The Last Of Us | tk ✓

six | sleep's more important

"I-I can explain," Taehyung stammered, eyes wide at Areum and Jeongguk. He sounds desperate, but also rational. "I can explain."

Jeongguk grunts, snapping his head away. "Fucking Sam set us up." Areum squats down, eye-level with Taehyung. Jeongguk shot her a sceptic look.

Areum coaxed, her features softened, "Then tell us, what is it, instead of that?" A moment's silence followed, where Jeongguk stood exasperated, his hands on his waist, and Taehyung pulls up his shirt's sleeve hastily. He raises his forearm for the other two to stare at a healing bitemark; the skin was rugged and bumpy but clotted.

He discloses, "This is three weeks ago."

Now Jeongguk accompanies Areum, his brows meeting while he scrutinised the wound, glancing at her to share an expression of mingled start and perplexity. "It takes only a day to get turned," he admitted in a low tone, gawking at Taehyung shrewdly. "How?"

"I dunno, okay?" Taehyung replies without missing a beat, edgy under Jeongguk's gaze. "I dunno," he repeats, more firmly, averting his eyes from Jeongguk's and Areum's gaping ones. "Also," he glared at Jeongguk's direction, the sun peeking behind his profile, "Sam's never set anyone up. She would never do that." With that, he rose to his feet, furious at Jeongguk for no obvious reason whatsoever, at which the latter raised his eyebrows, shrugged, and followed Taehyung down the hill, his knapsack bouncing with every step he took.

Areum smiled at the two, trailing behind.

Jeongguk, in her light, was a guy with reason - a will, for everything he would do. He did nothing out of the blue, irrational. She knew his mother was shot in front of his own eyes, that's why he never actually put trust in the crippled government, knew his mother was bitten by an infected, so he was out there eager enough to finish every last one of those bastards. He would never rely on someone, not an ounce, he knew not. While Areum saw Jeongguk jogging to Taehyung's vicinity, she realized the boy finally cracked a bit of Jeongguk's shell.

...

The noon sun overlooked the ruins of the ending city through which the trio wounded their way, pausing at low growls emitting from the alleys of void shops or apartments, continuing their exhausted feet another mile or so and awaiting a safer place for them to take a break.

They approach a road, cars strewn all over, rusting and useless, the empty buildings at each side of it. Filth covered every inch of them, making Taehyung scrunch. A graffiti to his left read 'LOOK FOR THE LIGHT' and a Firefly logan painted with all black beside it. Few inches from that, from a pile of trash, the wall announced; 'YOU KILL OURS, WE KILL YOURS!

With sudden realization, Taehyung scrawled away from the pile of what he thought was garbage, which, upon looking closely, was a burnt, broken skeleton with a piece of SK Military tucked neatly inside the skull. "Jesus," he breathes.

Areum looked over at him, unperturbed. "You've never been out here?" She questioned, chewing on her bottom lip, a sheen of sweat on her face. Taehyung shakes his head.

"Here!" Jeongguk's shout cuts through the air, "Found a place to crash, guys!" Taehyung and Areum ran over to him, who was standing beside a shutter of a closed shop, bending down to lift it with an agonizingly loud noise to reveal a closed space with knocked over tables, two torn sofas layered with dust lined either side of the wall, some empty bottles beside each.

"I think it's someone else's ―" Taehyung started, only to be interrupted by Jeongguk's drawl.

"Ours now."

Areum steps inside, clapping her hands together once, "Lunchtime, fellas." At which the two guys join her, Jeongguk shutting the screen and switching on his flashlight to illuminate the darkened room. Wordlessly they take their seats, Jeongguk on one couch and Areum and Taehyung on the other, zipping their bags open to rummage in it, producing out cans of food and slightly gone-bad fruit.

They eat in peace, swallowing and taking small sips off from their containers, minding their own business. Minutes later, Areum is the first one to wind up, cocking her pistol and feeling her blade tucked in her back pocket. She informed to the two boys, edging closer to the screen, "Imma scout for a while, do the first watch, mm?" Jeongguk and Taehyung nod, watching her pull the shutter up partially and squeezing through the gap, vanishing before cutting out the sunlight once again inside the old shop.

There's the awkward silence, right there.

"You two close?" Echoed Taehyung, like Jeongguk the other night, smiling timidly at his food.

Jeongguk lifts a shoulder. "Pretty much." He lids back his box and screws the container's top, wiping his hands on his jeans and lying back, his eyes closed.

Taehyung hummed shortly, perking up, "Kissed her, ever?"

Oh, how Jeongguk wished. "Yeah," he lies flatly, eyes still shut, muttering shamelessly, "We'd be banging against each other naked if it weren't for your innocent eyes." Taehyung goes scarlet, fumbling with his water bottle.

"I am eighteen," Taehyung recovered, indignant. Faltering, "Or I think I am. I dunno when's my birthday." He glances over to an unbothered, half-asleep Jeongguk, wishing the older could just put some effort into befriending Taehyung. "What's your age?" He inquires, bored.

"Twenty-one," Jeongguk mumbled distinctly, just trying to sleep.

Taehyung raised his chin. "Do you have anyone else other than Areum?"

"Yeah, a brother."

"Well," Taehyung states, dumb-struck. "Where is he?"

"Somewhere safer," Jeongguk responds shortly, squirming around to find a better position for his body, his back now facing Taehyung's blank expression. Taking that as a final conversation barrier, Taehyung shrugged wordlessly, snatching the flashlight from the table and pouring himself in his comic book: a much better company.

-

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