Laughing so hard, Haneul had to throw back her head. She and the boys currently were at the arcades, playing games. Jongdae just got destroyed by Jongin. “You look like a wet puppy,” the black haired wheezed out between her giggles, making the addressed male glare at her. He couldn’t hold up the glare for long, though, as he also burst into laughter a few seconds later. He lightly slapped her shoulder. They needed several minutes to calm down and once they did, all that could be heard were the deep breaths everyone took to calm down. “Better than to be a wet p*ssy,” Baekhyun nonchalantly commented and everyone burst into laughter again. “Dude, don’t be so erted,” Chanyeol shoved him to the side, making Baekhyun almost crash into a slot machine if it hadn’t been for his reflexes. “I’m not the ert – you are the erts.” Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he slyly grinned at the lot of them.

“I was talking about cats.”

That made everyone burst into laughter again. “Yeah, sure, bro, sure,” Kyungsoo dragged out every syllable as he wiped an invisible tear off his cheek, still laughing a little. “Guys, let’s go now,” Jongin threw in, making everyone look his way, stopping to laugh. “The owner’s already giving us a funny look and I don’t want to be thrown out again.” Jongin made a face. Haneul looked over her shoulder, locking eyes with the owner of the arcades just at the right moment to see him an eyebrow at them. “…Yeah, we probably should,” she dragged out the beginning as she turned back to the boys to look at them before turning towards the exit. She didn’t even get to make three steps before an arm was thrown around her shoulders. Not even surprised, she looked to the side to see Jongin’s profile before nonchalantly keeping on walking ahead together. Haneul put her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. She was already used to it, spending most of her time with the boys. She didn’t even notice Chanyeol’s gaze boring into the back of their heads as he followed behind them with a pout on his face. Minseok and Jongdae exchanged a knowing glance before they followed with a grin on their faces. Baekhyun followed behind them with Kyungsoo in tow.

All the boys insisted on making sure Haneul got home safe as it was already late – even when she insisted that she would be fine on her own. She didn’t want to the boys to bother. It had never been a problem anyway but the boys ganged up on her, so she wasn’t able to argue against the lot of them. It was hard to argue against six people at once when it was just you alone. So she let them walk her home. They were just a block away from her home when their world turned upside down. They had just rounded the corner and were met with a figure dragging one foot behind them, making weird gurgling noises. The group stopped short and looked at each other before Jongin asked, “What’s wrong with him? Does he need help?” Just as Haneul wanted to shrug, the figure turned around and once the group saw the face, some of them gasped while some of them were too shocked to even do that. The person’s skin looked like it had fouled and started to fall off, leaving him looking horrendous. They didn’t have much time to react though, as the person started moving in their direction, surprisingly fast for someone who apparently couldn’t move one leg too well. The gurgling noises got louder as he approached.

Jongin’s first reaction was to remove his arm from around Haneul’s shoulder and grab her wrist, breaking into a run in the opposite direction. “Run!” he screamed to the others who didn’t need to be told twice. They all ran for their lives, running into random alleys to get away. “What was that?” Baekhyun screamed at the top of his lungs, his fear very visible on his face. “A zombie, what else you idiot?” Kyungsoo screamed back at him. He looked like he was a mixture of annoyed and scared himself. One wouldn’t be able to tell which one he was more. “Have you never watched The Walking Dead or something?” “I do know!” the other argued back, throwing an angry look Kyungsoo’s way. “It’s just that it’s impossible to happen in reality!” “Well, obviously it is! And now sh*t up – the both of you!” Haneul screamed back at them while looking over her shoulder as Jongin kept holding onto her wrist, seeing that the zombie had new company. “Sh*t!” she cursed as she set her eyes on them. “We got some more company!” “Well, it would be helpful if you guys screamed less!” Jongin from beside her complained in a louder speaking voice but unlike the other three he didn’t scream. It was still loud enough for the whole group to hear. The rest looked over their shoulders to see how many more zombies there were and their eyes widened when they saw that one zombie had turned into eleven. Once they were around another corner, Jongin practically threw Haneul up at one of the big trash cans for her to reach the emergency stairs at the side of the building. “Guys! Come one!” he encouraged the others as he was already standing on top of the trash can, having heaved Haneul up already into safety.

He helped the others on top of the trash can and up onto the balustrade. Just as he helped Kyungsoo up on the balustrade, the Walkers were rounding the corner. Jongin’s eyes widened and he jumped up, grabbing for the balustrade himself while the others caught his arm to heave him up, escaping the Walkers grip by a mere inch. Once he landed on the metal ground, he heaved a heavy sigh. “Whew. That was close. Thanks buddy,” the chestnut brown haired patted Chanyeol’s shoulder after aforementioned man helped him getting up again. “No biggie,” the other just replied with a stern expression, looking down over the railing to see the zombies piling up. He swallowed. “Let’s get to the roof first,” Kyungsoo suggested as he already was on his way up, practically flying up the stairs in a hurry. “I can’t think clearly with those things down there,” he felt a shiver run down his spine as he started to finally realize that this was indeed very real.

“What about our families?” Haneul dared to question once they all were up at the roof. It was silent as everyone just stared at each other, uncertain glances being exchanged. “Let’s just hope they’re all okay. We will look for them,” Chanyeol spoke up when he couldn’t take the silence anymore. Everyone nodded in hesitation. When they were honest, nobody really knew what to do.

They could only hope for the best. It was the only thing they could hope for.

Nobody said it out loud, but they were happy that, until now, nobody of them had died yet.

They hoped it would stay that way.

It was wishful thinking. They all knew.