Morning had come quickly in Hyosan as the sun began to rise up. The morning sunrise flashing through the window in Hyosan High School had woken Areum from her peaceful sleep.
Slowly opening both of her eyes, Areum could see Cheongsan and Onjo were standing in front of the window as they looked at the situation outside of their school yard. She also spotted a few of her friends still asleep while others began to wake up. After a moment of silence, the young girl could hear the sound of the helicopter whirring around the town of Hyosan, probably searching for some abandoned surviving citizens in the area.
Feeling comfortable when she was asleep, Areum lifted her head from Suhyeok’s left shoulder and started to do her usual morning stretch. When the black-haired girl felt something drop from her shoulder while doing her morning stretch, the beauty looked down and saw Suhyeok’s blazer on her lap.
Knowing well of Suhyeok for several years, Areum could guess he had wrapped his blazer around her body when she fell asleep on his shoulder. Glancing at the boy beside her, the young girl smiles fondly at the boy’s small action, happy to see he could get some sleep after yesterday's occurrence.
The young girl then draped the blazer around his body and gave the boy a quick kiss on his cheek as a gratitude. Waiting for the rest to wake up, Areum leaned her head back against the cabinet behind her and watched the sunrise through the window while she played with her necklace pendant.
***********
“They’ll come for us eventually.” Onjo reassured Hyeryeong. The two girls then conversed with themselves as the rest of the student bodies were still in daze after waking up from their sleep.
Suhyeok was still dazed after waking up from his sleep until noticing that his school blazer was wrapped around his body. Immediately turning to glance at the girl beside him, Suhyeok smiled in amusement when he watched her playing with the necklace pendant while watching the sunrise through the window. Suhyeok greeted her with a gentle nudge on her arm, making the beauty turn to look at him.
“Morning, Suhyeok-ah.” Areum greeted, then she silently laughed once she looked at his messy hair. The young girl then tried to smooth down his hair by combing his fringe using her fingers. “Thank you for wrapping me using your blazer. I had a nice sleep.” the black haired girl whispered as she focused on fixing his messy hair.
“It’s fine. I’m glad you sleep well.” Suhyeok mentioned in a hoarse tone after waking up from his sleep as he fondly watched her focusing on her task.
Unknown to the two teenagers, Wujin watched their small interaction from his seat as a smile slowly began to appear on his face, hoping that they would confess their feelings to each other sooner. Shaking his head in amusement, Wujin turned his chair from facing them and instantly he caught Namra smiling while watching the two interactions.
Wujin grinned in surprise when he spotted her smiling as he never saw that specific facial expression coming from the class president.
When Namra sensed someone was staring at her, she glanced around until she saw Wujin grinned at her. In a flash, her smile disappeared as Namra averted her eyes anywhere but him as she felt embarrassed for getting caught for watching Areum and Suhyeok’s interactions.
“We can put up a signal for help.” Onjo informed, gaining her friends’ attention as Jimin asked her how to do it.
“My dad taught me a signal that is used internationally.” Onjo explained.
“What is it?” Hyeryeong asked, curiously wanting to know the signal.
“It was red and blue arranged together to create some sort of pattern.” Onjo described, making her friends confused with her description of the signal pattern.
“Should we just write ‘SOS’ on the curtains?” The white hoodie girl asked once she saw all of their confused expressions.
“Yes, let’s do that.” Hyeryoeng agreed. Then, Onjo sighed in defeat as she was unable to describe properly about the signals that she learned from her father.
“We can’t last long anyway. Three minutes of no oxygen, three days of no water, three weeks of no food.” Namra stated some facts to her classmates.
“What’s that?” Suhyeok asked as Jimin sat beside Areum.
“How long a person can survive.” The class president replied.
“It’s only been a day. We have to try the best we can.” Onjo encouraged as she stared at the cold exterior girl.
“We’ll show signs of dehydration after today. We won’t be able to move by tomorrow.” Namra informed, glancing toward the white hoodie girl.
“Where are you getting at?” Onjo asked quite rudely for Areum’s liking. “Are you saying we should go out or are you saying we’ll die anyway, so we shouldn’t bother doing anything?”
“I don’t know.” The class president answered after a moment of silence.
“Then don’t say anything.” Jimin frustratedly implied.
“I think the prez means we should think about all of our options. Right?” Wujin stated as he waited for the cold exterior in front of him to reply.
“No.” Namra quietly whispered.
“No?” Wujin asked.
“What Namra was trying to say is that we don’t know anything. No news, no updates, no resources. We need to know something before we can make some plans.” Areum tried to explain in the simplest form to the rest of her friends what Namra was trying to tell them.
“What more do we need to know?” Jimin remarked.
“We need to understand the situation before we take action.” The class vice president replied as she glanced at the girl sitting beside her. Namra nodded her head in agreement.
“I agreed with that.” Cheongsan voiced his opinion from where he was sitting. “We need to know information to decide whether to wait, run or get out.”
