CHEONG-SAN's POV
"Eomma, Appa," Y/N muttered, starting to climb over the truck to get to his parents.
"Y/N, no!" On-jo tugged him down, making him stumble and catch himself on the truck for balance as he glanced around at all of us.
"Tell me that wasn't them...please, anyone, tell me it wasn't them..."
"Y/N..." I tried, reaching out for his shoulder, but then stopped when Dae-su yelled from the other side of the truck, "What the hell? There're two zombies here!"
Y/N immediately got up and looked over the truck, the rest of us looking over only to see Dae-su bringing the pole down on Y/N's parents over
and over
and over
and over
"Stop it, asshole, those're my parents!" Y/N called over the truck. "I said to fucking stop that!"
Before any of us could stop him, he climbed over the truck and jumped down on the other side.
"This can't end well," Su-hyeok whispered, shaking his head.
He, On-jo, Nam-ra, Gyeong-su, and I all shared looks before we ran along the side of the truck.
"Stop hurting them, you fucking bastards!" Y/N yelled, shoving Dae-su away from his zombified parents and pushing Joon-yeong away.
"Hey, what the he —" Dae-su tried to say as he stood up, but Y/N turned around and punched him in the face, shoving him to the ground again.
"Y/N, stop it!" I tried to convince him to stop.
He turned around. "Cheong-san, do you not see what they're fucking doing to them?"
"But they're —"
"I don't care if they're zombies, Gyeong-su! They're still my fucking parents!"
"Y/N, what the hell?" Joon-yeong called as Y/N continued to punch Dae-su's face over and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
"You motherfucker! Those're my parents, you bitch!"
Wu-jin managed to pull Y/N off of Dae-su, who had been covering his face with his arms to protect himself.
"Let go!" Y/N yelled, reaching for Dae-su again. "I'll kill him! Stop it!" he continued as he tried to wrestle his way out of Wu-jin's grip.
"Cheong-san!" Wu-jin called. "Help me with him, would you?"
I nodded and rushed over to help.
"Let go! Eomma! Appa!"
And then he broke down into sobs, still trying to get out.
"Eomma...Appa..."
Y/N doubled down to the ground and just covered his face in his knees, shaking and sobbing as his wet (H/C) bangs fell in front of his face.
"Y/N..." On-jo knelt down beside of him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, side-hugging him.
"Why did it have to be them?" he sobbed. "Why them?"
It hurt so fucking much to see him like this.
Nam-ra looked around, then grabbed Y/N's arm, pulling him up. "Let's go."
- - - - - - - - - -
Y/N'S POV:
I wrestled my arm out of Nam-ra's grip, still staring at my zombified parents. They were slowly but surely crawling towards me.
I could do it. Sacrifice myself by rushing towards them.
"Let's go, Y/N," On-jo hissed, tugging my arm.
I glanced at her, then Su-hyeok, then Nam-ra, and then Cheong-san. All of them were staring at me expectantly.
"Pull yourself together, man!" Su-hyeok shook my shoulders, trying to snap me out of it.
I wiped my tears away from my face.
"Y/N, please, come with us," Cheong-san said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"Let's go," Su-hyeok added, looking at the other three. He and Cheong-san wrapped my arms around their shoulders, and we all started running, Nam-ra clutching her ears as the thunder cracked again. On-jo doubled back to wrap her arms around her shoulders as we continued running.
I might as well have been a zombie myself, because I was just running without thinking. Both boys grabbed my hands as I looked behind me at my parents, who were now straightening back up. My eyes then went down to the red cloth connecting their wrists.
'Red string of fate.'
As I stared at my parents one last time, a memory of Appa came to mind — when he first showed me the spot that he and Eomma met at.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Hey, sport, if you're gonna sleep, at least go in your room."
I raised my head off of the dinner table as I looked at my father, who, by the looks of it, had just come home from work. "Oh. Hi, Appa. Welcome home. Where's Eomma?"
