BOW Chapter 2 (Part 1)
by Brie- Colosseum
The next morning, Jiyeon didn’t open his eyes until it was almost nine. Waking up at nine on a weekday. Normally, he would have panicked, but after killing the mutated Team Leader Park and watching his coworkers get attacked by mutants, oversleeping wasn’t something worth being surprised about. Besides, since he slept in the office, there was no chance of being late, so it wasn’t a problem.
The real problem was that the people who were supposed to show up here today might have become mutants.
“Want some coffee?”
Suhyeong, who had woken up earlier than Jiyeon, asked while drinking a cup that looked freshly brewed from the break room.
“I’m fine.”
Coffee on an empty stomach in the morning? Just watching it made Jiyeon’s stomach burn, and he furrowed his brows as he shook his head.
Suhyeong shrugged awkwardly, as if he hadn’t expected the refusal. Then he reached into the pocket of his coat and tossed something to Jiyeon.
“Then at least eat this. It’s the last one, but I’ll give it to you.”
“…?”
It was ordinary cream bread wrapped in clear OPP plastic. The outer surface was cold, probably just taken out of the break room fridge.
“You’re not eating?”
He wasn’t all that hungry, nor did he have much of an appetite. When Jiyeon just held the bread without taking a bite, Suhyeong placed his coffee on a nearby desk and came next to him. Then he personally tore open the packaging.
“Times like this are when you need to eat well. That’s how you get out of here alive.”
“Yeah…”
Jiyeon bit his lip and took a small bite of the bread that Suhyeong had placed in his hand. The words get out of here alive made his throat tighten, and heat gathered around his eyes. Images of Kim Oyun and Choi Yooyoung, who had been brutally devoured by the mutants, flooded his mind.
How long will I even survive?
Although he felt sorry for Suhyeong, who kept trying to give him hope, the fear only grew worse after a full day had passed.
“Anyway, there really isn’t much food around.”
While Jiyeon ate in miserable silence, Suhyeong rummaged through the drawers of employee desks and muttered to himself. He had grabbed a few snacks from the break room, but it was nowhere near enough to count as real food. Securing supplies early on was crucial for survival, so he moved busily, checking every drawer in hopes of finding even one more hidden snack.
As he watched him, a conversation Jiyeon had with Jang Joohee through messages suddenly flashed through his mind.
“Right! The cafeteria!”
“…?”
“Joohee from our team said the third-floor cafeteria is safe. If we go there, we can get food.”
“Hm.”
At Jiyeon’s words, Suhyeong paused, seemed to think for a moment, then nodded.
“Alright. Let’s go to the third floor.”
With the golf club in hand, Suhyeong was practically invincible. Even before he had a weapon, Jiyeon thought he was bold, but now his actions were even more unrestrained.
“Grrrraak!”
“Whew. Is that the last one?”
He crushed the heads of three or four mutants that had somehow made it up to the fifth floor, wiping the blood splattered on his face with his hand before strolling leisurely down the empty hallway. Thanks to him, Jiyeon didn’t have to do anything. All he did was clutch a hammer from the toolbox and follow behind him.
Like yesterday, they used the emergency exit stairs to go down. The elevator would have been faster, but it was an enclosed space, and there was no way of knowing what would happen when the doors opened, so they chose the stairs.
As they descended, Jiyeon kept flinching his shoulders. Because of the open-top and open-bottom structure of emergency exits, every step echoed loudly, making his heart jump. Even though he had confirmed there were no mutants on the stairs, he kept feeling like he could hear faint groans from somewhere. That was how stressed and on edge he had become.
“Third floor.”
Walking ahead, Suhyeong looked at the number on the wall and spoke. They had made it this far safely, but the hallway outside the emergency exit was the problem. The sudden surge of mutant numbers happened around lunchtime, so the employees who had gone to the cafeteria would have been heavily affected. Which meant there would be far more mutants here than on the upper floors.
“Grrrr… grrrrrrr…”
Sure enough, loud groans and dragging footsteps echoed from beyond the thick door.
With only a golf club, it would be impossible for Suhyeong to handle dozens of mutants alone. Because of that, he hesitated at the third-floor emergency exit, unable to step out. It didn’t help that the cafeteria entrance was located far down the hall and around a corner. If the distance had been short, they could have tried pushing through, but that wasn’t an option.