“How can we do that right now?” Daesu asked as he fixed his messy hair.
“We can go online if we have a phone.” Cheongsan suggested.
“But we don’t have one.” Suhyeok muttered as he stared at his friend while wearing his blazer.
“We can find a phone in the teachers’ office.” Cheongsan spoke to his friends.
“Yah, Lee Cheongsan.” Onjo called as she stood from her seat when she saw Cheongsan climb up the window sill. Cheongsan ignored her call as he examined the location of the teacher’s office from the window. “Stop being so stubborn.”
Once he was able to locate the teacher’s office, Cheongsan turned his whole body to Onjo and mentioned, “The teachers’ office is two rooms across and one floor down.”
“Don’t go.” Onjo pleaded as she looked at him in anger.
“I’ll come back if I can’t make it all the way. Don’t worry.” Cheongsan comforted his childhood friend.
“I’m not worried about you. I’m angry.” Onjo argued.
“Sure. Why would you worry about me?” Cheongsan sarcastically commented. When they heard his statement, both Areum and Suhyeok shared a look with each other as they knew Cheongsan’s true feelings toward Onjo. Even through the sarcastic comment, they knew that boy was hoping the white hoodie girl would worry about his well-being.
After leaving the sarcastic comment, Cheongsan began to make his way to the teachers’ office along the window ledge. Seeing Cheongsan leave, Suhyeok immediately went after him but stopped when he felt Areum clasping her small hand around his wrist.
“Yah, Suhyeok, where are you going?” Areum asked with worry laced in her voice as she stared at his black eyes, waiting for him to answer her question.
“I’ll be back, okay?” Suhyeok uttered as he gently removed her small hand from his wrist. He walked his way toward the window and climbed on its ledge as Onjo called his name.
Repeating the same reply to the white hoodie girl, Suhyeok glanced at Areum before walking along the window ledge to trail after Cheongsan. The class vice president watched in worry from where she was standing as Suhyeok walked along the window ledge to follow after his close friend.
“Bare-su is a man of loyalty.” Daesu was amazed and complimented his friend while he walked near the window.
“You’re going too?” Wujin asked in confusion as he watched his best friend go to the window.
“I’m going too.” The plump boy announced as he began to climb to the window sill however he stopped his action when Joonyeong quickly appeared toward the boy.
“Yah! Stop. Come on. Get down.” The boy with glass instructed, stopping his friend from following after the two boys.
“Why not?” Daesu questioned as he looked at his friends.
“You can’t go out there at your size, fatso.” Wujin replied as he mentioned about his best friend's plump appearance.
“What’s wrong with my body?” The plump boy brazenly asked.
“What do you think?” Joonyeong uttered, trying to give a hint toward Daesu. The plump boy then looked over his body in question.
***********
After trailing after Cheongsan, Suhyeok carefully walked along the ledge of the windows on the school building while keeping his grip on the window frames. Hearing a soft grunt beside him, Suhyeok took a cautious step along the ledge so he would not fall on the ground.
“Why do you keep following me?” Cheongsan questioned as he glanced over his friend, gaining Suhyeok’s attention.
“Who else do you have?” Suhyeok muttered, staring at the curious boy. Cheongan chuckled when he heard Suhyeok sarcastically remark.
“You better stay close.” Cheongsan warned. Then they continued their walk along the window ledge. Cheongsan had managed to reach the next section of the window sill over the school pillar and examined the classroom for there was any sign of zombies.
“Can we go in?” The tall boy inqueried after watching his friend examine the classroom. The boy with the school vest shook his head as a response.
“Come back.” Suhyeok instructed as he walked a few steps back to give Cheongsan after reaching the ledge over the pillar. They could hear the zombies snarling inside the room as they cautiously stepped back.
“What are you going to do?” Suhyeok heard the boy in green vest uttered as the tall boy leaned his back against the glass window. Suhyeok looked over Cheongsan’s shoulder to find a solution for them to get to the teacher’s office.
“Let’s hang by our hands on the ledge and go.” Suhyeok suggested, not realising his friend tried to ask him a different question. When he heard the tall boy’s suggestion, Cheongsan gazed at him dumbstruck and quickly avoided his eyes from looking at the tall boy.
“No, I don’t mean that. I heard that Onjo told you that she likes you.” Cheongsan informed as he looked at his friend’s expression. “Are you going out with her?”
“Is that important right now?” Suhyeok asked in disbelief as he pushed Cheongsan’s back off the window using his hand, making the boy in the green vest shock after being pushed off the window. Cheongsan gritted his mouth in annoyance as he stabilised his body against the narrow ledge.
“I’m not asking because it’s important. I’m just curious. That’s all.” The boy in the vest explained. Knowing the boy’s true feelings, Suhyeok decided to tease him a bit.
“Why? Should I go out with her?” The tall boy teasingly asked.
