Yerim stared at the triangle-shaped girl's figure beside her – face emotionless. She debated whether or not she should dare to speak up since the other girl seemed to be lost in her own world.

"Umm, excuse me," Yerim started, opposing her inner voices telling her not to shut up. "since you already know my name, would you perhaps tell me yours?"

The girl who has been quiet for a while now slowly looked into Yerim's direction. "And why would I do that?" She bluntly asked.

Yerim swallowed the lump on her throat. Without knowing the reason, she felt nervous. Maybe because of the way she killed that poor sick-looking little high schooler a while ago.

"'Cause you know, I think that's just the proper etiquette when meeting someone. You already know my name so I wanted to know yours. Also, you know what they say, never trust a stranger. So if I don't know your name, then that means you're a strang–"

"You already trusted me last time when you gave me the keys to those doors!" The other girl slightly shouted in annoyance.

Yerim looked down, feeling guilty. Yes, she indeed trusted the other girl once even though she was not aware of the other's name. Yerim trusted her already when she let the latter lock her inside the store for God knows how long.

The other girl seemed to feel bad seeing that Yerim completely shut her mouth. Even though they met each other not so long ago, she knew that the girl's personality isn't like this.

"Hyejoo."

Yerim slowly lifted her head, looking at the girl beside her. "Huh?"

"Hyejoo. My name's Hyejoo." The girl repeated once more.

A small smile started to form on Yerim's lips. Without warning, Yerim held Hyejoo's hand and shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Hyejoo. I didn't get to properly introduce myself earlier. I'm Yerim." She gave the other girl her brightest smile. Hyejoo slightly shook the other's hand in return.

Before having the chance to let go of each others' hands, a deep voice called out Hyejoo's attention.

"Yah! Who do you think you are?!?! What have you done to that poor student, huh? Why, just why did you have to lock us in here?!?!"

The man was about to grab the collar of Hyejoo's shirt when Yerim stood up and blocked him.

"Sir, I need you to calm down please. She must've had a valid reason why she did those things." Yerim explained.

"Valid reason you say, eh? So murdering someone is okay just because you have a reason to? Is that what you're saying, young girl?" The man harshly pushed Yerim's shoulder with his index finger.

The man was about to push Yerim again, when Hyejoo stepped forward and held his hand. "Get your arms away from her. She has nothing to do with this."

The man was taken back and quickly retracted his hand from Hyejoo's hold. "Ahh I see. You're protecting your little girlfriend here. People like you are disgusting. You were bold to decide for the rest of us here. Now I know the reason why." He looked at Hyejoo with disgust as if she was a dead rat.

Hyejoo glared at the man in front of her. "If it weren't for me, you should've been dead by now. A simple 'thank you' would've been nice, but I guess not." Hyejoo grabbed Yerim's wrist and pulled her away from the man.

"Yah! What did you say? You think that I should be grateful after I saw you kill that high schooler? We might not make it until tomorrow if we stay here with a murderer like you!" The man screamed, wanting Hyejoo to hear his words clearly.

Hyejoo stopped on her tracks and looked at the man intently. She let go of Yerim's wrist as she slowly walked towards the man.

"Hyejoo-ah, don't." Yerim said as she grabbed the girl's shoulder. Hyejoo harshly pulled away from the other.

"That girl was an addict. I killed her before she could kill any of us here." Hyejoo retaliated back when she stood in front of the man.

Hyejoo knew judging by the man's face that he doesn't believe her. She kept her composure until the man decided to speak again.

"I don't believe you. What are you, an appraiser? You think you know when someone's an addict or not just by looking at them." The man scoffed. "What you did was murder. Whatever your excuse is, you still killed an innocent girl. I'm gonna get you locked up in prison."

Hyejoo and Yerim watched the man as he pulled out his phone and started to dial the police's number. It seems as if nobody was answering the other line as he impatiently stomped his foot.

"Huh, the police might be busy for now." He looked at Hyejoo once more. "But I can assure you that once I get out of here, I'll go to the police and tell them that horrible thing that you did."

Hyejoo's expressions remained stoic. Contrary to Hyejoo, Yerim was worried. She was worried due to a lot of things. For Hyejoo, her safety, the man and the old woman's safety, and of course, for what's about to happen.

"Hey, old lady. Are you coming with me or not? We have to get out of here. This girl might kill us both once we fall asleep." The old lady went to the man's side as they headed towards the exit.

Hyejoo hurriedly went to the exit before the two could as she blocked their only way out.

"The fuck do you want now? You know what, I'm getting tired of this. You don't get to decide for us. Now. Get. Out." The man was trying to push Hyejoo away but the latter stood still.

"If you go out there, I am certain that both of you will die. There's a lot of people like that high school girl out there."

"Addicts? Of course there are addicts out there. Almost every country has those. Now, get out of the fucking way!" He pushed Hyejoo harder than normal but before they could fully leave, the girl shouted.

"Would you fucking believe me if I told you that they are zombies?!?!"

The man stopped what he was doing and stared at Hyejoo, brows furrowed in confusion. "Zombies? Those things don't exist. They're fiction. They're just made from someone's imagination." He sighed. "My God, are the millennials really like these? You really believe all those nonsense?"

Hyejoo seemed to get the man's message really clearly. She stopped blocking the exit as she looked at Yerim.

"Yerim-ah, give me the keys."

Yerim looked at Hyejoo, confusion written all over her face. "What?"

"I said, give me the keys. If they want to go out, we should let them. Like what he said, I don't get to decide for them."

Yerim went to stood next to Hyejoo as she hesitantly gave her the keys. Before Hyejoo could face the man, she whispered something to Yerim.

