Dead with Me

Warm sunlight filtered through the leaves, the grass was soft, and the spot they found was perfect for a picnic.

There was a human leaning against a tree, and a Zombie using the human’s lap as a pillow.

“Yeon…Seung…”

“Hm?”

“……Yeonseung.”

The man’s face as he stared at Yeonseung resembled that of a child seeking praise, and Yeonseung couldn’t help smiling at the thought. As Yeonseung slowly ruffled his unkempt hair and told him that he did a good job, his left eye began to blink faster than usual.

After a week of living with the Zombie Lee Hogyu, Yeonseung had learnt a lot about him.

And, judging by the look in his eye right now, it seemed like he was quite happy. Yeonseung coughed, feeling a bit embarrassed that a simple “good job” could please him that much. He then turned away and reached into the garden next to him to pluck a cherry tomato.

He held the red, round cherry tomato in front of Lee Hogyu’s eyes and chuckled.

“The cherry tomatoes are ripe. Isn’t it pretty?”

“…….”

Lee Hogyu stared at the cherry tomato in front of him. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if he was looking at the cherry tomato or at Yeonseung behind it because of the blurred focus, but he nodded slowly anyway.

With a small smile on his face, Yeonseung shoved the cherry tomato into Lee Hogyu’s mouth. As he chewed on the tiny tomato in his mouth, his eyes never left Yeonseung.

It is so like him to have only one eye and use it to behold Yeonseung all the time. He raised an eyebrow and laughed.

Helping him to his feet, Yeonseung dusted off his back and stood up. Smiling pleasantly at the refreshing breeze, he picked up the basket he had brought and tucked it to his side, then went to the orange tree at the end of the large yard, close to the barbed wire fence, and began picking oranges.

After a week of caring for Lee Hogyu, Yeonseung had learned a few things.

First, Lee Hogyu was as clingy as a gum stuck to a shoe.

This was true even when he was human, but it was never this bad. No, back then, Hogyu had held himself back for fear of burdening Yeonseung, but now he didn’t even seem to think about that. That’s why he was following Yeonseung so closely. While Yeonseung, who was nothing but a hollow shell if you took away his confidence, nodded proudly to himself, he heard a fairly loud bark from a short distance away.

“WOOF!”

Dumpling, with his legs spread and hackles raised, stood tall and wary, glaring at Lee Hogyu. He circled around and barked at Yeonseung to stay away from him. Dumpling barked and barked, but didn’t dare to get any closer.

That takes us to the second thing Yeonseung learned during this week Lee Hogyu and Dumpling won’t get along.

With its keen sense of smell, Dumpling could smell dead bodies and has never been fond of Lee Hogyu. Jealous Dumpling’s wariness has only increased as Hogyu seemed to take all of Yeonseung’s care and attention, and he stuck to his side all the time as if glued.  He was too cowardly to go up against someone so much bigger than him, but every once in a while, he’d pluck up the courage.

Just like now.

Yeonseung threw his basket at the sight of the wound on Lee Hogyu’s leg and hurried over to him. Squatting down, he grabbed the cold leg and looked at the wound: the tattered skin had been torn quite deeply by sharp teeth. Being a Zombie, no blood flowed out, but still, a pang of pity washed over him, so he clicked his tongue and turned his head to look at Dumpling, who stared up at him with an even more grim face, as if he knew he was at fault. Yeonseung’s eyes became sharper as he flicked the bridge of Dumpling’s nose with his finger.

“Didn’t this hyung tell you not to bully Lee Hogyu?”

“Arrroo…”

“Looking pitiful won’t help you. This is your fault; you won’t be getting any snacks today.”

Leaving the shell-shocked dumpling behind, Yeonseung tugged on Lee Hogyu’s arm as they headed home. Once they got him into a chair, Yeonseung wasn’t sure what to do. No amount of medication or bandaging would heal the wound on Hogyu’s leg. If he left it untreated, his leg would become infected with germs and rot… Frowning as he contemplated, Yeonseung finally opened a drawer and pulled out a needle and a thread.

