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Doyoung hears them before he sees them—the unmistakable sound of stomping feet in the distance. Groaning, he wipes his soil-covered hands on his pants and rises to pick up the pair of binoculars resting on a nearby chair. He’s not surprised, it’s been a quiet week which means they were due for another wave sooner or later, but regardless, it’s too early in the morning for this.
He peers through the lenses of the binoculars and curses when, sure enough, he spots a horde of zombies a couple blocks to the north. It’s not a large horde, fortunately, maybe only twenty or so, but they appear to be headed right in the direction of Doyoung’s store and quickly at that. So much for his plans to finally start working on his rooftop garden.
With a disgruntled sigh, Doyoung grabs his trusty machete and flops down into the chair. It’ll be a few until they get close enough to fight and he might as well wait out that little bit of time in comfort. He briefly debates if he should go warn Mr. Yoon, who’s probably still sleeping, but he figures they’ve gone through this enough times that he’ll know to stay out of it once he hears the awful snarling commotion.
He narrows his eyes, the view from the roof now offers a clear picture of the horde growing closer and closer even without the binoculars. Doyoung stills, something isn’t right. He shoots up from his seat to get a closer look—not only is the horde moving at a far faster speed than normal, but they also seem to be dropping off one by one along the way, leaving behind a trail of still bodies on the pavement. Doyoung pinches the bridge of his nose—this could only mean one thing.
The sound of a very much-alive sounding scream rings through the air, confirming his suspicions. It was definitely too early in the morning for this. The only thing worse than those undead fuckers were ones that were still alive. At least with zombies, you know exactly what their motivations are—to eat your flesh—Doyoung could work with that. With humans, you never know when you’ll be backstabbed or sacrificed to save their own skin—Doyoung would know, he’s done his fair share of both.
Doyoung tightens his grip on his machete and leans against the railing to assess exactly what sort of mess awaits him. He lets out a noise of surprise at the realization that it looks to be a single man, trying to outrun over a dozen zombies. The shocking part is how he’s doing a damn good job at it. He got what looks to be a bow in his hands and is shooting arrows at the horde with startling accuracy. That would explain the trail of bodies on the ground.
“HELP, SOMEBODY HELP ME.”
Doyoung winces at the yells. From the looks of it, he’s running out of arrows and energy. It’s a pity, he almost feels bad for the man considering how long he’s managed to evade them, but it’ll all be over for him soon. If things go his way, this might actually work out in Doyoung’s favour. Not only has the skilled stranger singlehandedly wiped off half the horde, but once the zombies inevitably catch up to him, he’ll be a good distraction while Doyoung gets rid of the rest.
Doyoung frowns, not liking the way the man seems to be leading the zombies specifically in the direction of his store. He just hopes he’ll turn around the corner once he gets here. He’s not fond of making a mess too close to his storefront. He’s out of arrows now, but appears to be picking up speed.
Doyoung watches, feeling restless. The man’s unrelenting screams for help were starting to get on his nerves. The closer he gets the more anxious Doyoung feels—he’s only steps away now. Why isn’t he turning yet?
The rattle of the front door jostles and Doyoung watches in wide-eyed horror as the man runs directly into his store. What the fuck, Doyoung blinks, did he see that right? The door swings back shut just in time and Doyoung winces as he watches the zombies slam right into his precious storefront. He can already foresee how much of a nightmare that’ll be to clean up later.
For now, he’s got more important things to deal with—namely the intruder that just waltzed into his store completely uninvited. He practically flies down the ladder and subsequent flight of stairs, making sure he’s got his machete in a firm grip. Doyoung always reasoned better with a weapon.
“MR. YOON, WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT TAKING IN STRAYS,” his voice booms as he enters the main floor of the store.
Mr. Yoon holds his hands up in apology, a guilty expression ridden on his face.
“I’m sorry, Doyoung,” he says, sounding genuinely apologetic, “he just sounded so scared. I couldn’t just leave him to…”
Doyoung sighs, frustration bubbling under the surface of his skin. He knows Mr. Yoon means well, and perhaps there was a time where Doyoung would be right by his side, opening his doors at the first cry of help—but he’s had far too many bad experiences to know not to repeat the same mistakes. The only person he needs by his side is himself. The only reason he even keeps Mr. Yoon around is because he’s not fond of the idea of the slow descent into madness that would likely follow total isolation.
“Where is he?” Doyoung demands, whipping his head around but upon first glance, there’s no sign of anyone else in the shop.
He ends up finding the intruder sitting on the ground in the furthest isle, buried in the chip section. Doyoung yanks him up full force by the collar of his shirt, an odd sense of familiarity coursing through him.
“Who the fuck do you think—” Doyoung suddenly cuts himself off, eyes widening and jaw-dropping to the floor at the face that greets him, “YOU AGAIN.”
Doyoung is practically seething—because staring back at him, with a greasy mouthful of chips, his chips, is the absolute bane of his existence—and that’s saying a lot considering he’s living in the middle of a world-ending zombie apocalypse right now. Hell, Doyoung would much rather be dealing with a dozen zombies than the menace of a human being in front of him.
Doyoung misses pretty much everything from his old life. He misses running his store, talking to customers, going to cafes, the internet, and sleeping without a knife under his pillow. If Doyoung could turn back time to when everything was still normal, he’d do it in a heartbeat.
But if there’s one thing he doesn’t miss, it’s the petty thieves who think they can take advantage of his store, think that Doyoung doesn’t notice when they shove snacks and goods into their pockets and bags when they think he isn’t looking, before running off without an ounce of remorse. Doyoung has put blood, sweat, and tears into running his little convenience store—it’s his entire livelihood. The least those scoundrels could do is rob a Walmart or something instead.
You would think shoplifters would be the least of his worries once the greater part of the earth’s population has turned into flesh-eating monsters, yet here he is, dragging the worst offender of them all up by the collar and while he has the audacity to look at Doyoung with an excited smile, a pair of irritatingly deep dimples poking out of each cheek.
Don’t get him wrong, Doyoung isn’t completely heartless—he gets it when kids come and stare wistfully at the racks of snacks and candies. On occasion, he’ll even turn a blind eye when he catches them not-so-subtly pocketing a candy bar or drink. Not everyone had the money for such things and everyone deserves a snack every now and then.
But Jaehyun? From the very first moment he saw him with his brand name clothes and perfectly groomed hair, Doyoung knew he wasn’t like the rest. The logo on his bag told him he went to the private college nearby—the one whose tuition probably costs more than what Doyoung made in a year. Jaehyun was the last person who should be stealing two-dollar snacks from the local convenience store.
“Doyoung! You’re alive!”
Doyoung scowls in surprise at the sound of his name and brings the machete closer to his face. The menace of the human being doesn’t even flinch in response.
“Remember me?” he asks, sounding oddly hopeful, “It’s Jaehyun. I used to visit your store all the time.”
Doyoung scoffs loudly, “Oh, I remember you alright.”
He remembers it clear as day, spending his evenings chasing Jaehyun out of his store, threatening to call the cops if he ever came back. None of his threats ever worked though, because Jaehyun always came back. Even now, in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, Jaehyun has somehow managed to still come back.
Doyoung glares at him in disbelief when he pops another handful of chips into his mouth.
“Hey, you didn’t pay for those!”
Jaehyun raises an amused brow, but doesn’t stop eating the chips. “I don’t think money matters much anymore,” he says, sounding irritatingly cheeky, “but if you want, I might have a twenty in one of those pockets somewhere.”
Doyoung briefly wonders if it would be easier to simply drive the machete into his own head.
“Why am I even bothering with this?” he says with a shake of his head, “Like I said, I don’t take in strays.”
Doyoung starts dragging Jaehyun towards the front door and it is only then the smile falls from his face, turning into an expression of panic.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Jaehyun pleads, feet skidding across the floor, “Doyoung don’t do this—You’re the first person I’ve seen in months. I promise I’ll be useful, I’ll do whatever you want me to. I’m strong and I can shoot a bow. Just don’t make me go back out there.”
Jaehyun pouts at him, his bottom lip jutting out in a way that’s annoyingly effective. It doesn’t help that Mr. Yoon, who’d been watching the whole affair quietly from the side, suddenly decides to pipe up.
“You could use the extra pair of hands, Doyoung. Especially now that you’re starting work on your garden.”
Jaehyun nods enthusiastically at this. “He’s right, and I have great hands,” he raises them up to show Doyoung as if that would help prove his point, “and I love gardening. I’ve never tried it before but I just know that I’d love it.”
Doyoung closes his eyes, he can already feel a headache brewing. He wishes he weren’t so weak, but as it stands, he’s not sure he can stomach the idea of leaving Jaehyun to be zombie dinner any more than he can stomach letting him stay. It’s all for your garden, he tells himself—as if that’ll excuse the decision he’s about to make.
