The Health Room Reunion
The corridor leading from the gymnasium to the special wing felt darker than it had when they first entered. Much of it was due to the growing quiet as the sun began to sink. In that stillness, a zombie that had been leaning half against the wall lifted its head. It was a male student in gym clothes. One side of his face was deeply gouged, as if someone had bitten into it. The moment he heard the footsteps of the three, he pitched his body forward.
Ha-neul’s sword moved first. There was no loud swing. She approached as if merely brushing past him, and the blade traced a short, cold line across his neck. After the sound of flesh parting, his head tilted and slid halfway off. Blood spurted belatedly from the severed neck. Ha-neul did not stop. Another zombie had staggered out from a gap in a nearby door. It looked like a female student, but her face had been torn away, leaving no expression. Before the zombie could even orient itself, Chae-won’s staff thrust upward from below. The end of the mop handle pierced beneath its chin, and the zombie’s body went rigid. Chae-won did not pull the handle back immediately; she pushed it deeper to finish the job, then quietly stepped away.
Another zombie approached slowly from the rear, but Eun-ah handled it. She brought an iron dumbbell down onto its head. With a dull impact, the skull caved in.
The three crossed the corridor without pausing. Minimizing noise did not mean moving in complete silence. When necessary, they ended threats quickly, avoided prolonged struggles, and caught falling bodies to prevent loud crashes. The method settled into their movements faster than expected, and their pace never slowed.
The section connecting the special wing to the main building was quieter than anticipated. That very quietness felt ominous. The main building was the heart of the school—home to the most classrooms, the teachers’ office, the broadcasting room, and the auditorium. It had always been the busiest area. Yet now it was this silent?
Several classroom doors were tightly shut from the inside. Occasionally, faint sobs or stifled movements leaked through. Every time Ha-neul heard those sounds, her gaze flicked toward the door, but her steps never faltered. It was not that they could not save people; they simply could not afford to right now. Gathering survivors without purpose would only slow their movement and increase noise. Once that happened, securing the health room—and reuniting with Ju-ha—could become impossible.
Chae-won had reached the same conclusion. As they passed a locked classroom door, she spoke in a low voice. “This isn’t the time to gather or save people. First we collect the necessary personnel and establish a proper base.”
Ha-neul only nodded. The explanation had already been given. Still, hearing Chae-won voice it again made their direction clearer. Eun-ah followed in silence, catching her breath. She was not foolish; she understood perfectly that they lacked the luxury to rescue many at once.
The corridor leading to the health room was relatively quiet even within the main building. Normally, students feeling unwell or injured during gym class would pass through occasionally, while the rest of the time it stayed empty. Now that emptiness felt colder.
When the health room door finally came into view at the end of the corridor, all three slowed their steps at once. Two zombies stood in front of the door. Both were already soaked in blood and kept bumping against it. Their nails scraped the lower part of the door; their shoulders pushed, then they staggered back only to repeat the motion. If no living person remained inside, there would be no reason for them to linger there.
Ju-ha was clearly still alive inside.
Ha-neul adjusted her grip on the sword. This time there was no need for all three to engage. She stepped forward. The moment one zombie turned, the blade passed through. Its neck split cleanly, and the headless body slumped against the wall, spraying blood. The second zombie heard the sound and lunged with its mouth wide open, only to lose its head the same way.
The corridor fell silent again. All that remained before the door were two freshly fallen corpses, the smell of blood, and the sense that someone inside was holding their breath and listening.
Chae-won stepped ahead. She knocked on the door with the back of her hand, very carefully. There was no need to make loud noise. If anyone alive remained inside, they would already be listening intently to the situation outside.
“Teacher Cheon Ju-ha. It’s Seo Chae-won.”
At first there was no response. Ha-neul stood pressed against the wall beside the door, listening. Eun-ah held her breath as well. Eventually, faint movement sounded from within. The lock turned, and the door opened.
Beyond it appeared a white lab coat and a pair of scissors held in one hand. It was Ju-ha. Her appearance was not much different from usual, yet dust and small bloodstains marked the coat, and the clothes beneath were wrinkled in places. Her face had gone pale, and her jaw was tight from prolonged tension. The scissors in her hand were a familiar tool, but held in reverse grip they looked more like a weapon than an instrument.
Ju-ha checked each of their faces in turn, and her expression changed. The wary light in her eyes softened in an instant. She lowered the scissors slightly, and almost reflexively—before she could even think—her body moved toward Ha-neul. The next moment, she pulled Ha-neul into an embrace.
“I… was really scared.”
Her low, trembling voice was muffled near Ha-neul’s shoulder. Normally Ju-ha was calm and maintained proper boundaries. She never displayed strong emotions in front of students. But now she was different. It felt as though all the tension from enduring alone for so long, from witnessing so much without breaking, had suddenly unraveled and poured out. Her arms wrapped around Ha-neul’s back with surprising strength, and the body beneath the coat trembled faintly.
Ha-neul embraced her in return. She set the sword aside and slowly stroked Ju-ha’s back with one hand, patting gently.
“It’s all right now. We’re here.”
