↳ streets。

@▹ jeon heejin。 “Yeah, the chaos caused a lot of us to go away or-“ Die. But Minho did not speak it out loud, he was not a fan of what happened. He was trying his best to collect things. He had even found a few of his friends and had managed to get them together, to stay together and work together. It was somehow soothing and made him feel a lot better. He had tried to reach out to all the people he knew, even Heejin, but he knew she preferred being alone and Minho could understand it.

“I found a few people, we set up a camp in a rather secure area,” he said and looked at Heejin. “But I wanted to check if there was still stuff in my old apartment. I left it locked up so, yeah.” He often still returned, he had his own reasons.

“What about you? How are you doing?” She looked good, yes, but Minho could not stop from worrying. Had something happened? Was she still all alone? He then looked at the wheel. “I think I have something to fix it,” he then said and looked at her, putting her backpack down as he checked for it. Maybe it had been good that he had come a little earlier than usually today.

@▸ lee minho。 It was Minho – the voice really did belong to someone familiar...too familiar. Even before it always seemed like this former neighbor of hers was just there: at the right place, at the right time. It made Heejin uncomfortable for the most part, since growing up, all the convenience she could provide to herself only came from her and her alone. To have another person make things a little less troubling was almost scary – but she knew that it was just normal, to at least have a...friend(?)

So when the personification of good luck for Heejin had called out for her, it would not shock her anymore if he would be able to help her. Though, it has been such a long time – maybe that luck has run dry.

She turned towards the boy, letting out a small greeting. “I...didn't think I would see you after all this...chaos.” It was true when Heejin was gathering things she could carry and would need from her unit, she did not run into Minho – or perhaps she could, but it was too disorderly that she could not pay more attention to anything else that time other than go somewhere less crowded.

“How have you been?” Heejin followed her statement shortly, channeling out what is left of her courtesy. But then again, it feels rather comforting to see a presumably friendly face amidst everything that has been happening.

@▸ wang yiren。 The girl had prompted her to start the engine – so she did. She was not able to remind her new...acquaintance(?) to hold tightly but there was no time for that, they both were not sure if that man with a gun would shoot them again, best not to risk it. So Heejin drove as fast as she could, back to where she actually came from. There goes her plan of trying to go back home – maybe it really is not the time for that.

When she felt that they were more or less safe from the rage of that delirious man, she abruptly stopped the scooter. “Sorry,” she immediately uttered, figured out everything from when she stepped into that disagreement, dragging the girl with her, and almost injured them both due to her reckless driving, truly costs her an apology.

Heejin glanced behind her, audibly breathing heavily – a mixture of exhaustion and relief, hopefully. She is not really the most skeptical person, but having a company is not really a thing she enjoys. It was a foreign feeling – having been technically alone all her life, it just seems so out of place...to have someone beside her—figuratively and literally. The young lady then thought that the sooner she could say goodbye to the stranger, the better.

She needs to be decent at least, to ask.

“Uhm, how are you? Were you hurt? I’m sorry again…” She trails off, moving her legs to get off her scooter while holding on to it so that it would not fall over. “I should not have said those things, I—I made him angry, I’m sorry.”

@▹ nakamoto yuta。 Being out and about had become Minho’s daily routine. He was wandering through the city, trying to find supplies or people he could help. As an infected he did not need proper food anymore unless he did not manage to eat some flesh that was, sadly, human. He usually made sure the people were already as good as dead or at least bad people before he ate the flesh. He could deal with hurting someone who just needed help and could do something good, still. Maybe it was stupid of him but he honestly did not care much. It was all he could do.

Today a lot of creatures were walking around. Infected that had lost it long ago and would definitely not return in any way. That was one of the biggest fears Minho had. Turning into one of those creatures. He shook his head to push the thoughts away. He had no time to think about this, he needed to stay positive and hopefully find a way to get better. At least he was not entirely losing it, yet.

Walking between the skyscrapers he heard nasty sounds of glass breaking. Earlier he had seen a horde walk this way so maybe that was the reason why – but then he heard the voice and froze. . A human. And probably not a bad one because they usually stayed as a group. Quietly he made it towards the spot, dagger drawn as any gun was too loud here unless really needed and watched the scene. The male was right in front of him, just mere metres away from the hidden entrance of the path Minho had just walked through.

There were quite a few. Maybe ten? Twelve? He hissed inaudible before he rushed forward, pushing his dagger right into the ear of the undead who had wanted to attack the stranger from the side, before he grabbed the stranger’s shoulder, pulling him backwards.

“I’m a friend,” he hurriedly said so the other would not accidentally stab him and dragged him backwards. “I know a way out.” He just hoped the other would listen and follow him because he could see a few more infected join the group of undead.

@▹ jeon heejin。 tw ! violence & injury !

