EISE

didn’t care. Our thighs were tightly pressed together, crushing my

Then, the silence was shattered by a chilling scream.

“Kyaaaa!”

It was a sound I couldn’t forget, even if I wanted to. Every time I thought I’d forgotten it, it would haunt my nightmares and torment me throughout the night.

Before my mind could process what was happening, my body reacted. I jerked suddenly, slamming my arm against the table. I barely felt the pain. He reacted the same way. His face hardened, and he turned his head quickly. His hand instinctively reached for something, as if searching for a weapon. Our eyes, which had diverged, snapped toward the source of the noise: the large TV mounted on the living room wall.

The protagonist, armed with a machine gun, stood atop a crumpled car, firing wildly. Below, zombies swarmed in a grotesque mass. Their faces, long decayed to a grayish hue, limbs hanging loosely, and pus oozing from wounds, were depicted with painstakingly realistic CGI. Did this movie even have zombies? I had chosen it more or less at random, based solely on the DVD case.

I wrapped a scarf around his neck. Just before tying the knot, I noticed a scar crossing his neck. "It's still cold. It’s the late winter chill."

He nodded like a well-behaved child. "Keep this on until it gets warm and spring officially arrives."

I smiled faintly and finished tying the knot. "Okay, got it."

The scar was no longer visible.