do or die | yang jungwon

stage 13: honeymoon phase

NARI ALMOST DOESN'T WANT TO SEPARATE HERSELF FROM JUNGWON BUT THE WOLF WHISTLES RESOUNDING THROUGHOUT THE ROOM ADVISE HER TO EXERCISE SOME RESTRAINT. jungwon and nari part, chests heaving as they try to decipher all of the muddled emotions in the room. and for all of her bravery, for some reason nari can't seem to meet jungwon's eyes, burying her face in his blazer instead.

"alright, alright! that's enough of you lot," a very tired voice says from the door of the recording booth and everyone turns to see a tired, but proud hyewon standing in the doorway, her baby boy in her arms.

"hyewon! you shouldn't be standing and walking around right after, you know," riki says concernedly but hyewon waves him off, waddling over and taking a seat at one of the chairs that surrounded the small table in the middle of the room.

"i feel quite fine, thank you very much. and besides, i figured you all might want to meet goo daniel," hyewon says, lifting one shoulder to raise daniel proudly. a collective gasp goes around the room as dani lifts her hand to her mouth, clearly touched.

"hyewon..." dani says softly, resting a hand on her shoulder. hyewon looks to her with a tearful smile, nodding happily.

"i know that we had only talked a few times before this entire incident but you've been my support system. you and nari, of course, but especially you. you never once left my side and i cannot thank you enough for it. and hiyyih and yoonah, as well. thank you so much," hyewon says through her tears and hiyyih and nari move to huddle around her, wrapping her up gingerly in a loving hug.

"the only good thing to come out of this godforsaken apocalypse," haruto says, smiling at the baby boy, who lets out a soft giggle that melts the hearts of everyone in the room. the baby had big, curious eyes and full lips that seemed to be stretched into a smile nearly constantly. his head was already full of dark, fluffy hair and his countenance was so pleasing, haruto nearly thought that an angel had been sent from the heavens in the stead of a baby boy.

"we'll protect him with everything we have," yoonah says solemnly, and in the pale moonlight, she looks as though she were a steadfast, and loyal knight from the ancient times, her face serious and a sense of duty to protect the child is instilled in those who watch.

"it takes a village to raise a child," hiyyih supplies helpfully, and jeongwoo can almost envision a future where the people in this room were to meet up, sometime far into the future, when everyone had children of their own, living in houses near each other. the families would visit each other often and their children would grow up together, never running short of love and protection from their aunts and uncles.

"and now more than ever, we have a reason to get as far from this fucking hellhole as possible. i'm not letting daniel spend any more time with these monsters than he absolutely needs to. and while we are here, i am not going to let him, or any of you, get hurt anymore," nari says, and just like that, it was as though the entire room had snapped to attention. she stood at the head of the table and jungwon could scarcely believe that she had been the girl who had been too shy to look him in the eye after grabbing his collar and kissing him.

nari takes in the tired, but determined expressions of those in room before shaking her head. "we're not going to be able to do anything else today. everyone is just far too tired. alright. let's set up camp for the night and focus on provisions. everything else can wait until the morning."

she then turns to jungwon. "the water should last us another two days from what i can tell but my gut tells me that that's all the water we have besides water fountains (but those could be spreading infection, for all we know) so we should use it conservatively. we have enough saltine crackers for tonight but everyone's going to need to excuse a little hunger until we get more food."