“….”
“….”
A heavy silence hung between them as neither could think of a solution.
“Um… Team Leader…”
Time kept slipping by uselessly. Then Jiyeon, standing behind him, carefully spoke.
“Mutants have narrow vision and bad eyesight, right? So… are they weak in the dark too?”
“Yeah. Without light, they can hardly see in front of them at all, so their movements get sluggish.”
“Then, um. I’m just saying…”
“…?”
“What if we turn off the lights in the hallway?”
He remembered how Park Yeji had put a paper bag over a mutant’s head in the lounge yesterday, and the thought slipped out. Structurally, all the windows in the building were inside offices and lounges. That meant if the hallway lights were turned off, not a single bit of light would come in, it would be pitch black.
If the mutants couldn’t see at all in the darkness, maybe they could slip through the hall to the cafeteria. Though it was obviously an extremely dangerous plan, which made Jiyeon sound unsure as he said it.
“It’s not a bad idea.”
At Suhyeong’s positive reaction, the gloom on Jiyeon’s face lifted slightly.
“But do you know where the light switches are?”
“What? No, I don’t.”
“That’s a problem. I don’t know either.”
Jiyeon’s face darkened again. Aside from the offices, most of the building’s lighting was controlled by the security guard who managed the facilities. So it made perfect sense that neither Suhyeong nor Jiyeon knew the location of the hallway light switches, since they never had any reason to turn them on or off themselves. Cutting off power to the entire building was technically possible, but they would have to go all the way down to the electrical room in the basement to do that. It was inefficient, and it could easily put them in even more danger than they were already in.
“We don’t have a choice. We’ll have to push through.”
Pulling the zipper of Jiyeon’s long padded coat all the way up to his neck and tugging the hood securely over his head, Suhyeong spoke firmly.
The coat Jiyeon was wearing now was one of the padded jackets they had slept on last night. Before leaving the office, he had grabbed whichever one he could reach. Part of it was to keep warm, but the other reason was to keep as much skin covered as possible in case they ended up in a physical struggle with mutants.
“I’ll take the lead. Jiyeon, you look for the switch.”
“…Okay.”
Full of tension, Jiyeon swallowed hard and nodded. He wasn’t sure whether he would actually be able to find the switch, but like Suhyeong said, there was nothing else they could do. This was the only possible option in their situation.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Lowering his voice, Suhyeong pushed the emergency exit door.
Creeeak!
“Kraaaah! Kraak!”
“Grrrhk! Grrrk!”
The moment the heavy door opened with a dull groan, the mutants wandering the hallway spotted them and shrieked. Then they charged toward Suhyeong and Jiyeon at terrifying speed. There were so many that profanity nearly slipped out on instinct.
“Aaaagh! What the hell!”
“Jiyeon! The switch! Find the switch!”
“Y-yes!”
Thud…! Crack!
Unlike Jiyeon, whose face went pale with panic, Suhyeong stayed calm, smashing the heads of the rushing mutants with the golf club as he advanced. But there were far too many of them. They couldn’t hold out for long. They needed to turn off the hallway lights quickly.
Standing behind him, Jiyeon frantically scanned the wall. The hallway, painted white, had bulletin boards with company announcements and posters for various Haseong Media projects. Because of them, spotting a palm-sized switch was even more difficult.
“Where is it?!”
With mounting desperation, Jiyeon slipped out from behind Suhyeong and scanned the wall again.
“──!”
Passing the area covered with posters, he glanced toward the large drink vending machine, and his eyes widened like someone who had just found an oasis in the desert. There, beside the vending machine in the middle of the hallway, was a switch. It was too intentionally placed to be decorative; it had to control the hallway lights.
“Team Leader! I found it! Next to the vending machine! I’ll go!”
“Be careful, Jiyeon!”
“What? Ack! Aaagh! Don’t come! Don’t come near me!”
The moment he stepped out from Suhyeong’s protection, a swarm of mutants rushed toward him. Startled, Jiyeon wildly swung the hammer he had been holding. He looked like someone playing a frantic round of whack-a-mole.
Thud! Crack!
