Her fingers traced the window glass as she stared outside the building. Her eyes swollen and mind blank, she focused on counting the number of windows of the building outside. She drank some beer from the bottle she was holding with her right hand and looked back at the building outside. Realizing that she lost the count, Y/N sighed and looked at the five beer bottles she kept neatly on the ground. Taking a last sip of her sixth bottle, she rubbed her eyes and got up, wavering at her feet lightly. She stumbled and fell on the bed, eyes going on the door which then turned towards the wall clock. Hyunsu was late.
She was feeling drowsy and was about to close her eyes, when she heard loud whistles coming from outside. Immediately getting up, which gave her a headache for a moment, Y/N rushed out of her room with two empty beer bottles. As soon as she came near the lobby, her eyes searched for the monster which might be lurking around. And she found it coming...out of Hyunsu's room. A monster slowly walked out of the room. It's whole body was covered with hair, had enlarged eyes, red skin, and sharp teeth. The face was familiar.
Y/N had a pretty good idea who it might be ofcourse. Someone who wore a wig and longed for hair. Someone who was abusive.
Mr. Kim Seokhyeon.
Everyone soon gathered around in the room. Eunhyuk rushed out of the control room as well holding a bat. The sight of him filled Y/N with anger. He still...looked unbothered. Holding the bottles tight, she started walking towards the monster but fell on the way, feeling a strong tug on her hand.
Looking back, she realized it was Eunhyuk. As she was trying to understand the string of words he was muttering with his low voice, the bottles fell from her hand. It made the monster turn towards them. It was then when she realized the gravity of the situation. Her eyes fixated on the monster, she was once again unable to move. Eunhyuk pulled her and stood in front of her getting into a stance holding his bat, ready to bash his head in.
"Stop, it's my husband."
Y/N finally came to her senses. The woman was walking towards her husband. If there was anything that she despised about the lady was how she never stood up against her husband. And she was going to do it again.
Except, she didn't.
For the next few minutes, Y/N or anyone in the building didn't interfere. Mrs. Kim was beating up her husband with an iron rod with all her might. The emotions that she suppressed all those times she was abused, started pouring out.
And then they saw Hyunsu slowly walking in. A sharp pain of guilt filled her heart as she looked at the boy staring at the body of the monster lying on the ground. Dropping his bag on the floor, he silently limped into his room.
Limped.
Y/N immediately pulled her hand from Eunhyuk's grasp and rushed to get the medical kits. He watched as she walked away and came back holding a box of band-aids and a wet cloth. She stopped by him, feeling his eyes on her while the rest of the residents focused on moving the body away. "I..don't have enough hands to bring in the rest," she said, her words slurred.
"You don't need to-" he tried to take away the band aids again but was pushed harshly back by the girl.
"No, you need to stay out of my business," she shouted. Eunhyuk felt embarrassed. She was...drunk. And everyone heard her. But more than all of it, he felt a tinge...of anger in him. Deciding it was better to go back in the control room, he dashed out of the lobby.
She ignored him and continued to walk. After entering the room, Y/N found the boy sitting quietly. She tried to crouch and eventually fell down on the ground, which made Hyunsu notice her presence. He hurried towards her and was about to help her get up but stopped by his steps.
She..probably didn't need any help from a monster.
"Oh atleast I saved the towel," she muttered and looked up at the boy staring at her. A chuckle escaped her mouth. "You are way too nice you know. I would've killed everyone by now."
"No you wouldn't," he said immediately, and sat down beside her. She took the towel and closed in towards his face. He scrunched his nose smelling the light alcohol breath but let her clean his face.
"How would you know. You don't even talk to me," she muttered.
"I-I'm sorry," he said.
"No it should be...me apologizing," she said, as beads of tears rolled down her cheeks, "If I wasn't such an asshole, I would be able to help you. Nothing's changed. I'm the...the same piece of shit-" She didn't finish her words.
Looking up at his face slowly, a grim expression took over. Within a second she got up and ran out towards the bathroom, slipping on the way.
Y/N remembered how she left the door open. And she knew if anything happened, she would get all the blame. Although a part of her wanted Hyunsu to escape, she also knew all of their survival depended on the boy. Sighing, she got up from her bed and walked towards his room. Drinking so much beer was a bad idea. After puking her guts out, she remembered stumbling back to her room and then dropping off to sleep. Jisu probably helped her by holding her hair back or something.
