To Reach The Next Morning - gidakata (2024)

Chapter Text

[12/26/2020]

Changbin was so f*cking cold, and so f*cking tired. He was exhausted, but…

Slowly, he adjusted the little boy who was sitting on his back, asleep. He glanced back to the other two.

...he, at this point, was their only chance out of here.

“How f*ckin' long is this tunnel? Christ almighty, I'm tired.” Hyunjin said, bending over, breathing heavily. Changbin noticed he had been getting easily exhausted in a shorter amount of time, but he didn’t know if it was because of the temperature change in the tunnels, or because Hyunjin himself was getting sick.

“We have to keep going at this point. We’re not at a point where we can stop yet. If a train comes passing through, it’s over for all of us.” Changbin reminds the boys gently, starting to set Felix down and wake him up. The boy rubbed his eyes sleepily, groaning.

“Are we there yet?” Jeongin asked as Felix started to walk with his eyes still closed, yawning. He didn’t talk much anymore. Changbin didn’t blame him.

“No. We’re not.” Changbin said, exhaling. “But we should be soon.” He responded.

“You said that two hours ago.” Jeongin reminded him.

“And two hours ago, I was hoping you wouldn’t keep asking me questions. Or point it out when I would say it again two hours later.” Changbin said. His lungs were struggling, traveling in the layers starting to wear on him.

It was silent for around half an hour more, Felix having settled into a pace that was slightly faster than the others, just so that he could keep up with them. He was holding onto Changbin’s hand tightly, and Changbin wished someone else besides them had survived. Seungmin...anyone else. He was so tired. He, honest to god, wanted to lay down and take a nap. But he couldn’t.

They finally reached a station that they could climb up onto, Changbin lifting up Felix, who scrambled onto the platform, coughing slightly as he rolled over. Hyunjin boosted Jeongin up, before the other pulled his friend up. Changbin simply hoisted himself onto the platform after all three were on, groaning slightly with effort.

“There a café? some sandwich shop? I'm hungry.” Hyunjin said, sympathetically patting his belly.

“Why is this place empty too?” Jeongin asked. “No one’s around.” He said. Changbin exhaled, picking up Felix. He learned if he didn’t want the little kid to play around and definitely get lost, it was easier to pick him up and keep him where he could see him.

“Is there still the blizzard above ground? Because if so, then there’s your answer.” Changbin said, sighing.

“A train is gonna pass by though, right?” Hyunjin asked, looking at the map on the wall. “In half-an-hour, we got one on a red line. Then another on the blue in another fifteen.” Hyunjin said. “If they work, and all that.”

“If they’re still working, we’ll get on and try to get to the end of the city. That seems to be the only place that isn’t affected right now.” Changbin responded, walking up the stairs. “For now? We’re getting too cold for comfort. We need food. And Heat.” He said, leading them up to the area where there were usually a few cafes or food shops.

In a few minutes, they’ve successfully raided a sandwich shop, Jeongin glumly leaning against the back counter and eating a bag of chips while Hyunjin gets comfortable on the counter, legs swinging. Felix is sitting next to him excitedly, and Changbin is standing, leaning against the wall, sipping from a large soda cup. Hyunjin and Felix are splitting a sandwich, Hyunjin having a much larger portion than Felix, the little boy perfectly content with his smaller portion.

“I miss dad’s food.” Jeongin said, before shoving more salt and vinegar chips in his mouth.

“Yeah, well, I miss Seungmin’s food. All of our good cooks are gone.” Changbin murmured, hoping that they wouldn’t continue the conversation.

“Hey! I'm here still....” Hyunjin said with a pout, scoffing. “f*ck you, I'm a great cook.” He said, before biting into his sandwich again. Changbin didn’t say anything back.

“C’mon.” Changbin murmured. “It’s been almost 30 minutes.” He said.

They started their way back down to the platform, waiting for the train.

[12/23/2020]

"Who moves in right before Christmas?"

Don't worry neighbor, Hyunjin wanted to know too. Really, who got thrown out before Christmas? Disowned before Christmas like he had? As Hyunjin moved boxes into his new apartment, he couldn't help but feel a certain disdain for the holiday. At least now he had a reason.

It was cold, and snowing. Hyunjin should've dressed appropriately for the cold, but hopefully he wouldn't have been in it much longer. The sky did kind of look concerning though...almost like it was going to storm. Odd.

Music played through his earphones, but that didn't stop him from hearing the speculation about what he was doing there, why he was there in the first place.

"Why is there a highschooler moving in alone?" Was one of his favourite questions so far.

"He's so pretty, what's he doing in a run down place like this?"

"Why is he carrying those boxes all alone? Does he not have any friends?"

There weren't even a lot of boxes funnily enough, so Hyunjin didn't really understand that one.

"Can I help you?"

Hyunjin blinked, looking up from the moving truck.

"Huh?"

The man was...not one of the old women that had been spreading rumors about him. In fact, he was a bit on the younger side for an adult, but he definitely was old enough to have his life together. Maybe late 30s? Early 40s?

"Ah. With your things? It seems like you have a few more boxes. Do you need help?"

He was catlike in appearance, with dark brown hair. He had a bit of muscle too. He was cute… unfortunately, he looked like he could be Hyunjin's teacher. Sad.

"Ah. Those? Those are mostly furniture I ordered but I haven't figured out how to move." The boy said, and the man nodded. "You've been using the elevator right? What floor are you?" He asked.

"Ah, floor? My apartment…" Hyunjin took a minute to try and remember the number. "1414." He read out loud. Then sighed. "Ahhh just my luck to get a double number the first time I move out, huh?" He murmured.

"Superstitious?" The man asked, chuckling.

"You could say that." Hyunjin smiled. The guy was cute when he laughed.

"I'm Lee Minho by the way, I live on the same floor, funnily enough. What's your name?"

Hyunjin paused, before smiling. "I'm Hyunjin. Hwang Hyunjin. I'm uh, living here for the last hit of my senior year."

"Of college? I don't know why, I expected you to be a bit of a college sophom*ore or freshman. Maybe I'm getting old, huh?" Minho said with a laugh, a bit surprised.

"No…" Hyunjin shook his head. "A Senior in highschool." He said, pressing the elevator button and shifting how he held the box in his arms. "Ah, but it's funny, earlier today…" he trailed off as he realized Minho wasn't next to him, a bit confused.

"Minho?"

He looked around, only to find the other a few feet behind him. Minho's jaw was slack and his eyes were wide with shock. Hyunjin couldn't help but laugh. "Oh come on. Do I see that much older than I am? Do I need to change my skin care routine?" He asked, patting his cheeks.

Minho seemed a bit embarrassed by his reaction, shaking his head quickly. "No! No...sorry, you look young, I just- I was surprised that you're that young. You're not even a legal adult yet, yet you're living alone?" Minho asked, and Hyunjin chuckled a bit awkwardly.

"Yes, well, I'm on my own for now. So, I'm living alone too." Hyunjin said, smiling almost sadly. Minho looked like he wanted to ask but he didn't, instead opting to ask about the furniture.

They entered the elevator silently, Hyunjin's music quietly filling the void of silence.

"So, you said we're on the same floor right? What's your apartment?" Hyunjin eventually asked.

"1406." Minho said, humming slightly.

"Ah, so you're kind of close by. What do you do?" Hyunjin asked. "For a living?" Minho asked. Hyunjin nodded in confirmation. Minho smiled. "I'm an editor. I was a curator at a museum when me and my son lived back in Japan but, I guess I'm lucky I dual majored uh?" He said, chuckling awkwardly.

"You worked in Japan?" Hyunjin said, mildly amazed.

"Yeah. I lived there- my son was born here but we moved back for some time and he was raised there. It's amazing he knows as much Korean as he does."

"Your son?" Hyunjin questioned.

"Ah- yes. Jeongin- actually, I think you are the same age? He's a senior in highschool too. "Ah, really?" Hyunjin questioned, giving a small smile. "Maybe it would be cool to meet him then. I don't have any friends here and I kind of want at least one or two friends. I'm going to be attending the arts school up the road. I'm enrolled and everything. I have a lot of catching up to do though." Hyunjin said with a sigh.

Minho chuckled. "If you guys have any of the same classes, I'll see if I can get Jeongin to let you borrow his notes maybe? It'll suck to have to study over break, but I know he's tutored some of his friends in the past too. You could get to know each other a little more." Minho suggested, and Hyunjin seemed shocked, but hesitantly nodded, a small smile growing on his face.

"Okay. Thank you."

They exited the elevator and walked down the hall, Hyunjin fumbling with his keys as he opened the door to his apartment.

"You grabbed the last of the boxes with me so, I guess that was it."

"Do you need help unpacking?"

"Oh no I shouldn't-"

"Really! It's not too much bother-"

"...if you're sure."

Maybe this Christmas wouldn't be so bad after all.

No.

Left. Shoot.

No.

Turn. Duck. Wait until they reload. Shoot.

No.

Shoot.

Felix had his ear pressed against the door as he heard his brother's groans of frustration. He must've lost.

"Channie?" He whispered softly.

"Go away." The response was almost immediate. The eight year old sighed. "Channie, Mrs. Kim can't keep making us dinner." Felix said, hearing his brother's keyboard clack against the desk.

"It's still early in the afternoon, I'll make dinner later." Chan said through the door.

"We can just order something. Like pizza."

"You won't complain about pizza again?"

"I like pizza. It's okay if we have it a few nights in a row Channie."

"Pizza works."

Felix heard the clicking of the keyboard stop for a second, and then he heard what sounded like shuffling around. Then, a couple of bills were slid under the door. Felix couldn't read any of them. He could barely read or speak any Korean, really, but his brother hadn't taught him anything.

"Thank you Channie." He mumbled out, walking slowly to the tablet they had out in the living room. He sat down and pulled up the one place he knew how to call. There was a nice lady who could speak English and answered the phone most of the time. He dialed, and luckily, she answered.

"Hello hello! This is Lee Sunmi, from Sun-mi's restaurant and shop, what can I do for you?"

"Uh..." The little boy hesitantly looked at the tablet, not remembering the drawings of what his brother liked. "Hi Ms. Sunmi." He said into the phone, scrolling through carefully.

"Ah!" She seemed to recognize the voice instantly. "Is that my little Felix I hear? Should I get you and your brother the usual?" She asked, and Felix happily smiled. "Yes please!" He asked, happy that language wouldn't have to be a barrier with the woman.

"I'll be over in roughly half an hour okay?" Sunmi said in Korean. Felix frowned. "Half-Hour?" He tried to repeat.

"Half-an-hour." She said, slowly over the phone, before translating it into English.

"30 minutes."

"Oh!" Felix lightened up. "Thank you Ms. Sunmi."

“What’s the apartment number again darling? My memory is an awful one.”

“1203.”

The woman on the phone laughed. "No problem Felix. I have to go now, okay? But I'll be over with your food soon. I'll make sure I come over to your house last and see if I can maybe stay for dinner." She said, and the boy smiled at the thought. "Okay miss! Thank you! Bye!"

He hung up the phone and set it on the table, looking at the time. Then to his brother's door, which was still closed.

He sighed as he listened to the sound of the mechanical keyboard click from his brother's room.

He was kind of thirsty. He got up slowly, making his way to the kitchen. He couldn't reach the cabinets off the floor, so he had to climb onto the counters. He got a cup and jumped back down, getting the cold water pitcher from the fridge.

Silently going back to the living room, he sat down in front of the coffee table, only to get a little annoyed with the little sound effects from his brother's game. Where was the remote?

Felix reached for the tv remote, turning the television on and scrolling through the channels. He soon realized that this was dumb too as he couldn't really watch any of the programs and understand them, but oh well. He settled for some random adult drama that was airing- something that he probably wouldn't understand even if it was in English. He poured himself a cup of water and siloed it slowly, sighing. Christmas was only three days away and Felix couldn't put up a tree without his brother's help, but his brother didn't even want to come out of his room.

He had such a long time to wait.

Seungmin wasn't one to really be social. That was obvious from one glance at him. He was a neat freak, obsessed with how his living space looked, no matter how temporary it was.

Or if, technically speaking, it wasn't really even his .

Think about it.

He doesn't like going places and talking to people, he's going to spend all his time in that space.

It was really, honest to God starting to piss Changbin off.

"I know we're supposed to be laying low but there aren't any college friends you can go visit or some sh*t?" The man said as he lounged lazily across a couch that definitely wasn't his, but looked ratty enough to belong to him. Seungmin had his eyes focused on the screen, hands on the controller, reflexes fast, but for Seungmin, not fast enough as he struggled to keep up with the game.

"Dropped out." He responded, not really responding to Changbin with his full attention.

"Okay." Changbin shrugged. "What about highschool friends?" He asked.

"Also. Dropped out." Seungmin responded with a small scoff. Changbin raised his eyebrows. It's not like Seungmin was an idiot- he was brilliant- in fact, Changbin took the saying 'genius is one step away from madness' to heart because of Seungmin.

"No wonder you're in this line of business. Even with your brains, you're a bit on the twig side. But I guess it's really the only option you had left huh?" Changbin asked, raising an eyebrow. Seungmin didn’t bother with a response.

"Jesus christ." Changbin moved up from their destroyed couch, looking out the window. "There's a mad f*cking blizzard outside. Or, at least, there will be one soon. What the hell?" He squinted. "You can barely see past the building right next to us. It's insane too, I barely heard anything." He said.

"Hm." Seungmin made a non committal sound as he continued to play his game, the sounds of computer generated gunshots and wound noises filling in the silence for him.

"Your brain is going to melt if you keep playing those, you know that right?"

"Is that what your momma told you before you picked up sports?"

"Oh shut up. It was martial arts anyways."

The game over screen appeared, Seungmin sighing a quick, short breath and biting his thumb. "sh*t." He murmured, setting the controller on the table.

"You missed the last one." Changbin tells him, sitting back down and pulling out his flip phone. He hates not having a job to complete. It's like he's just… still. Uncomfortably so. Seungmin sighed. "And you missed the perfect opportunity to make a dead mom joke." He responded.

Changbin glanced at the clock on the oven. "It's going to be uh… dinner time soon. I know we usually eat like sh*t whenever the f*ck we feel like but it might be good to get something."

"Mmm…" Seungmin stared at the tv, almost like he was still playing the game. "Chicken." He said. Changbin nodded. "Chicken it is."

"I f*cking hate being dormat." Seungmin huffed. Changbin chuckled. "Dormant. You hate being dormant."

"Yeah, that." He waved his hand dismissively. "I hate doing nothing. It's awful. Why hasn't Jaebum texted?"

"Probably because he might not need anything now? Because he has a family and is spending time with them maybe, I dunno. It dies suck that we're gonna be broke soon though." Changbin said with a sigh. Seungmin grumbled. "Let's just get our chicken." He murmured.

Changbin laughed. "Cheer up, we'll watch a movie or some sh*t. Besides, we're in the middle of a blizzard. You like snow, don't you?"

Seungmin glanced out the window and sighed.

"Yeah, something like that."

Making out with the security guard was certainly not on Jisung's to-do list this Christmas week, but you know, sometimes, you gotta go with the flow. Time is a forever flowing constant, and Jisung definitely gets dragged along for the ride.

To make it worse, the apartment building's security guard was actually a guy named Wonpil, who may or may not be Jisung's brother's bandmate. So. There's that. Good news is that Jisung can now say he's made out with all of his brother's band mates.

A weird thing to keep in mind but, alright Jisung.

Then the front door opened.

