“We should leave first thing in the morning,” Jong Kook said.

They were all upstairs in one of the practice rooms the ahjummas told them they could stay in that night. Everyone was sitting on the floor together except for the Jung sisters, who were huddled close in the corner.

G-Dragon nodded in agreement with Jong Kook’s idea. “The sooner we get out of here, the better,” he said.

T.O.P. looked over at Jessica and Krystal in the corner. “She’s not going to want to leave,” he said, pointing to Jessica. “And I’m not sure… I’m not sure that we should.”

“What?” G-Dragon asked. “Have you gone crazy like Jummataeng and her army? You want to stay here? In that case, we might as well have stayed in Sido! The whole point was to get to the base!”

“I wasn’t saying we should stay forever, just… not leave yet.”

“What do you want to stay for, hyung?” Daesung asked.

T.O.P. shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I just… Taeyeon-ssi… I don’t know…”

Bom, sitting beside T.O.P., looked up at him for a moment and saw the mix of confusion and hesitation in his expression. Turning to the group, she softly said, “I think he’s thinking what we’re all thinking. We can’t just leave her behind.”

Jong Kook sighed. He was adamant about leaving in the morning. Each minute that passed was another minute that they weren’t at the base. For all he knew, that potential transport out of the country was already gone. But he was afraid to voice this with the group, knowing that his strategic way of thinking could come across harshly.

Ji Hyo squeezed his hand and, to Jong Kook’s surprise, she then voiced exactly what he was thinking. “Our priority is getting to that base as soon as possible. Taeyeon-ssi… she might not be able to come with us in her state, and if she does come, she… she may hold us back. I hate to say that, but it’s something we need to consider.” She breathed in deeply and looked up at everyone sitting around her. “But I know that, personally, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we left her behind. To think about her still surviving with these ahjummas here, slowly going crazier each day… I just can’t bear that.”

Everyone lowered their heads and thought about what Ji Hyo said.

“Has anyone considered that maybe she wouldn’t even want to come?” Thunder asked. He looked over at Ji Hyo now. “If you ask her to come and she says no, would you be able to leave her behind in that case?”

Ji Hyo stared blankly at him. “I don’t… I don’t know,” she said.

“And what about the ahjummas?” Minzy asked. “Would they all come, too?”

“There’s no point speculating over that,” Jong Kook said. “We need to just think about what we can control and leave what we can’t control to fate.”

“What exactly can we control, hyung?” Gary asked.

Jong Kook breathed in deeply. “Whether we tell Taeyeon about the base and whether we ask her to come. What happens after that is… not for us decide.”

“Of course we should tell her!” Jessica yelled from the corner. She had heard everything that was being said and knew now that she couldn’t ignore the conversation any longer. “I don’t care if she’s crazy,” she said, as she slowly rose to her feet. “We can’t just leave her here.”

Krystal stood, too, and glanced around at everyone sitting before her. “Is there anyone here who really doesn’t want to tell Taeyeon-unni about the base?”

“I’ll do whatever Chaerinni wants to do,” Seungri said.

“Of course you’d say that,” G-Dragon said, a slight smirk on his face.

“Whatever,” Seungri muttered.

“Maybe we should take a vote,” Dara said.

“A vote?” Jessica asked. “What’s there to vote on?” She looked at Krystal and then back at the group in complete disbelief. “We’re talking about Taeyeon here. We’ve… we’ve had our ups and downs, but we love each other. She’s my family as much as any of you are.”

“Do you want to talk to her then?” CL asked. “She’d be most comfortable with you.”

Jessica nodded. “I’ll see if I can find her,” she quietly said. She knew that it had to be her to go and talk with Taeyeon, but Taeyeon was… not quite herself, and that scared Jessica more than she wanted to admit.

Jessica closed the door to the practice room behind her and walked down the dark and quiet hallway. Not knowing where Taeyeon might be, she began peeking into each room down that hall, hoping to at least spot an ahjumma who might be able to point her in the right direction, but all the rooms were empty. She realized then that they wouldn’t have to all sleep crammed together in that one room but could instead spread out amongst these empty rooms and, if nothing else, at least have a bit more privacy.

She continued on to the end of the hall and slowly pushed open the heavy stairwell door, hearing it creak loudly as she did. From within that stairwell, another sound suddenly resounded over the creaking door – the ghostly echoes of a young girl crying. At first, Jessica thought that it might actually be a ghost, but as she quietly descended the dark stairs and the echoes came more into focus, she knew that it was Taeyeon.

