Enhypen

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/52976536.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category: F/M
Fandom: 스위트홈 | Sweet Home (TV)
Relationship: Cha Hyun Su | Hyun Cha (Sweet Home)/You
Characters: Cha Hyun Su | Hyun Cha (Sweet Home), Original Female Character(s),
Lee Eun Yoo | Eun Lee (Sweet Home), Lee Eun Hyeok | Hyuk Lee
(Sweet Home), Pyeon Sang Wook | Wook Pyeon, Seo Yi Kyung (Sweet
Home (TV)), Yoon Ji Su (Sweet Home)
Additional Tags: Sweet Home (TV) - Freeform, Cha Hyun Su | Hyun Cha Deserves A
Hug (Sweet Home), Angst, Romance, Violence, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2024-01-11 Updated: 2024-06-18 Words: 21,163 Chapters:
5/?
 Enhypen
by Kanxio

Summary

Cha Hyunsu x female!reader

After being forced to do a student exchange in South Korea, you meet a boy who went from
having loads of friends to none. Sadly never having many conversation as you'd hoped for,
you went back home wishing for more. Now a year later when you decided to move back to
Korea, you meet him again, wondering if he still remembers you.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

ENHYPEN-noun
A place that feels like a tight hug: where time stands still for just a moment, where the noise
of the outside world is blocked out and where you can breathe it all out after being tense all
day. From the moment you enter the door, you are safe, you are warm and you are
exceptionally loved.

Start: 30 December 2023

End:

Cross-published on Wattpad
 Chapter 1

A/N:just for clarification; whenever you are speaking English it will look like this: English

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Being an exchange student wasn't something you wanted to do, let alone for a good half of
the school year.

When your parents heard that your school was offering students to be sent to South Korea,
you begged and pleaded not to be sent, you didn't even know how to speak Korean!

"You have a couple of months to learn it. Whether you actually take the time is your
problem but you're going and that's final", those are the words of your parents and it made
you more angry as you sat on the plane.

Your headphones had died and you wished the charging would go quicker, you were landing
soon but it would still be a while before you even managed to get off the plane.

The plane landed with a thud and you really wish you had fought a bit more to not be sent to
a country by yourself with only a little knowledge on how to speak and read Korean.

You looked down at your phone, seeing it had automatically changed time. Turning off
airplane mode, you saw many messages from your friends and family from back home. It
was mostly you friends wishing you luck and to not stress too much but they're words were
doing little to ease your nerves.

You heard the flight attendant say something over the speaker but chose not to listen, too
busy worrying about the family you would be living with and the school you would be going
to.

Finally, they began letting people leave the plane.

'This is really happening...I'm in fucking Korea".

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Waiting for your luggage took awhile as you had also brought you archery equipment. You
were persistent on bringing it as you loved archery and, if you had the guts, you were
thinking of joining the schools archery team.

You saw your bag and it was a struggle to try and lift it.

"I definitely packed too much..", in all honesty, you didn't know what you would need. I
mean, you didn't want to bring some boring outfits but then what classified as non boring
outfits? You might have overpacked in terms of clothes.
Trying to navigate through the airport proved to be easier than you thought but you still felt
extremely out of place.

The airport was packed, it was going to be hard finding the family you were supposed to be
staying with since you've never seen these people before.

You moved your head to try and see if anyone was holding a sign up with your name or
anything. Though, you couldn't see anything.

You felt very nervous but someone tapped your shoulder.

"Hello! Your L/n Y/n right?", a lady with long jet black hair and brown eyes was smiling
brightly at you.

You just stared at her for a second as you translated what she said in your head.

"Ah, yes I'm L/n Y/n", you awkwardly smiled back and she seemed to beam at this.

"It's so nice to meet you! My name is Jeong Seoyun, this is my husband Jeong Kwang and
our daughter Ha-rin, she's your age", this sentence was much longer and she spoke quicker
than you were use to but you managed to get the gist of what she was saying.

"Nice to meet you too, Mrs Jeong", you said politely.

"No need for the formalities Y/n, we're going to be family for the next month or so", you just
nodded at her words and Kwang took your suitcase for you.

You all walked out of the airport with Seoyun and Kwang walking ahead. Ha-rin walked
beside you after her mother forced her to make conversation with you.

"I'm Ha-rin", she said out of the blue.

You turned to her and gave her a kind smile.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Y/n".

"Your Korean is really good", she complimented.

"Really?! I don't think so.."

"I'm serious! How long did you study it for?".

"Not long since I only knew about coming here a couple of months ago".

"Can you read and write as well?".

You gave her a nod and she seemed super impressed.

"And you speak English?! Wow, you gonna have to help me with my homework then", you
giggled at her excitement.
"Then you have to help me with my Korean", you stuck out your pinkie and she accepted it
gladly.

"Deal!", Ha-rin smiled.

"Maybe this won't be so bad after all..."

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

The trip in the car wasn't as awkward as it seemed, granted, there were some words you had
problems translating but you still managed to understand them.

The Jeong's house was two stories and had a beautiful garden. Ha-rin showed you to the
room you would be staying in and it had posters of all kinds hung up on the walls. A
bookshelf was standing in the corner with books of both English and Korean. A single bed
was placed in the middle of the room with flower duvet covers and some teddies placed on
the pillows. A wooden wardrobe stood beside the bed on the left side and a bedside locker on
the right. It was a cosy room that you already liked.

"Thank you for helping me carry up my bags", you said to Ha-rin as she put your archery bag
leaning against a wall.

"It's no problem. Your uniform should be hanging up in the wardrobe there, it should fit, tell
me if it doesn't", Ha-rin pointed to the wardrobe. She seemed to be more comfortable talking
to you freely now.

You gave her your thanks and she left so you could unpack. You started school in a couple of
days and that's what you would be dreading the most.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

"So, school is tomorrow. How are you feeling about it Y/n?", Seoyun asked you from across
the dining room table.

You paused to think before answering.

"To be honest, I'm a bit worried. After all, I'm not great with change and I never liked school,
even back home", you let out a laugh and everyone did the same.

"Don't worry", Seoyun began. "Ha-rin will be there with you, follow her around if you feel
nervous".

You felt very grateful and lucky that you managed to be staying with someone who had a
child your age. It made life easier.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

You had been staring at the roof of the bedroom you were staying in for a while now. Your
light was turned off but your mind wouldn't relax, even when the bed was so comfortable.
You let out a groan as you turned on your side and reached for your phone.

It read: 01:21.

It wasn't too late but you really didn't want to be recked tired on your first day but your
nerves wouldn't let you go to sleep.

'I'll just day dream for a while or something'.

Thankfully, you did eventually get to sleep, even if it was only a couple of hours.

Your nerves were worse now than they were last night as your leg kept bouncing when you
were having your breakfast.

"The walk to school is about 15 minutes, I apologise that I can't drop you", Kwang stated as
he fixed his tie.

"It's fine, 15 minutes isn't long", you've definitely walked longer.

You thanked him for the offer and turned to where Ha-rin was putting her shoes on at the
entrance of the house.

You put on the school shoes they had for you; which were spares of Ha-rin. They didn't fit
you exactly but you weren't one to complain.

Grabbing your school bag, you followed Ha-rin out the door.

"Have a good first day at school, Y/n!", Soyeon said from behind you.

You smiled but Ha-rin yelled back a 'what about me!', as you grabbed her arm.

You both made the trip to school in a cheerful manner. Your nerves weren't gone but you did
feel a bit at ease that Ha-rin was by your side.

You admired the view on your walk to school, the scenery was lovely and you both soon
joined many others that were walking.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

The school was big, much bigger than you expected it to be.

You noticed you got some glances from the other students but you tried your best to ignore
them.

"I really wish I was in my bed at home right now..", you mutter but Ha-rin managed to hear
you.

"What did you say?", she asked.

"Ah, I was just saying how I'd rather be at home in bed", Ha-rin let out a laugh and linked
your arm with hers.

"Don't be stressed Y/n, I'll be here to help you and so will my friend!", you forgot that you
would also have to meet Ha-rin's friend which you were nervous as well for.

You took a deep breathe and let Ha-rin pull you in the door.

You followed Ha-rin to where your base class would be and your nerves felt like there were
going to jump out of your body.

"We're here Y/n", she said cheerfully as you gripped your bag strap tighter and followed
behind her, like a shadow.

The people already in there said their hello's to Ha-rin but once they saw you, they stared.

"Just kill me right now..".

"Y/n, your seat's here at the back, sorry you're not beside me", Ha-rin sent you a pitiful gaze
but you assured her you would be okay beside the window.

You put your bag on your desk and sat down, Ha-rin still stayed beside your desk until
another girl with short brown hair came up to her.

"Hey Ha-rin", her gazed move to you. "Is this the new exchange student?", like Soyeon, she
too spoke quickly and you almost missed what she said.

"Yeah, this is Y/n. She's gonna be living with me for the next while", the girl sent you a
bright smile and introduced herself.

"Hello, my name is Jeongyun", you gave her a smile back, seeing that she was nice too like
Ha-rin.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Y/n".

"So", Jeongyun took a seat in the desk in front of you.

"How many languages do you speak?", she already seemed very interested with you.

"Just two, English and a little bit of Korean".

"Wow, you're Korean's really good, do you know how to read it? I can help since I'll be in
front of you", you were very glad that Jeongyun was in front of you and you wouldn't have to
start a conversation with a stranger.

"Thanks".

"In exchange, please help me with my English", Ha-rin seemed to shout at this, complaining
that she said that first.
You laughed, feeling less nervous.

The presence of someone coming in caught your attention.

It was a boy. He had a big smile and very bright eyes. He was tall, very tall and had dark
short hair.

He made eye contact with you but you immediately turned your head back to the two girls,
feeling embarrassed that he caught you staring.

Nothing more happened as the teacher came in, saying how you were the exchange student
and then the classes began.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

"Alright make sure to have this done for Wednesday", the teacher shut his book and left
quickly.

The class burst into chaos as the students began to leave for lunch.

Jeongyun turned around to you immediately and Ha-rin walked over to you two.

"Let's go for lunch Y/n", you nodded and grabbed your water bottle from your bag and
followed the two girls out.

"You hungry?", Ha-rin asked.

"Mhm, I'm actually very hungry. Is your lunch free?".

"Yes! Are your lunches back home not?".

"No sadly, and there are so expensive for such ass food", you were jealous they got their food
for free.

The two girls let out a laugh at your complaint.

"Well, enjoy the good food then while you can".

"I definitely will".

The lunch was lovely and there was a huge array of food which made your mouth water.

After you all finished eating and had cleaned up, the three of you decided to head back to the
classroom for a bit of peace and quiet.

"Hey, where are the bathrooms again?", you interrupted the little 'argument' Jeongyun and
Ha-rin were having but you knew it was all in good fun.

"They're just down the hall to the right. Do you need me to go with you?", Ha-rin was about
to stand up but you stopped her.
"I want to remember where they are, thanks though", you left and headed out into the hall.

You shook your hands dry, not liking how cold they were after. You fixed your hair, flattening
down the top of it and making your way out of the bathroom.

Maybe you were walking too quickly but you managed to bump right into the arm of
someone.

You immediately panicked and apologised.

"Oh I'm so sorry", you said and looked up at who it was.

'It's the tall guy from this morning', you thought as you stared at him.

He smiled kindly back at you, causing you to feel more embarrassed and maybe turn a little
red.

"It's okay, don't worry. You're the new exchange student right?", you nodded and he gave you
his hand to shake.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Cha Hyun-Su", he flashed you his gorgeous smile.

"I'm L/n Y/n but you can just use my first name", you said as it would feel weird to have him
call you by your last name.

"Okay Y/n, if you need any help just let-..", Hyun-Su was interrupted as Ha-rin called your
name from down the hall.

"I thought you got lost Y/n", she looked up at Hyun-Su and bowed her head slightly.

"See you later Y/n", he gave a wave and one more glance and left.

"He seems nice", you said.

"He is! And very handsome~", Ha-rin wiggled her eyebrows at you but you pushed her away
as she laughed.

'She's not wrong though, he is very good looking'.

