Chapter Text
When Yeon Si-eun awoke, he found himself in an abandoned run down hotel. He rubbed his temples in confusion; his head was fuzzy and his body felt like it was cold but overheating at the same time. It was as if his guts and brains were being flipped and cooked alive. Ignoring his misery, he immediately sat up, trying to recognize his surroundings.
The place looked like it had been abandoned for years; spiders and grass lightly growing in the sides, the walls were cracked all over, the wooden floor worn with grey patches peeking out. As he glanced outside, he spotted multiple zombie-like creatures, but something else caught his eye. The boy had a red and black jacket with a recognizable sharp gaze. But instead, it looked worn. Wait…Was that Suho? Feeling bewildered, Siuen stood up quickly.
Wasn’t Suho in the hospital? Where were his other good friends: Go-tak, Juntae, and Baku? The last thing he could remember was seeing Suho outside of the hospital, his friends standing by him, and them fighting in the Union. He couldn’t remember ever waking up to a zombie apocalypse, but luckily he felt his phone in his pocket. He looked down at his grey hoodie, only to realize it was dead.
Shit..Now what should I do? Think..think..going outside when there's zombies would be hard to deal with..but there’s Su-ho. Si-uen never thought he would have to ever consider a situation as ridiculous as this. Would going out there even be worth it?
He sat on the dusty, unstable wooden hotel floor staring out the window. The sky was red, foggy, and full of despair. Giving up, he didn’t try to think too much after feeling disoriented and decided to get out.
He carefully climbed out the window, not wanting to catch the attention of the other zombies. When finally reaching out to the streets, before he could reach Su-ho, he felt a boy behind him. “Jun-tae? What happened?” The boy looked scared. “What do you mean?.. Nothing has happened, it's been the same for a while..” Si-uen furrowed his brow, “A while…”, he muttered to himself. “No..I mean what’s going on with the city..”
Jun-Tae could only stare in slight shock at the worried boy’s confusion, “Uh..! Remember the disease? The brain eating one? It basically makes you look like a zombie..” Si-eun stays silent, not wanting to reveal that in reality, he’s confused and doesn’t know if this is real or not.
“Okay!..I’ll catch you up later since I still need to find the others. Y’know we have to stay indoors? There's a lot going on, it's safe that way.”, Jun-tae advises before running off.
Si-eun looked at him, running to Su-ho to try and see if the other would recognize him. He looked at him tiredly, reminding him when he saw Su-ho’s sick body lying on the hospital bed. He felt guilt rising up in his chest; he almost couldn’t breath, knowing everything leading up to those moments were because of him. Would Su-ho have been in that coma, if he had stopped him? If Si-eun had figured out how to fix things between Beom-seok and Su-ho.
Suddenly, Su-ho giggled a bit, snapping Si-uen out of his trance. “Siuen-ah what are you doiiiing out here? Go back inside..” He mumbled, dragging out the “ing” in doing. “I’m fine.”, Si-uen replied, trying to not look anxious, slightly biting his bottom lip. Before he could do anything else, Su-ho pushed him to the side of the street. “No, It's dangerous c’mon.”
“Infected? It’s contagious maybe?..”, Si-uen mumbled. Su-ho laughed hearing that, , “Did you hit your head?”
Si-eun frowned, his chapped lips slightly pouting. “Well, I might have woken up confused. Are we in quarantine or what?” He asked, in a stern tone. Su-ho nodded, and stared. “Did you get affected? You’re being so odd today.”.He touched the other’s forehead. “Hmmm..I can’t tell if you’re sick with a fever or truly infected..”
“If I'm affected, you should stay away.” he states as if it's obvious, backing away from the touch. “Awh, why can’t I just take care of you for once?” Su-ho asks, poutingly.
“Didn’t you say it was contagious?”, Si-eun said while squinting at him.
“Whaat! Zombies are only contagious if they bite you. That's why you have to stay insiiiiiiiiide.” Su-ho slightly grins. “Okay but seriously, let’s go inside. All the buildings have been kind of destroyed, and supplies are scarce so let’s not waste too much time.”
