The bright sun shines down onto Dokja through the window, blinding his view of his phone under his desk as he tunes out the teacher. Even though there's an empty desk on the opposite wall away from the sun, it's in the very front of the classroom, entirely giving away his cover of "paying attention." So, he settles for the seat in the left back corner, burning alive under the scorching sun. He lies his head down on his desk, completely absorbed in the moment when the protagonist finally kills the monster that blocked his path for the last couple of chapters.

Kim Dokja.

He shifts in his seat, bothered by how his shirt clings onto his back from the sweat and how the bright sun obstructs his view of his phone, despite it being on full brightness. When are they ever going to implement ACs around here? It's the 21st century already!

Earth to Kim Dokja.

As he was about to click on the latest chapter, Dokja heard:

"KIM DOKJA."

His head shoots up from the desk, finally aware of the entire classroom staring at him and the steam blowing out of his teacher's ears.

The teacher barks, "Meet me after class," before resuming to teach about the plant structure, not without shooting a glare at Dokja. He feels his ears heat up (not from the sun) as he hears snickers from his classmates, the loudest coming from his best friend, Han Sooyoung. Once the bell rings, everyone jumps up from their desk to run to the cafeteria for their limited freedom before being sent back to the hot classroom. The teacher quickly yells the homework for tonight but was deafened by the loud chatter from the hallway.

As Dokja stands up from his desk to talk to the teacher, Han Sooyoung strolls over to him, ready to give her no-one-asked thoughts:

"Idiot, this is your third time getting caught this week." Han Sooyoung was sucking on her signature lemon lollipop before adding, "Next time, choose a better novel to read if you want it to be worth getting in trouble for."

Dokja quickly spat out, "The plot is good!" Han Sooyoung was unconvinced as she had read the glob of text that Dokja was obsessed with. The story was oddly paced and abnormally long, leaving Han Sooyoung more bored the more she read.

Before they could throw more insults at each other, there was a loud cough from the front of the classroom. They turned their heads in that direction, noticing the teacher staring at them, waiting for them to finish up their unimportant conversation. Sooyoung chuckles as Dokja walks up to the teacher's desk, sighing as he mentally prepares for another lecture.

"What has been going on lately? This is the 5th time this week I caught you reading during class!"

It's the third time actually, I counted.

"If you don't get your act together, I'm going to have to send you to the office. Put away all distractions once you enter my classroom if you want to maintain a passing grade in my class. You're now dismissed."

Dokja returns to his desk where Sooyoung has been waiting, scrolling mindlessly on Twitter. Dokja drops back into his chair and opens up his phone when he hears Sooyoung say:

"The old rat is never serious with his punishments," and tells Dokja some ideas for the next chapter in the webnovel she's writing.

Every lunch, they spend their time in the classroom instead of going to the cafeteria for 2 reasons:

It's too crowded, making it near impossible for them to sit.

Dokja rarely eats lunch, and Sooyoung eats 3 lemon lollipops every 30 minutes (seriously, how has she not got any cavities yet!).

He didn't mind the company as he enjoyed talking to Sooyoung since she was one of his few friends. They chatted away about random stuff, ranging from Dokja's terrible taste in web novels to the hottest person in the school. He never thought of others' appearances since he stares at his phone for 99% of the school day. Every once in a while, he would take in his surroundings, but even then, it was for a brief moment, and there was nothing much to stare at. Despite all this, he enjoys hearing Sooyoung's insight on who she finds attractive and ugly.

"Yoo Sangah is the most eye-catching girl to exist, and if anyone disagrees, I will personally attack them with a shovel."

Yoo Sangah was Sooyoung's girlfriend since the beginning of high school. Dokja hated to admit it, but they make a cute couple. Sometimes, however, he feels like vomiting when he sees them together acting all lovey-dovey. Dokja, on the other hand, had never been in a relationship before. Even when he was young, he was outcasted because of his home situation and was just a quiet kid in general. Being bullied for nearly all his life had led him through a treacherous path of loneliness (outside of his imagination earned from reading) until 3 years ago when he met Sooyoung and Sangah.

Before Dokja can insult Sooyoung for her awful opinions on his cooking, someone lets out a scream of bloody murder in the hallway as students begin to run past the doors, dashing in the opposite direction. Dokja and Sooyoung glanced at each other before standing up to investigate by the door.

"What the hell was that?" asked the teacher before leaving the classroom to follow the direction of the noise.

Screams and shouts were barely coherent, and thoughts were unable to be heard. Confusion spreads across Sooyoung's and Dokja's faces as they try to understand the situation. During the chaos, Dokja suddenly shuts the door as fast as possible before frantically running to the other door at the front of the classroom to shut it as well. He yanks the curtains closed to hide their figures, obstructing their view of the hallway. After ensuring that there are no gaps between the curtain and window to the hallway, Dokja finally lets go of his breath. Before Sooyoung can question his actions, he rushes out, "Take a look outside!"

Once Sooyoung reached Dokja's desk to look outside, her jaw dropped to the floor as she watched the unfortunate events unfold. There were students she just saw munching on their classmates, students chased by several zombies and meeting their terrible fate, the list goes on. Her wide eyes begin to shake out of shock from the scenes playing in front of her. Dokja quickly pulls Sooyoung out of her daze and explains the situation.

"There's a zombie outbreak inside the school."

"No shit, Sherlock! I just saw that in front of my eyes! How the hell are we going to get out of here??"

Before they can think of a plan to escape and call for help, the door quickly opens and shuts, making Dokja's and Sooyoung's heads turn to the sudden movement. Thankfully, it was only Sangah and two of their classmates, panting and sweating from the amount of running. They quickly shove desks in front of the doors to prevent zombies from entering. Once Sangah caught her breath, she asked, "How are you two holding up?"

"Better than everyone outside," Sooyoung stated before checking Sangah for any injuries. After affirming that Sangah was alright, she asked about the two students with her.

"I found them along the way trying to help others as much as possible before I brought them here. There isn't much left to help since they all turned into zombies," explained Sangah.

The two people she had brought along were their classmates: Jung Heewon and Lee Hyunsung. Dokja likes Hyunsung and is good friends with him compared to Heewon and Sooyoung, who get into small fights from time to time. They're both very righteous people, so it was no surprise to Dokja learning that they tried their best to help other students escape their inevitable doom.

Dokja tried to call for help on his phone but couldn't get any service due to the area the school is built. Curse the school's efforts to keep students' attention off their phones and on the teacher.

Having no idea what else to do, they begin to think of a plan in case no help arrives to save them. After a couple of minutes of dwelling on their next action, they all decided to try to get to the school's roof. By being on the roof, they can see the whole area, and create a fire to catch attention. They can obviously leave the school building, but since the situation outside school is unknown (and school grounds are taken over by zombies), the roof is the safest place. Since they're on the second floor out of five, they thought it would be best to wait until the storm settles down before making their move. Sooyoung and Dokja quickly regret not going to lunch to get a proper meal but were grateful to not be in such a dangerous place when the outbreak began. After listening to the zombies and decreasing the volume of the screams, Sooyoung asks:

"Do you know where and how the outbreak started?"

Hyunsung replies, "We're not quite sure, but Heewon and I were walking past the science room when a zombie came out and attacked a nearby classmate. We were lucky enough to run away during the midst of chaos, but others weren't."

Since it seems like nothing will be entering the classroom any time soon, they begin to search through their classmates' bags, mainly food, in case they get stuck for longer than anticipated, and items that can become make-shift weapons. Guilt begins to grow within them, but after getting a reality check from both Sooyoung and Sangah, they soon realize they have no other options if they want to survive.

After searching through 30 bigs, including their own, they gathered about 1 full bag of chips, 2 half-eaten bags of chips, a banana, a book, a thick pillow, and a bat (along with strange discoveries they wish they never witnessed). Heewon sighed before asking:

"So who wants to take the bat?"

Hyunsung suggests the others have it since he can defend himself with the thick pillow (Dokja has no clue how but gives no comment). While they all want weapons to protect themselves, Sooyoung and Heewon won rock paper scissors against Dokja and Sangah, leading them to have a mini battle to show who's worthier of the bat. After the mini battle (chicken leg fight), Heewon ends up winning, earning her the bat. Sooyoung being sour decides to chew up another one of her lemon lollipops. Dokja wonders if she has unlimited supplies of those.

Sooyoung goes to grab the thick book when Dokja grabs onto her wrist. She looks up confused, and sees an awkward Dokja.