And really, while Jisung would love nothing more than to keep slowly unbuttoning Wonpil's shirt from where he was perched on his desk- he knew everything he did was disappointing to his brother. Some are slightly more disappointing than others.

And really, Jisung is just not in the mood to be labeled a disappointment today.

So, with the little man handling ability he possesses and Wonpil's quick thinking, the man went into the closet as the college student went under his covers.

"Jisung?" His brother yelled out, Jisung faking a 'I just woke up and I'm tired of whatever the f*ck you're about to do already' groan while kicking off his pants and covering himself efficiently with the covers.

"Jisung!? What are you- oh." Brian had opened the door to Jisung's room, and took the other's messy hair and disheveled state as if just waking up from a nap. "Sorry. I'll talk to you when you wake up. I didn't mean to wake you." Then he's slowly closing the door again and going to his own room. Jisung didn't move for Wonpil until he was sure that Brian was gone, exhaling slightly.

"Why do you try so hard to hide from your brother anyways?" Wonpil whispered curiously, carefully stepping over the horror manga scattered across Jisung's floor. "You're like...an adult."

"An adult who can't adult and is living off of the paychecks he makes. And who also regularly sleeps with his friends. Shut up and sneak out my window, Wonpil." Jisung said, sighing and closing his eyes. He was so so so tired.

"I can't, there's a blizzard."

Jisung opened his eyes and peered out.

"I guess we're taking a nap then because no offense but I'm not gonna pick up where we left off."

"Cuddles?"

"...Don't you have a job?"

"f*ck. You're right." Wonpil pressed his ear up against the door.

"I guess sneaking out it is." He said, sighing. Jisung scoffed as he opened the door for him, gesturing for Wonpil to go out. Surprised at the big gestures, Wonpil hesitantly walked down the hall, grabbing his shoes and quietly closing the front door of the apartment. Jisung closed his own door again and got back under his covers for real this time, deciding to take a real nap.

"Jesus f*ck." He muttered to himself, unable to be surprised anymore by anything that anyone in this building pulled.

...then he realized Wonpil left his badge in his room by accident.

"Wow, you boys are so good in the kitchen I'm the one having trouble keeping up." Minho commented as he set the table, keeping an eye on his son and his new neighbor, Jeongin and Minho having basically invited themselves over to Hyunjin's house for the night- not that Hyunjin was complaining.

"Ah, please, you give compliments out too much. My cooking is simple." Hyunjin said with a giggle. Jeongin couldn't help but look disgusted at the sound that emitted from the other boy's mouth, before resuming cutting up some green onion.

"You know a lot of Japanese cooking?" Minho was surprised as he looked closer at what the two were making.

"Ah. Well, yeah, I guess so. My family just had the taste buds for it so I learnt it." Hyunjin said with a shrug. "I can cook Korean food too but since you guys said you lived in Japan for awhile I figured maybe…" he trailed off, looking hesitant. Minho smiled at the teenager's attempts to cater to the other two's taste buds.

"How thoughtful of you Hyunjin. I'm sure it'll taste great. And even if your cooking is simple like you said, that's still really sweet." Minho's dad mode was activated. He felt like there was something the other probably wasn't telling him but he had no idea for the life of him what. And honestly, Hyunjin was a little weird. If he wanted to keep something to himself, Minho would respect that privacy. Even if… in the few hours he knew Hyunjin, he was getting increasingly concerned about how the male had managed to take care of himself for this long.

Like now, where the lanky boy had nearly fallen over for the fourth time passing over the same piece of flooring Minho is sure he's warned him about at least two times. Definitely more.

"Hyunjin."

"Hm?"

"You're about to-"

Jeongin caught the boy before he stopped, Hyunjin tripping and falling backwards. He blinked in surprise, before laughing a little. "Oh dear. I'm really absent minded aren't I?" He said, exhaling as he got up from the younger's grasp.

Jeongin snorted. "Yeah. You're an idiot. Stop talking formally by the way I don't really care and my dad is brain-dead."

"Jeongin!" Minho held the bridge of his nose, exasperated. It was exhausting trying to get his kid to respect Korean language and cultural differences when it comes to formalities. "You can't say that even jokingly. They'll think it's rude." He said with a sigh.

Hyunjin couldn't help but laugh as he brought food over, Jeongin behind him.

"I don't mind, really. It's okay." Hyunjin said with a shrug, Jeongin setting down glasses for everyone.

"So how was unpacking?" Jeongin asked.

"Well, I'll be honest, all I could really do was put his furniture together." Minho admitted sheepishly. Hyunjin chuckled. "That's the hardest part for me though, so I should thank you actually."

"I was surprised you didn't have a lot of stuff to unpack? It only took a few hours for us to organize and unpack everything and clean it up." Minho commented, picking up his chopsticks and starting to eat. Hyunjin seemed to pause, chuckling a little awkwardly.

"Yeah, uh, I kinda rush packed. I had to leave immediately." Hyunjin didn't delve further as he picked at his rice. Minho noticed for every four bites Jeongin took, Hyunjin took one.

"Ah… well…" Minho looked around Hyunjin's apartment, trying to find a new topic to talk about. Then he noticed the snow. And how loud the wind had gotten. How violent.

"Man, that's one hell of a storm." Jeongin commented, sighing.

"Jeongin watch your language." Minho said noncommittally.

"We're going to get snowed in aren't we?" Jeongin asked.

"I'd be surprised if the snow reached the 14th floor." Hyunjin said with a small laugh. Then his landline rang. "Oh? What is that?" He asked, setting down his chopsticks and looking at the phone.

Minho laughed a little. "The phone?" He leaned over and picked it up, handing it to Hyunjin.

"Hello?" The teenager blinked. "Oh. I have a package? But who...ah. Maybe I forgot something then. I'll be down in a few minutes. Thank you…" he paused, realizing he didn't know any of the apartment staff's names. "...Wonpil. Ah, thank you Wonpil, I'll be down in a second."

He stared at the phone, unsure what to do with it, Minho taking it out of his hand and placing it back into the holder.

"I guess I should...go down then?" Hyunjin said awkwardly, getting up.

"Hey, why don't we all go down? I need to get me and Jeongin's mail anyways… we can come back up and finish our meal after." Minho offered. Hyunjin smiled. "Sure. I'm going to be honest I have no idea what I'm looking for." He admitted, getting up with the other two as he went to grab his shoes.

“Ah, of course, let’s just hit our apartment on the way down so that we can get our mail keys,” Minho said, chuckling.

”Is he tired?” Jeongin muttered to his father in Japanese, tilting his head. ”Or maybe just an idiot?”

Minho didn’t dignify his son’s words with a response, instead resorting to elbowing him in the ribs, Jeongin whining painfully as Hyunjin struggled with his sneakers for a few seconds. His movement seemed...uncoordinated. Slow. Like he couldn’t really properly pilot what he was doing. Was he thrown out? But Minho had helped the teenager unpack his things. Nothing showed any signs of drug use or something that would slow him down this much. The walk down the hall was mostly silent.

”I think maybe he’s starting to get sick,” Minho finally says in response to his son, unlocking his front door, “he reminds me of how you act when you have a cold.”

“How long did it take for you to learn Japanese?” Hyunjin asked, taking in their apartment. It was neat, but definitely lived in.

“Definitely longer than I think anyone would’ve liked.” Minho said with a chuckle. “It’s basically Jeongin’s native language, although I tried to speak only Korean to him at home. It took me awhile though, because I wasn’t used to tonal change or how slang works there.” Minho cleared his throat slightly, scratching the back of his neck. “Safe to say, work was a bit awkward.”

“Is Jeongin half-Japanese or…?” Hyunjin asked curiously, tilting his head. Minho was a little unsurprised at the question, but shocked at Hyunjin’s bold ask.

“Uh, well, full Korean. Korean citizen and everything, just raised in Japan.” Minho said. Jeongin poked his tongue out.

“I look Japanese though, don’t I?” Jeongin said with a sigh. Almost a little glumly. Hyunjin shrugged. “You look like a fox, but I wouldn’t say you look Japanese.” He responded. That answer seemed to be enough to uplift Jeongin. He led the group to the elevators, pressing the button.

“What about you?” Jeongin asked. “Any other languages you can speak?”

“A bit of Chinese, Mandarin.” Hyunjin said. “But that’s mostly because of a close family friend who lived in Beijing I think. Really wanted to take me and have me learn in a school abroad. Especially for school, actually, but at the time I wanted to go to a dance school so I didn’t.” Hyunjin said with a shrug. “Some English too but there’s no special story there. Almost everyone knows English nowadays.”

Minho hummed. “You wanted to dance?” He asked as the elevator doors slowly opened. The elevator was empty and the light was flickering. Minho briefly wondered if the people who worked here ever actually did sh*t.

“Yeah. I did dance for a while. Performed and competed and stuff.”

“Why’d you stop?”

“Injury.”

An expression flashed across Minho’s face that told Hyunjin the adult knew that pain all too well.

“Dad did dance in school I think too.” Jeongin supplied helpfully. “Dance sounds hard, but I bet you were a good dancer.” He shrugged. Hyunjin chuckled awkwardly. “Ah. No, no...I just uh...I practiced a lot. That’s all.” He said.

“Ah, I wish I could do something like dancing. I’m too lazy. I did martial arts in my old school, but they don’t offer the same clubs here. I think I’m gonna try out for track or one of the sports teams instead.” Jeongin said with a shrug. Hyunjin took a closer look at his future-peer. He actually was pretty athletic. He had a lot of muscle on him, and Hyunjin didn’t believe his words for a second when he referred to himself as lazy.

“Ah...track huh? I bet you work out. I’ve been trying to get the energy to but I don’t have the willpower.” Hyunjin whined, yawning slightly. The elevator dinged, signalling that they were on the ground floor, and Hyunjin stepped out and aside so that he would be close to the other two and not get lost. Not that the ground floor was crowded or anything. Most people were eating or lounging around now probably.

Hyunjin followed Jeongin and his father to the mail area, key in hand. He noticed two others on the floor that looked kind of weird. Well, multiple others, but they were the only ones in a pair. A man with a bomber jacket and jeans that were cut off at the bottom, and a slightly younger guy who seemed comfortable in sweats and a zip up hoodie, his converse worn and scribbled on, and his glasses looking to be the only neat thing about him. They seemed to be waiting for something, but Hyunjin quickly looked away when he made eye contact with the male in the bomber jacket, deciding it was better if he didn’t know.

“Wah, what’s that guy doing?” Jeongin gently hit the side of Hyunjin’s arm and pointed to a disheveled man, snickering. Whoever it was seemed to be poorly… flirting? Arguing? With the security guard behind the counter. They looked like they were about to punch each other in the face and then kiss, which… pretty accurately sums up Hyunjin’s expectations of anyone in this f*cking lobby anymore.

“Here. 1414. This is your mail Hyunjin.”

Minho’s voice rips Hyunjin out of his thoughts and he turns to see that somehow he’s ended up in front of a desk, a bunch of cubby like lockers, and an abandoned cart.

What were they doing?

Oh yeah, mail.

Hyunjin’s neighbors were so nice, spending the whole day with him.

“Ah. 1414. Thank you.” Hyunjin held up the key smiling. Then he frowned. “Ah, but I have a package. I don’t need to go to the desk for that?” He asked.

“Depends on how big. Do you know how big?”

“No idea.”

“Then...I guess check both.”

“Huh. Okay.”

Jeongin giggled at Hyunjin’s obvious confusion. “Have you never gotten a package? Or ordered anything for yourself?”

“No. I lived on a farm island. No one really sent me anything and I didn’t spend time online.” Hyunjin shrugged. Minho whistled. “And you moved to Seoul?” He asked. Hyunjin shrugged again.

“Okay. Well, we’ll go get our mail real quick. Meet back at the elevator?” Minho suggested, the teenager nodding. “Sounds good.”

Minho and Jeongin moved to their own mailbox, Hyunjin sighing as he finally opened his only to find it empty. Talking to the weird staff it is. He was cold- he had been since earlier, but he also was sweating, almost suffocatingly so. The room was hot. Was he coming down with something?

There was loud shouting that shocked Hyunjin out of his thoughts once again, head whipping around to see a little boy rushing towards a woman in a work uniform holding what looked like a delivery bag full of food. She laughed as he came to her, trying to quickly get rid of any of the snow on her person before she was inevitably hugged. The boy was...an odd one. He had a lot of freckles, and reddish brown hair. Maybe he’s not from around here? Hyunjin watched the two curiously. They obviously knew each other, but they didn’t look related.

“Felix be careful- I’m going to spill our drinks!” She seemed to chastise, but lovingly. The boy simply smiled and nodded, stumbling over his words (Hyunjin thinks he heard an ‘okay noona!’ but he’s not actually sure). They seemed to stop there, just talking for a bit.

When did the world get so...spinny?

Hyunjin felt like his head was vibrating a little, but he forced himself to pick up his body as he made his way to the desk. “Uh, hello?” He called out, not seeing anyone immediately.

The desk was...cold. Almost alarmingly so. Hyunjin backed away at the touch of it, shocked that it could get so cold indoors, especially with the heater cranked all the way up. Ah, but maybe it wasn’t like that for all floors of the apartment? They’re trying to do the most cost-efficient thing after all.

“Hello?” He called out again, glancing behind the desk. He glanced at the security officer’s desk, where the guy was still arguing with the security officer. He sighed, before heading over hesitantly.

“-why are you trying to talk about how I am in bed? I’m telling you my mailbox key doesn’t work!”

Wow. That’s...certainly an interesting conversation to walk in on.

“Jisung, you twist it the wrong way every time. And no, that wasn’t in reference to you in bed, that was talking about the key. I literally show you how to do it every damn time-”

“Uh, excuse me-”

Both heads turned to look at Hyunjin immediately, one looking mildly horrified for him walking in on their conversation, the other… checking him out. Wonderful.

“I can’t find the guy who’s supposed to be at that desk?” Hyunjin asked carefully, looking back and pointing. The two followed his finger to the desk, only for the security guard’s face to brighten up.

“Oh, Sungjin? The receptionist? That’s weird, he’s always behind that desk.” Wonpil comments, getting up. Hyunjin simply gives a shrug and nods, humming. “I’m new.” He says. “So, I wouldn’t know.”

“New?” The other man asks, raising his eyebrow. “Nice to meet you, I’m Jisung. What floor are you on, new resident?”

Hyunjin didn’t really know how to properly respond or react to the man. “Oh, uh, my name is Hyunjin. I’m on the 14th floor.” He said, sighing. “With uh…” he looked around before pointing to Minho and Jeongin, who were sitting on the bench, sorting through what looked like weeks of unsorted mail, Jeongin also checking his phone. Hyunjin wonders how long they waited to come down here, and why.

Jisung’s eyes seemed to darken slightly. “Oh, cool.” He said, clearing his throat and collecting his keyring he had so eloquently thrown on the desk just moments before.

“Cool?” Hyunjin mimics, tilting his head.

“Nothing, uh, welcome to our apartment building, I guess.” He smiled, but Hyunjin can see it’s strained, and hesitantly, Hyunjin smiles back.

“What do you think of that guy?” Changbin asks Seungmin, the two watching the male as he crosses the lobby to the other desk. He seems very quiet. Reserved.

“Seems like a shut in.” Changbin always starts with his opinion. His take tends to be wrong most the time, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Play around with it a little. Let Seungmin have his moment to shine.

Seungmin scoffed, following the same man Changbin was talking about. “Not by choice. Seems like someone who doesn’t know how to act in a conversation but uses that to his advantage. I bet you everyone finds him cute or some sh*t.” Seungmin says, biting at his thumbnail slightly without realizing it. “I overheard their conversation when they passed us. f*cker has no idea what he’s doing with a mailbox. Does know how to milk someone into being helpful though.” He said, scoffing slightly.

