•°•°Recap•°•°•
"Is it always like this?" Seung-young asked and she peaked her eye out and nodded.
"That must be tough." He sympathized.
"You have no idea." She sighed.
"Aish I'm not even calling to argue with you, Sae-bom your unit was mention during an investigation." Yi-hyun said which surprised her.
○●○●○●○
"Why?" Sae-bom asked over the phone.
"You're instructing a training course, right? He said he got frugd from an SOU trainee." He said.
"What's the name of the trainee?" She asked.
"Lee Jong-tae." He replied.
Son of a bitch! So it was him! Hyun-jae thought.
"Lee Jong-tae?" Sae-bom questioned.
"Anyway, we're sending the document. I thought you should know." He said.
"Well done. If I find the entire gang, then I'll get an arrest record." Sae-bom smiled.
"What are you talking about? I'm just letting you know." Yi-hyun scoffed and Sae-bom rolled her eyes and handed Hyun-jae the phone.
"Bye my sweetie, Iove you!" Yi-hyun cooed through the phone.
"Aish, you're so annoying!" Hyun-jae groaned through the phone in embarrassment and dropped the phone call. "You look pissed." She said as she noticed Sae-bom's mood.
"If only that word could desribe half of what I'm feeling....I'll be back soon, keep an eye on my food." She said and stood up and walked off.
"I'll be right back." Hyun-jae said sheepishly and she too rushed off but in the opposite direction but she quickly ran back and stole a piece of her pork before running off.
"That's strange." Seung-young muttered.
Gotta get that tranquilizer! She thought as she rushed towards her locker. She grabbed her purse and reached inside and took out her gun, she checked the barrel and made sure she had enough before running over to the training site and ran as fast as she could.
She made it to the door where she found Seung-young looking after the injured and she knelt down while ripping off the sleeve of her coat and pressed it against where he was bitten.
"Please, please help me." The trainee begged as he held onto her arm desparately.
"It's okay, everything will be fine." She soothed and looked sternly towards Seung-young.
"Get him to the aid room, now!" She said.
"But Sae-bom--"
He was intrupted but a crash from the inside.
"I've got her back don't worry because right now he needs your help." She said and got up.
"No, no please don't go." The trainee begged as he grabbed her shoulder.
"Don't worry you'll be okay." She soothed one more time hiding the wince that almost erupted from his tight grasp before she went in and aimed at the mad human infected about to run towards her friend and she shot without even hesitating. Jong-tae focused his beady little eyes at her bit she remained unnerved and she fired again as he ran towards her and he collapsed into the furniture.
"Come on!" Hyun-jae grabbed her friend and they ran out of the room and she closed the door locked it and tied her coat around the handles for safety as Sae-bom maintained her arms while she did so.
When she was done she backed away from the door and they both flinched when the bloody hand smacked against the door before it went limp against the window and they heard a thud that confirmed that he was down.
"What is that?" Sae-bom asked.
"I...have no idea." Hyun-jae muttered.
"What did you shoot him with?" She asked.
"Tranquiliser bullets. Had a friend help me make them, though I should probably ask to make it even more fast acting." Hyun-jae muttered as she slid down the wall in exhaustion.
"Are you okay?" Sae-bom asked as she kneeled beside her friend.
"I'm fine...I'm just really relieved...and possibly a little tired." Hyun-jae said and the other infirmary members took the unconscious body of Jong-tae.
" Come on, let's get you cleaned up." Sae-bom said as she lead Hyun-jae to the bathroom.
As the Sae-bom's phone rang the cleaned themselves up of blood and dried themselves off.
"Hey!"
"You should've told be it was dangerous! I almost got killed!"
Sae-bom wasted no time popping off on Yi-hyun as soon as he answered the call.
"What are you saying? Why would you get killed? Is Hyun-jae alright?" He asked.
"I'm okay...just exhausted is all but I'll be fine." She said and he sighed with relief.
"How could he not feel pain even when he got shot?" Sae-bom muttered.
"Who shot who? Hey, are you guys alright?" He asked.
"We're fine but I'm guessing before I got there and shot him with a tranquilizer bullet she might've actually shot Jong-tae with an actual bullet." Hyun-jae excplained.
"How could you catch someone like that without a gun?" Sae-bom asked.
"I just persuaded him by talking to him?" He said.
"Well, were his pupils really tiny?" Hyun-jae asked.
"No...they were normal why?" He asked.
"What, what are you thinking?" Sae-bom questioned.
"I'm guessing that whatever state your guy was in was temporary and he went back to normal after that." Hyun-jae muttered.
