The Different One | (Sweethome)

CHAPTER 9

[CHAPTER 9]

We all stood around Jae-Heon's grave, and Mr. An placed a paper flower on the top of it. "You died when you should have lived, and I lived when I should have been the one to die.", Mr. An said. After that, we all went our separate ways and returned to what we were doing.

I was walking in silence with Hyun-Su. "Your new haircut suits you." I commented, looking straight ahead. I could see him looking at me through my peripheral vision. "Oh, thanks." he said.

Suddenly, we saw people running, and a armor truck came crashing in. Then, a man approached the soldier and stabbed him multiple times with a knife. Another man held the soldier while the other man cut off the soldier's thumb. They pressed the thumb to a suitcase, but it wasn't the correct one. "Not it." the other man said. "We failed again?" Then, they threw the thumb at us, causing others to scream. The soldier tried to run away, but the man who was chewing gum shot him. He must be their leader.

"Find everyone who's hiding." he ordered his men.

⎯⎯

Mr. An was being dragged by two men, and Su-Yeong asked him where his brother Yeong-Su was. He shushed her. "It's okay. Everything's fine. Everything's fine. Everything's fine." he said quietly.

Then, a man wearing a bucket hat appeared. The man whistled as he drew a red circle around all of us, as if it were some kind of game. "It's a bit bigger than last time." one of the men said. "Should I measure the area every time? This is your jail now." the man with the bucket hat said, laughing.

Suddenly, a gunshot was heard. Everyone looked to see that Ji-eun had been shot, and everyone rushed into the circle. One of the men pushed Du-Sik into the circle and dropped him. Then, one of the men sat in Du-Sik's wheelchair and grabbed Ji-eun's hair. Du-Sik tried to crawl towards her, but we all stopped him. "No, Mr. Han! Stay here. They're going to kill you too!" someone warned him. "What are you doing?" he yelled.

"Come on." the man in the wheelchair laughed and winked. Ji-eun started spitting out blood from her mouth. Hyun-Su tried to help her, but I stopped him because they might kill him too. Ji-eun teared up and closed her eyes. She wasn't moving, and we realized that she was already dead. "How could you kill her? How could you?" Du-Sik asked. "People's lives are useless these days." the man in the wheelchair replied.

"Just squeeze in. That's your home. A tiny home." their leader said, laughing. I looked at him and gave him a death glare.

All of us sat still inside the circle, and their leader approached and stood up. "My name is Shin Jung-Seop." he introduced himself. "Who cares." I mumbled, and he looked at me. "Why don't we all just get along without fighting?" he said. "How can you say that after what you did?" Mr. An spoke up, and the gun was pointed at him. "How can you treat people like this? We're not animals!" he yelled. "I'm sorry. This is all I know." Jung-Seop said, holding up his gun.

"If you all do as I say, I won't kill any of you." he said, chewing his gum. "So... What do you want from us?" Eun-Hyeok asked, looking at him. "We should get to know each other." he said, walking up to us. "I bet you're curious about us too." he continued.

Eun-Hyeok stood up and faced him. "Why don't you tell us?" he asked. Jung-Seop chewed his gum loudly. "Where were you before you came here? What happened out there?" Eun-Hyeok asked. "Dead. All of them." he replied, still chewing his gum. "Did they just die, or did you kill them?" Eun-Hyeok asked. "It was a small church. They had fortified it well, so I got my hopes up. But all of them were already dead. What's interesting is that there were no signs of a monster attack. They had all killed each other. You shouldn't be worrying about monsters. No. Humans are the scariest," he said, smiling while chewing his gum.