Chapter 1
In the apocalypse, I leaned on my boyfriend’s indulgence so much that I kept sending him out to look for food.
Every time.
Again and again.
And when he came back loaded down with supplies one more time, a screen of floating comments suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.
This side character is seriously useless.
Lazy, spoiled, and dumb.
There are zombies everywhere outside, and she’s still making the male lead go fetch food for her?
Except isn’t the male lead the Zombie King?
He wipes the blood off himself every single time before he comes inside, all because this girl is a clean freak.
The female lead is the only one whose psychic ability can tame the Zombie King.
As for the male lead and this side character? They end up as crippled zombies rotting in a sewer.
Zombie King.
The words hit me so hard my hands went numb.
I locked the bedroom door so fast I nearly broke the latch, then crawled straight under the bed, curling into myself and shaking so hard my teeth chattered.
Outside the door, Ethan started knocking.
Not pounding.
Knocking.
Soft, pitiful, careful.
“Sienna?” His voice was already thick with tears. “Please open the door. I’ll go out again tomorrow and find you chips, okay? Sour cream and onion if that’s what you want. Just please open the door.”
I covered my ears, but the floating comments kept scrolling anyway.
She locked him out because he didn’t find her chips. I’m dead.
Girl, it’s the apocalypse. You still care about chips?
He risked his life running three blocks to find her instant noodles, and she threw a fit because it wasn’t the right flavor.
Outside, Ethan’s voice grew even softer.
“I put everything by the door,” he said. “You don’t have to open it right now. But don’t go hungry, okay? I can go back out and find the chips tomorrow.”
My throat tightened so badly I could barely breathe.
Half an hour ago, I had been sitting on the bed in a perfect mood, ready to open a snack, when my vision blurred and those comments appeared.
They said I was a useless side character.
Said I only dragged Ethan down.
Said he was the Zombie King.
Said I would end up a broken zombie in a sewer.
I stared at those words for so long my scalp went cold.
Six months earlier, the world had begun ending in small ways.
First, the dog next door started barking at empty air for hours at a time.
Then it bit its owner.
Then the owner started acting wrong too.
By the time I understood what was happening, the street below my apartment was already full of things that used to be people.
I had just agreed to go meet Ethan’s parents before everything fell apart.
The day before he was supposed to take me, I opened my door and almost became lunch for a zombie right there in the hallway.
Ethan saved me.
At the time, he was just my neighbor.
Tall. Clean-cut. Quiet. The kind of guy who looked expensive without trying. We used to run into each other by the elevator. He’d smile. I’d pretend to be checking my phone.
Then the power went out one night, and I got desperate enough to knock on his door for help.
That was how it started.
He knew how to fix breakers. He could cook. He had the patience of a saint. I was the kind of woman who could burn instant noodles and somehow ruin boiled water.
He fed me for months before he finally confessed.
“Sienna,” he’d said, standing in his kitchen with his ears red, “what if I cooked for you every day for the rest of my life?”
At the time, it had felt like the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me.
Then the world ended.
Ethan told me he had access to a secure villa outside the city and took me there to wait for rescue.
That was when I realized he came from money.
The house was huge.
The pantry kept filling up.
And somehow, no matter how dangerous the world became, he always came back alive.
Unhurt.
Clean.
With my favorite noodles, canned ham, bottled water, and sometimes chips.
I had never questioned it.
But the comments had.
They said he had been bitten at the start of the apocalypse.
Said he became something more dangerous than human.
Said once the real female lead appeared and used her psychic power to control him, they’d build a new world where humans and zombies coexisted.
A world far greater than this one.
Not a world where he wasted his time on a moody girl who whined about snacks.
I should have noticed.
Why were there never zombies around the villa?
Why did he always come back without a scratch?
Why did he only watch me eat and never touch his own food?
I had thought he was eating outside before he came home.
Now my stomach twisted.
Outside my door, the knocking stopped.
Silence.
