KR listened carefully and waited for the president to finish what he was saying. "They will come there faster. Around 3-4 days." The president said with a sigh. "That's great then why did you seem concerned?" KR took a breath of relief but at the same time had doubts about the concern in the president's voice. "It's the reason why they decided to go there earlier than expected." The president slowly answered him. "Uhmm? What's the reason? Is it something we should be concerned about?" KR asked a question again. "You can't do anything with it. It's your fans who protested to the defense team to protect you earlier, They have threatened the whole defense team and the government as well." The president explained the reason behind his concern with a little thrill and KR smiled a little after knowing what his fandom has done for them. He knew their fandom was powerful but this was beyond his expectation, he was worried and proud of his fandom, worried because he was afraid to let anything happen to his fandom as they are protesting against the government, and proud because his fandom wasn't afraid to support them in any matter. "Yes, I understand." KR said trying to hide his happy self from the president. They ended the call.
"I'm back!" Tiara called out to them while running toward them. "But there were only 8." She shoved her hand to them revealing the gloves she found inside the room. The young men took the gloves from her and started to drag the bodies to the main hall. Soon, The dead bodies were shifted making the place clean around the washroom area. Finally, They went to the washroom to do their stuff and let go of what they were controlling over since the morning. "Hey! I was the one who kept saying that I need to use the washroom but you all went first!!" Nolan yelled at others who took all the space in the restroom. "Well, All of us needed to use the restroom but we didn't announce it like you, Bro." Jose replied to him with glimpses of happiness in his tone. Meanwhile, In the women's restroom. The females were done with the restroom before the men as they were only 3.
Tiara came out with Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Kang from the restroom. Tiara's face was clean now without any dried blood and sweat, She looked fresh as if she cleaned her sins inside the restroom instead of her face but her clothes were still bloody and her hair was still messy like before. 'We should change our clothes… these are all bloody.' Tiara considered their hygiene. 'Aah, This is a mall. We can get clean clothes and everything else we need.' She thought again and looked at the two ladies who were with her. 'But how can I make them understand what I am saying.' She debated how can she communicate with the Korean old ladies. "Aunty… Our clothes are dirty." She said and grabbed a part of her clothes where the blood stains were and made a weird expression. "We should take a bath and change our clothes." She placed her right hand above her head making a shower sign and then grabbed her clothes again, the ladies looked at her observing her carefully trying to understand what she was trying to say. Tiara looked at their expressions and knew they didn't understand even after she tried hard. 'Why am I stuck with them? God, Please! This is torture." She blamed everything on God.
She sighed and gestured for them to come with her and luckily they understood that she was asking them to follow her. They started to move to the 2nd floor of the mall where the clothes section was without making any sounds as they feared there can be zombies on the second floor. They took the clothes they liked from the clothes section and at that time the ladies understood what she meant as soon as she started to pick an outfit to wear. Just when they came out from the clothes store they encountered another unwanted guest. 'Ugh, I don't want my new outfit to get dirty with their dirty blood.' She cursed her luck and gave her outfit to Mrs. Kang before she ran toward their guest and as soon as she was close enough to let her rod go through its flesh, She attack it and finished it without any hesitation. 'At least, Let us live here peacefully for just 5 days!' She wished from her the depth of her heart. She turned to the old ladies behind her and gestured for them to follow her to the ground floor again.
Tiara left the ladies in front of the restroom and started to go alone somewhere else to find something else as the men still weren't done with doing their stuff. She went to a daily use section which was on the ground floor and took some buckets and plastic water pipes before running back to the restroom as she fear that she might encounter another unwanted thing especially when she was holding these things.
When she reached the restroom again, She saw everyone else was out and waiting for her to know what she is up to. "What are you going to do with these?" Ian asked her examining the things she was holding with his eyes. "Bath. There's no shower so we are going to use buckets" She pulled her hand a little upper with which she was holding the buckets. "or just wash with the water pipes directly." She pulled her other hand with the plastic pipes. "We can connect the pipes to the taps inside to fill the buckets and clean ourselves properly." She explained to everyone and suggested they clean themselves. "Yes yes, We should be hygienic." Jose agreed with her, who was staring at each feature of her face as it was clean now from the moment she came to them running. "Nice, Go and take your clothes. The clothing section is on the 2nd floor." Tiara said and dropped some buckets and 2 plastic pipes on the ground and started to go inside the women's restroom.
"Yes, Of co-" Jose was going to agree to her again but stopped himself before he went to his deep thinking. "Wait, What do you mean to go and grab?" Ian stopped her and asked for an explanation behind her simple words. "What's there that you didn't understand?" She turned her head to look at him and waited for what he had to say. "Aren't you going with us?" KR asked her. "No, Why would I? I already took clothes from there and what would I do in the men's section." Tiara told them that she isn't going with them which made all of them nervous as it was their first time going somewhere without Tiara with all the zombies around them, she was the only one who protected them every time they were in danger. "Wha-" Joy was about to say something but Nolan stopped him. "B-But how can we go without you?" Nolan struggled not to freak out about her decision. "I ain't your mother. You all can go together without me." Tira said and went inside the restroom with the old ladies.
Young men sighed and looked around with worry in their eyes. "It feels weird to go without her." Vin told JJ in Korean, who had the same thought as him. "I know." JJ replied to him. "Ugh, Let's go guys." KR ordered everyone and sighed at their need for her to go anywhere. At this moment they knew that she was what kept them going through this messy situation till now, She was their strength and protection, Their safe place. But they regretted depending on her at this very moment because they were scared to even move a bit from their spot. After waiting for 5 minutes, They decided to go upstairs as they didn't want her to think of them as cowards.
