THUNDERBIRD | CHA HYUNSOO

18

after taking her scheduled shower, and realizing she never had any other clean clothes, she sets off in her own mission upstairs to her apartment. knowing the other floors of the green home's apartments were safe, dasom took the opportunity to go back upstairs to retrieve some of her clothes. of course, she still kept an earbud in and kept her bat on her as she attempted to head up fifteen floors to her apartment.

she makes it there, miraculously enough, but can't bring herself to go inside. it had been about a month since the start of this new, evil reality. a whole month being home but not at home. she digs through her backpack to retrieve her keys. she inserts the keys into the lock, smiling when she hears the click indicating it was now unlocked.

she pushes the door open, tensing up. her once warm and lively apartment now felt cold and empty despite being filled with everything that represented her. she looked through all her knickknacks, smiling fondly at the memories that resurfaced from them.

she shakes her head, not wanting to waste anymore time. she makes it over to her closet, digging through her various articles of clothing to find something functional, which was harder than she thought.

she managed to find one outfit that would work for the transition into the colder weather. it was simple enough; a white long sleeve, a cropped gray jacket, some fitting jeans, and her old nikes. she ended up throwing her old shoes away in her apartments trash can. no amount of medical grade cleaning supplies could save them from the blood and gunk that had accumulated and grew since the start.

she quickly changed into her new outfit, feeling cleaner already. she runs a brush through her hair and fluffs out her bangs with her fingers before staring at herself in the mirror. she had changed a lot. it was hard to tell she visually changed in the dirt stained mirrors of the public bathrooms downstairs, but it was now apparent as she stared at her own reflection in her clean mirror. her cheeks were slightly sunken in, her skin was paler due to the lack of sun she had seen, her once black-dyed hair was now fading, revealing the soft brown of her natural hair.

after seeing her complexion, she felt obligated to take her small makeup bag with her in her bag. along with the makeup bag was a red jacket, a black shirt, and some leggings to make another outfit so she had some options. she grabbed a few more toiletries and shoved them into her backpack before zipping it up.

she sighs, eyes falling on a picture hanging in her kitchen. one of her high school friends and the other of her and her aunt, the same aunt who had graced her with this apartment months ago. she looked at the photo of her and her 3 other friends, smiling together as they sat together in the streets of korea, faces dimly lit by the neon signs and street venders lamps. they were all sitting together, enjoying some of the street food, laughing at some joke said. dasom could only hope they were okay, that they had succumbed to becoming a monster, that they weren't killed by one.

she took the picture off the wall and put it in her back pocket before looking over at the photo of her aunt. it was a simple photo of them at a beach in america last spring for dasom's birthday, the same day she gifted her the keys to her apartment, the same day her aunt told her she was going to stay in italy for a little bit.

that thought alone made her remember of the little package sent to her. hastily, she rips open her backpack and digs through her stuff, bringing out the tattered box. she grabs one of her kitchen knives to slice the tap enclosing it. in the top portion, covered by an envelope, is a small gold necklace and a small fridge magnet. she lets out an airy laugh, tears falling down onto the envelope that she opens moments later