❝ 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖. 𝙾𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚠 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚞𝚝:
“𝙲𝚊𝚟𝚎, 𝙿𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚛!” ❞
- 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐧, 𝐉.𝐌 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞.
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Getting to the fourth floor wasn't as hard as Hae-Rin thought it would be.
The two, Hae-Rin and Hyun-Su, kept strictly to the stairs and avoided every open door. The closed doors, though, they paid them little to no attention. Their goal was to get past the closed door before a monster could hear them, so they focused in front of them, watching their feet and controlling their breathing.
Hae-Rin held her weapon tightly in her hands. She was glad that she didn't bring her backpack like last time because it was just dead weight on her back and nothing else. She did, however, forget to bring her pepper spray and her pocket knife. Hae-Rin wasn't so sure what good a pepper stray or a small blade would do, but if her weapon were to leave her hands, she'd at least have something small to protect herself with.
Next time, she thought to herself. It's not like this is the last time Eun-Hyuk's going to send Hyun-Su on a mission.
When they arrived on the fourth floor, Hae-Rin and Hyun-Su, they wordlessly started to look for loose wood, metal or anything else that they could bring back down.
Unfortunately, none of them brought a backpack for that.
"Shit." Cursed Hae-Rin.
"What?" Asked Hyun-Su, stopping next to her.
"We didn't bring a backpack." Hae-Rin said, sighing. She then looked around for any open apartments and nodded when she saw one. "Stealing it is."
"What? No." Hyun-Su said, shaking his head.
"Do you plan on going back and forth a few times to bring everything down?" Hae-Rin asked him.
"No." Hyun-Su mumbled.
"Then push that kind heart of yours away and help me find a backpack or something." Hae-Rin said, walking towards the open apartment on the far left.
Hyun-Su sighed but trailed behind her.
Hae-Rin searched the apartment as quickly as possible, feeling as guilty as Hyun-Su for stealing. But then again, it wasn't like the person who lived there would care. The world was ending, and one backpack missing wasn't much. And anyway, would that person even return to this apartment? Were they even alive?
"Found one." Hyun-Su announced, his voice coming from a bedroom.
"Perfect." Hae-Rin said, watching the boy leave the bedroom with a big travelling bag. "Damn, that was a good find."
Hyun-Su shrugged.
The two returned to the hall and started packing everything useful and less damaged.
Eun-Hyuk had been right.
The whole fourth floor was covered in pieces of wood, broken metal, and random tools. And by tools, Hae-Rin meant hammers, nails, wires and whatnot. The floor seemed like it had been under repair, but it was never finished, and Eun-Hyuk might have seen that long before the apocalypse had started.
They were picking some metal pieces near an apartment door when Hae-Rin spoke up again.
"Doesn't this look like an octopus?" Hae-Rin asked.
She was careful enough to keep her voice quiet as not to alert the monsters. She and Hyun-Su were standing side by side, the bag left on the ground as they picked up things they thought would be of use. Then, once they were sure of them, they'd let them down into the bag. Quietly, of course.
"I don't see it?" Hyun-Su mumbled, frowning.
Hae-Rin scooted closer and pointed her finger to a dented shape in the metal she was holding.
"There." She said.
The dented part was quite small and Hae-Rin saw Hyun-Su squint his eyes to look. When he didn't notice anything, he leaned closer, his shoulder touching Hae-Rin's shoulder as his head came next to her, cheeks almost touching.
Hae-Rin's heart seemed to speed up.
She could feel Hyun-Su there, she could feel his presence like a shadow looming over her.
Hyun-Su was tall, taller than her at least, and with the way he was partly standing behind her and leaning over to look, he might as well have been a looming shadow.
"That just looks like a small circle with a bigger circle." Hyun-Su mumbled. "And... uh, a couple of lines inside the bigger circle."
Hae-Rin sealed her lips in order to not laugh.
It would be horrendous if she were to laugh and monsters arrived. She'd have no time to explain to Hyun-Su about the octopus and they'd be forced into a battle. Hae-Rin wasn't so sure she'd win that one. After all, she had been on the move too much in the past few days, and since she didn't have much energy or stamina, she was starting to feel the effects of exhaustion.
So, once she was calm enough and sure that she wouldn't burst out laughing, she started to talk; still pointing at the presumed octopus.
"It looks like a Cirrina Octopus." Hae-Rin explained.
"Cirr-what?"
"Cirrina Octopus." Hae-Rin repeated, keeping her voice even. She somehow felt too scared to look behind herself, to look at Hyun-Su. He was too close. "They are a deep-sea octopuses."