"Your mother is going to be at work a little longer, okay? I'll get dinner started soon. Have you finished your homework?"
"Oh." I glanced at my half-finished homework, then back at my father with a nervous smile. "Maybe...?"
My father glanced at my half-finished homework, then gave me a half smile and shook his head, taking my arm and pulling me up. "C'mon. I want to show you something."
"But my homework —"
" — can wait. C'mon, get your sweatshirt."
Confused, I went into my room, pulled out my black sweatshirt, and put it on before going downstairs and putting my sneakers on. "Where're we going?'
"I'll show you."
- - - - - - - - - -
"Whoa." My mouth dropped open. "So...this is where you and Eomma met?"
It turned out that Appa had taken me to the very first spot where he and my mother had met — in a meadow full of dandelions. In my mind it looked like a cheesy first meeting in some K-drama, but it was...okay, you're gonna think that I'm really cheesy for saying this, but it looked...beautiful.
Appa nodded. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
I lifted up a finger like the love interest in a romantic movie, letting one of the many fireflies that surrounded this meadow land on it. "Yeah. It's...it's awesome."
- - - - - - - - - -
And then I looked at Eomma...
- - - - - - - - - -
"Honey. Wake up."
"Hmm?" I raised my head off of my arm to see my mother standing there, her hand on my shoulder, smiling gently at me. I looked back down at my homework — I had fallen asleep, once again, while trying to finish it. My pencil was still in my hand somehow.
My mother just stared at me, some sort of adoration clear in her eyes.
"Eomma? What's wrong? Are — are you okay?"
Eomma giggled as she ruffled my hair. "Just admiring how much my baby has grown."
"Ugh, Eomma! Watch the hair!" I groaned, fixing my hair, and she chuckled as she went to make dinner. But I couldn't help but stare after her, letting a fond smile creep on my lips.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Eomma...Appa..."
"They're here! Hurry up!" Dae-su called out from in front of us.
'Why did my parents have to fucking die?'
I wanted to stop. To give up. To let them keep on running while I went back for my parents.
But I didn't.
I forced myself to keep running.
The wet grass made squelching sounds underneath our footsteps as we continued to run, but then I heard someone behind us trip and fall.
"Joon-yeong!" I heard Wu-jin yell, and my head spun around to see him running to help Joon-yeong up.
But there was no way that he was going to make it in ti —
Suddenly, an arrow soared through the air, plunging into the zombie's neck. It keeled over and lay there, twitching.
I blinked in confusion. 'Huh?'
Suddenly, I saw a few more people running up the dirt path we had run up just a few moments ago.
Ha-ri.
Mi-jin.
Sang-hee.
Min-jae.
Jun-seong.
"Sister," Wu-jin gasped.
"Sang-hee!" I blurted out before I could stop myself.
Mi-jin came up to me and punched my shoulder in a friendly way. "Hey, bitch. What about me?"
"Mi-jin, you steely son of a bitch," I said with a smile as I rubbed the spot where she had punched me. "Hey."
We immediately sprinted our way into the gymnasium, all the lights being off.
"What's wrong, Nam-ra?" Joon-yeong questioned her.
"Run," was all she whispered.
'Run?' What would we need to be running from? All the zombies were outside, weren't they?
"Let's go," she clarified.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Oh, shit," Mi-jin groaned as the lightning lit up the gymnasium, illuminating zombies all in different sports uniforms.
"Run!" Su-hyeok called.
"I'm gonna die tonight!"
Y/N ran over to Jun-seong, helping Mi-jin pull him along.
"Just save yourselves!" he protested. "Just go! You'll die! Believe me!"
"Whatever!" Mi-jin yelled back as she and Y/N continued to try and pull him.
"You're not gonna die tonight, you hear me?" Y/N added. He might not know Jun-seong that well — the boys had only interacted a couple of times — but he didn't want the boy to die.
Mi-jin reached over and pulled a door open. "This way!"
"Hurry!" Y/N added as the rest of them ran through the door. "Come on!"