Yiren is rather surprised to feel the tug on her wrist, taking a step behind the stranger even if she thinks she might stand a better chance at the man than the stranger — but there's a part of her that suddenly remembers all the backs she's stood behind before, and her eyes can only narrow. Oh, she /hates/ being under someone else's protection, especially for something that she may have started anyway. She doesn't stand behind the stranger's back completely, no. Her hand is poised at the bat she keeps by her side, eyes narrowed at the man. Insanity is written clearly in his eyes, no trace of reason left. She still can't tell whether or not he's infected, but she supposes that doesn't matter: there are monsters hidden deep within those beings that pretend to be humans, and she is only reminded that these aren't the times to be seeing the best in everyone, because there may not be one.

And she isn't about to die because of something like that. She wants to die on her own terms, and nothing else.

So when gunshot rings through the air, Yiren's first instinct is to move to the side, followed by a deadly arc of her bat straight to the man's neck. She freezes momentarily, because she hadn't meant to hit the neck. She meant to hit the arm, but the nails of her spiked bat dig into the other's skin. When she pulls her bat away, the man collapses to his knees, covering the side of his neck. Yiren's hands are trembling as she tries to keep a strong hold on her weapon — the only weapon she trusts not to fail her now — running to where the stranger's scooter is.

Once they're both seated (she doesn't know if the stranger even wants her to come with, but she isn't going to risk fighting a grown man with a gun when all she has is a damn spiked bat), she looks back behind them, trying to see if the man has already recovered. She almost freezes in her place once more — she has never seen a man look at her with such a psychotic pair of eyes in her entire life. "Go, go, go!" she urges hurriedly, holding onto the girl to keep herself in place.

@▹ yan an。 Once the person finally woke up, Minho could feel his tension finally dissolving. Damn, he had really been worried that the kid would not wake up again for whatever reason. Well, this world was ed up so it was not entirely unrealistic. A soft sigh left Minho's lips and he relaxed, shaking his head a bit. He did not know the other and he could have used his freshly dead body for food but honestly he preferred people to be alive than him having a snack. Thankfully noone could read his mind because those were really weird thoughts.

"You... fell asleep in the middle of this place?" Minho frowned and looked around. "You could have found a safer place." He was really worried for the state of the other's mind. Why would this guy just sleep here? That was definitely not his smartest idea. He sighed and shook his head though it was not his problem, was it? Then again he just easily worried and got attached for no reason so maybe it was his problem a little bit.

"Are you hurt?" he then asked and checked him out a little bit, looking for wounds but there were none visible. He then relaxed a little bit. "Lino. Most people call me Lino. Or Minho, but I prefer Lino," he admitted and chewed on his bottom lip.

@▹ jeon heejin。 [It is super fine, do not worry! It's perfect so there is nothing to change!]

It had been time to get some more food and make sure to store some supplies so Minho had been out for a few hours just to come back to total chaos. Each day the people seemed to lose it even more and he wondered when it would all end up entirely. When the end of the world would finally arrive - or was that already the end of the world? he was not sure. A soft sigh left his lips as he watched the people around him rush, making sure he would not encounter anyone so he was safe and sound and could go home.

Surprised he looked up when he saw a familiar face not too far away and immediately calling out for Heejin and rushing towards her. Why was she even out alone, it was dangerous for anyone. But then again he was out alone as well so there was that.

"What happened?" he asked, noticing the flat tire and frowning before he realised he had just found some stuff that might help with a flat tire - or at least help fix it. He had entered a bike shop earlier and found some stuff he had thought of giving to Heejin as Minho could not use it at all but he knew she could.

@▸ lee minho。 [ 6th of May, 2120 : Around 4AM ]

Heejin thought that venturing out during the less chaotic hours at dawn would save her from trouble, but what had welcomed her after exiting the building she was hiding in was a flat tire. Someone has flattened the tire of her scooter – thankfully though, it was just that. She makes a mental note that if she could bring her scooter inside to where she is, she probably should. There were still a lot of people running around, looking for things to steal in order to manage to get by.

Although Heejin was clearly scared due to the fact that the perpetrator could still be around somewhere, she drags her scooter out in the open. The once chilly air filled with scents of dew was now humid and reeks of...death. It made the female cough, covering with her elbow so as to not make any noise that may cause a disturbance to the restless.

However, it seems that she might have failed in keeping quiet, for she jumps as a partially familiar voice—or was it totally familiar, the beating of her heart out of nervousness drowns it all—called for her.