Unlike Suhyeong, who cleanly crushed mutants’ heads, Jiyeon swung without technique, but with all his strength. Maybe because of that, he managed to knock back a surprising number of them.
“I said don’t come any closer!”
His left arm was already being bitten at by the mutants, goose feathers bursting out in clumps. If it hadn’t been the coat but his actual flesh, blood would have been spraying everywhere. A cold shiver ran down his spine, and Jiyeon swung even more desperately.
“Hah… hah…”
Barely managing to shake the mutants off him, Jiyeon panted heavily and ran toward the vending machine.
“Kraaah!”
“Grrrk… grrk…!”
The mutants’ shrieks echoed right behind him. He didn’t dare look back; doing so felt like he would be caught instantly.
“Ghrrrk… ghhh…”
“Almost… almost there!”
Just a little bit more. Just a little more and he could turn off the lights. But the moment Jiyeon reached out toward the switch…
“Ugh!”
Thud!
His body lurched forward violently and he fell hard to the floor. He had stepped in a puddle of some spilled drink, slipping on the wet surface.
“Jiyeon!”
“Kyaaaah!”
Seeing him fall, Suhyeong tried to rush forward, but too many mutants were clinging to him. Even though he smashed their faces with the golf club and stomped them with his shoes, their numbers wouldn’t drop quickly enough for him to advance.
“Dammit!”
Letting out a rare curse, Suhyeong began taking down the mutants at astonishing speed. The shaft of the sturdy golf club even bent slightly with how hard he swung.
But before he could reach Jiyeon, a mutant grabbed Jiyeon’s left ankle.
“Aaaaah!”
Jiyeon screamed, thrashing wildly.
“Grrrk… grrr…”
Fortunately, his violently kicking leg struck the mutant’s forehead, making it lose its grip. Jiyeon didn’t waste the chance, he scrambled up, raised his hammer high, and aimed to smash the mutant’s skull.
“Grrrk… grrk…”
The mutant lifted its head, groaning in pain, and their eyes met.
“…!”
In that instant, Jiyeon froze on the spot.
His mind went blank. He felt like all the blood in his body drained straight into his fingertips and toes.
“Ye… Yeji…”
Park Yeji, who had escaped the lounge with them yesterday and gone downstairs first, had turned into a mutant.
“Grrrk… Kraaah!”
Like the others, her twisted body convulsed as she let out grotesque cries. Her skin was necrotic, her face ruined almost beyond recognition, but it was undeniably Park Yeji. One of her legs had been torn apart so badly she couldn’t even stand. With her bloodied, mangled hands, she pushed herself across the floor, crawling toward Jiyeon.
“Grrrk… uh… grrk.”
With her elbow bent inward and her broken nails scraping against the floor as she crawled, Park Yeji looked like a possessed spirit in desperate need of an exorcism.
“…Ugh.”
That grotesque sight sent Jiyeon into immediate panic. His heart pounded too fast to breathe properly, and echoing through his mind was the memory of what he had said to Yeji.
“There seem to be quite a few employees alive in the cafeteria on the third floor, so you should go there!”
“This… this is because of me…”
A boiling, overwhelming mass of guilt, mixed with despair and shock, pushed up his throat like it was going to choke him.
“W-what do I do… it’s my fault… hic…”
He shouldn’t have let her go to the third floor alone. At the very least, he shouldn’t have told her to head to the cafeteria. Yeji turning into a mutant was his fault.
In a dazed state, Jiyeon stared at the blood-soaked hallway. And it wasn’t just Yeji. The coworkers who had greeted him and worked beside him just yesterday were now lying twisted and broken, their heads smashed and their bodies grotesquely contorted.
Seeing his once-normal colleagues transformed overnight into such horrifying shapes shattered what little remained of Jiyeon’s frayed mental stability.
Was it really right to kill them just because he had survived? He had always believed it was better to kill mutated people rather than contain them. But that had been naïve, because he had never imagined that the mutants could be the people around him.
“Kraaaah!”
“Grrrhhh!”
Dozens of excited mutants lunged toward him, including the twisted form of Park Yeji. The strength in Jiyeon’s hand holding the hammer began to drain away. He didn’t deserve to kill them.
“Hong Jiyeon! Snap out of it!”