He kicked a zombie who had been reaching for the stretcher away, leaping for another one who had reached for Su-hyeok, knocking it — and himself — to the ground.
"Are you crazy?" Joon-yeong interrogated, pulling the (H/C)-haired boy up by his arm. "Let's go!"
Suddenly, Jun-seong rolled off the stretcher and jumped toward the zombies, making them all surround him and bite into him.
"No!" Mi-jin shrieked, trying to reach for him. "No! Let go of me, you assholes!" she screamed at Sang-hee and another person Y/N couldn't identify, trying to break out of their grip.
"Get out of here!" Jun-seong yelled. "Hurry!"
"C'mon, let's go!" Sang-hee shouted, trying to pull Mi-jin away.
"No! Jun-seong! Jun-seong..."
The group managed to get into the storage room, closing the door behind them, Mi-jin yelling for them to let her go.
And then she did something Y/N hadn't seen her do in a long time...
...she cried.
"Mi-jin..." he mumbled, crouching next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
She didn't stop him. Didn't even make an attempt to. Instead, she just turned her head and sobbed into his shoulders like he had done minutes to On-jo before...
...and he comforted her the best he could, rubbing her back and whispering comforting things to her.
Ha-ri reached for her other hand, and she squeezed it as hard as she could, still sobbing into Y/N's shoulder.
"Hey, Y/N," Dae-su's voice came from next to him. The (H/C)-haired boy looked up to see him standing right there. "I'm...so sorry. I didn't know they were your parents. Sorry."
"I'm..." Y/N blinked back tears hurriedly. "I'm...fine."
Mi-jin glanced up from his shoulders, her eyes bloodshot as she blinked. "Your parents...they're gone?"
Y/N looked down and nodded.
And then she did something that surprised him. She wrapped his arms around him and then whispered in his ear, "I'm so fucking sorry."
And then it was Y/N's turn to sob in his sister figure's shoulder as she rubbed his back.
- - - - - - - - - -
It was around morning when Y/N woke up. On-jo was leaning on one of Y/N's shoulders while Mi-jin leaned on the other, and Y/N was sitting there, cross-legged, staring at the ground.
On-jo slowly raised her head off of Y/N's shoulder and blinked before looking at him and smiling softly. "Good morning."
Y/N tried to smile back. "Morning." He then sighed. "I thought about it all night long, how do I live? I couldn't help Jun-seong last night. Maybe if I tried harder somehow he might still be alive."
"You gave it your all," said On-jo quietly. "You can't save everyone, Y/N."
"But I —"
" — want to? Yes, I know. I wanted to save I-sak so badly, but I couldn't. But why don't we talk about this later? Tomorrow, or the day after. Or next week maybe."
"If we even live that long. I just want to live every day like it's my last. It very well might be."
On-jo slapped his shoulder hard. "Don't say that. Let's get out of here and eat some food. And shower first. Okay? We'll talk about it then. Hmm?"
She smiled prettily at him, and he felt himself sink into those pretty eyes of hers again.
"Yeah," Y/N heard himself say. "Okay."
"Cheong-san told me what he said to you last night. I think we all have a lot to talk about, hmm?"
'Oh. That.' Y/N felt his cheeks heat up. "Yeah. I — we do."
"Let's give it time."
Y/N nodded, and On-jo nodded as well.
"Whatever happens...please don't give up. Okay?"
"I won't if you won't."
"I won't."
Y/N, for the first time in what seemed like forever, smiled genuinely at the ground. "Then I won't either."
"Never."
"You too."
"Mm-hm. It'll be okay."
- - - - - - - - - -
SU-HYEOK'S POV:
"Do you see something?" Y/N asked as he got up and dusted himself off.
"The smell is stronger," Nam-ra responded, still staring up.
Dae-su inhaled deeply, then sniffed himself. "I can't really smell anything."
Nam-ra turned around to face the rest of us. "I think they're all coming this way. The smell is really strong."
