What's Broken Can't Be Fixed

10

     Tears. Confusion. Screaming. Blood. So much blood. Felix's eyes fluttering open and closed. Hyunjin runs up to him, pressing on the wound on his neck. Blood instantly covers his hands but he doesn't care. He couldn't lose Felix he couldn't. "Felix... Felix please." He whispers in a trembling voice.

     Minho runs outside. They could hear him screaming. Jisung and Jeongin were sobbing. Chris is holding onto Seungmin's hand so tightly that it almost hurts. Changbin's trying his best to hold back his tears. Felix's eyes were unfocused, his breathing was soft, almost silent.

     "...Hyunjin?"

     "Yeah?" He sniffles, tucking his hair behind his ear even though his tears were already clouding up his vision too much.

     "Why are you crying...?" Felix's voice was so quiet you could barely hear it. His eyes close for a second, and Hyunjin cups the boy's face in his hands.

     "No Felix, if you close your eyes you won't wake up understand!?" He slowly opens his eyes again. The sound of Hyunjin's voice was making him... tired.

     Felix's eyebrows furrow, something in his expression's changes. "Am I dying?" He asks. The other doesn't answer. He stays quiet, shaking his head. However, the last thing Hyunjin expected Felix to do was smile. The blonde grabs Hyunjin's hand away from his neck, making blood gush out of the wound.

     Immediately Felix gags, blood spurts out of his mouth. "Please..."

     "It's fine..." His voice still barely above a whisper. "I'm just... I need to sleep. Just for a little." With that, Felix closes his eyes. He exhales... maybe for the last time.

                                         3 years later

     It was the year 2023. Everything was still the same. Hyunjin gets out of bed and walks to the bathroom, taking a hot shower. He smooths his hair back, letting the water release the tension from his body. Monster activity rose over the years.

     Hannah's condition was a new one. She was technically a zombie. But only when she could smell or see blood. Otherwise, she's normal. They decided to call it the Z Virus. Hyunjin slips on a black shirt with some sweatpants and opens the front door, tapping Jeongin on the shoulder. The boy was sleeping, a cap pulled low over his eyes, and a rifle sits in his lap. "You're off." He says, his voice gruff from just waking up.

     "Careful Hyung." Jeongin hands him the rifle, yawning while he goes back into the house. They had been living together in Minho's house for 3 years. The 8 of them did everything together. They ate together, talked with each other, anything they could do together they did.

     The boy's decided to start making one of them watch over the house ever since monsters and zombies kept trying to break in. "Breakfast is ready!" Hyunjin hears Chris yell from inside the house.

     He sighs, pointing his gun at a nearby building. "...Fuck this apocalypse." He mumbles. The door opens, and Chris comes out with a bowl of food.

     "Don't stay out here for too long." Hyunjin nods before Chris goes back inside. He looks down at what's in the bowl. It was rice and quail eggs. His eyes begin to water, and he closes his eyes.

                                                       3 years ago

Hyunjin gets up and gets dressed for school. When he turns on his phone, he sees everyone on call, so he joins. When he does, he sees all the boys talking to each other, getting ready to leave. "You guys need to hurry up if we're going to ride to school together." He hears Felix say, watching him pick up a quail egg from his bowl and put it into his mouth. After they yell at Jeongin to get up, he sees Felix stare at his phone for a while. "You're riding with us right Hyunjin?"

Hyunjin nods with a smile. "Of course."

                                                                    Now

     The boy takes a small bite out of his food, wiping his eyes. It was good. Really good. He eats the rest of it, setting the bowl down on the floor next to his chair. Hyunjin gets up, grabbing his bowl and walking inside. "I'm gonna head out."'

     "Alright. Be back soon." Chris takes the dish from him, placing it in the sink with all of the other dishes. Hyunjin heads up to his room, grabbing his hat and glasses then going back out. He takes the gun with him, pulling his beanie over his head.

     Ever since Felix got shot, they moved his body out into a forest nearby. But they never went to check on his body after that. The forest was still green. It was the only thing that kept its appearance unlike the rest of Seoul. Ever since then, Hyunjin would go out into the forest often and... talk.

     Hyunjin makes sure his gun has enough bullets, then he adjusts his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Hey Felix... I'm back." His voice echoes through the still forest. It was quieter than normal. "It's been 3 years. I miss you... we all do. I wish I could see you again. I miss your face, your smile, your voice, everything about you."

     With the way he was talking about Felix, you would think that he was in love with him.

     Suddenly, he feels something on his foot. So, he looks down and spots a small white ferret. Hyunjin sets his gun down and picks up the ferret. He notices how it squints when he touches its nose. It makes the boy smile. Then, it jumps out of his arms and begins to run.

     So, like the curious boy he is, he picks up his gun and runs after it. They were running for a while. The ferret was fast, but he was just as fast. After running for maybe 10 minutes, the ferret runs behind a tree. So Hyunjin does as well. And there he was.

     The ferret crawls in circles for a little bit and then it finds a nice spot to rest. Hyunjin stares at it.

     The ribbon snapped. But at that very moment, it re-tied itself once again.