Taeyeon was sitting two flights down on the last step, her legs pulled in close as she hugged her knees and slowly rocked back and forth. She looked up as Jessica sat beside her, but then quickly looked back down at her knees. “I’m not crazy,” she said, sniffling. “I know Tiffany’s dead. It just… it makes me feel better to pretend she’s still here. I have no one else to talk to.”

Jessica was in shock at how plainly – and sanely – Taeyeon was speaking and felt immediately more comfortable around her now. “You can talk to me,” Jessica said. “I know we’ve never been as close as you were with Fany, but…”

“You don’t know…” Taeyeon said. “You didn’t see what I saw, how awful it was…”

“What are you talking about?” Jessica asked.

Taeyeon stopped rocking back and forth. She seemed about to say something, but then didn’t. Instead she asked, “How did you survive so long? How are you still so… normal?”

Jessica looked away. She couldn’t help but feel guilty as she thought about all of the tiny happy moments she’d had on Sido while Taeyeon suffered so much here in Seoul. “Krystal and I were at the airport when it first happened. We eventually made it to a rowboat and just drifted to the closest island, which is where we found everyone else… Jiyong, Jong Kook… they took us in.”

“Were there zombies on the island?”

“There were at first, but most were traveling together in this big horde and Hyun Suk-ssi managed to slaughter all of them in this crazy massive attack. There were only a few left after that.”

“I didn’t see Hyun Suk-ssi with you. Is he dead?”

“No,” Jessica quietly said, thinking back on everyone they had left behind in Sido. “He’s still on the island. It’s safe there, mostly.”

“Then why’d you leave?”

Jessica breathed in deeply, about to tell Taeyeon about the base, but Taeyeon interrupted then.

“You had heaven,” she said. “You had an island and your friends and… and safety. All that time… I was in hell. And you come here? You left that to come here? Why?” She was staring at Jessica, her eyes b red.

“I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. I can only imagine–”

“No, you can’t imagine. You didn’t see your best friend ripped apart right in front of you. You didn’t have to make the choice to let her be eaten so that you can get the guns and save everyone else. You just… you don’t know…”

Jessica put her hand to , her eyes wide open as the image of Tiffany’s death overtook her. “My god, Tae…”

“You don’t know what it’s been like since…” Taeyeon quietly said as she began rocking back and forth again.

Upstairs in the practice room, the others were discussing their plans to leave in the morning.

“We either leave with Taeyeon and the ahjummas in the morning and or we leave without them,” Jong Kook said. “Everyone agrees with that, right?”

They all hesitantly nodded.

“You think Taeyeon-ssi will say yes?” Dara asked.

Jong Kook shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“And the ahjummas?” Dara asked.

Jong Kook shrugged again.

“Did anyone catch any of their names?” Minzy asked.

“The ahjummas?” Daesung asked. He shook his head. “There were so many of them.”

“Why do all old ladies look the same?” Seungri asked. “You ever wonder about that? Like, does there just come a point in a woman’s life when she decides to get that short curly hairdo?”

CL scoffed and elbowed Seungri. “Really?” she asked. “These are the thoughts going through your head right now?”

“Just wondering,” Seungri said. “I don’t know. I just always wondered that.”

“Gawd, Seungri!” CL said, exasperated.

“You don’t have to snap at me, Chaerin,” Seungri said. “You’re telling me you never wondered why all ahjummas look alike?”

“It’s a different generation, Seungri-yah!” CL yelled.

“I actually wondered about that, too,” Bom quietly said, her hand covering her smile. “I never want my hair like that. I don’t care how old I am. And I’m never going to wear those shapeless ahjumma pants either.”

Seungri pointed to CL. “She already started wearing those pants,” he said, snickering. “She wears them when we farm!”

CL now shot another elbow into Seungri’s side. She almost smiled at his teasing but the mention of farming reminded her of Sido and she grew suddenly somber. With all that had happened since they first left the island that morning – between the boat sinking that afternoon and the perilous trek up the shore that evening – it felt like the longest day she had ever lived. 

Just then, the practice room door opened. Everyone turned to see Jessica standing in the doorway.

“What did she say?” Krystal asked. “Is she going to come?”

Jessica didn’t answer.

Gary stood and walked over to her. “You okay?” he asked, as he put his arm around her and led her inside.

Jessica shook her head. “No, I’m not okay,” she quietly said.