Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

it was just supposed to be like any other day. 

sieun is staring numbly at his notes, ignoring the chaos of his rowdy classmates around him. he was too focused trying to study for their upcoming exam to be bothered by all the noise. soft music played in his ears, just barely drowning out the world as he fixated on a particular section of his notes, occasionally scribbling down in the margins.

a soft breath falls past his lips as he blinks up at the clock on the wall, brows pinching slightly as he realized their teacher was nearly twenty minutes late. sieun’s eyes fall back up towards the front of the classroom, the empty podium where his teacher should be glaringly loud but he seems to be the only one to notice. 

they had never started class this late but he supposed it gave him more time to study. sieun turns back to his notes, trying to find his rhythm again but there’s this tingling feeling creeping over his skin and ultimately into his thoughts. something wasn’t right, he couldn’t help but think. sieun sets his pen down, unable to shake the anxiety plaguing his mind as he slowly and methodically begins to pack up his textbooks back into his bag. 

sieun pulls out his airpods and pockets them in exchange for his phone. he has a text from his dad but that’s about it. sieun lets out a breath he didn’t really know he was holding before putting his phone away. he can just barely pick up a few conversations around the room from other students, finally beginning to realize that this wasn’t normal. 

there’s a gentle tap on sieun’s arm, reeling him out of his thoughts and he can’t help but jump slightly at the feeling, half expecting it to be youngbin or one of his friends taking this extra time to their advantage to torment sieun some more. 

he’s relieved to see it’s only beomseok, the boy who’d transferred here just a few days ago. 

beomseok looks a little anxious as well. his eyes slightly wide with worry and sieun notices the gentle bouncing of his knee under the desk. “is… does this type of thing usually happen?” he asks. sieun shakes his head softly as he rolls his bottom lip in between his teeth, chewing anxiously as they both turn their eyes back to the front of the class where their teacher should be. 

“maybe something happened?” sieun asks, finally meeting beomseok’s eyes again. something in him aches at the sight of beomseok’s face flickering with worry. he’s about to open his mouth again, maybe to assure beomseok that everything would be fine but their attention is violently torn from one another as someone is frantically running inside their classroom and slamming the door shut behind them. 

the entire class goes quiet and sieun practically feels his heart sink in his chest at the sight. 

jungchan stands up, eyes wide as he faces this kid who’s desperately trying to catch his breath as he leans against the door. sieun can see even from his seat that there’s something not right going on and so does jungchan it seems as he backs up into a nearby desk. “h-hey, what the hell happened to you?” he asks as his voice gets caught in the back of his throat. sieun swallows, taking in the sight of the kid and how he was just covered in blood. 

beomseok throws a glance sieun’s way and sieun can just tell how afraid he was just in that brief moment as they all watched blood drip onto the linoleum floor from the kid’s arm. 

another boy, one that sieun didn’t really know the name of stands up rushes over to the kid. he grabs someone’s jacket, hurriedly making a makeshift bandage out of it. the bloodied kid looks terrified. his eyes wide and face unbelievably pale. the boy finishes wrapping up the kid’s arm, gently pulling him into an empty seat. 

after a moment of collecting his thoughts, the bloodied boy begins to speak. 

“t-there’s… some.. some kid just collapsed downstairs.” he starts slowly, voice quiet and shaky as everyone in the classroom listens. the boy stares at his bandaged arm for a while before looking up, his wild eyes bouncing around the room. “we were all gathered around a-and suddenly he just… he just shot up and attacked m-my teacher.”

there’s whispering that follows and the air in the room grows thick with tension. 

“what happened to your arm?” another voice asks and the boy just lets out a cry, shaking his head softly. 

“i was just trying to get him off of her…” he cried softly and sieun could feel his heart beginning to race in his chest as he listens. “b-but he just fucking b-bit me… h-he started attacking another kid a-and i just ran…”  

“what the fuck…” someone says closer to sieun. “w-what happened to her? did anyone call the cops?” another kid frantically asks.

the boy grows a little more upset at the questions being hurled his way. 

“i-i think she’s dead.” he ends up crying into his crimson hands. this gets the entire class to fall silent again, the gravity of what happened dawning upon them. “h-he was eating her fucking f-face…” 

what the fuck was right. 

sieun looks back at beomseok realizing that he was shaking just as awful as he was. 

the only noise in the classroom was the boy’s awful sobbing, everybody else too scared to move let alone speak and it feels like an eternity passes before his cries suddenly cease. sieun looks over to him, as does everyone else as the kid convulses in the chair before throwing his head back violently, his eyes bloodshot and bulging in agony. 

“hey, j-just hold on a little longer i’m sure the police are on their way.” the boy who had wrapped up his arm says to him, shakily setting his hand on the kid’s shoulder. the boy chokes out a cry as his body twists and contorts in pain and the boy just as quickly pulls his hand away. 

sieun can’t bring his eyes away as the boy twitches in his chair uncontrollably before he falls over the desk limply with a deafening thump. blood drips through the makeshift bandage and begins seeping into the floor. 

“i-is he…?” sieun doesn’t know who’s saying what. his eyes are just glued to that boy, the only sound he can hear is the slow pit-pat of the blood hitting the floor. 

much to everyone’s horror, the kid begins twitching again. this time even more violently than before as the sound of awful cracking fills the room. the kid’s body contorts in ways that shouldn’t have been possible as he sits back up, his shoulders heaving and blood trickling from his nose and eyes. 

the kids around him fly out of their seats, frantically pushing themselves to get away from him as quickly as possible and yet sieun doesn’t move. he doesn’t think he can as he watches the kid make a noise between a growl and a sob. 

“what the actual fuck!” yeongbin’s shouting as the kid stumbles out of the chair, his hands twitching uncontrollably he continues to make those awful noises. there’s something about the fear laced throughout yeongbin’s voice that strikes a chord deep within sieun. he needs to move. needs to get as far away from this kid as humanly possible but he just can’t. 

the boy lets out a bloodcurdling scream, his head snapping up and sieun’s blood runs cold as his eyes meet his own and locks in on him. before sieun could even blink, the boy is sprinting at him as fast as he could, pushing through the rows of desks before hes jumping on sieun with enough force to knock him out of his desk and onto the floor. sieun’s hands have the kid by his shoulders, using all his strength to keep the boy off of sieun. the kid is screaming as he fights back, not letting up one bit as he bites rabidly at the air between them. 

sieun chokes in a cry, tears blurring his vision as he just barely catches the way his classmates are fleeing the classroom. the kid above him is getting closer, his hands swatting at sieun relentlessly as blood from his nose drips onto sieun’s face. i’m going to die, he keeps thinking as the kid keeps getting even closer to his face as sieun struggled to keep him off. 

the kid on top of him comes dangerously close to biting at sieun’s neck, his growling so unbelievably loud as sieun lets out a pathetic sob, his arms getting weaker as he desperately tries to fight off this rabid fucking kid. 

no matter how hard he tries the kid is getting closer and closer to sieun’s flesh. blood and spit trickle all over his face as sieun panics. the kid screams, growing stronger and stronger and despite sieun’s strangled cries for help he’s left alone to face this thing. 

“hey, get the fuck off of him!” someone growled before there’s a shoe kicking at the rabid boy’s head just nearly missing sieun’s face. the kid goes flying into a nearby desk and sieun wastes absolutely no time scrambling away. he backs up until the back of his head is knocking right into another scattered desk, his chest heaving for air. there’s screams echoing in the hallways but all sieun can do is watch as that kid gets back up from taking a heavy kick to the head as if it’s nothing. 

there’s two things sieun realizes then. one: ahn fucking suho was the one to save him and two: ahn suho was going to die if he doesn’t get away from that thing. 

sieun watches as suho dodges the kid easily, kicking at the boy’s legs and sending him to the floor but nothing was enough to get him to stop. suho just nearly avoids teeth meeting his shoulder and it’s enough for sieun to shakily gain his footing, his hands grabbing the nearest object he could fight with which happened to be a textbook before he’s rushing the kid. 

suho gets another close call in, the confidence that had been on his face quickly fading as he felt himself getting winded. the boy however didn’t seem phased by anything, just kept coming and coming. sieun grips the heavy book tighter, his eyes locking in on the boy’s head before swinging as hard as he possibly could. 

the boy flies back upon impact, falling to the ground. sieun doesn’t stop as he pushes past suho and before the thing could bare his teeth at sieun again, he’s bringing that textbook right across the boy’s jaw sending blood spattering onto the floor. sieun hits the boy again and again. only stopping once his hand is faintly twitching in a pool of his own blood, his face a gory mess that had splattered across the classroom floor. 

sieun’s legs tremble almost the second it dawns on him that he just killed that boy. horror washes over his face as he quickly drops the textbook. 

he can’t tear his eyes away from the sight of that kid. bile is quickly rising up his throat but the chaos outside screams at him that this isn’t the time. he needs to fucking move or he’s going to die, he’s absolutely sure of it. 

so why can’t he? 

despite the way his thoughts are screaming at him to run, sieun can’t bear to move. the world around him gets drowned out, the screams outside ebbing away as his body is trembling like a leaf. he doesn’t even feel the way tears stream continuously down his face.

he just fucking killed a kid. 

sieun just nearly collapsed to the ground if it hadn’t been for someone rushing out and catching him. he blinks, eyes frantically searching until they settle on a pair of glossy ones behind a pair of thin glasses. beomseok. it’s beomseok who’s carefully yet quickly helping him up to his feet with shaking hands. 

he’s speaking frantically to him but sieun’s brain is still reeling from what he’d just done. by the time he comes out of it beomseok is frantically reaching for their backpacks, shouting something sieun can’t hear before beomseok is grabbing sieun’s wrist and tugging him towards suho. 

suho wastes absolutely no time reaching for sieun’s arm. the screams out in the hall are becoming so loud that they begin to pierce through the ringing in sieun’s head. it snaps him back to reality almost violently as suho pulls the three out of the classroom. 

“o-oh my god…” sieun just barely murmurs to himself as they step out into the hall. there’s so many more of those things than they thought.

suho keeps them moving, dragging sieun and beomseok through a small crowd of students towards the staircase. there’s blood absolutely everywhere. a few kids even  lying lifeless on the ground. beomseok clutches onto sieun’s wrist tighter, his body pressing against sieun’s as close as possible as suho continued to narrowly pull them out of harm’s way. 

as they reach the staircase one of their classmates gets violently tackled to the ground just a few mere feet away from the three of them. sieun doesn’t have enough time to really see much besides the way the kid struggles to get away before teeth and a blur of flesh and blood spill against the wall. they’re yanked down the stairs, suho pushing them past students and faculty alike. 

as they reach the second floor one of those things just nearly misses them, sprinting so fast at them that it goes stumbling down the staircase right into the kids behind them. it bites indiscriminately at the crowd and instead of trying to help, suho is pulling the three of them down a narrower hallway. as they run, sieun can’t help but look back. there’s at least three of those things chasing after them, their screams deafening and surely drawing more to them. 

sieun nearly stumbles, his chest constricting and his lungs screaming for breath as they turn a corner. beomseok is shouting something he can’t quite catch over his lack of oxygen and the ear piercing screams of those things behind them but suho seems to have because soon they’re rushing into the bathrooms. 

sieun collapses to the floor, gasping harshly for breath as suho and beomseok try their best to shut the door as the things outside violently begin to slam into the door. 

“hey! god damn it! help us before we all die!” suho shouts at him. it’s enough to tear sieun’s eyes away from the blood smearing across the glass window as those things growled and clawed trying to get inside. sieun shakily stands up and rushes to help, slamming his shoulder hard enough into the door that it throws those things outside off balance, the door finally clicking shut before sieun’s hand is reaching for the lock.

those things outside don’t stop though as they continue to slam their hands at the door manically. 

sieun feels shaking hands grabbing at his arm and before he knows it he’s being ushered inside the furthest bathroom stall from the door. suho is quick to shut them inside as sieun finally feels his legs give out on him causing him to sink to the floor. he pulls his knees to his chest, his heart pounding a thousand times a minute as the three of them held their breath waiting for the moment the door would come snapping off the hinges. 

it surprisingly never comes and eventually beomseok is tucking himself across from sieun, curling into himself as their knees touched. it should’ve been disgusting — sitting curled up in a bathroom stall with two boys he barely knew but it wasn’t. at least not now as suho slides down to the floor besides beomseok, his eyes wide as they listen to those things outside slowly begin to lose interest in them. 

there’s a long, eerie beat of silence but nothing happens. sieun takes a breath, trying to steady his shaking hands but failing miserably. 

“h-hey,” a soft voice calls out, just barely above a whisper causing sieun to snap his head up to see beomseok tearfully staring at him. “it… it didn’t get you… right?” he asks quietly. sieun feels suho’s eyes bore into him, raking him up and down. 

sieun shakes his head, meeting suho’s eyes and holding them with an intensity he didn’t really mean before turning back to beomseok. 

“it didn’t get me.” sieun tries to make his voice sound bigger than it actually was but fails. his words come out shaky and a little unsure but he would know if he’d gotten bit — if that’s how you even turn into one of those things. 

beomseok makes a strangled little sound, nodding his head before he’s hiding back into the safety of his knees. sieun turns back to suho who looks a little unsure of himself. “it didn’t get you either.” he says in a soft voice, barely sounding like himself. his eyes locking in on suho’s. 

suho swallows hard, holding sieun’s gaze for a bit longer before he lets out a breath. he almost looks scared before his face is hardening over. he turns his attention back to their predicament, sieun doing the same after there’s a few more minutes of silence outside. 

“i think they’re gone.” he whispers, turning back to look at sieun and beomseok who remained glued to the floor. suho carefully begins opening the door, pausing every few seconds to see if those things would begin pounding at the door again but nothing happens. sieun watches with baited breath, his heart beating a million times a minute but suho keeps going until he’s peeking no around the door towards the rest of the empty bathroom. he looks back to sieun and beomseok, a softer glint shimmering in his eye. 

“c’mon, we can sit under the sink counter. nobody will be able to see us there either.” he quietly beckons but the two don’t move.

beomseok looks terrified of the thought. “y-you’re sure it’s okay? what if.. what if they see?”

suho just shakes his head. “they won’t see. not if we go quickly, c’mon.” he extends his hand for beomseok to grab and cautiously beomseok does, his fingers curling tightly around suho’s larger palm before he’s letting himself be pulled off the ground. 

sieun watches as suho allows beomseok to cling to his arm, the two timidly stepping out of the bathroom stall before shuffling over to the counter. it only takes a few minutes before suho comes back and kneels in front of sieun. 

“hey, you ready?” he asks sieun who still feels a little weak in the knees from all the running they did to get here. exhaustion washes over him, every muscle in his body screaming for him to rest. suho’s reaching out, his hand shakily coming to grab sieun’s elbow and holding it. the touch is unbelievably soft, something he wasn’t sure ahn suho could even be but here he was, tenderly holding sieun’s arm as if to say ‘it’s alright to be scared. i’m scared too.’.