“A future sugarbaby in the making?” Changbin tilted his head. Seungmin shook his. “Sugar babies have confidence. He looks like he knows some sh*t he probably shouldn’t but doesn’t know how to function in normal society.” Seungmin says, and Changbin laughs at that. Knowing Seungmin, the f*cker is probably right.

They watched a delivery woman come through the front door and come to a little kid who seemed excited to see her. Changbin almost started up their conversation again, but he knows if they did this banter back and forth, Changbin would start to get annoyed.

Finally, a delivery person with the symbol of the chicken place they ordered from came in. “Oh thank f*ck. I hate waiting in this goddamn lobby.” Changbin murmured. Seungmin rose, carelessly swiping Changbin’s wallet from his jacket. It’s not like Changbin cared. Changbin usually pays anyways.

“Are you...Changbin and Seungmin?” the woman asked when she saw the two come up to her. Seungmin nodded. “How much again?” He asked, rifling through the cash and receipts in Changbin’s wallet, ignoring the more questionable ones for the sake of the woman. Changbin was right behind him, waiting to take their food.

“$27.58” She said, moving to reach for something in her pocket. Changbin took a closer look at her. Her skin was almost worryingly pale, and her lips were turning blue. Everything she did was slow. Like she was barely awake while doing it, and it was causing her to nearly drop their food.

“Hey, are you okay?” Changbin asked. His voice made it sound like he didn’t care, like he was more concerned because of how f*cking weird she looked, but at least the message of the question was mostly the same. The woman looked to him politely, smiling. “Of course. How can I help you?”

“We’re trying to pay you? For our food?” Seungmin said, furrowing his eyebrows at the odd behavior.

“Oh! Of course. Ha. You’ll have to forgive me, I’ve been scatterbrained all day.” The woman laughed a little, taking their money and tucking it into her pouch before handing over her delivery.

“Maybe you should sit down.” Changbin said, noticing that she was shivering- no, shaking in place. Her entire body was shaking so badly that she was having a hard time standing, and when she took off her gloves, he noticed that the tips of her fingers as well were blue.

“I think...that’s…”

Changbin didn’t say anything as the woman tried to respond, not wanting to speak over her.

He didn’t expect her to crumple, eyes widening as he dove to catch her before she hit the ground, shouting a loud “Jesus f*cking christ!” and trying to maneuver the woman’s now unconscious body onto his lap.

It took about five seconds for chaos to ensue.

First, it started with Seungmin kind of throwing, kind of setting their food on the ground and standing in shock, unsure what to do.

Then, it turned into Wonpil, the security guard, after not being able to find the receptionist, coming running towards the group of three, Hyunjin and Jisung behind him simply because they heard a shout and a loud sound.

Next, it was someone shouting to call an ambulance, and the woman being moved off of Changbin’s lap. She was so cold. Freezing.

Changbin only really registered the world again when someone yelled the words, “The call isn’t going through!”

His head snapped up, and he pulled out his own phone, trying to go to his own call app. He was shaking, an adrenaline rush shocking his system. He tried to dial 1339, but it wasn’t going through. The wind whipped at the building and he exhaled, closing his eyes tightly.

“Is it the blizzard?” He asked, to no one in particular.

“It might be.” Someone random replies. The security guard seems to be checking the woman over.

“I think it’s hypothermia.” He said, looking around. He noticed the other delivery woman. She seemed mostly unaffected by the cold.

“I-I need to get her an emergency blanket, but until then, we should be trying to contact emergency services.” Wonpil said to them.

“I don’t have any service.” Jeongin holds up his phone. “Which is weird, because I had service perfectly fine a minute ago.”

“The storm was making my tv weird, it could be that.” The little boy unhelpfully supplied, from where he was standing behind the other delivery woman, frightened.

Wonpil went to get what looked like a huge sheet of aluminum foil from the building’s emergency kit, wrapping it around the cold woman and bringing her to one of the heaters. Even after passing out, she didn’t look too good. She was still shivering, for one, which was disturbing to watch. The woman that was with the child picked him up and turned him away, not wanting him to see what was going on at all. He seemed very upset, frightened even- and Changbin could understand. Seeing someone drop from a gunshot wound or getting stabbed is entirely different than watching someone drop after they already kind of look like a corpse.

“Okay...Okay....” The security guard seemed stressed, running his fingers through his hair. He looked up at the people that were now amassed around the woman, swallowing down the lump in his throat. Anxiety was building up inside over this.

“Okay.” He exhaled.

“Everyone except you two.” He pointed to Changbin and Seungmin, waving his hand hazardously, “please return to your apartments. Hyunjin I have no Idea where Sungjin is right now, and as soon as I figure out where he is, I’ll try to get your package to you, and for you…” He turned to Sunmi.

“I regularly go up and take care of this one, so I’m going to his apartment with him and his older brother.” The delivery woman explained. Wonpil nodded. “Cool. Great. Wonderful. Everyone please return to your apartments now.” He said, the small crowd hesitantly moving to the elevators, unsure how to really process what just happened.

Of course, among the teenagers, hushed whispers were heard.

“What do you think made her collapse like that?” Hyunjin asked Jeongin as they filed behind Minho into the elevator, the two huddling into the corner a little, as they didn’t want the other man or the little kid and lady to overhear them. Minho seemed mostly unbothered by their conversation, if not double checking to make sure they weren’t as shaken up as he was.

“I don’t know. The other delivery lady seems fine though? She couldn’t have just gone into work and have worked like that. They would’ve noticed something right?” Jeongin whispered back, shrugging as he leaned back against the elevator railing. The LED light that showed what floor they were on seemed to go painfully slow as they slowly climbed the building’s level’s, space feeling cramped.

Hyunjin had never been more grateful when the other three got off before them, the woman and the child heading off in a different direction than the man.

“I kinda lost my appetite to finish dinner.” Jeongin admits when the elevator doors close. “And I don’t think I’m going to sleep well tonight. That was scary.”

Hyunjin’s shoulders sagged slightly. “That was scary. I didn’t even see her drop but walking in she seemed totally fine? And the before and after was so...scary. Like how did that happen so fast?” He asked, Minho sighing.

“I don’t know, but I hope she’s okay, and that we can contact emergency services soon. Maybe we’ll make some soup for Wonpil later, and the other boys down there- and the woman, whatever her name is, if she’s conscious at that point.” Minho suggested. He seemed exhausted.

“I am a bit tired though, and I have lost my appetite...we should probably take a nap or something, wait for data and the internet to come back online.” He said, sighing. Hyunjin nodded.

When they made it back to Hyunjin’s apartment, they opted to just clean the dishes, Minho making leftovers out of what he could for Hyunjin, the younger male thanking him. Jeongin suggested Hyunjin and him had a sleep over of sorts, and surprisingly, Hyunjin agreed. The first night in his apartment, and Hyunjin wouldn’t even be spending it there. No matter. He packed a bag for the journey two doors down and headed over to Minho and Jeongin’s apartment again, the three settling in as Jeongin showed Hyunjin his room.

Minho was kind of glad, because, after the events in the lobby, he was a little too stressed to keep Hyunjin and Jeongin out of his sight after, despite him literally only knowing one of them for one day. Sure, Hyunjin seems to be able to self sustain and can probably thrive in rural environments, but this was the city, and also whatever the f*ck just happened certainly shocked Jeongin. Minho knew Jeongin hated being alone, and liked having some company, and he was happy that his son had someone to hang out with for a little bit.

So while they settled in Jeongin’s room, Minho being able to hear the two easily (Hyunjin’s giggles and laughs easily being heard through the walls), Minho poured himself a cup of tea and tried to relax on the couch. Maybe take a nap. He was exhausted and he needed rest. It was slightly cold in the room, but temperature never really bothered Minho. He took a few sips of his tea and the problem was quickly fixed.

He exhaled and closed his eyes.

“Hey, Felix, baby, can you sit down at the table for me while I get your brother?” Sunmi asked the little boy, Felix nodding slowly. He didn’t really know how to process… what happened. He hoped the lady that fell asleep was okay, but she seemed really sick. And she scared him.

He heard Sunmi knock on his brother’s door, and his brother’s first words to her be about the frustrations of the blizzard because he couldn’t play his online games. They might’ve yelled a little. Felix tuned it out as he focused on the smell of the pizza and the sight of the boba tea. Hm. His favorite colors. The purple one.

A few minutes go by, and when Felix is tired of counting sheep and making interesting characters out of the shapes on the ceiling, Sunmi comes back with his brother in hand and they’re sitting down. She’s smiling, like they didn’t just yell at each other a lot, and Felix shrugs it off because he assumes it was about Chan’s games a lot. People yell at Chan over his games all the time. It makes Chan a little sad, but apparently he shouldn’t be playing games for as long as he does. It could make him sick.

Sick.

Felix thinks back to the convulsing woman on the floor of the lobby. He doesn’t want his brother to end up like that.

“Are you okay?” Chan asks, no, it’s a little weirder. Like he’s asking, but Felix isn’t sure if he should really respond or not. Felix shakes his head anyways, kicking his feet.

“We saw a sick lady in the lobby.” He fumbles in Korean, accent thick, but he’s determined to get it right. He has to get it right. He can’t depend on people to speak English for him forever.

“She started…” Felix doesn’t know the word in either language so he sets down his pizza and mimicked the movement, frowning after. “...and her lips turned blue.” He said. “It was scary.”

Chan looked between Felix and Sunmi. “Like Hypothermia?” He asked the older woman, who shrugged. “I guess so. I only saw glimpses of it- I tried to cover Felix’s eyes, but it was too late. I feel bad for the guys who were right there though. They talked to her and everything right before it happened. I’m sure they’re a little messed up from it.” Sunmi said, sighing. She looked to Felix.

“It was scary, but sometimes scary things happen like that yeah? We just gotta try and work through it.” She said, offering him a smile.

Felix smiled back, before taking his boba tea and sipping on it, smiling at his brother as well. Chan smiled back before digging into his own pizza slice, gesturing for Felix to keep eating.

For a moment, Felix thought he saw Sunmi’s lips turn blue.

Jisung’s apartment was cold. Almost weirdly cold. Brian had figured out Jisung was awake after all, and before Jisung had ended up going down to try and solve his mailbox problem, Brian (after a lot of arguing) had told his brother that he was going to drop off something with Sungjin. Maybe hang out, maybe not. He’d be long, but not long enough that Jisung would be worried, or anything.

No, Jisung wasn’t worried.

“Brian? Jesus f*ck, it’s freezing in here. What the f*ck are you doing?”

Jisung went to turn up the temperature, moving into the hall of his apartment so that he could aggressively spam click the button on the digital monitor. According to the monitor though, the apartment is 93°.

That can’t be right.

Jisung is f*cking freezing.

Why was it that high in the first place?

“Brian?”

Jesus f*ck why was it so cold in here?

Jisung moved through the hall, hand on his brother’s doorknob. He heard a loud THUNK and paused.

“If you and Sungjin are f*cking right now I’m gonna be mad you’re making me worried!” Jisung shouted, unsure if he should still open the door at this point or not. He did anyway, carefully pushing the door open.

His brother was on the ground, much like the woman in the lobby. He was pale, lips and fingers blue. Seizing almost, convulsing. Jisung gasped as he moved back, not sure if he should go towards his brother or wait it out. He remembers the way the security guard got a blanket for the woman after she finished having a mini dance-off with herself on the floor. Carefully, Jisung stepped over his brother and tried to get to his bed as quickly as possible, grabbing the comforter off of it and waiting until Brian stopped shaking. The convulsing seemed to mostly stop, just turning into small shakes, but it was clear he was passed out, and he was cold.

As Jisung wrapped a blanket around him he could feel that he was freezing to the touch.

“Younghyun.” He murmured, slapping his brother’s cheeks gently. “Younghyun wake up.”

Brian stopped moving completely, eyes closing. Jisung gasped softly, carefully moving his fingers between his brother’s jaw and the blanket so that he could get to his neck. A pulse. He just needed a pulse, right?

Jisung felt and felt for one, but all he felt was how cold his brother’s skin was against his hand. Nothing pulsed. Nothing gave a beat. Nothing so much as even hummed. Brian was completely still.

And that was when Jisung started to panic.

“Oh my f*cking god. Oh my god.”

Did his brother just die in their apartment? From a case of super fast immediate hypothermia? Jesus christ. What the f*ck?

“Younghyun please wake up.” Jisung gently shook him, tears coming as they rolled down his cheeks involuntarily. “Younghyun.”

Brian wouldn’t budge.

“Oh my god, oh my f*cking god.”

Jisung started to sob, shaking his brother with any might he could muster, tears free falling at this point. His brother couldn’t die on him. What the f*ck? This was so many levels of f*cked up and Jisung did not know how to react to any of it.

He fell back, moving away slightly from his brother’s body, sobs filling the room. “Oh my god.”

What does he even do in this situation?

He can’t call for help. There’s no access to the internet or data right now.

Right as Jisung started to spiral, Younghyun opened his eyes. Jisung froze in place, too scared he was imagining it. “Younghyun?” He said slowly, fear evident in his voice.

The man seemed to shake slightly with each movement made, sluggish as he tried to lift himself up from the ground. Jisung watched fearfully, not even making a sound as his brother slowly rose to be on his legs, hunched over, leaning slightly. Like he could barely stand.

He finally seemed to notice Jisung was in the room, the man letting out a fearful whimper when Younghyun fixed his eyes on him, tilting his head.

“This is very not f*cking cool. Please stop.” Jisung said, scooting back only to hit Younghyun’s desk. He noticed how a thin layer of frost seemed to appear around every step Younghyun made on the floor board, and Jisung really didn’t want to know what would happen if Younghyun ended up walking near him or worse.

Brian got closer and Jisung crawled away through the hall, his gut instinct telling him that the pale lunatic that had no pulse was not his brother. Brian lunged at him and swung, Jisung barely avoiding being tackled to the ground, letting out a very audible yell. He threw back a textbook and scrambled to his feet, looking around for anything he could use.

The iron? The iron!

Younghyun seemed to be relentless, swinging at Jisung, Jisung unsure how he managed to dodge this many attempts on his life in a row now. He stopped in front of the ironing board, grabbing the iron and flicking the switch, waving it in front of Younghyun’s face.

“Come near me! I dare you!” He yelled, the iron making that weird steam noise that it makes, you know, as an iron does.

Then the light flickered.

Younghyun and Jisung both looked up.

Jisung could hear the refrigerator turn off as the light turned off. Everything turned off, actually. The electricity went out. He exhaled. “You gotta be f*cking kidding me.” He murmured, deciding to pull on the plug, throwing the iron at his brother before attempting to make his getaway through the front door.

He barely managed to slam it in his brother’s face in time, a loud BANG taking place right where Jisung’s body was moments before. Jisung started to hyperventilate, running towards the building’s inside stairs, the large door slamming behind him as he started the journey to the ground floor.

The lights flickered, and then the electricity went out.

“Oh you’re f*cking kidding me.” Changbin muttered, pulling out a cigarette and a lighter. He put the cigarette between his lips, before glancing at Seungmin. The other didn’t really like him smoking. Granted, Changbin didn’t really care, because he saw Seungmin smoke occasionally as well. The only thing that was stopping him was that he had no idea how good this building’s ventilation system was. Not that he really cared.

He flicked the lighter on for a second.

Then off.

They were in darkness again.

