As they sat in the fifth floor office with the others now, Hyun Suk sat back and let Seungri explain the events that had led up to the two breaking down the barricade. Seungri’s version omitted the part about the secret room, as he didn’t want to lose Hyun Suk’s trust. He instead said that Hyun Suk had kept the satellite phone in his desk and the “Fantastic Baby” costumes in a nearby closet. No one questioned him. Seungri thought that even if he had told them about the robot arm that opened the secret room, no one would have believed him anyway.

“Did the Prime Minister ever call back?” Jae Suk asked.

Hyun Suk and Seungri shook their heads no.

T.O.P. and Bom had been hunched close, holding hands. But T.O.P. now sat up and gestured toward the satellite phone. “My dad’s in the military,” he said. “He’s a high-ranking officer. I can try calling him.”

“Does he have a satellite phone?” Hyun Suk asked. “With the cell towers down, we can only call other satellite lines.”

T.O.P. sighed. “If he does have one, I don’t know the number.”

The others sighed now, too, not knowing what to say.

Kwang Soo stood up and walked over to the food that Bom had laid out at the front of the room. “Think we can all use some deer bellybutton,” he said, as he passed the food around. “It’s good for bringing up the energy, I hear.”

Bom smiled shyly.

The group passed Bom’s health food around, each taking a little bit.

“Where’s Taeyang-ah?” Seungri suddenly asked after noticing that Taeyang wasn’t sitting amongst the others.

Everyone stopped nibbling at the food when they heard Taeyang’s name and the room fell quiet.

Hyun Suk and Seungri seemed to understand the meaning of their silence. They both dropped their heads and clenched their lips tight.

No one said anything for a while. Daesung, who was still having trouble accepting Taeyang’s death, tried to hold back his tears as Minzy squeezed his hand. The others tried to continue eating but their stomachs hurt too much from the stress and so they just sat there awkwardly.

After a while, CL asked about the loud thud they’d heard through the ceiling just before Hyun Suk and Seungri came down the stairs.

“Aish,” Seungri said. “Just as we were about to head down, we encountered two more of those things. YG-sajangnim got one of them with the katana and I stabbed the other one in the head with my scissors.”

Everyone stared at Seungri.

“That noise you heard was probably the sound of their bodies hitting the floor,” Seungri added.

Everyone continued to stare.

“What?” Seungri asked. “Why is everyone staring at me?”

“We just didn’t know you could be so tough,” CL said, with a slight smile.

Seungri smiled. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” he said, giving her a wink.

CL rolled her eyes and laughed. “Like what?” she asked, teasing him.

“He makes out with pandas,” Hyun Suk suddenly said.

“With… pandas?” Minzy asked.

“Yah, it wasn’t a real panda!” Seungri said.

Everyone smiled and laughed a little, but Hyun Suk was anxious to start talking seriously. “We need to think about what we’re going to do,” he said, looking around at the group.

“Do you have a plan?” G-Dragon asked.

Hyun Suk nodded. “I have a boat docked at the marina,” he said, “just over the Yanghwa Bridge. If we can get there–”

“Wait,” Jong Kook said. “Let’s just slow down a bit.” He was more than willing to hand the leadership reins over to Hyun Suk, but he knew that if he, or anyone else for that matter, made so much as a small suggestion, that it could have severe consequences for everyone. He wanted to think things through carefully. “Just getting out of this building is going to be hard enough,” he said. “You two haven’t been downstairs yet, right?”

Hyun Suk and Seungri shook their heads.

“The lobby is overrun,” Jae Suk quietly said.

“I thought that might be the case,” Hyun Suk said. “But I looked over some blueprints of the building and remembered that there’s a service hallway that goes around the cafeteria to a back entrance. And there’s some good fortune in where we are right now, being so close to the water. We probably wouldn’t make it out there on the streets. But we should be okay on the river.”

“Unless those things can swim…” Gary said.

Ji Hyo had been listening but hadn’t yet spoken. She was trying to take everything in, to think about every part of the plan and weigh the dangers. “Let’s say we get out of the building,” she said. “We’ll need access to vehicles. We can’t cross that bridge on foot.”