“c’mon,” suho says a little bit more gently. “we can clean you up.”

sieun doesn’t even notice he’s crying until he sniffles, his hand shakily coming up to his face and being surprised to feel it come away damp. he blinks up at suho, a little embarrassed and yet so unbelievably petrified. suho’s fingers just barely press a little deeper into sieun’s elbow, the sensation grounding despite the way it should’ve sent sieun’s head spinning. “let’s go?” he asks again, nodding gently in encouragement. 

sieun just barely nods his head before letting himself be gently hauled up to his feet. suho leans around the door, his hand hovering above sieun’s arm as he makes sure the coast is clear. his feet are moving forward slowly as suho swiftly leads sieun over to the sink counter. beomseok is already tucked under the sink in the closest corner to the door when sieun’s knees are buckling beneath him as soon as him and suho pass the door to the hallway. 

it’s then that sieun realizes beomseok must have ditched their bags as soon as they had entered the bathroom as suho is pushing them over towards the two. “do any of you guys have tape? we can use paper to cover up the window in the door.” suho asks the two. 

beomseok hums, his face brightening up in the smallest of ways before he's reaching for his bag and quietly unzipping it. he shakily hands suho a small roll of white washi tape before he’s pulling out some loose assignments and laying them out on the floor. “here,” he says looking over at suho who looks relieved at the sight before he’s quickly gathering the paper before standing up and facing the door. 

siuen and beomseok quietly watch as suho cautiously steps closer to the door and sieun tries not to notice the way the boy’s faces pales over as he glances around outside before he’s carefully placing the paper over the window and quickly taping it down. almost instantly the mood in the bathroom seems to lighten without the threat of those things seeing them looming over their heads. 

suho lets out a breath as he finishes, a faint and relieved smile across his face as he comes back over and hands beomseok his washi tape and left over paper. “there. now all we have to do is be quiet until help comes.” 

beomseok smiles too at the notion but sieun can’t get those things out of his mind. every time he blinks all he could see is the way that kid lunged at him, snapping and trying to bite at sieun’s face like a monster. suho is then headed for the sink and grabbing some paper towels and wetting them with some cold water. 

he sits across from sieun, gently handing him the damp towel. “here, there’s some..” he points at his own cheek as sieun takes it from him and begins quietly wiping what he knows is blood off his face. 

“thanks…” he murmured before reaching up to the trashcan and tossing the bloody towel before he could get a good look at it. sieun can’t help the way he curls back up into himself.

“what… what the hell are those things?” beomseok asks after the three finally catch their breath. 

suho just blinks at him. “what do you mean? they’re people.” but even sieun knows this isn’t necessarily true anymore.

“but they’re eating people.” he says dryly, his voice not sounding anything like his own. suho goes to say something but sieun can see the way the very same thoughts plague his mind. 

“maybe they’re sick?” suho suggests as sieun chews on the inside of his lip. 

“t-the bite.” beomseok rasps out causing both sieun and suho to glance his way. beomseok shakily adjusts his glasses before taking a deep breath. “that k-kid said he was bit right? m-maybe that’s how you turn into those things.”

“jesus…” suho looks as if he’s going to be sick at the thought. he swallows thickly, running a hand over his face as beomseok follows sieun and curls back into his knees

the three jump at the sudden sound of growling outside as more of those things run past the bathroom door. sieun holds his breath as the three go eerily still as they waited for them to pass. they were going to die in here, that much was true as sieun glances up at suho who looks actually frightened as more of those things continue to pass by with an awful, guttural groaning. 

screams begin echoing down the hallway and quickly growing closer. sieun’s head snaps up to the door as whoever was trying to escape those things were leading them right back to the bathrooms. surprisingly it’s beomseok frantically reaching for sieun’s arm and pulling him into his side as suho slides over besides sieun as well, the trash can providing decent cover despite the door window being taped over. sieun holds his breath, his hand reaching out instinctively and grabbing suho’s knee as the boy stood on guard. 

sieun feels beomseok trembling violently beside him, his hand clamped over his mouth in a desperate attempt to muffle his cries. the screaming is getting dangerously close now, the awful sound of those things tailing close behind that it makes sieun’s heart drop into the deepest pit of his stomach. 

“keep your legs up.” suho hisses, shakily reaching his arm up and flicking the light in the bathroom off. “just stay quiet and don’t move.” 

suho doesn’t hesitate to push himself closer into sieun’s side. he shakily drapes his arm around the smaller boy’s shoulder, gently reaching for beomseok’s sweater as they huddled together in terror. 

beomseok accidently lets out a sob as someone outside succumbs to those things outside. the sound is one of the worst things sieun has ever heard but instead of covering his ears, he’s turning to beomseok. 

“beomseok-ah, p-please be quiet.” he pleads softly before offering a hand for beomseok to hold onto. the boy frantically takes it and squeezes hard as sieun brings his other arm and wraps it around beomseok’s shoulders and brings him closer into sieun’s side. “we just have to be quiet a-and we’ll be okay.” sieun whispers into beomseok’s ear as the boy shakes even harder against him, trying to muffle his cries.

“h-help me! f-fuck… somebody fucking help me!” the person outside screams and it’s too close. there’s a loud crash that follows and the sound of what seems to be a struggle but the boy outside is still begging for help. suho jumps up and sieun is frantically grabbing onto the boy’s wrist and tugging him back down into his side. 

“what the hell are you doing?” suho hisses before angrily trying to shake sieun off. sieun doesn’t let up though, fingernails digging into suho’s arm. “let go.” 

it sounds like the kid outside is putting up a fight but sieun refuses to let up. he continues to scream for help despite no one coming besides more of those things. suho tugs at sieun’s arm again in frustration before sieun snaps. 

“you can’t help him!” he hissed back, finally succeeding in pulling suho back to the floor besides him after a particularly awful, heart wrenching scream. beomseok jumps, shaking like a leaf as he hides into sieun’s arm as the screams eventually trickle into indiscernible gurgles and cries. the tearing of flesh and the sound of blood splattering onto the floor outside is enough for suho to sink in defeat. 

very reluctantly does sieun finally let go of suho’s arm, watching silently as the boy leans into the wall with a sigh, his head tilting towards the ceiling. 

“i could’ve helped.” is what suho softly says after a while of listening to those things outside eventually lose interest. sieun turns his back to him, offering his hand back to beomseok to which the boy gratefully takes. 

“you would’ve died.” sieun whispered, turning back to meet suho’s gaze. his eyes are glossed over with tears and something in sieun’s chest constricts at the sight. “there were too many out there. and even if you could’ve gotten to him… one of you wouldn’t have made it back.” he tries again softer before he’s back to trying to coax beomseok as gently as he could out of his panic. 

he feels suho staring at him and for a moment sieun fears he may have started something between them. the air is thick with tension as suho watches the way beomseok clings onto sieun, his cries muffled into sieun’s arm. sieun doesn’t see the tenderness flicker across suho’s face. only hears the sigh the boy lets out as he tears his eyes away and back up at the ceiling. 

it’s dropped after that and soon enough it’s back to being quiet outside. sieun feels his heart clenching in his chest at the sight of beomseok as the boy’s chest begins to heave as he cried all the tears he had. sieun gently squeezes his shoulder, leaning in a little bit closer in beomseok’s space. “beomseok-ah,” he tries softly. “hey, you have to breathe. it’s alright now. they’re gone, beomseok.”

beomseok nods his head a little frantic, his hands clenching around sieun’s forearm as he tried to steady his breathing. sieun feels suho’s eyes on them again, watching as sieun helplessly attempts to guide beomseok out of his attack. “we’re okay.” he murmured, quiet enough for only beomseok to hear as the lanky boy’s breath hitched in the back of his throat. “we’re safe for now.” 

eventually beomseok calms down enough to very timidly pull away from sieun’s arm. when he blinks up at him sieun feels his heart ache a little in his chest at the sight. beomseok’s face is wrecked. his cheeks are stained with tears, his eyes swollen and red behind his glasses and even still he looked so unbelievably scared. 

“we’re going to die in here.” beomseok croaks out, sniffling pathetically as he pushes back into the comer under the sink, his legs drawn up to his chest as he hides in them. sieun wishes he could comfort him but even he’s not that much of a liar. they were most likely going to die here. it was only a matter of time. 

sieun slowly shuffles away from beomseok and leans against the wall back besides suho who lets out a sigh. “should we call the police?” he asks after a beat of silence. 

sieun shrugs. “didn’t some kid call earlier?”

suho doesn’t comment and instead begins digging his phone out of his jacket pocket. sieun doesn’t watch as he unlocks it. “i’m gonna call again.” suho dryly says before he’s dialing the police and bringing the phone up to his ear. 

it’s almost eerie as the phone rings so loud that it almost bounces off the walls. it rings and rings until inevitably dialing suho over to the busy signal. sieun sucks in a breath, looking back over to suho who’s still anxiously waiting as if they’d pick up. 

he eventually gives up, holding the phone limply in his lap. “how the hell can the police be busy? is that even possible?” he asks, frustrated before he’s trying again. 

sieun chews on the inside of his cheek again, mulling over if that was even possible. “maybe it’s from the school? l-like they didn’t want to clog up the lines or something?”

suho groans in frustration as the same exact thing happens again. this time he gives up, cursing under his breath as he lets his phone fall to his lap. 

“or it’s everywhere…” a soft and shaky voice rasps, gathering the attention of both sieun and suho. beomseok is just barely peering over his knees. 

“what do you mean?”

sieun swallows, his gaze softening despite the anxiety bubbling under his skin. “y-yeah, what do you mean, beomseok-ah?” 

beomseok sniffles, his fingers reaching up his face to adjust his glasses. “well… s-someone had to have brought it here.” he suggests quietly before continuing. “l-like that old saying.. uhm… ‘w-what came f-first… the uh.. chicken o-or the egg’. s-someone or something had to have been the f-first and they probably g-gave it to that kid who…” beomseok stops, a strangled noise coming out instead and sieun tentatively reaches out, shakily resting on the boy’s knee and gingerly squeezing it. 

“but how?” suho presses. 

“the bite.” it dawns upon sieun, eyes flickering to look over at suho. “beomseok-ah, i think you were right. that’s what makes you turn into one of those things…”

suho is frantically opening his phone again and is opening twitter. sieun can’t help as his eyes follow down to the screen, his stomach twisting in immediate regret as he did. 

post after post there were threads about whatever this was happening everywhere. suho scrolls slowly past photos of bloody people with gory wounds swatting at the camera and running towards it. there’s threads of survival tips — how to make a tourniquet, what to do if the power goes out, how long you can last without food and water. 

sieun thinks he’s going to be sick as suho clicks on one post in particular, quickly adjusting the volume until it’s almost all the way down as a video begins playing of a news broadcast. it’s of a young female reporter talking fast about what little information they had outside of a hospital. the news confirms things they already knew: that this sickness chases extreme violence in victims and that it’s spread as far as they know by saliva entering the bloodstream. they don’t know the origin of it or how it started but they do say it’s rapidly spreading. 

the reporter is then quickly urging the cameraman to show what was behind her — the front of a hospital, people frantically rushing inside carrying wounded in their arms. it looks like a mess as the police try and hold some sort of order but fail. the reporter begins rambling about what she’d seen, people getting mauled by their neighbors, the hospital staff having to turn people away due to how overwhelmed they were becoming. 

sieun doesn’t know if he can watch anymore as an infected person begins running out of the er doors, blood staining his face and mouth as he screams viciously. another one comes from somewhere in the parking lot causing the people who were running out of the hospital to get pinned in. the reporter keeps broadcasting though as her and her cameraman attempt to get out of the way as one of those things begins attacking a poor man who was already hurt. 

the footage is shaky and barely legible as the thing loses interest in the now dead man on the pavement. it lets out an awful sob before it’s sprinting towards the cameraman and tackling him to the ground. the audio cuts out as blood and splatters into the screen, the news station frantically cutting the feed before the clip comes to an end.

suho shakily turns off his phone as sieun tries to bottle the urge to vomit right there. 

beomseok was right. they were definitely going to die in here. 

suho’s voice comes out a little strangled as he pockets his phone. “guess we’re gonna be here for a while, huh?” he tries to make it lighthearted but suho’s voice is anything but. 

sieun makes a small noise of acknowledgment, blinking over at beomseok who doesn’t react let alone move. “why don’t you lay down, beomseok-ah?” he suggested, grabbing their backpacks and lining them up so at least two of them could lay their heads down on it. beomseok sniffles, jerking his head in a nod and soon sieun is gently guiding beomseok to lay down. 

beomseok’s shoulders are still shaking as he hiccuped softly. the sight struck a chord within sieun, a protectiveness ebbing throughout his touch as sieun climbs out of his grey hoodie before laying it over beomseok as a makeshift blanket. 

“just rest, beomseok. we’ll be right here.” he murmured and it’s enough for beomseok to at least turn onto his side so he’s facing the wall. 

suho sighs, nodding his head at sieun. “might as well rest while we can.” 

sieun hummed as exhaustion creeped over him. the adrenaline high he’d been riding since he’d took care of that first kid— no — infected. he lets out a breath he hadn’t knows he’d been holding, blinking over suho's way. 

“what about you?” 

suho stands up carefully, stretching his arms over his head before shrugging. “i’m not that tired. go on, it’s fine.” 

sieun doesn’t argue as there’s a quiet shuffling behind him. it’s beomseok blinking up at him with teary eyes. “you can come over here, sieun-ah.” he whispered. sieun nods softly, pushing his backpack slash pillow until it’s against beomseok’s before he’s laying down on the floor.

maybe it should’ve been weirder than it was, laying this close to someone sieun barely knew. but with the way beomseok clings to him, sieun can’t find it in him to care. as his head hits his bag, sieun can’t fight off the way his eyes grow heavy. 

as beomseok presses his forehead into sieun’s shoulder, suho comes to sit down beside him, sandwiching sieun in the middle. he’s close enough that his leg is pressing against sieun’s side but neither boy comments on it. suho sniffles, his eyes flickering to beomseok before they’re ultimately settling on sieun. 

“are you sure it’s okay?” beomseok asks in a small voice, slightly muffled in sieun’s arm. he’s practically cuddled into sieun’s side but sieun doesn’t mind, for once craving touch and closeness as a reminder that he’s here.

suho hummed, the corner of his lips twitching upward slightly. “i’m sure beomseok-ah. try and rest if you can, okay? hyung will keep watch.” 

sieun quirks a brow at the honorific but doesn’t say anything as beomseok smiles softly before nodding his head. “o-okay.”

the three fall into a comfortable silence after that. beomseok makes a small noise before ultimately settling down as he cuddled into sieun’s shoulder. sieun finds himself staring up at the ceiling, waiting until beomseok’s breathing evens out before he glances up at suho. 

”what?”

sieun shakes his head softly, his eyes crinkling upwards as the faintest of smiles cross his face. “nothing… hyung.” there’s a underlying tease in sieun’s voice and for a moment he forgets that the world around them is falling apart. suho rolls his eyes, scoffing. 

“shut up. i was trying to make him feel better.” he gently nudged sieun’s shoulder. “go on, rest. i’ll wake you up if anything happens.”

sieun lets out a sigh, not arguing about it anymore as he lets himself be lulled away by beomseok’s warmth. 

sieun sleeps so hard that by the time he’s waking up he nearly forgets it’s his highschool bathroom floor that he’d been laying on. he blinks away from of the grogginess in his eyes, biting back a quiet yawn. it’s dark outside now. sieun supposed he should be relieved at the thought that they were still alive. he notices almost immediately that beomseok was pretty much laying on him at this point. a mess of dark hair sprawled out across sieun’s chest, beomseok’s cheek pressed right up against sieun’s heart. 

under any other circumstance sieun would’ve pushed beomseok or really anyone those close to him away but something about the sight and everything they had been through in such a short amount of time clenches at sieun’s heart. sieun very carefully croons his head to his right, frowning at the empty spot where suho had been earlier. 

surely he hadn’t left, right? sieun tries to keep his breathing calm. there would be no way for him to leave without beomseok or sieun waking up. sieun takes a breath, rationalizing that suho was indeed still here as he carefully begins peeling beomseok off of him and back onto his makeshift pillow. sieun gently fixes his jacket over beomseok’s body before wiping at his eyes and standing up. 

it’s only then that he catches the soft sound of what seemed to be muffled crying coming from the opposite side of the bathroom. sieun carefully peers around the line of stalls, his eyes widening at the sight of suho leaning against the wall under the window with his phone pressed to his ear. he isn’t saying anything but sieun can hear the sniffles as moonlight shines into the bathroom, the light catching faint tear stains streaming down suho’s face. 

sieun quietly pads over, not saying anything as he comes up beside suho and leaning into the wall. a few minutes pass of suho not acknowledging him goes by before he’s pocketing his phone. suho wipes his nose with the back of his hand, looking up at sieun with glossed over eyes. “sorry,” he apologizes in a whisper. “fuck… i didn’t wake you, did i? is he…”

“no, you didn’t. he’s still out like a light.” sieun assured. he doesn’t ask about who suho had been calling, he doesn’t need to. “what time even is it?” 