"Doesn't matter." Joon-yeong sounded hopeless. "We're all trapped in here for good now. And there's no way to get out."
"Please don't say that," Sang-hee said softly. "There has to be a way out."
Y/N turned to face her. "How? We're all trapped here. And all those fuckers are right outside."
"He's right." Joon-yeong nodded. "I think we're done."
Dae-su stood up. "Ah, damn it. Let them kill us if they want."
My eyes went to Nam-ra, who picked up a golden baseball bat with a black handle. "Got an idea, Prez?"
"Maybe," she said softly. "I still need to work out some things, though."
"Ha-ri," Wu-jin said suddenly. "You didn't fail in the preliminaries, did you?"
"No," she said. "I did really well."
"Your tournament. What happened? Why'd you come to the school?"
Mi-jin stuffed her hands inside her jacket pocket. "You're her brother."
"Yeah, I am. You're Y/N's sister?"
"I'm the closest thing he's got to one, so I might as well be. And she got a perfect score, so she made it to nationals. I saw her."
Wu-jin stared at Ha-ri — quite happily, actually. "Really?"
Ha-ri glanced at him. "Mm-hm. It's true."
"No way. Really? You're really in the nationals? Mom and Dad don't know?"
Mi-jin scoffed. "Bro, how could they know? Look around. She jumped out of the archery bus and ran to the school to find you."
"And Mi-jin jumped out of the archery bus and ran to the school to find Y/N," Ha-ri countered.
I shrugged. "Wouldn't we all if we were in her place?"
Mi-Jin's cheeks flushed pink and she slapped Ha-ri's shoulder. "Shut up! And kid, you be good to her," she added to Wu-jin.
Wu-jin nodded. "As long as you're good to Y/N."
Y/N leaned on one of the walls, chuckling and crossing his arms. "Well, isn't this entertaining."
Wu-jin leaned closer to Ha-ri. "Who is she? Why does she keep talking for you?"
Ha-ri glanced at Mi-jin. "She's my friend."
Mi-jin chuckled. "Yeah. We're freaking besties."
Dae-su stood up and walked in front of Wu-jin, Ha-ri and Mi-jin.
'Oh, here we go.'
- - - - - - - - - -
"This is gonna be fucking hilarious," Y/N whispered to Sang-hee.
Sang-hee stared at him confusingly. "What is?"
"Watch."
"What's your deal?" Mi-jin asked, studying Dae-su.
The said boy cleared his throat and began to speak. "I..."
"You?" Mi-jin repeated.
Y/N walked over, sat down next to her, and slapped her shoulder. "Let him speak, asshole."
"Bitch," she grumbled, rubbing her shoulder.
"I think you're the perfect girl," Dae-su blurted out.
"What? You freak."
'Okay, I see what you mean,' Sang-hee mouthed.
Y/N shook his head. 'This isn't even the best part.'
"What's wrong with you?" Wu-jin whispered furiously.
"I watched you when you were shooting your arrows," Dae-su continued ('This is not the way to do a proper confession, Dae-su,' Y/N thought), "I saw you train every morning. I went to every tournament and cheered for you. Caught myself yelling 'copper beauty' a few times. I really liked you for many years." (Wu-jin clapped his hands over one of Ha-ri's ears while Y/N reached forward to cover the other.) "Now...I wanna be a man, not just a fan."
'"I wanna be a man, not just a fan?"' Y/N cringed. 'What fucking TV show is he learning these pick-up lines from?'
He could see that Mi-jin was struggling to hold in her laughter. She glanced at him, and they looked away to hold back their laughter.
"I'm gonna die, anyway. I just wanna say what I want first."
Wu-jin and Y/N slowly removed their hands from Ha-ri's ears.
"Cool," said Mi-jin, smiling.
"You're Dae-su, right?" Ha-ri asked.
Y/N nodded. "Yep, that's him."
Ha-ri turned her attention to him. "He calls my brother 'brother-in-law'?"