( & — sdfghjf sorry for this late starter and i hope the date and time i picked for the thread is okay o ___ o if not you can tell me so i can change it hehe )

@▸ lee minho。 it didn't take much for his consciousness to return. thanks to the light shake, his body immediately rewired itself back together allowing him to wake back up. so with an abrupt gasp for air, his eyes opened back up before quickly darting around to take in his surroundings. there have been times when yan an had fallen asleep to wake up in foreign environments, leading to severe panic but thankfully he still seemed to be in the same place as he had knocked out in.

except the only difference was the foreign face of a stranger trying to grab his attention from above. eyes widening in surprise, he nodded nervously before using his arms to sit up on the ground. before he had left the safety of his lab, the building's supervisor had given him the same old warning of "don't trust strangers" which he had promised to abide to, but the grad student unfortunately was very trustful of anyone he crossed paths with...even during this time period they were living in...so just assuming that he had thankfully been found by a kind stranger, he let out a breath of relief.

"oh hi! umm i'm so sorry to have worried you, i must have just fallen asleep again." he said with a nervous grin across his face. as his hands padded down his body to make sure he was fine he stated, "i think i'm fine? thank you for asking! i'm yan an, and you are?" stretching out a hand he inquired about who the other person was.

@▹ yan an。 Being out and looking for supplies was something Minho did on regular basis and not only when he really needed it because chances were he did not find anything and had to starve. No, that was not entirely true. He was forcing himself to swallow some of the normal food people ate while to him it tasted disgusting to him. And he hated it so damn much. It had been easy to realise he was infected but ignoring it and pushing it away and instead looking for supplies while he denied what was going on was easy. Though Minho had also already acted upon his symptoms from time to time.

Not today though.

Today he was out to look for supplies, some food and water. Maybe even a new toothbrush or a blanket or some shampoo. He had found a nice small pond he could wash himself in from time to time as the water was not drinkable. Whatever was nice was always usable so here he was. And instead supplies he found a person. At first he had thought they were dead. Dead on the ground. But then he moved and breathed and Minho's eyes widened and he immediately rushed towards him, kneeling next to the young man.

"Hey," he said, gently touching the shoulder of the other and helping him sit up against a lamp post that had long stopped lighting. "Hey, can you hear me? Are you injured?"

@▸ lee minho。 headaches weren't a foreign sensation in his life due to his condition, but something about the one pulsating through his crown didn't sit right with him. perhaps it was because he had unexpectedly started running; his body was clearly not meant for physical fatigue. or perhaps almost running into an unknown group of strangers had sent him into a frenzied panic. no one was stupid enough to just be hanging out in public these days...unless they were infected...

while clutching his paper bag of looted goods with one hand, he pressed the bottom of his free palm into his right eye socket, hoping the pressure would help with the pain. "just a few blocks..." he muttered under his breath.

continuing down the familiar yet foreign street near his lab, he gripped onto the wall of a building to try to catch his breath seeing that he was no longer being followed. but as soon as he could feel his heartbeat lowering back down, the narcoleptic also felt the familiar sensation of sleep suddenly wash over him. "fu--" an exasperated sigh cut off his profanity as he dropped to the ground without any warning, and the world around him turned black.

@▸ wang yiren。 tw! mild violence, injury

As the female stranger explained the situation to her, she takes a glance at the man from the girl’s shoulder. That action alone was enough to make her stomach turn and for her heartbeat to pick up its pace. Heejin was nervous, that is for sure – she breaks her gaze and turns to toward the girl again. She takes her time to stare, rude as it may be but she was trying to communicate something through her shaky eyes and slightly open but no words were ready to come out—yet, as Heejin hopes to be able to say something.

She holds and gently pulls on the girl’s wrist, urging her to go behind her – as if she had bravery in her system. It was a facade and it will always be a facade, no matter the situation was. For what kind of bravery will someone like her possess, when all her life, vulnerability is all that she had known.

“H-hey,” it comes out fragile and faltering. “Hey!” She repeats after taking a deep breath. That made the surroundings blurry and the ringing in her ears louder. In her head was a fight between her conscience and her fortitude – her conscience cheering her on, while the latter was like glass on the edge of a table.

Heejin takes a step forward – it is a miracle that her knees have not buckled yet. ‘If I get in trouble right now, at least I was doing good’ she thinks, repeatedly that it caused her to flinch when the man had practically growled at her in response to her call, “What? You don’t want to get involved in this you – or have you psychos learned to team up already?”

Tugging on the thin thread of her sanity, Heejin brings herself to reply, “Honestly mister, I think you’re the one who’s psycho here. We just want to pass through. No one owns this road anymore, so don’t act as if you do.”

The way things escalated from that statement to both girls sprinting towards Heejin’s scooter and Heejin fumbling with her keys, praying to whoever she knows as almighty. The ringing in her ear intensified and she feels that she would pass out from how her heart was responding to the situation, but who would not? That guy almost shot them, and now her knife was no longer in her possession and was pierced on the man’s forearm.