“uhm,” suho blanks for a moment as he thinks, sniffling as he collects himself. “around eight thirty? i’ve been up, just needed time to think.”

sieun doesn’t comment on how hoarse suho’s voice is, just nods his head as he fights back another small yawn. 

“has there been any…” 

suho looks at him, eyes shimmering with something sieun can’t place. “no, it’s been quiet.” 

an awkward silence falls over them for a moment before sieun’s eyes are falling to the way suho’s hands are just barely trembling. he isn’t sure why the sight causes such a heaviness to pull at his chest. he was probably just trying to reach his family. sieun is honestly a little ashamed of himself for not thinking of his own parents up until now. they could be dead for all he knows, torn apart by those fucking things outside or hell, they could be one of those things. 

sieun is reeled out of his thoughts by suho who’s gazing at him with a seriousness that honestly scared him. ”i don’t think help is coming.” he whispered and sieun hated how he agreed. 

“yeah, me either.” sieun whispered back, his eyes not leaving suho’s. 

“we’re gonna have to leave soon enough. we can’t stay here forever.” 

“y-yeah, i know.” sieun isn’t sure how they’ll do it. they’re more than likely going to end up like that kid from earlier, screaming for someone to save them as they’re violently torn apart by those things.

the thought makes sieun mull over what tomorrow may consist of for them. it’s very likely that all three of them are going to

die tomorrow and sieun doesn’t really know how he’s supposed to think about that. instead he inhales shakily, looking up at suho with a tenderness he hadn’t really meant but hey, this may be sieun’s last night alive. he didn’t see the harm in being vulnerable now especially if he was going to die with these two. 

“why… why did you help me earlier? when that kid turned into one of those things.” his voice is hushed and a little slow as he forces the words out. 

he takes note over how a softness seems to wash over suho’s face as he inevitably breaks sieun’s gaze. his eyes fall to the floor with a shrug. “he would’ve killed you.” suho softly says, his eyes just barely meeting sieun’s before they’re falling back to his feet. 

“but you didn’t know that.” 

“anyone would have seen that he would’ve hurt you.” 

sieun’s eyes rake over suho’s face softly. “but no one else did.”

suho doesn’t say anything, only shrugs again and sieun decides to drop it. sieun lets out a sigh, gently pushing himself off the wall. “c’mon, you’ve got to be exhausted suho-ah.” sieun coaxes. he gently reaches out, fingers just barely grasping onto suho’s jacket. suho stared at sieun’s hand before searching his face. he looks almost unsure of the idea but allows sieun to lead him back over to their makeshift bed.

sieun drops suho’s arm, waving to where he’d been sleeping besides beomseok. 

“here, it’s your turn.” is all sieun says. suho doesn’t argue as he carefully comes to sit beside a sleeping beomseok. he blinks up at sieun, his eyes twinkling from the moonlight. “you’re not gonna get some rest?” 

“i know it may be the end of the world, but i'm not really sure i want to lay my head on the bare floor, hyung.” he chides, causing suho to let out a small scoff before he’s stripping off his windbreaker and folding it until it resembled something that sieun could lay his head on. suho quietly places it beside the sieun’s backpack he was going to be using. 

“here,” he pats the fabric, careful as to not wake beomseok.   

it’s enough for sieun to sit down, their elbows knocking gently into each other as suho goes to lay down first. beomseok must have subconsciously sensed the warmth of suho’s body nearby because he’s quickly shifting closer to him in his sleep. he doesn’t stop until he’s clinging onto suho’s arm. sieun can’t help the soft smile that washes over his face as he lays down as well. suho’s arm is still pressed into his side but neither of them say anything. 

sieun’s eyes are growing heavier the longer he gazes up at the ceiling when suho speaks in a voice just above a whisper. “we’ll figure everything out in the morning.” 

“mnm.”

sieun’s eyes flutter closed as he listens to their breathing fill the bathroom. 

“goodnight, hyung.” sieun whispered.

sieun dreams that he’s in his bed that night, only thanks to the comfort that he wasn’t alone in all of this. 

suho whispers back, “goodnight, sieun-ah.”

Chapter Text

night comes and goes and sieun finds himself waking up quite early that next morning. he blinks, trying to adjust his eyes to the soft light pooling across the bathroom floor. it shimmers off the tile, cool hues of blues cascading over the three of them. it had to be around five or six in the morning, about the time sieun would have been on his way here regardless. it was quiet outside too, the only sound he could directly pinpoint was the gentle and rhythmic breathing coming from beomseok and suho besides him. the thought of not hearing those things outside or even the blood curdling screams from someone being ripped to shreds should have brought some sense of comfort to him yet it only fills sieun with dread. 

he bites back a yawn, his entire body aching from sleeping on the hard and cold tile as sieun glances over to suho and beomseok who were still sleeping beside him. he realized here just how close he had drifted to suho while he’d been asleep. their bodies are practically pressed flushed up against one another. sieun doesn’t know why he isn't more embarrassed at the proximity. instead, he finds himself soaking it up for a few more moments, feeling safe in the warmth that presses into his side. sieun lets his eyes roll over suho’s shoulders, finding beomseok fully tucked underneath suho’s chin as he cuddles into his chest. 

sieun lets out a breath, allowing himself to soak up the sight and let himself forget for a moment that the world was burning around them. 

he lets himself think that maybe in another universe they all would’ve met under different circumstances. sieun’s mind drifts, imagining becoming friends with these two not in a life or death situation. he imagines beomseok shyly introducing himself and asking if he could sit besides sieun at lunch. or suho stepping in when yeongbin and his asshole friends go too far in their tormenting. they would fall together as a trio seamlessly, he thinks. even now the protectiveness sieun felt over the two was immense. it was something he’d never felt before in his entire life, let alone for two boys that were practically strangers. 

but after everything that has happened since yesterday, sieun doesn’t know if the word strangers was the right name for beomseok and suho. he knew even now that he was willing to kill for these two if it came to it, yesterday was enough evidence of this fact. it should have been frightening – the overwhelming protectiveness he felt as he watched the slow and steady rise and fall of their chests but it was the exact opposite. 

sieun is reeled out of his haze at the loud rumbling of his stomach. his thoughts are quickly washed away as memories of him and suho’s conversation come to the forefront of his mind. he’s hungry but sieun isn’t sure he’s hungry enough to face whatever was waiting for them on the other side of the door. 

he pushes himself up quietly, the ache rocking across his entire body beginning to pulsate in his bones as sieun runs a shaky hand over his face. the thought of leaving twists his stomach up and sieun tries to push it away for his own sake before he’s carefully bringing himself up to his feet. he tries to rub out the kink in his neck before he’s stretching his arms, his eyes drifting back to suho and beomseok briefly before sieun is padding quietly over to the sink. sieun isn’t really sure what he’s expecting to see once he looks in the mirror but it certainly wasn’t whoever was staring back at him. 

his face is a sickly pale, dark circles already beginning to shadow under sieun’s eyes. sieun’s hands grip the edge of the counter, knuckles turning white as something in his chest sinks at the sight of specks of blood that had stained at his clothes. sieun notices then how there’s still blood freckled onto his skin, his grip on the counter tightening as his brain taunts him with that moment from yesterday over and over again . his breathing catches at the back of his throat, tightly squeezing his eyes shut. his knees are trembling, his body swaying as tears begin to prickle at the corner of his eyes. they quickly begin to fall, big fat tears trickling down sieun’s face as he desperately tried to hold himself together. 

he could still hear the deafening crunch of that kid’s skull meeting the floor.  

sieun suddenly pushes himself away from the counter, stumbling frantically past the two sleeping boys on the floor and pushing himself into the closest bathroom stall, the door slamming a little too loudly behind him.

it feels like the air has been completely sucked out of his lungs and his legs give out as soon as sieun is inside. sieun’s hand flies up to his mouth as he chokes back a sob, the action no use as the pathetic sound bounces off the walls and ricochetting around the room. there’s a sharp, twisting pain in sieun’s stomach before he’s lurching forward towards the toilet. 

sieun throws up what little food he had left in him into the toilet. his mind stuck on a loop of him beating that kid to death. he could still feel the weight of the textbook in his hands, can feel the adrenaline still lingering underneath his skin as his body trembled violently. tears are still falling down his face at a steady and unmoving pace. the saltiness mixing slipping onto his tongue as sieun began to dry heave once he had nothing but stomach bile and spit coming out. the guilt clings to him like a parasite, sucking him dry of everything sieun had and leaving him nothing but the awful knowing that he did that – that he killed that kid. 

he sinks into the toilet, a pitiful whimper tearing at the back of his throat. he can’t stop the way the tears continuously fall as his mind confused the faces of that scared child and vicious monster coming after him. sieun’s body seizes up in disgust and he desperately tries not to think about it anymore. 

sieun isn’t sure how long he’s there slouched over the toilet crying. it was like he was trapped in a loop of hyperventilating until he couldn’t breathe anymore before inevitably he’s heaving up nothing but spit as the scene from yesterday replays in his head over and over again. sieun doesn’t register just how loud he’s being in the moment but it doesn’t take long until there’s someone pushing the stall door open.

“ s-sieun-ah…? ” the voice rasps out, quiet and so small but it’s enough for sieun to cling to. “sieun-ah, a-are you alright? what happened?” it gently calls and sieun knows immediately that it’s beomseok. he sounds almost scared and for a split second sieun’s brain is telling him that it’s only a matter of time before those things hear him if they hadn’t already. beomseok and suho must have been thinking the same thing but sieun can’t get a grip. he can barely lift his head in beomseok’s direction without choking on his own cries. beomseok comes closer, not stopping until sieun can feel the warmth radiating off of him. there’s a brief moment that passes between them before beomseok is hesitantly reaching out, not stopping until his slender and shaking fingers are curling around sieun’s shoulder. 

sieun can’t help the way he flinches at the feeling. despite his labored breaths his breath seemed to get caught in his throat as beomseok’s hand squeezes his shoulder with a tenderness sieun wasn’t used to. beomseok carefully sank to the floor and sieun ultimately allowed beomseok to tug him gently into his arms. the taller boy awkwardly guides sieun’s head towards his chest, his arms tightening around sieun’s shoulders. “sieun-ah, you’re okay. it’s okay. ” he whispered into sieun’s hair, his own voice having a tremble to it. sieun can only let out a small, strangled cry. the sound muffled into the crook of beomseok’s neck.

“ m’ s-sorry… ” is all he can choke out between harsh cries and heaving breaths. beomseok though is softly shaking his head, his hands a little jerky and clumsy as they rub the soft skin of sieun’s waist and back. “there’s nothing to be sorry for.” he hushes. “sieun-ah, it’s okay, i promise.”

but sieun thinks otherwise. the urge to throw up clouds sieun’s mind once again, his body jolting back until he’s coughing back into the toilet. he can’t bring himself to feel embarrassed or disgusted as tremors wrack through his bones, spittle dripping from his lips. beomseok’s touch never goes away however, his hand rubbing small circles into the space between sieun’s shoulders. there’s a slight tremble to his touch but sieun doesn’t push him away, in fact he leans into it eventually as more tears threaten to ebb in the corner of his eyes. sieun jerks his head, coughing up nothing but spit and sinking back against the toilet bowl. “i– i killed him, beomseok-ah… i…” he could barely get the words out, choking on the syllables as another sob threatened to tear at his throat. 

“he would have killed you, sieun-ah.” beomseok tried to reason with him. there’s no disgust or fear in his voice and for the first time since sieun’s known him, he sounds solidly clear on his stance regarding this. there’s no room for doubt in beomseok’s voice. “he would’ve hurt suho-hyung, too. you did the right thing, sieun-ah. ”

sieun opens his mouth to argue but immediately clamps it shut, instead he sinks his teeth into the inside of his cheek as he tries to stifle his crying. beomseok tentatively draws his hand away from sieun’s back and sieun almost instantly feels worse the moment the warmth is fading away from his skin. he hates the small whimper that falls from his lips instead but beomseok is then grabbing onto his elbow, gently pulling sieun back until he’s pressed into the crook of beomseok’s neck, his arms wrapping around him once more. sieun lets out a heavy breath, closing his eyes as he tries to ground himself. 

once his breathing is settled, sieun finds his eyes drifting to the doorway of the bathroom stall, half expecting to see suho standing there staring down at him in worry. it’s empty however and sieun feels himself let out a small sigh of relief. he wasn’t sure if he was ready for suho to see him like this for some reason. it was too much, the thought of being so vulnerable in front of beomseok to begin with he couldn’t imagine how overwhelmed he’d feel if it had been suho waking up and rushing to his side to comfort him instead. beomseok seems to pick up on his drifting gaze and he lets out a small breath, something sieun thinks could be akin to a small laugh. 

sieun can’t see it but there’s a small and faint smile on beomseok’s face, his fingers squeezing sieun’s forearm gently. “you didn’t wake him, don’t worry.” he murmured into sieun’s ear. sieun could only nod softly, a small sniffle following before he lets himself fall into beomseok’s arms a little more comfortably. the two don’t speak for a moment as sieun sinks a little deeper into beomseok’s arms, trying to soak up as much comfort he could as he silently waited for his tears to dry up. beomseok doesn’t seem to mind it. sieun could just faintly feel how his heart is a little faster than it should have been but beomseok doesn’t move away at all. 

eventually though sieun is forcing himself to gently pull away from beomseok’s arms, leaning back until he’s sitting directly opposite from him. there’s a part of sieun that ached to crawl back into his arms but he pushes it down as he takes a moment to gather himself completely. sieun takes a breath, ignoring the way his hands have a slight tremble to them as he wipes his eyes with the back of his palm. he sniffles again, dropping his hands to his lap as his eyes slowly meet beomseok after a long time of staring at the floor. 

“thank you…” he says in a tiny voice. 

beomseok just makes a soft humming sound before he’s shaking his head. “you did the same for me yesterday, sieun-ah.”

sieun’s face flushes a light shade of pink as he lets his gaze fall back onto the floor with a shrug. “still… thank you, beomseok-ah.”

there’s a small smile flickering across beomseok’s face, his eyes twinkling as he quietly pushes himself up to his feet and offers his hand for sieun to grab onto. sieun blinked up at him, shakily intertwining their hands and letting beomseok help him up. he doesn’t say anything as beomseok is turning to the toilet and flushing it, still never letting go of sieun’s palm and instead squeezing it gently. “here, c’mon.” beomseok softly beckoned before gingerly leading sieun out of the stall. they quietly pad over to the sink, suhp still completely passed out on the floor. sieun can’t help the way his eyes linger over suho’s sleeping form. he had sieun’s gray zip-up hoodie draped over his body in a makeshift blanket – most likely from beomseok when he had gotten up to come and check on sieun. sieun feels his heart swell with warmth at the sight of suho drooling onto his backpack, his fists clenching around sieun’s hoodie as he nuzzles into the fabric. 

