Chapter Fifteen

Hyun Su slowly woke his mind fuzzy and body aching as he shifted. He sat up frowning as he saw the jacket that was on him. He let the jacket sit on his lap as he probpped himself and leaned against the wall and taking in his surroundings. He didn't remember much of what happened last night. Things were a jumbled up mess.

"Your awake! Good!" His eyes snapped over to Kagome who was smiling at him as she took a seat next to him on the ground, "How are you feeling? Any pain?"

She fired the questions off one after another, making his lips twitch up in a small smile at her worrying about him, "I am fine. Tired...feels like I ran a marathon and my body isn't used to that so it aches."

Kagome gave a small hum in understanding, "I can heal you some if..."She was cut off by Sang-Wook coming into view a scowl on his face.

"The assholes are wanting to do the vote...they are getting imaptiont." Kagome could hear the muttering of 'mother fuckers' under his breath causing Kagome to laugh quietly.

"Vote?" Hyun Su questioned as he stood up, taking the jaket in his hands not knowing what to do with it till Sang-Wook moved forward and took it out of his hands and put it back on with a huff.

Kagome licked her lips, now standing up now too, "Yes...they want to vote to see if you should stay or too dangerous..."She scoffed as she looked into Hyun Su's eyes, "They are just assholes and anything different is bad..." She reached for his hand, giving it a squeeze in comfort when seeing the look on his face.

"If they send you away, I am following. So don't worry. You won't be alone." She meant every word too. If they wanted to cast him out then she would follow him without any problem. She wasn't normal either so if one went, the other would follow.

They could be freaks together.

Hyun Su gave her hand a squeeze, and didn't let go of her hand as they silently made their way back to where they could hear the whispers and arguments from other people. Kagome had a feeling that this so called 'vote' was going to be very one sided.

"You are finally here...lets get this on the road so we can feel safe again!" The growling voice of the shop keeper she has a strong dislike for spoke. His beaty eyes glaring at the three of them, as they started a few good feet away from the group.

"Fucking asshole." Kagome muttered in Japanese as she leaned into Hyun Su's side, her hand still in his as she narrowed her eyes at the small man.

Eun-Hyeok came forward, pushing his glasses up his nose, "Lets settle down and have a vote on if Hyun Su shouldn't be able to stay. He isn't like the other monsters...but..." He trailed off as he was drowned out by the shouts and voices of the others around them.

"Rais you hand if you want them to stay, Kagome and Hyun-Su, aren't allowed to vote..." Eun-Hyeok spoke, raising his voice so everyone around could hear him.

Hand raised, surprising Kagome. There were more than she thought. That was good. There was a chance she wouldn't have to say anything to try to change their minds...or just leave.

"For those for him to leave?"

Hands raised as he counted the number, a frown coming to his lips as he glanced to Kagome and Hyun Su.

"...its a tie..." He muttered loud enough for everyone to hear them. There was silence before raised voices started again, arguing between the two voters.

"Kagome...Hyun Su...do you want to stay?" Eun-Hyeok spoke, if they said yes, the tied would be broken. The wo nodded, but befoer either of them could speak a enraged voice cut into the crowd.

"We should lock them up in the arcade again! They can't stay here with us!" Again he was trying to use fear mongering to get people to join his side, it was a low if not cowardly tactic and it made her anger spark to life. That combined with his words, it was safe to say Kagome was about ready to snap, keeping the peace be damned.

Narrowing her eyes at the man she felt her hair bristle.

No.

There was no way in hell she was going to be locked up like some animal nor would she allow that to happen Hyun-Su or Sang-Wook.

"Fucking cowards." Sang-wook's voice was a low drawl and it made the shopkeeper flinch back in fear, no doubt remembering their last encounter. All eyes turned to see him glaring at them, disgust churning in his deep brown eyes.

Furrowing her brows, Kagome shifted closer to him, ready to intervene if need be. While she agreed with his statement they really did not need to give everyone even more reason to fear them.

