Min gets cold easily, so she wears a lot of layers to bed. Usually she's wearing a large t-shirt, a sweatshirt with the hoodie pulled up, sweatpants, and socks. And if it's especially cold, she'll tuck herself inside her sweatshirt with her arms wrapped around herself and her chin resting against her chest.
Namjoo loves warm sunny days when she can sit by the Han River and relax. She also loves warm sunny days because they're quiet, which means that you can easily hear the infected coming and be able to escape quickly.
This week had been an unfruitful one. Her ventures for medicine had given her but a little, and as always, it made anxiety blossom in her. What if they'd finally run out? As far as she knew, no one was making meds anymore, and that meant their supply was finite. That meant one day, they'd run out.
She really didn't want to be around for that. But it'd been decades. Reality was unforgiving.
It was why she'd snuck in an abandoned looking place in Seoul. She tried to avoid that, to only go to outskirts, and other places. The center had never been her main place of business, seeing how it was the easiest to get to, which meant it was busiest. Too much potential for run ins and stand offs. Besides, the center was definitely the first place to be stripped clean.
But she had nowhere else to go, seeing how the dark would descend too, and it seemed like as good a place as any to search and possibly sleep.
She'd found more than she bargained for too. Mostly herbal in nature, which was suprising. They seemed almost home-made...
A small suspiciong started blooming, and Jihyo hesitated. A few seconds too long, the universe decided, because behind her the sound of footsteps echoed through the house.
Well, fuckity fuck shit.
She quickly grabbed her bow and arrow, and aimed even as she twirled around, coming face to face with a young, beautiful girl.
▶ Blessed with ethereal beauty, the greatest of creatures walks through filthy ground with no sign of impurity in its paws. Restless but still elegant, privileged with many of nature’s angelic gifts, hard is to think that such being has direct contact with the Underworld. No soul escapes from its crystal clear eyes and silken strands of hair, no mind is free of being hypnotized by the apocalyptic sound that comes out of a mouth filled with whiskers.
They can fool anyone, but not everything. Not one of their own.
A purring is heared in the midway of nothing, empowered, magnified with the help of emptiness. It’s not alone, another mewing replies. The two felines share an indecipherable conversation complemented with a dance of bodies rubbing against each other, caressing, exploring. Curious one of them lifts a paw and plays with the other’s tail, the meeting is revealing to them, despite their great wisdom and greatness it is a moving object and a certain herb the things that can open new doors to them, creatures that have seen everything in this and all worlds.
But, unbelievably, are humans beings the ones that proclaim themselves as the owners of these little fluffy god and godesses. Back in the time when they reigned alongside pharaohs, their position of divinity was recognized by those bald bipedal apes and respected as they deserved. Today, when humanity is begging on its knees for mercy, the cats, higher selves, find freedom in wrecked streets and bloody forests.
"Toot! you brat what are you doing here?!" a female voice breaks into the peaceful waters of the swamp, as she gets near the two felines. "Who is this? a friend of yours?" she asks while reaching for the other cat’s ears with gentle ways, Toot, by its side, remains loyal to a ancient vow of silence that its kind made at the beginning of life.
"Hey Kat, what’s up in there…" Sen, coming out of his shack with the savage mark ii between his hands, peers at the scene with analytical eyes. The girl, startled, takes Toot in her arms and slowly starts to fall back, her dolly eyes petrified over the weapon.
"Oh sorry, lemme take-… Not that way!” Sen warns the girl rather too late, for she’s already swimming in the ingrate waters of the swamp.
Toot, in the meanwhile, jumps out of the water with its whiskers bristling of pure, feline indignation.
Naeun was beginning to think she should have stayed home today.
It was early yet, and the streets of the Free Districts were already teaming with chaos. She’d only left the walls of the Military District behind a couple of hours ago, but already she’d been forced to take cover within an abandoned diner. The streets were crawling with bandits and hunters, and Naeun had barely managed to evade an infected by ducking through one of the diner’s busted windows. Luckily, there were enough people on the street that the Stalker had been distracted by other prey. It hadn’t attempted to follow her inside the building.
After a quick sweep of her surroundings, Naeun moved behind the old service counter and dropped into a crouch, clutching her rifle close to her chest. She let her head fall back against the cabinet behind her and shut her eyes. Outside, the sounds of fighting raged on, drowned out only by the rumble of thunder from the storm rolling in from the south.
Naeun was still struggling to catch her breath. She shot S a pointed glance, then doubled over and braced her hands on her knees. She laughed breathlessly. “No,” she countered, flashing the other girl a tired smile, “I’m pretty sure that one was on me.”
She laughed and drug a hand through her hair, pulling the tangled curls so they fell over one shoulder. She could feel her hair sticking to the sweat on her neck. At S’ disbelieving stare, Naeun widened her eyes innocently and held up the dirty satchel that had caused the entire mess.
He walked leisurely down the main street, eyes flickering from side to side, watching with interest the few tents along side of the ruined buildings. He could see the supplies that were there to be traded, some of them grabbing Jonghyun's attention but not enough to actually lead him to a small discussion to trade his own supplies for those. Nonetheless, the young man still stopped on his track, walking to one tent that had a few books displayed and some old decorations. True, he would never - ever - waste his supplies for those useless things... But that didn't mean he didn't like to look at them.
A visible frown formed on his expression, the sudden sound of soft footsteps reaching his ears, and he glanced to the side at the same time a group of kids passed by him. It was the very first time he had seen so many children together -- and it was certainly the first time that he saw them with such a toothy smile and with such a rush that, in other circumstances, he would thought that a horde of infected was close by. Good thing that the smile was there, to assure him of otherwise. Even so, the curiosity fell upon the hunter, and since he had the day completely free, he decided to follow the kids to be able to understand all the sudden rush.
It was a part of the free district he never, ever visited and, truth be told, it was already satisfying to see that the civilians there had already rebuilt that area. Spinning on his heel to follow the next group of children, he nearly ran into one of them, but a sudden low, soft voice caught his attention, forgetting completely that he had an apology to give. He increased his pace, the voice becoming clear as he approached the group of kids, but it was still impossible for him to see the person behind that voice.
Eyes widened, the surprise was evident in his expression once his gaze fell on the girl right before the children, her voice somehow bringing back old memories. He had heard that song before, when life was normal... When he had his mother close by to sing for him. Jonghyun found himself completely absorbed by her voice, a small smile creeping onto his face as he glanced at the kids. He could understand all the rush, could even understand all those toothy smiles around him -- he also felt the corner of his lips curling up, his lips being parted to bring his teeth into view. He didn't notice though - and if he did, he would probably dig a hole to hide himself into - but from afar, everyone could see a crowd of kids, and in the middle of that crowd, there was a silver-haired man with a gun attached on his back -- Jonghyun, himself.
"I didn’t steal it. I borrowed it. Possibly for a long time."
"What?! So you did take it!" Sungyeol's mouth fell open at that, pausing in the middle of his action of flipping up his mattress, initially with the intent of looking under it. He drops it, and slowly makes his way towards her. "Give. It. Back. Now."S seemed to hum and tilt her head this way and that, before shaking his head. "Nah." And then she runs away. Sungyeol lets out a frustrated scream and gives chase. "Give me my plushy back!!!!"