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Chapter Text

Guide To Zombies 101: Everything you need to know

Right now, the United States of America is suffering one of their worst zombie breakouts of the century. The situation is worsening and therefore, the Korean government has decided to issue a copy of Guide To Zombies 101 to every household in case of emergencies. We urge everyone to read this guide carefully.

What are zombies?

Zombies are not humans. They are classified as mix between a human and an animal. They are incapable of feeling any emotions and their physical strength is almost twice of an average human. Hence, zombies are able to run faster, jump higher and even to the point of being able to strangle humans with their bare hands.

How do zombies look like?

Zombies look very different from humans, thus you are able to spot one even from a very far distance. The way zombies walk is similar to a human with a broken leg limping around. The skin of zombies are also a sickly grey and shriveled up, giving off a terrible stench. Zombies' eyes are bigger than an average human's, and the iris is a bright, glowing green. The teeth of zombies grow to a length where they almost protrude their mouth, and are incredibly sharp.

How do humans get infected?

The straightforward way is when the zombie rips off a chunk of the human's flesh and the wound comes in contact with the zombie's saliva. Another way is when the blood of a zombie enters an open cut of a human.

What types of zombies are there?

There are three main types of zombies: the infected, the selective prey, and the immune.

The most common type of zombies are the infected. These zombies will lose all their memory upon being bitten and attack any human, regardless of whether he used to know the human in his life. These zombies are extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.

Selective prey zombies only attack humans which suit their taste. A human only can be transformed into a selective prey zombie after being bitten by another selective prey zombie. Therefore, these kind of zombies are uncommon. Selective prey zombies will remember their lives for a short period of time, ranging from a week to a month, and thus will not attack anyone they know during that period of time. Unfortunately, they still show the physical features of a normal infected. However, when that period is up, they will lose all their memories and bite any human that suits their taste, regardless of whether he used to know the human in his life. Therefore, it is safe to stay away from these kind of zombies as well.

The last and rarest type of zombies are the immune. These zombies will not show any symptoms of being bitten even after any of the earlier types of zombies mentioned bites them. They will continue to live as normal human beings, remembering their lives, but only with an ugly bite wound. However, once the wound starts to get infected, the physical features of a normal zombie will start to show. Fortunately, they will still be harmless and safe to be around. Then again, once the wound becomes infected, the zombie will not have long to live and will die in an hour or two. Therefore, it is important to treat the wound once the human discovers that he is an immune.

What should I do if I encounter a zombie?

It is important to carry a weapon around with you when you are going out of your hideout. It is only matter of seconds until the zombie reaches you and infects you, so it is important to be quick. A gun is the most ideal, if you can get your hands on one. A knife or machete is the second-best option. It is crucial to stab them in the right places so they die instantly. Their head, neck and chest are their vital places.

If you are not equipped with a weapon, you can only trust your legs to get you away from them. This should be an avoided option as the zombie can catch up to you easily. Furthermore, zombies used to be regular humans, so it would be best to kill them to put them out of their misery.

If you have any queries about the information above, or unclear about any aspects, please call 02-1234-5678. We hope you and your loved ones survive in event of a zombie apocalypse. Thank you.

Korean Government for Defense

Taeyong raised an eyebrow at the information he had just wasted 10 precious minutes reading. Rolling his eyes, he threw the pamphlet to a corner of the practice room and began stretching.

"What's that, hyung?" Doyoung pointed at the abandoned piece of paper on the floor.

"Just some shit about zombies. Not important," Taeyong sat on the floor and reached for his toes, "get stretching, Doyoung, our performance's in a week."

Doyoung ignored Taeyong and walked over to the pamphlet, picking it up. "I want to read it. I'm interested in zombies."

Taeyong rolled his eyes a second time. "Not like a zombie apocalypse would ever happen, anyway. That stuff's in America. How could they come here?" He stood up, "NCT, gather! Our MAMA performance is in a week and we haven't perfected switch yet! Get into position."

Doyoung placed the pamphlet on the couch, beside Kun who was spectating the debuted members together with Hansol and Johnny. Kun picked up the pamphlet, looked through its contents, before showing the same reaction as Taeyong.

"Why do they bother wasting paper on this sort of shit? Korea would never have a zombie apocalypse, not in a million years."

Just as he said that, an airplane in the States took off.

Chapter Text

cheoeum boneun naseon shisheon majeo neukkimi joha

jeogi meolli boin bichi jeomjeom gakkawojyeoga hey!

The familiar tune of the song that the 14 debuted members would be performing in MAMA was cut off by Taeyong walking to the music player and turning it off.

"Jisung! Swing your hands higher, like this," Taeyong showed the rest how to do it before walking back to the music player, "from the top."

They all groaned; they had been doing the same dance for 6 hours straight now, and the sky was growing dark. And of course merciless and perfectionist Taeyong didn't allow a break unless the dance had no little slips here and there.

Taeyong got back into position, and the song started once again, Doyoung's voice filling the room.

yeogin eodilkka, gunggumhaejyeo

jom eodubji anha, bureul kkyeobolkke sw-

BOOM

Chenle screamed and curled himself into a ball, trembling. Renjun hurriedly rushed to his side.

The lights had gone out, air-conditioning had turned off, and music was rudely interrupted.

Taeyong clapped his hands loudly, that made the members focus again. "It's just a blackout, guys! Hansol hyung, check the switchbox, the rest of you, get back, and Chenle, we're all fine, so stop crying," Taeyong ordered.

"I don't think it's just a blackout, hyung, why would there be a huge 'boom' before that then?" Jaehyun questioned.

Donghyuk nodded, pushing the blinds aside and pointing to the opposite buildings. "All of them are having blackouts."

"Wait," Jeno rushed to the window, stood beside Donghyuk and pointed in a distance, "what is that ?"

Everyone rushed to the window and looked at where Jeno had pointed.

And true enough, there they were, spilling out of the smoke by the hundreds.

"What the fuck..." Yuta gasped with his colourful Korean vocabulary, "no... it can't be..."

Johnny pressed a few buttons of his phone and a voice spoke from it. It was the local radio.

"Plane from America holding hundreds of zombie species crashed on top of Seoul metropolis city on the way to China for a potential cure test," the woman spoke, voice clearly shaking, "please stay in a secluded area and do not come out until help is-" static took over the woman's voice, and the radio went dead.

"Great. Now there's no reception either," Mark sighed, irritated, "what help is there going to be? There's hundreds of them now, and probably a few thousands after several minutes. The number's gonna continue growing, what can they do about it? Kill every single one of them? They're gonna get bitten first."

The rest of them stayed silent for a moment, absorbing Mark's words. As much as they didn't want to admit it, every bit of that statement was true.

They were disrupted from their daze by the sound of a mix of groaning, moaning, growling and other disturbing noises.

"Crap, they're already coming, those things are fucking fast," Taeil's eyes widened, "get away from the window. If they see us, we're dead. Literally," with that, he yanked the blinds down and the rest of them huddled in a corner of the practice room.

"I can go out and check the situation, and maybe find some help," Hansol suggested, completely forgetting Mark's words about 'help' moments ago.

"I'll come with you, hyung," Doyoung stood up before anyone could protest. They were just about to crack the door of the room open when Doyoung felt a hand wrap around his wrist.

"You'll come back, right?" Jaehyun's eyes shone with tears, "please promise me, hyung."

Doyouny felt his heart swell at the sight of Jaehyun on the verge of tears in front of him. He slipped his hand into Jaehyun's and cupped his cheek with his other hand.

"I promise I'll come back. Hansol hyung will come back too, alright? Don't worry, baby," Doyoung whispered and that calmed a panicking Jaehyun.

The latter let go of Doyoung and turned to Hansol, "you too, hyung, make sure you two come back safely," he gave Hansol a brief hug and curled up into a fetal position on the couch.

The rest of the members waited in silence, whispering among one another. It was only barely 5 minutes later when Doyoung bolted back into the practice room, slammed the door shut and pushed a piano against it.

Only Doyoung.

The red-haired boy ducked underneath the piano, brought his knees to his chest and covered his ears. He was shaking uncontrollably.

Deafening sounds of someone hammering the door of the practice room filled everyone's ears. Two gunshots went off, and the hammering stopped.

It didn't take long to figure out what happened.

They sat in absolute silence, except for Doyoung who was still covering his ears and letting out small whimpers and cries. No one dared to move, or breathe.

A solid hour had passed before Doyoung finally calmed down, clinging on to Jaehyun, who had reached out to him first after half an hour, like his life depended on it.

Still, no one dared to speak. They were afraid a single word would break Doyoung and shatter him into pieces again.

"You're okay now, right? Everything will be fine from now on. You'll be with us, and we'll protect you," Taeyong placed a hand on Doyoung's hair and the latter nodded.

Doyoung stood up, held Jaehyun's hand and pulled him to the circle that the other members were sitting around. He placed himself in Jaehyun's lap and took a deep breath.

"Hansol hyung and I... we went out... and we saw manager hyung there... his back..." Doyoung started, "Hansol hyung thought it was manager hyung... well it was, but... he was different..."

"Manager hyung turned around and he looked so terrible... his eyes, oh, that terrible green eyes... and the ugly skin, I nearly threw up there," Doyoung paused to take a few breaths.

"Hansol hyung didn't see manager hyung's face and hugged him... I wanted to warn him, but, but-" he buried his face in Jaehyun's shirt and Jaehyun wrapped his arms around him, calming him down. "It was too late... manager hyung just- he- opened his mouth and bit off Hansol hyung's cheek... i-it was terrible, gross, sickening."

Everyone tried to conceal their expressions of disgust and concern as they imagined the scene, what Doyoung had gone through witnessing that terrible monster sink its teeth into one of their best friends...

"It was like... 5 seconds? Before I could process what happened, Hansol hyung had turned and both of them were baring their fangs at me, so I just ran... and ran...until I got here," Doyoung's voice was trembling and he was on the verge of breaking again, but he continued, "Hansol hyung was saying something like 'fresh human meat tastes the best' and his voice sounded terrible... like some demon took over his body or something... it's so haunting... I'll never be able to get it out of my head... Hansol hyung..."

Doyoung finally broke again and wrapped his limbs around Jaehyun's, silently sobbing.

Taeyong swallowed back the lump in his throat and said to everyone in the room, "it's okay Doyoung-ah, although what you've went through is terrible, it's in the past, and Hansol hyung is in a better place now. Nothing like that will ever happen to the rest of us, right ?"

Deathly silence replied him.

Chapter Text

They stayed in the practice room for so many days that each of them lost count, but the noises outside didn't seem to tone down. If anything, it got worse.

They mainly survived on the many cartons of water bottles kept in the corner of the room, and the numerous secret stashes of various chips and ramen that the boys had. But as the number of days grew, so did their their level of hunger. Chips and ramen were not sufficient to fill 16 growing boys' stomachs for endless days.

"Taeyong hyung..." Sicheng rolled on the floor until his body hit Taeyong's knee, "is there anything else to eat?" A growl accompanied Sicheng's question, but it didnt come from outside- it came from the younger's stomach.

Taeyong sighed and ran a hand through Sicheng's black hair. He gazed at the Chinese boy who returned the look with a smile, and Taeyong couldn't help but feel sorry for him. The poor boy probably didn't understand why they couldn't go out of the practice room, why they were starving, why everyone seemed so sad. Yet he still managed to put a smile on his face.

Taeyong cast a glance at Chenle and Renjun at a corner of the room, lying beside each other. They probably didn't know anything too.

"Hyung'll get some other food for you, soon, once the situation doesn't seem that bad," Taeyong tried to smile back, but it just felt like an awkward curve on his lips.

Sicheng had nothing but confusion written all over his face, of course he understood what Taeyong had just told him, but what was so sad about it? Once the growling died down, his hyung would go out and get food and they'd happily live with full stomachs again. Sicheng rolled to the other end of the room to play with Kun.

"6 days, Taeyong-ah," Taeyong recognised the voice beside him- Yuta. "We have to get moving and look for supplies soon. Food, water, weapons. Everyone's losing their mind from being confined in here for so long. We have to move to somewhere else, and fast."

Taeyong closed his eyes and sighed again. For once, the childish and jokester Yuta made sense. He shook his head sadly, "it's dangerous. We can't afford to lose anyone else," he turned to lock eyes with Yuta and whispered, "especially you."

Yuta blinked furiously and looked away from Taeyong, pretending he heard nothing. "Still, we can't stay here and die from hunger, can we? We only have a bag of chips or two and one cup ramen left."

"I guess you're right," Taeyong puffed out his cheeks and Yuta thought he looked like a hamster, "tomorrow morning. Hopefully it'll be safer by then and we can go to the building's kitchen and see what we can find there."

The next morning came quicker than expected.

The days seemed to last more than 24 hours ever since they locked themselves up in the practice room, so Taeyong was surprised when he opened his eyes and light was already seeping out from the blinds.

"Come back safely hyungs, please," Doyoung was practically begging them with the tone of voice he was using, "don't touch anyone, be as quick as you can, and... just come back, okay?"

