𝙎𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧 (Gwi-Nam x Cheong-san)

Eleven

For almost the entire time we were walking, I could feel Nam-ra's gaze on me. Something about her was off. It didn't scare me, per say..just unsettled me a little. She gave me weird vibes that she didn't used to have.

Of course, maybe it was because I hadn't seen them for a while. But still, I didn't like it.

 Once we found a place to rest for the night, all of my friends set up camp. Which..I didn't like very much. It looked way too permanent.

"You know that they are going to bomb Hyosan right?" I finally blurted. 

"What are you talking about?" Su-hyeok said. He looked at the others, who looked back at him with the same expression: afraid and uncertain. 

"They are going to bomb Hyosan to get rid of the zombies. We have four days to get out of here if we don't want to die." I remarked, staring into the night.

There are sounds of unrest all around me from my friends.

"How do you know?" Dae-su asks.

"I heard it. I bet Nam-ra could too if you shut up and let her listen." I hadn't meant to come off so harsh, nor did I mean to lie, but it came out that way.

"Hey. Lee Cheong-san. What's with you? You seem different." Ji-min challenges.

"Well maybe I'm a little stressed because we're in the middle of a fucking zombie apocalypse!" I hissed. 

"I can." Nam-ra interrupts. 

Everyone looks at her.

"What?"

"I can hear the announcements now. They will bomb Hyosan." Nam-ra says, her voice soft and monotone.

Panic starts to ensue, everyone looking frantically back and forth at each other's faces. 

"Everyone relax." Su-hyeok said. "I know we're all stressed, but we have to stick together. We're all that's left of Hyosan. I say we keep moving for a little longer before settling down." Everyone nods in agreement and begins to pack up. Su-hyeok looks at me.

"Thanks for telling us. We would have been taking our sweet time and possibly being killed by a bomb if you hadn't told us." A smile crossed his handsome face and he pats my shoulder. I nodded, feeling my face warm up a little. 

Then Gwi-nam's face flashes in my mind and I feel my heart go cold. "We should get going. If we want to cover as much ground as possible, we have to start now." 

I walked in silence, mulling over our fates. "There's a quarentine camp about an hour away from the outskirts of the city. If we can get to the city's borders in two days, we'll be alright." Nam-ra says, coming up from behind me.

"Nam-ra, what are you?" I abruptly ask. She looks at me.

"I seem to be half zombie and half human. I can hear like a zombie, smell like a zombie, and I'm super strong." She pushes her long black hair out of her eyes. "I was bitten. But I didn't die, and didn't go berserk and start eating people. I just woke up. Dae-su called me a hambie."

I nodded in understanding. Some small part of me lit up with hope for someone, but I quickly shoved it down. 

"Now you answer one of my questions." She looks at me as I nod, consenting for her to ask the question. "Why were you travelling with Yoon Gwi-nam?" I smile up at the cloudy skin, shaking my head. 

"Because he saved me, Nam-ra. He saved my life. I would be dead so many times over if I wasn't with him." She looks confused. 

"Why did he save you?" She asks. I laughed a little. 

"Hell, I don't even know. Maybe he felt pity for poor little Cheong-san, lost all alone. And maybe he saw my weakness." I meet eyes with her. "Why do you ask? Do you have beef with him that I should know about?"   

She shakes her head. "No. I just found it odd. I have no problem with that upperclassmen in particular." I smiled. 

"Nam-ra, you're funny. You speak in a strange proper way." I patted her shoulder. She looks confused but doesn't say anything else. 

Eventually, she walked back up front to walk with Su-hyeok, and me? Well, I just walked in silence, pretty much lost in my head. Nam-ra doesn't say anything else to me, and everyone else is up ahead, looking out for zombies and trying to keep going without complaining. 

I didn't know our fate, but I think that maybe we'll make it. On-jo walks over to me, and she looks down. I notice almost immediately.

"What's bugging you, On-jo?" I questioned. 

"Su-hyeok won't like me back." She dejectedly states. "I overheard him talking with Dae-su about who he liked and he said that he liked Nam-ra." 

I pat her back sympathetically. "Hey. It's just a guy, right? You don't need him anyway. I bet once we get to the quarantine camp, all the boys will be drooling over you." She smiles a little at that.

"You mean it?" I grin. 

"Of course. Our On-jo, the prettiest in Hyosan. Who wouldn't like her?" I ruffle her hair. 

"Thanks, Cheong-san." She smiles for real now. 

"No problem. That's what best friends are for." I bumped my shoulder with hers. I can see why I liked her, but now I feel more close to her. I can see her strengths, but now I can see her flaws too. 

And that makes her seem human enough for me.