On, where the only thing you could see were the shadows of Seungmin and Changbin’s faces, and the movement of Wonpil, the security officer.

Off, where the blizzard’s winds got increasingly loud when they were all you could focus on.

On, where Wonpil came back, saying he had flashlights…

...off.

Wonpil flicked the flashlight on and it took Changbin’s eyes a moment to adjust to the light, blinking slowly. “Jesus f*ck.” He muttered, covering his eyes slightly.

“Where...where did she go?” Wonpil asked, nervous. Changbin tilted his head, a bit confused. “Where did who go?” He looked over to the delivery woman under the emergency blanket only to find out that she was indeed not there.

“Oh. f*ck. Where did she go?” He repeated, catching the flashlight Wonpil tossed at him and turning it on, aiming it around the now desolate lobby. It looked weird, seeing it so empty and dark.

“Nothing is dead until it’s warm.” Seungmin muttered, taking his own flashlight and turning it on. “It’s possible she’s still alive.”

“We didn’t have a pulse.” Wonpil reminds him.

“Still, possible. Rare, but possible.”

“She couldn’t have gotten far. She was literally freezing.” Wonpil said, running his fingers through his hair.

“We’ll look around.” Changbin tried to awkwardly reassure the man, but he was too stumped on trying to figure out how the woman even managed to slip away without anyone noticing. “What the f*ck was her name?” He said, after a few beats of silence.

“I never got a chance to check for her ID.” Wonpil replied from across the lobby.

“Cool.” He responded, watching Seungmin head towards the elevators. He headed towards the stores and shops indeed, letting his flashlight flicker over the store windows.

“Hey lady!” Changbin shouted as he walked around, trying to look for anything that seemed even slightly off. The stores looked untouched. Where the f*ck was she anywas? It’s not like she could’ve gone a lot of places.

Then Changbin hears a scream that sounds an awful lot like that security guard.

He turned around, running back, trying to focus his flashlight on something- anything. It was hard to pinpoint where the noise was coming from because it was a mix of screaming and what sounded like almost heavy breathing.

“Seungmin!”

“They’re near the office!”

The security guard’s office, Changbin assumes. He tries to focus his flashlight in that direction and sure enough...well, okay, Jesus f*ck- that’s-

The woman is almost completely blue, with her hands red. They’re definitely covered in blood, Changbin realizes, as she hovers over the security guard, who’s hunched over on the floor. Changbin has the gut feeling he was a bit too late. She turned, almost painfully slow, Changbin backing away.

He saw the fire department’s emergency axe in glass on the wall behind her, and realized if he wanted to have any sort of chance of getting his and Seungmin’s asses out of here, he needed to get a weapon.

“Warm…”

She swung, and he rolled, causing her to miss, but come uncomfortably close to hitting him.

“Seungmin!” He yelled, panicked, launching himself over the security guard’s desk to find maybe a set of keys or a-

A hammer. That works.

“I’m on it!” Seungmin yelled, but just from the distance and the time it took him to respond, Changbin knew Seungmin was too far away to do anything. The woman screamed and lunged forward, Changbin unable to dodge her in a fast enough fashion, crying out as he got scratched deeply on his left arm. He acted fast, hitting her in the face with the hammer and jumping over the desk again, wincing at the new stinging pain in his arm. It stung, but it also burned, and it f*cking hurt to move around.

The delivery service woman (although Changbin figured if her management team saw her now, she’d probably be fired for poor customer service) screeched, swinging at Changbin again, Changbin rolling back. He can only roll so many times before his back decides to give out.

He hit the glass hard with the hammer, ignoring the inevitable cuts he’d get as he reached in for the axe, pulling it out with ease. The woman lurched at him moving spastically.

Changbin raised the axe, about to strike, but something hit her from behind before he could instead. She crumpled, and Changbin looked at her body in shock, before looking up to see Seungmin with a now broken pot, and what looks like dirt and a plant on the floor. Changbin walked over slowly, wincing at the way his body ached, bending and picking up his flashlight.

“Stairs?” He asked Seungmin.

“Stairs.” Seungmin nodded, the two quickly making their way to the building’s stairs.

They heard someone coming down, but they didn’t expect it to be the guy from earlier in the lobby. He looked almost as panicked as Changbin felt, although, Changbin probably looked more put together than this guy did.

“Don’t go upstairs!” The man shrieked, panicked eyes wide. “My brother just tried to-”

“-kill you?” Changbin guessed, pain in his arm growing slightly. It stung so bad. A silence fell over the people in the stairway, but Jisung slowly nodded. “How did you know?” He seemed to relax a bit, but was still tense. Understandably so.

“The delivery woman in the lobby just killed the security guy.” Seungmin said, zipping up his hoodie. “And tried to kill us, in the process.”

Changbin supposes the two should be a lot more freaked out on surface level, but they’re more just shocked. What kind of batsh*t hypothermia makes you kill people?

“What’s your name again?” Changbin asked.

“Uh, Jisung.” Jisung said, exhaling slowly. “It’s Jisung, why?”

“Where’s your brother?”

“The...the 12th floor.”

“Is there anyone else from the lobby on the 12th floor?” Changbin asked. Jisung tilted his head. “From earlier…?” He started to shake his head, before his eyes grew wide with shock.

“Oh my god.”

He started running up the stairs again, not waiting for Changbin and Seungmin, who looked confused. Seungmin stared at Changbin and Changbin shrugged.

“The little boy lives on my floor!” Jisung shouted down.

All three started to run up to the 12th floor doors.

Felix likes when Chan comes out of his room, even if Sunmi has to force him out sometimes. Because then Felix can force himself into his brother’s lap and make him stay out longer, and Chan won’t complain because Sunmi is still there with them. It works out perfectly for Felix. His brother is super warm too, which is nice, because since going down and getting pizza, Felix has noticed the rooms are all really cold. Which is why, like now, he had a blanket that he was comfortably under, wiggling a little so that he could wrap himself around Chan’s body. Chan, who had one arm around Felix, and was using the other to read something on his phone.

Ms. Sunmi had to use the restroom, but she was taking so long that Felix wondered briefly if she had a stomach ache. Is she sick?

No, maybe she just had a lot of pizza.

“What are you reading?” Felix asked his brother curiously. “Are you talking to your friends?” He asked.

“No Lixie.” Chan replied. “I can’t. We’re offline right now. I’m reading something I downloaded.” He said, not tearing his eyes away from the screen. Felix nodded, pretending like he understood.

“Oh.” He said, humming.

“Are you still cold?” Chan asked, adjusting how he and Felix were laying slightly. Felix nodded. “And sleepy.” He said, sniffing. Chan sighed. “C’mon bub. Let me make you some fruit tea okay? You’ll feel better after.” He said, throwing his phone aside and picking up Felix, filling up a pot with water and putting it on the stove, turning it on. Felix didn’t like leaving the blanket behind.

“Do you want to sleep in my bed tonight until this ugly storm goes away?” Chan asked, ignoring the way Felix’s kicked feet would hit his side. Felix nodded, and so Chan carried him back through the hall, and into his room. Felix rarely went into his room often. Chan barely came out of his room. Despite this, he also rarely used his bed. It was virtually unused as Chan set him down, tucking him in underneath the covers.

“I’ll be back with your tea in a little bit, okay bub?” Chan said, Felix nodding, and making small grabby hands. Chan laughed as he reached for one of his hoodies, knowing the boy liked to sleep with an oversized shirt of some sort on.

Felix wondered if Chan would come back and hug him before he fell asleep. He was really warm. He also just generally liked getting hugs from his brother and Sunmi. He liked when they took him to the park too. He wondered if after the storm he'd be able to go.

Right as he was dozing off, he heard a thump against the wall. He opened his eyes, yawning. Was that Chan? Maybe he just dropped something. Felix turned so that he was facing the wall, snuggling further into his brother's blankets, liking how soft the hoodie was around him.

He was about to really, properly fall asleep again, but there was another loud object hitting the wall. Did Chan hit something? Felix sat up, unsure if he should get out of the bed.

"Channie?" He called out, voice soft. He rubbed his eyes carefully, sniffing. He was so tired. He wanted to go to bed.

He slipped out, getting in his brother's too big slippers and slowly sliding to the bedroom door, hand on the handle. He sniffed, listening in the hallway. He didn't hear anything. At all, really. It was weird.

He opened the door slightly, unsure if he would get in trouble for being out of bed.

"Channie?" He asked again, poking his head into the hallway. His vision was quickly blocked and a force pushed him back in the room, Felix yelling out as he heard the door slam.

"Felix! Felix calm down! It's just me!" Chan talked over his younger brother, picking him up and covering his mouth. Felix yelled a little, kicking out.

"Felix! Calm down!" Chan whispered, locking the door and scooting to the other end of the room, his brother being inevitably (yet carefully) dragged with him. It took a few moments, but eventually, Felix seemed to listen, looking up to his brother fearfully. Chan motioned for him to stay quiet, and Felix nodded. Slowly, Chan removed his hand from his mouth.

"Stay quiet okay?" Chan said, Felix nodding.

"What was going on with the woman in the lobby? Say it to me in English." Chan said, and Felix crawled so that he was facing his brother, sitting halfway on his lap.

"I didn't see clearly." he said, frowning.

"It was another delivery lady, like Sunmi, but with a different restaurant. She was talking to two guys and her lips and fingers were blue. And she was shaking a lot and then she fell. She looked really cold." Felix said, clutching Chan's shirt.

"Did she get back up after she fell?" Chan asked. Felix shook his head. "I don't think so."

There was a loud thump on the door and Felix yelped in surprise, burying himself in his brother's side as much as possible.

"Where's Ms. Sunmi?" Felix asked.

"She's sick." Chan responded, wrapping his hands protectively around Felix. "Don't make a lot of sound, okay?"

Felix nodded, shutting his eyes and wrapping his arms around his brother tight.

"Jesus christ it's freezing up here." Hyunjin says, glad he changed into sweats and a hoodie, slipping under the comforter of the set up he and Jeongin had made on the ground.

"Yeah, I'm f*cking freezing." Jeongin muttered, sighing. He shook his head, yawning slightly as he curled up under his own comforter.

"Heat rises too, shouldn't we be like, so warm we're stripping?" Hyunjin whined, yawning slightly.

"You're so f*cking weird." Jeongin giggled, sighing as he sat up. "But yeah, we should be. Like, super warm at least. I have a portable generator and a heater, we can use those for a bit." Jeongin suggested, moving over to his closet and pulling the things out. "Oh thank f*ck." Hyunjin said, crawling from underneath his covers to go and help the other. On the bare floor, in the corner of Jeongin's room (the corner that isn't covered with his weird horror game and manga obsession), they set up the generator and heater, Hyunjin sighing in relief once it's on. "Oh, this is a life saver. Thank you so much." He muttered to Jeongin, smiling.

"Of course." Jeongin giggled. "Let's see if there are any offline games we can play or something while we wait for the internet to come back online." He said, humming.

"But don't you need the tv to be plugged in?" Hyunjin asked, confused.

"Not for things like DS games or for my switch." Jeongin explained. "And we even have some laptop games too. That'll die faster though."

"Hmmm...I'm down for anything honestly. I can beat your ass at pacman and probably only pacman." Hyunjin said, laughing. Jeongin snorted, looking through his games. "I think I have that one somewhere."

Hyunjin looked at the things around Jeongin's room, humming. He had a lot of posters up. When Hyunjin and Jeongin had first talked about their school activities, Hyunjin assumed that Jeongin was just an athletic kid. They probably wouldn't have gotten along very easily because Hyunjin, while semi-athletic, wasn't huge on sports. Sure he had a farm family and he did dance but those two things are not at all correlated to things like basketball or track. He did like games though, and comics. Even though most of everything Jeongin owned was in Japanese, Hyunjin recognized a few series that he owned.

"Ah, you like this?" Hyunjin asked, holding up an issue of the claymore manga. Jeongin looked up, before smiling. "Yeah. It's uh...one of my favorite series actually." He said, chuckling. "I think I actually have some of that comic in Korean, maybe." He said, looking around. Hyunjin flipped through the pages. He understood some of the characters, but it was the Chinese characters he got, and even then, it wasn't very many. Jeongin handed over a Korean issue of one of the earlier chapters of the series.

"Which one is this?" He asked.

"12." Jeongin answered. Hyunjin flipped through it as well, yawning slightly. He fixed his phone flashlight so that it wouldn't move too much, starting to read the manga. He heard Jeongin's game very faintly in the background, Jeongin humming to himself as Hyunjin read.

"Which apartment number?" Changbin whispered, the three now in the hall of the 12th floor, walking slowly so as to not make too much noise.

"12...well I know it's either 03 or 05." Jisung supplied semi-unhelpfully. Changbin and Seungmin looked back at him and he huffed out. "What? He's not my f*cking kid I don't know anyone on my floor." Jisung said, Changbin rolling his eyes.

"03 is closer so, here we go, I guess." Changbin said, grip tightening on the axe. He turned the doorknob, unsurprised when it was locked. He knocked on the door, hiding his axe behind his back.

"Hello?" He called out. "We're uh. Safety and health inspection team." He shouted, looking back to Jisung and Seungmin unsurely.

"Changbin, break the f*cking door down." Seungmin said, annoyed. Changbin sighed.

"It was worth a try." He said, raising the axe and bringing it down harshly on the door knob. He was surprised that it worked. He kicked the door down, immediately shivering.

"Jesus christ." Jisung muttered. "It's freezing in here."

"It probably shouldn't be." Seungmin murmured, moving behind Changbin.

"Yeah." Changbin's grip on the axe tightened. He looked around the apartment as he stepped in, the only thing filling the silence being the violent winds outside attacking the sides of the building. Changbin felt weird stepping inside. He shouldn't be intruding like this. But with the way frost was left on the walls and floors, he knew something had happened here as well.

They passed by the kitchen, and glancing in, Changbin saw a pot of water that was still boiling. "They must've been awake when the electricity went out." He said, seeing the pizza box and empty boba tea cups.

Jisung went over to the pot, turning the stove off. He nodded to Changbin who kept moving into the hallway. The bathroom door had been ripped halfway off of it's hinges, bathroom destroyed to bits.

"Jesus…" he muttered.

The door at the end of the hall was opened. It looked like a little kids room.

Yeah, he's gonna try the closed door first.

He twisted the doorknob. Thankfully, it was unlocked. He pushed the door open a little, seeing a normal bedroom with...one hell of a gaming desk setup- and with two people huddled in the corner.

Or, well, a man, and a child huddled in the corner. Changbin relaxed slightly, walking in and coming into the room, the man holding the child tightly.

"Who are you? Did you...what did you do to her??" He seemed frightened.

"Who?" Changbin asked.

"Sunmi? She...she was sick. And I thought she was dead...but she's not… she's not human anymore." The man murmured, holding the child tightly against him. The boy seemed to hear what he said, tilting his head.

"What do you mean Sunmi isn't human?" The little boy asked, confused. "You said she was sick."

"She is." He said absentmindedly.

"You're from the lobby aren't you? Did the woman down there turn into one of those...ceiling things too?" He asked.

"What?" Changbin furrowed his eyebrows. Chan looked as confused as he did.

"Ceiling thing?"

"You mean you didn't…?" Chan trailed off as he gasped slightly, clutching his brother close to his body, looking behind Changbin.

"Changbin."

Seungmin's voice was small. It was never small. Seungmin was a very confident person, most of the time, even when panicked. Slowly, Changbin turned around, gripping his axe tightly.

Ah, the ceiling thing.

Now that he could see what Chan was talking about, it made a lot more sense.

