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Shit.
Shitshitshitshitshitshit!
Taesan growled curses from between gritted teeth, willing his legs to move faster as he raced towards his destination. He should never have listened to Jaehyun's suggestion to go further out in search of supplies. They'd come to a small shopping mall that Jaehyun said his mom had dragged him to hundreds of times as a kid and insisted he knew like the back of his hand. It was supposed to be a quick in-and-out trip, maybe spending a couple hours max there before going back to their hideout of the last two weeks with whatever they could find.
So much for that.
Admittedly, the first half of the trip had gone fine. The mall was surprisingly untouched so they'd found a bunch of good stuff in the backs of the restaurants that meant they wouldn't have to go looking for food for at least another week. They'd just been about to start exploring the other stores for anything they could use when the horde had appeared. In the mad scramble that had ensued Taesan had gotten split up from the others but they'd agreed to meet up near the front entrance if anything happened so they could make a quick getaway.
He was just about to round the corner that led to the hall that would take him back to the entrance when he heard a shout. Taesan felt his eyes go huge because he recognized that voice instantly, after almost six years of hearing it day in and day out it was as familiar to him as his own was.
Leehan.
Taesan doubled back in the direction he'd heard the shout come from. He skidded to a halt in front of one of the clothing stores and felt his heart seize in his chest at the sight before him. Leehan was pinned on the linoleum floor, his bat wedged firmly between the teeth that were trying to snap at him as he attempted to struggle out from underneath the zombie. Display racks and clothes were scattered everywhere, painting a picture of the fight that had led Leehan to his current predicament. Taesan could see blood smeared across the floor, soaking into Leehan's clothes, and shot into action.
He lunged across the room and threw his entire bodyweight at the zombie, knocking it off of Leehan. The bat fell out of its mouth from the impact but Taesan didn't give it the opportunity to try and bite him, planting his large hunting knife right in the base of its skull without hesitation.
Taesan only waited long enough for the body to stop twitching before he ripped the knife out, wiping the blade absently on one of the shirts scattered around them and shoving it back onto his belt before he forced himself into motion. He scrambled back over to Leehan who was still lying in a crumpled heap on the ground. Taesan grabbed his shoulder, trying to be gentle and probably failing as he rolled Leehan onto his back.
"Leehan!" He began frantically running his hands over Leehan's body checking for rips in his clothes, anything that would indicate that he'd been bitten, "Hey, can you hear me? Tell me you didn't get bit!"
Leehan groaned weakly, "Didn' get bit…" He trailed off, eyes half lidded and pained. Taesan's gaze followed his shaking hand when he brought it up towards his head, "Hit my head though."
Taesan swore under his breath when he inspected the gash on Leehan's temple, pushing some of his hair back with gentle fingers. It was maybe two inches long but he couldn't see how deep it was. There was an alarming amount of blood pouring out of it though and that was enough to scare Taesan into moving. He coaxed Leehan into sitting up and pulled him to his feet, curling a hand around his waist as he ducked under one of Leehan's arms so he ended up practically slung over Taesan's shoulders. Leehan whimpered at the jarring movement.
"Sorry, sorry," Taesan muttered, "C'mon we've got to get out of here. I swear, I'm never letting Jaehyun plan another scavenging trip ever again." Leehan let out a breathy giggle and Taesan felt a grin attempt to twitch across his lips at the sound despite everything.
Mercifully there were no zombies in their path back to the hallway Taesan had come from, one less thing for them to worry about. Taesan kept glancing down at Leehan worriedly. He could feel the adrenaline practically leaching out of his body, pain and blood loss making Leehan slump further into his side as they moved. The younger did his best to keep up though.
The entrance area was clear when they stumbled through the doors and Taesan momentarily breathed a sigh of relief until he noticed that he and Leehan were the only ones that had arrived so far. He felt Leehan stiffen against him when the younger noticed the absence of their friends. Taesan tightened his grip around Leehan's waist, trying to give him some form of quiet reassurance even as his mind spun with thoughts of the worst happening to them.
"W-Where—" Leehan's trembling question was cut off by the door on the other side of the room slamming open and the rest of their group came tumbling through it. They weren't alone though. A mass of zombies was hot on their heels, jaws snapping and ruined hands reaching out after them.
Taesan looked down at Leehan again— his pale face and wide eyes as he stared at their friends— and made a split-second decision. He'd noticed a room marked 'Maintenance' nearby and he pulled Leehan towards it, forcefully kicking the doors open. A quick survey showed that the room was empty and there was another door along the back wall that seemed to lead outside, another option if leaving through the front door became impossible. It was small and secure enough that Taesan felt okay to leave Leehan alone there for the time being. He gently set Leehan down, holding his arms and crouching down as the younger slumped down against the wall.