"Now that you mentioned it Jong-tae was fine earlier today and his pupils were normal but when I found him they were impossibly tiny." Sae-bom hummed.
"Hold on, did he...try to bite you?" Yi-hyun asked.
"So you know about it. What kind of nonsense is this..." Sae-bom muttered but she froze when she noticed the scratch on her hand and their eyes widened especially Sae-bom's.
"What, what is it?" Hyun-jae asked feeling panicked and she looked towards the mirror and she grew pals when she noticed the torn edged of her shirt.
"Oh my god." She grasped she ripped the sleeve to get a closer look and she to see a scratch marks on her shoulder.
"Hello? Hey, Yoon Sae-bom, Hyun-jae! Hey are you okay? Hey, answer me! Hey!" Yi-hyun's concerned voice echoed through the silent bathroom.
"Yeah." Sae-bom muttered as Hyun-jae winced from trying to dab the wound with water in hopes of at least cleaning it
"How did he cut through my sleeve?!" She muttered in irritation as she might've underestimated the desperation of that kid. She also made her way to try and clean Sae-bom's scratches that were slightly festering and bleeding.
"Corporal Yoon Sae-bom."
"Doctor Park Hyun-jae."
The ladies looked towards the door to see a strange man standing by the door.
"Oh shit." Hyun-jae cursed.
"This is the ladies room." Sae-bom said as she stood in front of her friend.
"The guy you shot. There's a possibility he has an infectious disease." He said and a group of fully protected soldiers walked in.
"What infectious disease?" Hyun-jae questioned.
"We're currently investigating." He said.
"Investigating or quietly containing?" She muttered as she remembered a flash of hundreds of infected people locked away in a dormitory.
"Hey, who are you guys talking to right now?" Yi-hyun questioned and the man walked forward and took her phone.
"Lieutenant Colonel Han Tae-seok from the Crisis Management Center at CDSCHQ. Corporal Yoon and Doctor Park will call you back." He said and dropped the call.
"Give me your gun and cooperate with the disease investigation." He said.
Sae-bom and Hyun-jae looked each other and gave a nod and unloaded their guns, putting them in his hands.
"So you're the one for the tranquilizers." He questioned.
"Yeah. Got a problem with that?" Hyun-jae asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"On the contrary actually." He said and she hummed. Soon they were escorted out of the building.
"Who are you people?" Seung-young asked as they walked out of the building.
"You can eat my pork cutlet." Sae-bom slapped his shoulder as they walked out.
"See you later Seung-young." Hyun-jae waved as they went down the stairs.
"The National Police Agency will send guidelines soon. What happened earlier was an accident. So keep this secret. Corporal Yoon and Doctor Park have the risk of infection, so we're taking them." Tae-seok said as the girls were loaded into the transport vehicles.
They were transported to Wonjung University for testing and containment. Sae-bom refused to leave Hyun-jae's side the entire time refusing to leave her alone in the care of a bunch of strangers.
"Don't worry. Hyun-jae I'll protect you, I promise." Sae-bom said as she grasped her friends hand as they were driven inside.
"Not if I protect you first." Hyun-jae mused earning a smile from her friend.
○●○●○●○
The phone call had Yi-hyun worried as the main thing that registered in his head is that his wife is not alright and it bothered him that he's not by her side.
So now, in comes this Lieutenant Colonel Han Tae-seok, a man who oozes suspicion just waltzs into the police station.
"You're military, but you're doing civilian work." He said.
"It's important to show that the two can cooperate in times of crisis." He replied.
"So this is an infectious disease that makes people bite other people?" Jung-kook asked.
"We're thinking that it's a mutant virus that affects the brain. When you're bitten, you either die from excessive bleeding or get infected." Tae-seok answered.
"Gosh, droplets aren't enough anymore, now the diseases even spread from bites." Jung-kook scoffed.
"The infection channels are limited, so don't worry, and just work jard on your assigned duties." Tae-seok said.
"Hang on, we don't need to be in self-quarantine, right?" Jung-kook asked.
"You just need to write a sign a confidentiality oath." Tae-seok said and stood up to leave.
"That suspect said that he did it after he took drugs. The drugs he received from his SOU trainee friend." Yi-hyun pointed out.
"Do you have that drug?" He asked.
"No, maybe it's just a side effect of a hallucinogenic, not a disease." Yi-hyun said.
"There's no possibility of that, but it may have had an influence. Contact me when you find the drug." Tae-seok said and walked out of the room.
He wanted to bring up his wife, wanted to demand where she is, how she's doing and if she's contacted this disease but ths man is too suspcious to mention anything about whom he cherishes but he is relieved to know that Sae-bom will be there for Hyun-jae until he arrives. So, he needs to find that drug and quickly.