“Fine,” he grits out finally, tentatively releasing his hold on Jaehyun’s collar, “but you will do everything I say. If you so much as step out of line or touch any of my merchandise without permission, I will not hesitate to throw you out.”
“Yes sir,” Jaehyun says, nodding intently, “I promise you won’t regret it.”
Doyoung grunts, lifting his machete up to serve as one final warning before setting it down on a nearby counter.
“First order of business,” Doyoung announces, crossing his arms over his chest, “you’re helping me get rid of that little fanclub you dragged here.”
He crosses behind the counter to rummage through his stash of makeshift weapons before settling on a hefty-looking crowbar. He shoves the weapon into Jaehyun’s hands.
“I hope your swing is as good as your aim because your bow’s not going to do you any good without any arrows.”
Jaehyun gazes drops briefly onto his abandoned bow laying on the ground in front of the chips section before rising to look at the crowbar in his hands. There’s a flash of hesitation in his eyes, but it’s quickly overshadowed one of determination.
“Easy peasy,” he says, swinging the crowbar a few times in his hand to test it out, “How hard can it be?”
Turns out, Jaehyun’s swing is not so good, but he makes up for it in brute strength. It’s messy and clumsy, but at least he’s managing to stay alive.
“Go for the fucking heads,” Doyoung yells, slicing the head clean off the neck of a zombie to help prove his point.
“I’m trying,” Jaehyun huffs, landing a harsh blow square in the chest of another, sending it stumbling back a few steps, but really does little more than splatter his face with rotted blood, “this thing is heavy.”
He lands another on its shoulder, ribs, and even manages to sever a full hand off the zombie before he finally succeeds to strike a killing blow to its forehead. Doyoung leans against the wall of his shop, watching as Jaehyun lets out a loud sigh of relief, wiping the mess of blood and sweat from his forehead.
"Took you long enough," Doyoung says with a sharp laugh, eyes not so subtly glancing between Jaehyun's and his own significantly larger stack of zombie corpses.
Jaehyun shakes his head, his face a mixture of awe and embarrassment at Doyoung's efficiency.
"Woah," he says breathlessly, "you're good."
Doyoung might even be flattered at the compliment if he weren't busy staring distastefully at the mess of corpses littering his storefront. He frowns at the splatters of blood and guts covering the pavement—hopefully, they'll get some rain in the next few days to help wash some of it away.
"Alright kid," Doyoung says, clearing his throat and gesturing towards the bodies, "load them onto the truck."
Doyoung points at the rusted blue pick-up parked on the sidewalk next to the store. He'd found it with the keys still in the ignition—and a zombie in the backseat—the second week after the world went to shit. It was an ugly, old thing, something that the old Doyoung wouldn't have been caught dead driving, but he had to admit its usefulness in an apocalypse.
Jaehyun gives him a bewildered look, "Why?"
"Well, I'm obviously not going to leave them here rotting, ruining the view of my storefront."
Jaehyun continues to look at Doyoung in confusion but ultimately starts moving to load the bodies once he realizes Doyoung isn't joking. Doyoung smiles, feeling satisfied as he watches Jaehyun struggle to lift the bodies into the trunk, one by one. Perhaps having an extra set of hands could prove to be useful. It was kind of like having his own personal slave—maybe he could get used to this.
He can tell Jaehyun thinks he’s finished when he throws the last corpse in with a heavy thunk. Oh, if only it were that easy. He can practically see the energy drain from Jaehyun's face when Doyoung proceeds to shove him into the truck and drive them down the very road Jaehyun had been running for his life on earlier and pick up every single body along the way. He likes to be thorough. It's not all bad, Doyoung thinks, Jaehyun even manages to salvage a few of his arrows while he's at it, so if anything, he's doing him a favour.
"Where are you taking them?" Jaehyun asks curiously from the passenger seat, once the very last corpse has been cleaned up.
Doyoung hums, a gleeful smile spreading across his face—this was the fun part. He turns around the block, bringing into view a street piled high with zombie corpses, all brought down by Doyoung's own hand, not that he’s bragging of course.
Back in the day, Doyoung ran one of the busiest convenience stores in the entire neighbourhood. He says one of because there was another, one that rivalled his in success, one that used to make Doyoung's eye switch at even the mention of its name—Rose Mart, ran by the insufferable Lee Taeyong who never failed to claim his convenience store was the best in town.
Doyoung parks the truck close to the now decrepit storefront, or at least as close as he can get with all the bodies in the way. It's petty, he knows—Taeyong is probably long dead by now—but the smug joy he gets from dumping dead bodies in front of his old competitor's shop is one of the few instances of happiness he gets to experience anymore, so he has no intention of stopping, no matter how childish it is.
That spark of joy blooms a little stronger when he watches Jaehyun hop out of the truck and begin wordlessly unloading the corpses without Doyoung even uttering a peep of instruction.
✦
“Is this what you do all day?” Jaehyun asks, leaning back in the chair with his hands covering his eyes to block out the sun.
They’re back from dumping the bodies and Doyoung has decided to drag Jaehyun to the roof with him for lookout duty, figuring two pairs of eyes were better than one.
“No,” Doyoung answers simply, his eyes trained on the distant horizon mostly to avoid looking at Jaehyun’s increasingly irritating face.
While he does spend a great deal of his time on the roof, Doyoung has plenty of other things to keep him busy—like eating or sleeping or fixing things up around the store or killing zombies—but he figures it doesn’t hurt to be extra careful, especially right after a horde has passed through in case of any stragglers.
A part of him had also hoped that if he showed Jaehyun the ropes now, he’d sooner be able to dump him on the roof while he went off and worked on other things. Unfortunately for him, it becomes clear very quickly Jaehyun has zero to no interest in hanging out on a hot roof waiting for zombies to show up.
“Can I go lie down or something? There’s nothing happening. I don’t see why both of us have to be up here.”
Doyoung stalks over the chair, giving the back of it a good shove and effectively jolting Jaehyun up in surprise.
“Hey kid listen—”
Jaehyun groans loudly and turns to look at Doyoung with an affronted expression, “Stop calling me kid, you barely look older than me.”
Doyoung rolls his eyes. Jaehyun isn’t wrong, he probably isn’t more than a handful of years older than him but something about the reckless, naive nature of people like Jaehyun makes Doyoung feel as if he’s decades older.
“Then act your age,” Doyoung mutters under his breath but loud enough so Jaehyun doesn't miss a word, “and pay attention or next time I need zombie bait I will not hesitate to sacrifice your ass.”
Jaehyun gasps, “But I have such a nice ass.”
Doyoung raises a doubtful eyebrow and Jaehyun stands up his chair, twisting his head back to examine his own backside. He sticks his tongue out at Doyoung, “A pancake is still a cake.”
Doyoung can only shake his head, turning away to find something, anything, that would be a better use of this time than wasting it attempting to talk with Jaehyun. He needs a break. The roof will be fine without him for a few minutes.
“Besides,” Jaehyun calls after him, “it’s not like yours is any better.”
It’s as if he can suddenly feel a pair of eyes staring at him, or more specifically, his ass. His face involuntarily heats up at the thought. Doyoung freezes mid-step, turning his heel to glare at Jaehyun, who’s smiling far too brightly for Doyoung’s liking.
“Eyes up here,” he says forcefully, pointing two fingers at his face for emphasis.
“Gladly,” Jaehyun’s eyes slowly trail up to meet Doyoung’s, stupid smile not leaving his face and Doyoung isn’t sure if this is any better.
With a flustered scoff, he turns right back around, scrambling to get the door open and descend the ladder in order to get the roof as quickly as he can.
-
“—and that’s the bathroom, but without working plumbing it’s kind of useless now. This goes without saying but please don’t try to use it unless you want to clean up your mess by hand after.”
Jaehyun hums, his eyes curious and wandering as he takes in the room. Doyoung almost wants to comment on how it’s probably not the accommodations Jaehyun is used to, but ultimately decides to hold his tongue—he doesn’t know where Jaehyun has been sleeping the past few months.
He’s giving Jaehyun a tour of his apartment—although it’s not exactly the most complex tour considering the place consists of essentially three rooms. It’s not much, but Doyoung is proud of his cosy, little apartment, situated on the floor right above his store. If he has to be forced to hole up anywhere during an apocalypse, he’s glad he gets to be in the comfort of his own home. He’s got everything he could possibly need—a working stove, a bed to sleep in, and his precious store all in one place.
“And this is my bedroom,” Doyoung says, leading Jaehyun into the room—like the rest of the apartment, it’s cosy, his bed taking up most of the space, but it’s not like he needs much more than that.