"Mm-hm. Same guy."
"So that means you knew!" Dae-su turned to Wu-jin. "Brother-in-law, you told her?" He turned to Y/N next. "Y/N, did you?"
"Might've," Wu-jin and Y/N said together, winking.
Ha-ri reached out a hand to Dae-su, and he, smiling, took it, helping her up.
"Must be nice to meet me," she said, smiling gently.
"Yes."
"Then you're okay with dying?"
"Yes." Dae-su was silent for a moment, and then he looked up. "What? Today?"
Ha-ri then punched Dae-su, kicked him in the stomach, and swatted the back of his head. "Good. I'm pissed off and needed to vent."
"Yeah, fuck him up!" Y/N cheered, clapping his hands as Mi-jin joined in.
"Get over here, dear husband!"
"Sorry," Wu-jin, who had given up trying to stop his sister, chuckled.
"Wu-jin, stop her!"
"Beat him up, sis," Wu-jin called as Ha-ri threw a volleyball at Dae-su's head.
"You go, girl!" Mi-jin cheered.
"Get over here, you punk."
"He needs a good beating."
"Look at him dodging!"
"Beat his ass, girl!" Sang-hee cheered, whooping and clapping.
"Stop her!"
"I don't want to come in between you two."
Y/N, still laughing, glanced down at the floor, where the volleyballs were rolling on the ground. His laughter slowly faded away as he studied it, throwing it up into the air and catching it with one hand.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Yo, Bare-su, whatcha doing?" Y/N called over to Su-hyeok as the said boy started rummaging through the basket with all the volleyballs in it.
Su-hyeok glanced at Joon-yeong. "Can we move this? Do you think it's possible?"
As the rest of the group stood up, he voiced his idea. "We can tie all the carts in a circle, then we can just use them as a shield."
"That might work." Y/N nodded. "Anyway, it's worth a shot — we can't just stay in here forever."
The group rolled up some blue mats and brought out a blue and red basket, setting them next to the other red one.
"We need string or something to tie them together," Y/N called.
"Is this it?" Mi-jin made a face.
"This?" Sang-hee opened the basketball cart, letting On-jo tie some string to the handle.
"There is no way this is going to work," Mi-jin groaned as Y/N got the power drill. "We should flip it over completely so we can hide underneath."
"We should stand it up," Wu-jin corrected.
"Yeah, zombies sure can't climb that," Mi-jin said sarcastically.
Gyeong-su groaned. "C'mon guys, can we just do this already?"
"Don't be stupid, okay? Let's re-do them." Mi-jin went to retie the string.
"It's too short if we close the lid," Sang-hee corrected. "Unless you want us crawling?" she added sarcastically. "Are you stupid?" She opened the lid again.
"Hey." Mi-jin slammed the lid down again. "Say it to my face."
"Huh? You want me to say it to your face?" Sang-hee slammed the lid open again. "Okay! I will! 'Are. You. Stupid?' Make your own if you don't like it. Do everyone a favor and stay out of the fucking way. You hear me? Y/N, make sure she stays out of our way."
"Shithead," Mi-jin scoffed.
"'Shithead'? I'm the shithead? Come here, you —" Sang-hee went to slap Mi-jin in the face, but the (H/C)-haired boy stepped in front of her, catching her wrist when her hand was an inch away from his face.
"Stop it."
Y/N then turned to face Mi-jin. "You, too."
"I'm not just gonna let her destroy all of our hard work!" Sang-hee blurted out, trying to wrestle her arm out of Y/N's grip, but he gripped it tighter. "Ow! Let go! Didn't your mother ever teach you to never lay your hands on a lady?"
Y/N's eyes went dark as he shoved Sang-hee away from him as hard as he could.
"Hey!"
"Don't you ever talk about my fucking mother like that," Y/N snapped.
"What? So you're on her side now?"
"I'm not on anyone's side here. Let's just do this so we can all get out of the gym alive. I don't want to lose anyone else. Especially not after losing Seo-Hyun."