Just as the hammer was slipping from his grasp, Suhyeong shouted loudly.
“If you die, I’ll die too!”
The normally gentle, soft-spoken Suhyeong let out a roar like a lion. In that instant, Jiyeon’s drowning consciousness snapped back to the surface.
“Jiyeon!”
He called again. His voice was desperate, sounding nothing like his usual self. At that sound, Jiyeon tightened his grip on the hammer again. He exhaled a trembling breath and looked at Suhyeong fighting the mutants.
Right. Doing nothing now would make a fool out of the man who had saved him more than once. He had to think of the living, not the dead.
Jiyeon raised the hammer. But instead of striking the mutants coming at him, he brought it down on the switch attached to the wall.
Crack…
The plastic switch shattered, and he heard the soft hum of the electricity cutting out. In the same moment, the bright hallway was swallowed by darkness, and Jiyeon immediately ducked down.
“Grrr… grrrrk…”
The mutants who had been charging at them suddenly hesitated in the pitch-black space, then stopped in place. Before long, the hallway that had been filled with groans and shrieks became eerily quiet.
“Hic… ngh…”
With no strength left, Jiyeon practically collapsed and covered his mouth, gasping for breath.
He lived.
A shaky exhale, thick with relief, escaped between his tightly clenched lips. But though he had narrowly survived the most dangerous moment, nothing was actually resolved. The mutants couldn’t see, but neither could he. Without light, he was just as helpless as they were.
What now?
On his knees, Jiyeon shuffled over beside the vending machine, trembling as he pulled his legs close. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t see. He had only considered the mutants when coming up with the plan and had completely overlooked the fact that in pitch-black darkness, he was just as disadvantaged as they were. If he got caught now, he wouldn’t even be able to find a place to run.
“Grrrk… grrrrk…”
The mutants’ lost groans and slow footsteps echoed right in front of him, amplifying his terror.
But what about Team Leader? Is he okay?
Mustering what little courage he had left, Jiyeon cautiously peeked out from behind the vending machine and stared down the opposite end of the hallway where Suhyeong had been. No sound had come from that direction since the lights went out.
N-no way… he wasn’t bitten, was he?
The thought made Jiyeon’s heart plummet. Suhyeong had seemed invincible in the face of the sudden outbreak, but he was just an ordinary office worker like Jiyeon. He was just as vulnerable. Realizing that sent tears gathering in Jiyeon’s dazed eyes.
Several minutes passed. Jiyeon stayed frozen in place, too scared to get up, quietly sobbing.
Beep-beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep-beep!
“Kyaaah!”
Suddenly, somewhere in the hallway, an alarm blared loudly. Startled out of his wits, Jiyeon screamed.
“Kraaaah!”
“Kyak! Kyak!”
Thankfully, the alarm was much louder than his scream. The mutants, who had been moving slowly in the dark, suddenly grew agitated and swarmed toward the sound. Just like that, the presence hovering right in front of Jiyeon vanished.
“…?”
Not understanding what had happened, Jiyeon stood up and stared blankly into the darkness. Then he felt something fumbling along his shoulder. Even through his thick padding, the touch was unmistakably a hand. He instinctively sucked in a breath, ready to scream again, when the hand urgently covered his mouth.
“Shh. It’s me.”
“──!”
The voice from right above him was Suhyeong’s. The relief that washed over him was so overwhelming that Jiyeon threw his arms around Suhyeong without thinking.
“Uh… Jiyeon?”
He felt Suhyeong stiffen completely at the sudden embrace.
“What… what happened?”
“I set an alarm on my phone and tossed it down the opposite hallway as bait. I figured it was the only way we could move around.”
“I was worried something happened to you!”
Jiyeon couldn’t see his face in the dark, but he somehow felt that Suhyeong was smiling.
“Anyway, this isn’t the time. We need to get to the cafeteria.”
Gently peeling Jiyeon’s arms away from his waist, Suhyeong spoke. Realizing what he’d just done, Jiyeon recoiled in embarrassment.
“…Sorry.”
His voice shrank to a tiny whisper. Suhyeong chuckled softly and grabbed Jiyeon’s hand. He had done this before, grabbed his hand without hesitation, and Jiyeon found himself staring at the direction his voice had come from. Sensing the stare, Suhyeong added an awkward explanation.
