Inside the iron door that seemed to hide just dust and rats from an old build storage had been constructed a glass wall that not allowed more than ten steps into the room. At the other side of the glass, a lying creature rested on the dirty ground, its face breathing straight from the dust and what looked like mud.

Jaejoong couldn’t see the details clearly, hid behind Yunho’s wide shoulders.

“Still asleep.” Yunho shrugged with one shoulder while his left hand held the shotgun still. “What the have you given to it?”

“Morphine.” Leeteuk confidently walked closer enough to touch the glass wall. “Don’t worry Jaejoong. It can’t hurt us. This wall is bulletproof.”

“Why are you holding a gun, then?” Jaejoong whispered the closest he could muster into Yunho’s ear.

“In case this thing breaks the glass.”

Jaejoong finally laughed at a sentenced left from Yunho’s lips. Even the other man raised his eyebrows at Jaejoong’s attitude but it was dignified of an addition of humor to mask the fear.

“That’s our hm…,” Leeteuk tried to find a word, “inmate. We got him two days ago, still as human. We watched him metamorphose and then sedated him to run some tests.”

“You run tests on Changeds?” Jaejoong asked.

“Changeds,” The Doctor nodded, “sound likes a good reference. I try to find a cure actually, of course, with my limited means.”

“How did you get this thing there.”

Yunho started to accept that the changed wouldn’t move anytime soon from the ground and decided to drop his gun and stepped further from Jaejoong.

“He was one of us,” Yunho pointed out. “You see? Still clothed and with all his hair on, it is not easy to find a zombie as tidy as him. He was a new one and decided to go out alone for food.” Yunho shook his head in disapproval. “He didn’t agree with our saving food policy. I reached him out in time to see he being bitten so I dragged him here as fast as I could.”

“We drop him from that hole,” Leeteuk pointed at the small orifice on the ceiling at the other side of the glass. “And they pull me in and out by a rope so I can give him the drugs. Of course, Yunho always goes with me.”

“I told you everyone needs me,” Yunho commented out loud.

“He looks like a person,” Jaejoong concluded, watching from afar the creature on his back, ignoring completely Yunho’s presence.

“He is totally not like a person,” Yunho retracted with rudeness in his tone. “Don’t be stupid.”

“It’s okay Yunho,” the Doctor quickly intervened. “Let’s keep in mind Jaejoong is new at this. First, when the virus enters a human’s system it turns the person ill,” he tried to explain, sounding very patient. “The bitten one starts to feel nauseous and dizzy, their head will ache and after that different bodies shows different reactions. Some faint straightly, others feel pain in different body parts, but all of those are things that cease quickly. That explains why someone who loses a body part in a fight with a zombie doesn’t die but is subject of a metamorphose just the same.”

“After that?” Jaejoong hesitantly questioned after the Doctor’s pause.

“The veins carry infected cells that multiply themselves in dozens of millions per minute. The organs stop functioning until the brain gives up. From three to five hours the body becomes completely unrecognizable. The virus feed itself from melanin and turn them pale white. They can’t stand much under the sun, and those who dare are exposed to radiation.”

“They turn into ashes but regenerate after, right?” Jaejoong confirmed what they discussed earlier.

“When they regenerate, their body is even more different,” Yunho commented, his eyes glued on the changed on the floor. “They lose any human resemblance but the shape. They have legs, torso and head, but no arm. They are so rackety that is possible to see the curve of bones trying to rip the skin. Their eyes are gone too, covered with skin. What is left is the nose, to search for human blood scent, and their mouth, to eat us all.”

Jaejoong felt a shiver tracing his back with Yunho’s detailed answer. Jaejoong wanted to ask more questions but his brain shut when he heard Yunho’s next words.

“The zombie is getting up.”

“I know.” Leeteuk sounded relaxed. “It hasn’t eaten yet. It is weak.”

“We should at least take Jaejoong out?” Yunho suggested. “It is not going to be pretty.”

“What are you going to do?” Jaejoong felt his feet insisting in staying still.

“Kill it” Leeteuk stated. “We are leaving soon and I don’t have time to play with it right now.”

“He’s your inmate!” Jaejoong protested but held his tongue when the other two looked at him as if he was crazy.

“Jaejoong, Darling.” Yunho approached him, but Jaejoong still wouldn’t move. “He is a zombie. An abomination. It kills humans like us by eating our flesh and making hmmm sounds while they taste our skin on their tongue. That thing-” Yunho turned around to point at the lifeless changed on the ground, “is our experiment.It is the shell our Doc injects s on and take s out the way he wants to. You were one too, a ing experiment and maybe that’s why you are feeling any kind of empathy for that punk. But let me tell you,” he dropped his voice into a whisper, “I don’t have a single particle in my body that contains pity.”

I sense it.” Jaejoong answered, after gulping a knot that formed in his throat with Yunho’s words. “I noticed it the moment you told them Leeteuk could kill me. That you didn’t care. After all, I’m just an experiment, right?”

