August 5th, 2017

Namjoon, simply put, was tired. He was tired of hiding. He was tired of worrying if his family was alive. He was tired of the air of fright in the make-shift bunker that Son Nari’s family owned.

Four days ago, they had the radio to hear the news. Two days ago, the power turned back on for a few hours at a time and Yoongi and Hoseok had pulled out the car battery sitting in the pile of supplies. Yesterday, Hoseok realized that there were patterns to the times that Seoul was being bombed.

And today, Namjoon had had enough.

“What if we try to go aboveground?”

Everyone perked up at the thought of getting out of the self-made prison, but unsurprisingly enough, Son Nari is the first to protest. “But, the attacks.”

“We have plenty of food left over, but what if we tried to get fresh food?” Jin murmurs. “Our bodies need more than dried vegetables and stock.”

“We should see the outside condition too,” Jimin blinks, rising to his feet from the cushion of the mattress. “The radio isn’t the best and we can find if there’s a way to escape. Wouldn’t we be refugees?”

Hope starts to flare in Namjoon’s chest. Refugee status would be the best way for them to survive at the moment. Even though it’s not an ideal situation, it was as close as they could get to actual safety. Who knew what it looked like aboveground?

Son Nari still looked hesitant. “But—”

“If you want to sit here like a caged animal, that’s fine.” Namjoon’s words are rather harsh and he bites them back immediately, but the damage had been done. Her face grows darker and he realizes that there was no point in taking out his frustrations on her. Or on anyone, as he had grown increasingly snappy with the younger members of the group.

Jin mediates the situation easily, clapping a hand on Namjoon’s shoulder and shaking his head, “What he means to say, is that if you feel safer Nari, it’s completely fine to stay.”

But like Namjoon had realized just seconds before, the damage had already been done. She slowly rises to her feet, “Give me twenty minutes.”

The next twenty minutes is filled with nervous tension in the wide expanse of the room that had become their bunker. The younger ones whispered quietly to each other, helping each other fill up their bags. A few energy bars, a bottle or two of water, and extra jackets all filled up their bags.

But Son Nari was frowning at the pile of supplies. Instead of picking up the generally accepted supplies, she starts digging into the bag of medical supplies that Namjoon had been eyeing for days. He couldn’t deny that it would be helpful, but he couldn’t deny the fact that it was stolen supplies from a hospital that would need it more than ever.

She was very much quiet and alone, that is, until Hoseok asked her if she needed help. She stumbled back a little out of surprise that someone was talking to her, because she seemed to be the loner of the group. She shook her head, but he sat down next to her empty bag anyway, carefully arranging the supplies of bandages and gauze that she had put aside, along with a granola bar and bottle of water.

Nari looks a little taken aback at the help, but in return, hands him a stack of face masks, “The dust from the bombing is bad for the lungs.”

Namjoon almost has to marvel at the way that Hoseok easily worms his way into hearts with his sunny smile and sometimes quiet support. But today, he has to twist his mouth in quiet judgement, because he still didn’t know how he felt about Son Nari.

She walked with a quiet grace with a focused look on her face, hefting her bag on to her shoulders before bending down to tie her shoes. “Ready?”

No one really answers her question, but Jungkook blinks, sidling up to her and looking back at the rest. And that’s as close as they were really going to get to an affirmation, because deep down, they were all scared.
 

Outside was a disaster. That much was immediately obvious to Nari.

The street there were on is relatively untouched, but the amount of dust filtering out the sun’s rays pointed to the fact that not everyone else was as lucky. The morning meant that it wasn’t as hot, and the jackets were more for shade and protection than they were for warmth.

The group’s pace is fast and unforgiving, and she struggles to keep up easily. She couldn’t even ask them to slow down, because after all, she was told that she had the option of staying back. Namjoon’s provocation had prompted her into action.

There are very few cars out on the street, and a few taxis pass by. Nari can see frantic families with luggage piled high through the grimy windows as the cars speed past, leaving trails of dust in their wake. She can’t say that she feels jealous, but she knows that she has to stay. Her parents were still probably hiding out in one of their properties, and her brother was supposed to be coming back soon.

She didn’t know what was holding back the other seven, but she had her own reasons.

They turn on to a slightly busier street, near a grocery store and a plaza, and even though it’s not bustling with people, it’s slightly more alive than the rest of the city. The people’s faces were somber, and most were carrying large bags that Nari could only guess were their limited abilities to stock on supplies.

They slip into the grocery store, and the shelves are completely ransacked. The few employees manning the counters had sagging shoulders, and the frantic shoppers were occasionally fighting over items. With one look at the produce, Jin wrinkles is nose and deems it pretty much empty, so the rest of them search through the rest of the store.

Taehyung and Jimin find batteries and matches that have been cleverly hidden away behind a bunch of balls in the toy section. Jin resigns himself to buying semi-perishable food, just in case, while Yoongi and Jungkook stalk through the clothing section and end up finding boxes of masks that no one was touching while getting several layers of cheap clothing.

Nari hadn’t even thought of that, but if the attacks lasted longer, their clothes would be reduced to rags. Already they had started washing clothes by hand in order to preserve the water that was starting to wane from the taps.

Somehow, Nari finds herself stuck with Namjoon. With the cart, he ends up turning toward the vitamin section and stares in confusion. Nari sighs and starts pitching in bottles. Most of the bandages had been taken, but she couldn’t say the same for disinfectants and cleaning supplies. Gloves and duct tape and shower caps to cover the feet quickly pile into the cart along with some over-the-counter antibiotics and some pain killers.  Most of the antibiotics had been stripped off the shelves though, and she had been lucky enough to chance across a few, along with some antiseptics.

Apparently, garbage bags weren’t high on the list for others either. The aisle for cleaning supplies is relatively untouched, to be honest. Personal hygiene, on the other hand, can’t be said the same for. Namjoon looks