Yuta smiled gently at Doyoung, "don't worry about us, of course we'll be fine, just go back to the rest of them, okay?"

Doyoung obediently went back to where Jaehyun was and rested his head in Jaehyun's lap, worry still evident on his face.

Yuta carefully dragged the piano that Doyoung had hastily pushed in front of the door ages ago away. He rested his hand on the doorknob, looking at Taeyong for confirmation.

Taeyong nodded.

As slowly as he could, he turned the knob of the door and pulled it so only a fraction of the outside world could be seen.

Then it hit him.

"Jesus, the smell!" Yuta hurriedly shut the door and pinched his nose, scrunching his face up at the smell- it smelled like rotting corpses-

Oh wait, it is rotting corpses.

"Hansol hyung will be offended if you say he smells," Taeyong attempted humour to try to brighten Yuta's mood, "he's still watching you, you know.  From heaven."

"That's fucking scary, don't," Yuta rolled his eyes in response and Taeyong found himself laughing for the first time in seven days, "I'm going for the real thing now, hold your noses, Taeyong."

Yuta heard a vague 'I only have one nose' behind him but chose to ignore it, yanking the door open and pulling Taeyong out with him.

The hallways were scarily dark, since all forms of electricity had become non-existent a long time ago. The place reeked of rotting flesh and Taeyong wasn't sure if he could hold his breath any longer.

"You can breathe now, it isn't as bad here," Yuta giggled, slipping a hand into Taeyong's for reassurance. Taeyong wondered if his rapidly beating heart was because of the lack of oxygen or something else.

They reached the kitchen safely, filling up their pockets with anything still edible, mostly more ramen and processed food. Yuta reached into his pocket and pulled out two bags, and the duo threw any knife, scissors or skewer they could find into there.

"Let's go back," Yuta carried a bag full of weapons over his back and reached for Taeyong's hand again. They quietly exited the kitchen and made their way back to the practice room, feeling proud of the new supplies they had found.

That was when Taeyong heard rustling sounds behind him.

That was also when Taeyong made the mistake of turning back to look.

8 pairs of glowing, green eyes stared back at him.

"RUN," he ordered Yuta just as they growled and began chasing them. Fortunately, the distance between the pair and the 8 zombies were quite far, so Taeyong and Yuta lost them on the way and made it back to the hideout safely.

"Are both of you okay?" Ten asked as he took their loot from them, putting it aside as he helped his hyungs to calm down after running for such a long distance.

"Exo hyungs," Taeyong panted, sitting and leaning against the mirror as he took a small sip of their precious water, "they were chasing us. Eight of them."

Taeil frowned and commented, "Youngho and I were talking about it just now. It's too dangerous even to stay in this building. We have to move somewhere else, Taeyong-ah."

Taeyong squeezed his eyes shut as he felt Doyoung crash into him and Yuta for a huge hug, thanking every God he knew. He opened his eyes to see Doyoung with tears running down his cheeks.

"Yeah, maybe tomorrow, we'll all go together to find somewhere else to live," he wiped away Doyoung's tears and kissed his forehead.

The members had all gotten ready long before the next morning came.

They stuffed the food that Taeyong and Yuta collected into each of their haversacks, and most of them managed to get themselves a weapon.

"Ready?" Taeyong asked and 15 heads nodded in response. He opened the door and they filed out two by two, following closely behind Taeyong and Yuta.

They walked in absolute silence, except for Doyoung who began to whimper as soon as he saw Hansol's lifeless body on the floor beside their manager's.

The group was out of the building when an ear-piercing shriek from the back of the group broke the silence.

All of them froze in their positions and turned around.

Renjun's shoulder was ripped off by a hungry zombie, and Chenle was struggling in Kun's grasp in order to keep him away from getting bit as well.

Everyone saw it. Renjun's pupils quivering and changing into a bright green, his skin shrivelling up, his teeth turning into sharp knives. Renjun glared at his bandmates.

They didn't need to think anymore before shoving one another to the entrance of the building, but Kun, still trapping a hysterical Chenle, yelled, "wait everybody! Look."

For once, they trusted the clumsy Kun and stopped running, looking nervously at Renjun.

Said Chinese boy and the zombie who bit him took one last look at the rest of NCT, before sauntering back into the dark hallways.

"...What?" Donghyuk voiced out first, just as confused as any of the younger members.

Taeyong's eyes brightened as he remembered something, "so that was why there were only 8 of them chasing Yuta and I yesterday, the last one was a selective prey," he said and the rest of them were hit with realisation, "so that's why the zombie who bit Renjun and Renjun himself aren't coming for us."

Chenle, barely understanding what the hell was going on, quit wriggling under Kun's arm and choked out a soft, "Renjun ge..."

The called Chinese boy stopped walking back into the building and turned around to find the source of the voice, expression softening when he saw Chenle.

And despite the glowing green eyes, several inches long teeth, grey and crusty skin, everyone could see the Renjun that they used to know, not some terrifying zombie that had taken over his body.

Renjun smiled.

Chapter Text

If they thought the SM building reeked bad enough of rotting flesh and corpses, the streets were far worse.

It appeared that the government gave up on clearing the dead bodies off the streets, so they were scattered all over the ground, looking like the sky had just rained corpses.

"Oh God, I think I could just die from breathing in all these toxic fumes," Ten complained, covering his nose with Johnny's sleeve, who in return gave him a flick on the forehead.

"Stop being so dramatic. We're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and you're practising your acting skills? Sorry, I don't think dramas are going to exist anymore," Johnny grumbled but made no attempt to shove Ten off his sleeve. Ten scowled and shoved Johnny away from him instead.

"Since when did you become so salty? I think it's the chips and ramen; those have far too much sodium for you, plus we've been eating that all week, no wonder," he latched himself onto Jaemin and stuck his tongue out at Johnny. Said Chicago boy just scoffed and pretended not to be affected that Ten is literally digging his nose in Jaemin's neck.

Johnny saw Taeyong's jaw tighten. If he hadn't been so focused in keeping the group safe, he'd have both of Ten and Johnny's heads by now. Johnny decided shutting his mouth is the best option.

"Guys! Convenience store, go inside and take anything that you think will come in useful," Taeyong instructed after ten minutes of walking.

The members did as he told and raided the empty convenience store. It wasn't a place where they came after midnight practices to gain unnecessary weight by eating ramen anymore, it was a stock-up shelter to ensure their survival. Taeyong's heart clenched at the thought.

"Hyung, look!" Jaehyun grinned widely, pointed behind the counter and picked up three guns and a box of bullets, "jackpot."

Taeyong took the guns, gave one to Yuta and another to Taeil, stuffed the bullets in his backpack and called the kids out of the store to continue their journey.

After half an hour of walking without breaks, Taeyong finally pointed to a house that look fairly big enough, across the street.

"We'll go in there," he said sternly, and the boys followed behind him like little lambs.

"Isn't it strange that we haven't met any zombies yet? It's supposedly a zombie apocalypse, but even though we walked at least a mile already, we haven't seen one. Weird right?" Donghyuk whispered to Mark as they walked behind Jeno and Jaemin. Mark just shrugged.

Donghyuk cocked his head to the side and pursed his lips. Something was off, but he didn't say anything else after that.

Something was definitely off.

And they all knew what it was when Sicheng's screams could be heard from the middle of the group.

Instinctively all of them took a step back, watching the grey and bloody hand wrap around the scared Chinese boy's ankle.

Sicheng attempted to lift his leg and run away, but the grip on his ankle was so death-like that the colour was starting to drain from his foot.

Then the most dreaded thing happened: the black nails dug into Sicheng's skin, piercing into it. It didn't stop there, it kept going in until the blood from the zombie's fingers penetrated the cut.

It was only a matter of seconds before the Sicheng they knew transformed into something new- something they dreaded and feared.

"Taeil hyung, get them into the house, now!" Taeyong yelled at the oldest member and the rest of the kids ran, following the dark red-haired boy into the house.

"What the fuck, Donghyuk!" Mark hissed under his breath at the black-haired boy who was running beside him, "you fucking cursed Sicheng hyung!"

"The hell! I didn't know anything, I didn't fucking know a zombie would be hiding under a stupid car, how is it my fault?!" Donghyuk defended as he fought back the tears that were beginning to build up in his eyes. Deep inside, he knew it was his fault- if he didn't think about any zombies coming to attack them, would Sicheng hyung still be with them?

After Taeyong confirmed the front door was closed and none of the boys were watching him, he leaned against the door and took the gun out of his pocket, aiming it at the zombie.

"I'm sorry, Sicheng-ah, I have to do this."

With that, he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, the sound of the gun firing echoing in the empty streets.

Taeyong had been staring at his hands for a solid seven hours.

Not like Yuta was counting, but he couldn't help it when the group's leader refused to eat anything, more or less look at anyone, or anything, else.

"Taeyong-ah, you're incredibly thin from offering your food to the youngsters these past days already, if you seriously don't eat anything, I might have to shove food down your throat," Yuta brought out a tray containing not more than 20 pieces of cornflakes and a small cup of tea. That was how little their rations were.

As expected, Taeyong didn't say anything.

Yuta sighed and left the tray on the table in front of Taeyong and was about to walk away and feed the rest of his children, but much to his surprise, he felt a weak hand tug at the long sleeves of his shirt. Yuta turned around.

"I... I'm a terrible person... see these hands?"  Taeyong released his grip and showed Yuta the hands that he had been staring at for the past hours, "these hands held a gun that killed my Sicheng. I'm a murderer, Yuta, I murdered my Sicheng."

Yuta bit the side of his cheek and sat down beside Taeyong, taking hold of both his hands and holding them tight. To Yuta's pleasure, Taeyong's fingers curled around his own, as if they were finding comfort in Yuta's hands.

"Listen- just listen for now, Taeyong, you didn't murder Sicheng. I know you shot him and all that but, that was the right thing to do Taeyong-ah. That zombie put Sicheng into a misery that he would never be able to get out of unless someone helped him, and you did it, Taeyong, you helped Sicheng become happier and go to a better place. So stop saying that you're a murderer because you're not, it hurts my fucking heart," Yuta told Taeyong in the most sincere and assuring voice he could make out.

Taeyong didn't say anything for a minute; he just focused his gaze on the way his and the Japanese man's hands were fixed together like two puzzle pieces.

Then he broke down into tears.

Instantly Yuta's world came crashing down on him, because seeing the other man cry with so much emotion wasn't common. Yes, Taeyong was a coward and once cried when a lizard crawled in his hair, but Yuta hadn't seen him shed a tear after this whole zombie mess started. Thinking about how Taeyong bottled up all his stress, worry and anger in him for days made Yuta's eyes grow damp as well.

Yuta didn't know what to do, so he just guided Taeyong's face into his chest and let him silently cry out all the bottled up emotions. The Dream members save Chenle were already asleep in the bedrooms, so it was the perfect timing for the older members to gather and talk.

"We... shouldn't even have moved out of the practice room... see, we lost our Renjun and Sicheng because of that... it's all my fault, Yuta, it's my fault they're not here anymore," Taeyong grabbed fistfuls of Yuta's shirt and bawled.

Chenle shifted uncomfortably in Kun's lap at the mention of Renjun. Ever since his favourite gege had left them, Chenle was practically glued to Kun's hip, never leaving his side.

"We have to send some people to explore this neighbourhood tomorrow since we've walked so far away that all of us have absolutely no clue where this place fucking is," Johnny spoke in place of Taeyong, whose bawls had softened into sniffles when Yuta and pulled him into his lap and held onto him.

"Yeah, and after that we can just stay at home for a long while, since the kids grabbed more cereal than we actually need for a few days," Taeil gestured at the many mega-sized boxes of froot loops, cheerios and cookie crisps on the dining table.

Yuta stifled a laugh remembering how Jeno, Jaemin and Jisung had their arms filled to the brim with all the cereal they could manage to carry out of the store. "Cereal has carbs!" they said, but he had argued back that they were nothing but sugar, and the kids rolled their eyes at him before joining back the group.

"I think we should all sleep now, the little guy is starting to get sleepy," Kun looked down at a sleeping Chenle curled up in his lap, eyes swollen from excessive crying and dried tear streaks staining his cheeks. It pained all of them to see their second youngest member suffering like that.

Just as all of them stood up to find a place to sleep, thumps could be heard from the ceiling.

"The hell is that," Doyoung whispered and clung on to Jaehyun.

"I'll go check it out," Ten grabbed a gun and a knife, "I promise I'll be back," with that, he walked up the stairs, lifted the hatch and disappeared.

It wasn't long before gunshots firing could be heard, and a Ten walked down the stairs, smiling ever so brightly.

"I took them all down! There were three of them, and I just took the gun and 'boom boom boom', and they were all dead! I did well right?" he hopped into Johnny's arms and grinned at the older widely. Johnny felt his heart melting.

"Yeah, whatever, let's just sleep," Johnny rolled his eyes and walked to the bedroom, leaving a Ten pouting at him.

Taeyong sighed at them, "when will you two ever stop fighting."

Up at the roof, two men with binoculars and a huge cage beside them grinned smugly at the sight.

