Free Web Novel“I’d like to formally apologize again. Mr. Lee Junho, and everyone else... I’m truly sorry.”
“I’m sorry... I committed a sin worthy of death.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
When Go Jeongnam apologized with grave sincerity, Go Seokjin bowed his head deeply from his knees, and his wife standing beside him clasped both hands in front of her and bent at the waist.
Go Seokjin, who had gotten a proper beating from his father, looked like a wreck.
But the others, now that they had heard the full story from Junho, looked at him with awkward expressions.
Because they all knew now that the nursing home had almost gone up in flames.
“I’ll repay this sin myself—both his and mine, for giving birth to him and raising this kind of son. It’s all my fault for raising him wrong. I’m truly sorry.”
“N-no, that’s not true. What did Grandpa Jeongnam do wrong?”
“That’s right. You almost got hurt too, sir.”
At nurse’s aide Kang Sua’s words, nursing-home staffer Lee Jaeseok chimed in.
He looked a little stern by nature, but Go Jeongnam had always treated the nursing-home staff exceptionally well, and neither of them disliked him.
If anything, he was one of the residents they liked the most.
“That’s enough apologizing for now. We should treat your son first. If we leave him like this in summer, it could turn serious. Especially in a world like this...”
Kim Heeyoung walked toward the three family members as she spoke, then turned back to Junho.
“Um... that’s okay, right? And may I use a little more of the first aid kit you gave us earlier?”
“Of course. Go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
With a warm, kindly smile, Kim Heeyoung helped the kneeling Go Seokjin to his feet.
“Mr. Go Jeongnam, even so, how could you hit someone like this?”
“No, nurse. Don’t you know this fool nearly got you and Dr. Choi killed too? A bastard like him needs more—”
“Tch. Don’t you dare lay another hand on him.”
“N-no...”
Shooting Go Jeongnam a sharp look as he floundered, Kim Heeyoung patted Go Seokjin.
“All right, we need to treat you first, so get up.”
“Th-thank you.”
“Thank you, ma’am. Thank you.”
Go Seokjin and his wife bobbed and bowed as they followed her away.
From that brief exchange, one question rose in Junho’s mind.
A nurse...?
Junho turned to Choi Uisu.
“Your wife isn’t a doctor too? She’s a nurse?”
“Ah, yes. These days she helps at the neighborhood clinic I run, but... a long time ago, she was the head nurse at a general hospital.”
“Ah... I see. Then Mr. Choi Uisu—no, doctor—what’s your specialty?”
“Emergency medicine. I was the head of emergency medicine at Hanil Hospital. These days I run a neighborhood clinic, but... well, not even that anymore.”
“Ah... I see.”
At Choi Uisu’s bitter expression, Junho barely managed to stop himself from reacting out loud.
Good. Very good.
He had thought both husband and wife were doctors, but the wife being a former head nurse at a general hospital was even better.
Given Kim Heeyoung’s age, she must have worked at a hospital for over twenty years, which meant she would certainly have rotated through multiple departments rather than staying in just one. freewebnσvel.cѳm
That meant she would have knowledge and hands-on experience not just in basic internal medicine and surgery, but probably in fields like pediatrics, ENT, and obstetrics-gynecology as well.
And considering the reality of Korean healthcare, it was obvious that Kim Heeyoung herself had likely made decisions on diagnosis, medication, and treatment directly more than once. freēwebnovel.com
Which meant that for their shelter, Kim Heeyoung—with more than twenty years of broad experience across multiple departments in a general hospital—would be even more useful than most interns or residents.
And on top of that, Choi Uisu was an emergency-medicine specialist.
For a shelter like theirs, where trauma cases would almost certainly be common, he was practically the ideal talent.
“Has it been about three years since Dr. Choi and Nurse Kim started volunteering at our nursing home? They’re truly kind people. Not just anyone would come every month and take care of old folks like us, still alive only because we haven’t died yet.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. My wife and I just wanted to... no, never mind. Anyway, please don’t worry about it.”
As if he had almost said something and stopped himself, Choi Uisu’s face stiffened slightly, and Junho spoke casually.
“Do you smoke, by any chance? Want to go up to the roof and have one? The view’s not exactly great, but...”
“Ah, do you smoke?”
“No. But I carry them.”
In the apocalypse, alcohol and cigarettes were valuables so prized that to some people they were nearly on the level of food.
