Red Dot - 9

Chapter 9

“What… was that sound just now?”

As Jiwoo spoke while trembling, the sound came again.

Knock, knock—

A clear knocking sound.

Jiwoo and Soyeon both screamed briefly and hugged each other. Even though she wasn’t as scared as they were, Chaeyi also seemed startled. She gripped Junseong’s arm tightly, her face stiff.

The three of them thought a zombie was knocking. There was no one else alive on the third floor except them, and the lower floors were filled with zombies because of a strange alarm sound. It was impossible to think that a survivor could be out there.

Junseong thought the same thing, but he was shocked for a different reason.

‘This is strange.’

In his dreams, the situation in the teaching assistant’s room had always been the same. After explaining the situation to the three people staying with him, he would lead them to a safe hiding place. He knew exactly who they would meet and what would happen along the way.

But this had never happened before.

A calm knock with no urgency or hesitation.

Who could be making that sound?

‘What’s going on? This situation has never happened before.’

Junseong carefully removed Chaeyi’s hand from his arm and walked toward the door. Behind him, he could hear the three people holding their breath.

He slowly approached and stopped in front of the door.

The loud alarm had already stopped. There was no sound coming from outside.

‘Did a zombie just bump into the door while passing by?’

Unlike in his dream, the alarm had gone off late, so that was possible. Earlier, he had also seen a zombie crawling on its upper body and coming out of the lecture hall late, so it wasn’t impossible.

‘If it’s just a small change like that…’

Knock, knock—

The knocking sound came again.

It wasn’t just twice. It knocked three times at an even pace. This was definitely not a zombie.

As if to confirm his suspicion, a voice came from outside the door.

“You’re inside, right?”

The voice was as steady as the knocking. It was a deep, rich male voice, the kind that would suit a baritone singer.

“Can you open the door?”

For some reason, Junseong had the strange feeling that the man beyond the door was smiling.

“Hanseo senior?!”

Recognizing the voice, Jiwoo jumped to his feet and ran to the door.

“Senior Hanseo, is that you?!”

“You know me?”

The relaxed voice from beyond the door asked back. Jiwoo’s face lit up with joy and excitement as he reached for the doorknob.

“Of course! Hurry and come inside!”

“Wait a second.”

Junseong grabbed Jiwoo’s hand to stop him and asked the man outside,

“How did you get here?”

“I took the stairs.”

“What about the zombies?”

“They were all gathered on the second floor, so I just avoided them.”

“You didn’t get bitten anywhere?”

“If you want, I’ll strip as soon as I come in. Check me all you want. I wasn’t bitten.”

His voice was calm, as if he were having a casual chat while walking in a park. He didn’t sound like someone standing in the middle of a building overrun by zombies.

More than anything, this man was a major “unexpected factor” that confused Junseong.

Junseong glanced at his wristwatch.

The time was 2:27 PM.

In every dream, after entering the teaching assistant’s room, he would escape the university by 3 PM. He had never encountered any survivors during that time. Even in cases where he chose to stay in the room, the only person who ever came was a teaching assistant, and that wasn’t until after 5 PM. But that assistant had already been bitten by a zombie, so as soon as they let him in, he turned and killed everyone. He couldn’t be considered a true survivor.

So how was he supposed to make sense of this man’s appearance now?

‘Is this because I was late?’

A delay of just a few minutes had already changed many things. So far, the differences had been minor, but “a person” was a much bigger variable.

He had no idea how this person’s presence would change what he knew about the future. That uncertainty made him hesitant to let the man in.

“Are you not going to open it? Should I just die out here?”

The man’s voice had a slight trace of laughter, as if he were amused. That only made it harder to understand. How could he laugh while standing unprotected in a zombie-infested area?

Just as Junseong’s confusion deepened, Chaeyi stepped forward and pressed her ear against the door.

“I don’t hear any zombie sounds at all.”

If there were zombies outside, they should have been making groaning or growling noises. But there was nothing. It seemed certain that there were no zombies nearby.

