That same evening, as the sun was casting a beautiful golden glow over the deserted world, Yi-kyung found herself approaching the boat where she knew her daughter had been staying.
It was in good condition, the ex-firefighter had to admit. The stairs she would take one step up, then hesitate on her decision managed to keep her unknown for her few minutes of wondering.
Should she do this...? Ah-yi looked like she was in good hands with the group of three... would her appearing just ruin everything? Make it better?
Yi-kyung made her choice at last, reaching the last step and approaching the start of the deck. She spotted Hyun-su and Sung-hyo sitting on the roof of the wheelhouse, watching the sunset. Sung-hyo's head was resting against Hyun-su's shoulder, with Hyun-su resting his head against Sung-hyo's slightly.
The pair seemed to just be enjoying each other's company, not saying or doing anything else, and making Yi-kyung second-guess her arrival decision. Should she come back tomorrow?
Yi-kyung never got to answer herself, as Hyun-su, who had felt like someone was watching them, lifted his head and turned. SUng-hyo, who had to lift her head as Hyun-su turned, went to look at what had caught her boyfriend's attention.
They both saw Yi-kyung, who was still standing at the end of the boat from them, a small and worried smile on her face as she watched the two teenagers climb down from the roof and make their way over to her.
While Yi-kyung waited a few moments, she spotted Ah-yi sitting on one of the many chairs piled up against the sides of the ships. Ji-ji had come up with this idea, planning to have them knocked down across the floor should anyone or anything arrive to hurt them.
Hyun-su appeared in Yi-kyung's line of vision first, with Sung-hyo behind him. Yi-kyung noticed that Sung-hyo wore the machete she'd had back at the start of this whole apocalypse. Putting that thought away, Yi-kyung slowly approached the group.
"Where's Ji-ji?" she spoke.
"Passed out in his bed," Sung-hyo answered. "Doesn't have to stay up late anymore... since his job doesn't exist anymore."
Yi-kyung nodded with a small sigh. As she finished her sigh, she noticed Ah-yi climb down from the chair she'd been sitting on and run over to Sung-hyo, hiding behind her. The child was very shy of this newcomer, and she knew Sung-hyo could protect her.
"I came too late, didn't I?" Yi-kyung spoke.
She expected Sung-hyo to scold her for abandoning her daughter... or for Hyun-su to say it was too late and to give up on her.
However, Sung-hyo only showed a sad smile. "Not at all. You're here now, aren't you? And I'm glad you are."
Yi-kyung's smile showed her relief.
Sung-hyo turned to the little girl still hiding behind her, gently trying to get Ah-yi to approach Yi-kyung.
"Say hi," Hyun-su said to Ah-yi as Sung-hyo managed to get Ah-yi out from behind her. "She's your mommy."
Ah-yi slowly moved forward, her gaze on the ground as she was still very shy.
Yi-kyung was patient, waiting until her daughter finally looked at her before she spoke. "Hi there."
When the mother and daughter embraced one another after a few silent moments, Sung-hyo knew everything was going to change again.
But for the first time in a long time... she didn't mind.
ᶠYͧoͨᵏu
Sung-hyo knew that there were other survivors in the city. The arena wasn't the only place survivors were staying.
And Sung-hyo knew that she and Ji-ji would start to have a reputation over these other survivors. They were staying with two monsters; not many survivors would trust them at first glance.
Sung-hyo didn't care much. Those pricks would have to deal with her and her machete if they did or said anything.
But with the weeks going by, one after another, Sung-hyo wondered if those survivors knew not to mess with the monsters, like she knew.
She knew some were just people who lost something.
She knew some would attack her, but only if she attacked first.
And she knew that some humans out there were worse than the monsters she was around.
Sung-hyo sat on the ledge of the building where she and Hyun-su had taken flight for the first time. In her hands were an old, yet well-kept sketchbook and a pencil.
Sung-hyo was sketching the view before her. She'd been doing so for a while now. With every day she felt like drawing for a little while, she'd go to the building she currently sat upon and sketch another building.
Around 9 buildings were already drawn in, all connected to form the right side of the city. Sung-hyo was on her 10th building; a smaller one that stood directly in front of her.
Drawing was peaceful to her, she felt. She didn't drum much anymore, as that could lead a monster straight to her. She wanted to continue drumming one day, though. Maybe if the world changes again... in a good way.
As she grew bored with her drawing skills, Sung-hyo shut the sketchbook and placed it back into her rucksack, heading for the stairs she'd used to get up the building in the first place.
It had been around 10 months since the monsterization apocalypse first began. Sung-hyo sometimes couldn't believe how quickly she and her family had gotten used to the new world they lived in. But then she'd remember her life before... and she'd realise that even if that old life did come back one day, no one would be the same as they were back then.
