TWO.

—

Surviving an apocalypse and suicidal thoughts altogether was not impossible.

Won Woo found himself shaken by whom he once deemed his enemy.

—

“Please… don’t leave me…”

A zombie outbreak had happened everywhere in the blink of an eye, wreaking havoc throughout the city of Cheon Yang and turning it into a real hell marked by countless splatters of blood and dead bodies littering all the roads and buildings.

Every living human being was filled with immense dread that day. And so was Jeon Won Woo, one of the top third-year students of Cheon Yang College of Arts, who fell victim to the inescapable calamity like many others and gave up his life to the extremely deadly creature that was launching itself at him. He had prepared himself for the agonizing impact, but instead of getting bitten on the neck, he suddenly heard the crisp and terrifying sounds of bones breaking.

Won Woo wasn’t even sure if he was still breathing alive, but then he opened his eyes to see that the zombie had rolled off his body with a broken neck. His unblinking, perplexed gaze was locked at the groaning zombie for a moment, and when it shifted away from the living dead, he saw a female-like figure standing with a metal broomstick in the tight grip of her hand. At first, he thought she was one of the zombies, but strangely she didn’t make any malicious movement toward him. And she was breathing heavily. Zombies didn’t breathe.

“Won Woo sunbae!” She called him hoarsely. “Are you alright!?”

Still in a daze, Won Woo couldn’t process the question immediately and he stared intensely at his rescuer, obviously forgetting that the zombie was still moving savagely. It rose from the ground all of a sudden despite its broken neck and lunged at him once again.

Unluckily for Won Woo, he was too disoriented to react fast, and next, when he opened his eyes, the zombie’s unsightly face was literally a few centimeters above his. A pungent odor of rotting flesh immediately nauseated him. But despite the absolute horror of facing the living dead from a very close distance, he witnessed his life being saved for the second time.

Won Woo finally recognized his rescuer.

She was always known as the shortest female student in the entire college, almost like an elementary school kid in an adult environment, and she had seemingly got teased a lot both in a playful and insolent way. But people surely have underestimated her size. At least Won Woo was alive when he saw with his very eyes the desperate strength in her hands as she mouth-locked the zombie by pressing the metal broomstick between its upper and lower teeth, preventing it from biting him and turning him into a monster.

Grunting behind the zombie that was still jerking around furiously, she tightened her grip on the broomstick with extreme force and pulled the monstrous creature away from Won Woo, mouth-locking it. She literally wrestled the dead as if knowing no fear at all, and after making sure that the senior wouldn’t be harmed, she flipped the growling corpse over onto its back and launched unrestrained merciless attacks at its head.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. 

It took five barbaric hits and one heavy stomp for her to crush the zombie’s skull and kill it on the spot. Hopefully for good.

Won Woo would likely remember the loud, sickening cracking sound forever, and as if it wasn’t horrifying enough to make him feel a queasy churn in the pit of his stomach, the now motionless corpse’s brain was scattered on the grassy ground right before him. Brownish red blood splattered onto him, and fortunately, he turned his face away in the nick of time.

When he again looked up at the girl who was then panting hard from exerting herself like a mad man, he understood why she was almost completely covered with blood that he couldn’t recognize her before. Apparently, she knew how to fight the zombies, and probably, she had killed many of them.

“Won Woo sunbae!”

She dropped on her knees and seized the stupefied man’s arm to help him sit straight up, smudging some blood and dirt on his sleeve.

“We must avoid an open space like this. Let’s go!” she told him with a serious look. “Let’s find somewhere safe!”

Won Woo gazed back at her saying nothing, not even budging despite the tangible proof of her sincerity. “No,” he then muttered unemotionally, his expression shifting from puzzlement to one of grim unfriendliness that startled the girl. “You go.” He pulled the girl’s hand off his arm, signaling to her that he had made a decision.

“Go? Without you?”

There was incredulity in her eyes, but Won Woo didn’t change his mind, answering her with a silence that carried ice-cold seriousness.

