- ͙۪۪̥˚┊❛ [𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞] ❜┊˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
it was chaotic to say the least. the others were still complaining inside, and a decision has been made
we will be heading to seoul first thing tomorrow morning
i wasn't sure if it's the right thing, but with everyone fuming in anger, throwing blames to each other, i think it's best if we go with the majority
i didn't agree with them, but for the sake of peace, i had to agree. and i'm sure yu-jeong and su-cheol had to comply as well. they must be feeling awful right now, having to lie for the sake of our safety. but like na-ra had said, they should've discuss first
the lack of discussion led to this
but as must as i think about it, no one was at fault
they were scared, lied to, risking our lives everyday to wipe the spheres off... while the others agreed to do so, leading to two different opinions regarding this matter
and i was standing in the middle of the line, one foot in the other
if chun-ho was here, all of us wouldn't fall into this huge dispute. i should've stepped in and control the situation, but i was too much of a coward
i have disappointed him
someone had settled in beside me, black leather jacket which i recognized. he draped it on my back, shielding me from the chilly weather. i didn't spare a glance, but i knew who it was
"na-ra told me she's packing your stuff" he said, looking at me as i scoffed with a smile
"she should be resting by now... why is she tiring herself with my stuff?"
"because she cares about you" he answered nonchalantly, rubbing his hands together amidst the coldness surrounding us. i formed a small smile, looking down and brought my knees to my chest
"right... because she cares about me. i wonder if the three of us can care about each other like before"
"trust me, she'll be hurt for a while... but nothing can get between the three of you, especially not with this mere fight"
"you think it's just a mere fight? i'm pretty sure if i hadn't step in to control them, a bloody fight could've taken place" he chuckled
"you're right. your classmate is really not to be messed with" i laughed a little, shaking my head at the claim. i wasn't sure if i should be proud of it, so i shoved it aside
"what happened to your classmate?" his smile dropped, but he quickly covered it up by clearing his throat. i could feel my heart sinking, looking at his face that was trying so hard to stay calm
"they died... all of them" both of us stayed silent for a while
"we were searching for victims in the abandoned shelter, and... our prez who was handling the detector suddenly went missing. we searched for him amidst the chaos, and the others started to cry and panic when we couldn't find him" a tear fell, and he quickly wiped it away
"but i found him... at the back of the building, with the detector bloodied and it showed countless signals of them inside the building. i was the only one outside" his head dropped down, trying to compose himself from breaking down
"they were screaming... and there was blood everywhere. i tried to enter and help them, but they told me to run and save myself. they couldn't make it out, there was nothing i could do but run" he was crying, his face buried in his hands as he let out a low sob
god knows just how long he kept it inside
"i killed every last one of the creatures, and took care of the bodies by myself. i ran away after that, and bumped into the science's students a day after. they were heading to seoul, so i tagged along, seeing as i had no one to rely on anymore... and we found this place, and your friends. they wanted me to follow them but i refused. i know that being with you is much better"
i chuckled
"why? because you like me?"
"used to" i raised a brow, looking at him with surprise
"used to?"
"the cat's out of the bag" i scoffed, him chuckling with the dried tears decorating his face. i took out a napkin and handed it to him with a small laugh
"don't worry, i have feelings for someone else"
"and who could that be?" i said with a smirk, receiving a smile
"secret" i scoffed, snatching the napkin back making him laugh. we sighed at the same time, looking at the sky in silence
"what do you think will happen tomorrow? do you think seoul is the right place for us to go?" he asked, eyes still on the sky as i replied
"no idea... but all i know, is just us, surviving until the end"
━━━━━━━━━━
it's been two days, and we still had a long way to go
i was carrying a large backpack on my back, feeling my shoulders getting sore by the weight. na-ra was walking in front of me, alone
most of us were inside our heads, none making conversation nor trying to be funny
even the loud wang tae-man had gone completely silent
su-cheol and i didn't share any words today, but i knew he was dreading to make one. his eyes was following me, trying to make out any conversation he could come up with. but ended up with disappointment when i didn't even spare him any glance
it wasn't because i was mad, i needed time alone
yu-jeong was the same too
na-ra didn't say anything, but she helped me with my backpack earlier. nothing with yu-jeong
i knew that we needed time apart from each other, but seeing us in such situation broke me apart
i had no idea what to do, so i stayed silent
we eventually reached a port, abandoned, of course. no signs of other living things could be seen, just like i expected
yeong-sin was checking the map, the others joining him but i stayed behind. hyun-sik handed me a bottle of water, and i took it with a raised brow
"where did you get this? didn't yours run out earlier?"