Hyun-Su hummed in acknowledgement, still looking at the metal and trying to find the octopus.
"So... how do these two circles make an octopus?" Asked Hyun-Su.
"Are you dumb or just playing dumb?" Asked Hae-Rin, snickering but smiling nonetheless. She then sighed and started explaining. "Cirrina Octopus' webbing or whatever that thing between its tentacles is, is longer than in other octopuses, I suppose. It can spread and stretch quite a lot, too."
"Really?" Asked Hyun-Su.
Hae-Rin was looking at the metal, trying hard not to look at Hyun-Su, who had turned his head slightly towards her.
"Yeah. So the bigger circle is that part." Nodded Hae-Rin. "When they are on the ground in the water, they can sort of jump and the webbing thing spreads and they look like these cute umbrellas. Have you never watched a video of them? They're popular."
"I played games mostly." Hyun-Su told her. "Never really went online for anything other than games."
Hae-Rin wanted to gasp so badly.
She kept her breath quiet, though, and glanced around, making sure that there was no monster around. Even though they had their phones with them, sometimes they didn't announce the monsters.
Like when that fast and furious monster was near. Or the big hand one.
Seeing no monsters around, she sighed and moved towards the bag, lowering the metal quietly down on top of the other scavenged pieces she and Hyun-Su had gotten. They had quite a lot, surprisingly. Hae-Rin realised that they'd be making it back to the first floor sooner than she had thought.
"When this all ends, I'll show you some videos of them." Hae-Rin told him. "You'll see then that the thing on the metal looked like one of those octopuses."
She turned to look at Hyun-Su her heart speed up again.
Hyun-Su was giving her a lop-sided smile.
"Deal." He said, nodding.
Hae-Rin never understood why her heart acted weird, why it just sped up or jumped at times. It seemed to happen a lot, though, and it was mostly around Hyun-Su that it did the happy jump. But she assumed, as much as she already knew, that it did that because of comfort, because of trust.
She never got to trust people to the fullest, but when she did, her heart knew of it.
After all, calling someone a friend and trusting them was completely different. It was easy to call someone a friend but to trust them? That came slowly and cautiously.
And as she watched Hyun-Su lean down to pick up a metal pike on the other side of the bag, Hae-Rin realised that she trusted him.
Hae-Rin let the smile on her lips linger as she skipped towards a wooden plank. It was two doors down and it wasn't too big which was the perfect fit for the bag. She planned for it to be the last thing they take and that after she had placed the plank inside the bag, they should be making it back to the first floor. If Eun-Hyuk wanted more, then he should just go himself and get them.
But Hae-Rin never got to the bag because suddenly her earphone was buzzing.
She froze.
Hae-Rin had completely forgotten about the monsters. She had been too invested in her conversation with Hyun-Su and then in her own thoughts.
And that was a big mistake.
She looked around but she was unable to spot the monster.
Hae-Rin then turned to look at Hyun-Su, who was frozen as well, looking around until their eyes met.
Somewhere around the corner, they heard a loud growling.
Hyun-Su's eyes went wide, and he gripped his spear, getting into a fighting position. Hae-Rin, on the other hand, was not in any condition to fight. Her back and side were still healing and she was exhausted with no condition to move too much. But her adrenaline was high, and she supposed that would keep her moving for a while.
Mare seconds later, a few feet from Hae-Rin, a monster emerged from the corner.
Hae-Rin gripped the plank and her bat tighter, staring at a shapeless, blobby mass of dark grey flesh with multiple pinkish eyeballs. Not only that, but the flesh harboured a couple of remaining hands and feet. The monster was also triple the size of Hae-Rin.
She gulped, feeling dread tickle the back of her neck.
The monster's eyes were already on her. It wasn't just two eyes, anyway. It was multiple that were blinking rapidly as they watched Hae-Rin.
"Shit." Cursed Hyun-Su from somewhere far behind her.
As the monster charged towards her with a slurping groan, Hae-Rin readied the plank, coming up with a plan in the process of trying not to panic to the point of hyperventilation.
When the monster reached her, Hae-Rin slammed it with the plank and sent it a couple of steps back. Hae-Rin didn't stop there. She came towards it and started hitting it with both the plank and her bat, feeling the stretch of the weapons pull at her muscles. Before the monster could recover, Hyun-Su was next to it and tasing it with his spear.
Only when the monster was limp - and it would be limp for a couple of seconds - did the two stop.
"We have to run." Hyun-Su said.
Hae-Rin shook her head. She couldn't run, she was still recovering.
"We have to hide." Hae-Rin replied.