That was why, even if not alcohol, Junho always kept a pack of cigarettes on him just in case.
Fortunately, Choi Uisu turned out to be a smoker.
“Any chance I could have one too?”
At Go Jeongnam’s tentative question, Choi Uisu turned to look at him.
“I thought you said you’d quit.”
“I did quit. But... with the world looking like this, let’s say one is allowed. And besides...”
Glowering at his son, who was receiving treatment from Kim Heeyoung, Go Jeongnam went on.
“Looking at that bastard, I can feel my blood pressure rising. I need one today.”
***
Junho headed to the roof with the two men.
The nursing-home building was safe now, but the two of them still could not hide their fear as they glanced around and climbed the stairs carefully.
“Here you go. Probably not the kind you usually smoke.”
“No, no. In a situation like this, I’m grateful for anything. Thank you.”
“Whew... thank you, truly.”
Choi Uisu and Go Jeongnam carefully took one cigarette each from the most widely sold domestic brand that Junho held out.
Go Jeongnam accepted a light from Choi Uisu, puffed until it caught, then drew in a long drag and exhaled.
Soon, with a hazy look on his face, he muttered,
“Good. Real good. To think I quit this when I don’t even have that many years left to live...”
“You should still stay quit. If you really must, do what I do and keep it to one or two a day.”
“Of course. That’s what I’ll do.”
Unable to bring themselves to go near the railing, they stood there watching the still-raging firelight and listening to the grotesque sounds of the zombie horde on the lower road, smoking in silence for a while.
“By the way, young Junho. Ah, is it all right if I call you that?”
“Call me whatever’s comfortable.”
“I’m curious why a young man who’s not a soldier looks like that, but I won’t ask. Or rather, I can’t ask. You’re our lifesaver, so what does it matter? But let me say this.”
Go Jeongnam’s gaze shifted to Choi Uisu.
“When a person gets old, all he’s got left is his instincts. And from where I stand, it looks like you came here because of Dr. Choi and Nurse Kim. Am I right?”
“...Yes. That’s right.”
Junho neither fumbled out an excuse nor tried to dodge the question.
To begin with, aside from Choi Uisu and Kim Heeyoung, he had never planned to bring any of the nursing-home survivors to their shelter—not even to the container living zone.
“...!?”
Choi Uisu flinched and looked at him.
Meeting his eyes, Junho spoke evenly.
“I’ve built a very safe place. There are about ten people living there too. And somewhere around there.”
Junho flicked a glance toward the direction of Point Two, then continued,
“My younger brother is there. Most of the things that died at the front gate of this nursing home were taken out by him.”
“Ah...”
“Anyway, that place needs a doctor. As you can see, it looks like I’m going to have to keep doing things like this. Which means there will definitely be times when injuries happen. And the people living with me could get hurt too. So.”
“......”
Choi Uisu looked at him with a somewhat hardened face, and Junho made not a plea, but a direct proposal.
“How about you and your wife come with me? I can say this with confidence—it’s probably the safest place in South Korea. Right now, and going forward.”
“...!”
Choi Uisu flinched, then seemed to think about something for a long moment before turning his head to the side.
He looked once at Go Jeongnam, who was smoking with a calm expression, then turned back to Junho.
“I’m deeply grateful for the offer, but I’ll stay here—”
“D-Doctor Choi.”
“...Yes?”
“Go with young Junho.”
“Sir.”
“Ah, don’t worry about us here. My youngest may be a mess, but he’s here now, and my daughter-in-law came too. We’ll find a way to manage. You and Nurse Kim go with him.”
“No. I—”
“Doctor Choi.”
Firmly cutting him off, Go Jeongnam crushed out his cigarette.
Then, with the same stubborn, rigid expression he always wore, he spoke.
“I wasn’t going to say this. But with the world in this state, I have to now.”
“......?”
“I told you old age leaves you with nothing but instinct, didn’t I? You think I didn’t know, Doctor Choi? Starting with me, the way you looked at the old people here. Like we were pathetic. Pitiful.”
“......!!!”
Choi Uisu jolted so hard his shoulders jumped.
“You came here to feel better about yourself, didn’t you? Watching us. I don’t know what happened to you and Nurse Kim, but seeing old people like us—people whose children and grandchildren rarely come visit—made you feel better, didn’t it?”
“I... I...”