"it's not mine" he said with a small smile, patting my shoulder as he walked away to join the others. i looked at the bottle, realizing whose it was
i looked back, su-cheol avoiding my gaze as i sighed
i drank it nonetheless, putting the lid back and walked towards him. he tensed, yu-jeong, il-ha and jang-soo also doing the same as i sighed
"don't look at me like i'm a predator" i said with a small smile, scoffing when they were looking at me with fear and guilt
"thanks for this, but save it for yourself" i said, handing him the bottle as he took it with no words. i sent them a small smile, about to walk away but my wrist was pulled by su-cheol
"can we... talk?"
"not now. let's talk once we found a safe place" i answered quietly, taking back my wrist softly and headed to join the others
"damn it. we've been walking for two days straight, and we still have more than 100 km to go? are you sure we're going the right way?" joon-hee complained, looking at yeong-sin who was in charge of the map
"yeah, it's this way"
"i can't feel my legs. i don't think i can walk anymore" ha-na whined, sitting on the ground out of exhaustion as i sighed quietly. she's right, i couldn't bear this weight anymore
"i'm starving. we're running out of food too" deok-jung said quietly, earning another silence as we all thought of how we're going to survive this time
"there's a car" seo-yoon suddenly exclaimed, walking towards the vehicles that were abandoned. there was even a bus
"stop!" hee-rak quickly pulled her before she could go even further
"what?"
i squinted my eyes to make out an image of bodies, one was missing his head. i gasped, the others also doing the same when they saw the bodies
"let's go" yeong-sin said, looking at us as we all nodded. hee-rak was leading the way, the others remaining aware of our surrounding as i gripped on my gun tightly
"hyun-sik" i called out softly when he stumbled on his steps, making his way to the other side of the car. he gasped, recognizing the bodies making me worried
"what is it? do you know them?" my question caught the others' attention, them stopping and had their eyes on us
"they were the ones... who took me in" i widened my eyes, looking at deok-jung, ha-na and joon-hee who also recognized the students. the others grew quiet, registering the information as joon-hee spoke
"they were heading to seoul... but they all died here" she cried, looking at the bodies as hyun-sik kneeled down and touched the dead boy's arm. seo-yoon was trying to start the bus, but it wouldn't work
"hyun-sik, we should-"
"i know, we should go" he said, wiping his tears as he got up. i sighed, taking the boy's gun and checked their bullet magazine
"guys! we have to go back" yeong-su suddenly said, running to us as i got up after taking the remaining bullet
"let's go back and continue our mission. maybe the CSAT isn't canceled"
"you can go by yourself if you want to" so-yeon said, taking the bullet as well as i sighed and looked at hyun-sik
"is he always like that?" he whispered, receiving a small smile from me
"well... he has always been obsessed over his grades and exams. his family isn't well off, and the CSAT is probably his only chance to succeed in life. so yeah, he's always like that. but i kind of understand him, though" i said quietly, feeling sympathetic towards him
hyun-sik nodded, heaving a small sigh
"but... we've been through so much for the extra points. we can't just die in vain like them" hyun-sik tensed at the last sentence, so i stepped in
"yeong-su"
"cho-yeong, can't you convince them? help me" i was about to open my mouth but he had beat me to it
"do you know how many spheres i killed so far? here, look!" he took out his notebook, showing us the scribbled numbers on the page as i sighed
"i killed 37 of them! i might even get accepted to SNU with these extra points"
"i know that, but-"
"yeong-su, are you still hung up on those extra points? it's useless now, so stop it" bo-ra quickly shut him up, walking away as the others also followed her
"wait- guys!" he was desperately looking around, trying to stop all of us but i knew that his attempt would fail
hyun-sik patted my shoulder before walking away, leaving yeong-su behind who was crying. he was yelling, crying even more when none of us batted an eye on him
i looked at jang-soo who sent me a nod, signaling that he would take care of him. so i turned around and joined the others
━━━━━━━━━━
it was hours, and the sky had turned completely dark
we were heading inside an amusement park, deciding to take a rest before continuing our journey tomorrow
tae-man and hee-rak laid down on the hard ground, the others joining in to rest their sore legs
"let's get some rest here, and find food" yeong-sin said, deok-jung, sun-yi, joon-hee and tae-man going to find food while we sighed in exhaustion. hyun-sik was sitting beside so-yeon, cracking a small joke that made the girl laughed under her breath
i scoffed with a chuckle
"looks like the cat's out of the bag, cha hyun-sik"
"guys! we found food!" sun-yi said in excitement, deok-jung taking them out from his hoodie as i chuckled. na-ra pulled me over to sit beside her, handing me a canned tuna with a chopstick