Squinting, Yeonseung threaded the needle, swallowed hard, sat down in front of Lee Hogyu, and grabbed his leg. Not a drop of blood came out of the fairly long gash on the bloodless leg, but it still broke Yeonseung’s heart. As he squinted at the wound, he then looked at the needle in his right hand and the black thread threaded through it. Looking back and forth between the thread and Lee Hogyu’s pale skin, Yeonseung caught Lee Hogyu’s eye.

“…Should I use white or grey thread instead of black?”

At Yeonseung’s worried words, Lee Hogyu looked down at his chest. On the left breast of his white shirt, he could see a red heart stitched with black thread. Hogyu slowly held his leg out to Yeonseung.

“You want me to just do it?”

He didn’t answer, but seeing the affirmation in Hogyu’s eyes, Yeonseung swallowed hard and fixed the needle.

“Are you sure it doesn’t hurt?”

Yeonseung asked countless times before he closed his eyes tightly, opened them, and finally moved the needle.

He didn’t know how doctors sewed human skin, but he was sure as hell it wasn’t a buttonhole stitch. Thinking about it, Yeonseung felt terribly sorry for Lee Hogyu. Even though he didn’t know how to sew on human skin, the fact that he was using a stitch that was only used for felting bothered Yeonseung a lot. The sewing skills he had learnt in high school home economics didn’t seem to be suitable for stitching up a wound, unfortunately. Contemplating removing the stitches and applying a bandage, Yeonseung looked up from his work to see what Lee Hogyu had to say.

Lee Hogyu’s gaze, which had always been fixed on Yeonseung, had somehow dropped to stare at his own leg. He looked at his right leg, which was stitched together with black thread, and raised his hand to gently stroke the wound. He looked unexpectedly very, very, very satisfied.

“Ah.”

The third thing that Yeonseung knew.

Lee Hogyu always wore pink glasses when it came to Yeonseung. Knowing that to a certain extent, he smirked at the Lee Hogyu who was gently stroking the wound he had stitched up.

It seems that Yeonseung might have underestimated Lee Hogyu’s blind and subconscious fondness for him. He liked him to the point of following a vegetarian diet he didn’t even like because Yeonseung gave it to him, to the point of tolerating a puppy that kept jumping on him arbitrarily alive just because it was Yeonseung’s favourite puppy.

Supressing his urges as a Zombie and Trampling on his violent urges, and sticking by Yeonseung’s side, Hogyu was quite content with his current situation.

The wound was stitched shut, and the Zombie blinked in satisfaction. It was his own expression of joy, as he was a corpse that could no longer smile.

*                **                *                **                *                **                *                **

The teenage puppy, Dumpling, who had been alive for nearly half a year now since he took his first breath, had been feeling quite uncomfortable these days.

“Yeonseung.”

“Don’t hold onto me, I’m going and coming back alone, and you’re going to stay here and keep an eye on Dumpling and the house. Okay?”

Dumpling pretended to be pitiful while glaring at Hogyu as hard as it could as he grabbed the hem of Yeonseung’s robe. Faced with the scene of Dumpling’s desperate tries to steal his attention, Yeonseung couldn’t hold back his laughter.

“Woof woof!”

“Ahh~ dumpling, did you sleep well?”

Feeling the hand stroking his fur, Dumpling closed his eyes and let his body relax. That’s more like it!  Dumpling,  who was completely enjoying the feeling and lay down on the floor, suddenly felt the hands leave him. Yeonseung squatted down with the basket, locked eyes with Dumpling, and smiled brightly.

“This Hyung is going out to get some sweet potatoes, can you and Lee Hogyu keep an eye on the house, don’t bother Lee Hogyu.”