They walk into a slightly better looking building, appearing to be an apartment. It was slightly run-down, but the walls, floors, and windows were intact. Su-ho placed his bag down and laid down on the bed. “Aaah..peace.” Su-ho sighs. Meanwhile the sound of zombies grunting can be heard from outside. Si-eun stands there awkwardly, “Uhh..what has happened to school if there's this going on?”
Su-ho cackles a little loudly, “It's closed. There's barely any staff. C’mon, people are dying out here. School should be the least of your worries for now. Maybe they’ll open them up once they figure a solution for this.” Si-eun nods, feeling like he understands it better now but still curious if there were any moments he shared with Su-ho he might have forgotten. He only remembers visiting him outside of the hospital and trying to hold his tears back. How long has it truly been?
“Hey..I wasn’t going to tell anyone but I think my memory’s foggy.” Si-uen mumbles, his words ending off unfinished. “What do you mean? Do you mean like you forgot everything?” “Well..no I remember everything but all this disease zombie apocalypse stuff is what I'm unfamiliar with.” Si-eun replies. The other boy only squints, “that’s odd, well it's fine I’ll tell you more later.” He yawns, “Do you want medicine for the fever, I'll also try to make soup for you.”
Si-eun rubs his eyes, “Okay..I feel miserable.” He sits on the floor, his head and back resting on the bed’s side. “Go rest then.”, he smiles. The other can only nod and slowly get up to lay on the bed. He feels a bit lost; he wishes he had a textbook or even a book so he could feel like he was doing something productive.
Si-eun stares down at his clothes, he starts to feel cold, he was unsure what the exact time was. When he gazed at the window, the window was slightly cold, and from what he could tell perhaps it was around fall judging from the orange muted leaves on the ground. While the building might have looked abandoned, it wasn’t in too bad shape.
While he was staring at the window, he saw a bowl of soup and pills being placed beside him through his peripheral . “I shouldn’t eat on the bed, there’s a chance it might spill.” “Uhh..just don’t spill it then.” Suho laughs.
Si-uen gives him a slight smile (more like an awkward smile) before picking up his spoon to eat it. He felt a sudden chill down his back. “Are ya cold? Don’t worry I got blankets stored here somewhere!”
Su-ho rushed to get blankets and placed them on the bed. “Uhh..did we graduate?” Si-eun abruptly asks. “No, graduation got on hold due to the zombies.” Su-ho huffed. “What. The world is ending?” “Hey! Hey don’t jinx it..” Su-ho whines. “Honestly, where is your memory left off? Like what do you remember?” He tilts his head.
“When you got out of the hospital, when my friends were there with me. And then I remember the fight with the Union..Did I ever get to tell you about that?”
“Jeez, man that’s from a while ago.” Su-ho chuckles in surprise. Si-eun scoots closer to Suho, he misses him so badly, now that he’s well he just wants to make up all the time.
“Did we get to hang out again after you got out?” Si-eun asks, looking back at Su-ho. “Not really, I had to get a tutor to re-learn everything! And then this happened and I lost track of you. So technically..There weren't any interactions after that.”
Si-eun hums, “I’m glad, now I don’t miss anything..” Su-ho only can smile in pure awe. “Si-eun..You’re so freakin’ cute! Geez..your words they’re so like..heart warming!” “Su-ho you’ve already said that once.”
“Shush! I’m still learning new vocabulary from the lessons I missed.” Si-eun smiled at that.
“Your soup is gonna get cold.” Su-ho points at the soup on the bed-side table.
“Eat the soup and the medicine before heading to bed. Let me see if there’s another comfortable spot I can sleep in..”
“No..it's fine.” he shakes his head lightly.
“Whaat! You need to get better.” Su-ho waves his finger obnoxiously.
“No like..you can stay on the bed with me.” Su-ho looks at him in shock, but then squints. “But you’re sick.”
“But the ground is cold and there’s no proper heater system(that’s working), so you’ll get sick either way.” Si-eun argues back with a frown.
“Has Si-eun gotten dumber now?” Su-ho teased him for his weird logic.
Si-eun frowns “It's dumb,I’ve always been smart.” He turns around to face the window, before closing his eyes as he laid down.
As he shuts his eyes, he feels a pillow being forcefully placed under his head, and a blanket thrown over him.