“Our vans are downstairs,” Dara said. She looked at Hyun Suk now. “Do you have the keys?”

Hyun Suk smiled and pulled out his key chain. “I have the keys to the vans, to my boat, and to my house on Sido.”

“Sido?” Minzy asked.

Hyun Suk nodded. “Think about it. An island has limited people. It’s our best option.”

“Isn’t Sido where the Full House show was filmed?” T.O.P. asked. “The one with Rain?”

“And guess who owns that house?” Hyun Suk asked. He pointed to himself and smiled. “They tore it down after the typhoon last year but I had it rebuilt. I also had fencing installed around the perimeter to protect it from trespassers while I’m not there.”

“We’re going to live in the Full House house?” Kwang Soo asked.

“Not to question the plan or anything,” Jong Kook said, “but Sido is between the other two islands in the Bukdo chain, right? And they’re connected by bridges. So, that’s more people, more potential zombies on those two islands that can cross over those bridges to our island.”

“The zombie disease or whatever might not have even made it over the water,” Hyun Suk said. “It might be a complete haven there. But even if it’s not, we’re still talking about limited people.”

“We’re going to live in the Full House house?” Kwang Soo asked again.

After the discussion, most of the group split off, sitting in small clusters scattered throughout the room. Not that many people were confident in the plan. And even those that believed it was a good plan were still worried.

Jong Kook and Jae Suk stood off to the side, talking quietly about the possibility of reaching their families. They didn’t want to leave without them.

Hearing this, Hyun Suk walked over. “I have family that I’m concerned about, too. But we can access different parts of the city from that boat,” he said. “It’ll be much safer than traveling the streets. We can just go inland from different ports depending on where people live.”

“My family’s in Anyang,” Jong Kook said. “That’s too far from the river. And I also want to find Suk Jin and Haha’s family. I’m not going to any island to save myself until I know that I’ve done everything I can to save them first.”

Thinking about people they cared about prompted Jong Kook to look over at Ji Hyo, who was talking with Kwang Soo and Gary. He wondered why she hadn’t mentioned her boyfriend, Chang Joo, since this all started. If they were in love, wouldn’t she be worried about him? He had thought about this last night, too, when confounded by her brazen behavior, sleeping the way she did so close to him with her head on his chest. He had wanted to ask her then about Chang Joo, but he hadn’t wanted to ruin the moment. It felt so good to have her body close, to feel her warmth. Still, as much as Jong Kook had wanted to hold her last night, to put his arms around her and pull her even closer to his body, he had tried to be a gentleman out of respect for her relationship with Chang Joo. But maybe there was no relationship. He knew how these celebrity relationships were handled. Often, announcements wouldn’t be made until months, sometimes years after two people decided to commit to each other – or to break up, as Jong Kook now suspected was the case with them. But maybe he was wrong about all of it. After all, this was an incredibly stressful and dangerous time for all of them. Maybe Ji Hyo just wanted comfort. And maybe it didn’t even matter to her from whom she received that comfort.

While Jong Kook was thinking about this, Ji Hyo was talking with Kwang Soo and Gary about the island, all of whom thought it was a good idea.

“It kind of sounds fun, noona,” Kwang Soo said. “I mean, all of us living in one house like that, killing off the occasional zombie.”

“Fun?” Ji Hyo asked. “Kwang Soo-yah, that’s pretty much what we’re doing now. Living together and killing zombies. I wouldn’t call this fun.” She felt bad about talking that way to Kwang Soo, but sometimes he could really drive her crazy. “I still think it’s a good idea, though,” she said. “That fence he secured might keep the zombies out.”

“And he’s right about the limited people,” Gary added. “Here, we would have to deal with all the zombies in the country eventually coming our way. But there’s only so many people on an island.”

Ji Hyo nodded. “We should leave tomorrow,” she said.

Daesung, who had been standing nearby, overheard Ji Hyo’s last comment and he then turned back to Minzy, T.O.P., and Bom. “They’re talking about leaving tomorrow,” he whispered.

“Tomorrow?” Minzy asked.

