"DIE YOU MOTHERFUC–"

Hyunjin put a chip inside of Chaewon's mouth. The latter girl pouted while slowly chewing the chip.

"We've had enough of your cursing here. You need to learn to how to control and stop yourself from cursing when you're only playing that stupid game of yours." Hyunjin said.

"Yah! This game isn't stupid. I was on the verge of killing the swarm of zombies not until you interrupted me!" Chaewon whined.

"Oh, so you're playing zombie games now? Wow, I didn't know that your choice of game would be a lot lamer now." Hyunjin said, making the other girl pout even more.

"It's not lameee. Who knows what will happen, right? Maybe someday the dead will come back and if that happens, I just know that I'm prepared."

"Yeah, yeah, zombies uhuh. Anyway, we're already out of food. I was planning that we should go to the grocery together to buy some." The cat-looking girl stated.

"Why don't you ask Heejin there? I'm pretty sure that you'll be happier if she comes with you." A smirk started to form on Chaewon's lip.

"Yah! What are you saying?! Of course I'm glad to be with you both. You're just using that as an excuse so you can continue playing with that internet girlfriend of yours." Hyunjin shot back.

"For your information, she's not my girlfriend. I can assure you that we're only friends who talk to each other almost everyday about games and random stuff." Chaewon started her usual nagging that made Hyunjin lose her mind.

"Alright, alright, I'll just ask Heejin to come with me instead. You can hibernate there on your cave or whatever. Oh yeah, also, enjoy talking to that 'friend' of yours." Hyunjin started to head out when Chaewon stopped her.

Chaewon paused her game and looked at Hyunjin for a brief second. "Hyunjin-ah, I know that this isn't my place to tell you this, but if you really really like Heejin, I say go for it."

Confusion was written all over Hyunjin's face. She was speechless because of the sudden change of topic that occurred.

"Wha– That's so random. I don't even know what you're talking about."

"Come on Hyunjin. The three of us have been dormmates for almost a year now. Do you think that I haven't been noticing the way you look at Heejin? Also, the way you treat her isn't the normal 'bestfriend to bestfriend' treatment. Well maybe at least to her, but that's not the poi–"

"Alright, I'll stop you there. So what if I like Heejin then? What are you going to do?" Hyunjin looked at Chaewon, expecting a reply.

"It's not about what I would do. It's about what you would do about it. The world might end today and you still haven't confessed your feelings for her."

"I don't know, Chaewon. What if she doesn't feel the same? What if she sees me just as a friend? That would sure hurt as hell. And you know who Heejin is. She's THE Jeon Heejin. She's the campus crush. Almost everyone at the campus has a crush on her. She might've fallen in love to one of them already." Hyunjin slowly sat down on the chair in front of Chaewon.

"Love and pain always come together. It's like two sides of a coin. If you love someone, you are willing to get hurt for them, even if sometimes they're the cause of that pain. I'm not saying that you should tell her about that feelings now. I just wanted you to know that when you ever decided to confess your feelings to Heejin, I'll be here to support you. Whatever happens." Chaewon reached over to hold Hyunjin's hand.

"Thank you, Chaewonie. I really needed to hear those words right now." Hyunjin squeezed their hands tighter.

"Anytime. Now, go and buy those foods for us. I don't want to starve to death!" Chaewon said, making the other girl chuckle.

***

"Heejin-ah." Hyunjin went to sit on the couch beside a bunny watching TV.

"Hmm?" Heejin replied, not taking her eyes off the TV.

"Food's already out. Chaewon said that she didn't want to starve to death which is why I decided that we should go grocery shopping today."

"Oh? We're already out of stock? For a girl that small, Chaewon seems to eat a lot." Heejin got the remote from the side and turned off the TV. "Let's go." She stood up.

"Really? You're not going to finish your favorite episode first?" Hyunjin asked. She stood up to match Heejin.

"Yeah, well no. Food is life and besides, I can watch the replay on YouTube." Heejin started to head towards the door. "Is Chaewon coming with us?"

"Nope. I guess she's busy playing and chatting with that online girlfriend of hers."

"Again?" Heejin asked, her brow raising. Hyunjin nodded in response.

"Wait, wait, before we go," Heejin knocked on Chaewon's door. "princessofeden and wolfhye sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"YAH! Jeon Heejin!! After this game, you're dead!!" Chaewon shouted from the inside making Hyunjin and Heejin laugh out loud.

