Can't Live Like A Dog (When Born To Be A Tiger) Pt 2.

Prompt: Nature's Fury

There wasn’t much for Jaebum to do in the house now, given how there were no longer any new films or dramas showing since no one was in the mood to even act anymore. All that was playing were either reruns of dramas and music shows, or occasionally the important news, which was decreasing in frequency. Nothing particularly entertaining.

He just had to wash up the breakfast plates, do laundry and make dinner for the three of them before the pair came home. And probably dust the house. Jaebum felt like a housewife waiting for her husband to come home from work.

Or rather, in his case, his husbands.

Well, wasn’t that a funny thought.

True to their word, the two of them came back before sunset with more food.

But no Jackson.

Jaebum took one look at their faces and silently shepherded them towards the dining table where there were bowls of piping hot soup waiting for them. Unloading the backpacks and sorting out the food could come later. First, he had to feed them.

That night, he didn’t complain like he usually did when they clung onto him like a lifeline, instead simply just alternating between rubbing small circles into Jinyoung’s back and massaging Mark’s tense shoulders.

Their days passed in the same familiar routine. They would wake up for breakfast, their alarm clock being the bright sunlight streaming through the windows, limbs all tangled together and spend a good 10 minutes trying to untangle themselves.

After breakfast, Mark and Jinyoung would head out to scout the area, finding Jackson and more food at the same time, while Jaebum did the household chores, which were mainly just cooking, washing and laundry. And the occasional cleaning, reading or napping.

He really was starting to turn into a housewife.

While Jaebum enjoyed the familiarity and comfort that the routine gave him, the days were starting to blend together with no distinction between them. At this point in time, Jaebum was seriously considering on wearing a pink apron and greeting Mark and Jinyoung with a cute ‘welcome back~’ just to amuse himself.

He then proceeded to bleach his brain furiously after that thought.

Aegyo just wasn’t his thing.

No matter what the other two said.

It was on the eight day after they started to head out when Mark and Jinyoung finally appeared with an extra body.

A male with platinum blonde hair.

But he wasn’t Jackson.

Jaebum recognised him. He was one of the first years in the music production department that helped out film students with soundtracks during some of their project. Jaebum had visited the Music department a few times, and passed the boy along the corridors, when he wasn’t, you know, holed up in his studio or attending university lectures.

What was his name again?

“This is Choi Youngjae.”

Ah. That was it.

“We found him under one of the bridges over the Han River.” Jinyoung reported as he unloaded the cans of food from his backpack and glanced at Jaebum quickly. “The poor kid was freezing to death.”

The Han River? That was quite far away from his apartment. The pair had indeed travelled quite a distance today. The dancer had no idea how someone would be able to survive all this while just being under a bridge, especially that last hailstorm.

He turned to look at Youngjae who was standing there like a lost puppy, eyes wandering around the room and when they met Jaebum’s eyes by accident, they darted away immediately. Skittish, was the word that came to his mind.

“So.” Mark said, looking at him. Jaebum read the silent question in the other’e eyes. Like he said before - he wasn’t a heartless person. He simply sighed, turned and walked into his bedroom without a word, exiting it with a bundle of clothes in his hands and pushed Youngjae towards the bathroom, ignoring the twin relieved sighs he heard from behind him.

Did they really think that he would actually refuse and kick Youngjae out of the house? When he had taken in two strangers before? And especially in this kind of situation?

That thought hurt Jaebum slightly.

Even though he knew that he had no reason to be upset.

Let it never be said that Jaebum was always a rational person though.

He spent the rest of the night being slightly distant from them, nursing his bruised heart.

He wasn’t sulking though. Nope. Not at all.

Just…. slightly hurt.

Ok fine.

Maybe he was sulking.

But just a tiny bit.

He was caught by Mark finally though, just before they headed to bed. The older male cornered him in the kitchen, Jinyoung and Youngjae nowhere in sight.

“What's wrong with you?” He asked.

Ouch. Straightforward it was.

“Nothing.” Jaebum replied, eyes coming to rest on a spot on the wall behind Mark.

Or maybe not.

Mark shot him a long glance, as if searching for clues in his face before his mouth dropped open into an ‘oh.’

Jaebum sighed.

The other had figured it out. Probably.

His expression softening, Mark pulled the younger into a hug, running his hands up and down Jaebum’s back in an reassuring manner. “Sorry. We didn’t meant to doubt you at all. It’s just that… we weren’t really sure how exactly you would react to someone new after it being just us three for a long time.”

Had it really been that long since he invited the pair into his house?

It felt as if he had already known them for years, instead of a mere few weeks.

“It’s ok. I was just being silly.” Jaebum laughed slightly, pulling away from the hug to focus on doing the dishes properly.