"Please.. Don't use a book to defend yourself."

This man got some nerves to tell someone not to use a reasonably good weapon just because it's a book! Sooyoung slaps him on the head with her free hand to knock some sense into him. Dokja quickly let go of her hand as he watches solemnly.

Dokja, being the only one without a weapon, decides to use a heavy coat (seriously, in this weather?) to protect himself in case he gets bit. Now that everyone has some sort of protection, they decide to map out the best path to get to the roof as quickly and safely as possible. The obvious choice is by the stairs to get to the roof, but because of the size of the school, the closest stairs still would take a while since the classroom is closer to the center of the hallway. In case of zombies attacking, they decided on an escape plan: barge into a random classroom and hope for the best.

The school building is square but without a middle. In the center of the school area was a grass field, littered with all sorts of activities and outside furniture. Larger areas, such as the gym and cafeteria, were separate from the main building but were attached by a mini hallway. Due to the cruel design of the school, there are only two staircases in the entire building, one in opposite corners: one left of the school entrance and one right of the back of the school. Due to an unfortunate incident at one of the stairs (a student fell through one of the steps), the one by the front is closed off, leaving the one in the back the only accessible one. Dokja and the rest are in the classroom at the front of the building, meaning they have about 7 minutes of walking or 4 minutes of constant running.

Sooyoung groans when she realizes the distance, as she and Dokja are unathletic. Sangah pats her back to comfort her as she lets out a small laugh.

Once everything was prepared, Hyunsung and Heewon stood by the door peeking through the curtains to check if the coast was clear. Sangah, Dokja, and Sooyoung continued to go over the best route to the stairs safely and quickly when they heard Heewon in a small, hush voice.

"Coasts clear, let's get going."

The second Hyunsung opened the door, they all peeked in the hallway for any roaming zombies.

"Alright, let's g- HMPH-"

Sooyoung didn't get to complete her sentence when Sangah smacked her hand over her mouth. Directing their attention to the right, they notice a few zombies taking a little stroll. A zombie turns in their direction, causing Dokja to hold his breath. Strangely, it continues to roam the hallway as if it saw nothing.

As an experiment, Dokja threw a small pencil in the opposite direction where they wanted to head.

Tap tap

Despite the soft sound of the pencil drop, the zombies in the hallway immediately turn their heads in that direction and run over to investigate. Learning this new information, they threw more useless objects down the opposite end before booking down the hallway. Even though they threw numerous things as a distraction, it wasn't enough to do the job as their footsteps echoed across the hallway.

Dokja swears under his breath as the group breaks into a full sprint, zombies chasing their tails. Dokja turns his head around to glimpse what they have to deal with and nearly dies on the spot. Zombies begin climbing on top of each other, rushing to have a little nibble. Because Sooyoung and Dokja had incredibly slow legs, Sangah and Hyunsung held onto their arms for them to keep up with the rest. Before they knew it, more zombies came running from the direction they were heading, sending them into a small panic.

"Shit!"

Heewon swings her bat as a zombie runs into her, sending it flying into the other zombies, causing them to stumble over each other. However, they were able to get on their feet quickly and continue with their attacks.

Out of nowhere, Sangah throws open a door and pulls Sooyoung in, yelling at the others to come quickly. The rest shoves their way through as fast as possible, and Hyunsung slams the door shut, blocking it with a desk.

They all pant, trying to catch their breath when Heewon opens her mouth.

"What the hell are we going to do?? We still have such a long way to go before we can make it to the stupid ass stairs!"

They were only 3 classrooms down from their original one, meaning they still have 6 more classrooms to run by.

Dokja, exhausted and lightheaded, look around the classroom.

It's the music room.

He had never been in here before since music isn't his thing. Under the piano, he notices a figure. He approaches the piano slowly while ducking his head to get a closer look. Before he even gets too close, the person begins to wiggle their body out from under the piano like a madman while making obscene noises.

Dokja steps back quickly before it can grab onto him. Heewon walks over and casually smashes its head, leaving brains and blood on the ground, some getting onto their clothes. He turns back to his companions and sees them looking around for more clues. Dokja tries not to think about how Heewon killed that zombie as if it was nothing and walks towards the window near the front of the classroom that reveals the blue sky and looks outside.

The chaos has fizzled out a lot, leaving only roaming brainless corpses. Dokja turns to his right and notices another open window to a different classroom. He walks to the window near the back of the classroom to get a better look. He leans over the open window when he feels someone pulling on his shirt, throwing him backwards.

Dokja shrieks, "What the hell??" before scrambling back on his feet, feeling a bruise forming on his butt.

"You were about to fall out," Sooyoung said flatly.

Dokja stares at her blankly before returning to his spot, leaning not too far out this time.

He notices that the window is open, curtains swishing around, and a small ledge outside the building. Dokja gets an idea and calls out to the rest.

"What if we just climb over to that classroom?"

They surround Dokja and look at the room he was talking about. It wasn't too far for it to seem impossible. However, Sooyoung thought it sounded like a suicide plan, and was about to attack him again when Sangah states, "It's definitely possible. It's close enough to this classroom that we can make it."

It's pretty risky since they can fall to their death, but there's enough room on the ledge for their feet to scoot their way to the open window. Before they do anything stupid, Sangah grabs a random flute from the ground and throws it to the other classroom.

Riiiiing

The flute resonates with a loud ringing noise as it falls to the ground. They waited for anything to pop out to attack the wall where the flute hit, but nothing came. The silence was loud if you ignore all the zombies' groans. After confirming it was safe, they decided to try to climb over. Even though they all agreed to go, nobody wanted to go first out of fear if they fell.

Dokja, seeing their hesitation, offers to go first.

He may be scared shitless right now, but he wants to put everyone in good spirits once he crosses over! The rest were relieved that they didn't have to go first anymore and looked for anything they could tie Dokja with in case he did fall. Heewon pulls out a bunch of guitar strings from a random duffel bag and shows it to the group. She immediately puts it away, irritated, as everyone just gave her an awkward smile. After searching through the classroom, they came back empty-handed. Dokja, no longer wanting to wait, said:

"Don't worry guys, I'll be careful. Promise."

They all exchanged looks of worry but nodded their heads. As his body was halfway through the window,

Sooyoung spits out, "If you die, I'll kill you! Really!"

Dokja smiles before setting both feet on the ledge. He grips the window frame and scurries down the ledge, grabbing onto anything that can help him keep his balance. Almost halfway there, he notices the group watching him from the window. He flashes another smile before continuing, grabbing onto the pole between the classrooms to try to go around it. His foot slips a bit before he finds his balance again. He lets out a chuckle to reassure his friends that he's alright. His friends, shaken up from his small slip-up, yells (as quietly as possible to not alarm the zombies again) to be more careful. Dokja nods and continues to shuffle down to the window. He finally gets to the other side and does a little cheer as his friends do a little celebration dance.

"I made it! You guys can begin to— Ack!!"

Suddenly, a hand launches out of the classroom, clutching onto Dokja's neck. The group watches in shock as Dokja struggles to breathe.

Confused, Dokja claws on the hands that are currently strangling him by the neck. He doesn't realize he closed his eyes until he opens them to see a stupidly handsome face.

"Who the hell are you??" Dokja barks out as he struggles to set himself free.

Standing barely on the ledge with his tippy toes, the guy kept his stoned face and pushed Dokja farther out the window.

"Wait!! I said wait!!"

The mysterious man whose looks can slap the most beautiful person in the world's face suddenly turns his head as he hears a rattle against the door, loosening his grip. Using this opportunity to set himself free, Dokja grabs the window frame, launching himself into the classroom. Before Dokja could even stand on his own two feet, the man was already on top of him, pinning him down. Dokja, worried he might have a broken neck soon, quickly grits out, "Can't you see I'm human?? Let me go, you sunfish bastard!"

The man snarls and wraps his hands around Dokja's neck again, making Dokja shriek. Fortunately, the man got smacked on the back of the head by a heavy book, causing him to let go, leaving Dokja in a coughing fit. Everyone but Sooyoung rushed over to check on Dokja, shoving the stranger out of the way. Once they confirm that he's alright (besides the bruise marks on his neck), Sooyoung yells, "What's your problem? Are you looking for bloodshed?"