“It’s dark, and… well, I don’t want you slipping again.”
“….”
Jiyeon couldn’t argue with that, so he let himself be led. Even though he couldn’t see a single step ahead, Suhyeong walked confidently into the darkness, and Jiyeon did his best to follow without stumbling.
The phone alarm would probably ring for another five minutes before stopping on its own. They needed to be inside the cafeteria before then.
They hurried down the hallway and reached the cafeteria entrance. Unlike the bright beige wooden door of the lounge, the cafeteria had two thin, transparent glass doors that allowed a view inside. Thick, damp newspapers were plastered all over them, blocking visibility, likely to prevent mutants from seeing in or letting any trace of light escape.
“It’s locked, as expected.”
After pushing and pulling the door marked with a “Pull” sticker, Suhyeong sounded unsurprised. Jiyeon hadn’t expected it to open easily either. With dozens of mutants wandering the hall, who would leave it unlocked?
“It’s me. Hong Jiyeon from the Planning Team. I’m here with Team Leader Yoon Suhyeong from Sales.”
Jiyeon lightly rattled the opposite door to announce their presence. He couldn’t risk being loud, so he shook the door instead. Unlike a normal door with a lock on the knob, this one had its latch at the top, making the glass tremble precariously.
“Joohee! Sunghwa!”
Even shaking the door didn’t get a response from inside, and Jiyeon grew nervous enough to start calling out the names of Planning Team employees who might be in the cafeteria. After a moment, a shadow appeared behind the newspaper, and a familiar voice slipped through the narrow space between the doors.
“A-Assistant manager Hong?”
“Joohee!”
“Is it really you, Assistant manager? Hic…”
It was Jang Joohee. A mix of relief and excitement washed over Jiyeon at the realization that he had finally reached safety.
“Assistant manager, are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m alright. I came here because I remembered your message. Team Leader Yoon Suhyeong from Sales is with me too.”
They were on the same team, but they weren’t particularly close. In fact, Jiyeon usually felt a bit overwhelmed by her cheerful attitude. But in a moment like this, confirming that they were both alive, tears threatened to fall.
“I was worried since you didn’t reply after yesterday. Thank goodness. You’re alive…”
Joohee sniffled as she hovered behind the door. At that moment, the beeping alarm in the distance stopped, meaning the phone had run out of time. They really needed to go inside now.
“Can you open the door? The mutants are gathered in the other hallway right now. It’s just the two of us here.”
“Well, um…”
At Jiyeon’s request, Joohee hesitated. Her shaky voice trailed off, and she seemed unsure. Growing anxious at her hesitant reaction, Jiyeon quickly added:
“It’s true. It’s only me and Team Leader Yoon out here. Neither of us is bitten.”
“I really want to let you in, but um… ah… I’m sorry.”
Joohee’s shadow stepped back as if she were being cautious of someone beside her. Then another voice, not hers, spoke.
“Assistant manager Hong from Planning, was it? I’m Executive Director Kwon.”
Startled by the sudden appearance of an executive, Jiyeon instinctively bowed toward the unseen door.
“Yes, sir. I’m Hong Jiyeon from Planning. Could you please open the door for us?”
Executive Director Kwon let out a heavy clearing of his throat, then after a long pause, responded in a gravelly voice:
“Go back. There’s no place for you here.”
“…Pardon? Sir? Sir!”
The unexpected rejection left Jiyeon frozen in disbelief as he called out to the executive. But the man didn’t reply.
“Wait a moment, Jiyeon. Let me try.”
Beside him, silent until now, Suhyeong placed a hand on his shoulder and stepped forward.
“Sir, this is Yoon Suhyeong, Team Leader of Sales.”
“……”
“We’ll leave after thirty minutes. The mutants are coming this way right now. Please let us shelter inside just for a moment.”
“I said go back!”
Executive Director Kwon snapped angrily. It was clear he had no intention of opening the door for anyone.
“Grrrk… grrk…”
From the darkness, the mutants began moving again. They must have heard Jiyeon and Suhyeong’s voices. Jiyeon stared anxiously toward the pitch-black end of the hallway. They were trapped at a dead end; the cafeteria was the only place to hide. And fighting the mutants in total darkness would be suicide.
