The Infected ⬩ (G)I-DLE

One

Yuqi proudly smiled as she neatly stacked her books. The organic chemistry professor had just praised her work. She cautiously looked around the doors before making her way out. Students are pushing each other out to reach their next class. She paused behind the other students, tucking a loose strand of honey hair back behind her ears. The ears, she had once remembered, were big. A sign of intelligence, she had once believed. She stalked her way toward the next class, slowly proceeding closer to the end of her schedule.

"No work, I have all day to myself!" The girl exclaimed, proud of herself for saving a few hours. She pried her berry-colored phone. The case revealed a decorated Polaroid of one honey-haired girl and a raven-haired girl showing peace signs. Their smiles were considered as the bright sunlight. Yuqi pressed on her contacts and dialed the raven-haired girl. As she waited for the other line to pick up, Yuqi made herself comfortable on her velvet couch.

"Yuqi!" The girl was greeted by a weary voice.

"Shuhua!" Yuqi exclaimed, not bothering to notice the missing honorifics. Talking to her best friend always helped Yuqi catch up with the latest news. Or at least that's what Yuqi thought Shuhua was to her.

"Unnie, there's been a rumor of a virus outbreak. Can you believe it?" Shuhua giggled through the other line.
"Yeah. I heard. I believe it." Yuqi replied, remembering the award she had received in pathology. "From my studies, I could predict that...bacteria was the cause. Maybe the researchers have done something wrong. Happens all the time." The girl started calmly as ever. "I mean, did you get any other information about it?"

The other line breathed a heavy breath, hesitation. "Uh..not really. I believe the reporters said something about infection." Yuqi rubbed her forehead, massaging her aching temples. The ache urged her to think about the possibilities.

"Yuqi-unnie? Are you there?" Shuhua questioned, Yuqi can hear the rubbing of skin onto the microphone.

"Yea, Shuhua. I'm still here," responded Yuqi, still deep in her thoughts. "Don't you think it's weird?"

"Unnie, I thought you called me because we're friends." The smaller girl started to hiccup fake tears into the line. "I barely see you anymore." Yuqi agreed, they haven't seen each other in several months. Yuqi and Shuhua have been enrolled into the same university, albeit, Shuhua was only a freshman. A mere one year difference.

"Anyways," Yuqi mumbled, trying to find a quick topic change, "are you keeping up fine with midterms?"

"Ughh..I knew you'd talk about this." Shuhua grumbled, then continued to rant about how Yuqi was a brainiac and wanted to show off her off-the-chart scores.

"Alright, alright!" The rant was too complicated, probably much more complex than any of the molecular structures and formulas Yuqi studied, combined. Yuqi opened her mouth forming words but was interrupted by a loud crash from the other line.

"...gotta go. Good-bye, unnie." Yuqi could hear Shuhua's voice leaking worriedness and timidness.

"Bye, Shuhua. See you soon!" Yuqi was cut off as she saw Shuhua had already ended the short call. "Aish, what a rude girl." She chuckled, staring at the blank ceiling for a little before she turned on her phone and began to scroll through the latest news. The girl started to hum to a short melodic tune.

"Uhh..I'm a lion...I'm a queen.." She clicked on a newsletter about the disease Shuhua had talked about. The more words she read, the more interested Yuqi became as she dove deeper into the text. The disease is related to rabies. Yuqi thought, proud of her successful thinking.

"Interesting.." She mumbled, scrolling the page further down. Yuqi fiddled with her fingers, calculating the possible cure for the disease. She started to mumble parts of molecular formulas that may be related to the disease.

"Sometimes, the cure is straightforward, unnie. I don't know. I mean if a symptom for a disease is cold, then we just give them medicine for cold...?" Shuhua confirmed, pointing to an article she had read.

Yuqi chuckled at the memory. The day following, she had remembered, Shuhua had received a 44% on her pathology exam. She shook her head, Shuhua was too basic. Her knowledge was lacking lots of information that Yuqi knew. Her stomach grumbled, blocking Yuqi's continuing thoughts of the disease.

"Already? What time is it?" Yuqi asked, turning on her phone. 19:00 PM. She got up, stretched her joints. Yuqi knew that only a little stretching would enhance her health the more she did it. She opened the sleek cupboard. Yuqi was about to grasp the packet of kkokkomyeon when she was interrupted.

"What was that?" The noise was coming from the outside of the university building. Yuqi slowly sauntered to the window. She could hear the sound clearly now, it was growling. Snarling, like an aggressive wild animal. Yuqi pushed the cream silk curtains out of the way and peeked through the small crevice. She could see someone running really fast toward another student. His back was craned very flexibly. The student had fallen to the ground, dropping all of her books. The other person that had been running tackled the fallen student. Yuqi could see his tattered clothes, his bloodshot eyes. His skin was pale but bloodied. She quickly ran over to the television and turned on, quickly turning on captions and muting the station.

"...ngry rioters have been found around Seoul, South Korea. The rioters have been acting violently. Some victims have been found with large injuries and disappeared. What has happened to them? Tune in with us to find more about the rioters." Yuqi pressed a palm over her mouth, preventing noise from escaping. She walked over to the window once again. This time, she observed smears of crimson blood on the patchy emerald grass. The fallen student and the flexible figure were gone.

"No possible science theory could ever explain this..." She mumbled, agape. Yuqi fumbled her phone from the wood table.

"Yeh Shuhua. I think we need to go. The disease. I think they created zombies."