So he went back to the apartment searched the bathroom, the provided tea set, the trash, his clothes, the furniture and finally when he checked the bed a small green drug dropped onto the floor abd then his phone rang.
"Jung-kook, I found it." Yi-hyun said.
"I'm calling you so you won't waste your time. The test results just came out. It's perfectly clean." Joon-kook said.
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, I gues it really is an infectious disease. Would it be okay to go home today? Hey, if I show me teeth to my wife..."
"Wait..."
"Then I'll lose all of them."
"Then what about what I found?"
"Cold rememdies, painkillers, vitamins...there are all kids of drugs. Stop wasting your time. Just go home."
And the conversation ended like that as Joon-kook cut the line. After finding the drug he was looking for Yi-hyun left the apartment.
He drove to the Super Rookie Baseball Academy building where a friend who he believes can help works.
Yi-hyun walked in to find Il-ho cleaning up the place with a vacuum cleaner. He grabbed a ball and threw it at him to get his attention.
"Hey, why didn't you play at the game today?" Il-ho asked as he turned off the cleaner.
"Come inside."
"You should call me or answer my calls, at least. Everyone nagged me about it."
Il-ho complained as they walked into his bedroom.
"Stap nagging me. Hey, more than that...look at this." Yi-hyun said as he placed the green tablet on the table.
"What is this?"
"I think it's a narcotic. Do you know what it is?"
"Why would you bring this to me?"
"Don't get the wring idea and listen to me, okay? You got kicked out because of drugs."
"I only took it by mistake. You call yourself a friend?"
"No, you were trying to get better at baseball. I wanted to be good too, but it didn't work out."
"Don't even bring up the past."
"Right. The past. You later made up your mind and studied very hard. Sports medicine and computers. This is really important to me, all right?"
Yi-hyun insisted as as he held out the pill to Il-ho. The man grumbled and took it to check it out personally.
"This isn't a narcotic."
"Why not?"
"Don't you have doctor for a wife man? Do you see the serial numbers here? No one does that for narcotics. This was made by a pharmaceutical company. You'll be able to find it in the pharmaceutical database."
"Find out what it is."
"Me? Until when?"
"Now."
Yi-hyun was exhausted from today's events and threw himself on the bed. "Wake me up when you're done."
○●○●○●○
The ladies went through testing, the residents drew their blood, took pictures and so on and so forth.
"What is this place? It doesn't look like a hospital. It looks like a school." Sae-bom asked being the first to break the silence between them and Tae-seok.
"Well it's not like they can stuff all the neck biters in a crowded area, did you see the way Lee Jong-tae acted?" Hyun-jae hummed as though she were stating the obvious.
"Indeed." Tae-seok agreed.
"Are we going to be like Trainee Lee Jong-tae too?" Sae-bom asked and he remained silent as well as the nurse beside them and she lunged teeth out towards the nurse earning a smack to the head.
"Ow!"
"Don't bully the woman who's only trying to do her job." Hyun-jae scolded.
"I was just teasing." Sae-bom whined as she rubbed the back of her head.
"You'll get hurt if you do that." He said.
"Then answe the questions." Hyun-jae said and Sae-bom yelped as the nurse took a sample of her flesh. "Don't be a baby." She nudged.
"But it really hurt, I thought she was gonna put ointment on me." Sae-bom muttered. They two stayed for a few moments longer as they were questioned by Tae-seok on the attack earlier today.
They were then escorted to their room where they were provided a landline to make a call.
○●○●○●○
Yi-hyun was woken up by his phone buzzing from an unknown number.
"Hello?" He grumbled.
"I'm alive."
He came to attention when he heard Hyun-jae's voice over the phone.
"Hyun-jae? Are you okay?" He asked as he sat to attention.
"Yes. We're both fine." She said.
"It's cleaner than the public official apartment. That place is over 50 years old. It always leaked and the pipes froze in winter. And they put three people in one house!" Sae-bom ranted.
"Achoo!"
"Hyun-jae?!" Sae-bom exclaimed.
"Jeez it's cold." Hyun-jae shivered.
"Can thet afford to pay the electricity bills?" Sae-bom muttered as she tried to turn it off.
"How's your condition? Did you get tested?" Yi-hyun asked.
"Yes, we got tested for everything." Sae-bom said.
"At least we got this year's worth of checkup all cleared." Hyun-jae sighed.
"But we have to stay here until the results come out." Sae-bom said.
"I told your parents about you." Yi-hyun said.