The handsome man (did Dokja mention that he was handsome?) stomps his way over, towering over Sooyoung, and asks darkly, "What do you want?" Hyunsung quickly responds:

"We're just trying to get to the roof and we needed to escape from the other classroom, so we climbed over here." Hyunsung leaves Dokja's side and approaches the stranger, sticking his hand out before adding, "I'm Lee Hyunsung! What's your name?"

Instead of responding, the guy gives him a cold stare when Dokja replies for the man instead: "He's a sunfish bastard, that's all."

Irritated by Dokja's nickname for him, the man said, "Yoo Joonghyuk. Now, get out."

Damn it. He even has a cool protagonist name. What kind of sick world is this?

"There's still zombies outside, you psycho. Unless you want us to turn and attack you, too?" Dokja flashed Joonghyuk a sarcastic smile, making Joonghyuk scowl again.

Unable to bear the tension between the two, Sangah suggests they join forces. By the look on Joonghyuk's face, he seems uninterested in the idea. Dokja, who is about to object, shuts his mouth and thinks:

He's insanely strong... It would be good if we get him to join us.

Heewon and Hyunsung nodded their heads and told Joonghyuk that it would be better for survivors to stick together to raise their chances of living. Joonghyuk, who's as stubborn as a rock being cut by a pair of scissors, continues to glare at them.

Dokja, tired of the guy, states, "Think of it as an advantage for you. We have weapons and food. What's the harm in it? You have nothing to lose."

Joonghyuk stares at Dokja, making him feel a little nervous because he honestly can't tell if the guy wants to kill him with just his eyes or if he's thinking about what he said. It's a 50/50 chance.

After a while, Joonghyuk finally opened his mouth and said, "I'll go with you, but don't expect me to do anything for you." Relieved, they all sighed. Even though he agreed, Dokja and Sooyoung feel like they're on completely opposite ends. The only noise to fill the silence was the rumbling of the zombies outside. The group, except Dokja, walked towards the window attached to the hallway and peeked through the curtain to look for another opening to leave. In the meanwhile, Dokja studies Yoo Joonghyuk from afar.

"What are you staring at?" Dokja breaks out of his daze and looks up to meet his gaze. Dokja, realizing he got caught, blushes and turns around to join the rest while he mumbles out "nothing." A couple of minutes passed when they saw the door on the left jerk. Startled, the group jumps back and gets in their ready stance. Joonghyuk stands on the side, waiting for the door to break down any second now. As everyone stares at the door on the left, Dokja quietly walks over to the door on the right and peaks out the small crack between the curtain and window again. In the hallway was a mob of zombies trying to break into the room because of the racket they created earlier. Before he can warn the group, the door breaks, sending a wave of zombies into the classroom.

Hyunsung immediately uses his thick pillow as a shield to stop some zombies from getting close to them. Heewon obliterates the zombies with her bat, sending guts and blood everywhere. Sooyoung uses her book to smack the heads of zombies, barely dodging the arms of the brainless creatures. Dokja, who'd been standing by the door the whole time, watches in awe as he sees his friends fend for their lives. In the middle of the fight, he saw arms and legs flying everywhere and turned to see who was the cause of the damage. Of course, it was Yoo Joonghyuk swinging a black sword around, slicing off the heads and limbs of the zombies, painting the floor and walls in blood.

Where the hell did he even get that??

Despite the group holding up against the zombies pretty well, more continue to enter the room, making it difficult to keep up. "Are you going to keep standing there?" asked Joonghyuk as he continued to fight the ungodly creatures with a straight face. Getting the message, Dokja opens the door and quickly yells out:

"Run out here!"

Once they heard this, the group gave their last hit to the zombies before running out as fast as possible. Dokja notices that the only one behind is Joonghyuk, who is still fending off the zombies in the classroom. Without thinking, Dokja runs in, grabs his shirt, drags him out (well, tugging until Joonghyuk decides to follow his lead), and shuts the door. He was able to trap most of the zombies but knew he couldn't celebrate too soon as more came running down the hall. Still holding onto his shirt, Dokja pulls Joonghyuk with him as they run down the hallway together, looking for an empty classroom.

They search hopelessly as zombies follow their tails. Fortunately, Joonghyuk finds a classroom with only one zombie in it, pushing Dokja into it, and closing the door. The creature inside runs at Dokja at full speed, but before it can even land a finger on him, a sword slashes through its neck. Dokja watches the head roll on the floor, feeling a tad nauseous from the sight. Unable to catch a break, they both realize that the zombies are slowly opening the door, and desperately push desks against the doors, as well as stacking them on top of each other. The dead's attempts didn't falter, but they were safe from any break-ins for now. Dokja covers the hallway windows with curtains (or tries to because the desks are in his way) and looks at the blackboard in the front of the class.

Dokja reads out loud, "Class 3-7," before adding, "We're about 4 classrooms away from the stairs." Despite running for a decade, they barely made any progress.

Joonghyuk nods before sitting at a random desk, cleaning his sword with a rag he found on the ground.

Realization suddenly crashes down on them both that the rest of the group is not with them and has no idea where they could be. Awkwardness rises in the air when they finally register in their head that they're alone together.

They're alone.

This is lowkey romantic.

"Don't think stupid thoughts, Kim Dokja."

They all held up their weapons when Hyunsung finally opens the door.

With nothing to do but sit around and wait for the zombies to calm down, Kim Dokja decides to relax a bit before putting his brain back to work. To rid the awkwardness a little, he walks as far away from Yoo Joonghyuk to give them some distance. Joonghyuk's expression didn't change, but Dokja saw the tenseness in his shoulders ease a bit.

Dokja walks away from the hallway and opens another window to let in the breeze. He rests his head on his hand as he watches the dead wander around aimlessly, having no sense of direction or purpose to their walk. Bored out of his mind, Dokja decides to attempt to have a conversation with the guy. If he's going to be stuck with him for an indefinite amount of time, why not try to be buddy-buddy with him in the meantime?

"So.. how's school?"

No response.

"Do you think the rest are doing okay on their own right now?"

Still, no response.

"I trust them to take care of themselves, they're pretty strong."

Again, silence.

"Are you allergic to conversation or something??"

Dokja turns around to look at Joonghyuk with a frown on his face but notices that he has been staring at Dokja the entire time. If looks can kill, Dokja would be dead by now. Blush rises to his cheeks as Dokja searches for a snarky response to hide the butterflies he's feeling in his stomach. God, he's such a sucker for good looks. Dokja, flustered, asks, "What are you trying to stare at?" while trying to look unbothered (it didn't work).

"You're noisy."

Is all that bastard had to say? Startled by his response, Dokja sticks his tongue out at him, causing Joonghyuk to tsk at him for being so immature. Dokja looks out the window once more, watching nothing in particular. Before he knew it, he felt a small drop of water landing on his eyelashes. Blinking away the raindrop, Dokja looks up to see grey clouds covering the once blue sky before completely pouring in seconds. He steps away from the window to avoid getting wet and shuts it closed. He lets out a sigh and joins Joonghyuk by pulling up a chair to his desk.

Joonghyuk glances at Dokja for a brief second before resuming to clean his sword. Dokja scavenges around for a pen and pencil. When he finds them, he draws a floor plan of the current floor to the stairs.

5 minutes of walking. 3 minutes of running.

Dokja sighs and puts his head down on the desk, defeated. Why must this school be built so goddamn big? Joonghyuk continues to ignore Dokja's mid-life crisis and continues cleaning his sword. Dokja lifts his head a bit to make eye contact with Joonghyuk and asks:

'Where did you find that sword?"

"I brought it to school."

"!!!"

Dokja stares at him with wide eyes, surprised to hear his response. What do you mean he brought it to school? How did any of the teachers and staff let him get away with carrying around a murderous weapon? Before he can think of any more useless thoughts, Joonghyuk interrupts him.

"It's for a school play."

Dokja had been to almost every single play that the drama club had performed, mostly because Sooyoung was the one who wrote the scripts and directed the actors. Never, in a day of his life, has he ever seen such a handsome man like him before on stage. Knowing what the idiot was thinking, Joonghyuk continues to explain why he brought an incredibly sharp and dangerous weapon to school.

"I was looped into playing the hero in the next play by that witch." His face contorts just thinking about it.

"Witch?" Dokja never thought that witches existed, but if Joonghyuk tells him pigs can fly, he'll believe him in a heartbeat. Confused, Joonghyuk lifts an eyebrow at him and looks... Constipated? Dokja has no idea what kind of person would make a face like that.

"Han Sooyoung. The one you were with."