“Wow,” Jaehyun breathes, eyeing the bed with an almost feral look.
Doyoung does his best to ignore him—he’s quickly learned there is no point in trying to understand all of Jaehyun’s little incomprehensible behaviours. Instead, he walks over to his dresser and starts flipping through his drawers in search of his least favourite set of pajamas to sacrifice for Jaehyun to wear. As much as he doesn’t like the idea of sharing his clothes, he’d much rather have Jaehyun sleep in these than his own grimy, blood-covered ones, or worse, naked. He also pulls out a towel and an old quilt for Jaehyun to use.
“Here,” Doyoung says, handing the set of clothes to Jaehyun once they’re back in the living room, “wash up downstairs and change into these. Mr. Yoon typically takes the couch, so you can pick between the armchair or the rug to sleep on tonight.”
Jaehyun’s eyes trail from the armchair to the rug and then to meet Doyoung’s eyes with a look of disdain. “Are those really the only options?” he asks, voice trailing into a whine.
Doyoung gives him an unimpressed look, “Feel free to sleep on the roof, or better yet, on the street.”
Jaehyun looks at him for a moment, lips pouting, but has enough sense to take the clothes and not argue.
“You remember where to go and what to do right?” Doyoung asks once again, because he can never be fully sure Jaehyun is ever actually listening to him.
Earlier he’d shown Jaehyun the makeshift bathroom and shower area he had created in the alley leading out the side door of the store. Complete with big barrels to collect rainwater and heavy dumpsters blocking the street on either side—it’s not the most appealing bathroom in the world, but it’s effective.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jaehyun says, giving Doyoung a half-hearted wave before disappearing down the stairs.
Jaehyun returns twenty minutes later, scrubbed clean and dressed in Doyoung’s pajamas.
“I’m done,” he mumbles, running a hand through his damp hair, “your turn.”
Doyoung straightens his back when he catches himself staring at Jaehyun for a beat too long. Underneath all that dirt and grime, Jaehyun somehow manages to look even younger—innocent in a way that almost makes Doyoung forget his main hobbies include petty theft and being an all around nuisance.
“Right,” he says quietly, careful not to wake Mr. Yoon who is already fast asleep on the couch, “I’ll be back in a bit. No need to wait up for me.”
Jaehyun gives him a small smile and nods, waving his hand in a shooing motion for Doyoung to go. With a roll of his eyes, Doyoung heads down the stairs for a much needed cleanse of the day’s worth of blood and sweat.
Doyoung’s downfall, which he’s come to realize within the span of this one day, is his foolish belief that he could go even an hour without Jaehyun coming up with a new way to annoy him. His first warning that something was off should have been the lack of Jaehyun’s presence in the living room after he’d returned from washing up. It didn’t register, with how exhausted he was from the day’s events the only thing on his mind was climbing into bed and passing out.
Of course, it’s never that simple, because the moment he steps into his bedroom, he’s greeted by the unfortunate sight of Jaehyun tucked into his bed, under his sheets.
“What the fuck are you doing on my bed?” Doyoung wants to laugh in disbelief—he’s too tired for this.
Jaehyun’s eyes fly open and immediately he’s sitting up with a sheepish smile and his hands held up defensively in front of himself.
“Ok hear me out,” Jaehyun says, his shoulders slouching and his bottom lip once again jutting out into that ridiculous pout of his, “I was gonna sleep in the living room, I promise, but it’s been so long since I’ve slept on a proper bed and it just looked so comfy and I only wanted to try it out for a second and now I don’t think I can leave.”
Doyoung has half a mind to grab his machete and chase Jaehyun out, in fact, the thought is starting to become more and more appealing the longer he looks at Jaehyun.
“Doyoung please, please, please,” Jaehyun clasps his hands together in a pleading motion, “There’s more than enough room for us to both fit and I promise I won’t bother you and I don’t snore and—”
“Fine,” Doyoung snaps—he simply does not have the energy to continue to listen to Jaehyun’s nonsense, “but only for tonight.”
He’ll save this argument for tomorrow. For now, sleep was more important. With a resigned sigh, he climbs into the other side of the bed and none too gently pulls the covers off of Jaehyun and around himself.
✦
"Get up," Doyoung shoves Jaehyun's sleeping figure, knocking him to the floor with a dull thud.
Jaehyun groans loudly, hands grasping at his side where Doyoung had not-so-gently pushed him. Doyoung bites back a smirk in satisfaction. He’s bundled head to toe in Doyoung’s comforter, which he pulls higher over his head. Doyoung sighs and yanks the blanket off, much to Jaehyun’s annoyance.
“It’s too early,” he whines, but Doyoung ignores him, pulling the curtains open to let the sunlight in.
Doyoung’s already been up for almost an hour now—it’s been difficult for him to sleep in too long with the constant threat of undead creatures looming over his shoulder. Jaehyun seems to disagree.
“Five more minutes.”
Doyoung ignores him. "I want to take advantage of as many hours of daylight as possible," Doyoung explains, "Get dressed and grab a granola bar downstairs. We’ve got a long day ahead of us. I’m going to go wake Mr. Yoon up, you better be ready by the time I’m done.”
Now that he’s got the extra man-power, he might as well make full use of it—who knows how long Jaehyun is going to be with them—sooner or later he’s bound to get bored and leave, or turn on him, or get bitten. He knows the type—young, restless, eager to show off and take charge. He’s seen enough of them pass through his doors to know they never last.
“Where are we going?” Jaehyun leans forward to prop himself against the back of Doyoung’s driver seat.
Doyoung’s frowns, eyes focused on the road. There goes any hope for a silent car ride. He lets out a vague grunt in reply, which as expected isn’t enough to satisfy Jaehyun.
“Come on, Doyoung,” Jaehyun pleads, “At least tell me how much longer it’ll be, I’m bored.”
Doyoung fights the urge to roll his eyes. He already hates driving enough, the last thing he wants to do is entertain Jaehyun on top of it. He’s used to silent car rides—Mr. Yoon isn’t much of a talker. He glances over at the older man who’s dozed off in the passenger seat—he’d half expected Jaehyun to do the same with the way he’d complained about being forced awake earlier, but alas, he wasn’t so lucky.
“Be patient,” Doyoung says through gritted teeth, “You’ll find out when we get there.”
Jaehyun huffs, “How am I supposed to know how to prepare myself if I don’t even know where you’re taking me?”
Doyoung’s grip tightens on the steering wheel and debates if it would be easier to just give into Jaehyun’s questions. Maybe then he’d leave him alone to drive in peace.
“We’re going to a gardening centre,” Doyoung explains, “now stop asking questions.”
Jaehyun lets out a noise of surprise and proceeds to completely ignore the second half of Doyoung’s sentence.
“A gardening centre?” he repeats, “Why? No offense, but now’s not really the time to be planting flowers.”
Doyoung inwardly scowls—if he’s going to be offended by anything in that statement, it’s Jaehyun’s apparent lack of a brain.
“You do realize gardens grow other things as well, like food for example, which I personally think is kinda important to our survival.”
“Food?” Jaehyun asks, leaning over the centre console, much to close for Doyoung’s comfort, “Don’t you have a whole store full of that?”
It’s true, his shelves are still relatively stocked, but Doyoung knows well enough that’s not going to last him forever. He needs to start thinking about his long term survival—he didn’t make it so far only to die because he ran out of canned soup.
“That’s not going to last forever,” Doyoung says, annoyed that he even has to explain it in the first place, “now get ready and wake Mr. Yoon up, we’re almost there.”
Doyoung parks the truck across three different parking spots, because he can. With a backpack slung over his shoulder and his trusty machete in hand, he hops off the truck first, to take a preliminary look around for any stray zombies around the entrance. So far, the coast looks clear. He signals for Jaehyun and Mr. Yoon to follow.
Together, they cautiously enter the garden centre—Doyoung makes sure to keep his eyes and ears peeled for any sign of movement.
“Here,” he whispers, wheeling a shopping cart over to Jaehyun, “grab as many bags of soil as you can and load them onto the truck.”
Jaehyun nods, taking the cart, “Any preferences for brand of soil or...?”
Doyoung narrows his eyes, “I don’t care, just get me soil. And please try not to get bitten.”
“Yes sir,” Jaehyun says, giving him a half-hearted salute before he departs to get started on his task.
With that out of the way, he and Mr. Yoon set off in search of the seed section. Ideally, he would have liked for Mr. Yoon to stay at home, at his age, he wasn’t exactly the most fit or the best fighter, but Doyoung’s never started a garden before—he’s never been the biggest fan of dirt—and he could use his help in picking the best seeds to plant.
