yaebin didn’t have the money nor the energy for the summer trip her friends were planning, but eunwoo looked so excited, she didn’t have the heart to tell her no.

yaebin looked around quickly, but no one was looking at them. "you shouldn't call me that. if they hear you--" "you're always gonna be kang yaebin to me, dummy," eunwoo interrupted. "if they don't like it they can answer to me." yaebin felt a rush of warmth in her chest, like she was comfortable in her own skin for the first time in years. she had almost forgotten that eunwoo always made her feel that way. 

minkyung had heard of the lands to the west and the creatures that lived there, the savage animals that fought to the death over the smallest disturbance, but she had never given them much thought. inside the fortified walls of her hometown, there was no need to worry. 

climbing onto a stranger’s fire escape at midnight on a weekday was not how minkyung expected college to go, but she figured she shouldn’t have expected anything less from yebin. 

yebin had never seen the city so desolate. she wasn’t used to the pitch black nights, kept expecting a neon sign or a glowing convenience store on the corner. but everything was empty.

the explosion rocked the entire building, the ground trembling beneath yebin's feet. in another room, in another part of the mansion, someone screamed. for a few long seconds, no one reacted.