Taehyun stumbled into Jiwon's arms as Kittichai pushed him from behind. He turned around quickly to see Kitt get tackled to the ground.
"Kitt!" He went to rush forward to help, but was stopped by Jiwon holding his arm. "Let go! Let go of me! I have to help him!" He struggled against Jiwon, tears fell from his face as Kitt vanished amongst the horde of lurkers.
"Run!" He stilled as Kitt's voice broke through the surrounding area.
Jiwon pulled on his arm as the rest of the group was beginning to fend off lurkers that had strayed from the horde that was surrounding Kitt.
"No! Not without him, I won't leave him!" Taehyun cried out hysterically as he shoved Jiwon harshly. The model stumbled backwards into a lurker causing it to fall to the ground along with the blonde. Jiwon scrambled away from the lurker as it attempted to grab him. KZ was quick to kick it in the head, knocking it backwards where Yeongsu smacked it with his bat.
Taehyun hadn't moved an inch as he stared guiltily at the model who stood back up with determination and approached Taehyun. The artist glanced back to where Kitt had vanished. "Jiwon... I can't leave him, I care about him."
Without warning, Jiwon smacked Taehyun across the face, the hit echoed around the alley. "We all care about him, Taehyun-ssi! For fuck's sake he is my best friend, you think I want to just leave without him?" Jiwon shouted as tears fell down his face. "Look around, we all care! You don't want to leave him, I get it, but he pushed you out of the way. He died so you could live, do not let his efforts go to waste!"
Taehyun looked around at the group as they fought off the infected. Yeongsu had visible tears down his cheeks as he swung his bat angrily at the lurkers, while many of the other group members had a saddened expression. "You're right... we should go." Jiwon grabbed him by the wrist and led him away from the scene with the rest of the group following. Taehyun glanced back over his shoulder one last time as they turned a corner.
"Where are we going to go now?" Minseok asked as they fought their way out to the main road.
"Let's go back towards the river." KZ stated as they jogged a little ways down the road.
"Why?" Hanwoo asked, "it had loads of lurkers over there earlier."
"I recalled a school being just north of where the rendezvous point was. I had seen it on the map the other day when we were planning the supply runs. Usually schools have a fenced in field, so it may work for a temporary safe house." She explained.
"It's better than nothing." Seojun stated as they set off in the direction of the river.
They fended off quite a few lurkers as they traveled the three miles by foot. Some lurkers were still attempting to follow them, but couldn't keep up. The sun had just passed three in the afternoon as they reached the bridge. They had fought their way there and were all exhausted.
"What went wrong, was today not warm enough?" Hanwoo asked as he wiped a few drops of blood from his forehead.
"It is a bit cooler for the end of spring." Seojun responded.
"It was a bad call." Hanwoo sighed dejectedly.
"A bad call? A bad call just cost us our friend!" Yeongsu snapped, causing KZ to place a hand on his shoulder.
Hanwoo and Seojun glanced at each other, guilt visibly displayed on their faces. "We should keep moving."
The group continued following the river upstream until they reached the school. A few lurkers lingered around the schoolyard, their school uniforms showing that they were once students there.
"How should we proceed?" Hina asked.
"Seojun, Yongrae and I will clear the school yard while the rest of you clear the school." Hanwoo said.
The rest of the group did as they were told and entered the school, while Taehyun was still being pulled along by Jiwon.
"There are three floors in this school, so we should split into three groups and work on clearing each floor separately." KZ suggested.
"Alright, Minseok and I will take the first floor." Hina stated.
"Yeongsu, will you help me clear the third floor?" KZ asked the fireman. He simply nodded in response, not saying anything.
"We will get the second floor." Jiwon stated as he pulled Taehyun up the stairs to the second floor.
The second floor had a few lurkers on it, all wearing their school uniforms. "There are two in this classroom." Jiwon whispered to Taehyun as he peered through the first classroom door.
Taehyun opened the door and walked into the classroom without a care in the world. He swung his weapon across the first lurker's face, killing it in one swing. He then sliced the other one across the stomach, its rotten insides spilling onto the floor. Its intestines hung from its abdomen as it took a step towards the artist, the movement caused a squelching noise underneath its foot as it stepped into a puddle of its own innards. Taehyun then sliced another hole in its stomach and then another. He continued to slash at the same spot until he cut the lurker in half. Tears fell from his eyes as he let out a bitter laugh, the lurker's upper body crawling towards him slowly.
"What did I do to deserve this?" He dropped his weapon as he sank back onto a school desk, hands covering his face.
Jiwon didn't say anything as he walked in and finished off the lurker. Sitting on a desk next to Taehyun; Jiwon obviously didn't dare to speak first.
"What was he like when he was younger?" Taehyun questioned softly as he looked up at Jiwon who had equally teary eyes.
"He was always selfless and kind." He responded as he looked out the window. "We became friends rather suddenly. He had moved to my neighborhood one year when I was getting bullied. He witnessed them beating me up and stepped in. Just imagine this short kid that was younger than all of us, beating up the leader. He didn't even know me, but he still helped. We became friends after that."
"He clearly was foolishly selfless." Taehyun said bitterly, a sob following after.
"Maybe so. Did you know that he is the reason that I became a model? He had suggested it and then encouraged me when I began my career. He will always be my best friend." Jiwon stated as he placed a hand over his heart.
"I wish I could've met him earlier, or I should've been paying attention so that he wouldn't have had to save me." He cried. "He should've just let me die so that he could still be here."
"Don't say that. He chose you over himself. If you had died, he'd be sitting here in the same position as you." Jiwon stated.
"Don't you hate me for it?" Taehyun asked.