“Your feelings are never silly,” was what followed him out of the kitchen.

Well, Mark technically hadn’t been wrong in his guess.

Jaebum was indeed initially afraid that whatever camaraderie he had established between Mark, Jinyoung and him would be disrupted by this new arrival. But his fears were unfounded.

Youngjae fitted right in into their little group with his easy and unrestrained laughter and humbleness, the former sounding like a godsend in such a grim environment. It made Jaebum wonder how he could ever think about hating such an angel.

The only change was that he now had more mouths to feed, more dishes to wash, more laundry to do and it was a tighter squeeze in bed at night. Youngjae had spent three nights on the couch, before Jaebum quickly got tired of the younger’s longing gaze at the bedroom and dark circles under his eyes and pulled him into the bed later that night. Mark and Jinyoung parted naturally to make more space for them.

Jaebum’s roommate’s single bed had been dragged into Jaebum’s bedroom at some point in time, which reduced the walking space further. The spare room had now been turned into a conference room, or rather a room where they would sit in and decide on where to search next. At least, the searchers would. The walls were now covered with maps of Seoul, which Jaebum didn’t know he had or that his parents had bought for him for no apparent reasons. They were filled with dots, circles and lines.

Youngjae joined the search, much to Jaebum’s surprise. Apparently he knew Jackson from one of the fencing clubs that he had joined recently. Such a small world indeed. Though he wasn’t really that surprised. Jackson had seemed like a social butterfly. Jaebum was beginning to feel slightly out of the loop with this Jackson guy. Maybe he should have made more of an effort to talk to him. Too late for regrets now though.

He felt as if he should join the search, not wanting to be the only one not doing anything. Yet, at the same time, maybe he shouldn’t. After all, the other three knew Jackson and his habits, and thus where to look. Jaebum would just be trailing after them and slowing them down. Still, he felt useless just sitting at home.

Jaebum voiced this out to Jinyoung one day, when it was their turn to do the dishes together. He didn’t want to bother anyone with his insecurities, they had enough on their plate already, but he really needed an answer to what he was actually even doing in the team. What was his position even?

“You give us a home to come back to.” That was Jinyoung’s answer, pinned with a serious stare.

It was yet another day that Mark, Jinyoung and Youngjae trudged back into the apartment with blank faces when Jaebum suggested they try searching in other areas of Seoul. His suggestion was met with startled gazes and surprised expressions, which Jaebum understood since he was kind of suggesting that they moved bases.

“I mean, it’s rather clear than he isn’t anywhere near Gangnam now. He might have moved to other parts of Seoul though.” It had, after all, been a few weeks since Youngjae came and Mark and Jinyoung had been searching for Jackson before that already.

“But hyung, your apartment…” Youngjae protested.

“Isn’t home with you guys.” He interrupted.

A year ago, Jaebum would never be caught dead saying such heartfelt words but the apocalypse had taught him that if you have anything that you want to say, you better say it now since you would never know when you would get another chance to say it. Which unfortunately was a struggle for Jaebum at first since he was never one for voicing his true feelings. But he learnt quickly with three boys around him who weren’t afraid to broadcast their affection for him to the entire world.

“Besides, we could always find a base easily.” He said, shrugging. There were probably lots of abandoned apartments around Seoul since the country was already half empty.

Silence resumed as the other three stared at him with wide eyes. Jaebum gulped nervously. It wasn’t that bad of a suggestion. Right?

He knew that the other three had been contemplating this for a while, but none of them wanted to leave Jaebum behind. They knew that Jaebum would disagree since it was his house that they were leaving behind. But what they didn’t know was that they were much more important to Im Jaebum than a concrete floor with four walls. He had no idea when the three of them started to matter so much to him, but he was fine with that.

Suddenly, he found himself surrounded in a flurry of limbs. Trapped in the arms of Jinyoung, a back hug from Mark which Youngjae joined immediately, kisses pressed onto every inch of his skin which the three of them could reach to.

In essence, his entire body.

Jaebum protested, of course. He wasn’t a touchy person by nature. Weeks with these guys had softened him a bit but not to this extent. Still, after struggling in vain for a few minutes and failing to get out of the tangle, he simply resigned himself to patting whoever’s back he could reach gently.

Surprisingly, packing didn’t take as long as he had expected. Each of them had a backpack on their backs, stuffed full of whatever essentials they needed. Jinyoung’s backpack was filled with clothes. He was still carrying that baseball bat from when Jaebum first met the couple in the convenience store.

Youngjae’s was a mix between food and clothes and all those papers that contained whatever information they had jotted down - on Jackson’s possible location, predictions for the next wave, what places to avoid, etc.