Dokja can't help himself but bursts out laughing. He never thought a word could describe a person so well, but "witch" is just what Sooyoung is. Joonghyuk stares at him, and Dokja for a second thought he saw Joonghyuk's face with a small smile, but the smile vanishes right as it appears. After he calms down, Dokja wipes a tear from his eyes before adding to that.

"Yeah, you're right. She is a witch."

Dokja flashes a genuine smile that Joonghyuk shrugs off. They both fall silent as they go into a rhythm of just listening to the rain lightly tapping on the window, tuning out the annoying groans from the zombies outside the doors. Dokja looks at the clock that's hanging on the wall that reads [12:45]. 25 minutes passed since the outbreak, but the minutes feel dragged out because of the disarray from the undead. Dokja turns his head back to the window outside, watching the rain, bored out of his mind. Instead of trying to force another word out of the psycho who brought a real sword to school, he turns on his phone and opens the webnovel app. He scrolls mindlessly through his library, not focusing on anything too much. Some time went by before Dokja finally used his finger to click open a story that he was saving for later. Joonghyuk glances over, surprised that Dokja still has his phone on him, and reads whatever Dokja was looking at.

He wasn't too far into the chapter when Joonghyuk suddenly snatched the phone out of Dokja's hand. Startled by the sudden movement, Dokja immediately reaches over, stretching his arm to the limit as Joonghyuk leans far away from him.

Dokja grits, "What the hell?? Give it back to me, you bastard!" as he flails his arm, uselessly trying to grab his phone inches away from him. Joonghyuk ignores his pleas and twists his body to look at the phone from below, reading out the terrible content.

"Arthur shoves Xavier into the bedroom, thrilled for the events that's about to unfold."

Dokja's face has gone completely red, turning him into his least favourite vegetable. Dokja stands up to climb over Joonghyuk to grab the phone. Joonghyuk, unbothered by Dokja's feeble attempts, continues to read the following lines.

"Xavier tugs on Arthur's tie, pulling him down onto the be-"

Joonghyuk glares at Dokja, who smacks his hands over Joonghyuk's mouth. Dokja cries out, "Please.. Don't read anymore.." with a face redder than the colour red. Joonghyuk pauses for a second before letting his arm fall back to his side, allowing Dokja to rip the phone from his hands before running across the classroom, sighing in relief. Dokja gives a quick glimpse back at Joonghyuk but turns away quickly out of embarrassment. Trying to defend himself, Dokja refutes any dumb thoughts like, "What kind of freak reads this?," by stating, "I read for the plot.." Joonghyuk, unconvinced, lets Dokja live to see another day before reverting his attention to his sword. They both quickly recovered from the incident and went back to what they were doing before, except Dokja decided to read a different novel and erased any evidence of such a novel from his phone.

Dokja's phone died in the middle of a chapter, forcing a gasp out of him in shock. His head hangs low in defeat, remembering that he left his charger in his backpack that's back in the original classroom. He looks at the clock again that's now reading [13:57]. A solid 2 hours passed since they were separated from the others. Bored, Dokja decides to bother Joonghyuk and walks over to his desk. Dokja's lips tug into a smile from the view he has in front of him: Joonghyuk's head falls forward a bit while sleeping in a sitting position with his arms crossed. It doesn't take much for Dokja's heart to warm up to the guy (when all it takes is 1. good looks and 2. muscles). Dokja takes off his jacket and places it on Joonghyuk's shoulders to act like a blanket. Dokja takes the seat next to him and watches him sleep for a little bit. Dokja notices the small details he didn't get to catch before: his tense shoulders are now loose, his hair slightly messy from the running and fighting, his sharp jawline, and more. Joonghyuk looks like a statue that was sculpted by a god. Before he knew it, Dokja felt his eyes flutter shut, allowing himself to fall asleep.

A couple of hours passed when Dokja finally woke up. Too lazy to actually get up, he stays in his position and looks around the classroom. As expected, everything is still the same, but the zombies are slightly quieter, meaning they have moved away from the door during their sleep. Dokja shifts in his chair and hears a slight rumble from the guy next to him. Realization hits Dokja like a punch in the stomach, and his heart nearly drops to the floor: he was sleeping on Joonghyuk's shoulder. Dokja tries to sit up straight to not get murdered by Joonghyuk when he wakes up, but he hears a groan the second he tries to lift his head. Joonghyuk's head was lying on top of Dokja's head. If he isn't going to die from being devoured by zombies, he will definitely die from a heart attack now. He freezes when he hears another groan, but much much louder. He immediately closed his eyes to pretend to be asleep. Maybe Joonghyuk is kind enough to not murder a sleeping man. Dokja felt him try to get up but sat back down. Confused, he stays frozen until he hears a deep voice speak up.

"Kim Dokja, I know you're awake."

Knowing his gig is up, Dokja opens his eyes and looks at Joonghyuk's face, giving a pitiful smile. "Haha... I didn't want to wake you up by accident.." Joonghyuk's eyes narrows as he stares hard into Dokja's eyes. He clearly can tell that Dokja is lying straight to his face, but decides to ignore it and let Dokja get away with it this one time. Dokja squeaks out, "Sorry." and gets up quickly. They both stare at each other for a few seconds before Dokja decides to break the silence. "So.. what do we do now?" Joonghyuk glances at the clock, reading [17:03]. He then stands up from his seat, creating an annoying squeaking sound with the chair, and goes towards the windows covered in curtains. He pulls the curtains away a little bit without disrupting the desks and chairs they shoved against the wall and takes a peek outside. There are a few zombies, but they're very spread out and are undisturbed. If they stepped out now, they could go unnoticed. He looks back at Dokja who's watching him warily (worried that he might get killed still).

"We should try to go now."

Dokja nods his head, and they begin to remove the chairs and desks as quietly as possible. Since Joonghyuk is undeniably stronger and taller than Dokja, he can easily pick up the stacked chairs and desks from the top of the pile and move them away from the door. Dokja, on the other hand, can only pick up a chair and barely pick up a desk (and very noisily since he keeps stumbling around when he holds a desk). Joonghyuk notices this fact and snarls at him before snatching away the desk from Dokja's hands.

"Useless."

Dokja sticks out his tongue at him and proceeds to pick up another desk, flashing him a smile before struggling to carry it away from the doors. They moved in a steady rhythm and moved all the desks and chairs away from the door in no time. They peek through the windows one last time to make sure that they haven't created too much noise that caused the zombies to become interested in their classroom. Fortunately, it looked the same as before. Joonghyuk grips his sword handle slightly tighter and finally opens the door as quietly as possible. They poke their heads outside before quietly making their way toward the stairs. Their steps blended in with the zombies walking around, making it easier for them to escape. They did forget one thing, however, and it's that zombies have an excellent smell. Next thing they knew, they were running down the hall, dodging the zombies from pouncing on them. Joonghyuk begins to swing his sword around, spilling blood everywhere. One zombie missing half of his body crawled on the floor, intestines spilling out of the top half, spreading red streaks on the floor.

How does that even happen here??

As Joonghyuk brutally slaughters the zombies, Dokja begins to jerk on the doors to see which one would open up, desperate to find another escape. Unexpectedly, when Dokja opens one of the doors, a zombie jumps out, pushing him to the floor. Dokja struggles to keep the zombie away from his face and neck, using his hands to keep the zombie's head away from his body. Dokja shouts, "Joonghyuk-ah!" alerting him of a zombie trying to kill him. He immediately runs over to Dokja but is stopped by a bunch of zombies trying to attack him. Joonghyuk skillfully severs the head from the bodies of the zombies but gets overwhelmed by the amount coming after him, causing him to stop in his tracks to protect himself. Dokja, on the other hand, is still trying to pry this one zombie off of him and finally throws the creature off of him. Out of nowhere, a door swings open, revealing Hyunsung!!

"Over here!! Quickly!!"

Joonghyuk breaks into a sprint, dodging the other zombies. He grabs Dokja's hand and forces him to run at the same pace as him into the classroom filled with the rest of the group. Once they stepped into the room, Hyunsung instantly slammed the door shut, locking it to keep the undead out. Dokja and Joonghyuk pant heavily as the others sigh in relief.

Han Sooyoung stomps over to Dokja and smacks his head, hissing, "Where the hell were you guys? We thought you died out there!!"