"Come on, Jeongyun will yell at us if we are gone for too long", Ha-rin locked arms with you
and began pulling you back to the classroom.

When you entered back into the classroom though, Hyun-Su was there, chatting with some of
his friends. You stared at him as he laughed at something his friends has said. He turned his
head slightly and saw you standing, he sent you a wave and a smile and you just had to return
it.

"What's going on here~", Ha-rin whispered, but you ignored her and sat down in your seat.

Jeongyun looked confused as you sat down and Ha-rin sent you teasing glances.
"What happened?", Jeongyun asked.

"Oh nothing, just Y/n and Hyun-Su becoming friends~", Jeongyun giggled at Ha-rin.

"He's a really nice dude Y/n and super outgoing, I'm not surprised he's trying to be friends
with you", Jeongyun explained. You didn't mind the fact that Hyun-Su wanted to be your
friend, it was just you couldn't get his pretty smile and eyes out of your mind.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

The weeks you spent in Korean kept going fast as you started to enjoy your time more and
more there.

You began getting very close with Ha-rin and Jeongyun and you three did nearly everything
together. You also became somewhat of an English tutor for them both as you would help
them a lot with their English work. You even joined the archery club they had here, but, since
you weren't staying, you couldn't be in their team.

Your friendship with Hyun-Su kept growing as you both moved from saying good morning to
each other when you came into school; to hello's when passing each other in the hall; to
eventually going up to him to ask for help and just sparking random conversations if you
were beside each other or saw him sitting by himself, waiting for his friends. Granted, his
smile and sparkling eyes still made you a bit nervous but you felt calmer as you got to know
him.

He could say the same about you.

He first said hello to you out of his kindness and his personality, but, he later started doing it
as he liked your personality and especially liked your company. You were a nice person to be
around; always very helpful and friendly and you even got more energetic and outgoing the
more you two talked.

But, something happened.

You noticed slowly that Hyun-Su was getting less and less happier but it was subtle. Less
friends hung around him and even spoke to him. His eyes, which were once so full of
happiness, seemed to be clouded with something you couldn't put you finger on.

Most people didn't notice the change at first but you were observant enough as you got bored
alot in the classroom and would look around.

You picked up that Hyun-Su's attitude began to changed when a new student moved into your
class. You never learned his name but you immediately got a bad vibe from him. He was
cocky and seemed very full of himself and he soon seemed to hang around with Hyun-Su's so
called 'friends'.

You noticed this when you, Jeongyun and Ha-rin were just aimlessly walking around the
school. You saw the new student and some of Hyun-Su’s friends chatting and laughing loudly
in the hallways. You couldn't hear what they were saying but you knew it was no good. They
seemed to be watching and pointing to something on their phones.

When you greeted Hyun-Su in the mornings, his response would be short and his voice
wasn't as warm as it use to be. It even got to the point where he wouldn't answer you. You
also felt some one staring at you whenever you would go up to Hyun-Su to try and start a
conversation with him but that never stopped you from trying to talk to Hyun-Su.

"Do you guys notice Hyun-Su’s change in personality?", you said out of the blue in your
empty classroom.

"Yeah, I did", Jeongyun spoke up.

"I've noticed that as well. I wonder what happened to make his personality switch like that",
Ha-rin questioned as she frowned slightly.

You let out a hum, not knowing what to say.

You mindlessly gazed at the door to your classroom, just to see the new student and his
friends walking back from who knows where. They were laughing and seemed to be patting
the new student on the back. He was wiping his hands as well but you managed to see that
the tissue had dark stains on them. You didn't like the look of it.

"I'm going to the bathroom", you stood up and didn't wait for an answer as you walked out
the door.

To your shock, you saw a small, but subtle, trail of blood on the floor.

You followed it the boys bathroom and paused for a second, but you went in anyways.

You certainly did not expect to see Hyunsu lying on the dirty bathroom floor with one of his
shoes covered in water. He also seemed to have some cuts and bruises but it was hard to see
his face as he was curled up on the floor.

You immediately rushed down to his aid, afraid he had passed out.

"Hyun-Su", you spoke gently but had urgency laced in your voice as you shook him by the
shoulders.

He hadn't passed out; thank god; as he opened his eyes, you could tell he was in deep pain but
he held his arm out, almost as if to push you away.

You looked down at his outstretched arm in shock.

"What are you doing?"

He didn't answer straight away, seeming too weak to keep his arm out so you gently moved
him into a sitting position, pushing his back up against the wall.
You inspected what had happened to him and his face was in shambles. His lips had been cut
open and his nose had blood dripping out of it, some of it even getting into his mouth as he
let out short breaths.

"Come on, we need to get you to the nurse", you tried to think of what would be the easiest
way to help him up as he wasn't exactly 'small'.

"No...", he spoke in almost a whisper as he tried to push you away again.

"No? Does it hurt to walk?".

"You can't be seen with me...Kim Do-hun...he'll hurt you if he sees you with me".

'Kim Do-hun? Ah, he must be that transfer student', your suspicions were right and you felt
awful for Hyun-Su.

"Don't you worry about that. Right now, we need to worry about you and getting you some
help", you emphasised that he was the one hurt and needed to be treated.

He didn't seem very reluctant at the start but he saw how persistent your gaze was and he
eventually gave in.

You hooked his arm around your shoulders as you tired to steady him but the height
difference made it difficult.

It was a trek to the nurse's office as you had to stop a couple of times. Hyun-Su also seemed
to be looking around in case Kim Do-hun appeared, he was worried he would start to hurt
you as well if he found out you two were close.

You slid open the door and called for the nurse but she wasn't there.

"Just our luck", you were pissed that the one time you need the nurse, she wasn't there.
Nevertheless, you dragged Hyun-Su into the small room and laid him on the bed.

"Stay there, I'll get some ointment for your cuts", you made sure Hyun-Su was comfortable as
you searched for something to clean and ease the pain he was feeling.

You decided to stay clear of any medicine as you didn't want to give anything that would
make him worse but you did manage to find some cream, plasterers and rubbing alcohol.

You did read the instructions on the back but you knew how to use them.

You walk quickly over to Hyun-Su who was watching your every move.

You pulled a chair over to the bed he was still sitting on.

"I'm gonna put the rubbing alcohol on now, tell me if it hurts", you said quietly as you put
some of the rubbing alcohol on his face.

You made sure you weren't putting much pressure on it as he flinched slightly.
You were already nervous about hurting him but Hyun-Su made it worse but staring at you.

You didn't know what he was looking at, did you have something on your face?

"How long has it been going on?", you knocked Hyun-Su out of the trance of staring at you.

"A while", he kept his answers short and lowered his gaze, not wanting you to see him in this
state.

You stop to look at him for a minute before you asked your next question.

"Why did you stop talking to me?", this caused Hyun-Su to not answer you so you stopped
cleaning his wounds to stare at him.

He noticed your gaze and soon realised that you wouldn't take his silence as an answer.

"Kim Do-hun threatened many people who were once close to me that he would beat them
too. I didn't want that to happen to you", he lifted his eyes cautiously, trying to read your face.

"You should have just told me, he doesn't scare me and that's not enough for me to stop being
friends while you. So please, stop ignoring me", you gave him a smile and hoped he would
listen to you.

"You're right, I'm sorry I avoided you", he looked very ashamed while you comforted him.

"It's alright".

"I won't avoid you from now on, I promise", Hyunsu said with some determination in his eye.

You stared at him before giving him a smile but you wished you could feel more excited but
you couldn't. After all, this was your last time seeing Hyun-Su.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

The goodbye you shared with the Jeong family and Jeongyun was sad. You never realised
you would be wishing you could stay just a bit longer.

You hugged Jeongyun for so long as she wouldn't let go.

"We will miss you a lot Y/n", Seoyun said as she hugged you two.

"If you ever plan to come back, just know you are free to stay with us", Kwang said as you
two shared a brief hug.

"Thank you so much for looking after me and making my trip memorable", you said as you
teared up slight at the sight of Jeongyun crying.

Ha-rin was the last to hug you, she held you so tight.

"I know you'll be back Y/n", she said hopefully as you nodded.
"Did you tell Cha Hyun-Su?", she asked but you shook your head. You didn't want to accept
the fact you would never see him again, it was too painful.

Ha-rin nodded understandingly.

The goodbyes went on for a while until you had to leave for your gate. It was hard as you
really didn't want to leave them but you had to.

"I'll be back, I promise", you said to them one last time before you left from their sight.

And you were right.

After you finished school back home and turned eighteen, you decided you wanted to study
in Korea.

When Ha-rin heard the news, she was ecstatic and said it was an amazing idea.

You were worried about getting somewhere to live but Ha-rin said she had it sorted. In an
apartment complex called 'Green Home'.

When you told your parents they were skeptical about sending you over; even thought they
sent you over by yourself when you were still a minor.

So, here you are again, waiting for the plan to land; getting extreme Deja Vu but this time,
you were excited.

Ha-rin offered to drive you to Green Home but you stated you wanted to be able to find it
yourself.

When arriving, you saw that the apartment complex was large and looked to have many small
apartments. The building was a bright green and had many trees surrounding it.

When you entered, the entrance was huge and many people were walking around. It even had
a small shop which would come in handy.

You walked over to the receptionist who handed you your keys and asked you to sign a few
things.

A man in a police uniform walked up to and introduced himself, saying he takes care of the
garden and the residents here. He was a kind man.

"If you ever lose your key, you'll know where to find me", he said kindly as you walked to
the lift.

Your excitement grew as your were approaching the floor Ha-rin's apartment was on but
another feeling of Deja Vu crossed you as your almost walking right into someones arm when
exiting the lift.
"Oh sorry..", you trialed off as you looked up at the person who was coming out of the other
lift. He had his head down, making sure not to make eye contact with you. He had a curly,
wolf cut type of hair and was tall. He had some sort of familiarity to him.

When he turned the corner you managed to see a bit of his face and you stopped in your
tracks, eyes wide.

You rushed to the apartment you would be sharing with Ha-rin and unlocked the door.

"Y/n!!! You're finally here!!", you didn't say anything as she hugged you.

"What's wrong?", she asked as she looked at your face.

"I think I just saw Cha Hyun-Su".

 Chapter 2
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

A/N: just a reminder, English looks like this when you are speaking or thinking: English

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

"Oh sorry..", you trialed off as you looked up at the person who was coming out of the other
lift. He had his head down, making sure not to make eye contact with you. He had dark curly,
wolf cut type of hair and was tall. There was some sort of familiarity to him.

When he turned the corner you managed to see a bit of his face and you stopped in your
tracks, eyes wide.

In a panic, you rushed to the apartment you would be sharing with Ha-rin and unlocked the
door.

"Y/n!!! You're finally here!!", you didn't say anything as she hugged you.

"What's wrong?", she asked as she looked at your face.

"I think I just saw Cha Hyun-Su".

Ha-rin stared at you like you were crazy.

"What do you mean you saw Cha Hyun-Su! I've lived here for months and I've never seen
him!", she couldn't believe you had seen Hyun-Su.

Were you hallucinating? Were you that desperate to see Hyun-Su again you mistook someone
else for him?

No.

You were sure you saw him and were going to prove it.

"I'm dead serious. Come on", you dragged Ha-rin by the arm and opened the apartment door.

You both just peaked your heads out of the door into the hallway and saw boxes of noddles
outside the apartment door further down.

"I think he went into that one", you whispered; you didn't know why you were whispering
but it seemed appropriate.
"Are you sure?-", just as Ha-rin said that, the door opened to show the guy again and you
finally got a better look at his face. He looked up almost nervously as he felt you two staring
at him.

You held eye contact with him for a second, baffled that you just so happened to see the one
and only Hyun-Su again.

The eye contact didn't last long as Ha-rin immediately grabbed you.

"Oh my god you were right! How did I never notice him?", Ha-rin asked herself.

You were standing in a bit of a daze. What were the odds that Hyun-Su was staying at the
apartment complex you were?

"You have to talk to him", Ha-rin said as she grabbed both your shoulders.

"What! I can't do that! It's been a year since I've seen him and I kinda just left", you trailed
off, feeling nerves in your stomach.

