Red Dot - 103

~7th Day Early dawn.

Hanseo lay on his side, barely moving and just staring with his eyes open.

In the heavy silence, the sound of a pen dancing on paper never ceased.

Scratch, scratch—

Even while writing, the pen would slide long and draw lines. At some point, there was a rolling sound as if the pen tip was abusing the paper.

Hanseo couldn’t take his eyes off Junseong, who was filling the paper with his pen. It was strange how, in the dark room, it seemed like only Junseong was illuminated by the light coming in.

‘Is he drawing something else in his head again?’

Previously, he had seen strange scribbles where Junseong drew lines and then random circles on the paper. When asked what it was, the answer was that it was his head. It seemed like a visualization of his messed-up thoughts, but it turned out to be test routes for the various paths they would need to take.

So, that scribble was probably the various movement routes of the map he had laid out in his head.

There was no need to do that at such an early hour. It would be more beneficial to get a bit more sleep during that time.

However, it seemed Junseong couldn’t fall asleep even if he wanted to.

Despite looking clearly exhausted, Junseong, lying in bed, couldn’t sleep at all. After tossing and turning for a while, he would fall asleep only to wake up again a few minutes later. Before the dawn light came in, it was so dark that Hanseo couldn’t see his face properly, but judging by his labored breathing and the groans he made, it seemed he had nightmares even in those brief moments.

After seeing this happen twice in a row, Hanseo tried to leave his personal bed and approach Junseong. However, Junseong, noticing the sound, shook his head stubbornly.

“Sorry. …I’m really okay, so don’t worry and just sleep.”

Such words could be ignored.

To Hanseo, Junseong was clearly not okay, and it was obvious he wouldn’t get a wink of sleep until the day broke.

Knowing this, Hanseo quietly withdrew and returned to his own bed. Instead, he stayed awake and quietly observed Junseong in the darkness.

One hour, two hours, three hours……

As time passed and dawn began to break, Junseong continued to try to sleep, only to wake up and toss and turn repeatedly.

Hanseo silently watched every bit of it without missing anything.

Junseong, who could have asked for help at least once, remained silently enduring and struggling alone. Eventually, when he couldn’t take it anymore, after enough time had passed for objects to be discernible with the naked eye, he took out the paper and diligently moved his pen.

Hanseo had a guess as to why Junseong couldn’t sleep.

‘Even if he says he’s okay, it’s probably because he hasn’t been able to confirm it himself.’

Given the circumstances, Kang Chaeyi was likely with Jang Daewook, who was Junseong’s friend.

It was heard that Jang Daewook used to handle scouting and trap installation when he was active with Junseong in the e-sports pro team. He had good instincts and was excellent at situation assessment and prediction, so he seemed to have supported the main order, Junseong, in various ways.

Not just because he was a close friend but also due to his objectively reliable abilities, it wasn’t a huge concern if Chaeyi was with him.

He understood it in his head. Nevertheless, Junseong seemed unable to calm his troubled mind. Every time he tried to close his eyes, his younger brother appeared in his dreams, and he would wake up startled from nightmares that unfolded in a bad direction. A slight anxiety crept into his dreams, tormenting him.

For Junseong, dreams were never ordinary.

Having experienced countless nightmares of extremely realistic zombies, he must have been thrown into great confusion as soon as his younger brother appeared in his dreams.

Whether the path his younger brother took in the dream was a mere nightmare stemming from his anxiety or a “prophetic dream” connected to reality, he couldn’t tell.

Perhaps the dream he was having now was the reality unfolding right before him.

Having always felt a loose boundary between dreams and reality, Junseong couldn’t sleep due to the continuous nightmares.

So, it seemed he chose to stay awake like this. He feared that if he fell asleep, he wouldn’t be able to distinguish what was real.

Even someone as mighty as Hanseo couldn’t solve such a problem.

Junseong was the only one who had dreamed of a reality-connected prophetic dream.

Without even the basic foundation of empathy, Hanseo could do nothing but watch.

If it were a matter of trembling with fear over someone like Nam Ki-hyuk or suffering from the simple aftermath of nightmares, Hanseo could have comforted and put him to sleep. In such cases, it would be enough to cover up and erase it with something else, as Junseong himself wanted to forget the pain.

But such methods didn’t work on Junseong now.