Dokja barely lets out, "Stuck- pants - in another- pants- classroom.." before flopping onto the floor. Joonghyuk glares at Dokja, who's sitting on the ground, acting as if he was the one doing all the work.

Hyunsung tries to lighten the mood, stating, "At least you guys are all alright." before sitting in a rolly chair. The room they currently found themselves in is another plain classroom. After a bit of chit-chat, Dokja and Joonghyuk were finally caught up. Since Hyunsung and Heewon are both athletic, they both were able to run much faster, getting them away from the chaos while Joonghyuk fended off the zombies. Sangah and Sooyoung soon fell behind, but the other two waited for them to catch up. They then waited for Dokja and Joonghyuk to arrive, but a herd of zombies came after them, causing Hyunsung to close and lock the door. Unsure of what to do, they decided to stay in the classroom, even after the close was clear to see if Dokja and Joonghyuk would eventually show up. At one point, they assumed that the two were dead but kept their hopes up, knowing how strong Joonghyuk was.

"If you ever do that again, I'm going to kill you."

Dokja rolls his eyes at Sooyoung but is touched that they cared so much for their wellbeing. Sangah, who was silent the whole time, finally spoke up.

"Dokja-ssi.. What happened to your hand?"

They all direct their attention to Dokja who's staring at his hand, revealing a bloody bite mark.

Dokja isn't the brightest person. He isn't the dumbest per se, but that doesn't make him the smartest of the bunch. Despite all odds, he's able to pass his literature tests with almost 100s each time and is quick to think of solutions, such as creating a plan that allows them all to have the best chance of survival. But right now, Dokja has to be the dumbest person on the planet.

"Let go of me!! I'm going to eat you all if you don't let me go!!"

At this very moment, Dokja's top half of his body is outside of the window, attempting to jump off and fall to his death to save his companions. His heart is in the right place, and his brain, on the other hand, isn't.

"Kim Dokja, if you do not step foot back in this room right now, I'll murder you with my bare hands!" screams Sooyoung as she grips his foot a little tighter, desperately trying to yank the rest of him back inside. Out of all times, he chose to use all his strength on jumping out of a window?? Heewon and Hyunsung were holding onto Dokja's left foot while Sooyoung and Sangah were holding the other, trying to pull him in with everything they had left (which to say, isn't much). Joonghyuk stands on the side, appalled by the stupidity (and weakness) he is seeing, and suddenly steps forward, grabbing Dokja's shirt, and throwing him back inside. Dokja winces as his ass slams on the floor, creating another bruise.

I'm going to need them to throw me on anything else but the ground.

Dokja raises his head to meet Joonghyuk's eyes, which are shooting knives at him. Before Dokja can say another word, Joonghyuk massages the muscle between his eyes and states, "There's a podcast room across from us. It's split into two rooms with glass separating them. We can lock you in there and see if you turn." Dokja's eyes widened and nodded his head in agreement. Seeing his corporation, they all sigh in relief and decide to not make another move until the roaring herds of zombies outside sperses out. However, they shouldn't have put so much trust into him though for agreeing so quickly as he tried to fly out the window once again. For the time being, Dokja is being put on suicide watch. Dokja wretchedly pleads to his dear companions to let him fall for his inevitable doom so he won't have Sangah for lunch.

"Guys, I'm warning you, if you don't let me go, I'll end up killing you all!"

Dokja gets ignored again, hanging his head low out of misery and hopelessness. Suddenly, he feels something tie around his wrist before being yanked up and led to the window he tried to jump out of. Joonghyuk tied a shoelace around their wrists so they'll be stuck together and told Dokja to sit on the window frame. Dokja obediently listens (for once) and sits without complaint on the edge of the window. The others watch them skeptically, but Joonghyuk explains his plan to the others before they get any strange ideas.

"I'll watch him and make sure he doesn't try to kill himself. I'll know when this string is tugged on, but if he does turn, I'm pushing him out."

The rest nervously looked between each other and shook their heads, acknowledging his plan. Sooyoung, still upset by the whole ordeal, tells Dokja once more that if he turns, she'll never forgive him and murder him in the process. Dokja, incredibly nervous, starts fiddling with his fingers, glancing to his right where Joonghyuk stood in front of him. He has no idea what's happening in Joonghyuk's mind and why he's doing this. He thought Joonghyuk would have more sense than him to push him out immediately like he tried to when they first met. Dokja hangs his head low again, trying to focus on anything but the anxious feeling bubbling inside of him.

As he expected, Dokja starts to feel a strange sensation inside him. It didn't hurt, but he quickly got overwhelmed by the new smells rushing up his nostrils. The second he sniffed the air, he became dizzy from the strength of this mysterious scent. The aroma was so sweet that he could taste it on his tongue, like picking up a fresh apple from a basket of fruits and biting into it. Dokja couldn't think straight as his head was engulfed by the addictive fragrance, drooling at the thought of taking a bite of whatever it was. Dokja, slowly slipping out of his consciousness, starts to lean towards Joonghyuk, unaware of the man gradually dying (literally) next to him. Dokja, barely hanging on by a thread, softly calls out his name, whispering something that made Joonghyuk antsy.

" Yoo Joonghyuk.. You smell.. awfully sweet."

Joonghyuk turns his head to look at Dokja's face and widens his eyes in shock. Surrounding Dokja's eyes are visible purple and blue veins, spreading to his forehead and down his cheek. Joonghyuk flicks his fingers against Dokja's forehead, earning him a glare. It worked for a second, but Dokja resolves into his delirious state again. The rest sits silently on the other side of the room, watching them warily. Hyunsung decides to break it, hoping to raise his companions' mood.

"I don't think he'll turn. He's stronger than that."

No one said anything afterward and continued to watch the pair, but after a while, they began to feel a bit awkward. They feel like they are intruding on something so private, but yet if they don't watch, hellfire would explode out of nowhere. They try to fill the empty silence with small conversations, but all fall short after they hear a collision. Their eyes dart towards the noise and almost pop out of their skull at the sight: Dokja is lying on top of Joonghyuk, pinning him down while drool drips out of his mouth. Before they can comprehend what just happened, Joonghyuk throws Dokja off of him and gets pulled along with him, forgetting they're tied together. Once Dokja gains back his senses, he apologizes frantically and gets up to jump out the window again. The rope tugs Joonghyuk's wrist, and Joonghyuk pulls his arm back harshly, leading to Dokja collapsing on Joonghyuk for the second time. Joonghyuk growls Dokja's name, forcing a whimper out of his mouth. The group rushes over to make sure they're both okay (and if Dokja is really turning). They stand over the two, who are still lying on the ground, and stare at the veins on Dokja's face. Heewon shouts, "Dokja, don't even think about jumping again! Even if you turn, we're dragging your ass with us to the end!" Everyone begins to follow along, shouting at him about how they're not going to let him fall behind just because he's a zombie.

"Think of it this way! Zombies won't attack you, so you can protect us from any danger!" exclaimed Hyunsung. Dokja didn't know whether he wanted to laugh or cry.

As they yell at him simultaneously for all the reasons why they won't let him leave them again, Dokja feels his heart warm up from learning how much he means to them (or from his turning into a zombie, but chose the brighter side). After a minute or two, Dokja finally tells them to stop, cheeks burning red. He says he won't leave them and will try to contain himself from pouncing on any of them. Satisfied, they all did a silent cheer and talked about their next plan in action. Instead of going to the podcast room to lock Dokja away, they decide to play a loud sound on the other side of the school building. They continued to chatter away until they heard a bang against the door near the front of the room.

Not this again...

Joonghyuk unties his wrist from Dokja finally and surveys the door. He grabs his sword and signals to the others that they might be fighting soon. Dokja immediately catches on and gets an idea, telling the other to stack the desks and chairs to separate half the room. As they build the wall of chairs and desks, the banging rapidly gets louder and louder, getting them all antsy again, but reassured by Dokja stating that they all will be together and have nothing to worry about. They left a small gap they could quickly fill for Joonghyuk to run through and get ready in their positions to fight off the disgusting creatures. Following the last chair placed on top, the door breaks down, sending waves and waves of zombies into the classroom, giving them all flashbacks to how it first turned out. Joonghyuk fends off the zombies, severing their arteries and cutting holes into their bodies that allow guts and bones to be exposed, as he walks backwards toward the gap. Once Joonghyuk enters the other half, Hyungsung and Sooyoung battle the few zombies trying to squeeze their way through the gap as Sangah and Heewon stack the chairs to block their path. Dokja stood by the door once more, peeking through the window before suddenly opening the door and shouting at his companions to run to the podcast room as fast as possible.