“Sunbae, do you want me to leave you here?”

It was obvious that she held her breath for a moment, a frown on her brow, refusing to comply with his suicidal request.

“No!” Now her voice was confrontationally louder, firmer, piercing through his stubbornness. “Never will I leave you here!”

“Just in’ go help yourself!” he replied angrily, hopelessness and guilt buried right under the harshness of his voice. “You’re not obliged to care about me! Go away!”

The petite girl then rose to her feet slowly but she remained standing there, looking at him with a glisten of sadness in her light brown eyes. There seemed to be a quiet argument between them, and although she was threatened by the unwelcoming air around him, her unwavering stance unmistakably showed a real determination that soon made him confused. And next, he was angry and ashamed of himself for his uselessness.

Won Woo averted his icy gaze away from her, looking at his feet, attempting to move them carefully but to no avail. Horrible pain raked through his body again from the severely sprained ankle, and he suppressed his groan not wanting her pitying attention. 

“Won Woo sunbae.” She softened her voice after seeing him endure great pain, finally understanding why the senior adamantly pushed her away. “I know the safest place for now,” she continued, a note of pleading slipping into the tenderness of her voice. “It’s—”

Suddenly, there were very loud crashing sounds coming from above them. Her last words were left unfinished as they both instantly looked up to see what was happening. The windows shattered and countless shards of glass rained on them.

Much to their shock, zombies were free-falling from the fourth floor of the building coming right towards them.

Won Woo couldn’t continue to stare up as he instinctively turned away and raised his arms to cover his face from all the sharp smithereens and inescapable danger, but in a split second, he glimpsed one of the feral corpses fall right on top of the junior who was caught completely off guard and knock her down on the ground.

“Jin Joo!” He screamed in terror, but there was nothing he could do as zombies then filled his slightly blurred vision. 

Two zombies were wriggling violently on the ground with twisted necks and limbs trying to drag themselves closer to Won Woo, making non-stop monstrous growls at the living human who stared at them back shell-shocked.

The impact of falling down straight to the ground from such a height had broken most of their bones, but strangely, they could still groan with their bloodthirsty eyes fixed on him and move wildly as if nothing could stop them. In fact, nothing made sense anymore. And unfortunately, he realized a few seconds too late that another zombie had suddenly risen to its feet, detected his presence, and lunged at him with lethal precision, its decayed teeth bared widely ready to rip his skin and bite into his flesh. 

At first, Won Woo thought he had given up his life, so he literally surprised himself when he then spat a curse at the dead and hastily picked up the bloody metal broomstick from the ground. He didn’t know where his strength came from, but he was fueled by some kind of anger and frustration. He shouted himself hoarse and hit the zombie hard in the head, making it stagger back from the direct blow and drop to the ground. 

It was no longer a mere survival instinct, but something else. Something that Won Woo couldn’t define with simple words. Something that made him think that giving up wasn’t the only way out.

A while ago he was scared witless, but next, he somehow felt like he was possessed. He wished he could live longer. He turned his eyes now looking for the junior’s entire being, hoping he would find her alive despite his own logic trying to discourage him. But, of course, the good news his heart desired was nothing but a delusion in such a dire calamity.

Before he found her and made himself certain she survived in whatever way possible, more zombies suddenly appeared in the distance and crazily rushed towards him. 

“.”

Won Woo forced himself to rise using one of his legs and fight, but apparently, he had run out of luck. A zombie pounced at him so ferociously that he was immediately slammed back to the ground. The overwhelming force disoriented him and made him dizzy with pain as though he had just been hit by a car.

When he opened his eyes, through his slightly blurred vision, he saw the hideous zombie right on top of him pinning him down with its weight and unstoppable lust to kill. Its head was snapping back and forth, its mouth clamping open and close wanting to tear him from limb to limb, but Won Woo found himself still alive by sheer luck again as he pressed the broomstick against the neck of the ravening corpse to defend himself from the deadly biting. 

