outbreak | bts

002

"Hey kid, what's your name?" He asked, voice low, not wanting to startle the boy. The young man sniffed, finally being brought back to the present. Eyes opening, Jungkook took relief in the fact that he couldn't see the face of his zombified classmates, bloody and wretched, against the bright light of the sun streaming through the windows of the vehicle.

"Jungkook. Jeon Jungkook." Jungkook introduced, his voice raspy, weak and soft from all his crying. Yoongi nodded.

"Nice to meet you Jungkook. The name's Min Yoongi and it seems to me like you recognise my friend over here."

"Teacher Kim Seokjin, from the all girls high school down the road from my own school, right?" Jungkook wasn't necessarily asking a question, but he wanted to get onto good terms with these two men. They had just saved his life after all. Jin nodded, leaning his head back against the headrest without taking his eyes off the road. After a few beats of silence, he exhaled.

"My sense of duty tells me that I should scold you for skipping school, but I can't deny that it was your skipping that likely saved you from being caught by...whatever that was." He said, briefly panicking as he thought about the students and other citizens that had likely fallen victim to this outbreak. Shaking his head to clear his mind, Jin gripped the wheel with determination.

"We need to alert the authorities of what's happened." He said firmly. Yoongi looked at his friend before turning his head to look out of the window at the shockingly empty streets.

"That's if they haven't found out already." He muttered. Jin spared him a glance.

"What do you mean?"

"The group that we encountered consisted of twelve, twenty people tops. What's the likelihood that they were the only ones that got infected?" Yoongi said, tone loaded as he looked back over his shoulder at Jungkook, whose face was slowly losing colour for the second time that day.

"They could have spread out? But, SNU isn't that far from here, it's literally a fifteen minute walk and there's this huge student conference taking place today! We've gotta warn people!" Jungkook cried, working to locate his phone in his trouser pockets as Yoongi did the same.

~*~

Namjoon accepted the embrace from his high school classmate with surprise.
"Hobi? I didn't think we'd get to meet up again like this." Namjoon admitted. Hoseok just patted his shoulder good naturedly.

"Yeah, after I started hanging out with you, my grades improved a lot, and I really got into Korea University!" He grinned. Namjoon felt a soft smile for his friend appear on his face.

He had known Hoseok since entering high school but they only became friends in their senior year when Hoseok had witnessed Namjoon having a crisis about his future, totally by accident.

The two had stuck together after that, Namjoon helping Hoseok to study, and Hoseok encouraging Namjoon to pursue what truly made him happy until just after the final exams, where Namjoon had gotten injured and missed graduation. Ever since, the two had sent each other the occasional message but Namjoon found himself making less and less of an effort as his life at university began to take over. It was a poor excuse, but one that he couldn't help making,

Jimin and Taehyung watched the exchange quietly, with Jimin eyeing Namjoon's legs and torso. This guy was so tall! Easily 180 cm or more- what on earth did he eat? Or was it possibly milk? Tuning back into the conversation, Jimin smiled at Namjoon as Hoseok introduced him.

"You guys, this is my good buddy from highschool, Kim Namjoon. I guess he's here to represent  Yonsei. Which student experience branch are you representing, Joonie?" Hoseok asked his friend. Namjoon gave an awkward smile and looked down at his shoes.

"All of them."

"Eh? How so?" Hoseok cocked his head to the side, not understanding.

"I'm on the Link Panel." Namjoon stated, hoping that one of the three would understand because it felt like he would be bragging if he said it straight. Taehyung also cocked his head.

  "The Link Panel? That's the group of people who present the results of the student conference to the Board of Education. But you're only qualified to be on that if you're-"

"The Student Union President!" Jimin and Hosek realised aloud at the same time, eyes wide as they stared at Namjoon, who shifted under their gazes. Hoseok reached out and grabbed his old friend in a tight embrace as he spun them around, jumping up and down

"Namjoon-ah, you did it! I'm so proud of you, that's awesome!" Namjoon flushed with happiness at his friend's joy for him. He had always struggled with making friends but after Hoseok, speaking to people just got so much easier and, it turned, most people liked him just the way he was.

"Joon-ah, are you alone?" Hoseok asked Namjoon, looking around for any sign of people that may be waiting for their President. Namjoon nodded.

"I came early for a guidance talk on what we were permitted to give input on and how we should make note of things and not be biased at the meeting with the Board." He rolled his eyes and continued.

"The other Yonsei electives should be coming in about two hours, just before the conference starts."

"If that's the case, wanna join us? We're about to grab something to eat." Hoseok invited. Namjoon looked over at Jimin and Taehyung, who both smiled at him and nodded their heads. Thankful for their acceptance, Namjoon agreed.

The four of them began making their way out of the reception, Hoseok and Namjoon following behind Jimin and Taehyung, when Taehyung's phone suddenly rang, followed shortly after by the hard buzzing of Jimin's own phone, causing the two to pause as they answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello?"