“Hey. Why would you even ask me that? Do whatever you want. Who cares?” Cheongsan uttered as he tried to hide his jealousy from his close friend, pretending not to care what the tall boy would do to the girl he had developed feelings for.
“I care because she’s not the one I like. Besides, I like someone else.” Suhyeok thought to himself as he beamed when watching his friend’s expression as he was trying to be cool about this situation.
“What do you think?” Suhyeok teased, nudging his foot at Cheongsan. The boy in the green vest stared at the tall boy in annoyance, which made Suhyeok silently laugh at his close friend.
“Go.” Cheongsan said, not believing what he just said to his close friend. Once he saw Suhyeok smirked, Cheongsan once again repeated the word. “Go.”
“You go.” Suhyeok offered as a grin appeared on his face after teasing his friend. When he saw Cheongsan begin to hang onto the window ledge with his hands, Suhyeok told him to be careful.
The two boys then began to move sideways by hanging their hands on the window ledge in order to be seen by the group of zombies in the room. They tried to keep up their energy to hang onto the ledge until they reached the next classroom window. While hanging onto the ledge, Cheongsan spotted Isak, who had turned into a zombie, snarling while staggering around the school ground.
***********
Once they arrived outside of the teacher’s office, Cheongsan went to check inside the room. When he saw a group of zombies begin to attack someone through the window, the boy in the green vest quickly straightened his posture and put his index finger against his lip, an action to tell Suhyeok to be quiet.
“What is it?” Suhyeok whispered as he saw Cheongsan’s panicked expression after he helped the boy with the green vest stand up on the metal pipe. Then, they could hear the wailing of the female student from the inside of the school building.
After the coast was clear, Cheongsan kneeled on the window ledge of the teacher’s office as he quietly slid open the window, not wanting to attract any of the zombies inside the room.
Suddenly the boys heard a loud thud from the other side of the room, causing Cheongsan to stop his movement. Both Suhyeok and Cheongsan witnessed all of the zombies frantically run to the source of the sound, leaving the room completely empty.
Taking the chance, Cheongsan opened the window with ease as they landed on the floor of the teachers’ office. Both of the boys crouched their bodies from plain sight while they walked to the cabinet at the back of the room, where the students’ phones were stored. Hearing the thumping sound near the cabinet, Cheongsan stopped walking as he shared a look with his friend.
“What is that?” Suhyeok murmured.
“I don’t know. Let’s go see.” Cheongsan quietly suggested. The tall boy nodded his head as a response. The two male students began to move forward to check the source of the sound. Once they found it, they saw a bloody female student angrily smashed the students phone on the floor. Suhyeok instantly recognised the familiar girl from yesterday morning's encounter with his former group.
“I’ll destroy them all. All of them.” Eunji mumbled to herself as she kept destroying all of the phones that she saw.
“What the hell?” Suhyeok cursed as he saw the girl kept smashing the phone, making their only resource of information become more difficult to get from what they had thought.
As the female student kept destroying the phones on the table, one of the phones fell on the floor, a few distance away from where the two boys were hiding. Suhyeok immediately spotted the phone as he glanced toward his friend.
Cheongsan immediately put his hand on Suhyeok’s shoulder, silently telling the tall boy that he would grab the phone. The boy in the green vest silently crawled toward the phone on the ground as the female student kept grunting while she destroyed the phone.
Once he managed to grab the phone, Cheongsan accidentally made some noise, causing the bloody girl to stop her movement. The female student slowly turned her gaze toward the boy. When she saw Cheongsan grab the phone, Eunji was shaking in anger.
“I’m going to kill you!” Eunji yelled as she went Cheongsan through the table and aggressively pushed the boy as she tried to take the phone from him. “Give it to me, fucker. I’ll kill you!”
In a flash, Suhyeok pulled the girl away from his friend and pushed her against the wooden cabinet, making Eunji unconscious on the floor after the strong impact against the cabinet. Hearing the snarling of the zombies, the tall boy pulled Cheongsan from the floor as they took a quick glance on the entrance door, seeing the zombies were coming their way. Running for their life, the two male students went to the window to escape. However, the boy with the green vest spotted the phone he was holding was already destroyed.
Because of the need to know any information outside of the school, Cheongsan hurriedly turned back to grab a new usable phone on the table at the back of the room and managed to avoid the incoming zombies on his way.
Suhyeok tried to help his friend when a male zombie student suddenly came his way. The young boy pushed the zombie to the floor as other zombies tried to attack him. He continued to fight the zombies as Cheongsan tried to get any usable phone that they could use.
“You go first! I’ll meet you there!” Cheongsan yelled after getting the usable phone..
Hearing his friend’s instruction, Suhyeok pushed the table that he used to push the zombies away from him as he watched the boy in the green vest escape his way toward the entrance door and managed to avoid the violent zombies coming his way. Seeing Cheongsan escape the room, without wasting any time, Suhyeok leaves the room through the window.
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