"Y/n he's not going to be angry. He asked me about you when you left. If anything, he looked
more....well..nothing, he didn't have any expression, that I could read anyway but that might
have been the cause of Kim Do-hun", Ha-rin convinced you.

You felt terrible at the fact you left when the bullying had gotten worse with Kim Do-hun.
Even after you made him promise to not ignore you and keep talking to you; there you went
leaving.

"Okay, here's the deal", Ha-rin spoke, putting her hands on her hips. "You're going to talk to
him, it would be good to talk to him now rather than leave it too long for it to become
awkward".

She was right, you knew that. So, you sighed and nodded to her.

"Ok, I'll do that. It's gonna be so awkward" you whispered the last part but Ha-rin wouldn't
have understood you anyways.

She beamed at you, finally going to say hello to Hyun-Su, even if you had your reservations.

"Well, that's a worry for another day. Let's order so food and watch some rom-coms!", Ha-rin
excitedly said and you finally noticed the change in her appearance.

She no longer had her long, dark hair, instead it was cut to above her shoulders, it would
briefly touch them if she moved to the side. She had dyed her hair a pale yellow with her
roots showing, proving that she got it done a while ago.

"Nice hair", you said, admiring it.

"You seriously only noticing it now?", she sent a smirk to tease you.

You tried to save yourself but she just laughed at you.

"Oh yeah, I could only get a single bedroom so our room is kinda small since I put two beds
in there", she told you ask she opened the door to show the bedroom.

"That's fine, I'll just throw my suitcase on my bed", you just plopped your suitcase on your
bed but brung your archery bag to the front door.

"I'm just gonna leave this here", you said as you place it down gently against the wall,
making sure it wasn't going to tip over.

"Ok let's watch a movie now!", you said, excited to finally being able to spend time with Ha-
rin in person.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

You spent the next couple of days getting use to your apartment and learning the address
better. You still hadn't spoken to Hyun-Su and you hadn't seen him a lot; most likely as he
doesn't leave his apartment.

Ha-rin had been trying to get you to talk to him but you felt walking right up to him might
freak him; and you; out a bit so instead, you decided to use the excuse of cooking too much
food as a means to get a chance to talk to him.

It was your turn to cook that evening for both you and Ha-rin. You ended up making gireum
tteokbokki with chilli oil over it.

You hummed slightly as you worked away, feeling content but also slightly nervous.
Nervous if Hyun-Su would even accept the 'extra food' you made, you were not going to tell
him you made him a portion, not yet at least.

Ha-rin came bounding over from her desk at the smell of the food, she had been doing some
college work.

She looked over your shoulder curiously to see what was the source of the delicious smell
that wrapped like a blanket around your shared apartment.

"Wow, that looks so tasty!", Ha-rin said as her mouth started to water.

You giggled slight. "It's ready now if you wanna take a seat", Ha-rin quickly grabbed some
cutlery and glasses and set the two people wooden table near the window.

You filled the plates and bowls with even enough portions and walked over to the table, Ha-
rin watching the food get closer to her.

She said her thanks as she dived straight into the food, enjoying every bite. You both still
made conversation but Ha-rin had her mouth full nearly all of the time, almost as if the food
would run away from her if she left it for too long.

"I'm so full now! That was the best food I've had in a while", Ha-rin leaned back in her chair
as she threw her head back and held her stomach.
"You're just over exaggerating", you replied as you gathered the plates up, Ha-rin following
right after you in the clean up.

"Why did you make so much though?", Ha-rin questioned as she peered into the food left.

"Ah, well I was thinking of giving the leftovers to Hyun-Su", you picked out a plastic
container to add the rest into.

Ha-rin hit her shoulders against yours in a teasing manner.

"Going to finally say hi~".

"Yeah I am", you said, dismissing the conversation; you were scared to hand this to him.

She made an 'oh' sound but you knew she was mocking you in a way. You rolled your eyes
half heartedly and finished moving all the food into the container.

"Okay, I'm going over now", you said as you hyped yourself up in your head.

"You can do it Y/n", Ha-rin rubbed your shoulders like you were a boxer getting ready to go
into the ring. You shrugged her hands off your shoulders as you glared at her, she laughed in
response.

"I'll probably be going to bed soon so bring a key in case".

"I won't be gone for that long Ha-rin".

"Eh, you never know", Ha-rin said before she disappeared into your shared bedroom.

You glared at her back before moving your eyes back to the door that was separating you
from the hall.

You opened the door as best you could, the container in your hands stopping you from
opening it with ease. When you walked into the hall, you noticed the box of noodles that was
always outside of Hyun-Su's door was ripped open, with the individual packet of noddles
destroyed; like someone had clawed through them.

You stepped over them, wondering what the hell happened. Pushing the box out of the way
with your foot, you nervously knocked on the door. There was no going back now.

Very slowly, the heavy apartment door open and revealed Hyun-Su, the boy you hadn't seen
in over a year.

At first he just started at you with no emotion in his face but once his brain realised who you
were, he froze up, his long hair covering the top of his eyes.

You smiled widely and friendly at him.

"Hi, I'm not sure if you remember me or not but I was that exchange student, Y/n L/n", you
stopped talking to see if he would say anything but he didn't so you continued.
"Well..., I've just moved into the apartment down there and I cooked too much food, so I
guess this is my 'happy to see you again' gift? Is it okay if I come in?" You weren't sure where
you got the courage to say the last bit but you said it away. But Hyun-Su remained silent, his
mouth opening and closing ever so slightly.

You slightly tilted your head in hopes of getting a better glimpse at his eyes before you
shifted your gaze to the array of noddles on the ground that actually seemed to be going
somewhere.

You scrunched your face at the mess on the ground.

"Your noddles are all over the floor here", you pointed to the ground. Hyun-Su’s brain
seemed to be functioning again as he whisper under his breath, 'what the hell?', and gently
pushed past you to follow the 'trial'.

The dried noddles crunched under Hyun-Su’s sandals as he walked slowing towards the open
apartment the noddles led to. You followed closely behind him, peaking to the side of his tall
body.

Hyun-Su made it to the open door before you did and stop in his tracks so you did the same.
You questioned him with your eyes but heard a 'crunch' sound come from the door.

Hyun-Su's expression was horrified, you couldn't even guess what he was looking at. He
stepped back cautiously but stood on a noddles packet, causing a loud sound to be made.

You heard a strange voice say something and that was enough for Hyun-Su to grab your arm
and belt straight for his apartment, locking the door quickly.

Hyun-Su ran to cover himself with the blanket that was on his mattress and you stood near
the end of the mattress, staring shocked and scared at Hyunsu.

"What is going on-", you stopped speaking when you heard the sound of heals clicking,
slowly getting closer to the door.

The bell rung and it caused you both to jump ever so slight.

"Excuse me, are you there?", you heard a women's voice quietly asked but neither of you
replied. Just staring at the door, only your small, nervous breathing begin heard.

"Help me. I'm so scared please help me", the woman stuttered out. You felt a cold shiver run
down your back.

"Is there nobody home?", you could hear her shivering in her voice.

She continued to beg for help while Hyun-Su crawled slowly out of the blanket, you
watching his every move carefully.

You noticed Hyun-Su walking towards the screen that showed who was at the door, you
followed behind him slowly as he waited for you. Sharing a gaze of worry before picking up
the phone that would turn on the screen.
When the screen flashed on, a young woman appeared. She looked to be sweating a lot and
had a terrified expression with dried tears in her eyes. She was breathing very heavily.

"Hello...are you okay?", Hyun-Su spoke slowly. The woman's face seemed to brighten at the
sound of Hyun-Su's voice.

"You're there", she said gladly.

"What happened to you?", Hyun-Su asked and you spared him a glance. He turned his head
slightly towards you, checking your face.

"I just came home, and the door was wide open. It was a mess inside and my cat is gone. The
floor...it was covered in blood", her breathing picked up as she cried a bit. You felt yourself
move back automatically, almost like your body knew something wasn't right.

"Please help me", the woman repeated the same words again.

Hyun-Su's breathing was heavy as well as he too didn't know what was going or what to do,
but you knew he saw something when he looked into the apartment. Something that he saw
that wasn't lining up to what the woman was saying.

"Okay, all right. How about you calm down? Hang on there, I'll call the police", you
frantically reached for your phone while Hyun-Su watched you with his scared eyes, your
hands shaking in nervousness.

"Wait, why won't you stay with me?", she cried out desperately but Hyun-Su placed the
phone on top of the screen so it would stay on and watched you phone the police.

As soon as you put your phone to your ear, a high pitched frequency noise rang suddenly,
hurting your ear for a second.

"What the hell?", you whispered out frustrated and more scared than ever.

"What's wrong?", Hyun-Su asked quietly, looking very worried.

The woman started to cry loudly now, causing you and Hyun-Su to look at her, scared for
your lives.

"Please can you open the door?", she continued to cry.

Hyun-Su was going to walk to the door, but stop. You were confused but mostly glad he
didn't open the door, something didn't seem right.

He went back to looking at the woman through the screen as she continued to beg for the
door to be opened.

"Show me your arms...", Hyun-Su asked her, causing her to stop crying. You looked at Hyun-
Su very confused but chose to stay quiet.

"What?", she asked.

"Arms. I need you to show me your arms", Hyun-Su swallowed the fear he was feeling.

You saw something move in her eyes as the woman's whole demeanour change in a split
second.

"What did you say?", her voice was unrecognisable now as it wasn't quivering at all, there
also seemed to be a slight echo laced in it.

"Your arms, show me your arms", Hyun-Su repeated his statement again as the woman
looked to be losing patience.

"I told you to open the door! Open it! Open it!", the woman began to thrash her head from
side to side as she yelled violently. The closer she got to the camera, the more it would glitch.
You felt your body drop, your legs felt stiff as your hands shook.

You didn't think it could get worse but you soon noticed she had a massive nose bleed, the
blood even getting into her mouth and on her teeth.

She banged on the door and rang the doorbell, the sounds echo all over the apartment room.
It was so loud and seemed to just keep getting louder as you and Hyun-Su stared at the door,
hoping it was strong enough to get her out.

The sound of music playing through all of this caused the woman to stop banging and ringing
the door bell. On the screen, her eyes were bloodshot red, you could almost see the veins in
them. The blood from her noise had covered all her mouth and even her chin as her head was
limp on the side. Her body seemed to make a clicking noise as she moved away from Hyun-
Su's apartment. Most likely to follow the noise of the music from just above you.

She did a high pitched, giggle and said the words, 'I'm hungry', before disappearing out of the
cameras line of sight.

Hyun-Su panicked a bit more as he raised his hands to his head for a second before grabbing
his mop. He banged the head of the mop off his cupboard hard enough so it would fall off,
leaving only the pole part of it.

"Wait here", Hyun-Su said so quietly you almost missed it.

"Hyun-Su! You can't go out there, she could still be around somewhere", you tried to tell him
not to move but he didn't listen.

With a yell Hyun-Su ran out of the apartment and around the corner, leaving you unsure of
what to do in the apartment.

You moved back and forth in an awkward type of dance, frightened to go out but not waiting
to leave Hyun-Su out there alone. What if that woman came back and attacked him?

You heard a loud thud come from the hall and that was enough for you to run out the door.

You searched around for Hyun-Su to see him collapsed on the ground with a man with a hard
glare, wearing a grey suit and a coloured shirt, staring down at him.
'What an odd choice of a shirt', you thought before walking over to Hyun-Su, never taking
your eyes off the mysterious man.

You stop looking at the man when you got closer and took at glance at Hyun-Su. He was
covered in blood ,his bare feet took most of the damage as he seemed to have walked straight
into pools of blood that the woman left in her wake. His arms were also splashed with blood
due to the fall, he was out cold.

'Did he just pass out or did...', you met the gaze of the strange man as he continued his
intimidating stare. You turned away from him and moved your attention to the unconscious
Hyun-Su.

The man stayed for a mere second more before leaving down the hall, leaving you confused
over his attitude and extremely worried over Hyun-Su.

You looked down at Hyun-Su and felt the rush of emotions of what just happened with the
woman and now with Hyun-Su mysteriously passing out cold on the bloodied floor. You
could feel yourself still shaking from the encounter but you needed to push that down and
prioritise getting Hyun-Su back into his apartment and check for any injuries.