"Oh, my poor babies..." one of them cooed at the three dead zombies lying on the roof, "I'm sorry I had to sacrifice you three for your brothers' meals."

He put down his binoculars and nodded his head towards the group's house.

"He's perfect. Meaty and all that. Get him tomorrow."

Chapter Text

"We have to get people to explore this neighbourhood today," Taeyong gathered the group in the living room and instructed, "Taeil hyung, Youngho, Ten, Jaehyun, Jeno, the five of you go."

The five of them stood up and obediently made their way to the front door, except for Johnny who blocked Ten from exiting the house, "you're not going anywhere. Stay here."

Taeyong furrowed his eyebrows and walked over to Johnny, pulling him away from the scared Thai boy.

"Last time I checked, you weren't the leader," Taeyong attempted to push Johnny out of the house but the other was taller and more muscular.

"Last time I checked, I was older than you," Johnny fought back, "let Ten stay here. It's dangerous outside."

Taeyong opened his mouth to argue back, but Ten stood in the middle of them and pushed them apart.

"Stop fighting, please," he looked up at Johnny who was glaring back at him, "I'll go. Listen to Taeyong hyung. I'll be sa-"

Johnny grabbed Ten's wrist with his hand and yanked him dangerously close to his face, "stay out of this, Chittaphon. I say you stay here, and you stay here. The fucking end."

With that, he let go of Ten's wrist and watched him fall to the sofa, and stormed out of the house.

"Geez, when will Youngho stop being so angsty," Yuta spoke after a few moments of silence, "and since when was he so protective of Tennie??"

Taeyong sighed, feeling his blood boil in anger. "He was always protective of Ten. He just doesn't show it."

"Still, Youngho hyung isn't always this angsty, like Yuta hyung said. He's changed ever since this... thing," Jaemin made an awkward gesture with his hands, "started."

"Youngho'll be okay, let's not dwell on it anymore, you all can go back to sleep," Taeyong rubbed his forehead.

The rest of the group walked quietly back to their respective rooms, when Jisung suddenly halted in his tracks and pointed to a window, "since when was that there?"

They all followed Jisung's finger and their eyes fell upon a black van with white highlights parked just behind their house.

"It's probably one of the neighbours'," Yuta was the first to look away and continue picking at his nails, "no big deal, Jisungie, don't get so hooked up over it."

Jisung shook his head and puffed out his cheeks, "I'm sure it wasn't there yesterday. If it was the neighbours', we would have seen or heard them by now, since we live so close apart, but there's... literally no one else but us in here."

Mark nodded. "Jisung has a point."

"Don't create anymore problems for Taeyong, kids, as it is he's already stressed enough from Sicheng, please just go back to your rooms," Yuta looked up and placed an arm around Taeyong, who looked up at him and smiled.

Jisung pouted and went to the room he shared with the other dream kids, eyes never leaving the van.

"I'll... go out to the backyard and bring back anything I can find, is that alright?" Ten announced but everyone was too occupied with their own stuff: Taeyong and Yuta were lying beside each other on the couch, Kun and Chenle were in the kitchen getting lunch ready and the rest were in their rooms, so no one heard him. Ten shrugged and went to the backyard by himself.

5 minutes passed. 10 minutes passed. 30 minutes passed. Ten didn't come back. No one realised.

"Lunch is ready!" Kun yelled and set down 14 bowls of, of course, cereal. Taeyong tried to block out Mark and Donghyuk arguing about whether cereal or milk comes first ("you pour the milk first! If not the cereal becomes soggy." "The cereal is going to become soggy anyway, stupid."), before he got another splitting headache again.

"Shut up you two, milk doesn't exist in Seoul anymore, unless you can find a cow or a goat or a sheep somewhere," Yuta ended their argument and slipped a hand round Taeyong's waist.

Donghyuk frowned at Yuta, still muttering under his breath that milk always came first. He suddenly perked up again and asked Mark excitedly, "do dogs produce milk?"

Mark slapped his own forehead and replied, "dogs don't have tits, they can't make milk, dumb shit!"

"Isn't it udders, not tits?"

Yuta was this close to duct taping Mark and Donghyuk's mouth when a small voice came from the corner of the table.

"Where's Ten hyung?"

Instantly everyone stopped talking and looked around the table for called Thai boy.

He wasn't there, of course.

"Where the hell is Ten," Taeyong stood up and said it more like an order than a question and everyone shrunk back in fear.

"I-I think Ten went t-to the backyard f-for awhile... I heard the d-door to the b-back... slam, I'm n-not sure though..." Doyoung trembled and his voice came out all shaky, but everybody was too shook as well to comfort him.

Taeyong stood there for a moment, before widening his eyes and taking a few steps back. "No...no..."

At that moment the front door slammed open and shut.

"You guys wouldn't believe what we saw!" Jeno started excitedly, placing his scissors on the table, "there's a crazy person's house about a couple miles away from here, and he keeps zombies as pets! Zombies! In cages and all that! He even fed them meat, which we presumed were human."

"Yeah! It was really disgusting, seeing the zombies gobble up all the meat like that," Jaehyun shuddered and slipped into Doyoung's arms.

"And they had a black van outside their house, not that it matters but yeah," Taeil added.

Taeyong turned towards the dark red-haired male in slow motion.

"What did you say?"

"Uh, they had a black van outside their house?" Taeil repeated slowly, reaching for his bowl of froot loops.

"With white highlights?" Taeyong gulped.

"With white highlights," Taeil confirmed.

Taeyong brought his hands up to his hair and tangled them between the strands. "Fuck."

The group members stared at him puzzledly, until Johnny looked around and asked, "where's Ten?"

Instantly everything fell into place.

Taeyong looked up at Johnny hesitantly, tears clouding in his eyes. "Youngho..."

"WHERE'S TEN," he demanded, searching Taeyong's eyes for any form of answer.

Taeyong was easy to read. It didn't take long.

"Are you telling me," Johnny's hands clenched into fists, "that guy took Ten."

Taeyong looked down and remained silent.

"I'm going to fucking punch some sense into that bastard-" Johnny turned around to go out of the front door again but Jaehyun caught his wrist, looked at him with pityful eyes, and shook his head.

Johnny raised a fist to punch Jaehyun square in the jaw but he stopped in midair, fell to the floor and cried his heart out.

"Ten...," he bawled, burying his face in his hands, "I've been so mean to him all this time... if only I had listened to Taeyong and let Ten come with us... he wouldn't have been... oh my god, Ten... I'm so sorry, it's my fault, everything's my fault, my Chittaphon..." he began slamming his head on the door.

Jaehyun let go of Johnny's wrist and put a hand in between Johnny's head and the door. The Chicago boy looked up at him, whimpering, "they didn't do anything to Ten, right? He's still here, he's- oh god he's waiting for us to come and save him," Johnny pried himself from the floor and attempted to escape again, but got blocked by Jaehyun once again.

"Going out there is a death trap, hyung, we don't wanna lose you too," Jaehyun said in English and it made him cry all over again.

"Ten is still here right? Tell me he is, Jaehyun-ah, tell me he's still safe, he just went out to get groceries and that he'll come back later," Johnny pleaded as he weeped. Jaehyun bit his lip, took one of Johnny's trembling hands into his and sighed.

"I don't know, hyung, I don't know."

Johnny had prayed to every single God he knew, so he was sure Ten was coming back.

But he started to doubt again when Taeil yelled from the living room that he found a letter at their doorstep the next morning.

Their eldest hyung read it with nothing but pure terror written all over his face, before passing it to Taeyong who seemed to be equally horrified as well.

"Well?" Johnny asked impatiently and Taeyong passed the letter to him without a word.

'Thanks for your little friend', the letter read, 'he made the perfect meal for my dear zombies :) should we take another one to refill my babies' stomachs again?'

Johnny clutched the letter so tight that it became all crumpled. He began shaking with anger, imagining the guys kidnapping poor Ten from their house... shoving him into the van... taking him to his death bed... seperating all his limbs from his torso... brutally murdering Ten alive while he was screaming-

"Fuck it," Johnny threw the ruined letter on the floor stormed out of the house, no one daring to stop him this time.

"Youngho!" Yuta yelled at him in attempt to stop him from leaving, but it was too late. Johnny was already halfway down the streets, in the direction of their house.

"Youngho, please, come back, you're not going to get Ten back-" Yuta ran after him.

"I know," Johnny stopped running and faced Yuta, fire in his eyes, "I'm going to get him instead."

"No-" Yuta got cut off by Johnny who had already continued to run down the dark streets, way ahead of Yuta.

Yuta wasn't sure how long they ran for, but he had managed to catch up with Johnny with the shorter legs he had. He stopped to take a breath and resupply his lungs with oxygen, when suddenly his vision got cut off.

"Youn-" Yuta managed to yell before the whoever-it-was kneed him in the stomach which caused him to groan. But it was good enough. Youngho turned around, a mixture of shock, fear, and anger present in his face.

"Going for a morning run, mister?" The man holding Yuta teased and Johnny felt his blood turn into fire.

"Let go of him NOW," Johnny mustered the most threatening voice he could and ran towards him to pry Yuta off him, but the man suddenly pulled a gun out of his pocket and aimed it at Yuta's forehead.

Johnny froze in his steps. Yuta squeezed his eyes shut.

"Move one more step," he pressed the gun further into his forehead and Yuta resisted the urge to start crying, "and I shoot."

Johnny didn't dare move after the threaten, and all he could do was helplessly watch Yuta get dragged by him towards the presumable direction of his house. He needed to do something... something that could get Yuta out of his grasp alive.

They were already at the doorstep of his house by the time Johnny decided fuck it, and he ran.

The man whipped his head around to see Johnny sprinting at full speed towards him, so he loaded his gun, dug it further into Yuta's forehead... and-

BOOM

Silence.

Johnny pried his eyes open and braced himself for the sight of Yuta on the floor and the man now pointing the gun at him.

Instead, the man was on the floor, Yuta was trembling violently beside him and a mysterious dark figure was pointing a gun at the dead man.

Johnny flashed his flashlight at him and the mysterious figure squinted and covered his face at the bright light shining into his eyes.

"Quit it, Youngho," Taeyong grumbled, pocketed his gun and ran towards Yuta, "hey, you alright?"

Yuta, still shaking like there was an earthquake in his body, slowly looked up at Taeyong before engulfing him in a tight hug, sobbing into his shoulder.

"You okay? Did he touch you anywhere? Did he hurt you? God if he hurt you I swear I will make him drop to hell-" "I'm fine, Taeyong-ah," Yuta shut Taeyong up by putting a finger to his lips.

They sat there like that: in each other's arms, Yuta's finger on Taeyong's lips, gazing into each other's eyes. Taeyong vaguely saw Youngho shifting from foot to foot in awkwardness and tried not to giggle.

"Thank God," Taeyong breathed a sigh of relief after minutes of silence, holding Yuta's face and wiping his tears away with his thumbs, "thank God you're okay."

Chapter Text

None of them stepped foot outside the house after that, even though the only person whom they knew were in the same neighbourhood as them was dead. Well, they didn't have to, cereal and tea were enough to fill, or at least stop the intense growls temporarily in their stomachs.

It was only after a week when their supplies started to become low, and Taeyong also started to worry.

"It's dangerous to go out," he stated the obvious as he armed himself with a gun and a knife, "Kun, come with me."

Kun quietly obeyed their leader, took a knife out of their weapons bag and pocketed it. The Kun that used to be gentle and patient before the world ended had changed into someone cold and hard, a 180° change from his normal personality.

"Hyung! Mark hyung and I can help too!" Donghyuk offered excitedly as he tugged on Mark's wrist.

"What? No, you're too young, it's dangerous, you can't-"

"I'm 16! Stop saying I can't! Mark hyung and I will be back here safely in a few hours. You don't trust me?" Donghyuk argued back half-angry half-upset.

Taeyong sighed and nodded, shooing the black-haired kid out of the house. The last thing he wanted to do was to handle another argument and let his head explode to pieces, so he could only agree. Donghyuk jumped up and down excitedly as he grabbed a gun and a haversack, took Mark's wrist and bolted out of the house.

"This is gonna be fun! It's like we're on a spy mission, and our enemy is the zombies," Donghyuk crouched down behind a tree and aimed his gun, pretending to scan the surroundings. Mark couldn't help but to burst out laughing.

"Shh! The enemies are gonna hear us, you have to be quiet, bro," Donghyuk hissed and changed his position and repeated the same process over and over. Mark followed the kid immersed in roleplay, trying to hold back his laughter, and realised that even though Donghyuk was the most annoying piece of shit in the world to ever exist, he could make any scary situation into something fun, and that was his charm. That was also how Mark confirmed his feelings for the younger boy.

"Hyung! We're here!" Donghyuk flashed a blinding smile at the blonde and held the door of the convenience store open for him.

"Chocolate! Hyung, let's get chocolate, oh- and sweets!! Lollipops, chewing gum, tic tac..." Donghyuk stated every single piece of candy he could see as he raided the sweets section. Mark rolled his eyes and decided leaving him alone would be better, looking through the aisles to find the most healthy, unexpired food he could find, and ended up with 10 packs of no-msg ramen and a box of chamomile teabags. The choices were limited.

