Kihyun a disapproving breath in through his teeth, eyeing the brown sludge that’s supposed to be beans being slopped onto the trays before him. He grumbles under his breath about having to compromise his art for the good of the compound and fills the designated compartments with the side dish. A familiar chuckle reaches his ears, and he glances back at Hoseok, his black hair poking out from beneath his hair net, his face bright red due to the heat of the kitchen.

“That doesn’t look like you’re cleaning dishes, Hoseok-ah,” Kihyun barks at him, his nerves frazzled. Hoseok pokes out his lower lip in frustration at the statement, his brow furrowing together.

“J-Jutht be grateful you’ve got the food you do to cook,” Hoseok fires back. Changkyun comes up beside him, relieving him of his dishwashing duty. He walks over, closer to the younger so as to keep from having to yell. He sets a calming hand at the small of his back, and he feels Kihyun relax into the touch.

“I know,” Kihyun sighs out, his lips pursing in dismay. He pauses, chuckling ruefully as he adds, “No one ever told me the zombie apocalypse would be this difficult to live through, having to survive off ty food like this.” He raises a metal spoon heaped up with bean clumps as if to emphasize his point, letting it drop off in lumps back into the vat. “If I’d have known this, I’d have let one of those ers bite me a long time ago.”

Hoseok whines at this, his hand sliding to Kihyun’s waist to pull him tightly against himself.

“That’s not funny, Kihyunnie,” he mumbles, shifting to bury his face in Kihyun’s neck. Kihyun barks out a laugh, cooing teasingly as he pulls at Hoseok’s cheek before moving away to continue his work. Hoseok feels cold despite the multiple open vats of boiling foods around him, and he has to stifle a disappointed sigh.

“Stop flirting so close to the food, you two,” Minhyuk’s boisterous voice suddenly interjects, popping up at Kihyun’s other side. “You know what happened to me and Heonney last time the boss caught us.”

“You two weren’t flirting, you were making out,” Kihyun reminds his same-age friend. Minhyuk frowns, firing back something about how if Kihyun and Hoseok weren’t careful, they’d end up making out, too. They fall easily into their typical banter, but Hoseok doesn’t hear.

His mind becomes foggy with the thought of holding Kihyun close, of kissing Kihyun, of having Kihyun all to himself for just a moment. It’s a wonderful thought, one that brings an incredibly bright smile to his lips. He glances around at their surroundings, sighing contentedly as daydreams fill his mind. A warm, fuzzy feeling fills his heart… One that quickly dissipates, however, at seeing Changkyun’s knowing smirk being shot in his direction.

He clears his throat, wiping the smile off his face as he mutters something about needing to go on patrol, and he hurries from the kitchen. He’s in such a rush he misses the disappointed light Kihyun has in his eyes as he watches him go, wishing he could ask him to stay despite knowing how important it is for Hoseok to get to his patrol shift on time…

 

Hoseok shoulders the .44 Magnum, slinging the strap over his arm with a discontented sigh. Hyunwoo glances over at the sound, the concerned light in his eyes the only sign of emotion on his otherwise stoic expression. Used to, in the days before the world ended, it’d be rare to see Hyunwoo without a gentle, Buddha-like smile pulling at his plump lips. But, then he’d lost his father, and the older man had shut down. Now, Hoseok and the others are lucky if they see the slightest of grins grace Hyunwoo’s features every blue moon.

Of course, Hoseok can understand. They’ve all lost loved ones throughout the onslaught. Everyone deals with grief differently. After all, Hoseok had a time of being closed-off himself when his mother had died… But, Kihyun had helped show him that closing himself off wasn’t the way to deal. He’d helped the older open up again, to live life again.

Hoseok can only hope that Hyunwoo finds a way to do that, one way or another.

“You know,” Hoseok finds himself saying, an idea coming to him, “Changkyunnie was asking about you earlier. Maybe you two should… you know… get together sometime.” Hyunwoo lifts a brow as they open the doors and are bathed in sunlight. They

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the world has ended. After all, if the world were to end, shouldn’t the sun have stopped shining? Wouldn’t the birds out singing now, signifying the first comings of spring, be dead and gone?

“There’s no point,” Hyunwoo tells him simply, bringing Hoseok’s mind back to the conversation at hand. “This compound is going to fall apart soon. We’re barely hanging on by a thread. As soon as the Infected smell us out and find us, we’re going to have to pack up and run. Then it’s every man for himself… again.”

Hoseok’s mouth goes dry at the notion, despite it not being a new thought by a long shot. Every day the leaders of the compound are recruiting more and more people to the fighter units, and every night all the words on everyone’s lips at dinner are how their small reprieve is only temporary. There’s no way such a large group of humans would go unnoticed by those ravenous beasts forever…

Of course, this brings up the question… What’s the point of Hoseok pursuing Kihyun? If their days are only numbered, anyway, why should he allow himself to feel anything? Why not just become a shell of who he really is, just like Hyunwoo, just like how he was when his mother was Infected and before he’d found Kihyun?

“Th-That’s still no excuse!” Hoseok defends, pushing such thoughts from his mind. “If anything, that just proves you have to live in the moment, that you need to live all you can now, before you die.” He remembers when Kihyun had told him all this only two months prior, when Hoseok had been at his darkest. The light in Kihyun’s eyes as he’d said these things, the hope shining from within… Hoseok will never forget that look.

Hyunwoo only gives a small, noncommittal chuckle, and Hoseok has half a mind to pull him back to insist on how serious he is, but they’ve reached the back gate of the compound, the only one that opens on a regular basis. They have a job to do. They don’t have time to discuss this now, though that doesn’t keep Hoseok from making a mental note about it later.

Right now, they have to defend themselves and those they’ve grown to care for.

 

After reaching the gate, they split off to scout the perimeter. Hoseok keeps his gun at the ready as he moves swiftly and silently through the woods. He passes by the guards set along the wall, nodding to them as he goes. Hyungwon watches him with a distracted gaze. The look should worry Hoseok about the younger being on guard duty, but Hoseok knows better. Hyungwon’s lithe body aids him well in hand-to-hand combat, making his skill with a knife unmatched by any others.

Hoseok lets his guard drop once he’s breached the line of trees encircling the compound. It’s easier to tell there’s an Infected heading your way here. Ever since the apocalypse, the world itself has been holding its breath to see just who would win, the undead or the living. The air has been deathly still, and not even the woodland creatures dare make a sound in places like this.

Only the crunching of twigs underneath Hoseok’s boots resound throughout the trees. Hoseok takes this as a good sign, as it means there isn’t the unearthly groan of Infected coming their way.

 

He’s walked through these woods many times. Every other day he has to work patrol duty, making sure their location is still secure and whatnot. He’s got it nearly memorized, aside from the west sector. This is where he is now, taking in the ways the sunlight dances through the leaves and how beautifully green everything is.

Before the end of the world, he’d never much appreciated the natural beauty around him. Of course, he’d been living in the city, so there wasn’t much nature to appreciate. But, he never even looked up at the sky much. Now, he finds himself looking up at the sky every day and night.

Though, now when he sees the stars, it’s Kihyun’s eyes he sees. When it’s the warm sunlight beating down on him, it feels much more like Kihyun’s gorgeous smile.

Hoseok shakes his head as images of the younger begin to fill his mind. God he’s got it bad…

So bad, in fact, that he doesn’t even realize it when he steps off the path, nor when he strays further and further into the unexplored sector of the woods…