"I miss my babies." Minho sighs, his wrist watch says that they've been here in the stock room for almost six hours, he's very  hungry too.

"Oh, you have kids, Minho?" Myungjun learned that he's older than the other two guys in this room, and he's still confused if these two men with him were together like a couple or not, they did have the vibe of being a couple and they bickered like one. Hearing Minho talked about babies and watching these two bicker to each other like an old married couple made him miss his own boyfriend too. He hopes that he's fine, they had a small fight before this situation happened and he stormed out of their shared apartment without taking his phone with him.

Minho's laugh pulls him out of his sad thoughts, "How I wish I have kids, I'm gay though, I'm never having them. But I have babies, I have three cats at home and they're brats but I miss them."

"Oh. Cats, they're nice. Good for you, I'm allergic to animal fur." It's Myungjun's turn to sigh. Minho just hummed then they turned silent again, except for a few crunching sounds.

"How about you Seungmin? Do you have a pet?" Myungjun asks.

Seungmin blinks up to the older, mouth still busy chewing something, "no, don't have time." Seungmin is still a college Education student, he wants a dog yet his schedule won't agree with him.

"Your life must have been boring then." Minho comments as he stares at what's in Seungmin's hand, the younger was munching a ing raw noodles.

"You can't just eat that raw!" Minho was already walking towards where the younger sits on the other corner to snatch the packet of the noodle from his hand.

"Well, I'm hungry!"

Myungjun scratches the back of his head, he's been doing that everytime these two bicker, he just focuses his other senses to the other side of the door, it's calm already and no growling and screaming could be heard anymore.

"We must get out of here, I'm starving too, and I think I have enough supplies at home." Minho says to no one in particular, he's not inviting anyone but the two are welcome to join him.

"Hey, that might be a good idea, I heard nothing from the outside." Myungjun says in a semi hushed voice.

"Where are you going when we get out of here, hyung?" Minho turns to the older and asks.

"Go home, I bet my boyfriend's been worried about me right now. This is the longest that I am out of our apartment." Even though he's not sure himself about his boyfriend being worried about him, he just hopes that Jinwoo is okay right now.

"Oh, I hope your boyfriend's okay, hyung." Seungmin sincerely says, facing the older though having a little bit of difficulty when Minho is there on his side, too close for his own liking but not making a fuss about it. There's something about Minho that made him feel secure, it's weird, who knows that this is just the effect he got from this situation.

Myungjun on the other hand just shrugs, he's about to say something related to the topic at hand but got distracted of Minho tenderly wiping some crumbs on the corner of Seungmin's mouth. He didn't know but he didn't want to break the moment, even if they're acting weird again as Seungmin just stands there, mouth slightly hangs open, staring at Minho's focused face.

Myungjun cleared his throat anyway, he really just wanted to leave this room as soon as possible and go home.

"Right! So, we go outside now?"

 

 

Leaving the stock room is not as easy as it sounds, there are bloody creatures with ripped arms or neck and Seungmin almost throws up. Some of them are Minho's co-workers judging by the bloody uniform they're wearing. Just then, they remember they have cellphones.

"Well, this is weird."

Minho heard Seungmin say, "why's that?"

"Well, I expected some messages from my friends but got nothing. Or are they okay?" Seungmin mumbles to himself but Minho could still hear him.

"Maybe, you actually don't have friends..."

Seungmin pursed his lips together, no point arguing with the other when he still didn't understand what is happening around them. He just continued to scan his phone for some update on his social media accounts.

"Wait, is this some kind of a joke or something? A prank? Why is no one talking about this or at least be featured on the news? No updates about what just happened?" Myungjun asks in wonder and confusion.

The grocery store looked wrecked and a mess, there's some growling somewhere, there's no vehicles running on the highway near the store and no news about the attack airing on the big LED screen on the nearby building.

It's as if there's something happened while they were inside the grocery store and now that they're outside, the highway was so calm, the place was a mess, there's some growling noises from somewhere.

"What do you think had happened?" Seungmin asked.

"I don't know. But I need to get home." Myungjun has a worried look plastered on his face and Seungmin could understand that look.

"Yeah.. um, hyung, can I have your number? You know for update?" Seungmin already walked closer to the older with his phone in his other hand.

"Sure... Give me your phone." Myungjun immediately typed in his contact number and saved it under 'MJ' name then gave the phone back to the owner.

"Okay, thank you, MJ-hyung."

Myungjun smiled, "you both take care of yourselves, okay? And contact me or update me anything about this whole situation, if you will know something..."

Minho on the side, stays alert if ever some of those creatures will find them, "we shouldn't stay here for long."

"Yeah, yeah...bye now, I need to go home." Myungjun hugged the other two real quick.

"Take care, MJ-hyung."