“Any requests?” Mr. Yoon asks, thumbing through the packets of seeds and picking the ones he likes out to throw into the backpack while Doyoung stands on guard.
“No cucumbers please,” he requests, wrinkling his nose at the thought.
Mr. Yoon lets out a chuckle, and picks up a packet of cucumber seeds, “They’re easy to grow though.”
Doyoung bites on his tongue to avoid saying anything further. Whatever, Mr. Yoon could eat them because Doyoung sure as hell wasn’t going to.
“Doyoung!” he hears a voice call out and whips his head around to see Jaehyun running towards them with a panicked look waving his crowbar, now covered in blood, “I loaded the soil onto the truck, but there was a group of them hanging around the entrance when I tried to go back. I managed to get past them but I think more are coming.”
Mr. Yoon visibly tenses in fear beside him. This was exactly what Doyoung hoped wouldn’t happen. The sound of a crash and faint snarls coming from the direction of the entrance snaps him into action.
“Damn it,” he curses, grabbing the backpack and hastily throwing it back over his shoulder, “We have to go.”
With the front entrance out of the question, they need to find a way out through the back and make their way around to the truck from there. If there’s one thing that’s kept Doyoung alive for so long, it’s his ability to act in stressful situations. Turns out, he thinks best when he’s under the pressure of imminent death—a position he finds himself in far too often these days for his liking.
He works quickly, zeroing in on an emergency exit near the back which should lead them to the other side of the building. He sets a quick pace, throwing an occasional glance backwards to make sure Jaehyun and Mr. Yoon are following as he maneuvers through the aisles to reach the exit.
Doyoung yanks open and hisses at the other two to hurry up, pushing them through the door first before he follows along himself, shutting the door tightly behind him with a sigh of relief.
Any relief however, is short-lived when he turns to find Mr. Yoon and Jaehyun standing frozen in place, staring at the space behind him. Carefully, Doyoung twists around to look over his shoulder, heartbeat leaping in his chest at the sight of a group of zombies gathered a barely few metres away. Fuck.
It takes a second for the zombies to notice them but they set off into action the moment they do.
“RUN,” Doyoung yells—his feet have started to move on their own, instinctively urging him to get away.
He doesn’t look back as he runs—he can hear the footsteps of the other two behind him but he doesn’t want to risk looking back to check. Doyoung rounds the corner of the garden centre and nearly cries in frustration at the sight of a chain link fence blocking them off from the main parking lot.
Doyoung’s acting purely on adrenaline now, practically throwing himself onto the fence. Even with his machete in one hand, he manages to scale it quickly, vaulting himself over the top and landing on the other side with a hard thump. He’s never been so grateful at his past self for parking off to the side instead of directly in front of the entrance.
He chances a glance behind him, expecting to see the other two hot on his tail, only to find them staggering further behind than expected. Jaehyun just reaches the fence, but Mr. Yoon is a few metres back, just barely managing to outrun the hoard.
Jaehyun stops in front of the fence, a panicked look on his face as he looks back at Mr. Yoon—almost as if he wants to do something to help him. Doyoung knows the feeling well, but he also knows that your first priority should still be yourself.
“What are you doing?” Doyoung yells at Jaehyun from the other side of the fence, “CLIMB.”
Jaehyun’s hands curl around the fence, gaze flickering back and forth between Doyoung and Mr. Yoon.
“Jaehyun,” Doyoung says sharply and it is only then that Jaehyun hesitantly starts climbing.
Doyoung grabs him as soon as he gets over the top and helps—or drags—him down. He tries to pull Jaehyun along with him to get to the truck but he doesn’t budge, his eyes fixed on Mr. Yoon who’s still struggling to catch up.
“COME ON MR. YOON,” Jaehyun yells, “JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE.”
Doyoung watches the whole exchange with his mouth shut and holds himself back from telling Jaehyun to do the same—he knows not to hold out hope, he already knows it’s too late for Mr. Yoon. Had a feeling in the back of his mind as soon as he saw those zombies outside the back exit.
But no amount of mental preparation would be able to stop him from flinching when the first zombie manages to grab Mr. Yoon by the arm and sinks its teeth into his wrist. Jaehyun is quick to cover his ears at the sound of Mr. Yoon’s pained scream—Doyoung’s own breath catches in his throat but he can’t bring himself to look away as the creature rips out a chunk of his flesh.
Another latches onto his neck and Mr. Yoon goes limp in its grasp as it tears a piece out of his neck, splattering blood all over. They swarm his body, rabid and frenzied, fighting over to get a bite of any inch of flesh. You’d think by now he’d be used to the sight of seeing people getting ripped to pieces, but no matter how inevitable it gets, it’s just as horrifyingly jarring every single time.
Doyoung doesn’t realize he’s still gripping onto Jaehyun’s arm until he has to let go. He quickly retracts his hand, but Jaehyun doesn’t seem to have noticed any of it, eyes still still trained on what’s left of Mr. Yoon.
“We need to leave,” Doyoung urges, they’ve already wasted too much time and it’s only so long before the zombies still lingering around the front entrance come around and notice their presence.
Jaehyun shakes his head in disbelief, “But he—”
“He’s gone,” Doyoung cuts him off, “We can't stay here for any longer.”
Jaehyun lets out a noise of acknowledgement, but walks closer to the fence instead, towards a zombie which has now sprawled out against the fence attempting to grab at them through the chainlinks. It’s the same that tore out Mr. Yoon’s throat, but now seems to have lost interest in him at the sight of fresh meat.
Jaehyun glares at it in disdain before lifting his crowbar and shoving the tip straight through its eye with a grunt. Doyoung stays silent—in the grand scheme of things, killing one zombie was inconsequential—but he can’t deny the sight of the zombie falling lifelessly to the ground is gratifying.
“Let’s go,” Jaehyun says roughly, turning his heel and walking straight towards the truck.
This time, no one says a word on the drive back home.
✦
The thing about living in a time when the better part of humanity has been turned into undead monsters, is you get used to the idea of death. It’s inevitable and the only thing anyone can do now is try their best to survive as long as possible. So they don’t talk about Mr. Yoon, there’s no point—shit happens, we can’t all keep outrunning death forever and neither can you save everyone if you want to save yourself. It would do more harm than good to dwell on it.
Doyoung sets to work the moment they arrive back at his store. Today has been yet another reminder there is no time to waste. He silently starts unloading the bags of soil off the truck in preparation to haul them up to the roof—it’s laborious work, but necessary if he wants to get his garden going anytime soon.
He jolts when a hand suddenly touches his arm, almost dropping the bag in his hands.
“Sorry,” Jaehyun says, immediately retracting his hand, “I just wanted to say you can go ahead and bring the first batch up to the roof and get started on the garden if you want to. I can carry up the rest.”
Doyoung gives Jaehyun a look of hesitation, “Are you sure? You’ll probably have to make quite a few trips and —”
Jaehyun shakes his head to cut Doyoung off. “Don’t worry about me, I can handle it,” he says, raising an arm to flex his muscles as proof, “It’s what you're keeping me around for isn’t it? Free labour.”
Doyoung looks at him skeptically, but doesn’t bother to disagree. There’s no way he can deny that offer, after all, Jaehyun said it, not him.
“Alright,” Doyoung says with a shrug, hauling the bag of soil in his arms up higher in preparation to bring it upstairs, “come join me when you’re done.”
It takes Jaehyun almost an hour to get all the bags of soil onto the roof. Doyoung spends the time preparing his planters, carefully filling them with soil whilst listening to the background noise of Jaehyun heaving and struggling to lift the bags up the ladder. Doyoung would feel bad, but Jaehyun volunteered—plus that one bag of soil he brought up himself at the beginning was enough for him to know he’d prefer not to repeat the experience.
“And that’s—” Jaehyun grunts, dropping the heavy bag of soil, “—the last one.”
He promptly collapses on the ground next to Doyoung with a loud sigh of relief. Doyoung bites back a smile of amusement at the sight. Better him than me.
“I’m not moving for the rest of the day,” Jaehyun groans, shutting his eyes.
Doyoung hums, patting down the soil to distribute evenly, “Does this mean you’re taking me up on the offer to sleep on the roof?”
Jaehyun huffs petulantly, “You’d really make me sleep on the roof, after everything I’ve done for you?”
Doyoung doesn’t answer, focusing on the work in front of him. At this rate he’ll be able to start planting today. He twists around in search of a shovel—
“Damn it,” he empties out the contents of his backpack onto the ground—he knew he was forgetting something.
Doyoung sighs at the thought of having to dig through all the dirt with his bare hands.
“What is it?” Jaehyun asks from the side, eyes peeking open curiously at Doyoung’s dilemma.