The glare in Sang-hee's eyes softened. "S-Seo-Hyun's...no, she can't be, right?" she asked hysterically. "She's...she's out there alive, right? She's just not with you guys? She's just...with someone else, maybe? She can't be dead! Please, she can't be dead!"
Y/N looked away from her. "She...went out on her own. I should have stopped her."
"But you were supposed to protect her!"
"I know. And I tried. But she —"
"I loved her!"
Y/N's eyes went wide as he looked back at Sang-hee, whose eyes were now starting to fill up with tears.
"I loved her for years, but did she ever acknowledge that? No! She was too focused on you and your stupid hair and your stupid eyes and your stupid hotness —"
"How am I supposed to control who she does and doesn't like? Hell, I didn't even know she liked me until...what, two days ago?"
"Guys." Joon-yeong interrupted them. "We shouldn't waste energy fighting amongst ourselves right now."
"We'll vote on it," Nam-ra said loudly so that the others could hear her.
"And you are?" Mi-jin scoffed.
Nam-ra looked at her. "Class prez."
Y/N scoffed. "Best fucking class prez ever."
- - - - - - - - - -
"One. Split up."
Nobody raised their hands.
"Two. Stay together."
Everyone raised their hands.
Nam-ra nodded, leaning against the door. "Okay, we voted to stay together, then."
"Is it smart to vote on life or death matters and just follow the majority?" Dae-su asked, glancing at his lap.
Gyeong-su nodded. "Yeah, like what if we all agree to do the wrong thing and we all end up dead?"
"There's such a thing as collective intelligence," On-jo replied.
"There are too many unintelligent people here. You can't make intelligence with a bunch of idiots!"
"Do you have a better idea?" Gyeong-su asked Dae-su. "Right now, sticking together is our best option."
Mi-jin stuffed her hands inside her jacket pockets. "How did you kids even survive up to now?"
"Sorry, but can you mind your own business?" Dae-su said rudely.
"Hey, watch your mouth, that's my sister you're talking to there," Y/N warned.
"What? She started the fight, now we're voting."
"Give me an arrow so I can stab him."
"Anyway, let's move on now," Nam-ra interrupted before anyone could hand Mi-jin or Y/N an arrow. "One. We make the outside higher."
About the majority of the group raised their hands. On-jo grabbed Cheong-san's arm and raised it up into the air.
"Two. We fold the lids, make a box."
Wu-jin and Mi-jin raised their hands.
"So that's two."
"What the hell?" Dae-su asked, turning to Wu-jin. "I thought you were with us?"
"I changed my mind," said Wu-jin.
"Option one received the majority vote, so make the walls high," Nam-ra announced.
"Wait! Your vote," said Mi-jin immediately. "If you're for option two, it's a tie."
"Option one," Nam-ra said after a while.
"Fuck," Mi-jin swore under her breath. "Okay, but don't resent me when the zombies climb over and kill us all," she told Sang-hee.
"I'll take the blame," Sang-hee assured her. "You hold back."
- - - - - - - - - -
"You have to tie the knots harder," Joon-yeong told the group as Y/N examined some baseball gloves, then looked at the baseball gear.
'Hmm. Chocolate bar.'
The (H/C)-colored boy grabbed it and looked at it. "Chocolate bar," he called at his group.
Everyone immediately got up and went over to him, peering over his shoulders to look at the chocolate bar.
"Let me see!" Dae-su said immediately, taking it from him. "You think we can eat it?"
Y/N shrugged. "Is it expired?"
Dae-su's excited face turned into one of defeat. "Yeah."
"Okay, so what?"
"It's the first source of food we've had for days, so it's whatever," Y/N muttered. "Let's just eat it. What's the worst that can happen?"
Dae-su unwrapped the chocolate bar slowly and handed it to Wu-jin. "Only take a tiny bite. It has to feed all of us, okay?"
Wu-jin took a bite of the chocolate bar.