Hyun-Su turned to look at her, eyes frantic.
"Where?"
Hae-Rin quickly looked around, eyes trying to find a place to hide when they landed on the open apartment.
"There." She said, grabbing Hyun-Su by the sleeve of his zip-up hoodie and pulling him towards the apartment. "We can wait until the monster leaves. As long as we don't make any noise, we'll be fine."
"Shit, okay." Hyun-Su said, nodding.
Hae-Rin let go of the plank and gripped her bat tighter. They had no time to take the bag. They'd have to leave it outside since the monster was already getting up and its eyes were following the two. It wouldn't be long before the monster was sliding towards them with a murder intent. Perhaps they had seconds, or as the monster growled, maybe even mare milliseconds.
Without wasting the time, Hae-Rin pushed Hyun-Su inside the apartment and locked the door.
But then something occurred to her.
"It could slide under the crack of the door." Hae-Rin gasped. Nodding at the spacious crack between the door and the floor. "It doesn't have any bones. It could slide right in and it already saw was enter here-"
"You're panicking." Hyun-Su told her slowly. "Calm down."
She was very aware that she was panicking, thank you very much. She had trapped them both.
"How can I not-"
As she turned to look at Hyun-Su, her eyes caught the half open door to a dimmed pantry. Her eyes went wide, another plan forming in her head and praying that it was going to work as she turned to look back at Hyun-Su.
"What?" Asked Hyun-Su.
The monster growled outside the door.
The two turned to look and saw a bit of flesh starting to make its way through the crack.
"Come with me." Hae-Rin said, voice higher and horrified.
She didn't wait for Hyun-Su to reply.
Instead, she grabbed his wrist and yanked him inside the pantry, closing the door right after. She made sure to close the door as quietly as possible, though, and as she gulped, standing frozen, she hoped the monster didn't have a nose to sniff them out.
"Good plan." Murmoured Hyun-Su.
Hae-Rin nodded and looked up at him only to freeze some more.
The pantry was a tight space.
A really, really tight space.
There was nothing much in it except a few fallen packages of ramyeon, some snacks in the corner, and a tiny window at the far top. Said window produced a bit of sunlight, making the dimmed and tight room shine with a glow of pretty yellow and orange.
Hae-Rin, still looking up at Hyun-Su, was pressed on one side of the walls while Hyun-Su stood in front of her, their chests touching and Hyun-Su's breath fanning over Hae-Rin forehead. One of Hyun-Su's hands, as to not fall forward, was next to Hae-Rin's head, holding himself up and steadily. His other hand was holding the spear and Hae-Rin heard the tiniest noise of collision between her bat and the spear.
Outside the pantry, the monster growled.
The two of them could hear it move around, its flesh sliding over the floor with ease and somewhat nastiness.
Despite the monster outside, Hae-Rin felt that her heart had started to beat erratically for a different reason. It, her heart, was humming in her ears, loud and clear as it beat in her chest to the point that she thought that Hyun-Su might feel it.
Hyun-Su was watching her, keeping quiet and trying not to make any noise or move.
They were standing in silence, both frozen and impossibly close to one another with their eyes glued to each other. Both waiting for their doom.
Hae-Rin, as much as she wished to be more scared, she wasn't.
Her eyes were watching Hyun-Su's dark ones. She was observing the way the peeking sunlight swam in his eyes, the way it lightened them. She was watching the way the light of the window carassed his cheeks and hair, giving him a soft glow as if the sunlight was meant for Hyun-Su. She found it impossible to look away from him as his eyes mapped her face - especially her eyes.
There was a crash somewhere inside the apartment, making Hae-Rin flinch and exit her trance.
Fuck.
She tore her eyes off of Hyun-Su and glanced at the door, suddenly worried that the sunlight would snitch on them. It was casting shadows already, creating a disoriented reflection of the two on the door.
Hae-Rin worried their shadows would carry through the crack and the monster would see them.
What if Hae-Rin, instead of saving both of them, she had doomed them? What if hiding in the pantry wasn't the best idea and the monster would find them. And when it did find them, they'd be trapped with less of a chance of surviving. Not only that, but what if Hyun-Su had been right? What if it was better for them to run instead of hiding? Even though Hae-Rin couldn't run, she should've pushed herself, and maybe then they'd not be stuck with only hope on their side, maybe if-
"Hae-Rin." Hyun-Su whispered.
Said Hae-Rin froze, eyes wide and heart dancing.
Hyun-Su's head was leaning down until his lips were near Hae-Rin's ear and his voice was low and extremely quiet.
