“You know, I’m realizing this again — this building is really something.”
Kim Jae-yun said it as he climbed the grey stone steps leading out of the pool area.
The staircase going up from the swimming pool to the archery range was entirely different from the main building — the material of the steps, the shape of the railing, the full-length glass windows set into the middle of the staircase wall, all of it.
The railings in the main building were square and hollow-sounding, while the annex railings had rounded handrails made of something that caught the light more like glass. The main building’s facilities were already quite good compared to neighboring schools — clearly a lot had been invested — but the annex was a different sensibility altogether.
Clearly, the money shows. Cha Do-hyun answered from behind Kim Jae-yun, who had said just that:
“It’s a new building, so.”
“Our school really must be loaded. Didn’t they say they’re gutting the main building over winter break too? It’s not even that old. But god, why won’t they just put down some turf in that field.”
“They said they’re redoing the field too. The turf will go in after they tear it all up.”
“Ohh, so there’s a whole plan? Well, a sand field has its own kind of charm, I guess.”
Kim Jae-yun pressed a hand against the full-pane window and looked out at the schoolyard. Rain was pouring down again, and the drumming against the outside of the glass came through unusually loud. It was probably the drops hitting the railing on the outer wall.
Kim Jae-yun looked at the clear fingerprint he’d left on the glass, then turned his head sharply.
“Anyway, why are we going to the second floor? The school store is on the first floor. Do you have something to do at the archery range?”
Cha Do-hyun wiped the fingerprint away with his own shirt sleeve and replied:
“I want to find some weapons first. The store looks like it’s unlocked and we should be able to get enough food — but we still don’t have many usable weapons.”
“Right, yeah. Honestly, we should be worrying less about starving to death and more about getting eaten alive by zombies. Though — do crows even eat zombie meat?”
Kim Jae-yun asked that last question as he resumed climbing the stairs with long strides. A few steps up, a folding wooden door came into view beyond the landing. He had never set foot in the archery range before — but the various pieces of equipment scattered outside the door made it clear that was exactly where they were headed.
Cha Do-hyun climbed ahead of Kim Jae-yun, came to a stop in front of the archery range door, and answered:
“Crows should be the least of your worries. The government should come first.”
“Huh? The government? Aren’t they coming to rescue us?”
“If we survive, yes. But if we end up turning into zombies, like you said — then it’s the opposite you’d need to worry about.”
Cha Do-hyun picked up a bow that had fallen in front of the door. The string had snapped completely — probably heavily damaged in the process of being dropped on the floor.
This one’s useless. After checking its condition, Cha Do-hyun set it back down without hesitation.
“…So what you’re saying is, if we turn into zombies, we’d end up getting taken out by the government. Would they actually bury us at that point?”
“They’d probably hold some kind of joint funeral.”
With that answer, Cha Do-hyun pressed his ear close to the surface of the closed door. No sound at all from inside — it seemed safe to say the room was empty. Kim Jae-yun stepped up behind him and said:
“…Damn. That’s a grim end.”
“That would actually be getting off easy. With a novel mutated virus, they might not even cremate you properly. Though whether the bodies would even be preserved enough to identify in the first place is another question.”
Kim Jae-yun nodded along to Cha Do-hyun’s calm, matter-of-fact forecast without any real objection.
Fair enough — just looking at the zombies they’d encountered, the bodies moved in human shape but the skin and flesh in various places was rotting and falling apart, to a degree you couldn’t really call them people anymore.
And on top of that, being bitten and mauled by zombies would damage a lot of flesh in the process — so, as Cha Do-hyun said, they’d be lucky if the fingertips needed for identification weren’t completely torn off.
Having thought it through that far, Kim Jae-yun shifted quietly to Cha Do-hyun’s side. Then, mimicking exactly what Cha Do-hyun had done, he pressed one cheek against the closed door to listen for sounds inside.
But before Kim Jae-yun could even register what he was hearing, Cha Do-hyun pulled his ear away first and threw the door open without a word. Left leaning against nothing, Kim Jae-yun nearly stumbled.