Yunho frowned and opened his mouth for a typical rude answer, but it seemed like it wasn’t what he wanted to say because he closed his lips again.

“Yunho,” Leeteuk drew his attention. “You have to go.”

But Yunho stayed. For at least five seconds he sustained a glare with Jaejoong, seeming to be confused with the younger’s answer or maybe dumbfounded with his audacity.

“What color is your eyes?” He suddenly asked, making Jaejoong mirrored his frown.

“Gray,” was his answer. “I think.”

“Well,” Yunho smiled, nearly timidly. “They are almost as beautiful as you.”

Jaejoong’s breath suddenly caught up halfway his lungs and his neurons got too confused to formulate an answer.

Yunho didn’t wait this time though, he passed through Jaejoong like a bird escaping the hands of a euphoric child. Jaejoong felt a warmth covering his neck and raising to his cheeks, he remembered of having this side symptoms with an ointment he used for his skin back in the laboratory.

The boy quietly looked at Leeteuk, wondering if he had heard what Yunho had just told him.But before his eyes could land on the Doctor, they fixed on a man getting on his two feet with a difficulty in his balance.

At first, it looked like one of the males Jaejoong passes his eyes through (a/n: I don’t mean inside though lol), but after one second of focus, the boy noted the half open mouth that exposed sharp teeth like a lion’s. His hair was messed up, the eyes completely white like a cloud. His steps were dragged and he looked up and down as if searching for something.

For someone.

“He can’t see us?”

“It-” Leeteuk corrected. “It can’t see but it can smell and listen. Those two senses are sharply developed.”

The Doctor started to step back, while the changed approached. Finally, Jaejoong’s feet started to move without any further thought, but this time, straightforward.Even his hand extended, willing to touch the glass.

The changed kept moving without a specific direction until he sensed the movements at the other side of the wall that prohibited him to go further. Jaejoong’s hands could almost trace its unbalanced shape, sensing the hunger coming from inside his half open mouth.

At the same pace, but not releasing moans from his mouth, Jaejoong watched the changed trying to touch him back, against the glass.

First it was a light touch on the wall, harmless. The next touch came in form of a punch, and the third, a harder punch.

“Step back, Jaejoong.” The Doctor’s voice sounded far away. “Don’t provoke it.”

Jaejoong felt himself in denial in the face of that changedperson. The clothes were there, the form, the whole aura that could beconfusingat the first sight, just like he was when he entered the room.

“Jaejoong.” Leeteuk’s tone was full of reproval.

The punches started to become constant and the glass trembled a little at the corners. Jaejoong was going to turn around, right just when the changed’s mouth tried to swallow him from behind the wall, releasing a scream that increased the sensibility on the glass.

That was then the explosion came, and Jaejoong crouched down on the floor, protecting his ears against the sound. Breathing slowly, he first looked up at the orange light emanating from the ceiling, showing clearly all the blood and encephalic mass that painted the glass black.

The zombie, the inhuman thing that Jaejoong watched trying to feed on him through a glass, was lying on the floor not moving a muscle. The standing person was Yunho, with his gun in hand and unmerciful eyes on him.

.

“Slept well?” Yunho must have heard his steps, because Jaejoong didn’t want to be the first one to talk.

“Yes, thank you.” Jaejoong kept staring at Yunho’s back since he seemed to be too busy with something else to look at him. “Where are we?”

“It used to be a chemical factory.They used to have some prohibited stuffs, so they had four underground floors to do their schemes. At least that was what the Doc said.”

The room Yunho had asked to meet Jaejoong was wide and empty. The walls that were once white were covered in dirt and seemed to be painted with brown. There were two iron chairs forgotten at one corner, rust in their structure was more visible than the iron’s shine. The space seemed to be at least the same size of the dinner room.

“This is the last floor. The shots won’t attract any zombie, we’re far from the surface. That’s where we practice.” Then, Yunho finally turned around with a gun in hand.

“Practice?” Jaejoong asked, unsure.

Yunho started walking, trying to reach Jaejoong but stopped around 2 meters from him.

“You look fine,” he accused.

“Thanks?” Jaejoong repeated the same tone from before.

“H-how?”

Jaejoong noticed it was the first time he heard Yunho stutter. The boy smiled but tried to contain it when Yunho’s expression darkened.

“Don’t smile at me.” He pulled Jaejoong closer and started to analyze his face and neck. “You were full of bubbles and reddish yesterday.”

“I’m good.” Jaejoong tried to move away from the touch. “That was temporary”

“One night temporary?”

Jaejoong couldn’t help another smile. “It’s like that, they fade fast. It was always like that.”

Yunho frowned. “What did the Doc think about it?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him yet.” Jaejoong sighed. “Can you let go now, please? You do like proximity so much.”

The other finally gave up on the serious expression and opened a wide smile.

“When it’s with you, I do.” He stepped back and let go of Jaejoong’s arm, slipping one of his hands at the boy’s skin once to make sure it wasn’t irritated anymore.

