Earlier, when Hyun Suk had seen all the zombies ashore, he had assumed that his friends were dead. As he looked over to those small boats in the distance now and saw that they were all alive, he had to grab his chest to calm his heart.

“Lights!” Hyun Suk yelled over to Se7en beside him. “Turn on the sidelights!”

Se7en did as instructed and, at once, that massive yacht was lit up by little green lights that encircled the hull just above the waterline, reflecting out in shimmers of neon all around the ship.

Hyun Suk turned off the spotlight and called out to Rina. “Cabin lights!” he said.

Rina nodded and ventured down into the boat until she found her way to the back bedroom. She whispered now to Hyun Suk’s family inside. “Everything’s okay,” she said, as she the light. Hyun Suk’s wife, Eun Ju, and their two young children – three-year-old daughter, Yoo Jin, and two-year-old son, Seung Hyun – squinted from the sudden light.

“We heard all that gunfire,” Eun Ju said. “You sure everything’s okay?”

Rina smiled and gestured for them to follow her. With Hyun Suk’s family in tow, she returned to the deck, turning on all the interior lights along the way.

Those in the blue fishing boats saw the yacht all lit up now from the green lights around the hull and the white yellowish lights emanating from every window.

Hyun Suk stared at everyone sitting silently in the dark waters. “Yah, you coming aboard or what?” he called out.

Everyone in the blue boats then released their excitement, some with tears, others with laughter, and all began motoring toward the yacht. As Se7en and Rina stood at the stern and helped rein them in, Hyun Suk waited on the deck to greet his old friends one by one.

“Ai, Jong Kook-ah,” Hyun Suk said as he tightly shook Jong Kook’s hand. He then looked over at Ji Hyo holding the baby. “Has it been nine months already?” Hyun Suk joked.

Ji Hyo laughed. “It’s Dong Hoon and Byul’s baby, Dream.”

Hyun Suk nodded and gestured them onto the deck. “My family…” he said, pointing toward Eun Ju and the children. “Go over and introduce yourselves.”

As Jong Kook and Ji Hyo smiled and continued past Hyun Suk to meet Eun Ju, Hyun Suk turned to the next passengers climbing aboard. “Annyeong, Jae Suk-ah,” Hyun Suk said.

“Looks like we both found our families,” Jae Suk said, his eyes red with tears behind his foggy glasses.

Hyun Suk smiled at Kyung Eun and then looked down at little Ji Ho. “And how old are you?”

Ji Ho looked up at his parents, both of whom gestured that it was okay to answer. Ji Ho then turned back to look at Hyun Suk. “Three going on four,” he said.

“Aish, so old!” Hyun Suk said. “My daughter, Yoo Jin, will be four soon. I’m sure she’d like a new friend. And my son, Seung Hyun, is just two. He could use a big brother like you to watch over him. You want to go play with them?”

Little Ji Ho smiled and then ran over to Hyun Suk’s family, as Jae Suk and Kyung Eun followed.

Until now, Hyun Suk had been playing it cool, but when he saw the next two fishing boat groups walking up to the deck, he felt his heart swim in his chest and didn’t bother trying to hold back his tears. He grabbed G-Dragon and yanked him over, holding him so tight and so close that G-Dragon could hardly breathe. “What would I do without you, Ji Yong-ah?” he asked.

“Probably make a lot less money,” G-Dragon joked, as he squeezed Hyun Suk just as tightly.

“Ah, that is all in the past,” Hyun Suk said, finally breaking free from their long hug. “No need for money anymore. Speaking of which, when I saw that you took my boat, I decided to upgrade.” He stepped back, allowing T.O.P., Dara, and Bom room to step aboard as he gestured around the white luxury yacht. “What do you think?”

Everyone laughed and hugged him. Seungri, CL, Daesung, and Minzy stepped onto the deck then, too, and joined the crowded group hug, all crying now as they embraced their Papa YG. Hyun Suk wiped the tears from his face as he looked at all of them, so proud and so happy that they had all made it. “We will live the good life now,” he said, guiding them all onto the deck. “Help yourselves to some caviar!” he called out after them.

The last fishing boat group then climbed aboard. Hyun Suk shook Gary’s hand and looked down at Caesar panting by Gary’s feet. “He doesn’t bite, does he?” Hyun Suk asked.