He recognized the once-delivery woman from the lobby, that had been holding the little boy's hand the entire way up as they moved up together.

Well…

...she certainly wasn't human anymore.

She was a lot like the woman Changbin and Seungmin had encountered in the lobby. Pale. Sluggish with most movements except for when she was attacking. The tips of her fingers and her lips were blue, and she was sweating.

But she was...mutated. The woman had another set of arms and was climbing along the ceiling. Shivers wracking her body and sending her slightly forward. No one moved, and she climbed around like she was testing something. Moving between the doorway, and the hallway, hovering right over Seungmin.

"Warm…" she croaked, hair touching Seungmin's head, Seungmin covering his mouth with his free hand. He looked to Changbin, panicked. Seungmin was scared.

Why hasn't she attacked yet?

If it was just because of the boy she would've still been able to kill them and not him. She moved further into the room, pausing again.

Felix and Chan huddled together, Chan's hand clamped over Felix's mouth, tears silently running down his face as the little boy started to cry as well.

Not Sunmi moved around the room a little, moving slowly, like it was a pain to move at all. She stopped over Changbin, the short man gripping his axe tightly. She hovered over Changbin, head tilting up.

She was staring right at him.

He stared back.

"Warm…" she gurgled out again, moving to the cold area.

That's when it hit Changbin.

She was blind.

He looked to Seungmin, taking his free hand and gesturing wildly to his eyes. 'She can't see!' he mouthed, trying to get the message across.

'What?' Seungmin mouthed back, tilting his head and squinting.

'She's blind!' Changbin mouthed back, pointing to his eyes. He was so glad no one could see him right now. He felt stupid, doing this.

'like, blind?' Seungmin closed his eyes and thrusted his arms out, making the action of feeling for something. Sunmi turned her head, and he opened his eyes and froze, holding his breath, and hesitantly looking to Changbin, who gave him a nod and a thumbs up.

Chan slowly got up, being careful not to make any noise. He carried Felix with him, the boy crawling up onto Chan carefully, reaching up. Chan didn't notice, but Changbin did, quickly pushing down his hand before he grabbed Sun-mi's hair, glaring at him. He softened a little when he saw the boy was crying, but still. He could've gotten them killed in a few seconds.

Chan tucked Felix's hand under his arm, silently moving into the hallway near Seungmin. Seungmin moved for them to leave the apartment, but Felix cried out suddenly, screaming Sunmi's name.

Sunmi screeched in response, scrambling at almost inhuman inhuman speed, leaving an indent in the doorway where Seungmin had been only a moment before.

"Duck!" A voice shouted, Seungmin and Chan listening, hitting the ground quickly.

Changbin didn't see exactly what happened, but he heard what sounded like something being splashed, and an inhuman screech.

"f*ck! Changbin!" Jisung cried out, Changbin already making his way to the hallway, Chan moving to the side with Felix under him, hunched down.

Jisung fell back, the now empty pot clattering to the ground as the creature lurched forward, landing on and crushing the floorboard where Jisung had been standing previously, Jisung screaming out as he swung the pot wildly, not really landing any hits except for one to the jaw. Sunmi seemed undeterred, screeching loudly.

Changbin acted fast, swinging the axe down. He didn't give it a second thought. The creature screamed again, louder than before. She convulsed in place, starting to crawl up the wall again. The axe fell to the ground and Changbin went to pick it up, slashing at one of her arms, the mutated woman screaming out in pain and crawling along the ceiling hurriedly, trying to escape into the kids room. Changbin was right behind her, and behind him, Seungmin had grabbed the pot.

The hallway was silent, Jisung unmoving, as his eyes fixed on the doorway of what he assumed to be Felix's room. Then, loud screeching. Inhuman screeching.

A lot of contact sounds, someone possibly falling. Jisung scrambled to get closer to Felix and Chan, Chan getting to his feet with Felix. "We need to get into the hall." Jisung said, Chan nodding and adjusting the way he held Felix, leading the way out.

Jisung followed him out, the two almost ridiculously close.

Felix was crying silently, sniffing as Jisung told Chan to head for the stairs.

It didn't take them long to move, starting up the stairs.

"Where are we going?" Chan asked, letting Jisung move to go in front of him.

"Up." Jisung said, leading him and Felix up the stairs.

“At least until Changbin finds us.”

"This isn't smart." Seungmin said, watching Changbin closely.

"It doesn't matter. She's going to bleed out and die anyways."

Changbin had the creature pinned down, flicking his lighter on, and off.

On… he moved it closer to what was left of the delivery woman, the creature sluggishly trying to get closer to the flame subconsciously. When the flame grazed her skin she seemed shocked, falling flat against the floor.

Off. She was having a hard time breathing, it coming out in spaced out wheezes. Changbin looked up to Seungmin, blood splattered across his face from where he had gotten her down on the ground. Seungmin was afraid, and Changbin didn't like seeing the expression on his face, but, well, it was understandable considering the circ*mstances.

On. Sunmi-creature struggled under Changbin's boot, trying to get out from under the man. "Warm…" she croaked, reaching out for terrified Seungmin, who jerked back suddenly, hitting the wall.

Off. Changbin threw the lighter into his pocket, tightening his grip on the axe and raising it, swinging down as harshly as he could. The creature stopped moving.

Seungmin looked up to Changbin, fear in his eyes as the man stared back, numb.

"Let's go." He said, getting up.

Seungmin followed him out of the apartment.

"What the f*ck is that noise?" Hyunjin asked, groaning. They'd been hearing screaming for a worryingly long time. It was distant enough to be a video game, but the internet hadn't come back online yet.

"I dunno. Maybe it's an offline game of some sort? But it's really loud. Is it the people below us?" Jeongin asked, and Hyunjin shook his head, sighing. "It sounds more distant. But who knows. My sound perception is sh*t." Hyunjin said, shrugging. He felt around for his water bottle, instead hitting his backpack and having the contents spill out.

Jeongin flashed a flashlight at the mess. "A smoker?" He commented, scoffing. Hyunjin shoved the items back into his backpack, cigarette pack included.

"Quitting...kinda." Hyunjin sighed, Jeongin raising his eyebrows. "That looked new. And half empty." He said.

"Kinda." Hyunjin repeated.

Jeongin shrugged. "Everyone smokes. If you're not quitting it's fine." He said, shifting under the covers.

"In Japan maybe." Hyunjin snorted.

"Yeah but I mean, you like, hung out with schoolmates and they did sh*t like that all the time right? I pierced my septum with my friends." Jeongin said, lifting his hand to reach up and flip down his piercing. Hyunjin was shocked, but smirked.

"It looks nice though. It suits you." He complimented, and Jeongin laughed a little, flipping it back up.

"Thanks. I wanted to do tattoos and piercings and stuff like that for awhile but… I'm better at athletic sh*t anyways." Jeongin said with a shrug. "Plus, I want to become a teacher one day, I gotta have piercings that are easy to hide for that."

"Any tattoos?" Hyunjin asked, tilting his head. "A couple. Small ones, all stick and poke. You?"

"Mmm. A couple." Hyunjin chuckled. The two were now sitting criss-cross applesauce, across from each other, a collection of manga they had read and other items scattered across the covers, Hyunjin leaning his head against his hand while Jeongin fiddled with some sort of fidget toy. Hyunjin learned his new friend liked having something to do with his hands. His phone had a keychain of small plastic colored balls that clinked together.

The wind hit Jeongin's window so violently that Jeongin jumped, Hyunjin laughing a bit. "Jumpy?" He asked, pulling his knees up to his chest, and wrapping his arms around his legs.

"I don't like things like jumpscares." Jeongin says softly, chuckling.

A silence falls between them, and soon, Jeongin gets too uncomfortable with just the wind to keep the silence going.

"Where's your parents?" Jeongin asked. There was another silence.

"They told me to tell anyone who asked that they were dead." Hyunjin answered. "But they're still alive. On a stupid seaweed farm somewhere. Probably withering away in their same old stupid f*cking house." There was no bite behind his words. There was a sad tone behind it though. Jeongin caught on.

"What did you do for them to do that? To throw you out like that?" He asked. Hyunjin sighed.

"I kissed a boy in the barn." He huffed out.

"That's it?"

"I mean, I'm a general disappointment to a family of shady seaweed farmers, but it was the deal breaker." Hyunjin said, sighing.

“Shady seaweed farmers?” Jeongin scoffed. “What does that even mean? That sounds like… an array of issues.”

“And you’re probably spot on for every single one of them.” Hyunjin said with a snort, sighing.

Jeongin looked mildly confused, and concerned, but didn’t press further.

“So, You don’t really have a lot of friends then huh?” He said, raising an eyebrow. Hyunjin shrugged. “I had one friend, but he was really weak and sick and died. So, no I didn’t. None to uh, pierce my septum with, or anything crazy like that.” He said, chuckling awkwardly.

“I have great news for you.” Jeongin grinned, jokingly slinging his arm over Hyunjin’s shoulders. Hyunjin laughed. Jeongin squinted.

“Wait! You liar! You totally have a tongue piercing!” He gasped, pointing his flashlight at Hyunjin’s mouth.

“Oh- that?” Hyunjin said, lowering Jeongin’s flashlight. “That doesn’t count. I did that myself in my bathroom in middle school. I was grounded for a month after.” He said, covering his mouth instinctively. He couldn’t help but laugh at Jeongin’s attempts to see inside his mouth though, and indulged the other, sticking his tongue out.

“See?” His words were muffled, but Jeongin laughed at his actions, nose scrunching up. “Gross. Your breath stinks. Go brush your teeth, Hwang.” He said, pushing Hyunjin back gently. Hyunjin laughed, opting to curl closer to their pillows instead.

“We should actually get some sleep.” He said, yawning a little and stretching.

“You’re right. I’m getting tired anyways. I’m pretty sure my dad passed out on the f*cking couch.” Jeongin said with a snort, getting under the covers. Hyunjin chuckled, curling up under the covers as well, and closing his eyes.

He wondered if Minho was as warm as they were inside Jeongin’s room.

“He almost got us killed.” Changbin said, pointing to Felix.

“I’m sorry.” Felix looked like he was about to cry, gripping his brother’s shirt tightly. They had started to head down to the 6th floor, where Changbin and Seungmin’s apartment was, because Changbin needed to do something about his arm injury, and Seungmin and Jisung were ill equipped for the cold.

“He’s just a kid. Besides, he knows not to yell like that again, right?” Chan protested, before sending a warning look to Felix, who quickly nodded, before bursting into tears.

“What happened to Ms. Sunmi?” He was speaking a mix of English and Korean, making everything he said heavily accented, and hard to understand for most adults in the room.

“Who’s Sunmi?” Jisung asked, tilting his head. “Can I borrow this?” He then asked, holding up a turtleneck and a corduroy color block jacket that Seungmin owned, but never wore. Seungmin nodded, and Jisung immediately stripped off his button up- only to put it on over the black turtleneck again, before fitting on the jacket over all of it.

“It’s f*cking freezing in here.” Changbin muttered, exhaling.

“Electricity is down. Heater is off. Got any pants?” Chan asked sheepishly, Changbin looking at the other’s legs only for him to realize that he made his escape carrying Felix in basketball shorts. “Yeah. Uh, I- and Seungmin, one of us should have a pair of jeans or something lying around. Help yourself to clothes, I guess. Layers are important.” Changbin said awkwardly, clearing his throat. Seungmin came over to him with a first aid kit, Changbin shrugging off his now ruined jacket and shirt.

“This is a position I’m a little too comfortable taking over again.” Seungmin muttered, opening the first aid kit and rifling through it. “Let me see the wound on your arm.” He said, ignoring Changbin’s small hiss, as he grabbed his arm.

He gasped softly when he saw the gash in his bicep. There should’ve been a lot of blood, but instead, there was quite literally ice. There was a small frost layer on the surface of the skin, and Changbin’s skin was turning purple.

“It’s so f*cking numb I can barely f*cking move my fingers.” he muttered, coughing out slightly. Seungmin sighed, looking around for anything he could use to get rid of the ice.

“Changbin give me your lighter.”

“What? Why?”

“Just give me your stupid f*cking lighter.”

Changbin obeyed, fishing his lighter out of his jacket pocket and placing it in Seungmin’s palm. Seungmin lit it and waved it around the wound, the thin layer of frost on the skin slowly melting away.

“I need a candle or some sh*t.” He muttered, looking around. Changbin glanced around with him. Their place was pretty bare. He didn’t really expect-

“Oh- there’s one on the coffee table.” Changbin said, pointing. Seungmin quickly went to grab it, lighting it with Changbin’s lighter before the lighter turned too hot, dropping the lighter back in Changbin’s hand and focusing the flame back on his wound.

For a moment, all they can hear is the loud wind from outside. Jisung drinking a glass of water. Chan checking up on his little brother. Changing clothes.

“What the f*ck was that?” Seungmin starts their conversation. He never does. And he’s not the one giving the answer this time. Which means Changbin definitely doesn’t know how to respond.

“I don’t know.”

“I mean...blizzard zombies? Okay. Weird. f*cking weird, but it’s 2020 and South Korea. It’s not the weirdest sh*t I’ve seen all year.” Seungmin says, exhaling. “I could give them a cool name you know? Blizzard walkers. Hypothermia biters. Warmth eaters. I don’t know. Some dumb f*cking nickname.”

Seungmin rambled when he was scared. When he couldn’t find a plausible explanation for something. When he was pretty sure he was in a situation where he’d rather be dead.

“But what the f*ck was that?” He asked, not meeting Changbin’s eyes. “What the f*ck kind of mutated motherf*cker looses her sight and grows a pair of arms and then crawls on the f*cking ceiling because of a f*cking blizzard?” Seungmin asked. Changbin realized he was shaking.

“And I have no problem patching you up. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again a thousand times over.” Seungmin mutters, exhaling. “But I’ve never ever had to melt a wound just so you could f*cking feel it. It feels like I’m torturing you Binnie, but I’m just trying to make sure you don’t use your f*cking arm.”

As the water trickled down his arm, Changbin realized, it did start to hurt. It started to sting a sh*t ton, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.

“I’m fine.” Changbin said. “It hurts like a motherf*cker, but i’ll live.” He’s not good at reassuring people.

“Remember when you helped me? And dropped out the next day without me knowing?” Seungmin’s hands shook even more, signalling that he did, in fact, remember.

Changbin could barely move. In fact, he was sure he was left for dead. Dying at 24? Not a good look, he’ll admit. He was laying in a pool of his own blood, and he was sure this was the last time he was ever going to see anything. Of course it had to be some stupid f*cking sh*tty ass alleyway.

”Oh my god.”

Changbin couldn’t see the boy’s face, but he recognized his voice. He was in his last year. Graduating soon. Going somewhere. Changbin briefly wishes he graduated.

”Just- Just wait here! I’ll get help! I’m- I’ll get someone-”

”No…”

Changbin used what little strength he had left to grab the boy’s ankle. He couldn’t get help. If Changbin survived this, any of this, and woke up in a hospital, he’d be either hunted down or going to jail.

”But...but I have to- you’re gonna die-”

”No.”

The boy looked conflicted. Torn. He tore away from Changbin’s hand and ran down the alleyway, making a sharp turn. Changbin thought that this was it. That he was going to die. Or get caught. One of the two.

”Do you know how to heal your own wounds?”

Changbin was barely awake at this point, but he could feel someone moving him upright, up against the wall. He opened his eyes to see a bunch of newly packaged items on his lap along with what looked like a first aid kit.

”What…?

”Talk me through it.