“Why?” Jaejoong practically mumbled.

“Don’t make hard questions.” Yunho lessened his smile to a delicate curve of the lips.

“You’re strange.” Jaejoong wanted to roll his eyes, but he stopped when Yunho looked down, as if he was ashamed.

“You act like you are interested in being my friend,” Jaejoong pointed out, trying to correct himself. “But then you ignore me completely or say really cruel things. You want to save me and then you ask someone else to kill me. You say I’m just an experiment and indeed you treat me like one.You don’t consider how I might feel.”

“You’re not an experiment.” Yunho agreed. “Before… I didn’t mean what it looked like I meant.”

“You don’t know what you meant yourself.” Jaejoong rolled his eyes with no regret this time.

“What I wanted you to understand is that I am not letting you become an experiment.” Yunho approached his body to Jaejoong’s again. “You don’t have to compare yourself to zombies because you are not one of them nor you will end up as one of them.”

“You don’t have to guarantee that yourself. I won’t allow myself to turn into an experiment again,” Jaejoong stepped back.

“I will be clearer with the things I say to you from now on.” Yunho stated.

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Well,” Yunho offered the gun to Jaejoong. “Why don’t we start what we came here for.”

Jaejoong nodded, trying to look bolder than he actually felt. After seeing the damage that gun could make, the boy felt threatened by it.

“What kind of music do you like?” Yunho helped Jaejoong to extend his arm at an acceptable height.

“I don’t know,” Jaejoong shrugged with his relaxed shoulder, and watched Yunho fitting the gun in his hand, wrapping the right fingers at the right places.

“C’mon,” Yunho laughed a bit. “I thought it was a safe topic to talk about. I am great with talking but you are not the type of person who seems to appreciate my skills.”

“I don’t listen to music.”

Yunho stopped and stared at Jaejoong with a frown. “Like, never?”

“Well, I actually listened to some music before surgeries. Because the doctors did, I was able to listen too. It was only for a few times. I couldn’t recognize anything now.”

“What about when you were younger?”

Jaejoong shrugged again.

“I don’t remember.”

“This is a pistol,” Yunho said. “Here is the magazine. Once it ends, you won’t have fuel.” Yunho stopped for a second and looked at Jaejoong. “What I mean is that there will be nothing coming out and the zombie might attack you before you realize, so that’s why I am telling you this.”

Jaejoong smiled. “I understand.”

“Nice.” Yunho focused back on the gun. “Pulling the trigger at once won’t work. You need to slide here, unlock and then shoot.”

Jaejoong nodded twice to convey his confidence.

Yunho let go of Jaejoong’s hand and stood beside him.

“Why have you never asked anything about me?”

Jaejoong froze, his eyes were still on the gun in his hands.

“I lost interest in wanting to know about people.” Jaejoong admitted. “They would die so fast sometimes I didn’t even remember their birth dates.”

“I am not dying anytime soon, Darling.” Jaejoong watched from the corner of his eyes that Yunho’s arms opened. “Bath yourself in my amazing self.”

Jaejoong bit his lower lip to restrain a smile. There was no way he was giving into his infamous and egocentric jokes.

“Where do you come from?” Jaejoong hesitantly turned to look at him.

“I was a sergeant in the army,” Yunho smiled, victorious. “In the day that everything started, one of my comrades arrived from his break, he was sick so I told him to rest. After we arrived from the training and entered the room…,” Yunho closed his eyes, “he jumped from the bed and attacked one of us. I mean it wasn’t him anymore,” he opened his eyes again, and they were sorry. “But I thought he wasn’t so I run to call someone able to help him,a doctor of a higher-ranking soldier.But at the corridor there were others too… who weren’t human anymore. Instead of killing them, I ran away to look for my family. Maybe if I have killed those strange and inhuman creatures less people would have turned? I don’t know.”

“What about your family?”

“They weren’t at home,” Yunho sighed. “I couldn’t find them but I found the Doc and Gary while I looked for them and we stick together since then.”

“They can be anywhere.” Jaejoong dropped his gun, interested in the topic but Yunho quickly adjusted his position back.

“I don’t think so.” The other shook his head. “My sister was too little back then. They couldn’t have fled far. Keep aware of your posture.”

Jaejoong adjusted himself.

“You are putting your hopes down or have simply accepted that they aren’t alive anymore?” Jaejoong heard himself asking aloud, something he asked himself in silence for years.

“I want you to shoot,” was Yunho’s answer.

Jaejoong focused his attention to the machine on his hand. First, he brought it to his chest and slid the upper lock. He extended his arm again and kept his index finger strong on the trigger.

“Where should I shoot?”

“That wall,” Yunho pointed with his head the further wall in the room, opposite to the entrance door.

“What’s behind it? I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Doc’s lab,” he heard smile in the other’s tone.

Jaejoong sighed and turned to face Yunho. “I’m not shooting.”

“Careful,” Yunho’s tone dropped. “If you pull the trigger you will kill me.”