Gary shook his head no. “He’s great with kids. Don’t worry.”

Hyun Suk smiled, waved Gary on, and then reached over to hug Thunder, happy that Dara had found her younger brother.

The Jung sisters were the last to be greeted and were a surprise to Hyun Suk. He asked if they, too, had been at the stadium.

Jessica and Krystal shook their heads, still in shock over everything that was happening.

“We rowed here from the airport,” Jessica said.

“From the airport?” Hyun Suk asked. “How’d you know to come here?”

“We just rowed to the closest islands,” Krystal said. “They found us just today.”

“Aigoo, what a crazy day this must’ve been for both of you,” Hyun Suk said.

The two girls seemed to be on the verge of tears.

“Come on, come on,” Hyun Suk said, putting his arm around the two of them as he led them toward the others. “You’re YG Family now.”

The twenty adults, four children, and one dog filled the deck space of that luxury liner. Se7en and Rina served champagne and caviar to everyone and, afterward, they regaled the group with how they had come to find Hyun Suk, or rather, how he had come to find them at the stadium, not knowing what had happened there.

“I thought I was bringing my family to safety,” Hyun Suk said. “Instead I find these two crazy soldiers trudging through piles of zombie bodies and carrying an entire arsenal on their backs.”

“We had raided the armory,” Rina explained to the others.

“Yah, and it’s a good thing we had all those weapons,” Hyun Suk said. He looked over at G-Dragon now and wagged his finger at him. “Because it seems like wherever you went, you left hundreds of zombies for us to deal with. First at the marina, and now here.”

G-Dragon laughed and shook his head. “Sorry, boss,” he said.

“Do you have much ammo left?” Ji Hyo asked.

Hyun Suk started laughing. “Ji Hyo-ssi, we took all of it. All the weapons and ammo we could carry. Machine guns, grenades… I even have a rocket launcher. Consider yourselves saved.”

Everyone looked at each other, smiling and fighting back more tears.

While Se7en and Rina continued telling the group about their journey, Hyun Suk gestured for Jong Kook and Jae Suk to join him inside. The three men made their way into the impressive bridge, which had a leather captain’s seat facing the front windows, below which was a row of high-tech navigation systems and controls that spanned the wall.

“Daebak,” Jae Suk said, his mouth agape.

“You know how to use all this?” Jong Kook asked, as he ran his hand along the stainless steel console.

“Eh, yeah, kind of,” Hyun Suk said. “We had a bit of a rough start, but I have it under control now.” He opened a small wooden humidor that was sitting on the back counter and offered both men a cigar. Jong Kook and Jae Suk turned down the offer but thanked him, and now waited as Hyun Suk clipped the end of his cigar and lit it, the bridge soon filled with the cherry scent of his tobacco as he took a few puffs. “We’ll stay on the boat tonight,” Hyun Suk said. “Relax. Enjoy ourselves. And then tomorrow we get to work.”

“To work?” Jae Suk asked. “On what?”

Hyun Suk pointed to the dark shore. “On making a life there,” he said. “We can’t stay on this boat forever drinking champagne and eating caviar. We need to start growing food. We need to rebuild.”

“We saw plenty of farmland around,” Jong Kook said, feeling that sense of hope inside him, which he thought had been lost forever, begin to emerge again. “And I think you just killed every zombie on the island,” he added.

Jae Suk smiled, sensing that Jong Kook’s hope had been restored.

Hyun Suk held up his hand for a moment, gesturing for Jong Kook and Jae Suk to wait a moment. He pushed the humidor aside to reveal the satellite phone, which was plugged into the wall outlet behind the humidor. Seeing that it was now fully charged, Hyun Suk unplugged the phone and held it out for Jong Kook and Jae Suk to see. “I told you when we raided the armory back at that stadium, we took everything,” Hyun Suk said. “I got my satellite phone back.” He put it down on the counter now and took another puff of his cigar. “I’ve been trying to call my contact in the government. Haven’t had a response yet, but I’m sure we’ll hear something soon.”

“I’m sure we will,” Jae Suk said. “I really believe that.”

“In the meantime, we clean up the zombies, barricade both bridges leading to this island, and start turning Sido into our paradise,” Hyun Suk said. He jammed the cigar between his teeth and pat Jong Kook and Jae Suk on their shoulders. “Feel free to start picking houses, my friends. Any house you want. Except for mine, of course.”

