By Zephyria 
Eden, who had been locking eyes with Ha-jin, looked away and bowed his head first. He rinsed his mouth and shook the disposable toothbrush he had used. Only then did Ha-jin notice another pink toothbrush stuck in an ivory plastic cup behind his firm shoulders.
“Chattering away since earlier…”
Eden ostentatiously stuck the used disposable toothbrush next to Ha-jin’s toothbrush.
“Is this your taste? Should I brush your teeth with Do Ha-jin’s next time?”
He turned and asked, and Ha-jin, flustered, opened his mouth.
“If, if you had answered the question right away, I wouldn’t have misunderstood!”
“I don’t have a hobby of chatting while brushing my teeth.”
The man raised the corners of his mouth and smiled. Ha-jin, who was blankly following the dimple on the side of his right cheek, let out a hollow breath.
Eden, with the laundry over his arm, passed by Ha-jin and opened the bathroom door. Click. Before the door closed, Ha-jin unknowingly stopped him.
“Jeong Tae-geon… are you perhaps mixed race?”
A brief silence flowed. Eden turned his body, half out of the bathroom, and asked back.
“What?”
He tilted his head as if he had misheard.
Ah, what did I just say? Ha-jin shook his head to erase the afterimage of the branch grotesquely hanging between the man’s legs.
“…No, forget I said anything.”
Eden chuckled briefly and rummaged through the laundered clothes, taking out a handkerchief. It was the handkerchief Ha-jin had handed him in the storage room.
“I used this well. I’ve washed it clean, so I’ll dry it and give it back to you.”
The bathroom door closed immediately. Ha-jin, who was fluttering his eyelashes like a broken baby doll, turned his head sharply. His face, from his face to his chest, was reflected in the mirror, dyed a bright crimson.
❖ ❖ ❖
Ha-jin sat on the floor, stroking Byeol’s damp hair as he snuggled into his knees. Eden and Mi-so were on either side of him, and Jeffrey and Park Chun-beom were sitting on the bed behind him. Everyone was silently staring at the news flash on the TV screen.
[Breaking News]
DEFCON 1 declared. Military units deployed and strong response announced.
@publicfunds
The announcer in the news studio screen had been repeating the same words for the past 10 minutes.
￣The Ministry of National Defense and the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters are issuing a DEFCON 2 to 1 alert at 9:15 a.m. on the 28th, as the unprecedented riot situation has spread from the Seoul metropolitan area to the southern regions.
￣We ask that the public remain in a safe place as much as possible, follow the instructions of the Ministry of National Defense, and cooperate so that children and the elderly can evacuate first.
￣The following is guidance on the code of conduct issued by the Ministry of National Defense. Always keep items capable of receiving radio signals nearby, and disinfect your hands thoroughly after going out…
“Is that it?”
Mi-so, watching the male announcer who was repeating the same words like a parrot, frowned. Sighs erupted from various places. It was the morning they had barely greeted after struggling through the dawn to survive. Everyone’s face was cast in a dark shadow.
“Are they just glossing over the fact that corpses are alive and moving as… just a riot? Did I understand that correctly?”
She didn’t even expect them to reveal the identity of the Aberrants in detail right away, but no matter how she thought about it, the information itself was too flimsy and lacking.
“I knew it when I didn’t even get a disaster text. They’re… they can’t control this.”
A small screen appeared next to the announcer. Red dots were marked all over a picture of the Korean peninsula that had been cut in half at the waist. As expected, the zombie situation seemed to be spreading nationwide. Mi-so grabbed her loose hair tightly and closed her eyes.
“What’s DEFCON 1, Hyung?”
Byeol, who was playing with his hands on Ha-jin’s lap, turned his head towards Eden. Eden, who was staring at the screen with a serious expression, opened his mouth.
“Do you want me to be honest?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I express it with a curse word?”
“That’s not allowed.”
Eden, who was about to say it means we’re fucked, rolled his tongue inside his cheek. While he was pondering his words, Ha-jin spoke first.
“DEFCON is, um, it means to be careful nationwide. Our country is a country on armistice, so it was originally at stage 4, and stage 1 is… you can think of it as an alert used in war situations.”
Byeol, who was listening to the explanation calmly, rolled his big eyes.
“The TV said it’s stage 1. Are we all going to die then?”
The pure and unadulterated question momentarily left him speechless. Ha-jin looked at Eden hesitantly, and he sneered.
“Who did he take after to be so unlucky with his words…”
“Who else, he took after Hyung!”
Jeong Byeol pointed at Eden, who still had a sneer on his face.
The news continued to broadcast absurd instructions on how to act. A sudden wave of fatigue washed over them. They couldn’t carelessly change the channel or turn it off in case other breaking news came in. Ha-jin picked up the remote control and turned the TV volume down as much as possible.