Jaejoong dropped the gun on the floor, suddenly nervous. Yunho started to laugh as if it was a real comedy and the boy felt his face heating up even though the only light in the room was rows of candles.

“Stop being silly,” he handed the gun back to Jaejoong. “No one is in the lab right now, and the bullet probably won’t pass through the wall. Here is almost like a cavern with thick walls.”

Jaejoong narrowed his eyes, still hesitant.

“Is the light burdensome?” His tone suddenly changed to worry.

Jaejoong shook his head. “I’m good,” and he grabbed the machine.

“Alright then, I trust you. Do you trust me, Babe?”

Jaejoong closed his eyes, letting his annoyance out with a deep breath. “Jaejoong.”

“Babe.” Yunho insisted, “you’ll get used to it.”

“I won’t.” Jaejoong purposefully pointed the gun to Yunho

“Beautiful?” Yunho raised a defiant eyebrow. “This one definitely suits you.”

Jaejoong turned back to the wall and pulled the trigger with anger, not controlling his posture enough, having his hand pulled back in counterpart and his body having an unfirm balance on the ground.

“Attention.” Yunho called his attention, the fun still presented in his movements while he helped Jaejoong to adjust himself correctly. “You have to memorize this posture until it feels natural. You don’t have time to think of it when they are behind you.”

“You can shoot while I adjust myself.” Jaejoong suggested, as if it was obvious.

“The places I want to be with you don’t include zombies as background, Dear.”

“Jaejoong.”

Yunho smiled and stepped back.

“You have no idea how cute you sound saying your own name.”

Jaejoong pulled the slide.

“Yunho,” he tried, making sure to sound as annoyed and tired as he felt just by standing those minutes there.

But in no way he was going to give away his easily tiresome body and his uncountable weaknesses.

“Now is y,” Yunho denied using his tongue against his teeth. “You’re really something, Jaejoong. Now shoot at the same spot.”

“I can barely see,” Jaejoong complained. “It’s impossible.”

“I will be your eyes.” Yunho approached Jaejoong one more time. “Although I can’t be as delightful as they are.”

“Can’t you stop, please?” Jaejoong allowed his tired tone to come out for the first time. “It sounds like you’re hitting on me.”

Yunho raised both eyebrows. “You don’t know about music but know about romance?”

“Doctors are humans!” Jaejoong accused. “They kiss, they hug, they have children and they say ridiculous things like that.”

“Have any of them ever told you something like that?” The uncommon serious voice confused Jaejoong.

“Of course.” Jaejoong heard himself whispering. “Not just to me.”

“Have her… or him, ever done something to you?”

Jaejoong started to look at the ground, searching for excuse not to look at the other’s eyes.

“I cut his chest open with a scalpel.”

Jaejoong felt a hand messing his hair. “You are a smart blondie.”

“This sounds extremely ridiculous.” Jaejoong finally looked up.

“I know, Beautiful. I am sorry, I didn’t mean to make you believe I would try anything with you. I was just kidding. I will control myself from now own.”

“Yunho will stop being an .” Jaejoong smiled, “thank God.”

Yunho smiled too, but it didn’t last.

“I can’t see the hole either,” Yunho suddenly changed topics. “But I see the crack on the wall.It is white there, you see, in a line?”

“Hm,” Jaejoong agreed. “I see.”

“Try shoot there.”

Jaejoong pulled the trigger and the sound this time made him lose his balance.

“Focus.” Yunho called out.

The man then pulled a light stickout of his pocket and threw it away with his hands almost touching the ground. The green light shone on the opposite wall and showed two separated holes by more than 50 centimeters of distance.

Jaejoong didn’t dare to face Yunho.

“You did well,” he heard the other say. “If there were two zombies almost one meter apart from the other you would have caught them.”

“It wasn’t that far,” Jaejoong complained in a low tone. “Only two shots on the same spot is efficient?”

“Imagine they are heads, Jaejoong.” Yunho melted his tone a bit. “Imagine one of the holes is a head and you must hit on it.”

“Heads are not that small.”

“Yeah.” The impatience was back. “They move and run to your direction eager to eat you and you can barely see their figures still you must see the target and shoot it. Practice is what you need.”

“I’m sorry.” Jaejoong stared at the pistol, “I didn’t want to make you mad.”

Angry people lead to punishment, Jaejoong knew well.

“I’m not mad.” Yunho answered, mad.

Jaejoong sighed and made a different question.

“What kind of music do you like?”

It took Yunho off guard, and the boy could see confusion in the other’s movements.

“Why do you ask?”

“You wanted me to ask.” Jaejoong looked up, wondering if he was doing it the wrong way while all he was trying to do was bring back the lighter mood.

“70’s, 80’s rock music.”

“I wasn’t even born!” Jaejoong exclaimed in surprise.

Yunho’s smile finally came back on, wide and clear.

“Music wins over time, you know? Music is humanity, pain, sorrow or happiness anything transformed in joy inside our ears. Music is still alive even if most of human beings aren’t. Music wins over anything.”