“Nothing,” Doyoung brushes him off, “Forgot to pick up a shovel. No big deal.”
Jaehyun suddenly sits up with an eager look on his face. “Wait,” he says, shoving a hand into one of the pockets of his hoodie before pulling out a little garden trowel and a pair of shears, “I forgot I grabbed these.”
He hands the tools to Doyoung who accepts them in disbelief, “How did you—”
Jaehyun grins cheekily, “Aren’t you glad you kept me around? I’m useful, aren’t I?”
Doyoung rolls his eyes, “When did you even find time to grab these?”
Jaehyun shrugs, “You of all people should know I have a talent for taking things without others noticing.”
Doyoung shakes his head, focusing his attention back on his garden—using his new trowel to start digging little holes to plant the seeds in.
“Sure you do. If you really are so talented at thieving then how come I used to catch you every single time?”
Much to Doyoung’s surprise, Jaehyun smiles in response. “Maybe I wanted to be caught,” he pauses, looking at Doyoung, “You’re kind of cute when you’re all riled up.”
Doyoung chokes on air, launching into a coughing fit at Jaehyun’s words. He can feel his face getting red, both from his growing embarrassment and the lack of oxygen in his lungs. Jaehyun giggles loudly from beside him, clapping a hand on Doyoung’s back to calm him down.
“You’re cute when you're flustered too,” Jaehyun adds, which only helps to prompt another choked cough from Doyoung.
“Shut up,” Doyoung mutters out when he is finally able to catch his breath, “I should have called the cops on you.
Jaehyun laughs again, light and cheerful, “You said that every time. You never did though.”
Doyoung huffs, “Only because I don’t like dealing with cops.”
“Mhmmm.” Jaehyun remains unconvinced, but Doyoung rolls his shoulders back and sits up straighter, choosing to ignore him, not wanting to risk embarrassing himself further.
“Why’d you steal anyway?” he asks quietly, in hopes of shifting the conversation, “Correct me I’m wrong, but it didn’t really seem like you needed to.”
Jaehyun fiddles with the garden shears in his hands and shrugs. “I was tired of people telling me what to do,” he mumbles, looking down as he answers and Doyoung is almost about to apologize for asking when his head perks back up again, “and it gave me an excuse to visit you.”
Doyoung gives Jaehyun a dubious look, “You do realize you could have come in and bought things, you know, like a normal person?”
Jaehyun gives him a cheeky, dimpled smile, “Yeah, but would you have remembered me that way?”
All it would take is a quick glance over Jaehyun’s face to know that it’s striking. He thinks even if Jaehyun hadn’t been a regular thieving pest, he might have still remembered him. But Jaehyun doesn’t need to know that. Instead, he lets out a little huff and doesn’t respond.
“I am...sorry though,” Jaehyun speaks up again after a long beat of silence, “I know it was wrong.”
Doyoung shakes his head, “Ah, well, it doesn’t matter anymore. Your skills prove to be useful to me now.”
Even so, he appreciates the apology. It’s the last thing he would have expected to get from Jaehyun.
Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Jaehyun start to pull more things out of his pockets—this peaks Doyoung’s curiosity.
“What else did you take?” he asks, turning his head to catch Jaehyun with two handfuls of candy bars and a satisfied smile.
“Really?” Doyoung raises a skeptical brow, “You realize I own a convenience store, right?”
Jaehyun hums, unwrapping a chocolate bar and shoving a big bite into his mouth.
“You can never have enough,” Jaehyun says between chews, “Plus, if I tried to touch any of your candy bars, you’d probably yell at me and threaten to cut my hands off.”
“That’s not—” Doyoung opens his mouth defensively before clamping it shut again because yeah, that did sound like something he would do.
✦
At this point, Doyoung isn’t the least bit surprised to come back from washing up to find Jaehyun once again tucked into one side of his bed. He had a feeling this would happen—he let Jaehyun get away with it one time and now he’s gone and claimed the bed as his own. Doyoung pinches the bridge of his nose. It’s on the tip of his tongue to remind Jaehyun that the couch is now free to sleep on, but he knows Jaehyun would never agree to that. Even he wouldn’t agree to force Jaehyun to sleep on the couch, especially not after—
Doyoung squeezes his eyes shut. He can’t let it get to him now, he’s been fine all day. He’s lost plenty of people—friends, family, acquaintances, and more and he has powered through each of them the same. Maybe it’s because Mr. Yoon was the last reminder of his old life—he used to run the laundromat across the street, back before the world went to shit. But now he’s gone too, leaving Doyoung on his own.
Well, almost. Doyoung opens his eyes to see Jaehyun watching him with a concerned look on his face, and for once, Doyoung is glad he’s here. As self-sufficient and capable as he claims to be, he’d rather not be alone right now.
So he doesn’t say anything to Jaehyun—doesn’t yell at him to get lost like a tiny part in his brain is still urging himself to, and slides under the sheets beside him. Jaehyun carefully watches his movements with wide eyes, he’s tense, as if he’s waiting to get yelled at. When nothing comes, he seems almost caught off guard.
“Are you okay?” he asks quietly, not so subtly shifting his body closer to the centre of the bed.
Doyoung sighs, “I’m fine. It’s just been a long day.”
“Mhmm,” Jaehyun nods slowly before hesitating, “I’m sorry, by the way. About Mr. Yoon. I didn’t get a chance to say it earlier, but yeah. I’m sorry.”
His voice is sad, cracking a bit at the end and Doyoung almost thinks Jaehyun seems more upset about the whole thing than him. And that’s saying something considering he’d only known Mr. Yoon for about a day. He’s not sure if he should be concerned or endeared.
“It happens,” Doyoung says with a stiff smile, trying to sound as casual as possible.
“Still,” Jaehyun says quietly, “I’m sorry. I should have tried harder to help him.”
Doyoung sighs. Jaehyun is soft. Too soft for his own good.
“Jaehyun,” Doyoung says and Jaehyun visibly perks up at the mention of his name, “If it comes down to it and you have to choose between saving yourself and saving me, save yourself, because that’s what I would do.”
Jaehyun gives him a long look. He wants to protest, Doyoung can see it on his face—but he holds his tongue, and while it’s not quite the acknowledgement he’s looking for, it’s better than nothing.
Doyoung closes his eyes, not wanting to dwell on any of this any longer. Whatever twisty, ugly feelings he’s feeling right now, he’ll just sleep it off. He always does. If only he could shut his own brain up long enough to fall asleep. It doesn’t help that he can still feel a certain pair of eyes staring at him even through his closed ones.
Doyoung is no closer to being asleep when Jaehyun’s voice eventually breaks the silence.
“Can we...cuddle?”
Doyoung freezes. Did he hear that right?
“Excuse me?”
“Please?” Jaehyun insists, “You don’t even have to do anything, just let me hold onto you for a bit.”
Doyoung shakes his head, this was getting into territory he wasn’t so comfortable with. “Jaehyun, I don’t think that’s a good—”
Turns out, it was less of a question and more of a warning because Doyoung barely manages to voice his dissent before he feels a heavy arm wrap itself around his torso and a head bury itself into the side of his chest. What the fuck.
“Jaehyun,” Doyoung warns, unsure of how to proceed, “What do you think you’re doing?”
Jaehyun murmurs happily into his side, “This is nice. You smell nice. Haven’t been able to do this in so long. I missed cuddling.”
Doyoung lies stock still, his brain still trying to figure how the hell he got into this position. Jaehyun hums against him and curls his leg over Doyoung, the arm around him pulling him in even closer.
“Relax,” Jaehyun says sleepily, and against Doyoung’s best efforts, he feels some of the tension leave his body at Jaehyun’s voice.
He already knows it’s too late to get out of this—he’s too tired to pull Jaehyun off and he can’t deny how comfy he looks snuggled up to him. Doyoung takes a breath and tries to relax himself further. He guesses it’s kind of nice. It’s been a while since he’s been so close to another person and the feeling of human warmth curled up against him is nicer than he’s willing to admit.
Jaehyun looks younger like this, innocent almost—like the pampered rich boy he was supposed to be, rather than the kid forced to survive on his own, having lost all his family and friends. Doyoung is overwhelmed by a sudden urge to protect him, maybe because the way he clings to him sort of reminds him of when his younger cousin used to sleep over at his place. His heart pangs at the thought of Jeno, who was surely long gone by now.
Doyoung brushes the thought aside, instead focusing on Jaehyun and the way his chest rises as he breathes and the little sleepy noises he lets out. It’s suddenly a lot easier to shut off the rest of his mind and he can feel the drowsiness start to take over.
“Good night, Jaehyun.”