“here, sieun,” 

sieun rips his eyes away, blinking up to see beomseok holding a damp paper towel for him to take. sieun just barely hears himself thank him before he’s taking it in his hands before dabbing it at the corner of his mouth. sieun doesn’t look at himself in the mirror this time around, promptly tossing the towel before he's turning on the water at the sink and cupping his hands underneath it. he needed to get the awful taste of stomach acid off his tongue before he’s letting out a breath. beomseok watches quietly the whole time, never pushing. just there.  

as sieun shuts off the water he notices beomseok shuffling his weight from one foot to another, his eyes bouncing all over sieun in an almost endearing way. sieun watches him quietly, waiting as beomseok mulls over the words about ready to fall out of his mouth. 

“i’m… i’m glad you did it. ” he whispered, hesitantly meeting sieun’s gaze. “you… i think you doing what you did… it saved us, sieun-ah. ” 

sieun swallows dryly, his heart beginning to pick up in his chest. he hadn’t really thought about it in that way. sieun just saw himself as this monster, someone who was no better than one of those things outside. despite not wanting to, he can’t help but think back to yesterday once again. he remembers how scared he had been when that kid kept coming at him despite crashing through rows and rows of desks and chairs. sieun can still smell the breath of that kid hitting his face as he relentlessly tried to bite at the air between them before suho had helped him. 

and suho… sieun could only remember how he watched as suho’s stupid confidence had shattered within a matter of seconds the longer he had tried to fight back that thing. sieun hadn’t made a choice to help him in the moment he had reached for that textbook. his body had just acted on it’s own and before he knew it he was lunging after the kid after an especially close call regarding suho. 

he doesn’t say anything and beomseok doesn’t bring it up anymore after that. instead beomseok is gently bringing sieun back to their respective spots besides suho. sieun finds himself opting to lean against the cool wall, watching as more and more warm sunlight begins to trickle inside the bathroom through the window. beomseok sinks back to the floor, curling back up to suho before he inevitably falls asleep again. sieun contently goes back to listening to the two boys’ breathing, his own eyes growing heavy from all the crying he had done earlier. 

sieun holds back a sigh, trying to hold onto this moment for as long as he could because ultimately it would be violently shattered at some point today. they couldn’t stay here but sieun has no idea where they could even go at this point. he wasn’t ready to face more of those things outside – the infected if that's the proper thing to call them. sieun tries to come up with another place besides the cafeteria that would have food but came up disappointingly short. unless beomseok also had something to snack on somewhere in his backpack, they were going to have to leave. 

soon though sieun’s thoughts get lost in the soft breathing of beomseok and suho beside him, lulling him into a state where he wasn’t asleep but also not entirely awake and conscious either. he isn’t sure how long they stay like this, maybe thirty minutes to an hour before there’s a horrible, deafening screech coming from somewhere outside the bathroom. it echoes down the hall but it’s loud enough for sieun to jerk awake. suho is violently jolting upwards, his chest heaving as beomseok frantically does the same, his hands instinctively grabbing onto suho’s arm as there’s another scream ringing out, this one a little closer this time. beomseok is pushing himself fully under the counter, suho and sieun frozen in their respective spots as they listened to the two infected outside run down the halls before it goes quiet again. sieun thinks that they must have seen or heard something, possibly another survivor or even one of their own. 

after a few more tense seconds of waiting, sieun forces himself to meet suho’s eyes. he looked exhausted despite all the sleep he had done. suho lets out a deep sigh, his body relaxing in the smallest of ways.

“ jesus ,” he had hissed, his voice barely over a whisper. 

sieun swallows the lump at the back of his throat, looking down and not even realizing how his body had shifted a few inches closer to suho’s. “i don’t think i’m ever going to get used to that noise.” he says as he is dragging a hand over his face. sieun makes a small, strained little noise in agreement. 

“do… do we think that help ever came?” beomseok asks in a tiny voice, peeking over his knees. he doesn’t move from his hiding spot under the counter. 

suho lets out a long, almost heavy breath as he softly shakes his head. “if they had, they didn’t really do too great of a job if there’s still those assholes running around outside.” he replied dryly, standing up and making his way to the sink. he turns on the water and cups his hands under it before he’s wetting his face. sieun reaches for his jacket, holding it in his lap for a moment before he’s crawling back into it. he tries not to think too much about how suho had been nuzzling into it earlier or how it now faintly smelled of a mixture between suho and beomseok as he pulled his arms through it. suho sighed, shutting off the tap before he’s crouching down to beomseok’s height. “me and sieun were talking last night, beom-ah. we can’t stay here.” 

sieun notices just how soft suho was looking at beomseok as the boy’s eyes gloss over with tears. 

“w-why not…?” beomseok pleaded, looking like a small child as he curled his knees closer to his chest. 

“ beomseok-ah… ” suho softly chastised in return, voice low and so incredibly gentle. 

beomseok lets out a small sniffle as he shakes his head and sieun can just barely see the way his cheeks glisten with tears. “i… i don’t know if i can.” his voice trembles and suho fully sinks to the floor in front of him, his entire demeanor so patient and kind.

“but you can, beom-ah.” he assured. “i promise we’re gonna be okay but we have to move. we can’t stay here, you know that, beomseok-ah.”

sieun could see from where he was sitting that beomseok’s body was trembling but the boy didn't say anything, only hiding his face in the safety of his knees. suho lets out a sigh, pushing away from beomseok and turning fully to sieun. sieun feels suho’s eyes linger on him longer than he could handle. sieun clears his throat, his fingers thumbing the hem of the sleeves anxiously. 

“do… do you have a plan on where to go?” sieun makes himself ask, feeling like he could breathe again as suho finally tears his eyes away from his body as he begins to dig into his jean pockets. there’s a soft jingling noise filling the room as suho holds up a small ring of keys. “well, if we can get down to the parking lot, my bike is here. i can take us to whoever lives the closest.” suho’s wearing this small, almost cocky smile and when sieun glances over to where beomseok was, he could see that the boy was faintly smiling as well.

sieun chews on the inside of his cheek, meeting suho’s electrifying gaze. “my… i live only twenty minutes away.” he tells him softly, trying to balance the delicate feelings of fear and anxiety but also hope swirling in his chest. “we could go there.”

suho looks content with that and beomseok looks a little elated at the premise and sieun hates how he can’t stop the words falling from his mouth. 

“ if we can get there, at least.” his voice is back to just above a whisper. “there’s a lot of those things between here and there, suho-ah.”

just like that suho and beomseok’s smiles are wiped away and suho pockets his keys. “yeah, i know.” he tells him a little sadly. “but we need to move regardless. at least back downstairs. we can’t just sit here and wait.”

beomseok is softly shaking his head again, his face creasing over into something distressed and scared as he pressed deeper into the corner. suho let out a small breath but left beomseok to process it – that they were going to have to leave regardless at some point. suho meets sieun’s eyes, the tenderness from earlier faintly there as they hardened over. “hey, how many do you think are out there?”

sieun just gaped at him, shaking his head softly. “i… i don’t know. i heard at least two, i think b-but… i… i don’t know.” 

suho wastes no time in pushing himself up to his feet and carefully heading towards the door. sieun holds his breath, almost not wanting to watch as suho reluctantly reaches out for the piece of paper they had taped over the window to see outside into the hall. suho gently folds the paper up, leaning in close to the glass and sieun tries to ignore the way suho’s face pales over at whatever he sees initially be he's not rushing away. suho backs away after a few minutes, his voice still hushed as he looks back to sieun. “i think if we’re quiet we can sneak by to the staircase. i don’t see any.”

“what if we run into one, though?” sieun asks, already able to feel the adrenaline beginning to simmer beneath his skin. 

suho quickly folds the paper back down over the window before he’s coming back over to their little corner the three of them had carved out and claimed as their own. suho crouched down looking between sieun and beomseok with a seriousness that didn’t fit well on his features. “then we fight.”

sieun swallows the fear bubbling up his throat, finding himself jerking his head into a nod but beomseok is the opposite. sieun’s heart clenched in his chest as he listened to beomseok pathetically attempt to muffle the sob that was threatening to spill over, his head shaking adamantly. 

“ i-i can’t… ” he whimpered. sieun thinks beomseok sounds so small as suho softly hushes him, immediately crawling beneath the counter and beside beomseok. he doesn’t wait or even ask before he’s reaching for beomseok’s trembling hands and squeezing them tightly with his own. “hey, beom-ah, hey, hey, look at me. please look at me, beomseok-ah.” suho pleads in a gentle tone, his thumbs rubbing over beomseok’s knuckles. 

sieun watches as the boy completely crumbles instead, refusing to do so as tears now freely stream down his face. he was so unbelievably terrified and sieun couldn’t help but shift a few inches closer to the two of them, trying to offer any sense of comfort he could. suho leans in a little closer, still squeezing beomseok’s hands. “i know you’re scared. i know, beomseok-ah. we’re scared too. but we can’t stay here, i wish we could but we just can’t, beom-ah.” suho murmured as beomseok just shook, unable to do much of anything besides meekly attempting to stifle his cries. his fingers extend up suho’s wrist, desperately trying to hold on despite suho not going anywhere. 

suho lets the boy hold onto him until eventually his breathing is somewhat evening out. there’s still silent tears falling down beomseok’s face but he’s reluctantly letting go of suho’s hands. suho watches him for a moment, not saying anything as he gently leads beomseok out from under the safety of the counter. sieun finds himself gravitating into beomseok’s side, their shoulders almost touching as suho walks over to where they had slept last night. 

“do any of you guys have anything we could use on the off chance we do run into one of those things?” suho asks the two of them as he gathers up his green windbreaker he had given to sieun last night to use as a pillow. he throws it on seamlessly, glancing in beomseok and sieun’s direction as he threads his arms through it. 

sieun shakes his head softly but he’s stepping over to where his backpack was, kneeling down as he unzips it before he’s searching inside just in case he was wrong. he flicks through the contents and he can’t believe he’s actually disappointed that all he had inside were just textbooks and schoolwork. he sighs, zipping up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder as he stands back up. “i only have school stuff.”

beomseok is next to him, sniffling as he shifts from one foot to the other. “i… i have a boxcutter.” he murmurs, his eyes falling to the floor intently. “i-i’s… it’s in the pouch on the outside… in… in a pencil case.” 

suho’s face creases in confusion before his mouth opens as if he wants to press the subject further but doesn’t. nausea washes over sieun’s body as he pieces together the possible connotations and when beomseok glances up, just barely meeting sieun’s eyes there’s a silent understanding threading between the two.  

suho silently steps over to gather beomseok’s backpack, bringing it over to the counter before he’s following beomseok’s instructions. sure enough, inside a black pencil case was a boxcutter with a deep blue handle. sieun watches as suho opens the blade, examining it intently for a moment before he’s nodding. “this will have to do.” he sighed, pocketing the newly deemed weapon before swiftly zipping up the bag. “so, head downstairs and maybe duck into a classroom or clubroom?”

sieun hummed. “we need to find something to eat. i… i know the cafeteria is far but…” his voice drifts away, doubt beginning to simmer in his belly. 

“yeah, no i agree.” suho says. “we’ll just have to keep an eye out and grab anything we can.” sieun takes a breath, adjusting his backpack as he desperately tries to get a hold on his nerves. the weight from his bag against his back brought a sense of security back to him and he hoped that if it really came down to it that the backpack would provide at least some sort of protection from the infected outside. 

beomseok lets out a shaky breath, drawing the attention of both sieun and suho. 

“beomseok-ah? hey, are you ready?” suho asks him in a gentle and soft voice. there’s a strained sound falling from beomseok’s lips, his head barely moving as he nods. sieun can tell that beomseok is trying not to cry again. he can see the tears building up behind his slightly crooked glasses or how his body shook like a leaf. suho comes even closer, invading beomseok’s space as he gingerly brings his hand to adjust beomseok’s glasses. sieun’s skin warms at the sight, wanting to bring his eyes away because this was just too intimate as suho’s hand easily falls to beomseok’s face. his palm cupped beomseok’s cheek, his thumb carefully swiping a few tears that had managed to fall. 

beomseok jumps at the touch, his breathing picking up but suho doesn’t retract his palm, instead he’s tenderly swiping his thumb under beomseok’s glasses. “it’s gonna be okay, beom-ah. i promise, we’re gonna be okay.” suho murmured as beomseok melts into the touch, his eyes fluttering shut. suho’s hand slowly inches away from beomseok’s cheek, sliding around until it’s resting on the nape of his neck before he’s stepping even closer. “just stay close, okay? hyung’s got you , i promise, beomseok-ah.” suho’s voice is low, barely above a whisper and sieun has to avert his eyes then, opting to burn a hold through the floor as beomseok lets out a small whimper-like sound, trembling against suho’s touch. 

beomseok lets out a shaky breath, his head jerking into a nod. sieun glances up from the ground, watching with his breath held as suho carefully steps away. suho clears his throat, grabbing the handle of beomseok’s bag and handing it to the boy. “okay, are we ready to do this?”

sieun’s heart was racing in his chest as he watched beomseok shakily put on his backpack. he nods just enough for suho to see, unable to form the words on his tongue. suho clears his throat before he’s turning his attention back to beomseok and tenderly reaching for his arm. suho leads him over to sieun, not sticking around as beomseok timidly reaches for sieun’s hand and squeezing it. sieun squeezes back, not letting go as suho pulls the boxcutter back out before he’s walking to the door.

“don’t let go of my hand.” sieun said to beomseok, trying to hide just how unsteady his voice was. beomseok’s eyes burn into his own. “i-i won’t.” he promises sieun. they both turn their attention back to suho at the door then and sieun tries to ignore the way suho’s hand trembles as it hovers above the door handle. beomseok clings to him and sieun focuses on that instead, hoping that if one of those things came bursting through the door then at least sieun would be pressed up into the warmth of someone he would consider a friend as the door unlocked. 

the three of them hold their breaths as suho cautiously pushes the door open. sieun is too scared to move, frozen beside beomseok as he waited for the moment one of those things came rushing at them but nothing came. it was dead quiet in the hall and suho is the first to take the terrifying next step, peering around the doorway before ultimately moving out into the hall. 

