Two months had passed since Kittichai's death, Jiwon and Yeongsu had both come to terms with it. They were still upset about it, but they had ultimately accepted that he wasn't coming back. Taehyun, on the other hand was still struggling; he would spend most of his days in the art room and had become withdrawn from the group. Most of the group had tried to talk to him about it, but he had turned everyone away, even Yeongsu. Sawyer didn't know Taehyun very well, but she did wish there was some way that she could be of help to him.
Sawyer stood outside the art classroom, peering through the window on the door. She watched as Yeongsu tried to convince Taehyun to patrol the school with her and him. She watched as Taehyun shook his head slowly and went back to painting. He seemed rather lifeless as he carelessly brushed his paintbrush across the canvas.
She took a step away from the door as Yeongsu exited the classroom. He shook his head at her, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "Nothing seems to motivate him lately."
"He's at least painting, that's good right?" She asked, trying to stay positive.
"No. He's never just blankly painted on a canvas before. He's just been painting a whole lot of nothing recently." Yeongsu explained as he turned to glance back at Taehyun through the window. "He's barely been eating, I'm really starting to worry about him."
"He's strong, he will get through this. We all will. He just needs some time to grieve." She stated as she placed a hand on Yeongsu's shoulder.
"We all want to grieve properly, but now is not the time to be drowning in it. It's not safe here. Every day we have to clear out more and more lurkers from the area surrounding the school. Kitt was my friend, but he would want us to all stay strong and keep pushing forward." He said. It seemed a bit cold to say, but it wasn't wrong.
"You're right, we can't afford to lose our wits." She agreed. "We should get moving, we still have to patrol until four this morning."
"Right, let's go."
They started on the second floor and then made their way down to the first floor after confirming that it was clear. Sawyer checked the front door, it was locked shut. She could see from the windows of the doors that a few lurkers had sauntered into the schoolyard. There wasn't enough to cause concern, but it would need to be monitored through the night. She moved from the front door to check the windows. Some windows had already been cracked and others were completely shattered. Yeongsu checked the windows opposite of her.
"This window has a crack in it now, something must've hit it." He stated drawing Sawyer's attention. She approached Yeongsu as he ran his finger along the crack in the window.
"We will keep an eye on it." She said as he gasped and pulled his hand back suddenly. He visibly stared at his finger as a bit of blood lined a small cut. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, just cut myself on a piece of the glass. There was a small break in the glass that was sharp." Yeongsu stated as he went to wipe the blood on his pants.
She was quick to reach out and grab his hand before he wiped the blood off, she put his injured finger in her mouth. She sucked on the wound briefly before she slowly lowered his hand from her mouth. "You shouldn't wipe an open wound on your clothes, we don't know how the parasite infects people."
Yeongsu began to rub his arm awkwardly as he stared wide eyed at Sawyer. She gave him a smile as she tilted her head to look at him. "We should continue to check the floor, see if anything has gotten inside." He stated as he turned away from her.
She couldn't help chuckling as he walked over to a different door, crouched down and began to examine it a little too closely. She followed after him and looked over his shoulder at the door. "Is there something fascinating about that door?" She asked.
"Uhh... No, not really." He whispered as he stood back up and turned away from her. She frowned, she wasn't sure if he was being shy or simply trying to avoid her.
"Do I bother you?" She questioned.
"What? No." He turned slightly, looking at her from over his shoulder.
"Then why do you keep turning away from me?" She asked.
"Umm... I feel a bit self conscious around you." He stated, rubbing his arm again.
"Why?"
Yeongsu turned away once again, looking at his feet. "I think you are very pretty."
She smiled at the statement, "am I? Do you like me?" She asked as she took a step towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder, gently turning him to face her. Once he was facing her she lifted her hand and caressed his face.
"I..." He began to say, but trailed off as the door to the stairs opened.
They immediately jumped away from each other as they picked up their weapons, preparing themselves for a fight. After a moment of suspense, Jiwon walked through the door with his own weapon in hand.
"Jiwon-ssi? What are you doing here?" Sawyer asked, glancing at Yeongsu who had an equally confused expression.
"Uhh..." The model looked around the surroundings, "Taehyun asked for you."
Sawyer and Yeongsu exchanged a look, Yeongsu had just talked to Taehyun. At that moment the artist hadn't seemed interested in talking to anyone and just wanted to be alone. They could both tell it was an obvious lie.
"Are you sure?" The fireman asked.
"Uhh, yeah, I'm sure." He stated.
"Alright, we can go up together." Sawyer responded.
"Uh, he just wants Yeongsu. I think it'd be best if you stayed here." He said.
Exchanging another glance with Yeongsu, she narrowed her eyes.
"She can just wait outside the room for a moment if she wants to come." Yeongsu responded as he gave Jiwon a strange look and began to proceed towards the stairs, Sawyer following him.