 

Seungmin exhales through his nose, he can't find anything, any news from his social media accounts, even his friends didn't contact him or even just an update if they're okay.

"Where are you going?" He even forgot about the other's presence. He stopped walking to look at Minho who has this still and unreadable look.

"Home. I'm hungry." He remembered coming in the grocery store first thing after waking up in the morning because he's out of his weekly supplies.

"Uh, yeah...I mean, my apartment is just in the next block, I have stocks.." Minho was blabbering, can't even look Seungmin in the eyes.

"Are you informing me that fact or are you inviting me over?"

"You know what, whatever. Good bye."

Seungmin grinned, the tip of Minho's ears were red, it was cute but Seungmin was still hungry so he hurried his steps to match it with Minho's who's already walking away from him.

"You know, I am not saying no to free fo-" Minho stopped him from walking, a hand circled around Seungmin's wrist that also made the younger stop talking.

"."

"What is it?"

Seungmin looked ahead where Minho was looking at and saw a group of bloody creatures crowding in an alleyway.

"W-what are they exactly, there's too many of them already?" Seungmin whispered even his voice was shaking.

"I don't know! Maybe, zombies?" Seungmin thought that they only existed in movies and books. That could not be real, right?

Seungmin was about to reply but someone bumped him and Minho's fast reflex saved him from falling on the floor.

"Hey, watch it! Seungmin, are you okay?" Minho almost growls at the guy that bumps the younger. There are two guys who looked like they were running for the past hours today, they're sweating a lot, the taller one helped Seungmin stands properly.

"I'm so sorry! We didn't see you there as we were running away from those monsters."

"Wait- where did you come from?" Seungmin said facing the taller of the two strangers.

"From the grocery store, then suddenly there's shouting everywhere and we just hide in the bathroom." The short man said while he was still shaking from fear, the other guy immediately hugged him and murmured some reassuring words.

"Oh , run!!" Minho suddenly shouted, grabbing Seungmin's hand and the latter immediately holds on to it tightly.

", what are they?!" The tall stranger shouted as they ran, he's also holding the other stranger's hand.

"How will we know? We're as clueless as you too!" Minho gritted his teeth, he really hated talking while running plus these weird creatures tailing them really made the situation even more worse for Minho.

"There! Let's go there!" The short stranger said, his gaze was focusing ahead as they crossed the street, there's a gasoline station and a convenient store. They managed to get inside the store and locking up the glass door then they hid behind the counter.

"Where is everyone? Where's the owner of the store?" Seungmin said, it's becoming worse that everyone except them seemed to disappear and suddenly these bloody creatures were crowding the streets.

"Hey, Seungmin, it's okay. Breathe." He didn't know when he started to gasp for air, he was hyperventilating and it suddenly difficult to inhale oxygen. There's two warm hands being cupped on his cheeks, it did the trick as he was starting to calm down and regulate his breathing.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm okay now." Minho gave him a small smile and Seungmin thought that this guy was so handsome especially when he smiled and sue him for still thinking that in the middle of this situation. He can't help but noticed it, Minho was such a mysterious man, he's sharp yet soft at the same time. He looked dangerous yet Seungmin felt safe with him and maybe he's just hungry because his mind was juggling confusing thoughts already.

"I'm Youngjo, by the way. This is my boyfriend, Hwanwoong." The tall stranger who has a name now suddenly said, Seungmin thought of thanking the other because Youngjo's voice brought him back to earth if not, it would be embarrassing if Minho will notice how hard he was staring at him already.

Minho removed his hands from cupping Seungmin's face and faced Youngjo this time, Seungmin too faced the two. It was weird when they're crouching like this behind the counter and got to know each other as well.

"I'm Minho, this is Seungmin."

"Did you come from the same store we're at earlier too?" Hwanwoong voiced out.

"Yes, and Minho was one of the employees there and- h-he saved me back there, so here we are." Seungmin answered.

"I don't know what's happening, they're like those nasty zombies in the movies right? Whatever they were, we must not make contact with them, don't let them bite you. I saw someone in the store earlier, he got bitten by one of those and he turned into one of them." Youngjo said.

Minho swallowed, this was not good, it was like it's the first time it sunk in his brain about what happened. He didn't realize that he's again holding Seungmin's hand and squeezing it not too hard but a comfortable type of squeeze. Minho may did it unconsciously but it still made Seungmin's ears flush.

"W-What should we do then?" Seungmin voiced out, distracting himself from Minho's hold on his hand.

"We're fetching our friends, some of them were trapped in their apartment, they have contacted us a while ago that people in their apartment begun to become weird." Hwanwoong said making Seungmin worry, he hoped his friends will be okay since he didn't hear from them, they didn't contact him. Earlier when Seungmin tried to contact one of his friends, it just kept on ringing.