When the conversations on deck began dying down and the children grew tired, Hyun Suk and Eun Ju began showing everyone to their cabins in the lower deck. Aside from the master cabin where Hyun Suk’s family would sleep and the crew room where Se7en and Rina would sleep, there were five other bedrooms of various sizes. Hyun Suk showed Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, and the baby into one room, which contained a full-sized bed, and then showed Jae Suk and his family into a similar room just across the hall.

Further down were three larger rooms, each with a king size bed. Hyun directed the four 2ne1 girls into one, the four Big Bang boys into the other, and then somewhat shrugged toward the last four guests – Gary, Jessica, Thunder, and Krystal – while pointing toward the last room.

Gary peeked into that last cabin, seeing that huge bed centering the space. He turned back now to Jessica and Krystal in the hall. “You girls can take the bed.” Nudging Thunder, he added, “We’ll find somewhere else to sleep.”

“Don’t be silly,” Jessica said. “We’re all adults.”

Krystal started blushing, trying hard not to look at Thunder. “Yeah, we can all sleep together,” she quietly said. Caesar nuzzled up against her leg at that moment and Krystal squatted down to pet him. “You, poor dog, will have to take the floor,” she said.

At that moment, they heard the 2ne1 girls giggling in their room down the hall. They didn’t know that Dara had been telling the girls all about her intimate experience with G-Dragon the other night.

While Gary and Thunder continued standing in that hallway with the Jung sisters, still trying to figure out their sleeping arrangements, they heard more giggling, much louder this time, and all turned to look down the hallway, where they saw Dara and Bom suddenly run out of the 2ne1 room and into the Big Bang room. They could hear some commotion in the Big Bang room and then saw Dara and Bom pushing Daesung and Seungri out, both of whom were half-, dressed only in their boxer shorts and socks.

“Yah!” Daesung and Seungri yelled, their faces red with embarrassment as Dara and Bom continued pushing them into the 2ne1 room, where CL and Minzy waited.

After closing the 2ne1 door, Dara squeezed Bom’s arm, the two laughing like schoolgirls as they now turned to enter the Big Bang room. Just before opening the door, Dara caught sight of her brother standing with Gary and the Jung sisters at the end of the hall and quickly waved to them. “You kids have fun!” she yelled.

Jessica smiled and reached for Gary’s hand. “It looks like they are all in love and happy,” she said. “It’s so nice to see that.”

“A life without love is like poverty,” Gary said.

Jessica smiled. “The only thing remaining is an empty room,” she added, reciting the next line of the Leessang song, “Tears,” that Gary was quoting.

Gary blushed. He knew that Jessica was a Leessang fan, but he hadn’t expected her to have his songs memorized.

Krystal, meanwhile, reached for Thunder’s hand. “Well, that room doesn’t have to stay empty,” she said, pulling Thunder into the cabin now.

Gary and Jessica, both smiling, followed the other couple inside, closing the door behind them.

Down the hall, in what used to be the Big Bang room, Dara and Bom lay squished in the center of that big bed, with G-Dragon at one end near Dara, and T.O.P. at the other end near Bom.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you without a shirt on,” Bom said to T.O.P.

T.O.P. blushed. “I didn’t know you girls were going to be coming in here.”

Dara her side, looking over Bom toward T.O.P. “Why do you never show your body?” she asked. Looking at his well-defined chest and abs now, she said, “You have a nice body. You should show it off more.”

Bom playfully hit Dara. “Yah, don’t be looking at my man.”

“I used to be fat,” T.O.P. said. “I just… I think sometimes I still feel like that fat kid.”

Bom leaned over and kissed T.O.P.’s chest. “You shouldn’t feel like that,” she said. “You’re so gorgeous.”

G-Dragon now sat up and looked over the two girls in the middle, seeing T.O.P. at the other end of the bed with a big smile on his face. “All right,” G-Dragon said. “I see it’s starting already.”

“What’s starting?” Dara asked, sitting up now, too.

“I knew it was going to happen,” G-Dragon said. “As soon as you girls came in here and pushed poor Daesunggie and Riri out, jumping into bed with me and Tabi… I knew it.”

“Knew what?” Bom asked. She and T.O.P. now sat up, too, looking at G-Dragon curiously.