“Tell me-” Jaejoong felt more than the thought of asking him, “a music that you like.”

“I will.” Yunho’s eyes suddenly seemed to have gained a new light “Later. I will show you everything that I like, later.”

Jaejoong accepted and received a last rub on his hand before Yunho left him behind, on his own.

If he could choose, Jaejoong wouldn’t really want to be alone this time.

.

“Keep your pistol,” Yunho commented while they shared the table for lunch. “Don’t leave it behind no matter where you go.”

“Can I really stay with it?” Jaejoong asked, biting on his potato.

“You must,” Yunho corrected. “Everyone here has one. If by any chance a zombie shows up, its flock will follow behind. They’re hardly alone. Here is warm and cozy the way they like it. Just shoot them, make your way to the last floor, get as much ammunitions as you can, then make your way up to the first floor where there is sunlight.”

“Shoot, last floor, ammunition, way up, sunlight.” Jaejoong repeated the key words, pretending to memorize the whole contexts.

“When that is over, or you see that the others have controlled the situation, go back down. Don’t expose yourself much to the sun.”

He remembered, Jaejoong noticed with surprise.

“Did Yunho take you to practice today?” Somi showed up in front of them.

“Yes,” Jaejoong smiled at the girl. “He taught me well.”

“Why didn’t you take him outside? Today the sun is ever brighter than yesterday,” She directed the question to Yunho.

“Don’t be dumb.” Yunho kept looking at his plate. “He could get sick.”

“Oh,” she nodded, but suddenly felt awkward to keep staring at Yunho. “Do you want one more potato? The Doctor asked us to keep you well fed.”

“I’m full, thanks.” Jaejoong denied with his hands, but Yunho held them to stop the movement.

“Get him more,” Yunho demanded. “He is tired from the training.”

Somi left without a saying.

“You’re saving up!” He complained.

“Don’t worry, I’ll give you my part.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to.” Yunho got on his feet and took his plate to eat with another group.

Jaejoong sighed in disappointment. He didn’t really mean to make Yunho mad, but watching the other giving up on his time, patience and food for him, didn’t make the boy feel any better about his own situation. He was a lost man in the middle of a family, and it was not as if he was being mistreated but at the same time he wasn’t able to make laces of a long-lasting friendship when he spent most of his life watching his friends die.

“Did he told you-” a potato fell like a bomb on his plate “about the days he was a sergeant, and he couldn’t find his family after the infection spread?”

Jaejoong looked up at Somi with frown.

“Is everything okay?” Jaejoong asked.

“Did he told you or not?” The once sweet girl looked like she had an evil twin when she sat in front of him.

“Yes…” Jaejoong answered with a hesitant tone.

“He is a liar son of a , that’s what he is,” she rolled her eyes. “He wants to look great and invincible in front of people just to forget the loser he used to be.”

“I’m sorry?”

“He was in army, that’s true.” Yeeun let her plate down, sitting beside Jaejoong. “But it ends there. He was far from a sergeant, he was a cadet with barely two weeks of training. The first infected one was from his room and Yunho was the one who found him in zombie state. You know, at that time we didn’t know what a zombie was but we knew that those weren’t people anymore and didn’t want our well being.”

“He ran away,” Somi explained. “He just closed the door and ran away in fear. He went upstairs to find a doctor but he had turned into a zombie too. Yunho stole a gun, but didn’t shoot anyone, not a single person. He didn’t know how guns worked, he was still learning and he was a scared chicken.”

“What change would it have made if he had or not shoot anyone?” Jaejoong heard himself defending the other.

“All the difference.” Somi started to sound angrier. “Less people would have died or turned into zombies. Just if he had tried to stop them… every person is precious, Jaejoong. But he just cared about himself.”

“The times were different then,” Yeeun shrugged, not really showing at what side she was. “The thing is that he wanted to go to his family as soon as possible. So, he stole a car and he didn’t have a license then.”

“Understandable, imagining the situation.”

“Shut up!” Somi crossed her arms at Jaejoong’s words. “He drove to his city where he wasn’t even familiar with. He took lots of wrong roads and got stuck in the chaos of people trying to escape from the virus. He arrived too late at home.”

Jaejoong stole a glance at Yunho who seemed too busy laughing with others to imagine they were talking about him.

“His sister was bitten,” Yeeun dropped her tone. “She was only seven.”

Jaejoong turned to look at her, eyes wide in surprise.

“She was bitten by her cat,” Yeeun continued. “This virus goes to animals too but with other kinds of reaction.”

“I know,” Jaejoong said. “There were animals in the lab, infected ones. I just didn’t know it was by the VIP.”

“VIP?” Yeeun titled his head to the side, “that’s how you call the virus?”

“The thing is-,” Somi interrupted them, “the first thing that he did when he saw his sister was kill her.”

Jaejoong hid his mouth with his hand in shock.

“He knew what was going to happen,” Yeeun finally said protecting words.