Won Woo groaned angrily at the dead, pressing his lips tightly together. He kept turning his head from side to side disgusted by the stench of rotting blood and flesh that filled his nose, and the sticky strings of drool that dribbled down its mouth and fell on his face. For dear life he held onto the hope that he could die in a different way, and despite how miserable he was, he continued resisting and pushing the monster away.

But his stamina faltered every second, and his arms began to hurt and give out. Adrenaline coursed through his brain. He screamed as loudly as he could trying to summon all his remaining power, but the zombie was shockingly stronger. He started to lose his grip on the metal broomstick and suddenly, he realized that the zombie’s pale hideous face was so close to his. When it bared its teeth, he squeezed his eyes shut and let out a long exhale, sure that he would die this time.

“Won Woo sunbae!”

A frantic shriek was then heard in the very last and brief moment right before the god of death blew the life out of Won Woo. He instantly reacted to the familiar voice and opened his eyes again to see that the zombie was kicked away from him. He jerked aside instinctively to avoid it, but before he raised the broomstick that was still in his clutch, a short human figure quickly smashed its head into fragments with a big piece of rock and killed it on the spot.

“Jin Joo…” And after that, Won Woo went speechless for a long time.

So the girl survived.

And without him realizing it, she had saved his life again. Her size was small and for that, she had been through misjudgment and many other forms of hardship. But, if being small meant unstoppable and undaunted, then the only one who would perfectly fit the description was Hwang Jin Joo.

“Won Woo sunbae, are you alright?” she asked worriedly, looking him up and down to check on him. 

Won Woo checked on himself and then gave her a reassuring nod. Unfeigned concern etched in her countenance significantly lightened, but it was obvious that she got injured more than him from the shards of glass and constant fighting.

Now there were more stains of bright crimson on the uniform she was wearing. He opened his mouth to address his growing unease to her, but again, he had to swallow down his words as she quickly turned around and attacked two more zombies that dashed toward them. 

No more words were exchanged later. They automatically formed a group of two standing side by side and took the zombies down together. Won Woo struck the feral corpses hard with the broomstick and Jin Joo finished them off immediately by slamming the heavy rock into their heads. In a normal situation, they would perhaps high-five each other for the synchronized cooperation, but now, knowing glances cast at each other was enough communication.

“Let’s go!” Jin Joo then dropped the rock and reached him without hesitation, setting his arm around her shoulders to support him. “We must disappear from their sight! That’s how we can escape them!”

Won Woo actually still needed some time to digest what the girl said, but he complied without question. When she started guiding him to move, he felt a bit apologetic thinking that he was a big burden to her, but as time passed, he finally realized she was stronger than he thought and such a misconception made him ashamed of himself.

Won Woo unconsciously leaned on her more heavily than he would have wished, moving along beside her. Despite the major height difference between them, she was a perfect human crutch who filled him with a sense of security. As if there was nothing to be afraid of anymore. He was surprised by how suddenly random and strange it was but kept quiet.

Jin Joo led them both to an unknown room and stopped behind a window. She tiptoed and scanned the inside of the room for a while, then looked back at him whispering approvingly, “It looks safe here.” 

Suddenly, she lowered herself down and showed him her back, making him feel at a loss for words as he could read what was in her mind.

“Sunbae, you go first. Get on me to push the window open and enter the room,” she instructed him with all seriousness in her voice. And when she saw his hesitation turning into an unwillingness to accept the idea, she told him again, more sternly, “Get on me now! We’ve got no more time to waste!”

Won Woo had lost count of how many times the girl took him aback. She suddenly gave off a domineering aura he thought she never had, and again, it almost terrified him when he found himself obeying her words. His heart ached with guilt the moment he used her smaller body to slip into the unoccupied room, and even though she told him reassuringly that she would catch up to him straight away, the knot in his chest only tightened even more.

In the corner of the room, Won Woo hid under a desk and waited for her. However, it felt like an eternity, and much to his horror, she didn’t immediately show up as she said she would.