“Damn it… you scared me. Are we clear to go in?”
But Cha Do-hyun ignored his reaction entirely and stepped inside. Are we sure there are no zombies? Kim Jae-yun muttered to himself and followed after Cha Do-hyun — though rather than walking straight in, he stuck just his head through the door to check first.
Contrary to the assumption that it would be dark given the lack of electricity, the indoor archery range was bright, almost like a mild daytime. The reason was a wide bank of windows that stretched across an entire wall inside.
Kim Jae-yun followed Cha Do-hyun inside and cautiously scanned the room. The medium-tone natural wood flooring and wide, long interior had a similar but distinctly different feel from a regular indoor gymnasium.
The target boards lined up in a straight row at the far end still bore clear signs of archery practice. Kim Jae-yun had always wondered what an indoor archery range actually looked like — and now, seeing facilities considerably nicer than he’d expected, his mouth fell open on its own.
“Apparently someone from our school got selected for the national team recently — I guess that rumor was true. Do-hyun, maybe I should take up archery.”
Kim Jae-yun, who had been tensed up in case of zombies, was already wandering through the unfamiliar but oddly refreshing archery range as if that hadn’t happened at all.
Cha Do-hyun didn’t even spare him a glance, picking up a practice arrow from the floor as he replied:
“Stop messing around and find something we can actually use. Quickly.”
“There are bows and arrows literally everywhere in here, so. Anyway — looks like things got pretty chaotic in here too. Stuff is all over the place.”
True to Kim Jae-yun’s words, various small belongings were scattered across the floor, all out of place. It was probably evidence of people having rushed to evacuate once the zombie outbreak was discovered.
Cha Do-hyun quietly looked for anything that could serve as a weapon, imagining how things must have unfolded here back then.
“At least there’s no blood, so I guess whatever happened didn’t turn violent in here.”
Cha Do-hyun silently agreed. Since the zombie outbreak had started on the second floor of the main building, the people in the annex would have had plenty of time to evacuate. Looking at the signs of their departure, it occurred to Cha Do-hyun that those who had been in the annex might have already made it outside — the annex was the building closest to the school’s main gate, after all.
But the fact that two days had passed without any news from outside suggested the zombie situation wasn’t confined to just this school — it was likely spreading across a considerably wider range. If it had only been contained to the school, the government would have surrounded and contained the perimeter from the start.
So the continued silence beyond the main gate meant this crisis was, at minimum, a district-level problem.
If luck was really against us, it could’ve been simultaneous across the whole country.
And that was one of the worst-case scenarios. Do-hyun thought of his phone in his pocket — not a single notification — and picked up a broken arrowhead. I need to gather as many usable weapons as possible. That was the thought in his mind when:
“By the way — why do you like Han Jae-i so much?”
Cha Do-hyun looked up, brow furrowed at the question he couldn’t begin to make sense of. Kim Jae-yun seemed to realize how his question sounded and rushed to clarify.
“Oh — no. I know you like him because he’s your friend, obviously. I just mean, I’m curious why you treat him so much more preciously than anyone else—”
“…….”
“Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’ll admit that question could’ve come out sounding terrible. But I genuinely like Han Jae-i too, as a friend. It’s just that you’ve always treated him like he’s something particularly special. I was just curious about the reason. I’m not asking with just this situation in mind.”
The thorough explanation seemed to land, and Cha Do-hyun slowly let the deep frown ease off his face.
Kim Jae-yun turned his head away with what felt like visible relief and let out a long, silent breath. One badly-worded question and I almost ended up in a ditch. That was his inner thought as he cleared his throat and continued, more calmly:
“Honestly… I’ve been curious about it the whole time we’ve been together. From what I’ve seen, you’re not the type to go out of your way for anyone or play favorites — but with Han Jae-i, you’re weirdly careful with him. Like he might shatter. Less like a friend and more like someone you’re actually in lo—”
