TL/Editor: Butter Cat

    Status: 4/week mon-thurs

    Illustrations: none

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    〈 Chapter 91 〉 888. The Chapter of the Zombie and the Girl (3)

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    "—You can eat anything you want here!"

    "....Wow."

    "This is incredible. How much is all this worth?"

    After crying our eyes out and making a complete fool of ourselves in front of the child.

    Following Hee-ah, who said she had something to show us, we entered into what was, unbelievably, a storage room filled with stacks of food.

    Perhaps this explained how a young child with no guardian had managed to survive alone in this insane world.

    Inside, there were vegetables and fruits that, though slightly wilted, hadn''t rotted or discolored, along with solid food ingredients like curry powder, and even smoke-cured and salt-preserved chunks of meat.

    Due to the power outage, most of the temperature control and air circulation systems weren''t working anymore, unfortunately.

    However, thanks to its location in a shaded basement, the storage room maintained a natural coolness even without any special equipment.

    Thanks to the early spring season and the consistently low temperatures, even food that would easily spoil at room temperature had been preserved without rotting.

    Of course, some of them were starting to get soggy and squished from the long storage, but it''s not like we would die from eating them.

    And so, we stood there dumbfounded, our mouths agape, before a mountain of stored food.

    The supermarket was right here all along.

    "....Um, Hee-ah. Are you really sure it''s okay for us to eat these things here?"

    "Yes, Yeon-ah unnie! I can''t eat it all by myself anyway... Heehee. And there are some things I don''t like."

    Yeon-ah carefully asked Hee-ah.

    It would be a lie to say we didn''t feel any guilt or remorse.

    No, it wasn''t just us, anyone with a normal sense of morality would undoubtedly feel that way.

    No matter how much food there was for the small Hee-ah to eat alone, and no matter how much of it would eventually have to be thrown away if left untouched, it was still true that we, high school students, were taking a child''s food.

    And we didn''t even have the ability to properly repay her, as all we had were tasteless canned goods.

    That''s why Yeon-ah had asked Hee-ah several times if we were really allowed to eat it, but....

    "If my unnies eat, I''ll be happy too!"

    "........"

    The child was not only saying it was fine, but actually asking us to eat it.

    Well, what can you do when she puts it that way.

    "...We''ll gratefully eat then, Hee-ah."

    "Thank you... Really, thank you."

    In the end, it was us who had grown tired of the endless parade of canned food and instant meals.

    And judging that it would be rude to keep refusing, we moved toward the fresh foods with grateful but bitter smiles, making sure to express our thanks to the child.

    And so.

    As we inhaled the fresh grassy scent coming from the vegetables.

    Excitedly thinking, ''Should we make curry for dinner tonight since there are so many vegetables?''──

    Ah.

    "──Hey. By the way, does anyone here know how to cook?"

    """.......Ah."""

    —Pause.

    As if someone had pressed the pause button on a video.

    Looking at the two people frozen mid-stride, I thought.

    It seemed our crisis wasn''t over yet.

    "........"

    ...What do we do.

    I''ve never cooked before either.

    Whoosh.

    A slightly chilly basement breeze swept past us.

    **

    —Thud.

    "Unnies! Enjoy your meal!"

    """..........."""

    Mother.

    Today, I committed a heinous sin.

    What should we, who have committed an unforgivable sin, do now.

    Does salvation truly exist.

    I honestly don''t know anymore.

    "Jung-eun. I guess I''m trash after all..."

    "....You''re right, Hwa-min. To think humans are capable of falling this low."

    "Hwa-min sunbae, open your eyes! Jung-eun sunbae, please get up too! It''s okay! Even though we cried and snotted all over ourselves in front of a child and let her comfort us, even though we don''t know how to cook and had to ask the child to make food for us instead... there''s still meaning in living... right? No, is there really?"

    Even Yeon-ah, who had been trying her best to offer a glimmer of hope, had fallen.

    The three of us sat with our heads respectfully bowed on the table, faced with the beautiful golden curry that the child had cooked.

    Meanwhile, Hee-ah, the one who had cooked the curry, watched us with question marks floating above her head, completely puzzled by what was happening. sea??h thё n??el Fire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    It''s nothing, Hee-ah.

    We''re just having an existential crisis, that''s all.

    By the way.

    Who would have thought that among three high school girls, not a single one would know how to cook?