“okay,” he whispered before turning back to sieun and beomseok. “c’mon, it’s clear.” he raises his hand, waving the two on. sieun has to force himself to move ahead, barely feeling how beomseok tightly squeezed his hand as he shuffles behind him. 

sieun’s face immediately sours as soon as the three of them stepped outside the safety of the bathroom. there’s a sickening, almost sweet smell so distinct and so strong that it’s hard not to gag. beomseok’s free hand flies up to his mouth, his eyes widening in horror of what was in front of them. there was blood absolutely everywhere . the cool, neutral walls were now splattered in crimson. blood pooling over the floor as the three boys quietly step down the hallway. 

sieun’s fingers curl tighter around beomseok’s palm. “don’t look, beomseok-ah. just close your eyes.” he whispers behind him as suho holds his arm out for sieun to hold onto. sieun didn't waste any time grasping onto suho’s forearm as they rounded the corner, the only noise in the hallway was the soft squeaking of their shoes against the tile. “just keep them closed.”

sieun wishes he could be the one relying on them instead as they step out into the main hallway. his feet come to a shrieking halt at the sight that greeted the three of them. 

it was that boy they had heard yesterday screaming for help.

he’s sprawled out onto the floor on his stomach, a big pool of crimson surrounding him. sieun’s breath hitches in the back of his throat, nausea overwhelming him as he took in the sight of the giant wound at the back of his neck. his back is chewed up as well. blood and flesh scattered everywhere and the worst part about it all was that it was still fresh. sieun feels his body begin to sway but beomseok is pushing up into his side, his hand shakily grasping onto sieun’s wrist and squeezing it so tight that it’s enough for him to keep going. he has to keep going.

sieun feels suho gently attempt to tug him away from the gruesome sight and they continue to slowly but carefully inch further down the hallway. he can just barely see the staircase from where they were. sieun inadvertently picks up his pace, almost tripping over nothing and bumping into suho. 

suho turns to him, mouth gaping and eyes creasing in worry like he’s about to say something when sieun sees something moving in the shadows ahead of them. sieun’s heart drops deep within his chest, panic constricting his lungs as he forces himself to look away, honing in on suho. “s-suho…” he can’t hear himself, too focused on the distant footsteps echoing down the hall. suho hears it too, his hold on sieun’s arm disappearing as he shakily slides the blade of the boxcutter out. he turns around in the direction of the noise, body tensing up as they could hear the soft crying of an infected. 

there’s suddenly another sob-like noise coming from where they had came. suho frantically reeled around, fear clear as day across his face before he’s grabbing sieun’s elbow, hastily dragging the three of them down the hallway. “c’mon, c’mon, hurry!” he hisses as it sounds like something is running behind them. they’re almost to the staircase now, the pace they had been trying to keep long gone as they rushed down the hall. 

but then there’s a scream coming from one of those things and the furious stomping of feet growing closer and closer behind them before all hell breaks loose. 

sieun is knocked violently to the ground as one of those things tackled beomseok. beomseok is screaming, begging for help as he tried to hold off the infected. it’s swatting violently at beomseok’s chest, his cries screeching off the walls. sieun can hear more of them coming their way and before he can scramble to beomseok’s aid, suho is throwing himself at the infected boy until he’s on top of him. sieun races to beomseok, grabbing onto the boy’s shoulder and pulling him up. “b-beom-ah!” sieun’s voice is horrified, his eyes wildly searching up and down beomseok’s body for bites or scratches as the sound of more of those things pierces his ears. he wants to say more, needs to say more but beomseok is far away , his eyes glazed over as they bounced around frantically. they don’t have time for this. those things are getting closer and closer now and sieun whirls over, about ready to go and help suho but is instead greeted with the sight of suho dragging the blade of the boxcutter across the monster’s throat. 

blood spatters all across the front off suho. his tan skin now freckled in crimson as the infected under him spasms out before ultimately going still, blood slowly spilling out of the wound. sieun rushes to him, grabbing suho’s arm and pulling him to his feet before the boy could digest what he had just done. “we need to go, suho-yah!” he shouts, gently shaking suho to get him to snap out of whatever daze he had been in. it’s a meek attempt but the fear clinging to his voice seemed to be enough to reach suho. 

sieun grabs beomseok’s wrist, pulling him forward towards the stairway. suho pushes past him, going back in his place of leading the way as the three of them scrambled down the stairs. behind them a decent sized horde of infected raced after them, a few stumbling down the stairs and crashing into the landing. “faster, c’mon we gotta go!” sieun faintly hears suho yelling. sieun nearly collapses as they reach the floor of their classroom where everything had gone to hell yesterday, just having just enough time to glance in suho’s direction, ignoring the blood that was staining his skin. 

“where are we going, suho? where?” he yelled but they were running again before suho could respond. 

“ anywhere! ” suho had shouted, pushing one infected teacher that had been running at them head on into the wall. sieun pushes himself harder as they fled down the hallway, he doesn't dare to let go of beomseok’s hand, practically dragging him along at this point. “c’mon, beomseok-ah!” he shouts, just narrowly pulling the boy out of harm’s way as more infected came scrambling out of classrooms. ahead of them suho runs harder, leaving sieun and beomseok behind. sieun knows he wasn’t leaving them but the sheer panic that constricts him is almost more terrifying than the way his lungs were screaming for air. 

suho ducks inside a club room that had been shut off, running inside before he’s screaming at sieun and beomseok to hurry up. sieun isnn’t sure how many infected are behind them but he knows they’re almost to suho, can practically almost reach for his arm if it weren’t for his head spinning. they’re so close, just a little bit more and suho’s got them…

sieun could barely feel suho’s hand wrap around his wrist before him and beomseok were crashing inside the club room. sieun can barely hear suho slamming the door shut as he desperately attempted to catch his breath. his lungs felt like they were on fire, sieun’s hands instinctively flying to his throat as he gasped for breath. it’s here that beomseok disappears away from the door, a sob falling from his lips before sieun’s eyes are flickering up to meet suho’s.  

suho is leaning against the door as he attempts to brace it as at least a dozen infected outside tried to get in. the look in suho’s eyes is wild and terrified as those things pound on the door before sieun is rushing to help, something unspoken passing between the two boys. he wasn’t going to fucking die like this .

“don’t let go.” suho pleads to him, his eyes glossing over. “ sieun-ah, don’t fucking let go. ” 

sieun shakes his head, silent tears unknowingly streaming down his face. he clenches his jaw, the chaos outside no doubt bringing even more infected down on them but he wasn’t going to give up. he was going to fight tooth and nail if it came to it. “i won’t, suho.” he promises as his legs shake under him. the strength of the horde growing almost unstoppable. they needed to do something or else it was only a matter of time before they broke down the door and swarmed inside. 

a voice is screaming at them. beomseok is screaming for them and when sieun looks over in the direction it came from he’s relieved to see the boy attempting to push over a bookcase all by himself. sieun nods to suho. “help him! i can hold the door!”

for a split second sieun thinks that suho is going to disagree but then one of the infected manages to push the door open just enough to shove half his body through, ferociously trying to grab onto suho. “ hyung, fucking go! ” he begs and it’s enough for suho to rush over to beomseok, the room filling with the awful sound of the metal grating against the linoleum floor. 

sieun cries out in frustration as he tries to slam all of his weight back into the door, the wood crunching the infected that was stuck between it. there’s a wave of panic overwhelming him as a thought runs through his mind that these things were probably going to get inside no matter what they did. 

through tears, sieun can see suho and beomseok are close now and suho rushes over, kicking at the infected that had jammed itself between the door and the doorframe. it wasn’t working though and sieun just barely has the time to blink before suho is pulling out the boxcutter again and wildly stabbing the thing in the face and neck. the infected make an awful wailing sound as blood spatters erratically onto suho and sieun alike. the body eventually goes limp and before it could block the door anymore, suho is pushing it back into the angry crowd of infected. sieun slams the door shut, trembling as he pushes the lock in before he and suho are helping beomseok barricade the door. 

as soon as the metal bookcase is flush with the door sieun feels his body give out on him. adrenaline coursing through his veins causing his body to wrack with violent tremors. all the while, the horde of infected are still trying to get inside, the door rattling off the hinges and reverberating across the room. someone is grabbing at sieun’s shoulder, pulling him up and away from the door as the makeshift barricade moves with every bang. 

he doesn’t even realize he’s being ushered into a closet until the door is quietly shutting behind him, darkness swallowing them up as the three of them crammed into the tiny space. there’s trembling hands clutching at sieun’s jacket before they’re sliding their backpacks off of their shoulders and letting them fall to the ground. sieun felt around, realizing it had been beomseok clinging to him and pulling him close as suho stood dancing the door. sieun tries to calm his breathing as him and beomseok sink to the floor, the two of them practically in one another’s laps but neither of them care. the screams of infected grow impossibly louder to the point where sieun doubts if their barricade will hold much longer. 

sieun squeezes his eyes shut, hiding his face in the crook of beomseok’s neck as he clung onto him like his life depended on it. beomseok is doing the same, softly crying into sieun’s hair, the sound barely audible over those things outside. sieun couldn’t hide the tears from falling down his face either, not as he realized that they were probably going to die soon. 

the thought causes him to briefly pull away from the safety of beomseok’s chest as he turns towards where suho stood protectively at the door. sieun reaches out with trembling hands, not stopping until he’s wrapping his fingers around suho’s wrist and tugging him over until the boy is pressed up against him, sandwiching sieun between them. suho immediately wraps his arms around the two of them, leaning in until his nose is pressed at the nape of seun’s neck. the three of them stay curled up in one another’s arms, crammed into a little ball as they try to make as little noise as possible. 

all they could do was hope and pray that they would be spared once again as sieun clung to the two with everything he had.

Chapter Text

sieun isn’t sure how long they stay like that. entangled in each other’s arms and holding on like it was the one thing keeping them from succumbing to those things outside.

it’s so deafeningly loud for such a long time that sieun feels like he’s barely present. for a long time he was clinging to suho and beomseok, their bodies trembling against one another as they could do nothing but wait for the inevitable. they were going to die. this was it.

it goes on for so long that once it actually stops… sieun doesn’t truly believe it’s happening for real. it’s so unbelievably silent it’s almost more frightening than before.

nobody speaks or even dares to move. not until they were sure it was over, but then again, how could they be sure? what if those things were waiting for them outside? a ploy into making them think they were safe when in fact they weren't. that right outside that closet door was three dozen hungry infected ready to sink their teeth into their flesh?

sieun can just barely feel suho shift against him, his hands raising from around sieun’s waist as his body turns towards the door. sieun instinctively tightens his hold around beomseok who was still glued to his chest but also around suho’s arm, holding him close and not letting go. 

suho’s breath catches. “i…” his voice is barely audible. so quiet and small that it sounds like more of an exhale than actual words he’s trying to form. “i… i think we’re okay.” he whispered but sieun wasn't convinced, he refused to let him go. 

suho turns back to him in the darkness, quietly shuffling until he’s back pressing against sieun’s back. his arms easily snake back around sieun again, chin coming to settle on sieun’s shoulder before he’s whispering. “i think i’m gonna peek into the room, okay?” he says it right into the shell of sieun’s ear. in another life and under different circumstances sieun thinks it would have sent shivers down his spine – having suho so close like that but instead he’s trembling in fear of what’s out there, of what could happen to suho if he leaves.  

beomseok is jerking too, sieun not even realizing that he could have heard suho but he’s protesting softly, a wet sounding cry piercing through the silence of the closet. sieun immediately pulls the boy closer into his stomach, squeezing his eyes shut as he buries his face into beomseok’s hair. 

“i’ll be right back, i promise. i promise.” suho had murmured into sieun’s skin, his hands rubbing gentle patterns into sieun’s side. before sieun or beomseok could object, suho presses his nose into the crook of sieun’s neck and inhales deeply before he’s carefully tearing himself away. sieun curls tighter around beomseok as he feels suho quietly stand up and inch his way to the closet door. sieun can’t stop the way his body trembles, completely terrified as he can’t stand to watch and before he knows it, the door is slowly creaking open. 

almost immediately sieun can feel warm light beginning to pool inside the closet and onto him and beomseok’s bodies, warming them up as suho timidly peeks outside. a few seconds pass and nothing happens, no screaming from infected or the three of them immediately getting jumped and torn into. it’s just… quiet and it’s enough for sieun to hesitantly glance up and over at suho, sunlight cascading prettily across the boy’s face. it had to be just a little after noon if sieun had to take a guess. the sunlight danced across the littered floor and illuminating the small space warm and golden. suho turns back, eyes catching sieun’s glossy ones.  “ i think we’re okay. the door is still barricaded.” suho whispered but neither sieun nor beomseok was moving. 

instead he tightens his arms around beomseok, not wanting to move despite the assurance that it was safe out there. instead he closes his eyes, the security radiating from beomseok pressed up against his chest enough for sieun to possibly stay here forever. there’s a gentle shuffling coming back towards him before suho is back and settling down back behind him. his arms easily slide back around sieun’s waist, his chin falling back to sieun’s shoulder like it belonged there. it’s enough for sieun to ease up, the breath he’d been holding since they entered this awful room finally dissipating as suho’s hands rub little patterns into his tummy. 

“hey,” suho whispers as beomseok shuffles, letting go of sieun’s shirt and instead hiding in the crook of his neck. it effectively sandwiches sieun between the two but he isn’t complaining. “we’re safe. they aren’t gonna get us.” is all suho had said but it wasn't enough. sieun doesn’t think anything will ever be enough to make him feel truly safe again. but then suho is leaning in, his nose brushing the soft skin of sieun’s cheek causing his breath to get caught in his chest, a welcome warmth beginning to flutter in his ribs as suho just holds the both of them. 

sieun doesn’t know how long they stay like this exactly but rather sooner than later suho is tentatively pulling away from them again. beomseok is once again trying to desperately hold onto him, a small little sound escaping his lips but suho is softly hushing him. “hey, hey, i’ll be right back i promise, beom-ah.” suho assures before he’s disappearing, this time venturing out of the closet and back into the club room. beomseok sniffles, hiding his face back into the crook of sieun’s neck as he wrapped his arms around sieun’s waist once again. 

“i… i don’t want to leave.” is what beomseok says muffled into the skin.

sieun squeezes him tighter. “i know. i don’t want to either, beomie.” sieun confessed before silence fell back over the two boys as they waited for suho’s return which ends up being sooner rather than later. he comes back with something in his hands, not showing the boys as he comes to take his spot back behind sieun. he isn’t shy in the way he presses his chest against sieun’s back. “c’mon, no more hiding please or else i’m not gonna share.” he teased before gently easing the two boys out of their hiding spots within one another. it mostly just ends up with sieun halfway in suho’s lap as beomseok leans into his side. the door to the closet is more open now, allowing the afternoon sunlight in enough for sieun to catch what exactly suho was offering them. 

“hey, look what i found.” and sieun could practically hear the smile on suho’s face as he presented what he had in his palm. it’s a snack-sized packet of yakgwa. sieun could already feel his mouth begin to water just at the mere sight, his stomach beginning to rumble quietly as he watches suho tear open the packaging and reveal the heavenly sight of the small cookies. both sieun and beomseok watch in awe as suho pulls one of the tiny cookies out before he’s crooning down at beomseok. “here, beom-ah.” is all he murmurs before suho is practically feeding beomseok the snack. sieun watches with a quiet tenderness, his eyes crinkling up in the faintest of ways as a smile just barely begins to etch across his face.

beomseok’s face melts as soon as he begins chewing and suho doesn’t wait before he’s turning to sieun, eyes shimmering with a fondness that melted something in sieun’s heart. it’s here in the warm sunlight that sieun finally notices all the blood that had been stained across suho’s face.

“sieunie,” suho beamed softly, pulling out a cookie and holding it out for sieun to take. “here, c’mon i know you’re hungry.” he muses. before sieun could reach for it himself, suho’s hand is pushing the cookie forward and into sieun’s mouth. his thumb is just barely brushing up against sieun’s bottom lip but it’s enough to cause sieun to jump slightly in shock. suho doesn’t seem too phased by the notion despite how red sieun’s face must be. as sieun chews he watches beomseok reach inside the packet and grab another yakgwa and shyly push it up until he’s feeding it to suho with a small little smile. 

sieun can’t stop the small giggle from falling from his lips at the surprised look that flashes across suho’s face. beomseok is giggling softly too, the sight so sweet as he quickly retracts his hand and sinks back into the warmth and safety of suho’s side before he is grabbing another cookie for himself. sieun as well tries to play cool, simply shrugging off suho’s flustered expression and following beomseok in taking another cookie for him as well. “what?” he teases at suho who’s still gaping down at him. “we’re simply just taking care of our hyung.” but as soon as the words leave his mouth sieun is clamming up in pure embarrassment. he ducks his head, finding himself leaning into suho’s shoulder as the boy just snorts above him before enjoying his share of cookie. they don’t say anything after that, instead the three  of them fall into a content silence as they share the small bag of cookies. despite it fulfilling some of the hunger that sieun was feeling, by the time the three of them finished the bag, it wasn’t nearly enough to fill them. 

sieun lets out a small sigh at the sight of the empty packaging, his eyes flickering up to meet the same face of disappointment from beomseok as well. 