Jiwon gently grabbed her by the arm as she passed him. "Can I talk to you, alone? Please?"
She glanced at Yeongsu who was making a strange face as he looked back at them. "Whatever you have to say to me, you can say it now."
Maybe it was a bit rude of her to say that, but she wanted to make it clear to Yeongsu that she wasn't interested in talking to Jiwon privately. Especially since she was interested in Yeingsu, she definitely didn't want him to get the wrong idea.
Jiwon seemed hesitant at first, but after a moment he opened his mouth to speak. "I really like you."
"Huh? What?" She questioned, a little taken back.
"I like you, and I want to get to know you." He repeated.
Yeongsu gave a strange huff before exiting through the doors to the stairs. He seemed a bit irritated. Sawyer didn't really know how to respond. She had originally thought back at the penthouse that Jiwon may have had an interest in her, but she had simply brushed it off as overthinking since he didn't actively try to find her for anything other than sparring practices. He had always looked at her with the same eyes since she had saved him on the train, his eyes always held a type of admiration in them, but not love.
"You don't like me." She simply said as she shook her arm free of his grasp.
"Yes, I do."
"No, Jiwon-ssi, you don't. You just think you do." She said as she shook her head. "It's called transference. You misplaced your feelings. I saved your life so you had feelings of gratitude that turned into an infatuation. You feel indebted to me, you don't really like me." She responded, holding eye contact with him.
"I do like you! How are you going to tell me how I feel!" Jiwon exclaimed, obviously upset at what she had said.
She released a sigh, "Fine, then. Let me give you my answer. I do not like you in that way. You are a good person, but I am not interested in you." She responded before making her way down the hallway to finish patrolling. She heard the faint shut of the door behind her, she looked back to see that Jiwon had gone back upstairs. Letting out another sigh, she shook her head. She probably really hurt Jiwon's feelings with what she had said to him, but he needed to hear it so that he could move on. So he could sort his feelings out.
As she reached the cafeteria she noticed that the door was slightly opened. She peeked into the cafeteria, a few of the windows were broken and a couple lurkers were standing in the large room. She slowly shut the door, and looked around the hall. She went to a nearby classroom and found a backpack. Returning to the door she clipped the chest harness around the door handles to temporarily lock them shut. She thought about the door being slightly open, either a lurker somehow opened the door and entered or someone opened it from the inside. She didn't really want to consider someone had purposely left the door open, but it seemed more logical than a lurker opening the door. She tilted her head quickly, it didn't make sense. After a moment she heard a clatter coming from down the hallway towards one of the other stairways. She turned towards the sound, approaching its location. She peered into each room she passed by on her way to the stairs. As she turned the corner to the stairs she was immediately pounced at by a lurker. It snarled as it leapt towards her, it reached its hands out to grab her. She pivoted on her heels, dodging as the creature nearly tackled her. She stuck her foot out as it went past her, tripping it. It landed on its stomach as it barely missed her. This lurker was quick as it stood on its hands and feet, turning to her in an animalistic way. She shivered as the infected moved, its bones cracking loudly with every movement it made.
She usually wouldn't have a problem kicking them, but this one looked a bit sturdier than the rest. It didn't lunge at her yet, it seemed to be looking at her. Its head turned upwards as if it was looking at something behind her. She didn't dare to look either as she heard footsteps rushing down the stairs behind her, they sounded well coordinated which would indicate it was one of the group members.
"There are lurkers inside." Yeongsu stated to himself as he rushed down the stairway above her.
Yeongsu must've come around the final corner of the stairway as the creature stared lifelessly at him.
The creature made a high pitched clicking noise with its throat as its head twitched to the side. It still didn't make a move as it started to look between the two people.
"What is it doing?" She thought to herself as she tightened her grip on her weapon.
Yeongsu rushed down the stairs to stand next to Sawyer, the movement caused the lurker to back away. It suddenly took off running down the hallway towards the section Sawyer hadn't checked yet. They exchanged strange looks before running after it. As they got close to it Yeongsu tried to swipe at its feet with his bat, but just missed. Just as he went to try again another lurker jumped out at them from a classroom. Yeongsu barely dodged it, jumping directly into Sawyer causing her to trip. She landed harshly on her hands and knees, scraping them on the school tiles.
Yeongsu briefly glanced at her as he swung his bat at the one lurker's head, while the other one stopped running at the end of the hallway by a broken window. He killed the one lurker while Sawyer attempted to stand back up. She looked up just in time to see the other lurker escape through the window.
Once the threats were gone, Yeongsu turned back to her. "I'm so sorry, are you alright?" She watched as he looked at the holes that had formed on her jeans from the impact. Since she had been running when she tripped, the friction burns on her hands and knees were pretty bad; especially on her hands. Her one hand had started bleeding a bit as she looked at them.