"Hey, I'm gonna be right back okay? I've gotta go help the others." Taesan pulled his knife out and pressed it urgently into Leehan's hands, "Take this. If anything that's not one of us comes through that door you need to defend yourself, you hear me?"
Leehan mumbled something unintelligible and Taesan had no choice to take it that Leehan had understood him. He gave Leehan's hands one final squeeze before he ran back out into the lobby—pausing only to snatch up a crowbar he found sitting on a table— and quickly analyzed their situation.
One of the others had managed to get the door shut in the time Taesan had been gone but not before a bunch of zombies had gotten inside. Jaehyun and Riwoo were back-to-back near the elevators, Riwoo twirling his staff wildly while Jaehyun swung his nailed bat with vicious force, blood splattering in arcs around them when he made contact. Sungho's brutal combination of brass knuckles and a dagger similar to Taesan's was an efficient means of dispatching the small group that had surrounded him by the front desk, a pile of bodies already forming at his feet.
Taesan's gaze caught on their youngest who had been backed into a corner on the far side of the room. Without a second of hesitation Taesan launched himself towards him. His fingers tightened around the handle of the crowbar and he could feel Leehan's blood making his fingers stick to the cool metal as it dried on his skin. Taesan forced himself not to think of Leehan— his dazed expression when he'd left him alone in that room clutching Taesan's dagger in shaking, bloody hands — he couldn't afford to be distracted if he wanted to get back to him in one piece.
The crowbar made a satisfying crack against the skull of the zombie who'd been about to go for Woonhak's throat. Taesan grabbed Woonhak by the collar of his shirt and dragged him back towards the maintenance room, "Come with me."
Woonhak squirmed in his grasp, trying fruitlessly to fight against Taesan's superior strength, "But hyung— I can help!"
Taesan gave him a rough shake and released him with a shove towards the double doors, "No buts Kim Woonhak! I didn't just save your ass for you to get killed trying to be noble."
Taesan spun around to hit the zombie that had come up behind him, the force of the swing making his arms vibrate. When he turned back around Woonhak's eyes were huge and watery and not for the first time Taesan felt sick to his stomach that the kid had gotten caught up in all of this. Woonhak was just a fucking freshman. He should have been having fun in his first year of university, joining clubs and doing stupid things like any normal nineteen year old kid was supposed to. He wasn't supposed to be fighting for his life day in and day out thanks to some virus that never should have been created in the first place.
But they were all just kids weren't they?
Even though it felt like an eternity ago, it had only been two weeks since Taesan had been sitting in his dorm room prepping for his upcoming music theory exam while Leehan had lounged on his bed in a hoodie stolen from Taesan's closet, poring over a marine biology textbook in preparation for his own exam. They were supposed to go out on a date after mid-terms ended. After years of dancing around their feelings for each other they'd finally been about to go on their first official date as a couple when the world had gone to absolute hell. Leehan's gentle hands that had once never known violence were now stained with blood and it was all Taesan could do to keep the sparkle in the eyes of the boy he loved so much.
Sungho, Riwoo and Jaehyun were only a year older than him but Taesan had had to watch as they'd been forced to grow up even quicker in these past two weeks. The three of them had been in the middle of sorting out their own situationship when the virus had broken out and honestly Taesan didn't know where they stood with each other now. Jaehyun had thrown himself into the role of leader, Sungho had become their pragmatic voice of reason and Riwoo was just doing whatever he could to keep them all smiling every day. They still worked like a well-oiled machine like they always had but Taesan could see the cracks showing through in the way they looked at each other when the other two weren't looking like they weren't sure what they were anymore. Like they were scared they'd lost something that they didn't even know they'd had.
None of this was fair and it fucking sucked.
Taesan vehemently shook himself out of his thoughts. Dwelling on should-haves and supposed-tos wouldn't help any of them right now, wouldn't keep them safe. He placed his hands on Woonhak's shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes, "Look I'm counting on you to take care of Leehanie for me, okay?"
"Wha— Hyung!"
"Please, Woonhak-ah." Taesan could see that the fact that he of all people was pleading for something shocked Woonhak to his core but he was past caring about appearances at this point, "He's hurt and alone right now and probably scared to death. I need to know that someone's looking out for him while I can't or else I'm going to lose my mind. Please, can you do that for me? I can't trust anyone else with this but you."
Taesan breathed a sigh of relief when Woonhak nodded shakily, "If we don't come for you in ten minutes I want you to take Leehan and run, got it?" He jerked his chin at the double doors, "There's another exit at the back of this room. Get out of here and head back to the hideout, you'll be safer there."
