Plus
Haejun ground his teeth until they ached.
These goddamn bitches…
When the school first erupted with screams and turned into a living hell of man-eating monsters, Haejun had spotted Soeun and Chaeyeon amid the chaos and moved fast to stick with them.
The friends he'd been fleeing with had stared at him like he was insane, asking where the hell he was going — but those clowns mattered far less to him than Soeun and Chaeyeon.
His calculation had been simple. Stick close to them in a situation like this, treat them well, and he'd naturally get closer — maybe even create an opening to make a move…
How the hell can they not even let me get a single word in?! Fuck, seriously…
The moment he so much as approached, Soeun glared at him like she wanted him dead. The moment he tried to join a conversation, same death stare. Far from getting closer, he felt the distance growing by the second.
"You okay, kid? Feeling better now?"
"…Y-yes. I think I'll live. Thank you, sunbae-nim."
"Good. You don't need the formal 'nim' — just talk comfortable. Get some rest."
Residue from vomit clung to the boy's mouth and clothes, giving off a sour smell, but Soeun didn't care in the slightest. She gave his shoulder a firm pat and walked away.
The boy, finally calmed by her hand on his back, stared blankly after her retreating figure — and Haejun couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Hey. Freshman."
"…Yes?"
"Who the hell do you think you're staring at? Eyes down."
Haejun stood a full head taller, his build incomparable. The boy ducked his head without a peep — but his eyes burned with resentment.
What business is it of his? He's clearly not even her boyfriend… Is he jealous or what?
Soeun, completely oblivious to the two males posturing over her, walked over to the male upperclassman who was rummaging through things on his own.
"Find anything?"
"Yeah. Found a few things so far. No idea if they'll actually work, though…"
"If the top student in the whole school doesn't know, nobody does, right?"
"…You know me?"
"Of course. You're Jo Hyeonmin-sunbae, right? The school valedictorian who's never once given up first place since freshman year."
"Uh… honestly I dropped it a few times. My performance depends a lot on how I'm feeling that day…"
"Oh, really? Guess the rumors were a bit exaggerated."
Soeun shrugged past Hyeonmin's awkward reaction and scanned the bottles gathered on the desk.
"Looking at these, I still have no idea what any of them are. Figures."
"Hmm. Rough explanation — this is sodium metal… and from the right, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid…"
He carefully sorted them while explaining to Soeun, but beyond the acids she understood nothing.
"And this is potassium nitrate — commonly called saltpeter."
"Looks kind of like sugar. If you mixed the two I wouldn't be able to tell them apart."
"Yeah, the appearance is pretty similar. But if you're actually going to use it like you said, you do mix it with sugar."
"Huh? What's it for?"
Hyeonmin scratched his head lightly, then gave an awkward smile.
"Uh… well, for setting those monsters' heads on fire?"
"Whoa. Is that actually possible?"
Even the brutal phrasing didn't faze her — she lit up with interest instead, leaving Hyeonmin flustered.
"Well, it is possible, but honestly it's way too dangerous… If it spreads into a fire, we're in serious trouble."
"Ah, yeah, that makes sense."
Chaeyeon, who had been quietly listening by the window, peering through a gap in the curtains, spoke up.
"Why? Wouldn't it be better if all the zombies just burned up?"
"Sure. And everyone else would burn up with them."
Even if we somehow managed to escape the school, the other people barely holding out hidden inside the building would suddenly get hit with a rain of fire.
Whether Soeun was giving her a flat look or not, Chaeyeon twirled a strand of her long straight hair around her finger, roughly accepted the point, and looked at Hyeonmin.
"So is there a way to mess up the zombies without fire?"
Hyeonmin seemed thoroughly overwhelmed by Soeun's presence right beside him and Chaeyeon's gaze coming straight at him — he edged slowly away as he answered.
"There are a few options. Splash acid in their eyes… or just make bombs."
"Bombs?! That's possible?"
Soeun whipped her face right up to his in shock, and Hyeonmin flinched.
"Y-yeah. Among the stuff I found there's sodium metal, so… it's possible. But it's not like it'll blow everything sky-high like a real bomb."
"Then how much are we talking?"
"Hmm. If you dump everything in this bottle at once, it might be enough to incapacitate a whole group, I think."
Assuming they actually take the hit, of course.
Hyeonmin adjusted his glasses and delivered the reality check to the two expectant girls.
"But it's a bit tough. The explosion works by reacting sodium with water — and that process takes some time…"
"Is there no way to speed that up?"
"Well, if you use a highly reactive solvent like iodine… it's possible, but even then it wouldn't be dramatic…"
As he spoke, Hyeonmin's eyes landed on the hydrogen peroxide carefully stored in a locked glass case.
And as the student who had the trust of every teacher in the school, he also knew the key to that lock was sitting in the corner of the science lab teacher's desk cabinet.
"…I think I've got a method."
A filthy dangerous one, but still.
A short while later, everyone sat in silence around the table.
Chaeyeon slowly opened her mouth.
"If we can't get out of this school as soon as possible, whatever hope we still have will disappear."
Haejun uncrossed his arms and spoke in a deliberately low voice.
"I think it'd be better to just sit tight and wait for rescue. Those monsters…"
"Hey. Why are you talking like that? Think about the people listening."
"…No matter how many there are, once the police or military show up, they'll wipe them out in no time."
"But we don't know when that will be."
Chaeyeon spoke calmly, unbothered by how low Haejun dropped his voice or what kind of look he gave her.
"The longer we stay here, the more our stamina drops and the more zombies there are. If we just wait and rescue comes late, we're finished."
"…So what, you want us to just charge out of the school? You saw what it's like outside."
At Soeun's precise point, Chaeyeon hesitated a moment, then said:
"Honestly? The zombies outside. Personally, I don't think we need to be that scared of them."
"…Hey, Im Chaeyeon. Are you out of your mind?"
"I'm assuming I have my foil, of course. But what choice do we have? If the zombies keep multiplying…"
Soeun raised a hand to cut her off.
"Drop the baseless speculation for now. There's no solid proof they multiply over time like you say, is there?"
"No. There is — that's why I'm saying this. I've been watching through the window in between."
The sight of moving corpses devouring bodies until the bones showed, then those same corpses rising to create yet more of their kind.
Soeun's face took on an indescribable expression at those words. Hyeonmin, who had only been listening, spoke up in a grave voice.
"If that's true, I think Chaeyeon's plan is better too. This science lab has no food at all, and it's a terrible place to hold out."
There was drinking water at least, but nothing edible in sight — if they tried to wait it out, they'd starve.
With no idea when rescue would come, simply starving while waiting was far too dangerous. That was Hyeonmin's judgment.
"…Even so, going outside relying only on those things feels iffy."
Soeun looked at the hazardous materials gathered to one side.
Bombs and whatever else — it had been interesting when Hyeonmin explained it. But thinking about actually using them in reality, anxiety was the normal reaction.
Heading out to face man-eating monsters with something she'd never seen or heard of before.
Hyeonmin nodded in acknowledgment.
"This is strictly backup. The odds of them actually taking a hit from this are low, so we'll primarily use sound to draw them off. We'll only throw these when we're completely out of options."
Picking up from there, Chaeyeon stood and pointed at the right-hand wall.
"And luckily, there's more we can use. Before I find my weapon, the stuff we can work with is piled up right next door."
"…You mean past that wall? What's over there?"
"The teachers' office."
"…The teachers' office?"
What usable weapons could possibly be in a place like that?
"I've got a few things I've had my eye on."
At Soeun's dubious, puzzled look, Chaeyeon simply smiled.