“His father was still in transition,” Somi didn’t show any empathy. “At the sight, he stole Yunho’s gun and shoot him on the chest, he was crazy, almost losing his mind but still aware of the price of a daughter’s life.”

“He shot Yunho?!” Jaejoong restrained himself from screaming

“Maybe he didn’t even know it was Yunho,” Yeeun sighed. “He was infected, almost turning into a full zombie. He wasn’t aware of life as we see it.”

“Yunho didn’t die though,” Somi got up. “But he shot his mother who was also turning before leaving to the hospital.” She turned around and left as if her only reason to sit there was turn Yunho into something worse than a zombie in Jaejoong’s eyes.

“It wasn’t on his chest, the shot.” Yeeun finished her potato. “It was close to the tummy. The hospital was in the same neighborhood and he took the bullet off and treated himself in the midst of chaos.”

“She hates him, doesn’t she?” Jaejoong watched Somi talk to Leeteuk at the end of the table.

“No,” Yeeun shook her head. “She loves him. She loves him with the passion of a 20 years old who have never loved before. She just wants to make you not like him.”

“Why?” Jaejoong’s confusion was palpable.

“Because Yunho treats you better than her.”

“It’s a lie!” This time Jaejoong’s didn’t mind on raising his tone so he could be able to show his anger. “I just arrived here and he is being nice with me because of that.”

Yeeun smiled a bit and shook her head again. “No, it’s not because you just arrived. Yesterday, when Yunho saw you… he saw himself in your image.”

“What do you mean?”

“For years,” Yeeun explained, with calm and hurt in her tone, “he wandered alone in this ed up world, Jaejoong. After leaving his comrades behind and killing his family, he went through every single day and night alone, living with the demons running around and demons in his own head. I don’t know how he made it until he met the Doc and Gary. But I am sure he didn’t want to make you go through the same thing.”

“How old was he?” Jaejoong asked, glancing over to Yunho.

“Eighteen. Even younger than you are now, but just as clueless as you are. He only wants to protect you.”

“I don’t need his protection,” Jaejoong affirmed, even though his eyes didn’t leave the animated figure of the other.

“I know,” Yeeun’s voice suddenly sounded different. “Can’t you pretend you do, at least?”

“Isn’t he the one…” Jaejoong felt a knot in his throat, “who needs protection?”

“Protect him,” she incentivized, “even without him knowing, can you?”

“Of course, I can.” Jaejoong finally seemed to reach Yunho’s attention with his eyes insistently on looking at the man, and the other frowned at his serious expression.

Jaejoong just hoped Yunho didn’t turn in time to see the tear escaping from his eye.

.

Music.

Jaejoong held against his chest the discman Yunho handed him that night. There were headphones too, and Yunho encouraged the boy to listen the whole disc inside the device, even if it would kill the batteries.

The lyrics accompanied by melodies were all about sadness, hurt, pain, suffering, happiness, hallucination and… reality. Jaejoong could feel himself nodding to some of the singer’s words and his bold voice, as if saying, “yes, I know how that feels.”

Some of the songs he had on repeat until he could sing together some of the lyrics. That group mixed the sad melancholy of a condemned man to his own hell at the same time the man was sung to be strong and invincible.

The boy followed Yunho’s instructions and kept laid on his mattress at the second floor underground, until the battery ran low. He didn’t know where Yunho would find new ones, but he wanted to ask for them.

“Give me more.”

Jaejoong needed to have some more.

The boy got up and followed straight to the exit, he had already memorized most of the ways in the darkness. He turned right and went down uneven stairs that would land on the dinner room. There was a family playing with two children over the table, and two other men - more distant, talking in a low tone.

Hesitantly, Jaejoong approached the man, but none turned around to check on his presence.

“I’m sorry,” he called their attention, but regretted when their eyes glared at him.

It was clear how unsatisfied they seemed to be disturbed, and Jaejoong wondered if his presence, especially, made it all more unpleasant.

“I am wonder if you know where Yunho is.” Jaejoong tried to keep his tone unaffected.

“I see you have eyes,” the taller of them shrugged it off. “You can search for him.”

Jaejoong froze at the spot, wondering if he should answer to that and have his first enemy inside the community.

“C’mon, look at his eyes,” the other replied. “They are as ed up as himself is.”

“Thank you,” Jaejoong held in a snort, “for being completely useless.”

As soon as the boy turned to leave, he heard the other two raised up behind him. Jaejoong sped up his rhythm, and before he could notice, he was stumbling on the path to the lower floor. He believed he could find Yunho at the laboratory or at least find Leeteuk, who would be at least respectful at him.

In one more day, the only people who were nice enough with him would be leaving to reach for the ship that would take them to a secure island. They couldn’t risk all the community members in a complicated journey outside their shelter, this way, only the stronger ones were heading.

Including Yunho.

After falling on his once, and with his knee at least twice, Jaejoong was able to find the candle lights of the laboratory only by guiding through touching the wall. Before he could make himself visible, he discerned the figures of the doctor, Yeeun and her husband.