Dokja, in an instant, gets a headache that causes his head to pulse like crazy, bringing Dokja onto his knees and holding his temple to relieve the pressure. Joonghyuk snatches Dokja's arm, dragging him to the room and locking the door behind them. When Joonghyuk lets go of his arm, Dokja falls back to the ground, groaning as the pulsing gets stronger, causing him to see red in his vision. He thought he was about to die on the spot, but after a few seconds, the pain rids itself, leaving Dokja's shoulder heaving as he pants. He waves off the others' concerns, stating that he's alright and it's probably from the side effects. To prove that he's fine, he stands up and gets into a superhero pose, making everyone stare at him awkwardly. After the moment passes, they think of what they can make continuously play as they go up to the roof. Dokja pulls out his phone but remembers that it died earlier when he was reading, forming a solemn look on his face. Surprisingly, Sangah still has hers on herself and finds the mic. Sangah was usually the morning announcements person, so she maneuvered the controls and connected the mic to the speakers across the school from them. They get ready to move as Sangah sets up her phone to play an audio on repeat. Sangah motions she's ready to begin playing the audio, and the group stands by the door. The second she clicks play, "La Campanella" blasts through the speakers, loud enough they can hear despite them being on opposite ends of the building. Dokja winces from the loud noise until Heewon puts some earplugs she found in a duffel bag from earlier into his ears, receiving her a small thanks. They wait for a few seconds, hearing the loud stomps and groans pass their door and diminishing as they run across the school. Once they no longer hear another zombie running past, they open the door and rush to the stairs, frantically running up to the rooftop door.

A few lingering zombies were still in the hallway that hadn't gotten to the speakers yet, which began to jump on them. One zombie missing an eye lunges after Heewon when she wasn't looking. Fortunately, Dokja quickly grabs its neck and throws it through a window outside, causing the glass to shatter everywhere. Heewon and Dokja's eyes widen from his new strength, and he uses it to his advantage, throwing zombies out the window and across the hall. Hyunsung runs up the stairs to check if it's safe, calling the rest when he finds the top empty. The group follows Hyunsung's path quickly and runs to the top but finds the door is locked. Hyunsung struggles to push the door open and tries to punch in random numbers to the door code, but nothing works.

"How the hell is this shit locked? It's always been open!" yells Sooyoung, who's also kicking the door. The music suddenly cuts off in the middle of the violin playing, leaving them worried and confused about how the connection went out. Zombies rapidly ran up the stairs, leaving the speakers and following the racket they had caused. Joonghyuk and Heewon run down to the middle of the steps, slicing the dead bodies into halves and quarters and smashing the heads inward as the others try to force their way through the door. Dokja repeatedly slams his shoulder into the door, creating small dents, but no real progress. Out of nowhere, the sprinklers and fire alarm went off, getting the door to swing open. They all immediately rush through and slam the door shut behind them, locking it from the outside. They can visibly see the doors bending outwards toward them as the brainless corpses shove themselves against the door, trying to get to them. After a couple seconds, they realize the door isn't opening anytime soon and finally relax.

On the rooftop were some random metal equipment and sticks. Sooyoung and Heewon fall to the ground, staring at the now pitch-black sky while Hyunsung and Joonghyuk gather some sticks and papers off the floor to create a fire. Dokja goes to the edge and leans against the ledge, looking out into the distance. Sangah soon joins Dokja by his side, staring at nothing in silence.

"Y'know, I can eat you right now."

Sangah looks at Dokja and chuckles at his comment. From afar, Joonghyuk watches them talk, feeling anger rising.

"Kim Dokja."

Dokja turns his head back towards the person calling his name and also currently glaring at the two of them.

What's his issue?

"Come help get sticks."

!!!

Dokja stares at Joonghyuk for a second before saying a quick bye to Sangah and goes to gather sticks with the rest of the guys. For some odd reason, he keeps detecting Joonghyuk's gaze on his back, but whenever he turns to face him, Joonghyuk is already looking in a completely different direction. Dokja starts to really think that Joonghyuk is maybe planning to secretly kill him in his sleep ( do zombies even sleep? ). After they gather everything and start the fire in the caveman's way, the group huddles around the fire. Dokja soon realizes they never even radio signalled to anyone that there were survivors, but he decides to stay quiet. They continued to chat away and eat the snacks they had from earlier, taking turns sipping the single water bottle they found. They tried to conserve what they had, but almost all their food source was gone, leaving half a bag of chips. Sangah slips the chips back into her bag before someone's snobby hands get onto it, making Sooyoung frown since she's still hungry. Heewon was the first to yawn, and everyone decided it was time to have some well-deserved rest. Joonghyuk and Dokja tell the others they can keep watch while they sleep since they slept earlier. Once everyone dozed off, the air became still since neither of them felt like talking. Suddenly, Dokja gets a random realization.

"Joonghyuk-ah, how did the fire alarm go off?"

CLINGGGG

Unexpectedly, they hear something over the ledge. They didn't think zombies could climb! Dokja quickly awakes their companions and gets in his fighting stance, right next to Joonghyuk, waiting for the being to come out. A hand pops out from behind the ledge, gripping the edge, making Dokja squint his eyes to see what (or who) is on the other side, climbing to their safe grounds. A figure swiftly jumps over, only showing her back to the group. She has long blonde curly-ish hair that looks kept and wearing the same school uniform as them and a black jacket on. What was even more unexpected to Dokja than a non-zombie climbing up to the roof was that Joonghyuk knew who it was!

Joonghyuk growls, "Uriel," before lifting his sword even higher as if he were about to fight her. Dokja's eyes widened the second Joonghyuk said her name. She was a popular upperclassman who acted in a few of Sooyoung's plays and even donated money to help the production. He didn't recognize her since he only saw her on stage in costume. Uriel turns around, replying to Joonghyuk's call with his name. She was also gripping a sword, similar to Joonghyuk's. It turns out they both have beef between each other as they were in sort of a standoff. Dokja starts to walk in between them, blocking the view of each other as he tries to prevent any murders from happening.

"Hey guys, let's set-" Dokja didn't even get to finish his sentence when Uriel ran up behind him, placing the sword against his throat, forcing him to hold his breath.

Joonghyuk aggressively asks, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" and begins to stomp his way towards them, getting ready to swing his sword, but immediately stops in his tracks when Uriel presses her sword closer to Dokja's neck, the blade barely scraping against the skin under his jaw. Dokja couldn't even protest because if he did, his neck could be immediately cut, having him bleed out to his death! (But isn't he already dead?) Thankfully, Joonghyuk decides to protest on behalf of Dokja by demanding she let him go.

"Sorry, Secretive Plotter. You took something away from me, so you must pay the price."

You gotta be kidding me!! Wait, what does she mean by taking someone away from her?

Now, Dokja is reeled into some feud they have, making it really awkward for him. Dokja tries to comprehend what she just said when Joonghyuk cuts off his thought by stating, "It's not my fault I got the role and you didn't. So, hand him back over."

Is this seriously over the newest play Sooyoung is directing?

Dokja internally sighs from the playout of this bizarre interaction. Uriel whines, "But come on! I deserved it, I played the character so well!" Dokja felt his mind blank out. Joonghyuk carries on glaring at her until she finally frees Dokja, who's scrambling to run back to the rest of his friends, who's blankly staring at Uriel. "Whoops, I forgot to introduce myself, the name is Uriel, nice to meet you!"

So, Uriel and Joonghyuk are (kinda) friends. They both play on an ESports team outside of school, which surprised Dokja as he didn't know that Uriel was into that kind of thing. Sooyoung was on pretty good terms with Uriel since she acted in a lot of her plays, and she then met Joonghyuk through her. Dokja still hasn't recovered from her attempted murder and was stuck in a daze the entire time the group talked. Joonghyuk, throughout the time, stole glances at Dokja but remained silent, not knowing what to say to him. Uriel explains that the fire alarm and sprinklers were her fault since she caused a fire in one of the science rooms to distract the zombies.

"Wait, does that mean the school is going to burn down?" asks Sooyoung, but receives silence. Everyone sits in silence, not knowing the outcome of Uriel's impulsiveness.

