Zombie's Guide to Falling in Love *Chanlix Edition*

Step 1: First Impressions

There were only two girls at first.

They would wander the empty campus humming obnoxiously loud.

One had pigtails, in some cute cheerleader uniform; the other was taller and more elegant in appearance, clearly demonstrating more flexibility skills compared to her sporty subordinate. He heard them the first time while dragging himself through the cafeteria, the poppy and opportunistic tune reverberating against the all too silent walls despite the obvious danger that awaits them.

It attracted a lot of attention at first, the undead slowly gravitating to them for an easy meal. And they appear scared, at first, but that quickly faded too as they discovered the caged off part of the rooftop where they were relatively safe as long as they remembered to lock it unlike Chan and his friends did all those months ago.

It felt like forever ago when the outbreak first started. He was in his senior year of high school: captain of the swim team, respected member of the student counselor, seminar coordinator for the exchange student program. He had just told his parents not even a week before that he would be fine, that the strange disease in America wouldn't be that dramatic of an effect on his studies in Korea. He only had three months left until graduation; he would be okay, there was no need to return home to Australia. The authorities hadn't put up any warnings. The school hadn't said anything on the matter. The United States wasn't even sure what was going on in their own country. Everything would be just dandy and he would finish off the semester without worry.

But then the first couple of cases started coming in; and the hospitals were filled. And then the streets and homeless shelters were filled. And people started stocking up on necessities and the media started making speculations and then the first sick student was recorded on campus. And then the neighborhoods were filled and the school was shut down but it was already too late because it takes two days for the symptoms to appear but only a few minutes to pass it to hundreds of people with each contact with the contaminated. A "Oops, my bad; I should really watch where I'm going" or a "Hi, it's nice to meet you" or a "Are you okay man? Here, lemme help you up," could mean your doom. And then they were everywhere, biting and clawing and feeding as their skin secreted the virus for anyone to absorb with a mere touch of their infected skin. And then the dorms were filled.

And Chan watched his world crumble as he awoke one day to his roommate screaming that it was happening, that Chan needs to run before he won't be able to control himself any longer. It broke his heart to leave Changbin there to suffer with his last seconds of humanity but he needed to find the others, he needed to find them now.

He had found Hyunjin and Minho in the dance room with a couple of freshmen, nothing but the glass door blocking the music and lights control panel between them and their once normal classmates. He had immediately taken one of the trashcans and bashed it into the mirror-covered wall on the opposite side of the room as a distraction, allowing for the five of them to run out the emergency exit. Chan had tried to help and save all of them, but when one of the freshmen fell behind from an ankle injury as the horde was closing in... he had to choose his priorities: getting himself, his friends, and the other freshman to safety or... going back to help that one person and possibly risk the safety of all the others. Thankfully the rest of the group seemed to understand his decision and if they all saw the tears that escaped Hyunjin and the other's eyes, nobody said anything.

Seungmin was on top of the bleachers in the gym, having abandoned his bandmates in the practice room to climb up the retracted seats. Chan had almost smiled at the brilliance of his friend's plan (he always knew Seungmin could take care of himself but he still came for him because at least if something bad happened, he could say that he was there and tried his best). Minho had set off the fire alarm (which was conveniently broken within the gym for only God knows how long and why) to draw the infected out of the gym so Seungmin could have time to safely scramble down from his vantage point.