Hae-Rin didn't even notice when he had leaned forward to whisper. She had been too focused on the monster, her fear and bad decisions to even notice that she had started to shake in fear.
"It won't find us." Hyun-Su whispered again, his breath tickling Hae-Rin's ear. "We will be fine."
It seemed that Hyun-Su knew that Hae-Rin was panicking. Either from the way she was shaking or the way she had looked like she was on the average of hyperventilation. Whichever one had given her out, it didn't quite matter. Hyun-Su was able to tell, and he was trying to calm her down, to tell her that they'd be okay and to not worry.
Hae-Rin found herself and nodded slowly, feeling Hyun-Su's cheek on her own one.
"Okay." She mumbled.
"Don't fly off now." Hyun-Su said, voice barely above a whisper. "It's not the right time for you to disappear, don't get in your head."
Hae-Rin kept nodding, gripping her weapon tighter and forcing her throat to open up as she gulped down. Her heart was dying at that point, unable to function with everything that was happening.
There was another crash right outside the pantry door and Hae-Rin almost jumped.
They should've run.
They definitely should've run.
And then they heard the monster slurp its way through a crack of a door that sounded like it came from the side where the entrance door was.
"Told you." Hyun-Su mumbled.
Hae-Rin gulped again and tried not to roll her eyes.
She watched as Hyun-Su leaned back, and for a moment, she expected to see his black eyes return, but they weren't there. It was still just Hyun-Su with more relaxed eyes that were still swimming with a bit of worry and fear.
"Do you think it's gone?" Asked Hae-Rin quietly.
Hyun-Su looked towards the door as if both thinking and hearing before turning to look back at her.
"Yeah, I think so?" He nodded uncertainly.
In the end, they ended up waiting three more minutes before slowly leaving the pantry. During their wait, though, Hae-Rin was avoiding looking at his eyes, suddenly feeling extremely shy. Hyun-Su, though, Hae-Rin could feel his eyes on her. She could feel his gaze as it warmed her cheeks, to which she decided to blame the sunlight even though it had never touched her. Even though it was only touching Hyun-Su.
When they peeked in the hall, they saw that it was empty and quickly went to pick up the bag.
"Let's hurry before it returns." Hae-Rin mumbled.
Her hands were still shaking and she could feel the cold dread that ran through her blood. Although, now that the monster was gone, she was calmer.
Since the bag was heavy, both of them ended up carrying it, both of them taking one strap each and carefully bringing it down the stairs. From time to time, they had to stop and listen, worried that their earphones would betray them, and then, once they were sure no monster was around, they'd start walking faster.
Finally arriving on the first floor and seeing a few residents, Hae-Rin felt like she could breathe again.
"You're back." Eun-Hyuk said.
"You have eyes." Snickered Hae-Rin.
She yanked the bag out of Hyun-Su's hands, startling him, and when the bag fell on the floor, Hae-Rin kicked it towards Eun-Hyuk. All while glaring at the boy with the glasses.
"She went up too?" One of the residents mumbled.
"She's insane."
"Definitely."
"I'd not want to do anything with a monster."
Hae-Rin inhaled sharply and glanced towards Hyun-Su, who, unlike previously when he was relaxed and playful, he was now slumping and looking down. He looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him, like he wanted to disappear and hide.
"It's rude to gossip about someone when that someone is in front of you." Hae-Rin told them. "Ungrateful assholes."
"Ungrateful? Huh?" Jae-Hwan asked. "Why, huh?"
"Hyun-Su literally goes on these missions to bring stuff that would protect all of you." Hae-Rin told him, glaring at the resident. "Have some respect, fuckass."
"Eun-Yoo taught you a lot of curse words." Eun-Hyuk commented, chucking.
"There's nothing funny here, Eun-Hyuk." Hae-Rin snapped. "You're the biggest problem in this room right now."
Eun-Hyuk's smile vanished.
"You're still mad?" He asked.
"And you thought I'm not?" Hae-Rin scoffed. "As long as you put Hyun-Su in danger, I'll keep staying mad."
"He's the only one that can do this." Eun-Hyuk reminded her.
"He's a human being, like you." Hae-Rin replied forcefully. "That makes you capable enough to go on the missions as well."
"Hae-Rin, it's okay." Hyun-Su mumbled. "I'll go back to the quarantine now."
Hae-Rin turned to look at him as saw him already walking away, head lowered and spear gripped tight. And even though Hae-Rin deep down sort of understood Eun-Hyuk, in that moment, she felt more angry.
"It's not okay." She whispered, knowing that Hyun-Su couldn't hear.