"But… Wh-What about the rest of you?"
"We're your hyungs, Woonagi." Taesan grinned at him, it felt thin but it was the best he could offer their youngest right now, "It's our job to look out for you, not the other way around. Don't worry about us, okay? Just take care of yourself and Leehan."
Taesan waited for a second until Woonhak nodded firmly, eyes still scared but determined now, "I've got this, hyung."
The doors shut firmly behind Woonhak and Taesan took that as his cue to jump back into the fray.
He hopped over the front desk and landed neatly at Sungho's side, catching a zombie across the side of the head with the hooked side of his crowbar. Sungho's dark eyes met his gratefully and they worked together silently to finish off the last few surrounding the desk before joining Jaehyun and Riwoo by the elevators.
By the time they were done dispatching the remaining zombies the four of them were exhausted, bodies aching from the strain of the fight. Jaehyun and Sungho were leaning against each other while watching Riwoo who was panting while bent over with his hands on his knees. Aside from some bruises, they were all fine and Taesan breathed a momentary sigh of relief.
"Hyung!"
Taesan whipped around at the shout, exhaustion instantly disappearing at the blatant fear he could hear in Woonhak's voice. He was vaguely aware of the others falling into step behind him as he made a mad dash back to the maintenance room. When Taesan burst through the doors he felt his blood turn to ice in his veins.
The contents of a first aid kit that Woonhak must have found somewhere in the room were littered across the floor and there was gauze taped over the wound on Leehan's temple. There was a bit of blood already soaking through the sterile white fabric but what stopped Taesan cold was the fact that Leehan wasn't moving.
Woonhak was crouched in front of Leehan, desperately shaking his shoulder while calling his name in increasingly frantic tones. Taesan distantly heard the sound of his weapon clattering to the floor, all self-preservation instincts failing him as he rushed towards Leehan's motionless figure. He crashed to his knees at Woonhak's side, the pain barely even registering as he stared at Leehan's ashen face.
"I— Taesan-hyung, he was—" Woonhak was practically beside himself, voice trembling and thick with panic, "Donghyunie-hyung he— he was just awake, I swear! W-we were talking and then he ju— He just passed out!"
Any other time Taesan would have tried to comfort Woonhak, maybe teased him to make him whine or laugh but all of his focus was consumed by Leehan. He was so pale and still that for a second Taesan feared the worst until he caught the shallow movement of Leehan's chest that proved he was still breathing.
"Leehan?" Taesan tried to control the tremble in his hands as he reached up to cradle Leehan's jaw, "Hey… Open your eyes for me, okay? …Leehanie?"
"Taesan-ah…" Jaehyun's voice was low and careful, like he was talking to a scared animal. Taesan hadn't even been aware that the others had caught up with him. He shrugged off the hand the older placed on his shoulder as he resumed his attempts at waking Leehan, heart pounding in his chest.
"Donghyun-ah…" He ran a tender thumb over the curve of Leehan's cheek, smearing blood and dirt over his soft skin. Leehan didn't stir the slightest bit and Taesan felt the panic in his chest skyrocket, helpless anger mixing with the all-consuming terror that was settling in his bones the longer Leehan remained unconscious. His voice came out like the harsh crack of a whip, "Yah, Kim Donghyun! Listen to me for once would you?! Open your fucking eyes!"
"Taesan, stop it!" Taesan bit back a snarl at Sungho's outraged shout. He didn't get it.
Leehan had to wake up. He had to!
…Because what the fuck was Taesan going to do if he didn't?
Taesan remembered his mom telling stories about soulmates when he was growing up. He'd always written off the idea of two people being destined for each other as nonsense but when he'd met Leehan he'd eaten his words. Leehan had fit into Taesan's life like he was always meant to be there, like there'd been a spot reserved for him in Taesan's heart long before either of them had been born. They balanced each other out. Leehan was sweet and kind to everyone around him always with those gentle eyes and a trusting heart. He was the perfect foil to Taesan's pessimistic behavior, harsh attitude and tendency to keep people at a distance until they'd earned his trust.
Leehan had always been the color in Taesan's world, ever since they'd met in high school and their eyes had locked for the first time. Taesan had felt something vital slot into place when Leehan had grinned at him from across the room that day, slow, sweet and warm like the rising of the sun. Love was a word that Taesan had found impossible to separate from Leehan from the very beginning.
Even with their life the way it was right now— full of zombies and endless uncertainty— all of that felt like nothing in comparison to the thought of living in a world without Leehan.
That would be Taesan's true hell.