“Arrooo…”

Yeonseung, who didn’t understand Dumpling’s desperate cries, stroked Dumpling trustingly once more. The comforting touch caused Dumpling to curl up into a ball again, but that did not mean he saw the situation in a positive light.

After removing his hand, Yeonseung said he had to go, and quickly opened the front door and disappeared. There was an awkward silence between the Zombie and the dog, left in such a cosy home.

While Dumpling was wondering what to do with him, Lee Hogyu suddenly walked in. Dumpling shuddered and was wary, but Hogyu was indifferent to whether Dumpling was wary or not as he walked up to the window and stared at the back of Yeonseung’s head.

Dumpling frowned slightly and curled up in a ball in front of the opposite window, where the sunlight was shining. Part of him wanted to bite that wimp once more, but he didn’t want to be hated by Yeonseung, so he had to hold back.

“Huff…”

Sighing, Dumpling jammed his jaw on his front paw, He hated that wimp.

One day, Yeonseung who went out to hunt caught it and brought it back, and then what he thought was prey suddenly started living with them… At first, Yeonseung was obviously wary and reluctant, but eventually he let it roam freely without tying it up and even fed it.

The strangely cool smell emanating from him piqued Dumpling’s curiosity, but he couldn’t understand why such a laconic creature that did not even respond to being touched a few times would be fed because while just standing there and looking pretty.

In fact, Dumpling was a very tolerant and intelligent dog, so he was willing to take on an unexpected housemate. Yes, He really was.
He had approached the stranger, tried to talk to him, expressed his curiosity, but all his efforts were met with indifference. There was no way he was getting away with pretending Dumpling didn’t exist and just following Yeonseung around, trying to hog all of his attention to himself!
To prove that he was stronger than the one-eyed bastard, Dumpling bravely charged at him, but each time he was restrained by Yeonseung and never got a chance to fight.
Then, two or three days ago, he finally gave him a good beating, only to be scolded by Yeonseung. The flick on the bridge of his nose from Yeonseung’s fingers, which would normally be stroking him, felt more like a slap in the face, and the subsequent ban on treats also played a part in making him feel reproached.
Sure, he knew he was being a little harsh, but he couldn’t help it! He hated Lee Hogyu anyway. No, he detested him. Dumpling took another deep breath, this one bursting out of him.

Still without Yeonseung around to chase, he just stood listlessly at the front door and did nothing else. Basking in the sunshine and enjoying the brief silence, Dumpling wandered around in search of a more comfortable place to sleep. Eventually, after stepping on the couch and leaping to land on the window sill, he looked out the window in contentment.

But the body that had laid down for a nap was quickly back on its feet. It wasn’t because of the small and uncomfortable window sill. On the tree close to the barbed wire that carefully surrounded the large yard, there was something. Unaware that Dumpling was watching, the creature scampered over the branches that stretched toward the fence, and then leapt in a fluid motion into the yard.

The intruder was a wild cat, its size was a little bigger than a dumpling. The wild cat strutted across the yard, wreaking havoc on Yeonseung’s hard-earned vegetable garden. Furious, Dumpling poked at the window with his snout and jumped out. Too scared to jump, he ran to the wild cat, who was lounging on Yeonseung’s sesame leaves and hissing lowly when it spotted Dumpling.

“Woof Woof!”

“Mrreow…”

Dumpling was inwardly puzzled by the wild cat’s call, which sounded low and loud in contrast to his own high-pitched voice, but he didn’t back down.

The wild cat snorted in amusement at Dumpling’s diminutive size and leapt to its feet. It snarled through bared teeth and hunkered down even more for battle. After a moment of facing off, Dumpling lunged.

He sank his teeth into the wild cat’s flesh, but the wild cat’s swiftness threw him off centre and he staggered to his feet. The wild cat lunged at Dumpling with its sharp claws, aiming at the nape of his neck. Dumpling quickly dodged and tried to strike again, but the wild cats paw kicked him hard enough to knock him off his feet.