“The fact that he is sounding indecisive is ridiculous.” Leeteuk’s voice was loud and frustrated. He walked side to side in the small room that was at least 9 meters from where Jaejoong was.

“You don’t understand.” Yeeun argued, in a restrained way. “He’s worried. he grew up to care for the boy.”

Without anymore words, Jaejoong knew they were talking about him.

“It’s been one day, love.” Gary’s bored tone didn’t bring any life to his emotions. “I agree with Doc. He’s acting ridiculous.”

“Jaejoong is not sociable.” Yeeun turned to face her husband with a serious expression. “What if there is trouble while we are away?”

“That’s why I insist that we should kill him!” Gary’s tone suddenly changed to a rude one.

Jaejoong swallowed dry while his heart started to race miles per second to the point he could feel it making its way up his throat.

“It’s not that simple,Gary.” Leeteuk sighed, as if he had said that for a million times. “I want him, he is not just any boy. He comes from Thyss Corporation where he had been under tests for the cure. I still believe we can find something in him.”

“I don’t know why you haven’t tried anything yet,” Yeeun retorted.

“He is sloppy!” Leeteuk’s voice was high again. “He doesn’t agree and I don’t have the means to hold him here by force nor the equipment to run tests on him.”

“So,we leave him,” Gary sat on the floor, feeling the talk would be long. “And if he adapts, or simply survive, we take him with us.”

“That’s the only way.” At those words from the Doctor, Jaejoong felt one feet stepping back. “We will come back with the ship and properly take him as experiment. I am sure everyone will agree.”

One more step back.

“How not to agree,” Yeeun mumbled, loud enough for Jaejoong’s ears. “If it means finding the cure.”

Jaejoong had some tip of the cure in his blood? He wanted to laugh at their conclusion, cut himself open so they can study him inside out and see that nothing beyond normal was there.

Actually, things were probably missing and that was what messed up with his health.

If they expected to take him as experiment, Jaejoong had to show him how human he was yet he was not willingly allow them to try anything on him. His trust had been torn into pieces.

Jaejoong was just learning how important it was for him to be able to make his own choices.

He was already an outcast in the society he just entered, and Gary’s own words made clear the low probability of him being alive in a dubious environment.

Jaejoong wouldn’t wait to be trapped when he least expected.

Of course, they wouldn’t accept him as an equal.How could he even create minimal expectations? The frustration grew up inside the boy like a stomach reflux, making his insides burn.

Jaejoong turned around in a hurry, still taking precaution not to stumble on anything or making his steps too loud. The darkness soon swallowed him up completely, and with desperate blind hands he started to tap the wall in search for an entrance. He knew it was on his left side, far from the laboratory, taking into consideration the extent of the practice room Yunho showed him earlier.

The boy fell on all fours when he finally found the door less entrance.

He wanted to scream, he could feel the small grains of sand and stones cutting his skin. He had probably cut his pants. He would need new clothes.The smell of blood was an attraction for zombies.

While getting up on his feet, in the fastest way he could manage, the boy could take a glimpse of the green light emanating - much weaker - from the back of the room. Jaejoong didn’t know exactly how they worked, but it looked like he would need some.

Taking a look back to be sure he wasn’t being followed, Jaejoong run to the end of the large space, heading to the shelf of pistols. He had one already, so the boy took as many magazines as he could carry in one hand. There was a piece of fabric covering a box of light sticks and flash lights. Jaejoong caught one of each and tied everything he had in hands in the dusty fabric.

He closed his eyes for an instant trying to think where the clothes could be kept. The first floor led to the exit Jaejoong haven’t had access yet, while the second was divided into rooms with mattresses and covers where people denominated beds. Jaejoong shared the same room with Yunho but the boy hadn’t find any cabinet or box where the clothes could be in.

Jaejoong sighed. He would have to leave his package somewhere and find Yunho to get something new and clean to wear. He looked down, and groaned at the damage at his pants, cut open at one side, and drenched in blood.

The light suddenly turned off and it was a sign for Jaejoong to leave quickly. The others could come at any moment.

As soon as he turned down, a punch of clarity hit the left side of the room. Jaejoong’s instinct was to hide from it, crouching in the ground so it wouldn’t reach him. His head started to ache just with the seconds of contact to the luminosity.

“I told you I heard something from behind the wall.” Yeeun’s voice was almost scared.

Jaejoong wanted to hiss, he wished there was any furniture he could run under to hide but his thoughts were slow and Gary’s flashlight caught him with his hands trying to hide his face.

“Jaejoong?” Gary sounded angry.

The boy quickly sat completely over his secret package while the older two approached him.

“Sorry.” Jaejoong kept his head down. “I was trying to go to the laboratory but I got lost.”

“Lost?” Gary pointed to the ammunition with his flashlight. “Beside the guns?”

“Can you please drop the light?” Jaejoong asked with teeth clenched. “They’re making my eyes burn.”

