Chapter 9: The First Omen

There was so much to do, but my body felt lethargic.

Groaning, I crawled back under the blanket and turned on my phone.

As soon as I connected to the internet and opened the news section, it was complete chaos with breaking reports.

[ Nationwide Earthquakes. Has the Korean Peninsula Plate Shifted? —Comprehensive News ]

[ China, U.S., Japan… Earthquake Reports Pouring in Worldwide —Global News ]

[ Climate Changes Expected After a Global Mega-Quake —Tabloid News ]

[ Assemblyman ○○○, “What Was the President Doing During the Earthquake?” —Political Buzz ]

[ Stock Market in Turmoil After Earthquake, Which Climate Stocks Will Surge? —Speculation News ]

Society, economy, world affairs—every section was in an uproar.

Until last night, people probably thought it was just a big earthquake.

They couldn’t have imagined it was a global natural disaster.

They wouldn’t have known that a tsunami had struck Japan.

Or that a massive dam in China had cracked from the tremors, creating twenty million displaced people.

This wasn’t just our country’s problem.

The entire world was in chaos.

As I read through the articles one by one, checking Korea and global trends, it slowly began to feel real.

The things that were about to happen must be real too.

Humanity might truly be heading toward extinction.

I jolted upright from under the blanket.

“First, I need a car.”

I needed something big and sturdy.

Buy a large vehicle.

Stock up on fuel.

Load the trunk with emergency rations.

My plan was simple—stay alive safely until Han-jun awakened his powers.

To survive, I had to move diligently like an ant.

I borrowed money wherever I could.

Installments on my credit card weren’t enough, so I even took out a high-interest loan that approved instantly with a phone call.

Buying a new car would take a month for delivery, so I rushed straight to the used car market.

It wasn’t easy dealing with dealers who welcomed me like fresh prey, but somehow, I managed to get into the middle of signing a contract.

That’s when Han-jun called.

“Yeah.”

[ Hyung, where are you. ]

“Me? I stepped out for a bit. Why.”

[ I figured you hadn’t eaten lunch, so I came home. But you weren’t there. ]

That brat.

Even if he acted blunt, he always took care of things.

I’d been sweating among dealers treating me like a sucker, so his thoughtfulness hit even harder.

My chest tightened.

“Aw, our Jun is worried about me. So sweet. I’ll be back around dinner. Eat something good for lunch, okay? Goochie-goochie.”

[ Ah, damn it. ]

Click—

I was just praising him out of gratitude when he hung up.

The kid really had no cuteness in him.

I clicked my tongue and resumed my battle of wills with the dealer.

The dealer whined that even used cars were in short supply and immediate delivery would be difficult.

I bluffingly insisted I wouldn’t sign unless it was available immediately.

After arguing with several dealers, it finally worked out.

“Who buys a car this urgently like they’re running away? So how are you paying?”

“Well, boldly!”

“Full payment?!”

“I’ll do sixty-month installments.”

The dealer muttered curses under his breath.

Hey, at least curse quietly.

There was still a lot more I needed to buy.

I worried that I might have rushed into a bad deal.

But speed mattered more than anything right now, so I left it for a performance inspection and headed home.

Running around like that, even grocery shopping, it was already evening by the time I returned.

My body was exhausted, but both hands were full.

I felt like the head of a household returning after a hectic day just to survive.

As I slowly climbed the uphill road under a sky filled with ominous snake-like clouds, I ran into Han-jun coming back from work.

He saw my arms loaded with bags and hurried over in surprise.

“Why did you buy so much. The fridge is tiny, there’s nowhere to put it.”

He scolded me while grabbing the bags from my hands.

My arms instantly felt lighter.

“Good timing. I thought I’d die from the weight.”

“How long are you planning to stay to buy this much?”

He looked over the groceries with concern, as if wondering when we’d ever finish them.

“What’s with all this spam? Planning to open a spam store? And why so many tuna cans? Hyung, are you a cat?”

Since I was buying long-lasting food, it was mostly instant goods.