As she reached Hyunsu's room, she found an unusual sight. Well, not really unusual when she thought about it properly. Eunyu was probably the most who kept lurking around the boy...almost as if she developed some kind of feelings for him. She ofcourse didn't want to jump to conclusions. These feelings could've been anything. Maybe she wanted to be friends like she wanted to be one of Sangwook. Eunyu was sitting quietly wearing her headphones beside Hyunsu, who was asleep. He was having a nightmare like his expression suggested.
He looked good enough with her.
Turning around, she was returning to her room when she walked by the control room and heard Jisu's voice. "People are starting to lose it," she said.
It wasn't much of a surprise how scared the residents were after the recent events. Worrying so much about their survival was probably what would lead to their death. The first symptom was mainly emotional turmoil. On the top of it, the electricity was gone.
She stood near the doorway and heard Eunhyuk speak, "I know. A lot sooner than I thought. Eectricity has no direct impact on survival. A lack of drinking water is a more serious problem." He looked...stressed. Well, atleast to Y/N. His eyes were fixed on the blueprint of the building stuck on the wall.
Jisu sighed in annoyance and said, "I know you are staying calm for everyone. Be honest, do you think we can survive?"
"At some point we have to depend on ourselves for survival," Y/N said looking at Eunhyuk who was avoiding her eyes, "And at some point, some of the residents will start betraying each other to save their own ass. How long do you think you can keep everyone sane?"
"As long as it takes," he said, finally looking straight at her eyes. The tone of his speaking felt a bit different than before. It felt like he was pissed at her. Y/N found it hilarious since he was the one who turned her down. She was supposed to be angry at him. But then she also remembered how she yelled at him back in the lobby. It made her cringe and she was sure, a super introverted guy like him hated her for it more than she can imagine. He also had a reason.
Fuck, he always had a goddamn reason.
"It's better to share the problems with everyone. You aren't the only one who knows how to survive," she said.
"You think they can fucking handle all the problems when they can't even digest the situation we are stuck in? Even a tiny problem feels like hell to them and you're telling me to take help from them in making decisions?" he growled.
"It will be difficult at first but there are people who know how to take the right measures," she said.
Eunhyuk stared her for sometime and walked out of the control room, ignoring her words. He was heading towards Hyunsu's room. Jisu went along to know his plans while Y/N started following him, huffing and muttering words to get some kind of response from him, "You're sending him out again? How much can Hyunsu take it? He's doing everything he can, atleast give him a day off! You know that he's now taking time to heal himself. He isn't that much of a threat now. Listen to me! Stop-"
The door opened as they reached his room, and Eunyu walked out. Y/N was about to stop him again but got interrupted by Eunyu, "Leave him alone." They stopped by their tracks and looked at her and she continued, "If it's that important, you should go by yourself."
"Stop it," Jisu said.
"Hey!" Eunyu shouted, "You're the worst one. You act like you care but you just stand by and do nothing. You're no different."
"What about you?" Jisu said, "All you do is run your dumb fucking mouth."
"You fucking bitch," Eunyu said.
It seemed to be the last straw for Eunhyuk. He turned around and went towards her trying to stop her from saying anything further, "Hey Eunyu," but his sister didn't want to listen to him.
"Stay out of it, you're not my real brother!" she shouted.
SMACK.
The sound was enough for Y/N to realize that he did something he never did before. He slapped his little sister.
"You're so fucking weak," Eunyu muttered and left the area with a stony face.
Eunhyuk looked way too tired. He was panting and his eyes started showing signs of frustration, that he was keeping inside.
Y/N couldn't take it. She slid down the wall outside the door while Eunhyuk and Jisu stepped in. She couldn't keep showing Hyunsu sympathy while treating him like trash every single day. She didn't have the courage to look into his eyes. Her eyes started tearing up, and face turned red. But she was done crying. At this point, she found this particular emotion to be exhausting. It was probably better to live like Eunyu. Just saying whatever she wanted without caring about others' sentiments.
Hyunsu walked out of the room shortly after. She felt him stop by his tracks for a moment, probably looking at her pathetic figure on the floor. "I'll be back," he muttered and left.
Y/N rubbed her eyes and hid her face with her hands, sighing. Jisu stepped out of the room shortly after, and tried to persuade her into going back to her room but it looked like she wasn't going to move away from the place any time soon. Anger was slowly taking over her. Eunhyuk was straight up being a coward and maybe even too nice to the residents. At the moment she couldn't decide which to focus on cause both of them were annoying. She got up and walked in Hyunsu's room where she found Eunhyuk sitting on the ground, nose scrunching as he rubbed his temples. She wanted to scream and shout at him - make him stop taking all the responsibilities on his shoulder alone, but she settled with the toxic words that he previously said to her.
"You wanted to fuck, right?"