In the middle of Hyunsung talking about how excited he was to join the military, a helicopter could be seen from a distance. They all immediately jump on their feet and wave their hands frantically. Thankfully, the helicopter can see them from the smoke coming out of the fire Hyunsung started earlier, leading the helicopter towards them. They take a couple of steps backwards, covering their eyes from the dust blowing up in the air as it lowers 3 figures carrying guns and wearing heavy black armour. They were about to give their thanks, but the tallest guy greeted them by pointing a gun directly in their face.

"Get down on the ground right now!"

They exchange a couple of glances at each other but decide to obey the orders given to them. Joonghyuk scoots a little closer to Dokja, feeling a bit uneasy about how the events are going to unfold. The shortest guy steps closer to them, checking their temperature with an infrared thermometer. When they begin to step closer to Dokja, he feels himself starting to shake and sweat from nervousness.

What if they find out I'm a zombie and shoot me right here? Am I technically a half-zombie because I act human or am I just a zombie because I'm bit?

Dokja's thoughts come to a sudden stop when Joonghyuk holds onto Dokja's hand, making his brain short-circuit. Joonghyuk mouths to him, "Everything is going to be okay ," erasing his anxiety a bit, but not enough that his palms stop sweating as if he ran a 5k marathon. The guy eventually gets to Dokja, pointing the thermometer at him. The two freeze up, waiting for the reading.

"33 C. Get this kid a heating blanket, he's slightly hypothermic."

Everyone let out a sigh of relief as they watched him walk away. The 3 soldiers gather in a small huddle, talking to one radio attached to the middle guy's shoulder, probably about the next course in action. The shortest signal to them that they can get up from the ground, allowing them to not stay on the grimy floor.

"Begin bringing them up to the copter."

The group looks at each other, thinking of who should go up first. Heewon whispers, "I guess this is it guys," before stepping forward to get strapped to the ladder. Next was Sangah, and then Sooyoung, who gave a middle finger on the way up to Dokja when he said that he hopes she fall to her untimely death.

As Hyunsung was halfway up to the helicopter, the middle guy suddenly gets a call on his radio.

Fortunately, Dokja has sensitive ears, so he took his earplugs out to eavesdrop on their conversation with the commander. He couldn't comprehend all of it because of the static, but he was only able to pick up " outbreak ," " unable to detect ," and " same ." However, he understood one part clearly: "Send them back down and shoot them all." As the group gets lowered back to the ground, they start to rapidly shoot questions at them, wondering why they're not going to safety.

"Hey, what the hell is going-" Sooyoung gets cut off by all 3 soldiers pointing their guns at the group. The entire group freezes up, and Joonghyuk's eyes furrow in confusion. Dokja scoots close enough that their shoulders touch and whispers in his ear what he overheard. Joonghyuk's eyes widen (surprised how their eyes haven't popped out their skulls yet), and immediately shoots a death glare at the soldiers. "Can you guys at least give us an explanation?!" yells Sooyoung as she takes a couple steps back. They give her no response, but Dokja overhears the middle guy telling his commander through the radio that they were just kids, to which the commander responds by stating he doesn't care. Uriel tries to take a step forward but immediately stops when they step closer with a gun, shouting for her to get back. The only thing the guy could say was,

"Sorry, and good luck."

The group watched the soldiers rise into the helicopter and fly away, knowing their only hope for survival was lost. Dokja then explains what the soldiers were saying to each other and the orders they received, creating more questions than answers. Sangah asks, "How would there be another outbreak within the safety zone? Wouldn't the temperature and behaviour give it away whether someone is turning or not?" They stand in silence, contemplating what has created another outbreak within the zone, when suddenly, Dokja speaks up.

"What if there are more people like me?"

Well, now that it's established that half-zombies can bypass the temperature screening, Sooyoung flops onto the ground, letting out a sound of defeat. If there were more people like Dokja, then there's no chance of them acquiring help from the government and military. Sangah sits down by Sooyoung to consult her, and Hyunsung gives a pity smile to Heewon, who's staring in the direction the helicopter went off. Unexpectedly, Uriel decides to destroy the solemn atmosphere by asking Joonghyuk, "Are you two dating?"

Dokja almost passed out on the spot. Joonghyuk shoots her a glare and drags Dokja away from her, telling her to not ask stupid questions. As Dokja gets tugged along, he can hear Uriel's giggles loudly behind him (but that's probably because of his ears). They sit against the ledge, and Dokja tries to relax his mind and think about what to do next while Joonghyuk cleans his sword. Dokja feels a water drop against his cheek and opens his eyes, looking up at the sky to see clouds covering the stars. A couple of seconds later, it begins to pour and thunder, causing Dokja to shudder from the loud noise, immediately putting his earplugs in. They help a lot during the fire alarm, but not even the puffs he shoves in his ear can relieve the pulsing in his head every time lightning strikes. Joonghyuk, seeing Dokja's distress, lets go of his sword and presses his hands against Dokja's ears, muffling the sound of rain hitting the ground and the booms. Thankfully, Joonghyuk can't see how red Dokja's cheeks and ears are. Uriel also takes notice of Dokja's state and begins to walk over to the pair as the rest of the group lies on the ground, trying to catch water drops into their mouths. She's about to open her mouth when Dokja lifts his hand to her face, shaking his head no. She shuts her mouth and kneels in front of Dokja, watching his expressions, but not for too long as Joonghyuk keeps throwing daggers at her with his eyes. When she walks away, Dokja gets a sudden revelation and turns to Joonghyuk with excitement bubbling inside up.

"Let's get out of here while it's still raining."

It's been 25 minutes, and the rain still hasn't settled down–in fact, it feels like it got stronger. Everyone circles around Dokja and Joonghyuk as Joonghyuk tells the others their master plan that they have been planning since the beginning of the rainstorm (Dokja figured this out 2 minutes before he gathered everyone). Despite being the one who formed the plan, Joonghyuk is the one who echoes it back to their friends because if Dokja was going to detail it, he would be pausing every 2 seconds because of the storm.

"I get that we can get out now, but how are we going to get out with him like that?" asks Sooyoung as she points her finger at the pruney man named Dokja, who has his ears covered by Joonghyuk's hands.

Dokja tilts his chin upwards to make eye contact with Joonghyuk, who also stares back down at him. After a brief moment, Dokja faces Sooyoung again before saying in a serious tone, "I shall suffer from exploding head syndrome," Joonghyuk nodded in approval. Sooyoung didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry.

After the rundown, Dokja leans against the door to hear if there's any noise on the other side. Once he gives the group a thumbs up, he opens the door as quietly as possible before leading his companions down the stairs. They tip-toed their way down, trying to ignore the loud groans from the insufferable creatures. At one point, Hyunsung tripped over his own foot before being caught by Joonghyuk. The slightest noise during the empty period between thunder caused head turns from the zombies, but luckily, they squeezed by without getting caught. When they arrive at the school's entrance, Dokja can see through the glass doors that some adults and students try to fight against the thunder, but some aren't even students or staff from the school! He slowly creeps up to the glass and pushes it open, leading the others to hide behind the bush. Under the hard rain and thunder claps were numerous zombies, large and small, crouching towards the ground as if they could claw their way through the concrete and find a safe hiding spot. At the front gate a couple meters away, they see a white bus with blue stripes that have crashed through the fence. Based on the clothing of the brainless mob, they can deduce the story to be about a bunch of athletes returning from an away game and crashing into the barrier because of zombies. After some idle watching, Dokja waves his hands to the others to gather their attention before whispering to them to follow his lead.

"Why can't we just go through the front? We're literally in town," whispers Heewon.

Understanding the confusion, Dokja replies, " We don't know how many zombies are out there, it's better if we get out by the path through the forest since fewer students take that way to school anyway. We'll still end up in town either way." Heewon's mouth forms an o-shape before nodding her head, gesturing to Dokja to lead the way.

As another sky gives another roar, Dokja winces at the volume but continues to guide the group to walk behind the bushes to get around the school. He tries his best to hide that he's trying to not bash his head onto the concrete right now and keeps on a stern face. After some close calls (Sooyoung stepping on a stick, creating a crunching sound that attracted some passers-by), they finally made it to the back of the school. Behind the school was a path that led up a hill, which also led to the gym. By the gym is the trail through the forest to the town. Even though their escape is right under their noses, several passers-by are howling at the pain of the thunder and slightly from the rain. They waited until another thunder came around before dashing it across the road, running up the stairs to the top of the hill. Unfortunately, luck isn't on their side, and the thunder only goes on for about 3 seconds, making their steps heard.