"Aish, what have you done you jerk couldn't you have waited for at least half a day!" Hyun-jae exclaimed.
"Don't worry, okay? I told you parents that you're on call for a while and as for your mother Sae-bom I told her you were busy with training." He said.
"Thank you!" Sae-bom said gratefully.
"Yi-hyun...is everything okay?" Hyun-jae asked.
"I'm okay...I'm also looking into this to find out what's going on. By the way, where are you?" He asked.
"Were in a university I think. We're in something like a dormitory. Listen don't worry about me too much and take care of yourself, hopefully I'll be out before you know it. The results shouldn't take to long." She said.
"We got the narcotics test results for our suspect, and he's clean." He said.
"Are sure it's even a narcotic causing all this. Perhaps it is am infectious disease. You said that the guy had some medicine or something and he started feeling super thirsty and eventually he drank the guys blood by biting right?"
"Yeah."
"Hear me out coz I'm free falling here, maybe the cause of all this is the medicine he had."
"Maybe, but I think it's narcotics."
"Seriously? Aish you really are a cop."
"What do you mean?"
"It's nothing."
"Anyway, I'll catch the culprit and let you rest without any worries, so just rest there a bit, okay?"
"That fact your telling me not to worry makes me worried."
"Ye of little faith."
"It's not because I don't have faith in you. It's because I...lo--"
"Because you love me?"
She pouted she could basically hear him smirk over the phone.
"It's late, so goodnight!" She huffed and dropped the call.
"Aren't you glad I got you two together all those years ago." Sae-bom smirked.
"Aish, you guys give me headache, goodnight!" Hyun-jae glared and furiously got into her blankets, despite her frustration she couldn't help but be worried she got scratched by that trainee and she prays that by some miracle she has the antibody because the most fearsome thing she can imagine is not being infected but hurting the ones she grew to love over the years and she couldn't bare the guilt if she were ever to harm them.
●○●○●○●
"Hey, get up. I found it." Il-ho struck Yi-hyun with a towel getting him to wake up.
"What?" Yi-hyun muttered in daze. "You found it? Let me see." He said.
"Next."
"Next? What is it?"
"Oral medication for pneumonia. Many antivirus studies took place durinf COVID-19. It came out then, but the side effectd were serious, so it was quickly dropped."
"Side effects?"
"Addiction, hallucinations, mood swings...and enhanced concentration too."
"Hey Il-ho. By any chance what if this causes something like rabies?" Yi-hyun asked as Hyun-jae's words from last night came to mind.
"There will be a frenzy. This has spread sidelt already. But that's not going to happen." He said.
"Why not?"
"Nothing has happened until now. Why would things suddenly go wrong?"
●○●○●○●
That morning Hyun-jae woke up with a surprise when Sae-bom was snuggled up next to her.
"This brat, even though she has her own bed and blanket." She grumbled but that wasn't the only thing that grumbled she blushed when her stomach made it clear that she's hungry.
"No one wakes me up and I don't have to go to work. How nice." Sae-bom muttered as she snuggled closer to Hyun-jae, wrapping her arms around her waist as well.
"Yah!Sae-bom you better let go of me!"
"Ms. Yoon Sae-bom, Mrs. Park Hyun-jae, please come out."
"First Lieutenant, when did you..."
"Who's this?" Hyun-jae questioned.
"I am First Lieutenant Lee Ji-soo and I conducted the first series of test regarding the infection."
"I see are the test results out?" She asked.
"We're testing you again."
"Furst lieutenant, please tell me before you cut my flesh off today. My feelingd will really hurt." Sae-bom said as she got up.
"If it's not any problem may we get some food I'm very hungry." Hyun-jae said as they walked out of the room and followed Lee Ji-soo.
"Are there other patients here, too?" Sae-bom asked but got no reply.
"I guess your silence means that to be a yes." Hyun-jae hummed.
"Lee Jong-tae?"
Sae-bom tried to walk into his room but they grabbed him.
"Sae-bom." Hyun-jae warned.
"Let me talk to him." Sae-bom said.
"No." Ji-soo replied.
"He's dangerous Sae-bom." Hyun-jae said.
"Look at him he's lucid I just wanna ask a few questions. I promise I'll be right back." She said and untangled her arms and dashed into the room and closed the door.
"Damn it Sae-bom open the door!"
"Ms. Yoon Sae-bom!"
"It won't take long." She insisted.
"I don't care! You don't understand what you might he getting yourself into, you idiot!" Hyun-jae exclaimed slamming her hand into the door in frustration.
"Ms. Yoon Sae-bom, stand back! It might be dangerous!" Ji-soo warned.