“Don’t mind him.” Yeeun’s shadow covered Jaejoong in obscurity. “he didn’t know where he was going. He just arrived here,” She explained to her husband.

“Whatever.” He turned around, making Jaejoong sigh in relief.

“Oh darling, you are bleeding.” Yeeun tried to touch Jaejoong’s leg but the boy rose up first, taking advantage of the darkness to hide his package behind his back.

“I’m good,” his voice was emotionless. “I just need new clothes.”

“I’ll get you new ones. Long sleeved, the way you like.”

Jaejoong wanted to thank, but he didn’t use to thank any threat for his own life.

.

Making his way to the exit was much simpler than Jaejoong ever thought to be. No one actually seem to care if he was heading to bed or to fight against anything that could be wandering at night.

After he had walked the steps to the first floor, that he could check by illuminating a sign with his own lantern, the boy started walking an old and abandoned path of stones until he separated himself with a huge roll-up closed door. That was probably the inaccessible exit.

Jaejoong thought of following up the stairs until he could reach the rooftop, and maybe find a way to jump from there. The thought made him laugh, he should just stay where he was then and probably die even faster.

When he was ready to give up and wait for another chance, the door started to go up and like a bird scared to be caught, Jaejoong hid behind a pile of old boxes that smelled mold. The ground was sandy and Jaejoong tried to keep himself clean balanced not to occur the risk of hurting himself again.

“What are you doing here?” Yunho’s cold voice made Jaejoong frown.

He was going to turn around to show himself when a girl’s voice interrupted his movement.

“Waiting for you, of course.” It was Somi.

“Don’t be an idiot.” Yunho sounded furious even with a low tone of voice. “It is dangerous.”

“I wanted to roll up the doors so you could enter faster,” the girl was pretty much affected with his manners, he could almost hear her tears dropping on her words. “I was trying to be helpful.”

“Where is Jaejoong?”

Listening to his name made Jaejoong close his eyes, perturbed. How much time would it take for Yunho to forget his name? Jaejoong had never forgot any name or birth date he has known in his entire life. Why had Yunho have to give him so many nicknames to turn the process even more complicated?

“I don’t care,” Somi became though. “And you shouldn’t care neither. “He won’t stay with us for long, we are not supposed to become his friend.”

Jaejoong heard a loud explosion on the ground that made him jump and wake him from his imagination trip.

“I told you to stop acting like this!” Yunho was screaming. “Doc is not touching him! Not even a lock of his hair! Jaejoong is not a laboratory rat!”

“You’re being egoistic.” Somi had definitely started to cry. “Such a jerk. He can be our redemption but you insist on being a demon.”

“Don’t you think about him?” Yunho dropped his tone but his gentleness was still absent. “How must he feel after all these years being treated like a zombie when he is as human as we are.”

“He isn’t!” Somi insisted. “Doc says something is wrong. He wants to investigate. He cured himself so fast, and this boy is strong even with all the surgeries he went through. I mean, he barely eats to survive.”

“He is human enough for me,” Yunho declared. “At this moment, more human than you.”

Jaejoong shrunk when he heard steps coming into his direction and relaxed his body to watch Yunho’s wide back and tense shoulders, both of them holding long guns that seemed to be what he had thrown on the ground earlier. As soon as Yunho disappeared at the end of the hall that lead to the ladders, Jaejoong walked out of his shelter facing Somi that seemed to know that he had been there since she started rolling up the doors.

“Don’t close it yet,” Jaejoong asked. “I’m leaving.”

“Why should I let you go?” her plump lips asked.

Somi’s wet face was pitiful but the hate painted inside her dark eyes was painful. Jaejoong was so tired looking at it coming from people around him.

First were the inmates who couldn’t understand his 20 years old healthy body and sane mind, later the doctors who had their chances to play with him but failed, now the new society he tried to fit himself into.

He had never, not even once, seen that draw in Yunho’s eyes or expression but it didn’t mean that it could appear soon in the future.

“Because Yunho won’t worry about me anymore if I leave now.”

She nodded and started to clean her face with both hands.

“You know it’s suicide, right?”

“Staying is suicide, too,” he whispered in return.

“I will tell Yunho I saw you being eaten alive,” she confessed, walking into the direction of the door’s button. “So,he won’t chase after you.”

“You don’t have to lie,” Jaejoong passed under the door and turned to face the young girl one last time. “Just tell him that I am as human as he thinks. It will be enough.”

“I knew it.” She smiled without a single drop of compassion. “Good luck.”

The boy turned around, his package in one hand and the other in his pocket. He heard the doors going down while he saw the stars sparkling in the sky above him.

His only memories of stars where when he was still a child, and in his head, they had a form and were yellow. He laughed at his innocence. It wasn’t fair, changeds were able to watch the white little points every night, while most humans, who could love and appreciate them, were condemned to hide from their beauty.

Jaejoong didn’t need luck.

He had a gun.

A flashlight.

And the stars to watch over him.