mature content and you

the boundary where one pain ends and another begins is lost to jaebum. before he opens his eyes, it’s the first thing he registers. not the sunlight burning into his eyelids, or the smell of gasoline and smoke (of blood and dirt); or even the sound of tanks rolling by in the distance. it’s the pain that radiates through his entire body—overtaking him like high tide at every breath. he coughs, dust and dirt into the bright, morning air and struggles to push himself upright.

jiyeon’s pistol remains firmly clasped between his fingers, clip emptied; safety off.

oh, god.

jolting to awareness the male first forces his eyes to open, lashes fluttering against the weight of caked blood dripping down from his head—it aches, everything aches—“jiyeon?” his voice rings out, unsure of the response he expects to get. memories of the previous night are faded, lost between one dull throb and the next as his hand slips and jaebum crashes back to the ground.

he stares into the sky, unable to see a single shred of light—

maybe even an adrenaline junkie.

that was the only explanation the sixteen year old could come up with as she’s pushing through burned bushes, walking in the opposite direction of which she spotted the suspicious cars leaving after unmistakable sounds of gunshots and what a sixteen year old could only describe as war.

she’s a masochist. kyeongmi knowingly repeats it in her head as she’s stepping into the clearing, eyes settling on the tons of dead bodies that crowd the ground as she suppresses a shudder. this is maybe too creepy even for her – even so, the teenager continues on, humming what may be an ill-placed song to keep her mind off things as she, in a manner most prepubescent, curiously pokes things with her trusty metal bat.

“ba dum dum dum.” the girl hums, curling her tongue as she taps a random leg with the tip of the bat twice before moving on.

“another one bites the dust.”

this repeats on for a few more bodies, her own voice growing in volume and matching her confidence as it seems that everyone else around is certainly—100%--dead.

though her next little prod elicits a near ghostly groan and she stiffens, eyes widening.

but honestly, did he really give a damn when his own mutation was practically entirely defensive? he could phase through anyone if they even tried to grab him.

and even if his pale white skin would attract attention, there wasn’t anyone who’d see him in the first place. the arcade was practically nearly empty with everyone being afraid of each other. it just made things all the better.

he hadn’t eaten in a day but his wallet had enough to keep him occupied for a few hours if he was good enough — and well, you know, priorities were skewed when you can’t feel anything but pissed.

the sounds of gunshots blowing up zombie brains was practically music to jeongguk’s ears. it’s a bit ironic, to be shooting at things that were almost like him, half-dead but still walking — but then he imagined them to be humans instead and killing them down one by one with clean shots became more stress-relieving than anything.

he didn’t jump at the sudden female voice, briefly side-eyeing the random stranger, young from the sounds of it, and he just returned to the game with precise aim and aggressive trigger pulling. “yeah? you think?” the words muffled through his mask as he shot one of the undead after another, letting each kill bring satisfaction into his veins.

“yeah, which means you’re either venting on something or just generally overly competitive.” she doesn’t cut her words, having hung around the arcade enough to know how to tell the kind of people a person is by the game and way they play. though she doesn’t press too much on it, her tone is still fairly light after all, attention switching easily to the next topic when he brings it up.

“i—what? no.” her gaze turns over to the pink gun as her nose crinkles in slight distaste, stepping forward anyway as she quickly considers it before shaking her head, “nah—i don’t have that good of an aim. i'd drag you down.” kyeongmi laughs, expression turning sheepish as she makes a slight turn to the plastic motorcycle machines situated conveniently next to his. “but, i mean, if you don’t mind an audience, “ the blonde smiles with ease, dumping her bag onto the ground before resting her arms on plastic before pushing upward to hop onto the seat in a light movement.

“i could just watch you instead.”