“I was always grateful to you, Doctor Choi, but I was uncomfortable too. And it wasn’t just me. Most of the old folks here probably felt the same way.”
“Ah...!”
Choi Uisu’s eyes went wide, but no words came out.
“But we couldn’t say anything. Because aside from you and Nurse Kim, there wasn’t another doctor out there willing to look after old people like us. Even if you laughed at us in your heart, you were still the only doctor who came.”
“......!”
The instant he heard that, Choi Uisu’s face twisted terribly.
Then, grinding his teeth, he spoke low and slow, as if vomiting up something buried deep in his chest.
“...That’s right. My wife may not have, but I did feel relief and satisfaction looking at the elderly people here. Because...”
Staring at Junho, who was inwardly caught off guard by the sudden confession, Choi Uisu continued, his lips actually trembling.
“Because I can’t see my daughter either, no matter how much I want to. But... our Yuna can’t come because she’s dead.”
“......!”
Junho’s and Go Jeongnam’s eyes both widened.
“And yet the elderly people here... even though their children are still alive... hardly ever get to see them.”
Choi Uisu, still trembling as he clenched his teeth, slowly turned his face toward Go Jeongnam.
“You asked if I felt satisfied? Yes. I did. I was glad. These old people can’t see their children either, even though their children are alive and doing just fine. While I can’t see mine no matter what I do. Our Yuna... my daughter who died that young... even if she misses her mother and father, she can’t come to us. So compared to these people, I’m... I’m bett—” Hhk, hhh...
Tears poured from the eyes of the middle-aged doctor who looked so cold-blooded that not even a drop of blood would come out if he were stabbed.
Go Jeongnam, who had been quietly watching him, slowly walked over and gently patted his arm.
“I only learned the details just now, but I’d already guessed some of it. That you and Nurse Kim were people carrying wounds in your hearts. Me, and the old folks here too—we caught on a while ago.”
“Hhk... hhhhk...”
“How could an old man like me even begin to imagine the pain of losing a child? Even when my oldest boy went to prison, it felt like my chest was being ripped apart... so no, I don’t know. I truly don’t. Still.”
Looking at Choi Uisu—shaking, crying low like a wounded animal—with pity in his eyes, Go Jeongnam went on in a firm tone.
“But a person can’t try to heal a sickness in the heart by looking down on people who carry the same kind of pain. That only makes the sickness worse. A doctor as educated as you knows that better than an ignorant old man like me, doesn’t he?”
“......!”
“So, Doctor Choi. Go with Nurse Kim. If you stay here with us, all that’ll happen is we’ll keep making each other uncomfortable, and the sickness in your heart will only get deeper. You understand what I mean, don’t you? A smart man like you?”
“Yes. I do, sir... I understand very well.”
As Choi Uisu wiped away his tears, Go Jeongnam looked at him as though he were his own son and patted his back and shoulder.
And Junho watched the two of them in silence.
Go Jeongnam—whom he had taken for nothing more than a stiff old man saddled with a dutiful but disastrously troublesome son—now looked completely different to him.
Junho had always believed that a person’s true nature came out when they gained power and when they were pushed into a life-or-death crisis.
And in an apocalypse this desperate, seeing an old man wise and deep-hearted enough to let go of a precious doctor—someone who had looked down on him for a long time, no less—out of consideration for that doctor’s well-being stirred no small amount of admiration in him.
So Junho made a decision.
“Mr. Go Jeongnam.”
“Ah, sorry, young Junho. An old man like me talks too much and stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong, didn’t he? Anyway, Doctor Choi and Nurse Kim should—”
“You’ll be staying here with your son and daughter-in-law, right?”
“Well, I suppose we have to. In a world like ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) this, where would we go?”
“Then let’s head back down for now. There’s something the others need to hear too.”
“......?”
***
“Support... us?”
“Yes.”
Gathered once more in Room 203, the nursing-home survivors could not hide their bewildered expressions at Junho’s words.
Looking around at them, Junho spoke calmly.
“There are three elderly residents, and four able-bodied adults. There should be at least some food left in the kitchen here, but I can provide rice and side dishes on a regular basis. And if you need them, I’ll give you crop seeds you can grow here too.”
“What...?”
There were already thirty tons of rice and ten tons of flour stocked in the refrigerated and deep-freeze storage alone.
That was without even touching the tons of ramen, noodles, pasta, and MRE combat rations stored alongside them.
