Ji Hyo, Daesung, and Minzy sat on the hallway floor, the latter two with their backs against the closed stairwell door, facing Ji Hyo. No one had spoken since Jong Kook’s group left. Not until Daesung shyly looked up at Ji Hyo.

“Noona?” He bit his lip. “Why did you ask me to be in the backup group? Why not Jae Suk or T.O.P.?”

“You think I made the wrong decision?” Ji Hyo asked.

Daesung cleared his throat and puffed out his chest, revving up the cocky front he sometimes put on. “Of course not! I’m definitely the strongest. Pshaw, everyone knows that. In fact, I was the one who got Jong Kook into lifting weights! You didn’t know that? I used to train him back when he was just a little skinny thing.”

Ji Hyo raised her eyebrows. “Oh, really? Hmm, didn’t Jong Kook start working out in the mid-nineties sometime? And how old were you then?”

Daesung smiled. “In the mid-nineties? Like, five or six.”

“Ah,” Ji Hyo said.

“I was a child prodigy,” Daesung said, laughing. “Total exercise genius.”

The three quietly laughed.

But then Minzy leaned forward, the thick bangs that covered her brow accentuating the seriousness in her eyes. “But, Ji Hyo-ssi, why did you really pick us?”

Ji Hyo looked at the two young idols in front of her and remembered how Jong Kook had encouraged her in the exercise room, just before she killed her first zombie. “Because you’re both stronger than you think,” she said. “The others, T.O.P., Jae Suk, they’re older, they know their strength. But you two, you have yet to realize what you’re really capable of.” She leaned back against the wall. “But, that is just my opinion,” she said.

Daesung and Minzy sat quietly for the next few minutes, both thinking about what Ji Hyo had said.

“All I know,” Ji Hyo added, “is that whatever is happening out there, this crazy situation we’re in, it’s going to require strength. Strength and faith.”

The plan was for Jong Kook’s group to explore each floor on their way down, starting with the one directly below them, the fourth floor. They arrived there without trouble, but because neither group had yet been on that floor since the attack began, they were apprehensive as to what they would find. But Daesung had mentioned that Hyun Suk had given most of the employees the day off in preparation for the Running Man filming, which G-Dragon also confirmed just before they embarked on this journey, and so Jong Kook was hopeful that they wouldn’t run into too many zombies.

Still, they walked cautiously down the fourth floor hallway. Jong Kook headed up the line, his radio tucked into his apron pocket, his hands tightly gripping the barbell. Haha and Gary followed, with CL and G-Dragon rounding out the back. They entered the managers’ offices first, finding only two zombies inside, both of which they promptly killed, and then made their way into the media center, where things soon took a turn for the worse.

Inside the media center, the group saw one zombie, its back to them, hunched over a body, eating what was left of the corpse. And when that zombie turned around, CL and G-Dragon both gasped. It was Teddy – leader of 1TYM, producer at YG. To see Teddy now, like this, left both CL and G-Dragon stunned and heartbroken.

Noticing their paralyzed reaction, Jong Kook stepped forward to take the Teddy zombie out, but G-Dragon held his hand up to Jong Kook, stopping him. He looked up at Jong Kook with his pleading eyes, his brows arched in despair. “I’ll do it,” he said.

The Teddy zombie was nearly upon the group and so G-Dragon didn’t have time to hesitate. He swiftly swung his bar across its face, knocking it down. As he breathed in deeply, trying to gather up his courage to reach into his apron for a knife and stab it in the head, every member of that group had their eyes on G-Dragon, waiting for him to follow through. But because their attention was focused on this scene, they hadn’t heard what had been slowly approaching from behind them. Not until it was too late.

Haha screamed as the zombie that had approached from behind bit into his neck, tearing out a chunk of flesh and sending blood squirting out from his jugular vein. Everyone turned upon hearing his scream, shocked by the surprise attack, but even more shocked when they saw who had attacked. It was Taeyang, now just a ghoulish version of what he used to be, standing there with his ashen face and bloody mouth, about to rip another hole in Haha’s neck.

It was chaos at that moment. Jong Kook and Gary screamed and cried as they began stabbing the Taeyang zombie while CL watched, completely horrified. The Teddy zombie, meanwhile, had since risen from the floor and had grabbed ahold of CL while she was distracted, but G-Dragon jumped atop the Teddy zombie then, stabbing it mercilessly in the head.

