Jiwoo stepped out of the bathroom, only to be met by her best friend Jungeun.

"You good? You've been there for quite a while." Jungeun started.

"Yeah, of course!" Jiwoo tried to hide her fear with her usual cheerful tone. "God, I felt like I haven't washed my face in a while, you know?"

Jiwoo's statement made Jungeun laugh. "A day hasn't even passed but yeah, you do your thing."

After their short exchange of words, Jungeun and Jiwoo headed towards back to the living room where the others are staying.

"Jungeun unnie, Jiwoo unnie, you guys can sleep here on the couch. We three won't sleep at our rooms since I think it's much safer if we all stay together." Hyunjin said while fixing the sleeping bags on the floor.

Jiwoo looked at her confusingly. "But, where are you guys sleeping?" She looked at what Hyunjin was arranging in line. "On the floor?" The latter looked at Jiwoo and nodded.

"Ayyy I don't think that we deserve this much treatment. We're the one who crashed here and it's your place, so it's better if you'll sleep on the couch. The floor gladly welcomes us both. Isn't that right?" Jungeun slightly nudged Jiwoo.

"Yeah. It's better sleeping on those bags compared to the bleachers back at the gym."

When Hyunjin was done arranging the sleeping bags, she looked at Jungeun and Jiwoo. "Aish, it's fine really. The three of us talked about this already and they're okay with it. Besides, it's the least thing we could do in exchange for you guys not killing us."

"Ha ha ha" Jiwoo let out a forceful laugh. "What does she mean by that?" She whisped to Jungeun.

"Oh sorry, don't get the wrong idea. I was just joking. I've seen a lot of zombie movies and there were people who kills another bunch of individuals for resources. Seeing that we're all alive right now, I'm really gla–"

"Yah, Hyunjin-ah, that's enough. You might scare our guests away." Heejin came out from one of the rooms with Chaewon.

"Ha, I'm already scared." Jiwoo said above whisper.

Jungeun noticed the packed backpacks and other bags clustered together in which Heejin and Chaewon was carrying from before.

"Umm, if you don't mind me asking, what are those for?"

"These bags are for emergency purposes. We never know what will happen, right? So it's better to be prepared. A zombie might barge in from that door and if that happens, we can just grab these bags and run." Chaewon explained.

"Oh right, that's a good idea." Jungeun was amused. For her, Chaewon seems to be not the type to know all of these things. In her eyes, she's like a princess who got lost into this apocalyptic world.

"Perks of playing video games, that's our Chaewon." Heejin broke Jungeun's train of thoughts.

As the group settled, Jungeun and Jiwoo turned out to rest at the couch. It caused a little arguments here and there (mostly from Jiwoo) but Hyunjin insisted that their "guests" should feel welcomed and accommodated.

"What are your plans tomorrow?" Hyunjin started as it seemed that everyone was having difficulties sleeping.

"Honestly, we still don't know yet." Jungeun replied.

"If it's okay with you guys, we'd like to stick together with the three of you. You guys are really nice and I think that we'll have a higher chance of survival if there are lots of us to fight those zombies." Jiwoo did some little punching actions and wooshing sounds.

Heejin looked at both Hyunjin and Chaewon and nodded. She flicked her attention back to her sunbaenims. "Sure. We'd love that. We also don't really what will happen next and you're right, we can fight all of those zombies together."

"Really, thank you." Jungeun bowed slightly to the girls to show her gratitude.

Their conversation left Hyunjin in thought, not because she didn't want Jungeun and Jiwoo to stay with them, but because of the burden she might cause them.

"I know that this isn't really the time to talk about this, but do you guys think that our families are okay?"

"If we're alive, I'm pretty sure that our parents found their ways to survive too." Chaewon smiled slightly.

"I second to that." Heejin said.

Jungeun nooded. "Me too."

"I...I'm worried about my little sister. I'm afraid that something bad might've happened to her." Hyunjin started to bite on her nails. "I haven't seen her in a while, but I'm not sure if she can handle all of this on her own."

"Oh, she's not with your parents?" Jiwoo asked.

"No, she has this small apartment of hers and she works at a convenience store near that place."

"Why don't you try calling her?" Jungeun suggested.

Hyunjin checked the time on her phone. "It's late. She's probably asleep or hiding from zombies right now. Her ringtone's probably some random pop song and if I call her now, the zombies will hear her. That girl never silences her phone."

"You can just leave her a text message. If she reads it in the morning, I'm sure she'll text you back." Heejin said.

Hyunjin looked down on her phone and started texting her little sister. After pressing send, she looked back at the group.

"Done." She smiled a bit. It is really noticeable that Hyunjin was clutching on her phone when she already sent her sister a message.

"Yeji? Hyein? Yerin? What was your sister's name again?" Chaewon asked after a moment of silence.

"Yerim." Hyunjin reminded her friend.

"Yah, how you could forget about that? Hyunjin have mentioned her a lot of times and she even visited us here just last week. Are you the real Chaewon or the zombies already got you that's why you're starting to lose your memory?" Heejin jokingly said and started tickling Chaewon.

"O...okay...enoug...Heejin-ah!" In the midst of her laughs, Chaewon tried to stop Heejin but failed to do so.

"Okay, okay, that's enough tickling for now. We should all rest." Hyunjin said. Heejin stopped herself from tickling Chaewon and went to lay down beside Hyunjin. Chaewon followed suit and went next to Heejin.

"Jiwoo unnie and Jungeun unnie, are you guys good? Is the couch soft enough? If it's not, I can get you more pillows inside."

"We're okay, Heejin-ah. Thank you." Jungeun gave Heejin a slight smile.