So Sungho could politely fuck off because if yelling at Leehan would get him to wake up then Taesan would yell until his voice went hoarse. He would do anything as long as it meant that he could look into Leehan's eyes again and know that he was okay.
So for five minutes that felt like forever Taesan called his name again and again, stroking his hair and cheeks like he used to do when Leehan would fall asleep in his dorm late at night. He bargained with any deity that would listen to him but still Leehan didn't so much as twitch and Taesan went back to yelling and cursing. The others just stood in a circle around the couple, hearts breaking as they watched on.
Finally Taesan felt his mouth start to tremble as he desperately tried to keep it together, voice dropping down to a pleading whisper as he pressed his forehead to Leehan's, "Please, Donghyunie. Please wake up. I can't do this without you."
Taesan didn't see the signs at first but he noticed when Leehan's fingers twitched slightly, then the way his mouth pursed in a facsimile of his usual pout and when Leehan's eyes finally fluttered open he felt relief rush through him like a tidal wave, "…Taesanie?"
Taesan gently brushed the hair that had fallen in Leehan's face back behind his ear with tender fingers, "Yeah baby, I'm right here." The endearment slipped out instinctively and Taesan caught the faint blush that valiantly tried to fill Leehan's pale cheeks.
"'s everyone okay?" Leehan blinked slowly and leaned his face into Taesan's hand. Taesan chuckled wetly because of course Leehan would worry about the rest of them when he was the one who was injured. He stroked Leehan's cheek again, unbearably fond of this ridiculous boy.
Riwoo's voice was soft but shaking with emotion, "We're all fine, Leehanie."
"None of us are even injured, you dummy. It's you who— who…" Sungho trailed off and Taesan could hear the tears he was trying to hold back. The eldest let out a choked sob, "You had us really scared for a minute there."
"'m sorry," Leehan mumbled, "Didn't mean to worry you."
"We know you didn't." Jaehyun's voice was quiet but he sounded just as relieved as Taesan felt.
Woonhak let out a wordless cry and threw himself at Leehan, sobbing loudly as he buried his face in Leehan's chest. Taesan moved to pull the youngest away when Leehan winced from the sudden rough embrace but stopped himself at the gentle shake of Leehan's head. Pain still clouded his eyes but Leehan gazed down at Woonhak fondly, a small smile curling at the corners of his lips. Taesan blew out a heavy sigh and slumped down against the wall next to Leehan, reaching up to ruffle Woonhak's messy hair with his free hand as he wrapped the other arm around Leehan's shoulders to pull him close.
"Brat." The fondness in Taesan's voice was prominent, "What're you crying for, huh?"
Woonhak didn't rise to the bait and just kept crying into Leehan's shirt but Taesan couldn't bring himself to care, too busy blinking back his own tears that threatened to fall. He swallowed against the ball lodged in his throat and turned to press a firm kiss to the side of Leehan's head (the uninjured side, of course) but could feel it when a few tears finally slipped free.
The others joined them in their little pile and careful hands quickly searched out places where they could touch Leehan without hurting him so that they could reassure themselves that he was still with them. They knew they couldn't stay in the mall for much longer since the sun would be going down soon but they needed this right now. The six of them stayed curled together in a twisted mass of limbs, the tension of the day slowly draining out of their bodies as they let themselves relax for the first time in hours.
Taesan felt Leehan's mouth brush against the edge of his jaw and he pulled back a bit so he could look him in the eyes. Taesan leaned down a little and brushed a tender kiss against his lips, relishing in the little gasp that Leehan let out.
"I love you," he mouthed in the space between them. The declaration was silent, something just for the two of them, but Taesan meant it with his whole heart.
Leehan's face lit up, an entire galaxy of stars coming alive in his eyes that immediately turned into crescents. Taesan didn't need to hear the words to know that Leehan returned his feelings. It showed on his face plain as day when he smiled, wide and sweet and so full of love. He still looked terribly exhausted and Taesan already knew he'd be carrying Leehan back to their base but he didn't mind in the slightest.
He'd already made it very clear that he'd do anything for Leehan.
Taesan looked back at the others.
Jaehyun was cuddling Woonhak, cooing over the youngest whose tears had finally dried up and now seemed embarrassed at his reaction if the look on his face said anything. Sungho was surreptitiously wiping at his eyes while Riwoo smiled warmly at him, their hands firmly locked together next to Jaehyun's hip. Taesan kissed the side of Leehan's head again, letting his eyes slip shut for a second just to bask a little longer in the knowledge that they were all still together and safe.
He had no idea what tomorrow would bring them. Maybe rescue. Maybe disaster. But whatever happened, they'd face it like they always had.
Together.