It was a mismatched fight. A large wild cat in the wilderness, and a puppy in the safety of its home. It was a fight with a clear winner.

However, Dumpling was not about to back down.

This house, full of memories, had been carefully put together by Yeonseung and while he was away, it was his responsibility to protect it. If he couldn’t stop a single intruder, he couldn’t face the man who had fed and cared for him until now.

“Growl…….”

A dog with something to protect bared its teeth and growled in a low voice. Dumpling, the house dog, strained his hind legs and was about to run again when he heard a rustling sound behind him. Thump, thump, thump. Footsteps that were louder and slower than Yeonseung’s steady pace. Lee Hogyu was slowly approaching. The wild cat, who hadn’t blinked at the when facing Dumpling, scrambled up a tree and scurried away. What a ridiculous ending.

Dumpling shivered as it finally relaxed. He had heard the footsteps and knew that Lee Hogyu was approaching, so he turned around, feeling a little uneasy. Standing behind him, Lee Hogyu was covered in dirt from his falling through the window Dumpling had left open.

His white T-shirt was covered in dirt from his Zombie-like landing. All of Hogyu’s attention seemed to be focused on the t-shirt. Slow, weak hands awkwardly brushed off the dirt. He brushed it off, or more accurately, patted it lightly.

Dumpling thought that Lee Hogyu, who was staring at his clothes in the distance, looked a little sad somehow. Giving up on the unsalvageable stains, he lowered his hand and raised his head once more, his eyes fixed on the road beyond the barbed wire fence.

The tiny sliver of gratitude Dumpling had felt towards Lee Hogyu for saving him and saving Yeonseung’s field, even if he hadn’t meant to, disappeared without a trace. Dumpling snorted and moved out of the sun and into the shade, hoping for a break, but as he did so, Lee Hogyu stood motionless in the same spot and began to wait for a break as well.

‘It’s too hot over there’, he thought. Of course, it was none of Dumpling’s business; the house dog just sat there, chin resting on its front paws, fidgeting.

It wasn’t much to look at, but it was better than the stuffy house. The breeze ruffling his fur was quite warm, and as he rolled his eyes at the prospect of another intruder, two nameless birds flew overhead. He expected them to stay put, but contrary to his expectations, they landed in the yard.

No matter how small and cute they were, in Dumpling’s eyes, they were intruders who had set foot in his precious home. Dumpling, who was about to chase them off, did not do so immediately.

The birds, with their pretty feathers, bounced around the yard and then flew up and perched on Lee Hogyu’s head and shoulders. The birds even enjoyed pecking at his hair as he stood still, unmoving, as if it were some kind of comfortable shelter.

Seeing ghat they had no immediate intention of pecking at the yard’s crops, Dumpling slipped back into his seat, the cheek-pecking bird seemingly amused. To be honest, Dumpling felt a little bit good. Just a little. Quite a bit, actually.

The sight of the moving rock being harassed was quite a relief. Dumpling rested his chin on his front paws and wagged his tail gently.

“……”

The mountain birds surprisingly didn’t fly away. They sat on top of him for a while, pecking at his hair, poking his white skin as he tilted his head. The warm feeling he had felt before grew colder and colder as time went on, until it was almost chilly. Dumpling turned his eyes away, but unconsciously, he still couldn’t control herself from staring at Lee Hogyu. Just touching him slightly got Dumpling in trouble…

The two mountain birds that had seemed so delightful a moment ago had suddenly become the most vicious villains in Dumpling’s mind. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Dumpling pricked up his ears and closed his eyes. He might as well get some sleep.

Behind his closed eyelids, a large wild cat’s eyes glowed. He could still hear its low cry ringing in his ears, and then there was a wound on white skin, stitched tightly with black thread. Even when he pressed his ears with his front paws and curled his tail around his head, they kept circling in his mind. As if that weren’t enough, the reproachful voice of Yeonseung added to the collective pricking on his conscience.