"Shit!" yells Heewon, which makes Sooyoung glare at her before looking straight ahead again. Joonghyuk wields his sword and defends the group by severing the necks of zombies who got too close. After running up the stairs for what feels like centuries, they finally make it to the top. They can't celebrate too soon since zombies quickly catch up to their pace, and even more pop out from the forest. Dokja quickly looks around to find another route they can take when he notices a separate path that leads to the tennis court. He quickly yells to the group to grab their attention and point at the new trail. Without thinking, everyone takes a run for it, running for a solid minute before arriving at the closed-off court. The tennis court was caged in with fences that stood 10 meters tall. Hyunsung holds the door open as everyone rushes in, barely able to close the door to lock out the hungry creatures. Now that they're surrounded, they find themselves in a new situation.

"Why can't we catch a damn break!" Sooyoung said exasperatedly, dropping her ass to the wet dirt, sweeping her wet hair out of her face. Dokja heads close to the fences, watching the zombies struggle to breach through and attack his friends, making him feel invisible. He noticed there were two exits, both on opposite sides from each other. Looking at the door they haven't gone through, he discovers that there are a lot fewer zombies in the area, but still enough that it would be too dangerous to attempt anything. The rain is still going hard, but the thundering has definitely lessened. With no other options, Dokja walks away from the escape and away from his fellow companions, landing in the corner right from their initial entry. The others were minding their own business, trying to figure out a way out, when Dokja released the loudest scream they had heard from him. The group whips their heads at him in shock, and Dokja faces the potential exit as the running corpses rush to his side, emptying the area around the door. Before anyone can question him, he puts a finger over his lips and points at the door. Understanding what he means, Joonghyuk leads the group to the door but waits for Dokja to join them. Unsurprisingly, Dokja shakes his head no, gesturing to his friends to go on without him.

"I'll catch up with you," Dokja mouths, but everyone silently waits for him to come over to them, not falling for his tricks again. He feels the corners of his mouth curl into a small smile, but he knows they will drag his ass with them if they had to. He turns back to the crowd of zombies, slowly towering on top of each other to climb over the tall fence. He shakes the metal fence to create the loudest racket he could (without destroying it of course) before dashing to the opposite corner to rejoin the rest of his friends. Joonghyuk swings open the door, and everyone immediately runs through the forest. Joonghyuk and Dokja lag behind to fight against the zombies that try to attack them from behind, while Uriel and Heewon attack from the front. After a while, they can finally see a glimpse of the town.

"What the actual shit!"

Sooyoung can feel herself go insane by the second as they're stuck again. Joonghyuk and Hyunsung are struggling to keep the door closed, putting their whole body weight against the only thing keeping them from being eaten alive. Currently, they're stuck in a small grocery store on the side of the street, and Sangah and Dokja are ravaging through the place. They move as fast as they can since they know Joonghyuk and Hyunsung won't be able to hold up much longer. The sunset is almost over, meaning they need to move much faster. Sangah throws chips and canned foods off the shelf while Dokja gathers as many water bottles as he can fit in the backpack he found on the shelf. Uriel is off to the side with Sooyoung, trying to make shields with what they have. When Dokja stumbles onto the storage room, he tries to open the door but finds it locked. He continues to yank on the door handle, hoping he can jerk the door open, but ends up ripping the door handle itself out! He stares at the knob in his hand before returning his attention to the door and opens it by pulling on the empty hole. Instead of seeing loads of supplies, he unexpectedly meets the gaze of 5 children. They have a little staring contest before Dokja kneels to meet their eye level and asks, "Who are you?"

The two smaller kids stayed silent, but thankfully the older girl responded to him with, "Who are YOU?"

Understanding their worry, he presents a friendly demeanour to lower their guard: "I'm Kim Dokja. I go to X High School across the street. I'm with some friends and we're trying to get to a safe place."

"Who?" asks the little boy. Dokja feels like his shoulders get lighter now that one of them is gathering the courage to talk to him.

"They're good people! Yoo Sangah, Han Sooyoung, Yoo Joonghyuk-"

"Yoo Joonghyuk is with you?!!" the older boy screeches. Dokja was taken aback but kept his smile and nodded his head. Immediately, the older boy whips his head towards the older girl and says, "Jihye, master is out there!! We have to be with him!"

The girl, apparently named Jihye, smacks the back of his head and hisses, "Namwoon, are you crazy? What if he's lying to us?"

Namwoon rubs the back of his head, scowling from the pain when the girl with black pigtails speaks up. She asks, "Ahjussi, is my brother really with you?" Dokja doesn't know how to feel. Is the guy some huge celebrity or something?? Also, why is he an ahjussi... They're the same age! Why are they questioning his credibility (and age) when he's just an average high schooler!

"Yes... But he can't come over since he's busy stopping the front door from busting open."

The children meet each other gaze, probably talking to each other through their thoughts, but the youngest boy says: "I don't even know who he is, but I'll go with you."

Dokja feels relief wash over his body as the kids feel safe enough to follow them. He leads them to the front to meet with the others when the little boy asks, "Hyung, what happened to your eye?" Dokja completely forgets that he's a zombie and comes up with a flimsy lie, saying he got into a fight. Nobody believed him, but they didn't push him any further. He brought the kids to where the rest were preparing for departure and had them introduce themselves. The three youngest were in elementary school: Shin Yoosung, Lee Gilyoung, and Yoo Mia. The older ones in middle school were Kim Namwoon and Lee Jihye.

When Mia saw Uriel working alongside with Sangah to build a shield, she calls her name with excitement wove into her words. Uriel jumps up immediately to embrace the mini Joonghyuk, smiling from ear to ear.

Joonghyuk's eyes soften when he notices his little sister is alive and safe now that they're united again. Their small moment of happiness was cut short sadly as the door started to bend from the force of the zombies trying to shove themselves through the door. The group, minus Joonghyuk, Hyunsung, and Dokja, runs to the back of the store, where there is an emergency exit. The person in charge of leading them to their safe spot, which was her house 2 blocks down, was Sooyoung. Heewon and Sangah held up diy shields (bulletproof glass they ripped off from display) and stood by Sooyoung's side, while Uriel is positioned in the back to protect them from behind. Dokja gives a quick glimpse at the others when he notices that one of the kids is missing from the group: Gilyoung. Before he can alarm the others, the door breaks down, throwing Joonghyuk and Hyunsung off their balance. They quickly gain it back and fend off the zombies. Heewon was kind enough to lend Hyunsung her bat, allowing him to protect himself and their friends. Joonghyuk and Hyunsung moonwalk to the back as Dokja scrambles around, trying to find the missing child! He hears a small cry for help and runs into the frozen food aisle, and his eyes widen in horror when he sees Gilyoung almost being mauled by the zombies. Without waiting for another second, he immediately jumps forward, throws some zombies into the freezers, and picks up Gilyoung. He holds the boy close to prevent lunging arms from scratching him and runs as fast as he can to the exit. He sees the two waiting for him, Joonghyuk's eyes in shock to see a child left behind.

"Go! Take the kid and follow the rest, I'll catch up with you guys later!"

Before Joonghyuk can argue, Gilyoung is shoved into his arms, and the door shuts him out. They can't waste any time, so they instantly begin running towards Sooyoung's house. Wandering zombies seem to notice their panting and chase after them, but because of their agility, they can scrape by without a scratch (and a bite). By the time they arrived at her house, the sun had already set, leaving the moonlight to engulf them. Sooyoung's house was a huge mansion, gated off from the rest of the normal-looking houses. Joonghyuk spams the doorbell before being met with a glare from Sooyoung on the other side.

"I would let you die out there, but Dokja would eat me alive," says Sooyoung, and opens the gate reluctantly. When Sooyoung closes it back up, Gilyoung jumps out of Joonghyuk's arms and hugs his two friends. Heewon goes to greet Hyunsung with a hug plus a small peck on the cheek, which is now the colour of a tomato. Uriel tries to give Joonghyuk a huge, to which he dodges by side-stepping her, rewarding him a frown. Joonghyuk's attention diverts to Sooyoung, who calls out his name. "Hey, where's the squid?"

Joonghyuk freezes up, realizing that Dokja has not caught up with him yet. He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. After staring at each other for a few seconds, he slowly says, "He said he'll catch up with us."

Everyone looks through the gate to see no half-zombie frantically running to her property, smiling wide as he finds his companion safe. It finally dawns on them that they have lost Kim Dokja.