“I bought plenty so you can eat them over time. Just put them in the cupboard.”

“……I told you there’s no space.”

I thought he was touched but embarrassed.

Han-jun was surprisingly shy.

But no.

There really was no space.

“Damn, what do we do with this?”

His fridge was ridiculously small.

A few bottles of water and some meat filled it completely.

The cupboards were cramped too, fitting barely half of what I bought.

Since the fridge was full, we had no choice but to cook the fresh pork belly immediately.

We laid out newspapers in the cramped room and turned on a portable gas burner.

Grease splattered everywhere as the meat sizzled in the pan.

Han-jun winced and wiped the oil diligently with tissue paper while I laughed happily.

“Wow, it feels like camping.”

“Camping in a one-room apartment?”

“If it were a rooftop room, the vibe would be better. You should move to a rooftop next time. Then we could grill outside and oil splashes wouldn’t matter.”

There probably wouldn’t be a next time.

But I pretended like this normal life would continue.

Han-jun, unaware of everything, nodded obediently.

“Yeah.”

“And get one with an extra room. I value privacy.”

“Why are you looking for a room in my house?”

“Hey, I’ll visit often. We need one. I’ll pay rent.”

“If you’re paying rent to visit, we might as well just live together.”

He shook his head at my nonsense.

I immediately replied.

“Sure. Then let’s live together.”

Han-jun lowered his head silently, then nodded slightly.

“……We’ll see.”

After that, even though the oil splatter had calmed down, he kept rolling tissue paper in his hands.

The pork browned beautifully over the flame.

The evening sunset painted the room golden.

Even Han-jun’s ears and neck turned red from the heat and smoke.

After devouring several pounds of meat, the greasy smell became unbearable.

So we went out for a walk.

“The smell’s insane. Should we just sleep outside?”

“I told you not to use the burner.”

“The kitchen’s attached anyway.”

“There’s a hood over the stove, you know.”

We wandered the neighborhood, bickering.

Thankfully, it was autumn—perfect for walking.

Sitting on a bench in a small park, the night breeze brushed past us.

Maybe because of the clouds, the moon wasn’t visible.

“Can’t see the moon.”

“Yeah.”

“What’s that? Looks weird.”

“Yeah.”

Something black was crawling across the dirt.

It made a strange screeching sound.

It was as small as a rat, but looked wrong.

Did our country even have six-legged mammals.

The black creature screeched as it roamed the park, then suddenly darted toward us.

“It’s coming this way.”

“Yeah.”

When it opened its mouth wide, a forked tongue like a snake’s flicked out.

Like a rat mutated by radiation, with spider-like legs and a red split tongue writhing.

It was only rat-sized, but so unfamiliar that chills ran down my spine.

I jumped onto the bench in horror.

“That’s disgusting!”

“……”

“Ah!! Hey, get up here! What are you doing?!”

While I panicked, Han-jun remained seated calmly.

I shook his shoulders, trying to drag him up.

“Screech—!!”

The creature reached our feet.

Han-jun casually stomped on it.

He crushed it.

That bizarre rat.

“……Is it dead?”

“Seems like it.”

When he lifted his foot, sticky red blood stretched out.

The creature lay flattened and burst.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“I’m going to throw up.”

“It’s just a rat.”

“……That looks like a rat to you?”

“Isn’t it?”

Is something wrong with his head.

He showed no disgust at all.

No reaction whatsoever.

I swallowed back nausea and looked closer at the corpse.

I’d never seen anything like it.

If it wasn’t some radiation mutation, it had to be alien.

Had alien monsters already begun appearing.

If they all looked this disgusting, what would we do.

Overwhelmed, I leaned against Han-jun.

“Ugh, that’s so gross.”

Seeing me gag, Han-jun patted my back.

“Hyung, life must be hard for you.”

“Ugh. You’re the weird one.”

“Want me to carry you?”

“No. More importantly, throw those shoes away.”

“No. They’re still fine.”

“You stepped on that thing. Throw them out.”

“I said no.”

Arguing over a different issue now, we slowly headed back home.