They went upstairs and started to find clothes for themselves. Soon, Their fear started to fade away with time and then they scattered to find their likable clothes. Mr. Min and Mr. Kim were together, busy searching for clothes according to their sizes and personality that they didn't realize the presence of others near them. They heard screams from the undeads who weren't far from them gathering everyone's attention, It was impossible for those 2 men to fight them as there were 7 zombies in total. Mr. Min screamed for help while their hunters ran toward their prey and everyone got on guards and started running to Mr. Min. They started to fight for their lives but struggled a lot because they weren't confident even when they were 12 and the zombies were only 7, it was because they weren't fighting confidently as if they left their confidence and skills with Tiara.
One of the hunters was about to bite Mr. Kim but then Sam saw his father in trouble and decided to gather his courage and confidence to fight properly just for the sake of his father while Joy was still recording everything as usual but this time he was on his guards and kicking the zombies away from them giving others a chance and time to kill them. At last, KR killed the last zombie and everyone took a breath of relief. After this incident, They all took the clothes quickly and went downstairs to take a bath.
They decided to take turns as there wasn't enough space for 12 men but only 6 and the ladies still weren't done with their washing session. Mr. Kang, Mr. Min, Mr. Kim, Sam, Ian, and Joy took their turn first to go and take a bath inside while others waited outside. It wasn't long before Tiara opened the women's restroom from the inside to come out and reveal herself to everyone else.
She was wearing an off-shoulder peach top revealing her smooth perfectly curved collarbone, blue middle-length shorts revealing her curved legs, and her old sneakers, Her wavy hair was down which reached to her waist and wet as she washed her hair perfectly while some strands were falling on her cheeks, and water droplets were dripping from her wet hair strands to her bare shoulders. Everyone's jaw dropped looking at her all clean and shining like a fairy. Suddenly, She smiled and raised her eyebrows at them asking 'how's everything going.' They didn't say anything but their heartbeats skipped a beat as soon as she smiled at them, Vin gulped down and took a look at the other's reactions and he didn't like what he saw, They all were amazed by her clean state as they didn't realize it before because of the sweats, blood, messy hair, and darkness. "Why this… clothes?" Vin asked her with jealousy. "Why? What's wrong with these?" Tiara asked him stretching her arms a little. "Ahm, I think he is saying that… how can you fight in these clothes. Won't it be uncomfortable?" KR stopped Vin because he could understand why he asked the question.
"No no. I can fight in these too. Look." She said and kicked in the air stretching her leg to her head's height and then punched in the air with her all strength to prove herself to everyone that she can move properly with her current outfit. "See." She shrugged her shoulders. "O-okay…" Vin said sadly. "Yeah… But am not I looking good in these? I mean it's my first time wearing off-shoulder and shorts." She said with concern if she is looking good or not which made everyone else confused thinking why didn't she wear anything like these or why did she choose to wear these clothes now? "Huh? You are saying you never wore shorts before?" Jose asked her, surprised. "Yeah, Actually… My family never allowed me to… but I always wanted to wear it at least once in my life… So, When I looked at these in the store then I thought why not now as there's no one who will stop me." She was bouncing subtly with her joy from her little rebellion act. After hearing it Vin felt bad because he was trying to stop her too which could take her smile away from her. He then realized that he doesn't have any right to her which made his heart heavy.
'If I had a right on you then I would have stood beside you and let everyone stare at us all they want…because I could claim you as mine but-" Vin's gaze was fixed on her smiling face and he thought and then he took a deep breath to clear his mind. Other ladies came outside as well and stood beside Tiara. Tiara looked at them and got nervous because they didn't have anything to do now but then she heard a weird sound coming from one of the ladies' stomachs, Mrs. Kim bit her lower lips trying to hide her embarrassment while Mrs. Kang laughed nervously. "Aahh, I am hungry as hell. We should prepare some food while the others are taking a bath." Tiara said with a bright smile and put her hand on her stomach indicating that she is really hungry which made everyone smile at her trying not to make Mrs. Kim embarrassed.
She took the rod from the ground again to go to the food and kitchen section to gather everything which was needed to prepare food. She took Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Kang with her. Thankfully, The sections were on the ground floor which made their job easy. They grabbed everything they thought is needed and put it in the trolley, they took from the front counter. 2-3 induction stoves, utensils, and food to cook, everything they could think of. There weren't much of unwanted guests on the ground floor which made their job very easier and smoother while the bond between them grew stronger even without any words.
Without any delay, they reach the guard's room where they met everyone else who just took a bath. Tiara took one of the stoves and walked toward the switchboard near the room's gate after Mrs. Kim set a table not so far from the switchboard. She was about to plug in the stove when KR stopped her. "Kids should stay away from these kinds of things," Kr said while coming to her and then stood in front of her. "So, A kid can't plug in an induction stove but can kill the zombies and help you all through this hard time?" Tiara teased him while Mrs. Kang took the stove from her hands and plugged it into the switchboard. She shut his mouth just by her one line and everyone was looking toward them. "Can I help you with cooking?" Tiara asked Mrs. Kim while trying hard to make her understand with her hand gestures.
"Do you even know how to cook?" Ezra said making fun of her. "Of course, I can cook Indian, Chinese, Italian, and American food!" She replied to him with a pout of her lips. "How can we believe you? You are just a 16-year-old kid." Ian teased her. "Who said I'm 16 years old?" She made an ugly irritated face because she never liked that everyone took her as a kid in her entire life just by her looks even her family who actually knew her real age but still treated her like a child. "Then how old are you?" KR asked her, shocked. "Guess?" Tiara gave them a target to guess her age while Mrs. Kang gave her some onions to peel and cut. She sat down to peel the onion and waited for their guesses with a smirk on her face. 'This is going to be fun. It will be fun when they react after knowing my age.'