"After they leave, help me lock the exit as fast as possible. Just like what we did the last time."

Hyejoo looked at the man and back at the door's exit. She inserted the key on the door's lock and on the roll up door next. Before she could fully open the roll up door, she peeked outside to check what's happening.

"Okay. Now you can go." Hyejoo told the man.

The man was puzzled as to why Hyejoo would let them out that quickly when she refused to just moments ago. He didn't ask furthermore questions as he was dying to get away from his so-called murderer. He would literally die when he goes out there.

The two cautiously stepped out outside. Once they were completely outside the convenience store, Hyejoo glanced at Yerim. "Now."

The man outside was surprised when they felt the roll up door behind them closing. "Yah! What are you doing?"

"You wanted to get out of here so, there you go." Hyejoo replied.

"Why would you leave us here with those addicts?! Are you out of your mind?!" The man kept shouting, slamming the said door.

Inside the store, Hyejoo looked at Yerim once more. "This doesn't feel right." Yerim said.

"It was his will to go out. He was so persistent in doing it, so I let him. Whatever happens now, it's completely his fault." Hyejoo said.

Yerim was still worried about the man and the old lady outside but she knew that Hyejoo's right. Hyejoo did her best to persuade them to stay but they didn't believe her. He even called Hyejoo a "murderer", which Yerim knew that that was out of line.

"Yerim-ah, hold onto your ears." Hyejoo broke Yerim's train of thoughts.

"Wha– Why?"

"Just do it."

Yerim did what Hyejoo told her to do. After a few moments, Yerim swore that she heard one of the noises that she hates her whole life. Screaming. People screaming in fear.

Yerim held onto her ears harder, trying to reduce the noises that are coming from outside. Every now and then, they could also hear someone or something being slammed and pushed on the roll up door.

"Open this fucking door now, you fucking murderer!!" The man's yells echoed outside.

Snarling and shrieking sounds also made it harder for Yerim to keep herself in focus. She was slowly losing her mind. She didn't want to believe that everything that she's currently hearing is true and it is indeed happening.

Yerim was surprised when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her body started to shake because of fear.

"Hey, hey, it's alright. It's all gone now." Yerim fixated her gaze on the other girl. Hyejoo doesn't seem to be bothered by any of this, unlike her.

Despite of fright, Yerim tried her best to speak. "Ho...How can you be so calm at a time like this?"

Hyejoo was stunned by Yerim's question; although she kinda expected this already. "I play a lot of games."

"What kind of games?"

"Computer games. Most of them includes guns. I actually just finished playing a zombie game before heading down here." Hyejoo explained

"Before heading down here? Do you have an apartment near here?"

Hyejoo shook her head. "Yeah, I paused the game to buy some snacks before going back to playing, but shit already went sideways."

Yerim laughed a little when she heard what the other said. "Is that why you killed that high schooler?"

"The moment I saw her, I knew she was a zombie. Only a dumb person would think that that girl is still a human being. Games and movies are kinda accurate in portraying zombies. I somehow expected that they would look like that in real life."

"I guess you play a lot of games, huh?"

"I do. It's what I spend most of my time with."

Yerim kept quiet after hearing Hyejoo's words. She was deeply grateful that she was with a girl like Hyejoo – a girl who can kill zombies in a flash. Yerim knew that if they stick together until the end, both of them can survive. That is only if Yerim decided to toughen up.

"Do you think we can survive?" Yerim suddenly blurted out.

"Honestly, judging by our situation now, yeah. I think we can. We have enough food and drinks here so I think we're good. That is only if that roll up door would last. If the zombies could breakthrough it, we would be in big trouble."

Yerim nodded. "Okay, then we should be prepared, right? Like we need some weapons to kill zombies just like the movies."

Before Yerim could go and find some weapons, Hyejoo spoke up. "That door is still intact and it looks like no one's trying to get through. I think the best thing that we could do now is to rationalize our resources. We need to be mindful and smart when it comes to the food that we're eating. It's not like this stuff is unlimited. We starve, we die."

***

Hours have passed, Yerim and Hyejoo have already separated and organized all the food and drinks that are available at the convenience store. They both agreed to eat a little amount of food as much as they can so their resources would last longer.

"Okay. I think we're good." Yerim said.

"Yeah. We should still be thankful that the power's on." Hyejoo checked her phone. "It's already dark outside. We should turn off the light first. Zombies' senses are far more advanced than we can imagine. If they can see that there's light inside the store, they would automatically assume that someone is here."

Yerim went to find the store's light switch. She instantly turned the lights off as she found the switch.

"The next thing we do is to keep quiet. Aside from their sense of sight, zombies' sense of hearing is actually pretty good." Hyejoo whispered. Yerim showed her an 'okay' sign.

Even though it is dark, Hyejoo and Yerim comfortably laid down on the floor because of the airconditioner. Their silence was cut short when a loud banging noise was heard from the outside.

Hyejoo jolted out on her feet immediately as soon as she heard the noise. Yerim stood up as well, slightly panicking.

"What should we do?" Yerim whispered.

"Give me anything I can use as a weapon." Hyejoo whispered back.

Yerim hurriedly went to the refrigerator near her and decided to grab a bottle of alcohol. Seeing how Hyejoo killed that high schooler, she knew that this bottle would be useful.

Yerim handed Hyejoo the bottle as the other grabbed onto it tightly. The slamming continued as they both stared at the door intently.

At this moment, Hyejoo and Yerim can now hear growling and snarling sounds from the other side. Hyejoo was a bit shaken on what to do but she kept her poise.

Yerim was about to tell Hyejoo to get away as far as possible from the door, when they heard voices from the other side.

It's a human's voice.