"Let's call it a night, you can't continue the patrol tonight. We can send Seojun and Hanwoo to finish. Let Hina treat your wounds so they don't get infected." Yeongsu stated as he gently grabbed her wrist and led her back to where everyone was staying on the third floor.
They entered the clubroom where everyone was resting aside from Jiwon who wasn't there. Yeongsu woke up Seojun and Hanwoo and explained the situation. They nodded as they grabbed their gear and walked out the door to finish patrolling. Yeongsu then woke Hina.
Sawyer could hear her ask him what was wrong.
"KZ scraped her hands and knees, do you think you could have a look?" He stated.
"Yeah, just grab me the first aid kit from the desk over there." She said drowsily as she rubbed her eyes and got up from where she was sleeping. She approached Sawyer, "let's go to the room across the hall, so we don't wake anyone."
With a nod of agreement, they went to the classroom across the hall. Sawyer sat down in a chair while Yeongsu brought the first aid kit for Hina, he then sat on the desk next to where Sawyer was. Hina grabbed a small battery powered flashlight from the kit and shined it over Sawyer's wounds.
"It's just a bit red from the fall, but your knees look fine. Just apply a little bit of this antibacterial cream and it should be fine." Hina said as she moved to look at her hands.
"Your left hand should do fine with the same treatment as your knees."
Sawyer noticed how Hina leaned in a little closer to look at her right hand. She then grabbed a container of rubbing alcohol and poured some over her wound. It rinsed the blood away revealing the wound. "Why does it look shiny? Is that a piece of glass?"
"Yes, you seemed to have gotten a small piece of glass stuck in your hand. It may bleed a bit more if we remove it. Hopefully it isn't too deep." She stated as she pulled out what looked to be tweezers. She poured the disinfectant over the tweezers as she gripped the shard and pulled it out. It was a small shard, but it still hurt all the same as Sawyer winced taking in a deep breath of air.
"Are you all right?" Yeongsu asked, wearing a worried expression on his face.
"Yeah, it just stung a little." She responded.
"Alright, just use the same medicine for this wound as for the friction burns, just put a bandaid over it to prevent bacteria from getting in." Hina stated as she poured a little more disinfectant on the open cut. "I trust you can handle the rest?"
"Yes, thank you Hina. Go get some more rest, sorry for waking you." Sawyer responded.
"Not a problem, goodnight." She said as she exited the room leaving Yeongsu and Sawyer by themselves. Sawyer reached for the antibacterial cream but Yeongsu picked it up first.
"Let me do it, I am the reason you're wounded in the first place." He said as he grabbed a q-tip from the first aid kit. He kneeled down as he squeezed the medicine onto the q-tip and began to apply it on her wounded knees.
"I'd rather have a few cuts and bruises than see you get hurt by a lurker." She said as she brushed a strand of hair out of Yeongsu's eyes with her finger.
He looked up at her with an unreadable expression. "What did you say to Jiwon?"
"I told him that I didn't like him." She responded vaguely. She didn't want to tell him everything since it seemed a bit disrespectful towards Jiwon if she told Yeongsu all that she had said to him.
"Why? He's really good looking and a kind person. I mean, he was even a model." Yeongsu said as he moved to apply the medicine to her hands, focusing on her wounds.
"So are you." She replied, the comment making him freeze.
"What do you mean?" He asked as he looked up at her once again.
"I think you are handsome and kind too. You're brave as well." She smiled at him, reaching out to brush another strand of hair from his face.
"I'm not-" He started.
"You are. Don't tell me you aren't." She interjected. "I think you are better, in all those terms."
He seemed to grow quiet as he moved to the open wound on her right hand. As he applied the medicine to the cut, she flinched. "Ouch."
"I'm sorry." He said quietly as he started to blow on the wound lightly.
"See, gentle and kind." She stated softly.
He placed the band-aid on her hand, and then leaned down and gently planted a kiss over top of it. She held still as she watched him, she was scared that if she moved she would scare him away.
"Back to the conversation we had before... Whether I like you or not." He said as he held her hand from underneath it. "I really like you, to be honest... I have liked you since I first laid eyes on you. You were brave and beautiful, yet cold and heartless at the same time." He said.
"Cold and heartless." She laughed bitterly, "because I threw that man from the train? I killed him."
"He wouldn't have thought twice about killing anyone on that train, as he proved when he threw that teenager off and then tried to throw Jiwon off next." He stated, "you did what was necessary, you didn't hesitate to do what you had to do to survive. Truly I admire you, but it is more than just admiration. I find everything about you a mystery, and I want to solve them all. I want to know everything about you. Will you give me that chance?" He asked.
She stared at him with a warm smile. "Yes, I will."