“Krraagh!”
“Kyaaaah!”
The mutants, now aware of their presence, thrashed around in the darkness, searching for them. They couldn’t see how many there were, but the number was clearly overwhelming.
Panicking, Jiyeon tugged desperately at the locked glass door. Of course, it wouldn’t budge.
“Tsk. I told you to go back.”
Executive Director Kwon repeated coldly. Go back? If only they had somewhere to go! They couldn’t smash the door open either; that would doom everyone inside. Jiyeon felt like he was losing his mind.
“Sir! The mutants are coming this way! Please, the door! Sir!”
Terrified, Jiyeon pounded his fist against the glass as he shouted urgently. The sound riled up the mutants, making them move faster. Suhyeong sighed and tightened his grip on the golf club, clearly preparing to make a stand.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Jiyeon’s fist hammered the glass even quicker. Getting inside was the only way they wouldn’t die.
“At this rate, we’re going to die out here, sir!”
“…That’s not my concern.”
The executive’s cold, indifferent response hit Jiyeon like a slap.
“H-how can you say something like that…”
Shaken, Jiyeon stepped back, biting his lip. He couldn’t bring himself to curse at the man. Survival made everyone selfish. He understood that, logically. But understanding didn’t make it any less devastating to hear, not when death was closing in on them.
“Krrrk! Krraagh!”
“Grrrk… grrrrkk…”
“What do we do? They’re right around the corner now.”
From the hallway corner came the mutants’ cries. Once they turned that corner, they would see the straight corridor leading directly to where Jiyeon and Suhyeong stood. If they couldn’t get inside, they needed another plan immediately. But the phone was gone, and this was a dead-end hallway, they had no place left to run.
“Jiyeon. No… Jiyeon-ah.”
Standing beside him, eyes fixed on the darkness, Suhyeong called his name. In all their years working together, Suhyeong had never spoken down to him, not even though they had been senior and junior in university. He always treated Jiyeon with polite respect. The fact that he was dropping honorifics now meant he didn’t think such formalities mattered in a moment like this.
Come to think of it, he had done the same earlier in the hallway. Jiyeon had been too frantic then to notice, but hearing his name said that way now stirred something strange inside him.
“I’ll lure them to the other side.”
“What?!”
“You stay here. When I give you the signal, run to the emergency exit.”
“By yourself? No! You’ll die!”
Jiyeon shook his head violently. Luring that many mutants alone in pitch darkness? It was insane. Even if Jiyeon managed to escape, Suhyeong wouldn’t make it out alive.
“You asked me why I kept buying you meals.”
Out of nowhere, Suhyeong brought up a completely unrelated topic. It was about the question Jiyeon had asked yesterday, the one he never answered. For him to bring it up now, his voice soft yet strangely earnest, made Jiyeon’s chest tighten.
Jiyeon looked at Suhyeong with a bewildered expression. After being in the dark for so long, his eyes had started to adjust, and the outline of Suhyeong’s face became faintly visible. But in this chaotic situation, he didn’t have the mind to figure out what expression Suhyeong was making.
“I’ll answer you now.”
For a moment, it felt like their eyes met. Jiyeon swallowed without realizing it.
“I did it because I like you. Dragging you around for exercise, calling you out on weekends… it was because I wanted to go on dates.”
“What?”
“I like you, Hong Jiyeon.”
“…What?!”
What was this man even saying?
His mind froze, and the shock hit him as hard as when mutated Team Leader Park had come charging at him with all his joints twisted.
Oh my god. Yoon Suhyeong likes men? Well, that’s possible. Plenty of preferences exist in the world. But why me, of all people? And why would you say that now of all times?!
It was a life-or-death moment with mutants running toward them, but the sudden confession scrambled Jiyeon’s thoughts so badly that he could only gape silently like a stunned fish.
“I’ll go first. You stay here, and when I tell you to run, go to the emergency exit.”
Suhyeong banged the golf club against the floor and wall to draw the mutants toward him.
“Wait, hold on! Team Leader!”
Jiyeon grabbed him in a panic as he tried to run into the mutants. He hung onto Suhyeong’s arm with both hands to physically stop him. Suhyeong gently patted the round back of his head, then carefully slipped his arm free. He clearly meant to take on the mutants alone.