I lay under the bed for another full minute before crawling out on trembling hands and knees. I crept to the door and flattened myself against the floor, peeking through the crack.
A tear-filled eye was staring right back at me.
I screamed and fell backward.
The door pushed open.
Ethan rushed in and dropped to his knees in front of me, pulling me into his arms before I could scramble away.
He was crying so hard it would have been ridiculous in any other situation.
“Sienna, I’m sorry,” he babbled. “You can yell at me or hit me, but don’t skip dinner, okay? Please don’t starve yourself.”
He rubbed his face against mine and kissed my cheek.
My whole body locked up.
“No kissing!”
He froze, then looked wounded in a way only Ethan could manage. “What if I find the chips first?”
I stared at him.
He looked pale, yes. But he’d always been pale.
He looked soft, clingy, heartbreakingly pretty.
Nothing about him matched the blood-soaked monster king from the comments in my head.
There were supposed to be two kinds of zombies outside now.
The low-level ones, mindless and hungry.
And the high-level ones, almost human, except crueler, unable to resist biting people when instinct took over.
But Ethan had slept next to me for months.
Held me.
Kissed my forehead.
Curled around me every night.
He had never once bitten me.
Maybe the comments were wrong.
Maybe they had to be.
“I don’t want chips anymore,” I whispered.
He blinked. “Then what do you want? I’ll go get it.”
My mouth went dry.
“I want to leave.”
He stared at me.
Then his whole face tightened in panic.
“Leave? Why? It isn’t safe outside. I can protect you, Sienna. I promise.”
The comments floated across my vision again.
All she knows how to do is threaten to leave.
Spoiled and dramatic.
Why does the male lead even like her this much?
Because she acts cute, obviously.
I looked at Ethan’s frightened face and felt my chest hurt.
“I want to find other survivors,” I said. “Other humans.”
He went quiet for one second.
Then he nodded.
“If that’s what you want,” he said softly, “I’ll go with you.”
Just like that.
No argument.
No guilt.
No trying to trap me there.
He turned and started packing immediately.
Noodles. Water. Canned meat. Extra clothes for me. A blanket because I got cold easily. Medicine. Flashlights. Batteries.
The bag he packed for himself was tiny.
He kept murmuring under his breath while he worked.
“You hate the cold… you’ll need thicker socks… and if we can’t find somewhere safe to sleep…”
I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist.
My eyes stung.
“Forget it,” I whispered. “I’m not going.”
He went absolutely still.
Then he turned around with red-rimmed eyes and looked at me like I had handed him the sun.
“I’ll protect you,” he said hoarsely. “I really will.”
And just like that, something in me settled.
So what if he was a zombie?
He had never hurt me.
If I left him, I’d probably die even faster.
And if I was ever going to get bitten by a zombie, wasn’t it better if it was him?
At least then, I thought wildly, I’d know he loved me.
Once I made peace with that, I lifted my chin and moved my face closer to his.
“Then kiss me.”
He stared.
Then his arms locked around me so tightly I squeaked.
The comments went insane.
Look at this shameless side character seducing the male lead.
I ignored them.
Seduce?
He was my boyfriend.
If some destined female lead ever really showed up and Ethan fell in love with her instead, then I’d leave.
But until then, he was mine.
That night, I climbed into his lap on the bed and hooked a finger under his chin.
“Ethan,” I asked quietly, “if I turn into a zombie one day, will you leave me?”
His throat worked.
“Never.”
His voice came out rough.
“Even if you turn into a zombie, I’ll still stay with you.”
He swallowed and looked at me like I was something holy and dangerous all at once.
“We’ll be a zombie couple,” he murmured. “We can bite people together. And search for chips together—”
I shoved his shoulder.
Then I threaded my fingers into his hair and whispered against his mouth, “Same for you. Even if you turn into a zombie… I won’t leave you either.”
His eyes turned red instantly.
The next thing I knew, he had me pinned beneath him, trembling like I had given him the whole world.