The motel room was once again enveloped in silence. Gurgle… From somewhere, the sound of a rumbling stomach broke the silence. Mi-so turned her head to find the culprit. Jeffrey scratched his face sheepishly and smiled awkwardly.
“Stom, achy.”
“Achy? Where does it hurt? Shouldn’t you go to the bathroom quickly… Ah! Or do you mean you’re hungry? Jeffrey, are you hungry?”
Mi-so asked worriedly, and Jeffrey’s neck turned bright red. Eden, who was watching, nudged Ha-jin’s shoulder.
“Sorry, but could you share some food?”
Having brought them this far, he was prepared to share food. Of course, he hadn’t expected Eden to be wearing the youngest assistant’s clothes in this situation.
Ha-jin glared fiercely at Eden, who had taken out and put on the clothes without his permission, clothes that clearly had an owner.
“Of course I can share, but I’ll have to think about it for Jeong Tae-geon.”
“Why?”
“Just because I’m annoyed.”
Park Chun-beom, Jeffrey, and Mi-so widened their eyes in surprise at Ha-jin’s statement. Jeong Tae-geon, the person in question, shrugged as if he didn’t care.
“I’ll pay back Do Ha-jin’s friend’s clothes later.”
Thanks to Eden, who had recklessly touched the youngest assistant’s luggage, Ha-jin had had a heated argument with him. If Eden had asked politely, he would have gladly given him his own clothes, but rummaging through someone else’s clothes was, no matter how he thought about it, impolite.
“Yes, wash them clean and pay them back.”
Ha-jin unknowingly sneered. Or perhaps he was pouring out his desperate feelings on Eden. Eden’s actions, as if he was sure that the assistants wouldn’t be able to return to the motel, made him think a lot.
The youngest assistant’s black crew-neck t-shirt, which was quite bulky, fit Eden’s body perfectly, annoyingly.
Mi-so nudged Ha-jin’s side and whispered.
“Hey, why have you been bickering with that guy since earlier?”
Ha-jin handed Jeong Byeol over to Mi-so instead of answering and got up from his seat. He trudged over to the box and took out a bag of potato chips and two chocolate bars.
“Let’s solve today’s brunch with this for now.”
❖ ❖ ❖
Kuh-uh-uh… Krrrr….
3 p.m. Park Chun-beom and Jeffrey were snoring combatively, fast asleep. Mi-so and Jeong Byeol, who hadn’t slept properly due to the commotion last night, had also returned to the next room to rest.
The room was dark because of the blackout curtains drawn to avoid the zombies’ eyes. Only the small yellowish-white light above the TV faintly illuminated the room.
Ha-jin leaned against the door connecting to the next room, playing with his fingers. The 52 cards in his hand were constantly moving, lining up and fanning out. He was intently focused on disassembling the cards, as if he were lost in his own world.
Eden was sitting alone on the single bed, watching Ha-jin. Watching Ha-jin playing with his hands under the light naturally reminded him of him on stage yesterday afternoon. Do Ha-jin then, who was trembling severely, and Do Ha-jin now seemed like completely different people.
As if doing mime, his hands moved within a defined space, and his thumb and forefinger stuck together and separated like clay. Ha-jin’s hand movements were so precise that they seemed to carve each movement of the cards. Eden watched the cards, which were constantly breaking and being reborn, with a distant gaze. A static yet splendid spreading continued.
Ha-jin, who was loosening his hands, spread the cards on the Magic Pad and memorized the order of the cards with his plump lips.
Eden counted the seconds. 1 second, 2 seconds… 13 seconds… 21 seconds. Ha-jin looked up in exactly 23 seconds.
Did he memorize them all?
“Jeong Tae-geon.”
It was an unbelievably short time to do so.
“Are you still thinking about the next destination?”
Instead of answering, Eden stared intently at the order of the cards Ha-jin had laid out. The 9 of hearts, the ace of spades, the 7 of clubs… There was no way he could have memorized all 52 cards, each with different shapes and numbers, in that short moment.
Ha-jin called out to Eden again, who was staring blankly at his cards.
“Jeong Tae-geon?”
Only then did Eden lift his chin and nod insincerely.
“Yes, I’m still thinking.”
Ha-jin’s eyes narrowed for a moment. He made a strange humming sound, as if trying to determine the truth, and then turned his gaze to the floor.
He swept the cards together at once on the Magic Pad, which had a thick cushion. Traces were left on the velvet pad scratched by his short nails.
Eden, who was watching, tossed out a nonchalant word.
“Are you bored right now?”
Ha-jin flipped the cards over and placed them on the floor, then widened his eyes in disbelief and asked back.
“…What?”