“are you sure there was nothing else?” he asks. suho shakes his head softly before he’s tossing the wrapper to the side. 

“i’m sure. i’m surprised i even found that, someone must have dropped it when everything happened.” suho sighed sadly. sieun tries not to dwell on it too much, the hunger. they were lucky to have just that, surely they’d have to stumble across something else sooner or later. sieun takes this as a good as a time as any to gently begin peeling away from suho and back into his own space. they’re still extremely close, in a way that’s less suffocating as their arms now just brush against one another. beomseok doesn’t move from suho’s side as a beat of silence passes between them. 

“s-so what do we do now?” sieun finds himself asking, looking up to meet suho’s eyes. “i… i don’t want to go back out there, suho-yah.”

suho nods, drawing his hand over his face. “i… i know. i know, i don’t either but i don’t know if we really have that much of a choice.” 

sieun feels his eyes trickle past the doorway and into the clubroom. he doesn’t hear any infected anymore surprisingly but he still didn’t feel safe enough to even attempt to leave their little hidey hole. 

“can… can we try the police again…?” beomseok asks as he tucks closer into suho’s arm, unashamed of seeking out the security that suho brought him. suho hums, pulling out his phone from his pocket and turning it on. sieun quietly watches as the screen brightly illuminates suho’s face and the resigned expression he wore as he dialed 112. as suho presses his phone to his ear it’s painfully obvious that there would be no answer.

it rings only once before sieun can hear that awful busy signal blaring in suho’s ear before the boy is promptly hanging up and pocketing his phone. suho leans into beomseok not stopping until his nose is ducking into the boy’s hair and he’s breathing in. they don’t bring up the idea again after that.

“we need to keep moving.” is what suho says after a while, meeting sieun’s eyes briefly. “i don’t wanna chance anyone trying to hot wire my bike the longer we stay.” 

sieun blinks, hating a little piece of him for the way his eyes begin to well up with tears. “but we barely made it here, suho.” is what he rasps out, sieun’s chest constricting in on itself. 

suho deflates, his cheek pressing flush with beomseok’s hair as he holds onto him.  “we’ll be more prepared this time.” is all he decides to say before turning to meet sieun’s gaze. “i’ll teach you two how to fight… a-and there’s stuff in here we can use to our advantage too. we just… we can’t stop now. we have to keep going, we just have to.” 

it all seemed like such a long shot – making their way down and all the way over to the parking lot to reach suho’s scooter. if they could barely make it down to the second floor sieun couldn’t even imagine what outside their school looked like… 

he doesn’t even realize he’s crying again until suho is pulling a little bit further away from the softness of beomseok’s hair.  the lankier boy doesn’t detach from his side as suho tentatively reaches out, fingers gently grasping around sieun’s elbow. “hey,” he tries, gentle and so sweet. “hey, sieun-ah, we can take a breather here. we don’t have to go anywhere right now.” suho tries to assure, his hand falling onto sieun’s knee and resting there. 

it’s then that the weak little facade sieun had been trying to keep shatters completely. he was so scared. scared from what had just happened in the hall trying to get here and even more terrified that they’d have to do it all over again. 

he wasn’t sure he could do this. 

his bottom lip juts out as tears begin to flood his eyes as he tries not to break completely. 

“sieun,” suho softly murmured, turning his body so he could properly reach out and grab onto sieun’s arms, squeezing them gently before pulling sieun into him.  “hey, hey easy now, its okay. you’re safe. we made it, sieun-ah.” sieun squeezes his eyes tightly shut, his entire body trembling as he tries to muffle his cries into the fabric of suho’s windbreaker. “shh, hey now, hyung’s got you now. it’s okay. c’mere i’ve got you both.” suho softly continues as sieun completely loses himself in the safety of the boy’s arms. he vaguely recognizes beomseok’s hands shakily coming up to his back and rubbing comforting circles into the skin. 

suho keeps whispering sweet assurances into the air as he carefully adjusts them, moving in a way so the three of them could lay down in the tiny space. sieun is practically laying on top of suho once everything is said and done, beomseok laying beside suho but still clinging onto sieun’s jacket as if he’s scared sieun’s gonna drift away. it had to have been uncomfortable but siuen can’t find it in him to mind as he meekly cried into suho’s chest, trying his hardest to fixate on anything else other than his fear as suho runs his hands all over his back and up into his hair. it’s so warm and so tender and too much.

but sieun doesn’t pull away, doesn’t want too. suho and beomseok silently guide him through the worst of it until sieun’s sobs mellow into small cries. he’s trying to bring his breathing back to normal, still crying but nowhere near as bad as he had been when something completely unexpected happened. beomseok pushes himself up and leans over suho’s chest,  his own eyes a little glossed over with his own tears and his glasses pushed up against his face as he leans over and presses the shyest and softest of kisses to sieun’s cheekbone where a tear had been falling.

it’s more of a peck than anything but the feeling of beomseok’s lips against his skin sends shivers down sieun’s spine, his breath hitching in the back of his throat as he jolts away far enough to breathe properly again. he blinks over at beomseok and his eyes are wide and starry reminding sieun of just how young they were. beomseok's face is flushed a deep scarlet color even in the dimly lit closet and sieun wishes he hadn’t reacted in the way he did because he sees the way beomseok’s eyes well over with tears. 

suho tries to croon his head down to see what had happened but beomseok is already stumbling around the words as he tries to wiggle away in embarrassment. “‘m s-sorry… i’m… it’s just… m-my mom… she used to… she did he same thing to me when… before… t-to make me feel better when… a-around my… i’m s-sorry. ‘m so s-sorry, sieun-ah…” he rambles, trying to push himself away but failing due to how cramped it was and how intertwined the three of them had been. both sieun and suho are immediately reaching out, suho’s arm wrapping around beomseok’s shoulders while sieun clings to his wrist tightly. 

“d-don’t.” sieun croaks, sounding like anything beside himself but he didn't care. his hold on beomseok’s wrist is tight and unwavering as he shakily runs his thumb along the paler boy’s pulse. “‘s okay, beom-ah.” sieun’s voice is small, unrecognizable but it stills the frightened child that was blinking away tears back at him. beomseok looks scared, looking as if he expected sieun to strike him and it knocks the air right from sieun as suho’s palm comes up to cradle the back of beomseok’s head, easing him back until he’s pressed flush against his side again. sieun sniffles, reaching out with trembling fingers to gently brush back beomseok’s bangs from his eyes. 

beomseok’s eyes flutter, a tear squeezing past his eyelashes and down his face. “i… i didn’t mean to… j-just… i…” 

sieun’s heart aches, feeling like he had just been kicked repeatedly as he gaped at beomseok. he opens his mouth, needing to say something – anything – but can’t. instead suho is shifting, sitting up and pulling the two boys up with him and pulling them closer if that was even possible. he leans into beomseok’s space, nose pressed into his hair where sieun can swear he can hear suho press a kiss into the dark strands. it’s a delicate and tender action, something that made sieun’s heart clench with affection for the two. 

beomseok keens, shakily shying away until he’s hiding in suho’s chest.

“ah, you two, what am i gonna do with you both?” suho teased lightly. sieun knows he’s smiling softly, can hear it and how his words formed around it. he sounded so warm, so gentle. sieun can’t help the soft, breathy laugh that escapes him. it’s wet sounding and a little strained but it's all the same. sieun feels warm. so unbelievably warm and fuzzy and exhausted that he barely registers suho turning to him and doing the same, leaning down until his lips meet the soft skin of sieun’s forehead, his hand rubbing patterns into sieun’s waist as he did. 

the air gets sucked right out from sieun’s lungs at the action and he can’t help but cover his face with his hand in a desperate attempt to hide just how red he was.

“ah, so cute~” he hears suho softly murmur before chuckling fondly. “i swear, what am i gonna do?” 

sieun just presses further into suho’s shoulder, finding his new favorite spot which just so happens to be the crook of suho’s neck. he feels beomseok shyly fumble for sieun’s jacket, holding onto sieun and suho like his life depended on it and sieun guessed in a way it did now. it was almost painfully obvious how much they needed one another now and sieun knew the bond growing between them was only growing stronger through every passing moment they stayed together. “we can do this. just a little bit further now and by tomorrow we’ll be in sieun’s apartment safe and far away from here.” suho promises. 

sieun nods along reluctantly, trying his best to submerge his anxiety by listening to the soft and rhythmic breathing of beomseok next to him or the steady and strong heartbeat of suho thudding in his ear. he feels beomseok take a breath, most likely doing the same. 

“o-okay,” he whispered, barely there. he feels suho duck his nose back into his hair and sieun swears he can feel a ghostly kiss being hidden there. 

beomseok curls deeper into suho, the three unmoving from their spot on the floor until suho is carefully adjusting them back into how they were before. sieun sucks in a breath as the three of them settle. he watches as beomseok comes to carefully rest his head back on suho’s chest, his eyes fluttering everywhere besides sieun’s face. suho sighed, his arms wrapping around the two. “okay.” he solidifies. “okay, let’s just… let’s just take it easy for a while. just catch our breath.”

sieun feels himself nodding into suho’s chest before he’s glancing over at beomseok who’s finally looking at him again. beomseok shakily reaches for sieun’s palm, intertwining their fingers in a silent promise that he was here – that this was real. it makes sieun’s skin tingle, a deep and visceral warmth soaking into his bloodstream and spreading like wildfire but he doesn’t flinch away. instead he squeezes back, gazing intently into beomseok’s shimmering eyes as they all hold onto one another's breathing. it was more than enough to lull them away one by one, sieun barely able to hold his eyes open the longer he breathes in that distinct smell of suho and feel the shaky but ever present warmth of beomseok’s hand in his own. 

the three of them lay there for so long that sieun nearly forgets they were ever planning to leave in the first place. beomseok is radiant beside him, so warm and inviting that sieun never wants to let go for fear he’d freeze without him. he feels fuzzy, soft even as beomseok keeps rubbing his thumb over the skin of sieun’s knuckles. paired with the steady rise and fall of suho’s chest beneath him, sieun wonders to himself if this was what being drunk felt like. it’s a terrifying and yet addicting feeling – the way he felt so safe with these two who were still practically strangers despite everything. 

sieun’s half asleep by now, losing against himself as he tried his hardest to keep his eyes open when suho sucks in a breath, his voice scratchy and gentle as he speaks. 

“seok-ah… you still awake?” 

beomseok makes a small noise of acknowledgment. “y-yeah?”

a beat of silence passes as suho tries his hardest to phrase his question as delicate as possible. 

“who… who were you talking about earlier? with your mom?” suho finally whispered but it’s enough to gently reel sieun out of his sleepy haze he’d fallen in. he blinks, the grogginess so heavy that it’s almost crushing as he tries to read the expression across beomseok’s face. 

beomseok’s body involuntarily jerks, almost like he wants to run away again but sieun’s grip on his palm is strong and unwilling to budge. he tightly squeezes beomseok’s hand, hoping it was enough to keep him from drifting away. beomseok sniffles, ultimately settling back down as he blinked tearfully at the fabric of sieun’s hoodie. his glasses smush uncomfortably in his cheek as he does this, shakily taking the thin frames off and clutching them to his chest. sieun has to swallow the urge to reach out and thread his fingers through beomseok’s bangs as they fall over his eyes now that he knows how soft the hair was. instead sieun just holds his hand, scared to do anything more in fear of scaring beomseok away. 

“o-oh… uhm… i was…” beomseok rambles out before he takes a breath, trying to slow his words. he closes his eyes. “she would do it c-cause i… whenever i’d get scared of m-my dad…” he chokes out, trying to hide just how shaky his voice had become. the gravity of what beomseok had just said stirred sieun awake the longer he soaked up the words. scared…? why would beomseok be scared of his father? 

sieun’s chest burns with unspoken questions but he doesn’t pry. instead he just watches as suho’s hand comes around the boy’s shoulders, rubbing circles into the fabric of beomseok’s cardigan before it drifts down to his waist, holding him closer than he already had been. “why would you be scared of him, beom-ah?” suho asks bravely. sieun can tell that suho is unsure if he even wants to know as a few silent tears begin to stream down beomseok’s pale face. 

“he’s not… he isn’t my real dad. none of my family is i-i was adopted when i was nine. it… my dad is an assemblyman… he did it for publicity… to make him look good.” beomseok explained softly, each word having weight to it. sieun holds onto beomseok impossibly tighter, his heart aching something awful as his mind raced to conclusions. “he doesn’t… he’s not the best to me… never has been.”

“what… what do you mean, seok-ah?” suho asks in a hushed voice, tenderness seeping into sieun’s ears as they waited for beomseok. 

“y-you know…” beomseok tells them in a trembling little voice.

sieun can feel his heart shatter into thousands of tiny pieces. suho must have felt the same. his breathing stills, hitching in the back of his throat as he tried to keep his voice steady, strong. "a-and what about your mom? is… is she…?" sieun sees suho's hand gently come up to the back of beomseok's head. beomseok just shakes his head, the gesture so small that sieun can't help the way his chest constricts at it all as he listens. "she's not my real mom either. but she… she always treated me well b-but she left a long time ago to work abroad. she's never here anymore b-but she used to… she would do that after i would get in t-trouble or if i was scared when… when my dad got too… that's how she would make me feel better." it's here that beomseok finally meets sieun's eyes. there's a wavering vulnerability swirling in them as he does and all sieun can do is hold his hand, thumb running over the back of it as if it alone could make all of that pain ebb away.

sieun isn't sure what to say to all that — doesn't know if there's anything to say. he forces the corner of his lips up in a small, sad little smile. it's faint, just barely there before sieun is squeezing beomseok's palm so tightly that he's almost afraid he's hurting the boy across from him. "'m so sorry, beomseok." is what he says in a small voice.

beomseok just shakes his head. "don't be. i… who knows… maybe now i'll never have to see them again. if there's any upside to any of this it's that." there's a sense of peace that's laced in beomseok's voice that sieun picks up on but doesn't mention. instead he just holds onto beomseok as much as he could in the short amount of time they were giving themselves as suho leans down and presses his chin into beomseok's hair.

time passes almost too quickly after that but sieun does find himself drifting back away into that fuzziness he was quickly growing addicted to. he inhales suho's scent, sweaty and gross as there's a tinge of blood tainting it but comforting all the same. beomseok is surely close behind, his chest rising slowly and his hand looser around sieun's knuckles.

he falls asleep to suho rubbing his thumb into his hip. sieun tries not to be too caught up in how possessive it feels or how much he thinks he likes it.

the brief moment of peace doesn't last for long however as sieun is woken up not even an hour later. there's a downright bloodcurdling scream coming from somewhere down the hallway but the sound of infected is too close for comfort. sieun jumps awake, his heart hammering in his chest as he looks around frantically. beomseok is awake but his eyes are squeezed tightly shut, his hands trembling as he clung onto suho's jacket. suho wraps his arms tighter around them, none of them ashamed for clinging to one another as who knows how many infected violently storms pass the room outside.