✦
The first thing Doyoung notices when he wakes up is how good he feels. For the first time in who knows how long, it feels like he’s had a proper night’s sleep. These days he’s used to fitful nights and waking up at the crack of dawn to whatever new nightmare his bastard brain decided to come up with that night.
The second thing he notices is he’s alone in bed. He questions why it’s even something his mind has even noticed, after all, he should be more used to waking up alone than not, but after last night, the absence of Jaehyun beside him is almost jarring. That, and the fact that Jaehyun doesn’t get out of bed unless forcibly removed from it.
Doyoung’s eyes dart to the clock on his nightstand and has to do a double-take when it displays it’s almost noon. He rarely slept in this long even before the apocalypse.
With a groan, he stretches and climbs out of bed. He grabs a hoodie out of his drawer and pulls it on, deciding it’s probably best he starts looking for Jaehyun. Doyoung can already imagine at least a dozen ways he could have possibly managed to get in trouble while he was asleep. At least he was well-rested for whatever nonsense he was inevitably bound to find Jaehyun in.
Turns out, what he finds is Jaehyun on the rooftop, dressed in a floral apron, up to his arms in soil. He appears to be attempting to plant seeds, although he’s really just mostly making a mess, but he’s so deep in concentration Doyoung can’t bring himself to interrupt him. That and how maybe he thinks it’s a little cute how he sticks his tongue out to focus and wipes his forehead with his dirty hands, only to smudge more soil on his already soil-covered face. It doesn’t make him any less annoying, but still, he’s kind of cute.
It takes Jaehyun almost half an hour to notice Doyoung, but Doyoung was content to spend the time watching him as he worked. He tries his best to ignore the weird clench his heart does at the thought of Jaehyun waking up early on purpose to help with his garden. Whether or not his contribution actually ends up being viable is still up in the air, but the thought behind it does funny things to his stomach.
“Doyoung!” he gasps when he finally turns his head to grab the trowel behind him, eyes landing on Doyoung instead, “how long have you been there?”
Doyoung offers a small smile, “I just got here. Care to tell me what you’re up to?”
Jaehyun smiles brightly at him, “You were still asleep when I woke up so I decided to come up here and help you with your garden. Look, I planted this whole section with these.”
He raises up a packet of seeds and Doyoung narrows his eyes when he reads the label. Cucumbers. His face pulls into a grimace, it’s really automatic instinct at this point at any mention of the cursed vegetable, but he only realizes how bad he looks when Jaehyun’s face falls.
“Oh. Did I do it wrong?” he asks, worrying his bottom lip, “I read the instructions on the packet and everything—”
“No,” Doyoung stops him before he can go further, suddenly feeling bad, “It’s not that.”
Which is ridiculous—when has he ever cared about Jaehyun’s feelings, but it seems his mouth is working before his brain can catch up. Something about the way Jaehyun looks up at him with wide, worried eyes makes Doyoung want to assure him it’s not his fault.
“I’m just not a fan of cucumbers,” he says simply, “in fact, I detest them.”
He can’t resist to emphasize the last bit.
“Oh!” Jaehyun says, dropping the packet of seeds onto the ground, “I can redo this.”
“Woah,” Doyoung takes a step back and tries to stop, “You don’t have to do that–”
But it’s too late, and Jaehyun is already rummaging through the stash of seeds.
“Tomatoes!” he exclaims, pulling out a packet, “Do you like tomatoes?”
He looks at Doyoung expectantly and Doyoung can’t find it in him to do anything but go along with it. He sighs and offers a little nod—and it’s all the go ahead Jaehyun needs. With a little huff of amusement, Doyoung decides to grab a seat, content on watching Jaehyun dig out his entire morning’s progress, dirt flying everywhere.
✦
“Doyoung, look what I found downstairs!”
Doyoung turns his head from where he’s seated on the couch and nearly chokes on his own tongue. Jaehyun is holding something up to show Doyoung, but at the moment it’s a bit hard to focus on what Jaehyun brought, when all that’s running through his mind is what he forgot. That being his shirt.
Doyoung lets out a stuttered laugh, unable to pull his eyes off Jaehyun and all his freshly-washed, shirtless glory. The Jaehyun he’s used to is constantly clad in Doyoung’s oversized sweaters and tees—it’s never even crossed his mind what he could be hiding underneath, and if it did, it certainly wouldn’t have been this. His skin is still damp and all Doyoung can do is stare helplessly as the image of stray droplets of water rolling down the lines of Jaehyun’s muscles is forever seared into his brain.
Doyoung feels the urge to scowl. It doesn’t make sense, Jaehyun is supposed to be an annoying little brat—and annoying little brats weren’t supposed to be so hot. He can’t fathom what God must have been thinking when he created Jaehyun—he was already pretty and rich, he just had to give him abs to top it all off. It was unfair really. The only thing that makes him feel marginally better is the fact that it was all useless now.
What the fuck were abs going to do for him now? Probably anything he wanted Doyoung to do if he’s being honest, but Doyoung makes the executive decision to ignore that part of his brain.
The worst part is he can see the moment Jaehyun notices, see the god-awful smirk that spreads across his lips the second he realizes just what Doyoung is looking at. He stalks closer, placing the object in his hands down on the coffee table. Doyoung bites the inside of his cheek, doing his best to hold back any sort of reaction as Jaehyun joins him on the couch, his goddamn abs flexing as he sits down.
“Like what you see?” Jaehyun asks in a voice that’s just drowning in self-satisfaction and Doyoung is once again reminded exactly why Jaehyun is the bane of his existence.
“Where’s your shirt?” he asks tightly, avoiding Jaehyun’s question.
“It’s hot out,” Jaehyun shrugs and has the nerve to angle his body even closer, to the point Doyoung can smell the soap on his skin.
Doyoung swallows thickly. With the amount of heat rising to his cheeks, he’s keen to agree—it’s starting to feel very warm and it’s got nothing to do with the weather.
Enough of this, he reminds himself, you’re stronger than this. There was no way he was going to give into whatever game Jaehyun was trying to play at. He clears his throat loudly, using the last of his will power to peel his eyes off Jaehyun and onto the coffee table. He raises an eyebrow at the six-pack of beer staring back at him.
Doyoung’s got a whole stash of alcohol from the convenience store in the back room—a stash he single-handedly drank through half of the few weeks of the apocalypse like any reasonable human would do at the face of the end of the world—but it’s been a few months since he got his shit together and touched any of it.
Right now, however, right now he thinks he could use a drink. With a little shake of his head, he pulls two bottles from the pack, opening each one on the edge of the table with practiced ease before handing a bottle over to Jaehyun, careful to keep his gaze on his face. Jaehyun looks surprised, but takes the beer gratefully.
“I almost thought you weren’t going to let me drink it,” Jaehyun says, bringing the bottle up to his lips to take a tentative sip.
“Consider it a reward for planting the tomatoes today,” he answers and takes a long swig from his bottle, if only to distract himself from accidentally ogling at Jaehyun again.
The beer is room-temp, but alcohol is alcohol and the lack of refrigeration during a zombie apocalypse is the last of his worries—the more pressing concerns right now are Jaehyun’s half-naked state and well, the actual zombies themselves. Doyoung downs another sip.
Jaehyun places his own bottle on the coffee table and lets out an exaggerated huff of annoyance, and oh no, he’s pouting again.
“I spend all day in the sun planting tomatoes for you and all I get is a bottle of luke-warm beer in return?”
Fuck, he’s leaning closer. Doyoung holds his beer protectively between them to create a semblance of barrier, but his deft fingers grasp onto the neck of the bottle and it’s quickly plucked out of his hold and put aside on the table as well. Doyoung gulps, leaning his body back in an attempt to put space between them, but all that gets him is his back pressed flush against the couch and Jaehyun hovering distressingly close above him.
“Don’t you think I deserve a little more?” he asks, and Doyoung tries not to shiver at the feeling of his warm breath ghost his chin.
Since when was Jaehyun capable of making him so helpless, he was supposed to be the helpless one, not Doyoung. The only thing keeping Doyoung from completely losing his mind is that he can see, behind all of Jaehyun’s faux-confidence and cocky lines, an apprehension in his eyes. Doyoung can tell how badly he wants to go for it—to make the last, killing move—but something holds him back, nervousness.
Doyoung’s eyes unintentionally wander to Jaehyun’s lips, just in time to see his tongue dart out to wet them and Doyoung heads starts swimming with thoughts on how nice it would be if it were his tongue tasting Jaehyun’s lips instead. If Jaehyun wasn’t going to make a move—
Oh fuck it.