Hae-Rin sighed and walked past Eun-Hyuk, unable to look him in the eyes even though it looked like the older one wanted to say something.
Soon, she found herself in the daycare.
There was no one there except Ji-Su who seemed to be playing on her guitar.
"You're back." Ji-Su noted.
"Yeah." Nodded Hae-Rin.
She slumped down next to her and leaned back on the wall, closing her eyes and exhaling long and deep.
"Everything okay?" Ji-Su asked. "Are you hurt?"
"No." Hae-Rin replied. "Well, physically, I'm not. I don't know about mentally, to be honest."
"What happened?" Asked Ji-Su, stopping her playing.
"Keep playing." Hae-Rin said, opening her eyes to look her at. "I liked it."
Ji-Su smiled and nodded. She placed her fingers back on the strings and started to play the same slow and comforting song that she had been playing before Hae-Rin came.
"So, what happened?" Ji-Su asked.
"I don't know." Hae-Rin mumbled, looking away. Her eyes landed on the window on the other side and she watched the sun rays swim through the glass. "You know that feeling when you push everything down and suddenly it explodes and you don't know which part to focus on?"
"I do, actually." Ji-Su nodded, fingers still playing on the strings. "It's an annoying feeling, really. I try to avoid it."
"Same." Chuckled Hae-Rin.
"Did something happen to trigger it?" Ji-Su asked.
"I guess it's my anger towards Eun-Hyuk." Hae-Rin said. "We almost got caught by a monster today. Me and Hyun-Su. When we got back, Eun-Hyuk seemed relaxed as if we went to the store."
"Jae-Heon told me he was watching the security cameras." Ji-Su said.
"So?" Hae-Rin scoffed. "As if that will keep the residents from talking shit about Hyun-Su and calling him a monster."
"I don't think he's a monster." Ji-Su told her.
The melody of the song sped up a bit and Hae-Rin turned to watch the way Ji-Su's fingers moved on the strings. She was good, really good, and Hae-Rin found herself transfixed on her guitar skills.
"Me too." Hae-Rin said. "But a lot of the residents think he's a monster and say it to his face."
"That's so fucking rude, what?" Ji-Su gasped.
"Yeah, unfortunately." Hae-Rin mumbled, sighing. "He feels every word, you know? Life wasn't that easy on him previously and now he has to go through all this again."
He had to go through bullying again.
Hae-Rin didn't like it.
She hated that Hyun-Su had to deal with this, that none of the residents saw him as a human, a living person, except herself, Grandpa Han, Ji-Su and Jae-Heon. Maybe Eun-Yoo as well but Hae-Rin and her haven't talked much about Hyun-Su so she didn't know what her best friend thought.
"Is that why you go with him on the missions?" Asked Ji-Su. "To prove them wrong?"
"Partly." Said Hae-Rin, looking at Ji-Su. "I go mostly because I don't want him to go alone, I don't want him to deal with all this alone. I go because I don't want him to suffer and feel like a toy."
She went because she wanted Hyun-Su to know that he wasn't alone.
That he had someone.
"You're a really good friend." Ji-Su complimented.
"So I've been told." Shrugged Hae-Rin.
If Hae-Rin was Hyun-Su's first friend, she was going to make the boy feel less alone. She was going to prove him that he had someone and that he wasn't a monster no matter how many times his eyes would go black.
Today proved it, too.
Hae-Rin managed to go with him on two missions and she knew she could go on more.
Hyun-Su was becoming less stiff, he was becoming more playful, relaxed. He was becoming less of a robot and Hae-Rin was going to make sure that he stayed like that.
For how long, though, she didn't know.
❝ 𝙼𝚛. 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙼𝚛𝚜. 𝙳𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙽𝚊𝚗𝚊 𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚗. ❞
- 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐧, 𝐉.𝐌 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞.
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I was trying to bring them even closer with this chapter. I don't want them falling in love with each other for no reason or all of a sudden, I want to make it slow and meaningful.
I was also, as a mentioned in the previous author's note, listening to "falling in love" by cigarettes after sex and "labyrinth" by Taylor Swift the whole time as I wrote this chapter.
You know that part in Taylor's song where she sings different versions of "I'm falling in love" ?
Like the first one is
Realisation "Uh oh, I'm falling in love."
Then there's fear "Oh no, I'm falling in love again"
And then there's acceptance "oh, I'm falling in love"
So far, we are yet to reach the realisation part (not so soon tho, I want it slow and meaningful like I said) but yeah anyway this is getting long chajfjsjdhdh
Have a nice day/night <3