"But you don't know when he'll turn into that thing again! Get away from him now!" Hyun-jae exclaimed. Of all the impulsively curious human beings on the olanet earthcharacteristics in that one human being it has to be one of the most insuferable of them all.
Her thoughts were interupted when she heard a crashing sound from inside.
"Sae-bom! Sae-bom!" She yelled as she banged against the door trying to push through.
"Mrs. Park Hyun-jae, get back from the door!" Ji-soo said as she pulled her away and let the army soldiers burst through the door and help her friend.
She watched in shock as Jong-tae was taken down with his tiny pupils, sometimes it really sent chills down her spine to know that this is really happening. She glanced at his vitals and they were abnormally low for a human being. She looked up and glared at the camera, she stepped aside and let them carry Jong-tae out of the room.
"Sae-bom, Sae-bom are you okay?" She asked as she helped her friend up.
"I'm fine. Lieutenant Colonel Han Tae-seok, are you there?" Sae-bom questioned as she looked towards the camera.
"Oh he's there alright." Hyun-jae muttered and took Sae-bom out of the room.
●○●○●○●
"Son of a bitch!" Hyun-jae cursed as she handed Tae-sook a mighty slap to the face. "You made her meet that boy on purpose, didn't you?" She accused.
"You even installed a camera there." Sae-bom said as she held Hyun-jae's shoulders in comfort to calm the raging woman.
"I just wanted to know when he's feel thirsty." He said as he handed them both water.
"Thirst?"
"The infected lose their senses and bite people. They feel extreme thirst...buf water can't quench it." He said.
"So the next best thing is blood?" Hyun-jae asked.
"...You're quite the sharp woman." He said.
"It's not that hard to but two and two together." She shrugged.
"They keep feeling thirsty and going crazy even after coming back to normal. We're trying to find out the conditions for that and I was curious about how Lee Jong-tae would react if he saw you." He said and he looked towards Sae-bom.
"So you wanted to see how he would ne if he saw the one who shot him?" She asked.
"They can recognize their families, so I wondered about the others." He said.
"But their vitals were abnormal, his heart rate was slow and he seemingly feels no pain and he heald quickly because according to Sae-bom he's supposed to have bullet holes in that lanky body yet he moves like nothing happened." Hyun-jae commented.
"If it can be controlled, it can be lucrative." He said.
"So that's why you're investigating it secretly." Sae-bom said.
"It's not highly contagious, but it can scare people. Everyone's already tired of diseases, so we don't need to make things worse." He said and offered a seat to them.
"By the way, I don't want water. I wanted food." Hyun-jae sighed as she sat down.
"It will be provided shortly." He said.
"So why do you turn on the air conditioner?" Sae-bom asked.
"The occurrence of the disease slows down in low temperatures." He said.
Hyun-jae wasn't feeling all that up to paying attention to the conversation and frankly it's because she's to tired. So far nothing has happened to her, she's not thirsty or craving for blood or anything like so she assumes she's got the antibody that she just wants to go home and maybe she'll visit a temple and thank the reincarnation gods or something.
"Hyun-jae, hey Hyun-jae."
"Huh?" She hummed as she looked up from the covers of her arms.
"Do you want something from this guy as consilation from this guy or your good?" Sae-bom asked.
"Well I want a ton of quarantine food and utilities when I ask for them, have them on stand by just in case you really have to quaratine at some point on the future...let's see and I want my gun back. Oh and could you arrange with my Publishing Agent at New Age research lab, it would be a big help if I could have my research done at home and to be a little more flexible with deadlines it'll really spare me some effort and get work done faster on both ends." She said.
"Quarantine supplies, are you sure?" He asked.
"Look, COVID-19 spread because people underestimated and thought they could keep it contained, but then what happened it? It spread and there was nothing anyone could do about it, so with this new disease I'm sorry but I'm not taking any chances and besides it's not like I need anything else because I'm satisfied." She said and took her phone from Sae-bom and was about to leave.
"Aren't you worried?" He asked.
"I will get the apartment, so you don't need to worry." Sae-bom said.
"What exactly are you referring to exactly?" Hyun-jae asked.
"What you saw yesterday and today. If something goes wrong, the world may collapse." He said.
"Worrying won't change anything. Perhaps it may not collapse." Sae-bom said.
"That kind of thinking might as well be called hope." Hyun-jae shrugged and the two turned to leave.
"One more thing before you go Mrs. Park Hyun-jae." He said and she came back hesitantly as she convinced Sae-bom to let her stay with this man.
"What is it?" She questioned suspiciously.