“After hearing that, I won’t be able to sleep if something happens to you!”
“If you think of me even a little because of that, then maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”
What the hell. This lunatic.
Jiyeon grimaced sharply and grabbed him again. Suhyeong looked troubled.
“Kyaaah! Kek!”
By then, the mutants had reached right in front of them. Jiyeon also tightened his grip on the hammer.
“……”
“Fine! Then let’s just die together!”
It wasn’t like he had suddenly developed affection or deep camaraderie for Suhyeong. But Jiyeon was already crushed by the belief that Park Yeji became a mutant because of him. If Suhyeong also turned because of him, he would spend the rest of his life suffocated by guilt and debt.
“Die together, huh. Jiyeon, that kinda… sounds like a proposal.”
“Oh, shut up already!”
Jiyeon jabbed his elbow hard into Suhyeong’s side as the man chuckled lightly despite the danger.
“Krraagh!”
The mutants finally rounded the corner and charged at them like mad. Jiyeon tightened his grip on the hammer and glanced back at Suhyeong. Then he shouted his response to the confession.
“I appreciated the expensive meals, but calling me out on weekends was the worst!”
With that, Jiyeon stepped forward into the darkness before Suhyeong. He didn’t think he would get out of this alive, but at least he wouldn’t have to watch someone survive while the other died.
Please, if I get bitten, just don’t let it hurt too much!
Jiyeon prayed to the god he hadn’t called upon since third grade, just as he was about to charge forward…
Suddenly, bright light washed over both of them. Their eyes, accustomed to darkness, couldn’t handle the sudden flood of brightness. Jiyeon squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. Then a familiar voice rang out.
“Team Leader Yoon! Assistant manager!”
“…Huh?!”
It was Choi Sunghwa’s voice. At the sound, Jiyeon rubbed his eyes and looked ahead. The cafeteria door that he thought would never open was wide open. Choi Sunghwa had opened it.
“Hurry inside!”
“What do you think you’re doing? Close the door!”
“Hurry!!”
Executive Director Kwon turned red as he tried to slam the door shut again, shocked by Choi Sunghwa’s impulsive move. But Sunghwa held the handle tightly and shook her head.
“Krraagh! Kek!”
“You’re insane! Have you lost your mind?!”
“Assistant manager! Team Leader! What are you doing?!”
Snapping back to his senses, Suhyeong grabbed Jiyeon’s wrist and hurled himself through the open doorway.
“Close it! Now!”
As soon as they were inside, the employees inside the cafeteria rushed to the door and slammed it shut. Among them was Assistant Manager Kim Hyungseok, who had been dragged in by Sunghwa and Joohee earlier.
“Krraagh!”
“Kyaaaah!”
“Someone, someone lock the top latch!”
They managed to close the door, but the mutants, drawn by the noise, pressed and pounded on the glass. Dozens of them slammed against it, and the door shuddered violently as if it would burst open at any moment.
“It’s locked!”
Kim Hyungseok reached up and turned the top latch. Only then did the people pushing against the door step back with sighs of relief.
“Krraagh!”
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Keek!”
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
But locking the door didn’t mean they were safe. The frenzied mutants began using their entire bodies, ramming into the glass like battering rams. The thin door rattled dangerously. The employees panicked, voices rising in confusion.
“Turn off the cafeteria lights!”
Suhyeong shouted. Someone quickly switched them off, plunging the cafeteria into the same darkness as the hallway.
“Everyone, stay silent until they calm down.”
He wrapped an arm around Jiyeon’s trembling shoulders as he warned the group. At his words, the employees exchanged anxious glances but closed their mouths.
And so, heavy silence, thick with fear and chaos, settled over the cafeteria.
“Are you out of your mind?!”
Once the mutants outside quieted down, the first to speak was Executive Director Kwon Hyeoksu. He pointed a shaking finger at Choi Sunghwa and stormed toward her, unable to contain his anger. He seemed to be keeping his voice low because of the mutants outside, but even so, he shouted with veins bulging in his neck. With only the ceiling lights near the inner side of the cafeteria on, the shadows across his face made him look like a raging demon.
“We almost died because of you!”
“Hic…!”