"Donghyuk! Stop stuffing your face with kitkat, we have to go," Mark smiled at Donghyuk's head popping out from the candy aisle, mouth smeared with chocolate. Called boy pouted and stuffed the rest of the bar in his mouth before joining Mark at the door.

As soon as they got out to the streets, a loud gunshot made them stop in their tracks, frozen.

"Fuck, I knew this would happen," Mark tugged Donghyuk down to squat beside him.

"Wh-what's going on... hyung?" Donghyuk asked, all forms of confidence which was once present on his face gone.

"The police," Mark whispered as a bullet whizzed past them and pierced a zombie on the road right in the heart. Donghyuk gasped and snuggled closer to Mark for comfort.

"What the hell is the police doing here?" Donghyuk whimpered, hugging the bag of food closer to his chest and trying to look tough, but- well, failing.

"Jaehyun hyung and I were talking about it one day," Mark replied, pulling the younger boy closer to him, "I think the government gave up on Seoul. They're just shooting every single body they find whether zombie or not, cuz I guess they think that no one will ever survive this and will all be dead sooner or later. But I'm not sure, this police may be just shooting this zombie because it may harm other people-"

At that moment, dust got into Donghyuk's nose, he sneezed, and not even a second later, a bullet fired in their direction, hitting the potted plant just above Donghyuk's head.

"Fuck what I said," Mark breathed.

"How are we gonna get out?" Donghyuk's voice was trembling and Mark knew he was going to start crying anytime, so he took Donghyuk's face in his hands and planted a kiss on his forehead.

"We're gonna have to sneak. Once the policeman turns around, we just run across the road and see that house? We hide behind that fence, then we can just run back home together. Got it?" Donghyuk nodded helplessly as Mark instructed, "you wanna go first?" He nodded again.

They advanced closer to the street, and the policeman turned around to refill his gun. Instantly Donghyuk dashed across the road and hid behind the fence as planned, so he gestured to Mark to quickly follow him. Mark got up and ran.

But Mark isn't Mark if he doesn't trip over his own feet and land face flat on the floor.

The sound got to the policeman who turned his body around and shot in the direction of the noise in the speed of light. Mark closed his eyes and waited for his death, but nothing came.

His eyes shot open and all he could see was Donghyuk writhing in pain, clutching his stomach.

Mark gasped, trying to understand the situation... did the most annoying boy in the planet just take a bullet for him??

Mark stood up and looked around for the policeman, ready to take revenge but he was nowhere to be found. Did he assume both of them were dead and just walk away?

He looked back down at Donghyuk and tried to lift him up and get him back to their Taeil hyung who could tend to his wound. But despite the little rations that the boy ate everyday, he still weighed a bomb. Mark thought it might've been the chocolates he was feasting on just now.

"Fuck trying to save me, hyung," Donghyuk forced out as more blood gushed out of his gunshot wound and onto Mark's pants, "save yourself. Hyung, promise me you'll stay till the end?"

Mark shook his head, fresh tears streaming down his cheeks, "no... no, Donghyuk, we can get you out of this, just hang in there, ok? I'll take you to Taeil hyung, just don't close your eyes-"

Donghyuk didn't have the energy to shut Mark up with his smart words like he used to, so he just did whatever he could. Which included him tilting his head forward and pecking Mark's lips.

It was effective. Mark shut up.

Donghyuk smiled weakly, lacing his fingers together with Mark's, "I... love you, hyung..."

With that, Donghyuk closed his eyes and slipped away from Mark's grasp into another world.

"No... no... DONGHYUK!" Mark shook the unconscious boy, as if it would make him alive again, "don't leave me, please, hyuk-ah..." he sobbed uselessly into Donghyuk's bloodied shirt.

The day turned dark. Mark still clung on to Donghyuk's pale body, believing he was alive and that he would suddenly jump up and laugh at Mark, screaming, "ha! I tricked you!" because that was totally something Donghyuk would do.

But he didn't.

Eventually Jaehyun and Taeil had to go out and look for him, and they dragged a screaming and delusional Mark back to their house.

"Where's Donghyuk," Taeyong greeted him very unfriendly and Mark could feel the tears behind his eyes start to come back again.

"He... uh, g-got shot by a policeman..." he stuttered and took a deep breath so he wouldn't cry in front of their greatest hyung.

"What do you mean got shot?" Taeyong spat out, advancing closer to the Canadian boy, "weren't you supposed to protect him? I allowed Donghyuk to go out because you were going to be there, Mark, and you come back and tell me he's dead?"

"Hyung... I'm s-sorry..." he lowered his head and felt his cheek sting as Taeyong harshly landed a slap there.

"I know you're a coward, but you can't even do simple things like looking after your dongsaeng? Hell, you were even the leader of Dream! You can't even do your role properly, I'm disappointed with you, Mark," Taeyong threw his hands in the air out of frustration and walked into a bedroom, slamming the door shut.

Yuta sighed and pulled Mark into an embrace, attempting to stop his tears. The front door opened, and Doyoung, Jaemin and Kun walked in, sweating buckets.

Jisung spoke up, "where did you all go?"

"Taeyong hyung sent us to go look for another neighbourhood to go to soon, in case we might have to move," Kun panted and collapsed on the sofa, "apparently there's one, once you get to the main street, on the opposite side. But it involves a hell load of walking, that's why we're like this now."

Jaemin nodded in agreement, before his gaze fell on Mark who was covered in tears and... blood.

"Wow hyung, did you get your man period or something? What's up with all that blood on your pants," he remarked while smiling, but it vanished when everyone turned to him with cold glares, "what?"

Yuta elbowed him in the ribs and he fell to the ground, groaning, "it's Donghyuk's, stupid, now shut that trap up."

"Donghyu-" Jaemin started but slapped his mouth shut when he realised that said black-haired boy was nowhere to be found, "shit hyung, I'm so sorry... I didn't know..."

"I think we have to move tomorrow," Taeil interrupted Jaemin's apologies, "there's still police here and any one of us here could be the next victim. I'll tell Taeyong. The rest of you, pack your stuff up, we're moving the first thing in the morning."

Taeyong was still mad at Mark. Mark knew and he remained scared and silent. Yuta thought the older was just being childish.

"You wouldn't ever listen to what Mark had to tell you. You just shut him up. Now look at him, still all shaken up and all that, and you're still shouting at him?" it came out more like a question than a scolding, and Taeyong grunted, ruffling his black hair.

"We have no time for that. Donghyuk's dead. The end. Even if I listen to Mark, it wouldn't bring Donghyuk back to life, would it?"

"No, but it might help Mark feel better that at least someone is there to understand  him, we can't be mad at anyone in this kind of situation," Yuta replied nonchalantly and Taeyong simply ignored him.

"NCT, gather!" Taeyong yelled and all the different coloured heads came scrambling into the living room.

"1,2, 3..." Taeyong began head count, "9, 10, 11- wait, didn't we used to have 12?"

Yuta furrowed his eyebrows and confirmed that the number was indeed 11. "There used to be 17 of us... we lost Hansol hyung, Renjun, Sicheng, Ten, Donghyuk... shouldn't we have 12?" he scratched his head, confused.

"Uh... Taeyong hyung," Chenle poked their leader's arm and he looked at the younger boy in confusion.

"...I-I think we're missing Johnny hyung."

Chapter Text

"2:43am" the turquoise light on Johnny's watch lit up, displaying the time. He tossed around around in his bed to see the members who were in the same room as him all fast asleep.

Carefully removing the blankets so that he wouldn't wake Doyoung and Jaehyun who were sleeping beside him, he slowly got out of bed and made his way out of the house with a flashlight.

The roads didn't look much different than it would be at 8pm. Still as dark, as scary, as cold, and as empty as it would always be.

The way to his house wasn't far. Johnny had made sure to never forget the location of the house so he could take revenge for kidnapping his Ten, but it appeared that Taeyong had already taken the revenge for him. So what the hell was he doing here at such an ugly hour?

Creaking the door open, he immediately regretted it. The stench of zombie was a hundred times worser inside than outside.

But Johnny had to do this. Pinching his nose, he walked in.

The layout of the house was almost the same, just that this house lacked furniture and was replaced with leashes, rotting meat, empty cages, and lots and lots of blood- God knows who's... Johnny didn't want to know. He walked into one of the bedrooms and gasped.

There they were... Johnny walked up and picked up the clothes that Ten had wore the morning he disappeared. He held them close to his chest, trying to take a huge whiff of the Thai boy's smell.

But no matter how much he sniffed, all he smelled was blood, rotting flesh, and dirt. Absolutely no trace of Ten.

Still holding the clothes in his hands, he looked around the entire room. Restraints handcuffed to four poles standing in the four corners of a blood-coated mat, surroundings splattered with blood, a knife lying in a corner... Johnny couldn't help but to feel sick thinking about what sort of dirty stuff they did to Ten.

Going to the backyard via the back door, Johnny shrunk in fear as the zombies in the cages came to life. They gnawed at the metal bars as their black saliva dripped from their huge disgusting mouths. There were at least 5 of them crammed into one cage, and in the backyard alone there were 10 cages. All of the zombies in which staring hungrily at Johnny.

Johnny's mind unknowingly imagined how much Ten would've cried and begged out of fear standing at the exact same spot he was now... how the crazy man would've silenced him by shoving him into the bedroom, stuffing a cloth in his mouth and handcuffing him, before sharpening his cleaver right in front of Ten for him to see... how Ten would struggle in the restraints as the man chopped off his four limbs and tossed it to the hungry zombies to feast on... how the man would leave Ten on the mat to die of bloodshed before taking his torso and remains and splitting it up for the zombies to share among themselves-

Johnny leaned forward and threw up his dinner onto the grass. Looking back up at the zombies who seemed to be growling louder and louder with each passing minute, he warily walked towards them and stuck two out of four limbs into the cages. The zombies moaned in surprise and delight and devoured the fresh human meat that was offered to them.

"At least you and I have something in common now, Chittaphon..."

Chenle pointed to a window and everyone looked in the direction of his finger, before groaning in disgust.

A zombie looking very much like Youngho limped on the streets with one arm and one leg, a chunk of his hip and shoulder disappeared. He was leaving a trail of blood as he went along.

"Jesus Christ, what happened," Jaehyun grimaced, "it's the worse we've ever seen... how is Johnny hyung still alive in that state?"

"Stay here, I'll take care of him," Taeyong shoved the bag he was carrying into Taeil's hands, armed himself with a gun, and went out of the house.

Upon smelling 'fresh human meat', Johnny turned his head towards Taeyong and charged full speed at him, but Johnny's 'full speed' was barely comparable to Taeyong's walking speed. With a raise of the gun, Johnny was knocked to the floor, dead to the world.

"C-come on... let's go..." Taeyong re-entered the house and took his stuff back. Yuta noticed Taeyong's voice trembling and hands shaking- he obviously wasn't used to shooting and ending three people's lives in a span of just one week or so. Taking one of Taeyong's hands in his, he patted it comfortingly before smiling at the other boy.

Much to Yuta's relief, Taeyong smiled back.

They begun the long walk to the other neighbourhood, with Doyoung, Kun and Jaemin leading the way. After almost 45 minutes of walking, they reached the main street and crossed it, revealing a few houses clustered together.

Taeyong chose a house that was the most hidden, nearest to the forest that was located behind most of the houses. Just as they were about to go in and rest their aching feet, a squeal came from the other end of the street.

Turning their heads to the source of the noise, they realised that they were not alone. A group of girls, about 5 of them, were running towards them, squealing at the top of their voices.

"Omo!! Are you really NCT?? You're so handsome!!" One of them asked while jumping up and down and instantly Taeyong was hit with realisation. Since this zombie mess started, he absolutely forgot that his group and him used to be idols with thousands of fans.

"Yeah, we're NCT," Taeyong replied, smiling slightly at the hyperactive girls.

"Omo!! But where's Ten oppa? And Youngho oppa? And the rest?" She asked and Taeyong's expression immediately darkened.

"I'd rather you not mention them," he stated sternly and the girl backed away, bowing her head down.

"Anyway, we have lots of food that we want to share with you! Since there are so many more of you than us and we have extras, would you mind taking some?" Another girl offered them a bag of what appeared to be... meat?

"How... did you get meat..." Taeyong's hands unknowingly reached for the bag, staring harder at the pieces of brown, freshly-cooked samgyeobsal that they had almost forgotten the taste of. He took a deep breath and inhaled the fumes. Heaven.

"Oh, we found it in an icebox at one of the houses we stayed at, and cooked it using a blowtorch and a frying pan. Smells and looks good, right?" She smiled at the boys who were beginning to crowd around the bag just for a whiff of the goodness.

"You're really giving it to us?" Jeno asked, eyes shining in excitement.

The girls nodded. "You are our favourite idols, anyway. Enjoy it!" One of them gave an innocent smile and a wave at them, before returning to where they came from.