Sung-hyo left the building in about 10 minutes. She stopped once she emerged to the city's streets, her eyes staring at something nearby her; a red ribbon wrapped around a bush nearby and tied in place so it never blew away.
Sung-hyo had put it there. For both herself... and someone else.
Taking one last glance at the ribbon, Sung-hyo began making her way back to the ship.
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Ji-ji raised his bat in time to shield himself from the gang member coming down at him with a knife.
To the young man's left, Yi-kyung slammed a bottle into another member's head, knocking him down before another pushed her into the door and threw her to the side. She went crashing through some crates, slightly subdued while she tried to regain her strength as quickly as she possibly could.
The man who'd thrown Yi-kyung now had his face pressed against the glass of the door. The door to the room housed Ah-yi, the little girl shaking with fear at the man grinning evilly at her.
She wanted her big sis...
As the man reached for the handle, Ji-ji grabbed him and pulled him away from the girl's view. He threw the man back, positioning himself between the door and the man, with his bat still in hand.
But Ji-ji had momentarily forgotten there'd been four of the men. He was shobved into the railing next to him, the bat slipping from his grasp. Before he even seemed to regain himelf completely, one of the two quickly and suddenly attacked him while the second went for Ah-yi, still hiding in her room. But when the door opened, the girl reacted and ran out of the room and down the stairs next to the boat.
"Hey!" the man with the crossbow shouted, chasing after her. "She's off the boat!"
Yi-kyung and Ji-ji were stuck, both occupied with their own opponent. However, both had been in the military... and they both remmeebred their time there.
Ji-ji dodged to the side when his opponent ran towards him, grabbing him and throwing him over the edge.
"yi-kyung!" Ji-ji called out, trying to find the mother. He found her with her opponent on top of him, bleeding out from a stab to his neck. Yi-kyung threw the man off him and accepted the hand being offered by Ji-ji.
Without a second to breath, the pair chased after the two remaining men, whose laughter they could hear as they chased Ah-yi down the grassy mounds. It was as if this were a disgusting game to them, and Ah-yi's death was the prize.
The poor girl had three arrows in her back and there was blood all over her face, but she kept running, even with her fear and her tears blurring her vision slightly. She had no clue where to run; she just knew she had to avoid the men chasing her.
Yi-kyung jumped over the fencing on where she ran above, jumping down and chasing after the men. Ji-ji was right behind her, his bat in hand still.
Ji-ji and Yi-kyung were both focused on the man with the gun... who began to aim it at the child.
Sung-hyo was strolling along the path that led her back to the boat, absentmindely kicking a pebble along with her.
Her thoughts were empty today, for once. She wondered why today, of all days before and to come.
She would never get her answer as a noise filled the air.
BANG!
Sung-hyo's attention was now no longer on the pebble by her boots. It was now straight ahead of her. The sound of a gunshot... and it had come from an area nearby to her.
And the boat.
"Ah-yi..." Sung-hyo let out, beginning to run as her right hand went to grab her machete.
Ah-yi collapsed onto the ground, her back facing the sky above. Ji-ji stopped in his tracks, horror on his face. Yi-kyung kept running, her pistol in hand.
Was Ah-yi dead? She couldn't be... right?
Ji-ji didn't have the answer to his questions. Well, for about ten seconds.
That was when Ah-yi's body began to twitch.
Then it began what Ji-ji could only describe as black goop. The memories of when they fight discovered Ah-yi came back to him.
But as quickly as the goop appeared, so did it disappear. In its place stood a girl... a preteen girl. Her hair was the same length, but now wavy and bouncy. Her clothes now appeared short on her and her shoes were gone, now too small for her feet.
And she was angry. Angry at the two men that stood before her.
She walked towards the one holding the gun, pushing it out of the way as if it were a toy and grabbing the man's arms. His veins turned black and Ah-yi's eyes turned white.
And then...
Ji-ji and Yi-kyung - who had arrived just as Ah-yi had done... whatever she'd done to the man - could only watch as the man Ah-yi had grabbed slowly approached his companion and began to strangle the man. He never let go, not until the man he'd been working alongside moments before took his last breath.
As if to make things worse, the man Ji-ji had thrown overboard earlier suddenly appeared. He seemed confused and worried, as he'd just witnessed the entire moment. "Hey... you okay, man?"
But as the infected man began to approach his second companion, he took off running, letting out scared cries as he continued to be chased down the river.
Yi-kyung and Ji-ji's attention turned away from the pair, now facing the girl who'd been a tiny child only a minute ago. Ah-yi's eyes turned their familiar dark brown again as the looked over at the pair, it seemed for the first time in this new body.
"Mum..." she let out, the mentioned woman still aiming her gun ta her.
Yi-kyung didn't seem to react.
What had her daughter become?
They never noticed that Sung-hyo stood around 30 feet away from them, on top of the platform above.
She'd seen it all.
She knew change had happened again.
And once again, she hated it.