THUNDERBIRD | CHA HYUNSOO

12

"dasom!" she hears two small voices call out to her. from her sitting position on the floor, dasom quickly wipes her fallen tears and gives them a bright smile as they come over to tackle her in a hug.

"hey, kids! i'm glad to see you two are alright." she whispered with a tight lipped smile. she peers over their shoulders and make eye contact with hyunsoo, who has a fond look on his face as he watches them. dasom's not even sure he's listening to dusik who talking to him. there's two other people she doesn't recognize, but she chooses to ignore that now.

she gives hyunsoo a small wave, showing him that she's glad he's back safely. the moment is short lived though as eunhyuk approaches them. she couldn't hear was was being said, but she knew he was telling hyunsoo he had to go back into the quarantine room.

she pulls away from the kids, "hey, there's a play room over there. why don't you two go play for a bit, maybe try and get some sleep?" they nod their heads as suyeong grabs yeongsu's hand to drag him along.

she stands up from the ground, dusting her bloodied jeans off and walking over to where dusik was. he quirks his head up, "good to see you're striving down here."

she knew he was talking about her tear stained face. she wipes her cheeks with an airy chuckle, "striving is a strong word to use, i'm barely making it down here as is."

dusik groaned, "i was joking, kid." dasom only nodded.

eunhyuk approaches them finally after talking with the two unknown people, "sorry, dasom. i need to speak with him." his monotone voice never failed to irritate her, making her walk away quickly.

dasom felt it in her to go to their small memorial service for jinok's daughter and sooung, the military man.

"we were born as humans, so we should die as humans." gilseob started, placing the flowers suyeong mad made onto their graves. he raises his hand in salute to them, and the memorial ends as people file out.

she looks down when she feels a small hand hold onto hers. she flinches slightly as she looks down to see yeongsu gently tug her hand, "dasom, could you please play with us?"

she gives them a smile, "of course." she whispers with a grin as yeongsu tugs her in the direction of the daycare, "what game will we play?" she inquires.

"we'll play with the dinosaur." he smiled as they make their way to the play room.

—

thanks to eunhyuk, dasom now had a small mat in her possession to lay down on. despite the better comfort it provided, she couldn't sleep to save her life. she tossed and turned on the ground, but her brain was too focused on everything else around her. the faint buzzing of the lights, their constant flickering, the worried murmurs coming from the other residents, that damn dog barking. she angrily threw her blanket off her body and abruptly stood up on her feet. she sighed, she needed to go take a walk around or she would lose her mind.

she quietly made her way down the hall, only stopping when she approaches dusik. he spares her a small glance before going back to fortifying the place, "what?"

"just wanted to see how you're doing, i couldn't sleep." she mumbled apologetically.

"ms. im..." he paused what he was doing before he turned to face dasom, "ms. im turned."