“As he said, if we let him in, we can make him take off his clothes and check. If he was bitten, the four of us can just force him out.”

Chaeyi assumed Junseong was hesitating because he was worried the man might be infected. So she reached for the doorknob in his place.

Click. The door opened with a sound.

Through the small gap in the door, a tall man’s face appeared.

“Hello.”

The man smiled, his eyes slightly narrowing. He was so tall and handsome that he could easily be mistaken for a famous model. His pale white skin made his black leather jacket suit him even more.

After glancing around the assistant’s office, the man locked eyes with Junseong, who was visibly tense.

“Can I come in?”

His gaze was strangely chilling. For some reason, Junseong had a weird feeling that he needed to run away from this place immediately.

“Of course! You can come in, senior!”

Even though the man had asked Junseong, someone else answered. Jiwoo grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him inside.

Once inside, the man looked incredibly clean. There were some bloodstains on his pants and sleeves, but compared to Junseong and the other three, whose clothes were covered in bl00d, he might as well have been wearing brand-new clothes.

That made him even more suspicious.

“Senior, what happened? There should be zombies everywhere outside.”

Soyeon, who had been sitting on the sofa, quickly approached him with a bright expression. The man softened his cold gaze and smiled.

“I closed the door to the lecture hall and slept alone. When I woke up, everything was a mess.”

“You were sleeping again? You really can sleep anywhere.”

“What can I do? Even if I die, I need to sleep.”

Because the man was so calm and friendly, the tension in the assistant’s office quickly faded. Even Jiwoo and Soyeon, who were smiling in relief, seemed like an odd fit for a world overrun by zombies.

But Chaeyi, unlike them, didn’t lower her guard.

“Take off your clothes.”

Jiwoo frowned at her words.

“Hey, how can you seriously tell him to take them off?”

“His clothes are perfectly fine. There’s no way he got bitten.”

When even Soyeon spoke up in the man’s defense, Chaeyi narrowed her eyes.

“Did you guys all lose your sense of smell?”

“What…”

Jiwoo was about to ask what she meant, but he soon understood.

The strong smell of bl00d.

Compared to Junseong and the others, who were covered in bl00d, the man didn’t have much on him. But the scent of bl00d around him was overwhelming.

“You smell this much like bl00d, yet your clothes are clean and there’s no bite mark? I don’t believe it.”

Chaeyi pointed at the assistant’s office door, the same one they had just let him in through.

“Do Hanseo senior, sorry, but if you’re not going to take off your clothes and show us, could you leave?”

Hanseo chuckled like he found her words amusing. Then, he slowly scanned her from head to toe.

“Weren’t you the one who opened the door first?”

“Yes, that’s right. Since I let you in, I want to check for myself.”

“What if I was bitten?”

“Then you’ll have to leave.”

“What if I refuse?”

“Even if you’re our senior, if all four of us push you out, we can do it.”

“Hmm.”

Even though the situation could have been offensive, Hanseo didn’t erase the smile from his face.

Jiwoo thought Chaeyi was being too much and was about to speak up, but Soyeon quickly covered his mouth. She whispered softly into his ear.

“Stay quiet. Chaeyi isn’t wrong about anything.”

Jiwoo, who had already had his mouth covered by Soyeon three times today, irritably pushed her hand away. He was about to argue when—

Zip—

The sound of a zipper being undone filled the room. Jiwoo instinctively turned his gaze. By the time he did, Hanseo had already shrugged off his jacket, letting it drop to the floor.

Then, without hesitation, he pulled his black turtleneck over his head and tossed it aside.

Hanseo’s upper body was too good to be hidden by clothes. His tall height was matched with just the right amount of muscle, a firm chest, and abs that looked sculpted from stone. It was the kind of body that wasn’t easy to achieve.

As everyone stared at his body, Hanseo’s hands moved toward his belt.

“Should I take off the bottom too?”