Even if twenty full shelter residents ate nothing but rice and flour, it was enough to keep them going for nearly thirty years.
So even supporting the people at Hanaareum Nursing Home for a year or two would hardly make a dent.
And after that, he had other plans.
“And I saw there are solar panels here. What kind of setup is it? Does it store power in ESS batteries?”
At Junho’s question, Lee Jaeseok—who handled various chores around the nursing home—raised a hand and stepped forward.
“It uses regular inverter batteries. At night we used electricity off that... I think it was because of some kind of nighttime surcharge? Anyway.”
“Then I’ll provide ESS batteries too. And the location here is good, so I’ll install some high-performance CCTV cameras as well. Enough that you’ll be able to see anything—zombie or person—within a radius of three or four hundred meters. Ah, and I’ll install a relay linked to the place where I live too. That way we’ll be able to communicate anytime.”
Sitting at slightly higher ground, Hanaareum Nursing Home qualified as a reasonably strong strategic point.
It would not match the drone’s high-altitude surveillance coverage, but even one imported high-performance camera and three or four domestic CCTV units would be enough to monitor this whole area in considerable detail.
Which meant that for their shelter too, using this place as a forward outpost—or at least a cooperating partner—was strategically the right call.
And with Go Jeongnam as leader, a man unbelievably healthy for a nursing-home resident in his seventies, someone who knew how to respect boundaries and had solid judgment, it was trustworthy enough.
“R-really?”
“God...”
After Junho had taken Go Jeongnam and Choi Uisu up to the roof, the people left behind had been wrestling all over again with how they were supposed to survive in this hopeless situation.
Now their faces lit up so much they looked on the verge of tears.
“So.”
Junho’s gaze shifted to Go Seokjin, whose bruises were just beginning to bloom across his face.
“Ah...”
Go Seokjin instantly went pale, apparently afraid Junho was about to tell him to get out.
Instead, Junho spoke in an icy voice.
“Seokjin, get to work right now.”
“W-work?”
“Pile up all the dead zombies inside the nursing home yard. And collect my shell casings too. Basically clean up everything. Unless you want to di— no, get thrown out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Having clearly heard Junho start to say die, Go Seokjin instantly turned meek as a lamb and nodded vigorously.
Go Jeongnam glared at his son.
“You little bastard. Your old man’s keeping an eye on you the whole time. No, scratch that, I’ll do it with you. You’ve got all four limbs working, so what’s the point of sitting around? Young Junho, I’ll keep a close watch and make sure this bastard doesn’t pull anything.”
“Yes, sir. I’m counting on you. I’d rather not shoot somebody else’s precious son with a gun.”
“R-right... I won’t take my eyes off him for a second.”
Go Jeongnam could not stand up to Junho at all, and Go Seokjin was a mouse in front of a cat not just around his father, but around Junho too.
After all, Junho was the apex predator at the top of the food chain, able to step in anytime through the CCTV and comms, and now Go Seokjin’s natural enemy—his father—was here with him too.
And apparently, before enlisting, when he had lived at home, he had not stayed out of trouble—more like he hadn’t been able to cause trouble.
So now, instead of being the nursing home’s nuisance villain, he would be working hard as its “Head Yard Mule Number One.”
***
Most of the zombies outside the nursing-home gate had been killed by Junhyeok’s extended air-rifle fire.
Once the others no longer saw any people moving around, they followed their homing instinct and went back where they had originally come from.
There were still plenty of zombies left on the lower road, but with the roughly three-meter embankment and the wall built on top of it, there was no way for them to detect movement on this side.
In other words, unless someone deliberately shouted from the yard, there was no chance they would hear anything, so simple work was safe enough for now.
“Keep watching carefully. Junhyeok, keep taking out anything you can see from over there.”
— Don’t worry.
— Nothing right now. If I see anything, I’ll put it down.
Ending the transmission, Junho stood with Choi Uisu and Kim Heeyoung in front of the door to one of the rooms on the second floor.
“This is it. In here...”
Choi Uisu could not bring himself to finish the sentence.
Thud! Thud...!
Inside the closed door to Room 207, visible through the small transparent window, an old-woman zombie stared at Junho with gray-white eyes as she kept slamming her head into the door.
It was Yang Myeongsuk.
Kim Hayoon and Kim Junseo’s grandmother.