With a quick scan, you grabbed the upper half of Hyun-Su's body and began to pull.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry", you said quickly as you tried to pull him as softly as possible, making
sure his head wasn't hitting the ground.

"God why you so heavy yet light?", Hyun-Su body was very long but you managed to get
him into his apartment.

His apartment was littered with half eaten or devoured cups of noddles; some looking like
they have been there for weeks; clothes scattered and his computer left on.

You moved Hyun-Su onto his mattress on the floor and collapsed on your knees beside him
to catch your breath.

You heard a loud bang come from outside the window which caught your attention. You
pulled back the drawn, heavy blue curtains that covered the window and peered outside.

Outside was in havoc, cars were turned over and destroyed, most on fire with people trying to
crawl their way to safety. The air was laced in a thick layer of smoke as many buildings too
were up in flames. Birds swarmed in groups around areas, either gathering from the
commotion or trying to escape. But what really caused you to almost breakdown was the
monsters running around rampant just outside Green Home. They were of all different shapes
and sizes; some even having built in weapons into their bodies but they all shared one thing,
covered in blood and attacking anything that moves.

You stared in shock, almost stuck in a panic stricken trance. While you were busy staring,
Hyun-Su had awoken and saw you just staring.

When he joined beside you to see what you could possible be stuck staring at, he felt sick.
 You didn't notice Hyun-Su beside you until you heard a squelching sound. Slowing turning
your head to the source of this strange sound, you saw Hyun-Su had a nose bleed, a bad one.
It was almost painful looking. One so similar to what the terrifying woman had.

"Hyun-Su...your nose", you said quietly, your voice sounding hoarse as you pointed at his
nose.

He turned to you briefly before feeling the wetness of the blood. He made it worse by trying
to wipe it away but it continued to flow out, not stopping once.

Chapter End Notes

Okay I did not expect to go so long without updating…so sorry 😶

 Chapter 3

Hyun-Su passed out, again. But the blood from his nose never stopped bleeding. You shook
him in hopes that he would wake up but it didn't look like he would any time soon.

You kept shaking him in despair but a loud bang caused you to pause and whip your head to
the door, small beads of sweat forming at your forehead.

The door was banged on again and the thought of that woman coming back was horrifying to
think about, especially since Hyun-Su was unresponsive on the floor. But you blocked that
thought out as the banging wasn't as harsh, more so softer with urgency in it.

You peered at the door peep hole first and saw a young woman; maybe a little older than you;
standing there with a metal bat in her hand. She had long dark hair, with half of it being tied
up in a tight looking bun on the top of her head with the underside and bottom of her hair
being a bleached pinkish colour. She looked normal enough for you to know she probably
wasn't going to attack you like that woman but you still grabbed a kitchen knife just to be
safe.

You opened the metal door slowly, with the knife raised above your head, you made eye
contact with her.

She seemed surprised to see you holding a knife and held one of her hands up slightly to
show she meant no harm. Her mouth was moving but there was a loud ringing in your ears,
your head felt heavy and your breathing was harsh.

In one swish motion, you had grabbed her wrist and pulled her inside.

"Sorry, I just pulled you in case that woman was still around", you explained to her and she
calmed her expression.

"It's fine. I just saw what happened with you and that boy, can't believe that man just left",
she whispered, her words full of spite for that strange man.

"Stay here", you said. "It's dangerous outside".

"I saw the mess, what happened?", she questioned and took a looked at Hyun-Su on the floor,
you followed her eyes.

You let out a tired sigh and collapsed on the floor beside Hyun-Su. You were a bit suspicious
of the woman standing in front of you but didn't make any advances of defense towards her,
just watched her carefully.

"He collapsed first in the hall for some reason. Then when I managed to haul him back to his
apartment, he had a really bad nosebleed and passed out again", you looked at Hyun-Su and
saw he was quivering slightly, his body shaking.
You lifted the back of your hand to the top of his head and he felt ice cold.

"Why is he so cold?", you asked yourself. The woman watched you before sitting down
beside you, her bat touching the floor as she leaned on it.

"I'm Yoon Ji-Su", she introduced herself randomly. "Ji-Su is fine", she held out her hand for
you to shake.

You held it. "L/n Y/n but you can call me Y/n", you smiled at her.

"Who's he?", she motioned with her head.

You turned back to look at him. "Cha Hyun-Su".

"He your boyfriend?", Ji-Su bluntly said.

"No no, he's just a friend", you dismissed the idea but felt your cheeks grow hot but that
might have been from you feeling like you're going to throw up. That was definitely the
reason.

She gave you a look but didn't push further.

After leaving your hand on Hyun-Su head for a bit longer, you felt a wave of sickness wash
over you.

"You look a bit sick", Ji-Su pointed out.

"I feel a bit sick. I don't usually get sick at the sight of blood but after what happened with
that woman and seeing outside...", you explained to Ji-Su as she took a glance at the curtains
but didn't make any moves to get up.

You both sat in an awkward silence with the only sound being Hyun-Su quivering.

There was a heavy sound of footsteps from outside the apartment. Both you and Ji-su perked
up at it but made no signs to move and investigate; at least you didn't.

Ji-su made the quiet decision to get up and venture out of the apartment when you saw you
didn't. Why? You did not know.

You watched her walked slowly over to the door; hesitating; before turning to Hyun-Su's
computer that was lighting up the room with a harsh white colour. There was a pop up of
what was most trending in terms of tags on the internet and you were curious.

You crawled on your hands and knees over to the computer, feeling slightly less sick after
sitting down.

The brightness hurt your eyes a bit, you squinted and waiting for them to adjust.

"God when was the last time I've read Korean?", you complained as you read the most
trending tag.
"Monster?", you read carefully, feeling slightly dizzy.

"What is going on?", you said out loud as you stared worriedly at Hyun-Su.

You heard the apartment door slam shut as Ji-su had disappeared out of it.

It was silent again, your breathing was quiet now but you felt extremely unsettled. Like
something was going to jump out and attack you.

'What about Ha-rin', you can't remember if you had locked the door or not and Ha-rin spoke
of going to bed. What if someone got into the apartment and attack her? You needed to leave
and check on her. But you looked at Hyun-su.

'I'm going to have to wait until he wakes up', you moved back to sitting near Hyun-su's
head.

Your pocket buzzed like a bee trapped in a cup as your phone was making a loud ringing
sound. A big emergency warning was plastered all over your phone screen, making sure you
knew something was terribly wrong.

You clenched the phone in your hand before slamming it down on the ground not wanting to
think more about the possibility of monsters outside.

You looked down at Hyun-Su again, almost unconsciously.

'I should move him to the bed', as gently as you could, you lifted Hyun-Su's upper body on
to the bed. You tried to be as gently as you could. You fixed the blanket over him, trying to
stop the shivering of his body.

Quickly grabbing the kitchen knife you left on the table, you slid down the wall next to
Hyun-Su head and held it tightly, staring at the door.

'I'll keep an eye out and stay awake', you said as you kept a hard; but frightened; glare at the
door as the room got darker.Your eyes were unnaturally wide as you made a promise that you
weren't going to fall asleep.

You fell asleep.

You didn't even notice when you did; when your eyes felt heavy and just shut automatically
without you thinking about it.

Your eyes opened slowly, the view of Hyun-su's apartment welcomed you as you adjusted
your vision.

You don't remember being on your side with your upper body on the mattress, you must've
fallen over.
A blanket had been draped over you as your legs felt stiff from being curled up.

You sat up feeling still dazed a bit as you turned to look at the mattress to see Hyun-Su not
there.

You felt more awake now that you saw only the outline of where his body was on the
mattress. Searching the room, you saw him hunched on the ground with his legs crossed,
staring at his bright computer screen; which was held up on top of two green metal boxes.
The remains of his nose bleed were still on his face. You also noticed Ji-Su had not come
back either.

You let out a tired, frustrated sigh as you ran your fingers through your hair, attempting to get
the knots that had formed out. Hyun-su heard this and whirled his head around fast.

"You're awake", he said quietly.

You rubbed your face and fixed your hair a bit. "Yeah. Are you feeling better?"

He took a minute to respond before nodding.

You noticed the dried blood on his face and scrunched your eyebrows.

"You still have some dried blood on your face", you moved to get up, slightly tripping on the
blanket and made your way over to him.

You looked at his face but Hyun-Su wouldn't look at yours.

"I'll go get a tissue", you said, briefly looking at the computer screen before disappearing to
the bathroom.

You came back quickly after wetting a tissue and kneeled down on your knees to the side of
Hyun-Su. You very gently grabbed his chin as you dabbed the tissue under his nose, feeling
that if you put too much pressure it would hurt.

You looked anywhere but his eyes but you felt Hyun-Su staring holes into your face. You felt
nervous under his gaze, wondering why he was staring so much.

Very quickly, you finished cleaning the dry blood off.

"It's done", you said before looking at the computer. You moved closer to it when you saw
what people were talking about, leaning your hands on the boxes as Hyun-Su moved closer
with you.

'It's not a disease...'

'It's a curse'.

Hyun-Su briefly checked if you were finished reading before scrolling down more on the
blog he seemed to have found. A picture of a man flashed on the screen with more writing.
You felt chills run down your spine and once again, felt unsettled.
'They complain of frequent nosebleeds, auditory hallucinations, cause couldn't be
determined... They weren't from here

They came because they showed symptoms

They turned into miserable, desperate beings

It suddenly begins one day and never stops

I was consumed by this

Humans won't overcome this

If you have symptoms, kill yourself before it's too late

Being alive with harm others

If you decide to live till the end...

There's something you must know...'

Just as Hyun-Su was going to scroll down to the bottom, a 'No Internet' message popped up
in red.

"What..", you said as you moved to frantically slam your finger down on the space bar
multiple times to refresh the page, just for a sound to play to remind you there was no
internet. Hyun-Su watched your face as it was contorted in anger.

You moved away with a loud huff as you grabbed your hair, cursing in English; something
you did when you were stressed.

You paced around the room in circles as Hyun-Su clicked the refresh button again and again,
his eyes widened in a panic, he wanted to know what it said.

You heard Hyun-Su stomach growl and stopped pacing to look at him. He let out a short,
sarcastic laugh as he moved his head to the door.

You followed him and realised he was probably thinking about the box of noodles that was
left outside. Would there even be any left after that woman ransacked through it?

He turned his head around to stare at you, communicating with his eyes that he was going to
go out. You hesitated but very slowly nodded.

He got up and you followed behind him, once again grabbing the knife.

He pushed the side of his body against the door, trying to peak through the crack to see if
anyone was there before turning the door handle slowly.

You stood behind Hyun-Su with the knife clutched tightly in your hands as you peered over
his shoulder; finding it hard to see over his tall stature.
You didn't see anything out of the norm until a clicking noise caught your attention. Hyun-Su
let out a silent gasp as he moved back; the monster had grabbed both sides of the door with
its long fingers.

You felt like screaming but your voice seemed to have disappeared. Hyun-Su covered his
mouth with both of his hands as he moved back very slowly. You pushed yourself further
against the wall as the monster walked past Hyun-Su who had slid down to the floor.

You stared frightened at the monster who had its upper face cut off, only its ears, mouth and
chin remained. It had long limps and its body was an off grey colour. It dragged its clawed
hand along the wall as you tried to stay as still as a statue. Even with your entire body
begging you to run.

It continued to move further into the apartment before it stopped, letting out a strangled, low
cry as its body made bone chilling crushing sounds.

You moved your back away from the wall, your lips quivering as you raised the knife; you
didn't know why you were moving closer to it. You moved your foot an inch, your socks
helping you glide along the floor. Some sounds could be heard out of the speaker in the top
corner of Hyun-Su room; this speaker was used by someone who needed to maks an
announcement from downstairs the main area of the apartment complex.

"I can hear you...", the monster's ear twitched in that direction and you stopped dead. Staying
in the same position with the knife raised, sweat forming once again on your forehead.

Hyun-Su had begun to reach out one of his hands to stop you from moving but stopped too
when he heard the monster speak.

The monster's long arm and grown longer and rammed straight into the speaking, destroying
it before pulling out slowly and returning to its original length.