But Ha-neul’s hand did not stop there. The stroking palm slid lower, toward her waist, then continued downward along the curve of her body beneath the coat. Without any change in expression, yet with clear intent, she gave Ju-ha’s buttock a light squeeze. It was not a forceful grip, but it was impossible to miss. The palm traced the lower curve slowly before giving a brief knead. Ju-ha definitely felt it; her body flinched for a split second. Yet instead of pulling away in surprise, she remained in Ha-neul’s arms, leaning in further as she steadied her breathing.
Fear and the relief of having overcome it might have left her no room to question the touch. Whatever the reason, she did not push the hand away.
In that moment, a brief memory flashed through Ha-neul’s mind—every time she had passed the health room and found her gaze lingering on Ju-ha. The mature figure naturally revealed beneath the white coat, the calm and beautiful face, the way she maintained the line between student and teacher yet never treated Ha-neul with outright coldness. Ha-neul had occasionally cast openly playful glances and suggestive looks. She had sat on the infirmary bed, deliberately meeting Ju-ha’s eyes and smiling, or let her gaze drift beneath the hem of the coat, murmuring things like “Teacher, you must be really popular with the students” as if it were nothing. Ju-ha was not oblivious to those advances. Yet she had never cut them off with a stern expression either. At most she would sigh and say, “Act your age if you’re a student,” or avert her eyes while pretending to organize documents. That ambiguous distance—neither refusal nor acceptance—had only drawn Ha-neul’s interest further.
And now, standing on that same subtle line, Ju-ha remained in Ha-neul’s embrace while being fondled, without pushing her away.
The composition was curious. Because Chae-won stood directly behind Ha-neul, she could not see the exact position of the hand. To her, it would simply look as though the surviving school nurse had relaxed and was being held by a student. Eun-ah, however, saw everything from beside them—how Ha-neul’s hand had left the patting motion to slide downward, what it was doing, and that Ju-ha had felt it yet made no move to stop it. A bitter smile flickered across Eun-ah’s lips, so brief it was barely noticeable.
Honestly, this guy…
She clicked her tongue inwardly but said nothing. This was not the time to raise the issue, and she already knew Ha-neul had a habit of subtly attaching himself to beautiful women. It was simply absurd that the same situation was playing out here again.
A moment later, Ju-ha slowly pulled away first. Her face was slightly flushed, her breathing still uneven, but at least her awareness had returned to the present. Ha-neul withdrew his hand naturally, as if nothing had happened. Chae-won asked, “Were you alone in there?”
Ju-ha nodded. “At first there were two more. Injured students ran into the health room. One had scraped their chin, elbows, and knees from falling, and another had been bitten but didn’t understand what was happening… I tried to give emergency treatment first, but their conditions started turning strange. Then screams came from outside, and the bitten student suddenly attacked the one with the scrapes like they were having a seizure…”
Her words paused briefly. The identities of the two zombies that had remained in front of the health room door became clear. They had been bitten, reached the health room, and ultimately failed to hold on before attacking another student. Ju-ha must have desperately pushed them outside and locked the door to survive. There had been no other choice.
“So I locked the door and held out. While keeping the ones trying to get in at bay… I moved as many medicines, gauze, and disinfectants as possible to the back.”
Ju-ha looked around the health room as she spoke. Inside was far more cluttered than usual. The bed that had been blocking the door until moments ago had been pushed aside, and traces remained of the treatment cart and medicine boxes having been used to barricade the entrance. Bandage wrappers and torn-open disinfectant cotton packages lay on the floor, yet painkillers, disinfectants, first-aid kits, bandages, gauze, and disposable gloves remained. It was not hospital-grade, but enough supplies lingered to treat the wounded at a temporary base.
Chae-won’s judgment was swift. “Let’s take all of this. We’ll need it if we’re using the gymnasium as a temporary base.”
Ju-ha agreed immediately. She quickly accepted the reality that joining them would greatly increase her chances of survival. “I think so too. I’ll prioritize anti-inflammatory drugs, painkillers, disinfectants, gauze, and compression bandages. IV fluids and syringes are here, but they’ll be hard to use properly right now.”
Chae-won quickly scanned the cabinets and drawers while Ju-ha immediately sorted what was essential. Ha-neul and Eun-ah stayed by the health room door, keeping watch. With this, their group had become four people—three combatants and one medical professional. The minimum conditions needed to survive inside the collapsed school were finally beginning to take shape.
Soon, a sound of something colliding echoed from the corridor. Thud. Thud. Slow, heavy, yet unmistakably approaching impacts. Drawn by the scent of blood and the traces of the corpses they had just killed in front of the health room, several zombies were heading their way.
Eun-ah lifted her head. Chae-won’s hand paused on the medicine box. Ju-ha instinctively looked toward the door. Ha-neul raised her sword. Chae-won gripped the mop handle again, and Eun-ah adjusted the iron dumbbell in her palm. Ju-ha pushed the medicine box behind her and took position at their rear. The scissors were back in her hand, but she no longer needed to rely on that alone.
The sounds outside drew closer. In that moment, the four of them naturally fell into formation, as if they had always been one unit. They were now in the same boat.