.

“Can I ask you just one thing?”

Hajin hesitated for a moment before finally voicing the question he had been holding back. Eden’s head, which had been looking at the ceiling, tilted down. Hajin’s voice was still thick with moisture.

“You said it before. That now that we’re comrades, our lives depend on each other.”

His voice, tinged with a nasal quality as if his nose was stuffy from crying, tickled the eardrums. Eden, leaning his back against the wooden wall, closed his eyes for a moment, letting the sound be his lullaby.

“It seems like the meaning of ‘comrade’ is a little different for you, Mr. Jung Taegeon. To be honest, your usual actions and your beliefs don’t really match up, ah, I mean….”

Recently, Do Hajin had become quite interested in him. He would roll his eyes while asking pointless questions, or stare intently at his hands at random moments.

“Like when you came all the way to the underpass to find me, and earlier, what happened with Mr. Chunbeom….”

That interest wasn’t entirely unpleasant. In fact, every situation where he questioned him or showed curiosity was even satisfying. This was evident just by the way he sincerely answered questions that his usual self would not have even deigned to acknowledge.

Was that why?

“Why do you go to such lengths?”

An impulse to unreservedly unpack and share the trite story of his past, something he had never told anyone, surged through his chest.

But the impulse was only momentary.

“……”

Eden, as always, was sparing with his words. The story was too cliché to recount in detail, and yet it wasn’t light enough to be simply summarized.

As the heavy silence continued for a while, Hajin added with a hesitant air.

“You don’t have to tell me if you’re uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to pressure you.”

A deep exhaustion settled into the silence.

While he continued to make some sort of excuse, Eden was recalling the nights of battlefields past and the face of his old friend, Leo.

It was a peace like a ticking time bomb, a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time.