Chapter 3

Just moments before…

I’d spotted the handsome zombie climbing up the drainpipe onto my balcony. An oddly comforting sense of safety had washed over me.

Saved. I was saved!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple.

The man knew how to fight. His moves were vicious and cunning.

The handsome zombie, meanwhile, seemed to have been injured fighting the muscle-bound zombie earlier. Not only was he moving slowly, he also seemed oddly hesitant.

Little by little, he began to lose.

Worse still, the man’s eyes and skin were starting to change.

He was turning.

Soon he would no longer feel pain, and his strength and speed would increase.

He was already terrifyingly strong as a human. I couldn’t imagine what he’d be like as a zombie.

“Run…”

The handsome zombie struggled to get the word out as they fought.

The man had forced him against the balcony railing. The upper half of his body hung over empty air.

I wanted to run. I really did. But my feet were rooted to the spot.

Would he be killed?

If I ran, he certainly would.

At that thought, I quietly picked up the dagger the man had dropped.

I charged at his back faster than I’d ever moved in my life, aiming for his heart.

And then…

The knife wouldn’t go in.

The bastard was wearing a stab-proof vest under his clothes!

“You fucking bitch! Trying to stab me in the back?”

Enraged, he turned on me, his eyes growing grayer.

He freed one hand, seized my collar, and hauled me in front of him. Now I was hanging over the railing beside the handsome zombie.

I turned to him and attempted a smile. I would have looked better crying.

“Sorry. Couldn’t save you. Let’s die together. I’ll buy you dinner in the underworld.”

His eyes were half-closed. He looked weak enough to drop dead any second.

“Kiss… me.”

His barely audible voice reached my ears through the quiet night. I almost thought I’d imagined it.

“What?!”

“Kiss me. Once. Hurry…”

The man hadn’t finished turning yet. His brain was still doing more than taking up space.

He gave a derisive laugh.

“You’re about to fucking die and you’re still playing lovebirds? What am I, part of your kink?”

“Kiss, kiss, kiss—kiss my ass. Go die.”

He released his grip on the handsome zombie’s throat and shoved him hard.

I watched the zombie topple backward, so terrified I forgot to breathe.

My apartment was on the eighth floor.

If he fell, wouldn’t he end up looking like plum jam?

At the last second, I gritted my teeth.

I hooked a hand behind his head and leaned toward him.

The moment our lips met…

I saw his eyes fly open. Even his clouded gray irises seemed to brighten several shades.

Like a battery reaching full charge.

And then—

The man got utterly demolished.

The handsome zombie caught the railing with both hands. Hanging upside down, he clamped his legs around the man’s head and twisted, slamming nearly two hundred and twenty pounds of man onto the floor.

Then he pushed me into the bedroom without looking back.

“Don’t look.”

He shut the balcony door.

Shutting out the sounds of teeth tearing flesh, bones breaking, the man screaming…

…

Facing the zombie who’d saved my miserable life twice, I was overwhelmed with gratitude.

“What should I call you?”

He still hadn’t recovered from that kiss.

He glanced at me, then quickly looked away, his face as red as a tomato.

“Don’t… remember.”

“Then how about Zom?”

He nodded.

He took several boxes from inside his clothes and set them before me. Medicine, all of it. The boxes looked fresh off the shelf.

I looked at Zom in confusion.

He explained, “On you. Smell blood. Hurt. Take medicine.”

Blood?

Did he mean my period…?

So he’d left after bringing me food because he thought I was hurt, and he’d gone to find medicine?

And he’d held back at first while fighting that man because he was afraid of damaging the medicine tucked against his chest?

Once I’d worked it all out, I wilted.

I flopped onto the couch, utterly listless.

Compared with the actual zombie sitting opposite me, looking full of life, I was the one who looked like the walking dead.

“Why are you doing this?”

I didn’t believe there were any living embodiments of Lei Feng among zombies. Besides, I’d watched Zom bite a girl’s skull apart right in front of me.

He had to be after something.

Was he keeping me as emergency rations?

Fatten me up, then braise me, steam me, serve me as sashimi…

The more I thought, the more frightened I became. Cold sweat quickly coated my back.

Then Zom said—

“Because. You’re. My love.”

My eyes flew wide.

Help. A zombie’s lover? Just kill me instead!