There was no way to erase the past of Junseong, who had dreamed of prophetic dreams today, or to tell him to forget his younger brother. Even sleep, which allows a person to temporarily put aside their conscious thoughts, was a poison to Junseong now.

Scratch, scratch—

Unable to do anything, Hanseo looked at the side of Junseong’s face, which was moving the pen without stopping.

To be honest, it wasn’t so bad just watching quietly like this.

‘He’s beautiful.’

Struggling to hold on.

Although it wasn’t apparent on the outside, Junseong must be fighting hard internally to keep his sanity.

He might want to run outside recklessly like last night. But at least his rational mind, still maintaining some sanity, was showing objective facts and plausible hypotheses, which was why he was still here. Additionally, he was someone who knew well that a team leader must remain calm at all times.

He recalled the moment he had threatened Junseong the previous day.

“If you’re going to leave me and go look for your brother, I’ll kill every one of those guys outside. Since you’re trying to discard them now that they’re no longer needed, right? They’re useless, but since they have information about your dream, I can’t just leave them alone.”

Junseong’s face hardened at that.

“Is that a threat?”

“No, it’s a tantrum.”

“What part of that is a tantrum?”

“It’s a tantrum because I want you to just calmly pet my head.”

Hanseo smiled and said to Junseong, who couldn’t immediately refute the absurd remark.

“I’m your pet. But if discarded, I’m just a stray without a master. Strays don’t get affection.”

Junseong, having heard the strange logic, continued without acknowledging it.

“I want to be loved as your pet. So, I hope you realize that you’re not ‘alone.’”

Junseong, unable to respond to Hanseo’s bizarre words, quietly nodded.

In reality, there could have been other things to say instead of that threat. It wouldn’t have been difficult to suggest going out together late at night when everyone was asleep.

However, even though Junseong had barely calmed down, he was still in an unstable state.

Even the most probable assumptions were still just assumptions and couldn’t be 100% certain.

Thus, checking the scene directly and retracing the movement routes was a way to gain certainty, but there were too many factors to consider.

Since it was necessary to return to the danger zone, Hanseo was essential. However, it was not something that could be accepted by a team that wouldn’t be okay with just the two of them going out. It was clear that the team, who didn’t know that zombies couldn’t approach if Hanseo was close, would try to block their path in every possible way.

Even if they managed to sneak out avoiding their sight, it was still a problem.

According to Junseong, it would rain heavily past dawn and continue until the 7th day. Even if they retraced their steps to the shelter in torrential rain without an umbrella, their physical condition would not remain intact. While Hanseo was sturdy, Junseong, who had been on high alert since day one, could fall ill immediately due to exhaustion.

Most importantly, thinking about traveling on foot, it would take a lot of time just for the movement, making it impossible for the team not to notice. If they realized the two were missing, it was obvious that Changmin wouldn’t stay calm, and eventually, either Changmin alone or the whole team would come out to the danger zone again.

No matter how he thought about it, this team and this route that Junseong had barely established would not remain intact.

So Hanseo kept Junseong in this place with a threat disguised as a tantrum.

Fortunately, Junseong seemed to be quite affected by Hanseo’s words.

As a result, Junseong was now struggling to control himself like this.

Even without opening it, Junseong’s complex mind was currently making the 13th sheet of his notebook completely black.

Having torn out the 13th sheet, which was so overlapped and tangled that he could no longer distinguish which line led where, Junseong immediately placed his pen on the 14th sheet.

Just as he was about to put a dot and draw a line down, Junseong hesitated. His unfocused eyes, slightly glistening, turned towards Hanseo.

“…How long have you been awake?”

That statement wasn’t entirely correct.

He hadn’t slept at all.

“Quite a while.”

“If you were awake, you could have said something.”

Feeling awkward, Junseong closed the notebook and placed the pen he had been holding on the headboard of the bed. Then, he moved slightly aside to make space and patted the empty spot beside him.

“Come here.”

At Junseong’s command, Hanseo automatically got up. Like a dog instinctively responding to its master’s call, Hanseo moved to Junseong’s bed and sat beside him as he desired.

Junseong stared at Hanseo, who sat next to him, and then said something unexpected.

“Try kissing me.”

Before Hanseo could fully process that it was an order he could not refuse, his lips covered Junseong’s.