"we have to get out of here." suho whispers only once the awful sounds pass. his hold is still too tight around sieun and beomseok. there was an awful scream that could faintly be heard, no doubt those monsters' next meal — just kids like them.

sieun doesn't hide the way he shakes, his body trembling like a leaf. "y-yeah… okay." he can barely choke the words out, furiously blinking away the tears that had been welling up in his eyes as he nodded along.

suho is moving then. his arms loosening up around the two boys as he pushes himself up and brings them with him. he pauses for a moment, intently listening as those awful gurgles and growls from the infected outside dissipate. "okay, c'mon," suho says as he gently begins to pull the three of them to their feet, quietly leading them out of the closet and into the club room. the openness of the room makes sieun want to throw up a little as beomseok finds his way to cling to his arm. they stay there in silence for a few more seconds just to ensure those things were gone before suho is dragging a hand down his face, sighing softly before he's turning to face the two boys.

"okay, let's go over some basics." he says easily, his eyes shimmering with what sieun assumes is pity for the two. they weren't fighters that much was easy to tell. sure sieun could hold his own if it came to it — like when he had attacked that thing going after suho but never did he actually believe he could fight. not like how he knows suho can. sieun swallows the lump of anxiety that had lodged itself in his throat, adjusting so he could go back to holding beomseok's hand until his fingers are wrapping around the thin wrist. it's a small gesture, something more for himself more than anything as suho begins to rattle off some fundamentals of self-defense.

"alright," suho says with a roll of his shoulders. he glances around the room, widening his stance once he takes a few steps away from the two. sieun and beomseok watch as he raises his fists in front of his face before he's locking eyes with them. "dodging really seems to be the key with those things. so what you want to do is always keep your eyes on your opponent but never at their face."

"b-but how? doesn't that defeat the whole purpose?" beomseok asks but suho is already shaking his head.

"good question, beom. but, ah, it's easier to fixate your eyes to their shoulders because then you can see where they're moving before they ever take a swing. if that makes sense." suho's hands fall back to his sides and sieun can't help the way his fingers twitch against beomseok's skin. sieun tries to imagine actually putting this into practice against those things and feels like he may vomit at the notion. suho is trying to equate fighting humans versus fighting against monsters. he thinks of how badly he had lost control of his own body against those things — a fight he only won due to his brain screaming at him that he and suho would die otherwise. he swallows thickly, ignoring how his brain played on replay when beomseok had gotten tackled to the ground by the monster in the hallway as suho goes through a few more stances and gestures before he's gently urging the two of them to try and do the same.

reluctantly beomseok lets go of sieun's wrist, taking a shaky breath as he rigidly tries to follow what suho had just shown them. he clenches his fists, shakily putting them in front of his face as his eyes bounce anxiously around suho's face for approval.

suho smiles softly at the sight, taking a step closer before he's reaching out for beomseok's hands and gently adjusting them. "keep your stance a bit more wide, that's it. you wanna take up space, remember beom-ah?" suho's voice is so gentle and almost sad in a way as he helps the lanky boy who just seems lost and awkward.

beomseok jerks his head, barely making a noise of acknowledgement as he fixes his posture. suho teaches him for a few more minutes, voice sweet and patient as he does all while sieun watches quietly. there's a nagging little voice at the back of his head that this wasn't going to do anything when it came to the monsters outside. realistically he knows that it probably wouldn't but the longer he watches suho teach beomseok, the better it seemed to have made beomseok feel as suho holds and guides his hands in different ways to block. sieun chews on his bottom lip, eyes fluttering to the ground as suho ends with gingerly squeezing beomseok's hands, his eyes hardening over as he looks at the two of them.

"i want you guys to leave the fighting to me. if anything happens just… just please run away, alright? let hyung fight those things off."

sieun remains silent despite wanting to fight suho on this. after all he wants the same for beomseok after what had happened earlier in the hallway — the glossed over eyes, how sieun had to rip him away and up on his feet, how if sieun and suho hadn't been there beomseok would have been dead. sieun glances up at suho and holds his gaze, the blood that had been stained onto his face making grotesque type of freckles. sieun's heart sinks at the reminder of what he could have lost as suho begins to walk past them. "alright, let's get some gear." and with that he's disappearing back into the closet and coming back out with sieun and beomseok's backpacks in his hands. he lets them fall to the ground carefully before he's kneeling down and unzipping them.

"is it alright if we ditch most of this stuff?"

sieun feels his body moving, crouching down across from the boy, "y-yeah, that's probably smart." he agrees before he's helping suho ditch all his school supplies out into a pile on the floor. beomseok pads over then too and he begins to do the same to his own bag and soon enough they're left with two empty backpacks and a messily made pile of things sieun never imagined he'd ever part from. all his notebooks and textbooks, the study guide for their mock exam that was supposed to happen in a few days, his favorite pack of pens… the sight of all his handwork being tossed to the side made him sadder than sieun would have ever thought but the feeling doesn't stick around for long as suho is vanishing again back into the closet. right, sieun thinks to himself as he forces his eyes away from one of his textbooks. this was all for a world that didn't exist anymore and if for some miracle it did… sieun couldn't imagine going back to how things were after the last twenty-four hours.

suho comes back in rounds. first he brings out an old wooden broom, a roll of duct tape, and a few old pairs of scissors. that is then followed by a small first aid kit, some old bundles of rope, extension cords and some old but relatively clean rags. beomseok tries to pile it as neatly as he could as sieun took on the job of attempting to divide everything into equal amounts before depositing them into each bag. once suho is done rummaging what he could from the utility closet he silently walks over to the bookcase they had barricaded the door with. he feels around the shelves, walking back over to sieun and beomseok with a handful of old pop magazines before sitting down back across from them.

sieun rakes his eyes over the items they had, unable to help the way his eyebrows raise at it all. "so… our plan includes old kpop magazines and sweeping?" it had to have been a joke but the look on suho's face was anything but.

"oh, ha ha. has anyone ever told you how funny you are, sieun-ah?" suho sarcastically snorts. "and no. our plan remains the same. we keep going down, one floor at a time and then the parking lot." before either sieun or beomseok could indulge in any more questions suho is pushing himself off the floor and grabbing the broom. he angles it just right before effortlessly snapping it in two pieces. he breaks off the actual broom part and tosses it to the ground gently before he's sitting back down and reaching for the pairs of scissors and the roll of duct tape.

"b-but… but won't going through the door bring…" beomseok starts, unable to finish as they watched suho quickly getting to work snapping the blades from one another. "hyung… i…. they'll hear us." sieun hates how small beomseok sounded as all they could do was watch as suho refused to meet their worried gazes, too busy with fastening the blades to the two wooden sticks.

the end result is a messily made weapon but sieun supposed if he had no choice going up against those things that it was better than nothing. suho carefully sets them on the floor, eyeing the two just as carefully. "who says we're gonna leave the way we came in?"

the question leaves a pit in sieun's stomach as he peered around the room. there was only one door and it was the one that led out to the hall and was currently barricaded.

his eyes however locked with the window that sat behind where he assumed the bookcase had gone. sieun's heart sinking deep into his chest. oh…

"suho… we… we can't. h-how would we even…?" sieun stumbles out frantically, unable to hide how badly his hands shook in his lap. he blinks wildly over at suho who looks nothing like the boy sieun had come to know. he barely notices beomseok in the corner of his eye who had shakily reached for one of the homemade weapons off the floor. his fingers thumbing along the grain of the wood, not outwardly reacting to suho's plan or the way he reached for the small pile of rope and cords. "we'll use these. we'll tie them all together and make some handles for our hands and feet and climb down to the room below us." suho nods his head over to the bookcase. "we'll tie it around that. we should have plenty left and it should hold our weight." he says like it's the easiest thing in the world.

sieun opens his mouth to say something — to argue or cry that they couldn't do this when beomseok's head dips. the sound of wood clattering to the floor reels his attention away from suho and this plan that would surely end in one of them falling to their death. sieun turns to beomseok who was taking short, hollow breaths. his entire body was tensed up and trembling and it's more than enough for sieun to reach out, his own hand shaking as it comes to hold onto beomseok's colder and much paler one. sieun runs his thumb over the boy's knuckles for a moment before turning back to suho who's eyes were shimming with such intensity it honestly scared sieun a little.

"are you sure we can do this, suho?"

suho is scooting closer then, one hand reaching for sieun's elbow while the other settles on top of beomseok's other hand. he squeezes them both tightly as he nods his head. "i do. we have to." suho whispered. sieun should laugh in his face but he finds himself actually believing him instead. sieun nods softly, blinking away the tears that were beginning to well up in his eyes as suho turns his attention back to beomseok. "hey, we can do this. i know we can seok-ah."

a tiny little sound falls from beomseok's lips, silent tears beginning to streak from his face and suho is already closing in, his hands coming up to try and thumb them away.

"just a few more scary moments, okay? we're so close, beom. so close." he murmured gently and sieun too holds onto that promise before he's tenderly squeezing beomseok's fingers, an assurance that he was just as scared and that beomseok wasn't alone.

suho is pulling away delicately, looking between the two boys before he's reaching for the stack of magazines and the roll of duct tape. sieun is almost scared to ask what suho's plan for them but the boy quickly beats him to it as he glances back to beomseok and beckons him to scoot closer to him. "here, c'mere, seokie."

beomseok does as he was told, shuffling silently over until his knees are knocking into suho's gently.

"here, give me your arm." suho says gingerly before he's taking one of the magazines and rolling it around beomseok's forearm. it looks like it would protect from bites or scratches from the infected if it came down to it, sieun thinks as he watches suho secure it in place. "okay, hold it right there. good job, beom." suho praised as he tears a strip of tape before securing the protection in place. "it's not too tight, is it?" he asks, looking over beomseok's features for any indication of pain or discomfort.

beomseok shakes his head. "n-no… it's okay, suho-hyung."

there's a small flash of a smile from sieun as he continues to tape it into place. "good. you know, you're doing so good, seok-ah." suho continues his gentle praises all throughout the process. he makes quick work of beomseok's other arm and it doesn't take him long at all before he's turning in sieun's direction. "okay, your turn, sieun."

suho doesn't wait for a verbal response from sieun, just slides over until their legs are touching and begins to wrap sieun's arms tenderly. sieun watches with baited breath and teary eyes. suho was so unbelievably gentle as he cradles sieun's palm once he's finished taping the magazine down. he's a little slower this time for some reason, taking his time in checking over his work and making sure sieun was comfortable before moving on to the other arm.

sieun sniffles, gaping at suho who was methodically making sure the binding was secure. the action — while sweet — was quickly spiraling into something sieun would classify as fixation. "suho…" he softly tries, a little shaky and unsure.

suho hummed, his eyes not coming up to meet sieun's. "i'm just making sure it's on good." he says as if sieun can't feel the gently way his fingers tremble with the tape.

"suho-ah," sieun tries again, voice even softer than before as he gently pulls his arm away only to grab onto suho's wrist. the boy blinks, stuttering to a hat as he finally brings himself to look sieun in the eye.

"y-yeah? shit, was i… sorry… sorry just got a little… i don't know."

"it's alright." sieun is too quick to assure. "hey," he tries again, this time running his thumb along the inside of suho's wrist and holding onto him like he's afraid to let go. suho blinks, finally going back to looking like the scared boy he was behind all the bravery and courage. he looks unbelievably boyish — scared and overwhelmed. the blood that had stained onto his face only adding to it and causing sieun's stomach to churn. "are you okay?"

suho nods, his gaze breaking away and falling to sieun's hand wrapped around his wrist. he swallows tightly before taking a deep breath and grounding himself quietly. "yeah. i… i don't really know what that was i just got…" suho lets out a small, choked laugh. "i… i'm scared, i guess." he admits softly, meeting sieun's gaze who just continues to run his thumb up and down the smooth skin of suho's pulse.

"are you sure you wanna do this? m-maybe we can just hide out here a bit longer or even try calling the police again…" sieun tries to reason despite wanting nothing more than to get out of this god forsaken place he could not see them attempting this. "w-what if we get down there and it's full of those things, hyung? what are we gonna do then?"

suho takes a deep breath before he's fully encasing sieun's palm with his own, his thumb running comfortingly over the back of his hand. the mask that had slipped momentarily now back as he holds sieun's hand. "then we'll deal with it." he says. "we're so close, sieun-ah. by this time tomorrow we can be at your place and ride the rest of this shit out in the comfort of a home." suho sounds like he truly believes the words he's saying. sieun sighs, shakily breathing in as he nods his head. he meekly squeezes suho's palm.

"o-okay."

suho's smile grows a little more. "yeah?"

sieun nods, a bit more sure as he pushes away all the fear and uncertainty back down. "yeah. we can do this"

and before sieun could even blink suho is pulling away and already going over the logistics of this awful plan of theirs that will certainly not end with one or all of them falling to their deaths. beomseok is silently binding suho's arms with magazines and duct tape as the boy speaks, his hands still a little shaky as he does. at first suho had refused the extra protection but sieun and beomseok had argued adamantly, unwilling to go forward with anything unless they all had it.

sieun tries to settle his breathing as suho shows them how to tie loops into the rope with a relatively simple looking knot. "okay," suho sets the rope down in his lap, glancing up at the two boys. "we're gonna tie these all together. the loops we're adding should make it easier for you two to climb down." suho explains in a low voice.

sieun sucks in a breath. "a-and what about the window? how sure are you that it's even going to open without making too much noise?"

"they're easy to open. especially on the lower levels. i don't think it'll be a issue."

beomseok quietly finishes up binding suho's arms, blinking tearfully over at sieun before he leans further into suho's space. suho's hands fall to the boy's knees, thumbing circles into the fabric of beomseok's pants. "i really believe that this is our best bet out of here. we can't move that bookcase or else we're gonna have the whole floor of infected back on us again."

sieun chews on the inside of his cheek, his heart racing again but his body is moving before he can even realize it. he nods softly, a small noise tearing at the back of his throat. "o-okay." he says, voice barely there but it's enough for suho to reach for the rest of the bundles of rope, the three of them getting to work with shaky hands.

it's a quiet process but they manage to get done fairly quickly. the end result is one long singular rope — a combination of extension cords and old computer chargers that they had tied and meshed with the bundles of slightly frayed rope. there's small loops tied into it every few feet for them to hold onto as needed. sieun can't watch as suho pushes himself up to his feet with a deep breath, grabbing the end that was mostly made of extension cord and quietly padding over to the bookcase where he carefully began wrapping it around and making it their anchor. instead sieun turns his attention to beomseok who was quiet and still trembling beside him. sieun doesn't say anything as he reaches for the boy's hand, it was clammy and too warm but he holds onto it all the same. there's no words spoken between them as they waited. they both knew they were terrified as suho begins testing the give of the rope against his own weight before he's padding silently back over to them.

he wordlessly offers his hand to sieun and pulls the boy up to his feet before doing the same to beomseok. sieun fights the urge to break right then and there as suho reluctantly lets go of their hands and instead reaches for the rope and walking over to the window. he gets it open effortlessly and tosses the rope out before sticking his head out to make sure it was enough.

sieun secretly hopes it wasn't. he glances over at beomseok and wonders if he's hoping for the same thing too.

"okay," suho says backing away from the window, turning back to look at sieun and beomseok. "we're good. c'mon." he presses. suho's eyes are shining with that same intensity from earlier. it's protective and afraid and sieun hates how he feels his lungs constricting in his chest, screaming for air as suho leans down and begins shoving the rest of the items into their backpacks. he finishes with sticking the makeshifts weapons inside, the blades sticking out as he zips the bags around the base of it before he's handing them each to beomseok and sieun.