Heejin does not care anymore, whether that guy was infected or not – dying from a bullet wound (or a couple, if that guy was completely maniac) is not better than being eaten. Dying itself is never better than being alive—at least for now.

( & — i hope the pacing is just fine shdgjdg i was just thinking that weird npc is already at the peak of his anger )

@▹ jeon heejin。 Yiren believes she has enough patience to last her a while, but ever since she's learned that she isn't quite as safe as she initially believed she was, her patience is beginning to run thin — even if she tries her best to keep herself calm. Showing her agitation isn't going to benefit her in any type, and will only encourage more suspicions toward her, which is something she doesn't need nor will ever incite. She wants to be safe as much as she wants others to be safe from /her/.

But this man that stands right in front of her, clad in a uniform that doesn't mean anything anymore in this economy and era, is testing her. She doesn't know his name, and quite frankly she doesn't care enough to try and know what to call him. He looks at her with a slightly crazed look, bags under his eyes so dark she almost thinks that /he's/ the one who's infected between the two of them. She can smell the faint scent of blood, mixed with the smell of iron and metal. She isn't aware whether or not that blood she smells is his alone, but she does have an inkling that this blood isn't just his, judging from the smell of bullets from his being.

Her eyes narrow at the gun at the man's belt, before she meets the other's eyes once more. He's been spouting nonsense about how he cannot let any infected get into the vicinity — which is honestly perfectly valid, Yiren would have done the same too — but the problem is that she isn't exhibiting any known symptoms of being an infected, and she doesn't trust the look in the man's eyes. It screams danger and death, but she hasn't been able to avoid it as she couldn't see from the distance. And with the dark skies, it's even harder to see. She relies mostly on her sense of scent for directions, even if she doesn't exactly know where she's going.

All she knows is that she's heading the opposite way of where most of the mindless infected have gone to.

"I'm telling you, I'm not at all infected! If I were infected, do you think I'd be standing in front of you right now, /negotiating/ with you? Ahjussi, if I were infected, I would have eaten you the moment I saw you," Yiren says, eyebrows furrowing as her lips curl into a frown.

Of course, he doesn't listen. Instead he screams, making her flinch in her place. She has her bat ready by her side as always, but she tries not to give the man any reason to pull the gun on her. A bat has no defense against a bullet speeding through air faster than her eyes can follow. Unfortunately, her being an infected herself doesn't give her additional enhancements such as speed or strength.

Only smell, which is annoying on its own, honestly.

She thinks her savior comes in the form of a rather friendly voice behind her, and she turns to look over her shoulder. Immediately, she moves a little closer to the girl — unlike the man, the unfamiliar girl doesn't have any... well, /dangerous/ scents. "This man says I can't enter because apparently I'm infected. He isn't listening to reason. Do you think you can convince him?" she says, heading straight to the point in a slightly accented Korean.

@▸ wang yiren。 [ 28th of September, 2120 : Around 9AM ]

Heejin has already lost count of the ventures she had done during the course of the outbreak. During the first few months, when there were still means of announcing protocols, the most often repeated statement was ‘stay indoors at all cost’. Heejin scoffs at that recall and picks up her pace, her scooter by her side – if that was so effective, why did things come to this? Perhaps she has been used to ‘being indoors’ all her life, both literally and figuratively causing her to feel adventurous—for lack of better wording—due to the present circumstances. She finds herself uneasy whenever she realizes that she had been staying at a place for too many days already.

That is why she found herself on the other side of Seoul (again) and approaching the road to Chuncheon – the direction of her hometown. Ironically, even though she feels that she has been in that place for way too long, she cannot help but follow the familiar path. Thankfully (or not, Heejin is not quite sure herself) she is often stopped before she could even reach the midpoint between Seoul and her hometown. Whether she sights what she suspects are infected, it becomes too dark and dangerous to continue, or simply, her nerves getting the best of her, for months she has chosen to be stuck in Seoul.

There she was again, the part where the road widens and all the smaller ones intersect. She finds herself stopping in the middle of it often, risky at it may sound – but she takes her time to contemplate. However, at that particular moment, there was a situation. It seems that there were two people arguing on the streets. Typically, Heejin was the type to get on her scooter and drive away from the scene as fast as she can but with how the situation was playing out, there was the urge to interfere.

A man, who seemed to be furious about something was yelling about fees and roads towards a girl. Taking a deep breath, Heejin strode towards the direction carefully, her weapon—the knife she uses to cut the straw ropes that hold together boxes of pizza—inside her grip. She would not hold it up immediately, of course, she might get hurt in the process if she becomes to rash, but just to be sure.

When she reached the back of the girl, she spoke – cutting of what the man was screaming his head off about. “Sorry for interrupting but uh, is there a problem?”