The creature moved forward closer to you and you felt more scared than ever but stayed
silent. Very slowly, you moved out of its way as he dragged its feet slowly past you, making
low hissing noises before finally disappearing out the door.

You waited a moment before rushing to the door and closing with no hesitation, not caring
how loud it was. You held onto the door handle as your legs gave out and your knees hit the
ground with a thud. Hyun-Su turned over to look at you and wanted to reach out, to put his
hand on your back but left it hovering over you.

You turned around suddenly, scaring Hyun-Su as he brought his hand back as you panted
slightly, your heart felt as if it was going to jump out at any moment.

You moved to sit down properly and stared ahead trying to calm your breathing while Hyun-
Su watched you through his hair. He still couldn't believe you were here, in his apartment. He
gave up hope to seeing you again after a while but somewhere in the back of his mind still
decided to haunt him with your face and now here you were, sitting 3 inches away from him.
Tt was surreal to him.
You turned to meet his gaze, you felt him staring.

"Are you okay?", this was a repeated question.

He turned his head forehead before nodding.

You nodded back and stopped looking at his face. He noticed this and turned back to look at
you, something he found he just couldn't stop himself from doing. Like he was trying to burn
the image of your face into his brain.

"Are....are you okay?", Hyun-Su asked as you didn't meet his eyes.

"Yeah. I just need a minute", you spoke, taking breaths in between your words.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

You both had now moved away from the door and further into Hyun-Su's apartment. Since
you couldn't get outside to get the leftover noodles packets as in fear of that blind monster
coming back, you ended up deciding to look for something to eat in Hyun-Su’s apartment.

Hyun-Su was sitting up against the wall beside his computer on the floor looking at his phone
while you routed through his cabinets and fridge, hoping to find something to eat for you
two. But then you remembered you had brought over food for Hyun-Su to eat, you could
reheat that.

While you were busy preparing the food and getting drinks, Hyun-Su was staring at the
reminder he had put in his phone a couple of days prior.

'I might as well kill myself now', he thought as he stared idly at his phone. He was infected,
that much was clear. Maybe if he were to kill himself now, he could die human...

He stopped thinking when he heard you drop a plate and cursing slightly.

You looked over to Hyun-Su in pure embarrassment.

"Sorry", you said, grinding your teeth as you picked up the broken pieces. Hyun-Su watched
you and suddenly the thought of ending his life left his mind and instead memories of you
came to him.

You walked over with a bowl of the tteokbokki you had made and two glasses of water filled
to the very top. You were careful walking over as to not spill any of the water; you didn't
want to waste a drop.
You plopped down slightly in front of Hyun-Su. Your legs were crossed and your knees
touched his as you handed him the bowl and put down his glass of water down beside him.

He didn't take it immediately. It took you shoving it in his direction again for him to finally
take it off your hands.

He looked down at the chopsticks in the bowl before grabbing them and a bit of food before
shoving it into his mouth.

You tried not to watch him eat, feeling hungry yourself but you just sipped at your water,
looking around the apartment awkwardly.

Hyun-Su saw this as he chewed the pieces of tteokbokki in his mouth, his cheeks puffed out
slightly.

"Here", he said as he handed over the bowl, looking shy. You took it off his hands, showing
him a thankful smile before digging in.

The passing of the bowl back and forth continued until it was nearly done. You gave Hyun-
Su the bowl once last time before heading over to the window to get some fresh hair.

You slid the window open before hearing noises from below you. A couple apartments below
you saw a man with a harness around him trying to get out of a window and possibly scale
down the building.

You heard the sound of voices calling out to him. Telling him not leave. It must be his kids as
the voices sounded young.

But the man wouldn't listen to his kid’s cries as he continued to leave through the window.

"What is he doing", you whispered, this caught Hyun-Su's attention as he was soon looking
over your shoulder; it was easy for him to look over you.

You heard the man saying he would return with food and to stay quiet as monsters could
possibly hear them. He jinxed himself.

As quiet as possible, a large eye with what looked like to be a long, skinny neck attached to
his was creeping up behind him. You dropped your mouth and mustered up all your courage
and yelled as loud as your voice allowed.

"Look out!!", you yelled as you leaned out the window, Hyun-Su slightly panicking when
you did that.

Your cries did nothing as the man panicked when he saw the monster, trying to climb back
into the window but the rope that was attached to him snapped and he fell down to the hard
ground below.

You watched him fall in horror and felt your skin crawl when you heard the sound his body
made when he hit the ground. You could even see the pool of blood forming.
The monster didn't leave though. The man's daughter who had been trying to convince her
father not the leave, ran away from the window but the monster followed.

Hyun-Su pulled you violently away from the window and shut it, even closing the curtains.
He sat down on the mattress, making sure you sat down as well. He was breathing heavy as
were you too but you could still hear the cries below.

You didn't know what to do. You felt Hyun-Su's hand that was holding you shaking and you
looked at him briefly.

You couldn't sit here and listen to the cries of a child below so you looked around Hyun-Su
room to find something to throw on the eye monster.

Your frantic, wide eyes landed on Hyun-Su's tv. You were going to throw that.

You ran up to the tv, Hyun-Su's hand dropping from you.

"Hyun-Su! Help me throw this!", you grabbed one side of the tv and looked at Hyun-Su for
help.

He wasted no time in sliding open the window and grabbing the other end of the tv.

You both threw the tv out the window and down on the eye monster before it got into the
apartment and changed its attention now to you two.

It was fast. One moment it was at the apartment below you and the next it was flying up. You
gasped and shut the window and ran quickly away, standing with you back at the front door.
Hyun-Su stopped near the entrance and grabbed the broken brush stick and turned around
slowly to see him being stared at by the eye monster.

Hyun-Su walked towards it with rigged steps and a shaking body. Though he didn't get close
enough before the monster burst through the window, shattering glass everywhere.

Hyun-Su stabbed it right in its massive eye with the stick causing it thrash around the
apartment, destroying the walls. Hyun-Su attempted to run away but it wrapped its long neck
around him and squeezed hard.

Hyun-Su was struggling to breathe more and more as the monster tightened around him. You
could the sound of his bones being crushed.

You grabbed the knife that was left on the ground and ran right for the monster's non
damaged eye and pierced it straight through it, Splatters of blood got on your face as the
monster released Hyun-Su in pain but the monster didn't leave. It looked like it would attack
you again but its head suddenly got sliced off right in front of you.

You stood dazed as Hyun-Su was gasping for air on the floor. Its now headless neck retreated
out the window slowly and disappeared from your line of sight.

You moved to Hyun-Su as you helped him off the ground, his breathing still heavy.
You both walked towards the window and looked to the right to see an older man holding
what looked to be a make shift crossbow type thing. He still had it aimed at where he shot the
monster but he soon put it down when he saw you both. He was an apartment down from
Hyun-Su's.

He took a slug of what looked to be a beer as he held eye contact. Hyun-Su went to speak to
him but was immediately shushed. Hyun-Su gave sharp nod before leaning further out the
window to see past you.

The man retreated back into his apartment momentarily before appearing again. This time,
with a large paper notebook with a sentence written on it.

You squinted your eyes but saw it read: "They might come back if they hear anything".

He quickly turned back into his apartment before showing a different message: "Those things
don't die".

You let those words settle in before you saw the man motion with his head to below you.

You looked down and saw the body of the eyed monster. Its long neck was still missing its
enormous eye and was lying flat on the ground. Its legs slightly kicking before it cut off the
rest of its long neck and sat up. You heard the child once again call for her father and turned
back towards the older man.

"Do you want to save the kids?", his next sign read. Hyun-Su didn't say anything but you
nodded, still listening to the sound of the child calling for her father.

Before leaving to get ready to venture outside, the man held up one more sign: "If you make
a call and leave the phone on, it'll make a noise when a monster is near you".

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Hyun-Su and you were now standing in front of the heavy metal door. Hyun-Su had now
attacked a knife to the top of the brush stick with tape while you just held the knife you used
to stab the eye monster; blood still on it.

You had your wired headphones plug into your phone, Hyun-Su was the same. You left one
headphone out and shoved your phone into the pocket of your trousers.

"Hyun-Su", you began. "Before we go to that man's apartment, I want to stop at my own to
get my archery equipment and check up on Ha-rin", the worry of Ha-rin not being safe ate
away at you mind the more you stayed in Hyun-Su's apartment.

Hyun-Su nodded and said a small 'okay' and moved to open the door. You felt your breathing
getting quicker and your legs felt a bit like jelly put you pushed forward right after him, the
door slamming loudly behind you.
 Chapter 4
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

Stepping out the apartment felt like an immediate mistake. Your body started to quiver
slightly as your hands tighten their grip around the bloodied kitchen knife.

The heavy door of Hyun-Su's apartment slammed shut and you scrunched your eyes closed
for a moment before opening them again.

Hyun-Su was staring at you, checking up on you. You breathed out a broken breath before
motioning for him to make his way to your apartment.

Your shared apartment wasn't far but it felt like it was. The mess of outside seemed to have
gotten worse but you tried your best to ignore it as you stayed directly behind Hyun-Su.

For some reason you were very aware of how loud your steps were; your breathing; and even
the sound of your clothes. It freaked you out.

Seconds later, Hyun-Su had stopped outside your apartment but gave space for you to open
the door.

You went to turn the door handle but stopped when you saw the door was open slightly, like
it was closed in a rush but had been forced open. You felt your heart drop and you shared a
scared look with Hyun-Su who harden his hold on his weapon.

You pushed open the door and was welcomed to your apartment which didn't look ransacked
at all. In fact it looked exactly the same as when you left.

You hastily called for Ha-rin's name and checked the bedroom and bathroom. But nothing.
She wasn't here.

"She's not here", you said to Hyun-Su as he was standing at the entrance, watching
you. "She's not here. Why wouldn't she be here?", you asked that question more so to
yourself, not expecting an answer.

Hyun-Su didn't know what to say or do. He wanted to comfort you, he really did but how?

"Maybe...Maybe she went downstairs?", Hyun-Su suggested.

You stopped walking around and took a breather. Hyun-Su was right, there was no way Ha-
rin would allow herself to be killed, no way.

You looked around the apartment before deciding to fill a bag with food and water and even
the small first aid kit.
"Hyun-Su, help me fill this bag with any food that won't go off", you said as you grabbed a
bag and began rooting through your cupboards.

Hyun-Su hurriedly took off his shoes and followed your actions. You both threw whatever
you could find that wouldn't go off into the bag and you grabbed the bottled waters you kept
in the fridge. You ran to the bathroom and reached into the bottom cupboard for the first aid
kit.

You threw the bag over your back and walked towards the door. Hyun-Su following behind.
Before leaving you gave one finally look at your apartment, grabbed your archery equipment
at the entrance and left.

You hauled your archery bag at you side as your bow was hitting off your leg, the bag on
your back began to slip and was about to fall but Hyun-Su grabbed it and threw it over his
own back.

"Thank you", you said as you now could rest your bow comfortably on your shoulder and
your arrows on your back. You tried not to panic too hard about Ha-rin not being in your
apartment but you couldn't help it.

'She has gone downstairs', you convinced yourself as you neared the old man's apartment.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

You slowly took off your shoes as Hyun-Su stayed at the entrance, just staring at the old man.
You looked up to get a better look of the apartment and the man who looked to be sitting
behind a desk busy with what looked to be weapons he had made from things in his
apartment.

"My name is Han Du-Sik. You?", he introduced himself as you took a glance around his
apartment. It was filled with all sorts. There were pages of diagrams on the wall behind him.
Also behind him was what looked to be a huge electric box with wires going out from it. He
was still holding that make shift crossbow in one of his hands as he had a hard glare on you
two, almost as if he was sizing you both up.

"I'm Cha Hyun-Su", he said first and you followed.

"And I'm L/n Y/n, hello", you said politely as you lowered your head slightly.

"You're a foreigner?", Du-Sik looked at you and you nodded.

Du-Sik then looked at Hyun-Su who had lowered his head and gazed at his feet.

"You're a little shy, huh?", he said, teasing him.