“Foursome,” G-Dragon said. “Ai, it was bound to happen.” He reached down under the blankets now and began pushing off his boxer shorts.

“Oh my god!” Dara said. “What are you doing?!”

“Eeeeeek!” Bom screamed. She grabbed her pillow and began hitting G-Dragon with it now, yelling for him to pull his shorts back up. T.O.P. now grabbed his pillow, too, and all four then engaged in a massive pillow fight, each nearly crying from laughing so hard as their effervescent voices echoed out into the hall.

In the room across the hall, Minzy and Daesung had already fallen asleep in each other’s arms, but CL and Seungri were wide awake, both lying on their backs on the other side of the bed and staring up at the ceiling as they listened to the craziness resounding out of the other room.

“What do you think they’re doing in there?” Seungri asked.

“Foursome?” CL joked.

“What?” Seungri starting laughing, but then he stopped and wondered if they really were all having in there. “No way,” he said.

“I was just kidding,” CL said, smiling and shaking her head. She her side now and faced Seungri. “You are so gullible sometimes.”

“I’m not gullible,” he said, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he knew that it was true. “Well, I guess I just trust people too easily.”

“You really are the innocent maknae, aren’t you?” CL asked, trying hard to keep her gaze on his face and not let it wander over his bare upper body, particularly over those six-pack abs of his.

“And you really are the baddest female,” Seungri said, smiling, but then his expression changed to a more serious look. “Maybe opposites attract, Chae Rinni,” he said.

CL knew what he was saying and also knew that this was essentially the reason she had been fighting her feelings for him all this time. She had thought that they were too different to be compatible.

Thinking that she might test their chemistry now, she closed her eyes and quickly pressed her lips against his. Seungri was momentarily shocked from the sudden kiss, but he soon fell into the rhythm of her lips and pulled her closer to him, his hands sweeping down the curve of her back and stopping at her hips, where he held and gently squeezed her.

CL felt goosebumps all over her skin and sudden warmth between her legs and she pulled away then, surprised that her body had reacted to his touch that way. Seungri stared at her for a second and thought about asking her why she had stopped, but instead, trusting his instincts, he arched his neck to reach up and reclaim , kissing her more deeply and more lustfully than he had before. CL was surprised by his boldness and felt her control slipping away, but right at the start of this intimate connection between them, Daesung suddenly let out a deep snort so loud that he woke himself up.

“Erm, wha…” Daesung mumbled, as he sat up.  

Seungri and CL lay frozen beside him.

Daesung was oblivious at first. He just sat there in that big bed looking around the room and wondering where he was. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Seungri and CL lying atop each other beside him. He squinted down at them, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and when he saw that it was indeed them, he just smiled widely and closed his small eyes again as he lay back in the bed, turning over now so that his back was to them.

Seungri and CL bit their lips to try to hide their laughter and embarrassment in that quiet room.

But then they heard Daesung’s voice, muffled by the pillow. “It’s about time,” Daesung cheerfully said. 

The next morning, everyone gathered on shore, and for a few minutes, all they did was stand on the beach and stare at the hundreds of zombie bodies everywhere. But then Hyun Suk walked over and stood in the center of their large group. He looked up for a moment at the rising sun and then back down at that bright beach, squinting as he studied each of their faces. “It’s gonna be hot today,” he said. “We’re going to be working hard, probably be sweating, probably be tired.” He wiped the sweat already forming at his hairline and then put his black cap back on. Smiling now, he said, “But when this is all cleaned up and secure, we’ll have a home here.”

A few people cheered but Hyun Suk instantly quieted them. “Ai, don’t get too comfortable in my house, though!” He smiled now, enjoying teasing them. “I’m going to be kicking you all out soon once we get more land secure. You can go find your own homes.”

“Even me?” G-Dragon joked.

“Even you what?” Hyun Suk asked. “I don’t play favorites.”

Everyone laughed and scoffed. “Yeah, right!” they said.

“Okay, fine, fine, let’s get to work,” Hyun Suk said.

Everyone had a job delegated to them. G-Dragon, Dara, T.O.P., and Bom set out on Hyun Suk’s cabin cruiser to return to the bridge, where two of them would retrieve the pickup truck they had left there and drive it back to the house while the other couple returned with the boat.