It’s less of a decision and more of an instinctual reaction when Doyoung wraps a hand around the back of Jaehyun’s neck and crashes his mouth into his. It takes Jaehyun exactly two seconds to register what is happening but once he does, he lets out an open-mouthed moan. It’s a bit dramatic considering they’ve just started kissing, but Doyoung happily uses it as an opportunity to lick into Jaehyun’s mouth, pulling out a higher, breathier moan this time.
Whatever hesitations or thoughts about what a horrible fucking idea this was are now completely thrown out the window. They were in a zombie apocalypse, for christ’s sake—no one was even alive to judge him or give him permission, so Doyoung might as well let himself have this. Jaehyun’s lips were far too soft to be able to resist anyway.
Making sure to keep their lips connected, Jaehyun clumsily maneuvers himself to straddle Doyoung’s hips. Doyoung lets out a low groan when Jaehyun sits right over his crotch and starts to roll his hips down in a way that makes his intentions exceptionally clear.
Doyoung would have been content with just a little making out—Jaehyun was an incredible kisser—but the thought of more causes a swirling heat to start to pool in the pit of his stomach. He smiles against Jaehyun’s lips as he runs his hands down Jaehyun chest and each individual ab until they settle on his hips, gripping them tight for leverage as Jaehyun grinds down.
“Wait,” Jaehyun gasps suddenly, pulling back from the kiss and clambering off of Doyoung’s body.
Doyoung is jolted by the sudden loss—his mind swimming with a mixture of frustration and worry and he tries to figure out why the hell Jaehyun stopped.
“Stay here,” Jaehyun says excitedly, already dashing towards the stairs, “I’ll be back in sec.”
Doyoung shuts his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. He’s already plotting all the different ways he’s going to feed Jaehyun to zombies if he dares leave him blue-balled. This was such a bad idea.
The sound of a crash and a loud scream from downstairs shocks Doyoung out of his misery and it only takes him a second to be up on his feet and reach for his machete.
He runs down the stairs as fast as his legs will take him and bursts into the store area to find Jaehyun cowered in the corner clutching something to his chest and—
Donghyuck?
Or at least, what’s left of him. His old part-timer lies squirming on the ground—mouth, arms, and legs bound—fully zombified. The door to the storage closet he never uses hangs open, a mess of buckets, brooms and zombie laying in front of it.
“Ah,” Doyoung mutters to himself, “so that’s where he went.”
Donghyuck had been with him since the beginning of the outbreak, back when he still had a little crew—but they all ended leaving or getting bitten. He only assumed Donghyuck had succumbed to the same fate when he disappeared. By the looks of it, someone must have tied him up and shoved him in the closet after he got turned. He doesn't have the slightest clue how the hell he ended up in there and decides he's better off not knowing.
He might have been a shit part-timer, but Doyoung still feels a little bad as he wedges the edge of his blade into the back of Donghyuck’s head—the zombie immediately going still and dark blood starts to pool on the floor.
A loud sigh of relief fills the room and Doyoung remembers Jaehyun is still here.
“I thought I heard a noise coming from the closet so I went to check and he—” Jaehyun’s eyes dart back and forth between Doyoung and the corpse.
Doyoung laughs lightly, ready to offer him more of an explanation when he notices just what Jaehyun is holding. A brand new pack of condoms and a bottle of lube, fresh from Doyoung’s store shelves. He’s suddenly reminded of their earlier activities and it dawns on him what Jaehyun had scrambled off so quickly for.
His eyes trail down to the ground where dark blood has started to pool from Donghyuck’s head and into the floor. He frowns at it in disdain before raising his head to look at Jaehyun, pretty, shirtless Jaehyun clutching condoms and lube to his chest. The choice is all too easy.
“Come on,” Doyoung says, stepping over the corpse to grab Jaehyun’s wrist and pull him towards the stairs, “we were in the middle of something.”
Jaehyun pauses mid-step, “But what about the—”
Doyoung waves dismissively, “You can clean that up tomorrow. Now do you want to fuck or not?”
His mouth falls into a little O and that’s all the convincing Jaehyun needs to drop the subject—feet springing into action and zombie completely forgotten as he eagerly follows Doyoung the rest of the way up the stairs.
✦
Doyoung is tidying up the last of the mess, packing up the last of his seldom-used cleaning supplies back into the supply closet when Jaehyun finally emerges from bed. He dawdles groggily into the store area, eyes lighting up once he spots Doyoung. He would scold Jaehyun for sleeping in so late if he weren’t the one who wore him out last night in the first place.
“Good morn—” Doyoung starts to greet but is cut off when Jaehyun crowds him from behind, wrapping his arms around his torso and resting his head on his shoulder.
“Good morning,” Jaehyun parrots happily.
Doyoung tenses, he’s not sure how to react. While he won’t deny last night was an enjoyable experience to say the least, he’d assumed that was all it was—a bit of fooling around to loosen themselves up in a difficult situation. He hadn’t expected it to carry over into the morning, but it looks like Jaehyun has other plans.
“What are you doing?” Doyoung asks slowly.
“Hugging you,” Jaehyun replies as if that’s all the answer he needs, “you weren’t in bed when I woke up.”
“I had to clean up your mess from yesterday,” Doyoung says with fake annoyance.
He attempts to wriggle himself out of Jaehyun’s grasp, but this only causes him to lock himself tighter around him. Doyoung gives up without much of a fight, reasoning it would probably be less effort to just go with it. It definitely has nothing to do with how nice Jaehyun’s arms feel around him.
Jaehyun lifts his head off Doyoung’s shoulder to scan his eyes around the room. He lets out a gasp as he takes in the now spotless floor Doyoung had spent the last two hours scrubbing.
“I thought I was supposed to clean that,” Jaehyun says, finally loosening his arms enough for Doyoung to turn around to face Jaehyun.
He immediately regrets it because Jaehyun’s arms tighten around him again as soon as they’re face to face, forcing Doyoung to be pressed up right against his shirtless chest.
Doyoung laughs nervously and tries to will away the heat creeping up his cheeks, “As if I trust you to clean anything. You would have just made a bigger mess.”
Jaehyun whines slightly at that, but his lips spread into a little smile. Doyoung huffs, well aware that he’s definitely blushing now.
“Have you eaten yet?” Doyoung tries to change the subject, “I warmed up some soup earlier. It’s on the stove upstairs.”
Jaehyun only smiles wider, “Will you join me?”
He gives him a look that tells him he won’t take no for an answer and it’s far too easy for him to give in to Jaehyun—something he’s been doing a lot lately.
“Fine.”
Jaehyun beams and leans in to place a little peck on the corner of Doyoung’s mouth, which leaves him reeling.
“You know,” Jaehyun says, disentangling himself from around Doyoung to grab his hand instead, “you’re a lot nicer after I let you stick your dick inside me. We should have done this ages ago.”
✦
All it takes if one glance at the shit-eating grin on Jaehyun’s face from where he’s seated in the passenger seat of Doyoung’s truck for him to know that he’s probably thinking about something stupid. They’re on their way to Walmart—Doyoung’s been trying to avoid leaving the safety of his store ever since what happened with Mr. Yoon, but his stove ran out of propane yesterday and after several complaints from Jaehyun about making him eat cold soup, Doyoung decided it was time to bite the bullet and go for another raid.
A giggle escapes from Jaehyun’s lips and curiosity gets the best of Doyoung.
“What is it?”
His eyes are on the road but in his peripheral vision he can see Jaehyun turn to him, propping his elbow up on his armrest and leaning his chin on his head.
“Is this like a date?”
Doyoung snorts. Only Jaehyun would think anything about this situation was remotely date-like.
“If you consider going to an abandoned Walmart to raid survival supplies while trying to not be eaten by zombies a date, then sure.”
Jaehyun sits up, clapping his hands together, “Our first date, I’m so excited.”
Doyoung rolls his eyes but it doesn’t stop a small smile from creeping on his face.
The rest of the drive goes by with comfortable ease—Doyoung content on listening to Jaehyun chatter on about dumb little things. They pull into the Walmart parking lot without a hitch, at least, until Jaehyun starts to insist on holding hands, this being a date and all. As much as Doyoung can admit Jaehyun has very nice hands that would probably be lovely to hold, he argues that Jaehyun can’t possibly expect him to properly wield his machete and defend them from zombies if his hand is occupied.
Jaehyun pouts at the rejection but one look at the group of zombies lingering around the entrance and he quickly changes his mind. Doyoung takes care of them easily with a few swings of his machete and makes sure to give Jaehyun his best I told you so look.
“Come on,” Doyoung says, grabbing a cart, “let’s make this quick.”
It only takes them a few minutes to locate the propane tanks and instructs Jaehyun to haul two into his shopping cart. As bold as he’s gotten with whatever the hell was going between them, the one thing Doyoung is grateful for is how Jaehyun still readily obeys when instructed to do manual labour. A boyfriend and a personal slave, he thinks to himself, what more could he ask for? Not that Jaehyun was his boyfriend though, he has no idea where that thought came from.