"Oookay, well, good night then. Get some sleep. Don't worry about those zombies, we're safe for now." Heejin said.

The girls all tried their best to fall asleep despite the lingering feeling that anytime soon, a zombie could barge into their door and devour all of them one by one like a buffet.

Seconds, minutes, and hours have passed already, but still, Jiwoo had her eyes wide open. She couldn't sleep and what Heejin told them a while ago was bothering her so much.

Jiwoo was never really the scaredy type of person when it comes to things like this. She would watch movies and shows about zombie apocalypse and she can still peacefully sleep at night after.

Seeing the undead face-to-face must've what frightened her. Jiwoo has this underlying feeling that she would die anytime soon. Hell, she even thinks that if it weren't for Jungeun, she would have been already dead when she was left baffled all by herself back at the ice cream parlor.

As Jiwoo forcefully shut her eyes again in hopes to fall asleep, she heard a noise coming from the other side of the wall.

Not overthinking and minding about the noise, she once again closed her eyes. When it didn't work the second time, she kept on blinking her eyes in hopes to tire her eyelids. It failed, again.

Jiwoo kept on stirring from the couch because she guesses that all those things that have been happening must've given her an insomia. As she was about to face the other side for the nth time, another loud bang came from what seemed to be the room next to them.

Jiwoo looked at the others and saw that none of them heard the noise as they were all still peacefully sleeping. She had a bad feeling about this so she did the first thing that she came into her mind: wake Jungeun up and tell her about it.

She sat up and slightly hovered to where her best friend was sleeping. At first, Jiwoo was hesitant to wake Jungeun up because she knew that this was her only proper rest after a long day, but a big part of her is telling her that what she's about to do is what is right.

She slightly shook Jungeun's body. "Jungeun-ah, wake up."

When the latter wasn't responding, Jiwoo shook her body again, but this time, with greater force. "Jungeun-ah, I heard a noise coming from the other side of the wall."

Jungeun slightly opened her left eye and looked at her best friend. "Hmmm?"

"I think there's something wrong with the room beside us. There might be people who's in trouble."

Fully opening both of her eyes, Jungeun sat up and yawned. She looked at Jiwoo directly, "Jiwoo-yah, I'm guessing that you still haven't slept, right? I hate to break it to you, but the noise that you've been hearing might've been your imagination. You need to rest, okay?"

Jungeun held Jiwoo's hand and let her lay down beside her. "Now, close your eyes and try not to think of anything else."

Jiwoo was about to protest, but Jungeun stopped her. "If it's really something, we can talk about it tomorrow morning. Resting is what we should prioritize right now."

Knowing that her friend is right, Jiwoo nodded and laid down to the empty spot next to Jungeun.

***

Jiwoo didn't remember falling asleep. Maybe when she went to sleep next to her best friend, it all happened so fast that she didn't notice it.

When she opened her eyes, the morning sun peeked through the small window, leaving a dim orange light in the room. The curtains were quite thin which caused the light to illuminate the room.

Jiwoo looked around the room and saw that the others are still at dreamland. She noticed that her and Jungeun exchanged places. She must've felt uncomfortable since the couch was small.

She planned to stand up and make herself breakfast with whatever she can find, when she started to yawn. I guess there's still time to rest.

Jiwoo was already back to her original sleeping position, with her blanket tucked in, when she heard the loudest noise she's heard as compared to last night.

In instinct, Jiwoo automatically stood up and saw that their wall is already broken. She saw two figures laying on the floor. One seemed to be a person who's nearing death since his body is all bloody. Jiwoo noticed the bite on his right shoulder.

What surprised Jiwoo was the other figure that was now lunging towards her. Oh no, I don't where this is going.

Jiwoo immediately grabbed the vase next to her and smashed it on the zombie's head. "Jiwoo? What's happening?" She heard a voice from behind.

"Wake everyone up! We need to get out of here!"

With her brows furrowed, Jungeun gazed her eyes all over the place and woke the others in a rush. "Guys! Wake up! This place isn't safe anymore!"

Heejin was still rubbing her eyes, when the zombie that attacked Jiwoo a while ago came runing towards her direction.

"Heejin, watch out!" Chaewon shouted.

Heejin immediately stood up and at the same time, Hyunjin was able to grab their small wooden center table and smashed the zombie with it.

"Let's go, go, go!" Chaewon started to distribute the bags to each person and went to the kitchen to get some things that she forgot last night.

As Hyunjin and Heejin are removing the barricades from the door, Jiwoo spoke up. "Are we really gonna leave this place? What if it's much more dangerous outside? The sun's up and anyone could easily spot us."

"Jiwoo unnie, that wall is practically a door for the outside world. The hole is too big for us to patch it up. The most rational thing to do is to head outside and somehow survive?" Chaewon shrugged her shoulders and went to help her friends at the exit.

"My god, how much do you pay for this place? I never knew that that wall could instantly be broken." Jungeun said. She grabbed the bloody baseball bat that she used when Jiwoo and her were outside.

The three owners of the dorm successfully removed the things that were blocking their way out. "Alright! Everyone out, now! Be careful on your way out and try your best to hide from anyone's point of view." Hyunjin told the group as one of the started to head out one by one.

"Oh, watch out over those broken glasses. I couldn't find anything so I used a glass of soju hehe." Heejin told Chaewon.

As they went their way out, neither of them knew where they were going. Hell, they don't even know if they'll survive this day.

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A/N:
I would like to apologize for the lack of updates. Second semester started and my schedule became very hectic. Still, I would try my best to update during my free time.

Thank you so much for your continuous support on this book!