"How can we...", Hyun-Su said suddenly as he walked forward slightly but soon stopped
himself. "How can we save the kids?"

"Well, it's all on you two", a wheeling sound was heard as he moved around from the desk
and revealed himself to be in a wheelchair. You felt your eyes widen slightly in surprise but
immediately relaxed them.

"Should I go?", he said rhetorically as he smiled and patted his legs.

"I use to be a legend in Cheonggyecheon. You heard? They can build any tank as long as you
have a blueprint", he spoke proudly but you and Hyun-Su shared a glance, not knowing at all
what he was talking about.

Hyun-Su let out a small "huh" in complete monotone. Du-Sik dropped his smile.

"What I mean is that I can transform your little stick into something more useful", Du-Sik
then took a glance at the large bow in your hand, the arrows on your back and the kitchen
knife still clutched in your other hand.

"I can tweak your bow and arrows as well. Hand them over to me", Du-Sik held his hand out
as Hyun-Su took a glance at you behind him briefly before walking forward, you following.

Hyun-Su walked over to Du-Sik a bit too quickly as he almost pierced him right in the
eye. He awkwardly apologised and changed his grip on the stick and handed Du-Sik the end.

Du-Sik inspected it slightly and looked at Hyun-Su before turning to you.

"You can leave your stuff on the table", he said as you did just that. Lying the compound bow
across the table and the quiver of arrows beside it. You took the glove that you wore on your
right hand out of the quiver a slipped it on, securing the strap tightly around your wrist.
Feeling the leather tighten around your hand, it let out a sound as you stretched your fingers
out.

"Leave the knife as well", you gazed surprisingly at Du-Sik before doing what you were told.

Du-Sik had been working away for a while now on Hyun-Su's stick. He had done yours first.
He had managed to attached and sharpened the kitchen knife to the side of your bow for you
just to be able to whip it out if needed. He also added more metal to the tips of your arrows,
making them longer and sharper as it would be easier to pierce monsters that way.

"All done", Du-Sik said finally and you walked over to the desk to get a look at Hyun-Su's
new weapon.

"Hey", Du-Sik tried to grab Hyun-Su's attention but he seemed to be busy looking at a photo
of a younger looking Du-Sik in a military uniform standing in front of a big tank. You looked
at the photo as well but the sound of electricity sparkling brought you and Hyun-Su back to
Du-Sik.

He was now holding up Hyun-Su's new spear which had a wire attached to it. The electricity
was sparkling at the top near the blade; which was now fired on.

"They still move around with their heads chopped off. A kitchen knife can't do the job but
this will do", Du-Sik let go of the button that was causing the electricity.

"You think...I can kill them with that?", Hyun-Su asked, sounding a little desperate.

"No, you can't".

"How do you know that?".

"I just know it. Avoid them at all costs. If you come across one, run as fast as you can. No.
Don't let them see you, yeah?", he corrected his statement.

Hyun-Su swallowed harshly and did a side glance to you before pointing to Du-Sik's
crossbow. "Then, why don't you give me one of your bigger weapons?"

"No, it's no good, this can only fire a few shots at a time. I already fired one, I might need
another one. And, the last bullet is reserved for me only", you got what he meant straight
away a nodded to his answer but felt your eyes drop in sadness for him.

The room was in a silence and as you were looking down you saw a lighter sitting on Du-
Sik's desk. An idea popped into your head.

'If regular weapons don't always work, will fire?', you pondered the idea. You could wrap a
piece of cloth or fabric around the top of your arrow and light that on fire, surely that will do
something.

"You don't mind if I take that lighter do you?", you asked Du-Sik as he looked at you.

"Sure, it has no use to me", he handed it to you and you thanked him. Hyun-Su looked at you
weirdly but you just put the lighter into your pocket.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

The sound of your feet clanking was made as you followed Hyun-Su's lead down the stairs.
You had an arrow drawn in a relaxed position as kept it pointed to the ground for safety
purposes, ready to jump out from behind Hyun-Su and fire it when needed.

You had one of your wired headphones connected to your phone in your ear and Hyun-Su the
same so no monster would catch you two off guard.
Hyun-Su quickly ran to the double metal doors that led to another flight of stairs that would
get you both to the apartments below but it was locked. In that same moment, a high pitched
ringing sounded through both of your ears and you grabbed the hem of the bag on Hyun-Su's
back and yanked it so he would follow you.

You found that the elevator door was open ajar and you rushed inside. Both of you huddling
together on one side to stay hidden from the monster that was walking leisurely around. You
recognised it as the blind monster that stumbled into Hyun-Su's apartment before.

You were crouched down behind Hyun-Su but sat up on your hunkers a little bit and aimed
your arrow outwards. You scrunched your brows in both fear and concentration, and waited
to see if the monster was going to come near you two.

But your concentration didn't last long as you smelt a horrid smell and saw the dozens upon
dozens of flies all around. You fell back on your hunkers and covered your mouth with your
arm. The light suddenly went off in the lift and you had to squint your eyes; in both disgust;
to see what was making the horrendous smell that you felt you would die from.

You saw a container of what looked to be rotten fish that had a stain of blood on its lid where
flies laid and swarmed around it.

You felt Hyun-Su moving slowly to get out of the lift and you waited to follow but the blind
monster suddenly appeared right in front of him and jabbed its long, bony arm right into the
box as it heard the buzzing from the flies.

It let out strangled noises and you heard it crack its neck in an inhuman direction. As quietly
as you could you reeled back the string of your bow and took silent aim. Trying to keep your
breathing quiet was proving difficult, you even stopped breathing for a couple of seconds as
to not make any sounds.

The monster opened its dirtied mouth with its razor sharp teeth and that was your sign to
shoot your arrow straight into its mouth.

You let go as quickly as you could and the arrow pierced right in the centre of its mouth and
almost appearing through the back of its head.

It let out a loud cry as it brought its hands to its mouth in an attempt to claw the arrow out.
While it was moving back in pain and trying to pull your arrow out, Hyun-Su plunged his
pole right into its lower body and electrified it before running away.

You hastily got out of the lift after him but not before quickly grabbing your arrow while the
monster was still crying in pain.

You ran down the hall after Hyun-Su but you also tried to get your arrow ready again as you
heard the monster right behind you.

Hyun-Su had managed to run around the corner up ahead but you were a bit slower as the
weight of your quiver slowed you down a bit.
You heard the blind monster let out a loud shout and you did a swift turn around to see it
aiming its arm straight for you. Thankfully though, right before the aim would have made
contact with you, Hyun-Su had yanked you by the arm and pulled you around the corner.

You ended up falling over as the monsters long arm had knocked over a cabinet in its process
to kill you.

You had fallen on top of Hyun-Su but made no signs of movement as the creature's arm had
what looked to be multiple branches sticking out of it. When you moved slightly it grew
another one that just barely grazed you. You felt Hyun-Su tighten his grip on you, almost
telling you not to move.

When the monster dubbed he could hear nothing, it pulled back its arm. You moved off
Hyun-Su but still stayed sitting on the ground for a moment, not wanting to push your luck.

Hyun-Su though got up and moved to peer around the corner to get a look at where the blind
monster was. He patted the area around him, shaking slight, and picked up two small bouncy
balls. He threw the with much force to the walls around the monster and watched how it
looked around distorted and confused. Hyun-Su saw his opportunity and ran close behind the
creature before stabbing it straight in the back of its neck.

You had sat up at this point and watched from afar. You were taking heavy intakes of breathes
but you never took your eyes off how Hyun-Su was lighting the creature up in the blue hues
of the electricity. It was a hypothesising colour in your opinion as you couldn't steer your
eyes away.

The creatures let out yelps of pain before it flopped to the ground, its skin sizzling. Hyun-Su
stared at it as he caught his breath. You were doing the same but you got up quickly knowing
that the monster wasn't dead and you needed to keep moving.

You ran up to where Hyun-Su was and briefly took a glance at the monster on the ground
before stepping over it. "We're almost there", you spoke before rushing down the hall, Hyun-
Su following you without saying a word.

From behind you, you could faintly hear the monster attempting to get up but you ignored it
as you race to the apartment.

You knocked calmly on the metal door, not wanting to scare the kids in the room anymore
than they already were. But there was no answer.

"Please be in there...", you whispered to yourself as you begged for the kids to be okay.

Hyun-Su walked closer to the door until he was as close to it as you were a spoke in a quiet
voice: "Kids, we're here to help". For another brief second there was no sounds until the door
handle creaked and the door opened to reveal a small girl. She had a tear stained expression
and her short black hair looked to be all out of place. She looked terrified. Thankfully she had
no bruises or injures and you relaxed your shoulders.

You put on a welcoming smile as you greated her and she stepped aside to let you and Hyun-
Su in.

When stepping inside, you saw how dark the apartment was and you immediately wanted to
do something about it.

"Do you have any candles?", you asked so very softly and the girl nodded as she pointed to
where they were on a shelf. You went to get them as the girl went back to her brother's side.
Hyun-Su awkwardly stood in place as he waited for you to get the candles.

When you did, you ended up putting them in mugs to stop them from falling over as you lit
two of them with the lighter you got from Du-Sik.

Hyun-Su crouched down beside you as you both were in front to the two kids who were
hugging each other tightly.

"It's okay, you're safe now", you reassured them with a smile.

"Please", the little boy began with a shaky tone as more tears left his eyes. "Do you think you
can save our dad?"

You didn't know what to answer, it was a sad fact but there was no way their father had
survived that fall. But there is no way you could tell them that.

"What?", Hyun-Su said almost instinctively.

"Our dad fell down the building and hit the ground."

Hyun-Su dropped his eyes and he swallowed before saying: "I know".

"Maybe he's-", the girl began but Hyun-Su cut her off.

"I'm afraid nobody can survive a fall from the 12th floor", Hyun-Su responded quite quietly
as he still looked at the ground.

You watched as the girl looked to start crying again and you didn't want her to be in such
distress.

"Hey, there's a man two floors above us who has a ton of food for the both of you. I'm sure
you must be starving?", you attempted to take their minds off their father's passing as both of
the children stared wides eyed at you.

They both nodded sadly to you.

"My name is Y/n, and he is Hyun-Su", you introduce yourself to them, making sure to keep
your voice soft and careful. "What are your names?"
"I'm Su-Yeong", the little girl answered.

"I'm Yeong-Su..", the boy answered and you noticed how their names were just the reversed
of one another's.

"It's lovely to meet you. In order for us to go upstairs we need to go out into the hallway",
you explained to them but you dropped your smile. "There might be monsters out there like
the one you saw so I need you to stay as quiet as you can, can you do that for me? How old
are you two?"

"I'm nine and my brother is six years old", Su-yeong answered for her brother.

"You know those are the perfect ages to fight monsters", Hyun-Su attempted to cheer them up
but Yeong-Su still had some tears. Hyun-Su leaned forward and gently held Yeong-Su's
shoulder in a means to comfort him.

"Don't worry, okay? We're going to protect you, I promise", you smiled briefly at Hyun-Su
but you caught a glimpse of his hand shaking. In response, you rested your hand on his back
ever so slight which caused him to look back at you. Through your eyes, you both
communicated your worries but you put on a brave face for the kids.

You stood up suddenly and began picking back up your stuff. "I think it's best if we leave
now while the monsters haven't realised we're here. Grab anything you want to bring with
you", you told them as Hyun-Su stood up to and picked up his pole.

You saw how Yeong-Su still looked a bit upset and you crouched down once more and gently
whipped the tears off his face. "I swear no harm will come to you, to either of you", you
looked at Su-Yeong before standing up again and walking towards Hyun-Su.

"I really hope we don't come across any monsters", you whispered to him.

"We will be fine", he said and you gave him a look but let out a 'mhm'.

Su-Yeong hadn't taken anything with her but her brother took a dinosaur toy with him in one
hand while he gripped his sister's hand with his free one.

"Okay, remember to stay as quiet as a mouse", you made a shushing motion with your fingers
and the kids watched. Hyun-Su left first and the kids after him while you stayed in the back.
You didn't like being at the back but it was better than the children.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

You were now out in the hallway and walking quietly towards the emergency stairs. Hyun-Su
as softly as he could, opened the door for the kids to go through first as they didn't stop and
began to descend the stairs. Hyun-Su let you go through first as you followed the kids down
 thinking Hyun-Su was right behind you. You made sure your steps were as light as feathers.
You stepped nearly sideways down the stairs.