Mark and Jaebum were placed in charge of looking after food, more specifically canned food. That was really important. The elder had somehow managed to procure a set of knives and what Jaebum suspected were probably daggers from out of nowhere. He also suspected that the eldest probably raided an antique store during one of their outings, but they were good weapons so he didn’t really mind.

Transportation, on the other hand, posed a slightly bigger problem. Mark suggested on heading towards Yongsan, since that was where Jackson and him had went on a holiday with their parents when they were much younger. He recalled something about Jackson telling him that he wished to come back here again when he was older.

Jaebum didn’t know why the missing boy would ever want to return to a red-light district other than for the obvious reason. He didn’t exactly want to think about the implications regarding that sentence.

He supposed that all those flashing lights and busy activities in front of Yongsan Station might have seemed appealing to the mind of a 7 year old boy. Though it did raised some questions on Mark and Jackson’s parents’ parenting mindset for bringing two kids to such a place.

Despite it’s dodgy nightly activities though, Yongsan was a place full of cultural attractions, such as the National Museum of Korea. Jaebum knew this because he had to help check up what museums there were in Seoul to visit for a friend’s assignment. Maybe that might be why the parents had bought their children there.

In all honesty, Jaebum couldn’t remember ever being attracted to places like museums at the age of 7. They were too boring for him. He would rather be running around in the playground or an amusement park. Still, each to their own.

He had to admit that while he wasn’t really bothered by the stereotype that came along with their destination, it was certainly interesting to see Jinyoung’s and Youngjae’s faces turning bright red upon hearing the destination, particularly the latter who rushed out of the room while the other simply stood there with a slight blush. Jaebum had to explain the reason to a confused Mark, who was staring at the empty space that Youngjae had left behind, only to watch in amusement as the elder’s own face turned red too.

The Film student had just been glad that they now had a direction to focus on instead of simply wandering around Seoul aimlessly. That would probably have wasted a load of their time and bring them further away from this Jackson dude instead of going anywhere near him. And God knows how desperate the other three were to make sure that their friend was alright.

Gangnam to Yongsan was quite a far distance. Definitely not walkable, (despite how fit some of them looked, they were not walking there. Jaebum didn’t think his legs could handle that long a distance) and with no taxis available, it looked like the only option was to take the train.

That had been Jinyoung’s suggestion, the younger male remembering something about the train still working when the three of them had been out on of their hunts. Jaebum had learnt quickly early in the apocalypse to not question anything in this situation and to just accept everything as it is, like why there would still be workers maintaining the trains instead trying to save themselves or holing themselves up somewhere. Going with the flow was now the safest idea, and the one that required the least braincells to think about.

Though, Jaebum was curious kid by heart, so he wanted at least some resemblance of an answer to this question. It could be probably because most of the trains were automatic, and thus that was why they would still be in function. However, the journey from Gangnam to Yongsan would not be an easy one, even travelling by train. They would have to transfer a few times between the two stations.

The idea was quickly met with agreement from the other members and they set off on their journey. Jaebum had been the last one to leave his apartment, as if it was some sort of action to symbol the closing of this particular chapter of his life. He had stood in front of his door for a long while, unwilling and unable to bring his feet in the opposite direction.

This was the apartment he had lived in for a good two years. Two years of university, cooking for himself and stumbling back at 2am in the morning either from the library or drunk. This was where he had learned to be independent, first time being away from his parents. This was the place that signified a good and important part of his life. It felt somewhat surreal to know that he would be leaving his apartment forever. Jaebum had always knew that such a day would come, when he might have to go apartment hunting for a new house, but he had always envisioned such a thing happening after he had achieved his masters degree and graduated from university, not during an apocalypse.

The other three were saints as they kept quiet, letting Jaebum take as long as he needed to come to terms with what was happening. It felt like hours before Jaebum could drag his eyes away from the door and drag his feet to where Mark, Jinyoung and Youngjae were waiting for him. Their arms around his shoulder convinced him that he had made the right decision, no matter how hard it was to let go of some things.

The journey from Gangnam to Yongsan had felt strange. They met literally no other living beings, other than one or two stragglers. It was eerie, riding a completely empty train and walking through a completely empty station when it wasn’t all that hard to picture the place bustling with people during peak hours. The entire experience was definitely not something Jaebum was eager to go through again.

“It feels almost as if we are the only ones left in the world. The last of humanity.” Young echoed the thought that they were all thinking.

That was a scary thought.

Stepping out into Yongsan Station lightened Jaebum’s heart slightly. They had finally reached their destination and were ready to begin a new chapter of their journey. The usually noisy station was scarily quiet. The sound of their footsteps could