"w-what now?" beomseok choked out. sieun doesn't know if suho sees how badly the boy is shaking or if he willingly ignores it as he zips up his windbreaker.

"now i'm going to go first." he says easily. how could he be so confident in jumping headfirst into his own possible demise? "i'm going to make sure it's safe and once i'm in and i know it's safe then you're gonna come next, seok-ah. so sieun can help you get down and i'll pull you in."

sieun can feel his throat burning from stomach bile as it pushes it's way up. his hands are shaking almost violently now as his ears flood with white noise. he can see beomseok trying his hardest not to cry despite the way tears freely streamed down his face. he's nodding his head as his adam's apple bobs as he no doubt fights back the urge to sob. sieun can't move. can only just vaguely hear as suho comes even closer to beomseok, trying to assure him that they were going to be okay, that they could do this but sieun isn't sure if he could.

"seok-ah, hey. shh, shh. it's gonna be alright. you can do this, okay? sieun and i won't let anything happen to you, i promise. hyung promises that nothing is going to happen to you." sieun thinks he can just barely pinpoint the way suho's own voice is trembling as he cups beomseok's face, ignoring how the boy initially flinches away. suho silently thumbs the tears as best he could away.

sieun sucks in some air, the sensation burning as he swallows the urge to cry for beomseok's sake. he needed to be strong for him, he had to.

eventually suho is pulling away despite the way beomseok was still crying. his hand tenderly falls to beomseok's shoulder and squeezes it gently. suho turns back to sieun and sieun could swear he saw tears welling in his eyes. suho doesn't hold his gaze for long and soon he's walking back over to the window, the afternoon light warm as it hits his face. sieun can't stop the way his legs are moving, his mind screaming at him to stop suho before he's grabbing onto his wrist.

suho looks down at sieun's hand, expression unreadable.

"be careful." is what sieun tells him, voice barely above a whisper. the corner of suho's lips pull up into a makeshift smile before he's glancing up into sieun's eyes.

"i will, i promise." he whispers back. they stay like that for just a few more milliseconds but to sieun it feels like lifetimes before he's slowly pulling away and forcing himself to back up until beomseok is reaching for his arm. they watch with tearful eyes as suho sits on the window ledge, pushing his legs over as he gripped the rope so tightly his knuckles were going paper white.

suho then starts carefully lowering himself over the edge and sieun can't stop the way his body is rushing forwards, frantically reaching for the rope and holding it as the bookcase creaked from the newly added weight of suho dangling out the window. beomseok is there too, helping him as suho keeps going.

it feels like an eternity as they stayed there waiting for suho to reach the second floor window. sieun can feel himself instinctively inch closer and closer to the window, scared to look down and see that the boy he'd grown too fond of was splattered against the pavement below like a bug.

but he could still feel suho's weight against the rope.

so sieun swallows his nausea and all his awful images of suho dead and looks down over the edge. his heart skips a beat at the sight of suho swaying on the rope, dangling in the air like a piece of bait as he peers into the room below them.

"h-how is it?" he asks, cringing at the way his voice raises into a shout in order for suho to hear him.

suho doesn't look up at him, too focused on hanging on for his life as he adjusts his footing on the brick wall. "i… i think it's clear. i'm gonna head in."

sieun nods anxiously, watching as suho struggles for a moment with opening the window before he's ultimately climbing inside.

and really he should be relived as all the tension eases off the rope as he watches suho disappear into the room but sieun can't help the awful little feeling that something was wrong. surely it couldn't be this easy he thinks to himself as beomseok comes to his side, mirroring him as he looks down and sees nothing but a gently swaying rope.

"i-is he…?"

sieun's heart feels like it may beat out of his chest as they wait for suho — for any sign from him that he was alright and that they could start coming down. "h-he's inside. he…" but sieun can't finish the sentence. even if the room was clear, what's stopping suho from just leaving them to rot up here? sure, the three of them may have grown close in the last day and shared some of the most intimate and vulnerable parts of themselves with one another but suho was still a stranger at the end of the day. absolutely nothing was stopping him now from leaving sieun and beomseok and hightailing it to his bike.

beomseok's hand is warm as it comes to rest over his own, fishing sieun out of the doubt he'd been drowning in. "he's okay." he murmurs, pulling sieun's attention from the rope and to his eyes. warm and here. beomseok is here and suho wasn't going to leave them. sieun nods his head softly. "y-yeah."

as if on cue suho's voice is dragging their attention back below them where he was sticking his head out the window. his eyes are squinted from the sun but there's a small smile spread across his face.

"alright, it's safe. you ready seok-ah?"

sieun lets out the breath he'd been holding, turning to beomseok whose face is still stained with remnants of tears. his eyes are rubbed red and bloodshot behind his glasses and sieun just wants this to go as quickly as possible for the poor boy's sake. sieun turns his hand over, his fingers pressing into beomseok's palm.

"okay, are you ready?" he asks in a low voice, gazing intently into beomseok's eyes.

beomseok gulps, his hand curling tightly over sieun's. "i-i guess…" he says quietly. "p-please don't let me fall… please sieun…" he pleads in a tiny, ghostly whisper sounding so broken and so small.

sieun's head shakes adamantly. "i won't. i promise i won't, beomie."he hates himself for how frightened he sounded but there's no more time. sieun is pulling his hand away as he helps beomseok sit on the window ledge. once he's seated and has his hands tightly wrapped around the rope does sieun begin speaking again. "just try not to look down, okay? suho-hyung is going to grab you as soon as he can and i'm going to hold onto this end. y-you just have to keep moving, alright?"sieun rambles, his heart lodged up into his throat.

"o-okay," beomseok squeaks, tightening his hold around the rope. before he's closing his eyes, taking a moment to ground himself. "'k-kay. 'm gonna… i-i'm gonna go." he announces, blinking over to sieun with a wild — almost feral look in his eye. sieun nods silently, teeth so deep into his inner lip that he can faintly taste the blood beginning to fill his mouth with every low groan of the bookcase as beomseok slowly begins to lower his weight. beomseok shakes as he pushes himself closer and closer to the edge, trying his best to follow how suho had climbed down as sieun holds onto the rope so tightly, his hands are sure to be rubbed raw by the time it's his turn.

"alright, you're doing so good seok-ah!" sieun could hear suho shout. "just keep moving just like that!"

beomseok must have slipped somewhere along the way because his weight on the rope unexpectedly sank causing sieun's feet to squeal loudly against the floor. he frantically tries to give the horrified boy some stability as well as try and relive some of the tension from the bookcase as it had caused it to inch a little bit away from the door. sieun can hear beomseok let out a desperate cry and suho's panicked voice shouting assurances up to him. "c'mon, beom. you're so fucking close! you're okay. you're doing so good, so fucking good!"

beomseok is crying but he doesn't stop despite it all. he continues to slowly but surely make his way down and as proud as sieun was for him in the moment, he couldn't help but feel his heart sink deep into a pit in his chest as he realizes just how loud they were being. there's a violent, bloodcurdling scream coming from the hallway before there's a body crashing into the door. the force of it nearly causes sieun to jump out of his skin at the impact, fierce and hungry growls growing louder and louder by the second.

they knew they were in here.

"you guys! they're here!" sieun screamed, hoping that it was loud enough over all the chaos for them to hear. there's another violent bang against the door, then another and then another. the bookcase is now rattling as what must have been at the very least a dozen infected trying to break down the door to get inside. sieun frantically pulls himself to the window, peering over the edge and his stomach churning when he sees beomseok still at least a few feet from suho's hands. "they're gonna get inside!" he screamed and it causes both suho and beomseok to snap their heads up towards him, their faces going deathly pale at what this meant. "you've got to hurry, please s-seok-ah!"

suho pushes himself a bit further out the window, his arm extended and ready to grab beomseok once he got close enough, "c'mon, c'mon beom i got you!" suho looks completely horrified when he looks back up at sieun. "start coming down!"

despite infected rattling the door off the hinges, sieun doesn't know if he can. he's shaking his head, the panic setting in now as he realized this was probably it. "n-no! it wont hold both of us!"

the screams and hungry growls of those monsters outside are almost deafening now. sieun isn't sure how much longer he can sit here and wait.

suho looks as if he's going to argue but beomseok, the absolute angel that he was was still going and was so close — close enough now that suho's fingers just barely reach his shoe but it's enough. suho is frantically grabbing onto the boy and helping him inside as sieun turns his attention back to the door, the bookcase not even close to where it had once been. he doesn't have time he needs to start moving now.

he doesn't wait for suho or beomseok to tell him. sieun shakily pushes himself onto the window ledge, his heart beating so fast and so hard in his chest he thinks it may burst as he looks down at the drop below.

suho's voice is muffled, drowned out and far, far away from the screams of the monsters as sieun shakily wraps the rope around his hands so tight that it's painful. he tries to keep a steady hold of his breathing but it's useless at this point, the air barely entering his lungs as he lets himself sink.

there's another bang and it sounds like the wood was going to give any second now. the screaming of the rabid infected grew even louder if it was possible. the bookcase jolts forward and all sieun could do was squeeze his eyes shut, bracing himself as he forces his way down.

"keep going! you can't stop, sieun-ah!"

and he tries. sieun swears he's trying to.

sieun opens his eyes as he continues to push himself. his arms were burning, lungs gasping frantically for air. he was going to fall. he couldn't hold his own weight up anymore.

"c'mon, you're so close." he can just barely hear suho now. "c'mon, you're so close, baby." it's so faint, so far away that sieun can't focus on it. not when he swears he can feel the rope beginning to snap or how it sounds like the infected had made their way into the room he had just been in or how the bookcase creaks with every agonizing moment that passes. "please, i almost have you. you're almost here, sieun. just a little bit more." suho sounds desperate and he's crying. sieun thinks he can just barely catch how there's an obvious sob in his voice.

sieun thinks he can see the window ledge now. he's so close, suho was right. he's almost there. he can almost touch it with his toe. sieun lets out a cry, feeling the rope give beneath the pressure. "i- i can't reach." he cries, chest beginning to heave in fear. suho and beomseok are there, trying to grab him but couldn't. "sieun, you gotta slide down. i… i can't reach you." suho begs, urgency and fear laced within each word. "i… i can't… suho, p-please. please j-just grab me…"sieun sobs, sounding nothing like himself as his body remains frozen in place. he was going to die. this was it. after everything he's going to fall to his fucking death.

suddenly there's a crash, louder than any of the previous ones before. he can just barely recognize the sound of the bookcase screeching across the floor. it sends sieun crashing down.

he doesn't hear the way suho and beomseok scream for him. an only watch as the world seemingly flies by and slows down all at the same time. sieun flails wildly as he feels the rope finally snapping as the infected crowd the window where he'd came from. one monster comes sprinting out at full speed in a hysteric and terrifying attempt to grab sieun. he however goes flying past, the crunch of his skull meeting the concrete below sounding like a gunshot. it ricochets, bouncing around sieun's head as he closes his eyes, waiting for the same to happen to him.

it never does though.

"sieun-ah! hey! fucking snap out of it!" a strained voice shouts — no, begs. "hey! f-fuck… sieun-ah!"

sieun blinks, his eyes growing wide as he realized it was suho. suho is there, dangling out the fucking window and holding onto his arm, the only tether that came between sieun and his brains spilling onto the concrete below.

"sieun, please, i-i need you to help us out here, okay?" suho shouts, face twisting up in agony and it's enough. that alone was enough for sieun to come to his senses a little.

he tries to speak but sieun's voice is gone somewhere else. instead he nods along frantically, ignoring how tears blur his vision as he attempts to bring his feet to the wall. he keeps slipping, growing more and more panicked until suho's voice is there again. "hey, easy. i-i'm gonna start pulling, okay? don't fucking let go. p-please don't let go, sieun."

sieun makes a strangled sound, nodding his head as he tightens his fingers around suho's wrist. suho starts pulling after that, sieun trying his best to help but it was so hard. his body was completely shot, almost useless as he listens to suho's rambling, a mixture of desperate assurances and cussing but sieun latches onto it. and then beomseok is there, leaning over and grabbing at sieun's jacket as sieun frantically paws at the window ledge as the two heave him over.

sieun sinks to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

sieun's legs feel like complete jelly and every time he inhales his lungs burn like they're on fire but the ground beneath him is solid and cold against his skin. he isn't dead, he chants to himself. he's alive and beomseok is leaning down in front of him, worried and so tender as he tries to comfort him.

"h-hey, hey, you're okay. i-it's okay, now sieunie. o-oh my god… it's over… it's over." beomseok's voice is so delicate. his hands trembling as he carefully tugs off sieun's backpack, letting it fall to the floor before he pulls sieun into his lap and sieun just lets him.

and suho is there too. kneeling down and hands hovering as if he's scared to touch him. it makes sieun feel worse but he couldn't focus on that right now. he needed to learn how to breathe again.

"hey you're alright now. you both did so good. so fucking good. sieun-ah, you're safe. it's over and you both never have to do that fucked up shit again." suho promises with a wet voice. he's crying again and it causes sieun's heart to crumble up in his chest.

the thought of there being tears streaming down suho's face was so wrong and it nearly sent sieun over the edge.

beomseok keeps holding him like he's made of glass, whispering sweet nothings into the shell of sieun's ear as his hands run all the way from the middle of his back to the back of his head. sieun holds onto him, eventually his emotions fizzling out just as quick and it's here that he realizes where they were at exactly. it was the media room, one of the schools in their area with a fully fledged recording booth inside. sieun's eyes lock on the glass of the dark room, it finally hitting him that inside that booth was soundproof. they'd be safe to cry, scream, or laugh all they wanted and none of those things outside could hear them.

relief washes over sieun like cold water. they made it. they actually made it.

sieun still feels completely wrecked beyond repair as he sinks a bit deeper into beomseok's arms. his eyes glazing over as all the adrenaline leaves his body, unable to focus correctly on how suho is there, still whispering softly to him and his hand just barely coming to brush back sieun's hair from his face.

a creak coming from somewhere deeper in the room shatters this false reality sieun had made himself. suho tenses and so does beomseok who's arms tighten around sieun's body. sieun could barely move, still reeling as suho pushes himself up to his feet, hands having a tremor to them as he digs in his pocket and pulling out the box cutter.

"hey, who's in here?"

there's another noise, something sieun barely picks up. sieun helplessly watches as beomseok reaches for his own bag, ripping out the broomstick made weapon and wielding it in front of them with trembling hands. "s-suho-ah…" sieun croaks out, scared. he couldn't find it in himself to lift his head out of beomseok's lap, let alone run or fight right now.

but suho isn't acknowledging him, still too focused on whatever, no — whoever was in here with them.

"c'mon, show yourself or i'm gonna assume the worst." suho demands instead. he's on guard, protective of what was his.

he doesn't stray too far away from where beomseok and sieun sat, instead he backs up, the box cutter blade still held out in front of him as there's a soft click of a door opening. it was from the recording room before two figures step out from the darkness and into the light where they could see them. sieun only sees the way suho instinctively makes himself appear bigger, as if it could shield sieun and beomseok from whoever it was.

beomseok's breathing begins to pick up and when sieun can finally manage to force his eyes up to the new faces. pure and unadulterated dread drowns him in the moment. sieun honestly would have rather it been a monster or maybe even another horde that greeted them instead… anything would have been better than this.

for standing just a few feet away from them — their faces experiencing fear and then quickly amusement as their eyes meet sieun's behind suho's body — was fucking lee jungchan and lee youngbin of all people, their eyes flickering with something dark and unsettling as they smirked down at sieun like a predator would after successfully trapping their prey.