"Hey, it's okay. Your friends are fine." Minho's soft voice was once again filling up his ears.

"I think the outside is clear, I don't hear any growling?" Youngjo murmured.

The other couple understood that Minho and Seungmin can't come with them, of course they have their own family and friends to fetch too. After a brief bid of goodbye and a wish of good luck, they have separated on their on ways. How ironic, who needed luck when you're living in Lucky City?

 

"Oh no.." Seungmin murmured, they were back to the path where they have met Youngjo and Hwanwoong, Minho was being serious of bringing the other over to his apartment. So they're on their way, thank god no monsters on the way, he gripped on his phone so tight.

"Why? What? What's wrong?" Minho stopped walking, a slight worry was laced on his voice as he faced the younger.

"I didn't get their contact numbers..." Seungmin pouted a little. While Minho found the pout cute, he also blinked in slight annoyance, he was worried for nothing. No, scratch that, who's worrying? No one's worrying. Definitely no one.

"You sure are fond of collecting phone numbers." Minho scoffed as he resumed on walking slightly leaving the other behind.

Seungmin released a short giggle that may or may not be making Minho's breathe hitch, but whatever. "Yah, hyung! I'm a social butterfly."

Minho would retort something like how the younger still can joke around amidst in this confusing and weird situation but he held his tongue in and scoffed again.

"Doesn't show like it at all."

"You're so mean! We just met like a few hours ago-" Seungmin was being cut off by Minho's palm covering his mouth while pinning him on the nearby building's wall. A faint growling could be heard nearby and it made Seungmin's eyes go wide and he swallowed as his heart beat so fast in his chest.

"Be quite, we're here already but we need to use the back door, I stayed in the second floor, it wasn't that hard to get up there."

Seungmin nodded his head in understanding then Minho pulled his palm away from the younger's mouth, "please tell me, there's ladder back there." Seungmin whispered as they started to trek to the back area of the building. 

Seungmin has a friend whose boyfriend owned a gym but he's not very fond of going to gym, he's not fit enough to do those extravagant effort of exercising or whatever it was called, so he's making sure if Minho will not be making him spider crawling their way up to his unit.

"Of course, there's a ladder. Why?" 

Seungmin released a breath in relief, "nothing. It's good!" Seungmin hurriedly answered the other nonchalantly.

Minho smirked but the younger didn't see it. Seungmin just hoped that he made the right choice to be in the other's flat, they're still technically strangers knowing how they just met hours ago but here he was already accepting offer from someone he barely knew.

"Here it is. Then that's my unit." Minho said as they stood in front of the steel ladder and the older pointed where his unit was. It's just a few steps away from the ladder and they still have to cross over the balcony's railing.

"Almost all of the tenants here have work in the morning, that's why no one's around here now. But I don't know about the growl we heard earlier." Minho explained. Seungmin just hummed in understanding as the older helped him cross the railing.

As they finally entered Minho's unit, three fur balls meowing at them in greeting. He may be a dog person but cats are cute too.

"Hi, babies!" Minho patted his cats one by one on the head, Seungmin realized how Minho was glowing and so happy just by greeting his cats. He realized how he liked that version of Minho too and he's not so sure why he was feeling this way either.

Seungmin cleared his throat not to get Minho's attention but to cover up his fluttering heart but it did get the other's attention anyway.

"Oh, Seungmin, these are my babies by the way. Soonie, Doongie and Dori." Minho said as he was pointing each cat with just genuine happiness in his eyes.

"Hi, cuties." Seungmin whispered, petting each one of them under their chins. The smaller one, Dori, took a liking on him by his fingers and booping its nose onto Seungmin's palm and that made him coo.

"She's the sweetest. She likes everyone." Minho murmured, watching Seungmin with his wide beautiful smile while petting Dori.

Then there's a chorus of meow's from the other cats, Minho and Seungmin chuckled.

"Alright, you two are super sweet too." Minho cooed.

 

"You can use the shower while I cook us food. Spare towel is in the rack inside the bathroom- what?" Seungmin just gave him an odd look and Minho thought he knew the reason why. Seungmin actually just thought of how he didn't still take a bath since the morning, so shower is a good idea.

"My friends often stay over, okay? That's why I always have spare towels ready." So, Minho has friends.

"I didn't even say anything. But thank you." Seungmin said sincerely and Minho scoffed but a small smile on the corner of his lips assured him somehow that this weird situation they were in will pass and everything will eventually be okay.

"Right. I'll go get a spare clothes for you. Bathroom's that way." Minho, ears red, quickly pointed at the location of his bathroom before dashing away from Seungmin. Dori was once again nosing Seungmin's fingers as it meowed at him.

Seungmin cooed, "you know, your Dad is cute too." And he giggled at his own statement, momentarily forgot the situation they had faced a while ago.