From behind you, you heard Hyun-Su let out a grunt and a loud bang was heard. You quickly
turned around to see Hyun-Su leaning against the wall holding his chest in pain as he had a
massive nosebleed. The blood had dripped all the way down to his neck as he held his head
up. He even had blood on his hand. Hyun-Su kept gasping for air as he spat out blood. Your
eyes grew wide as you felt immediate fear.

"Hyun-Su!-", you went to go towards him but he stopped you.

"Get away from me!", he yelled out as he continued to almost choke on his blood. The kids
peak out from behind your legs. You didn't listen to him as you were to walked back up the
stairs but he yelled again.

"Leave now!", he reached and slammed the door shut. The last thing he saw was your pained
expression filled with worry for him.

Chapter End Notes

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗
 Chapter 5
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

You didn't miss how Hyun-Su's eyes had begun to change to black as he quickly closed the
door. You had no idea why he did that or what was wrong.

You were running up the stairs to go through the door again with the two children racing
behind you; following in confusion like little ducks following their mother; when a loud
stomping noise was heard behind you.

You didn't turn the door handle, only resting your hand right above it. The stomping got
loudly and you heard loud breathing. Your breathing picked up slightly and you turned your
head ahead so ever slowly.

The two children were already looking at the monster. This monster was different than the
blind one, it was almost as wide as the distance between the wall and the banister and it
looked to be completely made out of muscle. Its tiny head that didn't suit its body
propositions at all, just barely grazed the roof as it kept walking up the stairs menacingly.

How could you stop this. If you got too close, the monster would surely kill you in an instant
under its arm. You moved your gaze to Yeong-Su and saw how frightened he was. To make
matters worse he looked up at you.

'Shit. Maybe if I distract it the kids can run...', you thought but you didn't get to put your
plan in action as the muscle monster had lined a punched straight for you.

"Run!", you yelled as you dived out of the way onto the floor. The monster ended up
punching the door right off its hinges. You shielded your head from any falling debris but you
eventually looked up to see a horrifying sight, under the door you saw Hyun-Su's body that
Su-Yeong and Yeong-Su were desperately trying to grab out and your mind went blank.

The monster noticed you were still on his side of the door frame but you quickly dashed past
him as he went to punch you again. Due to its big body it couldn't get through the door
straight away and this managed to buy you the tiniest bit of time.

You threw your bow over your shoulder and with all the strength you could muster, you
attempted to lift the door off Hyun-Su.

The kids continued to pull at Hyun-Su's arms as they begged him to get up while crying and
this caused you to start crying. It didn't help that the monster was bashing the wall around the
doorframe in an attempt to get through.

Your vision started to get blurry with your tears and you panicked more.

'No, no, no, no!', you thought in a panic.

"Hyun-Su please wake up! Please!", you pleaded to him as you kept trying to lift the hard
metal door. But it was too late, the monster has broken through the doorframe and you had to
dropped the door. You pulled the kids by the arms further back up the stairs as the monster
stepped over Hyun-Su. You cried some more.

The monster was now only a reach away and it used that reach to try and grab you as you
shielded the kids behind you. But the monster couldn't reach out to you, almost like there was
something pulling it back.

That something was Hyun-Su.

You looked down to see Hyun-Su had woken up and was holding the one of the monster's
leg. His eyes were pitch black and he had a wide, bloodied, grin.

"Go now", he spoke calmly as he continued to smile.

The kids immediately left but you were reluctant to go.

"Hurry!", Hyun-Su said again and you knew you had to go to them. You gave Hyun-Su one
finally looked before racing after the children. You heard a loud crash from behind you but
you kept your head forward, even though everything in your body wanted to go back and
help Hyun-Su.

You kept running up the stairs but with every flight you slowed down more. You couldn't see
the children and every time you called out their names they wouldn't answer.

You had a harsh grip on the cold banister but you couldn't ignore the squish sound you heard.
You didn't want to look at your hand. You knew what it was but you went to turn your hand
around anyways against your better judgement.

The whole palm of your left hand was covered in fresh blood. The blood dripped down your
wrist and down your arm, the coldness traveled all through your body.

Your breathing picked up and seemed to get louder. Your hand looked to be shaking but you
weren't sure if it was your eyes going in and out of focus or if it was generally just your
hand. You gradually let yourself fall to the floor as you back rested against the metal bars.
You gripped your chest as your breathing intensified and you were breathing way too quickly.
You could feel yourself going light headed but you couldn't stop.

You kept telling yourself you needed to slow down but your brain and body wasn't listening
to you. If you kept going at this rate you would pass out right here on the bloodied stairs and
who would protect the children? You began to move your head from side to side out of
frustration but that did nothing. Nothing was working.

Then, a loud bang, like a door being swung open, was heard above you and you immediately
stopped breathing all together. Your eyes being the only things that moved. You listened so
carefully to hear what was going on and you heard the cranking of bones and immediately
recognised it to be the blind monster.
'The kids might be up there!', you thought. You couldn't stay here and wait for yourself to
breathe properly again, you had people who needed your help.

You moved yourself to the side and your body felt so heavy but you needed to get up.

On shaky legs and with blurred vision, you managed to stand up with help from the banister.
As soft as you could manage, you made your way up the stairs and finally you saw the two
kids ahead of you but you didn't join them immediately. You saw how the blind monster was
dragging its hands across the wall as it looked to be passing along but you weren't going to
chance it until it had completely disappeared.

Thankfully it did and you finally let out a breath. Su-Yeong took a glance behind her and saw
you standing at the bottom and you saw her brighten up slightly at seeing you. You gave her a
small smile and made your way up to them. You grabbed their shoulders and Yeong-Su gave
you a side hugged and cried into you. You patted his head but silently urged him to let go and
to finish walking up the steps.

You didn't even manage two steps when you heard the loud stomps and the low growling
which you had grown to realise was the muscle monster.

All three of you turned around in fear but this time you drew your arrow and pointed it
straight for where the monster would appear when it would turn the corner.

"Keep walking slowly up the stairs", you told the two children behind you as they did just
that. With every slow step they took, you did the same but you never turned around. You
realised you were going too slow and when the monster went to grab you, you turned around,
pushed the kids down to the ground and you followed them while covering them with your
own body.

It was a good thing you did just that because as soon as you fell to the floor, the blind
monster had returned and skewered the muscle monster straight through its chest with its
long arm.

You patted the kids shoulders rapidly to get them to move as this would be your only chance
to do so. All three of you left past the blind monster just as the muscle monster had grabbed
its arm and flung it into the wall.

You ran through the corridor rapidly but stopped at every door to check if any of the doors
were broken, even yanking on the door handles so you could take shelter in one of the
apartments but all were still locked. Su-Yeong too was looking around to see if any apartment
doors were open as you held her hand in yours and she held her brother's hand in her other.

"Miss this is the 15th floor, I thought the room we were looking for was on the 14th", Yeong-
Su spoke out.

You stopped immediately and turned around to him, even crouching down to his level.

You whipped his tears away before speaking. "It's not safe there right now so we might have
to stay here for a bit until it is".
Su-Yeong then grabbed her brother's shoulders and spoke to him as well. "The monsters are
fighting there but there might be more adults who can help us up here". You smiled at Su-
Yeong and she turned to you. You patted her head slightly before standing back up. You held
your hand out for her to take which she did gladly and she took her brother's hand again.

You proceeded to walk down the hall and knock harshly and loudly on one of the apartment
doors.

"Hello! Hello is anyone there! Hello!!", you continued to bang on the door while Su-Yeong
let go of your hand and ran to the other apartment behind you and tried that one as well.

Lady Luck was 100% not on your side as you heard the stomps you had heard too much for
your liking.

"Oh please god no", you said out loud as you ran to the children and pushed them behind
you once more. Like Deja Vu, you drew back your arrow and held it but the arrow wouldn't
stay straight as your hand was shaking as a tear left your eye.

"Protein..", you heard the monster say as it continued straight for you.

Even with your shaking hand, when you released your arrow it managed to pierce the
monster square in the chest. It stopped briefly but all too soon, it yanked the arrow out and
threw it to the ground roughly.

You had pissed it off.

The monster was now only a few feet ahead of you but stopped once an older woman
pushing a buggy appeared from around the corner and stopped right at the monster's foot. At
the stopping of your movements, Su-Yeong peaked around your leg to see what happened as
she kept her brother behind her.

The mysterious woman turned to look at you, seeing the children cowering behind you, she
gave you a warm smile and stood directly in front of the monster.

"Don't hurt the children, okay?", she spoke with a motherly tone and you went to reach out to
her as you silently whispered how it was dangerous to stand in front of it but she didn't care.

"You can do that right?", she spoke to it again but the monster seemed to get more angry.

"Keep behind me", you said to the children as Su-Yeong pulled herself behind you again but
she never let go of your leg, almost like she was keeping you there from running. You gave
her hand a small pat as to let her know you wouldn't leave them. Then, the monster gave the
woman a harsh kick and sent her straight into the wall, something you didn't want to happen.

You let out a strangled gasp as her saw her struggle to even move her hand when she hit the
floor. You could see her attempt to reach out to her buggy but it was no use, she couldn't
move. The monster started walking again towards the buggy, its heavy steps caused the
ground underneath it to crack slightly. Instead of kicking the buggy out of its way, the
monster put its foot down on top of it and flattened it like it was a piece of cardboard. The
woman yelled out in pain as she watched her empty buggy be destroyed. The monster kept its
foot on the buggy as the women managed to push herself off the ground. She stood tall as she
seemed to be talking to herself while facing the monster. She kept talking to herself and didn't
seem to notice that the monster was lining up a punch for her.

"Move! Get out of the way!", you shouted to her but she wasn't listening so instead, you
began running to drag her away but it was too late. Her blood hit you first, causing you to
stop in your tracks. The monster had brought its fist right at her hand and bashed her into the
ground. The blood from her head had hit your leg and you were frozen in fear. But it seemed
that one hit wasn't enough for the monster, it hit her again and more blood got on your legs.
At the third hit, blood had even managed to hit your cheek, causing you to flinch backwards.

"Y/n!", you heard a voice call for you behind the monster and there you saw it was Hyun-Su
alive and well with his eyes not being fully black like before.

"Run! Hurry!", he screamed at you. You paused for a minute, just looking at him in disbelief
before you turned around a bit too quickly on your ankle and grabbed the kids to stand up.
You ran behind them and pushed them forward but made sure to keep them as close to the
wall as possible while passing the monster who was still too busy with hitting the woman.
While walking past, the destroyed buggy was thrown just above your head and that was the
sign to walk faster as the monster had now realised you were getting away.

Immediately when getting close to Hyun-Su you finally noticed that the girl you meet in his
apartment, Ji-Su, was there as well, along with a man wearing rounded square glasses who
was holding what looked to be a katana.

Hyun-Su pushed you the stand behind him along with the children. He stood as tall as he
could in front of you. He wanted to have you completely covered and he desperately wanted
to protect you as he caught a glimpse of the blood on your face and your clothes.

"How to we defeat this thing?", the man with the glasses asked. You were about to suggest to
him to try and cut off one of its arm with his Katana when suddenly the woman from before
had leapt onto the back of the monster head and dig her hand right under its chin.

"What the fuck", you said out loud. Ji-Su had ran forward when you said that and swung her
metal bat right at the monsters crotch and it yelled out in pain.

"Take the kids and run!", Ji-Su shouted but you didn't miss how her voice shook. You didn't
move though, you saw an opportunity. The monster kept thrashing its head from side to side
and kept opening and closing its mouth. You drew an arrow fast but it closed its mouth.

"Shit", you cursed out but you still held your aim. Seeing your idea, the man with the katana
ran forward and cut the monster on its arm. The monster opened its mouth and you
immediately let go of your arrow. It landed right in the middle of its mouth, just like it had
done with the blind monster. This brought the monster down to its knees as it was screaming
beyond belief.