Watching the group of cheering boys disappear into their house, their expressions changed, and suddenly their smiles didn't seem so innocent anymore.

"Success."

"Lunch time!" Kun called and in a blink of an eye, everyone gathered in the living room, sitting in a circle, eyes never leaving the plate full of samgyeobsal in Kun's hands.

Once the plate was put down, everyone reached their chopsticks for it, but Taeyong slapped them all away.

"Elders first! What happened to your manners, kids," he joked and looked at Taeil, who gladly took a piece and slotted it into his mouth.

"How is it, hyung?" Jaemin asked, his mouth nearly watering from the smell. Taeil didn't say anything, he just chewed, and chewed, and chewed...

Until he grew pale in the face and collapsed on the floor, froth spilling out of his mouth.

"WHAT THE FUCK," Taeyong hollered, and the other members just backed away and screamed, shifting their glances from their Taeil hyung, to the samgyeobsal... back to Taeil... then to the samgyeobsal again...

"Fuck, someone get me a metal chopstick," Taeyong kneeled down in front of Taeil, "and the rest of you, stay away from the meat. I think there's something wrong with it."

Doyoung ran to the kitchen and grabbed a chopstick before handing it to Taeyong, who stuck it into the plate of meat.

To everyone's horror, the chopstick that was once silver turned into the darkest shade of black.

"It's... poisoned?" Jisung whispered and Taeyong nodded painfully, reaching out to Taeil to try to find any sort of life in him.

It was too late. The poison had already done the damage.

"Damn those girls... so they weren't fans, they were sasaengs?" Yuta gritted his teeth and ran a hand through his hair in attempt to stop his tears from spilling out of his eyes.

"And they used meat to bait us? That was some good samgyeobsal there, and they wasted it like that..." Jeno continued, hugging Taeil in an awkward way by resting his head on Taeil's stomach, sobbing, "and our Taeil hyung..."

"At least we learnt something. Never trust anyone," Taeyong threw the chopstick and meat away, sighing.

"I think we have to bury Taeil hyung," Jaehyun played with Taeil's dark red hair and tried not to tear up, "so that the zombies won't get him."

"Zombies can dig, Jaehyun," Taeyong replied, "we'll have to burn him."

And so, that night, when everywhere seemed darker than usual, the 10 of them gathered around the source of light and heat that they had started and watched their hyung disappear into the ashes that floated up into the air.

Taeyong couldn't sleep that night. Not when two of their precious members died right in front of his eyes on the same day.

"Can't sleep?" Yuta breathed into his ear and whispered, making Taeyong shiver.

"Yeah..." he replied as Yuta fitted himself under the blankets, beside Taeyong.

"The couch is only meant for one person, Yuta," Taeyong grunted, but still moved over to allow Yuta to have more space.

"There isn't anymore space left to sleep, plus we always used to cuddle on the couch, remember," Yuta smiled at the memory. Him and Taeyong always occupied the couch at their dorm and cuddled there for hours- sometimes a movie on the tv, sometimes just the two of them gazing at each other, no words involved. Often pecks on their faces were exchanged, but nothing more than that. Now that Yuta had come to think of it, why didn't he go a step further?

"The keyword is 'used'," Taeyong turned around so he wasn't facing the other male, closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, not wanting Yuta to bother him anymore.

"We could always make it present tense if you turn around, face me and stop pretending to sleep."

Grumbling, Taeyong gave in and turned back around, and was greeted with Yuta's arms wrapping around his waist and a cold nose tickling his neck.

"This feels so much better..." Yuta's words came out all muffled as his mouth was pressed against Taeyong's neck, leaving hot and wet breaths there.

"St-stop... Yuta..." Taeyong squirmed and pulled his neck away from Yuta's face, making the latter frown at him.

"It'll be much more comfortable if you stop being so tensed up. What, do you not like cuddling with me or something? It's not like this is the first time we're doing this," Yuta blurted out, sounding more upset than he had wanted to.

"I-I'm sorry... Yuta, I'm just so stressed about our group, what's going to happen to us... Today Youngho and Taeil hyung left us and died right in front of me, how could I not be afraid, depressed, and stressed? Yuta, what if something happens to-"

Yuta cut off Taeyong's rambling by placing his lips on his, the softness of Taeyong's lips making Yuta's eyes flutter shut.

He pulled away after a few seconds, gazing into Taeyong's wide eyes. He chuckled, "there, is that comforting enough for you?"

Taeyong didn't reply, but he did find himself leaning in for another kiss that lasted much longer and left both of them breathless when they broke apart.

"Taeyong..." Yuta panted and admired Taeyong's blush-stained cheeks, how pretty it was, "what are we?"

The black-haired boy stared at Yuta in disbelief before letting out an airy laugh, "we're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and you're confirming our relationship?"

Yuta rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Answer me."

"I don't know... friends I guess?" Taeyong shrugged and the expression on Yuta's face contorted into an unreadable one.

"Friends do..." he paused to capture Taeyong's lips in his again, nibbling softly at it before releasing it, "...this?"

The leader let out a sigh of defeat, "but it's not like we're lovers or anything, we don't even go out with each other, just cuddle... and kiss... friends with benefits, maybe?"

Yuta wasn't even listening to what Taeyong was saying: he had latched his lips onto the skin of Taeyong's neck and began nibbling on it until Taeyong let out a faint groan, "Yuta... no... th-the kids are here... not now..."

"So there's a later?" Yuta pulled away, a smirk present on his lips. Taeyong fought the urge to slap himself right there because of his choice of words.

"No promises," he closed his eyes and allowed Yuta to leave pecks all over his face like they used to do, and realised that yes, he did miss these intimate moments with Yuta.

And before he knew it, he was fast asleep in Yuta's arms, dreaming that he was in a world with just him and Yuta by themselves, wishing that he could stay in there forever, and wondered, if him and Yuta were in fact, something more than just friends with benefits.

Chapter Text

"Mark."

Called boy looked up timidly at who had called him, shivering at the sight of Taeyong staring down at him. Ever since Donghyuk's death, the blonde had flinched at every single loud sound, not spoke a word, much less look at anyone else, because who would talk to him after he got Donghyuk killed?

Mark wanted desperately to voice out that he was the one who almost died and Donghyuk just wanted to save him, but then again, he was too timid and no one would listen to him.

Mark started to doubt if anyone remembered his presence anymore.

But his doubts were cleared when Taeyong suddenly called his name in a very stern, angry manner. So he did remember that he was still alive.

"You're going out with Jisung to see what's in this neighbourhood," Taeyong continued in his terribly strict voice, but something in that sentence made Mark feel that Taeyong didn't mean it. Like he was forced to say it.

And it was strange. Taeyong trusted him to go out with Jisung, alone, after what had happened with Donghyuk? Mark felt a strange kind of joy creep up to his heart, but it immediately disappeared- everything about Taeyong's expression screamed 'fake', so Mark didn't know what to feel.

"W-with Jisung? Alone? M-me?" Mark squeaked out, the first word he said in a day and a half.

"Jisung wants to go. I'm not letting him go by himself."

That didn't explain anything. Mark's gaze shifted to the other members who voices could be heard in the living room, doing absolutely nothing, so why of all people, him?

Having no time to question nor protest, Taeyong was shoving him out of the door, where Jisung was already waiting for him.

"Hyung sent you?" Jisung's small but genuine voice made Mark feel a little better, "that's weird. He should know that you're still shaken up about Donghyuk hyung."

"Taeyong hyung hates me. Isn't it obvious? He sent me so that in any event that something comes along, I'll be killed," Mark sighed sadly.

"It's a 50-50 chance, hyung, you're not alone in this, okay? Taeyong hyung might be mad at you, but he sure doesn't hate you. We just need to explore this place and get back alive, and I'm positive things will go back to norm-"

A herd of zombies stumbled into their view, cutting off Jisung's speech. They gasped at the sight- there were easily 10 of them, all groaning and struggling to walk, each of them with different disabilities. One had a missing leg, another with a missing cheek, there was even one with its flesh around its right eye all ripped out.

"Hyung! Do something!" Jisung thrust the gun into Mark's hands and rushed forward to personally stab the zombies with the knife he wss holding. Mark simply stared at the heavy piece of metal in his hands.

Flashes of Donghyuk clutching his stomach as he lay on the road appeared in Mark's mind, and suddenly he felt his mind clouding and his head spinning.

"Hyung! Hyung!" Jisung's voice became less and less audible, until all he could hear in his mind was Donghyuk's voice... Donghyuk groaning in pain... Donghyuk crying...

Mark shook the voices out of his head and saw the herd of zombies running full speed at them. Shakily raising the gun, he realised he didn't know how it worked. There were far too many handles and holes, so Mark just pushed the trigger to experiment and hoped a bullet would come out. To his relief, a bullet did shoot out of the barrel-

-right into Jisung's head.

The younger boy froze, dropped the knife in his hands and fell to the ground.

It a happened too soon. The zombies stopped chasing them and crowded around Jisung to rip his flesh apart and devour it like they were starving, and with the huge number, Jisung was gone in a matter of seconds.

The zombies looked up at Mark, their second prey, but the blonde had a headstart and began running to God knows where- all he wanted was to get away from them and pretend that the group's youngest did not just get eaten by zombies alive, right in front of him, because he had shot a bullet through his head.

Mark didn't hear any of the zombies that had devoured the 14-year-old boy coming in his direction, so he scampered into a corner behind an uninhabited house crouched down, sobbing silently into his palms.

He stayed there sobbing until he saw the sun set in front of him, and wondered how long it must have been since him and Jisung left the house. Easily almost 6 hours- but none of the hyungs had come to drag him back to the house like they did with him and Donghyuk 2 days ago. Maybe they did forget about him. Maybe they tried to go out, but Taeyong had convinced them that "Mark is probably dead. Don't bother", still, wouldn't they send someone to look for Jisung?

But he couldn't just go back to the house and show his face, announcing that their youngest was dead. Taeyong would literally kill him. And kill him again for mudering Jisung. Mark thought that he would go to hell for all the sins he had committed.

The sky was darkening, he didn't have a flashlight, and Mark felt his stomach growl for the hundredth time in the hour. He had to get back home and face the music.

When he got back to their home, as expected, none of the members were there to greet him. Mark could hear their laughter from one of the bedrooms and was going to hide himself in a corner when a hand rested on his shoulder.

"There you are," Yuta smiled gently at him and Mark flinched, "where have you been all the while? The guys and I have been worried."

At that instant, Taeyong's figure appeared from behind Yuta, the gaze in his eyes burning holes on Mark's trembling skin.

"Why are you alone," he growled and Yuta looked at him in confusion.

"J-Jisung... he- we- ran into some zombies... and... h-he got shot... b-because I didn't know h-how to use a gun..." Mark squeezed his eyes shut and felt the ground shake as Taeyong stormed up to him and landed a harsh slap on Mark's cheek.

"What is this, Lee Taeyong!" Mark heard Yuta's exasperated voice, "you told me Mark was outside getting fresh air and Jisung was in the bedroom because he wanted to have some time alone!" He gestured to the closed door of the master bedroom, "and you told all of us not to go out and look for him because he'd be okay! But it turns out to be like this??"

Yuta's yells attracted all the other members into the living room, and they watched the drama going on without a word.

"You told me to be understanding with Mark. So I did. By letting him go out with Jisung because the little boy wanted to," Taeyong didn't seem one bit guilty for his lies, instead staring back at Yuta with the same fire in his eyes.

"Yes, I told you to be understanding with him, and I thought you'd ask him why he didn't speak a word yesterday and listen to his story on why Donghyuk died, not send him and Jisung to a death trap!" Yuta was genuinely angry, a first for everyone.

"You weren't specific!" Taeyong yelled and Yuta opened his mouth to scream back at him but Taeyong turned to Mark who still had his eyes shut tight, "and you. Looks like I can never trust you again, right? You went out with your dongsaengs, twice, but only came back by yourself, twice. Seems like you only care about yourself? Do we not matter to you? You're no help to us now, you're simply a nuisance. At this stage, Lee Minhyung, you're better off dead."

Everyone in the room gasped at the statement,  except Mark, who just ran off into one of the rooms and slammed the door, locking it shut.

"Lee Taeyong-" Yuta managed to gasp but Taeyong shot the Japanese man a look that made him shut up.

"None of you speak to Lee Minhyung or I for the rest of the night. It's an order," with that, the door to the master bedroom slammed shut.

"Taeyong?"

The leader shifted in his lying down position on the bed, pulling the blanket over his ears.

"You know I can't stay angry at you, right?"

Taeyong clenched his jaw, mentally cursing at Yuta's amazing ability to make him give in to him all the time.

"It was an order, Yuta."

Yuta chuckled, his low and breathy laugh sending shivers down Taeyong's spine, "don't I have privileges?"

"Why would you? Now go away, I want to sleep," Taeyong grumbled and attempted to kick Yuta off the bed.

"Is it later already?" Yuta asked innocently as he lay down beside Taeyong.

Taeyong's eyes widened at those words. "There's no one else but the two of us in this room, plus no one would walk in anyway, since you made that order," Yuta continued, smiling smugly.