"Shit, I only said a tiny bite!"
"I only ate fricking this much," Wu-jin said in exasperation, holding up his fingers.
"Selfish bastard."
Wu-jin handed it to On-jo, who also ate a bite.
Then to Mi-jin, who said that she was already full and handed it to Nam-ra...
...who then handed it to Su-hyeok...
...who then handed it to Gyeong-su...
...who then handed it to Cheong-san...
...who then handed it to Y/N.
"I'm not hungry," the said boy said, smiling politely.
"C'mon, just a tiny bite," Cheong-san pleaded, still handing it to Y/N. He then raised an eyebrow when the latter eyed it. "You do know I'm not gonna stop until you take a bite, right?"
Y/N groaned and then took it. "Fine."
He took a tiny bite of chocolate, letting the chocolatey taste melt in his mouth. Even if it was expired, it still tasted decent.
He handed it to Dae-su, who...
...ate the rest of the whole thing.
"Hey," Wu-jin called.
"What?"
"Joon-yeong didn't have any."
Dae-su slowly turned his head to Joon-yeong, who was just deadpanning him.
"How could you eat it all?"
Dae-su stood up and gulped. "I...I really thought I was last. I'm so sorry — here, I'll buy you a whole box of chocolate when we get out of here —"
Joon-yeong let out a small chuckle. "Promise?"
"Promise."
- - - - - - - - - -
"Take off your shoes — I'll put yours on first," Gyeong-su told Y/N.
"You really don't have to do that — I can put mine on by myself —" Y/N started to say, but Gyeong-su had already shaken his head and was now kneeling down to take off Y/N's shoes.
"Lift up your foot," he ordered.
Y/N did so, blushing heavily as Gyeong-su slid some armor up his leg. 'Why do my friends have to be like...this?'
"Yo, little bro, you look really red over there," Mi-jin called from across the room. "You okay?"
Gyeong-su looked up from the floor and smirked before straightening up and planting a kiss way too close to Y/N's lips to be read as 'platonic' and putting on his own armor.
"F-fine," Y/N mumbled, his face turning redder by the minute.
"Hey, Y/N?"
Y/N turned around to face Sang-hee, who he hadn't spoken to since she'd made that comment about his mother. "What?" The word might have come out a little harsher than he meant it too.
"Do you...hate me?"
Y/N paused, then shook his head. "Mm-mmm."
"Why not?"
Y/N shook his head, chuckling. "I've never really hated you. In fact, I always thought you hated me!"
"Me? Hate you? Why would I hate you?"
"Um...because Seo...had a crush on me?" The words came out pathetically quiet.
"I...actually never hated you. Yeah, there were times I would get fed up with her spouting about her crush on you...but...I offered to help. It's crazy what you'd do for a friend, isn't it?" Sang-hee gave him a weak smile.
"Yeah." Y/N looked over to Cheong-san, who was helping On-jo put on her armor, and memories of him kicking Gwi-nam off the shelf in the library flooded his mind. "It is crazy what you'd do for a friend."
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned around to see Su-hyeok carrying a baseball bat. "Oh. Su-hyeok. What's going on?"
"I'm gonna take the lead," the other boy said. "You and Cheong-san take the back."
"Right." Y/N nodded. "You sure you won't need help?"
"I'm sure."
- - - - - - - - - -
The doors to the storage room were slammed open, and Su-hyeok immediately ran forward, bashing away the zombies. Quickly, the rest of them turned around, wrapping the cages around them like some sort of barricade.
Su-hyeok immediately kicked away a zombie who was trying to get in. "Close it!" he called.
Y/N and Joon-yeong immediately pushed the cages together, wrapping the string around tighter.
"Done!" Y/N called. "Push!"
All of them did so, pushing the cages away like they had done in the music room. Multiple other zombies bashed into the barrier, and they all pressed their weight against the cages.