Daesung nodded. “I know, right? Seems too soon. I mean, we can stay here for at least a couple more days. Why the rush?”

T.O.P. interjected. “I’m definitely with them,” he said. “This building’s not safe.” He looked at Bom, thinking only about protecting her at all costs.

“But we can make it safe, hyung,” Daesung said. “I think we’d have a better chance trying to clear the floors and make it here than trying out there.”

Minzy was in complete agreement with Daesung. “There’s too much danger out there,” she said. “Look at what happened yesterday. They had their backs turned for just one second and then Haha-ssi died.”

“That’s exactly my point,” T.O.P. said. “This building’s not safe.”

“Yeah, but outside, there are more of them,” Minzy said. “It’s less safe out there.”

T.O.P. shook his head. “Out there we’ll be in vans. And then on the boat. We won’t be just walking around like we are in here, completely unprotected.”

“And what if those vans break down!” Minzy said, now getting frustrated. “Or what if the boat isn’t even there! I mean, there’s all sorts of problems that can happen.”

“Stop,” Bom quietly said. “Stop talking. I can’t listen to this anymore.”

“Aish,” T.O.P. said, putting his arm around Bom. “I’m sorry, baby.”

Bom suddenly looked up at him. “Baby?”

T.O.P. tried to hide his smile and his red cheeks, but to no avail. His love for her was written all over his face.

Bom smiled now and then leaned up to kiss T.O.P. on the cheek.

“We’ll leave you two alone,” Daesung said, smiling. Letting T.O.P. and Bom have their privacy, Daesung grabbed Minzy’s hand and joined Seungri and CL, who were sitting together behind a nearby partition.

“Where’s G-Dragon and Dara?” CL asked, when she saw Daesung and Minzy approach.

Daesung glanced around the room and shrugged. “Maybe they wanted alone time like T.O.P. and Bom,” he said.

“T.O.P. and Bom?” Seungri asked. “And G-Dragon and Dara?” He looked at Daesung and Minzy now, holding hands. “And you two?” Seungri now turned to CL. “So, uh, Chae Rinnie… guess that leaves us, huh?” He smiled now and gave her that same wink he had given her earlier.

“Not a chance,” CL said, teasing him.

“Why not?” Seungri asked. “You don’t find me y?”

CL smiled with tight lips. “I’ll admit that–”

“Aha! So you admit it!” Seungri said.

“Yah! Will you let me finish? Aish. What I was going to say is that I admit that hearing about you being all tough before was… y. But that’s all I’m going to say.”

Seungri smiled. That was all he needed to hear.

After hearing Hyun Suk’s plan, Dara had wanted to get away from the others and wash up. She hadn’t taken a shower since the morning before and wanted to feel refreshed, to feel normal again. But when she told G-Dragon this, he suddenly grabbed her hand.

“I’ll come with you,” he said. When she glanced at him curiously, he quickly added, “For protection. I don’t want you going anywhere alone.”

“Okay,” she said. “Anyway, you smell.” She smiled teasingly. “You can use a shower, too.”

The gym down the hall had a small bath attached. Inside, there were three shower stalls, each with a privacy curtain. The rest of the room was somewhat of an open changing area that didn’t afford much privacy.

They had used this room before, but never together. And so they stood in the doorway to the shower room for a moment, each looking for a way to undress in privacy until G-Dragon suggested that she just shower first. “I can wait in the gym,” he said.

It didn’t make sense for him to wait outside, Dara thought, not when there were three shower stalls. And now that everyone was living in such close quarters, she supposed that she would have to get used to the coed environment. She looked up at him but he seemed to be avoiding eye contact with her and so she poked him in his stomach.

“Yah!” he said, holding his stomach and stepping back.

“We can undress in the stall. But you can’t peek, okay?”

The thought of showering next to her made him kind of hot, but he tried his hardest to maintain his composure. Clearing his throat, he said, “Yeah, that makes more sense. Saves some time.”

“You’re not going to peek, are you?” she asked again.

He smiled at her. “Are you going to peek?”

“What? No!” She laughed and began to blush.