"No, it's not your fault." Jiwon replied simply. as he looked down at Taehyun dug his nails into his palms. The blonde must've noticed as he gently took Taehyun's hands in his, flipping them over to reveal the blood on his palms. "Don't do this to yourself, he wouldn't want to see you hurt yourself."
He pulled his hands away, "he won't see me hurt, he's not here now is he?" He retorted as he wiped a tear from his cheek.
"Lee Taehyun, just because he is no longer here doesn't mean you can just disregard the way he would've felt." Jiwon snapped.
With a huff Taehyun stood up, grabbed his weapon, and exited the room. He made his way to the next room, checking if it was clear. He continued through the second floor, killing the lurkers he did find. Jiwon shadowed behind him, but didn't help too much in eliminating the lurkers as the artist was obviously releasing his anger on them. The second floor looked terrible as the bodies were dismembered and slashed to bits by Tae. Once they had cleared the second floor they went to the third floor to check on Yeongsu and KZ.
Stepping onto the third floor, he noticed how it had already been cleared out, not a mess in sight.
"Hey are you guys finished up here? We cleared out the second floor, though it may need a deep cleaning if anyone were to use a classroom down there." Jiwon stated as he approached Yeongsu and KZ.
"Yeah we cleared all the lurkers out. We led them to the one classroom and killed them all in there so there wasn't too many messes around this floor." KZ stated as she glanced at Yeongsu.
"That was a good idea." Jiwon stated.
They all heard footsteps echoing from the stairways, they readied their weapons as they grew louder. Taehyun was the first to lower his weapon as they neared the third floor, the footsteps were far too coordinated to be a group of lurkers.
Hanwoo was the first of the group to pop his head over the top of the stairs. "The yard is cleared out and so is the bottom floor." He stated as he locked eyes with Taehyun. The rest of the group followed after Hanwoo as he approached the group that was standing in the middle of the hallway.
"Where should we stay?" Seojun asked KZ and Yeongsu.
"There is a clubroom at the end of the hall that didn't have any lurkers in it. It has a couple of windows that have curtains. We could get a metal trash bin and light a small fire while the windows are open and the curtains are closed. Some of the items in the other classrooms would work well for kindling to use in the fire." KZ stated before leading them towards the classroom. Taehyun remained in the hallway as he watched the group enter the room.
"Are you coming?" Seojun asked, causing Yeongsu to glance back at Tae.
"I just want some time alone." He responded.
"Alright, where will you be? Just in case we need to find you." Seojun asked gently.
Taehyun pointed to a random room a little ways away from him. Seojun nodded as he went into the clubroom. Yeongsu gave Tae a sympathetic look as he also went into the room.
Taehyun walked to the room he had pointed at and opened the door. Upon entering he immediately could tell that it was an art classroom. Ignoring the art supplies, he went to the window and leaned up against the wall. He looked out at the gray sky, it was fitting of the day. Turning his attention to the wounds on the palms of his hands he released a sob. The tears fell onto his hands as they landed on top of the wounds. He cried loudly as his shoulder shook, sliding to the floor. He pulled his knees to his chest as he broke down. He raised his wrist and pressed it over his eyes and moved it down to his mouth to muffle his sobs. "Why...? It should've been me. It should've been..." He trailed off as another sob escaped him.
He had been crying so loudly that he hadn't heard Yeongsu enter, who rushed over to embrace him. "Don't say that."
Taehyun didn't move as he became a sobbing mess in Yeongsu's arms. This was a common occurrence when he had first moved in with Yeongsu's family, it was like the past was reoccurring. All the guilt that he had felt back then was coming back to him.
"Why's it me? Why is it always me?" He cried into Yeongsu's shoulder.
Yeongsu didn't respond as he tightened his arms around the artist. Tae knew that Yeongsu wouldn't respond, after all nothing he could say would make him feel better. They stayed that way for a while; Taehyun wailed loudly and Yeongsu also cried, only releasing a sniffle every now and again.
After about an hour Taehyun calmed down a tiny bit, he had a pounding headache and his nose was stuffy. Yeongsu had stood up and was silently looking out the window; he had been that way for a few minutes now.
The artist continued to wipe at his tears as he stood up without a word and looked around the room. He spotted a blank canvas and walked over to it and picked it up, moving it so that it laid on the floor. He searched for some paint, looking through a few cabinets before finding a basket of acrylic paint. As he moved around he could sense Yeongsu watching him. Opening the bottles of paint, he dumped multiple colors onto the canvas. Red, Black, White and a dark blue paint splattered as it fell onto the white canvas. He then took a large brush and began to wildly mix the colors across the page. The colors perfectly reflecting his own emotions; sad, angry, depressed and empty.
Yeongsu walked over to him, patted him on the shoulder and exited the room. Yeongsu clearly knew that Tae needed his space as he expressed his emotions by painting onto the canvas.
As he painted, tears occasionally fell from his cheeks and landed on the wet paint; leaving visible marks on the painting. He didn't care to fix the marks either, as they would portray his feelings even more.
He continued painting until he could no longer see what he was doing, as the sun had set. He looked at the sky from out the window, the moon was just beginning to appear over the horizon. Getting up, he approached the window. He sat on the window sill, closing his eyes as he leaned his back against the wall. His eyes were puffy and felt heavy, yet tears were still falling from his eyes. He was thinking of how he missed Kitt's warmth, the warmth that he had felt the previous night; how he had fallen asleep in Kitt's arms. Lastly he was thinking of how he wished he could go back in time to change the outcome.
Eventually, after a long while, he fell asleep. His mind finally taking a moment to get some much needed rest.