You felt someone pulling on your arm and you realised Hyun-Su was pulling you to run with
him and the children and you did exactly that.
 ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

You ran with Hyun-Su all the way back to apartment 1408 where Du-Sik was waiting. Hyun-
Su creaked the door open and you were welcomed with Du-Sik pointed his make-shift
crossbow at him. You urged the kids to go in first while you used the wall to balance yourself
as you were so out of breath. Once the kids were inside, Hyun-Su let you walk in first. When
you stumbled slightly, he grabbed your arm to steady you and you gave him your thanks.

You heard the door click behind you and you finally felt your body calming down. The
children hadn't taken many more steps as they stared awkwardly at Du-Sik.

"It's okay", you whispered to them. "This kind man is Du-Sik, he has food and a bed waiting
for you two", Du-Sik gave a nod and a kind smile at your words and motioned for the two
kids to sit on the bed.

You felt Hyun-Su standing very close behind you. Was he waiting to see if you would fall
over?

You turned around to face him and you couldn't believe he was okay.

"Are you alright?", you asked quietly. He stared at you, not saying anything as he seemed to
be studying your face and that made you nervous. He then quickly looked away from you.

"Ah, yeah...I am", he muttered back.

"Are you sure? You were crushed under a door and then stepped on", you pushed further.

"I should be asking if you're okay", he said back, completely turning the conversation to you.

"This isn't my blood", you said as you looked down at your hand before attempted to pick off
some of the blood. Hyun-Su watched as you did so and felt sad for you as his face contorted.

"You should rest, you look tired", he spoke a little louder than usual.

"You should rest too, your legs must be killing you", you attempted to joke but Hyun-Su
didn't find it funny. You cleared your throat out of awkwardness and Hyun-Su led you further
into Du-Sik's apartment and pointed for you to sit down and lean your back against the wall.
You didn't complain as you really needed to sit down.

You put your bow and quiver down to the side of you and immediately dropped you head
onto your knees for a second when you sat down. You brought you head back up after to rub
the blood off you cheek. You looked up to see Hyun-Su standing off to the side of you and
you patted the space beside for him to sit down. It took him a minute but he listened to you.

"You don't mind if I rest my head on your shoulder do you?", you asked him and he looked at
you shocked before he tried to hide it.
"Yes-of course", he sputtered out and you laughed at him a bit. You gently rested your head
against his shoulder and you felt him go tense at this. Closing your eyes felt very relaxing all
of a sudden and you nearly fell asleep if not for the sound of the apartment door opening
slightly.

Immediately Hyun-Su gently pushed your head off his shoulder and grabbed his pole. You
expected him to go behind Du-Sik who was now pointing his weapon at the door while the
kids were sitting on the bed but Hyun-Su stood right in front of you specifically. If it wasn't
for the worry of a monster coming in you would have spent more time allowing the
butterflies fly in your stomach but you pushed yourself off the ground, grab your bow and
pointed an arrow over Hyun-Su shoulder as you stayed behind him.

The whole room was silent as everyone waited to see who or what would appear from the
door. You were surprised to see the woman from before emerge from behind the door,
covered in her own blood but looked physically fine as her eyes darted around the room.

"How the hell is she alive?", you questioned and only Hyun-Su heard you. He turned his head
slightly to you but gave you a shrug in response. You dropped your weapon but Hyun-Su
didn't.

The woman closed the door behind her and didn't seem phased that Du-Sik and Hyun-Su still
had their weapons pointed at her.

"Who are you?", Du-Sik asked but he was ignored as the woman turned and waved at the
kids on the bed.

The woman eventually turned her attention back around to you three and finally introduced
herself. "Hello, I'm Im Myung-Sook", she used a very motherly tone as she once again turned
to Su-Yeong and Yeong-Su.

Du-Sik let out an 'oh' before greeting her, introducing all of you and putting down his weapon
with Hyun-Su doing the same.

You dropped your bow back down to the floor and put the arrow back into the quiver. You
took a look at the blood on your hands and clothes and you decided you needed the blood
gone. At least off your hand.

You wondered if the water was still running and you decided to give it a try.

"Hey, I'm gonna go and try was this off", you told Hyun-Su as you made your way to the
bathroom.

"Okay", Hyun-Su spoke and watched as you left to the bathroom.

Thankfully the water was still working and you scrubbed harshly on the palm of your hand to
get the blood off. So much so, your hand began to turn red from the pressure you were using.
You get the reminisce of blood off your cheek quite easily but the blood stayed on your
trousers, refusing to come off and you just gave up. You were too tired and done with the day
to really try and get it off.
You walked out of the bathroom to see Myung-Sook sitting beside the two children and
chatting away to them. Du-Sik was at his work desk tweaking his weapon. Hyun-Su was
sitting on the ground table and seemed to be waiting for you as his head immediately lifted
up when he heard the door open.

He watched you as you came to sit down beside him and you gave him a smile.

"You can use the bathroom now if you want to", you said to him and he vaguely looked at the
bathroom before nodding. But he didn’t make a move to get up straight away, he seemingly
didn’t want to leave you but he did eventually.

While Hyun-Su was in the bathroom, the door opened and this time Ji-Su and the man with
the katana came through. It was silent again for a minute before Ji-Su greeted the room.

"Hey", she spoke before plopping herself down beside you.

"Nice to see you again", you spoke to her and she routed through her bag.

"Same to you, glad you okay after that whole thing", she responded while pulling out what
looked to be instant rice.

"Where'd you get the food?"

"My apartment, we went back there", she nodded her head towards the man with her and you
turned to face him.

"Jung Jae-Heon, nice to meet you", he introduced himself when he saw you starting at him.

"L/n Y/n, likewise", you kept your answers short as you were too tired to translate everything
in your head.

"Hey can I use your microwave?", Ji-Su asked Du-Sik and he nodded.

Ji-Su immediately began filling the pots of rice with water and heating them up in the
microwave for everyone and got chopsticks, slamming them down on the table. She also
brought out tins of spam and you got up to help her set them out on a plate.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

The seven of you all sat down at the floor table with Ji-Su sitting to you right, Jae-Heon
beside her, Myung-Sook making sure she was sitting beside the two children and Du-Sik was
to your right. All the food was placed out on the table and now all you were waiting for was
Hyun-Su and, almost like he knew you were all waiting, he appeared out of the bathroom
looking surprised to see all the people. You all turned to him and you and Du-Sik smiled at
him.
"Come over here and sit down", Du-Sik told him.

"Okay", Hyun-Su replied immediately. You shifted yourself closer to Du-Sik so Hyun-Su
would have more space to sit next to you but upon sitting down, Hyun-Su actually didn't use
all the space that was left for him. Instead he decided to nearly squish himself next to you and
leave space between himself and Ji-Su. You laughed in your head at his actions.

"Let's all dig in", Du-Sik announced and everyone did just that expect for Jae-Heon who did a
quick prayer; he reminded you of your own mother who would do the same. You didn't waste
any time and you immediately began eating like it would be the last time you would. Your
head was bent far but you didn't care, you were too hungry to care. Even thought the rice had
no taste it was the nicest piece of food you had ever tasted.

"Kids", Du-Sik began. "Why don't you tell us your names?"

"I'm Kim Yeong-Su".

"I'm Kim Su-Yeong", you stopped eating and you looked at Du-Sik, you knew he was going
to mention how their names were just the reverse of each others. The others continued to eat,
not really interested in the conversation but Hyun-Su hadn't eaten at all. He was just staring at
his food while holding his chopsticks.

"Kim Yeong-Su, Kim Su-Yeong? Those are almost the same", Du-Sik gave you a look before
carrying on. "I guess, uh, your parents gave you those names so you would always stick
together".

"Um, dad named both of us", Su-Yeong replied sadly as she dropped her head.

"Dad...", Yeong-Su cried out softly as tears found their way back into his eyes. You dropped
your chopsticks on the table gently as your eyes dropped with him. The atmosphere became
tense and awkward at the mention of the childrens now dead father. To cheer Yeong-Su up,
Myung-Sook put a small bite of spam on his spoon and he thanked her kindly as she did.
Once you saw he was looking better, you put your head down to eat and you elbowed Hyun-
Su in the side to eat as well. He looked at you briefly in shock and you darted your eyes to his
rice. He got the message and final begun to eat.

You heard the popping of a can being opened beside you and you looked up to see Du-Sik
handing a bottle of beer to Jae-Heon who looked at him weirdly.

"Oh no it's okay, I don't drink very often", Jae-Heon replied dismissively.

Before Du-Sik could take the beer back and drink it himself, it was snatched out of his hand
by Ji-Su. She immediately downed half of it easily without a care and proceeded to slam it
down on the table once she had drunk enough.

"You sure now how to drink, huh?", Du-Sik complimented her.

"Here have one", Du-Sik was about to give you one but Hyun-Su spoke up.

"Oh, we're..."
"Ah, you two must be still underage. Well since you're a foreign, isn't it legal for an eighteen
year old to drink?", Du-Sik asked you as he still had the drink pointed in your direction.

"Yeah that's true but I'm not really in the mood to drink", you answered truthfully. You didn't
want to be drinking under these circumstances. Frankly, you didn't think you could stomach it
at the moment and what if a monster attacked? You didn't want to be under the influence
then.

"Ah I see… then, why don't I buy you two a drink then when you're adults. How does that
sound?", Du-Sik offered and you gave him a wide grin.

"Do you think...I ever will be an adult?", Hyun-Su asked. The room became very tense as
everyone stopped what they were doing at Hyun-Su's word.

'He really doesn't know how to read the room', you thought as you saw Du-Sik's smile drop.

"Don't think so dull, of course you will. We will all be fine", you spoke out, trying to
maintain a positive attitude even if you were lying to yourself. But all you got from Hyun-Su
in response was a 'hum' as he remained looking at the ground. You had a pensive expression
as you looked at him before returning back to your food but you didn't eat more. Only just
poking your chopsticks at the rice. You felt sick.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

The floor table had been clear of the food and pushed away to leave room in Du-Sik's small
apartment for everyone to walk around freely. You, with the help of Myung-Sook, put the
kids to bed. Myung-Sook had decided to stay beside them but ended up falling asleep. Jae-
Heon too was asleep with his back against a shelf unit. He had his katana propped up in his
hand. Du-Sik was fast asleep in his wheelchair holding his crossbow and Ji-Su was pacing
around the room, keeping watch for the first couple of hours.

You had been asleep on Hyun-Su shoulder but when Ji-Su kicked him awake saying it was
his turn to keep watch, you woke as well.

Ji-Su took Hyun-Su spot beside you and she gave you a nod while you decided to stand up to
stretch your legs.

Hyun-Su had his back facing you while he was gripping his weapon. He spoke: "I'm
infected".

"We know", Ji-Su answered straight back.

"If I turn, just kill me", Hyun-Su replied. Ji-Su didn’t answer him, instead, she looked at you.

"Well I won't be doing that", you harshly said back to him. Ji-Su saw she wasn't involved in
the conversation anymore and closed her eyes. Even going as far to put her wired ear plugs in
 to give you two some privacy to talk.

"Huh?", Hyun-Su turned around to you in shock.

"I won't kill you Hyun-Su, I just won't. So don't ask me to do it. And please don't say stuff so
dull like you did earlier, we will survive Hyun-Su- you and me- I'll make sure of it", you
looked quite angry at him and he was surprised to see such an expression on you but he
couldn't deny the soft feeling he felt from those words.

"Of course we have to bring Ha-Rin with us once we find her but other than that it will be
you and me Hyun-Su so stay alive", you gave him a smile. "Deal?"

"Deal", he replied before turning back to the door.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

You were awoken to Hyun-Su softly shaking you and the sound of someone making an
announcement over the speaker. You rubbed your eyes as you listened to the voice. The
music that played every morning in the apartment complex played with the announcement.

"Survivors, the first floor is now safe. Come to the first floor. We'll be safer together. We
survivors...must stick together. Please come down. Come down here now. I said please come
down-...", there was sudden static over the speak that cut the voice off but you had heard
enough anyways. You got up off the ground and grabbed your bow and quiver and swung it
over your shoulder and on to your back. All the while begging that Ha-Rin was safe
downstairs.

Chapter End Notes

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