"Ah, that never gets old." Heejin said, wiping the fake tear on her cheek. "Okay, we can go now. Shall we?" She opened the door for Hyunjin.

"Hmm, let's go." Hyunjin responded. Before they can fully leave their dorm, Hyunjin held Heejin by the shoulder. The latter girl stopped on her tracks.

"Why? Is there something wrong?" Heejin curiously asked.

"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering what happened between you and Ryujin. The streets are saying that she confessed to you this morning." Hyunjin said, trying to avoid eye contact as much as possible.

"Eh, she's the sixth girl that confessed to me this semester. I just told her the usual. 'I'm flattered, I'm not interested, and I'm not looking for a relationship right now'. I also told her that the head cheerleader, Hwang Yeji, has a crush on her so she should change her target." Heejin answered as if it was nothing.

"Ahh, I see." The other replied shortly and started to walk ahead of Heejin.

"Yah, wait!" Heejin jogged to catch up to Hyunjin. "Why did you ask anyway?"

"Nothing really. I was just curious if this popular bestfriend of mine is already taken."

"Aish, I told you, you don't have to worry about that. I already explained to you and Chaewon that I don't want relationships at the moment. If somehow, someday, I'll fall for someone, I'll be sure to tell you." Heejin pursed her lips and took out her pinky finger. "I promise."

Hyunjin wrapped her pinky finger around Heejin's. "I'm looking forward to that promise." Deep inside, Hyunjin was hoping that Heejin would fall for someone who deserves her. And that someone is her.

***

Heejin and Hyunjin arrived at the grocery. The grocery were less crowded than usual so they easily got what they needed to buy.

"What do you think Chaewonie would want? Do you think we should buy more ramyeon and ready-to-eat foods?" Hyunjin asked.

"Sure. We can eat those if we're too lazy to cook." They both decided to get some instant noodles and foods that are packed already.

When they went to another aisle filled with foods, Hyunjin went to grab as much foods as she can.

Heejin looked at Hyunjin weirdly. "Yah, why are grabbing all those stuff? It's not like it's the end of the world or something."

"Well, Chaewon said that we might not know when the world will end so it's better to be safe than sorry." Hyunjin proceeded to put what she got to their shopping cart.

"Chaewon and her words." Heejin said, but didn't remove the things that Hyunjin put on their cart. They continued on roaming around the grocery, looking for things that they need.

"Oh, oh, we need to buy some water too. Just a few bottles so we can have something to drink if they cut the water supply at our dorm again." Hyunjin grabbed a few bottles from the rack and placed it on their cart.

On the other hand, Heejin grabbed a bottle of alcohol. "How about some of this?" She showed the other girl the soju she is holding. "You know, for emergencies and whatnot. Who knows, you might want to forget about something and this will help."

Hyunjin looked at the girl and sighed. "Fineee. You're lucky I love you." She jokingly said.

"Yayyy! Thank you, thank you so much! You're really the best." Heejin placed the bottles down and started pushing their cart to the counter.

Hyunjin carefully observed the girl as she slowly walked to the counter near them. You don't know how much I love you.

***

Their walk home was quiet, neither of the two girls talking. Heejin noticed that Hyunjin was carrying most of bags that they bought.

"Let me help you with that." Heejin tried to reach for the bag that Hyunjin was carrying but the latter moved her hand away.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. You must've forget that I've been working out lately." Hyunjin raised her arms, pretending to show Heejin her biceps. Heejin let out a chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah, but we both know that I've been working out much longer than you so..." Heejin snatched the bag that Hyunjin was carrying. "I'll carry this." Hyunjin didn't protest as she let her best friend carry the bag.

They were silent again for the next minutes. It wasn't the awkward type, more like the one that makes you feel that words aren't needed. Their silence was interrupted when a boy, more like a high school student, started running towards their direction.

"Run for your lives!!" The boy shouted as he sped pass them.

"Huh? What did he say?" Heejin asked.

"I'm not sure. I think I heard him say, 'run for your lives.'"

"Do you think we should run?"

"Run from what?" Heejin didn't need to answer Hyunjin's question when they heard snarling and rushed footsteps from behind.

"Yup, I'm pretty sure we should run." Heejin grabbed Hyunjin's wrist as they started to run towards their dorm.