"I-I said no promises, Yuta..." the black-haired male stuttered, trying to scoot away from Yuta who was inching closer to him.

"Come on, I know you want it, we won't do much anyway," Yuta winked and Taeyong swore his heart stopped for a moment.

The Japanese boy took advantage of the frozen position and slowly placed his lips on the other's, smiling to himself when Taeyong started to move his lips as well.

Yuta flipped Taeyong around so he was facing him and placed a hand on his cheek, tilted his head to the side and deepened the kiss, making Taeyong let out a small and shaky groan.

The freezing winter air howled outside, slamming against the windows noisily, but the master bedroom felt much warmer with restless hands, unexplored areas and a little less clothing than usual.

"At this stage, Lee Minhyung, you're better off dead."

No matter how hard Mark tried, the voice of his leader couldn't seem to get out of his head. It only seemed to get louder, more menacing, more destructing.

Mark glanced at the gun that he had brought into the room with him. Now that he knew how it worked, if he shot himself right there, would anyone even notice?

The blonde remembered Donghyuk's words. 'Hyung, promise me you'll stay to the end?' He couldn't die. For Donghyuk's sake he had to keep going, stay strong, despite all the hate from a certain grumpy leader that wouldn't listen to him.

"At this stage, Lee Minhyung, you're better off dead."

Taeyong's voice managed to find its way back to his head and Mark screamed, trying to chase it away.

A soft knock came from the door and Mark stopped pulling the frizzy blond hair out of his scalp.

"Hyung, you okay?" It was Chenle.

"You want us to come in and we can talk about it?" Jaemin.

"Yeah, we'll try to make you feel better," Jeno finished.

Mark said the words before he could process them, "go the fuck away, mind your own fucking business. There's nothing to talk about." Only after he heard heavy footsteps walking away from the door then did Mark think back how many times he'd fucked up in the past three days.

"At this stage, Lee Minhyung, you're better off dead."

Taeyong was right.

Tears of hatred threatening to spill out of his eyes, Mark tore a piece of paper out of a random notebook, scribbled a few angry words across it and slammed it on the table. Standing up and pointing the barrel of the gun to his forehead, he took one last breath and replied his friend who was probably watching him about to kill himself, from heaven.

"I'm sorry Donghyuk, I have to break my promise. I love you too."

Tears now pouring out of his eyes like waterfalls, Mark pulled the trigger, and released it.

No Donghyuk was there to take the bullet for him anymore, and Mark knew he deserved it.

Chapter Text

The front door opened and slammed shut again with such force, and a sweaty and tired but excited Doyoung and Jaehyun lunged themselves at Taeyong.

"HYUNG," Jaehyun attempted to start but panted for more air, so Doyoung took over him, "we got news! There's a shelter that's housing people like us, survivers, nearby! We have to go there hyung."

"Where is it," Taeyong asked, amused, but already starting to pack up their stuff.

"According to the old man that told us, it's about 5 miles away. We have to cut through the forest behind and it'll lead us to this clearing where it's filled with tents that can house people," Jaehyun answered.

"Okay then, we'll go there now. NCT, gather!" Taeyong yelled and everyone scampered up to him. Taeyong's eyebrows furrowed.

"Where's Mark?"

"He's still in the room. I think he's still sleeping, he didn't respond when I knocked," Yuta informed and Taeyong shook his head. "We're leaving this place soon. Wake him up or we're leaving him behind."

Yuta frowned and proceeded to follow the leader's orders, but all that greeted him was silence.

"He's still in a deep sleep, Taeyong-ah. He probably slept late last night. Why not we go out and plan our route first, then by the time we come back Mark should have awakened, right?" Yuta suggested and Taeyong had no choice but agree because that idea did seem sensible.

Following Doyoung and Jaehyun, the group walked in silence as they walked towards the forest. Just as they were about to turn back, Chenle screamed.

"RENJUN GE!!"

The rest turned to face the now-youngest who had his eyes set on a zombie across the road. At a first glance it just looked like a random zombie, but when it bared its teeth everyone could see how crooked they were, how wide its cheeks were, how long its nose was... it really was Renjun.

Without thinking, Chenle ran forward in attempt to give his long-lost ge a hug, and no one stopped him because they knew Renjun was a selective prey, could remember who they were, and wouldn't harm them at all, right?

Renjun's teeth sunk into Chenle's neck.

Apparently they were wrong.

"Oh shit!" Doyoung put a hand over his mouth, eyes widening in horror, "the pamphlet... what did it say?" He thought for awhile, not moving an inch, "selective preys can only remember their previous lives for a week to a month... I think Renjun has forgotten them already..."

Everyone's eyes widened as huge as Doyoung's as they slowly saw Chenle turning, the beautiful black orbs turning into a disgusting glowing green...

Renjun detached himself from Chenle's neck, happily chewing on the flesh, smiling to himself. Black thick substance gushed out from the hole in Chenle's neck. Both of them turned to glare at what was left of NCT with their terrifyingly green pupils.

Taeyong turned around to run away, afraid that Renjun would attack anyone next, but Kun held him back and simply shook his head, nodding towards the direction of the two youngest Chinese members.

Refusing to look, Taeyong hid his face in Yuta's arm, hoping that the younger would protect him. His comfort was disrupted with a small gasp leaving Yuta's mouth.

Looking up slowly, his jaw dropped.

To everyone's surprise, Renjun and Chenle turned around to walk in the other direction of the group, and despite it being dirty and wrinkly, their hands managed to find each other and squeezed them tightly.

"I didn't know zombies could be in relationships," Yuta remarked as they walked away from the site.

"Why not," Jeno replied, "they're half-human after all."

Taeyong suddenly stopped in his tracks and rummaged through the only bag he was carrying, "have any of you seen our third gun?"

Yuta raised up the one he was holding, Taeyong did too, but the rest of them shook their heads.

"I think you just left it at the house," Yuta reassured him, "come on, we'll help you check."

Once they reached back at their house, Jaemin knocked on Mark's door again. After hearing no response, he returned to the living room where everyone was still confused where their third and missing gun was.

"Did you like, drop it somewhere?" Kun suggested but Taeyong shook his head. "Not possible. I remembered they were always in our weapons bag. Unless one of you took it out without permission..." he thought hard for a moment before he looked up again, panic written all over his face.

"Jaemin," he breathed heavily, "Mark hasn't woken up?"

The younger boy shook his head, "he must be really sleep deprived huh."

Taeyong mirrored the action, "someone, pick the lock on Mark's door."

Jaehyun removed a hairpin from Yuta's head that was used to keep his extremely long fringe into place and kneeled in front of the door. It was only about a minute before they heard the lock click and the door creak open.

What they saw hit them painfully in the heart like a needle was punctured in their chest.

Taeyong slowly advanced towards the dead boy, picked up his head and held it lovingly in his hands, tearing up at the sight of a gunshot wound on his forehead and their missing gun clenched in his hand.

The rest of the members stood outside the room, spectating the scene with deathly silence. Yuta spotted a piece of paper on the desk and picked it up, reading it out loud.

"'I guess you are right, Taeyong hyung, I am better off dead. I've been nothing but a nuisance and my two dongsaengs died because of me. I deserve this punishment, it isn't your fault, Taeyong hyung. It was nice knowing all of you, thank you for caring so much for me, I hope I'll be able to see you guys again -Mark'", Yuta started off steadily but ended up in sobs, "our Mark... he was such a sweetheart... why did you have to say those words, Taeyong? WHY?"

Taeyong ignored Yuta, bringing the boy's head to his chest and sobbing harder. Even though Taeyong was furious at the younger boy for being responsible for the death of two of the younger members, he didn't know his words would impact him that much. Taeyong let his tears soak into the dead boy's blonde hair.

Taeyong wasn't sure how long he sat there sobbing into Mark's hair, only when Yuta nudged his shoulder and Taeyong looked up he realised it had been a solid three hours.

"We gotta move on, Taeyong," Yuta's voice trembled and Taeyong could see he was trying to act cool about what had just happened, but his bloodshot eyes and damp cheeks spoke otherwise.

Reluctantly, Taeyong pried himself from Mark, planting a kiss on the boy's forehead. Taeyong thought he would go to hell for what he did if he finally did die in this apocalypse mess.

The group set off once again, making it safely into the forest. After went deep enough into the forest so that the entrance couldn't be seen anymore, Doyoung tugged on Taeyong's sleeve.

"Hyung, I gotta pee," he pouted and Taeyong sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Seriously, couldn't you go at the house?" Taeyong huffed in anger, Doyoung shrunk and backed away, before Jaehyun appeared from the back of the group and wrapped an arm around the bunny boy.

"He just wanted to pee. Do you have to get angry?" Jaehyun snarled at Taeyong, "go behind the trees there and do it, hyung, we won't watch you. We'll wait for you to come back, we won't go anywhere, okay?"

Doyoung smiled gratefully, walking to a bunch of trees that made him invisible to the boys.

A minute passed. Two minutes passed. By the time the third minute passed Jaehyun started fidgeting uncomfortably, tilting his head in attempt to see behind those trees.

It was empty.

"What's taking him so long?" Kun asked but no one replied, the only response he got was Jaehyun trembling even harder.

"I think we should stop here and rest the night, it's getting dark," Yuta placed a hand on Jaehyun's trembling shoulder, "it'll be okay, Jaehyun-ah, Taeyong and I will stay up to see if Doyoung comes back."

Taeyong flashed him a dirty look, but Yuta just had to wink at the former and seductively bite his lips and he looked away, a faint red dusting his cheeks.

They took hours to get a hysterical Jaehyun to sleep. Throwing a last glance at a sleeping Jeno, Jaemin and Kun, Yuta inched closer to Taeyong and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"Should we start...?" Yuta whispered in his ear and Taeyong shoved him away, his heart beating rapidly.

"The kids are here, we're not doing anything," Taeyong felt Yuta come back closer to him and start kissing the corners of his lips. He turned his head in frustration so that Yuta's lips were now on his and felt the younger smirk into the kiss.

"Someone's eager?" Yuta mumbled and Taeyong reddened as he lunged himself at Yuta for another kiss but the latter stood up abruptly, laughing at how frustrated Taeyong looked.

"I gotta pee," Yuta chuckled and dodged a whack from the leader.

"What the hell? You got me in the mood then you go off like this? What a turn off, Nakamoto," Taeyong peeled his sweater off his body and tossed it to Yuta, "take this with you. It might get cold."

Yuta smiled and planted a last kiss on Taeyong's cheek before walking into the darkness, a flashlight in one hand and Taeyong's sweater in the other. He walked to the same trees that Doyoung did and looked around, trying to find any traces of the younger boy before doing his business.

As he relieved himself, a small rustle of the leaves above him made Yuta look up.

He wished he never did.

Because of the darkness, all that he could see were the sickly green glowing eyes staring back at him. After Yuta shined the flashlight on it, sharp, bunny-like teeth could be seen and Yuta instantly knew where Doyoung had went to.

Attempting to flee and get back to Taeyong for safety, the zombie overtook him and pinned Yuta to the forest floor befor he could even take a step. Its tremendous strength left Yuta gasping for air as he flailed his limbs and tried to get the zombie off him. He failed, of course, the infomation about zombies being stronger than human beings was true after all.

Grabbing hold of a chunk of Yuta's right arm, the zombie dove in and sunk its teeth in the juicy, bloody flesh.

A silent scream echoed through the dark forest, unheard by everyone.

Chapter Text

"What took you so long? I was almost gonna go there and find you regardless if you had your pants on or not," Taeyong shone his flashlight at Yuta who was slowly trudging back to him.

"Sorry," Yuta sat down and hugged his knees, not saying anything else.

Taeyong frowned. He took one of Yuta's hands in his and noticed it was blacker than usual, but he didn't say anything about it. "You okay? Was it cold?"

"Yeah. It was cold," Yuta wrapped Taeyong's sweater around him tighter and buried his nose in it, sighing at the scent of Taeyong's favourite febreeze.

"Doyoung... he turned, didn't he?"

Yuta lifted his head to look at Taeyong and the memory of the zombie pouncing on him from the top of the tree returned, making Yuta shiver.

"He... maybe. I don't know. He could've ran away," Yuta lied. The neon green pupils of the zombie version of Doyoung would haunt him forever.

"Why would he run away? Jaehyun's here," Taeyong threw a glance at the sleeping figure, who had dried tear tracks on his cheeks. Doyoung would never run away. "How are we gonna explain it to him tomorrow? He'd go crazy."

"I... don't know. You're the leader," Yuta avoided Taeyong's gaze and walked over to lie down on his right side, beside Kun.

"We're not gonna continue where we left off?" Taeyong asked, a hint of sadness present in his voice.

"I'm tired. Get some sleep too, Taeyong. Goodnight."

With that, the younger closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Taeyong sat beside him for hours, threading his fingers through Yuta's hair. He spotted black stains on Yuta's jeans, and more on his jacket.

Something was definitely wrong.

Taeyong cracked open his eyes when he felt a foot jab him in the stomach. Groaning, he pushed Jaemin's leg off him and sat up. The sun was beginning to rise.