Finally, Dumpling stood up with a heavy sigh.

“Woof Wooof!”

He barked furiously as he ran, and the two birds that had been pecking comfortably at Lee Hogyu flapped their wings and flew away. It was that easy. Dumpling snorted proudly, and Hogyu’s gaze flickered to Dumpling and back again.

His hair, always neat because Yeonseung tidied it up every day, was messed up by the antics of the mountain birds. He was one-eyed, barely expressive, and always hobbling around, unable to chase away even two small birds. In Dumpling’s repertoire, Lee Hogyu was labelled ‘weak’.

Dumpling was not a fierce dog who would attack a helpless and unwilling opponent, but a dog who adored his master. Dumpling remembered Yeonseung’s smiling face. The attention paid to him had been halved since the wimp had entered the room, but he certainly seemed happier than before. At this point, even Dumpling could tell.

He had to face reality and realise that the weakling had to stay with them. He didn’t like it, but he had no choice. This had been decided the day Yeonseung brought Lee Hogyu here.

Nodding resignedly after coming to terms with reality, Dumpling rushed over to Lee Hogyu. Standing in front of him, tail flicking roughly, his eyes met Hogyu’s single-eye one. It was a look of weakness to say the least. Dumpling barked.

«Woof!”

It wasn’t an affectionate cry; it wasn’t a cry of hostility either. It was a cry that screamed ‘It can’t be helped, I’ll protect you.’ Even though he smelled so ominous and stole half of Yeonseung’s attention, he’ll tolerate him, because he was weak. With that thought, Dumpling’s fur swayed in the wind as he rubbed his face against Lee Hogyu’s leg. Looking down at the white ball of fur, Lee Hogyu’s face was as blank as always.

A few hours later, Yeonseung returned home with a pile of sweet potatoes.

“What is going on?”

Dumpling was sprawled across Lee Hogyu’s lap, curled up and napping sweetly. Hogyu’s eyes fell on Yeonseung. The reddened sky was pouring out its last rays of sunlight, and the single pupil that reflected it seemed to sparkle.

“When did you guys get so close?”

Hogyu’s eyes followed Yeonseung as he meticulously locked the barbed wire fence and sat down beside him. He reached out and stroked Dumpling’s fluffy fur, and it lolled its tongue at him as if it were dreaming of eating something delicious. Its dirty, smiling face glistened in the fading sunset.

At Yeonseung’s touch, Lee Hogyu’s eyes moved to look at Dumpling. Dumpling looked very comfortable against his cold skin. Both Lee Hogyu looking at Dumpling and Dumpling relaxing in Lee Hogyu’s arms were adorable.

It was then that Yeonseung’s eyes caught sight of Lee Hogyu’s hair, which was somehow dishevelled. He reaches out to tidy it up, but his hands are covered in dirt from working in the fields. This was fine for Dumpling, who loves to play in the yard, but not for Lee Hogyu. Just as he was about to take his hand back, he felt something soft against his palm.

Hogyu had leaned down, tilted his head, nuzzled his palm, and looked up at him. His white cheeks were now stained a rosy red by the sunset, and he looked quite lively. When Yeonseung did not respond, Lee Hogyu tilted his head a little further and buried my head in his dusty palm.

“……What is it, were you jealous of Dumpling?”

The work was tiring, the sack was too heavy, and he was exhausted from carrying it up and down the mountain.  But the faint crack that could be heard in Yeonseung’s voice was mainly because his dead lover was so lovely, because he was so much like a real human, and he hated that illusion.

Yeonseung slowly stroked Lee Hogyu’s hair. Dirt fell and dirtied the frizzy hair, but Lee Hogyu didn’t straighten up, as if he was content.

The brave dog was still snuggled up on his lap, and the Zombie slowly closed his eyes at the gentle touch. The human sitting next to him laughed softly. It was a peaceful afternoon.