“Can I pick something up too?” Jaehyun asks, already grabbing the handles and wheeling them towards the other end of the store before Doyoung can reply.
Doyoung nods anyway, and trails behind Jaehyun. It’s a good idea to grab as much as they can while they’re here. Jaehyun leads them towards the sporting goods section—he makes an excited noise when he spots something and starts to bound quickly towards an archery display.
“Ah,” Doyoung says—he hasn’t seen Jaehyun shoot since the first day, but the memory of him barging in like Robin Hood trying to run away from a dozen zombies is still fresh in his mind.
Jaehyun picks up an arrow from the display, inspecting it closely from tip to tail before letting out a satisfied hum. Doyoung doesn’t understand any of it but he has to admit it’s cute to see Jaehyun so excited over something. It makes him want to know more about Jaehyun.
“Where’d you learn all this?” Doyoung asks, gesturing to the display.
Jaehyun turns to Doyoung. “I was captain of the archery team at school,” he says with a proud look in his eyes.
“Of course you were,” Doyoung lets out a little laugh, “Archery’s a rich people sport.”
Jaehyun huffs, “Maybe so, but my bow was the main thing that kept me alive before I met you. You should really be grateful towards this rich people sport because without it, we wouldn’t be together now. Plus you have to admit I’m good.”
Jaehyun gives him a cheeky smile and Doyoung rolls his eyes.
“You’re very good,” he begrudgingly admits, but only to get Jaehyun off his back and not because he likes to way Jaehyun flushes when he’s praised.
Sure enough, the tips of his ears tinge red and Doyoung pretends he doesn’t feel a bubble of satisfaction at the sight.
“I know,” he mumbles, turning back to his arrows, “Thank you.”
“Are you okay if I leave you here?” Doyoung asks, figuring he might use his time productively while he waits for Jaehyun to finish, “I want to see if they have a gardening section.”
Jaehyun nods, “Go ahead, but I gotta let you know it’s in bad taste to ditch in the middle of a date.”
Doyoung shakes his head, “I’ll be back in a few minutes okay? Don’t get eaten.”
Jaehyun hums and Doyoung wanders off in search of anything useful. He ends up finding a small gardening section but it turns out to mostly just decorative pots and dead succulents. He does manage to pick out a nice watering can and he’s debating if he should pick up a fake cactus for the hell of it when he hears a low snarl and the sound of footsteps in the distance, followed by a cry that sounds a lot like Jaehyun.
Fuck. Doyoung’s head shoots up and he starts to sprint back towards the sporting section, dropping the watering can on the ground loudly.
“Jaehyun!” he calls before cursing when two zombies pop out of the aisle in front of him, alerted by the noise.
With a low growl, Doyoung runs towards them and slices them both down with one swoop. They crash loudly against the shelf, attracting more to Doyoung. Damnit, Doyoung raises his machete up protectively, he doesn’t have time for this.
He fights through them with more vigour than normal, hacking at and swerving around the bodies that keep coming out of seemingly nowhere. He doesn’t bother to think about what it means that the only thought on his mind is to make sure Jaehyun is okay.
He skids into the aisle he’d left Jaehyun in earlier and his eyes widen in horror at the sight of Jaehyun on the ground, face scrunched up in exertion as he tries to push a gnashing zombie off of him. Doyoung surges to help and makes it about halfway when they make eye contact and Jaehyun’s features suddenly become more distressed.
“Behind you!” Jaehyun rasps out.
Doyoung whirls around just in time to find a pair of zombies hot on his heels. One gets close enough to grab at his arm with its grimy little hands, but Doyoung manages to knock it away with a well-placed kick to its chest, the satisfying sound of bones breaking ringing through the aisle. From there it’s easy to bury his machete into its forehead before turning his heel and swinging his blade into the neck of its friend.
As soon as its head leaves its neck, Doyoung’s attention is back on Jaehyun. He feels his stomach in his throat when he sees the earlier zombie that has been attacking Jaehyun clawing at something under one of the shelves. He strides up right towards it and doesn’t hesitate to bring his blade down—nothing is as relieving as the feeling of cutting its skull open.
“Jaehyun!” Doyoung shoves the corpse aside and scrambles onto his knees to look under the shelf.
His chest squeezes tightly at the sight of Jaehyun curled up under the shelf, his arms covering his head protectively. Doyoung reaches under the shelf and yanks him out into full view, where he immediately starts fussing over his body to look for any sign of bites or injuries.
“Are you alright?” he asks worriedly, lifting up Jaehyun sleeves to look for marks, “Did it get you anywhere?”
Jaehyun shakes his head. “I’m okay,” he assures him hoarsely, gently brushing Doyoung’s hands aside to get up.
He stumbles as he stands and Doyoung is quick to catch the way he winces as he puts weight on his left foot. A wave of concern floods through him and he immediately rushes to his side to steady him. Before he can open his mouth to voice his concerns, Jaehyun raises his hand to stop him.
“I’m fine,” he says, giving Doyoung a weak smile, “It’s only a twisted ankle.”
It makes Doyoung feel a tiny bit better even if the thought of Jaehyun being injured in any way doesn’t sit well with him. The sound of movement in the distance is what eventually shakes Doyoung out of his cloud of worries.
“Let’s get out of here,” he says, guiding Jaehyun’s arm over his shoulder to help him walk.
It’s a slow trek to the exit but they eventually make it back to the truck—even if Doyoung did have to drop Jaehyun once or twice to fight off a zombie. He dumps Jaehyun inside and makes him promise not to go anywhere while Doyoung heads back to grab the shopping cart. Jaehyun protests, but Doyoung only makes sure to lock the doors just in case. As disastrous as this trip has been, he wasn’t about to let it all go to waste.
It doesn’t take him long to return, quickly packing up the goods in the back of the truck before he finally slides into the driver’s seat with a relieved sigh.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he turns to scold Jaehyun, the same time Jaehyun mumbles out a quiet I’m sorry.
It’s then that he notices the way Jaehyun is sitting slumped in his seat with his head facing down. Frowning, Doyoung reaches out to cup the side of Jaehyun’s cheek and lift his chin up to look at him. His heart clenches when he sees that his lashes are wet and his eyes are red-rimmed.
“Hey,” Doyoung says softly, “Are you hurting? Why are you sorry?”
Jaehyun sniffles, “I almost got us both killed back there.”
Doyoung shakes his head in disbelief, “What are you talking about? That wasn’t your fault, and we made it out, didn’t we?”
Jaehyun averts his gaze, “I thought you said if it came down to it, to worry about your own survival and save yourself. You shouldn’t have come get me, I only slowed you down.”
Oh. Their earlier conversation comes back to him, but it all feels so stupid and long ago. Never for a second did he consider leaving Jaehyun behind, in fact, just the mere thought of it is unbearable. He leans over the center console, pausing before pressing his lips lightly on Jaehyun's forehead.
“I changed my mind,” he says, pulling his hand off Jaehyun’s cheek to start the truck, “You’re too important to leave behind.”
✦
“Doyoung look!” Jaehyun skips towards him as soon as he steps foot onto the roof.
A bright red, shiny tomato is shoved in his face. Doyoung takes it into his hands, a swell of pride rushes through him. Finally, the first fruits of their labour. Somewhere along the way, Jaehyun had taken over the garden project and kicked Doyoung off. Not only did he have a surprisingly green thumb, but he was passionate about it too—and Doyoung was far too weak to ever deny Jaehyun anything he wanted.
He might be proud of the garden, but he decides he’s even more proud of Jaehyun. Doyoung smiles fondly as Jaehyun buzzes excitedly beside him, rattling off about the progress of the rest of the garden.
“The beans are finally sprouting and the carrots should be ready any day—”
The sound of a distant snarl causes them both to jerk their heads up. Doyoung places the tomato down and immediately reaches for his binoculars. A rush of adrenaline runs down his spine when he spots a sizable horde in distance.
“Weapon up,” Doyoung says as he lowers his binoculars, but Jaehyun is already one step ahead—armed with his bow in one hand and holding out Doyoung’s machete for him in the other.
Doyoung grabs his trusty weapon and smiles at Jaehyun, which he returns just as widely. “Are you ready?” Jaehyun asks, eyes shining and ready to fight.
Doyoung takes two steps to close the space between them, wrapping his free hand around Jaehyun’s waist and pulling him in to crash their lips together. The snarls in the background get louder, but Doyoung takes his time to kiss Jaehyun until they’re flushed and breathless. He pulls back and raises his machete. Jaehyun raises his bow.
“Now I’m ready.”