The boy looked determined, starting to set everything up. Changbin could see he was terrified, shaking a lot. “I have no idea what I’m doing, and all my sewing knowledge is from my school’s sewing classes, but if you talk me through it, I’m a good listener. I do instructions well. Talk me through it. You’ll live.” He said.

It was painful. Almost unbearably so.

Changbin talked him through it.

Seungmin exhaled shakily, giving out a nervous laugh. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to talk me through murderous victims of hypothermia would you?” He asked, starting to treat the wound after drying all of the cleared away water.

“Unfortunately no.” Changbin managed a small chuckle, immediately wincing at a sharp, consistent pain in his arm. He looked down to see that Seungmin had poked a needle in him. “Ah.” He said, unamused. “f*ck.” He winced as Seungmin went through again, gripping the counter.

“Sorry. Do you want something to bite on?” Seungmin asked apologetically, wincing at Changbin’s reactions.

“Nuh-uh. Hurry this the f*ck up. We gotta go before any more of these f*cking blizzard zombies...turn into weird f*ckass blizzard zombies.” Changbin said, cursing again as Seungmin’s needle went under the skin.

“At least you’ll be able to wear that new bomber jacket Jaebum got you.”

“I can’t believe I’m only breaking that out when we’re in the middle of the beginning of a f*cking zombie apocalypse.”

“Do these fit you okay Felix?” Chan asked, rolling up the pant legs of some sweatpants.

“If you tie the waist tighter, I think maybe.” Felix said, rolling up his brother’s hoodie so that he could fix the waist. Chan did just that, double knotting so that they wouldn’t fall off of Felix’s hips. “How about that?” Chan asked, and Felix nodded. “It’s good. Thank you.” He said, sniffing.

Felix hadn’t really been responding to Chan since they left the apartment. Understandably, as Chan had Just assumed it was shock. He seemed really upset though, and Chan wasn’t sure he could place why.

“What’s wrong bub?” Chan asked, sitting down next to Felix on the floor, Felix not meeting his eyes.

“Ms. Sunmi is dead, isn’t she?”

Oh.

Oh f*ck, yeah.

“Uh, well, depends on what you mean by dead.” Chan said awkwardly, clearing his throat. Oh god. Oh f*ck. That was not a good way to start this off Chan.

“What do you mean?”

“The thing that we ki-” He trailed off, exhaling. “The thing that is dead, is not Ms. Sunmi. Sunmi is a nice, kind woman, who gives you pizza isn’t she? And she always comes over and is happy, and talks with us a lot, doesn’t she?” Chan started, and Felix slowly nodded. “And she’s never climbed on walls, has she? Or on the ceiling?” Chan said.

“Not that we know of…” Felix said, sniffing.

“So, based on that, I think we can assume that Ms. Sunmi is definitely not the scary creature that was trying to get to us right?” Chan said, and Felix slowly nodded.

“But then why did it look like her?” He asked.

Oh god, how Chan wished there was someone else here with him. Anyone, to help him explain this.

“Well…” He hesitated, thinking of what to say. “That mean creature needed to pretend to not be mean so that it could trick us. So it looked just like her, and we found out too late.” He said, grimacing at his own lie. Felix seemed to buy it, because he nodded very seriously, sniffling.

“So Ms. Sunmi is alive?” He asked hopefully.

Chan held his breath. f*ck. He did not think this through.

“Yeah, I’m sure she’s out there somewhere kid. She might just be very far away in a really deep sleep.” He said, patting Felix’s head. Felix seemed satisfied with that answer, nodding.

“Why don’t you take a nap? I’m sure we all need to rest for a minute, and I know you weren’t feeling too well earlier.” Chan said, looking around. He’s sure whoever’s room this was, they wouldn’t mind him using the room to let his brother take a nap. Felix crawled under the covers of the stranger’s bed, and Chan tucked him in, kissing his forehead. “Sleep tight, okay?”

“Okay. Goodnight Channie.”

“Goodnight Lixie.”

Chan slowly backed out of the room, closing the door, only to sigh, running his fingers through his hair.

“Far away and sleeping in a deep sleep, huh?”

Chan turned around to be face to face with Jisung. He closed his eyes, sighing. “I f*cking… I don’t know. What would you have done?”

“Explained the concept of morality.”

“And this is why I have the younger brother. Not you.”

“Hey. I am the younger brother!” Jisung said, indignant, almost like a child.

“Really? I don’t see your older brother around anywhere!” Chan snapped, exhaling. He didn’t like leaving his room in general, hated leaving his apartment at all, and just left both in a matter of minutes. All while escaping and partially murdering his only friend here.

Jisung looked angry. Then hurt. Then sad. Tears started to well up, and Chan didn’t know what he did, but he knew he f*cked up.

“My brother right now, is trapped in my apartment on the 12th floor. Looking like one of those...those blizzard things.” Jisung said calmly, but Chan could hear the waver in his voice.

Oh.

“Oh. I’m...sorry to hear that.”

A silence fell over the two.

"I-"

“It’s fine. I’m upset. We should probably...rest. Or something.” Jisung said, walking away, and down the hall. Chan watched him go, sighing.

He followed him down to the living room, with Changbin and Seungmin, Changbin zipping up a new jacket over bandages.

“How’s your wound?” Chan asked, grimacing a little.

“Well, it was literally f*cking frozen over before, so, bleeding is probably a huge f*cking upgrade.” Changbin murmured, sighing. Chan made a face at that.

“What should we do now?” Jisung asked.

“Eat. Rest. Anything we can. It’s one in the f*cking morning.” Changbin said, barely standing with his eyes open. Granted, he had done most of the fighting today.

“No one else is coming out of their apartments. How many of these...blizzard zombies...are there?” Jisung asked, hugging himself tightly, shivering slightly at the thought.

“I don’t know, but that f*cking bloodhound-” Changbin started, pulling out his lighter. He held it in front of them. “She and the one and the lobby kept saying the same thing. Warm. And I expected them to like, f*cking eat us or something, I dunno, but the one in the lobby simply tore the security officer apart. After a minute, she was done with him.” He said, putting his lighter back in his jacket pocket.

“So they’re, like, what, trying to keep warm?” Chan said, furrowing his eyebrows. He looked like he didn’t believe it.

“No, he’s right. Remember when the… bloodhound, I guess, she would stop between the doorway? She noticed when she was closer to a warmer body. She could sense it somehow. I think they’re attracted to warmth.” Seungmin spoke up.

“But it can’t be too hot.” Jisung said.

“No. It’s probably like humans, just on a different spectrum. We want warmth too, we need warmth to survive, but boiling water will burn us.” Changbin said. “Boiling water gave her those awful burns. They’re much more effective with these...blizzard zombies, or whatever we’re calling them now.”

“The only one I liked out of my random suggestions earlier was Blizzard Walkers.” Seungmin helpfully pitched.

“Right. Blizzard walkers. They have a lower tolerance for heat but crave warmth.” Chan picked up, Changbin nodding.

“So we should probably see if we can get to anyone else who was in the lobby at that time. Make sure they don’t have hypothermia. Don’t let them get too cold…” Changbin started, glancing to Seungmin.

“...but we can’t get too hot either. We’ll attract more of these things.” Seungmin finished for him. Changbin nodded.

“We’ll set up on the floor of one of the bedrooms, but for now we should just focus on regulating our heat, refueling, and resting. Tomorrow we can come up with a plan to try and find the other people.” Changbin said.

“Do we even know what floor they’re on?” Chan asked.

“No, but we have an idea!” Jisung grinned. “It’s one of the top four floors. They were near the mailboxes that were past the 12th floor mail. It narrows it down quite a bit.”

“Not enough.” Seungmin sighed. “Four floors is still a lot of ground to cover.”

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow, when we wake up. Or, well, later today. Happy Christmas Eve, By the way.” Chan said, sighing. Seungmin sighed. “f*cking hell. I forgot it’s Christmas tomorrow.” He muttered.

“Yeah, well, it won’t really matter if we aren’t alive to see it.” Chan said, snorting. “Let’s get started with the bed set up already.”

Later, when the four decided it would be best to sleep in the room Felix was already asleep in, two slipping into the bed with the small boy, two sleeping on the comforter set up on the ground, Chan found himself unable to sleep. Insomnia was a bitch. Always has been. He couldn’t get it to go away, and it was especially worse when he was stressed, which was awful in situations like now.

“What’s wrong?” Jisung whispered. Chan couldn’t see him, the winter night being so dark that without their flashlights on, he was effectively blind, but he could hear his voice. Their faces were an inch away.

“I can’t sleep.” Chan whispered back. “Never could. I have problems sleeping.” He said. He didn’t move, trying to be sure to not wake the boy between them. Although he probably wouldn’t have awoken if something exploded next to him at that moment.

“Insomnia?”

“Yeah.”

Jisung shifted slightly and Chan could feel an arm pulling him slightly closer to both Felix and Jisung’s bodies, but not so much so that it was uncomfortable. Jisung’s hand laid comfortably at Chan’s hip, Chan closing his eyes.

“I like having someone else in bed with me when I can’t sleep.” Jisung whispers. “It makes me feel less lonely.”

“Thanks.” Chan whispers back, sliding his hands under his pillow.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

[12/26/2020]

Hyunjin sighed as he dozed off slowly, yawning. It was so cold on the platforms, it had been warmer where the shops were. He glanced down to Felix, who was staring at the wall across from them, almost completely unresponsive to anyone at the moment. He hummed to himself, kicking his legs, tilting his head- like he was listening to music or something.

Hyunjin furrowed his eyebrows but looked away, assuming he was just energized from the sandwich or something. He glanced up to Changbin, who seemed to be increasingly impatient. Or maybe increasingly paranoid. It was honestly hard to tell anymore.

“Hey.”

Hyunjin turned his head to see Jeongin, who held up a pair of earbuds. They looked like they were brand new. He raised an eyebrow. “Very cool.” He muttered, unsure of what Jeongin was trying to get across.

“No you dumbass.” Jeongin scoffed, untangling the earbuds and holding a bud out to Hyunjin. “We can use them to listen to the radio from our phones. The aux cord or whatever- my classmate taught me how in Japan.” Jeongin said, plugging the earbuds into his phone. Changbin glanced over curiously, unsure what the highschoolers were doing.

Jeongin played with the radio app for a little bit, the boys trying to find a transmission of any sort coming through, Hyunjin sighing when they only received more static. “Maybe it’s ‘cause we’re underground.” Hyunjin said, taking the earbud out. “We should’ve tried it when we were up there eating the sandwiches.” He sighed, crossing his arms. Jeongin looked defeated, wrapping the earbuds around his phone and shoving it all back into his bag.

“Hey Binnie?” Felix’s voice made the three look down at him, focused. He never talked anymore, at all. He had barely uttered a word since they left the apartment complex.

“Yeah?” Changbin asked.

“The train isn’t coming, is it?” He asked slowly.

“No, I don’t think it is.” Changbin said with a sigh.

The wind of the blizzard could be heard very distantly, whipping at the station’s entrance.

[12/24/2020]

When Minho woke up, the first thing he noticed was how cold he was. He was unbearably f*cking freezing. Unreasonably so. He got up slowly, groaning. His entire body felt awful, like he had just been working a 12 hour work day or something. He felt...heavy. He felt like he was going to drop. And he was so, so cold.

“Jeongin?” He stumbled on his son’s name, it coming out disjointed and mumbled. “Jeongin?”

He couldn’t walk in a straight line. It was hard for him to walk at all. It was causing him to be really loud in the hallway, leaning against the wall slightly. He shivered. He opened the door to his son’s room (with some difficulty, he couldn’t get the doorknob the first few times), only to find it boiling hot. He groaned, slumping down in the doorway.

“Dad?” There was some shuffling around, hushed whispers, and a small “What the f*ck?” from the other end of the room. Jeongin and Hyunjin had both woken up, and Jeongin had already started crawling towards his dad, pulling up upright and into the room. Minho’s eyes were closed, he was having trouble opening them.

“Dad, wake up.” Jeongin said, voice wavering. He was scared. There were two fingers on his neck.

“Good news- your dad isn’t dead. Yay. We should make a cake.”

What? Why does Hyunjin know how to take his pulse? Is that something they teach in school now?

Probably.

“Oh my god is he dying!?”

“No, dude, chill, he’s probably just sick from the cold or something. He didn’t set up a heater.” Hyunjin coaxed Jeongin. Minho managed to crack one eye open, inhaling slightly.

“See?” He gestured to the man. “He’s fine. He just needs a nap in the warmth and some food when he wakes up and he’ll be good to go.” Hyunjin said, giving Jeongin a reassuring smile. Jeongin sighed and looked outside.

“That stupid blizzard is still going.” He said, groaning.

“Yeah. I’m figuring since the fridge hasn’t been working for a few hours now, we should cook any meat you guys had inside of it so that we have like, lunch and dinner and stuff and we can pack the rest of it.” Hyunjin said, sighing. He reached for a hair tie to pull his hair up.

“But our stove is electric.” Jeongin said, tilting his head. Hyunjin looked around, sighing. “You don’t have any camping gear?” He asked, Jeongin shaking his head. Hyunjin frowned. “I might have some portable cookware in the back of my closet somewhere, and I can get more supplies from my apartment anyways. Like dry foods and stuff. But it might be good to ask around to see if anyone has camping supplies or something like that. If not, I’m sure there’s something in the lobby.” Hyunjin said, and Jeongin nodded. Hyunjin realized the door was opened, and stepped into the hall, shivering.

“I need to go back anyways and get a different pair of clothes.” Hyunjin said, sniffing. “It’s f*cking freezing out here. No wonder your dad is sick.”

“Yeah, of course, I probably need to change soon too.” Jeongin said, reaching for his phone. “It’s uh, 9 in the morning. If we end up hitting the lobby we should get some portable chargers too. They come out of the box half charged and my phone is almost dead.” He said, sighing.

“Yeah, mine too.” Hyunjin said with a pout. He sighed. “Let’s try our neighbors first.” He said, trying to warm himself up by hugging himself slightly. “I don’t really want to make the journey all the way down from the 14th floor then all the way back up. Plus, I’m assuming an ambulance couldn’t make it here and...I don’t really want to see a dead body or something like that.” Hyunjin said, sighing. Jeongin frowned, and nodded.

“Okay, we got a plan?” Jeongin asked, smiling.

“We got a plan.” Hyunjin confirmed, nodding and grinning. He stashed his bag in the corner of Jeongin’s room, deciding that bringing another one over wouldn’t be too bad anyways. There were no boundaries to overstep in a blizzard. Plus, he needed something to carry the supplies they were talking about anyways.

He walked to the front, putting on his sneakers hurriedly, opening and closing the front door. It was weird- he expected at least some of his neighbors to come out and knock on some doors by now, but no one had. He hadn’t seen anyone even in the hallway of the 14th floor, which was odd, because when he first moved in, at least 3 old ladies (2 of which he was positive weren’t even from this floor) had been ogling the dad that offered to help him move his stuff in.

He didn’t dwell on it, trying to get into his apartment quickly. He didn’t like how empty the apartments looked with no electricity and the blizzard outside. Even in the middle of the day- on Christmas Eve, of all days, it was dead silent, and it looked like it was still nighttime, which was terrifying. No- Hyunjin supposed that this is what nighttime should’ve looked like- nighttime he was effectively blind.

He walked into his new apartment, the place immediately feeling foreign to him. He assumes that’s because for being his place, he doesn’t really spend much time in it, no. In fact, he basically just ditched it after dinner.