They didn't have enough time to look behind them to know what's chasing them. Adrenaline took over both Heejin and Hyunjin as they swiftly ran fast with bags filled with alcohol and water bottles. They quickened their pace as they reached the stairs that led to their dorm. When they tried to unlock their door, it was lock.

"Fuck. It's lock." Heejin said.

"What do you mean it's lock?" Hyunjin twisted the knob. It is locked. "Park Chaewon, open this door!!" Hyunjin shouted.

Heejin stood beside Hyunjin and knocked on the door furiously. "Yah!! Chaewon-ah, open this door now!!"

They stopped what they were doing when they heard snarling below the stairs.

"Omo, omo, he looks so ugly." Heejin commented.

"It's like a walking corpse." Hyunjin added. Realizing that the man would attack them, Hyunjin panicked.

"What should we do?" She looked at Heejin.

"Wait a sec, I have a plan. Keep on knocking the door to get Chaewon's attention. I'll handle this." Heejin started to rummage through the bag she was holding.

Hyunjin tried calling Chaewon's phone but it was no use. "PARK CHAEWON!! I SWEAR, I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU WON'T OPEN THIS DOOR!!" Hyunjin kept on pounding against the door.

The corpse-looking man saw the two girls and walked towards them. Grabbing a bottle of soju, Heejin threw it straight to the man's face, making the man stumble a bit. As he got back to his consciousness, he continued to walk towards them. Heejin was already preparing to throw another bottle, when the door opened.

"What's with the ru–" Hyunjin pushed Chaewon inside. She looked for Heejin behind her. "Jeon Heejin! Enough with that. Let's go inside."

"I'll be there in a bit!" Heejin said as she threw another bottle towards the man. She successfully threw it straight to the man's face again. The alcohol that spilled over the floor made the walking corpse slip. He fell down the stairs and that's when Heejin decided to get inside.

Both Heejin and Hyunjin are gasping for air when they entered their dorm. Chaewon was still wearing her gaming headphones as she went to check what was happening. She was about to twist the door knob when Hyunjin stopped her.

"Don't go out there." Hyunjin said, still catching her breath.

"Why? You guys looked like a zombie just chased you." Silence filled the room.

After a few seconds, Chaewon spoke again. "Really? Are you guys being serious? A zombie just chased you?" She asked excitingly.

"Yeah, shit we did and yet you stayed here chilling with your online girlfriend. Heejin and I could've died out there!" Hyunjin replied angrily as she went to grab the other girl's shirt. Heejin immediately went in between Hyunjin and Chaewon.

"Yah! There's no need to fight right now. What's important is that Chaewon managed to open the door before the man even attacked us." Hyunjin let out the breath she was holding and calmed down.

"Hyunjin-ah, I'm really sorry. I didn't know that it was that serious. I was just kinda busy that's why I didn't hear you guys." Chaewon said, eyes focused on the floor.

Hyunjin sighed. "Aish, don't worry about it now. I'm sorry too for getting mad at you. I was just worried for Heejin and I, that's all." Hyunjin went to give Chaewon a hug. "Thanks for opening the door for us." Hyunjin extended her hand so Heejin could join them.

"And thank you for being my hero out there. You threw those bottles like you're playing darts. You keep on hitting the bullseye." Hyunjin said, patting Heejin's shoulder.

"Eyy, it was nothing. We were literally about to die out there. I had to do something about it." Heejin hugged the two girls back.

Chaewon retracted her arms after a few minutes. "But really, are you guys sure that a zombie chased you? Maybe you just imagined it 'cause I played too much zombie games these past days."

"No, no. We're really really sure that it was a zombie." Hyunjin shot back.

"Hmm, let's see then. Were it making any noise such as snarling, growling, grunting, or roaring?" Chaewon asked. The two girls nodded.

"Are his eyes white and sort of like a milky color." They responded again with a nod. "You said that he looks like a corpse so I think we can pass on the pale skin. Was he drooling as if he has rabies and on top of that, did you perhaps notice that his teeth was bloodstained color?" Another nod. "Okay then, well, last question, was his whole body shaking and twitching?"

"Yes Chaewon." Heejin held the latter's shoulders. "He was fucking shaking like he's crazy and is about to kill us! Now," Heejin took a breath to calm herself. "do you believe us?"

"I didn't say that I didn't believe you. I just can't believe that zombies are real!" Chaewon shouted in joy. Heejin and Hyunjin shared a look.