Standing up, he looked at his friends who were still fast asleep. Jeno and Jaemin were cuddling each other with their limbs all over the place, Kun was beside Yuta who were both still in deep slumber, and Jaehyun-

-Jaehyun?

He was gone.

Instead, a note sat where he had lied down yesterday. It was fluttering in the wind, held down by a random stone.

Taeyong held his breath and reached over to pick up the note, fearing the worst.

'I'm going to find Doyoung hyung and join him. Don't wait for me. I probably won't be back'

"Stupid Jaehyun," Taeyong felt his eyes well up with tears, "stupid, stupid Jaehyun... like we could afford to lose more people..."

He let the note slip out of his fingers and get blown away by the wind. As if on cue, the four remaining members stirred in their sleep, before waking up and rubbing their eyes.

"Jaehyun hyung?" Jeno called out with his husky voice, "Taeyong hyung, where's Jaehyun hyung?"

"He, uh, went to look for a route that we could take to get across this forest, to the shelter. Told us not to wait for him, we can go first," Taeyong winced when Jeno nodded his head in understanding and leaned on Jaemin's shoulder to catch a few more seconds of sleep.

"We should get moving. Let's reach the shelter by today," Kun stood up and gathered their things, before facing Taeyong.

"Jaehyun. Which way did he go? We might meet him on the way," he asked and Taeyong just pointed straight ahead of them, and Kun believed him and started walking.

"Yuta," Taeyong tried grabbing the younger's arm but he flinched and moved away from Taeyong.

"Yuta?" Taeyong tried again and Yuta mouthed a 'don't touch me' and continued walking.

"Is something wrong, Yuta?"

The Japanese boy shook his head violently and walked faster so he was beside Jeno, but Taeyong softly called his name again.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm fine. Stop worrying about me. Worry about Jaehyun instead," Yuta spat out and Taeyong gasped silently, grabbing Yuta's hand and yanking him to his chest. They were walking quite far back from the rest of the group so they didn't notice. Yuta tried to wriggle away at first but sunk into Taeyong's warmth.

"Jaehyun... he didn't go off to find a route, did he?"

Taeyong was always amazed at how Yuta could see past his words. He shook his head.

Yuta looked up into Taeyong's eyes, "he's not coming back, is he?"

Taeyong held Yuta's head lovingly in his hands and shook his head again.

"No dear, he's not coming back."

Yuta buried his nose in Taeyong's chest, arms snaking around his waist. "If I disappear like Doyoung... don't be as stupid as Jaehyun and run off like him, okay? Stay. With whoever's left. Then go and find safety. Promise?"

Taeyong searched Yuta's eyes for any sort of hint on what he was saying, but he found none. "What are you talking about... Yuta?"

"Told you, I'm fine," he pressed a short kiss on Taeyong's lips and took his hand in his, "come on, let's catch up with the rest."

Something was definitely, definitely wrong.

After what seemed like hours, they made it past the forest, into the outskirts of the city. Houses were more scarce, and plain fields took up most of the place. By that time the group had understood the fact that Jaehyun was gone, and was never coming back.

"Jaehyun hyung said the shelter is somewhere near a school," Jaemin spoke up, "so we just gotta find a school and the shelter should be beside it. Quick, I hope there's enough space for us."

"You make it sound so easy. Are you forgetting how big this place is? We don't even have a map," Kun scowled, squatting down to massage his sore ankles.

"Then we have to find one. Or at least people who know where the shelter is," Yuta stated and he felt his head spin after he said that sentence. Crap. Not so soon?!

They walked around somemore, seeing more unfamiliar buildings, until Kun stopped in his tracks and pointed in front of him.

"It's a signboard with a map! I think it'll tell us where the shelter is. You all stay here, I'll go see it myself and guide you all later," he passed his backpack to Taeyong and walked towards the sign.

They all watched Kun go up to the sign, and when he was several metres away from it, a small 'click' sound could be heard that made Kun stop walking and look around for the source of the noise.

He looked to the ground and saw a thin, almost invisible piece of wire stretched across the ground and he was hit with realisation.

A trap.

It was too late for Kun to run away. A shower of arrows shot out from the dispensers perpendicular to the signboard and Kun was pierced by dozens of them.

The four of them saw everything, despite Taeyong's efforts to block them. Kun's blood spurted out from the force of the arrows that were digging into him. He was dead before he even reached the floor, a terrifying, nightmare-inducing expression on his face. He lay there lifelessly, while the remaining four couldn't tear their eyes off from what the hell just happened.

"Don't look... children," Taeyong hurried the kids away from the signboard, trying to forget what he just saw. They rested at a tree nearby, close enough so that the pool of Kun's blood still could be vaguely visible.

Yuta crouched down, putting his hands on his forehead to try to calm down the spinning and pounding of his head. The aftereffects were coming too early, he thought.

"Yuta hyung? Does your head hurt? Are you okay?" Jeno asked and Yuta closed his eyes and nodded.

"I'm fine. I... can't stand blood. Especially not flowing out endlessly from my friend," the pool of blood was extending, slowly reaching where the group rested. "I didn't know people had so much blood in their bodies."

Jeno believed him for now, gently pulling him up from his sitting position. "Come on hyung, the faster we move, the faster we find the shelter, the faster we have safety."

Yuta stood up and immediately regretted when his blood flowed down from his head to his legs, causing him to feel even more dizzy. Taeyong was behind him to catch him from falling, and he looked at Yuta with the most concerned expression ever.

"Are you sure?" He confirmed and Yuta just kissed him right in front of Jeno and Jaemin, nodding his head.

The kids turned around and pretended they saw nothing, starting to walk in the original direction they planned to. Yuta and Taeyong caught up soon after.

A drop from the sky fell. Then another. And another. Soon after, the sky was pouring and the group had no choice but to stop walking and find a house to rest in until the rain went away.

Jaemin took a towel from one of their bags and dried his hair with it, going further into the dark house to explore it. He opened the door to a pitch black bedroom, and the towel in his hands dropped to the floor.

Staring back at him were roughly ten pairs of glowing green eyes. A growl emitted from one of them. It sounded hungry.

Leaving the towel where it was on the floor, Jaemin bolted out of the room, screaming like a headless chicken.

"THEY'RE IN THERE!! GET OUT! QUICK! THEY'RE COMING!!" He hollered and pushed everyone out of the house, just as the dozen zombies poured out of the room.

The undead followed them out of the house, unaffected by the rain. The heavy rain pelted down hard on them and they could hardly see where they were going, but direction wasn't the most important thing now, getting away from those things were, so Taeyong led the group and just ran.

But they weren't in the heart of the city anymore, they were close to the country, so what they were running on wasn't gravel but mud. And mud tends to get slippery when wet. Which explains why Jaemin, who was at the back of the group, slipped and fell face flat onto the muddy ground.

"JAEMIN!" Jeno yelled over the roaring rain and offered a hand to him, "QUICK! THEY'RE REACHING US!"

Yuta and Taeyong stopped running to wait for the two youngest, but no matter how hard Jaemin tried, he kept slipping and slipping. Both their clothes were caked with mud at this point of time, but Jeno didn't give up and used all his strength to pull Jaemin up.

"Jeno... I think I broke my ankle... go on without me, okay?" Jaemin gritted his teeth and hissed in pain, glancing at the approaching zombies.

"NO! I CAN'T LEAVE YOU HERE!" Jeno shouted back, and Jaemin gave him a small smile, "hyungs, go on without us. Jaemin can't move anymore. We'll... be okay, since we'll be together."

Yuta opened his mouth to yell at how stupid Jeno was and how they couldn't leave anyone behind, but Taeyong grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. Jaemin's smile grew at Yuta's hand interlocking with Taeyong.

"It was nice knowing you, hyungs."

And with that, they took off. Into the opaque rain they ran, unable to see anything. Yuta tried to steal a glance to see what had happened to Jeno and Jaemin, but Taeyong yanked on his arm and warned him, "if you look back I'll personally chop off all your limbs."

Soon after, a huge building came into sight and Taeyong wasted no time pulling Yuta in it. Yuta was growing weaker and weaker by the second, and by the time shelter was above their heads again, Yuta had barely enough energy to sit up properly. Taeyong rested Yuta's head on his lap, taking their last towel from his bag and drying him up.

"Where are we...? Taeyong?" Yuta croaked out and mentally cursed at how dead he sounded. Taeyong looked around. Desk and chairs surrounded them, a huge chalkboard on one of the four walls...

"Yuta. We're in the school," Taeyong froze, "which means we're right beside the shelter. When the rain stops, Yuta, we're going there the first thing. You hear me?"

Yuta nodded weakly and closed his eyes. Taeyong brushed his extra long fringe out of his eyes and gasped at the temperature of Yuta's forehead.

"Shit, you're burning up," he cursed, wrapping the towel around Yuta's body. The latter shivered and snuggled closer to the other for warmth, sighing at the cool feeling of Taeyong's skin on his.

"Looks like it's just you and me left, huh, after this long ass ride," Yuta chuckled silently, "is this coincidence or fate?"

"Shut up," Taeyong pet Yuta's hair, "you're sick. You shouldn't be talking."

"Even if I'm dying I'd still continue to talk to you," Yuta coughed into his hand and a black, sticky substance came out. He wiped it on his jeans, "any moment now could be our last, Taeyong, we... gotta cherish.. wh-what we h-have left..."

Yuta broke out into a fit of coughs, leaning to the side to throw up the black substance stuck in his throat. Taeyong watched in absolute horror, unsure of what to do except to rub Yuta's back to help him feel better.

"Oh my God Yuta, you're not okay... You're not okay! Why did you lie to me?" Taeyong cupped Yuta's face in his hands, staring into his eyes. They weren't black anymore, instead, a strange glint was coming from it.

"Taeyong... I'm sorry..." Yuta started breathing heavily, his vision spinning faster and faster so he closed his eyes.

"No, no don't apologise, baby, I know you didn't want me to worry," Taeyong shook his head and continued to pet his hair.

"N-no, not that," Yuta stopped the hand that was running through his hair and held it tightly, "I... don't think I can survive very much longer."

Taeyong felt tears build up in his eyes, "what are you talking about?! We're almost there, Yuta, I mean, I would carry you through this rain to get you to the shelter and get medicine but I can't see anything... so just hold on, okay? A few more hours, and I promise I'll get you there-"

Yuta shut him up by closing his lips with his ice-cold fingers. "Stupid... I'm not gonna die from this fever. Something... else..."

After he said that, a jolt of pain shot up his body and he felt his skin shrivelling up. He opened his eyes again and the world was green. A bright, glowing green.

"Yu..ta..." Taeyong stated warily, starting to tremble, "what's happening...?"

"Roll up my sleeve," Yuta gathered all his energy to lift up his left arm, and Taeyong hastily rolled up the sleeve of the jacket.

There it was, perfectly hidden by the sweater, a ring of black outlining the bitten flesh, a bite wound.

Taeyong was speechless. He shifted his gaze from the bite to Yuta, to the bite again, and Yuta again. He remembered last night: Why had Yuta taken so long to come back from relieving himself? Why did Yuta have black stains on all his clothes? Why was Yuta acting so strange ever since that?

He felt Yuta's wrinkly hand grasp his own, and Yuta spoke his thoughts.

"Taeyong... I'm an immune."

And Taeyong remembered everything the pamphlet said as he burst into tears, holding Yuta closer to him.

"You... you can't leave me now, Yuta, you're everything I ever had and have left," he sobbed shamelessly, tears dripping on Yuta's clothes. "W-why...? Of all people, you had to be an immune, and leave me when we are so close to safety..."

"Taeyong, if I wasn't an immune, I'd be dead by now," Yuta wiped his tears away, "you... remember what I said right? Don't run away like J-Jaehyun... go to the shelter, survive for me, Taeyong-ah, please.."

"And..." Yuta continued caressing Taeyong's cheek as he spoke, voice getting softer and softer, "please don't cry anymore... it hurts... even more. I'll still be with you all the time, okay? Spiritually... watching over you... making sure you're safe..."

Taeyong nodded helplessly, bursting into a new batch of fresh tears. He felt Yuta leaning in and pressing both their lips together for their last, final kiss, and Taeyong wished time would stop right there and their kiss would last for an eternity.

But wishes are just wishes. Yuta pulled away, their noses brushing again each other's, and muttered his last words, barely a breath leaving his mouth.

"I love you, Taeyong-ah."

His blood ran cold, the rise and fall of his chest halted, and his heartbeat slowed to a stop. He fell back on Taeyong's lap; an angelic, a reassuring smile on his lips.

How could anyone die this peacefully, Taeyong thought as he admired Yuta for the last time. Despite the disfigurations, he still looked as beautiful as ever, as if he had just fell asleep and not passed away. He ran his fingertips from his hair, his eyebags, the bridge of his nose, the corners of his lips.

"Yuta?" He tried, trying his best not to be delusional, although a small part of him expected Yuta to reply to him with his soothing voice and everything would be a joke.

Silence.