Y/N heard someone scream from right next to him, and he whipped around to see a bloody hand reaching for Sang-hee. He immediately grabbed the bat and started stabbing at the zombie who was trying to climb over. "Didn't your parents ever teach you how to treat a lady?" he yelled as he delivered one more strong stab, and the zombie fell to the ground, snarling.
"Push harder!" Joon-yeong yelled. "We can do this!"
"It won't move!" Mi-jin yelled back.
Y/N reached over and contented himself with stabbing most of the zombies who reached over, trying to get inside, with Cheong-san and Su-hyeok. Sang-hee and Joon-yeong tried to beat them away with spare volleyballs.
Suddenly, he felt a bloody hand grab his leg. He looked down only to see that a zombie was trying to get underneath the cage and was dragging his leg closer so it could bite him.
"Shit!" he swore as he kicked the zombie away from him, nearly falling back. He held the bat out in front of him to push one of the elderly coaches back into the crowd of zombies.
- - - - - - - - - -
"On-jo!" Sang-hee cried as she went to push another zombie who was reaching for her away.
Suddenly, she felt someone push her forward, allowing the zombie to turn its head and bite her hand. She let out a cry of pain as her head whipped around, trying to figure out who had pushed her, but everyone else was too busy trying to push the zombies back.
'This is it for me, isn't it?'
Immediately, the zombie was pushed back by the end of a baseball bat. She looked to her side to see Y/N, all sweaty, panting heavily as he clutched his weapon, then turning to look at her. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Hey!" Mi-jin came rushing over, looking from Sang-hee to Y/N. "Is she okay? Are you okay?"
At the same time, all three pairs of eyes came to rest on the bloody wound on Sang-hee's hand.
"No." Y/N's voice came out as a whisper. "Not you. Fuck, not you. I already lost Seo...I can't lose you, too."
Sang-hee chuckled humorlessly. "Well, I said I'd take responsibility, didn't I?" She raised her hand. "Here I am — taking responsibility."
She then stood up. "Here. Help me up, would you?"
"Sang-hee, what the fuck are you doing?" Y/N asked, panicked, clutching his baseball bat tighter.
Sang-hee smiled weakly. "Taking responsibility. And look — it won't be so bad. I'll see Seo again, won't I?"
Mi-jin and Y/N shared looks, and when they weren't looking, Sang-hee immediately climbed up over the barrier and leaped onto the other side, zombies clutching for her.
She felt more pain in her shoulder, but she shoved the zombie away and ran towards the barrier, pulling as many zombies off as she could.
"Go!" she cried. "You can do this! We can do it! Come on — just push! Hurry up!" she added, tears escaping her eyes from even more pain she was feeling in her arms and legs.
Y/N pressed his body weight against the barrier, staring at Sang-hee, whose nose was starting to bleed, and she could tell what he was thinking.
"Y/N?"
"Y-yeah?"
"My parents are alive...I know they are...so...tell them I love them, okay?" Sang-hee smiled weakly at him despite the sheer pain she was in.
"F-fine." Y/N blinked and sniffled. "T-tell Seo-Hyun L/N Y/N said 'hi,' okay? And...go tell her you love her."
Tears started falling from Sang-hee's eyes. "I will."
"I'm sorry!" Mi-jin screamed, clinging onto the barrier for life. "Fuck! I'm sorry!"
"It's...it's okay! Just make sure they all get home alive, okay?" Sang-hee yelled before she toppled onto the floor. "Now get out of here!"
- - - - - - - - - -
Yeah, I saved Joon-yeong. I'm saving Cheong-san too.
Also, if you're wondering who pushed Sang-hee so that she would get bitten, that was...you'll see.
also I keep forgetting I saved Gyeong-su 😭 (I MEAN I'M GLAD THAT I DID BUT I JUST KEEP FORGETTING THAT I DID SO...THAT MAY BE WHY YOU DON'T SEE MUCH OF HIM IN THE EVENTS AFTER HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE INFECTED BUT HE WASN'T BECAUSE I SAVED HIM)