"thanks" she smiled, drinking some water and started to eat
"this would've been tastier if it's warm" deok-jung said with a sigh, gulping down some water as tae-man replied
"i know, right? i saw a microwave inside"
"this is good enough. just eat it" bo-ra said, shutting down the series of complaints
"i'll see if there's a generator" seo-yoon said, standing up as yeong-sin quickly joined her. i put down my chopsticks, looking back to yu-jeong, su-cheol, il-ha and jang-soo who had nothing to eat
i looked down to my food, noticing na-ra glancing at them as i spoke
"we should give them some food too"
"no" yeon-ju replied, putting down the canned food as na-ra said
"yeon-ju"
"i'm still mad at them. i can't forgive them for lying to us"
"by they way, the students from the science high school... they had different opinions, and only eight of them were going to seoul. when i saw their bodies, i thought that it might've been us if we had separated" deok-jung voiced out, looking down as we all remained silent
"yu-jeong and jang-soo weren't wrong, after all"
"you're right. i was furious and felt betrayed at first. but we all know they were doing their best in their own way" joon-hee also voiced out her opinion, and i knew that all of us were thinking the same
so i got up and headed to them
"hey" i called out, looking at them as they all looked up to me
"stop staring and join us. will you starve to death like this?" i said with a scoff, holding out my hand to yu-jeong who took it with a smile
il-ha and jang-soo headed to the others, yu-jeong being pulled by tae-man and seated her beside him and na-ra. i looked at them, na-ra offering her canned tuna with yu-jeong smiling widely
unconsciously, i formed a small smile at them
everything was finally in place- well, except one thing
i turned around to see su-cheol behind me, taking my hand as he intertwined them with a soft smile
"i'm sorry... for not telling you" i chuckled, shaking my head
"forget it. let's eat" he nodded, heading towards the others as we seated ourselves with tae-man and yu-jeong. bo-ra handed him a canned food with a soda
"it's been ages since we last came to an amusement park. it was fun when we went together with the guy in class one" ha-na said, looking at carousel in front of us as bo-ra replied with a scoff
"what are you blabbering about? don't you remember your ex-boyfriend throwing up after riding the pirate ship?" we all laughed, tae-man exclaiming how gross it was as i looked at ha-na who was grumbling in annoyance
"right, that jerk. we should've gone with our class. before all this happened" i chuckled, nodding
"right? we should've hung out together before this sphere situation" we all grew silent, agreeing as the carousel suddenly lit up. we all looked at it in shock, the other rides also back online as i looked at seo-yoon and yeong-sin who were running to us
"i did it!" she said with a smile, receiving a cheer from us
"park seo-yoon! you're amazing" deok-jung said as yeong-sin suddenly pointed his finger to his chest, clueless
"it was me"
"what are you saying? hey!"
"it was me who did it"
i chuckled, looking at su-cheol who was also laughing at their silly fight
"guys, let's ride them" tae-man said, excitedly looking at all of the rides that were ours at the time
"should we?"
"yeah, let's ride them. it'll be fun" he answered to seo-yoon as joon-hee asked worriedly
"but will it be okay, though? what if the spheres appear?"
"there aren't any around this area" yeong-sin spoke after checking the detector, deok-jung saying
"wouldn't it be okay as long as we don't scream?"
"he's right"
"i'm in"
"let's ride them"
i smiled, looking at yu-jeong and na-ra who nodded, also agreeing with the idea
"by the way... it's beautiful, isn't it?" ae-seol said, looking up to the ferris wheel that was lit up with colorful lights, alongside with the other rides. the others also looked up, smiling in agreement
"let's ride the pirate ship!" su-cheol yelled out, dragging me to the ride as the others quickly caught up to us
"hey, do su-cheol! wait for us!" i laughed upon their whines, su-cheol getting into the ship first as he quickly picked me up
"na-ra, yu-jeong" i called out, holding out my hand as they jumped in with my help
"this is gonna be so much fun" i said in excitement, receiving a small laugh from them as deok-jung entered the controlling panel. the others also got in, sitting at the other side of the ship as tae-man and chi-yeol made their way to us
i winked at na-ra who sat beside chi-yeol, receiving a playful eyeroll from her
il-ha and jang-soo also got in, sitting behind us as we all screamed when the ride started
"we're flying, oh my god!" il-ha yelled in fear, holding jang-soo's hand as i laughed when su-cheol hid his face to his shoulder when the ship swung down
"come on, su-cheol!" i yelled, laughing when he screamed in fear yet again. i looked to the side, chi-yeol was gripping tightly on na-ra sleeve making me laughed
hyun-sik was closing his eyes in fear with so-yeon forcing him to open them. i chuckled, preparing myself for another big swing from the ship
this was yet going to be an unforgettable moment for us all