With the two zombies down, all that was heard was Haha’s gurgling cry as he lay on the floor, dying. Jong Kook fell to his knees beside his dear friend, holding his hand over Haha’s bloody neck, trying to stop the bleeding.

“Jah… Jong-Koo… Kook-ah,” Haha tried to say, the blood now gushing out of his mouth.

“Don’t speak,” Jong Kook said, crying. “It’s okay.”

Haha’s eyes rolled back, the blood still pumping out of his neck, his breaths now just short gasps.

“Don’t worry,” Jong Kook said. “I’ll… I’ll take of Suk Jin’s boy, and I’ll take care of yours, too.”

But Haha didn’t hear. Haha was gone.

The three men who had not been part of the search and rescue group or the backup group – T.O.P., Jae Suk, and Kwang Soo – had all felt helpless in that empty office and soon devised a plan to get the space organized by the time the others had returned. They collected all of the microphone stands and extra knives and arranged them into two neat stockpiles, one at each end of the room.

With the weapons organized, Dara and Bom suggested that all of them work to get the room ready for that night, as the sun was already setting.

“We need those partitions back,” Bom said. “For privacy.”

T.O.P. smiled and said that he and the other two guys would take care of it.

And so T.O.P., Jae Suk, and Kwang Soo walked the length of the hallway to where Ji Hyo, Daesung, and Minzy were sitting, waiting for the search and rescue group to return.

“Any word from them yet?” Jae Suk asked.

Ji Hyo looked at the radio in her hand. “Nothing,” she whispered.

“That’s good news,” Kwang Soo said. “That means they’re not in trouble, right? That they’re fine?”

Ji Hyo shrugged. “I’m sure they’re okay,” she said, more in an attempt to convince herself.

T.O.P. eyed the desks and partitions that were strewn across the hallway beside the backup group. “When they come back and we get this barricade back up, you think it will hold with just the desks?”

“Maybe,” Ji Hyo said. “Why do you ask?”

T.O.P. explained how they wanted to start setting up sleeping areas, and how the girls thought it would be best to use the partitions so that everyone could have some privacy. Ji Hyo agreed and the men soon dragged the partitions back to the office, leaving the backup group to continue their waiting.

Ji Hyo, Daesung, and Minzy sat there quietly, each too anxious about the situation to say anything. The more time that went by, the more anxious they became. Eventually, Minzy slowly reached over and grabbed Daesung’s hand, tightly squeezing it. Daesung felt his heart race at her touch. He gently squeezed her hand back but kept his gaze down, too afraid to look at her, lest his feelings for her be revealed.

Daesung remembered how they were in the beginning, and how he hadn’t been able to look her in the eyes back then, either. The boss had unintentionally made things awkward for them, noting early on that Minzy seemed like the female Daesung. It was an unusual comment, but not because it was untrue; contrarily, it seemed rather perceptive, a bit too true. They looked alike, after all, and they were both somewhat the odd member in their respective group. When Hyun Suk had said that about the two of them, leaving Daesung and Minzy to just stare at each other awkwardly, Daesung had told her, “If you become me, then you’ll have a lot of emotional hardships.” Minzy was new to the business at that time, and Daesung had felt a need to look after her. But then she had replied with such a sweet comment that it left Daesung blushing. She had said, “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You have lots of charm.”

As he sat in the hallway now, holding her hand, he thought about how many years had passed since they had met, and how he had hid his feelings from her all those years. Ji Hyo had told them that this situation that they’re in requires strength. And he suddenly felt brave at that moment, realizing that he may never have another chance, considering what was happening, to show Minzy how he felt. Either one of them could be gone tomorrow, forever lost to the dangers that surrounded them. And so he looked up at her then, directly into her eyes. But just as she returned his look, they were startled by a noise in the stairwell.

They all quickly rose from the floor, their eyes wide. Daesung and Minzy backed up from the door and lifted their meat cleavers high in the air, ready for whatever awaited them on the other side. Ji Hyo, too, held her hibachi knife high, and she reached out to grab the handle then, yanking the door open.

The search and rescue group, sans Haha, climbed the stairs with grave expressions on their faces. Ji Hyo held the door open for them and watched as they walked slowly past, staring blankly ahead while they dropped their helmets, tore off their cardboard armor, and untied their bloody aprons, leaving the wreckage of those costumes all over that fifth floor hallway.