Taeyong nodded, eyes never leaving Yuta's peaceful expression. A smile spread out on his lips, he didn't know why he was smiling, but Yuta had always told him his smiling appearance looked the best on him. So he held back his sobs, and smiled, knowing Yuta was watching him from above.

The rainclouds cleared up and the sun shone again, the radiance of his smile brightening up the sky.

Yuta was right, Taeyong looked out of the window, into the illuminating sunlight, and saw Yuta smiling back at him. He didn't need anything else, as long as he had Yuta.

Chapter Text

Five hundred and sixty six days, Taeyong thought as he stood outside the place where everything had begun. He entered the dark building, all the memories flooding his mind.

Electricity had been restored, so all Taeyong had to do was to go to the control room and flip all the switches once, twice, and the building was filled with light once again.

The smell still remained, but Taeyong's nose had become immune to it after smelling the same stench for over a year already. He walked out of the control room and took in the sight.

Oh, how he missed the practise rooms that was once familiar to him. He took the bottle of febreeze that he had swiped from an empty convenience store out of his bag, and literally bathed the place with it.

As he walked down the corridors, still spraying his favourite scent, he walked passed the kitchen and stopped, looking in the direction of the corridor in front of the kitchen.

That was where his feelings had began.

"You can breathe now, it isn't as bad here," Yuta giggled, slipping a hand into Taeyong's for reassurance. Taeyong wondered if his rapidly beating heart was because of the lack of oxygen or something else.

Taeyong knew now. He loved Yuta. He still did, but Yuta wasn't going to be here anymore. Not for ever.

Taeyong walked down that corridor, heating up at the memory of Yuta holding his hand. Now that Taeyong thought about it, he hadn't even brought Yuta on a proper first date before he vanished. Their time together only consisted of exchanged gentle touches and kisses in the dead of the night. If only Yuta didn't get bitten...

He shook the thought out of his head. This wasn't the time to be delusional.

Taeyong walked ahead further, and stopped again when two skeletons came into sight. His stomach lurched- those were the remains of Hansol and their manager and he was tasked the duty of cleaning it up.

Taking out a mask, a pair of gloves, tongs and a black trash bag that he had gotten from the shelter, he began to dispose of the bones and what was left of their clothes. He wished he could give them a proper burial or a cremation, but that was totally out of the question. Whoever was still alive was put in charge of restoring Seoul.

After placing all the remains in the bag, he tied it up, removed the mask and gloves, and advanced into their practise room full of memories.

The same practise room where they did most their interviews, dance practises, or played around. Where they stayed in everyday, usually full of energetic and noisy members, but now empty and deathly silent. He went over to the window and pulled the blinds up, exposing the view of the tops of shops and houses that Taeyong hadn't seen in over a year.

His gaze shifted to the empty wrappers of junk food that the members lazily tossed around, having no proper place to dispose of them. Taeyong took out another trash bag and threw them in, all the chip wrappers and empty cups that used to contain instant noodles.

After cleaning up the place, he sat on the sofa and waited. He was told by one of the shelter people that seven teens and young adults around his age would come and help him later.

Ever since the day Yuta left him, Taeyong made himself promise that he wouldn't cry over his death because he knew Yuta was watching him and would be mad if he saw Taeyong crying. Although he missed the Japanese boy's fake busan accent, that Hansol taught him, when he was mad, he didn't shed a tear after that.

He had laid Yuta's body gently on the floor, covered his body with his jacket and ran to the shelter right after that. Never looking back, he stayed in there for a couple of weeks before shocking news came to the hundreds of people residing there.

They had found a cure.

Some guy in the States had discovered it: a sickly green liquid, similar to the colour of the zombie's eyes, had to come in contact with the zombie's skin for the reaction to take place. The highly acidic liquid managed to unzombify an undead back into a normal human being.

And the best part- the now human would still remember his past life. So all Taeyong could hope was that the members who had turned into zombies but not died yet would still be around.

He secretly wished Yuta would revive too, but it wasn't possible, or at least he thought. He had asked the shelter workers, whether immunes would react to the cure, but all he got were shrugs or 'I don't know's.

"There are too few immunes around here to know," someone explained to him, "and even if we found an immune, he would be dead by now. You wouldn't know if someone was an immune if he didn't get bitten, right?"

Taeyong had nodded solemnly, the shelter worker, a joyful auntie, pat his back reassuringly.

"Why are you asking? You know an immune?" She continued.

The word 'Yuta' was stuck at the back of his throat, Taeyong contemplating if he should tell the auntie or not. But all that Taeyong could muster was a shake of his head, trying his best to not let the tears clouding in his eyes to spill out.

The entire city had a strict curfew after the cure was found. Cubicles were set up to lure zombies in them, spray them with the liquid, and they would come out looking very lost. The curfew lasted for around a year, and only ended when the professionals verified that there was no longer any more danger around.

That was when the real work started. Before the cure was found, Seoul's population hovered around the mid-thousands. But after the curfew year, it had shot up to a million. Although safe, the city was in pieces. Everyone was assigned to an area in Seoul to clean up and restore order, but they were given two days to visit their homes first.

Taeyong didn't go home. Firstly, he walked a short distance to the school where he had left Yuta. Entering the classroom, going to the corner beside the window, where they had spent their last moments together, Taeyong stopped in his tracks.

Yuta was gone.

And it couldn't be that he decomposed already. If he did, his clothes and his bones would still be there. But there was no trace of Yuta. Not even a lingering decaying smell.

Maybe some person came around, saw him, took his body and gave him a proper burial, Taeyong could only think that much. His second stop was the SM building, an hour bus ride away from the shelter, where he was at currently.

If someone gave Yuta a proper burial, shouldn't Taeyong be happy for him? Instead, he felt a pang of jealousy and hate for himself. Why wasn't he there for Yuta's burial then?

But then another thought hit him before he could continue self-hating. The public were only allowed two days freedom, today and tomorrow, and Taeyong had immediately come to the school after they were let off. Unless someone had broken the curfew, no one would've walked past the window and buried Yuta without anyone noticing.

His thoughts were broken when he saw a bulletin board full of pictures hidden behind one of the speakers. Taeyong walked forward and retrieved it, blowing off the dust that had accumulated.

It was full of pictures of them, just them, throughout the years. Pictures dating back to when the only ones training were Johnny and Taeyong himself were present. There were more pictures of them as rookies, as nct, as a group or together with someone.

And at the corner, Taeyong's eyes couldn't miss out, was a picture of himself and Yuta. Yuta hugging him tightly and making a kissy face towards the camera, while Taeyong was just judging him hard. They had taken that at a photo booth so they had the freedom to add as many stickers as they wished, so Yuta added all the heart emojis between him and Taeyong, and added a caption 'Taeyongie~ I love you so much~'

Back then Taeyong didn't think much about it, brushing it off as a friendly gesture, but now he started to rethink his thoughts. Had Yuta liked him all along and Taeyong was just too blind to notice?

He immediately tucked the bulletin board to where it had been previously when he heard loud chatter approaching the practise room. They must be here, Taeyong thought as he went back to the sofa to sit down. The door opened, and Taeyong turned to look at them.

The sight of six very familiar boys made Taeyong's jaw drop to the ground.

Yelling out all their names, with added praises behind each name, he rushed forward to engulf all of them in a huge group hug. He pulled away and examined them, the boys he hadn't seen in a year and a half.

Chenle's hair wasn't blond anymore, instead a pinkish-brown that sat on his head in curls. He still had the same blinding smile on his face though, which made its appearance once Taeyong entered his sight.

Jeno's smile didn't change either, but his hair was now black with streaks of turquoise, and Taeyong thought he suited that hair colour really good.

Doyoung still had his arms wrapped around Taeyong's neck, sobbing violently, mumbling stuff about missing Taeyong to death. Taeyong took note of his pale-orange hair, a shade lighter than it was during 7th sense.

Taeyong looked at the guy who tried to pry Doyoung off him. Jaehyun's hair was now fully blond, looking like a bleached mushroom. Despite the new hair, the adorable dimples on his cheeks remained.

Renjun's hair was now a bright red, many shades lighter than it was the last time Taeyong saw him. He smiled and his snagggletooth came into sight, and Taeyong let out a sigh of relief. Thank god he didn't fix that.

The last one, Jaemin, hobbled towards Taeyong, a crutch tucked under his right arm and his right foot thickly bandaged. His hair colour hadn't changed unlike the rest, the hospital staff probably didn't allow him to dye it when he was still in there. Despite the pain, the smile on Jaemin's face was priceless.

"You all, I missed you so much," Taeyong dried his eyes as he took another look at all of them again, "you have no idea how lonely I was at the shelter! Reuniting with the six of you is such a blessing."

Taeyong couldn't help but smile at how Chenle and Renjun were linking hands, Jaemin and Jeno were looking at each other with literate hearts in their eyes and Doyoung couldn't keep his hands off Jaehyun. At least they revived with their significant other, so they wouldn't be lonely, Taeyong could only think, if only Yuta was here...

Jeno advanced towards Taeyong and rubbed his back, smiling softly. Taeyong didn't realise his vision had clouded with tears only until he saw a blurry image of Jeno. Smiling wearily, Taeyong suddenly realised, hey, there were only six of them, weren't there supposed to be seven?

"Where's the last one that should have come here, kids?" Taeyong asked and they all exchanged knowing glances, but none of them spoke a word. A few moments of silence, before it was broken by a voice that didn't come from Taeyong or the six kids.

"Taeyong-ah."

Taeyong's heart stopped in his chest. He'd know that voice anywhere.

"Taeyong-ah?"

The voice repeated. Checking if his predictions were correct, he lifted up his head to look at the doorway of the practise room.

Of course, they were right.

He stood there, in one piece, without any ugly bite wound on his left arm. He was still wearing Taeyong's jacket, although it was almost falling to pieces by then. His hair was a little purple on top of its old colour. The defined jawline still remained, his piecings, those large doe-like eyes, the fringe that was too long...

He smiled, flashing the 'healing smile' that everyone used to call him. Taeyong lost it.

The tears he had been holding in for five hundred and forty seven days gushed out of his eyes like a waterfall. He crashed into Yuta's arms, holding him so tightly like Yuta was going to leave him anytime again.

"I'm not going anywhere now, Taeyong-ah, I'll forever be with you," Yuta whispered into Taeyong's ears, which sent a new batch of tears to stream down Taeyong's face.

"Stupid... stupid Yuta... I hate you... you made me think that you were gone forever when I went back to the school that you died in! Did you fake your death? How come you didn't die?" Taeyong sniffled, burying his face in Yuta's neck.

The latter giggled at the ticklish feeling of Taeyong's long and uncut hair brushing his cheek. Taeyong sighed lovingly, he didn't realise how much he'd missed Yuta's voice.

"I didn't fake my death, Taeyong, why would I ever? Of course I wanted to be with you," Yuta wrapped his arms around Taeyong and started swaying ever so slightly, and Taeyong wanted to bawl again because, oh god, he loved Yuta so much.

"I didn't know what happened at first either. The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was that the room I was in smelled like disinfectant, it was really white, and that my body ached like hell. Then this lady came to me and explained that she found me lying in the classroom while walking past the school. She told me she didn't know if I was still alive or not so she just sprayed the cure on me experimentally, and when I groaned in response she nearly fainted from shock. I didn't know how I managed to revive, really, all that I know was that my internal organs were in real bad shape and the doctors had to do lots of surgery to keep me alive. I stayed in the hospital until these wonderful kids came to visit, then we went to beautify ourselves before coming to see you."

Taeyong's jaw couldn't close, thinking that Yuta's story was just a miracle that happened to him. How could someone still survive after being dead for several weeks?

Chenle barged into their conversation, happily exclaming, "we got a makeover, hyung! So that we would look pretty before seeing you! Like our new hair, hyung?"

Taeyong grinned tearfully, choking back the sobs that threatened to spill out. He couldn't believe this was happening; one moment he was thinking that all of them were dead, and the next moment, seven of them were right in front of him. Taeyong thought life was too kind to him.

"But you really survived all the way, hyung? You're so brave and strong!" Renjun's eyes glistened in admiration and Taeyong couldn't help but smile back. He loved these kids.

"Anyway... Taeyong?" Yuta got Taeyong's attention back on him again, "I never really got the chance to ask you this... would you be my boyfriend?"

Taeyong didn't know if he should cry or laugh.

Instead of replying him, Taeyong just closed the gap between them and kissed Yuta so passionately that Yuta's knees quivered.

The younger members immediately turned to the other direction, pretending nothing had happened. "Ew, these lovebird hyungs," Doyoung commented, which made all of the dream members snort at him.

"Don't act like you're not like this with Jaehyun hyung, too," Jaemin fired back, successfully turning Doyoung into a blushing mess.

Taeyong heard their bantering and tried not to laugh in the middle of his kiss with Yuta. Yuta pulled away from the kiss and gazed at him so lovingly, like Taeyong was the most precious thing on earth.

The past was dark, but the future is bright. And it might be even brighter than Taeyong had ever thought, as he looked into Yuta's beautiful eyes, their hearts beating together in one rhythm.