    Was this the downside of modern education, which only teaches specialized knowledge in one area while neglecting other practical skills.

    Perhaps all schools should reduce the weight of regular subjects and increase the time spent on practical skills classes like home economics, where they teach cooking.

    No matter how much they say a person''s worth isn''t determined by their usefulness…

    Being this utterly useless felt like we had failed as human beings.

    "....But I at least know how to make ramyeon, Hwa-min sunbae."

    "Even my dog Poppy knows how to do that, Yeon-ah."

    I ignored Yeon-ah''s lame excuse.

    Insisting that you absolutely need a scale and measuring tools to cook, what kind of rubbish is that.

    That''s just a chemistry experiment, it''s questionable whether you can even call it cooking.

    It seemed poor Yeon-ah''s brain had been completely devoured by studying.

    Still, at least Yeon-ah knows how to make ramyeon, she was an angel.

    The real problem was right next to me.

    "....What are you looking at, Hwa-min."

    "Nothing, I''m just amazed."

    How could a human being even think like that.

    From claiming that plastic wrap won''t melt when exposed to fire, to insisting that soup gets blander the more it reduces. Jung-eun had given answers so wrong they seemed intentional when I''d tested her cooking knowledge.

    I looked at her face, hoping it was a joke, but she was more serious than I''d ever seen her.

    And I realized, this girl was for real.

    Of course, I was so dumbfounded that I asked Jung-eun when was the last time she''d touched cooking utensils in her life.

    And what I received in return was the legendary answer that she''d touched them while playing a dumpling-making game on a flash game website.

    I grabbed my head with an "Ah" of despair.

    It seemed that today, I had witnessed the very depths of human depravity, the very limits of how twisted a person''s common sense could be.

    Well, now that things had come to this.

    Maybe I could claim victory since I at least knew how to make soy sauce egg rice.

    "─Ah. That''s not really something to brag about, sunbae."

    "Hey, Lee. Less talking, more moving side dishes."

    "....Yes, ma''am."

    Clink, clink.

    The sound of dishes clinking against each other filled the dining table.

    This is too much.

    As a side note, the curry the child made was devastatingly delicious.

    It would have been better if it tasted bad, but from the aroma alone this curry screamed ''This is delicious because it was made with care~!'' - to the point where everyone at the table was forced to reflect on their own cooking abilities.

    Later, there was a debate about who would get the rights to the few remaining ladles of curry, but let''s skip over that.

    "Heehee. Thank you for enjoying it! There are still ingredients left, should I make more?"

    "...No. We''re sorry. We''re really sorry. So please, stop saying that, Hee-ah...."

    "?? Hmm? Okay, Hwa-min unnie!"

    Only wounds remained in everyone''s hearts.

    It was truly a brutal war.

    **

    "Good night~! Unnies!"

    "Yeah. Good night, Hee-ah~"

    "Hee-ah, dream of m——Guh!?"

    Warm and delicious food has its own strange magic.

    The kind of magic that makes one laugh and chatter, forgetting the sadness and pain they carry within their hearts.

    With a soft click, the flashlight that had been illuminating the darkness lost its light.

    And we all lay in a row in the darkened room, smiles on our faces, drifting off to sleep to relieve our fatigue.

    I recalled.

    The mountain of supplies that could probably sustain the four of us for several more weeks.

    The room with the soft and fluffy mattress laid on the floor, instead of zombie-filled spaces echoing with their moans.

    And.

    "........"

    The sight of us three, going to bed waiting for tomorrow''s sun to rise.

    In the pitch-black darkness, we had found a single ray of light.

    In the invisible future, we were able to gain hope to slowly move forward.

    All thanks to a single child who extended her hand to us.

    In the beginning, we might not have even been able to see what was right below our feet.

    Sometimes stumbling from stepping on something, sometimes clutching our foreheads in pain from bumping into an unseen wall.

    No, that was definitely how it had been.

    "......."

    But even so, if we don''t give up.

    If we continued to try and look at the world with our eyes open until the end.

    We would eventually notice a faint ray of light entering the room through the window from outside, in the room that had felt pitch black.

    And as our eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, the outlines of the objects inside the room would slowly begin to appear.

    "....I''m getting sleepy."

    I let out a small yawn and closed my eyes.

    Sleep came more easily than I thought.

    Day 18 after the zombie outbreak.

    The day I met the child who introduced herself as Hee-ah.

    That memorable first day.

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