세상의 끝: End of the World

Old Acquaintances

Han Jisung was staring at the windows.
Every now and then, like an agitated cat, he got into these moods where he stared, anxious and fretting, at the things that unsettled him: the large french windows, the open lawn of the villa's outdoors. Lee Minho knew he felt unguarded. If zombies came, they could break into the villa in seconds.
Since Han couldn't relax like this, Minho took it upon himself to gently probe, "Do you want to redecorate the villa?"

Hearing this, Jisung looked at him with a bit of helplessness and tried to refuse, as if he wasn't scratching out of his skin from the anxiety of being in such a large, open, unguarded space.

So Lee Minho had to insist. He brought Han Jisung around the villa, asking Han to detail what modifications he'd make, what sort of redecorating he'd prefer. And after enough probing, Jisung finally started to mutter out all the changes Minho had already been planning to make to the villa: adding shutters to the windows, including barricades, blocking off exits and entryways... Things that would return the villa to how it had been nearly a decade later.

Han Jisung's keen memory of each of the villa's changes fascinated Lee Minho. It was like he'd saved a blueprint of the villa into his brain and could point out exactly how to modify it according to the plan. Just how smart was he to remember all this?

He even suggested some improvements to increase the base's security even more. Not wanting to waste any time, Minho promised, "Alright, we'll get this done," and set out to hire a construction crew to reshape the villa to their needs.

They wouldn't be able to live in the villa while construction went on. Lee Minho looked up places he could rent for a few months, and even vacation areas; it would be nice to head out and enjoy the world with Han while they still could. In the end, he narrowed down three places for them to stay temporarily, and took Han Jisung to go check them out.
Each of the rentals were well-maintained, secure, and located in quieter neighborhoods. Although Jisung stood behind Lee Minho as they visited each one, Han didn't seem to have much of a preference. He stayed expressionless throughout the realtors' showcases, not reacting a bit even as one realtor demonstrated the water jets in the suite's hot tub.

In the end, Lee Minho decided a simpler, cozier place would be better. With all of their real estate visits finished, Minho brought Jisung to a restaurant so they could eat and discuss which of the places they should take.
The hotpot restaurant they went to had separate rooms for each party of guests, letting people eat and talk with their friends without having to worry about the noise. In their case, the extra privacy and isolation doubled as a way to keep them from feeling exposed. The restaurant had an older look to it, with dark wood furnishings and aged decorations, but the food and flavors were among the best in the city.

The bubbling split hot pot had a vibrant red, chilli pepper-filled soup on one side and a creamy white bone broth on the other. Succulent shrimp, marbled slices of thin beef, juicy ground fish and beef balls, and bouncy fried tofu all boiled in the pot, fished out when steaming hot and ready to eat.

The two of them tacitly kept the hot pot stocked, giving each other their favorites when the food was cooked. It was a comfortable, intimate meal. As they shared their food, it reminded Minho of when they were kids. Han had never eaten hot pot before, and when Lee Minho had taken him to a restaurant with his other friends, Jisung had been so paralyzed with nervousness that he hadn't made a single move to take any food for himself.

Lee Minho had ended up sending the cooked food to Jisung's bowl, making sure he had plenty to eat. After that, Lee Minho and Han Jisung had gone to hotpot just by themselves so that Minho could show Han how the hotpot worked, what he could order, and how long it took for some things to cook. Once Jisung got the hang of it, he would stare in deep concentration at the pot, seeming to keep track of how long each item had been cooking so that he could scoop it out as soon as it was done and give it to Lee Minho.