He wasted no time, Hyunjin immediately moving towards his room, not hesitating to walk in. His bed hadn’t even been made, and the sheets were still laying on it. He opened the closet doors, stripping down and changing into the first items of clothing he saw that he could layer- deciding that a hoodie under a t-shirt was the way to go. It still fit under his only jacket, and it wasn’t too warm that he’d get sweaty, which was always something to be careful of in conditions where he could get hypothermia. He changed to a pair of cargo pants, deciding the pockets might be better for keeping the items he gathers. Finally: boots. He’s not dumb, it just makes more sense to wear boots in a blizzard situation. He doesn’t have snow boots, no, so his combat boots that used to be his cousin’s will have to do, but it’s more sensible than possibly having to face the outside in a pair of destroyed sneakers (aka, he’s not a dumb bitch, and if he goes into the snow, he’s sure as hell not doing it in f*cking Adidas bitch ass sneakers).

Hyunjin grabbed a bag and searched around in the bottom of his closet for any of his old sh*t- ah, he shouldn’t call it that. The stuff he used to use a lot when he lived with his parents. Nah, ‘old sh*t’ fit it more. He emerged victorious with a few items, finding a pocket knife, along with an emergency first aid kit. Nothing for cooking though. He also packed in an extra blanket, just because he wasn’t sure how many Jeongin and Minho had, and it was better to have extra anyways.

He checked for anything else he might need in his apartment, emptying it of what little food it actually had, his pantry having a single shelf that mostly consisted of packaged snacks and juice pouches that he bulked up on when he moved to the city.

There didn’t really seem to be much Jeongin could do. Yeah, he knew the neighbors on their floor, which was probably more than Hyunjin could offer, but he didn’t know if any of them ever went camping or anything like that. After changing into warmer clothes and checking up on his dad (who wasn’t waking up, but was getting warmer, which was definitely good), he started heading into the hallway. He entered right as Hyunjin’s apartment door closed. Damn. He had his bag at his side, wondering which door to start at first. He didn’t actually… know their neighbors. Sure, he knew their names. He had lived here long enough for them to be repeated to him to the point where he couldn’t forget it no matter how much he wanted to.

He just… knew them. Knew they existed. Was nice enough to them, that hopefully, one of them would have camping gear, and that hopefully, the one with camping gear would let him borrow some of it.

He hesitantly knocked on the door of the man directly across the hall from his apartment, not really expecting a response. Mr. Park was around his dad’s age, someone who used to travel a lot, from Jeongin’s understanding, but recently became a shut-in… or something. He had a daughter. And a wife. Or maybe he only had one of those. Who knows. There was definitely at least one woman in his household. Jeongin wasn’t entirely expecting someone to answer the door, but he was fortunate enough that someone did.

The door wasn’t opened much, just slightly. An older woman stood there, head poked out.

“Ah, you’re Lee’s son, aren’t you?” She said, opening the door slightly more. Jeongin bowed, nodding his head. “Yes ma’am.” He said. “My name is Jeongin. My dad is… well, a little sick right now, and he’s sleeping. A friend of mine is helping me get some supplies but none of our kitchenware works…” He trailed off, suddenly feeling awkward for asking the kind woman if he could use her kitchenware in the first place. “Do you have any campware or portable cooking supplies we might be able to borrow temporarily?” He asked.

Mrs. Park thought for a moment before closing the door.

… well then.

Right as Jeongin was about to turn and go to his next neighbor, the door opened fully, the woman moving back for Jeongin to come in. He saw she was holding a candle. She offered him a polite smile, but she looked exhausted. Had she been up all night or something?

Jeongin bowed his head awkwardly and stepped inside, looking around. The Park’s apartment was nice. Homey. He wished his and his dad’s apartment looked like that. It looked properly lived in.

“Ah… let’s see, I’m sure I have some of Wonshik’s old camping gear somewhere. If not, I definitely have portable cookware I’ve been using that you can borrow. It is Christmas Eve, afterall.” The woman said, chuckling softly. Jeongin smiled at her, bowing his head. “Thank you Mrs. Park.” He said.

“Ah, nonsense. It would be cruel for me to not share, wouldn’t it?” She said. “You can call me Kyungmi, by the way. It’s alright.” The woman said, chuckling.

“Ah...alright.” Jeongin nodded his head. ‘Definitely not.’ He thought. ‘Too awkward.’

The apartment seemed...almost oddly quiet for such a lived in home.

“Ah...excuse me Mrs…” He trailed off when he saw the look the woman gave him. “...Kyungmi,” He said, clearing his throat. She nodded approvingly, letting him continue. “...but where is Mr. Park? It just seems really quiet, is all.” He said, tilting his head slightly. The woman chuckled slightly, pointing to the master bedroom. “He’s sleeping.” She said, smiling. Jeongin nodded in understanding. Ah. Made sense.

“Minji too.” Mrs. Park said. So there was a daughter. See! Look at Jeongin, remembering sh*t.

“Ah, I see.” Jeongin said, chuckling.

“Here, let me go look in the bedroom, I won’t be long.” She said, waving her hand dismissively. Jeongin nodded, clasping his hands together and waiting patiently, staring at the floor.

It was then he noticed the smell.

What was that?

It smelt like… rotting cabbage. And rotting eggs.

It wasn’t coming from her fridge.

Jeongin scrunched up his nose in disgust, turning his head away from the smell. Maybe he was imagining it. That’s an oddly specific smell to think of, and it was a bit odd, all things considered. It wouldn’t go away, even when he plugged his nose.

He slowly stepped into the apartment hallway, being careful to not make too much noise. Any noise he did make was drowned out by the wind outside, but still- Jeongin’s growing paranoia may have been getting the best of him a little bit. He noticed the hall bathroom door was slightly open. When he passed it, the smell got much stronger. Almost overwhelmingly so. Jeongin thought for a split second he was going to vomit.

He pushed the door back, another wave of the smell hitting his nose, Jeongin backing up.

There were no candles in the bathroom, so he had to take his flashlight out of his back pocket, fumbling with it a little before turning it on. He shined it directly at the tub, eyes wide. Holy sh*t.

Holy f*ck.

How does he even-

How does one describe a corpse?

The remains of Mr. Park were poorly stuffed into the bathtub, blood smeared on the floor and wall tiles. It looked like he had been mauled by something- like a wolf that had tried to tear him apart. No amount of horror manga could prepare Jeongin for this, the teenager slowly groping for the bathroom doorknob, trying to close the door.

He turned to see Mrs. Park standing in the hallway, smiling at him sadly with a crowbar in hand.

“Mrs. Park…” He started, the shock still affecting his system. He couldn’t really move. He was too afraid to.

“You weren’t supposed to see Minji’s mistake.” The woman said sadly.

Minji’s mistake?

Her f*cking DAUGHTER did that!??

“I… I think Minji needs some therapy… Mrs. Park.” Jeongin croaked out, not having time to prepare for the other’s attack, the mother hitting the side of Jeongin’s head harshly, Jeongin crumpling to the floor in seconds.

His vision faded to black, and the last thing he saw was Mrs. Park standing over him, crowbar in hand.

Chan, surprisingly, wasn’t the first awake. It was surprising to him, because he was someone who averaged little to no sleep. It wasn’t surprising to Changbin, who, no matter what time he went to bed, woke up at 5 am regardless.

“Morning.” Chan said, shuffling into the living room, sniffing. “What time is it?” He asked, yawning.

“It’s 8:30.” Changbin said, hunched over what looked like a bat.

“What are you doing?” Chan asked, squinting at the object. His eyesight hadn’t cleared up yet.

“Fixing up something. It’s for you, actually.”

“For me?”

“Well, you or Jisung. Seungmin doesn’t do weapons that well outside of a gun anyways.” Changbin said, Chan deciding he was going to ignore that last comment made about Seungmin.

“A weapon?” Chan asked, tilting his head.

“Yeah. I’m just wrapping the handle so that you have a better grip.” Changbin said, holding up a black painted baseball bat with barbed wire around it. It was definitely used, and Chan was sure he saw blood stains on it, but the bandaging around the handle was fresh.

“Why… do you own this?” Chan asked, squinting at it unsurely.

“Do you want to know the answer?” Changbin asked back.

“Fair enough.” Chan took the bat. “Wait, yes I do. My kid brother and I are depending on you for our safety. Sorta.” He said, examining it.

“Fair enough.” Changbin responded, exhaling. “I got almost beat to death with it once. Then I beat that person to death with it.”

Chan looked at him.

“Almost because I didn’t die.”

“I got that bit, yeah. That was like the only piece of that I really got.”

“It’s probably better I don’t tell you the full story.”

“I’m not sure I want to know the full story.”

“Goddamn it whatever the f*ck your name is, go eat some cereal and shut up.”

“My name is Chan. My brother is Felix.”

“I’m Changbin. Your brother is loud.”

“He’s a kid.”

“Hm.” Changbin didn’t say anything else, moving to the kitchen and going through his pantry. “What do you feel about substituting milk with apple juice?” He asked, and Chan squinted again. “What the f*ck?” He asked.

It turns out, apple cinnamon cheerios with apple juice is not that bad. In fact, it’s very good. Chan would have a second bowl if he could. He thought about it, but they need to ration food, so he decided against it.

“What’s the plan?” He asks as Jisung is walking out into the hall, still half awake. Jisung kind of just attached himself to Chan’s side, and Chan allowed it because at the moment he didn’t plan on getting up, and Felix wasn’t awake yet.

“Well, someone has to go up to find the other lobby people.” Changbin says. “We need supplies to survive. And we need to go back down to the lobby. Not only to get rid of the blizzard walker, but to see if there’s an alternative way to contact anyone in the security office.”

“That one doesn’t crawl on the ceiling or anything, right?” Chan asked a bit nervously. Changbin looked at him. “It didn’t last time we were down there.” He said. He then paused. “We should also probably barricade the doors until the blizzard is over. If we can’t get out, I want none of those f*cking things getting in.” He said.

“Makes rational sense.” Jisung said, Chan sliding a newly made bowl of cheerios and apple juice towards him.

“What is that?” He asked, eying it suspiciously.

“Try it first before you judge it.” Chan said, turning away. Jisung took a hesitant spoonful. “Is that… apple juice?”

“Doesn’t it taste great and also go against everything you stand for?”

Seungmin sat down with them, nonchalantly pouring his own bowl, yawning as he did so. “Plan yet?” He asked, rubbing his eyes.

“We’re making one now.” Changbin said, patting Seungmin on the back. “I think… and I know this is a bad decision in horror movies… but hear me out… I think we should split up.” Changbin said, Chan and Jisung staring at him.

“Uh, what the f*ck?” Seungmin broke the silence, squinting through his glasses. “Why?”

“Think about it. Whoever finds the other three in the lobby will then be with a group of four. If we have two people go down to the lobby, they should be fine together, and plus…” Changbin said, glancing at his room. “Someone needs to babysit the kid.” He murmured, before looking back at the group in front of him. “And it sure as hell ain’t gonna be me.”

It was him. After multiple discussions, and planning out exactly what would happen, it was decided, Seungmin and Jisung would go down to the lobby while Chan would make his way upstairs.

Past the 12th floor (quietly, so as to not alarm the blizzard walker in Jisung’s apartment), he’d start his search for the three on the 13th floor. They’d been described to him. Two of them looked to be around college student age, one an athlete, who resembled a fox, another a tall boy who could be a model (Chan said that wasn’t much of a description, and Changbin said that with the addition of shoulder length bleach blonde hair, he’d know exactly who he was talking about when he saw him). The third was described as a catlike man who… “radiated dad energy”. Which… Seungmin and Changbin needed to get better at describing people, honestly.

Seungmin and Jisung were tasked with taking care of the blizzard walker on the lobby floor. They were given the bat and a small bag with a tiny first aid kit. They had already set out about five minutes ago, Chan double checking Felix before he left.

“I don’t want you to go.” Felix had said, on the verge of tears.

“I have to.” Chan said, ruffling Felix’s hair.

“You’re not gonna turn into one of those things like Ms. Sunmi was, right?” Felix asked, sniffing. Chan shook his head. “I won’t. I’ll stay super safe and warm, I promise. Plus, you have Changbin to watch over you.” He said, smiling. “You’ll be okay.” He reassured Felix, who was unsurely looking at the man in the doorway. Changbin was staring back.

“Look.” Chan said. “He already likes you.” He tried to uplift Felix’s spirits. “You’ll be great friends, okay?” He kissed Felix’s forehead, before starting to leave. He paused in the doorway, wanting to say something to Changbin. Like he wanted to see his brother safe and healthy when he came back. But would he even come back? He couldn’t ensure that.

Changbin leaned in.

“If you die…” He started. “...I’ll be the first to cut your head off.” He murmured, glancing down to the axe that sat firmly at his hip.

How reassuring.

“Wow. Thanks.” Chan grimaced, nodding and heading out of the apartment, giving Felix a small wave before he headed towards the door, closing it behind him.

His walk down the hall and at the start of the stairs was uneventful. He briefly had the impulse to throw himself down the middle of the free space between the stairs, but it passed as soon as it came. He started climbing the stairs, cursing Seungmin and Changbin for living farthest away from the other floors. Chan's legs were soon burning and his cheeks were red with embarrassment as he realized he was unfit from hours of playing video games- and probably neglecting Felix, but he doesn't like to think about that one. He wouldn't have had to been in a position where neglect was even an option in the first place if their parents would just be f*cking parents- but that was a spiral Chan could have when he wasn't stuck in a blizzard apocalypse.

When he neared the 12th floor, he took his time, slowly passing by the door, carefully holding onto the railing. He doubted he would alarm Jisung's apartment zombie by himself- if the walker had figured out how to break down doors then it was probably definitely preoccupied with Jisung's neighbors right about now. That thought sent a shiver down Chan's spine and he continued to climb the stairs, still staying silent, just in case.

He made it to the 13th floor door, and went to twist the knob and open it… only to find it locked.

Wonderful.

Straight to the 14th floor he goes then.

It was great to find that this one wasn't locked, because Chan dreaded the idea of having to possibly walk all the way up to the 16th, but the 14th floor looked… well, isolated.

No one was in the halls, really. A few doors looked opened, but Chan wasn't entirely sure he felt comfortable just walking inside. At least, not without announcing his presence.

The more he walked through the halls the more he realized it was dumb for him to be the one to come up here, as he was the only one who hadn’t seen the others.

A male stepped out into the hallway. Chan...honestly had no idea how old he was, but he looked young. He had a hoodie under a t-shirt and cargo pants. Long bleached hair, big lips, a mole under his eye. He was… conventionally attractive. Definitely model material. He must’ve been who Seungmin had been talking about.

“Where are the other two?” Chan immediately asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“What?” Hyunjin asked, looking at Chan, confused. “Who are you?”

Oh, yeah. He hadn’t been in the lobby. He hadn’t even really left his room.

“Oh, I’m Chan.” Chan said, shaking his head slightly, as if realizing how off he sounded. “Sorry uh- my friends, they were in the lobby earlier with my little brother? The little kid with red hair and the guys with glasses and the bomber jacket?” He said, wondering if it rang any bells. Hyunjin squinted, as if expecting him to go on. “Okay…?”

“Uh… well, you know, with what happened with the woman who passed out… and the security officer… they asked me to come try and find you guys. To see if, and make sure the same things weren’t happening?” Chan asked cautiously, feeling like something was off. Maybe not off, exactly, but they definitely weren’t on the same page on this conversation at all.