They stepped into the outermost shower stalls, leaving the middle one vacant between them. They didn’t talk to each other at first. The noise of the water spraying down in each of their stalls was loud, but besides that, neither initially felt comfortable having a conversation while they were both . But after a while, just when G-Dragon was finishing up, he realized that he didn’t have a towel. He called out to Dara now over the stall, asking if she had an extra one that she could throw over to him. But she hadn’t brought one either.

“Aish,” he said. His clothes were hanging over the shower wall, but he didn’t want to get dressed without drying off first. “Dara-yah, I’m going to walk over to get a towel. I’ll be ! Don’t look.”

Dara thought of peeking just to , but she realized that if she did, she would only be teasing herself. She didn’t think that she could handle the sight of his y body. It would only drive her crazy. She tried to slow her thoughts now as she continued to rinse off, but she could only think about that surge of electricity they both felt when they had kissed, as if there had been something in their bodies that had been waiting to explode and finally did at that touch of their lips. She knew she should’ve been thinking about more practical things, particularly considering the situation they were in. But it was precisely because of that situation that she was now focused on him. Who knew how much longer they had to live? Whether they stayed here in this building or dared to try to make it to the river, it was a risk either way. If these were their last days, she wanted to be with him, to connect with him, to feel alive, to feel love.

She slowly and quietly opened the shower curtain just a bit and tilted her head to peek into the open changing area. G-Dragon was standing near the towel rack , his back to her. She clutched onto the edge of the curtain, holding it up to her eyes so that she could see but could keep her smile hidden.

His was perfection. Small but round and just… so… grabbable. She wanted to step out of that shower, and dripping wet, and go to him, but she restrained herself. She forced her eyes upward, noticing then the tattooed words on the upper right part of his back: Too fast to live too young to die. She understood the words and what they meant, but she wanted to know what they really meant: what they meant to him, what they meant now.

G-Dragon turned around then and caught her peeking.

Dara quickly closed the curtain, standing behind it now with wide eyes and heavy breaths. Oh my god oh my god oh my god, she thought. Please let him pretend that he didn’t see me. Please.

But G-Dragon would show her no mercy. He stood outside her shower stall, facing her curtain, and began to . “Dara-yah, did I just catch those big beautiful eyes peeking at me?” He smiled now and flung the two towels he had grabbed for them over his shoulder. The water continued to drip down his body, forming a small puddle at his feet. “Dara-yah?”

Dara squeezed her eyes closed in embarrassment, thankful that the shower was still pouring out loud in her stall so that it wasn’t completely quiet in that moment. Silence would have only made it more awkward.

“My sweet Sandara? You okay in there?” G-Dragon smiled to himself, enjoying teasing her. “You too busy thinking steamy thoughts in there? About me?” He looked around, feeling the steam all around him, which was quickly fogging up that small room as Dara’s shower continued to run. “It’s kind of steamy out here, too,” he said.

She tilted her head back, cringing and dying inside. She wanted him. There was no doubt about that. And he knew it. That damn Ji Yong! she thought. How does he always get the upper hand? She knew that he was enjoying this, and that she had only fed his already bloated ego. She reached over to the shower knob now and turned the water off.

“Can you pass me one of those towels?” she asked, her voice a soft echo in that now silent room.

G-Dragon’s arm quickly slipped through the gap of the curtain and into the stall, the towel dangling from his hand.

She smiled, yanked the towel from his hand, and ran it down the length of her legs and arms. She then quickly changed back into her old clothes, which were hanging over the shower wall. “I wish I didn’t have to wear these clothes again,” she said, trying to start a conversation to diminish the awkwardness of the moment.

“So don’t,” G-Dragon said slyly. “Come out here and be with me.”

“Go put clothes on!” she said, laughing. “I’m not stepping out of this stall until you’re dressed.”

G-Dragon was about to some more, but at that moment, he heard something. They both heard something. It sounded like muffled machine gun fire, this quick pop pop pop pop pop. And then it stopped.

G-Dragon ran over to his shower stall where his clothes were.

“What was that?” Dara asked, as she opened the curtain. “Was that a gun?”

“We need to get back to the others,” G-Dragon said, as he quickly dressed.