Part of her was ready to tell them to sod off and that they would just move to an upper floor and keep their distance yet she knew they had to play nice if not for their sakes but the kids that had suddenly fallen into their laps.

"Excuse me." The sharp female voice demanded all eyes. "This is my daycare and I don't recall giving anyone permission to stay here long term. That being said, Kagome, Hyun-su, and Sang-wook you are more than welcome to set up here with me and those who don't give into fear mongering. But you sir." She glared down at the shop keeper, her eyes cool as ice.

"Are not welcome here. I do not extend kindness to women beaters or bullies. If any of you have a problem feel free to go back to wherever you came from." Piece said she turned up her nose at him and turned a small welcoming smile to Kagome.

Kagome fully returned the smile with a small grateful grin of her own.

The shopkeeper snarled at them, his face once again red. "Fine! Well you guys can find your own damn food!" With that he once again stormed out of the room, the door slamming behind him as the small dog yapped after him.

Kagome rolled her eyes at him, of course he was the one to accuse them of blackmail yet was the one trying to do so.

"What are we going to do we need food?" The panicked voices began all going at once and Kagome was hard pressed to not snap.

"Enough!" The word was barked out, making everyone go quiet, forcing a small smile she shifted a bit between her boys. "Look, we're not invalids here...there are plenty of places we can find food. This is a huge building, there's two stories worth of kitchens alone."

"There's also two stories of monsters running around." Kagome was hard pressed to not give the semi pudgy nerd of a male the finger. She hadn't gotten his name yet, just that he and another male were always sitting together in the back whispering to each other and pointing fingers.

"I can assure you...most of the people in this apartment complex are dead." It was a sordid fact and she felt a bit bad dropping it on them like this but it would have had to be addressed eventually. "The rest have moved on to better hunting grounds outside, there's maybe a handful of monsters in the building at a given time."

Eun- Hyeok nodded, filing the information away to be examined and picked apart later. "So does that mean you're volunteering to do runs for us? With your powers and Hyun-Su's...ability to shift between forms it would make sense for you guys to become our runners."

Kagome wanted to smack the seemingly innocent look he cast at her, they both knew it was just an innocent question, he was planting a seed. Instead she cast Hyun-Su a questioning glance, she wouldn't answer for him. He was free to make his own choices.

Hyun-Su shifted a bit, feeling everyone's eyes on him made him nervous and it was only Kagome's fingers reaching out to curl around his own that calmed him. "I'm fine going on runs..."

Kagome gave his fingers a squeeze, "Sang-Wook and I will join him. We were going to go get a few others of our group from the fourteenth floor anyways. Whatever we can gather on the way up and back down can be the beginning of the community pot." She giggled as Sang-Wook gave a low grumble at her words.

"I didn't volunteer for shit." His voice was gruff and made a few of the others flinch away, she merely rolled her eyes at him and elbowed his side. "Oh hush, we need your help getting one of them down, he's in a wheelchair and I don't fancy using the elevator, what with the rolling blackouts..."

Huffing but nodding as he looked away from her puppy dog eyes he mused it would be better if he did go with them, lord knows what kind of trouble the two could get into if they went alone. "Tch, whatever...guess I'll supervise."

Eun- Hyeok frowned at this, "Others? You didn't tell us you had others in your group..." He sounded almost offended.

Kagome flashed him a smile more teeth then lips, amused at the dark scowl that settled on his own lips. "You didn't ask but yes, we have two young kids, siblings who lost their dad, another elder female who has taken to watching over them and an old man who while bound in a wheelchair is a real asset. He's the one who made Hyun-Su's weapon from random shit laying around his apartment." She'd seen the way Eun- Hyeok had been eyeballing it when he thought no one was looking.

She could see the spark of intrigue in his dark brown eyes and knew that he would change his tune, Han Du-Sik, was a valuable asset. He would make it so that everyone had a better chance at survival, while his inventions wouldn't flat out kill monsters, it would turn the tides to the point where they could at least buy time to run away.

After all that's all they could really do for now, buy time.

Time to adjust to this new world...or be swallowed up by it.