Trigger ↬ [ P.JS ]

Chapter 20:

"Hey,"

What's that whisper?

"Hey, Astrid."

Am I having a nightmare?

"Trid!"

The supposed girl jolted awake, jumping from the voice that woke her in a scare. In the process of her getting up, she suddenly felt her neck becoming sore. "Ow, what the heck?" she rubbed it, a lame attempt to soothe the area.

When she took her surroundings in, she found herself in the same room Jisung took her to. The windows are now showing a view painted black, stars twinkling and the full moon radiated a soft alluring light that hit exactly on her face.

"Oh, sorry about that. You slept on my shoulder." Jisung apologetically stared at Astrid. He observed her half-awake figure. Her hair is sticking up at all different directions. The moonlight on her face accentuated her skin, her smooth lips, her fluttering eyelashes. Jisung wondered how could she look this good when she had just woken up? He had grown a mutual friendship with Astrid from the short time they were talking. It was the first time he ever felt comfortable with a girl. I'm not catching feelings, am I? He tried to convince himself.

Astrid still felt her stiff neck, not taking in what Jisung said. "Sorry, what?" she shuffled away from the boy. She stretched her muscles naturally, a unintentional sexual sound coming out of her mouth.

Jisung pursed his lips and stayed quiet, not wanting to burst out laughing and make the girl embarrassed.

At Jisung's silence, Astrid took the time to remember what happened earlier. When Jaemin had said that Gray was thrown outside, and that she's dead, though she didn't show any reaction when they were still there, at the moment she was left alone with Jisung, she bursted out crying.

She cried silently in Jisung's arms until she fell asleep.

"Oh wow, that's a bit shameful." she muttered when she recalled. Locking eyes with the boy, she smiled tightly. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I said I already accepted it but," she took a deep breath, glancing around the room, avoiding Jisung's eyes. "-turns out I haven't yet."

"No worries," Jisung quickly gave her a glance. "I kinda felt numb since you moaned infront of me." he laughed, copying what Astrid said to him a while ago.

"What?" the girl pretended to act confused but her cheeks heated up and she bit her lip in embarrassment. "I guess we're equal now." she rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, I wouldn't wake you up if we have nothing to do. We need to go." he stood up and rolled his shoulder blades. It felt like needles since Astrid fell asleep on them.

"What?" Astrid asked again, her brain not really picking up things since she just woke up.

"That's the fifth time you said that word." he chuckled. Taking a few steps closer to the girl, he pointed his index finger on her forehead. "We. need. to. go." he nudged her head with every word.

"Oh, right!"

They both exited the room that they didn't leave the whole day, preparing to continue on their own journey.

"You look absolutely hideous." Donghyuck greeted Astrid as soon as they left the room. He tiltled his head teasingly and continued to stare at Astrid making the girl a little uncomfortable.

You can see her lace her hands together and she squints a little, a habit she has whenever she's uneasy. "Well, sorry Dongfuck, I don't have the time to take care of my appearance in the middle of an apocalypse! And to say, my bestfriend just died. Fuck off, will ya?" she scrunched her nose in sudden annoyance.

Donghyuck immediately regretted what he said. He made sure to remember not to piss Astrid off when she just woke up. Collecting himself he goes,"Wow, calm down, lady. I was just trying to lighten the mood." he glances at Jisung who just shrugs at him. "We're all waiting for the both of you. They're in the kitchen." he raised his right brow and pointed at the place.

Though the cabin, cottage, house, whatever, was quite small, it has decent amount of space to seperate different parts of a house and imitate a real home, just smaller and..woody.

Astrid didn't exactly meant to yell at Donghyuck but all the emotions she wasn't able to cry out just passed onto him. She wanted to apologize but he already walked away to where the others are.

She genuinely thought that she's calm and collected and quiet, but that just seemed to be the facade she put around everyone. In reality, she's just a teenager who experiences and feels emotion, maybe even a little more than anybody else.

She's a cancer, that makes sense too.

Jisung motioned her to follow Donghyuck, and she did. She walked to the rest, spotting Hwayoung, whom she had honestly forgotten for a hot second with all that happened.

The little girl's face lit up when she saw her and though she wanted to run to her, hug her and just feel the comfort Astrid gave everytime, she knew that Astrid was exhausted and it's probably not the right time, so she stayed in Rina's grasp.

Rina noticed the girl tensing up, she looked at Astrid and sent a smile, she wanted it to appear as comforting but it looked tired. She is. Everyone is.

Mark finally looked up, distracted by the map he was reading by his phone the whole time. "Oh, there you guys are. We need to go before it hits midnight-" it's 8:44 "- and we need to be quick."

Renjun groaned in dismay, ready to just throw himself out with the walkers rather than hear the eldest speak absolute nonsense. Well, it's not necessarily nonsense but you get the point. He made a disappointed face and exaggerated his sigh. "Mark, you know we've heard you blab enough. Please, for the love of..whoever!-"

"Park Jimin." Hwayoung whispered to Rina which made the girl chuckle sadly. It reminded of Gray somehow. She knew they had that moment.

"-let's just go." he finished.

Mark looked at the boy. "Do you know how serious this situation is, dude? We could be- we are in great danger! Yo, you can't just walk there without a plan. They'll eat you alive!" He said the last part with his voice cracking.

Renjun rolled his eyes and discreetly looked at Donghyuck. He practically begged him to stop Mark since he knew that the eldest had a soft spot for his bestfriend.

"Okay, you know what? Before you get more voice cracks, why don't we just get our asses out there and go to the airport, that's following your plan, right? And fly to the almighty South Korea." Donghyuck smiled sarcastically.

"Yeah! Let's not waste anymore time! Come on, guys!" Jaemin clumsily put on his backpack and stepped to the door.

Astrid leaned in to Jeno, "Is he always like that?" she referred to the boy.

He shook his head and snorted, "Not always, but he is weird. You'll get used to it. We're technically stuck together now." he smiled making Astrid feel better, just a little.

Chenle was just quietly eyeing the whole scene, or in better words, he was just staring at Jisung and Astrid, two of the people he hates, at the moment, observing everything.

That's just him, he likes to observe. Plus, he can't really talk to them, especially Jisung because they had a fight. They argued about whether to bring the girls around them to SK and be safe with them, he disagreed. He just didn't like them, and he didn't even have a reason, he just doesn't.

Now that one of them died, he grew a bit soft and he wanted to apologize but his pride didn't let him go down that easily.

"What are you waiting for? I want to get out of America!"

Oh gosh, it's going to be a chaotic night.