They needed that truck back so that they could begin hauling the corpses out of there. Everyone who had stayed behind, with the exception of Hyun Suk, his wife Eun Ju, and the children, had already begun carrying the bodies up from the beach to the road in front of the house in preparation for the pickup truck’s return.

Eun Ju held Dream in her arms as she and Hyun Suk led the three toddlers up the beach to the house, where Eun Ju would look after the children while everyone else worked outside.

“What the…” Hyun Suk mumbled, as he stepped inside the house. The karaoke machine was still centered in the middle of the space, the power and microphone cords tangled everywhere. And on the table were the remnants of the crab dinner that everyone had enjoyed that night. But it wasn’t the mess that was bothering Hyun Suk. It was the furniture. He reached down and touched the old sofa that the scavenger group had found at the small farmhouse down the road and then reeled back in disgust. “What kind of thrift store crap is this?” Hyun Suk asked.

Eun Ju quietly laughed as she watched Hyun Suk continue in his examination of the the table, the chairs, the rusty utensils, and everything else that the scavenger group had found on the road.

“Aish,” he said. “I can’t live like this.” He turned to his wife now. “If I would’ve known the world was going to end, I would’ve scheduled that decorator to come down here earlier!”

Eun Ju had been trying to control her laughter, but she let it out now, unable to believe how this man could still think of luxury at a time like this. The children, seeing Eun Ju laugh, now began laughing, too.

“It’s not funny!” Hyun Suk said, smiling as he stomped his foot. “I just want nice things!”

“Appa, you act like baby,” Yoo Jin said.

Hyun Suk stared at his daughter, his mouth agape. “Oh, is that right?” he asked, smiling. He picked her up then and swung her into his arms as he covered her face with kisses.

“Yuck, appa!” Yoo Jin yelled, laughing as her father then began tickling her.

Eun Ju put her hand over now, trying to hold back her tears as she watched him and their daughter together. She then looked down at their son, Seung Hyun, and Jae Suk and Kyung Eun’s boy Ji Ho, and then finally at baby Dream in her arms. All these children, she thought, all of them will live good lives full of happiness. She was sure of it.

Ji Hyo elbowed Jong Kook in the ribs and looked up at him with a playful stare.

“Yah, what was that for?” he asked.

She shrugged and smiled. “It’s a beautiful day outside,” she said, “and all you’re doing is scowling.”

Jong Kook glanced around at the other survivors cleaning up zombie bodies on the beach that morning, feeling his scowl slowly turn into a smile as he saw how happy everyone else seemed to be despite having such a horrid duty. Se7en and Rina were working well together, moving fast and seemingly enjoying the labor. Gary and Jessica were doing more flirting than working, as were Thunder and Krystal. Daesung and Minzy were trying to roll a body up the hill only to have it roll back down on them, much to the amusement of Jae Suk and Kyung Eun, whom were now trying to help them. And Seungri and CL were… kissing? Jong Kook squinted and then saw that, yes, they were indeed trying to hide themselves behind the wooden pier to enjoy that sweet moment in secret. He was happy for them, for all of them.

When he turned around and looked back at Ji Hyo, he thought that she never looked more beautiful than she did now. Her hair was wild in the wind, her skin glistened with sweat, and all along her arms and legs were sparkling crystals of sand that clung to her skin. “I’m happy, Ji Hyo-yah,” he said. “I really am. I was only scowling because I know there has to be a better way to do this than just dragging each body up that hill. If we could just get a blanket, we can roll several bodies onto it and then use that as leverage to…” He saw Ji Hyo laughing at him. “What?” he asked.

“It’s just the way you are, Jong Kook-ah. Always strategizing.”

Jong Kook blushed. “Don’t tease me, Ji Hyo-yah.”

Ji Hyo smiled and looked away. “I’m not teasing,” she quietly said, her voice trailing off as she looked out upon the blue sea. She closed her eyes, listening to the sound of the waves lapping ashore, the memories of her childhood in Pohang rushing back to her. “We’re going to be okay,” she said. “You can just feel it in the air.” Looking back at Jong Kook now, she asked, “Don’t you feel it, too? That feeling that everything will finally be okay?”

Jong Kook smiled. “I do, Ji Hyo-yah,” he said, breathing in deeply. “I really do.”

THE END

[ Click here to read the sequel ^_^ ]