"Assa! I can now use these zombie killing skills of mine!"

***

The school bell went off, signaling the end of the second period. Jungeun headed towards the hallways and saw her best friend Jiwoo waiting for her.

"Jungeun-ah, here!" Jiwoo waved enthusiastically as if Jungeun hadn't seen her already with that bright smile of hers.

Jiwoo linked their arms together as Jungeun stood beside her. "Let's buy some ice cream! We still have an hour left before our next class." Jiwoo said.

"Are you sure you want to buy ice cream with that guitar of yours? You might want to leave that at the dorm. It looks kinda heavy." Jungeun replied.

"I'm good. I'm kinda getting used to carrying my guitar with me wherever I go."

Jiwoo and Jungeun have been best friends since middle school. Both of them were lucky enough to pass the same university despite having different courses. Jiwoo is a music major, while Jungeun is pursuing fashion designing.

"Alright. Let's go to that ice cream parlor near the campus then. We should hurry up so that it a lot of people aren't there yet." Junguen said, dragging Jiwoo to the ice cream parlor's direction.

***

The ice cream parlor was eerily quiet than usual. Jungeun was glad knowing that there aren't any people in line.

"Wow, we're really early today. We're even the first customers here!" Jiwoo excitingly said.

The bell placed on top of the door ringed as they entered the shop. The place looks normal – pink wallpaper everywhere, organized chairs and tables, ice creams of different flavors and best sellers are posted on the walls. It was your usual ice cream parlor. That didn't last long when Jiwoo and Jungeun reached the counter.

"Oh look, someone spilled their strawberry syrup here." Jiwoo pointed out the red liquid flowing from the cash register. Jiwoo was about to touch it, when Jungeun stopped her.

"Yah, what are you doing? It's unhygienic to touch things like that. They would probably clean that later. Where are those people anyway?" Jungeun scanned the place and looked behind the counter.

"There's someone there." The two girls looked at the girl wearing a uniform on the floor. They couldn't see what she was doing since her back faced them.

"Excuse me? Can we buy some ice cream or are you guys still closed? The door was open so we thought that you're alrea–" Jiwoo stopped talking when the girl slowly stood up. Jiwoo swore that it was the most horrible thing she saw in her whole years of living when the girl faced her. Red dark liquid dripping from the girl's mouth. Her bloodstained teeth were evident. Jiwoo was sure that that wasn't strawberry syrup. It wasn't even the girl's face that horrified her – it was the dead cat laying on the floor. It's intestines were scattered all over the floor.

"Jungeun..." Jiwoo held her best friend's hand. The worker growled at the two girls. Jiwoo covered her ears because of the loud noise.

"Run Jiwoo! Run!" Jungeun grabbed the glass tip jar from the counter and threw it to the girl behind the counter. The girl lost her balance and fell on the floor.

Jungeun and Jiwoo left the ice cream parlor in a rush, not giving the girl any time to stand up. "Let's head to our dorm until we know what the heck is going on." Jungeun said.

The Kims were about to turn left that leads on the way to their dorm, when they saw a widespread of people looking like that worker at the ice cream parlor.

"Ah, shit. We need to find another place to go."

Jiwoo was panicking but still managed to give Jungeun a suggestion. "Why don't we head inside the school building? There might be more people there. I'm sure we'll be safe there."

They quickly changed their direction to the building on the opposite side where their dorm is located. As they entered, Jungeun realized that the place was deserted. "Right, it's lunch time. Some people must've left already to eat."

Jiwoo and Jungeun stopped to catch their breaths. Jungeun glanced at her phone. 12:48 pm.

"What are we going to do now?" Jiwoo questioned.

"I'm not sure. Maybe we can stay here until the others come back." Jungeun's plan was cut short when they heard growling from outside. The next thing she knew, the door slammed open. 2 pairs of white eyes look directly at Jiwoo and Jungeun. The owner of those eyes rushed towards their direction. In a flash, Jungeun and Jiwoo started running again.

Jiwoo doesn't seem to know where they were going because she hardly have classes at that building. Jungeun seemed to be familiar of the place but also knows a little about it. Jungeun took their chance when she saw a door that is wide open. They entered the place and quickly closed and locked the door. The doors were made of metal so Jungeun assumed that those creatures wouldn't be able to enter the place that easily.

"Where are we?" Jiwoo asked. As they observed the place, it was pretty obvious where they were.

The gym.