“What are you talking about? What happened to the security guy?” The teen looked clueless, almost like Chan was bothering him. He was about to turn away, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Look, dude, if you’re high or something, I think you should just stay under some blankets until the blizzard passes-”

“What?” Chan scoffed, a little offended. “The security ‘guy’, as you call him, is dead. I wasn’t there but apparently the woman who passed out, killed him. Seungmin and Changbin couldn’t get help.”

The teenager stopped. “Who did you say you were again?” He asked, turning back around. He seemed cautious of Chan. Understandably so.

“My name is Chan. What’s your name?” He asked. “And where’s everyone else on this level?”

“I’m Hyunjin…” He said slowly. “And… well, my friend’s dad is still sleeping. My friend asked around to borrow some cooking supplies so I’m just waiting for him.” Hyunjin said, glancing back.

Chan looked behind him. They stood in the hall for about two minutes (literally. Chan counted the seconds under his breath) before Chan spoke up.

“So, uh anyone acting weird?” Chan asked.

“Not besides you.” Hyunjin didn’t meet his eyes. This felt awkward.

“I deserve that.” Chan winced.

“Seriously, what the hell is taking him so long?” Hyunjin asked, walking back further down the hall. “Jeongin?” He yelled out. “Jeongin!”

There was no response to him except for the slow opening of a door, a woman stepping out. “Excuse me dear, you’re so loud in the hall… I couldn’t help but overhear. My family is sleeping right now so I’m going to have to ask you to quiet down, but what’s the matter?” She asked, stepping out slightly, so that part of her side was still covered by the doorway.

“Ah…” Hyunjin bowed down politely, giving her a small smile. “I’m sorry to disturb you Miss...I moved in just before the blizzard started and my friend and I were staying the night at his and his dad’s house… he went to ask some of the neighbors for uh, cookware, but I can’t find him.” Hyunjin said, moving slightly towards Minho’s apartment.

Minho must’ve woken up to the boy yelling for his son because he opened the door, very dazed and confused, not totally awake. “Hyunjin?” He muttered. “What’s going on? Kyungmi?”

“Ah, Minho. Did we wake you? I’m so sorry. I thought I heard someone out here earlier, and so I checked. It was just Jeongin, but he was heading towards the stairs.” Kyungmi said, Hyunjin glancing back and making eye contact with Chan. Chan looked confused, and shook his head, hoping Hyunjin got the message. No one had been in the stairway except for him, Seungmin, and Jisung.

“Ah, are you sure it was Jeongin? We agreed that we would tell each other before either one of us went to the other floors because our phones weren’t working.” Hyunjin said, chuckling. Chan could sense the slightly awkward note behind his laugh, but besides that, the teen seemed… kind of good at that type of conversation. Trying to grasp the situation.

“I...I don’t know dear. He looked just like him. I could be wrong though.” Kyungmi said, frowning. She turned to Chan. “Who’s this?” She asked politely, giving him a warm smile.

“Ah… I’m Chan. It’s nice to meet you miss…” He trailed off, clearing his throat. “I came up here to find and inform…” his brain felt fuzzy. “...these three… well, currently, two men. You see, there was an accident in the lobby where a woman collapsed and my little brother was down there with a… woman? Who now is sick.” He said, clearing his throat awkwardly.

“He’s really little and I was told by a … a now friend, I guess, that someone had blocked his view of what happened, and I didn’t want him to see something traumatizing like that.” He lied, trying to make the reasoning of him being up here sound better than just, hey, lol, the security guy is dead .

“And also…” He trailed off, clearing his throat. “...Wonpil, the uh, security officer for the apartment building and lobby is dead. The woman who collapsed there and got sick ended up attacking him, but we still can’t contact anyone.” Chan’s voice sounded increasingly more depressed, despite him not actually witnessing the death. “We were hoping there might be data or something up here but…”

Hyunjin exhaled a bit awkwardly. “Our phones don’t work. Sorry.” He said.

“Where’s Wonpil now?” Minho asked, worried. Hyunjin gave him a judgemental look. Of course he’d believe the probably stoned guy who just came up.

“Still… in the lobby.” Chan said.

“And the woman? Is she...I dunno, okay? She looked hypothermic last time we saw her.” Minho asked, glancing between the two other adults in the hall. “Hyunjin c’mere.” He murmured, Hyunjin walking over and mostly not responding to the way Minho tugged him slightly closer. Protective dad instincts. Hyunjin leaned in slightly.

“I don’t know.” Chan shrugged. “I didn’t see her and I didn’t ask. She was still there when Changbin and Seungmin left- oh, those are my friends, by the way. They said she had been trying to attack them.” He sniffed. “She could be like, messed up. Maybe she hit her head or something, I dunno.”

He was interrupted by a thumping sound, a couple of loud thuds coming from...possibly inside Kyungmi’s apartment. She looked startled, and concerned. She looked back glancing down the hall.

“Minji?” She called out. “Dear, are you alright?” She asked, tilting her head. She then sighed.

She turned around, Minho looking concerned. He didn’t try to look inside her apartment, but rather, at Kyungmi herself. He noticed something on the skirt of her dress that made him go pale.

When she got no response, she turned back around. Minho silently pushed Hyunjin into his apartment, Hyunjin confused, but complying. He didn’t know what was going on. Chan didn’t know what the other man saw. Kyungmi hadn’t turned towards him, so he couldn’t see what had put the other man on edge.

Then Chan heard faint...mumbling? No, it was too muffled. It was a voice, but it was so faint he could barely hear anything.

No one else seemed to pick up on it, Kyungmi, stepping fully back inside her apartment. “Ah, I’m sorry, but Minji hasn’t been feeling well and has been falling almost every time she stands. I should probably go check on her.” The woman apologized, about to fully close the door right when there was a loud cry from behind her.

“DAD!”

Chan didn’t register what was going on until the older man was already kicking back his neighbor’s door, the woman yelling as she fell down.

“Jeongin!?” He yelled out, Hyunjin trailing worriedly behind him, eyes wide.

“What the f*ck-” Chan didn’t have time to really question the severity of the situation- or really, what the situation even was- the other man had basically stormed Kyungmi’s house, looking for the source of the screaming. Hyunjin was right behind him, keeping his eye on the woman. He covered his nose quickly, groaning. “What the hell is that smell? Mr. Lee, what is that?” He asked, voice sounding slightly muffled because his hand was covering his mouth. Minho seemed to have just registered the smell as well, covering his own nose. He stopped in his tracks, turning away from the door he had been about to open, and turned around, instead pushing open the door that had been behind him.

“Oh my god.” Minho hunched over, coughing slightly.

“Minji didn’t mean to….” the woman moaned from where she was on the ground, reaching out as if trying to close the door. Minho turned back towards her. “Your...your daughter did that!?” He asked, gagging on the smell the corpse emitted.

“Dad! Dad, please.” Jeongin sounded like he was crying now.

Right.

Chan grabbed Kyungmi’s arms and pulled her back. “Hey kid, help me out.” He said, calling out for Hyunjin, who, after getting over his initial shock, nodded. Hyunjin bent over Kyungmi, grabbing her wrists.

“Don’t hurt my daughter.” She said, in near tears.

Chan carefully walked over to the bathroom, quickly cringing at the sight and looking away. “That thing isn’t your daughter anymore if it’s what I think it is.” He murmured, trying to ignore his own shaking.

Minho opened the door to Minji’s room, unprepared for someone throwing themselves against it, the door closing harshly on Minho, forcing him back into the hall. He yelled out in surprise, but didn’t seem too injured.

“No!” Jeongin was definitely in that room.

Chan looked around for anything he could use as a weapon, seeing a crowbar leaning against the kitchen counter. He grabbed it, gripping it carefully. “Open the door again.” He said to Minho, who nodded, crouching slightly so that he wouldn’t get pushed back again, twisting the knob and harshly pushing forward, Chan swinging the crowbar very hard , not even giving the…. thing a chance to react.

It screamed out, falling to the floor, sluggishly crawling back. “Warm…” she crooned, flipping herself onto her belly so that she could pull herself forward. Minho looked the blizzard walker over for the first time properly, shocked.

“What the f*ck is that?” He questioned, Chan pulling him back. “One of those things that killed Wonpil in the lobby. Back up.”

Maybe, for Chan, it was a matter of attachment.

Yeah, that was it.

He was attached to Sunmi. He was afraid, for himself and Felix, yes, but also for Sunmi. This?

If he treated it like one of the many zombie games he’s played before, maybe he’d be okay. If he detached himself from the world- just treated himself as a player, or someone simply observing, he didn’t feel nearly as bad for killing the high school girl in front of him. Not that she would really be… going back to school after this blizzard regardless.

So he hit, and he hit. The rush of adrenaline should’ve kept him going. After, he just found himself… oddly numb. And guilty because of his newfound mindset. This probably isn’t how he should come at it, huh? But he needs to survive somehow.

He kept hitting until the blizzard walker stopped moving.

Jeongin was tied up in a weird, but effective way. Mostly duck tape was used. Minho was shaking as he untied his son, not realizing he had been crying, Jeongin’s own cries taking his attention more than his own.

“It’s okay baby, I’m here. I’m here… oh my god Jeongin…” Minho noticed dried blood on his forehead. He must’ve been hit at some point. He pulled Jeongin into a hug when he was able to get most of the upper body duck-tape off, Jeongin holding him tightly, almost as if he was afraid to let go. And understandably so. Minho didn’t think he was ever going to let him out of his sight.

“Uh…should we…?” Hyunjin was in the doorway, looking at Chan awkwardly. He didn’t really know how to react to any of this. Maybe it would be best if he and Chan gave Minho and Jeongin a moment to themselves, to just collect themselves and calm down from… Well, what just happened.

Chan noticed that there was still a rope tied around Jeongin’s ankle. He picked it up, pulling at it, trying to see where it led. It went under the bed, moving Minji’s leg slightly. His gut twisted. He didn’t really want to think of why Kyungmi would willingly sacrifice her neighbor’s kid to her daughter, but the way it was done reminded him of a lot of cutscenes he had seen before. Awful in theory. Even worse to discover in real life.

Chan quickly untied the rope, Minho helping Jeongin stand.

“Are you injured anywhere besides your head?” Minho asked, checking his son over for any obvious injuries.

“My leg.” Jeongin muttered, wincing slightly as he put weight on it. Chan wasn’t surprised. With the weight and speed Minji had been throwing herself at the door- it was bound to pull on something of Jeongin’s harshly if he had been connected to her the entire time.

Minho hugged Jeongin tightly. Like if he let go of him, he’d turn to dust in a matter of seconds, and all Minho would have to remember his son by was the slightly wet patch on his shirt from Jeongin crying. Chan felt the twistin his gut, before quickly looking up to Hyunjin.

“Wait, what’d you do with Kyungmi?” He asked.

“Uh, I uh, knocked her out.” Hyunjin said, dumbfounded.

“How?”

“You just, you know....” He made a motion similar to elbowing someone. It was slightly different. Definitely trained. Chan wondered if Hyunjin had learned a martial art of some sort.

"Hm. I guess...that's useful to know how to do." Chan said slowly. "We should probably get him changed. And warm." He said, noticing the small rips in Jeongin's already semi-thin clothes. He looked up to Minho, who nodded, already helping his son out the room. Minho seemed to pause at the highschool girl. Like he wanted to say something. He didn't.

He turned away, helping Jeongin into his apartment, Hyunjin and Chan following them up until the doorway. Hyunjin paused and looked at the woman. "What should we do with her?" He asked, a little freaked out. Chan dragged her inside her apartment fully, before looking around.

"Hm." He moved back into the master bedroom, looking around. "You said you needed some of the camping gear, right?" He called back to Hyunjin.

"Uh. Yeah!" Hyunjin called back nervously checking on the unconscious woman. God, the smell in the apartment was sickening. He felt like he was going to throw up.

After some silent minutes, and what Hyunjin could only assume was the sound of Chan rummaging through his new neighbor's belongings, Chan emerged again, holding a machete.

“I meant more like cookware, but uhm…” Hyunjin nods, clearing his throat. “That works too, I guess.” He mutters, nodding.

“Do you know how to use one of these?” Chan asked softly. He sure as hell didn’t.

“I know how to use a knife. A-a-and a blade.” Hyunjin stammered, a bit awkwardly. He was unable to look away from the weapon. “But- I mean, I assume it’s different. And- also, why do I need a weapon anyways?” Hyunjin asked. He ran his fingers through his hair.

“Because there are more of those things.” Chan said softly, nodding to Minji’s room. “And more will attack you. I don’t think your buddy can fight right now, can he?” He asked, Hyunjin slowly shaking his head. “...and his dad doesn’t seem like right now he’ll be much help either.”

The woman was knocked out anyways, there wasn’t much they could do about her. They decided to lock her in her apartment. Hyunjin felt bad for thinking the thought but maybe, just maybe, she’d realized how f*cked up she was, letting her daughter eat her husband. Maybe she’d kill herself just to be with them or something.

“What’s your name again?” Minho asks when they’re back at his apartment, Minho taking the machete from Hyunjin and sliding it on top of the fridge mindlessly, like that would stop the teenager from getting to it. The teenager let him though, instead deciding to focus on Jeongin, nursing his definitely at least sprained ankle. It was bruised badly, and Hyunjin tried to be as careful as possible so as to not hurt the other more.

“Chan.” He says, frowning as he looks to the two. It was making him more and more nervous about Felix. He wondered how Felix was doing? “Yours?” He asked, not meeting the other man’s eyes.

“I’m Minho.” Minho says, sniffing. “How old is your little brother?”

“Not old enough.” Chan grumbled. “He’s a kid, literally.” He said, sighing.

“And you left him down, on the lower levels? With- With more of those...things?” Minho asked, looking scandalized. Chan quickly shook his head. “No- nono. One of my friends he’s really- really good at beating them up. He’s kind of babysitting I guess. Which…” Chan exhaled, speaking softly. “I guess he should’ve come up here huh? He would’ve caught on to the craziness way earlier than I would’ve…”

“Don’t.” Minho looked at him offering a smile. “You did more than I could ask for. I’m just…” He sighed. Chan noticed there was a tremble in his hands. The stranger was barely holding himself together.

“That girl… Minji. I didn’t really know her well but she and Jeongin were going to the same school. And the way Kyungmi was willing to do whatever it took to ... preserve her, I guess.” Minho sniffed, shaking his head. “I don’t. I was just-” He glanced at his son and Hyunjin. The two were on the ground, Jeongin managing a small, nervous laugh as Hyunjin hugged him, telling him some joke. Jeongin looked on the verge of tears no matter what Hyunjin did to cheer him up, unfortunately.

“What if he becomes one of those things?” Minho asks, biting at his thumbnail. Chan realizes he’s talking about his own son. Minho didn’t want to be some batsh*t crazy parent like Kyungmi.

“He won’t.” Chan reassured him. “We’ll...we’ll find my friends, okay? Make it through this awful blizzard, and after, you and your son will live together- probably at a new apartment complex or something, because this one is god awful, and then you can figure it out from there.” He said, offering the older man a smile. Despite just waking up, Minho looked so tired. He smiled back, but it was merely a polite smile. There was nothing behind it. God, Chan wished he was back playing video games.

Then, for a few minutes, the world literally lit up. Minho heard the soft humming of the fridge first, perking up and turning back. “Is that…?”

After a few more worrying sounds (and what sounded like the possible start to a fire), the lights came back on. Minho looked relieved as the sound of the heater told him the air system was working as well. For at least a few minutes, they weren’t completely electricity starved.

“I guess Christmas miracles even happen on Christmas Eve, huh?” Chan said with a smile.

“I guess so.” Minho said, smiling back.